Lee Eisenberg While the Nazi atrocities were the most infamous events in the 1930s and 1940s, Japanese forces carried out a series of equally vicious actions in China and Korea. In 1937, the Japanese army nearly wiped the city of Nanjing off the face of the earth while committing a near genocide against the population. In the midst of the horror, a group of westerners established a Safety Zone as a refuge for people fleeing the atrocities. The documentary "Nanking" intersperses footage of the terror with readings from the diaries of the westerners who established the Safety Zone, and also interviews with Chinese citizens who survived the massacres. In addition, there are also interviews with former Japanese troops who act as if they didn't do anything wrong.The documentary shows a good contrast between the ability to carry out evil acts and the desire to do good in the most desperate circumstances. The Chinese survivors have some of the most heartbreaking stories, probably very similar to the stories that the survivors of concentration camps have.The point is to understand that these malicious deeds are unfortunately inevitable when a country has an empire. Much like Germany's actions in Poland or Italy's actions in Ethiopia, Japan's actions in China must never be forgotten, although Japan's government still denies it.Another good movie focusing on the Japanese occupation of Nanjing is the recent "Flowers of War", starring Christian Bale as a clergyman giving Chinese schoolgirls sanctuary.

Roland E. Zwick In 1937, the bustling metropolis of Nanking, then the capital of China, was invaded and occupied by the Japanese military, which reduced much of the city to rubble and brutally raped, tortured and massacred hundreds of thousands of its inhabitants. The event came to be known in history books and in lore as The Rape of Nanking.The documentary "Nanking" not only recounts the unspeakable atrocities that occurred during that period but focuses on four Westerners living in the city at the time who, at great risk to their own welfare and safety, helped to save over 200,000 refugees and residents by carving out a "safe zone" in the middle of town where people could flee for shelter and protection. These heroic individuals included three Americans and one European: the missionary George Fitch, the surgeon Bob Wilson, the dean of the Gingling Girls' College Minnie Vautrin, and the German businessman (and, at that time, member of the Nazi Party) John Rabe.The movie relies on amazing archival footage - much of it furtively spirited out of the country by those who shot it - interviews with aging survivors and enemy perpetrators, and readings taken from actual journal and diary entries by the Westerners to tell its story. The last are performed by professional actors - among them, Woody Harrelson, Mariel Hemingway and Jurgen Prochnow - who, seated in folding chairs, take on the roles of the writers.The result is an eye-opening and heartbreaking look at both the best and the worst that the human race has to offer.

Claudio Carvalho In 1937, the Japanese army invades China in a cruel war and after the fall of Shanghai, the soldiers head to the capital Nanking. A group of Western foreigners led by John Rabe, Minnie Vautrin, Bob Wilson and George Fitch create the Safety Zone, a sanctuary that was not bombed by the Japanese airplanes, to protect thousands of refugees. While the Japanese soldiers reach the town on 13 December 1937, raping, slaughtering and pillaging the civilian, the heroic group of Westerns defends the lives of about 250,000 Chinese sacrificing their own freedom, and succeeds to tell the world the crimes of war committed by the Japanese army in Nanking.The harrowing, heartbreaking and awesome "Nanking" retells the story of the genocide in Nanking in 1937 promoted by the Japanese army. In the late 90's I saw the also impressive and disturbing "Nanjing 1937" (a.k.a. "Don't Cry, Nanking") and I confess that was the first time I heard anything about this massacre. In the movie "Shake Hands with the Devil", the Canadian General Romeo Dellaire has a fantastic line when he says that "genocide is when there are cargo train, concentration camps, gas chambers". In Hollywood, usually genocide is associated to the Jews in World War II and there are dozens of excellent movies about this dark period of the contemporary history. "Nanking" uses letters and other documents written mainly by the group of Westerns that created the Safety Zone in touching and emotional lectures of great actors and actresses; disturbing and heartbreaking testimonies of survivors; a great number of footages, in a magnificent work of research; and the wonderful music score of Kronos Quartet. I immediately associated how traumatic might have been the lives of these survivors after witnessing such cruel crimes of war. Further, in Nanking there were Westerns observers that told the world part of what happened in the city; imagine in Shanghai and in the minor towns in the countryside on the way of the Japanese troops without foreign witnesses how violent these soldiers might have been with the population. These group of expatriated shows the difference that an individual can make. I was really disturbed and sad after watching this fantastic movie. My vote is nine.Title (Brazil): Not AvailableNote: On 24 May 2013 I saw this documentary again.

futures-1 "Nanking" (documentary, 2007): When we think of Evil and War, we think first of the Nazis, Germany, and Jews. Though this is simplistic, we at least have these household terms as points of reference. We HATE everything around the names Nazi, Swastika, and Hitler. What our history has failed to do is discuss the Japanese at and before that same era with their attacks upon China, and, how they were no less brutal than the Nazis. Ill even go further than that and say their blood lust was more brutal, random, passionate, and less calculating than the Nazis. WHY we, as Americans, have allowed our history to be written so clearly and sharply about the Germans, yet so vaguely and softly about the Japanese, is a question I suspect has embarrassing answers. See this documentary. It wont answer all your questions, but it will initiate them.