Why Study Reconstruction?
The Reconstruction era was a pivotal moment in American history. Civil rights were set in motion as Americans grappled to rebuild after the division and trauma of the Civil War, raising essential questions about freedom and democracy.
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Why Study the Nanjing Atrocities?
Scholar Rana Mitter explains the importance of studying the Nanjing atrocities.
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Witnessing Antisemitic Violence
Edith Reiss, from Bolton, England, describes witnessing antisemitic violence on the streets of Göttingen, Germany, when she was a visitor there in 1939.
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Monsters and Men: The Nazis at Nuremberg
Social psychologist James Edward Waller uses the stories of the Nazis at Nuremburg to discuss human capacity for evil.
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The Gravity of the Second Sino-Japanese War
Dr. Hong Zheng recalls the fate of his uncle’s family in Hong Kong during the Second Sino-Japanese War, when Japanese soldiers enter and search their home. Another family, thousands of compatriots, and British POWs, also cannot escape the violence.
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All-China Resistance Association of Writers and Artists
Learn about a resistance group that used literary efforts to respond to the Japanese occupation of China.
![This scene depicts the Taiping Rebellion, a period of civil war and uprising in China that lasted from 1850–1864.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/IMAGE_11_2_TAIPING.jpg?h=4b6de878&itok=VszUtAnT)
Japanese Diplomats
Read statements from Japanese diplomats rationalizing the brutality of Japanese troops in China.
![Japanese marines during the Battle of Shanghai, 1937](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/1937_Japanese_marines_invaded_Shanghai2.jpg?h=3777c4b7&itok=viPAmKBA)
The Japanese Press
Read an excerpt of a story published in the Japanese press about two Japanese soldiers' brutal actions in China.
![Japanese-Chinese War ADN-ZB / Archive The Japanese Aggression and China's National Liberation Struggle Against the Agressors 1931-1939 Japanese troops taking Nanking. Ann .: January 1938 [Second Japanese-Chinese War, China.- Taking Nanking by Japanese troops.]](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-U1002-502%2C_Japanisch-Chinesischer_Krieg_Medium_res.jpg?h=048697cd&itok=0w4tu3v2)
"How to Bloom in Dark Places” by Warsan Shire
Poet Warsan Shire tells the story of a young Somali-born refugee in this poem from the film Brave Girl Rising.
![The short film, "Brave Girl Rising" was produced by the nonprofit organization Girl Rising in collaboration with the International Rescue Committee.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/shorthand_image140of143.jpeg?h=4dc35482&itok=n38DLgVw)
Hope Frye's Testimony on Child Migrant Detention
Immigration lawyer Hope Frye describes the conditions at child migrant detention centers in her congressional hearing testimony.
![Undocumented immigrant families walk from a bus depot to a respite center after being released from detention in McAllen, Texas, U.S., July 27, 2018.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/PerspectivesonDetention_RTX6D3SR_fullres_Medium_res.jpg?h=c9f93661&itok=on7f84Gi)
Surviving a Massacre
In this graphic testimony, Holocaust survivor Zvi Michaeli describes realizing that he survived after the Jewish community of Eishyshok, Lithuania was murdered by the Nazis.
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