Seven-Five: Sword Shadows and Orchid Blossoms

This story is now available for custom printing. The ordering period is one month, with a minimum print run of ten copies. The price is 37 yuan. Note: The female lead is based on the Chinese American author Iris Chang, and the story is set around the period when she completed The Rape of Nanking. Some scenes involve accounts of the Nanjing Massacre. Readers who do not wish to engage with such a heavy subject may want to skip this story. In memory of the remarkable woman in my heart, Iris Chang Iris Chang. I don't know how many people know or remember that name, but I hope that everyone who reads this story, or even just this description, will remember her forever. In Europe and America, which lead the world's culture today, almost every Westerner knows that during World War II the Germans killed many Jews. They also know that near the end of the war, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing more than a hundred thousand people in a matter of seconds. But before she completed The Rape of Nanking, fewer than one in five people in Europe and America knew that the Nanjing Massacre had taken place during World War II! Even fewer knew that, throughout human history, though there have been many horrific massacres, few can compare with the Nanjing Massacre. In its duration, the cruelty of its methods, the breadth of its reach, and the sheer number of its victims, it stands alone among humanity's atrocities. This is thanks to the Japanese government's tireless efforts over many years. It worked to cover up the crimes committed during World War II and succeeded in making the world nearly forget a massacre rare even in human history. At the same time, it made sure the world remembered that more than a hundred thousand Japanese people died under American atomic bombs, creating the false impression in many minds that although Japan was a fascist country during the war, it was somehow deserving of sympathy! Every year on August 6, Japan reminds the world in various ways that on that day in 1945, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, destroying a city in seconds and causing more than a hundred thousand casualties. Yet to this day, Japan dares not admit that on December 13, 1937, in Nanjing, China, over a period of more than six weeks, its soldiers used their hands, swords, guns, bayonets, fire... and every other weapon and cruel method they could think of to wipe out a city, slaughtering more than 300,000 people. Before December 13, 1937, Nanjing had a documented population of around 1.05 million. That figure did not include several divisions retreating into the city, nor the refugees who had fled the fighting and poured into Nanjing. It counted only the permanent residents, and even they numbered 1.05 million. Yet after the Nanjing Massacre, only 190,000 people were left in the entire city... More than 900,000 people gone! How many managed to escape? And how many were murdered, then disposed of in various ways so that they could not be counted? Every Chinese person believes the true death toll far exceeds 300,000, but no one dares even to estimate how much higher it might be. The real Nanjing Massacre was not as the movie Nanjing! Nanjing! portrayed it, with mostly soldiers and few civilians among the dead. Nor was it as depicted there, with Japanese soldiers hunting down Chinese troops to kill, or simply carrying out massacres! In reality, anyone who could move became a victim. The dead were not only soldiers, but women, the elderly, children, infants, monks... They were beheaded, drowned, disemboweled, stabbed, torn apart alive by military dogs, stuffed into sacks, doused in gasoline, and burned alive... Many infants were even ripped from their pregnant mothers' wombs and stabbed to death by Japanese soldiers! Women of all ages were raped, and many were casually murdered by Japanese soldiers afterward. Many more... were killed after enduring every kind of torture. Was it really as Nanjing! Nanjing! suggested, that the killing was done out of fear of Chinese resistance, or because the Japanese soldiers were afraid of dying themselves? While I hate the Japanese invaders, I also cannot believe that Nanjing! Nanjing! was made by a Chinese person. I truly want to know: when director Lu Chuan tried to interpret the Japanese army from the perspective of human nature, from what perspective did he interpret the victims of the Nanjing Massacre? Because the dead are gone, can they be interpreted any way people please? Is that it? For six long weeks, in that hell of blood, Chinese people were hunted and toyed with at will by Japanese soldiers like rabbits. Even the slightest movement, if spotted, earned them an immediate bullet. The contests to see who could behead a hundred people arose from that kind of madness. They may seem unbelievable, but they were a concentrated expression of the Japanese soldiers' insanity and utter lack of humanity at the time. They were that mad simply to vent their violent emotions, simply for amusement! The kind-hearted Iris Chang once said: We must not treat the Japanese