43 replies to this topic

[Mister Sympa]

It's funny, I just started reading The Joy Luck Club, and the first story talks about what happened in Nanking in 1937, and then an Imgur post shows up (and I'm rarely on it).

 

History people will know what I'm talking about.

 

If you don't, you're in very good company. It doesn't seem to get mentioned much.

 

Concise Imgur history lesson:

[Again I invoke a warning. This is the most violent shit ever. Seriously. A fucking Nazi tried to save people from it.]

http://imgur.com/gallery/ZTCL4

 

 

My point in bringing this up is one, Holy fucking shit what the hell is wrong with the human species, and two, Why don't we hear about THIS shit? We (Americans, I'm speaking of) study WWII, but does anyone ONCE mention this event? Not commonly.

 

Also, I feel like I just need to talk about this now.

[Bowsette]

Why? America is an America-centric country. You're probably not taught much outside of things pertaining to your country. The Sino-Japanese wars were exceptionally brutal and undeniably devastating.

 

The only part of it that I really found intriguing though, was the hyakunin-giri kyoso. Basically, "kill 100 people with a sword". Two military officers decided to have a wager between themselves to see which one could cut down a hundred Chinese first, using only their blades. I don't know who won, but they were both executed for war crimes so I guess neither, really

[Mister Sympa]

From some of the comments, some Europeans hadn't even heard of it.

 

[Also, not debating that America's education is severely lacking. That is 100% true.]

[Bowsette]

It's somewhat common, really. When I was in school most of our history classes hinged upon either the world wars, or medieval England. I only know so much about Japan because I studied it for myself.

[ｈａｓｕ]

I learned about nanking in 10th grade history, in america! but also kind of on topic. Ip Man is a really good movie and takes place during the rape of nanking and ip man is bruce lee's trainer btw.

[Calvary]

I think plenty of people who know a little about the China-Japan situation know of Nanjing. It's probably never really talked about on any curriculum though, because the Japanese government have yet to issue a formal apology for what they did, and in modern politics, people like to shun the Chinese. There are plenty of people in the Abe administration who deny that the Nanjing Incident ever even occurred. There's actually a very good film about it called "Nanjing! Nanjing!"

 

The Chinese actually held their first state officialised memorial for it this year, commemorating the atrocities.

 

[Elfie]

Ip man is the SHIT! Yes!

Topic: I had no idea! That's pretty intense!

[ｈａｓｕ]

Ip man is the SHIT! Yes!

Yeah pretty dope.

 

Saw this and thought it was somewhat relevant. 

[Mister Sympa]

Relavent:

 

Chinese player gets to world solo rank #1 in order to "commemorate" Rape of Nanking with his ID.

[Calvary]

I'm gonna be an arse here but it's a bit of a pet peeve. It's Nanjing. Nanking is what it was called before the Pinyin reform. I.e. by colonials. 

 

Perhaps that's why that guy on the DotA table wrote his name as NanJing.

[imChristopher]

This may be the most saddest of all topics I've read and heart about in history! I never knew war and other countries took everything to to this level of extent, and it's pretty sad to see what people had to deal with in the earlier years. /:

[Calvary]

Because genocide doesn't happen anymore. See: Darfur.

[midnightblue]

I've studied history up to A level and I'd never heard of this, although while we studied the 21st century it was mostly Euro-centric.  It's not the only horror perpetrated in that part of the world, Pol Pot's regime in Cambodia was horrific http://www.history.com/topics/pol-pot if you have the stomach for it the look up the killing tree.

[Big_T]

NanJing was never taught to me in my high-school, but neither was 99% of the rest of history or wars, just too much.

We're taught very basic Australian history (colonisation by the British), and about WWII in Europe (Nazi's, Poland etc) plus the Nagasaki/Hiroshima bombings.

But what's really forced down our throat (not just at school, but in Australian media and by the government) is the WWI efforts by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps at Gallipoli, Turkey 1915. We have a national public holiday on April 25 to 'celebrate' ANZAC day (6am dawn service, flag raising etc etc). But even then, the whole extent of WWI and the Gallipoli beach landing isn't taught to it's full extent, in our curriculum (at least my experience and others I've spoken to). My high school served some purpose during WWII for the war, it's on a hill overlooking the ocean, suppose that came in handy. It was established just after WWI, has Georgian Revival architecture, very beautiful. Was taught a bit about the schools history of course.

Too much history, so many wars.

NanJing was fucked. So were a lot of wars though, African wars seem exceptionally brutal, the Korean ones, the Yugoslav wars resulted in a shit-load of dead civilians and left the newly declared countries (Serbia, Croatia etc) in an economic shitstorm.

Not meaning to take away from the NanJing topic, just so much war, death, rape, torture, humiliation, and resulting poverty in history. All of this thanks to some people 

We have it good, compared to those poor bastards.

[Calvary]

I do think a lot of history classes in school are disappointingly shallow or repetitive. We were taught Nazi Germany non-stop from about 12-18. Nothing about say, the history of China and Japan, nothing about South America, nothing even about other empires such as France, Spain and Portugal. It's pathetic really, how can we advance as a people if we forget our past and where we've come from?

[Big_T]

... how can we advance as a people if we forget our past and where we've come from?

 

So true. Best thing I've read today (besides the 00:00 on microwave after heating dinner)

 

I guess that schools just don't have the resources or time (among other things) to teach every student all bits of history.

We really have to take it upon ourselves to find-out-about the history we think is important/interests us.

Recently I watched a documentary on late night tele about Australian mining history, and it was such an eye opener. History that I've never encountered before, but is pretty much the foundation to how our country operates as a global and national economy. Probably not something most people are interested in knowing, but I reckon as-well-as knowing about other countries and their history, knowing about your own is just as important, if not more.

[Calvary]

Was that the Eureka Rebellion?

 

And I wholeheartedly agree. I'm quite fortunate in that learning history isn't a chore or anything to me, I've been interested for as long as I remember, it's probably my true nerd calling haha.

[Big_T]

Was that the Eureka Rebellion?

That plus everything else, before 1900 and after, through WWI, WWII, politics, forming of states, selling raw minerals to Japan then having them dropped back on us,etc.

Was a very informative and interesting doco.

Love a good doco.

[Calvary]

Ah that's pretty cool, not gonna lie the only things I know about Ozzy history are Gallipoli and what little I've taught myself. I didn't even know they played a significant role in WWII. 

[Big_Willie_Styles]

Simply put:  Bad shit happens all over the world in all walks of life in nearly every time period, including ours.

 

The real problem is people's willingness to do anything to stop it.

 

Call it what it truly is:  Evil.

 

Hell, last century, 80 million or so people died at the feet of one governing philosophy, one which is still prevalent today.