Message from sfamekao

[Anonymous]

"Nanking" is a new film which will be first shown in Beijing on July 3rd and 7th in Nanjing in China. Nanking tells the story of the Japanese invasion of Nanking, China, in the early days of World War II. As part of a campaign to conquer all of China, the Japanese subjected Nanking – which was then China’s capital – to months of aerial bombardment, and when the city fell, the Japanese army unleashed murder and rape on a horrifying scale. According to the summary judgment of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East – also known as the Tokyo Trials, “estimates 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. Approximately 20,000 cases of rape occurred in the city during the first month of the occupation.” During that time, a small group of Westerners banded together to establish a Safety Zone where over 200,000 Chinese found refuge. They bore witness to the events, while risking their own lives to protect civilians from slaughter.

Some Japanese extreme militarism people now are still denying what was happening in Nanjing 70 years ago; however, more and more evidences prove that this page of history should not be denied and covered in order to prevent the same tragedy and war from happening again. This documentary movie is directed by Bill Guttentag who is a professor teaching movie and TV program production in Stanford University. He based on the book "The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II" and spent two years to collect first hand information and interview some survivors and Japanese soldiers to make this film. Those 22 survivors who were interviewed still could not relieve themselves from their sorrow, pain, and anger when they faced the camera.

Although this movie will not be shown until December in US, you can register your name and e-mail address on-line for further information. The official website for this film is http://www.nankingthefilm.com/. You can register your name on the homepage. I will definitely show this movie to my high school students in the class. It may give everyone a shock but provide an opportunity for them to reflect on the truth a war and if we really have right to begin a war.