Genocide: The Cause Of Atrocious Crimes

Ethnic cleansing is the term to purify genocide, but both are the same inhumane, baleful crimes. Genocide denies the right of life to a mass of humans. Genocide is an inhumane act of mass killing against a national, ethnic, racial, or racial group with the intention to eradicate the group (“How”;“What”). Atrocious crimes like genocides occurs under the guise of war. The Holocaust, Great Leap Forward, Rape of Nanking, Great Purge, and Armenian Massacre are just some of the genocides throughout history. As society focuses on fighting, those aware of the crime neglects them because it does not involve them neither is it their concern. There are many basic cause to a genocide: fear of authority, gain, racism, nationalism and imperialism. Human
There were few who wanted to defy that act of human cruelty, but could not due to the fear of authority. The Forgotten Holocaust, also known as the Rape of Nanking was a nightmare that lasted for the Chinese civilians. The Japanese invaded Nanking and killed 250,000-300,000 civilians, according to eyewitness (Bristow). Chinese soldiers surrendered to the Japanese Army, yet the army executed all the soldiers at Taiping Gate on December 13, 1937 (Chen, Ming). The Japanese took it upon themselves to terrorize the civilians. Even new recruits of the Japanese army were mortified by the acts, yet none stood up to the army and followed the orders of their superiors (Chen). The feelings of self protection overrode the feelings of dehumanization of the victims, thus leading the bystanders to just neglect the actions of brutality around them or engage themselves in the scene. The incident was not hidden from the world, in fact countries around the world knew about it, yet nothing was done until the Tokyo War Crime Trials (Ming). Leaders such as Hirohito and Tojo were fully cognizant of the situation in China (Chen). Nanking was completely neglected as the Japanese and even the United States gained from this gruesome event. Power can change the tides, but despite having power the Japanese greed was not
The United States and Japan was fully aware of the incident in Nanking, but neither countries stopped it nor send help. Only until afterwards the incident did they hold a trial and in addition not all the criminals were punished. However a group of 20 westerners, who witnessed the incident, initiated a camp for the civilians, where the Japanese were forbidden to enter (“Rape”). The westerners risked their lives to intercede and inhibit the murder of the civilians. The regret is that such depiction of concern does not happen often, thus letting a genocide to continue