in china, the textbooks always has a simple voice:
The imperialism of the Japanese Empire had done many gruesome things upon China and brought china into a unbelievable human disaster.
I have heard the Japanese textbooks have said something dishonest to the history but i need to prove it.
That is why i asked Satt for some main ideas of the textbooks
It is important that we examine the truth so that we may avoid the tragedy in the future. This is what brings importance to this forum
Exactly. History cannot be changed, and since we know it has a little habit of repeating itself - we must make sure that at least the same mistake isn't repeated.
Japs altered their history textbooks. I'm always enraged at this.
John Bush wrote:Well a local chinese folk will respond you like this: Mao encouraged people to produce babies as more as possible. He always said, the more people we get, the stronger we will be
Is Mao the main reason why the government had to pass the laws regarding a one-child only family?
Today was foggy, somber.
At every corner of the city you would hear the shrill sounds of alarms..
Our class was interrupted for hours...
ThDecember, 13th 1937,
Japanese Royal Army captured Nanjing, the capital of the nation..
The weeks long inhuman of our city began.
The Yangtze River turned red...
300,000
Thank you for reminding us of this terrible day in history. Iris Chang wrote a book that I read many years ago called "The Rape Of Nanking":
In December 1937, the Japanese army swept into the ancient city of Nanking. Within weeks, more than 300,000 Chinese civilians were systematically raped, tortured, and murdered--a death toll exceeding that of the atomic blasts of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.
Using extensive interviews with survivors and newly discovered documents, Iris Chang has written what will surely be the definitive history of this horrifying episode. The Rape of Nanking tells the story from three perspectives: of the Japanese soldiers who performed it, of the Chinese civilians who endured it, and of a group of Europeans and Americans who refused to abandon the city and were able to create a safety zone that saved almost 300,000 Chinese.
Among these was the Nazi John Rabe, an unlikely hero whom Chang calls the "Oskar Schindler of China" and who worked tirelessly to protect the innocent and publicize the horror. More than just narrating the details of an orgy of violence, The Rape of Nanking analyzes the militaristic culture that fostered in the Japanese soldiers a total disregard for human life. Finally, it tells the appalling story: about how the advent of the Cold War led to a concerted effort on the part of the West and even the Chinese to stifle open discussion of this atrocity.
Indeed, Chang characterizes this conspiracy of silence, that persists to this day, as "a second rape."
Australia also objects to falsification of Japanese history texts, JB - as do many countries - but China with most reason, I suspect.
Code:Among these was the Nazi John Rabe, an unlikely hero whom Chang calls the "Oskar Schindler of China" and who worked tirelessly to protect the innocent and publicize the horror. More than just narrating the details of an orgy of violence.
I know him!
Thousands of people who were once survived by him join his funeral.
I have remebered he saved more that 100 thousand in his international settlement.
dlowan wrote:Australia also objects to falsification of Japanese history texts, JB - as do many countries - but China with most reason, I suspect.
And Korea (formerCorea, but "C" was beyond "J" of Japan in English alphabet ), Mongolia, Southeast Asia.....
a tough history..
panzade wrote:Thank you for reminding us of this terrible day in history. Iris Chang wrote a book that I read many years ago called "The Rape Of Nanking":
yeah i know her.
And another tragedy....
Do you know that she was shot to death weeks ago?
committed suicide...still in controversy.
And i am sorry and shocked that a large number of the people in China don't know her!
Everyone should admire her, the only (the only one i know ) person who publicize this terrible event to the world instead of fretting about without any effect.
rather long...but interesting.
Iris Chang, the prominent Chinese American author and journalist who fueled an international protest movement against Japan with her incendiary best-selling book, "The Rape of Nanking," was found dead from an apparent self- inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said Wednesday.
Chang, 36, of San Jose was found in her car by a commuter about 9 a.m. Tuesday on a rural road south of Los Gatos, according to the Santa Clara County sheriff's office.
"I'm just shocked," said retired San Francisco Superior Court Judge Lillian Sing, who was helping Chang with a documentary on aging U.S. military veterans who had suffered as POWs in Japanese captivity during World War II. "She was a real woman warrior trying to fight injustice."
Stunned friends and colleagues sought to understand what might have led to the suicide of an energetic and passionate young woman who channeled her outrage over Japanese war atrocities into a busy career of writing and lecturing. Chang also wrote a history of China's missile program and chronicled the Chinese experience in America.
Ignatius Ding, an activist who worked with Chang for several years in seeking to have Japan acknowledge and apology for atrocities it committed during World War II, said Chang's current project videotaping the former U.S. prisoners of war had been emotionally taxing for her.
