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Gheorgheniviews is a blog containing material which I have contributed to the Approved Guide portion of H2G2, the web's guide to life, the universe, and everything. If you enjoy collecting odd factoids - and often wonder how those factoids fit into the general scheme of things - why not surf over to http:///www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2 and cruise around the net's premier user-generated site?
Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts

Tuesday, 3 May 2011

John Rabe and the Nanjing Massacre


The year: 1937. The place: Nanjing (Nanking)1, the capital of Guomindang China2. The problem: The encircling Imperial Japanese Army. Bayonets, machine guns, and terror. Rape, pillage, and mayhem.

The question: What weapon do you use to oppose mass murder?

  • Armed resistance.
  • World opinion.
  • A very large Nazi flag.

If you chose the last option, you are on the same page as John Rabe, also known as 'The Good German of Nanjing'. The bald, bespectacled businessman used his Party membership – and a very large flag, every pfennig he could scrape together, and the last ounce of his courage – to save an estimated quarter-million of his fellow humans from certain destruction. This is his story.