Foreign News: Basket Cases
Protestant and Jewish philanthropic groups with branches in China had by last week brought together in the U. S. fairly full eyewitness and photographic data on the butchery and rape which reigned in Nanking for over a month after this capital of China fell. There has been the most drastic shakeup by Tokyo of officers whose Japanese soldiers went berserk in Nanking. Even long-eared General Iwane Matsui, the Commander-in-Chief of the victorious Japanese offensive, has been recalled to Japan.
A typical and horrifying case history is that of a young Chinese girl brought in a basket litter on January 26 to the Mission hospital in Nanking. She said that her husband, a Chinese policeman, was seized by one of the Japanese execution squads on the same day that she was taken by Japanese soldiers from a hut in the Safety Zone to the South City. She was kept there for 38 days, she said, and attacked by Japanese soldiers from five to ten times each day. Upon examination by the Mission hospital, she was found to have contracted all three of the most common venereal diseases, a vaginal ulcer which finally ended her usefulness to the soldiers.
The doctors, surgeons, nurses and diplomats in Nanking are not in a position to have their names attached to accounts which they have written and forwarded to their superiors. These tell of countless cases in which the prestige of the white man in the Orient was still sufficient at Nanking during the worst days for a judicious word, a stern remonstrance or a gentle but firm use of physical strength to do much. More than one Japanese soldier, raping a Chinese woman in broad daylight in the streets of Nanking, was chased off by a white man.
Since many of the women raped were killed and buried indiscriminately with Chinese civilians, police and soldiers dispatched by the Japanese execution squads, there are no reliable statistics, but last week every white authority agreed that modern history does not afford another instance of such wholesale rape.
Robbery and looting also flourished in Nanking for many weeks. The number of Chinese executed, not killed in battle, totals by the most conservative Nanking estimates 20,000. Excerpt from a Nanking letter written at the worst period: "One [Chinese] boy of seventeen came in with the tale of about 10,000 Chinese men between the ages of 15 and 30 who were led out of the city on the 14th [of January] to the river bank near the ferry wharf. There the Japanese opened up on them with field guns, hand grenades and machine guns. Most of them were then pushed into the river, some were burned in huge piles, and three managed to escape. Of the 10,000 the boy figured there were about 6,000 ex-soldiers and 4,000 civilians. He has a bullet wound in the chest which is not serious."
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This story is very interesting. Feels like I am there, sharing the pain of these people.
ReplyDeleteI guess this is why Chinese gov't is spending 10% of their GNP to buy weapons. "Never again" is their motto.
China will go to war with Japan. It is inevitable. Two countries have so much emotion.
Korea? Jackass doesn't know what to do. Will get burned.
Korea will side with China. The Chinese-Korean forces will attack Japan, but most will die in the Sea of Japan. ( I don't use DongHae because I am used to the Sea of Japan).
ReplyDeleteThen, the Japanese fighters/bombers will wreck havoc in Korean peninsula and do amphibious landing on Busan. They will push toward Seoul, like they did during ImJinWaeRan.
Koreans will run, toward Manchuria. And, regroup and join with Chinese troops to take back the peninsula.
And, they will be successful. However, the Japanese reinforcement will arrive and back to Manchuria.
After two or three times of this pushing back and forth, millions of Koreans will die, more than the Chinese or the Japanese or the two combined.
Koreans'd better learn to keep quite. After all, the war is not their war; it is between China and Japan.
So, cool anti-Japanese or anti-Chinese rhetorics. Just keep quiet and survive!
Are you feeling ok Baduk?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI want to compliment your ability to write on such an academic level about such emotional issues. You have accomplished something that I’ve yet to see be accomplished by a person from China or Korea/Corea (I just read that post. Very well done as well).
ReplyDeleteI am an American living in Japan, and surprisingly enough tend to be rather Japanese right-winged radically nationalist thinker on these issues. I do not attempt to claim that things did not happen when they clearly did, but I am against many false acquisitions coming out of Korea/Corea and China, as well as on the Koizumi/Japanese side of the Yasukuni/History textbook issue. (Most people fail to mention that Yasukuni was around long before World War II, or that there are equivalents in Korea/China/America/England etc, and that the history text book in question is used by less than 0.1% of schools in Japan.)
As an international student in Japan, I am SURROUNDED by other Korean and Chinese international students; without fail, these issues come up once a week. Yet, no one has been able to make anything close to an informed argument - until now. I look forward to reading your entries (I have just bookmarked the RSS so I will be over right away when you post something new) and will do my best to offer my opinion in the form of a comment.
