Leah Brown-Klein
Highland Park
Middle School,
Highland Park, NJ
2009 China Study Tour Participant
I was fortunate enough to receive a grant through the New Jersey Alliance
for Learning and Preserving the History of World War II in Asia to spend
several weeks in China
during the summer of 2009. My professor at Kean
University told me about her experience
the previous summer and about the genocide that took place in China during
1931-1945. I was shocked to learn
about what happened to the Chinese people: the
rape, torture, and murder of so many Chinese by the Japanese who invaded China during
this period. What saddened me was that until my professor told me about the
Japanese invasion, I was completely unaware of the horrific acts imposed on
the Chinese, never having heard, read or studied about this genocide. In
fact, I had traveled to Japan just a few years before and spent a
considerable amount of time at the Peace Memorial Museum
in Hiroshima
where I do not recall any acknowledgement about such acts against the
Chinese.
In Shanghai,
our group met with a Korean woman who was taken as a sex slave to the
Japanese soldiers and she tearfully told her story. In
Yunnan
Province in Western China, we met with
survivors of biological and chemical warfare, and in
Nanking, we heard stories from those who lived through the
Nanking Massacre. Being able to meet
with and hear their stories, I realize how precious this experience is, as
once again just as with survivors of the Holocaust, these brave souls are
mostly in their eighties and will not be here much longer.
After a few more years, their stories will not be able to be told
first hand. That is sad, and it is also striking that after so much time has
past, these people have been able mostly to "move on.”
One realizes that, in fact, they truly could not and can not ever get
back their lives as "normal" human beings.
Their experiences have affected them emotionally and physically. They
may look on the outside like they are fine and living a "good life," but
that could never really be so. The damage to a survivor of genocide then is
passed on to their children and their grandchildren.
There have been many genocides that have occurred over time, more recently
the genocides of Darfur and Rwanda. Our students need to learn
about the horrors of genocide and how something so evil keeps repeating
itself in history throughout our world. How could such a civilized society
such as Germany or Japan become so monstrous and commit
such inhuman acts upon humanity? Why does Japan refuse to take responsibility
for this genocide? Why have nations around the world not stood up to Japan regarding
this genocide? And why are students not learning about this as well as other
lesser known genocides???