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CM . . . .
Volume VI Number 15 . . . . March 31, 2000
During the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), the Japanese army occupied the Chinese city
of Nanking (Nanjing) and made it the capital of the occupying government. When the army
marched into the city, they began a systematic murderous attack on helpless men, women and
children. Their crimes against humanity have become known to history as "the Rape of Nanking."
Utilizing archival film footage, the diaries of western missionaries, eyewitness accounts, and the
confessions of Japanese soldiers who were ordered to commit these atrocities, the film weaves a
horrific story of the murder of more 300,000 people, one-third of the city's population. However,
until the mid-1990s, the highest levels of the Japanese government and many Japanese historians
steadfastly refused to acknowledge the truth of any killings and censored references to them from
student history books.
The film raises many vital issues that have a proper place in classrooms. The institutionalized
murder of civilian populations is becoming more common in our age, under sanitized names, such
as ethnic cleansing, but can educators allow students to become blase to the horror of genocidal
practice? Should even powerful nations that deny their crimes, in the hope that history will either
forget or ignore them, be somehow sanctioned by the international community? What of the
malfeasance of western nations in their imperialistic treatment of indigenous peoples and the
natural world? Finally, can Canadians really cast the first stone of historical innocence, or must
we, like the Japanese, look into our own hearts of darkness?
Recommended.
Ian Stewart lives in Winnipeg and is a regular contributor to CM and the book review pages of
the Winnipeg Free Press.
To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.
Copyright © the Manitoba Library Association.
Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice
is maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without
permission.
Published by
TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE - March 31, 2000.
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