Nanjing

There is just too much tragedy in the Nanjing Massacre. No words can quite sufficiently express the miseries of the thousands as well as the heroism of the few. Perhaps these pictures can say more than a few thousands words.

Comfort Women

On the visit with Professor of Shanghai Normal University, we uncovered a wealth of knowledge, and discovered and experienced emotions that we didn't know we had. We also met people with whom we shared knowledge and broke bread, and took away with us a new understanding of what happened in history. On the whole, this tour has not only better informed us as teachers, but has also afforded us, as human beings, a deeper insight into the nature of man.
We have been moved by the things we saw and the stories we heard, and we were filled with an admiration for the courage of the victims, because every time they tell their stories, they are reliving the trauma, the horror, their shame and their guilt, all over again.
What was inspiring, too, were the people who are devoting a great part of their lives in helping these victims, in the hope of bringing some justice and closures to their silent guilty suffering for the last seventy years.
One such person is Professor Su (another is Lawyer Madam Kang Jian, whom we would later meet in Beijing), with whom I had the rare opportunity of a few minutes of private chat while we were waiting together for the bus to take us to lunch.
Professor Su, with the assistance of his wife and graduate students, is devoting a large portion of his time and money in trying to alleviate the pains of the survivors of the Japanese sex slavery. One of Professor Su's dreams is to acquire the property in the picture in my previous post and preserve it as a museum in memory of the thousands of women who were forced into sex-slavery by the Japanese military machine. This property is the only still standing and in good condition structure that was taken over by force from Chinese private owners by the Japanese and turned into a Comfort Station.
Professor Su's dream is a noble one, but to realize it will take a lot of effort and money. He cannot do this all by himself; he needs the support --- morally and financially --- of concerned global citizens. Citizens who care enough to say "I will help."
I have been so inspired by Professor Su's noble task, and I would like to be one of those who would say: "I care ... and I will help."

Shanghai

The first two days in China were spent acclimatizing ourselves. Lots of sightseeings, eating and shopping.
The fun part started on the third day in Shanghai. We spent three days with Professor Zhi-Liang Su who, on the morning of the first day, talked about the carving up of China by Western powers and Japan, with special references to the development of Shanghai, and compared Shanghai with Nanjing during WWII. In the afternoon, we visited the Shanghai Museum on the War of Resistance Against Japanese Invasion. The visit enabled us to better understand the relation between the Battle of Shanghai (1937) and the Nanjing Massacre. We also visited a synagogue, which is now a museum, as well as the former residence of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen.
On the second day, Professor Su, who is also the Director of "The Centre for Study on Chinese Comfort Women" of Shanghai Normal University, discussed the issue of Japan's sexual slavery system, its impact on the victims, and the ongoing international movement for redress for the victims (the Comfort Women), during the Japanese occupation of East and South-east Asia. Surprisingly, Professor Su is presently the only person who is "looking after" the surviving comfort women in and around Shanghai. One of his graduate students, Jun-Wen Jiang, is actually undertaking the arduous task of visiting each of these Comfort Women in their home and distributing a monthly stipends of RMB200 to each of them. In his work with the Comfort Women, Professor Su receives very little assistance from the Chinese government. Whatever financial aids he receives is from his own pockets and from charitable donations, mainly from Toronto ALPHA, who pledged a yearly amount of RMB100,000 for the next three years.
In the afternoon, we paid a visit to a historical site with eye-wintness Chen Bing-Rong, who was the former owner-occupant of the property taken over by the Japanese and turned into a "Comfort House." With a tour of the site, Mr. Chen (1st pic in front of his property) briefed us on the operation of the "comfort house" and testified that at any given time, there were at least 30 "comfort women" servicing the Japanese military; sometimes there were even queues of military personnel waiting to be serviced by these sex slaves. According to Professor Su, the ratio, as evidenced by Japanese military documents, is 1 woman to 29-32 soldiers.
On the third day of the visit with Professor Su, an ex-comfort woman (2nd pic.) travelled from 200 kilometers away to come and tell her story to us. Her story was one of horror and sexual terror; she has become sterile and barren, and has a fear of men. Unable to bear any children herself, she adopted two boys, one of whom (man on her right) is now looking after her in her old age. Surprising, she displayed no hatred for her oppressors; like all the other victims, all she asked for was an apology from the Japanese government.
Everybody in the audience was moved by her story. At one point, Flora, who was translating her story for the teachers, broke down in tears. By the end of her story, there was almost not a single dry eye in the room.

Updates

Hello Readers:

To those of you who had tried to log on in the past couple of weeks to read the updates of my tour in China, I apologize. The reason is that I have not been able to write any updates because the site seems to have been blocked out in China, so that it was impossible to log on inside China.
Anyway, I have now left China, so I will be able to blog again. But please do not expect a complete update of the entire tour immediately, as I will be leaving Canada again (next week), but I will try to blog regularly to keep you posted. So check back again, soon.

The Nanjing Massacre

Plans have been underway for quite a while now to travel to China to meet with some of the survivors of the Nanjing Massacre.
I leave on Sunday (July 9, 2006) with a group of educators from Ontario, and we will be travelling to Shanghai, Nanjing, Beijing, and Harbin. This study tour is sponsored by ALPHA Toronto, and one of the main objectives is to educate the participating teachers with the history of the Japanese invasion of China during the period between the two world wars. It is expected that the participants will bring their experience in China back into the Ontario classrooms and share their knowledge with their students and colleagues.
I am very excited about this trip. It is the reason why I set up this blog --- so that I may share my thoughts and feelings about my experience.
I shall try to be as objective and sincere as I can be in my postings, and will try to update the postings on a regular basis during the tour, so that the experience will be fresh.