Reference List for Asian Holocaust
Education
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ASIA-PACIFIC WAR
NANKING MASSACRE
POWS AND CANADIAN HONG KONG VETERANS
BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL WARFARE
JAPAN’S MILITARY SEXUAL SLAVERY
AUDIO-VISUAL MATERIALS
RELATED WEBSITES
ASIA-PACIFIC WAR
Anderson,
C. LeRoy; Joanne R. Anderson & Yunosuke Ohkura (eds.) No
Longer Silent: World-Wide Memories of the Children of World War II Missoula MT:
Pictorial Histories, 1995.
The
pains and pleasures, joys and sorrows of childhood during World War II are
revealed in 38 memorable autobiographical essays from 24 countries. Compiled by C. LeRoy Anderson, Joanne R.
Anderson, Yunosuke Ohkura,
with a forward by Mike Mansfield, former U.S. Ambassador to Japan.
Proceeds from sales of the book benefit four peace-promoting charities.
Bix,
Herbert P. Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan. HarperCollins Publishers, 2000
Winner
of the Pulitzer Prize. Bix is
professor at Tokyo's Hitotsubasbi University. Aided
by newly available primary documents, the book lifts the veil on the mythology
surrounding the emperor's impact on the world stage. Focusing on Hirohito's
interactions with his advisers and successive Japanese governments, it
documents the strong, decisive role Hirohito played in most aspects of the
Pacific war, from start to finish, and he voiced few objections to the most
brutal outrages of his military. It recounts how American and Japanese leaders
moved to justify the retention of Hirohito as emperor by whitewashing his
wartime role and reshaping the historical consciousness of the Japanese people.
Bradley,
James with Ron Powers. Flags of Our Fathers (NY:
Bantam, 2001).
History
& memory of the Battle for Iwo Jima, in which 22,000 Japanese & 26,000
American soldiers died.
Buruma, Ian. The Wages of Guilt: Memories of War in Germany and Japan. HarperCollins Canada, 1994.
Offering
a new perspective on the psyches of Germany and Japan after World War II.
As an expert on the two countries' politics and history, the author explores
how each country dealt with its past and their legacies of guilt in light of
the atrocities committed during the war.
Dower, John W.
Japan in War and Peace New York: New
Press, 1995.
A
collection of selected essays which have been previously published in academic
journals. The author examines continuities and connections
in Japanese politics, economics, and society at large, particularly highlighting
its complex relations with the US over the past half century
Ienaga, Saburo
(Translated by Frank Baldwin). Pacific War, 1931 to 1945 : A Critical Perspective on Japan's
Role in World War II New York: Random House, 1978.
The books covers the period from Manchurian Incident in 1931 to
the unconditional surrender in 1945 and encompasses the whole series of Japan’s
military clashes with other countries. The author tries to probe the
meaning of the war, which includes the question how contemporary Japanese can
prevent the reoccurrence of a war of aggression.
Ishida, Jintaro. The
Remains of War: Apology and Forgiveness. Guilford,
Connecticut: Lyons,
2001.
From
jacket: “Testimonies of the Japanese
Imperial Army and its Filipino victims” (grade 11+)
Lee, Mei-fung. Childhood Lost – Memoir of a self-taught grandma who grew up in a
war-torn country.
Bauhinea Press, Canada, 2006.
A
moving account of what life was like for the ordinary people in South China during
the Japanese invasion (1937-1945). It is
a precious narrative, seen through the innocent eyes of a child who tenaciously
committed the details of those harsh, years to her memory so that she could
recount it in writing one day. She did
so half a century later when she finally learned how to read and write. The memoir was written in Chinese by grandma Lee, translated into English by her daughter, Winne and illustrations were created by her granddaughter,
Josephine.
Li,
Peter, ed. The Search for Justice Japanese War Crimes. New Brunswick (USA): Transaction, 2003.
This collection undertakes the
critical task of addressing some of the multifaceted and complex issues of
Japanese war crimes and redress.This collection is
divided into five themes. In "It's Never Too Late to Seek Justice,
"the issues of reconciliation, accountability, and Emperor Hirohito's
responsibility for war crimes are explored.
"The American POW Experience Remembered" includes a moving
account of the Bataan Death March by an American ex-soldier.
"Psychological Responses" discusses the socio-psychological affects of the Nanjing Massacre and Japanese vivisection on
Chinese subjects. The way in which Japanese war atrocities have been dealt with
in the theater and cinema is the focus of "Artistic Responses." And
central to "History Must not Forget" are the questions of memory,
trauma, biological warfare, and redress. Included in this volume are samples of
the many presentations given at the International
Citizens' Forum on War Crimes & Redress - Seeking Reconciliation & Peace
for the 21st Century (ICF) (Nov 1999 - Dec 1999)
Tanaka,
Yuki. Hidden Horrors : Japanese War Crimes
in World War II. Westview Press, 1998
Based on
research in previously closed archives, this book represents an analysis of
Japanese war crimes. The author explores individual atrocities in their broader
social, psychological, and institutional milieu and places Japanese behavior
during the war in the broader context of dehumanization of men at war – without
denying individual and national responsibility.
Werner
Gruhl. Imperial Japan's World War Two 1931-1945 Transaction Publishers,
New Brunswick USA & London UK, 2007.
Forgotten Holocaust.
(DVD) Director Raymond Lemoine. Distributed by British
Columbia Association for Learning and Preserving the History of WWII in Asia
(ALPHA), 2007. bcalpha@alpha-canada.org
The video documentary contains the stories of
Nanking Massacre, “Comfort Station” and Forced Labor during the Asia-Pacific
War with testimonies from 6 survivors. The documentary was recorded
during the 2006 Peace and Reconciliation Study to China for Canadian Educators
by Raymond who was an educator himself.
Human Rights in the Asia Pacific 1931 –
1945: Social Responsibility and Global
Citizenship - A Resource
Guide for Teachers to Support Aspects of Senior Social Studies Curriculum. Ministry of Education, Curriculum Branch,
Province of British
Columbia, 2001 & 2003(French version).
