Under a mercury sky, the red flag with five stars flies at half-mast. Hundreds of people dressed in dark await in perfect formation like an army of shadows. Among them are soldiers, police, rosy-cheeked students and young pioneers with scarves around their necks. They all have a white flower pinned to their chest like an open, pale wound. Upright and silent, they barely move a muscle while a voice repeats instructions over the loudspeaker to ensure the “solemnity” of the “national commemoration ceremony,” which is going to be broadcast. The event is about to begin. The voice asks to maintain “a collected attitude, an appropriate bearing”; that they applaud “after the speech of the leading comrades”, never before; that they sing “loudly” the national anthem; to remain silent during the minute in remembrance for “”.
It is Saturday, December 13 in the ancient capital of China. The cold is probably similar to that of the same day in 1937 – exactly 88 years ago – when Japan’s imperial troops, under the orders of Commander General Matsui Iwane, entered Nanjing and began one of the most brutal episodes of the 20th century. For six weeks, Japanese soldiers massacred defenseless civilians, executed prisoners of war, raped women, and reduced the city to rubble. Estimates of the number killed have been engraved in several languages on the black walls of the museum dedicated to the massacre, where the ceremony is held: “Victims: three hundred thousand.” Nanjing commemorates the massacre every December 13 so that it does not fall into oblivion.
The episode is also one of those wounds that continues to poison relations between Japan and China. The recent diplomatic row between Beijing and Tokyo draws on these historical misgivings. The tensions between neighbors after the Japanese Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi – ultraconservative, nationalist, and defender of a Japan with greater military packaging – suggested that an attempt by the Asian giant to block or seize Taiwan could pose “an existential threat” to her country, which would justify the deployment of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (the Japanese Army).
The self-ruled island, which China considers a rogue province, is a red line for communist leaders. Beijing has responded angrily, adding this week to the most dangerous military terrain. China has deployed maritime and air maneuvers in sensitive areas for Japan; Chinese fighters have flown accompanied by Russian bombers with nuclear capabilities, to which Japan has responded by deploying its fighter planes equally prepared for atomic war.
On Saturday, a day of mourning in China for the massacre, the state press criticized the behavior of the neighboring government: “As we deeply mourn the loss of our fallen compatriots, we must clearly recognize that the specter of Japanese militarism has not disappeared and is now showing dangerous signs of resurgence,” underlined an editorial in the nationalist Global Times, linked to the Chinese Communist Party. The text equated “the agony of Nanjing” with the massacres of Jews at Auschwitz.
The ceremony for the Chinese Holocaust starts at 10:00 with the crowd singing the national anthem. At 10:01 the minute of silence begins while air raid sirens echo throughout the city as a sign of mourning. Cars are also forced to stop and honk their horns, the echo of which reaches the memorial like a lament.
In 1937, this city, which had housed several imperial dynasties, was the capital of the Republic of China and the seat of Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalist government. Japanese troops launched a first bombardment in August. In December they subdued it after a brief siege. They were the first stages of what they call in China (some historians place its beginning in 1931), a conflict that was intertwined with World War II and concluded in August 1945, with the Japanese capitulation.
The Chinese suffering in this conflagration is almost unimaginable, and not well known in the West: Hollywood has barely dealt with it, but several shocking films have come out of China. Some 35 million people died during the war, according to estimates by Chinese academics.
In Nanjing, one can immerse oneself in that tunnel of horror. The place where the commemorative event is held each year is a museum that receives thousands of visits: the stairs descend, as if one were entering a crypt, and the surroundings become increasingly darker. The darkened galleries are packed with people with white flowers in their hands. The panels gradually introduce the Japanese invasion; you hear the sound of machine guns, planes and bombs; You pass through the recreation of a busted corner of the city.
The epicenter of the museum is a mass grave. The bones of those executed have been partially unearthed. The gaze stops before the bones. “This is real,” says a man there, holding his son by the hand. A succession of disturbing photographs follows: victims burned, decapitated, buried alive, shot at point-blank range, skulls burst, bodies and more bodies thrown like rags.
There is a crowd of people in the “sexual atrocities” section, where elderly survivors tell how they were raped to the point of exhaustion, and used as “comfort women,” that euphemism with which the Japanese army called a refined machinery of slaves destined to satisfy the soldiers. In the city there is another museum especially dedicated to the nearly 200,000 Chinese forced during the invasion; That other exhibit is very detailed: it even has examples of condoms that the Japanese used.
The massacre museum reserves a panel to criticize Japan for denying the magnitude of the massacre. It also recounts the trial at the International Military Tribunal established in Tokyo in 1946 that convicted several Japanese officers of war crimes. Commander General Matsui Iwane was sentenced to death by hanging.
“Forgetting history is an act of betrayal, and denying a crime will only cause it to be repeated,” a panel at the end of the memorial reads. Another emphasizes that the objective for which the commemorative event is celebrated each year is to remember that people with “good hearts” believe in peace: “We do not intend to prolong hatred. The people of China and Japan should live in friendship,” he highlights.
At the exit, a stall serves coffee in glasses that commemorate the Chinese victory, with the headline from a newspaper of the time printed: “Japan has surrendered!” Guo Yuzhen, a 29-year-old engineer, and Ren Chenji, a 22-year-old student, take photos of the containers they are carrying in their hands. “This episode in history brought us an enormous and deeply painful cost, which is why we must always remember it,” they say. They repeat a phrase that, they say, has become popular: “Compatriots, keep moving forward, do not look back; at the exit there is light, the warmth of daily life and a country in peace and prosperity. But do not forget that along the way there were grievances against the nation and suffering of the people.” They believe that in Japan they will surely want to forget this “stain.” “In China we can’t.”
In recent years, Beijing has claimed greater recognition of its role on the Asian flank of what it calls the “global anti-fascist war” against the Japanese. In September, the 80th anniversary of “the victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression.” These types of dates have gained prominence, for whom one of the great threats is the “historical nihilism” that corroded the Soviet Union. In 2014, the president presided over the first memorial ceremony for the Nanjing massacre. “Anyone who tries to deny the massacre will not be tolerated by history, the souls of the 300,000 deceased victims, the 1.3 billion Chinese people and all the people who love peace and justice in the world,” he said then.
“This atrocious crime against humanity is a historical fact that cannot be erased,” proclaimed on Saturday Shi Taifeng, a member of the Politburo, one of the most powerful organs of the Communist Party. The leader is in charge of giving this year’s speech in Nanjing. He claims that the cruelty of the Japanese aggressors “trampled the foundations of human civilization,” but awakened the country’s fighting spirit. “The great victory of the Chinese people in the War of Resistance against Japan has also greatly contributed to safeguarding world peace.” He quotes Xi – “We must enhance historical consciousness” – and highlights the development of the Asian giant, which serves to remind us of one of the lessons learned: “We will be defeated if we stay behind.” He leaves a politically charged message: “Any attempt to revive militarism, challenge the post-war international order and undermine global peace and stability will never be accepted.” There is applause after his words.
Then, a choir made up of dozens of young people recites a poem dedicated to peace: “The Japanese invaders devastated the land / looting, burning and killing / corpses covered the fields / blood stained the Yangtze.” The event concludes with the release of hundreds of pigeons that get lost in the leaden sky of Nanjing.
