FS 5

We are living in a relative peaceful age, at least most of us are indulged in the hustle and bustle lives without any risk of starvation or killing. Our each day composes every single page of the history, perhaps someday our posterity(后代 = descendant, poster=海报 ) will talk about some pages of us in the future, just like what we did, do and will do.

The history is not always that beautiful, instead (= just the reverse, on the contrary = 与此相反, in contrast = 与此相反, by contrast = 与之相比, by contrast with = 和…相比 ), it’s full of darkness, blood, evil, crime, etc. Some pages are so heavy that they are not easy to flip over, to forgive, we need to face it. Let’s take the ‘Nanjing holocaust ( 大屠杀= massacre ) for instance, to Chinese, it’s page of humiliation, to Japanese, it’s a page of sin.

It happened about 86 years ago, it’s so far from us, however, as long as you will to open the cover of it, it’s just there. There’s a heated argument among the historians because they can’t convince each other about some details. To ordinary people, it’s not necessary to join their academic debates, if we can know about the overall conclusion or keep several unforgettable moments, it’s enough. For example, after entered a place, the Japanese soliders did merciless ( 残忍的 = ruthless ) brutism(兽行), they cutted open gravida‘s( 孕妇 ) belly (肚子 = abdomen ) with their bloody bayonets ( 刺刀 ) after a long time gang-rape, they raped almost all the females no matter how she’s an old lady or a little girl ( adolescent ),  they raced with each other in order to prove who can cut off more heads of Chinese.

History is there, as ordinary people we may not be able to tell more details or numbers, but someone else did more besides historians and scholars, for example, Iris Chang. She was threaten, was intimidated (恐吓、威胁), was suppressed, nevetheless, she kept researching, writing, fighting. She had never surrendered, she’s full of morale (斗志). Doctors made use of antidepressant (抗抑郁剂, side effect = 副作用) to help her to against the big pressure. Unfortunately, she finally commited suicide at her 37, in 2004. Why a sunny lady will end her own life in her youth? Absolutely not because of fear, but fatigue (疲劳), she fought with a insomnia (sleep deprivation) for such a long time, it’s ruthless for her to burden this copy of loneliness and darkness by herself.

History is there, the purpose we talk about it is not to hand down hatred (= animosity) but to embrace the future by keeping awake.