Genocide : The Rape Of Nanking And The Holocaust

“In 1933, Japan occupied Jehol Province, not including Chahar and Hopei, and wanted the Hopei as a demilitarized zone” (Hua-ling 56). In 1935, the Japanese forced the Chinese to withdraw from their stations in Hopei and Chahar and also ended all activities in the area. In September, Foreign Minister Hirota Koki, presented The Three Principles of Hirota to the Chinese government demanding that China should stop using American and European influence to maintain friendship, China should recognize Manchukuo, and that Japan and China mst establish a common defense against communism (Hua-ling 58). After Japan withdrew from the League of Nations, they were no longer going for world peace (Morley 72). “The Nanking Massacre refers to an exceedingly horrible massacre of civilians by the Japanese army during a six-week period from December 1937 to January 1938 after its occupation of Nanking, then the capital of the Republic of China” (Taso). General Iwane Matsui, the commanding officer in Shanghai, and the cabinet argued that the capture of Nanking would convince the nationalist government to settle the incident (Morley 74). Even before the Rape of Nanking, the Japanese had tried to use their power to force China to do things against their

The Cambodian Genocide and Holocaust are two significant events remembered in history. During the Cambodian Genocide and the Holocaust, Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot targeted minorities that had unique identities that would put them in danger and make them weak to resist. There were several planned events that led up to the occurrence of both genocides. Both Hitler and Pol Pot aimed to take control of their country by organizing ways to kill off multiple people at once. Hitler created concentration and extermination camps while Pol Pot had killing fields. These two leaders killed millions of lives because they practiced a religion that was disliked or had a job that made too much money for the leader’s liking.

The definition of genocide is killing a large group of people of a certain origin. The Holocaust was in Germany and started in 1933. Adolf Hitler and the Nazis were in charge of the Holocaust. The Cambodian Genocide took place in Cambodia. Cambodia is in Southeast Asia (“Cambodian”). Pol Pot was the leader of Khmer Rouge and the group was in charge of the Cambodian Genocide (“Cambodian”). The Cambodian Genocide started in 1975 and ended in 1978 because Khmer Rouge was ended by Vietnam (“Cambodian”). The Holocaust and the Cambodian Genocide are similar in the administrations’ treatment of their victims and in the fact that their victims were desperate for a leader, but different in U.S. involvement and government motivation.

The Holocaust and the Rape of Nanjing were similar based on what was happening during the time of each event. During the Holocaust, the Jews had a loss of rights. Better well known as Nuremberg Laws. They lost their homes and had to live in what they called the ghettos. Numerous families were located in one house, there was no bathrooms, no showers, and they were not allowed to leave the “home.” Once they were taken from the Ghetto, their next trip was to the concentration camp, basically known as death chambers. They would take the Jews into

The Cambodian Genocide took place from 1975 to 1979 in the Southeastern Asian country of Cambodia. The genocide was a brutal massacre that killed 1.4 to 2.2 million people, about 21% of Cambodia’s population. This essay, will discuss the history of the Cambodian genocide, specifically, what happened, the victims and the perpetrators and the world’s response to the genocide.

In December of 1937, the Japanese Imperial Army invaded Nanking, China. They killed 300,00 out of the 600,000 people in China’s capital city. The six-week rampage by the Japanese is now known as the Rape of Nanking and the single worst atrocity during WWII era in either the European or Pacific theaters of the war.

Throughout The Rape of Nanking, the brutal massacre of thousands of innocent Chinese citizens is brought forth through the invasion of this ancient city taken over by the Imperial Japanese army. Iris Chang illustrates the graphic details of the murder and rape of these victims through the perspectives of different sides of the attack. Chang; furthermore, ties in the mass genocide and destruction displayed throughout the book with the example of the Japanese government’s desperate attempt to cover up the incident and the reluctance of the survivors to discuss it. In addition, the horrifying events of The Rape of Nanking only further motivated an uncontrollable desire for aggression, violence, and imperialism in the Asian community evidently

Genocide is the destruction of an ethnic, racial, or religious group. The most famous genocide, conducted by the Germans, is the extermination of the Jewish population known as the Holocaust. There are other genocides such as the Armenian or Darfur genocide, but the Holocaust is the one talked about and studied the most around the world today. Museums exist in Washington D.C, Los Angeles, and parts of Europe that focus primarily on this dark time in history. Vast amounts of books, movies, and documents concentrate on the Holocaust. Why is this chapter, between 1939 and 1945, discussed and examined? The answer lies within people who experienced the Holocaust such as Elie Wiesel, Jay Frankston, and Franks Shatz. These men have gone through hell and back, but they believe in one thing. That is, the notion of never again. The goal is to educate future generations on what really happened, so history does not repeat itself. Never again should people of any race, religion, or ethnicity, go through the horrific past of the Holocaust. In their writing, Wiesel, Frankston, and Shatz do a great job using pathos, logos, and ethos to convey their message of never again for future generations.

