The site of a 68-year-old massacre made Ronald Wallace stop and think. During his visit to China, accompanied by a Canadian ecumenical delegation, Wallace walked on the ground where more than 350,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers were murdered, and 80,000 women and girls were raped by Japanese forces. "The atrocity of war really hits you," he said. "It was quite moving."
A memorial has been crafted over the site — permanently and publicly displaying the atrocities that occurred there between 1937 and 1938. The then-Chinese capital, Nanking, was invaded by Japan during that time, and the war crimes of the soldiers and those who ordered such cruelty went unpunished.
That failure — and the refusal of Japan to acknowledge and apologize for the works of its hands — has sparked the recent uprising in China and the ensuing conflict between the two countries. The demonstrations and mass rallies were something Wallace, associate secretary of the Presbyterian church's International Ministries, and his colleagues didn't encounter on their visit. Wallace did hear people talking though, and he himself can remember the steps taken by Japanese officials to keep the past buried. Having spent five years in Japan starting in 1976, the cover-up is nothing new. "They were already changing information in textbooks," he said.
Having now seen the place that the textbooks omit, Wallace's understanding of the situation is complete. While at the memorial, he looked upon a huge field. For him, the field itself, sprawling and green and covering the atrocities that came before it, had little impact. However, one small section of the mass grave had been excavated and was open to the public, covered only by a glass ceiling. As Wallace peered into the cavern, what he saw were bones. Hundreds of bones — thousands even. He wondered how many more were hidden beneath the soil and sod. "When you see the excavated area and the bones lying there, and you read the descriptions of the people who died, the reality is very stark," said Wallace.
Tourists, history buffs, and friends and relatives of those who were killed, visit the site everyday. And now, those who still harbour anger are rising up. "They want an apology," said Wallace. "Japan made a statement years ago, but they didn't say sorry. They used the word 'regret'. That isn't what the Chinese want to hear." – AM
