Job Discussion Forums

[MrCAPiTUL]

Anybody know of any good movies about what happened in Nanjing during the late 30s? Thanks in advance.

[PAULH]

[markle]

For a fairly accurate view of how the Chinese (government)portrays Japanese atrociaties (sp?) Try "Red Sourgham" directed by Zhang Yimou.

[cornishmuppet]

I've read the book Paul mentions on Nanking. Its fascinating, but really harrowing stuff. Kind of makes you look a little differently at things knowing what this country used to be capable of. My girlfriend denied it ever happened, though, which kind of reflects the quality of Japanese history lessons at school.

Is Pearl Harbour any good? Saw it on ex-rental in the video shop the other day and was going to buy it to watch it with a Japanese friend, before changing my mind and buying Independence Day instead. Saying that, I was more put off by the thought of 3 hours of Ben Afleck's jutting chin than of encouraging any awkward conversation.

[PAULH]

[MrCAPiTUL]

Thanks for the input.

And yeah, Pearl Harbor wasn't really that great. Band of Brothers KICKED A$$, though! If any of you haven't seen it, check it out.

[cornishmuppet]

Wow, Pearl Harbour does sound lame. Have you ever seen Van Helsing, where Beckinsale runs around a forest fighting all manner of evil creatures (while wearing high heels) then falls over a log or something at the end and just dies? That was completely lame. Her plus Affleck is just George Clooney short of being the movie I'd rather eat an old shoe filled with natto than watch.

[ndorfn]

read the book by iris change and the rebuttal from a couple of japanese professors.

hard to tell who to believe cause they both make some pretty iffy statements based on less than convincing data. still, reading both makes you realise how easy it is to convince people of an argument if they only get one side.

i think it was in "Embracing Defeat" that I remember reading how the US pardoned a whole lot of those "Doctors" doing chemical weapons testing on chinese in exchange for their empirical data.

Crime paid in their case.

[Horizontal Hero]

I wouldn't take the Chinese versions on faith either. The Nanjing massacre is one of the prime myths via which the Chinese have developed their self-identity post 1949. Many Chinese here believe that the Japanese killed 50 million Chinese in WW2. Not surprising as the propaganda is on the front pages every second day, with the last set of casualty figures upped a few points higher for maximum effect. I've lived and worked in Taiwan, mainland China and Hong Kong. There is a huge diffeence in the way history is taught in the mainland and the other two places. Needless to say the mainland is full of hate, while the other two have largely moved on. Of course there is a media ban on all atrocities committed by Chinese anywhere/anytime in History. So you get this huge "we are the innocent victims of the evil barbarians" mentality. Mainland chinese could quote data about the Japanese occupation backwards, but would not be able to tell you ANYTHING AT ALL about the million or so very dead Tibetans who died in the "Peaceful Liberation of Tibet."

Another factor is that representations of Japan in the mainland are like a grotesque stereotype to this day. I think many mainalnders see even today's Japanese as blood-thirsty heathens ready to jump the ditch at any time and murder, screw anything that moves and shoot babies in the face. This is the image they are presented with on a regular basis, via the endless historical dramas on TV.

[sushi]

Isn't that the way they really are though. They are collective to the extreme, and are still capable of being mobilized to do anything in the name of Hirohito or whatever. Navy was the exception I think.

I saw the movie Yamato or Yamoto. Can't remember the spelling. It was an interesting take on the Japanese Navy. Apparently the Imperial Japanese navy were not the barbarians the Japanese army were. They observed the rules of the Geneva convention better than did most Japanese. Was interested in the movie because the Yamato and her sister ship the Musashi were the biggest battleships ever built

I had a Japanese girlfriend, and I used to prod her with questions like "Why did the whole world hate you guys so much", and 'How come everybody hates the Japanese". She just shrugged it off saying "they did it for their country". Left it at that. Never had any major confrontations over it. I think most of the younger set wouldn't give a stuff about what you threw at them about past atrocities. Girlfriend's father was in Kyushu when the Nagasaki bomb was dropped, and he remembers watching the mushroom cloud billowing into the sky.

[Horizontal Hero]

Actually I wasn't aware that people hate the Japanese. Even in Hong Kong and Taiwan many young people idolise the Japanese. It's south korea and mianland China where most of the hate is left - both being intensely hyper-nationalistic. The latter is not a coincidence, I suspect.

[sushi]

They hate them in the Phillipines too. In Sydney Australia there are many bars that wont allow Japanese, because of the River Kwai incident. Had a Korean friend who when he entered a bar was asked if he was Japanese. He told them no , and that he was Korean, and they let him in. They of course explained why there was a need to know if he was Japanese or not.

I lived in Hawaii for a number of years, and there is a seething dislike for the Japanese. They are called budda heads by the locals. Most of them are very nice on an individual basis, but gezze when they unite everyone else might as well not exist. They close ranks where ever they are in the majority.
They control the medical porofession, the legal profession and it behooves anyone who isn't Japanese from trying to practice their profession in Hawaii who isn't Japanese. They discriminate, but in ways that you can't put your finger on or detect.

Look at Fujimori. A South American by birth, but still an ethnic Japanese. He was still able to go back to Japan to avoid justice( for a while at least), until such a time as the international community put pressure on Koizumi to get rid of him.

[Tue]

[PAULH]

[Sour Grape]