Co-published
by the BC Association for Learning and Preserving the History of WWIII in Asia. Background information, curriculum
connections, lessons, resources and handouts provided. (professional)
In
the Name of the Emperor. Videorecording. Producer/directory Nancy Tong. New York:
Filmakers Library, 1996.
“An
account of the Nanking Massacre. Integrates diary entries, actual film footage
of the massacre shot by an American missionary (the Rev. John Magee),
interviews with Japanese scholars and former soldiers who recalled in detail
how they savagely killed and raped Chinese civilians, and the related story of
the comfort women” (summary from BPL
online catalogue)
Voices
of Survivors of the Asian Holocaust. Compact
disc. Collected by Souad
Sharabani. Canada Association
for Learning & Preserving the
History of WWII in
Asia, Toronto chapter.
Topics
covered include: chemical warfare,
comfort women, Nanjing massacre and slave labour. Various voices represented. Can be heard online at http://voice-print.ca/CHINTEA2.mp3
and http://voice-print.ca/CHINTEA3.mp3
Witness
to History: Canadian Survivors of WWII
in Asia. DVD. British Columbia
Association for Learning and Preserving the History of WWII in Asia (ALPHA),
2005.
Four
testimonies provided on this DVD: Tony
Cowling who spent 3 ½ years in many slave labour
camps in the Dutch East Indies, Tang Tonjiang whose
family moved many times fleeing Japanese attacks; Marius van Dijk van Nooten experienced many
concentration camps in the Dutch East Indies, and Miriam who also experienced
many concentration camps in Sumatra.
NANKING MASSACRE
Chang, Iris. The
Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust
of World War II. New York: Penguin, 1997. Print.
ISBN: 0-14-027744-7.
From http://www.irischang.net/biography.cfm
“Chang examines one of the most tragic chapters of
World War II: the slaughter, rape and torture of hundreds of thousands of
Chinese civilians by Japanese soldiers in the former capital of China.”
(grade 11+)
Chang,
Ying Ying. The Woman Who Could Not
Forget: Iris Chang Before And Beyond The Rape Of Nanking. Pegasus, 2011. ISBN:
978-1605981727
A moving,
illuminating memoir about the life of world-famous author and historian, Iris
Chang, as told by her mother.
Iris
Chang's best-selling book The Rape of Nanking forever changed the way we
view the Second World War in Asia. It all began with a photo of a river choked with
the bodies of hundreds of Chinese civilians that shook Iris to her core. Who
were these people? Why had this happened and how could their story have been
lost to history? She could not shake that image from her head. She could not
forget what she had seen.
A few short years later, Chang revealed this "second Holocaust" to
the world. The Japanese atrocities against the people of Nanking were so
extreme that a Nazi party leader based in China actually petitioned Hitler to
ask the Japanese government to stop the massacre. But who was this woman that
single-handedly swept away years of silence, secrecy and shame?
Her mother, Ying-Ying, provides an enlightened and nuanced look at her
daughter, from Iris' home-made childhood newspaper, to her early years as a
journalist and later, as a promising young historian, her struggles with her
son's autism and her tragic suicide. The Woman Who Could Not Forget
cements Iris' legacy as one of the most extraordinary minds of her generation
and reveals the depth and beauty of the bond between a mother and daughter. 24
pages of black-and-white photographs
Hu, Hua-ling. American Goddess at the Rape of
Nanking: The Courage of Minnie Vautrin. Carbondale: Southern Illinois
UP, 2000. ISBN: 0809323036. (Grade 9+).
Relying
on original documents and interviews with people like Vautrin’s
niece, the book presents the biography of an American educator/missionary who
stood up to Japanese soldiers and protected the lives of thousands of women and
children during the Rape of Nanking.
Hua-ling
Hu & Lian-hong
Zhang (eds.) The Undaunted Women of Nanking: The Wartime Diaries of Minnie Vautrin
and Tsen Shui-fang. Southern Illinois University Press, 2010. ISBN-10:
0809329638 ISBN-13: 978-0809329632
In response to the atrocities committed during the
Rape of Nanking, a group of westerners organized the International Committee
for the Nanking Safety Zone and attempted to shelter refugees. Among these
humanitarian heroes was Minnie Vautrin, an American
missionary and acting president of Ginling College.
She and Tsen Shui-fang, her Chinese assistant and a
trained nurse, turned the college into a refugee camp, which protected more
than 10,000 women and children during the height of the ordeal. Even though
both women were exhausted mentally and physically from caring for so many, they
kept detailed diaries during the massacre.
The
Undaunted Women of Nanking juxtaposes the two women’s wartime diaries
day-by-day from December 8, 1937, through March 1, 1938. Both diaries provide
vital eyewitness accounts of the Rape of Nanking and are unique in their focus
on the Ginling refugee camp and the sufferings of
women and children. Tsen Shui-fang’s diary is the
only known daily account by a Chinese national written during the crisis and
not retrospectively. As such, it records a unique perspective: that of a woman
grappling with feelings of anger, sorrow, and compassion as she witnesses the
atrocities being committed in her war-torn country.
Editors
Hua-ling Hu and Zhang Lian-hong have added many
informative annotations to the diary entries from sources including the
proceedings of the Tokyo War Crimes Trial of 1946, Vautrin’s
correspondence, John Rabe’s diary, and other
historical documents. Also included are biographical sketches of the two women,
a note on the diaries, and information about the aftermath of the tragedy, as
well as maps and photos—some of which appear in print for the first time. This
book has been selected as one of the 10 best books by Chinese
American Librarians Association for 2010.