"She was doing research recently in Kentucky and ran into some problem," he said. "She got really upset, and she flew home." Chang lived in San Jose with her husband, Brett Douglas.
Ding, who heads the Cupertino-based Global Alliance for Preserving the History of World War II in Asia, said he did not know what kind of problem Chang might have encountered or whether it was a factor in her death.
He noted that she "took things to heart" and usually became emotionally involved in the tragic stories she wrote about.
Chang's white 1999 Oldsmobile sedan was found on an isolated private road west of Highway 17 near the Cats Restaurant. She apparently had died from a single shot from a handgun.
"There was evidence that was recovered that corroborated and was consistent with a suicide,'' said sheriff's spokesman Terrance Helm, who wouldn't disclose the nature of the evidence or if there was a suicide note. An autopsy is scheduled for today.
Her husband had filed a missing person's report with police at 5:30 a.m. Tuesday, saying he rose early to find his wife missing and that she had been despondent, said San Jose police Sgt. Steve Dixon. Her husband told police he had last seen Chang at 2 a.m.
"She was passionate and articulate," said Ling-Chi Wang, a faculty member in Asian American studies at UC Berkeley. "It's shocking to lose such a young and talented person."
"It's a tragic loss," said Chronicle book editor Oscar Villalon. "She was one of the most visible Chinese American authors, who wrote a landmark book that brought to the attention, at least among her American audience, what was nonexistent as an issue."
Author of three books and many articles and columns, Chang's most famous work was her controversial 1997 book, "The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II," which described one of the war's worst atrocities.
Japanese army troops massacred many Chinese in Nanjing (then called Nanking) in late 1937 and early 1938, and Chang not only believed that the horrible event was in danger of being forgotten but also accused Japanese society of collective denial about it.
Translated into many languages, her book galvanized a redress movement in the United States. It was lauded in the U.S. media, drew criticism from several U.S. scholars on Japan and was vilified by right-wing publications in Japan.
The book also propelled Chang into an international spotlight. The year after it appeared, the Organization of Chinese American Women named her National Woman of the Year.
She received honorary degrees and lectured widely at universities, bookstores and conferences. She delivered the commencement address at Cal State Hayward in June.
"She has been a real role model for young Chinese Americans," Ding said, adding that Chang inspired many to consider being authors and journalists.
"She was also well-respected in China," he said.
Wang said she was an important interpreter of the Chinese American experience to the general public, adding that in her book on Nanjing, "she has done more than anybody to call attention to the outrage that took place."
Helen Zia, Bay Area author of "Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People," said Chang "wanted to bring voices to the fore, the stories shunted aside and ignored in history. This is a huge loss."
Andrew Horvat, Tokyo representative of the San Francisco-based Asia Foundation, said that "there will always be controversy over the accuracy and balance of her writings" but that she "did raise a level of consciousness that wasn't there before. ... In that sense, I think her contribution was very positive."
Chang's most recent book, "The Chinese in America," was named one of the best books of the year by The Chronicle. Her first book, "Thread of the Silkworm," told the story of the Chinese scientist who guided the development of China's Silkworm missile.
Born in Princeton, N.J., Chang grew up in Champaign-Urbana, Ill., where her parents are professors at the University of Illinois. Her grandparents' escape from Nanjing fed her early interest in what happened there.
She received a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Illinois and worked briefly as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune and Associated Press before entering a master's program at Johns Hopkins University in 1990.
She appeared on the cover of Reader's Digest as well as on many TV programs, including "Nightline" and "NewsHour With Jim Lehrer," and she wrote for numerous publications, including the New York Times and Newsweek.
Remember her...
And which state does "N,J" stand for?
It was a coincidence------NJ also stands for Nanjing
We will remember her...
NJ-New Jersey
China, the forgotten holocaust.
It was too bad that Chiang Kai-Shek never really tried to work with Mao to oust the Imperial Japanese troops. He's more concerned about Mao than the Japanese.
Both Mao and the Generalissimo were making a grab for power. They both believed that Japan was too overextended to occupy the whole of China and vanquish their forces. They each wanted to be supreme when Japan was finally subdued.
I am not well-read on this subject JB, it is my interpretation. I welcome any dissenting views.
Whatever you say, Chaing's policy really caused trouble. That is the fact.
But, as you say and by youy logic, if Mao took the most significant control of the country as Chaing did he might also follow the same policy.
By this way, Chiang is a bit innocent for his somewhat inevitable misjudgement.
