Before you start trolling, read first: John Rabe was a Nazi in Nanking during the Rape of Nanking (1937). He saved tens of thousands of Chinese civililans from the incredible atrocities of the Japanese soliders (like cutting open pregnant women and sticking the fetuses on bayonets and parading them on the street, raping 1 year old babies and 80 year old women, mass rapes, and killing) The most mind boggling thing is that Rabe used the Nazi swastika symbol to SAVE LIVES!! The Japanese respected the swastika as Germany was their ally at the time, so in a bizarre twist, the swastika saved lives in the safety zone Rabe created. OMG!! The irony!!! The swastika saved civilian lives!! When John Rabe got back to Berlin, he sent a letter to Hitler to have him use his influence as leader of Germany to stop the killings by the Japanese. Unfortunately, the letter was intercepted by the Gestapo and Hitler never got the letter. Here's an article as an introduction to John Rabe, but there are books written about him if you're interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rabe When I found out about him just a few weeks ago, I just thought it was strange, hell even bizarre, that the Nazi swastika, a symbol that me and pretty much everyone else looks at with contempt, could be used for a GOOD purpose. It took me a while to even comprehend that fact.... What do you guys think about this?
It was asymbol of protection, ancient Romans wore it on their shield going into battle, that's why the Nazi adopted the symbol.
An intersting part of history. Them japs were a crazy folk. Even nazi's on meth had to tell them chill out.
The swatizka was a Buddhist symbol, I don't think any Roman would be carrying it, but Northern Indian "Aryans" would. The Nazi's took the symbol and twisted it.
Pre-hitler I had no feelings. Post-Hitler I never want to see that logo being worn or used by anyone/anything ever again. Other definitions mean nothing now. I believe it would be thuroughly disrespectful to victims & familes if it were to ever resurface. I really can't think of a more degrading image than a Swastikia in-present day. Also, in the early days of hockey there was a team called the Swastikas; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windsor_Swastikas
The germans didnt know about Buddhism, and when they saw the symbol the thought, "Look!! Das ist spider!! turn it 36 Degrees to the right...... PERFECT!!! NOW we have Scary Spider for Nazi Party," (sarcastic german accent is needed)
There was a laundry in Dublin, Ireland called "The Swastika Laundry" which operated up until the 1980's. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika_Laundry
I found out about John Rabe a few weeks ago, and since then, I've seen several films about the Rape of Nanking. There was a scene in the German Film "John Rabe" where Rabe helps unroll a huge Nazi flag while the Japanese planes are strafing them, and uses it to cover the Chinese workers in his business, and the Japanese planes stop attacking them... That's using the swastika for protection...
I'm with slavakonov, never want to see that symbol representing anything again. I believe i remember seeing some poll, not sure it it was right or anywhere close to accurate but it said 40%+ of muslims believe that the holocaust never happened. You would like Schindler's List if you haven't seen it. Just watched it last week for the first time.
I never said anything about using the symbol again. I'm just saying that I thought it was pretty amazing that that symbol was used to save lives There was a scene in the German Film "John Rabe" where Rabe helps unroll a huge Nazi flag while the Japanese planes are strafing them, and uses it to cover the Chinese workers that worked for him, and the Japanese planes stop attacking them... That's using the swastika for good, instead of bad....
I think in certain countries in Europe, saying that the Holocaust never happened is a crime. Not so with the Rape of Nanking and other Japanese war crimes.... Just recently, I believe it was last month, some official in Japan said that the comfort women were a necessary item for the Imperial Japanese army. And that pissed off a lot of people in South Korea and China....
There's also a couple of other movies I saw recently about the Nanking Massacre, one is City of Life and Death and the other is Flowers of War (Chinese film starring Christian Bale), they both were pretty depressing, with a severe, oppressive atmosphere kind of like Schindler's list. Also I just found this video about Unit 731 created by the HIstory Channel, unit 731 was the Japanese unit of doctors and scientists that operated without anesthesia on men, women and children who were restrained on the operating table. They would also do crap like give starving Chinese children candy laced with anthrax and record the medical results. They also did stuff like remove the stomach of a person and connect the esophagus directly to the small intestine, also would amputate both arms, then re-attach the left arm to the right side, and re-attach the right arm to the left side, and note how victim responds when recovered. Totally sick stuff like that, all done without anesthesia because the doctors thought that using anesthesia would affect the results of the experiment, especially when they were doing tests like giving biological agents like anthrax, plagues, they would cut open the victim and see how those agents were affecting their organs.... Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgtIyNRv3g8
Yep and if I recall correctly the man in charge of that program during the war was never tried for any crimes and I think we gave him a job after the war also. Sick right? But would you rather be the nation without the knowledge and research, no even a realistic question. It comes down to protecting your nation, and more importantly its citizens.
The buddhist symbol is flipped and turned compared to the Nazis symbol. This is why the nazis changed it because in the Buddhist meaning it means hope or something so they changed it to mean the opposite of the original meaning.