Text 1 Overdue Interest by Matt Miller In America many people are ignorant of the horrible crimes committed by the Japane Imperial Army during their invasion of China. In Japan, many even try to deny the Great Nanjing Massacre. Iris Chang wrote The Rape of Nanking to remind people of the evil done 60 years ago and the following is a comment on her book. 高中入团申请书 The Japane Imperial Army made a prominent spot in the annals of collective evil 60 years ago when it launched the Great Nanjing Massacre. In less than two months, Japane troops killed from 150 000 to 300 000 unarmed Chine civilians and raped and tortured more than 100 000 women. It was an act of mass barbarism that much of Japan to this day either can't explain or simply won't admit could have happened. In the United States, a ries of conferences timed to the anniversary of the massacre － which began on December 13 and lasted for about six weeks － is attempting to revive long-dormant interest in this horrific event. Most Americans have absolutely no idea about either the December 1937 － January 1938 massacre or its relationship to World War II. Central to this attempted revival is a new book by Iris Chang, The Rape of Nanking. Chang, 29, lives in the California Silicon Valley city of Sunnyvale, 100 kilometres south of San Francisco. It's no coincidence that a Chine-American writer in America's technology heartland is leading the charge that demands both Japane acknowledgment of responsibility and mainstream American recognition. Chang and her book are indications of an important movement within America. It is a demand for shared history. As ethnic groups gain economic, social and political confidence, they prod and push for their historic tales to be heard. "This is an invitation to Americans as a whole to become larger by incorporating the history of others," says Vera Schwarcz, a professor of Chine history at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. Nowhere is this movement more visible than among some of the more affluent Asian-American communities in California. "I go into school libraries and I'm shocked at how little there is," says Los Angeles-bad Korean-American writer Helie Lee. Her critically-acclaimed memoir, Still Life With Rice, is a fascinating tale of her grandmother, who overcame extraordinary adversity at the hands of Japane. "It is up to us as Asian-Americans to supply the resources, it is up to us to speak." The Nanjing massacre provides a compelling focus for Chine-Americans, who pressured the San Francisco Unified School District into including the massacre in high-school history cours. Similar demands are being made in Southern California's Orange County. Now, Chang is offering this history for mainstream consumption. 简笔画孙悟空For Chang, the Nanjing massacre began with lf-discovery. The daughter of Taiwan scientists who came to America in the 1960s, Chang heard stories about the massacre － how the Yangtze River ran red with blood － and how her grandparents had miraculously escaped the carnage. Her grandfather － a journalist stationed in the then Nationalist capital of Nanjing － was being evacuated by boat from Wuhu. Her grandmother and infant aunt were making their way from their ancestral village by sampan. Her grandfather waited on the docks for four days. Time was running out. "In despair, he screamed his beloved's name － Yi-Pei － to the heavens," Chang writes. "Then, like an echo from far away, he heard a reply. It came from one last sampan approaching the docks." But as a child, Chang could find nothing that tied tho personal accounts to history as Americans understand it. "While still in grade school I arched the local public libraries to e what I could learn about the massacre, but