Nanking Massacre: Part 3 - Injustice

Well, that lost blog was a real downer, huh? But hey, at least now you get to hear about how all the Safe Zone members grew to be heroes and the Japanese had to pay massive reparations back to the Chinese citizens and were punished severely for their crimes, so at least that's something, right? At least that's what I thought. Prepare yourself for disappointment!

The defendants at the war crimes trial. Judge Judy
would have ripped them a new one.

What we were left with is a citizenship that has either escaped to the Safe Zone or been slaughtered, or worse. The city itself is in shambles as well, many buildings torched and left in rubble. The worst occurred over the first six weeks, but after that it began to slow down and the city started to rebuild itself. The Japanese established a self-governing body of Chinese officials, and while high taxes and pilfering still happened (it was an occupation of a country, after all) the more brutal crimes began to subside. Vendors popped up on the roads and people came out of hiding again, and for all I know it was probably sunnier. This is how it went until the Japanese lost the war and thus had to head back to their home territory, leaving China once again to its own devices.

But what to do about the soldiers that so devastated the Chinese? Well, it wasn't easy, and it certainly wasn't quick. The war crimes trial for them (International Military Tribunal for the Far East) was three times as long as the more popular Nuremberg Trails. Where Nuremberg really brought down the hammer, including searching for a number of Nazis that had fled Germany when the war started to go south, the IMTFE (or Tokyo Trials, as that's an awful acronym) left many without persecution.

The Japanese Emperor and all of the royal family was left intact. The Emperor's involvement does seem like a bit of a grey area, I'll admit. However, the royal family does include Prince Asaka, who did not even have to appear at the trial. That's shocking. There were heaps of evidence against him and he didn't even have to lie about it. He wasn't the only one, either; much of the Japanese bureaucracy was left intact, and it wasn't for lack of misdeeds. Considering one prisoner of war in every twenty five died under the Nazis, and one in every three for the Japanese, it's infuriating why they weren't cracked down on harder. This is largely due to the changes in China's government, Japan's place in the world as a country of strategic importance being close to the communists as the Cold War closed in, and other such large, sweeping political reasons that leave historical justice ultimately rather unsatisfying.

"This is the courtroom of the International Military Tribunal
for the Far East. The people are real. The cases are real.
The rulings are final!"

China's reaction to Japan was a little different from what most would have expected, as well. The People's Republic of China had just taken over and they were looking for international legitimacy. This meant forgiving Japan, which, as you would expect, didn't sit well with the people of Nanking. Considering what they just perpetrated on their soil, seeing their leader shaking hands with the Japanese head honcho not long afterwards and effectively saying "hey man, don't worry, it's cool" didn't fly. Worse yet, those same people didn't receive proper reparations as they for the most part seemingly didn't know they could or didn't really have the means to try for it. All those atrocities were kind of swept under the rug for the purposes of politics. Boy. My blog has become a real downer, but I'd like to see you try to brighten this mess up.

Oh, and those incredibly helpful foreigners that helped saved the lives of literally tens of thousands of people? Well! Apparently, karma was out taking a leak. Seeing as the communists (darn communists!) weren't particularly fond of the west, they turned their backs on them, saying they actually assisted the Japanese soldiers in clearing out their citizens. Of course, the citizens of Nanking thought of them as saviours, but that didn't fit with the narrative of the west being evil.

A man hanging a banner pleading for textbook reformation.
Canadians do that, but mostly it's students whining about
learning about the fur-trade for the tenth time.

One of the Americans was so traumatized by the events she later committed suicide. As for that one lovable Nazi (don't hear that everyday) he was denounced by the Nazi party as when he returned to Germany he spoke ill of Japan. His timing wasn't great; he came back during World War II, so this news didn't sit well with Germany's leaders. He went into poverty and had difficulties finding work, even struggling to feed his family. Since this is getting too depressing, here's a nice moment; the people of Nanking never forgot him, and once they got word of his plight, they sent him money and food that helped him and his own survive through those tough years.

In more recent history, Japan has developed their own form of "Holocaust denier" types, claiming that the entirety of the Nanking massacre was fabricated. Their claims are just as ridiculous and dubious as, well, those of Holocaust deniers. Regardless, they've had a lot of support; one man, speaking about the necessity of learning about Japan's history during World War II, was threatened and eventually shot. There have also been a fair number of cases of high ranking political officials casting doubt on the events of Nanking and otherwise. The school textbooks have remarkably light and favourable sections about it, at the very least at the time the book in which this information has come from was released.

