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28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Underrated and Valuable Book on the Massacre, August 28, 2005
This review is from: The Nanjing Massacre in History and Historiography (Asia: Local Studies / Global Themes) (Paperback)
This is a lesser known source among published Nanjing Massacre literature, but is well worth acquiring due to the variety of perspectives it offers in one book. I would say that any criticisms lodged here against this interesting work, from the typical Japanese Nationalists trolls whose primary ambition is to share their confusion with others, should be completely ignored.
Every legitimate WWII historian, including not a few brave scholars in present-day Japan, understand and accept the basic facts and figures surrounding the Nanjing Massacre and the trail of brutality that led from Shanghai in 1937-38. The documentation is extensive, from numerous Western eyewitness accounts to intercepted Japanese diplomatic cables. Magazine accounts of these events can easily be found in Western libraries and even on eBay. Yet Japanese nationalists want us to believe that a massive "conspiracy" has led to an "untrue version" of the Massacre. But the conspiracy rests solely with JAPAN, not the Allied Nations. Nationalists will point you to absurd Japanese press coverage of post-massacre Nanjing, which is nothing more than skewed occupation propaganda. Likewise, published revisionist accounts by Imperial Army officers in Nanjing, offered in defense of the nationalist position, are usually no more than denials or excusals for their own indifference during the Massacre.
The fact that a member of the Imperial House is accused of being a primary instigator of the Massacre is of utmost concern to Japanese nationalists. But the Nanjing Massacre should not be considered as unusual conduct for a Japanese military that also brutalized Manchuria, Hong Kong, and Singapore citizens, killed over 200,000 laborers on the Death Railway from Thailand to Burma, and ravaged innumerable Philippine villages, culminating in the Rape of Manila. The Imperial Army's abandonment of their own conscripted settlers in Manchuria and mass slaughter of Okinawans in 1945 also speaks of the evil that pervaded Japan's military before and during WWII. You can go to any of these places, talk to the survivors and still see physical evidence of Japanese military atrocities. Yet Japanese nationalists, often motivated by insecure needs to believe in a delusional glory of the past, deny anything that would place Japan's military actions in a bad light. The question is why citizens of the world should trust such revisionists who essentially possess the same arrogance and racism of the former militant regime which they extoll and worship? We should not.
While I have great fondness for Japanese culture and people, I am dismayed by the distorted histories that are still found today in their own schools. Many Japanese I talk to say they learn of Japan's real WWII past only in college. Japan today should not be judged by the ridiculous extremists who comment here and those old men in high places who try to suppress their national shame. The good news is that with more internationalization, young Japan is slowly coming to grips with their past. Recent TV doramas such as "Song of the Canefields" (reciting Imperial Army atrocities in Okinawa), have educated many young Japanese better than the heavily-edited history textbooks in ther schools. The recent actions of fanatical extremists in Hiroshima and anti-Japanese sentiments during football matches in China also have placed Japan on notice as to their obligations to resolve past offenses.
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31 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I can't bear my angry to the Japenese who wrote nonsense, November 17, 2004
This review is from: The Nanjing Massacre in History and Historiography (Asia: Local Studies / Global Themes) (Paperback)
I am a Chinese and I have read some books and watched some videos about the Nanjing Massacre. I can't hold my angry towards the Janpenese who wrote some nonsense below.
I'd like to ask some questions to him/her. Frist, how could he/she explain why there are plenty of survivers of the Nanjing Masscare who still live in China and can show uncountable injuries throught their bodies? Don't forget that it happened only 60 years ago and the survivers hasn't died out. If you want to lie, please wait to those people pass away.
Secondly, what is the casue of the war? Did China invaded Japan? Tell me which one happened frist, Pearl Harbor or bombing of Tokoy? Why there are 3 million Japanese troops stayed in China during 1937-1945? What did they do? Were they in vacations?
Third, why there are millions of Japanese "residents" lived in Machuran, or the northeast part of China? And Why they could occupy most of the land, forcing Chinese people to leave? Why the Japanese "residents" did not pay tax to local Chinese government but pay tax to the Japense troops? (The truth was the Japanese occupied the whole area, which is 5-6 times larger than Japan itself, and wanted to change the land as a "new Japan.")
Could you answer these questions?
Yes, the Nuke bombs killed thousands of hundreds Japanese, but Japanese killed at least 25 million Chinese during WWII. 25 million! Who was "brainwashed"? Why don't you say that it is a lie of Pearl Harbor, the truth is Americans attacked Japnese?
We never refused to admit that the Japnese suffered by the nuclear weapon. But we can's understand why there always be some Japnese who refuse to grant the history? History is history. There is no need and to lie. If Japan wants to become a normal country and get respect from other nations, it should stop to "modify" the history. Please watch what the German did and compare to yourself!
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21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I agree with "a chinese", March 21, 2005
This review is from: The Nanjing Massacre in History and Historiography (Asia: Local Studies / Global Themes) (Paperback)
The nonsense written by Hiromi is ridiculous.
There are for a fact several surviving non chinese people who even recorded videos of the horror japanese troops inflicted against the people in Nanjing, and there are several photos also which can easily be verified as original non edited photographs by any photo lab today.
And to say no foreigner actually witnessed the massacre is so naive, if you where going to execute 30.000 civilians and your the invading force, would you just allow some foreigner to sit by and watch? of course not even bringing such a point up is nothing less but stupid.
And for the authors Higashinakano Shudo and Tanaka Masaaki, they are both know pro right wing LPD so of course they will deny that the nanjing massacre ever took place.
And i wouldn't call it a brain washing program either, more true information program, since during the wartime the japanese government had total media control and most japanese had no knowledge what really happened overseas.
It's just stupid to not take responsibility for past actions and try to deny such an obvious truth. It would be like if my country (sweden) tried to deny its invasion of norway, russia, and the majority northern europe. Or trying to deny the crusades made by christian knights to spread the christian faith using armed forces against those who did not convert.
Face it, it did happen and i welcome any book that can help the truth thats why i give it 4/5.
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