Iris Chang
Somehow, I missed the death of Iris Chang last month. Probably the news was buried in the pile of post-election ballyhoo. I learned about the death in my catch-up reading of The Economist in their Obituary column. (You may have to register or view a brief ad to read the column.)
In 1997, Chang wrote a book on the Rape of Nanking. She was not a historian by training, but spent two years researching her book. She was currently working on a subsequent book about the Bataan death march. I don't want to go into everything here, just suffice it to say that you need to read the article. Ms. Chang apparently committed suicide; despondent due to her immersion in research of sadly an all too frequent example of the worst of humanity.
I spoke with the 14 year-old son of a well-educated friend of mine last summer. The teen asked if I supported President Bush. (His mother was a very vocal and active opponent of Bush.) I told him a did and was then asked why. I responded that while there were some policies of Bush that I did not agree, I believed that he was the better choice to handle the terrorism threat. The teen then said that the problem was that we just hadn't sat down with Bin Laden and heard his grievances and if we did that (which Bush refused to do) everything would be fine. I responded that Bin Lade's et al. stated goal was to establish a worldwide fundamentalist Islamic order either through conversion or death of the infidels. Didn't he see that as something that must be resisted as evil?" No, there is no such thing as evil in the world, just different points of view." So, Hitler was not evil? "No, but Bush is because he won't work with people."
I realize I was discussing world politics with a 14 year-old, (and I certainly am glad audio tapes don't exist of me at 14) but here is young man who doesn't believe one of the people responsible for the greatest massacres in history wasn't evil, but Bush is. OK , so murder is a debatable issue, but "not working with people" is not. I'm considering emailing the Iris Chang obit and asking if the Rape of Nanking was a bad thing? Or maybe it was just a "cultural difference." Or perhaps it's all Bush's fault.
In 1997, Chang wrote a book on the Rape of Nanking. She was not a historian by training, but spent two years researching her book. She was currently working on a subsequent book about the Bataan death march. I don't want to go into everything here, just suffice it to say that you need to read the article. Ms. Chang apparently committed suicide; despondent due to her immersion in research of sadly an all too frequent example of the worst of humanity.
I spoke with the 14 year-old son of a well-educated friend of mine last summer. The teen asked if I supported President Bush. (His mother was a very vocal and active opponent of Bush.) I told him a did and was then asked why. I responded that while there were some policies of Bush that I did not agree, I believed that he was the better choice to handle the terrorism threat. The teen then said that the problem was that we just hadn't sat down with Bin Laden and heard his grievances and if we did that (which Bush refused to do) everything would be fine. I responded that Bin Lade's et al. stated goal was to establish a worldwide fundamentalist Islamic order either through conversion or death of the infidels. Didn't he see that as something that must be resisted as evil?" No, there is no such thing as evil in the world, just different points of view." So, Hitler was not evil? "No, but Bush is because he won't work with people."
I realize I was discussing world politics with a 14 year-old, (and I certainly am glad audio tapes don't exist of me at 14) but here is young man who doesn't believe one of the people responsible for the greatest massacres in history wasn't evil, but Bush is. OK , so murder is a debatable issue, but "not working with people" is not. I'm considering emailing the Iris Chang obit and asking if the Rape of Nanking was a bad thing? Or maybe it was just a "cultural difference." Or perhaps it's all Bush's fault.
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