Is hate natural? I think so

Head of a Chinese man beheaded by Japanese is wedged in a barricade near Nanking just before the fall of the city. Wikipedia

In the generally accepted histories of the world there have been many atrocities.  Millions of  Armenians were slaughtered during WWI; 6 millions Jews were killed by German in WWII; two  atom bombs were dropped on Japan by America killing hundreds of thousands; and, as in every war, there is a long list of atrocities committed by one army or another – including the infamous “rape of Nanking” by the Japanese army in 1937.  According to Wikipedia between 200,000 and 300,000 men, women and children were rapped and killed in a six week period after the Japanese captured the city.  The Chinese say the number is 300,000 and still  mourn the tragedy – this year will mark its 75th anniversary.

This week, the mayor of Nagoya, Japan – the sister city of Nanking – said the massacre never happened; his statement is very reminiscent of Ahmadinejad’s statements about the Jews in Germany, or the Turkish government’s denial of any massacre of Armenians.  Why would anyone say anything like that?  There are several possible explanations.  People born a generation or two after the event have no personal memories or connection with it and then it becomes like all history – a literary fiction if you don’t believe it.  Of course there is a converse people who believe a racial, national or even regional narrative that is false; accepting any historical account or narrative is a choice unless you lived through the events.  Those that choose not to believe may make that choice for political, philosophical or religious reasons.   Both the First and Second World Wars are almost ancient history, the number of personal witnesses decreases daily.  The last active participant in WWI just died and the number of WWII survives is getting to be quite small.   Therefore most of us accept the accounts on faith, that faith ist is based on solid academic and scholarly grounds and supported by multiple sources and accounts;  it is still an act of faith.  Still, the statement is shocking, especially when you consider that the two cities are linked by choice in commerce and cultural exchange – sisters as it were.

Need-less to say, the Chinese media is not taking the denial lightly and Nanking has officially severed its connections with Nagoya. The Chinese are understandably as incensed as Jews and Armenians are about similar denials of their sufferings.  Does the mayor hate all Chinese? Is he like the neo-nazis in Germany, trying recapture a perceived lost era of glory?  Is he running for public office, simply posturing and playing on regional racism like Ahmadinejad?  It may seem like an unimportant question.  However,  I think it is a very important question to ask.  If we do not know why people say hateful things about whole groups of people, nations and races, we cannot find a way to stop the kind of killing the mayor of Nagoya denies.

The question is not academic and it not about old or ancient events.  That kind of violence is happening today in Middle East between religious factions, it is happening all over Africa between tribes and religious groups – and we are only a generation away from when it happened right here.  It is a subject we have to understand to master  – to master our own basic nature, for it does seem to have always been a part of our existence as a species.  We have those we love, protect and nurture and we have those we hate, isolate and kill.  Won’t it be nice if in the 21st century of the modern era, some 10-50,000 years in our modern form, if we managed to stop hating and killing the “other”?