In 1995, retired Major General Charles Sweeney of the United States Air Force gave a speech to the U.S. Congress entitled "No Wronged Soul under the Atomic Bomb", which was used to refute those who attacked the United States and dropped atomic bombs. Many people believe that only the Japanese army at that time was guilty, and most of the civilians were innocent, but few people know that on the eve of the tragic Nanjing Massacre, 800,000 civilians in Tokyo, Japan, took to the streets to celebrate the coming victory. When Nanjing was reduced to a hell on earth, the people of Tokyo were as happy as the New Year, and such a contrast was frightening.
In November 1937, the Nationalist army lost one after another, morale was low, and they were unable to resist the Japanese army. After a brief attempt, Nanjing was almost abandoned and reduced to an outcast, leaving less than 600,000 people left in the entire city.
At that time, Nanjing was the capital of the Republic of China, which was of great significance, so the Japanese army had already decided to take Nanjing and celebrate it. On December 7, the Tokyo government decided that when the invading Japanese army captured Nanjing, Tokyo would mobilize schools at all levels and gather at least 800,000 people to hold a parade to celebrate.
A few days later, the Japanese army completely occupied Nanjing and began to massacre and plunder innocent civilians in the city. Many rich and powerful people have long received the news and fled the city, leaving most of them poor people and old and weak women and children, who are unarmed and powerless like lambs to be slaughtered in the face of the mad Japanese army. As a Chinese, the tragic situation in Nanjing at that time needless to say, everyone must have understood. However, when Nanjing was reduced to a hell on earth, Tokyo, Japan, was a joyous scene.
At 10 p.m. on December 13, the Japanese military released the news of the Japanese occupation of Nanjing. Hearing this news, the Japanese people were ecstatic. When people on the street and at the station heard the radio, their first reaction was to shout "Long live" in unison. On the same night, many people paraded in the streets carrying lanterns or went to the taverns to drink and celebrate. The parade looks like a dragon from a distance, illuminating the whole of Tokyo. Ginza's bars were crowded with young people, smiling happily on their faces, raising their glasses and shouting, "Do one more!" "Celebrate the fall!" Such words.
In those few days in Tokyo, there was celebration everywhere, which was even more grand than the New Year. Since the 14th, newspapers, magazines, radio and other media have reported this matter in large pages one after another, eager to tell the world. Nearly 100,000 people from schools, businesses, governments, etc., gathered at the Yasukuni Shrine and other places to light up the red lanterns celebrating victory and pray for the blessing of the Japanese army in the distance.
In the evening, the highlight of the celebration was ushered in. In Tokyo alone, for example, almost the entire city's residents went out, and the band played a majestic march, walking in the forefront, followed by joyful people, carrying lanterns, singing the national anthem, and shouting in unison "Long live His Majesty the Emperor." It is said that nearly a million people marched on the streets that day, and their shouts spread all the way to the imperial palace, and the emperor was very happy when he heard it, and immediately canceled the original itinerary and began a military parade to honor the "heroes" who participated in the massacre, and the empress personally woven scarves to give to these "heroes" as a reward.
In addition to Tokyo, other cities also held celebration parades, and the whole country of Japan was immersed in joy. In order to celebrate the fall of Nanjing, some Japanese merchants deliberately imported noodles from China, calling it Nanjing noodles, and many people did buy them in large quantities under this name.
On the afternoon of December 17, the Japanese army held the so-called "Nanjing entry ceremony". The news reached Japan, and a new wave of celebration was set off in various places. In Osaka, people have been celebrating since they received the news at 2 p.m., and they didn't stop until late at night.
At that time, the Japanese army was at its most arrogant, and they even forced our people to celebrate. On December 13, the Japanese army occupying northeast China said: In order to celebrate the fall of Nanjing, a military state that Japan will never forget, all citizens held a lantern parade to celebrate. The fall of the motherland and the killing of compatriots, as a Chinese how could it be celebrated, but under the shameless threat of the Japanese army, the people could only be forced to take to the streets. Throughout the parade, Chinese were filled with grief or anger, and the procession was filled with cries and curses against Japan. All the people who did not want to participate in the parade were taken away by the Japanese army and shot and paraded to the public.
When 300,000 Chinese in Nanjing died tragically, Tokyo was an ocean of joy. Now some people think that the Japanese army invading China and the Japanese are two different things, and this view may apply to the present, but it must not be used in wartime. To put it bluntly, the Japanese at that time were almost innocent except for a few people with conscience.
Why? First of all, at that time, the whole country of Japan supported the army's invasion of China. As we all know, one of the important reasons for Japan's foreign expansion is that its own resources are scarce, and they need foreign aggression to plunder the territory and resources of other countries. Therefore, for the Japanese, the more china is invaded, it proves that Japan will get more resources and become stronger in the future.
