"Power of Image": Photographs evoke the memory of the past strife & new anti-Japanese sentiments-
This picture is one of the photographs about the Nanking Massacre. The Nanking Massacre is that the Japanese soldiers killed massive Chinese people. It is an unchangeable truth. However, as for this photo and the other Nanking Massacre photographs are now controversial. Some scholars proved that some of these pictures were taken by the Chinese and used for the agenda to inform the Chinese about this incident. A Chinese camera man put a crying baby on the street, and took this photo.
However, it is fact that these pictures, even though the Chinese photographers made them intentionally, made the Chinese people during the war hold the memories of the Nanking Massacre more clearly and vividly. Since The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II was published in 1997 authored by Iris Chan, a Chinese-American, these old photos came out in public again. These photos bring the young generation Chinese, who did not live during the war, strong anti-Japanese sentiments.
What if we did not have these photographs? Probably, people would forget the incident. But the number of the Chinese who hate the Japanese would decrease. Nanking Massacre is the truth that a Japanese people should not forget. However, it is sad that the current Chinese people keep talking about the incident to us.
Think about the power of image. What if the Japanese have the photographs of rape by the American army in Okinawa and keep auguring it? What if Iraqi people will keep talking about the photographs, video, and images of the American troop occupation in Iraq in the future? The Japanese, the Iraqi and the Japanese would keep being sad. Because of images, the both sides must keep holding negative emotions.
-Kyoko Shiga
Photograph
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