A few days ago, air raid sirens went off all over China. I asked one of the locals if we should report to a shelter; he told me not to worry about it. The sirens were not for any foolishness emanating from North Korea, or even the United States, but were commemorating the invasion of China by Japan in 1931.
In Nanjing, the invasion culminated in a massacre that killed an estimated 300,000 people in late 1937 (but this number is still a matter of some controversy)..This event is commemorated in a large memorial in Nanjing. In fact, it is a very large memorial. Too large to find a good vantage point to photograph the whole thing, except maybe by air.
Also, I have to say it is an ugly monument. Perhaps this was the intent, as it commemorates an ugly event. One of the first areas you pass consists of statues showing varioius outrages committed by Japanese troops.
One thing I found disturbing was the display of the contents of one of the mass graves, over which the monument was built. The remains of approximately 10,000 people were found in this one mass grave, and the display consists of a large number of bones from it. The disturbing part was the number of pictures people took of the scattered bones, although to be fair, at least none of them appeared to be selfies.
In Nanjing, the invasion culminated in a massacre that killed an estimated 300,000 people in late 1937 (but this number is still a matter of some controversy)..This event is commemorated in a large memorial in Nanjing. In fact, it is a very large memorial. Too large to find a good vantage point to photograph the whole thing, except maybe by air.
Also, I have to say it is an ugly monument. Perhaps this was the intent, as it commemorates an ugly event. One of the first areas you pass consists of statues showing varioius outrages committed by Japanese troops.
One thing I found disturbing was the display of the contents of one of the mass graves, over which the monument was built. The remains of approximately 10,000 people were found in this one mass grave, and the display consists of a large number of bones from it. The disturbing part was the number of pictures people took of the scattered bones, although to be fair, at least none of them appeared to be selfies.
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