you can't handle the truth

Some 70 years after the actual massacre, Nanking - or at least the memory of its tragic past - continues to be raped.

Nanking (now known, of course, as Nanjing) has been getting a lot more attention lately, in no small part because of the late Iris Chang's "Rape of Nanking." Filmmakers are apparently flocking to the subject, so far with questionable results. You thought the Shogun/Last Samurai cousin once-removed "Children of Huang Shi" was bad? (OK, well 72% of the critics featured on RottenTomatoes did)

How about a movie that denies the massacre at Nanking ever took place?

Phil Yu, the nicest guy to ever run a blog with the word "angry" in it, posted this today: http://www.angryasianman.com/2008/11/revisionist-nanking-film-now-playing.html

Apparently, a Japanese filmmaker has created a film that claims the massacre of Nanking was nothing more than Chinese propaganda (the film's website hints at collusion w/ the West and Taiwan. Uh... what??). Now this is not meant to be anti-Japanese filmmaker or pro-Chinese government (of which I am neither). But it is meant to be pro-truth. And yes, I am Chinese and, as anyone who knows me is aware, proud of it. I think this Japanese filmmaker should be proud of being Japanese, too. But not to the point of being Looney-Tunes crazy.

Now, revisionist history has existed... well... forever. Didn't countries that conquered other countries destroy their books and records to basically wipe them from existence? Didn't we learn in elementary school that some clueless Spaniard with some tiny ships "discovered" America? (and no, he didn't "discover" it for the "West," or the civilized world, or anything I have in common with)

As Phil says in his post, would Laemmle's have screened a film that purported to deny the Holocaust ever happened? Probably not. And that raises an important point. Most people know what the Holocaust is. How many people know about the rape of Nanking? Surely many Asians do, but what good would it be if only Jews knew about the Holocaust?

So I hope (against all evident odds) that some of the movies about Nanking that are in production do a better job of highlighting this terrible moment in history. Surely someone can do better than a World War II version of "Forbidden Kingdom" or this insane, neo-nationalist joke of a film.

It wouldn't take much.