Iris Chang Memorial Fund. Denial and Its Cost: Reflections on Nanking
Massacre 70 Years Ago and Beyond - Best Essays from Iris Chang Memorial Essay
Contest 2007. Cozy House, 2008. ISBN:
9781593430801
Iris Chang Memorial Fund, Iris Chang and The
Forgotten Holocaust - Best Essays from Iris Chang Memorial Essay
Contest 2006. Cozy
House, 2007. ISBN:9781593430603
Katsuichi, Honda. The Nanjing Massacre: A Japanese Journalist Confronts Japan’s
National Shame. Armonk,
NY: ME Sharpe, 1999. Print. ISBN:
0765603349 ISBN: 0765603357
An account of Imperial Japan's systematic atrocities
in China by a Japanese investigative journalist. The author followed the murderous path of the
Japanese troops in their capture of Nanking. From the troops’
landings on Chinese coast and their advance towards Nanking to the ultimate
carnage in Nanking. The author told the story by assembling
interviews with Chinese victims and writings by Japanese perpetrators and
observers.
Rabe, John. The Good Man of Nanking: The Diaries of John Rabe. New
York:
Vintage, 1998 (reprinted 2000). ISBN:
0375701974. 294 p.: ill. (Grade 10+)
John
Rabe, a German businessman and leader of the Nazi Party in Nanking who saved so
many lives in the Nanking massacre that some refer to him as the “Oskar
Schindler of China”. This book is the journal Rabe kept each night
during those horrible months of the Nanking
Massacre and the difficult years that followed.
Shulman,
William L. The Nanjing Massacre: Genocide and Denial. Bayside, NY:
Holocaust Resource
Centre.
“The Holocaust Center and Archives was established to
provide an educational resource for organizations and schools in the community”
(inside back cover). This catalogue
could be a representation of an exhibit by the Holocaust Center
and Archives. Includes Recommended
Readings (grade 6+)
Smalley,
Martha L. (ed). American Missionary Eyewitnesses
to the Nanking Massacre, 1937 – 1938. Yale
Divinity School Library Occasional Publication No. 9, 1997.
A
collection of letters and diaries written by 9 American missionaries in China
during the Nanking Massacre. The book documents these
missionaries’ great contributions to humanity not merely because they saved so many
lives but because their legacy of defending the truth and justice and
cherishing good will toward man will brighten the future of mankind.
Young,
Shi and James Yin. The
Rape of Nanking: An Undeniable History
in
Photographs. Innovative,
1996.
Black
and white photos (many are very disturbing), testimonies, maps, appendices,
index. (grade
12+)
Zhu, Chen Shan, ed. The Picture Collection of Nanjing
Massacre and International Rescue. Jiangsu: Ancient Book, 2002.
Black
and white photos (many are disturbing). Includes images of the Memorial to the victims of the Nanjing
Massacre in Nanjing.
City of Life
and Death (Nanking Nanking – original title) (DVD) Director: Lu Chuan.
2009 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1124052/
The film
deals with the Battle of Nanjing and its aftermath during the Second
Sino-Japanese War. City of Life and Death takes place in 1937 during the
Imperial Japanese Army's capture of the then-capital of China, Nanjing. the capture of the capital and the ensuing bloodshed is
known as the Nanking Massacre, or the Rape of Nanking; a period of several
weeks when tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers and civilians were killed. The
film tells the story of several figures, both historical and fictional,
including a Chinese soldier, a school teacher, a Japanese soldier, a foreign
missionary, and John Rabe, a Nazi businessman who would ultimately save
thousands of Chinese civilians.
Forgotten Holocaust.
(DVD) Director Raymond Lemoine. British Columbia
Association for Learning and Preserving the History of WWII in Asia (ALPHA),
2007. bcalpha@alpha-canada.org
The video documentary contains the stories of
Nanking Massacre, “Comfort Station” and Forced Labor during the Asia-Pacific
War with testimonies from 6 survivors. The documentary was recorded
during the 2006 Peace and Reconciliation Study to China for Canadian Educators
by Raymond who was an educator himself.
Good Nazi. Videorecording. ABC News Nightline of
December 11, 1997.
Story of John Rabe who was a German businessman and
leader of the Nazi Party in Nanking. He saved hundreds of thousand of lives in the Nanking Massacre by setting up an International
Safety Zone together with some other 20 western foreigners.
In
the Name of the Emperor. Videorecording. Producer/directory Nancy Tong. New York:
Filmakers Library, 1996.
“An
account of the Nanking Massacre. Integrates diary entries, actual film footage
of the massacre shot by an American missionary (the Rev. John Magee),
interviews with Japanese scholars and former soldiers who recalled in detail
how they savagely killed and raped Chinese civilians, and the related story of
the comfort women” (summary from BPL
online catalogue)
Iris
Chang – The Rape of Nanking. (DVD) Director Bill Spahic
& Ann Pick. Produced by Real to Reel in association of Canada
Association for Learning & Preserving the History of WWII in Asia , Toronto, 2007. http://www.irischangthemovie.com
A
feature-length documentary film about a young woman’s journey to bring one of
the darkest chapters of history to light.
In July 1937 the
Japanese Imperial Army, which already controlled a large section of northeastern China, launched an undeclared war against the
Republic of China. Five months later, on December 13, its troops entered the
capital city of Nanking and began raping and murdering its citizens in an orgy
of violence that has few parallels in modern history.
Tens of thousands
of Chinese prisoners-of-war were machine gunned en masse. An estimated 20,000
women were raped. Countless defenseless civilians;
men, women and children were killed on the streets or in their homes. A British
reporter who was on the scene compared the Japanese troops to Attila and the
Huns. Writer George Will described the mass slaughter, which became known as
“The Rape of Nanking” as “perhaps
the most appalling single episode of barbarism in a century replete with
horror.”
John Rabe. Director Florian Gallenberger. Co-Producers Benjamin
Herrmann & Mischa Hofmann. Distributed by
Strand Releasing in North
America, 2009.
A 2009
Chinese-French-German biopictorial film. A
true-story account of a German businessman who saved more than 200,000 Chinese
during the Nanjing
massacre in 1937-38.
May and August.
(DVD) Director Raymond To. Hong Kong: Universe, 2002.
After
the outbreak of the war, two young girls were orphaned and taken to a refugee camp.
One by one, all their relatives are arrested and executed by the Japanese, and
they are forced to become strong to face all the challenges posed by their new
life.
