Modern Express News (reporter Chen Xi) August 15 is the day of Japan's defeat and surrender in World War II, and it is also one of the most significant nodes in China's modern and contemporary history and world history. 76 years after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, that history soaked in blood and tears, and the bitterness and glory of that day, still echo today. Recently, with the special support of the Undergraduate School of Nanjing University, led by the German Department of the School of Foreign Chinese, and jointly supported by the UNESCO Chair in Peace Studies, the Rabe and international safety zone memorial hall of Nanjing University, the University of Fehita and heidelberg University in Germany, the "Raabe Diary and The City of Peace" international cloud scientific expedition project was officially launched. 36 undergraduate students from 14 majors/categories of Nanjing University carried out cross-cultural, interdisciplinary and multi-dimensional research on "Rabe's Diary", conducted literature study, field investigation, online and offline interviews, and deepened their thinking on the significance of world peace and building a community with a shared future for mankind.
△ The first Chinese edition of "Rabe's Diary" was published by Jiangsu People's Publishing House in 1997
During the Nanjing Massacre in 1937, Johann Rabe, an agent of Siemens and a Nazi party member, established the International Safety Zone in Nanjing with international friends, saving the lives of Chinese 250,000. After returning to Germany, Johann Rabe was persecuted by the Nazis and forced to remain silent on this topic, so that future generations have limited understanding and research of John Rabe. Rabe's Diary was written by John Rabe at the risk of his life during the war, but it lay in the attic where Rabe's son lived for decades until it was published 60 years later, in 1997. What it tells is rabe's personal experience, very specific, meticulous and true, and no one can deny its credibility. It is a bloody and tearful indictment of the Nanjing Massacre caused by the Japanese army invading China and a powerful testimony to the crimes committed by Japanese imperialism. Because of the reappearance of "Rabe's Diary", the historical events of the Nanjing Massacre have returned to the attention of the international community and become an important part of the history of "World War II" that cannot be ignored. Therefore, the discovery, translation and dissemination process of Rabe's Diary has important historical research value and educational value.
The first person to rediscover John Rabe in China was Huang Huiying, a graduate of Nanjing University's History Department. In 1988, Huang Huiying, who worked at the Nanjing Municipal Archives, discovered John Rabe's archives. Starting with a few short crosses of text messages about the establishment of the International Committee for safe zones, she completed the first domestic article to reveal the life of John Rabe, "A German Friend Rabbi During the Fall of Nanjing", "The Patron Saint in the Nanjing Massacre", and published the book "Witnesses to the Nanjing Massacre: The Biography of Rabe". In an interview with the International Cloud Science Expedition Project Team, she said that "the historical materials that she did not see much in her published articles were actually collected for several years", but the sense of mission of historians and the personality charm of Rabe supported her to overcome all difficulties to complete the research.
The Diary of Rabe was written in Nanjing, but the discovery of the Diary of Rabe was made public overseas, inseparable from the efforts of the late historian Zhang Chunru. In 1995, Zhang Chunru prepared to write a book about the Nanjing Massacre and came to Nanjing to collect information. After learning of Rabe's information, she wrote to the Hamburg Evening News in Germany, requesting to find out the whereabouts of Rabe or his family, hoping to obtain information about the Nanjing Massacre. She contacted Rabe's granddaughter, Mrs. Reinhardt, and when she learned that Rabe's diary was still in the hands of Rabe's family, she hoped that the diary would be published.
In an online interview with the project team, John Rabe's great-grandson Christopher Reinhardt revealed the process of zhang Chunru communicating with his mother, Mrs. Rhinehart, about the publication: "When Zhang Chunru contacted my mother in 1996, my mother was worried about the publication of Rabe's Diary, and she felt that the oath that John Raabé made to the German government was a constraint. After a discussion with her mother, Zhang Chunru believes that the Rabe family's decades of silence have fulfilled their vows, and that the world's focus on understanding the truth clearly outweighs personal interests. ”
Christopher Reinhardt was grateful and glad that her mother had made the decision to make her diary public. He told the project team that he had secretly read his great-grandfather's diary as a child, "Although my great-grandfather died 14 years before I was born, I think he was a very humorous and human-loving person." "It is this humanitarian nature that allows him to make the right decision in the darkest hours and stay in Nanjing for the sake of 'his Chinese.'"
After the publication of Rabe's Diary in 1996, the domestic publishing community began to introduce the translation of this major historical discovery into the country. In order to understand the publication process of the translation of the Chinese edition of The Rabe Diary, the project team interviewed the editors and translators respectively.
△ Wang Yiyun, editor of Jiangsu People's Publishing House, was interviewed by the project team
△ "Rabe's Diary (Photocopy Edition)"
When the Chinese edition of "Rabe's Diary" was published in 1997, Wang Yiyun had already entered the editorial department of Jiangsu People's Publishing House, and although she did not directly participate in the publication of the first edition, she still remembered the efforts made by the whole company for the birth of "Rabe's Diary" at that time. She told the project team that in December 1996, people's daily published five or six reports in succession about the original Rabe's diary kept by her family in New York, Ms. Reinhardt, which was published by Rabe's granddaughter. The sense of responsibility as a party media and the sense of mission in Nanjing made jiangsu people's publishing house realize that the publication of "Rabe's Diary" is of great significance and imperative. However, due to the inconvenience of transportation and communication at that time, the difficulty of financial support independently, and the difficulty of the process of cross-ocean exchanges, su renshe finally cooperated with Jiangsu Education Publishing House and with the help of the Chinese embassy to successfully contact Rabe's grandson Thomas Rabe and acquired the copyright of the diary. Later, with the help of a translation team composed of several teachers from the German Department of Nanjing University, the first Chinese edition of Rabe's Diary was published on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre, that is, in December 1997. 20 years later, Wang Yiyun also completed the transformation of his identity from "bystander to participant" and became the chief responsible editor of Rabe's Diary (Photocopy Edition).
△ Rabe's grandson Thomas Rabe (second from right)
According to Liu Haining, one of the translators, "Rabe's Diary" is the one that lasts the longest, intervenes the most, examines the most, and remembers the most of all his translation tasks. Because the text of Rabe's Diary has special rigor and historical reference value, the objectivity of the translation is extremely demanding. After the translator learns many details of the Holocaust, he will inevitably become emotional, and how to deal with personal emotions in the translation has become a difficult problem in the translation work.
During the interviews, the project team members deeply felt that the stories of more than thirty years ago were still vivid, often giving them the feeling that "history is always connected to each other". "Just like our predecessors did, we are also looking back and writing history. If anyone wants to know about Rabe's Diary in the future, they may be able to find material from it and extend it. ”