Chapter 14 How can history be turned into ashes

In 1982, the Japanese Ministry of Education revised Japanese textbooks in an attempt to cover up the crimes committed by the Japanese army in aggression against Asian countries during World War II.This move caused strong protests from the governments of various Asian countries, especially the Chinese people all over the world. Because of the Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese people suffered the heaviest casualties. Fifteen million people died in the war. Disaster ensued.The Japanese government miscalculated, thinking that the trauma caused by the Japanese military atrocities had faded in the memory of the Asian people for more than 30 years.In recent years, there are many signs that the Japanese have not forgotten their dream of "Great East Asia Co-prosperity": domestic screenings of "Empire of Japan" films, and what's more, they actually built a "Manchukuo Monument"; the famous Japanese director Nagisa Oshima recently In a film "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" (translated in China), the protagonist, a Japanese military officer, claims to have gone to Manchuria to "put down the chaos"—referring to the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. The mentality of Japanese militarism is fully revealed. The intention of revising textbooks is infinitely doubtful.Japanese rightists have never stopped advocating Japan's rearmament, and publicly honored and commemorated the "heroes who died in war", and sent the tablet of the number one war criminal Hideki Tojo to the "Yasukuni Shrine".In contrast, the attitude of the Germans towards the atrocities of the Nazis is quite different.Former West German Chancellor Schmitt knelt down at the tomb of the Jewish victims and apologized to the Jews on behalf of the entire German nation.Perhaps we can conclude that, after all, the Teutonic nation has more conscience than the Yamato nation, and has the courage to admit mistakes—it is a cowardly act for the Japanese to tamper with history.But in fact, even if the Germans want to usurp history, it is impossible, because the Jews have been persevering for decades, collecting and archiving all the evidence of the Nazi crimes, and there are many books, movies, and dramas about the catastrophe. There is a lot of evidence, and the evidence is like a mountain, and it is constantly announced to the world.The Jews will not allow their descendants to forget this tragedy of genocide, let alone allow the Germans to reverse the case and usurp history.To this day, they are still chasing down Nazi war criminals. Every year, concentration camp survivors will come back to Israel from all over the world to commemorate their relatives and friends killed by the Nazis.As the biggest victim of Japanese militarism, our efforts are really far behind the Jews.Although a lot of historical materials about the War of Resistance have been published in China, they have not yet been able to influence the world, especially the Japanese people, to make them understand the catastrophe caused by the Japanese military government in World War II.In fact, there are 700 volumes of evidence documents related to the atrocities committed by the Japanese army in the "Far East Military Tribunal" after the war, which are now kept by the Ministry of Justice of Japan.Of course, the Japanese government will not make these documents public to let the Japanese people know the barbaric behavior of their government.On the contrary, in 1972, Japan's Asahi Shimbun published the book "A Journey to China" by its reporter Katsuichi Motota, which caused quite a shock in Japan.Honda visited mainland China in 1971 to visit survivors of several massacres by the Japanese army in the Northeast and Nanjing and Shanghai during the Sino-Japanese War, and exposed the inhumane atrocities committed by the Japanese army in the Northeast.Japanese doctors at the "Manchuria Medical University" in Shenyang used Chinese people as a bacterial experiment, injecting typhus bacteria into the human body, and dissecting the human body while they were still alive to study the internal conditions.Honda listed the experimental reports at that time in the book and attached detailed tables.It is horrifying to read these completely objective scientific reports written by Japanese doctors without human emotion.Honda also visited three "mass graves" in Northeast China. These "mass graves" were set up to bury Chinese miners. Many miners were thrown into the pits alive to die because they were sick and weak and unable to work. In the photo, you can still see the bones in the pit.As for the tragic news of the "Nanjing Massacre", it is even more thrilling.Within a few weeks, more than 300,000 soldiers and civilians in Nanjing were massacred.As soon as this book came out, the Japanese intellectuals were quite shocked, but there were also some reactions claiming: "I didn't know it at the time." If so, the Japanese government's policy of obscuring the people was very successful, no wonder the Ministry of Education wanted to usurp history boldly.Hitler massacred the Jews, but how loudly the 6 million Jewish souls denounce justice in the world today, and how silent the 15 million Chinese dead souls are.Of course, we cannot rely on foreigners to defend our grievances. Most of the reports by foreigners distort the facts.There has always been a ridiculous saying in American academic circles: the Kuomintang did not resist Japan.Former Times Magazine reporter Theodore White (Theodore White) reported on the Anti-Japanese War, making the national army worthless.His "Thunder from China" did a lot of damage to the national image of the national government.He reported on the conditions at the time: the soldiers were malnourished, the conscription system was unreasonable, and a few officials were corrupt.It may have been true in the later period of the Anti-Japanese War, but what about the heroic deeds of the Chinese soldiers and civilians in the early stage of the Anti-Japanese War? In the 27th year of the Republic of China, the "Battle of Taierzhuang" national army wiped out the enemy's powerful Isoya and Sakagaki divisions with a small number of hits. Twenty thousand elite soldiers became the first victory in the War of Resistance.In the 28th year, the "Battle of Kunlun Pass" wiped out Masao Nakamura's brigade, making the enemy dare not invade Guinan again for five years.The first, second and third "Battle of Changsha" were equally fierce, with brilliant results.These famous battles should be written into special books and promoted internationally.In fact, in the West, many books about World War II have only just come out in recent years.American public television has recently launched a series of World War II documentaries, which are quite educational.If my country's soon-to-be-established public television station can follow the example of the United States and make a documentary about China's war history, I believe it will be of great educational significance to Taiwanese audiences, especially young audiences.I remember that when I was studying Chinese history in a middle school in Taiwan, the history of the Sino-Japanese War was briefly mentioned in the textbook. This national disaster was so hastily explained. The documentary can make up for the lack of textbooks.