All told, the war with China caused the deaths of four million people, only 400,000 of them were soldiers. If you factor disease and starvation in there (Japan's area bombing and occasionally dropping plague germs from planes certainly factors into this) the losses total as high as 19 million. But it seems kind of glossed over, doesn't it? It's between World War I and it's highly anticipated sequel, it's been far too easy to forget.
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The information for this blog was taken from Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanking. I'd recommend it if you're ever in too good a mood and feel like you should be brought down.

Nanking Massacre: Part 2 - Atrocities

This blog won't be an easy one to write. I've covered some pretty dark stuff, that's for certain, but nothing quite like this before. It poses some unique problems. This entire segment will be about a horrific massacre of an innocent, peaceful city. I've been able to joke around about some truly awful things, but a mass murder that rightfully draws comparisons to the Holocaust isn't something that should be approached facetiously. Worse yet, the degree in which many people still decline to acknowledge what happened in Nanking makes the issue still current, so while saying "too soon" might be off, there have been recent events that have reopened the wound. So, to my avid readers (realistically just my father) this one won't be as fun loving, save for my photo captions - I can't break my mould. In the same breath, I won't go too into detail as many of the stories are too awful for the intents and purposes of this blog. I'll also keep the pictures P.G., but remember - if you search for more information on this independently, brace yourself, because there are things you will not want to see.

Prince Asaka, presumably
before releasing
"When Doves Cry."

Anyways.

The Chinese city of Nanking surrenders to the Japanese in the late months of 1937. The general at the time, Iwane Matsui, wished to take the city but to leave it virtually untouched. He demanded violence only be subjected to those that rebelled against the takeover, and that looting be off-limits. Those that broke those rules would be punished for their actions. This seemed all well and good until Matsui came down with tuberculosis, placing a member of the Imperial royal family in charge - one Prince Asaka Yasuhiko. (Note: it may be Prince Yasuhiko Asaka, and it seems to be written multiple ways due to Japanese naming conventions I do not understand; the same goes for Matsui. From this point on I will refer to them as Matsui and Asaka, as that seems to be most common.) Asaka saw the situation differently; taking that many prisoners (many of them soldiers) would mean feeding and keeping watch over them, which would be an economic strain to the army. Because of this, and with the running feeling of contempt towards the Chinese population, he then put out the order to kill all the captives. It's a matter of some debate whether he directly sent out that order or not, but it did come from a higher up with his seal. Regardless of whether or not the order came from his hand, he certainly did nothing to stop it.

From here, one of the worst, most savage massacres of a large population in history occurred at the hands of the Japanese army. The remaining soldiers, of which there were likely about 90,000 or so, were systematically taken aside and executed. Men were killed in droves in this manner, taken away in groups to limit the chance of an uprising. Many thought they were simply being transported elsewhere until they would see the piles of corpses to which they were being led.

The citizens fared no better. Civilians were killed in the streets and tossed into the adjacent river. Women, children, the elderly - no single person was off limits, and would be killed where they stood. The soldiers would move from house to house, eliminating entire families of Chinese.

The article about the "sword competition". It's like they
knew what Hitler was going to do and tried to match
him on the villany scale.

The women fared the worst; they would be raped regardless of age, sometimes being passed around to up to twenty men. Crimes of that nature would occur openly, and while it was technically against the orders that were sent down, it was shockingly common. It became such an issue that they set up a system of "comfort women" houses, essentially a government sanctioned ring of prostitution, to slow the number of rapes that were occurring. It would be decades before anyone would speak up about this because of the shame that would be wrought on the individual women that had survived the ordeal; Chinese culture placed a strong emphasis on the purity of women, and admitting they were defiled in this manner would be a terrible ordeal in and of itself. The Japanese government would deny that the prostitution ring existed, but documents addressing it from high-ranking officials confirmed its presence.

However, it wasn't only the women that would find hardships. Death from execution is far from the worst that could happen; many of the citizens had to endure much worse. Many were buried alive, mutilated for sport, burned to death, frozen in the river, or ripped apart by dogs. Famously, an article details a competition between two men over who could kill one hundred prisoners with a sword first. While many of the details are simply too grisly to discuss here, I'll leave you with this: one confession from a Japanese soldier is as follows. I warn you, it's not for the faint of heart.

