I just googled "Changde" while proving to my mother that we've been mispronouncing and spelling the name of the city I'm from for quite some time. In addition to the Wikipedia page for "Changde" coming up, there was also a page called "Battle of Changde". My heart dropped when it showed the dates of the battle being between 1942-43, World War II. While many people are familiar with the horrors of the Holocaust, few are aware of the true nature of the horrors performed by the Japanese.
The Japanese had chemical and biological warfare units, but the most prominent is Unit 731. Unit 731 is most famous for its black plague bombs, vivisection, and creation of Mycoplasma. In short, it was a pretty nasty ordeal overall. I learned about this in history. I gave a cold, heartless presentation about it to a class of kids who could have cared less about what I was saying. I mentioned the positives of Unit 731's work, which was the massive amounts of research about infectious diseases.
The Japanese used mustard gas, cyanic acid gas, and other horrific chemicals on the city.
After the Battle of Changde, Unit 731 airdropped fleas infected with the black death.
300,000 civilians died in the Battle of Changde.
I don't know why I had never googled the place I was born prior to today. It's sobering, horrifying, and really I don't know how to feel. I'm even less impressed with Imperial Japan than I was earlier. I don't hate today's Japanese since they didn't do anything wrong, but I think I understand why modern Chinese still don't like the Japanese. It's because they did stuff like this to places we care about.
So today, I found out something about myself that I didn't know prior. But I'm pretty proud of Changde, and being from there, regardless. Because you know what?
The Chinese beat the Japanese, despite all the horrible things that happened.
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