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“Souls at Rest” in memory of the victims of Nanking (1937-38)

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Light receding from darkness,

Their lives were wept.

Longing to be seen and feel a caress.

The Great Awakening of the World came, as the new dawn crept.

The tragedies of the past conspired, none peacefully slept.

Melancholic reveries sang and whispered, exposing the truth, unkept.

The wronged souls waited for the new dawn, the only one left.

Waiting for their burdened souls to be laid to rest.

Waiting for the strength to abandon betrayal and for justice to be kept…

In the skies away from the fabricated lies,

Free of darkness and full of light.

Ascending into the rising dawn,

Transcending into the stars shining spawn.

Free of all sin and tragedy.

Free of grief and melancholy.

Full of spirit and blessed divinity.

Full of forgiveness and pity.

Feeling no regret but the passing of life,

The unbroken chains of time…

Feeling drawn to the lightness of the light,

The sweetness of the hymn.

Weighing down the mortals and liberating the dead.

Passing time is what the living often dread.

Each day and passing hour,

Closer to the end of the life of a flower.

For all that life is, it travels fast.

For todays present becomes tomorrows past.

Each involuntary breath becomes harder to grasp.

Like a lingering shadow straying to cast…

Hiding from solitude and fearing loneliness.

The lost souls miss their homeliness.

They wish to not be forgotten but remembered.

To be freed from the injustices of immoral creed.

Sins trembled…

The Sun rose…

The new dawn is here…

Now, they will go…

Beyond the clouds into the light…

Beyond the stars above the night.

~swl

Backround:

The Rape of Nanking (1937-38), also known as the Nanking Massacre, was a military attempt to imperialize China by the Japanese.

The Japanese sought their version of Manifest Destiny and pursued a strategic plan to control the world through imperialization.

This historical event carries great controversy and discomfort among speculators who have attempted to uncover and reveal what truly occurred in the city of Nanjing, the winter of 1937.

Some historians and independent researchers have written articles and books in commemoration of the massacre. Researchers estimate over 300,000 people lost their lives due to the horrendous atrocities committed by the Japanese. Chaos flooded the city of Nanjing and great, unspeakable atrocities occurred there…many were agonizingly tortured, many tried to flee, very few succeeded.

Soon after, World War II began, puncturing old wounds infected by war. In the end, some of the military men from the Japanese army were held accountable for their crimes and were charged during the International Military Tribunal of the Far East in 1946.

Morally, however, it is speculated that it would be wrongful to blame one people of one creed and one nationality for the atrocities and 300,00 deaths committed. Civilian accounts have exposed that some of the Chinese soldiers and civilians also participated in the crimes.

I choose to reflect upon the past of these terrible crimes and the lives of the innocent people who were so vainly killed because I wish to learn from them…in life we learn, but only because death is the teacher. It it significantly important that we become aware of the past and remember the victims who perished and survived, for we can listen and learn from their stories.

The greatest lesson I learned from this, was that:

Evil has no color, no ethnicity, no religion. Evil is a choice, and it can be forgiven but never forgotten.

During this month of December, I choose to remember them…the lives lost during all of the wars and disasters. I dedicate this poem in their honor.

*I submitted this poem to the Elektraphrog Journal at SCF and it was accepted. I feel accomplished that I could share the victims stories.