Nanking the film may reopen old wounds
Wednesday, 11 July 2007
Antoaneta Bezlova from Beijing
That 'Nanking', the powerful new United States documentary on the rape of the city of that name, has been approved for domestic screening in China reveals the fact that the ghosts of the gruesome events 70 years ago still haunt Sino-Japanese relations.
The weekend release of the film coincided with the 70th anniversary of the full-scale invasion of China by the Japanese Imperial army, with the China Film Group approving 'Nanking' as one of a limited number of foreign films allowed for release on domestic screens this year.
The documentary focuses on a group of Western missionaries and businessmen who remained in the city of Nanking during the massacre and tried to set up a safety zone for Chinese refugees. It uses original material from their journals and diaries, mixing it with archival film footage of 1937 and chilling testimonies by survivors.
Despite its credentials -- it is co-directed by Oscar-winning documentary director Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman, and has won rave reviews at the Sundance festival in the U.S. -- the documentary is likely to inflame old nationalist tensions between the two Asian neighbours.
For China, the Nanking massacre remains a raw wound that has never healed. Many in China believe the Japanese never properly atoned for the atrocities committed by the Imperial army. Although referred to as the Asian Holocaust, the massacre remains obscure and is little understood by many outside Asia.
In late November 1937, the Japanese Imperial army launched a massive attack on Nanking, the new capital of then Nationalist China. When the walled city fell on Dec. 13, the Japanese army unleashed pillage, murder and rape which lasted for six weeks.
The city was transformed into a mass graveyard with tens of thousands of men mowed down by machine guns, used for bayonet practice, burned and buried alive. An estimated 20,000 to 80,000 girls and women were raped, mutilated and murdered.
Even 70 years on, China and Japan still disagree on the number of people that perished during the Nanking massacre. Chinese historians say well over 300,000 people were murdered. The post-war Tokyo war crimes tribunal established that 142,000 civilians died at the hands of Japanese soldiers in Nanking.
The new documentary is based on 'The Rape of Nanking' -- the 1997 best-selling book by Chinese-American writer Iris Chang. Researching the subject, she was puzzled by the fact that many Nanking victims had remained silent. "It soon became clear to me that the custodian of the curtain of silence was politics," she wrote in her book. Chang attributes the historical neglect of the massacre to political reasons rooted in the cold war.
After the 1949 Communist revolution in China, neither the People's Republic of China nor Taiwan demanded war-time reparations from Japan because the two governments were competing for Japanese trade and political recognition. The U.S., faced with the threat of communism from the Soviet Union and mainland China, sought to form alliances with its former war enemy, Japan.
But, while little treated in world history, the massacre remains a sensitive issue for Japan. For the real commander of military actions in Nanking was not Gen. Matsui but Prince Asaka Yasuhiko, uncle of Emperor Hirohito. After the war, the Imperial family was exonerated from responsibility for the war-time atrocities of its army. Prince Asaka was never tried.
It was also at Nanking that the idea of comfort houses -- Japan's war-time military brothels, was born. Responding to Western powers' criticism at the massive rapes in Nanking, the Japanese high command made plans around that time to create a vast network of brothels where thousands of 'comfort women' would reward soldiers for fighting on the battlefront for long stretches of time.
Japanese historians say the plan was launched in the hope that the existence of official brothels would reduce the incidence of random rape among local women and diminish the opportunities for international condemnation.
But even this legacy of Nanking is disputed between the two countries. Tokyo has refused to compensate the women for their suffering, insisting that private entrepreneurs, not the imperial government, ran the military brothels. In March, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe infuriated Beijing when he claimed there was no proof that the Japanese military coerced women into prostitution.
China however, has just released its first study into the war-time use of sexual slavery. The investigation concludes that Japanese troops forced women to work as sex slaves for at least 16 years -- longer than the official duration of the war between the countries which lasted from 1931 until 1945. The study, conducted by a team of Chinese lawyers, found that Japanese troops took over homes, community halls and even temples for their war-time comfort houses.
Now 'Nanking' -- a U.S.-made documentary, produced by Ted Leonsis, former vice-chairman of AOL, is bound to add more layers to the neighbours' discord.
As director Bill Guttentag noted before its Chinese premiere, one would be hard pushed to find another event that is 70 years old but can still stir up so much controversy.
