I admit I am not a history guru, but I pride myself in having a surface level knowledge of key historical events across the world. Unfortunately, I was quickly brought back to reality when I visited Nanjing.

Nanjing is, what I would consider, a suburban setting similar to Ningbo. I expected to travel across the city visiting temples, monuments, and tasting the regional street food, but when I researched the city a more solemn memorial caught my attention: The Nanjing Massacre Memorial. I had never heard of this historical event before, which left me feeling guilty before even stepping foot in the city. After a bit more research, I came to find that Nanjing was once the capital of China. When the Japanese invaded China, Nanjing was one of the areas hardest hit. According to the memorial, in just the first six to eight weeks of occupation Japan killed up to 300,000 Chinese civilians.

 

Walking through the memorial was indescribable. Upon entry, visitors were greeted by large iron statues depicting mothers holding their dead children, children carrying their elderly parents, and women fighting to avoid rape. All of these statues were cast based on real photos, many of which were secretly taken by humanitarian workers. As you walked into the memorial hall, there were graphic images of death, pictures of Japanese soldiers competing to see who could kill the most Chinese civilians, and horrid picture of a pregnant women who attempted to fight off her rapists (yes multiple) while her family was forced to watch. The treatment of these civilians was brutal and, in my eyes, unnecessarily so. It brought me to ask the question once again, “how can humans be so cruel to each other?”.

 

The last room visitors walk through is the burial hall. That’s right, the whole memorial is built around or on top of a mass burial ground. As visitors walk towards the exit of the memorial you must pass through a hall with excavated skeletons of massacre victims. The burial site holds the bodies of men, women, and children. The atrocities of their death carefully documented for visitors to read and examine as they push to the exit of the memorial.

 

What I loved most about this memorial is that they speared no details. The massacre was brutal, unnecessary, and forever scarring to Chinese society; therefore, the Chinese believe the massacre memorial should perpetuate that pain and suffering. I agree. History loves to sweep the dirty details under the rug, but if we do not face these head-on we become at risk of repeating the same atrocities. We also lose the ability to relate to the social development of a whole society.

 

My weekend in Nanjing left me wondering how America’s approach to our dirty historical details have left us crippled. Before visiting this memorial, I had no clue about the atrocities committed in Nanjing and the magnitude at which it has impacted Chinese society. I wonder if there are Americans who might benefit from a similarly jarring lesson on American history?

 

Nanjing Massacre Memorial Information:

Chinese name: 南京大屠杀遇难同胞纪念馆 (Nanjing Datusha Yunan Tongbao Jinianguan)
Location: No.418, Jiangdong Men Street, Jianye District, west of Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province.
Opening time: 08:30-16:30 (closed on Mondays)
Ticket: free.