Trigger Warning: This article talks about rape and murder.
Being new to Taiwan and not knowing much better I invited my wife, then girlfriend, to the 2-28 Memorial Park in Taichung for a date. The park is at the end of one of Taichung’s many green-ways and is dominated by the two-story tall pillar standing at the center of the park. At the time I had no idea what the 2-28 incident was and if you know what it is, you’ll understand that it probably wasn't the best place for a date.
Arriving at the park my wife looked a little disappointed, though not defeated. It actually is a nice park with some nice temples and a small river nearby. So I didn't completely ruin the evening anymore than I already had when I asked my wife what 2-28 was. At the time, she couldn't really explain the event, not in English at least, so she told me to read a book, and that’s what I did.
I've spent the last years reading about the past two hundred years of Chinese and Taiwanese history. In my opinion that period of history has been one of the great tragic stories of the world. While I would say much of it is bad, none of it is quite as bad as the Nanjing Massacre made famous in Iris Chang's work of historical non-fiction The Rape of Nanking. The book chronicles the systematic murder and rape of a population drawing the siege and occupation of Nanjing during World War II. Though the numbers put forward in the book are likely higher than reality, the academic consensus still puts the death toll somewhere between 40,000 and 200,000 people with more than 20,000 women were raped over a six week period. It's chilling historical fact that we are all doomed to remember lest we allow such atrocities to happen again.
So let's just say it was something of a surprise when I came across this.
[Research Paper] BEHIND THE COMFORT WOMEN CONTROVERSY http://t.co/hOdLA7CdTi #Taiwan #Philippine #Indonesia #Vietnam #India #Thailand
— Pakkurareman Int'l (@PakkuIntl)
First of all, some red flags should go up when someone names themselves "the Society for the Dissemination of Historical Facts," but I tried to give them a fairer shake than they deserved as you will see. The paper linked to from the tweet discusses and systematically denies known history about the comfort women system. The Comfort women was a system of brothels set up throughout the Japanese Empire, to keep (unsuccessfully) the Japanese soldiers from raping the local population. It involved forcing women into serving as prostitutes, and is essentially rape by another name.
Not being a historian myself, I didn't really have the tools or knowledge to go through his paper point by point. What I did know about was the testimony of Minnie Vautrin, the Master of Studies at the Ginling Girls College of Nanjing. Her diary contained both accounts of forced conscription into brothels and rape. I wanted to see the authors take on her testimony. I was not greatly surprised to find her testimony missing and Nanjing listed as a "so-called" massacre. Upon seeing this I suggested the author buy a copy of Michael Shermer's Denying History, because that's what this was, a clear case of denying history. I was met with a suggestion to view some photos.
@skeptaiwan @PakkuIntl If you have interest, please visit my blog. REAL PHOTOS TAKEN NANKING IN 1937-1938 http://t.co/bWxPKCrFWh
— KUIDAORE (@KUIDAORE2014)
I don't deny these picture were real, but as I told KUIDAORE, I similarly don't have the luxury of cherry picking history. I could post pictures taken by Japanese soldiers of the massacre, but they are graphic and the interested can find them for themselves. The point is there is a preponderance of personal accounts from Japanese, pro-Japanese and anti-Japanese sources as well as photographic and forensic evidence that show the massacre occurred. Denying it seems like a herculean feat manageable to only a lunatic fringe, but that's not all.
This level of intellectual dishonesty is just unacceptable. I can easily build a narrative that shows that the south won the Civil War and that slavery was on the whole a good thing, but only if I exclude sources and facts until all I am left with are the parts that support my opinion. As a historian, or a skeptic in my case, one must make the honest choice of following the evidence where it leads and not fitting the evidence to where you want it to go.
Furthermore, to deny history at this level requires one racist keystone, that any person of Chinese ethnicity, and sometimes Korean in the case of the comfort women, are self-motivated liars individually and as a whole. Racism itself is wrong because it simultaneously perpetuates myths about people-groups and builds itself of such myths, that's tautological. Racism in this case is worse as it is both motivated and intentional.
You might say that not all people who deny the Nanjing Massacre and the comfort women are racist, perhaps they just find the evidence unconvincing. For that to be true though they must find the contemporary testimony of thousands of Chinese to be unconvincing, or ignore it, for a reason other than race. Nationality might be the answer, but you would similarly have to disregard foreign nationals and ethnic Chinese not living in China, a hard thing to do without some racial motivation.
What I can say is these two were definitely racially motivated.
Kuaidore replied to my asking him if he denied the massacre, "Of course. Do you believe the CCP?"
Worse still was Pakkurareman, after accusing me of being a Chinese pretender living in Taiwan, and me correcting him that I was in fact American, Pakkurareman had this to say.
@skeptaiwan Chinese American? Oh that' why you are so idiot.
— Pakkurareman Int'l (@PakkuIntl)
I tried correcting him one last time telling him I was white, not as a defense because being called Chinese American is not an insult, but to keep him in the conversation. He did not oblige.
I found this exchange equal parts fascinating and frustrating, crushingly so at times. Reading The Rape of Nanjing leaves one so emotionally disturbed it's hard to believe that anyone would go about denying the massacre. I got a small glimpse into the why a person would do it from Kuaidore.
Sorry, there was something I forgot to say. I expect a Japanese-Chinese friendship. Many Japanese will be feelings same as me. Therefore I remove an obstacle. A battle has occurred in Chinese land. Of course, there were unavoidable tragedy by the war. And, I do not doubt that a Japanese troubled Chinese people. It does not change.
This is something I understand. Coming from the country that dropped not one, but two, atomic bombs on another country I understand the urge to want to stop apologizing for the atrocities of the past, of other people. However, denying the events would harm the victims even more and do little to aid US-Japan relations.
Similarly, the Nanjing Massacre and comfort women are a sticking point in Japanese foreign relations in Asia. The urge to remove these particular bees from Japan's bonnet is tempting, but ultimately detrimental and dishonest.
If this was Europe or the USA I would say Holocaust denial is the greatest historical fight to be fought outside of academia. In Asia, this is greatest and another source of conflict in a region that already has enough.
I believe some ideas should be given no quarter. This is one of them. Historians are welcome to determine the details of the massacre, I welcome it, but we the public should not allow its occurrence to be called into question. If you run across people putting forth these views I hope you will inform them their views are not welcome in polite society.
Santayana once said those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. I don't know what those who deny history are condemned to, but I hope it is much worse.