Nanking. (DVD) Co-Directors
Bill
Guttentag & Dan Sturman. Producer Ted Leonsis. Distributed by Fortissimo
Films, 2007. Watch for free, click http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/nanking/
In the winter of
1937, the Japanese army occupied Nanking and killed over
200,000 and raped tens of thousands of Chinese, one of human
history's worst atrocities. In order to protect Chinese civilians, a small
group of European
and American
expatriates, Western missionaries, professors, and businessmen banded together
to save 250,000, risking their own lives.
The film describes
the Nanking Massacre by reading from letters and diaries which shows the
activities of John
Rabe (Jürgen
Prochnow
), a German
businessman, Robert O. Wilson (Woody Harrelson), the only surgeon
remaining to care for legions of victims, and Minnie Vautrin (Mariel Hemingway), an educator who
passionately defends the lives and honor of Nanking's women during the war
time.
The film
includes survivors who tell their own stories, the archival footage of the
events, and the testimonies of Japanese soldiers who participated in the
rampage.
Rev. Magee’s Testament – A
Documentary of Nanjing Massacre 1937 – 1938. Videorecording. 1996.
An American
missionary used his 16 mm movie camera to recording what he saw in 1937 during
the Nanking Massacre. Part of the documentary is quite gruesome which requires
teacher’s discretion.
The Rape of Nanking. (DVD) Director: Lou Reda The History Channel,
1997.
The film
documents the death and destruction that followed the Japanese occupation in
Nanking in December 1937. In the next two months, hundreds of thousands Chinese
soldiers and civilians were killed. Interviews with descendants of the victims
and eyewitnesses to the crimes along with gruesome photos help separate fact
from fiction.
Torn Memories of Nanjing. (DVD) Director Tamaki Matsuoka, 2009
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=10248032
Although
Japanese activist Ms. Tamaki Matsuoka is not a professional filmmaker,
"Torn Memories of Nanjing" breaks new ground with interviews of both
aggressors and victims. As described by Ms. Matsuoka, Chinese and Japanese
perceptions of the war are completely different Hence,
her mission is to reveal the facts. Ms. Matsuoka spent more than a decade
interviewing hundreds of Chinese victims and Japanese veterans. Writing
newspaper articles, compiling her interviews in books, holding photo
exhibitions showing the atrocities and bringing victims to Japan, she was able
to persuade some of them to speak on camera.
Voices of Survivors of the Asian Holocaust. Compact disc. Collected by Souad
Sharabani. Canada Association
for Learning & Preserving the
History of WWII in
Asia, Toronto chapter.
Topics
covered include: chemical warfare,
comfort women, Nanjing
massacre and slave labour. Various voices represented. Can be heard online at http://voice-print.ca/CHINTEA2.mp3 and http://voice-print.ca/CHINTEA3.mp3
POWS AND
CANADIAN HONG KONG VETERANS
Baird,
Kenneth G. Letters to Harvelyn: From Japanese POW
Camps: A Canadian Soldier’s Letters to
His Young Daughter During World War II. Toronto, HarperCollins, 2002.
Major Baird of the Winnipeg
Grenadiers writes letters to his daughter and wife. (Grade 6+)
Daws, Gavan. Prisoners
of the Japanese : Pows of
World War II in the Pacific. New York: Quill, 1994.
Based on
hundreds of interviews with those who survived the Japanese imprisonment. The book
contains recollections of American prisoners of war before, during, and after
their capture. 16 pages of photos are included.
Endacott, G.B. Hong Kong Eclipse. Hong Kong: Oxford UP, 1978.
'Hong Kong Eclipse' was the first
comprehensive study of Hong Kong during the Second World War, a catastrophic
and crucial period in the Colony's history. The central theme is the Japanse conquest and occupation between the years
1941-1945, preceded by a picture of the Colony on the eve of the invasion and
followed by an account of the problems of rehabilitation after the Japanese
surrender.
From the Journal of Asian Studies
(Aug. 1980) “Written for the general reader … Endacott
focuses on the government and the British … Little Chinese materials is used …
interest of the book is parochial and its audience local.”
MacDonnell, George S. One
soldier’s story 1939 – 1945:
From the fall of Hong Kong to the defeat of the Japan. Toronto: Dundurn, 2002.
Personal narrative – biography
McIntosh, Dave. Hell on earth : aging faster, dying sooner : Canadian prisoners of
the Japanese during World War II McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1996.
The book is constructed mainly from
firsthand accounts of Canadian POWs who gave testimony to parliamentary
inquiries as well as transcripts of medical interviews conducted by Dr. Marcel Gingras, whose report supports the compensation claim
against Japan that was taken to the United Nations by the War Amps and Hong
Kong veterans.
Roland,
Charles G. Long Night’s Journey into
Day: Prisoners of War in Hong Kong and
Japan, 1941-1945. Waterloo,
Wilfrid Laurier UP, 2001.
Includes
bibliographical references (p. 375-403) and index.
Tenney, Lester I. My Hitch in Hell: The Bataan Death March
Washington: Brassey's,
1995.
Memoir of US
prisoner of war captured by Japanese at the beginning of the war in the Philippines.
Tromp, Sheri G. (ed.).
Four Years Till Tomorrow: Despair and Hope in
Wartime Dutch East Indies. Vanderheide
Publishing, 1999.
26 survivors – many of whom were then
children and are now living in British Columbia – relate their despair and hope
in Japanese concentration camps in the 1940s Dutch East Indies (now
Indonesia). These survivor stories give readers a deeper understanding of
what human beings are capable of, in terms of both cruelty and heroism.
Vincent, Carl. No Reason Why: The Canadian Hong Kong Tragedy – An
Examination. Belleville (ON): Canada’s
Wings, 1981.
From the back
cover: “In late 1941 almost 2000
Canadian troops set said for Hong Kong.
Nearly 600 of them would not come back.
Black and white photos, map and index are provided. (grade 11+)
Canada’ Hong Kong Veterans – The
Compensation Story (DVD). Producer: Cliff Chadderton. The War Amps of Canada.
1993 (Available in most public library systems in B.C.)