Once again, very well done, and I hope that I will be able to learn from you, and perhaps correct some of my misconceptions about the ‘facts’ (because a fact is really only what’s believed be the majority), and I hope to offer my thoughts to you as well.
I will also leave you with a link to my blog as well (however in Japanese as I am just that nationalistic): http://blog.goo.ne.jp/shimizu-darin
**Why I deleted and reposted: I accidently said I was left-wing when I meant right-wing. I can never remember which one is which, and the oxford english dictionary is surpassingly not helpful (but the koujien Japanese one is).
Ok, I'll bite. What are the equivalent places in US, UK, China and especially Korea? I am dying to know.
ReplyDeleteWhile Yasukuni may have been around a while, war criminals have only been honoured there since the 1940's... Should Germans honour Adolf Hitler, he did after all build up their nation after the disaster of WW1...
That's an interesting question. I can't say that there are any, but I would guess that if any Koreans convicted of war crimes (in World War II or the Vietnam War) were buried at the National Cemetary in Tongjak-ku, the Korean government would take seriously any request by, say, Hanoi to deal with it in an appropriate manner. Just a guess, but this is all hypothetical and speculative anyway.
ReplyDeleteYea for America it would be Arlington National Cemetery correct? For Korea I would say Seoul National Cemetery as well. I can't remember the name of the one in England right now of the top of my head, but there is some place where those that died in combat are honored.
ReplyDeleteI don't deny the War Criminals part being an issue/problem, but you have to be fair to them in the fact that this was their religion of the time. The Shinto religion said that those who fight for Japan, for the Emperor will become Gods and be deified after death. Their status from fighting for their Emperor, fighting for their religion changed only upon Japan loosing WW2. It would be wrong to take their religion away from them after they have already died. Also, War Criminal is a matter of opinion (I'm not saying there weren't war criminals). The side that looses is said to be 'wrong' and the winners are said to be 'right'. Had Germany won in WW2, I'm certain that the leaders of America, England, Russia etc would have all been deemed War Criminals as well. The problem comes in 1972(or was it 73, I can't remember exactly) when the "A-Class" War Criminals where enshrined.
The big difference between Yasukuni and Arlington/Seoul Nation Cemetery, is that Yasukuni has zero affiliation with the government. While the S. Korean government may get involved if there is the complaint about the possibility of a war criminal in the national cemetery, the Japanese government can do nothing about Yasukuni because it is a religious place, not a governmental -- and with the separation of church and state.... One may say that if Koizumi and other Japanese leaders do not visit the shrine it will make Korea, China and others happy; but they forget to mention what it would do internally in Japan. Many family members of those who died in WW2 feel very grateful that the Japanese leaders do not forget their sacrifice and continue to visit Yasukuni.
While Yasukuni is considered to be a symbol of aggression outside of Japan, to many in Japan (myself included) it is just the opposite. It is a reminder of all that is wrong about war to the Japanese people. It is a reminder of all that is wrong about Empires. All those people died for what? Nothing, nothing other then to teach us/the Japanese people that war is wrong. To many Japanese people, the moment Japanese leaders stop going to Yasukuni and forget the millions of souls enshrined, is the moment Japan forgets how awful war is and once again starts war.
Now of course there are many Japanese people who also think exactly opposite from the way I do. Those who agree entirely with Korea/China and sometimes take it further. I had a history teacher who believed that it would be no harm to the world if the entire Japanese race was exterminated along with the Japanese government. That my be extreme, but it shows that the actions of one leader do not always accurately represent the views of every person in the country. (I’m sure many Americans can agree to that statement.) I’m also reminded of when the middle-school history textbook was approved that has created such a stir in Asia. I was amazed to see Japanese history teachers take to the streets and protest the decision-while it may be a common place in many parts of the world to hold demonstrations, that is not the case in Japan, so when it happens, it’s a big deal even if the number of participants don't compare to those in China for example.
Wow, this got pretty long, sorry about that. But I think I covered the main points. I don’t want to take over your blog either, rather just leave comments here and there.
As long as Kushibo is happy for the posts, I suppose all is good.
ReplyDeleteI don't know a lot about America, but I would doubt whether war criminals would ever be interred there. The National Cemetery in Seoul definitely does not, although I wonder what will happen when Jeon Du Hwan dies? Either way, he agressed against his own people. Honouring war dead is an acceptable thing and no one denies the right of the Japanese to do this. What is a problem is honouring war criminals and this has nothing / zero / 何も to do with religion. It is a worry when culture is cited as a reason to continue doing wrong.
