The behavior of Japanese forces during the 1937 invasion of the Chinese mainland remains one of the lesser-known examples of mass brutality from World War II. During “the rape of Nanking” Imperial Japanese soldiers went on a rampage that in many ways resembled the “ethnic cleansing” practiced in the Balkans during the 1990s, only worse. Alongside rape and torture on a massive scale, as many as 300,000 Chinese civilians may have been slaughtered in the former Chinese capital alone.
“Nanking” takes a somewhat unusual approach in telling the story of American and European citizens who used their status as protected outsiders to save perhaps hundreds of thousands of Chinese. Instead of utilizing off-screen voice actors to read the remembrances of its subjects, directors Bill Gutttentag and Dan Sturman mix graphic wartime footage and wrenching contemporary testimony by aging Chinese survivors with a staged reading of excerpts from the memoirs of the main Western figures. The readings are performed by a first rate group of actors including Woody Harrelson, Mariel Hemingway, and Stephen Dorf. It’s no knock on the performers but, as skilled as they are, their renditions seem awfully safe and easy to take when placed side by side with the horrifyingly direct testimony of the Chinese survivors.
The worthy and often compelling 90-minute films nevertheless fails to provide crucial context for the atrocities. Just what was it about the Japanese military campaign so outrageously brutal? Why was the outside world so uninterested in intervening? These questions may be discussed in histories, like the acclaimed “The Rape of Nanking” by the late Iris Chang (who the film is partially dedicated to), but not here. Also, little background is given on the most interesting character among the Europeans: John Rabe (Jurgen Prochnow), a warmhearted, upstanding German community leader, savior of thousands of Chinese and committed member of the Nazi party. The irony is alluded to, but never really explored.
