The New Jersey Alliance for Learning and Preserving the History of WWII in Asia (NJ-ALPHA) is sponsoring a series of events in mid-April featuring Tamaki Matsuoka, a Japanese school teacher, journalist, researcher, and activist who has spent 28 years of her adult life finding out what happened in Nanking during the Nanking Massacre in late 1937 to early 1938. She has interviewed over 250 former Japanese soldiers who fought in Nanking during that period, and over 300 Nanking Massacre Chinese survivors. She has made over 90 trips between Japan and China during her research.
Attachment 1 lists the events that one can select from to attend. Please note that since my previous email announcement on 3/21/16, we have added an 4/18/16 evening event at the Middletown Community Christian Church (MCCC). Attachment 2 provides a brief bio of Tamaki.
Tamaki has written numerous articles and several books on her work and produced several documentaries, including the award-winning documentary film Torn Memories of Nanjing. She has just published (in March 2016) her latest book, an English book titled Torn Memories of Nanking. The awards she has won include:
- Japan Congress of Journalist Prize (2003)
- The Nanking Massacre Contribution Award (2004)
Facing frequent threats and attacks from the media and extreme right wingers, Tamaki's tenacity and courage to continue her lifetime quest is most admirable. It is especially admirable considering that she started this project working alone and relying on her own meager savings as an elementary school history teacher. That is why she is known as "The Conscience of Japan."
Each of these events will include::
- Showing of Tamaki's award-winning documentary film Torn Memories of Nanjing (either the full version or the abridged version)
- Talk by Tamaki on her lifetime project
- Q&A
- Copies of her new English book will also be available for purchase at a discounted price
I am excited to report that USC's Shoah Foundation (https://sfi.usc.edu/) in Los Angeles will be sending a 3-member team to NJ to video interview Tamaki to be included in the visual archive of their "Institute for Visual History and Education." For those who are not familiar with USC's Shoah Foundation, it is a foundation set up by Steven Spielberg in 1994 to record video interviews of Holocaust survivors (Spielberg donated to the Shoah Foundation all his earnings from his movieSchindler's List).
Shoah Foundation has since expanded to include other atrocities and genocides, such as the Nanking Massacre. As a matter of fact, they have already posted 30 interviews of Nanking Massacre survivors in their website (http://vhaonline.usc.edu/login.aspx); you can open an account via this website for free and see these interviews.
In February of this year, the Shoah Foundation also sent a team from LA to NJ to video interview our local 93-year old Nanking Massacre survivor Mr. Chu-Yeh Chang; Mr. Chang's video interview will be posted in the above website in another month or two.
Tamaki is on a two-week tour of Toronto and NJ. Please take advantage of this opportunity to hear "The Conscience of Japan." Tamaki will return to Japan after NJ. Please invite your friends to attend one of these events..
Don Tow
732-671-8379
General News Release
Tamaki Matsuoka Bio-English
