The Rape of Nanking

We watched a documentary entitled, The Rape Of Nanking during ToK class last week. It's mainly about Nanking massacre by Japanese army; on how a young lady named Iris Chang conducted researches about this atrocity to write a book.

The first edition cover of the book

I can't help from feeling quite disturbed when seeing this documentary. The cruelty and barbaric actions of the Japanese towards the Chinese totally couldn't be accepted. They slaughtered men and smashed babies to death. They did even worse to women; not only raped them but they pushed poles into their vagina- from children to young lady and old folks. Rape occurred in all locations and at all hours and it's claimed that it was one of the greatest mass rapes in world history.

The film revolves around interviews with actual survivors of the massacre, whose stories of seeing their families raped and butchered. The archive footage which accompanies these interviews is incredibly harrowing and disturbing, which actually shows the Japanese soldiers were committing atrocities including countless horrific shots of abused corpses and ruined people.

Don't they have any sympathy and pity at all? Where was their humanity? - The soldiers were actually trained to be ruthless and inhumane. They considered their own lives like a feather and it was the greatest honour for them to come home dead.

An interview with a member of the Japanese right is also included in this documentary, in which he denies that the massacre ever took place, and claimed the footage was fake and just a complete fabrication. Not only that, he also said that the interviewed survivors are trained actors, whom paid by the Chinese propaganda ministry. In a way, it's the most shocking yet unacceptable part of the whole film.

Iris Chang was the one who severely disturbed about this massacre. She immersed herself in this history, visualized it very well as if in travelers time. She's the one who conducted researches, interviewed victims, remember? Once the book was published, she received ugly hate emails and death threats, probably from lunatic fringe. This caused her to be more depressed. Succumbing to her battle with gloom and depression, she eventually committed suicide.

A few phrases that I like and managed to jot down:

"Why people don't want to face the truth?"

"Revisionist are shooting themselves at foot"

"When will the madness end??"

and;

"Do not limit yourself, do not ever compromise your dream or idea."

- Iris Chang

I write this not because I want to offense others. It's just lessons to be learned. Although most of scenes are hard going and often stomach churning, these inclusion is necessary to help people especially young generations to really hammer home the absolute inhumanity of the massacre.