Anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre.
I’m not going to give you a long history lesson here, but the Chinese people have had a pretty tough history in many ways, not only for thousands of years past but within the past 100 years too. One of the worst events was the Nanjing Massacre. Nanjing, then known as Nanking, a city not far from Shanghai. This quote is talking about 1936 and 1937. I guess today is the anniversary of the beginning of the invasion. In this case the Chinese did not defend themselves but retreated. The population in 1937 is estimated at around one million, so if the figures below are close, then a huge percentage of the population was wiped out.
“On December 9, the Japanese troops launched a massive attack upon the city. On the 12th, the defending Chinese troops decided to retreat to the other side of the Yangtze River (Yangzi Jiang). On December 13, the 6th and 16th Divisions of the Japanese Army entered the city' s Zhongshan and Pacific Gates. In the afternoon, two Japanese Navy fleets arrived. In the following six weeks, the occupying forces engaged in an orgy of looting and mass execution which came to be known as the Nanjing Massacre. Most experts agree that at least 300,000 Chinese died, and 20,000 women were raped. Some estimate the numbers to be much higher - 340,000 and 80,000 respectively.”
Many of the women who were raped or who lost their families have worked for years for this to be acknowledged by the Japanese. This website says that no apology has ever been given, but I am sure I have seen some documentaries about two or three years ago where some sort of apology was given by the Japanese government. Everyone involved are well into their old age now, but it is still an important date here. It seems that practically every country has closets like this, full of old bones, oppression, horror stories, man’s inhumanity to man.
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