Pacific Atrocities Education Changed How We See WWII

In today’s global movement to preserve the memory of genocide and wartime atrocities, Jewish communities have long led efforts to ensure that the Holocaust remains part of the public consciousness. This commitment has profoundly influenced education, law, and policy frameworks built around the phrase “Never Again.”

In recent years, a growing number of organizations outside the Jewish community have joined this mission—broadening its scope beyond Europe. One of the most striking examples is Pacific Atrocities Education, a U.S.-based nonprofit that documents and publicizes crimes committed in the Asia-Pacific Theater during World War II.

Founded in 2014 by Jenny Chan, Pacific Atrocities Education addresses a glaring gap in public history: the relative invisibility of Asian wartime suffering in mainstream Western narratives. The organization is committed to raising awareness of atrocities committed by the Japanese Imperial Army between 1931 and 1945—a period during which an estimated 30 million people perished across East and Southeast Asia due to war, famine, massacre, and forced labor.

Chan’s interest in Asia’s wartime history was shaped in part by family stories of the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong. Initially skeptical, she only began to reassess these narratives after her grandmother’s passing, when she discovered boxes of military-issued Japanese currency and wartime photographs. While attending the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Chan—then studying economics and statistics—began conducting independent research, eventually gaining access to archives at the Hoover Institution and the U.S. National Archives.

The organization gained early visibility through a theater production Chan wrote about Minnie Vautrin, an American missionary who protected thousands of women during the 1937 Nanjing Massacre. The play attracted early media attention, secured seed funding of $40,000, and led to a growing network of supporters. Shortly afterward, Chan formalized the organization’s nonprofit status.

Since its founding, Pacific Atrocities Education has developed a robust portfolio of educational content. Its website now draws an average of 40,000 monthly visitors and has surpassed half a million unique users. The organization has published 29 books, produced more than 500 educational videos, and digitized over one million pages of archival documents. These include declassified records on chemical and biological warfare in Manchuria, the military brothel system known as “comfort women,” and the abuse of Allied POWs on Japanese “hell ships.”

This digitization initiative is particularly significant. While Nazi war crimes have been extensively chronicled, Japanese atrocities—often no less brutal—have received considerably less attention in the West. One key reason: President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 8985 created the Office of Censorship, which suppressed coverage of Japanese crimes in Asia to maintain domestic morale and avoid anti-Japanese hysteria. As a result, many of these events were systematically omitted from Western education and media. Pacific Atrocities Education seeks to correct that imbalance by making primary sources accessible to scholars, educators, and the public.

The nonprofit is also committed to fostering reconciliation and open dialogue. In September 2025, it will host a conference marking the anniversary of the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. One of the most notable participants will be Kuroi Akio, a descendant of a convicted Japanese war criminal, who plans to travel to China to offer a public apology—a powerful gesture of accountability and healing.

Though headquartered in the United States, Pacific Atrocities Education operates internationally. Its work has attracted the attention of scholars in China, Korea, the Philippines, and Japan. It has also received donor support from individuals across disciplines—especially those concerned with the ethical implications of wartime experimentation.

The organization’s mission resonates globally. For Jewish communities in particular, the work of Pacific Atrocities Education echoes familiar values: the pursuit of historical truth, the role of memory in achieving justice, and the responsibility to challenge denial. In that sense, it affirms that “Never Again” is not the inheritance of a single people—but a universal imperative.

By recovering suppressed narratives and expanding access to primary sources, Pacific Atrocities Education challenges the Eurocentric boundaries of how World War II is remembered. Its work is a vital contribution to the broader project of global remembrance—and a powerful example of what justice and memory can look like in the 21st century.