July 16
7 am Watching the news out of Israel. It is fate that I am
not there. I opted for this trip and my kids are happier that am in China. Some reflective notes. I have
spoken with young Chinese students who are with us at each location. One gil
“D” is an interpreter she is 30 years old.
I asked her about censorship etc and she agrees that things ae censored
but also talks about the ‘freedoms’ people have. However the increase in
Western type life has caused a great divide between rich and poor- at least
here in Shanghai. The irony is also that the big factories that make everything
we as Americans consume, not located in Shanghai proper ,, often have strikes
and complaints about conditions and wages. These are the same concepts that were
dispelled by the Cultural Revolution yet they are sometimes arrested for
striking. She also said they do not have
CNN at home it is something in the hotels. Facebook and Google are blocked BUT
there are ways around it! The river
cruise had an obvious intention of impressing visitors with its over the top
light display and use of technology.
Pollution is terrible. I was coughing and felt a tightness
in my chest a few times. The scooters are everywhere, cars jostling for space.
One does not need a license for a scooter- sometimes three peole pile onto a
small scooter. One needs to be vigilant crossing streets because the scooter
just plow into you!
Yesterday I had my first experience with the mosquitoes!
After the rain we were leaving the University and they wanted a group shot. In
minutes we were swarmed by hungry mosquitoes. I had bites all over my legs in
seconds.
I am very impressed , however, with the warmth, kindness and
pleasant feeling of the local people here.
Yesterday we visited East China University of Political
Science. We were in a huge meeting room . On the tables were bowls of Lychee
nuts, and we had fruit and water supplied. Professor Wang- Deputy of the
International Law school discussed National Human Rights Laws ( I found this
paradoxical in this country of Communism and a history of human rights
violations). He stressed the fact that WWII ended 70 years ago and that we must
continue to remember it- especially the civilians that lost their lives. Issues
still are outstanding and very complex. While we were being filmed by Beijing
TV, The professor went on to discuss the issues of the forced labor survivors
and the law suits that they tried, in vain, to persue for compensation by the
Japanese government.
Professpr Gan Jianiang continued ( IN Chinese) to discuss
the plight of the laborers. The core was plunder natural resources in NE China
for military and turn Manchuria into abigs arms warehouse, SO one would need a
lot of labor to do this. The Japanese used recruiting tricks to force Chinese
into forced labor. It was a miserable life. Many were killed or maimed.
Sept 1933 Kwanting arms set up committee and cooperation
with Dado company to grab and trick laborers. Companies known to use the forced
labor : Obayashi, Daido, Otsumi, Shimizu, Mitsubishi. It reminded me of the
many companies in Germany ( Bayer, Mercedes-Bemz etc that did the same),
1943- Japanese invaders establish ‘corrective counseling’
and arrested prisoners of conscience and those of economic offenses. They were
sent to mines and were not paid. By use of coercion 6.9 million people in China
anlong with families and totaling 9,5 millions used for forced labor. Manchikuo
Japanese also secretly massacred 1.2 million laborers. After Japan armed
occupation of Manchuria 9-18-31 Japan built 17 huge secret places in Mongolian
border to kill and concentrate people. Hidden in the mountains little is known
about what went on there but corpses of Chinese in mass graves have been found
and excavated. Concentration camps established people sent to NE Japan.
Japanese plundered supplies and people. Many Japanese men were in army so there
was a need for labor. 11-16-42 Japan Tojo cabinet make model resoluti9on. It was
necessary to move to mainland China in order to promote Great East Asia.
1944-45 161 groups of 41,762 people forced to Japan. 38,117
actually assigned to filled jobs. Many died before they arrived; many of the
forced laborers were under 15 years of age. Mortality was over 15%.T
After the war treaties were made that did not help the
survivors.
The San Francisco treaty of 1951 2 years after China became
Communist was manipulated by the USA. The mainland government of China was not
invited to take part in the treaty, Taiwan was invited as representative of
China. The Taiwanese government waived he right of the individuals of mainland
China. Tawian signed the agreement wanting to be the “big guy” representing
China. Taiwan lacked power and was not allied with USSR as China was. Hence the
USA wanted to have Taiwan at the table.
