Nanjing's painful memory

The sculpture at the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall gives goose bumps to even tourists. The outside wall of the memorial hall bears inscriptions of victimized people and the inside holds pictures of 1,000 survivors of the massacre in 2014, when the memorial hall was opened. About 300,000 people, more than half the population of Nanjing, were killed during the massacre that lasted for six weeks from Dec. 13, 1937. The Japanese army, which faced unexpected intense resistance during the process of dominating Shanghai and Nanjing, launched a massacre against the Chinese in order to destroy their morale. Chinese people call this incident as massive slaughter, which is a stronger word than massacre.

The diary of Cheng Ruifang, a then teacher in Nanjing’s Ginling College, is known as the Chinese version of “The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.” Cheng’s diary discloses the cruelty at the time. Japan killed at will, not just remnants of war but everyone they saw, regardless of their age or gender. Killing people with machine guns and grenades were even considered gentlemanly, and victims were buried alive or burnt to death to save bullets. Japan’s three-vicious plan to kill, burn and plunder everyone was condemned even by the Nazis, who massacred Jewish, as “beastly.”

In 2014, the Chinese government inscribed “Let us forgive but not forget” in large letters on the wall of the course for visitors after an overall expansion of the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall, which was built in 1985. China designated Dec. 13 as the National Memorial Day in 2014 and UNESCO enlisted documents related to the massacre to the Memory of the World register the following year. The leadership of the Chinese Communist Party including President Xi Jinping participated at the Memorial Ceremony Tuesday to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre.

Japan still argues that the number of people who fell victim to the Nanjing Massacre was exaggerated. This is in line with Japan’s claim that Japan's military sexual slave victims, known as comfort women, were not forced despite ample evidence to verify it. Korean President Moon Jae-in is expected to show his condolences regarding the Nanjing Massacre during his first visit to China. It is an incident that Korea and China can sympathize upon as the two countries were attacked by Japan. There is a Western proverb that a sincere apology can only be made by a strong person. It is something that Japan should contemplate on.