History|Revisionist|Critical Thinking

Massacre? What Massacre?

Fighting delusional revisionists is tedious but necessary

I recently read a post on an online forum — which I will not name — regarding the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, a thoroughly researched and documented event during the fascist Imperial Japanese army’s invasion of China in the wake of the Second Sino-Japanese War.

I read the comments. I took the bait. My better judgment was telling me to stay low. I decided to stick my head out and give my two cents. And I’ll share it here.

First, I’ll make my main point:

History is often, if not always, written by the bullies with the bigger guns.

The second point is that the bullies spawn offspring who loudly carry their banner without getting out of bed.

The controversial online post was responding to a prompt on a social media platform questioning the level of awareness in Japan about the Nanjing Massacre or Rape of Nanjing. Let’s consider that it is factually referred to as the Nanjing Incident in government-authorized Japanese school textbooks — if mentioned at all. I am thus inclined to say, “No, the majority of Japanese citizens do not know the full extent of that euphemistically named incident.”

I am ethnically Japanese and mainly learned through reading about the Nanjing Massacre at my Canadian high school library. As a result, I have carried an emotional burden for most of my adulthood.

When I lived in Beijing and later on the outskirts of Shanghai as an international school teacher, I wanted to visit Nanjing, the Chinese Nationalists’ southern capital, for its pre-war historical significance. But I was too apprehensive, fearing the angry ghosts residing in my head, cursing my ethnicity for the horrific bloodshed it caused. Guilt and shame dominated over courage and hunger for knowledge.

Disclaimer: I grew up in Canada. I did not attend school in Japan, implying that I developed culturally different perspectives on various issues.

When I returned to Japan after finishing my first undergraduate degree, I returned to college to become a school teacher. At one of the schools where I taught, I joined an ad hoc discussion on Japan’s role in WWII. Someone had just uttered “fake news”, and the topic took on a life of its own. A couple of colleagues, in particular, were bent to the extreme right on the issue of “alleged” Japanese atrocities in China during the invasion. (Alleged is in quotation marks because I didn’t use the word.)

They did not believe the Nanjing Massacre happened. “Sure, people got killed. It was an invasion. It’s expected. But…” And one explanation — or speculation — followed another and even more with no supporting evidence. I don’t remember everything they said, but I recall my fellow teachers tossing around dodgy conclusions, circular logic, and other moot statements.

I came with a Western perspective and was bewildered by my Japanese colleagues’ views. They had heard about it but dismissed it as some left-wing propaganda, touting evidence that the numbers were all wrong. How wrong? I asked. “By the thousands,” they replied.

Wait a minute, I said. What the heck is your definition of a massacre?

Do we need a specific number, like 99999 (some arbitrary number)? How about 9999? 999? 99? 9? Too small? Nine people get gunned down in a church. That’s not a massacre? And what about all the surviving victims (who somehow came out alive but with missing body parts or insanity), their families, and loved ones?

Their logic reminded me of the revisionists’ argument I used to hear on American TV networks not too long ago that the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust was a hoax. The discussion becomes overly ridiculous when people start arguing about numbers and forget about the sanctity of one human life.

My former colleagues added that even if the Nanjing Massacre were “proven beyond doubt” (their words), it would not be a good idea to leave flammable material around in case a lit match drops. In other words, don’t teach controversy to young minds.

And in my head, I’m responding, “Cool, keep them ignorant and stuck drooling over Disney animation with happy endings. And ban critical thinking in the classroom while you’re at it. (Insert eye roll)”

Final Thought

Although it is disturbing to me when intentional ignorance wins the day, I remain hopeful that open, educated, and inquiring minds among Japan’s younger generations will not bend over or kowtow to bigoted rhetoric and myopic mindsets among the old.