"Few know that soldiers impaled babies on bayonets and tossed them still alive in pots of boiling water. They gang-raped women from the ages of twelve to eighty and then killed them when they could no longer satisfy sexual requirements. I beheaded people, starved them to death, burned them, and buried them alive, over two hundred in all. It is terrible that I could turn into an animal and do these things. There are really no words to explain what I was doing. I was truly a devil."

The death toll skyrocketed in the first six weeks, the most brutal of the killings. The numbers fluctuate, but the best estimates factoring everything in come to around 250,000-400,000 people killed in the city of Nanking alone. Bear in mind that the population of the city was roughly 500,000-600,000 by the time the citizens that had the fortune of getting away had left and by the time the Japanese arrived. These deaths weren't from area bombings or other methods of indiscriminate killing - these were individual and personal, one person killing another. The city itself lay in ruins as well, with $836,000,000 in public property damage and another $136,000,000 in private property. 

John Rabe: One of two Nazis history is
OK with. The other is the guy from
Schindler's List.

What prevented the total destruction of the city of Nanking was a small group of foreigners that were residing in Nanking. A little over two dozen from Europe and America, they set up a safe zone that were off-limits to the Japanese soldiers. They were led by the most unlikely of heroes; John Rabe, a high ranking Nazi. Every last one of them worked tirelessly, bringing members into the safe zone and sending away Japanese that did not respect the boundaries. They did not have weapons, but would scare them off by their status or through physically grabbing soldiers and sending them away. Attacking these individuals would have led to an international incident, so they managed to hold back the army until things began to settle. While the Japanese were not particularly intimidated by the Americans, they were frequently dissuaded by two Nazis (especially John Rabe) that would flash their Swastika badge at every opportunity. Fearful of allied Nazi reprisal, the Japanese held their distance. The zone accommodated 200-300,000 people, saving them from the tortures and brutality of the Japanese army. It's truly a story of incredible heroism, with such a massive number of lives saved by the efforts of so few. 

If this story has your blood boiling, well, I wish I could say it gets better. The response, from seemingly every party, including a number of Japanese officials, the Chinese government, and many others pours salt on the wound. That, however, will be saved for the final installment.

Nanking Massacre: Part 1 - Marching Towards a Slaughter

Chiang Kai-Shek, then the Chairman
of China's government. The problem with
detailing massacres is the pictures are
rather horrible, so... here's just a picture
of a man.

History is chock-full of human misery. At least to some degree it's the byproduct of massive movements; revolutions, rebellions (whether they are toppling something evil or not), even technological or economic surges tend to have more than a pinch of sadness mixed into the soup. Take one look at the industrial revolution and you'll probably find that those factory workers weren't in the highest of spirits. Look into the Great Leap Forward and Stalin's Five Year Plans and you'll find them paved with suffering. Even the Canadian Pacific Railway meant moving through hordes of mosquitoes (although that one might be a push). The most obvious example I haven't mentioned yet is warfare. It's just about the worst thing humanity puts itself through, and gosh darn it do we do it often. Worse yet, there are far too many examples of when countries are going toe to toe with bitter hatreds between them, and those hatreds culminate into the worst, most heinous acts against their fellow man. Nanking is the tragic story of Chinese citizens that felt the brunt of wartime aggression meeting its maximum in the most foul and horrible ways imaginable.

The atrocities that were committed in Nanking cannot be explained by simply stating "well, these things happen in war." The number of civilian deaths and crimes committed on them doesn't allow for that simplistic of reasoning. There's something more there, because this doesn't happen in the average war. The roots of it go way back just before Canada was even a country. Japan had just gone through an extended period of isolation, setting themselves far behind the rest of the developed world technologically. Feeling snubbed, the modern, social world still remembered that the land of Japan was brimming with resources and potential, but were being squandered by closing their borders to the outside. America, in the most typically American fashion, decided that they had had enough and sailed right into their harbours with their giant, imposing, technologically advanced fleet of ships with Matthew Perry at the helm (his name isn't important, but... Matthew Perry). The purpose wasn't to destroy Japan, but to force them into trade agreements. Ultimately they were successful, but it caused the Japanese citizenship to have some qualms with how their leaders dealt with the situation; essentially, they were displeased by the way they were bowing down to these foreigners and giving in so readily. The result was a massive uprising that displaced their leaders, setting up a new government. 

