When Japan was colonizing China, they did what the Israelis are doing today, by sending thousands of Japanese settlers into Manchuria. By a stroke of ill fate, they lost the war and these colonialists fled Manchuria after the war. Many died in the process, at least 5,000 on record.
Zhou Enlai did the humanly decent thing by giving them a proper burial. Today, the local govt of Fangzheng went one step further by erecting a monument on the grave site of these occupiers. This act has incurred the wrath of a nation that suffered the brutality of Japanese occupation forces when millions were killed and maimed, when the country was devastated and the dignity of a people erased from their faces.
The foolish people of Fangzheng have forgotten that if the Japanese had won the war, they would be victims of these dead Japanese and their atrocities as conquered people. No country in the world is silly enough to build monuments to honour their conquerors. I doubt Singapore would dare to put up a monument to honour the Japanese soldiers killed in the island during the Japanese Occupation.
The Americans too did not set up monuments to honour the millions of Red Indians decimated during their conquest and occupation of Red Indian country. The Indians and Africans too did not build such monuments to honour the dead colonialists. Many even tore down buildings and landmarks of their colonial rulers.
How much sillier can the Chinese be?
Just a case of living human fearing the dead due to superstition or whatever, no big deal.
ReplyDeleteHowever, be mindful that it could also be a reminder to the Chinese future generations that the Place was once occupied by invaders, not too bad.
Right?
Surprisingly, despite the atrocities committed, the Japanese C-in-C of Imperial Japanese Army in the Malayan/Singapore campaign, Gen.Yamashita, did build a memorial in the McRitchie Reservoir area for British and allied forces who died in the campaign. But the memorial was demolished by the British after the defeat of Imperial Japan in 1945, due to fears that the memorial might revive memories of Yamashita's atrocities.
ReplyDeleteRed Bean, according to Wikipedia, there were two other memorials built by the Nippon army in 1942 apart from the one I mentioned. They were the Nippon Jinja and Nippon Chureito built on Bukit Batok Hill to commemorate their own war dead. These were also demolished when the British returned in 1945.
ReplyDeleteGiving them proper burial and erecting a monument on the grave site shows that the Heilongjiang Chinese/Chosun are magnanimous,gracious,can forgive and forget.Cannot say they are fools because of that.
ReplyDeleteI rather see country build monuments to honour their conquerors than to see their country men calling themselves Yamabuta Lee,Toni Tan etc when they are not related to ....You rarely see this in Helongjiang,so who are more silly and more foolish.
Mr Bean,
ReplyDeleteSorry,something wrong with my mouse.Comments repeated.Pls delete accordingly.
Hi anon, you are right about the monument for the Brit soldiers. I don't mean to split hair, I read some write ups and technically it was the Brits who built their monuments when they were ordered to build for the Japs when they were prisoners. The Japs wanted them to build theirs and they pleaded to build one for their own soldiers, and the Japs acceded for PR reasons.
ReplyDeleteAgongkia, if you look at the pictures of the Japanese invasion of China and those of the Rape of Nankin, the cruelties were horrific and unforgiveable. The Japs were barbaric in the meanest ways. Even in Singapore, they were just as bad.
A decent burial for the dead is good enough. A monument is not something I thought appropriate. But that is just my personal view.
The Brits were not that badly treated by the Japs. But the Japs had no mercy with the Chinese and the Koreans, people they deemed inferior to them and could be colonised.
Those Chinese idiots got to thank their lucky star that the Americans dropped the two A bombs on the Japs. Otherwise they would suffer a fate they would regret for being alive in the hands of the animalistic Japs.
One can be magnanimous, but stupidity is a different issue. Till today, the Japs are still occupying the Chinese and Korean territories and are chasing both out of the conquered land with their navy. They had toned down lately because the Chinese could take them on and it could lead to a disastrous war they could not afford to lose.
The local scene here is quite different as the new generations were brought up knowing very little history.