Siren Call
Sirens blared in my neighborhood this morning, and after determining no fire was nearby I attributed the noise to the randomness of China, where jarring sounds faze no one.
Only tonight did I realize that the sirens actually did have a purpose. A friend who teaches in the coastal city of Wenzhou heard them too, and she actually went to the trouble of asking someone what they meant. She found out that the sirens commemorated the 76th anniversary of the first Japanese invasion of China, the annexation of Manchuria in 1931.
Google tells us that this commemoration is by no means unique, and in fact happens every year on the 18th of September.
I've always been struck by how differently the West and China perceive Japan. In the West, Japan is seen as a peaceful, prosperous nation and a staunch ally in the often unpredictable region of East Asia. In China, Japan is a long-time enemy still unrepentant about its role in the occupation of the country, all the while suspiciously harboring intentions of exerting hegemony over the region as a whole.
September 19th, 2007 - 07:34
It is hard for people to forget the past. There is no difference between the east and the west. U, the westerner, r fascinated with the Cultural Revolution. We, the Chinese, r obsessed with the crimes the Japanese committed to our people during the Second World War. September 18th is the day we commeorate those innocent people hurted, persecuted,and died those days. I see no difference between the commemory between the 9.18 in China and the 9.11 in the states. Japanese should learn to face the history before gaining the forgiveness from the Chinese.
September 19th, 2007 - 14:39
It’s odd, September 18 is the anniversary of the Mukden incident (the beginning of the invasion of Manchuria) and yet John Hutton says the anniversary was observed in Chengdu, and with you in Kunming and your friend in Wenzhou… And total silence here in Beijing and in every other city I’ve lived in. At least, if anybody was observing the anniversary in any of those places, they did it quietly without letting any of the foreigners know, which is not generally how such anniversaries are observed.
September 20th, 2007 - 12:47
George, read what I wrote again- I wasn’t saying that Chinese people commemorate the past any differently than Westerners, just that on the particular issue of Japan China and the West have vastly different perspectives.
September 23rd, 2007 - 10:25
Isn’t that a no brainer, Matt? Both China and Korea have been plagued by Japanese aggression in the past 500 years or so while the western world’s only conflict/exposure with Japan was during the WWII. It’s like a Jewish person asking a Chinese person, “hey, do you hate the Nazis as much as we do?”
Come on!!
September 24th, 2007 - 07:31
Well…I suppose the point I was trying to make was that in the West, we learn so little about the Japanese occupation of China and Korea so when confronted with anti-Japanese sentiment in these countries, many Westerns attribute it to pure bigotry.