Remembering the Nanjing Massacre

[Urban Ranger]

It was on this day, 64 years ago, that the IJA (Imperial Japanese Army) started a systemic slaughtering of the people of Nanjing, resulting in 250,000 dead by conservative estimates.

[faded glory]

Yes, let us not forget about the Baton death march and Pearl Harbor

50,000 USA and UK PoW's were forced to march hundreds of miles without food or water. Half of them, not suprisingly, died!

[faded glory]

I forgot to mention that the Japanese never gave an apoligy for there atrocities!!!!!!

Nanking was awful!

[chequita guevara]

Nanjing was horrible. Japan needs to acknowledge this crime against humanity.

[DinoDoc]

[aside]Is it true that the Japanese actually managed to horrify the Nazis? I'd heard that somewhere but I can't remember if its is true or not.[/aside]

[Adam Smith]

Dino Doc:
Yes, that is true. Various diplomatic dispatches indicate that the Nazi ambassador to China was horrified by the conduct of Japanese troops in Nanjing and elsewhere, and intervened in an attempt to stop the bloodshed. Unfortunately he was unsuccessful. There is a detailed account of this in episode in William L. Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Thrid Reich.

edit: corrected the cite

[Urban Ranger]

In an incredibly amazing way, John Rabe, a German in Nanjing, sheltered many Chinese from the IJA. He's like a Schindler for the Chinese, but being a German.

The book The Good Man of Nanking is a recount of this.

[faded glory]

After the War......

Does anybody know why the Japs got off so easy compared to the Germans? Who have been and will be..labeled "Nazi's" and "Murderers" for generations to come...even if the current german generation had nothing to do with the actions of the past.

[Mark_Lipovrovskiy]

Yes.
I still like the Japanese though. Not to say that they haven't done absolutely horrible thing.
And it wasn't the bloodshed that horrified the Germans - it was the 'uncivilized' way by which it was carried through.

[Adam Smith]

IIRC the objection was to the "uncivilized" conduct of IJA troops - ie massive killing of civilians.

[Urban Ranger]

FG/Steve,

Politics.

The US figured that if they really extracted justice from Japan, they'd end up with a weak country that couldn't effectively block the Soviets.

So the US left the system in Japan largely intact, let many key figures off the hook - particularly Hirohito, and pumped money into rebuilding the country.

Oh, by the way, do you know that the US let the head of the infamous Unit 731 off the hook in the hopes of gaining information regarding biological warfare?

[faded glory]

no UR.....I do not. But if you could enlighten me, ide be interested

The japs havent paid once cent to China, UK, America, Holland.....anyone!


But I do know that the German Government has been paying reparations to the Israeli Government for alllllllllllllong time now.

[Ramo]

Truly one of the great tradegies of the 20th century...

[Dis]

the U.S. felt guilty about committing atrocities against the japanese. that is one of my theories.

my other theory is the U.S. at the time had little regard for chinese people due to them not being white.

But enough of that. It is important to remember this. If the japanese won't teach this in schools, it is all the more important to remember this, so the truth gets out.

[Sprayber]

IJA did this pretty much where ever they went. One Japanese soldier said that the first time he killed a civilian it was hard to do. But after his third or fourth one he didn't feel much anymore. Another soldier said that he was actually doing those people a favor by killing them since they were in such misery. (Talking about British soldiers that were forced to march over 150miles through jungle.)

The Germans were only shocked about how the Japanese went about their killings and not the killings themselves. The Germans prefered a more systematic approach.