Take a second to look at the picture to the right. What do you see? This picture was created to show just how things can be intentionally morphed into a totally different image. Usually these things are a product of bias and motives by people in charge. History happens every day. History did happen. History will happen. But it is on us as a community to protect and preserve that history. But what happens when people develop motives towards how they keep that history. There are many different ways to record history, especially in this day in age. There is oral, photographic, video, and written forms of preservation. Any of those actions can be fixed by the will of those trying to “edit” history.
Sadly, there are disputes of this happening even today. One example of this is the controversy of the Nanking Massacre or the Rape of Nanking. The controversy of it is simply if it even happened. Growing up, I heard of people disputing the existence of the holocaust. But this has turned into a very small minority. Germany has accepted it as well as the majority of the world. But the events of the Nanking Massacre do not share the same status in history. Majority of the countries around the world agree that the massacre did indeed occur. But the Japanese people and government both have a general argument over the existence of such events.
The massacre itself could not have been generated from a sane person’s mind. The terrible things that the Japanese Army did are too horrible to imagine or to fabricate. I personally do not see how a country and “eyewitnesses” would come up with such a horrible story. There are countless resources of evidence from the various types of sources that I listed earlier./ There are oral stories from victims, soldiers, and journalists. There are pictures and videos as well as written down numerical statistics on the massacre. But there are still arguments against all of these sources. People actually accuse people of creating falsehoods of stories and pictures to destroy the image of Japan. They find the most minuscule holes in the facts to find some kind of light to help their cause. To me this is embarrassing. Germany has successfully moved on and learned from what grave mistakes they made. They’ve learned how to live with it. We have learned to live with our terrible past with slavery.
What I’ve learned is that you can’t blindly ready people’s history. You need to understand why they are telling the story or arguing the argument. What bias is there? What motives lie in between the letters? People of every background think differeetnly and interpret things differently. To figure out the truth, you need to find the credible facts and sources or you can easily be brainwashed just as many people are still today. If history is to be told how it should be, with the truth, then this is how it is done.
Sources:
Iris Chang, The Rape of Nanking – The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II.pdf
Tanaka Masaaki, What Really Happened in Nanking – The Refutation of a Common Myth.pdf
In the Name of the Emperor, Nancy Tong
I wrote about a similar topic, and I agree with/enjoy the points you’ve made! It seems like common sense that history should be a compilation of facts and first-hand sources through the lens of credibility and biases, but–as seen in the case of Nanking–this is not always the accepted form of history. Again, cool post; I especially enjoyed your picture and introduction of the material.
I liked the picture you included in your blogpost because it shows how one thing can be portrayed as another if things are left out of the big picture. That can be seen in the comparison of what pictures were a part of the Nanking massacre and which were from another point in the war. I find it interesting that Germany has come to terms with the Holocaust, but Japan cannot come to terms with the Rape of Nanking. If they were to accept the blame for what they did, then there would be less controversy about the issue. I think Japan needs to accept the role they had in the Rape of Nanking so that they can learn from their mistakes and move on with their lives.
The massacre happened, no doubt about it, but it was committed by Chiang Kai shek.
Chiang slaughtered around 10 million of his own people from 1927-1949, and not only in Nanking.
The Shanghai Massacre 1927, 300,000 communists killed, breaching the dykes of the Yellow River, one million killed, Taiwan Massacre 1947 (228 Massacre) tens of thousands murdered, many more went missing, his atrocities were endless.
He was so bad, China decided that their history needed whitewashing, so they conveniently removed him from memory.
This was also done to appease Taiwan who still consider him a mass murderer, so much so that his vandalized monuments had to be removed from public places.
His numerous atrocities could not be swept under the red carpet, they had to be blamed on someone else,……China decided on a great Japanese leader, General Iwane Matsui.
Chiang Kai shek left a trail of severed heads as his calling card, so much so that he was feared and hated by the common people,……when he lost their support,…..he lost the Chinese Civil War.
Chiang holds the title as the 4th. greatest mass murderer in history, it is no wonder China keeps him locked up in a closet!