While there is such a thing a victor's justice, I would find it difficult to defend the actions of those in question. Do not forget that Japan and Germany were both the instigators of WW2, no one else.
If Yasukuni has nothing to do with the government, why does Koizumi go there? He is a representative of the government and can not just turn off the responsibility when he feels like it. He knows how this offends neighbouring countries but cares little for this.
Since WW2, Japan has prided itself on being a great force for peace in the world. This does not it well with the denial of the past. We do not accept Holocaust denial, why is it ok to debate whether the Japanese crimes in Asia happened or were as bad as has been portrayed?
I too, have lived in Japan and have experienced what a great country it is. However, I will never accept the veneration of war criminals. What these people were in charge of is some of the most sickening acts of the 20th century. These things will not go away and the sooner they are faced in Japan, the sooner China and South Korea will look past these historical events. Of course North Korea won't, but that's a whole different matter!
Checked out your blog, by the way, your Japanese is pretty good!
"What is a problem is honouring war criminals and this has nothing / zero / 何も to do with religion"
ReplyDeleteYou're exactly right, that is the problem. But it's not so easily solved. The war criminals came to the shrine after the other soldiers that just did what they where told. If Koizumi, and others, were to stop going to Yasukuni in an attempt to avoid the A-Class war criminals, they would also be forced to avoid the regular soldiers, who were their first. Had the priests of Yasukuni not enshrined those A-Class war criminals, it probably wouldn't be as big of a problem as it is today (but still be a problem none-the-less.) But the government can't tell them what to do.
"If Yasukuni has nothing to do with the government, why does Koizumi go there? He is a representative of the government and can not just turn off the responsibility when he feels like it." True, he is always a representative of the government, but he is also a citizen of Japan and therefore has the same rights to go to whatever place of worship he wants whenever he wants. Their are many problems with that however. Until his last visit, he would list his full name as Koizumi - head of government (or whatever your preferred translation of 総理大臣 is). While I can understand why that makes many people mad, at the same time I can also understand why he did that. As you said, he cannot turn off his official title, so when he sings the book, that official title is who he is. It's like Mr. almost. But, he FINALLY realized that that is an unnecessary battle and in his most recent visit, he simply wrote his name. I think this was an attempt to emphasize that he is doing this as an individual, not representing the nation.
I'm going to take the topic back a little bit, and ask a question to other readers who probably know more about Korea then myself. In China, the political leaders arguably have less freedom the regular citizens. There are places they can and cannot go, things they can and cannot do. I think that is why my way of thinking about this issue is rarely something I can completely explain to my Chinese classmates. If it where China, Koizumi going to Yasukuni would 100% mean that is what the governments wants -- where as in Japan as I said earlier, as a citizen he has the right to free religion. What's it like in Korea? In Korea do political leaders have the same religious freedoms as other citizens, or is it like China where political leaders are not citizens?
Lastly, why does he go there? I think I touched on that before, but I'll mention it again (actually just copy and paste). "To many Japanese people, the moment Japanese leaders stop going to Yasukuni and forget the millions of souls enshrined, is the moment Japan forgets how awful war is and once again starts war." Basically, he goes there to remember the souls lost in previous wars, and to pray for peace so that souls/lives are never lost again. Now if you believe that is up to you, but I think it is at least 75% true, for the reasons I mentioned before. I think that if the war criminals weren't enshrined in Yasukuni things would go a lot smoother, but they are, and it's not the government that put them there but a private religious institution. To simply not visit the shrine because of a few war criminals would be a slap in the face to the other millions of non-war criminals, and they families. ***Note, there are also families that want their beloved ones removed from Yasukuni for various reasons ranging from they believe Yasukuni is a symbol of militarism, to they don't want their loved ones to be at all involved with the war criminals.
Thanks for checking my stuff out too San Nakji, feel free to leave a comment if you'd like - in Japanese of course :)
I'm withholding any detailed comment on Darin's points themselves because I have a whole Yasukuni-related post coming.
