Japan today not only caries the legal burden but also the moral obligation to acknowledge the evil it perpetrated at Nanking. Japan at least need to make a written formal apology to China and to the families of the deceased and it needs to pay reparations to the victims who had their lives destroyed when Japan took over Nanking. But Japan also needs to incorporate the Rape of Nanking into their history books, which at this point they have refused to do. They won t admit to what has happened and won t teach their younger generations of the mistakes they have made in the past. These long overdue steps are crucial for Japan if it expects to deserve respect from the international community and to achieve closure on a dark chapter that stained its history.
The survivors never officially got an apology from Japan for their actions and it isn t believed that they will. But the fury and nightmares they will have to live with for many years to come is never-ending. John Rabe became ill, and when this got to the survivors, over $2000 American dollars were raised in support of him and they eventually built a Memorial Hall in Jiangdongmen in the 1980s in memory of the victims and the help received. He died many years later. But the people he helped survive, where were their lives going? They have lived through a terrifying period that will forever haunt their dreams.