Why the Rape of Nanking was Largely Forgotten

In explaining why the Rape of Nanking had not penetrated the world consciousness in the same way as the Holocaust or Hiroshima, Iris Chang suggested that it was because the victims themselves had remained silent.

The amnesia also had to do with what Chang described as the inaction of the Chinese and Taiwanese governments in demanding for wartime reparations from Japan, as the two governments were eager to compete for Japanese trade and political recognition.

Then of course there was the U.S. involvement in Japan to turn the latter into a staunch anti-communist ally. This meant that the Japanese pre-war bureaucracy was left intact, permitting many of its wartime perpetrators to go unpunished.

The mood too within Japan also contributed to the amnesia, and even the denial that the massacre even took place.

As Chang wrote: "An atmosphere of intimidation in Japan stifled open and scholarly discussion of the Rape of Nanking, further suppressing knowledge of the event. In Japan, to express one's true opinions about the Sino-Japanese War could be - and continues to be - career-threatening, and even life-threatening."

What a nation. Indeed, the very act of enshrining their war criminals in Tokyo was equivalent, in the words of an American wartime victim, "to erecting a cathedral for Hitler in the middle of Berlin."