From: jcliu@four-lab4.Berkeley.EDU (James C. Liu)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Comfort girls?
Date: 28 Dec 1992 23:04:40 GMT
Organization: UC Berkeley Dept. of Nuclear Engineering
NNTP-Posting-Host: four-lab4.berkeley.edu
Keywords: rape of nangking

In article <1992Dec28.214852.25986@leland.Stanford.EDU> underdog@leland.
Stanford.EDU (Dwight Joe) writes:

  >The Japanese gov't does not authorize history books to lie about WWII;
  >instead, certain events in the war are simply not mentioned.  Some
  >examples off the top of my head are the massacre in Nanjing, the
  >biological experiments, etc.

Biological experiments of which my family has had experiences...:-(

  >On the other hand, the Chinese gov't has gone to great lengths to
  >verbally crucify the Japanese gov't and Japanese people in Chinese
  >textbooks of WWII, even to the point of exaggerating facts.  Case in
  >point:  massacre in Nanjing.  There is considerable dispute as to the
  >number of people actually killed, but the Chinese insist on 200,000
  >deaths.  The American tribunal in Japan at the end of the war officially
  >concluded that only 20,000 were killed.  (I am more inclined to believe
  >the American side.)

The rulers within a land inevitably re-write history to their benefit
and neither Japanese nor Chinese are innocent.  However, the specific
issue of the number of dead at Nanjing whether it is 20,000 or 300,000
according to my parents, is not as important an issue as it is that
what the Japanese did at Nanjing was completely inhuman.  

Mr. Joe, you've seemed to be blinded by your obvious despisement of 
the Chinese or at least your feeling of racial superiority of the
Japanese. The numbers of dead are not so important.  What is more
important is that descendants of those that commit atrocities be
educated sufficiently so they will take up the responsibility to
preventing it from ever happening again.  

  >(In fact, if you look up the massacre (in Nanjing) in Encyclopedia
  >Britannica, you will find that it lists the figure to be 20,000 -
  >200,000.  In other words, don't believe the Chinese claims.)

But does the encyclopaedia also mention what the total cost in human
lives was during the 8 years of occupation?  Again, numbers published by
the communists may not have as much credibility, but the more important
issue is that the Japanese recognize that their military, their
government, and their own sons who went to war were capable of such
atrocities and for the Japanese to insure it never happens again.

  >Curiously, Chinese textbooks, vindictive as they might be toward the
  >Japanese, never mention the 75 million (and more) people that the Chinese
  >have killed in this century.  There is no mention of the Tibetans that
  >were murdered.[1]  There is no mention of the 20,000 Taiwanese murdered by the
  >Kuomitang (KMT).  There is no mention ...  Well, you get the picture.

Certainly the KMT, CCCP, and others in China's history have been just as
corrupt, inhuman, and atrocious.  Does this make it right for Japan,
supposedly a developed nation and democracy to lower itself to the same
level as a poor nation with an autocratic government?  No.  Two wrongs
don't make a right.

  >It's curious that although the same number of people were killed 
  >(in Taiwan) by the Chinese and (in Nanjing) by the Japanese, the Chinese
  >textbooks are silent are the former and maniacal on the latter.

No, not the same number.  You yourself are taking the extremes and not
presenting truly accurate numbers.  why aren't you again presenting the
range of numbers?  You take the extremes which make the Chinese seem 
worse.  Your tactics are obvious.  The killings of the Taiwanese by the
occupational forces, although wrong were the result of a perceived 
military need to destroy an enemy's ability to fight back, the rape of
Nanjing was not recognized as of having any military significance.  It
was a "joy ride" by the Japanese Military to see how many "Changaroo"
they could rape, hunt and kill in a short time.  I don't want to be
perceived as demunitizing the actions of the KMT, but the actions of the
Japanese were ethically and morally more inhuman than a calculated
military action.

  >[1] According to the December 26, 1992 (plus or minus a day) edition of
  >the San Francisco Chronicle, 10 Tibetans have just been sentenced to
  >5-to-9 years of prison by a Chinese tribunal.  They have been accused
  >of crimes against the state.  1 of the prisoners is a commoner who
  >believed in Buddhism.

How convenient that the AP or UPI who really don't understand Chinese
history or culture report and sell these syndicated biased stories to
only too willing newspapers.  Most scholars from China, Taiwan, and Hong
Kong that I've met see don't perceive the Bhuddist monks as so
holier-than-thou as do westerners.  They have varying opinions of course
on the rights and wrongs of the communist government, but the news
stories in the Chronicle wouldn't be what I consider accurate.

jaa, James
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