NANKING (TV)
Summary
This made-for-television documentary is about the 1937 Japanese occupation of Nanking, China, also known as the Rape of Nanking. The program contains both interviews with real-life survivors and participants as well as readings of letters and diary entries from those present as performed by actors. Businessman John Rabe explains that he and several other Westerners were living in Nanking, the capital city of China, in the late 1930s. Japan began invading China in the summer of 1937 as a prelude to WWII, wanting to conquer the land for its resources, and survivors describe their memories of air raids and witnessing the deaths of their relatives and neighbors. Rabe and the other Westerners debated whether they should depart the dangerous region, but decided that they have a moral obligation to stay and help and cannot leave the Chinese people to be killed. The residents of Nanking were eventually told to evacuate and many fled, but the poorest residents had nowhere to go and were left behind. In November, the nearby city of Shanghai fell to the Japanese, and the soldiers who were made to defend the city explain that it was a “suicide mission” in which many died. The death toll extended to the civilians as well: reports arose of two Japanese soldiers competing with one another to see who could be the first to kill a hundred people with their sword. Survivors recount witnessing many murders and explain that they felt they had nowhere to hide. A group of fifteen Westerners including Rabe, missionaries Minnie Vautrin and George Fitch, surgeon Robert Wilson and others decided to create a Safety Zone comprising of camps within of two square miles within Nanking which included a hospital and Rabe’s own home, and they appealed to the Japanese leaders to sanction the area. They refused, but they proceeded with the zone anyway, and the government immediately sent provisions. Thousands of Chinese refugees arrived and were sheltered and fed, but as December pressed on, daily air raids came closer to Nanking, and soldiers eventually broke into the city on the 13th. They immediately began killing the thousands of Chinese who had not managed to make it to the Safety Zone, and one man emotionally recounts the death of his mother and attempted murder of his baby brother. Surviving Japanese soldiers discuss the orders they were given and the many deaths they witnessed and committed. The atrocities did not stop at murder, however: many young women were picked out and taken by the soldiers, and one woman describes how she shaved her head to disguise herself. Vautrin took specific care to shelter women and girls from the soldiers. She and the other Westerners discuss seeing many men tied together and dragged off to their executions, knowing they could do nothing to prevent it. The Japanese attempted to track down all Chinese soldiers hiding in plainclothes throughout the city, capturing all of those whom they thought were military, often mistaking farmers and other manual laborers for soldiers. The prisoners were rounded up in a public square and asked how they wanted to be killed, which offended them greatly. Eventually, they were all bayoneted and shot on the banks of the Yangtze River. Japanese soldiers describe their efficient methods of mass murder. In mid-December, the Japanese finally entered the Safety Zone, claiming to be seeking military members only, and the hospital workers attempted to disguise the injured soldiers. Men suspected of being soldiers were dragged in front of crowds, and the man’s relatives were told to come forward and claim him to prove he was not a warrior. In many cases, families lied and claimed strangers in order to save them. The Westerners running the Safety Zone admit that they struggled with their faith during this time, unable to see any goodness in the face of such evil. The rape of women was also rampant at the time; women and girls of all ages were in danger, and were often murdered after their assault. One woman describes giving herself over to a Japanese soldier and being raped in order to protect her grandfather’s life, and Vautrin talks about her efforts to keep soldiers away from the women hiding in the Zone. She and the others contacted the Japanese embassy repeatedly to report the war crimes, sending them organized reports of many cases of abuse and murder, but it had no effect. Through the use of propaganda, the Japanese were portrayed as kind and generous to the Chinese, claiming to be extending the hand of friendship to the impoverished areas of the country while in reality looting, raping and murdering at will. Vautrin continued to try to protect the women, but the Japanese soldiers eventually requested prostitutes, promising not to harass the “good” women, and to Vautrin’s shock, several former sex workers stepped forward to protect the others. Christmas came, and Rabe and the other describe their attempts to celebrate the holiday, but found it too difficult under the circumstances, given the “complete anarchy” of the city and the extreme violence taking place. The Japanese soldiers in turn were displeased with their presence, not having wanted any witnesses to their massacre. After the New Year, the Japanese announced that the refugee camps within the Zone would be closing and that they would take the Chinese back to their homes, but the Westerners believed that this was a trap and unsuccessfully attempted to persuade the Japanese to leave the Zone intact. Fitch managed to smuggle out several films depicting the carnage and showed them in Washington, giving speeches describing the situation in China, but many doubted the veracity of such extreme conditions and the rest of the world did little to help. All told, there were around 20,000 cases of rape within the first month of the occupation and 200,000 murders within six weeks. 25 Japanese leaders were found guilty of war crimes, but many of them are memorialized at a shrine in Tokyo, and the place is still a rallying spot for many Japanese nationalists who believe the statistics of the Nanking massacre are exaggerated. Vautrin had a nervous breakdown in 1940 and returned to the United States and eventually committed suicide, believing that she had failed to save more lives. The survivors, however, praise her, saying she made a significant difference. Rabe left China in 1938 and wrote to Adolf Hitler, believing he would help to stop the violence committed by the Japanese, but Rabe was arrested by the Gestapo and forbidden to speak about Nanking. He was later arrested by the Soviets as well, and was living in extreme poverty when the mayor of Nanking took up a collection from the people and sent him money out of gratitude for his actions. It is speculated that he saved nearly 250,000 people through his efforts in the Safety Zone.
Details
- NETWORK: Cinemax
- DATE: April 29, 2008 7:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 01:30:01
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 100081
- GENRE: Documentary
- SUBJECT HEADING: History; China; War crimes
- SERIES RUN: N/A
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Ted Leonsis … Producer
- Michael Jacobs … Producer
- Bill Guttentag … Producer, Director, Writer
- Violet du Feng … Co-Producer
- Joann Jacobs … Associate Producer
- Izumi Tanaka … Associate Producer
- Wakai Makiko … Associate Producer
- Dylan Nelson … Associate Producer, Line Producer
- Katie Strand … Associate Producer, Line Producer
- John Junkerman … Field Producer
- Karen Lin … Line Producer
- Dan Sturman … Director, Writer
- Elizabeth Bentley … Writer
- Philip Marshall … Music by
- Hugo Armstrong … Cast, John Magee
- Rosalind Chao … Cast, Chang Yu Zheng
- Stephen Dorff … Cast, Lewis Smythe
- John Getz … Cast, George Fitch
- Mariel Hemingway … Cast, Minnie Vautrin
- Michelle Krusiec … Cast, Yang Shu Ling
- Chris Mulkey … Cast, Mills McCallum
- Jurgen Prochnow … Cast, John Rabe
- Sonny Saito … Cast, Sakai Hiroshi
- Graham Sibley … Cast, Miner Searle Bates
- Mark Valley … Cast, Stage Manager
- Robert Wu … Cast, Li Pu
- Woody Harrelson … Cast, Bob Wilson