China's military marching. Another riveting picture.
Trust me, you would prefer this to the alternative.

From there, the new Japan awakened, and this time they meant business. Well... not just because of the commerce deal, but that's another matter. They were united under the banner of Japan and the Emperor, seeking to rise to power once more. They learned the technology that had long since surpassed them, studied the military tactics of other countries (they were most impressed by Germany's), and all the while their whole culture became very warlike. Propaganda abounded, and schools had a distinctly military feel to them. There was also a distinct feeling of superiority, and the belief that they were the greatest of the Asian nations, and thus felt a contempt for the countries around them. What helped both stroke the ego of the Japanese and fanned the flames of hatred towards the Chinese was the fact that Japan became exceptionally rich during World War I through dealing weaponry and supplies, but ran into post-war difficulties through tariffs imposed upon them. Suddenly, they were faced with the decision of trying to push into world markets and emigrating out (avenues that were largely shut down by other countries) or taking more territory by force. 

They had what it takes to do it; individual dedication, the weaponry for their soldiers, a strict devotion to their leader, and on top of that, the change in government also reignited the samurai ethic of Bushido. It is that samurai code that made them such a difficult foe in World War II; surrender was exceptionally rare, and they saw their lives as meaningless unless their actions supported the Emperor. To demonstrate with statistics: Allied soldiers surrendered at a rate of one prisoner for every three dead. The Japanese, however, had a rate of one for every 120. So with all their determination, their first step was to set their sights on their very large neighbour. The desire to acquire more territory is what led them to attack China, which meant doing their best to incite an incident to give them an excuse to go to war. They devised a plot in which they bombed their own train and made it look like it was the Chinese who had attacked. Unfortunately for them, the rest of the world did not take kindly to their actions, and Japan left the League of Nations in 1933 to stake their claim in mainland Asia.

The building to building fighting in the Chinese cities.
Those practiced in Call of Duty felt they were better
prepared, but realized shortly after it didn't exist yet.

The Japanese felt they were going to storm through China without much difficulty, planning to have the massive country under their control in what some estimated as a three month stretch of fighting. However, it didn't pan out that way; the Chinese defended their city of Shanghai with the savage vigour of those that, well, are defending their very homes and livelihood. The fighting stretched out to street-by-street battles, plunging both countries into an exhausting, expensive and brutal war. The Japanese emerged victorious, but after suffering a number of losses and spending much more time than they had anticipated. It was with that anger and frustrating they marched upon Nanking.

The defense on the way to the city was poor. The Chinese had no air support, lacked communication (largely because the soldiers often spoke different languages) and many were just drafted, poorly trained, and sick. They were forced to retreat, and even then many died in what quickly turned into a rout as falling back proved difficult as well. From there, the city fell in just four days after having been sufficiently bombed in air raids.

As for the Nanking citizenship, half of the population had already left the city - typically those that had the wealth or the health to do so. With many of the outlying areas moving in, the city's population before the arrival of the Japanese but after many had ran reached somewhere around 600,000, with 90,000 soldiers captured as well. It was those unfortunate people that chose to remain in the city that would find the worst of fates at the hands of the invading Japanese soldiers, some 50,000 of them.

From there, the Japanese army went on to commit six weeks of some of the worst war crimes you'll ever hear. It was 1937, just prior to the second World War.

Modern Chinese Communism: Part 2 - Economy and Corruption

We've established the Communist Party of China is powerful. Really powerful. They've got the military to back them up, they control the government, and the whole of the country is doing their bidding. They're also super rich, but in all fairness that pretty well goes hand in hand.

The Economy:

Mao and his third wife. How cute. They're wearing
matching coats.

Prior to the 1970s (keep in mind before that decade was Mao's time at the top of the heap) China was communist to the bone. They invaded private lives, made everything centrally planned, controlled businesses, and had their red hands in everything. It had a bureaucracy that was even more controlling than communist Russia, who wanted to control everything but the individual local areas, whereas China was down for micromanaging those as well. When you're more communist than communist Russia, you're really communist. They then went through a cultural revolution in the '70s, and the economic and political landscape changed drastically and quickly. New leadership saw the loosening of the reigns on central planning, freeing up private business and taking themselves out of the private lives of already well-controlled citizens. This was a massive change from the time of Mao, and resulted in an absolutely massive increase in wealth. Unfortunately, it that money stayed pretty well near the top. You've heard of the 1% here? You should see China. "A recent survey by Peking University showed that 1% of China’s richest families owned more than 30% of the nation’ s total wealth in 2012, while the poorest 25% only possessed just 1%."

