The following messages are excerptsfrom on-line discussions by students.
I think that it is important to talk about genocide because it has occurred in the past, and is not often addressed. For example, the genocide of the Jews in the Holocaust is only talked about in five sentences in my history book. There are no passages in the African section that include information about the genocide that has occurred between the Hutus and the Tutsi. Another example of ignorance in history books involves the Jews and the Romans. The Jews were persecuted, and genocide did occur, yet there is no such information included in the text. I learned last year, while doing a current events project, that the Chinese were killing Tibetan Buddhists in attempt to wipe out the whole group. It is almost incomprehensible to think that such huge parts of history cease to be mentioned, thus not learned in history classes throughout America. I personally think that it is an injustice to keep such information censored, or not included in curriculum. For people to have an open mind and make decisions, they must know history. I think that it is necessary that children learn the good and bad of the past. Gwyn Lederman, Kent Place School, New Jersey
Dear Gwyn Lederman, Hi! I agree with your opinion that the children must learn the good and bad things in human history. However, I don't know the examples that you have mentioned. Things that I already know as genocide are Germans and Jews, and Japanese and Asian people during World War II. You know what? Japanese massacred Chinese because the Japanese wanted Manchuria to be a part of Japan. Then, Japanese killed all the people no matter what ages they were. Japanese then took Manchuria by force. The difference from the case of Jews, genocide by Germans, is that the Japanese didn't use any special weapons to kill, like concentration camps in Poland. To know these horrible genocides, children would feel strange about them, and probably they would decide to not repeat these happenings again. That's the good thing, though. However, the reason that we don't study about them that much may be that we don't know exactly what was happening. We must know and study hard about genocide, because the human is not perfect. Therefore, there are some probabilities that we would repeat genocide. So, I guess to learn genocide that has happened in our history, is very, very, very important to what our future would be like. I hope that everybody who has learned horrible happenings would feel the same, and we must tell the people to stop doing genocide. However, even as I am now saying this, genocide may be taking place somewhere. To continue your interests in genocide, I would ask you some questions. What is the latest genocide that we know? What causes genocide? Hope to see your letter again! Satoko Segawa, International School, Bangkok, Thailand
Holocaust, Human Rights, and Genocide: Everybody can notice that we are all different, and I think it is completely ordinary and common. Different politicians have various opinions, and different people have diverse opinions about those politicians. Generally, people tend to discriminate against things they do not understand and are afraid of. Although we live in the twentieth century and we claim to be civilized, it is clear and painful that human rights are not respected, for example in China. Paulina Krlkl, 8A SP1, Gdynia, Poland