The documentary is
produced and hosted by, War Amps CEO. It covers the struggles of former
Hong Kong PoWs for compensation including making
their case to Japanese government, the Human Rights Commission of the United
Nations, and the Canadian government. Archival footage and artists’
illustrations convey the horrors endured by the prisoners of war.
Savage Christmas: Hong Kong 1941. Videorecording. Directed
by Brian McKenna. Montreal:
National Film Board, 1992. (The Valor and the Horror series) http://www.valourandhorror.com/P_Reply/HK.php
The story of the Hong Kong campaign
deals with questionable decisions by Canadian and British politicians, poor
planning and strategy by the British military leaders in the colony of Hong
Kong, and the savage brutality of the attacking Japanese force. But, most
importantly, it is a film about the fighting spirit, courage and tenacity of
the 1,975 young Canadian soldiers who, in December 1941, found themselves in a
no-win situation against all of the odds that were stacked against them.
Witness to History: Canadian Survivors of WWII in Asia (DVD). British Columbia
Association for Learning and Preserving the History of WWII in Asia (ALPHA),
2005. http://www.alpha-canada.org/OralHistory
Four testimonies provided on this
DVD: Tony Cowling who spent 3 ½ years in
many slave labour camps in the Dutch East Indies,
Tang Tonjiang whose family moved many times fleeing
Japanese attacks; Marius van Dijk van Nooten experienced many concentration camps in the Dutch
East Indies, and Miriam who also experienced many concentration camps in
Sumatra.
BIOLOGICAL AND
CHEMICAL WARFARE
Barenblatt,
Daniel. A Plague Upon
Humanity: The Secret Genocide of Axis
Japan’s Germ Warfare Operation. New
York:
HarperCollins, 2004.
Journalist
Barenblatt, an expert on Japanese biological warfare,
valuably summarizes the known facts and reasonable speculations about it. Like
many other aspects of science in Japan, the country's knowledge of biology was
much more advanced before World War II than the rest of the world believed.
Japan's biological warfare capability, carefully developed with the direct
support of the emperor, had been tested upon Chinese and Western subjects and
deployed operationally at the cost of as many as a million Chinese lives. After
the war, cold war politics prevented war-crimes prosecution of Japanese biowar experts and may have led to the use of their talents
and stocks of material in Korea (Barenblatt grants
that such use has not been proven). Barenblatt's
useful addition to the literature on biological warfare and WWII belongs on the
same shelf as Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanking (1997) and studies of the
comfort girls, where it may, however, raise the hackles of Japanese still in
the dark about their country's war crimes.
.
Gold,
Hal. Unit
731Testimony. Tokyo: Yenbooks, 1996. (Grade 11+)
This book is on Japan’s wartime human
experimentation. It works as a forum for
victims, veterans, former doctors and secret police alike to recount their
stories and their role in the horrifying activities of Unit 731, the leading
Japanese unit responsible for such atrocities.
Harris,
Sheldon H. Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare 1932 – 45 and the
American Cover up. Routledge, 1994. New York: Norton, 1994. (Grade 11+)
Harris presents
evidence from Chinese, American and KGB archives that Japanese scientists used
human beings, including Allied prisoners of war, in biological warfare (BW)
research during the Japanese occupation of Manchuria. (Publishers Weekly, at http://www.amazon.com/Factories-Death-S-Harris/dp/0415132061)
(Grade 11+)
Correspondent: Unit 731. Videorecording. Producer:
Giselle Portenier. BBC, 2002. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/correspondent/1796044.stm
Unit 731 was a special division of
the Japanese Army, a scientific and military elite. It
had a huge budget specially authorized by the Emperor, to develop weapons of
mass destruction that would win the war for Japan. America and Germany had
their nuclear arms race. Japan put its faith in germs. This documentary covered
the story of the Chinese plaintiffs in their struggle for the compensation
lawsuit against the Japanese government.
There were also stories of Japanese ex-soldiers who had involved in Unit
731 as well as interviews of Japanese right-wingers who blatantly denied any
biological and chemical warfare experimentations and atrocities committed by
Japanese imperial forces.
Hidden Holocaust in World War II by the Japanese Army. print 1998.
From the front cover: “Japanese
delegation to the photo exhibitions of war atrocities committed by Japanese
Army (June 25 – July 7, 1998).” Contributions from Japanese
testifiers including lawyers, scholars and ex-soldiers who have involved in the
Lawsuit of Germ Warfare Against the Japanese
Government and statements from Chinese plaintiffs (victims) are included. Appendices. (grade 10+)
Available with BC ALPHA (bcalpha@alpha-canada.org)
Unit 731: Nightmare in Manchuria. (DVD) The History Channel, 1999.
The
documentary covers the top secret research facility called Unit
731. Japanese doctor Shiro Ishii, head of
Unit 731 and his staff conducted bio-chemical weapons research that claimed the
lives of untold thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands. Such deeds were
not exposed and no one was ever punished for the atrocities committed at unit 731 and other similar camps, because the
documents recording their grim findings were secretly sold to the United States
in exchange for amnesty.
JAPAN’S MILITARY
SEXUAL SLAVERY
Boling, David. Mass Rape, Enforced Prostitution, & the Japanese Imperial Army:
Japan Eschews International Legal Responsibility? (Baltimore:
U. Maryland School of Law, 1995).
Dai Sil
Kim-Gibson, Silence Broken: Korean Comfort Women. A book and film. BOOK: Parkersburg, Iowa: Mid-Prairie
Books. ISBN 0-931209-88-9. 1999. FILM: 35 mm (88
minutes) or video (57 minutes) Ho-ho-Kus, NJ: Dai Sil Productions. 1999.
Silence Broken is essentially an oral
history of Korean women who were forced into sexual slavery by Japan during
World War II. Their stories, told to the author in Korea, China and Japan, are
the core of the book. Additional chapters provide readers with contextual and
historical information. The stories of these women contain their 'flesh and
blood', as one reader put it. In addition to presenting the stories, Kim-Gibson
explores their lives before and after forced servitude. Other works focus on
their years of servitude.
