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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=477427" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Massacre in Nanjing</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">On a clear winter day you can see from Tokyo<br>The snow-capped volcanic cone of Mount Fuji.<br>Towering to a height of 3,776 meters on Honshu Island, <br>About 100 kilometers south-west from the capital, <br>The majestic mountain is a staunch symbol <br>Of the Land of the Rising Sun.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">During the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945, <br>Hirohito's armies invaded China, carrying along<br>A fascist banner of samurai honor and pride.<br>The Japanese Imperial troops <br>Advanced with brutal force, <br>Committing dreadful atrocities<br>Against prisoners and civilians. <br>They reinterpreted bushido virtues and believed<br>That their war crimes elevated the splendor and glory <br>Of Mount Fuji to new heights.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Articles published in November and December 1937 <br>In the Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun reported the exploits <br>Of Japanese Imperial Army officers Toshiaki Mukai and <br>Tsuyoshi Noda, who on the road to Nanjing competed, <br>For being the first to behead 100 Chinese with a sword. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Okumiya Masatake, a Japanese officer, <br>Was a witness to the atrocities.<br>He was a principled aviator in the Imperial Navy, <br>Serving in Jiangsu.<br>He was shocked by the carnage he saw in China. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">On December 12,1937, <br>He participated outside Nanjing<br>In the bombing and sinking <br>Of the American Gunboat USS Panay <br>In the Yangtze River.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">A few days after the sinking of the Panay, <br>Okumiya rode a chauffeur-driven car, <br>Searching for the bodies of downed Japanese pilots.<br>It was then that he had witnessed<br>His Majesty's Imperial Troops<br>Perpetrating gruesome Massacres.<br>In the streets of Nanjing, Japanese soldiers <br>Were slaughtering indiscriminately<br>Chinese men and women, young and old. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">On December 25 and 27 of 1937, <br>Okumiya photographed in the capital<br>Piles of innumerable bodies of Chinese people, <br>Lying unburied along the Yangtze River<br>And on the shores of Xuanwu Lake and Xuanwu Gate.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Once he came upon a terrible scene of executions.<br>About twenty soldiers of the Japanese Imperial Army<br>Forced a large group of Chinese to sit on the river bank.<br>The prisoners' hands were bound behind their backs. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The soldiers beheaded their victims by the sword. <br>One warrior after the other approached<br>A kneeling prisoner and drew his sword. <br>The soldier raised the weapon with both hands, <br>Its blade glittering in the bright daylight. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And then with a swift and savage sweep <br>He struck at the prisoner's neck.<br>The severed head rolled into the river.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">When Okumiya asked why the troops execute<br>The prisoners by sword instead of shooting them, <br>An officer replied that killing by sword<br>Saved ammunition.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Okumiya was immersed in his homeland<br>In the violent culture of the sword.<br>He was well-aware of its pivotal role <br>In Japanese history. <br>Nevertheless, he was shocked by the executions.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The officer's explanation lingered on in his mind<br>With an unnerving persistence.<br>Although he was a disciplined naval officer, <br>Loyal and ready to die for the Emperor, <br>He still felt that what he witnessed compromised <br>The samurai way of the warrior, dishonored the spirit<br>And soul of the bushido. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The reign of terror in China began in 1937, <br>When the Fascist Imperial Army of Hirohito <br>Invaded the country. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">After three months of brutal fighting, <br>The Battle of Shanghai ended in late November. <br>Then the Japanese army marched all the way to Nanjing, <br>The historical capital of Six Chinese Dynasties.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">On December 10,1937, the Japanese mounted <br>A fierce assault on the walls of the city. <br>After two days of heavy artillery fire <br>And aerial bombardment<br>The Chinese army retreated from Nanjing.<br>Gunboats of the Japanese fleet were cruising <br>In the Yangtze River.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">By nightfall, on December 13, the historical capital fell.<br>The Emperor's forces entered Nanjing <br>Through the ancient city gates.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The masses of defenseless civilians <br>Trapped in Nanjing<br>Became prey and pillage of Fascist bestiality.