Out of this mentality, during the period of the Japanese invasion of China, the atmosphere of militarism in Japan was very strong, and the whole country, men, women and children, enthusiastically supported the war. Men actively ask to join the army, if unfortunately lost, they feel greatly insulted, it is their own sorry for the country, some people choose to self-harm or even kill themselves by caesarean section. Women and adolescents and the elderly, although they cannot go to war, are supporting the country in other ways. At that time, a "Great Japan Defense Women's Association" appeared, and its membership reached 10 million at its peak. The organization united women to comfort the invading army and the families of the fallen, to write letters of condolence to soldiers on the front line, and to care for wounded soldiers returning home. Among them, thousands of women have taken the initiative or been forced to serve as "military caretakers", "comfort women", "women's standing team" and so on.
Now we can't imagine how fanatical Japanese women were at that time, there was once a Japanese soldier who was reluctant to marry his new wife before going out on the expedition, but he did not expect that after his wife knew, he did not hesitate to commit suicide with a knife, just to let her husband fight for the country without worries, this matter was widely reported and appreciated, and many women followed suit. There are also mothers who eventually commit suicide in shame because they failed to give birth to boys who could join the army. This is not an isolated case, at that time, such extreme examples were very common, and countless "mothers of the military state", "wives of the military countries", "daughters of the Yasukuni countries" and so on were born.
From this point of view, although a small number of Japanese were opposed to war at that time, the vast majority of Japanese were the main war faction. Japan had to surrender in 1945 after the U.S. military dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, or the war might have lasted for years. However, after the end of World War II, Japan posed as a victim, accusing the US military of dropping the atomic bomb as a crime, and repeatedly asked the US military to apologize for it.
Under such circumstances, in 1995, retired Major General Charles Sweeney of the United States Air Force delivered a speech in the U.S. Congress on the theme of "No Wronged Soul Under the Atomic Bomb", and Charles was the pilot who witnessed the two atomic bombs dropped by the US military, so his words are very credible.
In this famous speech, Charles pointed out without mercy, "Fascists always carry the most beautiful banner to cover up the most despicable conspiracies." Charles believed that the "greater East Asia co-prosperity" that the Japanese army had originally declared was carried out on the basis of the brutal occupation of China. In addition to the numerous crimes committed in China, the Japanese army also caused huge casualties in other countries in the Pacific Theater, and the United States was also one of the victims. The closer the U.S. offensive was to the Japanese mainland, the more mad the Japanese became. In the later period, the resources and supplies of the Japanese army were increasingly insufficient, unable to compete with the US army, so the "kamikaze death squad" was born, and the Japanese army did not hesitate to sacrifice its own people, but also to eliminate as many US troops as possible, which can no longer be described as simple madness.
The Japanese army made the American army feel terrible more than this, their contempt for life was beyond the imagination of the American army. According to international practice, prisoners could not be killed at will, but the Japanese army never complied with this rule, in order to threaten the American army, the Japanese army claimed at that time: as long as an American set foot on the Japanese mainland, all Allied prisoners of war would be executed. The Japanese also forced the prisoners of war to dig their graves in advance in preparation for the massacre, and it is conceivable that if the Japanese were not forced to surrender in the end, more innocent people would die under their knives.
What is even more frightening is that the Japanese army did not take the lives of its own people seriously. Before dropping the atomic bomb, the U.S. military scattered a large number of leaflets in many Japanese cities with aircraft in advance, warning the Japanese army that if it did not stop, it would bomb the city. But the military is unmoved, preferring to delay the sacrifice of more civilians in the hope that the battlefield will turn upside down. Even after the U.S. dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, the Japanese were not dead,000, believing that the U.S. military had only one atomic bomb, and the emperor had to announce surrender after the U.S. military continued to drop the atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Even so, there was a small rebellion in the army at that time, just to prevent the emperor from surrendering.
Under such circumstances, the US military's phrase "there is no unjust soul under the atomic bomb" is also reasonable. Although Nazi Germany and Japan committed heinous crimes during World War II, Germany's post-war attitude of admitting mistakes was good and has been reflecting, and the German Chancellor's earth-shattering kneeling in front of the Jewish monument has moved the world. In contrast. Until today, Japan has not fully confessed its guilt and has always tried its best to whitewash the Taiping, and in recent years, Japan's domestic militarist thinking has a rising trend, and even began to "whitewash" itself, believing that the nature of the Japanese army's foreign aggression and the US military's act of dropping atomic bombs at that time was similar, which is really ridiculous.
We must be vigilant against the "washing the ground" behavior of some people with hearts, and we must not transfer the hatred of the past history to the current Japanese people, but we must not forget the bloody and deep hatred of the past.