Both literature and history reflect the times. If history is a rational and objective record, then literature is a perceptual and subjective projection, and the two complement each other.Anti-Japanese War literature reflects the suffering of China, the grief and bitterness of the Chinese nation desperately resisting foreign invasion.The collation of anti-Japanese literature and historical materials is really an urgent matter today.Recently, the international community has paid more and more attention to the literature of this period. In 1988, Paris held the first "Anti-Japanese War Literature" conference, and last year, the Chinese University of Hong Kong held the second conference. Unfortunately, Taiwan did not send representatives to participate in both times, and mainland China fell. Many writers and scholars were sent out, forming an overwhelming situation.

In view of the importance of Anti-Japanese War literature to the study of modern Chinese history, the colleagues of "Modern Literature" published the twenty-first issue of the new issue of "Modern Literature".The "Anti-Japanese War Literature Special Issue" was launched.This album is just a preliminary attempt.Due to the large volume of anti-Japanese literature, the difficulty of collecting historical materials, and the taboos of the objective situation, some literati works with left-leaning thoughts during the Anti-Japanese War could not be included.Therefore, the policy of this album is to adopt a limited perspective to reflect the anti-Japanese war in China.We have not adopted works that have been widely circulated.Most of the articles in the album are fine works showing their true feelings, and some are famous senior writers, such as Hu Qiuyuan, Wang Lan, Chen Jiying, Xie Bingying, Bu Shaofu, Liu Yichang, He Rong, Zhong Dingwen, etc. who are still in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Their articles let us understand the patriotic sentiments of these senior writers during the Anti-Japanese War.I was deeply moved by Mr. Wang Lan's "First Letter Home", Ms. Xie Bingying's "Taierzhuang", Mr. Chen Jiying's letter to his daughter, and Mr. Hu Qiuyuan's report on the Youth Army.We are especially grateful to Professor Xia Zhiqing for giving us the long article, which is an important paper, giving Duanmu Hongliang and his genius work "Korqin Banner Grassland" the literary evaluation it deserves.This album was edited by Professor Zheng Shusen, who spent an amazing amount of time and energy on it.The album has a total of 411 pages, and Vision Publishing House spared no expense to make it happen.It is hoped that this album can inspire more scholars to study Anti-Japanese War literature, and I hope that the young readers of the post-war generation can understand the history of suffering in our country from the literary works in the album.

The Sino-Japanese War was a great tragedy for the Chinese and Japanese peoples.Two ethnic groups with such similar cultural characters even killed each other.Although the historical background of this war is extremely complicated, we must bear in mind the lessons of this catastrophe: "People must insult themselves before others insult them, and a country must attack itself before others attack it." Suppose the Northern Expedition was completed in the 17th year of the Republic of China , The Chinese can unite as one, restore the country and build the country, why would the Japanese dare to act rashly.Unfortunately, in the Central Plains War, the brothers fought against each other, so the Japanese warlords could take advantage of it and boasted that they would conquer China in March.The evolution of history is really a great irony.The defeated Japan built a first-class economic power on the ruins of the war, but we "won the war and lost the peace".I still remember that when I returned to Taiwan in 1966 and stayed in Japan for the first time, I saw the towering skyscrapers in Tokyo, the bustling traffic everywhere, and the prosperity. There seems to be no trace left on the body of those Japanese youths who have no memory.At that time, my mood was very complicated and I had a lot of feelings. I couldn't help but feel the ruthlessness and injustice of history.The Sino-Japanese War and Taiwan's 50-year colonial rule made us feel conflicted about Japan.Japan's exquisite culture and material civilization make us admire and yearn for it, and we can't help it; however, the scars of history are often painful, making us full of doubts and fears.It is not the right way to hate the sun and flatter the sun, and rational investigation and understanding are still the most important.In the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, China was defeated, and the Qing government even sent tens of thousands of overseas students to Japan to learn how to make the country rich and the army strong.In August of this year, Commonwealth Magazine published a special series of interviews with Japan, reporting in-depth from various angles.Due to the situation, the complicated relationship between us and Japan may continue indefinitely.However, when we introduce industrial technology from major Japanese automobile factories, we must be vigilant: Japanese militarism once brought endless disasters to our country and nation, and that painful history cannot be tampered with or erased.