To China and South Korea I Will Go...
HERE WE GO...
For the past 9 years I have been a social
studies public school teacher. Currently, I have been working at the same urban
district for the past five years. It is through my supervisor that I learned
about the 2017 Peace & Reconciliation Asia Study
Tour with the group New Jersey
Alliance for Learning and Preserving the History of World War II in Asia or NJ ALPHA for short, of which, I am
fortunate to have been granted a generous scholarship to participant in.
Besides my love of travel, I decided to apply for this program because, "a terrible travesty of justice that suffering of a third of the population of Asia during World War II should be neglected from the global history taught currently in the West and, consequently, relegated to the “attic of history.” What is even more unforgivable is that history may be repeating itself that could cause unimaginable pain, suffering, and tragedy to the world because we do not learn from this part of history....The atrocities that the Japanese Imperial Army inflicted on China, Korea, Philippines, and other parts of Asia were not isolated incidents, but massive atrocities that included the Nanking Massacre, sex slaves, biological and chemical warfare, and illegal mistreatment of prisoners of war (POWs)."
As stated above, in the statement
of NJ ALPHA, much of the atrocities of World War Two are often from not only
the European Theater, but when it comes to the Pacific Theater, hardly anything
is mentioned. Surveying a handful of
high school level textbooks, prove this point.
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| World History - Patterns of Interactions (2007) |
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| Glencoe World History (2004) |
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| World History: The Modern Era (2007) |
The only book that somewhat talked about the Pacific Theatre beyond sea battles, kamikaze, Iwo Jima, or “Big Boy” & Little Boy was an AP History Book, of which I could not find the name, which toughed on the actions of the Japanese in just under 2 full pages (pgs 1032 - 1035).
On April 30th, I was able to meet the few people from New Jersey as well as the other participants for this year’s tour. Before meeting up, we were advised to watch a video of a previous trip
The meeting started off by everyone introducing themselves via video conference call.
After all of the introductions, we went on to cover the mission of NJ ALPHA, a basic history of the Sino-Japanese War, we were distributed the curriculum guides that they have developed for High School, books and recommended book list. We finished the meeting off by reviewing the trip itinerary, the process for applying for a visa for China and various travel tips. Once dismissed we were able to go out for Dim Sum at a local restaurant and conversation.
Usually
when I travel, I take much more time to conduct research so that I know what I
am getting into. Since I’ve been teaching for almost 10 years, I know I am much
more aware of some of the major atrocities than many of my peers. Every year that I teach certain lessons, I
take time to research and build upon my previous knowledge. The topics of the Nanking Massacre, Comfort
Women, and Unit 731 are something that I am familiar. One of the most recent films to touch on this
history is The Flowers of War (2011),
which was based on the book, 13 Flowers of Nanjing, that was inspired by the diary of Wilhelmina
"Minnie" Vautrin, an American missionary, in China during the Nanking Massacre in China where she
cared and protection of as many as ten thousand Chinese refugees from the
Japanese authorities.
Though the movie
can be pretty graphic and telling about the attack in Nanking, when it comes to
this part of history, after seeing many of the pictures google offers at the
click of a mouse, it is just one of those things that you cannot un-see nor
forget.
Comfort
Women is the term used to describe the women kidnapped, coerced, and or taken prisoner
to be sex slaves for soldiers and other officials of the Japanese Imperial
Army. When learning about this, there
were two points that remained in my brain,
1) As
told in Kazuko Watanabe’s article, Trafficking in Women's Bodies, Then and Now:
The Issue of Military Comfort Women, “...One Japanese Army
doctor, Asō Tetsuo testified that the "comfort women" were seen as
"female ammunition" and as "public toilets", as literally
just things to be used and abused, with some "comfort women" being
forced to donate blood for the treatment of wounded soldiers….At least 80% of
the "comfort women" were Korean, who were assigned to the lower ranks
while Japanese and European women went to the officers with for example Dutch
women captured in the Netherlands East Indies (modern Indonesia) being reserved
exclusively for the officers...
2) As
a victim of the incident, in 1990, Jan Ruff-O'Herne testified to a U.S. House
of Representatives committee: "In the comfort station I was systematically
beaten and raped day and night. Even the Japanese doctor raped me each time he
visited the brothel to examine us for venereal disease."
Reading
about these stories, is one thing however sometime it truly takes a visual to
get a clearer picture. One very powerful
video about comfort women that I usually share with my students is titled, Herstory Comfort Women Animation – English
When it comes to World War Two, one popular
area of study is often the human experimentation as performed by the Nazi’s,
specifically the ones conducted by Josef Mengele. However, many American’s are never taught
about Unit 731, the covert biological and chemical warfare research and
development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army.
Live vivisection, germ warfare attacks, frostbite
testing, syphilis testing, weapon testing, bacteriological or physiological
experiments, rape and forced pregnancy, sex experiments were all the
deliverers of death for at least 3,000 men, women, and children.
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WHAT I WANT TO KNOW...
The
easy answer is, EVERYTHING! Honestly, it is the detail and experience that I am
after to have a better understanding of this time period and to become a better
teacher to my students to give them context that they would otherwise never
have access to. Furthermore, as a social
scientist, it is quite obvious that learning about other people particularly their
history will empower me to have better understanding of the world around
me. Honestly speaking, I’m pretty sure
that I will become emotional during this trip, as I have in past trips, but I
am hopeful that I will be able to make it through and learn a lot.
FINAL THOUGHTS...
As
with any trip, one's mind begins to flood with numerous questions:
How
this trip was going to add and enhance myself as an educator, as a curriculum
writer, as an African-American, as a woman, and as a spiritual being?
Just a basic line of questions...pretty much we will just have to see as the trip unfolds.
Will I be "odd man out”, as I’m
the only brown person on this tour? How
will I be viewed as an African-American in Asia, specifically? What does racism
look like in China and South Korea?
There
are so many pictures videos and articles on social media about the treatment of people
of the African Diaspora throughout Asia. Where people
walk up and touch one’s hair, follow them around, stop them to take pictures
seem to be considered "normal"....I hope not.
Finally, with the onset of tension
between America and North Korea, Japan and China, Japan and South Korea, can
the various leaders of the world not throw a temper tantrum for two weeks?
I
was able to watch episode 69 of season 5 of Vice News Tonight on demand. This particular episode is quite interesting
to see right before my trip. The episode
titled, Japan Rising, chronicle Japan's rising nationalism in the face of, “China's
increasing expansionism, North Korea's continued belligerence and a tide of
nationalist sentiment sweeping the globe, a right-wing movement in Japan aims
to revive and strengthen the country's military might for the first time in 70
years….After World War II, Japan disbanded its military and adopted a policy of
pacifism across its society, culture and constitution.” As with World War I, where old issues weren’t
resolved, so does it seem that the tension of the WWII Pacific Theater seems to
be making a resurgence. Though I do not subscribe
to feeding a mindset of fear, it truly looks as though the cycle of time is
rearing its head.
ON SOCIAL MEDIA...
直到下一次
Zhídào xià yīcì
다음 시간까지
Da-eum sigankkaji
Until Next
Time!
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