Genocide: The Cause Of Atrocious Crimes

Ethnic cleansing is the term to purify genocide, but both are the same inhumane, baleful crimes. Genocide denies the right of life to a mass of humans. Genocide is an inhumane act of mass killing against a national, ethnic, racial, or racial group with the intention to eradicate the group (“How”;“What”). Atrocious crimes like genocides occurs under the guise of war. The Holocaust, Great Leap Forward, Rape of Nanking, Great Purge, and Armenian Massacre are just some of the genocides throughout history. As society focuses on fighting, those aware of the crime neglects them because it does not involve them neither is it their concern. There are many basic cause to a genocide: fear of authority, gain, racism, nationalism and imperialism. Human
emotions are the roots of genocide. Due to the greed of human desires, diabolical acts such as a genocide are committed against humanity itself. The conditions of a country and the complicated emotions of humans are the flow of motions that lead to the site of genocide.

During a period of time there was a surge of nationalism. Nationalism led to arrogance and classifying humans based on race. Japan, despite being a small country, did not lack in nationalism, but the Japanese lacked in natural resources, thus they sought to colonize China for their resources. The summer of 1973, Japan began to invade China, initially they boasted that they were to conquer China in three months, but their heavy pride of their nation led only to disappointment and unnecessary hatred against the Chinese, as the Chinese resisted longer than expected (“Rape”). On December 13, 1973, there was an order to kill all captives of Nanking by Prince Asaka (“Rape”). The Japanese reign of terror just begun and the Chinese was going to compensate for ruining the Japanese’s pride. Nationalism will lead the Japanese towards the wrong road and consequences will transpire in the future. Having pride in one’s country is not an ordeal, but it becomes an ordeal when it leads to violence against other races.

A country’s economy can determine the strength of their military. When a country is weak due to war and famine, they are invulnerable to invasions of a foreign nation. China was a prime example, before the tragedy in Nanking, Japan seized power in China. China was already divided into Spheres of Influence and weakened by the circulation of opium throughout the country. In addition, there was a civil war occurring in China. The internal conflict and invasions from foreign countries deteriorated the nation’s power. Japan then developed the puppet state, Manchukuo (Chen). The last emperor of the Qing dynasty, Puyi, was a puppet of the Japanese (Chen). It was a miracle the Chinese held out for longer than three months, but the results was that Nanking and Chinese was defeated by the Japanese. Japanese imperialism was the grim start of the massacre in Nanking. Imperialism deprives the colonies of their natural resource and the natives that resides in the are treated as inferior subhuman in their own homeland.

Racism is derived from nationalism and imperialism. The existence of racism is irrational. Unfortunately some nations teach and encourage racism, hence the Japanese racism towards the Chinese. In Japanese schools, it was taught that the Chinese were inferior to the Japanese (“World”). Since such an immoral action was tolerated, the Japanese soldiers felt no compassion or culpability against the Chinese. In addition to racism, Darwin’s theory of “survival of the fittest” was the motto of the Japanese, this led to beliefs that to achieve success, others must be sacrificed and used as stepping stones(“World”). With teachings to hate the Chinese and the weak ones pushed to the side, the lowly soldiers of the Japanese Imperial Army could only point their rage towards the weak civilians (“World”). The Chinese could only endure the inexpressible pain. The pain inflicted upon Nanking was frightening. Women from age seven to seventy were raped then were shortly murdered afterwards (Chen). The civilians were massacred in many ways; live burial, bayoneted, burned alive, beheading, blew up by landmines, and the list continues (Chen). No one was spared; fathers were forced to rape their daughters as sons were forced to rape their mothers and pregnant women were raped, then the unborn child were torn out of their mother’s stomach (“Rape”). The most sinister action of all was the Japanese made a killing contest out of the civilians (Chen). A war does not involve the intentional slaughtering of civilians. The level of racism in Nanking was evident. Racism is a horror that leads to genocide. Once the power of racism is liberated, containing it once again will be strenuous.

Genocides are carried out by those who have power.
There were few who wanted to defy that act of human cruelty, but could not due to the fear of authority. The Forgotten Holocaust, also known as the Rape of Nanking was a nightmare that lasted for the Chinese civilians. The Japanese invaded Nanking and killed 250,000-300,000 civilians, according to eyewitness (Bristow). Chinese soldiers surrendered to the Japanese Army, yet the army executed all the soldiers at Taiping Gate on December 13, 1937 (Chen, Ming). The Japanese took it upon themselves to terrorize the civilians. Even new recruits of the Japanese army were mortified by the acts, yet none stood up to the army and followed the orders of their superiors (Chen). The feelings of self protection overrode the feelings of dehumanization of the victims, thus leading the bystanders to just neglect the actions of brutality around them or engage themselves in the scene. The incident was not hidden from the world, in fact countries around the world knew about it, yet nothing was done until the Tokyo War Crime Trials (Ming). Leaders such as Hirohito and Tojo were fully cognizant of the situation in China (Chen). Nanking was completely neglected as the Japanese and even the United States gained from this gruesome event. Power can change the tides, but despite having power the Japanese greed was not
satisfied.

An antiquated desire of humans is money. During the period of six weeks in Nanking, the Japanese were ruthless, while the Chinese gained nothing but scars, the Japanese murdered shopkeepers and then looted the shops (Chen). By end of January 1938, thirty-three percent of the houses were burned and overall seventy-three percent of the houses in Nanking were robbed (Chen). The soldiers completely dehumanized the civilians to their pleasure, no one was spared. The soldiers who wanted to defy the orders could not as this costed their jobs, in addition the looted goods they obtained were their possessions (Chen). After terrorizing the city to their pleasure, there was the Tokyo War Crime Trials. All the leaders were executed or sentenced to life imprisonment, except Hirohito. The royal family and Hirohito were pardoned and granted immunity, in exchange they gave the United States experiment data they desire, this transaction was secretly made. (Chen). Genocide benefits desires of humans, while money is a gain, revenge is too. The Japanese tortured the Chinese for embarrassing the nation, but none was necessary. Some Japanese today denies the whole tragedy itself (“Nanking”). Due to the incapability of humans to control their greed, such genocide like Nanking occurs.

A recurring condition in a genocide are the bystanders disregard the horrible truth to their surroundings.
The United States and Japan was fully aware of the incident in Nanking, but neither countries stopped it nor send help. Only until afterwards the incident did they hold a trial and in addition not all the criminals were punished. However a group of 20 westerners, who witnessed the incident, initiated a camp for the civilians, where the Japanese were forbidden to enter (“Rape”). The westerners risked their lives to intercede and inhibit the murder of the civilians. The regret is that such depiction of concern does not happen often, thus letting a genocide to continue
on.
Genocides do not form from real hatred, it comes from human emotions of wanting to rise above the others. Nationalism, imperialism, racism, and fear, all stir from human greed. Nanking was one of the many examples of a genocide. Unfortunately, nothing will suppress human greed and it will continue to grow and tragedies will occur. Genocide can eradicate life on Earth as many continue to fight blindlessly. The accumulations of human craves will allow the existence of genocides to continue. Genocide or ethnic cleansing, despite the difference in name, both are the same barbaric violations that seize away a mass of human lives.