A Preventable Tragedy at Nanking: An Exploration into How it Was Allowed to Continue and Who Tried to Stop it
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Throughout human history, conflicts have arisen over a wide variety of reasons on a near constant basis. Yet, when an atrocity occurs, human on human violence seems to be elevated to a level that makes it seem almost unbelievable. However, there is an aspect of an atrocity that creates an air of even more unbelievability: An atrocity that is so well known as it is going on, but nothing is done to prevent or stop it. This is the case with the Rape of Nanking. It is my belief that due to many foreign governmental bodies being aware of what was happening in Nanking during this time, the atrocity could have been prevented/stopped yet was consciously allowed to continue. With this said, it is without a doubt that the lessons learned from the Rape of Nanking is certainly of great importance to the field of Public History. Lessons, such as how to properly recognize and stop a potential atrocity and how to advocate for the victims, is crucial and essential information that needs to be made available to those that research, teach and/or learn history. My research for this subject took me down a dark path that only strengthened my resolve to go deeper. Seeing the photographs of raped and mutilated victims, reading the letters of those foreigners that found themselves as eyewitness to the atrocity begging their respective governments to help and watching the videos taken by Reverend John Magee that gave a raw insight into the horrors of the Rape of Nanking as it happened would push anyone to further their research to get to the bottom of how this was allowed to take place. And, according to my research, I have concluded that it was the willful ignorance by those with the power to stop it but did nothing: The American, German and Russian governments. Even the Chinese government is not innocent of such ignorance, they abandoned their own citizens.