Specifically, in the decades following the conclusion of World War II, the new German nation that eventually emerged from the physical devastation of the country and, more importantly, from the moral bankruptcy of having embraced, supported, and made possible the implementation of Hitler's racial hatred and the murderous atrocities it inspired. Naturally, certain Germans never accepted responsibility for the Jewish Holocaust, even denying that it ever occurred.
However, the official German government did acknowledge the troubling history of that nation before and during the Second World War and eventually made at least some reparations long after the fact to many of the survivors of the Jewish Holocaust. The era of Nazism and of the Holocaust is taught to German schoolchildren as part of the history of the nation, complete with government-sponsored visits from the relatively few remaining survivors so that today's German youth can still hear the truth about that period of German history directly from some of its victims.
Chang devotes considerable attention to the degree to which honest acknowledgement -- even in a purely factual sense, let alone in terms of any acceptance of moral responsibility -- has hardly been the case in Japan. Unlike in Germany, the Japanese government has not acknowledged responsibility or embarked on any educational use of the well-documented atrocities, even in a historical sense. In many respects, the entire nation of Japan has always maintained a position similar to the relatively few Germans who always refused to acknowledge what occurred in their nation. Contemporary Japanese History textbooks still conveniently omit any meaningful or accurate reference to Nanking.
Finally, Chang also outlines another disturbing component of the international response to the Japanese atrocities in China in the subsequent decades....
Specifically, she explains that there was a tremendous difference in the manner and degree to which the international community (and the U.S. In particular) insisted in prosecuting justice and historical accuracy in connection with the Rape of Nanking and the European Jewish Holocaust. Whereas Western authorities pursued prosecution of Nazi war criminals relatively earnestly, no comparable effort was made to do the same in connection with Japanese war criminals, except those involved in the murder of Allied prisoners of war. Chang explains that the developing Cold War between East and West and the geopolitical strategy of the U.S. In relation to maintaining Japan as an ally and as an economic partner throughout the second half of the 20th century played a significant role in this deliberate differential in reaction to the respective atrocities.
Conclusion and Reaction
The Rape of Nanking is an incredibly depressing account that is as difficult to read as it is important to understand. To paraphrase the proverbial observation of philosopher George Santayana, those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. In that respect, the subsequent public response on the part of Japanese society, even at the highest levels, would not seem to bode well for the Japanese people or society. Notwithstanding the fact that very few of those responsible for Rape of Nanking are still alive to prosecute or of their victims to compensate, it is important from the perspective of human history to acknowledge and appreciate the nature, scope, and, most importantly, the underlying causes of the atrocities committed by the Japanese in Nanking during the Second World War. Notwithstanding the difficulty of reading the detailed accounts, many of which come from eyewitnesses and survivors, the book is an important read, especially with respect to Santayana's observation.