A propaganda poster about eliminating
the old world (there's a Buddha statue
and a crucifix in the pile). It was described as
"kind of a downer, even for '70s
communist China."

During this revolution the Party would take a look at free-market reforms, but at the same time tightening their grip on their political authority. Keep in mind, what's of utmost importance to the Party is maintaining control. If the private enterprises got too large and powerful, it might rival the Party's influence. The solution to this was for the Party to start taking subtle control of both state assets and private enterprises. Now when I say subtly, this is where it gets a little confusing, so bear with me. In regards to state controlled businesses (and remember the Party and the state are separate but closely linked, with the Party lording over them by and large) the Party maintained the ability to hire and fire and appoint their leaders. In regards to private business, they would demand a say in trade deals (especially deals with foreign countries) and the larger the business the more they would want to have a man in the upper levels. Essentially they would let them thrive to spur on a successful economy, but if they grew too large, they wanted a piece of the pie. A number of deals collapsed because the Party wanted a position high up in the company, but the foreign company in which they're dealing with wasn't on board with the idea. 

Where they stand presently is, somehow, even less clear.The private sector is an unknown and difficult to gauge size. Major Chinese businesses are technically private, but at the same time registered as collectives. The line between private and Party-owned is so blurred it's difficult to establish what's what. 

So in short, the Party is everywhere. They're also not really there at all. They're super rich, but can't really show it. They're immensely powerful, but rarely directly in charge. They don't own the businesses, but... they own the businesses. Oh boy.

Lastly, while China's economy has been absolutely booming in the last few decades, it might be in for a massive collapse. This is because it's a bubble economy. I don't really know what that means. I have read about it a number of times. I still don't get it. Sorry. But it's bad, and frightening, and has world-wide consequences, so watch out for it... whatever it might be.

Corruption:

China is almost comically corrupt. Bribes are so widespread that it's impossible to lock down; it's just a casual part of doing business. While there is a specific group dedicated to nailing corrupted officials in the Party and otherwise, they are darn near powerless; if they accuse a high ranking official of corruption, it goes to his supervisor to decide his fate. The supervisor is typically a guy who appointed the people below him and overall does their bidding - therefore one who is unlikely to send his underlings off to jail. The highest level ones are - inexplicably - supervising themselves, and unless they're severely bipolar or self-destructive, I don't see them being too harsh on their own wheelings and dealings. The highest leaders are essentially above the law.

One man was finally jailed for accepting bribes, but it became somewhat of a joke because of just how small the bribes were for. The general reaction of the populace was how could they send a man off to prison for taking such a paltry sum. The size of the bribes? It totalled to about $1,000,000. Incredible. If you don't utilize bribery in some way, you are either terribly poor (the Party and government jobs aren't particularly lucrative on their own) or not really getting anything done. It's a far too common part of everyday life.

Silencing the Truth:

"I immediately regret this decision."

You've probably heard of Tiananmen Square - not necessarily for what it is, but for one specific event. Adding on to that, probably one specific picture, that of the "Tank Man", an iconic symbol of government resistance. (My father hates the incorrect usage of the word "iconic", but this one surely is.) It's a lone man, standing in front of and blocking the path of a tank moving towards Tiananmen Square. The man's identity and fate have never been discovered, and he's since been known as "Tank Man." The backdrop for why this was happening is this; in 1989, a vast number of students protested against the oppression of the communist regime. The Party's response was to send in their military with not only guns but tanks to clear them out, killing roughly 700-1000 students. How they refer to it in their school's textbooks is the "Tiananmen Incident". An incident is when an elementary student is sent to the office for pushing another student at recess. This was a massacre - but the Party refuses to acknowledge it, as they wish to be seen as a body that can do no wrong.

The same is seen in their reverence for Mao, even now. His Great Leap Forward (the movement towards an industrialized China at the cost of farmland, in a nutshell) caused the starving deaths of thirty million of his citizens. The view for Mao is that he's been mostly a positive force, with a few slip ups.

Man. I'm so glad I live in Canada.

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The information for this blog series was taken from the book "The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers" by Richard McGregor.

