Nanking

While the rape of Nanking, where the Japanese decapitated and horribly massacred millions of chinese people, and other atrocities such as the Bosnia-Herzegovina, where over 8,000 civilians were killed by Bosnian Serb forces are horrible events, they must be taught in school for a variety of reasons. First off, ask the question why is history taught? I'm sure the answer you'll receive most often is the age old saying "If we do not learn from history it's bound to repeat itself." To learn the things these people did not only gives us an idea on signs of the ways these things happen, but also to teach how awful these things in order to steer people clear of this ideal or mindset.

Also, for schools to deny this history to students is simply an attempt to erase history, an act that is impossible. To simply say something did not happen is not the way to avoid shame, but the way to make yourself look worse to others. If the U.S. decided to remove slavery from the textbooks, and assume it never happened, it would not last a minute. Once history happens, it is carried through stories, books, and writing, of which many countries uphold the actual happenings at a specific event. So if the U.S. had denied slavery in the South in books, not only would tales be told of the events, other countries with historical records, such as the home countries that were put through slavery would speak up about it. Attempts to remove history are nothing more than trying to get a child to think Santa Claus is real his entire life. One day he'll learn the accepted truth.