In the Chinese media, there has always been such a saying: During World War II, the United States was planning to bomb Japan’s Kyoto and Nara, but later Chinese architect Liang Sicheng tried to prevent these two cities as ancient capitals, and the United States attached great importance to it. The suggestion of Liang Sicheng. It is precisely because of Liang Sicheng's insistence that these two ancient cities in East Asia have been preserved. The two cities in Japan have also been grateful for Liang Sicheng to this day.
has spread very widely, and even appeared in many middle school "ideological and moral" classes. However, whether this matter is true or not has always been in doubt. If you think about it a little bit, you will find that this matter is unreasonable in at least two aspects:
First, will the United States be so concerned about protecting the so-called cultural monuments of Japan? Japan’s ancient cultural capitals are far more than these two. Tokyo and Osaka are also cities with many cultural monuments, and they are still being burned by the Americans.
Second, Liang Sicheng is a commoner. At that time, the whole of China was "remarkable" in the world. How can Liang Sicheng? Will the U.S. military listen to him? The American bombing plan was determined by a series of military committees and military units based on strategic needs. How could it be influenced by Liang Sicheng, a Chinese literati who was thousands of miles away?
Liang Sicheng
So, is this a rumor? But no, this statement is really not groundless, it is really justified. Even some Japanese later believed it to be true. However, from a rational point of view, this incident is indeed illogical. Then, where is the original source of this incident?
There are about two sources of information that can be verified: one is Su Bai, a professor of archaeology at Peking University; the other is Luo Zhewen, the former president of the China Cultural Relics Association (a student of Liang Sicheng).
In 1985, Luo Zhewen went to Japan to participate in academic activities. Someone in Japan asked: Nara and Kyoto were spared during World War II. According to Mr. Su Bai, who visited Japan before, it was the result of Liang Sicheng's suggestion. Is it true? Luo Zhewen responded: In 1944, Liang Sicheng used circles to mark the ancient cities and towns in the future Japanese occupation area. There are two circles, Kyoto and Nara.
He thinks: It should be this picture that worked.
However, Liang Sicheng's later memories directly denied this. In a special historical period in 1968, Liang Sicheng explained that he served as the deputy director of the "War Zone Cultural Relics Preservation Committee" in 1944. Liang Sicheng said that he was merely marking The cultural relics along the coast of China and North China were given to the US military for reference. If they landed in China to attack the Japanese army, they hoped to protect the ancient buildings in China, but they did not involve Japan.
There are actually quite a few ancient buildings in Japan blown up
In fact, there is another person who has saved Kyoto Nara in the world, and this person is a professor at Harvard University in the United States. Langdon Warner, this person was a special adviser to the "American Committee for the Protection and Rescue of War Zone Arts and Historical Monuments."
The opinions of professors from prestigious American universities are naturally heavier, but in fact Warner himself completely denied this statement when faced with waves of reporters. In his letter to the secretary, he wrote: batch after batch People broke into the office... Everyone must bring up the old-fashioned "savior myth" (even I believe in this myth now). The myth is: I saved Kyoto and Nara from the bombing by myself... That was the government's policy, which was carried out by General MacArthur, and no civilian personnel were personally responsible.
In other words, Kyoto and Nara were not bombed on a large scale, and it should not be one of them at work. However, there are some exceptions in Kyoto. Kyoto was almost going to be bombed by an atomic bomb. Someone really excluded it. This person was the then Secretary of the Army of the United States Stimson. Stimson visited Kyoto many times during his time as Governor of the Philippines. He has a deep affection for this elegant and beautiful city. He also knows the special cultural significance of this city to Japan, so he took Kyoto from the atomic bomb. Excluded from the bombing target. But this was August 1945, and the discussion was about the "atomic bomb" rather than the early strategic bombing of Japan by the United States.
Except for Kyoto and Nara,There are similar disputes about the cessation of bombing in the ancient capital of Kamakura. The picture shows the Warner Memorial Monument at the west exit of Kamakura Station. There is a view that American art historian Landon Warner persuaded the government not to bomb Kamakura, but this is actually also controversial.
But in that case, why is there always a saying that "someone protected Kyoto and Nara was not bombed"? First of all, it is a rumor that the two cities of Kyoto and Nara were not bombed. The United States bombed these two cities. From January 16 to June 26, 1945, the US military bombed Kyoto 5 times, but the scale of the bombing was not large. After the fifth bombing, the bombing of Kyoto stopped. What was the reason? In fact, it was just a coincidence that Kyoto was selected as the target of the nuclear explosion, so the conventional bombing ceased.
As for Nara, it has also been bombed on a small scale. But it has not been bombed like other cities. The reason is actually very simple: Nara is really not a suitable target for military bombing. Nara is an ancient capital of Japan, but it is by no means an important city. It has been a tourist-oriented city until now (about 16 million tourists visited Nara every year in 2017). During World War II, there were neither a large number of military objectives nor a large number of military targets. There is no important industry, so it is normal for the United States not to bomb here. In fact, there is another place in Japan that is more fortunate than Nara, which is Ishikawa Prefecture. The U.S. military has never bombed it because there is indeed no bombing value.
Nara is really nothing exploded
Of course, if Japan is not honest after being hit by two atomic bombs, I really want to engage in "100 million jade cities" It is impossible to survive.
Actually, "Someone saved the ancient capital of Japan" is actually a beautiful legend. According to the tradition of the U.S. military, if this happened, the U.S. military would definitely promote it with great fanfare in order to improve its image, but the U.S. military never promoted it from beginning to end. Professor Zolala issued an article in 2018, stating that there was no such incident in the Roberts Committee file of the National Archives of the United States. This basically proves that this matter is fictitious.
Author: Yun-Fan
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