Reflections
on Nanking Massacre 70 years Ago and Beyond:
The Denial and Its Cost
Joe Goodwill
Writer/Researcher
Vancouver,
British Columbia, Canada
Currenly
a graduate student (Master of Arts)
2007 marks the 70th
anniversary of the Nanking Massacre – one of the darkest
events
in the history of humanity. Yet as I write this essay, the perpetrators
of this atrocity still have not acknowledged responsibility, they still
have not apologized, they still have not tried to make amends, and they
still have not offered compensation. Tony Blair recently stated that
“Japan is putting its past behind it.”1
However,
this will not do. It will not do because, as Iris Chang warned us,
quoting George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past
are
condemned to repeat it”.2
And it will not do to forget the past, because to do so would
be
to continue to ignore a pressing moral imperative – a
pressing
moral imperative that cannot
any longer be ignored. It cannot any longer be ignored because if we do
ignore it, all of humanity is pulled down to a level that is less than
we can be – indeed, to a level that is less than we should
be. And that degradation of the human spirit is the true cost of
continuing to deny the holocaust that was the Nanking Massacre.
As
a group, we human beings are unique within all the universe. As such,
we are one great, diverse family. Imagine someone looking down at the
beautiful blue and green earth from the heights of the heavens. Such a
being would not see many separate groups – we would look like
one
great family, blessed with a beautiful planet to share. True, we are
scattered throughout all the earth – but we are a family. And
the
thing about families is that we sink or swim together. When some human
beings rise to great heights, they pull us all up with them, so that we
all rise closer to the heavens. And when some human beings sink to
unspeakable depths, they pull us all down with them, so that we all
sink closer to the infernal depths. This is why it is a pressing moral
imperative for the Japanese to apologize for the Nanking Massacre,
once, for all, unequivocally - with all their hearts and with all their
humanity. For until they do so, we, the human race, each and every
member of the great family of man, are one and all less than we should
be.
The
horrific crimes committed against innocent Chinese civilians by
Japanese troops in Nanking in 1937 are a haunting example of the vilest
depths to which humans can descend. This was conclusively documented by
Iris Chang in her meticulously researched book, The
Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II.
This book was illustrated with horrific photographic evidence,
attesting to the slaughter of between 200,000 and 370,000 Chinese
civilians and prisoners of war by Japanese troops in Nanking. In a
six-week orgy of mayhem and horror, men, women and children were
slaughtered without mercy. Humanity, it seems, took a leave of absence
from the Japanese army. Many people were hacked to death; others were
buried alive; others were burned alive in mass slaughter pits; others
were used as bayonet target practice. Japanese soldiers competed to
find the most horrifying ways to kill innocent women and children,
while their comrades-in-arms grinned and applauded.
Some
20,000 women and girls were raped, including young children. For this
reason, this shameful period of history is sometimes referred to as the
Rape of Nanking. Often, gang rape was merely a prelude to a brutal and
sadistic death, and many were despatched with a bayonet thrust up the
vagina. No mercy was shown to anyone. Even the smallest of children
were not spared savage deaths at the ripping end of a bayonet. One
Japanese solider, Azuma Shiro, recalls:
There
were about 37 old men, old women and children. We captured them and
gathered them in a square. There was a woman holding a child on her
right arm and another one on her left. We stabbed and killed them, all
three - like potatoes in a skewer.3
All
in all, the Japanese troops displayed a level of brutality seldom
equalled – not even in the bloodiest, most depraved moments
of
our human history.
These
demonic deeds are an affront to all of us, a dark smear on the soul of
our common humanity that degrades us all. Therefore, it is imperative
that the perpetrators make amends. To do this, the Japanese must now
demonstrate to us the heights to which the human soul can ascend, by
having sufficient courage, dignity and compassion to take
responsibility for their deeds, to apologize, and to offer
compensation. Only then will the Chinese be able to demonstrate the
most sublime heights of all – by accepting the apology, and
moving forward in a spirit of forgiveness and cooperation. Forgiveness
is not possible without an apology – and without forgiveness,
the
harm done will fester like an open sore forever more.
It
might be thought that the rift created by the atrocities of Nanking is
so broad that it is beyond human capacity to transcend it. However,
there is a recent example of one group in our human family achieving
such transcendence. In South Africa, after generations of repression,
the black majority in the country finally took back their country. In a
miracle which confounded all of the prophets of doom, this transition
was achieved without descending into the heart of chaos, with the
whites peacefully handing back the country, and the blacks gracefully
accepting it. And once democratic elections were held and a black
government was installed, the new government did not exact revenge on
their former oppressors.
Instead,
a Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established to give people
– even the vilest mass murderers – the chance to
take
responsibility for their sins and apologize to their victims, or to
apologize to the relatives of their victims. Time after time, criminal
and victim met face to face, human oppressor facing up to human victim,
and tried to work together to come to terms with the horrific crimes of
the past.
South
African psychologist Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela asserts that acknowledging
misdeeds and expressing remorse for them are the most crucial signs of
restorative justice, that is, of a form of justice which seeks to
restore the best interests of all by addressing the needs of the
victim, the broader community, and even the offender.4
This crucial need for acknowledgement and remorse was the guiding
principle behind South Africa’s unprecedented Truth and
Reconciliation Commission. At this Commission, South Africans attempted
to make up for the sins of the past by facing them, taking
responsibility for them, and apologizing. Even more profoundly, some of
the victims attempted to accept these apologies so that they too could
heal, transcend the past, and go on with their lives. As Jann Turner, a
woman whose activist father was assassinated by the apartheid regime in
South Africa, has said: “History, despite its wrenching pain,
cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage need not be lived
again.”5
Human beings are capable of terrible things, as the Nanking Massacre so
vividly shows. However, they also have the ability to reach up and
attempt to brush the robes of angels, as the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission illustrates.
