The subject of the Nanking Massacre has been explored before. The continued dispute with Japan over exactly what happened colors relations between China and Japan to this day. Japanese nationalists announced plans to make a film presenting their own version of what happened and they released the film last year for the 70th anniversary of the events. So while the subject may be less well known here in the U.S., knowing and understanding what happened is pertinent to understanding modern international relations.
In a summary judgment made at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East , also known as the Tokyo Trials, the following statement was made assessing the feacts of the events: "estimates made at a later date indicate that the total number of civilians and prisoners of war murdered in Nanking and its vicinity during the first six weeks of the Japanese occupation was over 200,000. That these estimates are not exaggerated is borne out by the fact that burial societies and other organizations counted more than 155,000 bodies which they buried. They also reported that most of those were bound with their hands tied behind their backs. These figures do not take into account those persons whose bodies were destroyed by burning, or by throwing them into the Yangtze River, or otherwise disposed of by Japanese." That paints a bleak and disturbing piture of what occurred.
A young girl in Nanking at the time of the Japanese Invasion (THINKFilm)
This latest American-produced attempt to present the events of the Nanking Massacre comes from Ted Leonsis. The former Vice-Chairman of AOL happened upon the obituary of author Iris Chang, who had committed suicide at the age of 36. Chang had received praise for her award-winning book, The Rape of Nanking . This prompted Leonsis to read Chang’s book and to conclude that the Japanese genocide in China had been overshadowed by Hitler’s European atrocities. So he set about focusing attention on what he saw as neglected coverage of an Asian Holocaust. One particular aspect of those events in late 1937 that particualrly moved him was the courageous efforts of Westerners who stayed behind in Nanking and eventually created a Safety Zone that would protect more than two hundred thousand Chinese from the Japanese troops. In the midst of the carnage and cruelty, a small group of unarmed Westerners -- missionaries, university professors, doctors and a Nazi businessman -- banded together to establish a safe zone for the Chinese refugees, and to bear witness to and record evidence of the atrocities so that the rest of the world could know what happened.
To bring the stories of these Westerners to life, Leonsis turned to veteran documentary filmmaker Bill Guttentag and his writing/directing partner Dan Sturman. The challenge for them was how to create a film around what was mostly written documents from these Westerners. Their solution is to bring in actors to appear as these people and to read from their letters, diaries and journals. The filmmakers are not dramatizing the events but rather creating a situation where they could in essence present these first hand accounts of what happened as if those people were still alive and could make their statements to a camera. This is a novel approach that provides a twist to the standard "talking heads" documentary format. The film opens with the actors meeting in a bare room. A title tells us that we are about to see actors reading the words of these real people.
Refugees at Nanking (THINKFilm)
These real people include Miner Searle Bates (Graham Sibley), a 1916 Rhodes Scholarship whose missionary work brought him to Nanking where he taught at the University of Nanking. George A. Fitch (John Getz) was born in China to a missionary family. His account of events, recorded in his diary, became the first documentation of the Nanking Massacre to get out. John G. Magee (Hugo Armstrong) was an ordained as a minister who moved to China, and during the rape of Nanking, he set up a make-shift hospital. Magee also shot 16mm footage of the atrocities he witnessed. John Rabe (Jurgen Prochnow) was a German businessman who, as a member of Nazi Party, tried to use his influence to stop the violence. Lewis S. C. Smythe (Stephen Dorff), was appointed by the United Christian Missionary Society to teach at the University of Nanking.
Minnie Vautrin (Mariel Hemingway) came to Nanking from Illinois on behalf of the United Christian Missionary Society. She became the chairman of the education department at Ginling College. Bob Wilson (Woody Harrelson) was born in Nanking to a Methodist missionary. He was also a surgeon, and the only surgeon to remain in Nanking.
Initially this approach of having actors read diaries and letters is distracting and somewhat off-putting, especially when you have someone as well known as Woody Harrelson trying to lose himself in the persona of missionary surgeon Bob Wilson. This device is also problematic when early on the film cuts to interviews with Chinese people who apparently are real survivors of the Nanking Massacre. The film doesn't prepare us for these real witnesses and at first I wondered if these people were indeed actors. But as these elderly Chinese men and women, who were mere children at the time of the invasion, begin to recount their personal histories, you quickly realize they are not actors. One man in particular recounts how his mother, who was nursing his baby brother, was killed. The surge of genuine and heartbreaking emotion rivets you to the screen even though the horrors that he describes make you want to turn away. These real life witnesses provide potent accounts of what happened and at times you wonder why the filmmakers bothered with the actor re-enactments. But in the end, Nanking fashions a compellingly dramatic narrative from its various elements as it weaves its story of Nanking in a chronological manner.
The perspective of white Westerners might have been problematic but the particular people Nanking focuses on were so closely wrapped up in the events that you do not feel that it is an outsider's point of view or one used merely to provide a touchstone for Western audiences. These people had lived in China long enough to know something of the people and the culture, and their passionate desire to do some good at a time of horror provides a compelling tale. The filmmakers have said that they wanted to show that the actions of ordinary individuals in extraordinary circumstances can make a difference. For Leonsis, he also wanted to make a film that could provide a strong positive image of Americans working for good in the world at a time when world opinion of America is at a low.
One interesting dimension to the film is the Japanese soldiers that are interviewed to discuss their role in what happened. They did not act as though the Japanese Army had done anything wrong and I don't think any of those interviewed showed much compassion for the victims or regret over what occurred. A contemporary footnote adds that many in Japan still do not believe the Rape of Nanking occurred, and that some of the men found guilty of war crimes are glorified in a shrine in Japan as heroes. One can hope that future generations can learn from a documentary like this that tries to collect evidence and eye witness accounts of what happened.
Nanking (rated R for for disturbing images and descriptions of war-time atrocities, including rape) is a sometimes clumsy and sometimes artistically flawed documentary but in the end it presents a powerful account of what happened in Nanking at the end of 1937 and beginning of 1938.
Companion viewing: Black Sun: The Nanking Massacre, Nanjing 1937, Tokyo Trial
