Thoughts on Historical Pain and People’s Aspiration on National Memorial Day

Jiang Dongping

China’s national flag flew at half-mast and sirens blared as the country held its ninth national memorial ceremony for the victims of the Nanjing Massacre. At this moment, our attention is once again drawn to the city of Nanjing plunged into darkness 85 years ago.

A history of pain forges the nation’s memory that reminds its people not to forget national humiliation. During the Nanjing Massacre, Japanese troops killed more than 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers. “We come across corpses every 100 to 200 yards. The bodies of civilians that I examined had bullet holes in their backs. These people had presumably been fleeing and were shot from behind.” This is an excerpt from the diary of German businessman John Rabe for December 14, 1937. Rabe recorded what happened in Nanjing in his diaries until January 1938. In a top secret telegram, a German diplomat called the Japanese army “a group of beasts”, adding that the entire Japanese army was undisciplined and committed atrocities and crimes in Nanjing, not just some Japanese soldiers. Every burial site, as well as every item of cultural relic and historical material witnessed the atrocities of Japanese invaders. They are kept in the heart of every survivor of the Nanjing Massacre. This is a history of humiliation the Chinese nation shall never forget.

Today, to pursue peace, we must have an awareness of learning from history. Only when we remember the pain of war can we cherish hard-won peace. Every national memorial ceremony, we ring bells not just in remembrance of our compatriots who were killed in the Nanjing Massacre. More importantly, the deep sound of the bells serves as a warning and a declaration that we shall never let the historical tragedy repeat itself. The past is the best teacher of the future.“Only if everyone remembers the bitter lessons of war, can there be hope for peace.” This is the profound lesson the future generation can learn from the history of the Nanjing Massacre. We should protect and inherit historical memory, guard against all wrong words and deeds that distort the history of aggression and hurt national emotions, and always take history as a mirror in a sober and determined way, to consolidate the foundation for peace, gather greater power to safeguard peace, and jointly build a beautiful future with a long-lasting peace.

As we come together on the national memorial day, we are declaring that Chinese people take a firm stand in remembering history, cherishing peace, and opening up a bright future, which will be bound to inspire us to move forward. Today, Nanjing has become an international city of peace that carries traumatic memories. For the whole country, which has seen tremendous changes in the past 85 years, the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is ushering in an irreversible historical process. The only way to achieve the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, the greatest dream of Chinese people since modern times, is to steadfastly advance Chinese modernization on the course of peaceful development and turn people’s aspiration for a better life into a reality. Through hard work, we will finally live a happy life that more than 300,000 victims of the Nanjing Massacre and all the Chinese compatriots killed by the Japanese invaders once longed for.

Author: Jiang Dongping, a commentator for the Institute of National Memory and International Peace