The
attempt at reconciliation in South Africa met with varied responses
– sometimes very successful, sometimes not so successful. But
what is important is that the attempt was made. And surely this is part
of the reason why South Africa has not followed the example of some of
its neighbours to the north, and descended into internecine chaos.
Instead, black and white citizens continue to work together to overcome
the legacy of the past, and strive to walk together into a brave new
future. To even attempt such repentance and forgiveness is surely to
attempt to soar as high as the human soul can go. It is incredibly hard
for those who have sinned against their fellow human beings to confess
and apologize, and surely even harder for those most sinned against to
dig deep within their hearts and to find the strength to forgive. The
path of remorse, apologies, forgiveness and rebuilding is not an easy
path – but at least South Africans are on it.
Tragically,
the same cannot be said for the Japanese people and their Asian
neighbours. Japan has failed to acknowledge and express remorse for the
atrocities its soldiers committed against the Chinese during the
Nanking Massacre – apparently out of some misguided notion of
honour. Yet surely true honour consists in taking responsibility for
our actions and owning our mistakes. But instead, one Japanese
government after another has refused to acknowledge Japanese guilt for
the Nanking Massacre. And as Elie Wiesel, Nobel Laureate, expressed it,
“... to forget a holocaust is to kill twice”6.
Yet while some few Japanese acknowledge responsibility, the authorities
refuse to do so. Japanese novelist and Nobel Prize Laureate for
Literature Kenzaburo Oe said in 1994: “Japan must apologize
for
its aggression and offer compensation. This is the basic condition, and
most Japanese with a good conscience have been for it. But a coalition
of conservative parties, bureaucrats and business leaders
opposes.”7
Sadly, the denial of the Japanese authorities persists to this day, and
it comes with a terrible cost. It means that there can be no healing,
and no moving on.
Japan
will not have the luxury of putting its past behind it until such time
as it has dealt with its past, thus giving China a chance to forgive
and heal. For it is not possible to forgive those who do not
acknowledge guilt or ask forgiveness for their sins. To refer again to
South Africa’s Gobodo-Madikizela:
Forgiveness
usually begins with the person who needs to be forgiven. This means
that there must be something in the perpetrator’s behaviour,
some
“sign,” that invites the victim’s
forgiveness. The
most crucial sign is an expression of remorse.8
And
once the perpetrator gives the sign, in other words, once Japan
apologizes, then it will be possible for China to forgive, and for the
two countries to be reconciled. In this way, these two nations can
again be friendly neighbours, instead of enemies. Moreover, the tension
that currently sours relations between Asian countries and Japan will
be resolved, which will lead to greater stability and peace in the
region.
It
will not be easy – Japan will have to be prepared to truly
listen
to, and truly hear, the suffering it caused to Chinese people. As one
expert on truth and reconciliation expresses it:
“…
perpetrators and bystanders in the apartheid era learned to listen to
each other in many painful public hearings. Real empathetic hearing of
a neighbour’s story of officially imposed suffering is an
indispensable step towards reconciliation.” 9
How
can this situation ever be resolved? The answer surely lies in
continuing to speak for those who cannot – the dead, the
raped,
the tortured, and the bereaved – until Japan finally steps up
with dignity to take responsibility for its deeds, apologizes and makes
compensation. Iris Chang did more than her share to speak for the
victims. Columnist George Will wrote as follows about her work:
“Something beautiful, an act of justice, is occurring in
America
today … Because of Chang’s book, the second rape
of
Nanking is ending.”10
This is indeed true – the denial of the Rape of Nanking
amounts
to a second rape, a second transgression against all that is good in
the human soul. Chang gave enormous meaning to her life by using much
of it to fight back against this second rape. For as one philosopher
has expressed it, the meaning of a life “resides in how we
spend
it. We might wish we had more to spend, but meaning emerges from how we
spend, not how much we spend”.11
Sadly,
we no longer have Chang to fight this fight. However, the work of the
Iris Chang Foundation helps to keep the consciousness of the Nanking
Massacre alive. This in turn helps to keep the unremitting pressure on
Japan to do the right thing. The second rape of Nanking must end. The
terrible history of the Nanking Massacre must be courageously faced and
acknowledge, so that its wrenching pain will never happen again. Japan
has shown us how low the human spirit can descend – now we
wait
with optimism for Japan to step up and show us how high it can ascend.
Bibliography
Blair,
Tony. “What I’ve Learned.” The
Economist,
2 June 2007: 26-28.
De
Gruchy, John W. Reconciliation:
Restoring Justice.
Fortress.
Gobodo-Madikizela,
Pumla. A
Human Being Died That Night: A South African Story of Forgiveness.
Houghton Mifflin.
Iris
Chang Memorial Fund web site.
Schmitdz,
David. “The Meanings of Life.” Life,
Death & Meaning
Ed. David Benatar. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Inc., 2004.
Sullivan,
Dennis & Larry Tifft. Restorative
Justice: Healing the Foundations of our Everyday Lives.
2nd
edition.
Monsey,
New York: Willow Tree Press, Inc., 2005.
____________________________
