Day of infamy - Nanjing Massacre 65th anniversary

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Guardian
Best anti-nuke protest I ever saw had a picture from a school that was about 500 yards from where the bomb went off in Hiroshima.

At the time they dropped the bomb, there were kids out playing in front of the building, and all that was left of them where the little bright "shadows" burned into the concrete. (The initial heatwave from the blast hadn't scorched the concrete quite as bad in those spots where there had been objects or bodies in the way. Hence the "shadows" where bright instead of dark.)

There was a little shadow there that appeared to be making a jumping movement. It was reaching out with both arms, and just beyond reach of those little hands, there was another small "shadow", which was all round...

He was just about to catch a ball...

In Nagasaki, there's an ironic one where a soldier on guard duty couldn't leave his post, but had to take a leak. The carbon is imprinted into the wall, but you can clearly see him assuming the permission, rifle at his side, leather web gear hanging from a post, a line of droplets on the wall. What a way to be immortalized.

The atomic bombings were tragic and evil, but considered with conventional bombing, or invasion, they were the quickest, least lethal (and therefore relatively less evil) end to the war that was possible based on all facts that were known.

[Boris Godunov]

Horrific. I would like to see more attention given to the suffering of those under the IJA. People nowadays seem to have no clue what they did in occupied territories. Everyone knows the Holocaust, but the victims of these atrocities seem to lie forgotten.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
We probably should have remade Japanese society while we were at it. They're still horribly racist. At least they aren't militarists anymore (for the most part--fascism is still trendy there).

We did, but the question is how much, and for how long do you "remake" a society.

If you compare post-Meiji Japan from say, the Shinpuren incident to Ni-Ni-Roku through the end of the war with modern Japan, the differences are incredible. The Japanese have no monopoly on Asian racism, nor do they have a monopoly on wanting to wear blinders about the truth.

[monkspider]

The Nanjing massacre was a horrible, horrible tragedy. The attrocities of the Germans during the war are well-documented, we have largely forgotten what bastards the IJA were.

-edit seemed to have cross-posted with Boris.

[Drake Tungsten]

We probably should have remade Japanese society while we were at it. They're still horribly racist. At least they aren't militarists anymore (for the most part--fascism is still trendy there).

While this is certainly true, the Japanese don't have a monopoly on horrible racism, as MtG has said. The Chinese and Koreans can be just as bad, which doesn't bode well for future relations in that part of the world. The odds of another Nanjing massacre happening in the future are not insignificant.

[Dr. Nick]

The Japs would have come to terms with the past if the US hadn't let the emporer get away with being a war criminal.

The Emperor was powerless to prevent anything after 1937 IMHO.

The atrocities of the IJA and the Kwangtung Army fade because they're underpublicised.

[Urban Ranger]

It's truely staggering how little the Japanese kids know about what the IJA did in WWII. There are a few Japaneses, mostly ex-IJA soldiers, are going around the country telling their own eyewitness stories of the IJA brutalities. There's also a director who collected film footages to put together as a sort of documentary. A whole bunch of HS kids came out weeping after seeing the doco - that was the first time they got a clue of what had gone on in the occupied territories.

[mindseye]

I recently saw a Chinese documentary about a commercial shipping line on the Yangtze River that suddenly became the lifeline for hundreds of thousands fleeing the advancing Japanese armies.

One old worker started crying when he recounted how Japanese planes frequently strafed and bombed the overburdened riverboats filled with refugees.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

k-19 turned me against nuclear power in general. It must have been those scenes with the people volunterring to go into the reactor to fix it without having protective gear and then all burned and roasted 15 minutes later,

[Shadowstrike]

*bows head in moment of silence for Nanjing victims*

[Joseph]

Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia
k-19 turned me against nuclear power in general. It must have been those scenes with the people volunterring to go into the reactor to fix it without having protective gear and then all burned and roasted 15 minutes later,

We were told about it and several other, but we could talk to the public about them. The K-19 is real.
At my old job I had a list of all the incident.

[Joseph]

Originally posted by Shadowstrike
*bows head in moment of silence for Nanjing victims*

Nanjing is not the only city that the Japanese work over. They hit a few other just as bad.

You guys should read the Ghost Company/Pattoon/something, can't remember the correct title, but Ghost is part of the title.
It is the story of our POW from Bataan and their treatment under the Japanese. One of our guys was killed for drinking water on the road to c. camp. This Japanese soldier took his sword and parted the man head to his shoulder area right down the middle of his head.

[ranskaldan]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten

While this is certainly true, the Japanese don't have a monopoly on horrible racism, as MtG has said. The Chinese and Koreans can be just as bad, which doesn't bode well for future relations in that part of the world. The odds of another Nanjing massacre happening in the future are not insignificant.

The world has changed. Racism is still rampant, but modern nations are far too dependent on each other, while weapons have become too lethal. Superpowers no longer feel the urge to attack each other - they now tend to go for smaller nations and factions together.

------------------

Back to the topic.

IN MEMORIAM.

[Urban Ranger]

From People's Daily:

Li Xiuying (2nd R), a survivor of the notorious Nanjing Massacre, presents flowers to the compatriots slaughtered in the Massacre by the Japanese invaders, in the Nanjing Memorial Hall here Dec. 13, 2002. Some 3,000 people from home and abroad held a rally here Friday in commemoration of the 65th anniversary of the death of 300,000 people during the Massacre.

[Drake Tungsten]

The world has changed. Racism is still rampant, but modern nations are far too dependent on each other, while weapons have become too lethal. Superpowers no longer feel the urge to attack each other

You could've said the exact same thing before WWI. I appreciate your optimism, but I don't know if I share it.