Unit 731 Museum

Hey Friends,

I am heading off to Dandong (Chinese city next to the North Korean border!) in a couple of hours
and so I thought I would leave a quick post. Can't wait to share all about Dandong with you all when I return, and until then, please enjoy this post:

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Last weekend, I visited Unit 731 Museum here in Harbin. This museum exposes the past war crimes of the Japanese (specifically chemical weapons testing on innocent human beings).
Here's a 'Foreword' that I encountered in the museum (word for word)
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     "Early in the 20th century, the Japanese militarists flagrantly flouted the international conventions, and clandestinely plotted biological and chemical warfare in an attempt to realize the political ambition of dominating Asia and ruling the world. Very quickly such weapons were used in the battlefield, making the Japanese militarists the most vicious Fascist war criminals in human history.
     The Manchurian Unit of 731, which was entrenched in Ping Fang District, Harbin for 13 years, was the nerve center of the Japanese militarists in executing the plot. Not only did they conduct big-scale germ weapon research, tests and production here, but they also used healthy humans to conduct germ tests. Just between 1939 and 1945, at least 3000 people were cruelly terminated in the laboratories. During the whole germ warfare, at least 300,000 people were slaughtered or maimed.
     Forgetting about the history means betrayal. By exposing the criminal past of Unit 731, we want to preserve the facts in order to warn future generations. Let history usher in a peaceful, civilized and progressive human society, and prevent a recurrence of historical tragedy."
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Now please don't get me wrong. It's not my intention to say the Japanese are evil and cruel, but rather how I see it is that a group of people in the past (which just so happen to be Japanese) performed evil acts to fulfill zealous sin-filled ambitions. The bigger takeaways from this museum experience are that I could not only see first hand how evil HUMAN BEINGS can be, but also, after seeing these ghastly exhibits, I can swear to myself to do my best in the future to prevent this kind of evil from happening again. I really liked the last paragraph of the Foreword because it warns future generations to prevent such evil from occurring again.

Here are some pictures from my experience:

The Main Building of Unit 731
"The main building was the administrative headquarters of Unit 731, which housed the offices for the commanding officer and aides, the specimen display rooms, special office for gendarmes, and the infirmary. It was a 170-meter-long and 12-meter-wide brick and wood structure, with a total floor space of 4,080 square meters. The roof was burnt when Unit 731 retreated in August 1945. The place was later restored to its original form."

Germ and chemical testing/surgery on a woman

"Smoke billowed from the corpse incinerator of the Troop No.731 day after day after bacteria experiments, even including someone incinerated with dying breath."

"The Troop No.731 often carried out vacuum experiments at any time because the troop had a lot of living people as specimens. Other arbitrary experiments included heat endurance, stopping water supply, electric shock, upside-down hanging, amputation etc."

"A permanent lab of the Troop No.731 to research the formation, therapy and prevention of frostbite. Before 1939, the troop did frostbite experiments generally in the fields."

Bone saw used to cut and acquire human body parts

"The children of Beituan Village died a violent death as a result of the gas attack by the Japanese troops."

Context of above picture^^^
"On May 27th 1942, a part of the Japanese troops in China of the 163rd regiment of 110th division surrounded the Beituan Village of Ding county of Hebei province and fired lethal gases into a tunnel where the villagers hid, brutally killing over 800 innocent residences, which included over 30 households. This 'Beituan Massacre' shocked the nation."

His face is a testament to the terrible effects of a chemical attack 

SIDE 1: SMILING HARMLESS-LOOKING BUSINESSMAN

SIDE 2: SNARLING EVIL MILITARY GENERAL

Context of above two pictures^^^ (Businessman/General)

     "Zhong Hai Institution for Weapon Manufacture of Army Arsenal Gunpowder Factory:

     

     In 1927, the Japanese commenced on building the production base for toxic agents in confidence which was located in Kunoshima, Seto Inland Sea. In order to cover up the reality of the production of toxic agents, the plant was named Army Arsenal Powder Factory Zhong Hai Institution for Weapon Manufacture and begun its operations and production in May, 1929. According to statistics, it produced a total of 6,616 tons of varying types of toxic agents from 1931 to August, 1945 and was known as the 'Poison Gas Island'"

Remains of the boiler room site

To my knowledge, each tile is the name of a victim...

HIT Happenings

Hello Everyone,

     These past two weeks have been interesting and fulfilling. Aside from my normal Chinese language classes, I also took the initiative to try out HIT Economics classes (in Chinese with fellow Chinese classmates!). I tried out Economics Law, Macroeconomics, and International Trade. While taking these classes, I remember being greatly encouraged at how far my Chinese has come since I could understand the overall lecture as well as some specific examples from here and there. One thing that really struck me about this academic environment is how much more of a cohesive classroom environment there was. For instance, if you look at how the desks and chairs are set up, you can see there is no separation. Back at Yale, I remember having individual seats placed in classrooms or lecture halls and in contrast here at HIT, the desks are connected. I actually really prefer this environment more because you can sit closer to your friends and you can all learn together and share notes with each other more easily. Also, there is more interaction here in the classroom setting between the professor and students than a huge lecture hall setting back in an American college.

