Nanjing Massacre vs. Native Americans

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

Everytime we discuss the Nanjing massacre and the controversy over the truth of the events with the Japanese and Chinese on either end of the debates, I think about Christopher Columbus and the European's massacre of the Native Americans when America was first "discovered" by the Europeans.

We touched on the issue of how the Nanjing massacre is being taught in Japanese schools and the accuracy or lack of information in history textbooks. And as our class is composed of "superior" Americans viewing a foreign issue (as I am guilty of as well) I feel like there is a sense of "oh the Japanese are trying to hide the truth of their war crimes and blindly educating their students by not teaching them the facts."

HOWEVER, upon seizing that opinion I realize that Americans are just as guilty as the Japanese for not portraying history accurately in textbooks especially when it comes to the plight of the Native Americans when Europeans began settling in the Americas. I do believe that in the United States there have been steps in correcting and refining the writing of Exploration history, however, these are just "steps" and for the most part the majority of Americans are not educated in the reality of the "discovery of America" and continue to worship Columbus for his amazing feats without realizing the victimization of the Native Americans and the unbelievable, absolutely anti-heroic massacres.

So though the controversies of the Nanjing massacre are half a world away, Americans must also learn to come to terms with our history.

In fact, I clearly remember my textbooks in elementary school and middle school insufficiently portraying Exploration history, BECAUSE it wasn't until I took U.S. Histoy at a local community college the summer before my junior year was I really aware of the atrocities that took place in our country as the Europeans "cleared away" Native Americans for the sake of land and resources. Needless to say, textbooks in the U.S. are far from perfect so I can understand how it is that Japanese textbooks are not as "accurate" as Nanjing critics may expect them to be. [Edit by="vchan on May 8, 2:29:16 PM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

I totally agree with you that while we and other Americans may criticize the Japanese for not fully owning up to the atrocities of Nanjing, there is a dark history in the coming of Europeans and the demise of the Native Americans.

I remember reading about how as trains were newly constructed across the nation, riders would lean out a window and shoot down as many buffalo as they could because they knew that the Native Americans relied on them to survive. This was part of what was considered "patriotism" at the time. I think, though, that a reason why many textbooks leave out the bad stuff is because I don't even know if it's appropriate for elementary school kids to be learning about that type of stuff? I don't know if that sounded very conservative, but I think high school or middle school is a good time to start learning the realities and harshness of history.

In high school we were assigned to read a book called Lies My Teacher Told Me (by Lower I think) and it talked about what really happened to the Native Americans how we choose to only acknowledge things that glorify America in our textbooks. (Helen Keller was also used as an example because she is known for her childhood struggle in being a deaf mute, but hardly anyone ever mentions that she grew up to be a strong political leftist and socialist.)

It took us a long time before we could see in some textbooks an accurate reflection of what the Americans did to the Natives.. and I think that's also going to be the case with Japan. Even though everyone would like for Japan to be able to step up and face the responsibilities, it might not happen soon because the nation needs time to grow and be able to look at the situation objectively.

[Anonymous]

Yet another instance that we see little to nothing at all about in our American textbooks is the My Lai Massacre that occured in Vietnam in 1968. During the course of the Vietnam War, the women and children of this village were raped and pilaged in much the same way as what had happened in the Nanjing Massacre in China.

I was discussing this event with a friend of mine, and it hit me that there are so many similarites to the Nanjing and the My Lai massacres. And it truely hit home because the My Lai massacre involved our so called American heroes. In much the same way, our history books up e made little reference to this incident. But I do remember discussing it a little in my U.S. Histroy class in high school; what was said about it was how unhumane Americans must have been. When does morality step in to overrule "just taking orders?" Essentially Americans did the same thing as the Japanese in carrying out the "circumstances" of war, depriving innocent lives, and trying to cover up the tracks of a failed attempt overseas. We are just as bad as the Japanese, and I wonder if it will just be a matter of time when we hear the Vietnamese community rise up like the Chiense have to voice their discontent over this event.

[Anonymous]

i completely agree on the issue that Americans leave out a few skeletons that are in the closet. obviously our government has certain issues that have never been brought up. Even though we are part of the permanent five countries in the United Nations, that is only because those countries won WWII. I think that if we lost the war, America probably would have been tried under many criminal cases. Look at the vietnam war, native americans like vanlin said, and iraq currently. America always tries to be the hero in all of these instances, and are definetly portrayed as heroes by our culture and media. Yes, given we have done a lot for many countries, are we really helping the world or just policing? In Japan, there was also the case with General Mcarthur and the american occupation. some japanese believe him to be a hero, while others see him as bringing the country down, such as what we saw in class during that movie with the Japanese family living under a landlord.[Edit by="mli on May 14, 3:44:37 PM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

Though Columbus began the decimation of Native American tribes, he was definitely not the only "contributor." Cases in point:

[Anonymous]

in response to ctran (sorry I don't know your first name). . .what a coincidence that you brought up "Lies My Teacher Told Me," because that is actually the exact text I was assigned to read in my U.S. History class too. I wrote a paper on it and everything. . .I would love to read the book again and I would recommend it to the rest of the class if and when you get some "free time" (I'm beginning to realize there's no such thing at UCLA). I didn't exactly finish the book when I was taking the class. . .

[Anonymous]

what? i thought that germ warfare thing was something that the chinese exaggerated on.. cuz supposedly they exaggerate on a lot of things concerning Japanese ill treatment..hey didnt the germans do that to the jews also during wwII..i mean do scientific experiments on them? i forget..

wow its sad to think that most of our history is about one ethnic group giving ill treatment to another ethnic group is based on religion and scientific experiments..

oh. and i know this doesnt apply but i just saw a website which was against people wearing fur and it showed how cruel people were in beating the animal to death and then cutting off its feet.. and blood squirting out.. it was so sad. i dont even know what the animal was..i think a raccoon.. because it looked like it had raccoon eyes.. (yah i really suck at naming animals).. but yeah.. humans are just in general mean creatures.. yeah thats how i was relating this tangent subject..

[Anonymous]

i think it is interesting that you would compare the nanjing massacre to the demise of native americans in America because i always hear my dad compare the massacre to the holocaust. Both are equally horrible for its involvement of civilians, women and children, and controversial for the initial government denial. Though so many history books and victims have confirmed the occurrence of both, there are still individuals, stuanch patriots of Japan and Germany, who continue to live in denial and to refuse to admit and believe that they actually happened.

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