China's museums: nationalism's breeding ground
SHENYANG, China (AFP) — The lucky ones among Japan's Chinese prisoners in the 1930s and 1940s got a bullet. For the others, there was "the rolling cage."
The two-metre (six-foot) metal cylinder with hundreds of inch-long razor-sharp nails on the inside, was used to roll people to a slow and agonising death. But these days, it serves a different, political purpose.
It is part of the graphic displays in the September 18 Museum in northeast China's Shenyang city, where history is in the service of the Communist Party, with visible results.
"I feel a lot of hatred towards the Japanese after I've seen what they've done," said 20-year-old student Zhao Xiaosui, visiting the museum for the first time with his girlfriend.
"Luckily, the Japanese don't dare do this anymore. China has become strong."
The museum, established in 1991, is named after the date of Japan's invasion of northeast China on September 18, 1931, an event that some historians argue should really be considered the start of World War II.
As the years go by, there is a growing sense of urgency, because the events of three generations ago gradually and inexorably fade out of living memory.
"In a few more years, no one will be left who actually remembers the events," said Jin Hengwei, the museum's deputy chief of publicity.
"That's why we are here, to ensure that the memory of these terrible events get passed from generation to generation. History must not be forgotten. If it is, it's the same as betraying our ancestors."
Thoughts museum visitors have written in the guest book suggest the museum is fulfilling its purpose.
"I must study hard, and help the motherland become strong. If we allow ourselves to slip, we will be bullied," runs a typical entry, written by a middle school student.
"It's very important for the next generation to understand history," said 60-year-old Peng Suren as he walked his grandsons, four-year-old twins, by the gruesome exhibits of severed heads and mangled bodies.
"If they don't, they will not appreciate the need for our nation to strengthen itself in defence against foreign aggressors."
The first rooms of the spacious museum depict China as a victim of Japanese aggression, but as the visitor moves towards the exit, he is treated to an interpretation of China as almost the lone victor on World War II in Asia.
The two factors widely credited with ending the war get only cursory treatment.
The Soviet invasion of Japanese-occupied Northeast Asia in the summer of 1945 is mentioned in passing, and America's nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki not at all.
"In a way they're trying to turn to a more positive interpretation of the past to people," said James Reilly, a scholar from George Washington University who has studied the role of China's history museums.
"That's sort of riding a tiger in China, trying to stay ahead of people's nationalist feelings, putting the party in front of it all, and that's a very tricky game to play."
"Certainly they (museums) are playing an important role in representing a certain version of the past, which will advance the party's and government's interests," said Reilly.
"But the message is not so much Japan bashing. It's more promoting the internal unity under the guidance of the party. And that is the main reason that they have been growing in recent years."
Some visitors to the Shenyang museum expressed a more nuanced view of the past than the sometimes stark black-and-white narratives given by the museum.
"It's history, and we shouldn't allow it to affect today's world too much," said one of the visitors, a local middle-school teacher who gave his surname only as Wang.
"Many Japanese today are peaceful, although there is indeed a small minority that wishes to revive militarism. And it's very important to ensure that they don't get too much influence."
