An essay to raise awareness of the importance
of
remembrance of history
Iris
Chang’s effort to expose the 1937 story of Japanese
atrocities in
Nanking has impacted me personally through the realization that such
historic events are both contemporary and relevant to today’s
fight for justice and truth. I have been so motivated by the personal
advocating of Chang’s beliefs that I am more sensitive to
human
rights; they are now a key factor in what I teach high school students.
The media bombards us daily with injustice and tragedy because our
freedom of expression allows the media to do so. Similarly, our freedom
of expression allows us to act on these injustices unlike the
limitations placed on oppressed victims. Because of Iris
Chang’s The
Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust Of World War II,
her accompanying speeches, radio and television appearances, I now
embrace the notion that one person can make a difference. I feel
strongly that students in today’s classrooms need to know
this.
Not to teach this is dangerous because victims of atrocities,
such as those at Nanking, do not live forever; therefore, their stories
must. Otherwise, perpetrators go unaccountable and the tangible link
between history and current events becomes diminished.
Throughout
high school, college, university, and as a student teacher, I was
taught very little about the Asia Pacific theater of war. Why
had
I not been exposed to this? It depicts the inhumanity, death,
and
torture faced by innocent civilians and brave soldiers, highlighting
the inhumanity that is repeated throughout history. Iris
Chang’s book immediately opened for me a previously unknown
chapter of history. It was history, as stated by Stephan
Ambrose,
that Chang understood needed to be communicated in an interesting way
(The Australian). After reading her book I made a
professional
and personal commitment to expose this contemporary and historic
chapter of history. As a high school social studies teacher,
my
curriculum responsibilities relate to twentieth century world history
and historical / contemporary Canadian history. I have molded
my
studies, interests, and pursuits in this field in order to become a
“specialist.” I came about the Rape
of Nanking
by chance, almost incidentally. I have a passionate interest in
Canadian Hong Kong Veterans who served in defense of the British crown
colony of Hong Kong, only to spend close to four years as prisoners of
the Japanese Imperial Army. The Canadian Hong Kong Veterans’
experiences as prisoners lacked exposure in Canada, yet they are
stories that fit within the events associated with the Japanese plans
for a Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere.
In
British Columbia high school classrooms, the story of the Asia-Pacific,
specifically the rape of Nanking, is not told in any significant
detail. Why? Is it shame over the Canadian
governments’
actions regarding our Hong Kong Veterans? Is it accountability factors
or fears of offending a valuable trading partner in Japan? Is the
silence of veterans and civilian victims a result of their many years
of neglect? In the case of the Asia Pacific War, there are limited
available resources for British Columbia teachers.
Traditionally,
Canadian textbooks have focused on the European theater of WW II.
It is Iris Chang’s book that inspired me, between
1999
– 2001, to get involved with the British Columbia Ministry of
Education and the B.C. Association for Learning & Preserving
the
History of WWII in Asia (Alpha) to create a resource guide for teachers
to support aspects of the senior social studies curriculum: Human
Rights in the Asia Pacific 1931-1945: Social Responsibility And Global
Citizenship.
This resource, complete with an introduction, teacher backgrounder,
five lessons on the Asia Pacific (lesson two being the
“Nanking
Massacre and other Atrocities”), resources and handouts,
became
available in 2003 to all senior social studies teachers in the province
of British Columbia. Among other rationales for such a resource is the
premise that, “If we break the cycle of violence, humankind
must
constantly remind itself of its own capacity for evil, more
importantly, must educate itself on how to prevent crimes against
humanity” (Human Rights in the Asia Pacific 1931-1945, p. 4).
It
is my hope that this subject may follow “a trend …
also
[be a] beginning that will require American schoolchildren to learn
about the rape of Nanking as part of their history
curriculum”
(Contemporary Authors, p. 2). Imagine the way Chang presents the
Nanking massacre, with primary source accounts and oral narratives from
survivors and witnesses, as opposed to the
“… dry compilation of
statistics”
(Contemporary Authors, p. 2) found in textbook. This is evident with
History 12 students’ responses to Chang’s version
of the
1937 events: “I was disgusted!” (Rhys Myhannis,
2006);
“It’s a pity we don’t learn more about
it”
(Richard Combs, 2006); “…said to be like the
Holocaust,
but I found it more depressing with the rapes and torture methods
inflicted upon civilians” (Kyla Pierson, 2006); “It
reminds
me of stories my mom told me … my great-grandmother and
grandma
hid in a cave during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. I
would have liked to know more because this part of history affected my
family” (Sarika Kelm, 2006). Students like Sarika do know
more,
and in doing so, empower the memory of the victims. Ms. Chang stated in
1998, “… denial and amnesia are considered to be
part of
the final stage of genocide. First, the victims are killed, and then
the memory of killing itself is killed” (Siegel). In my
senior
social studies classes, this is not going to happen!
