Importancia ing economica.

Article in relation to Explore China Project, Nanjing Audit University

Carel-Peter van Erpecum

Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall

On Wednesday July 6th, our group visited the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall. The Nanjing Massacre Memorial is created in order to remember the horrific events that happened in Nanjing during the Sino-Japanese war. Namely, after Nanjing fell in 1937, the Japanese killed the absurd number of 300,000 people within a period of approximately six to eight weeks – meaning that a huge proportion of the population of Nanjing was killed. Moreover, during this Japanese occupation, an wide range of atrocities was committed. This included for example the rape of women, killing competitions between Japanese military officers (two officers tried to kill a hundred people as fastly as possible, and when it was not clear who won, they would continue to the number of 150 people) and the torturing of innocent civilians.
The Massacre Memorial Hall tried to enhance the remembrance of the Nanjing Massacre in multiple ways. Next to the indoor hall, in which both general information as well as specific horror stories were provided, there were outdoor monuments that attempted to symbolize the Nanjing Massacre and its related deaths.
Another remarkable point that was put forward by my buddy was the denial of the Nanjing Massacre in Japan itself. As a perpetrator that was eventually beaten in the Second World War, one would expect this country to take responsibility for its actions and memorize the mistakes the country made. However, this clearly does not seem to be the case in Japan: The Nanjing Massacre is often denied by the Japanese side, and Japanese educational textbooks about the national history of Japan do not mention this important aspect of the Second World War. A denial of the happening of the Nanjing Massacre would mean that the international relations between Japan and China will not improve as much as when it would be admitted (and excuses would be made).
All together, the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall provides a way to remember the horrific events that happened during the Nanjing Massacre, during which over 300,000 inhabitants of Nanjing were killed. Furthermore, many atrocities were committed. Still, today, Japanese often deny of minimize the Nanjing Massacre.

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