Forgetting and Denying: Iris Chang, the Holocaust and the Challenge of Nanking
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Forgetting and Denying: Iris Chang, the Holocaust and the Challenge of Nanking David B. MacDonald Political Studies Department, PO Box 56, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. E-mail: [email protected]
This article problematizes representations of Chinese victimization during World War II as a ‘Holocaust’ or ‘Forgotten Holocaust’. Literature on the Jewish Holocaust suggests that comparing other genocides to it benefits the non-Jewish group. Opinions differ as to whether Jewish history suffers, and whether such comparisons are justified. Using studies of the rape of Nanking in 1937 by Iris Chang and Chinese Diaspora groups, I argue that while using the Holocaust as a means of packaging Chinese suffering may initially stimulate interest, and help to highlight the problems of Japanese denialism, extending such parallels too far creates problems of representation. This includes distorting the roles of victimized and perpetrator nations, decontextualizing victims and events, while advancing a number of inaccurate comparisons with both Germans and Jews. International Politics (2005) 42, 403–427. doi:10.1057/palgrave.ip.8800111 Keywords: Holocaust; Jews; Chinese; Nanking; Diaspora; World War II; Japan
Introduction This article questions the wisdom of representing Chinese victimization during World War II as a ‘Holocaust’ or ‘Forgotten Holocaust’. Generally, literature on the Jewish Holocaust suggests that comparing other genocides with the Holocaust benefits the non-Jewish group. Opinions differ, however as to whether Jewish history suffers as a result, and whether such comparisons are justified. Using studies of the rape of Nanking in 1937 by Iris Chang and various Chinese Diaspora groups, I argue that while using the Holocaust as a means of packaging Chinese suffering may initially stimulate interest in lesser known historical tragedies, extending such parallels too far creates problems of representation. This includes distorting the roles of victimized and perpetrator nations, decontextualizing victims and events, while advancing a number of inaccurate comparisons with both Germans and Jews.
Using the Holocaust In modern world history, few tragedies resonate as strongly as the Holocaust of European Jews, which resulted in the deaths of approximately 6 million people.
David B. MacDonald Forgetting and Denying
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The Holocaust has achieved a pre-eminence unequalled by any other genocide in history. As Goldstone notes: ‘No other genocide has evoked this response from the international academic community’ (Goldstone, 2001, 42), while Rubenstein argues, ‘Few events of the twentieth century have been the object of as much persistent and popular interesty’ (Rubenstein, 2001, 33). Syndor sees ‘a vast literature in a variety of languages’ (Sydnor, 1993, 74), Levin, a ‘huge proliferation of literature, television programs, and films’ (Levin, 1993, 197). Young charts a ‘museum boom’, with ‘[t]housands of monuments, preserved ruins, plaques, museums, and study centers,’ (Young, 1994a) while Novick de
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