When Purple Mountain burns, Nanjing is lost
The Purple Mountain (紫金山) is a mountain range that can be found near the city of Nanjing. It is a symbol of the city’s security and protection. The Chinese saying “When Purple Mountain burns, Nanjing is lost” refers to the idea that if the Purple Mountain catches fire, then the fall of Nanjing city is imminent.
This phrase is rooted in the historical events of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) when Nanjing, the capital of China at the time, was invaded and brutally occupied by Japanese forces.
Unlike many of the previous attacks that the Japanese had carried out on other cities like in Shanghai or Beijing (Peking), the attack on Nanjing had been a particularly brutal and horrific one. It was one that had resulted in casualties and deaths amounting to an even bigger number than the total number of casualties from the American bombs on the two Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima (estimated at 70 000 and 140 000 respectively). The actual numbers are under debate by historians but historians have placed the death figures to be close to 300 000 which is almost a third of the population back then.
“Nothing the Nazis under Hitler would do to disgrace their own victories could rival the atrocities of Japanese soldiers under Gen. Iwane Matsui.” this quote by Robert Leckie, an American author, highlights the scale of cruelty that Japanese had inflicted on the Chinese city.
And yet, despite being an event of such a large and horrific scale, the Nanjing’s Massacre remains unknown to many people outside of Asia, or even within Asia, including the Japanese who have never made any effort to admit the event, apologise or pay war reparations. A part of the reason being that many victims (especially females who were raped) were ashamed, fearful of facing societal stigma and hence unwilling to come up to share their experiences. Till their deaths, the victims continue to suffer from nightmares, injuries and scars (both mental and physical) inflicted on them during the Massacre. On the other hand, after committing those inhumane acts, many of the Japanese soldiers were later able to return to their homeland, enjoy military pensions from their government and lead their remaining lives in peace without facing any punishments.
The book The Rape of Nanking was written by Iris Chang, a Chinese American author. After finding out about the lack of public published materials about the Nanjing Massacre, Iris Chang was compelled to do her part to fill in the gaps by publishing this book to educate the public. To complete the book, she spent countless days and night researching about the topic, reaching out to the survivors and visiting China to learn more about the event. The book was written from three main perspectives. The first perspective being from the Japanese where she provides an understanding about Japanese military history and culture to explain the event from their point of view. The second perspective is from the eyes of the Chinese, where readers are brought to an understanding of the defensive actions taken by the Chinese military forces as well as how Chinese civilians coped when their government was no longer capable of protecting them. She also provides gruelling stories of mistreatments on the Chinese by the Japanese. The last perspective is from the American and European perspective where a few westerners risked their lives and dedicated their effort to establish the International Safety Zone in Nanjing where the Japanese were barred from inflicting violence. The book ends by examining the forces that conspired to keep the Rape of Nanjing out of public consciousness for more than half a century.
Prior to reading this book, most of my previous knowledge about the Nanjing Massacre were from brief references made by historical fictional books such as The Joy Luck club or The Kitchen god’s wife.
See my books recommendation:
Other than books, I have also watched random video clips from movies like The Flowers of War by Zhang Yimou (2011) that touched on the subject. When I was living in Beijing for 6 months, I knew of some Singaporean schoolmates who had visited the Nanjing massacre museum in Nanjing. The experience had been so heart wrenching for some of them that they cried tears after the visit. Therefore, I have always viewed this event as a dark event where many lives in China were tortured and lost.
I recommend reading this book for the full details and for more understanding of the event. It is probably one of the few books in the literary world that offers readers the full happenings of the event. The book was easy to read and follow. Iris Chang has a really good command of English and writes really well. While reading the details in the book, I felt angry and sad for the innocent civilians who had to suffer under the hands of the cruel Japanese soldiers who treated their lives as dirt. It made me understand why till today, some people can get so angry about this event.
I find it ironic that despite inflicting so much harm onto their neighbouring countries in the past century, Japanese have a reputation of being one of the most polite and “cultured” people in the modern world. Other than dropping by the airport a couple of times for plane transits, I have never travelled in Japan. Therefore, my impression of Japan are mainly from television shows and a few encounters with some Japanese whom I have met in school or at work. So far, my experiences have been positive and I find that many of them are shy, polite and friendly.
Therefore, I have always found it difficult to reconcile my personal experiences with my knowledge of past Japanese tortures on the Chinese (not just in China but also in Southeast Asia where masses of Chinese were killed under Sookching). I wonder if Japanese are just polite and friendly on the surface. Maybe if I get to know them at a deeper level, I will find out more? Maybe they are more complex than I know? I don’t know.
What I do know is that, unfortunately for me, every time I enjoy a beautiful piece of Japanese music or swallow a tasty plate of Sashimi, the Nanjing Massacre inevitably comes to my mind. I then start to feel a little guilty and bad about myself. Perhaps I shouldn’t be enjoying myself so much when the Japanese have inflicted so much terror on my Chinese counterparts. Whenever I see Japanese politicians speaking on the television, I cannot help but feel a little distrustful of them.
Even though in the years after the war, many countries like China and Korea have demanded for the Japanese government to own up to those crimes, Japan has never done so. As a country with lots of pride for their own culture, I personally think that if Japan didn’t own up to their past war crimes in the previous century, then it will be even more impossible for them to do so in the future. Newer generations of Japanese will never get to learn about this part of history and soon this incident will be forgotten by everyone. Meanwhile as days pass, the victims of those atrocities are getting older and in fact, most have passed away, without receiving any compensation. Without writers like Iris Chang or filmmakers who work hard to shed lights on these crimes, the world will forget about this event and justice will never be served for those hundreds of thousands victims.
Detractors may say that the war crimes are a reflection of the Japanese soldiers, not the entire Japanese population. To say that an entire race is bad, just because of a few bad rats, would be equivalent to stereotyping them. Moreover, the crimes were committed a long time ago by a different group of people, and we should all move forward and live in harmony.
I think that time should not be used as an excuse for leniency on crimes. However, to a certain extent, for the sake of everyone’s mental health, I do agree that we should move forward at some point. Even if the perpetrators of these horrific acts doesn’t repent, I believe they will meet their karma. Ultimately, whether we can forgive the Japanese is not up to people like me, who have never experienced life under the Japanese, but the victims. With all that being said, while we can forgive but we should not forget. Elie Wiesel, who is a Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner stated: To forget a holocaust is to kill twice. We should never forget about the victims who had to suffer.
While I am neither a citizen of China nor have I visited Nanjing before (I would love to, one day!), I personally feel that as an ethnic Chinese myself, it’s important for me to understand this part of China’s history. In fact, i think that it is important that the whole world, especially all Chinese irregardless of where they are born, knows about this event and I hope that this event will not repeat in anywhere in this world.
The end! I just want to do my little part here to share about this book that Iris Chang has spent many nights working on and spread awareness about the Nanjing Massacre.
