John Rabe

There are many people that seem to believe that the Rape of Nanking never happened, or that it was nowhere near as bad as is commonly believed. One of the people that was there and was able to tell about what happened was a man named John Rabe who happened to be a Nazi. Now, Germany was an ally of Japan so one would think Rabe would support the Japanese account, but he didn't. He told about what kinds of horrors happened and this film is about him. His work helped rescue some 200,000 Chinese.

He also kept a diary of what was going on and documented the various atrocities that happened.

What I will do here is state my opinion of the movie and add a few scans from the movie. There are also numerous places where footage from the actual event are included.

1937.

In the movie a guy from Germany tells him that Rabe's Siemen's work in Nanking is going to be phased out. Rabe sort of looks down on the Chinese but not too badly. He is due to return to Berlin but then the Japanese attack. His workers seem to really like him.

He's giving a goodbye speech and the the Japanese planes start bombing. The Nazi from Berlin wants to keep the workers out when the bombing starts but Rabe wants to let them into the factory area.

A member of the Japanese royalty, Prince Yasuhiko Asaka , is there giving direct instructions on what the Japanese Army should do in its attack on the city. He was Hirohito's uncle. He's the nastiest person in the film so far. He gives the order to execute thousands of Chinese troops taken prisoner.

They show the Japanese murdering thousands of captured Chinese soldiers. Meanwhile, the decision in the city is made to set up a safety zone and John Rabe is put in charge of it.

He gets his wife to leave on the last boat out, the Panay, but he stays. This is a fictionalized part of the movie because the Panay was not actually a huge ship carried thousands. It was, however, a ship that was attacked by the Japanese and sunk.

The Japanese soldier is taking prisoners with him and also wants to take some girls. The woman handling things in the office is outraged, of course.

The Japanese massacre more prisoners. The film also includes the beheading contest that actually went on. The rest of the film deals with various difficulties in keeping the safety zone going and the eventual arrival of various diplomats that the safety zone was turned over to.

The film is good, although it emphasizes the killings and only treats the rapes very briefly and doesn't discuss the looting at all. Special effects are present and are mostly okay. The film, of course, centers on what John Rabe did although I think more about what went on could have made the film a little more hard-hitting. There are no bonus features directly related to the movie.

Main Index
Japan main page
Japanese-American Internment Camps index page
Japan and World War II index page