1 September 2012
Sombre please
There will be no jokes today, as I went to the Nanjing massacre memorial hall.
In 1937, Japan who already occupied north eastern China pushed south, determined to take the capital, which was Nanjing at the time.
They over ran Shanghai very quickly and then pushed on to Nanjing, surrounding it on 3 sides.
Interestingly, much like today, this caused a media frenzy in Japan, with reporters entrenched with the 3 units desperate to be the lucky unit who advanced on Nanjing first. Wild stories of heroism were posted back to Japan each day.
After sustained bombardment, the city fell quickly, but that was really the pleasant bit for the Chinese.
Japanese troops, keen to make a name for themselves and be on the front page of papers, decided to come up with the most barbaric acts possible.
It is believed 300,000 people were killed in 6 weeks, much of the cities female population were raped, and then imprisoned in 'comfort houses' for years to entertain Japanese soldiers.
You might think that this would be glossed over and there would be poems and flowers and some dioramas, but you would be wrong.
It would seem that pre world war 2 Japan was already at the forefront of photographic technology, and many soldiers were carrying cameras.
There are photos on display of soldiers smiling and laughing as they behead children, mass rape, huge piles of bodies, you get the idea.
Two of the more creative ways invented by Japenese generals to make heroes of themselves were to tie people together, hands and feet bound, and push them into ponds or to tie people in a group and pour kerosene on them and set them on fire.
There are countless stories and images of people having their heads cut off, and then their heads on road blocks to remind people to keep out.
So there will be no jokes today.
I read that this place is always crowded and you cant move, it wasnt really crowded at all. I originally intended to go on Monday because of the crowd warning, but my research paid off, its closed Mondays, so bear that in mind.
Giant statue of woman holding dead baby. The statues are stylised on photos you can see inside, which includes an infant breastfeeding off its dead mother.
Lake with many of the statues.
I managed to do the whole tour backwards somehow, the memorial is on top of a mass grave, where its believed at least 10,000 bodies are. These are a heap of real bones recovered in the 80s.
And this is a more recent excavation. There are Japanese tour groups who get shown around here. I think they get escorted still due to fear of reprisals, they sob respectfully.
These are LED candles which was a bit dissapointing. Theres a grand piano that plays itself, it seems to play pieces of music composed by survivors.
The peace lake. I can never take a straight photo.
Inside the main hall they ask you to not take photos, but everyone else was. I didnt take photos of the massacre photos though. This is a battlefield re creation thing, a bit like the Canberra war memorial, with projections and sound.
Behind this they have a dripping water thing. Each drop represents someone being killed, one every 12 seconds for 6 straight weeks on average.
On the way back to take care of my blistered toes, I passed a neighbourhood beef noodle place. Who can resist? I ate only about half but I think I got my dollars worth.