Nanking and Its Many Question Marks

It is very common in history to see stories told differently by which side of the fence you are on. The Rape of Nanking falls into this category. Many question marks circle this topic, whether you are in Japan, China, the United States or elsewhere. The Rape of Nanking falls into the same category of brutality as the Holocaust does. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese were tortured, raped, burnt as well as had many other horrid acts committed towards them before they were ultimately murdered. However, as brutal as the event may have been, and the hundreds of thousands that the Chinese claims the Japanese murdered, some Japanese do not even believe that this event occurred.

World War II has been one of the best-documented topics of history ever. From D-Day, Pearl Harbor, the Holocaust, the list goes on and on. However, one of the largest atrocities to occur in the war has not been documented as well as one may have thought it should be. The Nanking Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanking, is overlooked in many history courses. Personally, I had heard of the Nanking Massacre, but I did not have the first idea of what it was. I am 21 years old and a senior at Virginia Tech before I have read about this topic. In Japan, this has not been taught to students coming up through the school systems. As Iris Chang says in her book The Rape of Nanking—The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II, the Japanese has tried to erase this from their history. Chang was first introduced to this topic by her parents, who told her what happened in Nanking. The quivering of their voices with outrage when they spoke of incidents in which children were sliced into three and four pieces. The incident was so bloody that the Yangtze River was red with blood for days (Chang, 8). Chang goes into the gruesome details of the attack. She also discusses how that schoolchildren are unaware of this happening in Japan because the government has regulated what is published and written within the textbooks. This being with hopes of instilling the thought that the Japanese were the victims of World War II instead of the instigators (Chang, 15). Chang puts the Japanese in the same category as Nazi Germany with one lone exception—The Germans owned up to their actions as to where the Japanese have tried to sweep their wrongdoing under the rug (Chang, 15-16).

In Tanaka Masaaki’s What Really Happened in Nanking, Masaaki claims that Chang’s book is full of untrue accusations and truly shows her ignorance (Masaaki, 1). Masaaki also speaks to Chang’s claim that the majority of deaths were of innocent civilians. Instead of innocent claims, Masaaki says the deaths occurred during war activity. He says before we call the events in Nanking a “massacre” we must define the term. Here, the author makes the comparison to The Battle of Iwo Jima. In comparison, he notes that Nanking, like Iwo Jima, was a battle. No one refers to Iwo Jima as the Iwo Jima Massacre, so why should we refer to Nanking as such? (Masaaki, 7). In warlike activity, neither side is caught “off-guard,” for lack of a better way to describe it. Therefore, the author claims it should not be considered a massacre. In Chang’s book, she uses photographs to try and show the graphic events that were taking place. I have noted throughout numerous blog post how important that the media plays in the understanding of events and in the process of storytelling—serving as the fourth branch of government. Masaaki says that these pictures have been misrepresented when they are used. The pictures are staged or “faked.” This was done in order to show how people were killed at the hands of the Japanese. He pulls from numerous newspapers, journals, etc. He says that the way Chang has used this information is incorrect. Masaaki tries to use the same materials to show that the Japanese’s actions in Nanking were completely different than the picture painted by Chang (Masaaki, 112-127).

Throughout these two articles, there is not really a concrete understanding on the subject. We see differing opinions by two different authors who are very passionate in their views in Nanking. When topics such as the Nanking Massacre arise, we see how important it is for us as historians to do our jobs. One could make the argument that history varies based on where you live. Japanese people will tell you a different story about Pearl Harbor or the dropping of the atomic bombs than what my 90-year-old grandpa and 87-year-old grandma will tell you. History is often written by the pin of the victor, especially when it comes to war. It is only common that a country would want to cover up their mistakes like Japan has done with the Nanking Massacre. Germany does not advertise from the Empire State Building that they killed millions of Jews less than 100 years ago, just like the United States is not proud of racial relations through the 1960s. However, both Germany and the United States have said where they are wrong. In modern times, information is easily accessible. The censorship that Japan has placed over its country when it comes to Nanking, over time will erode away more and more. With the case of Nanking though, we see how powerful that the historians writing it down are. Events are remembered by how it is recorded. Many people who were alive and growing up in the time of the Nanking Massacre are few and far between. Nanking will be remembered by how historians record this information. The facts are always going to tell the story, however, if history varies by where it is studied and by how it is presented, is there ever an absolute truth when it comes to history?

Photo credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chinese_head,_Nanking_massacre.jpg