“How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don’t think” (Hitler, Mein Kampf). As time passed, there has been many times in history where a genocide has occurred. A genocide is a one-sided massacre from one party toward an ethnic or different group of people. As genocides occurred, questions such as “Why do people kill?” and “How can people allow these atrocities to occur?” are asked. There have been many theories made up as people researched the reason behind genocides. Throughout different centuries in history, genocides such as the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, and the Asian genocide, have occurred because of the negative psychological effects on the people caused by propaganda, corrupted leaders, and differences in ethnic groups.

The Holocaust was a mass murder of millions of individuals’ primary to and during World War II. “Only 54 percent of the people surveyed by the Anti- Defamation League (ADL) in a massive, global poll has ever heard of the Holocaust” (Wiener-Bronner). The Holocaust was from 1933-1945 and was run by German leader named Adolf Hitler. Hitler was a man who wanted to create his own race of people. Therefore to create this race, he wiped out anyone who did not have the specific descriptions that he wanted. For people to fit into his race, they had to have blue eyes and blond hair. This excluded the Jews and from then on Hitler slowly dehumanized them. In the concentration camp the first thing they had to pass was the selection test. The selection test was what the SS man (German soldiers) used to determine who was fit for work. Usually children, mothers, and elders were the first to die because they were not mentally fit for the work they were going to be given. People who passed the selection process either died of starvation, disease, fatigue, or assassination. It took twelve years before anyone intervened and by then it was too late for millions of people. Even though over twelve million people died during the Holocaust, genocides have still happened in Rwanda, Darfur and Cambodia.

This event displayed that each gruesome mass killing, “does not highlight, but instead blurs the distinctions between us” (Yew). Japanese troops were trained to believe the Chinese were inferior to them, therefore they must be killed. Similarly, the Nazis were trained to believe the Jews were inferior. The Nanking Massacre also showed how no

World War II was a devastating war, whether you were directly in the war zone, or away from the battlefield, you were impacted greatly. Flyboys is a book written by James Bradley, in this book Bradley tells stories of World War II using first-hand accounts. In chapter five, Bradley discusses “The Rape of China” which was a battle that took place in 1937 during the beginning of World War II. In this battle, the Japanese fight the Chinese and destroy China. Both Japan and China had very different moral beliefs on fighting in the war. China believed that the soldiers needed to “be courteous,” and to also be “neither selfish nor unjust” to civilians (Bradley 54). Meanwhile, the Japanese had totally opposite policies known as the “Three Alls” meaning

Genocide has been around for many centuries. One of the most known happened in 1915 when residents of the Ottoman Empire were told to leave upon orders from the government. Due to the long and harsh travels, there was an enormous amount of disease trapped in the concentration camps. With that alone, there was an estimated amount of one million Armenians killed. Another example of genocide is when the Khmer Rouge took control of the Cambodian government in 1975. Citizens who were suspected of receiving an education were tortured at the Tuol Sleng prison. In four years, approximately two million Cambodians died in the “Killing Fields.” A Civil War in Rwanda aroused tension between the Tutsi minority and Hutu minority. When the Rwandan president’s plane was shot down, there was no doubt that a war was about to break out. The two minorities found themselves in the center of the conflict; in the end, the “outbreak” claimed the lives of an estimated 100,000 people. About a decade ago, the Sudan government showed an act of genocide when they murdered 300,000 Darfuri citizens and displacing two million. In addition to that, Native Americans died from colonial conflict, disease, and discrimination devastated their population. Within this time period, over nine million Natives died

While the Holocaust carried the hatred for jews, the Rape and Nanking carried the hatred of the chinese. The Holocaust actually started as a way to get rid of all the “weak links”. The mentally or physically handicapped were first to go, the jews being the next. Any dissenters would be tossed along with the handicapped and Jews. Dissenters were protesters or anyone that would try to stand up to the ss or hide/help a jew. The perpetrators of the Holocaust were Hitler’s followers, the nazis, and of course Hitler. Japanese murdered and/or raped the civilians of Nanjing, after murdering the prisoners of war, also known as the soldiers of the chinese army(“The rape of Nanking 1937-1938” 1). The Japanese imperial army is the only perpetrator of the Rape and Nanking(“The rape of Nanking 1937-1938”

Genocide, a dire event, has been recurring time and time again throughout history. In the past, there was the Holocaust, where Hitler exterminated over six million Jews based on his anti-semitic views. Elie Wiesel, a Jewish author, has become a very influential man in educating the world of the true events of the Holocaust due to his involvement in the disaster. Presently, a genocide is occurring in the Darfur region of southern Sudan, in which according to Cheryl Goldmark, “a systematic slaughter of non-Arab residents at the the hands of Arab militiamen called Janjaweed” has been taking place since 2003. (1) Not only is genocide a tragic historical event, it also continuously occurs today.