Serious time.

I'm having trouble coming up with words for this one, but I'll try my best. Perhaps the main "attraction", if you want to call it that in Nanjing is the museum/memorial of the rape of Nanjing. I learned a lot about what happened there, and gained more perspective than "The Japanese did some terrible things to some city during WWII".

First what I didn't realize is that this event wasn't over a long period. What I thought was the Japanese took Nanjing, held it until the end of WWII, and in general the soldiers didn't really have any respect for the residents. The numbers cited were the totals over the several years this happened. Not true.






The Chinese cite 300,000 people died, but the international estimate is "more than 200,000". Honestly it doesn't really matter, they're pretty staggering numbers either way. More staggering is that the actual thing happened over the course of 6 weeks. That's around 5000-6000 people, a day being killed. Pretty messed up.

What I like about China, in general, is that there is no "political correctness", or "censored for children". This was in full force here. There are many skeletons strewn about, with markings on them indicating their death by bayonet, crushing, bullet, etc.. It's not behind a plexiglass wall, or a photo, it's right there, on display, and you're breathing the same air.





Something very odd I noticed is that here, people were very quiet and respectful. That is incredibly unlike China. Usually people are talking loud, yelling into their phone, spitting on the ground, throwing litter about, or letting their child piss on the floor. Here, that didn't happen. It was an odd thing and kind of a reverse culture shock. TIL the Chinese have the ability to behave this way, and I wish they would do it more.





There were several poignant parts of the exhibit, and the bones in the pics so far certainly speak for themselves. A few other points were interesting, though. First they had a wall of photos containing victims and testimonials, which is to be expected. They also had former Japanese soldiers speaking of the terrible things that happened there, and asked for forgiveness. I was glad to see that really displayed well, given China's contentious relationship. There was also a giant wall engraved with the names of every known victim. It was very dark in there, and we weren't even supposed to take photos - so the one I got was the best I could do.

As selfish as it sounds, the whole magnitude of the thing didn't hit me until about halfway in. This is where they had diaries and other writings from Americans, Germans, British, and other foreigners that remained in the city to help the civilians. Before it was this foreign event that didn't really seem relevant, but seeing how they wrote, in a language I could understand and in a style of writing that was relatable... well it was something else.

By far the most impressive part of this place was "The Wall of Testimony". At least maybe that's it's name. That's what I'm calling it. It is this absolutely massive, 3 story tall wall, 3 binders deep, sorted alphabetically. Inside are folders containing thousands of pages, each testimonies from actual people, with their own writing, drawings, you name it. And you could look and touch anything you wanted. This was beyond amazing. Any doubters out there, simply visit here.







At the very end, they had a segment about the end of the war, and how they appreciate the help from all the Allied powers. They had all the various flags flying, with statements of thanks addressed to the various nations. In addition, they had their leaders saying how we should never forget history, but at the same time exercise forgiveness and promote peace.


I think this is particularly important, considering the saber rattling China and Japan are doing right now, I think they need to listen to their own advice. Overall it was the highlight of the trip for me, and I was impressed it wasn't filled with in-your-face nationalism. In fact, it seemed to have a pretty good attitude about it. This guy sums it up pretty well: