The Healing Power Of The Truth Regarding The Second Sino-Japanese War

If you too feel that the study of WWII is biased toward the European battles then such each opportunity to set the record straight is welcomed. Important attempt to educate people about this war is in the film that documents the rape of Nanking as a tribute to the best seller book of Iris Chang The Rape of Nanking.

On December 10, 1937, Japanese troops arrived at gates of Nanjing (current spelling), then the capital of Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist government, in a bid to incorporate China into Japan’s “Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere.” Many expected the Japanese would take the city peacefully, but instead the soldiers went on a two-month rampage of mutilation, rape and murder that left only 300,000 alive in a city once home to more than twice that number.

This side of the pacific seems to have forgotten all about the terrible war between the Chinese and the Japanese maybe because the Chinese are not very popular in the West now. I know that such a selective memory is sad but I do believe that beside the natural ethnocentrism that leads to focus on the European side of the war the fact of the victim not being perceived as friendly, close or significant to the west is the reason that the study of this war is neglected. It feels as if one way people can familiarize themselves with the war between Japan and china is to play the war either as a Japanese or as Chinese using games as HOI2. Going through the stages thinking as someone from each nation is great to learn historical perspective. Unfortunately there are not enough games for this war and it can be a very good idea to create some more games to ease the learning and the understanding of the period.