Henson, Maria Rosa. Comfort Woman : A Filipina's Story of Prostitution and Slavery Under
the Japanese Military. Rowman & Littlefield Publishing
Inc. 1999.
An
autobiography of a Filipino sex slave under the Japanese imperial forces. In April
1943, fifteen-year-old Maria Rosa Henson was taken by Japanese soldiers
occupying the Philippines and forced into prostitution as a comfort woman. In
this simply told yet powerfully moving autobiography, Rosa recalls her
childhood as the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy landowner, her work for Huk guerillas, her wartime ordeal, and her marriage to a
rebel leader who left her to raise their children alone. Her triumph against
all odds is embodied by her decision to go public with the secret she had held
for fifty years. Illustrations drawn by the author reflect the images of
her painful experience that still stays in her mind.
Hicks, George. The
Comfort Women: Japan’s Brutal Regime of
Enforced Prostitution in the Second World War. WW Norton, 1997. ISBN:
0393038076. ISBN: 0393316947 (pbk) 303 p.: ill., map
Includes some
personal testimonies, Select annotated bibliography and index. (grade 11+)
Recent development in human rights
and women's rights in Korea have led
the surviving comfort women to overcome traditional taboos of chastity,
defilement and shame and speak out for the first time. Their testimonies
portray the coercion, violence, abduction, rape and false imprisonment they
suffered at the hands of the Japanese military. Some women were as young ad
twelve years old when their ordeal began.
Schellstede, Sangmie Choi, ed., Comfort
Women Speak: Testimony by Sex Slaves of
the Japanese Military. New York: Homes & Meier, 2000.
Little was known about the true scope
of this crime against humanity until 1991, when after almost fifty years of
silence, seventy-four-year-old Kim Hak-soon bravely
told the world of her experiences as a comfort woman. Her testimony gave others
the strength to tell their stories. This book , with
photos, documents the lives of nineteen courageous surviving rape camp victims
(Korean) who continue to seek a formal apology and reparation from Japan's government for the horrors it imposed on them.
Black and white photos and United Nations human rights report provided. (Grade
10+)
Stetz, Margaret and Oh, Bonnie B. C. ed. Legacies of the
Comfort Women of World War II, Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, Inc. 2001.
Artists, historians, activists, and
others trace the legacy of the victims of Japanese military sexual slavery by
discussing historical and cultural contexts, academic and activist responses,
and works of art it has inspired.
A book of essays,
was inspired by an international conference on "Comfort Women" held
at Georgetown University in Washington, D. C. in 1996. The collection is a must
read for scholars, activists, and Asianists
interested not only in historical detail, but also in understanding the
persisting, unresolved issues of World War II that cloud Japan's relations with its Asian neighbors and many of
its former Allied enemies. The essence of the book is conveyed in the title,
which emphasizes the 'legacies' of the comfort women, rather than their 'stories',
some of which can be found in the existing literature by many of the authors of
individual chapters. The book reflects the activist tone of the conference and
the positive results that such activism has played in the international arena
in the past decade. http://koreaweb.ws/ks/ksr/ksr02-08.htm
Tanaka, Yuki. Japan's
Comfort Women; Sexual Slaver Prostitution during World War II the US
Occupation: The Military and Involuntary Prostitution During
War and Occupation Routledge, 2001.
Japan's Comfort Women exposes the
story of Japanese women who were forced to enter prostitution to serve the
Japanese Imperial army, often living in appalling conditions of sexual slavery.
Using a wide range of primary sources, Tanaka uncovers new and controversial
information about the role of US occupation forces in military controlled
prostitution, as well as evidence of a subsequent cover-up. Tanaka asks why US
occupation forces did little to help the women, and argues that military
authorities organized prostitution to prevent the widespread incidence of GI
rape among the Japanese women and to control the spread of sexually transmitted
diseases. This groundbreaking book reveals new material relating to this highly
controversial and contentious issue and is sure to have a deep impact on the
ongoing international debate on this highly emotive issue.
Yoshimi, Yoshiaki; O’Brien, Suzanne (translator). Comfort Women : Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military During World
War II. Columbia University Press, 2000
Yoshiaki, history professor at
Tokyo's Chuo University, found and published the first documentary evidence
that the Japanese military established and ran "comfort
stations". This book traces the history of the military comfort
station system at various stages of the war in Asia and analyzes the issue
against the background of Japan's prewar system of licensed prostitution and
contemporary Asian sex tourism in which Japanese men continue to exploit the
women of neighboring Asian countries. His study
considers the gender, ethnic, and class aspects of this disturbing history. The
translator's introduction illuminates the ongoing debate in Japan over the
“comfort women” issue.
Forgotten
Holocaust. (DVD) Director Raymond Lemoine. British Columbia Association for Learning and Preserving the
History of WWII in Asia (ALPHA), 2007.
bcalpha@alpha-canada.org
The video
documentary contains the stories of Nanking Massacre, “Comfort Station” and
Forced Labor during the Asia-Pacific War with testimonies from 6
survivors. The documentary was recorded during the 2006 Peace and
Reconciliation Study to China for Canadian Educators by Raymond who was an educator
himself.
In the Name
of the Emperor. Videorecording. Producer/directory Nancy Tong. New York:
Filmakers Library, 1996.
“An account
of the Nanking Massacre. Integrates
diary entries, actual film footage of the massacre shot by an American
missionary (the Rev. John Magee), interviews with Japanese scholars and former
soldiers who recalled in detail how they savagely killed and raped Chinese
civilians, and the related story of the comfort women” (summary from BPL online catalogue)
Silence Broken: Korean Comfort Women. (DVD) Director: Dai Sil
Kim-Gibson, 88min. Ho-ho-Kus, NJ: Dai Sil Productions.
1999.
Silence Broken is essentially an oral
history of Korean women who were forced into sexual slavery by Japan during
World War II. Their stories, told to the author in Korea, China and Japan, are
the core of the book. Additional chapters provide readers with contextual and
historical information. The stories of these women contain their 'flesh and
blood', as one reader put it. In addition to presenting the stories, Kim-Gibson
explores their lives before and after forced servitude. Other works focus on
their years of servitude.
