History, A Cyclical Pattern

When we hear of the Holocaust, my first thoughts are to Germany and the Jews. I joined a book club and the book they were reading was The Rape of Nanking: The forgotten Holocaust of World War II by Iris Chang, I had never heard of the book till I had joined. It talks about an issue that I never knew existed till I read it. Japan invaded China during World War II and while they were there performed atrocities to the Chinese people there that unthinkable. There were some fascinating people, people who were not Chinese but German, English, and American that were there doing work who served as a kind of savior to as many people as they could. The Europeans over there at the time did not know about the German Holocaust but were very appalled at the Japanese behavior. One such person was a ranking German Nazi, yes a German Nazi. This gentleman went out of his way using what powers he had to try and save the people of Nanking. He sent a correspondence to Germany with regards to this and never received a reply, the basics of the letter was asking how his country could support Japan while Japan was performing such atrocities. Imagine the surprise that he had when he returned to his homeland to be thrown in jail and to learn of the atrocities his own country had performed, something very similar to that of the Japanese. It was appalling to me to read about such immoral acts occurring less than fifty years ago.

As we learn about history through the books that are written by survivors, by writers who use fiction to make their point about a social injustice, and simple historical recounts. I pray that we will start making the necessary changes to not remain in the cycle but to try and change the cyclical behavior.

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