Modern Chinese Communism: Part 1 - The Party and the Power

Communism in China is intensely confusing, and not only just for outsiders looking in. It's plagued with corruption, shrouded in secrecy, and so full of under-handed rules and politics that no one really understands it, but it just kind of works - at least for now. It's like the average episode of Game of Thrones, except with more violence and less nudity. You've probably heard there's an ominous sense of dread about what's in store for the Chinese economy, and if things go wrong it's bad for pretty well everyone across the globe. Right now I'm content with buying my affordable "Made in China" garbage, but if the bubble that is their economy bursts, that may not... well, actually I don't know what will happen. I'm not near smart enough to tell you that. What I can do is tell you how some of China's sectors function.

Basic History:

Mao and the Communist Party came to power in 1949. They went through the "Great Leap Forward" which industrialized China, but killed somewhere around thirty million people in the process between 1958 and 1961. A cultural revolution began in the 1970s, coming with the death of Mao, which changed the political and economic landscape greatly. Upset with the harsh rule of communism, in 1989 a large number of student protestors stood against the Party in Tiananmen Square, resulting in the military stepping in and slaughtering hundreds. That's the basics. Their history since Mao is bloody, corrupt, and nowadays just really hard to breath over there.

Say what you want about the communists, but they've got
a heck of a symbol.

The Leaders:
The heads of the Party, no longer having anyone as important as Mao, are as close to nameless and faceless as you can get. The public rarely sees them, and they deliberately feel distanced from the general populace. They're essentially devoid of character; their past is hidden, or pretty well rebuilt as to make it seem like they've been all about the party since they were born - shot out of the womb carrying a hammer and sickle or something.

So... are they actually the government? Well, it gets incredibly murky. The government is typically made up of Party members, but Party members are not necessarily a part of the government. The Party is a separate entity, but largely controls the government moves, as well as economic, military, and political choices, but they don't directly represent the government. It's actually so confusing that many Chinese don't entirely understand it either, and many of the backdoor deals and decision making tends to happen not entirely by the book. Keep in mind, "the book" is basically what the Party chooses to do in the moment.

But believe me - you want to be in the Party. It comes with power, prestige, and a good social standing, and these advantages are so strong that there's a black market for buying and selling positions in the Party. Basically, you bribe a Party member that's able to get you in, pay a massive lump sum, and hope the guy isn't scamming you. We'll dive more into corruption later, however - that's a section all on it's own.

Mao Zedong; voted "Best Dressed" in the
Politburo.

Military:
The military here, in the U.S., and pretty well all democratic countries fights for the whole of the country rather than a specific party. Not so in China - the military is the Party's military, fighting on their behalf. It helps to keep the Party in power, and maintaining that power is of critical importance to the Communist Party.

The role of the military has changed, however. Currently, the military is largely used to help protect the importing and control of oil reserves, and extra funding is helping to transform it into something considered world class. The payment for members of the military is a decent, livable wage, and their accommodations are fair. It's really not very exciting - but it hasn't always been this way.

In the 1950s China struck oil, allowing them to be self-sufficient in terms of their energy needs, so the military wasn't really needed to oversee things quite as much back then as it was within their own borders. The military was paid incredibly poorly, so they stuck their nose in big business. They would actually control a number of enterprises, and in turn, many of the top military men found tremendous wealth, driving around in fancy cars and living in extravagance - as far as nice cars and extravagance in 1950s China goes. Eventually they reformed it and they were sent "back to the barracks". Now it seems at least somewhat less corrupt, so... they have a leg up on pretty much everything else.

Chinese citizens celebrating Stalin's birthday. Mao and Stalin; the
original odd couple!

Don't forget that military forces also help to crush dissent. The media, the economy, the government, it's all controlled by the Party. The military helps to keep it that way.


So what you should have learned by now is the Communist Party of China is intensely powerful. They have control of everything, either directly or indirectly. But what about the economy? How's the whole central planning thing working out? If Putin had a fight with China over who is more corrupt, who wins? (The answer is they are both winning, and winning plenty.) All this and more in part two.

The Boxer Rebellion

The Boxer Rebellion is two things; one, a violent anti-foreigner movement in China circa around 1900, and two, an incredible band. Today I'll be talking about the former.