Silent Shame.
(DVD) Director, Writer, Editor and
Producer Akiko Izumitani, 2010
http://www.silentshamedocumentary.com/pages/about.html
Voices of Survivors of the Asian Holocaust. Compact disc. Collected by Souad
Sharabani. Canada Association
for Learning & Preserving the
History of WWII in
Asia, Toronto chapter.
Topics
covered include: chemical warfare,
comfort women, Nanjing
massacre and slave labour. Various voices represented. Can be heard online at http://voice-print.ca/CHINTEA2.mp3 and http://voice-print.ca/CHINTEA3.mp3
“You can never forget, never…” – Her Stories. Korean Council for
Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, 2008.
Offers an overview of the highly controversial issue regarding
"comfort women.
AUDIO-VISUAL MATERIALS
Canada’ Hong
Kong Veterans – The Compensation Story (DVD). Producer: Cliff Chadderton. The War Amps of Canada.
1993 (Available in most public library systems in B.C.)
The documentary is
produced and hosted by, War Amps CEO. It covers the struggles of former
Hong Kong PoWs for compensation including making
their case to Japanese government, the Human Rights Commission of the United
Nations, and the Canadian government. Archival footage and artists’
illustrations convey the horrors endured by the prisoners of war.
Correspondent: Unit 731. Videorecording.
Producer: Giselle Portenier. BBC, 2002. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/correspondent/1796044.stm
Unit 731 was a special division of the Japanese Army, a
scientific and military elite. It had a huge budget specially authorized
by the Emperor, to develop weapons of mass destruction that would win the war
for Japan. America and Germany had their nuclear arms race. Japan put its faith
in germs. This documentary covered the story of the Chinese plaintiffs in their
struggle for the compensation lawsuit against the Japanese government. There were also stories of Japanese
ex-soldiers who had involved in Unit 731 as well as interviews of Japanese
right-wingers who blatantly denied any biological and chemical warfare
experimentations and atrocities committed by Japanese imperial forces.
The film deals with the Battle of
Nanjing and its aftermath during the Second Sino-Japanese War. City of Life and
Death takes place in 1937 during the Imperial Japanese Army's capture of the
then-capital of China, Nanjing. the capture of the capital
and the ensuing bloodshed is known as the Nanking Massacre, or the Rape of
Nanking; a period of several weeks when tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers
and civilians were killed. The film tells the story of several figures, both
historical and fictional, including a Chinese soldier, a school teacher, a
Japanese soldier, a foreign missionary, and John Rabe, a Nazi businessman who
would ultimately save thousands of Chinese civilians.
Forgotten
Holocaust. (DVD) Director Raymond Lemoine. British Columbia Association for Learning and Preserving the
History of WWII in Asia (ALPHA), 2007.
bcalpha@alpha-canada.org
The video
documentary contains the stories of Nanking Massacre, “Comfort Station” and
Forced Labor during the Asia-Pacific War with testimonies from 6
survivors. The documentary was recorded during the 2006 Peace and
Reconciliation Study to China for Canadian Educators by Raymond who was an educator
himself.
Good Nazi.
Videorecording. ABC News Nightline
of December 11, 1997.
Story of John
Rabe who was a German businessman and leader of the Nazi Party in
Nanking. He saved hundreds of thousand of lives
in the Nanking Massacre by setting up an International Safety Zone together
with some other 20 western foreigners.
In the Name
of the Emperor. Videorecording. Producer/directory Nancy Tong. New York:
Filmakers Library, 1996.
“An account
of the Nanking Massacre. Integrates
diary entries, actual film footage of the massacre shot by an American
missionary (the Rev. John Magee), interviews with Japanese scholars and former
soldiers who recalled in detail how they savagely killed and raped Chinese
civilians, and the related story of the comfort women” (summary from BPL online catalogue)
Iris Chang – The Rape of Nanking. (DVD) Director
Bill Spahic & Ann Pick. Produced by Real to Reel in association of
Canada Association for Learning & Preserving the History of WWII in Asia , Toronto, 2007. http://www.irischangthemovie.com
A
feature-length documentary film about a young woman’s journey to bring one of
the darkest chapters of history to light.
In July 1937 the Japanese Imperial
Army, which already controlled a large section of northeastern
China, launched an undeclared war against the Republic of China. Five months
later, on December 13, its troops entered the capital city of Nanking and began
raping and murdering its citizens in an orgy of violence that has few parallels
in modern history.
Tens of thousands of Chinese
prisoners-of-war were machine gunned en masse. An estimated 20,000 women were
raped. Countless defenseless civilians; men, women
and children were killed on the streets or in their homes. A British reporter
who was on the scene compared the Japanese troops to Attila and the Huns.
Writer George Will described the mass slaughter, which became known as “The
Rape of Nanking” as “perhaps
the most appalling single episode of barbarism in a century replete with
horror.”
Japan's Peace Constitution. (DVD)
Director: John Junkerman. Icarus Films, 2005. http://icarusfilms.com/new2006/jap.html
In 2005,
sixty years after the end of World War II, a conservative Japanese government
is pressing ahead with plans to revise the nation's constitution and jettison
its famous no-war clause, Article 9. This timely, hard-hitting documentary
places the ongoing debate over the constitution in an international context:
What will revision mean to Japan's neighbors, Korea
and China? How has the US-Japan military alliance warped the constitution and
Japan's role in the world? How is the unprecedented involvement of Japan's
Self-Defense Force in the occupation of Iraq
perceived in the Middle East?
Through
interviews conducted with leading thinkers around the world, the film explores
the origins of the Constitution in the ashes of war, and the significance of
its peace clauses in the conflicted times of the early 21st century.
John Rabe. Director Florian Gallenberger. Co-Producers
Benjamin Herrmann & Mischa Hofmann. Distributed
by Strand Releasing in North America, 2009.