nothing turned up," she says. "It made me wonder. If it was really as bad as my parents said it was, then why couldn't I find it in the library?" Three years ago, Chang had just finished Thread of the Silkworm, a book on Chine-American scientist Tsien Hsue-shen (Qian Xueshen), a victim of the McCarthy era in the 1950s who then helped China develop its missile programme. She attended a conference on the Nanjing Massacre in the Silicon Valley community of Cupertina, organized by the Global Alliance for Prerving the History of World War II in Asia, an umbrella group of 30 organizations. "We feel that if we don't hold the people, this government, responsible, future generations will say, ‘Well, the people got away with it, so can we,’" explains Ignatius Ding, an engineer and an alliance founder. Ding adds: "The continued denial is an insult to our heritage." The 1994 conference showcad dramatic and gruesome photographs of the massacre. "Nothing prepared me for the pictures," Chang writes in her book, "stark black-and-white images of decapitated heads, bellies ripped open, and nude women forced by their rapists into various pornographic pos, their faces twisted into unforgettable expressions of agony and shame." Chang was appalled. "It was wor than I could ever have imagined," she says. "I felt sick to my stomach. I remember walking around in a state of shock." But the photos also hooked her on the need to relate this horror to other Americans. "I remember being very angry, especially at the intensity of the massacre, that more than 300 000 people may have died in the slaughter and that this could so easily be ignored. I felt I had almost a moral obligation as a Chine-American writer to let the rest of the world know what happened. And I felt a kind of urgency." She spent the next two years rearching the massacre. Her conclusion: "This went beyond just a mere slaughter. This is one of the greatest atrocities the world has ever en." The young author describes her emotional and historical quest over lunch in a afood restaurant near the apartment complex where she and her engineer husband, Bretton Lee Douglas, live. Chang talks in often-indignant tones, only occasionally picking at the fried squid in front of her. Her stories are laced with outrage, most often directed at Japan's dogged refusal to come to terms with its past. "It's appalling that the Japane continue to deny that it happened, that they really have escaped moral and financial responsibility," she says. Japan is "nding out the message to countries in the future that if you're rich and powerful enough, you can go ahead and kill and rape or torture hundreds of thousands of men, women and children and get away with it 60 years later." Chang's rearch uncovered a 2 000-page diary of John Rabe, a German businessman who spearheaded expatriate efforts in Nanjing to counter the Japane army's insanity. His account adds to the growing body of non-Chine accounts that support the ca of a systematic carnage by Japane troops. Rabe's witnessing is all the more credible as he both headed the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone and the local Nazi Party. 胡夏 Chang believes the Nanjing Massacre is indicative that the Japane conquerors purpoly dehumanized the Chine. The massacre was also a systematic attempt at annihilation, Chang argues, adding that the massacre should be likened to the Holocaust. Yet there is Japan's continued denial. Chang believes it stems from legal concerns: If Japan were to admit responsibility, the door would be open to lawsuits demanding billions of dollars in reparations. But that is an oversimplification. Japan continues to wallow in its own mythology of the Japane as victims. The country