The Boxer Rebellion event, while not as musically talented, was an opposition to foreign imperialism and Christian meddling towards China and its people. Basically, the big European powers along with the United States wanted to run China, and the Chinese started to get a little sick and tired of, you know, having unequal treatment in regards to laws, having opium ruin their country, losing their religion, and having foreigners take over everything that's theirs. This is nothing new - the powers that be have already been working away at the sovereignty of China for quite some time now. While I cannot personally understand what got them so worked up, the fact of the matter is they revolted.

A French political cartoon of the invading
forces dividing China. They are also
made to look hilariously like their
stereotypical racial appearances.

The Boxers did not refer to themselves by that name. They were actually called the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists, a clearly Chinese name that was somewhat of a secret, underground society of men growing increasingly discontent with the powers of imperialism. Adding the natural disasters and brutal drought that happened around the same time, they reached the breaking point and began to violently rebel against the soldiers of the imposing countries as well as the Christian missionaries that upset them through what I can only assume was constantly reminding them eternal damnation is the result of not accepting Christ. In all fairness, hearing that all the time quickly becomes a downer, I would assume. These Boxers were already spiritual as is - in fact, they believed they possessed the supernatural ability to be invulnerable to cannon fire, rifles and knives. This was most likely due to the fact that the men killed by cannon fire, rifles and knives could not report back to inform them of their deaths.

Before things really took off, Empress Dowager Cixi officially had the policy of suppressing the Boxer movement. The Boxers had been taking shots at Christian churches and leaders here and there, but nothing too substantial as of yet. The Empress had to make a decision (along with the Imperial Court); support the Boxers in an attempt to maintain sovereignty in the country, or attempt to maintain peace by working with the foreign powers. Cixi and the court ruled to back the Boxers, much to the displeasure of the invading forces. The result was a rapid spread of the Boxer movement, killing many freshly converted Chinese Christians, intimidating Chinese officials and burning churches. The foreign response was sending a number of soldiers to Beijing to defend - four hundred soldiers from eight countries rushed in. In retrospect, four hundred doesn't really sound like all that many considering China is kinda big with a lot of people.

Troops from (left to right) Britain, U.S., Australia,
British India, Germany, France, Austria-Hungary, Italy and
Russia. Just kidding, the last guy is from Japan. The Russian
must have been in the bathroom or something.

Tensions mounted even higher as time went on. More people were killed on both sides, everyone was angry and the Empress declared war on all foreign powers. The Chinese loyalists (I think you can call them that. Basically the non-Christian-converted Chinese Boxers) attacked the legation quarter of Beijing, basically where the foreigners lived. A small number of French and Italian soldiers, some priests, and (most importantly) 3,200 Chinese Catholics successfully defended the quarter against a large number of attackers.

However, the rest of the converted Chinese did not fare so well. The Boxers annihilated Christians throughout China, arguably the worst event being the Taiyuan massacre. Fourty four foreigners, including women and children, were murdered. Over time the killings continued and the protestant dead were later named the China Martyrs of 1900.

Italian soldiers wearing ponchos and ridiculously goofy hats,
hanging around in China.

In response, the allied forces send in a much larger contingent of soldiers to quell the rebellion. The countries of Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S. all worked together to secure the country that was in complete disarray. It was then occupied for roughly a year, but a dark spot in history it surely was. Atrocities and looting was rampant, each of the invading countries saying the others were committing the worst of these crimes. To add insult to injury, China had to pay a large sum in reparations to the countries that would be splitting their land up on their whim.

In a nutshell, the rebellion was a failure. This begs the question then, how is China a sovereign country and not divided up between the eight invaders? Well, in short, they decided the easiest and most effective way to govern China was through the Chinese dynasties instead of directly dealing with the Chinese people. I suppose over time the power just wained, but that'll be some research for another time.

I guess the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists simply would have been better if they used more guns.

Famous Historical Figures Say the Darndest Things!

1. "Support the Qing, exterminate the foreigners!" This was the rallying cry of the Boxers, the Qing being the then leading Chinese dynasty.
2. "Take away your missionaries and your opium and you will be welcome." Well, "welcome" may be somewhat of a stretch, but... you get the idea.
3. "The whole country is swarming with hungry, discontented, hopeless idlers." An American speaking to Washington soon after the Empress' initial plans on supporting the Boxers officially.
4. "The conduct of the Russian soldiers is atrocious, the French are not much better, and the Japanese are looting and burning without mercy." I was pretty serious when I said it was a dark spot in history.