Nanking's Ransom

Revisiting a dark moment in the history of China and Japan.

by Cindy Fuchs

CRITICAL MASSACRE: More than 200,000 Chinese civilians died at the hands of Japanese soldiers in just six weeks. (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

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In 1937, Nanking was the capital of China. A thriving hub of commerce, education and cooperation, its population included hundreds of Americans and Europeans who considered the city their home. "The boulevards were lined with Chinese parasol trees," remembers Chang Zhi Qiang. "It was very beautiful." Only 9 years old in 1937, Chang recalls that his concerns were simple: "As long as I could go to school, I was happy." As he speaks, you see footage of smiling children, people riding bikes, ice skaters in plaid skirts and sweaters.

The first minutes of Nanking work two ways. First, they lay out the basic historical plot: In August, China was invaded by the Japanese, at the time in league with the Nazis. The second effect concerns the film's unusual structure: While several Chinese survivors and Japanese soldiers recall their experiences, other memories are presented as dramatic readings, drawn from Westerners' diaries and letters and performed by actors. The film opens on the cast arriving on set, chatting at a craft services table, and their performances are framed as talking heads, sometimes accompanied by illustrative photos and footage.

On paper, this combination sounds unwieldy, but onscreen, it is jarring. Inspired by Iris Chang's book The Rape of Nanking, this smart film recounts the effort by 22 Westerners to set up a "safety zone" in Nanking, sheltering some 250,000 Chinese. The initial bombings of Shanghai (180 miles east) and Nanking are rendered through archival images: Chinese citizens run and panic, as Chang Yu Zheng (Rosalind Chao) remembers what her parents "always said," that "Japan wants to conquer China because China has all the land all the wealth." Cao Zhi Kun, 9 years old in 1937, recollects the sight of planes over Nanking, then his own attempt to run, until he felt a "burning hot" wound. He reaches down to show the scar on his thigh, still grisly some 70 years later.

John Rabe's (Jürgen Prochnow) memory is equally but differently horrific. A German businessman and member of the National Socialist Party, he hunkered down during the bombing, surrounded by "my Chinese." Rabe and others — including the surgeon Bob Wilson (Woody Harrelson), missionary George Fitch (John Getz) and college dean Minnie Vautrin (Mariel Hemingway) — remained in Nanking. Rabe, head of the Safety Zone Committee, appealed to Hitler himself for official sanction, to no avail. Sociology professor Lewis Smythe (Stephen Dorff) notes the irony of their situation: "The burden of work," he laments, "is to be carried out by American missionaries and a group of German Nazi businessmen."

This work was harrowing, to be sure. Many of the details of daily survival and atrocity recounted in Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman's film were brought to light by the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunals (May 1946 to November 1948), which found that civilians were buried alive, used for bayonet practice, raped, tortured and executed — more than 200,000 killed in just six weeks.

Hayashi Otokichi, a member of the occupying Yamada Unit remembers, "We tied their hands together, two by two," then "shot them from behind with guns." Because many survived shooting by machine guns, he says, "We stabbed them with bayonets. We finished off 20,000 soldiers. It didn't leave my ears, the pitiful sound of their voices."

The Westerners' stories can only frame those of the Japanese aggressors and Chinese survivors, who include child rape victims as well as children who escaped death by hiding in piles of dead bodies. One of the most chilling stories is told by a Japanese soldier, who describes the process by which he and his fellows committed rapes. "We'd take the girl and five of us would hold her down," he says. "It's like that, she'd be foaming at the mouth."

The film includes stunning 16mm footage, shot secretly by the Reverend John G. Magee (Hugo Armstrong) and smuggled out of China by Fitch. These stark images provide eloquent, horrifying testimony. They insist on the power of disclosure, the effects of visual representation. To this day, some Japanese dispute the numbers of citizens affected or deny the genocidal war crimes took place at all. Even as history changes to accommodate current needs and frameworks, it's crucial to remember those who lived it.

(c_fuchs@citypaper.net)

NANKING

Directed by Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman

A THINKFilm release