# 10 Japan Nanjing

History of Japan has been filled with disgrace and violent acts of crimes against humanity, the period of the Second World War, in particular. Shameful acts were omnipresent, I have already described, partially, naturally, the outstanding and beautiful literature, however, behind the facade of fine verses and phrases lies something much more profound, not an imaginary line, yet, truth – crime which is not welcomed and easily acknowledged.

The Nanjing Massacre was one of the most horrendous acts of violence, it took place shortly before the Second World War began, in 1937. The Chinese at Nanjing were treated as not human being, but, rather as sub-humane race.

The pictures that have been taken at that time, well, are like a 'holy grail' for the International Military Tribunal for the Far East . Only small number of it prevailed, enough, though, to portray the evidence, which, is scarcely acknowledged by Japan.

Japanese armies invaded China from the north, the captured and surrendered the capital – Beijing. The invasion was about to be very quick and unconditional, the strategy was one – savagery. The Chinese were outnumbered, poorly equipped and defeated immediately. They wanted to win so badly, yet, it was all not enough. Their nightmare was about to begin. The orgy of murder, rape, mass killings had its onset, if it hadn't been for the old photographs, the world might have found it years after – in contrary, an instant shock burst out. What was unthinkable and unprecedented became a fact.

The north provinces of China were fighting, trying to resist, the Japanese launched the second front. They captured Shanghai. Their brutality had no end, the word was more and more shocked; one of the Japanese soldiers was about to say: '(…) more we show now, more frighten and respectful the rest remains (…)'. Years of war and the atomic bomb invasion verified how mistaken the Japanese were.

The Bund – meant a total tragedy, the Chinese were almost marched to death, brutally slaughtered by the river bank.

The entire extent of atrocities and horrors is impossible to document, trace and verify. It lasted from 1937 to 1945 (till total and unconditional surrender of Japan).

The raid on Nanjing was proceeded by fury and anger alongside with frustration of Japanese soldiers who were fed up and tired of Chinese surrender. When the resistance ended – the captured Chinese soldiers were executed in massive slaughter. Step by step the carnage started. The population of Nanjing was raped murdered and wiped out of. It stopped matter who dies; children, women, elder people. The most important was to kill them all. To erase them out for good. Six weeks of continuing fighting and nightmare. Women were massively raped, within first weeks of slaughter; more than 75% of them were killed and mutilated when Japanese soldiers finished with them.

The street were filled with blood and remnants of the bodies, the odor was impossible to bear, the Chinese were buried alive with the dead ones, most of the corpses were thrown into the Yangtze River, it is said, the river was so filled with the victims' bodies – it turned to be red on instant.

The total number of victims is very difficult to estimate; yet, we must be prepared to accept the fact that during first three to four weeks of invasion approximately 200.000 Chinese civilians and prisoners lost their lives. After so many decades – non-Japanese historian and scientists are still examining this tremendous disaster and believe more than 370.000 lived were lost.

It must be underlined that Japanese government refuses to acknowledge the total responsibility for the crimes it committed. The school children are not taught and told about the massacre, as if it hadn't occurred at all. It is forbidden topic. This part of the history is called in textbooks as ' Incident of Nanjing'.

Denialas by Japanese officials:

The PM of Japan Juchiniro Kozumi states that the textbooks should be censored, furthermore, the lines describing Japaese atrocities and crimes erased and delayed.

In May 1994, Justice Minister Shigeto Nagano called the Nanjing Massacre a "fabrication".

On June 19, 2007, a group of around 100 Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmakers again denounced the Nanjing Massacre as a fabrication, arguing that there was no evidence to prove the allegations of mass killings by Japanese soldiers. They accused Beijing of using the alleged incident as a "political advertisement"

On February 20, 2012,Takashi Kawamura, mayor of Nagoya, told a visiting delegation from Nanjing that the massacre "probably never happened". Two days later he defended his remarks, saying, "Even since I was a national Diet representative, I have said [repeatedly] there was no [Nanjing] massacre that resulted in murders of several hundred thousands of people.On April 1, 2013, Kawamura said his position remained unchanged when the issue came up during an election debate.

On February 24, 2012, Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara said that he also believes that the Nanjing massacre never happened. He reportedly claims it would have been impossible to kill so many people in such a short period of time. He believes the actual death toll was 10,000.

On February 3, 2014, Naoki Hyakuta, a member of the board of governors of Japan's public broadcasting company, NHK, was quoted as saying the massacre never occurred. He said that there were isolated incidents of brutality but no widespread atrocity, and criticized the Tokyo Trials figure of 200,000. Unfortunately Japan and its government choose to insist on keeping a national pride instead of  admitting to shame.

Filmography and Bibliography:

1. The Battle of China (1944) a documentary film by American director Frank Capra. The footage of Nanking atrocities in this film may be sourced to a Chinese-made documentary which Prince Mikas showed to Hirohito, but which has since been lost.
2. Horror in the East (2000), a documentary film produced by Laurence Rees for BBC, an examination of atrocities and depredations committed by Imperial Japanese military forces, from 1931 to 1945. Includes Japanese film of indoctrination (Emperor worship, Chinese as subhuman) and brutal training of their armed forces, as well as film of the Nanking Massacre itself taken by John Magee.
3. The Truth about Nanjing (2007) a documentary by Satoru Mizushima denying that any such massacre took place.
4. The Flowers of War (2011) directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Christian Bale and Shigeo Kobayashi based on The 13 Women of Nanjing by Geling Yan
5. Wickert, Erwin (Editor) (1998). The Good German of Nanking – The Diaries of John Rabe.ISBN 0-349-11141-3.
6. Chang, Iris (1997). The Rape of Nanking.
7. Hu, Hua-ling (Editor) & Zhang, Lian-hong (2010). The Undaunted Women of Nanking: The Wartime Diaries of Minnie Vautrin and Tsen Shui-fang. ISBN 0-8093-2963-8.