Internet
That 'Nanking', the powerful new United States documentary on the rape of the city of that name, has been approved for domestic screening in China reveals the fact that the ghosts of the gruesome events 70 years ago still haunt Sino-Japanese relations.
The weekend release of the film coincided with the 70th anniversary of the full-scale invasion of China by the Japanese Imperial army, with the China Film Group approving 'Nanking' as one of a limited number of foreign films allowed for release on domestic screens this year.
The documentary focuses on a group of Western missionaries and businessmen who remained in the city of Nanking during the massacre and tried to set up a safety zone for Chinese refugees. It uses original material from their journals and diaries, mixing it with archival film footage of 1937 and chilling testimonies by survivors.
Despite its credentials -- it is co-directed by Oscar-winning documentary director Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman, and has won rave reviews at the Sundance festival in the U.S. -- the documentary is likely to inflame old nationalist tensions between the two Asian neighbours.
For China, the Nanking massacre remains a raw wound that has never healed. Many in China believe the Japanese never properly atoned for the atrocities committed by the Imperial army. Although referred to as the Asian Holocaust, the massacre remains obscure and is little understood by many outside Asia.
In late November 1937, the Japanese Imperial army launched a massive attack on Nanking, the new capital of then Nationalist China. When the walled city fell on Dec. 13, the Japanese army unleashed pillage, murder and rape which lasted for six weeks.
The city was transformed into a mass graveyard with tens of thousands of men mowed down by machine guns, used for bayonet practice, burned and buried alive. An estimated 20,000 to 80,000 girls and women were raped, mutilated and murdered.
Even 70 years on, China and Japan still disagree on the number of people that perished during the Nanking massacre. Chinese historians say well over 300,000 people were murdered. The post-war Tokyo war crimes tribunal established that 142,000 civilians died at the hands of Japanese soldiers in Nanking.
The new documentary is based on 'The Rape of Nanking' -- the 1997 best-selling book by Chinese-American writer Iris Chang. Researching the subject, she was puzzled by the fact that many Nanking victims had remained silent. "It soon became clear to me that the custodian of the curtain of silence was politics," she wrote in her book. Chang attributes the historical neglect of the massacre to political reasons rooted in the cold war.
After the 1949 Communist revolution in China, neither the People's Republic of China nor Taiwan demanded war-time reparations from Japan because the two governments were competing for Japanese trade and political recognition. The U.S., faced with the threat of communism from the Soviet Union and mainland China, sought to form alliances with its former war enemy, Japan.
But, while little treated in world history, the massacre remains a sensitive issue for Japan. For the real commander of military actions in Nanking was not Gen. Matsui but Prince Asaka Yasuhiko, uncle of Emperor Hirohito. After the war, the Imperial family was exonerated from responsibility for the war-time atrocities of its army. Prince Asaka was never tried.
It was also at Nanking that the idea of comfort houses -- Japan's war-time military brothels, was born. Responding to Western powers' criticism at the massive rapes in Nanking, the Japanese high command made plans around that time to create a vast network of brothels where thousands of 'comfort women' would reward soldiers for fighting on the battlefront for long stretches of time.
Japanese historians say the plan was launched in the hope that the existence of official brothels would reduce the incidence of random rape among local women and diminish the opportunities for international condemnation.
But even this legacy of Nanking is disputed between the two countries. Tokyo has refused to compensate the women for their suffering, insisting that private entrepreneurs, not the imperial government, ran the military brothels. In March, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe infuriated Beijing when he claimed there was no proof that the Japanese military coerced women into prostitution.
China however, has just released its first study into the war-time use of sexual slavery. The investigation concludes that Japanese troops forced women to work as sex slaves for at least 16 years -- longer than the official duration of the war between the countries which lasted from 1931 until 1945. The study, conducted by a team of Chinese lawyers, found that Japanese troops took over homes, community halls and even temples for their war-time comfort houses.
Now 'Nanking' -- a U.S.-made documentary, produced by Ted Leonsis, former vice-chairman of AOL, is bound to add more layers to the neighbours' discord.
As director Bill Guttentag noted before its Chinese premiere, one would be hard pushed to find another event that is 70 years old but can still stir up so much controversy.
Internet