Memorial Hall of the Nanking Massacre
Jack Halpern in Nanking: July 4, 2001
I doubt if there is anyone who has never heard of massacres and atrocities performed by the Japanese in Nanking in the late thirties. You may even have read the famous book, "The Rape of Nanking", which I believe was banned in Japan for a while. Before looking at the pictures, here is some background.
I made it a point to visit the huge memorial and museum in honor of the 300,000 Chinese slaughtered by the Japanese. I was told by some that in actual fact the number is closer to 900,000, though 300,000 is the official figure. Speaking of numbers, one of the exhibits there said that 35,000,000 (count those zeros) Chinese lives were lost during the Japanese occupation. The highest number I ever heard is 21,000,000.
At any rate, what the Japanese did in China. both in terms of "quality" and quantity, almost makes Hitler look like a saint. Such words as "massacre", "savagery", "cruelty" are mere words -- seeing those exhibits with my own eyes was revolting and even more shocking than the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem.
What really angers me is that even today there are Japanese who deny the Nanking massacre ever happened, and as you no doubt know the Japanese government refuses to write the truth in Japanese textbooks.
"Those who forget history are bound to repeat it" (I think that was what Churchill said.). There was a enormous sign at the entrance to the memorial with the Chinese equivalent. I wish that those Japanese who deny Nanking go to that memorial and see it with their own eyes.
I pray for the souls of those viciously slaughtered at the hands of the Japanese in Nanking.
At the entrance to the memorial.
"Those who forget history are bound to repeat it." That is the gist of the huge Chinese letters.
School children visiting the memorial. The heat is intense (around 40 degrees centigrade).
Photographing the atrocities displayed in the museum is not allowed by I took just a couple. These are not very clear but you can use your imagination.