Ah. More posts. :)
The history of the Japanese holocaust is something to think about, isn't it? It's not a recent event, but just where do you even cross the line when it comes to the massacre of countless human beings? How can someone even justify that? There is significance in learning about your history to identify the hypocrisy/irony, the patterns, and cause-and-effect; however, my question is this:
Are we doomed to repeat a similar pattern? Is it possible that there could be another holocaust in the future?
The following is a speech for Ac-Dec, which is supposed to be no longer than 4 minutes. (Yikes!)
Japanese Holocaust: Unit 731
In the words of Voltaire, a French philosopher, he once said, "If people continue to believe in their absurdities, they will continue to commite atrocities." His quote can be applied to a wide range of events, but it can certainly be illustrated through the history of the Japanese holocaust, mainly Unit 731, the most infamous facility that partook in this horrorific event.
The creation of Unit 731 all began with the Japanese emperor, Hirohito, concerned about the Soviet Union hoarding (sp?) biological weapons. So, as a counter-measure, he created a Japanese program to develop their own BW's. In addition, General Shiro Ishii, commander of this project, built a death camp in Manchuria, a region near China that no longer exists today; later, it became known as the notorious Unit 731. Hirohito was obligated to visit this facility to observe their processes, and even after seeing the inhumane experiments taking place for the sake of wartime use, he still approved the establishment because he believed it wa the best interest for Japan to seize this opportunity to take revenge on their enemies.
To go a little more in-depth with these experiments, these included battle simulations on live human subjects to test the range and effects of actual weapons, doctors there injected war prisoners with diseases such as antrax, tuberculosis, and the Bubonic Plague, and other unusual sadism including placing people in huge centrifuges spinning at a rapid speed and high-pressure chambers until their eyes pop out! However, one experiment that shook my very core ws the vivisecion, the dissection of a live person. Usually in this case, doctors ripped bodies apart using large primitive tools such as saws and hooks this big (*emphatically gesticulate the size*), and victims were rarely given anesthetics. So, you can just imagine why this facility can be referred to as the 'Aushwitz' of China; once you go in, you're never coming out.
Even after the conclusion of World War II in 1945, only 28 out of 70 accused officers were convicted in the Tokyo Trial for their Class A war crimes. For those who are still alive today, they've yet to pay for the sins they've committed.
As of today, the Japanese government require schools to censor out the holocaust in Japanese textbooks, deny the event ever occurred, and refuse to pay reparations to countries that were involved. Ladies and gentlemen, going back to the quote, there's a pattern we must seen in history and today, a pattern we must cease to perpetuate by educating our generation today.
-----
There's quite a few things I need to clean up in my speech before I deliver the presentation next year, such as shortening it to make it fit the 4 minute limit, further researching the subject matter, and editing the conclusion.
Constructive criticisms for my speech and responses to the questions are more than welcomed.