Iris
Chang was not afraid to take a risk with what others thought; she was
driven by a conviction to expose a horrible truth. Her objectives were
clear; “I wrote [the story] out of a sense of rage. I
didn’t really care if I made a cent from it. It was important
to
me that the world knew what happened in Nanking back in 1937”
(The Australian, p. 2). As I learned of the tragedies and the horrors
of war, and the true meaning of genocide as experienced by the Nanking
victims, I started to develop the confidence needed to take risks like
Chang did. After participating in the creation of Human
Rights in the Asia Pacific 1931-1945: Social Responsibility And Global
Citizenship
I decided to propose a course for high school students on genocide that
would use the Holocaust as a blueprint or starting point to engage
students. I was careful however in my planning “not to
attempt to
show that one ethnic group’s suffering was worse than
another’’ (Contemporary Authors, p. 2). Genocide
does not
appear in any specific curriculum (beyond a definition which is void of
what victims endure), although elements of what genocide is are touched
on in various high school courses. My motivation in creating the course
was two-fold. First I wanted to learn more about these topics myself.
If I was just scratching the surface of grand scale historic and
contemporary examples of tragedy and injustice, my students would have
a similarly superficial understanding. My second motivation was that I
wanted to teach my students of such events in a way that surpassed the
simplified, scaled down version found in a textbook. In 2003 I took a
risk; I proposed a course that would study genocide. I presented Holocaust
12: A Blueprint for Modern Societal Tragedies
to School District #23’s (Central Okanagan) board of
trustees,
administrators, and superintendents. No course of this kind, to my
knowledge or to the knowledge of the board, had ever been taught at the
public school level in our province. It was risky in terms of the
impact it could have on students, and the public’s reaction,
as
well as the possibility of naysayers within and without the school to
such a course. My biggest concern however was whether students would
register for such a specific course and how I would develop curriculum
for such a sensitive topic? Since its inception, the course has grown
from one semestered course to three for the 2006 / 2007 school year at
Mount Boucherie Secondary. The Holocaust is studied as an example to
further understand other genocides such as the rape of Nanking
(Japanese Imperial Army), Cambodia (Pol Pot), Rwanda (Hutu
Perpetrators), Yugoslavia (Slobodan Milosevic), and modern Darfur. Thus
students are able to draw comparisons and contrast these events.
A
key aspect of my course is hope and selfless action. It is examined in
the lives of heroes who have acted in the face of danger and tyranny.
Such heroes are presented as examples for students to follow in their
daily lives. They have acted on their learned knowledge by writing
provincially recognized award winning essays such as
“Genocide:
The Paroxysm Of Human Hatred” by Jen Rekis, and “The
Relevance of Night
Today”, by Tanya Armes.
Students also write letters to survivors, as well as to various media
publications in order to inform the public. This way their knowledge
can make a difference in places like Sudan and Rwanda. My students have
warned of hate, fundraised for women’s shelters and Sudanese
refugees with, for example the sale of t- shirts, one titled,
“Give Hate a Break” another “Stop
Genocide in
Sudan”. These “mini-activists” are making
a
difference. Like Iris Chang, I share a
“… pride in
breaking the silence … comparing [the Holocaust and] the
rape of
Nanking to more recent brutality in Bosnia, Rwanda
…”
(Siegel, p.2).
Beyond
hope and selfless action in the face of hate I have my students focus
on the four basic groups of individuals associated with the Holocaust
and other genocides: bystanders, victims, perpetrators, and heroes /
saviors. Students study these four types throughout Holocaust
12
and are able to identify each. Students understand and are aware of the
concept of hate and its impact at a personal and societal level. At the
conclusion of this course, students are able to identify these concepts
and relate them to events both historic and contemporary, while gaining
awareness and assessing critical problems in our society. This empowers
students to make a difference. In the words of one of my students at
the conclusion of taking Holocaust
12: A Blueprint for Modern Societal Tragedies,
“I have learned about the darkest times in human
civilization. I
have come to see the darkness of the human heart, but not just because
of the atrocities we have committed but because of the lack of action
taken … because of this class we will never be bystanders,
we
will be saviors”. At the conclusion of this course, a greater
number of students each year are armed and educated about human
disaster. Some critics have questioned my motives, stating these are
“only students,” seventeen or eighteen years old.
Their age
however is a benefit because they are future leaders and they will
carry this knowledge with them. I know they make a difference; I have
seen it, especially when compared to “… a world in
which
so many international figures – the United Nations’
Kofi
Annan immediately comes to mind – seem content to deal with
the
challenge of human disaster in the fashion of athletes out to achieve a
winning record (you may lose in Rwanda, but you win East
Timor)”
(Mills, p. 40). My students, like Chang have a moral integrity that set
them apart.
The
denial and dismissal of blatant, malicious, and purposeful genocide, if
listened to by an apathetic audience is dangerous. If not challenged
such denial aids the perpetrator in denying victims their suffering
even further. People are impressionable, especially hearing something
for the first time. Some of the most impressionable are students who
are easily swayed and often won’t challenge what they are
told
regarding required curriculum. For the rape of Nanking to be called an
“unfortunate incident” does not serve justice.
