Museum Preserves "Chinese Holocaust"
Non-profit group wants history of foreign occupation preserved, taught

photo: Maureen McGettigan

Chinese Holocaust Museum director Poland Hung points to an exhibit.
The Lawton Street museum is open Saturdays and Sundays, from noon to 4 p.m.

By Jim Cohee

The Chinese Holocaust Museum of San Francisco celebrated its second anniversary in the Sunset District earlier this year. Founded by history professor Tien-wei Wu in 2000 and opened in temporary quarters in Oakland, the museum moved to its current San Francisco home in January of 2003.

The storefront museum, a non-profit organization funded by private donations, stands at 1914 Lawton St., near 25th Avenue.

The museum features two rooms of exhibits documenting the full 14-year history of the Sino-Japanese War (1931 - 1945), but its emphasis is clearly on the gruesome period of Chinese history after 1937 when the Japanese Imperial Army broke through the defenses of the city of Nanking. During the first 90 days of occupation, more than 300,000 Nanking civilians were killed and tens of thousands of women were imprisoned for "military prostitution" - sex slavery - while, to the north, brutal medical experiments were conducted on a captive population in a building that still stands in Harbin (Manchuria), the infamous Unit 731. The horrors are difficult to comprehend at the museum - China lost 35 million people during the war.

This "forgotten holocaust" got global front-page coverage in 1997 when Basic Books published "The Rape of Nanking," by Iris Chang, a Bay Area writer who died tragically last year. Chang's book is recommended as a good place to start for those who are interested in the exhibit.

A shelf in the window of the museum's storefront features books in Chinese and English on the war and on war crimes that are photographically documented. Prominent among the books is not only the work of Iris Chang, but also "The Good Man of Nanking, The Diaries of John Rabe."

Rabe, a German businessman and ardent Nazi, is often called the Oskar Schindler of Nanking. He and a small group of foreigners worked tirelessly to protect Chinese innocents in the cruel early months of the occupation. Working with Rabe were, among others, American missionary and educator Minnie Vautrin and American physician Robert Wilson. They created The International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone, which saved thousands of lives. They also left priceless historical records documenting the cruelties of the war. The display books are not for sale, though the staff, led by President Poland Hung and Executive Director Philip Ng, are happy to direct visitors to libraries and bookstores that can provide them.

The museum does provide materials - pamphlets, newsletters, a copy of a letter by Wu to President George W. Bush with a plea for former POWs of the Sino-Japanese War, and a museum catalog. There are also interesting press clippings, including a piece on the opening of the museum by Contra Costa Times reporter Tom Lochner, and a piece on the war by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof.

In the museum are enlarged and framed photoprints, many from the cameras of soldiers of the Japanese Imperial Army. There are also news clippings, enlarged, from China, Japan and the United States on the war and on war crimes, especially the plea for an official apology from the Japanese government for the atrocities of the Chinese campaign. The Japanese government has offered money to surviving "comfort women" (sex slaves) but, to date, no apology.

The museum is organized in four departments: the Nanking massacre (the killing of civilians when the Japanese Imperial Army entered the city); Chinese slave labor (including U.S. prisoners of war); Unit 731 (site of infamous medical experiments and the testing of chemical and biological weapons); and, in a separate room, comfort women. The scratchy photos are graphic and include documentation on surgery and sexual torture. The exhibit is not for the faint of heart.

The mission of the museum is public education, the establishment of a permanent memorial for the victims, support for groups and museums in China with similar aims, the inclusion of the history of Nanking as a staple of American high school curricula (as the European holocaust is in many high schools) and, from the Japanese government, an apology for war crimes in China, compensation for survivors and the end of evasive history-writing about the Japanese Imperial Army's conduct during World War II.

The museum offers an important opportunity for student volunteers to learn about the Sino-Japanese War. Teenager Frank Zhou works at the museum and even translates some Chinese text. Those wanting more information on the war should seek out Hung, who has been with the museum since its founding, and Ng. Both are highly knowledgeable about the exhibits and Chinese history.

"We want to present the true history of the war," says Hung. "We want to teach the young to promote peace."

The museum is located at 1914 Lawton St. Exhibition hours are Saturday and Sunday, 1 to 4 p.m., though weekday tours are available by appointment. For more information, call (415) 661 6619 or e-mail chmsf@sbcglobal.net.