ReplyDeleteKushibo: Awesome :) I'm looking forward to it. As I said, I find your writings very interesting because you have a much more informed and well organized opinion then most (well, until now all) of the other people that I talk about these issues with. Up until now I get the standard, "Japanese people are evil and should all big eaten alive by dogs because they have Yasukuni and we are the true children of the gods" (we being anyone from Korean/Chinese origin to my grandparents of Dutch origin (my official opinion is out of all the people in the world that hate the Japanese, the Dutch hate them the most) )response. And no there is no exaggeration or sarcasm in that statement.
ReplyDeleteSan Kakji: I missed this one the first few times I read your post.. "Since WW2, Japan has prided itself on being a great force for peace in the world. This does not it well with the denial of the past. We do not accept Holocaust denial, why is it ok to debate whether the Japanese crimes in Asia happened or were as bad as has been portrayed?"
ReplyDeleteI'm not debating that the things that clearly happened didn't, I'm just saying why I think it should be okay for a government official to honor war dead. According to the high priests decision on 1978.10.17, the 14 A-Class war criminals that are enshrined were still judged to be God's and called the "Showa Martyrs". (I too disagree with this as they died after the war was over, not to mention they are war criminals.) I think it was an unfortunate and incorrect decision, but not enough to justify completely ignoring the other 2,466,518 (as of 2004.10.17) by not visiting.
For the record, I'm not one of those people who claim that the atrocities didn't happen, and like I assume you do as well, get disgusted when I meet some Neo-Nazi punk Japanese kid who tries to say otherwise.
Well, I am glad for that Darin, although aligning yourself with the Japanese right does kind of say that you do deny such things...
ReplyDeleteThere are plenty of ways to honour war dead without going to Yasukuni. Do you think people in Kagoshima have to go to Tokyo to do it? Nah, there are plenty of memorials all over the place and none carry the problems of Yasukuni.
I don't personally know about people from Kagoshima, but I do know about people from Okinawa (where I am now.) The answer is yes. There are peace memorials in Okinawa as well, but there are also people that go to Yasukuni once a year as well. "...there are plenty of memorials all over the place and none carry the problems of Yasukuni." They may not have the problems, but they also don't have their ancestors souls either. It would be like telling someone that they don't have to go to their family members grave when they can just go to some other guys grave because it's closer to their house. That's what Yasukuni is, it is in effect a mass grave.
ReplyDeleteBecause the cultures of these countries are so similar at a glance, but so different the more closely one looks, it's perfectly normal for people to look at the some issue and think completely differently about it. From an outside view, I understand why people in China, Korea and many other parts of the world are very upset about Yasukuni. From the outside, it looks just like what everyone says it does. However, from the inside it's different. For 3 years while living in Japan, I was very much against Yasukuni. Only recently (the last year or so) have I come to understand more about it, and the type of meaning it has for many Japanese people (I can't say all, because it would be unfair to say everyone is the same, especially when I know they aren't).
But why should Japan care if others don't understand it? Why should Japan listen when others tell them how to write their history books? I don't think they should. From my perspective, the one that can't understand the other, isn't trying hard enough, and is just as much as fault as the one being understood. I think that by attempting to organize meetings to discuss these topics with China and Korea (although both countries wont even bother talking about it, when they can just go to the streets and show the world how childish they really are) and by even going so far as working with Korea to form a joint history research team to work on co-writing a history book, it shows that the Japanese leaders acknowledge the people of Korea and China are angry, and want to try and explain to them why there is no need to get angry by explaining the reasons for Yasukuni.
I think the longer the people of Korea and China refuse to talk about this issue with the Japanese people, the longer they continue with the attitude of "we're so right and you're so wrong that we don't even have to listen because we're 6 year old children and if we throw a temper tantrum in the streets mommy and daddy will give us our candy", the longer Japanese officials will continue to go to Yasukuni. If someone was to change their way of life, their beliefs right now because of the immaturity of their neighbors, then those neighbors will learn - just like when you're dealing with children - that if they piss and moan, they get what they want, and will never be able to talk with the adults.
Now this looks like I'm pulling the Japanese looking down on the Korean and the Chinese act, and well I am. I don't see what people plan to gain by throwing eggs at an embassy, by going to the streets in protest. If anything, they should be protesting their leaders who decline invitations to talk about the issues instead. On a side note, the ultimate big baby is no Korea, but China in this one for certain. Schedule a meeting and then just not show up. Wow, real mature. Personally I would have cut all their economic aid which the general public doesn't even know it gets, then watch their space program suddenly cease to exist. I guess that shows that the current Japanese leaders are more mature then me because they just said, "oh that's too bad" and continued to donate millions of dollars a month.
