É um texto grande, mas (eu acho que) vale a pena.
"For
six endless weeks, commencing in mid-December of 1937 through the beginning of
February of 1938, innocent Chinese civilians living in the city of Nanking and
soldiers protecting the city were strangled, raped, mutilated, burnt, stabbed,
and tortured by the invading Japanese troops. The Japanese population
apparently had no knowledge such a thing was happening, and there was a lack of
awareness from the world, which was concentrated on Hitler’s advances. Although
current Japanese government states this incident, most commonly known as ”The
Rape of Nanking,” is not real, it can be considered one of the most brutal acts
of genocide the world has seen, where a country’s powerful military fights a
country’s people (“Scarred by history: The Rape of Nanjing”).
The
invasion of Nanking and the consequent massacre derived from both historical
and immediate causes. The historical causes for Japan to have started attacking
China, beginning with Manchuria, consist of Japan’s need for natural resources
and want to expand. As an island, Japan did not have many natural resources,
and was in desperate need of them; China was very close and would be an easy
target where natural resources could easily be attained. Japan’s goal for several years now had
been to expand their territory, and because Manchuria was a piece of land which
had already been disputed over the years by Japanese and Chinese, the Japanese
decided to start their invasion of China there, and then follow to the capital,
Nanking ("Historical background of nanking massacre.”). The immediate causes of
the invasion of Nanking were mostly due to revenge. After Japan’s invasion of
Manchuria, many more battles were fought, such as Japan’s invasion of Shangai.
The Japanese were eager to conquer the rest of China, so they attacked Shangai
in the summer of 1937, expecting their job to be quick and easy; the Chinese
disappointed the Japanese by putting up a good fight, only being defeated
in November of the same year, delaying the Japanese plans. The Japanese had
planned to conquer China in three months, but that was now obviously
unachievable, so, in an act of revenge, Japanese savagely invaded Nanking and
executed the many acts of violence they did. (Gavin)
The
“Rape of Nanking,” named after the thousands of women and girls that were raped
and tortured, began during the summer of 1937, with the invasion of Shangai. The
Japanese troops took a very long time to conquer Shangai, unlike what they had
expected, and, infuriated by this delay, when they finally took control of
Shangai they went after the people of Nanking. The Japanese armies attacked the
city of Nanking which was not prepared to put up resistance, like the Chinese
armies in Shangai had, and were easily defeated after four days of battle. The
first victims of the genocide were the military. Although Japanese looked upon
the Chinese as inferior and useless, they were still scared of Chinese revolts,
so they trucked all the Chinese soldiers to the outskirts of Nanking, where all
the soldiers were tortured to death. Death was caused by using methods such as
decapitation, gasoline and fire, running over with trucks, or bayoneting the
men. After the men came all of the women. There are accounts that go up to as
high as 80,000 women that were raped, mutilated, and killed. Pregnant women
were an especially appetizing target, as they could be raped, have their
bellies cruelly and mercilessly opened and their foetuses torn out of them, as
a prize for the soldiers (“The Rape of Nanking.”). Another entertainment for the Japanese soldiers was to storm
into a house where they would find a family and oblige relatives to rape each
other while the others were forced to watch. After most of the violence
occurred, the Japanese calmed down, but to entertain themselves they created the
Comfort Women System, where young girls would provide the soldiers with as much
sexual pleasure as they needed. Throughout the world there was nobody paying
attention and helping the situation, only a group of around twenty Europeans
and Americans who created the International Safety Zone where no Japanese was
allowed. In this area Chinese were able to take refugee, as 300, 000 Chinese
did, but the ones who were not able ended up killed. The Japanese soldiers
would invent the most horrific methods to kill the Chinese, turning it into a
game rather than a reality, where innocent men, women, and children were
sacrificed. (Gavin)
After
such atrocities it is hard for two countries, Japan and China, to get along in
a good relationship. China does not appreciate the fact that the Japanese
government has never officially apologized for their actions in China, claiming
that it was not the Japanese people’s fault and that it is not worth apologizing
because the Chinese will not accept the apologies. The Japanese prime Minister
pays a visit to the graves of Japanese who participated in the Japanese attacks
on an annual basis, which sends the Chinese the message that the Japanese
view those criminals as heroes, not as people who tortured the Chinese
community. There are also many political figures in Japan that claim “The Rape
of Nanking” never happened, that it is a Chinese invention, which deeply offends
the Chinese. There are also cases which have been taken to court about history
textbooks which do not tell what the Japanese did in China accurately, but
instead portray the Japanese as the real victims. But it is also important to
understand that the government in Japan during the time when the "Rape of
Nanking” occurred, completely controlled the people’s thoughts through
propaganda, giving the Japanese the idea that the Chinese were the perpetrators,
not the Japanese- they were the real victims. All Japanese press was controlled
and therefore no objective and truthful information was let in and delivered to
the Japanese people. Japan refuses to apologize and China does not understand
it was the Japanese government and troops, not the people, who attacked China,
which complicates the two countries’ relationship. It is most likely that the
two countries will continue to dispute over trivial things, because a genocide
as grave as “The Rape of Nanking” is hardly forgotten. (Maciamo)
Six
weeks, 300,000 deaths, 20,000 rapes, and a city crying innocent blood. Ignored
by the world, unnecessary lives were lost in Nanking, a damage from which China
will never recover, and a genocide Japan will never admit to have committed. A
cruel genocide where innocent pain was present at every second, once again a
genocide that could have been prevented by the world, if only the world had had
its eyes open."
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