American netizen Craig Fechter's answer received 1100+ praises. He said:
I am from California , and I was born and raised here. Speaking of the history of World War II , most of the courses in the United States revolve around the conflict between the United States and Japan and the European conflict, including the American and European parts.
Few people talk about or hear about the harm caused to the Chinese by the Japanese. Although the Nazis must be cruel, the Japanese are veritable barbarians in China.
About two and a half years ago, I started to be interested in this topic in , Xiamen and Fuzhou in China. I saw an World War II memorial hall in Fuzhou and started reading about Japan's occupation of China.
After reading the initial invasion, I saw the Wikipedia article for the Nanjing Massacre. I can't tell you how excited I was when I read about the massive suffering the Chinese people suffered in Nanjing! I know that the suffering Chinese suffer in Nanjing makes me heartbroken.
My heart hurts because I don’t know that humans can ignore anyone’s life so unscrupulously! My heart hurts very much. The baby was thrown into the air and stabbed to death by a bayonet! Tens of thousands of women were raped, violated and eventually killed! Any Chinese adult man was taken to the river and was strafed by machine gun like a dog!
Americans just haven't heard of it, and if they had heard of it, I don't think they would understand the absolute depravity of the Japanese. So, as a Westerner, what do I think of the Nanjing Massacre?
1-This needs to be taught in our schools, just like the German occupation of Europe. It should be emphasized for its reasons, racism and excessive nationalism. Unless you know these mistakes, you cannot learn and grow from previous mistakes.
2-I fully understand why Chinese people distrust Western countries so much. In World War II, Japan was the pain and terrible enemy that the United States and China jointly gave to, and then suddenly, Japan was one of the largest allies of the United States, and after only ten or twenty years, suddenly China became the enemy? This distrust of Western countries continues to this day. I totally understand this.
3-I am grateful that over the past 70 years, humanity seems to have advanced to the nation-state that seems to stop engaging in such brutal behavior.
4-I understand why Chinese people emphasize this incident. I mean, in the United States, 3,000 people died in the September 11 incident, and when Japan ransacked Nanjing, more than 300,000 Chinese were brutally killed. Can you imagine such an incident happening in the United States? If a savage tribe invaded America and killed so many civilians in such a cruel way, we would have discussed this for hundreds of years.
5-I am heartbroken by the Chinese people and the serious injustice they have suffered. I feel heartbroken for the 30 million people who died and the hundreds of millions affected by the war. I hope they as a country can collectively forgive and forget and go beyond it…but I absolutely understand why this is a big event for them.
