Yesterday, Joan and I continued our adventures! We left Wuxi and headed to Nanjing, the capital of the province we live in (Jiangsu Province). Nanjing was once the capital of China and has rich history. Unfortunately, it has seen a lot of devastation as well.
Our first stop was the Massacre Museum where we learned all about the Nanjing Massacre of 1937. I really didn't know anything about this event, but basically in 1937 Japan has been working on invading China. They made it through Shanghai, Suzhou, Wuxi and then surrounded and took over the capital - Nanjing, at which point the capital was moved. Over the next 6 weeks, an estimated 300,000 prisoners of war and civilians were slaughtered, the city was looted and 20,000 or so rapes occurred. This massacre is still an issue of tension between China and Japan, though most of the younger generation are no longer upset with Japan. The museum was beautiful. Really sad, but uplifting as well. There was a part of the museum about survivors and those who were interviewed sharing stories of miracles of how they made it out alive. There was also a section about foreigners who were living in Nanjing at that time, and how they helped rescue refugees from Nanjing and established an international safety zone and protected the women and children. One woman was
Minne Vautrin, a missionary who was living there. She housed refugees at a university and saved many lives. Just a really interesting, and sobering experience for me. I just wish people could love people and treat them as such. I'm sure there were atrocities on both sides in that war as there are in most. Just sad. War can be just when you are defending yourself and your families - but for any nation to think they are the best and should go around killing people in other countries so that they can have power over them, and raping their women? It just doesn't make any sense to me at all.
After walking around the museum for hours, we grabbed lunch and headed to a Confucian temple shopping area. We didn't feel like paying to go in that temple, but walked around more and looked at all the fun souvenirs and just explored beautiful Nanjing.
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| Many of the people who were here (including this woman) prayed right here and put flowers down fin remembrance of those who lost their lives. |
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| side-street in Nanjing |
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| Making candy! |
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