people of a particular era as representative of the Japanese people throughout history. That would not only misread history, but also harm the Japanese people of today. But to be honest, I still cannot put it behind me. The very word Japan still instinctively fills me with wariness and resentment, especially when I see that far-right forces still exist in Japan today and continue to operate in various ways. After committing such crimes, the Japanese government still refuses to admit them. Worse, it has the gall to declare before the whole world that the Nanjing Massacre was fabricated, a lie! Even when faced with such an enormous body of evidence, it continues to make excuses. It has also repeatedly tried to erase people's memory of this event around the world. I have to admit, it has been very successful. If not for Iris Chang, if not for this book, I think they would truly have succeeded in a few more decades. After Iris Chang completed The Rape of Nanking, the book drew worldwide attention, and many people in Europe and America learned that Japan had committed such horrific acts during World War II. The memories of Chinese people who had endured that suffering, long buried, were awakened once more. At the same time, Japan's far-right forces began to take notice of her. In the years between the book's publication and Iris Chang's death, she was repeatedly harassed by Japanese right-wing groups. She was afraid to bring guests home or give interviews at home. She constantly changed her phone number and could only contact others by email, yet she was still hounded by all kinds of harassment and threats. They even threatened to hurt her family, her husband, and her son, who was only two years old at the time. I am a mother myself. I understand the fear and anxiety a mother feels when she receives threats like that, and it makes me hate those people all the more. Iris Chang has been buried for years, yet even now some Japanese people slander her, saying she killed herself out of shame for inventing the lie that the Nanjing Massacre happened. I really want to ask: In essence, how are these people any different from the Japanese soldiers who carried out the Nanjing Massacre? If you ask me to regard today's Japanese people as separate from those of the past, then how am I supposed to think about these people? Some say that the far right makes up such a tiny fraction of Japan's population that it can be ignored. Then explain this to me: Why has no Japanese government ever dared to publicly acknowledge the Nanjing Massacre? Why, after The Rape of Nanking caused such a sensation, did the Japanese ambassador to the United States dare to publish a statement in a newspaper openly declaring that the Nanjing Massacre was a hoax, a lie? Why did no Japanese publisher release a Japanese translation of The Rape of Nanking for a long time, even after Iris Chang's death? Why does the Japanese prime minister visit Yasukuni Shrine every year? If the far right really is so insignificant as to be ignored, then what is putting such enormous pressure on publishers across Japan? What is putting such enormous pressure on the Japanese government, making it persist in its course despite defying the whole world? Fox doesn't consider herself a hothead, and she has the same respect for the high standards of modern Japanese people. Japanese products, anime, beautiful Japanese women and handsome men... I'll buy what I want and watch what I want. Japan's rescue teams after the Wenchuan earthquake moved me and earned my gratitude. When Japan was struck by a major earthquake and tsunami, I felt sympathy and sorrow for them too, and was willing to offer support. But that doesn't mean I'll forget what the Japanese did to the Chinese during World War II, or ignore what Japan's far-right groups are saying and doing today. Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. If the whole world should commemorate every year on August 6 the more than a hundred thousand civilians killed by atomic bombs in a matter of seconds, then all the more reason for the world to commemorate every year on December 13 the more than 300,000 civilians who were tortured and killed by the Japanese in every imaginable way over six weeks! This memory will be etched deeply in my mind. I will never forget it, not in any lifetime. I also want to remember Iris Chang, and remember that she was the one who helped the whole world recall and remember this history that must never be forgotten. My writing is weak, and in this story I cannot do justice to this horrific massacre with any extensive account. I cannot give a detailed explanation of that history, nor can I describe all the nightmare experiences Iris Chang went through... The real reason I wrote this story is simply to indulge a small, selfish dream: evil people will eventually get what they deserve! And Iris Chang is still alive, living in a peaceful, radiant place, a place without memories of Japanese invasion, a place free of harassment and threats from the far right, living a peaceful and happy life. That's all... My friends' works in progress: My own stories: Theme: