by Xinhua writers Bai Xu, Cheng Lu and Qiu Bingqing
NANJING, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) — The second installment in Yang Xiaoyan’s Nanjing Massacre e-book collection is about in 1937 and follows Wu An, a 12-year-old boy who’s bought to a Chinese soldier hoping to disguise himself as a father and a civilian to evade the Japanese troops and rejoin the combat.
“‘An’ literally means ‘safe’ in Mandarin, as I wanted him to be safe. Wu is my grandma’s surname,” Yang mentioned in an interview with Xinhua.
In November 1937, Yang’s grandparents fled from Nanjing, then the Chinese capital, shortly earlier than it was captured by invading Japanese troops on Dec. 13. Over six weeks, the invaders killed roughly 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed troopers in one of the vital barbaric episodes of World War II.
“I felt obliged to teach our next generation, in the form of children’s literature, about the bitter past of our nation,” she mentioned, noting that she had learn all obtainable survivors’ accounts of the bloodbath to write down the collection.
As the remaining survivors of those atrocities greater than 80 years in the past are actually passing away, many like Yang are taking on the baton to disseminate the reality of this darkish time in historical past.
AFTER THEY LEAVE
Nanjing, situated in east China’s Jiangsu Province, was a affluent metropolis in 1937.
“There were people doing acrobatics in the streets, and people telling stories and selling snacks,” bloodbath survivor Chang Zhiqiang recalled in an earlier interview. He was a cheerful 9-year-old boy when his life modified on Dec. 13, 1937, together with the lives of tens of 1000’s of others.
Chang witnessed the torture and killing of six of his members of the family within the Nanjing Massacre, together with his toddler brother, who was tossed into the air by Japanese troopers utilizing a bayonet.
His daughter, Chang Xiaomei, is now 65 however did not study the main points of the tragedy her father had lived via till about 10 years in the past, when a Japanese scholar visited the household.
“Childhood trauma had tormented him all his life, and I knew I had to do something for him,” Chang Xiaomei mentioned. After the go to, she started accompanying her father when he went to rallies, gave testomony and took interviews, and he or she step by step grew to know her household’s previous.
She discovered that many individuals did not know concerning the Nanjing Massacre. Once when she was on a prepare, a younger man requested her if 300,000 folks had actually been killed in Nanjing, she mentioned.
“We must help generations of people to remember that period of history, remember our suffering and inspire us to move forward on the road ahead.”
She started documenting her father’s life in 2017 to share the impression the occasions had had on him with different folks. Three years later, she printed a e-book that was later translated into Japanese and English.
Chang Zhiqiang handed away in December 2022. Today, there are simply 32 registered Nanjing Massacre survivors — who’ve a median age of over 94 — down from the 1,756 determine recorded when Nanjing counted survivor numbers for the primary time in 1987.
“There are fewer and fewer survivors who can tell the story,” mentioned Chang Xiaomei, who was granted the official standing of heir of historic recollections of the Nanjing Massacre in 2022.
According to the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders, there are at the moment 32 individuals who have been given this standing, the youngest of whom is simply 9 years outdated. These inheritors document the lives of the survivors, open social media accounts to unfold the reality of this historical past, and go that fact on over generations.
Chang Xiaomei typically provides lectures in main faculties. She is now contemplating documenting her father’s experiences in an image e-book to assist extra youngsters find out about this era in historical past.
AFTER THEY GROW UP
Like Chang Xiaomei, writer Yang Xiaoyan realized the specifics of her household’s bitter previous fairly late — shortly earlier than her grandfather died in 1991. She realized that though her two uncles had managed to depart Nanjing earlier than the bloodbath, they didn’t survive the battle.
It was not till 17 years later, when she got here throughout historic supplies on the Nanjing Massacre in a library, that she had the thought to show youngsters about these occasions.
With nice help from the press, the writer and first college English trainer has accomplished the primary two books in her “Smile in the Thorn Bush” trilogy. And her first e-book, “Xiaocong,” is about to be translated into Arabic.
Yang mentioned that whereas doing her analysis, the historical past she was studying would typically plunge her into darkness. During conferences, she needed to sit close to the door so she may escape simply ought to she have to.
“I do wonder if children would be able to accept these stories,” she mentioned. “So I avoid direct depictions of bloody scenes. But I cannot completely avoid the violence that took place, otherwise the work would not be powerful enough.”
Yang as soon as met a younger woman at a lecture she was giving who informed her that her mom would not permit her to learn the books as a result of she thought they had been too scary. Yang remembers telling her to learn them when she had grown up.
More typically than not, Yang’s suggestions from readers is constructive. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she was stunned to see a large number of folks at a lecture she was giving throughout a e-book truthful in Shanghai. Some mother and father even informed her that they hadn’t recognized a lot concerning the bloodbath earlier than that they had learn her books, and that they might purchase extra books for his or her youngsters to learn.
In 2014, China’s high legislature designated Dec. 13 as a nationwide memorial day for the victims of the Nanjing Massacre. On that day annually, a siren sounds via town and Yang teaches her college students its easy lesson: If that they had been in the identical classroom greater than 80 years up to now, the sound would sign that they could not keep within the college and study. This lesson, she tells the youngsters, teaches everybody to cherish the lives they’ll lead immediately.
“A nation without a past has no future,” she informed Xinhua. “Young people are in a period when their perceptions of the world and of life are being formed. I hope that they will read more history books.”
The Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders, situated at a burial web site for bloodbath victims, opened to the general public in 1985. Yang mentioned that she had been impressed by the design of a contraption within the corridor that releases a drop of water each 12 seconds, with every drop representing somebody who was killed within the bloodbath and the variety of seconds between drops reflecting the frequency of deaths in the course of the tragic episode in Nanjing’s historical past.
Since it turned the primary venue for the nationwide memorial ceremony in 2014, the corridor has attracted roughly 5 million guests yearly. It has acquired 125,278 feedback from guests up to now this 12 months, with a each day common of greater than 400. Words comparable to “history,” “peace,” “remember” and “prosperity” seem incessantly in these feedback.
According to memorial corridor statistics, about 70 p.c of all customers of its 11 on-line platforms are beneath 35 years of age. From 2014 to 2023, content material together with key phrases comparable to “national memorial” and “national memorial day” on its Sina Weibo account noticed views improve from 2.03 billion to 32.2 billion.
MAY PEACE PREVAIL
The Nanjing No.12 Middle School was based by U.S. missionary John Magee, who covertly recorded 105 minutes of footage documenting the barbarity of Japanese invaders in 1937. This footage is regarded as the one movie document of the bloodbath.
Shi Xiaobing, vice chairman of the varsity, informed Xinhua that the bloodbath is one thing that many adults in Nanjing know all about. When the siren wails on the nationwide memorial day annually, his household stands on their balcony to mourn, he mentioned.
“The future is to be carried by generations of children, who should shoulder their own responsibilities,” mentioned Shi, 43. “By learning the history we hope to teach them to love their motherland, and to understand the hardship through which the happiness they know today was achieved.”
The college places on a bunch of actions each December, together with speeches, debates and singing competitions. One latest debate marked China’s new visa-free coverage for Japanese vacationers.
Shi used to volunteer within the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders, and he discovered that lately, information of the Nanjing Massacre has elevated amongst youngsters and younger folks. “Children are confident enough amid the fast development of our country, and they can look our devastating history square in the eye.”
Chen Baoyi, 16, would be the host of the varsity’s mourning gathering on this 12 months’s nationwide memorial day. She has recognized concerning the Nanjing Massacre since she was very younger. Through schooling each in school and within the memorial corridor, she has developed a rational view of the tragedy. “When it occurred, China was underdeveloped,” she mentioned. “So we now have the obligation to build a stronger country to avoid a repeat of such a tragedy.”
Her classmate, 17-year-old Gao Jing, sees the research of the Nanjing Massacre as a strategy to commemorate its victims. Learning the reality about this historical past has not made her hostile to present-day Japan. Like a lot of her friends, she likes to look at animated Japanese films like “Detective Conan,” and he or she typically buys cultural merchandise related to these movies.
And that’s what Shi Xiaobing likes to see. “Remembering history is not remembering hatred,” he mentioned.
Shi’s views are shared by Yang Xiaoyan. “The message we would like to send is not that we should hate any particular country, but that we should hate war itself. In Japan, many people also lost their lives in the war,” she mentioned. Remembering historical past just isn’t in battle with touring to Japan, she famous, and he or she herself is a fan of Japanese film stars comparable to Yamaguchi Momoe.
“We hope that in the process of learning history, we can cultivate the critical thinking abilities of young people, so that they can gain a proper view of history. We would also like to see China and all countries in the world enjoy peace in the future.”
To deliver the historical past of the Nanjing Massacre to a broader worldwide viewers, Yang plans to translate her works into English. In addition to her “Smile in the Thorn Bush” trilogy, she has additionally authored “Ningsheng Ningsheng,” which was impressed by a commemorative poster bearing the photographs of two youngsters — one from 1937 and the opposite from 2017 — taking a look at one another throughout time.
At the top of the e-book, eponymous protagonist Ningsheng has turn into a university scholar and reads a remark within the memorial corridor guestbook: “History is not horrible. What is horrible is the disregard for and oblivion of history. May peace prevail.”