ECONOMICS CLASSES

The tables (and even the seats!) are connected

     For this next part, my classmates and I took a field trip to a local fruit and veggies market to practice our Chinese to purchase produce and haggle prices. 

PURCHASING PRODUCE

One part I particularly enjoyed over the past couple of weeks was visiting HIT's 2nd campus. The majority of freshmen are all present here as well as a select group of majors.

HIT SECOND CAMPUS

While visiting the second campus, I had the good fortunate to listen to a speech by HIT President 王树国 (Wángshùguó). He gave a brilliant speech. Below are some of his points:

1. He mentioned how in high school he had a classmate who, although was very smart, was also careless and lazy. As such, when it was time to take the Nationwide College Entrance Examination (高考), the classmate did not study and treated the test as just a regular test he would take in school. As you would imagine, he didn't get into the top schools that he could have if he had indeed put in the effort, and to this day, this classmate regrets not overcoming his laziness and carelessness. President Wang gave this story as a warning and a reminder for us to never neglect the effort aspect required for success. He remarked, "being smart has nothing to do with achievement, but rather being smart only helps with the rate of your understanding." Reflecting upon his remarks, while I would argue that a certain base level of raw talent/intelligence is required for sublime achievement, I believe President Wang and I share our common belief that raw talent/intelligence is not enough, but rather we must cultivate our raw talent/intelligence through effort and constant practice to achieve success.  

2. "The most outstanding and smart person will take the good points/aspects of others and then make them his own."孔子说：三人行必有我师。Confucius said that "where three are gathered, my teacher is among them." In effect, what this means is that because every person that I meet has his or her good areas/strengths,  I can absorb his or her strong points and improve myself that much more. One thing I pride myself in is even if I am talking with someone that I do not like, I still respect what he or she has to say and I pay careful attention to other good facets of his or her personality. You may not like Mr. ABC but man, is he really great at making jokes. Maybe Ms. ZYX is full of arrogance, but you really have never met someone who is as good as she is in making and promoting music. In any case, the point is the same: Humble yourself and learn from everyone. Your best friend and your archenemy can still both be your teachers.  

SPEECH BY HIT PRESIDENT

我的朋友们：李昊和张扬
With my friends Chris/Samuel (middle guy, he has two names lol)
and Zhang Yang (on the right). Because they were in charge of
filming the event, I had the honor of having front row seats for the speech!

President Wang: (王树国)Wángshùguó

Such a great idea isn't it?!  How I wish we could have
water bottle holders like this back in the US! Hahaha

Lastly, my friend brought me to HIT's radio station. It was really cool to see my friend

contact someone from a different part of China to discuss weather conditions and any recent

news from their respective area.

 HIT RADIO STATION

We were having problems at one point,
so my friend busted out the MORSE CODE!

Military Radio

Hello Harbin!

Hi Friends,

I'm in Harbin, China now! It's definitely a little bit cooler than Beijing's weather (think of Autumn weather). I just finished my first week of classes and am about to commence my second week. Please check out some of my pics below that highlight some of the unique/interesting findings I've come across:

HARBIN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (HIT) CAMPUS:
哈尔滨工业大学校园

HIT students' dorm (not foreign students)

HIT foreign students' dorm

You can tell from the pictures above the inequality between our dorms. In contrast with HIT students who have to share an 8 person room and a floor bathroom, foreign students live in 2 person rooms that have private bathrooms (suite bathrooms, 2 rooms in a suite).  Moreover, foreign students even get 24/7 access to electricity! 

HIT Library 

Rainbow = Good luck? If you look really closely you can see a hint of a double rainbow 

Here are some guys working out using the outdoor equipment:

ROOMMATES:

我跟董知见
With my Chinese roommate Dong Zhijian

EXPLORING THE CITY:

Saint Sophia Cathedral

These birds kept on encircling the cathedral

在中央大街, Central Street (Shopping street)

No Chinese adventure is complete without the GREAT MAO!

This guy was straight up swimming in the polluted water...LOL

Over 1,000元 ($163 USD) for this shoe...worth buying? NOPE!

 Concluding Thoughts:

     I think I'm hitting that point of mental isolation ("I want to go home to USA"). 

I love Harbin and I love China but sometimes it's hard and I miss home and I miss riding my bicycle, breathing clean air, and eating a variety of American cuisines. I think the surface adjustment was my time in Beijing and I can only hope that as time goes on that I will enter the Integration/Acceptance stage here in Harbin. 

    

    The academic stresses here are much more intense than those of the Beijing program and it creates a lot of pressure on my end. However, I view this challenge here in Harbin as a good growth opportunity for me. Now is the time for me combine the elements of Luck, effort, and ability to surmount the high academic stresses and environmental stresses and I am looking forward to overcoming this challenge successfully. Greater things are yet to come, and my time in Harbin is a training of sorts to further develop my patience and perseverance.