<br>Brutal crimes of looting, arson, rape and murder <br>Were perpetrated everywhere.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> <br>Soldiers of the Japanese Imperial Army <br>Roamed savagely the streets. <br>They entered every household, <br>Searching door to door for females.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And it did not matter<br>If they were young or old or pregnant.<br>The troops gang raped thousands of women, <br>Stabbed them to death with their bayonets<br>And then mutilated their bodies.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Entire families had been murdered in cold blood. <br>Men were shot through the head or the heart.<br>And the soldiers killed even the babies.<br>They also used young men for bayonet training<br>Stabbing the screaming victims repeatedly, <br>Or beheading them by their swords.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Historians estimate that in the horrible war crimes<br>Committed at Nanjing <br>The Japanese army slaughtered<br>Between 200,000 and 300,000 people. <br>The soldiers raped tens of thousands of women. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Yet in this tragic epoch of Chinese history<br>There were still beacons of light that shone through<br>The long and cruel nights of barbarism. <br>Confronting the bloody maelstrom of atrocities <br>A few courageous foreigners in Nanjing<br>Risked their lives and came to the rescue. <br>These righteous Europeans and Americans <br>Helped many people to escape. <br>They hid and protected <br>Thousands of Chinese men, women and children<br>From the massacres.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">One of the rescuers was<br>Bernhard Arp Sindberg of Denmark. <br>When the war broke out Sindberg worked as a driver<br>For the British journalist Pembroke Stephens.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">One day in Shanghai, <br>They climbed a water tower to observe the fighting <br>And Stephens was killed by a machine gun salvo<br>Fired from a Japanese airplane.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Shortly before the occupation of Nanjing, <br>Sindberg moved to the capital. <br>Here he was employed as a guard<br>At a concrete factory in the city, <br>Owned by a Danish firm. <br>During the massacres he flew the swastika flag <br>To protect approximately 6,000 Chinese refugees <br>Camping on the factory lot.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Another foreigner<br>Who saved thousands upon thousands<br>From Japanese brutality<br>Was the German businessman, John Rabe. <br>Employed by the Siemens AG China Corporation, <br>He helped to establish the International Safety Zone<br>Of Nanjing.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Safety Zone had sheltered<br>Approximately 200,000 Chinese men, women <br>And children from the massacres.<br>Ironically, Rabe was a member of the Nazi Party. <br>However, he was a conservative man fostering<br>Traditional values and he had a compassionate heart.<br>Displaying the swastika at his house<br>And presenting his National Socialist documents, <br>Rabe negotiated, argued and protested <br>With the Japanese military in order to keep<br>Hirohito's troops out of the Safety Zone. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">He even wrote Hitler a letter <br>Requesting him to interfere<br>With the Japanese authorities <br>To stop the bestial bloodbath. <br>The Fuehrer did not reply. <br>When Rabe returned to Germany, <br>The Nazis forbade him<br>To lecture about the Japanese war crimes.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Another angel during the dreadful days<br>Of the Rape of Nanjing was Minnie Vautrin, <br>An American missionary and Dean of Jingling College. <br>She harbored and protected up to 10,000 women<br>At the school.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">She kept a diary in which she had recorded<br>The horrors of Nanjing. <br>Once, late on a winter evening, <br>She saw an army truck in the street, <br>Carrying a group of young Chinese girls.<br>As the truck passed by, the girls called out: <br>'Jiu ming, jiu ming', 'save our lives, save our lives'.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">A Buddhist monk once told me <br>That rivers and mountains have their own soul.<br>Nature is alive.<br>And so, in this terrible time of history, <br>Those who had listened carefully enough, could hear<br>The mountains and the rivers of the earth sigh.<br>And then in the glorious Land of the Rising Sun<br>The snow-capped peak of sublime Mount Fuji <br>Hid its head in the clouds, ashamed.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Paul+Hartal">Paul Hartal</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=477427" data-title="Massacre in Nanjing de Paul Hartal" data-description="On a clear winter day you can see from Tokyo
The snow-capped volcanic cone of Mount Fuji.
Towering to a height of 3,776 meters on Honshu Island, 
About 100 kilometers south-west from the capital, 
The majestic mountain is a staunch symbol 
Of the ..."></div>
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