Consider:
Over
a six-week period, up to 80,000 women were raped. But it
wasn’t
so much the sheer numbers as the details that shock – fathers
forced at gunpoint to rape daughters, stakes driven through vaginas,
women nailed to trees, tied-up prisoners used for bayonet practice,
breast sliced off the living, speed decapitation contest (August, p. 1).
Is
this a mere “unfortunate incident?” Iris Chang sets
the bar
high when challenging deniers. She went as far as challenging the
Japanese ambassador to America to apologize for the Nanking Massacre,
calling into question the integrity of the Japanese government.
Bringing the story to the public realm, the fight for justice and truth
is brought to a forum where it can’t be hidden. Exposure of
events is a method of combating denial. Teaching a high
school
course that identifies perpetrators and incorporates the truth of
genocide in all social studies courses will make a difference in
combating both silent and not so silent critics. Iris Chang
has
faces great deniers. Nobukatsu Fujioka, a right wing commentator,
openly campaigned to prevent publication of her book in Japan by citing
errors. He also published a book denouncing Chang as a propagandist
funded by Japan-haters (August, p. 3). What is most disheartening for
me, as an individual who wants to make a difference, is to hear that
Japanese right-wingers interpreted her suicide as belated support for
their contention that the massacre never happened (August, p. 4). Never
happened? My students will know it happened, as will my colleagues, my
family and friends, and their family and friends. The rape of Nanking
is a distinct, yet unfortunately common, injustice that Iris Chang
brought to the “public’s consciousness”
(Ramzy,
p.14).
Many
people have inspired, influenced, and challenged me as an educator:
Canadian Hong Kong Veterans who spent close to four years in prisoner
of war camps and can now tell their stories without hate; Dr. Leon
Bass, a black American educator, racism and holocaust consultant who
inspires with his message that intolerance is not acceptable; Madiom a
five-year-old southern Sudanese boy with a brilliant smile –
despite his 7.4kg skeletal body, emaciated by hunger; and my students
who, despite their complicated, confusing, and issues-filled lives,
show up every day with a desire to learn. But of all these
people, it was Iris Chang who first taught me to be aware, aware with
the intention to make a difference. I am one of “…
the
millions of people whom she touched through her writings and her
activism … promoting peace between peoples of different
races
and backgrounds” (Benson). I will continue to keep her memory
and
mission alive in my life and in my classroom so that she does not
become yet another victim of the Rape of Nanking.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Works Cited
August, Oliver. “One
Final Victim of the Rape of Nanking?” Times,
The 17 Mar.
2005. Newspaper
Source.
EBSCO. 8 May 2006 http://search.epnet.com/ .
Benson,
Heidi. “LOS ALTOS 600 Mourn Death of Best-Selling Author Iris
Chang, 36, ‘achieved enough for many
lifetimes.’” San
Francisco Chronicle (CA)
11 Nov. 2004. Newspaper
Source.
EBSCO. 8 May 2006 http://search.epnet.com/ .
Contemporary
Authors Online: Iris Chang. Farmington Hills: Thomson Gale,
2006. Contemporary
Authors.
Thomson Gale. 8 May 2006 http://infotrac.galegroup.com/.
“Fragile Chronicler of
Japanese Invasion Atrocities.” The
Australian
17 Nov. 2004. Newspaper
Source.
EBSCO. 8 May 2006 http://search.epnet.com/ .
Human
Rights in the Asia Pacific 1931 – 1945: Social Responsibility
and Global Citizenship.
British Columbia Ministry of Education, 2002. 8 May 2006.
“Iris Chang; To
Come.” The
Economist (US)
27 Nov. 2004. InfoTrac
K-12 Series.
Thomson Gale. 8 May 2006 http://infotrac.galegroup.com/ .
Jenkins, Russell. “The
Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II.” National
Review 10
Nov. 1997. InfoTrac
K-12 Series.
Thomson Gale. 8 May 2006 http://infotrac.galegroup.com/ .
Mills, Nicolaus. “The
Enemy of Comfort.” The
American Prospect
Jan. 2005. InfoTrac
K-12 Series.
Thomson Gale. 8 May 2006 http://infotrac.galegroup.com/ .
Ramzy, Austin.
“Milestones.” Time
International (Asia Edition) 22 Nov. 2004. InfoTrac
K-12 Series.
Thomson Gale. 8 May 2006 http://infotrac.galegroup.com/ .
Siegel, Robert.
“Profile: Death of Iris Chang.” All
Things Considered (NPR)
11 Nov. 2004. Newspaper
Source.
EBSCO. 8 May 2006 http://search.epnet.com/ .
________________________________
About
the Author
Graeme A. Stacey
Graeme A. Stacey
B.
Ed, M. A.
High School History Teacher
Mount Boucherie Secondary School
Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada
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High School History Teacher
Mount Boucherie Secondary School
Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada
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