The treaties were used to absolve the cases ofindiviuals.
Attorney Kang Jiax has spent many years trying to being
cases of comforst women to trial in Japan. She has often spent her own money to
accompany those survivors who came forward and wanted to file suits . he
Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Japan drafted over 1 milion people into forced
labor, which was documented. The youngest 11 the oldest 78 is documented,
however many were not listed. Kang Jiax shared two stories of horrific torture
endured by two forced laborers.His case went as fas as the Supreme Court of Japan but was dismissed because of the SF
treaty which denied the right to bring individual cases to court. Another story
was about a man conscripted to work for Mtsubishi mines. He was 210 when taken
and is now 93. He has yet to receive any compensation.
The ongoing theme of dehumanization was clear here as well
as the Holocaust. One example was shared about Chinese laborers forced to be
naked in front of Japanese women guards and told o submerge into vats of disinfectant.
If they did not submerge the women guards would beat them. They had no means to
dry themselves and had to put on wet clothing. In one year 11% of the forced
laborers in the Mitzubishi mines dies.
Although many documents emerged about the forced laborers
not until 1994 were they used. Many victims had no idea were they were sent or
which company they worked for, Once the reports emerged more survivors filed
law suits, Pressure was put on the Foreign Affairs dept of Japan to release the
information. In july 2003 it was finally released. The excuse for not releasing
them earlier was that they docum,ents had not been found, 15 law suits were
filed in 12 different courts, Only 4 cases won in the district level BUT were
ALL defeated. The corporations denied the claims- unlike in Germany where to
this day companies pay reparations to Holocaust survivors. In 2007 there were 5
cases in the courts again all defeated in the High court. The excuse being that
the treaty (SF) absolved the rights pf individual to bring suit against
Japan. The ones that did win were done
so with special conditions: they could make no further claims, no apology would
be forthcoming, and a onetime payment of the equivalent to USD6,000. As late as
Feb 2014 cases have been filed; this time in Beijing courts .
The last presenter was a distinguished scholar Bu Ping. He
spoke about the chemical weapons used by Japan and those left behind. Instead
of explosives inside these bombs there were chemicals. After WWI due to the
deaths of over 1 million from poison gas, the practice was banned by the Treaty
of Versailles.
After the war chemicals in containers collected by USA were
dumped in the ocean without knowing what damage it can do in the future. Japan
used chemical weapons in China during WWII against the treaty of Versailles.
China had none. He problem of what to do with the chemicals and bombs left
behind became a big problem which continues today. Many workers became victims
when they came in contact with the chemicals and weapons. In 2003 many were
hurt by the excavation of these weapons, They victims developed open sores,
ulcers etc. Plans to clean up the weapons was to complete by 2007 but it could
not be done now the date is 2017.There are over 400,000 bombs that are still in
China and need to be disposed of.
Ping discussed how everyone knows about Hiroshima but few
until ten years ago knew of te chemicals left in China. His opinion is that
Japan identifies as a victim of WWII, some even say how e=they were both
perpetrators, using the chemicals, and victims of them as well. He discussed
that lack of untiy to resolve matters sch as this because Asians consider
themselves separately: Koreans, Chinese, Japanese, yet Europeans consider
themselves European. Germany and France have worked collaboratively on history
books, as well as Israel and Palestine. Unification through textbook is Pings
vision and he has published a book called “A History to Open the Future” about
Japan and China. Japanese must know what happened in China prior to what happened
in Hiroshima in order to ever have a dialogue.
It has taken three years to clear up 36,000 left behind
chemical bombs and there are 400,000 yet to be done. The cost of doing this is
being paid by Japan.
This morning on CNN ironically , was a story “China puts
spotlight on WWII crimes” It seems that several Japanese soldiers have just now
confessed about war crimes in China. We are presently on the bus headed for
Nanking- the site of mass murder of Chinese. When discussing China and Japan;
one cannot separate politics from History. The reporter, reporting from the
Nanking museum also mentions that China has ‘conveniently’ left out their part
in the violation of human rights focusing on the issue of atrocities against
Chinese people.
After all this information I am posting photos of life in Shanghai. Including photo of "Marriage Brokers" in Peoples park ( last photo)
