No cause to celebrate Japanese atrocities

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No cause to celebrate Japanese atrocities

By Ding Gang (Global Times) 08:38, September 05, 2013

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September 3 is the 68th anniversary of China's victory in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-fascist War. Although I am now far away from Thailand, the canyon that the Burma Railway, also known as the "Death Railway," crossed constantly comes to my mind. The railway was built by the Japanese and linked Thailand and what was then Burma during WWII. Horror, starvation, sickness and death stalked the construction process.

In the canyon along the rail route, I was amazed by a tall tree standing on the edge of the cliff. This tree of life embraces such tenacious vitality that it could break through the rails that have been laying there for almost 70 years.

Every visitor to the canyon will remember this tree. It is a call for life by the thousands of prisoners of war (POWs) persecuted by the Japanese.

Descendants of Australian POWs have built a memorial in the Thai military camp, Hellfire Pass Museum, to remind all visitors that the victory of WWII did not come easily.

Hellfire is an accurate description of the construction scene decades ago. When night fell, the dim light could be seen from the jungle. That was the construction field where people were working all through the night.

The POWs and slave laborers were forced to work more than 10 hours per day. Each rail was laid with blood and life. Each kilometer of rail cost the lives of more than 600 people, whether they be British, Australian, Chinese, Thai or Myanmese.

When I was stationed in Thailand, I went to this museum many times. I often met Japanese. What they left in the guest book was wishes for peace.

However, no one really knows how they view this railway. In the eyes of some nationalist Japanese, the railway, built with lives of thousands of hundreds of POWs, represents victory rather than guilt.

According to an exhibition in the museum, after WWII, some Japanese took some tracks and rails back to Japan and collected them as souvenirs. They would hold commemorative activities, and some viewed them as tremendous achievements.

According to Wikipedia, Japanese veteran groups returned the first locomotive that ran on the railway to Japan. The locomotive now sits in the Yasukuni Shrine as a display of Japan's industrial achievements.

The knowledge of war of some Japanese seems to be limited. Such a mentality is not only the reason that Japan fell for militarism, but also why some Japanese still dream of imperialism.

In recent years, I have seen some memorial cemeteries built by Japanese in Southeast Asian countries. There is nothing wrong with Japanese hoping for peace. But whenever I went by those tombstones, I always felt that there was a lack of introduction to WWII and the atrocities committed by Japanese invaders.

French historian Annette Wieviorka explained that she wrote the book Auschwitz Explained to My Child because children should know what happened in WWII.

But children still have a lot of questions, like "Why would Nazis exterminate Jews?"

The same questions should also be raised to Japanese: Why were their ancestors so ruthless in war? Why could they view guilt as pride?

If these questions cannot be answered and if children do not have a clear understanding of these questions, more Japanese are bound to view the "Death Railway" as a victory for their country.

The author is a senior editor with People's Daily. He is now stationed in Brazil. [email protected]