Film on German hero in China seen stirring debate

[Coventina]

Source: Reuters

BERLIN (Reuters) - The director of a new film about an unsung German engineer who helped save 200,000 Chinese in Nanjing from Japanese troops said he hoped it would spark debate and help Japan come to terms with its past.

Florian Gallenberger, whose film "John Rabe" is based on a true story of the courage of a Siemens executive during the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, told Reuters his film could also, belatedly, shed light on Rabe's long-overlooked heroism.

"We're fully aware the film could be explosive in Japan," said Gallenberger, whose native Germany has also faced sometimes turbulent reflection on its Nazi past in the wake of films on the Holocaust and Hitler decades later.

"It's an extremely controversial subject in Japan and there are fears there could be severe repercussions. I hope the film won't be silenced in Japan. I'd very much hope this film could help get an opening-up of discussion going in Japan."



Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilNews/idUKTRE5170FZ20090208

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Sounds like an interesting film.
I look forward to seeing it.

[ClarkUSA]

1. The Japanese committed the genocide of millions of Chinese and have never owned up to it.

Thanks for the heads-up. Sounds like a great film.

[McCamy Taylor]

3. Not exactly genocide---more like what Germany did to Russia---they planned to enslave China.

And they were willing to kill whoever resisted. And they were willing to kill their cattle the way way we would kill livestock, because they "owned" all other Asians.

Genocide is when you decide to wipe another group of humans from the earth to purify the earth. Japan had uses for all the Koreans and Chinese the way Germany had uses for the Poles and Russians and eventually the Africans. They were going to be their servants.

Japan was opposed to the Holocaust, because a true genocide is illogical and immoral in oriental thinking. Any group of people has a purpose and a use, even if that use is to serve as a peasant class to farm and feed the warrior class. As incomprehensible as it seems, to some of them it was much more moral to impose the will of the dominant warrior on farmers. This was seen as the correct order of things---much the way that the US moves in and imposes its will on the third world countries, plundering their resources because we are supposed to have a greater need for them and a god given right to them and the people of those countries are used to living in poverty so why do they need anything more than our military protection to keep the neighboring country from invading? Colonialism and its protection/extortion racket is worldwide and eternal. The samurai did it. We do it.

[ClarkUSA]

4. Millions are massacred and it isn't genocide? Tell the Chinese who lived through that period that..

.. I assure you, they'd disagree with you. And Germans had their "uses" for Jews, too: slave labor, lampshades, "research", etc.

[Lionel Mandrake]

5. What Germany did to Poland and Russia was exactly genocide.

The Nazis planned to kill all "Untermenschen" eventually. They would be killed in an orderly fashion - not all at the same time. Those not killed right away would be enslaved if they were deemed able to work. Some groups had priority for destruction: Jews, Gypsies, the disabled, political opponents, homosexuals, and many others would be killed soonest. Slavs (other than leaders of Slavs) would be killed more gradually, because they would make useful slaves until the master race had finished the resettlement of eastern Europe. America would eventually be defeated and racially "purified".

That was the long-term Nazi plan. Genocide was the whole idea.

[McCamy Taylor]

2. Japan needs to atone.

[Captain Hilts]

6. Japan needs to admit what happened. nt

[Paladin]

7. TEST

[Frank Booth]

8. My understanding is that Japan has acknowledged the massacre.

There are kooks in Japan who don't acknowledge it or try to minimize it, but I think there is a general acknowledgment, including in the government, of the atrocities. I know the Chinese government intentionally stokes resentment against Japan from time to time -- we can probably expect more of this as China's economy worsens.

[ClarkUSA]

12. Not to my knowledge. Link?

[brentspeak]

14. The Japanese people, as a whole, have not acknowledged the atrocities

Where are the Japanese movies about the atrocities? The books? Newspaper articles? Where's the public acknowledgment by members of the government?

Same thing in Turkey -- the people, as a whole, have their heads in the sand about the Armenian massacres issue.

[Critters2]

9. Rabe was a true hero. It's high time his story were told. I'm glad

this film is being made.

[Barrett808]

10. Read "The Rape of Nanking" for amazing details:

Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II
by Iris Chang
http://www.amazon.com/Rape-Nanking-Forgotten-Holocaust-World/dp/0140277447/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234127529&sr=8-1

The author received death threats from Japanese ultra-nationalists. Sadly, she eventually took her own life.

[cobalt1999]

13. I agree, it's a great book

The guy was braver than I would have been in that situation.

I didn't know about the author. That sucks, she produced a well researched and well written book.

[Tempest]

15. John Rabe figures prominently in the book

I'm glad to see a movie made of his heroism.

[pnorman]

11. From the early post-war days, there was wide spread revulsion among the general Japanese poulation,

as news of these atrocities were being reveled by returning soldiers. It goes without saying, that was almost exclusively the province of the left parties and organizations. And it remains to this day in the collective knowledge of the left. To the dismay of the conservatives (and the MacArthur occupation), abolition of the Emperor system was quite popular. With the schools being freed from repressive control, such "anti-Japanese propaganda" became part of the curriculum. This INFURIATED the ultra-rightists, but since they were then under ban themselves, they could do very little.

One of the first moves of the conservatives when they took power, was to take full control of the Ministry of Education. That allowed them to shape the curriculum in the desired "patriotic direction". The conservative party engaged in all but open warfare against the (openly left) teachers union. Every time a teachers union convention was held, that city was all but shut down, as far-right organizations SWARMED into that city. Surprisingly, there was very little actual violence, although the confrontations were usually pretty tense.

WW2 is now 3 generations removed, and such "left-right" issues are no longer as capable of arousing such strong feelings. My own estimate is that the movie would be well received (providing it has cinematic merit).

pnorman