A 2009 Chinese-French-German biopictorial
film. A true-story account of a German businessman who
saved more than 200,000 Chinese during the Nanjing massacre in 1937-38.
May and
August. (DVD) Director Raymond To. Hong Kong:
Universe, 2002.
After the outbreak of the war, two
young girls were orphaned and taken to a refugee camp. One by one, all their
relatives are arrested and executed by the Japanese, and they are forced to
become strong to face all the challenges posed by their new life.
Nanking. (DVD) Co-Directors
Bill Guttentag & Dan Sturman. Producer Ted Leonsis. Distributed by Fortissimo Films, 2007.
Watch
for free, click http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/nanking/
In the winter of 1937, the Japanese army occupied Nanking and killed
over 200,000 and raped tens of thousands of Chinese, one of human history's worst
atrocities. In order to protect Chinese civilians, a small group of European and American expatriates, Western
missionaries, professors, and businessmen banded together to save 250,000,
risking their own lives.
The film
describes the Nanking Massacre by reading from letters and diaries which shows
the activities of John Rabe (Jürgen Prochnow
), a German
businessman, Robert O. Wilson (Woody Harrelson), the only surgeon
remaining to care for legions of victims, and Minnie Vautrin (Mariel Hemingway), an educator who
passionately defends the lives and honor of Nanking's women during the war
time.
The film
includes survivors who tell their own stories, the archival footage of the
events, and the testimonies of Japanese soldiers who participated in the
rampage.
Rev. Magee’s Testament – A
Documentary of Nanjing Massacre 1937 – 1938. Videorecording. 1996.
An American
missionary used his 16 mm movie camera to recording what he saw in 1937 during
the Nanking Massacre. Part of the documentary is quite gruesome which requires
teacher’s discretion.
Savage
Christmas: Hong Kong 1941. Videorecording. Directed by Brian McKenna. Montreal: National Film Board, 1992. (The Valor and the
Horror series) http://www.valourandhorror.com/P_Reply/HK.php
The story of the Hong Kong campaign
deals with questionable decisions by Canadian and British politicians, poor
planning and strategy by the British military leaders in the colony of Hong
Kong, and the savage brutality of the attacking Japanese force. But, most
importantly, it is a film about the fighting spirit, courage and tenacity of
the 1,975 young Canadian soldiers who, in December 1941, found themselves in a
no-win situation against all of the odds that were stacked against them.
Silence Broken: Korean Comfort Women. (DVD) Director: Dai Sil
Kim-Gibson, 88min. Ho-ho-Kus, NJ: Dai Sil Productions.
1999.
Silence Broken is essentially an oral
history of Korean women who were forced into sexual slavery by Japan during
World War II. Their stories, told to the author in Korea, China and Japan, are
the core of the book. Additional chapters provide readers with contextual and
historical information. The stories of these women contain their 'flesh and
blood', as one reader put it. In addition to presenting the stories, Kim-Gibson
explores their lives before and after forced servitude. Other works focus on
their years of servitude.
Silent Shame.
(DVD) Director, Writer, Editor and
Producer Akiko Izumitani, 2010
http://www.silentshamedocumentary.com/pages/about.html
The Rape
of Nanking. (DVD) Director: Lou Reda The History Channel, 1997.
The film documents the death and destruction that followed the Japanese
occupation in Nanking in December 1937. In the next two months, hundreds of
thousands Chinese soldiers and civilians were killed. Interviews with
descendants of the victims and eyewitnesses to the crimes along with gruesome
photos help separate fact from fiction.
Torn Memories of Nanjing. (DVD) Director Tamaki Matsuoka, 2009
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=10248032
Although
Japanese activist Ms. Tamaki Matsuoka is not a professional filmmaker,
"Torn Memories of Nanjing" breaks new ground with interviews of both
aggressors and victims. As described by Ms. Matsuoka, Chinese and Japanese
perceptions of the war are completely different Hence,
her mission is to reveal the facts. Ms. Matsuoka spent more than a decade
interviewing hundreds of Chinese victims and Japanese veterans. Writing
newspaper articles, compiling her interviews in books, holding photo
exhibitions showing the atrocities and bringing victims to Japan, she was able
to persuade some of them to speak on camera.
Unit 731:
Nightmare in Manchuria. (DVD) The History Channel, 1999.
The
documentary covers the top secret research facility called Unit
731. Japanese doctor Shiro Ishii, head of
Unit 731 and his staff conducted bio-chemical weapons research that claimed the
lives of untold thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands. Such deeds were
not exposed and no one was ever punished for the atrocities committed at unit 731 and other similar camps, because the
documents recording their grim findings were secretly sold to the United States
in exchange for amnesty.
Voices of Survivors of the Asian Holocaust. Compact disc. Collected by Souad
Sharabani. Canada Association for Learning &
Preserving the
History of WWII in
Asia, Toronto chapter.
Topics
covered include: chemical warfare,
comfort women, Nanjing
massacre and slave labour. Various voices represented. Can be heard online at http://voice-print.ca/CHINTEA2.mp3 and http://voice-print.ca/CHINTEA3.mp3
Witness to
History: Canadian Survivors of WWII in
Asia (DVD). British Columbia Association
for Learning and Preserving the History of WWII in Asia (ALPHA), 2005. http://www.alpha-canada.org/OralHistory
Four testimonies provided on this DVD: Tony Cowling who spent 3 ½ years in many
slave labour camps in the Dutch East Indies, Tang Tonjiang whose family moved many times fleeing Japanese
attacks; Marius van Dijk van Nooten
experienced many concentration camps in the Dutch East Indies, and Miriam who
also experienced many concentration camps in Sumatra.
“You can never forget, never…” – Her Stories. Korean Council for
Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, 2008.
Offers an overview of the highly controversial issue regarding
"comfort women.
RELATED WEBSITES
BC ALPHA at http://www.alpha-canada.org/ and for Links of interest and Learning
Resources.
The Nanking Massacre Project by from the Special Collections
of the Yale Divinity School Library
Memorial & Reconciliation in the
Asia-Pacific at George Washington University, Washington DC website.