maintains a lf-righteous belief that it was pushed into military adventure. Palace politics also plays a role. The late Emperor Hirohito's uncle, Prince Yasuhiko Asaka, commanded the army around Nanjing. Orders, stamped with his al, told officers to kill all captured Chine soldiers. Even if one assumes that Japane authorities lost control and their troops went crazy, why was the carnage allowed to continue for so long? Who or what finally stopped it? All the issues are of little interest to most Americans, who suffer from what Schwarcz terms an "allergy to history." The Rape of Nanking stands as one of the only nonfiction accounts of the massacre in the English language. Yet it is barely 200 pages long, and appears to be aimed at an audience with little historical perspective. Chang and other Chine-Americans ask that fellow citizens understand this horror in the most fundamental terms. The first task, they are saying, is basic education. (1 322 words) TOP | 课文一 迟来的关注 马特•米勒 在美国，许多人并不了解日本帝国军队在侵略中国时所犯下的滔天罪行。在日本，许多人甚至试图否认南京大屠杀。艾里斯•张写的《南京大屠杀》，就是要提醒人们牢记60年前犯下的罪行。下面这篇文章是对这本书的评论。 60年前，日本帝国军队发动的南京大屠杀，在人类所犯下的集体罪行记录中位置醒目。在不到两个月的时间里，日军杀害了15-30万手无寸铁的中国公民，强奸折磨了侧面烘托10多万中国妇女。这是一次野蛮的集体暴行，至今许多日本人 不能解释，或根本不承认曾经发生过这样的事情。 在美国，有一系列会议安排在南京大屠杀周年日召开——自12月13未来不是梦日起持续近六周的时间 -- 试图重新激起对这一被长期冷漠了的恐怖事件兴趣。多数美国人根本不了解发生于1937年12月至1938年1月的大屠杀，也不清楚它与二战之间的关系。 在这次试图重新激起人们关注活动中起中心作用的，是艾里斯•张的新作《南京大屠杀》。 张，29岁，住在加利福尼亚硅谷桑尼威尔市，它位于旧金山以南100公里。一位美籍华人作家在美国科技腹地正率先对日军进行谴责，既要求日方承认罪行，担负责任，又要求得到美国大众的认可，这并非偶然。张和她的著作是美国国内的一场重大运动的标志。它要求共享历史。随着少数民族群体逐渐在经济、社会和政治方面树立起了信心，他们努力工作，向前迈进，好让人们听到自己的历史故事。 “这是对全体美国人提出的要求，要他们融合其他民族的历史，壮大自己，”薇拉•施瓦茨说。她是康涅狄格州韦斯勒因大学的中国历史教授。这场运动在任何地方都比不上在加利福尼亚的一些富有的亚裔美国人社区更引人注目。“我去了学校图书馆，发现这方面的资料竟如此之少，非常震惊。”住在洛杉矶的韩裔美国作家李赫利说。她那本颇受批评家好评的回忆录《生存之粮》，讲述了她祖母在落入日军魔掌后战胜巨大困难的故事，非常引人入胜。她说：“作为亚裔美国人，我们应该提供资料，应该说出来。” 南京大屠杀为美籍华人提供了一个外加的焦点，他们施加压力，使旧金山联合校区把大屠杀写入高中的历史课程。南加利福尼亚的奥伦奇县也正在提出类似的要求。如今，张提出这段历史供美国主流文化思考。 对于张来说，南京大屠杀始于她的自我发现。作为在20世纪60年代来到美国的台湾科学家的女儿，张听说了许许多多关于大屠杀的故事——扬子江如何被鲜血染红——她的祖父母如何奇迹般地从大屠杀死里逃生。 她的祖父——一位在当时国民党首府南京供职的记者——正从芜湖乘船撤离。她的祖母和尚在襁褓中的姑妈，坐着舢板离开祖祖辈辈生活的村庄。祖父在码头等了四天。时间不多了。“绝望中，他仰天尖叫 着爱人的名‘依培’，”张写道，“随后，像是从远方传来了回声一样，他听到了一声应答。答声从最后一条驶近码头的舢板上传来。” 然而，张小时侯无法把那些个人描述与美国人所理解的历史联系起来。“上小学时，我到当地的公共图书馆，想看看能了解到多少关于大屠杀的知识，但是什么也没有，”她说，“淮扬菜我感到很纳闷，如果大屠杀真像我父母说的那样可怕，为什么我在图书馆里查不到？” 3年前，张刚刚完成《蚕丝》。这本书讲述了美籍华人科学家钱学森的故事，他是20世纪50年代麦卡锡主义的受害者，当时他帮助中国开发了导弹计划。张出席了在古柏蒂那硅谷社区举办的关于南京大屠杀的会议。会议由保存亚洲二战历史的全球联盟会组织，这个组织下设30个机构。 “我们认为，如果我们不能促使这些人民、这个政府担负起责任的话，那么我们的后代会说，‘噢，这些人都不管了，我们也可以不管，’”伊格内修斯•丁解释道。他是一位工程师，也是联盟组织的创立者。丁补充说，“一贯的否认是对我们先辈的侮辱。” 在1994年的会议上，展出了大批有关大屠杀的阴森恐怖、令人印象深刻的照片。“色艺视频对这些照片，我根本没有心理准备，”张在书中写道：“黑白分明的照片上是被砍掉的头颅，被切开的腹部，浑身赤裸的妇女被强奸者摆成各种各样的姿势，她们的面容交织着痛苦与羞辱，令人无法忘却。” 张震惊了。“这比我想象的要可怕得多，”她说，乔樱“我觉得恶心。记得我震惊不已，走着看着。”但是这些照片也使她觉得有必要让美国人了解这一恐怖事件。“记得我非常愤怒，尤其是对于大屠杀的残酷程度，可能有30多万人在屠杀中丧生，这一点很容易被忽略。我觉得，作为一名美籍华人作家，我几乎有一种道义上的责任让世界上其他人了解曾发生的事情，我感到一种紧迫感。” 随后两年她全部花在对大屠杀的研究上。她的结论是：“这已不是一次简单的屠杀，这是世界目睹的最残酷的暴行之一。” 张和她的丈夫，布雷顿•李•道格拉斯工程师，住在一所公寓。在公寓附近的海鲜餐厅吃午餐时，这位年轻作者描述了她充满情感、富有历史意义的探求过程。张用惯常的语气愤慨地说着，偶尔才吃一块面前的油煎鱿鱼。她的叙述 带着愤怒，多数情况下直斥日本对过去罪行的抵赖。 “令人惊骇的是，日本人继续否认发生过大屠杀，他们真的是已经逃脱了道德和经济上的责任”，她说。日本“正在向未来的国家发布信息，如果你国富民强，你便可以为所欲为地去杀人、去强奸、或者去折磨成千上万的男人、女人和孩子， 在60年后逃脱所有惩罚。” 张的研究展示了约翰•拉贝写的一本2000页的日记，他是个德国商人，曾在南京领导侨民力抗日军暴行。拉贝的记述在日益增多的外国人有关大屠杀的陈述中又添一笔，这些陈述力证大屠杀是日军的蓄意屠杀。拉贝伯的目击证据最可信，因为他既是南京安全区国际委员会的负责人，又是当地纳粹党的头目。 张相信，南京大屠杀表明日本侵略者在蓄意残害中国人。张论争道，大屠杀同样是一次蓄意灭绝人种的尝试，张还说它可以与纳粹屠杀犹太人事件相提并论。 日本仍然继续对此予以否认。张认为这是出于法律上的考虑，如果日本承认自己负有责任，那么要求数10亿美元的弥补性赔偿的诉讼便敞开了大门。然而，这把问题过分简单化。日本仍旧沉湎于自己是受害者的神话。这个国家自以为是地相信它是被迫进行军事冒险的。 宫廷政治也起了一定的作用。前任天皇裕仁的叔叔，朝香鸠彦，统领南京周围的军队。盖有他的印戳的命令吩咐军官们把所有被俘的中国士兵全部杀掉。就算人们假定日本官方失控了，他们的军队发疯了，那么，为什么还允许屠杀持续如此之久？是谁，是什么最终结束这场屠杀的？ 多数美国人对所有这些问题不感兴趣，他们患有施瓦茨命名的“讨厌历史症”。是一本用英语写的南京大屠杀的记实报告。但它只有200页，似乎针对的是历史知识浅薄的读者。张与其他美籍华人要求其他公民对这一恐怖事件有最基本的了解。他们说，首要的任务应是基础教育。 |
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