这是一封发给Editorial of Daily Collegian的信, 纪念南京大屠杀. 它应该出现在Dec 13的Daily Collegian上, 这份报纸相当于校报, 在Student Union以及各个Buildings的阅报栏都可以免费得到. 感谢Duffy对信件措辞的修改.
-- In heaven, they still remember us.
I am a Chinese graduate student from the city of Nanking, China, and my grandparents survived the Nanking Massacre. Although many UMass students are probably unfamiliar with this horrific historical event, it bears remembrance. The year 2007 marks the 70th anniversary of one of the greatest tragedies of World War II[1].
Exactly seventy years ago today, on December 13, 1937, the Japanese Imperial Army began a six week atrocity in my city, executing over 300,000 Chinese soldiers and civilians. Comparably, the number of victims is about one fourth of those who were murdered in the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp, from 1940 to 1945[2]. The Nazis destroyed about 1.1 million people at that camp over a period of four years. The Japanese murdered 300,000 Chinese in a period of six weeks. Although the Nanking Massacre is not an exact analogy to the Nazis' ethnic genocide, it could be viewed as the climax of a killing spree that released the bestial nature buried deep in our humanity. The Japanese soldiers celebrated when they gazed upon their deeds -- their rapes (over 20,000 women), beheadings, their burning and their burying of still living human beings. The Nanking Massacre was a planned atrocity performed in the capital of China, with the express intention of intimidating the Chinese government and people. Unfortunately for the Japanese, their plan backfired and only served to stir up massive resistance among the Chinese population. The Chinese managed to endure Japanese occupation, not because of their lacks of toughness and resistant nature, but because they had already been desensitized to tribulation, blood, and death since the Opium Wars of the 19th Century.
Even today, there is an invisible gap between China and Japan. Most Chinese youth have no memory of a war that they never experienced, but only learned about through their history classes. Sometimes they unleash their anger toward Japan by boycotting Japanese products, but this is largely a meaningless gesture designed to make themselves appear unique and patriotic. If you ask a young Chinese person why he dislikes Japan so much, he may answer: "Well, because the Japanese killed so many Chinese before". Furthermore, if you ask how many victims perished in the Nanking Massacre, the young Chinese person will probably not be able to answer. In China, a pictographic memorial to the victims of Nanking Massacre was "softened" due to diplomatic concerns related to Chinese President Hu Jin Tao's planned visit to Japan next year.
The Chinese economy has grown rapidly since the Cultural Revolution of the 1960's, but political reformations and moral standards have not kept pace. I have little faith in my own Chinese government to tell the truth about much of anything, including Nanking Massacre.
In 1937, the Tokyo Daily News reported that two Japanese officers in Nanking were competing to be the first to behead 100 people with a sword. Although Toshiaki Mukai defeated his opponent in sheer numbers -- 106 to 105 -- it was unknown who was the first to pass the one hundred mark, and so they decided to extend their competition to 150 severed heads[3]. The Japanese may remember the two separate figures as a topic of conversation, but the Chinese should remember the sum of the two numbers -- the 211 heads that were separated from their bodies.
It is for this reason that I write this article -- not for agitate for further hostility between China and Japan, but to memorialize the victims of the Nanking Massacre. As Albert Einstein proposed on 1905, the speed of light is a constant 300,000 kilometers per second. Just like Einstein's calculations, the number of victims at Nanking was 300,000 and this figure is nowadays accepted as historical fact rather than hypothesis. As fast as history is forgotten, history will repeat itself. We are always able to consider if those things that we remember truly deserve to be remembered, but we never have the chance to consider if those things we have forgotten really deserve to be forgotten.
[1] The memorial hall of the victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese invaders.
http://www.nj1937.org/english/default.asp[2] Official Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Memorial,
http://www.auschwitz.org.pl/[3] A Contest to Cut Down 100 People!
http://rene.malenfant.googlepages.com/hyakuningirikyousou下面是A4幅面的纪念海报, 彩色与黑白稿, 量力而行, 打印几张, 订到走廊的海报栏里.
另外建议明天晚上9:00 - 9:50之间论坛上不出现任何言论, 为死难者默哀. 13日上午10时, 南京全城会响警报纪念亡灵. 50分钟的每一秒钟都对应100个遇难者, 当百分之一秒的计数器转动时, 你的眼镜无法跟踪那数字的跳动.
谢谢大家的支持!