This is why I am glad to have found this blog though. Because for the last half a decade of my life, I've had to talk about this without being able to talk. The Korean and Chinese people I would encounter just say "Yasukuni is bad and all Japanese should die" (even while they're in Japan) repeating it over and over again without even attempting to hear another side of the argument. Kushibo and other comment writers are different in that you guys can talk about it like adults. If you can convince me I'm wrong, that's great, more power to you. You're much more likely to do it than any other person I've ever met. :)
I see one problem with your whole argument. You don't know much about Korea or China. You admit it yourself that you don't, especially about Korea. How can you keep a balanced argument when you haven't experienced both sides? Korea is a 1 hour plane flight from Tokyo, why don't you go for the weekend? You can check out for yourself...
ReplyDeleteI have lived in both countries, there is a lot more to this than you make out. To put down Asian protest as you have is disappointing.
Regardless of how well I do or don't understand Korea and China, it doesn't change the way I think Japanese people think does it? (I know that sounds funny, but I can't think of a better way to phrase it.) I don't think I need to fully understand the opinion of India's leaders on cloning to understand Italy's opinion on the same issue. I understand that the people of China and Korea (as well as other nations) are very upset, but I want to explain that for certain reasons (=what I think Yasukuni means to many Japanese people), that while in the Korean view point, Yasukuni may be a war memorial, that is not necessarily the case from the Japanese view point.
ReplyDeleteI would love to go to Korea, next time I get 1,000USD to blow. (I know it sounds sarcastic, but it's not meant to be, I truly would love to go to Korea and have heard many great things about it from Amerian/Canadian/Australian/Japanese freinds. Although I have a Japanese friend who works at the Japanese embassy in Seoul who has gotten his life threatened on more then 1 occasion simply because he is Japanese.) Seoul may be only 1 hour from Tokyo and cost around 200USD, but I'm 3 hours from Tokyo and it costs me over 600USD to get there and back. (The messed up domestic flight system in Japan is a whole different issue. I can't find any explanation as to why it costs more 1-way Okinawa->Tokyo then it does round trip Tokyo/Chicago.) (BTW, I have also not been to China, but I have been to Taiwan while only for 3 months. My impression is that Taiwanese people are split in half either against Yasukuni no matter what, or looking at it the similarly to the way I do.)
Lastly, I'd like to propose a truce for this one for now. Kushibo says that he's holding off on commenting on the issue because he is working on an all encompassing article. I would like to do the same, if that's okay with you. I don't want to pull the "I'll just say what I want to say and then not listen anymore"/"I've gotta have the last word" card, so if you're willing, go ahead and make one more rebuttal to this post, and I wont respond to it other than to acknowledge it. Does that sound okay?
Darin, I'd like to hear more about how your Japanese embassy worker friend had his life threatened. I ask because there is almost always a distinction between anger directed at the government and governing individuals versus people here. With rare (but notable) exceptions, even at an anti-Koizumi or anti-USFK rally, Americans or Japanese are treated with care and respect.
ReplyDeleteKushibo: He certainly handled the situation much better then I would have, and doesn't really think much of it other then to mention it in passing. I'm about 99.9999-% certain it wasn't because he was a member of the Japanese government but because he was Japanese (the first time). If he were told those things while coming out of the work building, it would be a whole different story.
ReplyDeleteThis is what happened 1 time. His (Japanese) girlfriend had come to visit him for a weekend and they were going somewhere on the subway. An elderly man came up behind them and said he was going to kill them (in Japanese.) The elderly man probably assumed that they were tourists and could get away with it, but in this case my friend speaks fairly good Korean (after all he was a Korean major at our university and graduated top of the class) and responded in Korean something to the effect of 'I didn't do anything to you so what makes you think you can do things like that to me.' Apparently the old man shut up and walked away.
The other occasion was when he and a person from work were drinking and when people drink and talk, they tend to talk loud. I don't know specifically what they were talking about, perhaps work so it may have been possible to know they were embassy workers, but whatever it was it was louder then a normal speaking voice. A younger man told them, this time in Korean, that if they speak another word of Japanese he was going to kill them. They paid their bill and left saying nothing.
Like I say, he responded to it much better then I would have. Being a white person in Okinawa, I get the similar treatment. Except I wish people would come and tell me things to my face like they do in Korea rather then throwing rice balls out of moving cars or yelling things at me as the drive away.
Regardless, he still thinks it is a great place and is a little sad that he has been reassigned to Tokyo again.