大屠杀

The Nanjing Massacre Memorial Museum (南京大屠杀纪念馆) is unarguably one of the most profoundly unsettling historical museums in the world. I went there a few days ago after I had gotten out of class. Situated in a desolate, far-off area of Nanjing, the museum was very well-planned and organized, with sleek architectural design. The exhibition was quite flowing, providing a very thorough, very circumspect rundown of the series of events, key players surrounding the atrocity known as the Nanjing Massacre.
It has taken a few days to allow the content I learned from all the eye-witness accounts and graphic photographs to fully sink in. A period of six weeks under which the Japanese army invaded Nanjing "peacefully," by performing a multitude of horrific acts far too numerous, far too disturbing to write about here, surmounting a death-toll of over 300,000. But it was not just mass murder, it was prolonged torture and rape of individuals. Try to imagine the most humiliating and viscous things that could be done to a human being and then multiply that by ~300000. That an entire army of people could act without conscience in a way that displayed no moral structure in any way whatsoever, while writing home about how quiet and serene things were in Nanjing is completely baffling.
The ultimate message of the museum was of course to forgive, but never forget.
Outside the museum was a field of water representing bloodshed, as well as an actual burial ground referred to as the Mass Grave of 10000 Corpses where one could view piles upon piles of human skeletons as they had been ruthlessly laid to rest in the ground.