“For the survivor who chooses to testify, it is clear: his duty is to bear witness for the dead and for the living. He has no right to deprive future generations of a past that belongs to our collective memory. To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time” – Elie Wiesel
This quote from Nobel Peace Prize laureate and holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night (1960), refers to the importance of memory, specifically in preserving the memories and experiences of Holocaust survivors. In her 1997 work, The Rape of Nanking, Iris Chang references these words to comment on the way that the brutal massacre at Nanjing in 1937 has been overlooked by history.
The events know as the “Rape of Nanjing” occurred in 1937, several years after the initial invasion of Manchuria by Japan in 1931. This invasion of China is considered by some historians as the beginning of WWII, and was the realization of Japan’s imperial aspirations. which would continue until their defeat in 1945 after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The brutal events in Nanjing are
Over a quarter of a million people are believed to have died in Nanjing over a period of six weeks. Victims were tortured, burned alive, and mowed down by machine guns en masse. During their occupation of China and Korea, and Japanese army forced Chinese and Korean women into what amounted to sexual slavery. These women came to be called “comfort women”
was excised in Japanese history and overlooked by the rest of the world.
Japanese officials systematically excised references to the rape of Nanjing from textbooks
What Chang calls “selective amnesia”
In The Rape of Nanking, Chang presents an impassioned description of the events at Nanjing… and those that deny or suppress these events
In 1987, Japanese author Tanaka Masaaki What Really Happened in Nanking: The Refutation of a Common Myth. The book was published in English in 2000 in a response to Chang’s Rape of Nanking.” In his book, Tanaka provides a revisionist account of the events at Nanjing
Photographer Chris Steele Perkins took a series of portraits of some of these women for an exhibition titled “Comfort Women”
beyond the events themselves but also how it was remembered
There are many historical events whose interpretations invite controversy, and history is very much a field rich in debate. However, in the case of these authors there is less of a debate than a one-sided rejection of facts.
article by professor ….
reviews the state of … and how it has changed over time. As he points out, this is not necessarily a direct or lineal progression, but
As with most historical events, their
significance is also in the way that they are interpreted and represented in academia, media, and pop culture.
References:
Iris Chang, The Rape of Nanking – The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II (1997)
Tanaka Masaaki, What Really Happened in Nanking – The Refutation of a Common Myth (2000)
I really liked the quote you chose. I think it does a good job of highlighting the implications of false histories or covering up certain events. Failing to be an accurate historian is disrespectful to the dead who rely on those still living to tell their story.
Excellent application of that Elie Wiesel quote, as I’m sure authors like Iris Chang would agree. I think people are generally aware of the brutality of the Japanese in general during World War II, but the Nanking Massacre seems to be the most egregious example. The Nanking Massacre’s coverage in history classes is minimal or nonexistent in U.S. high school classes, but hopefully that will change as awareness builds.