Sven Aarne Serrano comments

Posted in: China to hold big military parade, but ordinary folks can't go see it See in context

Who is the Japanese diplomatic representative at the parade?

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Posted in: Xi says Nanjing Massacre undeniable on 77th anniversary See in context

Here we go. I lived and worked in Osaka for 17 years as a university English lecturer before moving to China in 2008 to take up a history position at an international school here in Shanghai. I came to this site to see if there was any official/unofficial Japanese reaction to the 1st official national day in China marking the events of Dec 1937-Feb 1938 in Nanjing. Apparently nothing, not even from the Japanese Embassy in Beijing. It seems that neither side is willing to use the opportunity for reconciliation or remembrance.

I myself have trouble putting Nanjing into a modern context because it seems so medieval in its cruelty and horror. Had it occurred, say during the 1894-95 1st Sino-Japanese War, it might really be forgotten by both sides. Instead it took place in the modern era, after WWI, after the enactment of the Geneva Convention, with modern photography, film, and newspaper accounts to record it, many sources by the Japanese themselves.

Japanese denial has so many sources: ancestor veneration, anti-communism, nationalism, post-WWII 'we were victims too,' anti-western reaction - there's no one place to start. Just imagine if the Germans tried to deny specific sections of the Holocaust today. Germany admitted guilt, paid reparations, and makes its Nazi past required reading in its schools. In return it enjoys the trust and good will of its neighbors like Franc e and Poland. Yes China has it's own internal dirty laundry it will need to deal with eventually but that cannot be used as an argument to deny Nanjing.

It is has also been ten years since Iris Chang, the author of the Rape of Nanjing took her own life. I often see the book on shelves and think of when I briefly met her in San Francisco in 2001 and mentioned that I lived in Japan. She had issues and her book had flaws but here is an example possibly of a historian driven mad by the horrors of the subject she was investigating. She too, was one more victim of this horrible atrocity.

I still do what I can to encourage Japanese-Chinese friendship (30,000 Japanese live here in Shanghai) but at times it seems to be a lost cause.

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