Chinese Netizens Comment On “Nanjing! Nanjing!” Movie

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1. Surf_your_life

   Wednesday, April 29, 2009 at 8:50 am

   I am not Chinese but I read a book about Nanjing massacre. It was heart-breaking, unbelievable, and so painful to learn about it. It’s a shame that the Japanese fabricate this part of the history and teach their children that things like Nanjing Massacre have never occurred. It is so sad that the Japanese government still denies their horrendous war crimes committed in China, Korea and other Asian countries.

   Reply
   • yellow master race

     Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 1:45 am

     try to find the book about Dshungars. it will beat your feelings by tousands point of chinese cruelty. not to tell you what Chian Kai Shek and Mao did to other countries around China. much funier than this Hanking crap. happy yellow master race soldiers sending fresh livers and hearts to gread comrade Mao..

     Reply
   • aki

     Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 10:25 pm

     seriously, where do you hear that the mainstreamm Japanese deny atrocities committed in China and elsewhere?

     And which Japanese textbook(s) are you talking about?
     If there’s something wrong with the textbooks, it is that the aim of education in Japan is to memorise key dates. Also, e.g. world/Japan history may cover…well the world/Japan. So by virtue of the limited page numbers available, reference to the war and its specific incidents would be limited.

     it would be more strange to have 50% (or whatever) of the textbook that supposedly covers world or japanese history to dwell on 1937-45 woulldn’t it?
     (oh, perhaps i’m talking about the chinese textbook..).

     About 7yrs ago, I had a study session with my friends (all Japanese, mid-20′s at the time..). We would meet up regularly, with one or two presenting various topics (often work related but not all the time) to expand our horizon, etc.
     Perhaps 5-15 of us would gather. Most from uni such as Todai, Keio, Waseda.

     The presenter of one session talked about the Nanjing massacare, concluding that it didn’t happen.

     In essence, he was pitied for his lack of intelligence and knowledge by the others (perhaps elitist but the presenter was from a second-tier uni).

     To note, a few of my friends are right-leaning, who like to go to Yasukuni and also to the imperial palace in the new year
     to see the emperor from afar. In addition, they want to get rid of Article 9 to become a ‘normal’ country.

     But even these guys said the event happened and to deny it is simply crazy. What could be disputed would be the about how the event may be portrayed (not just number but also about how the soldiers may be portrayed – e.g. the leaders wanted the massacare but the soldiers didn’t – fits too neatly with the CCP’s current position don’t you think?), etc.

     And John Dower’s book Embracing Defeat mentions that the Japanese people when hearing what happened in Nanjing during the Tokyo trials were shocked and horrified the armies could have done such a thing.

     So, perhaps the people didn’t know during the war what had been happening – newspapers were censored and would often only have success stories…come to think of it, a bit like the China Daily today.. – but many heard about it and were horrified.

     i must see this film. but as i said elsewhere, it is just a film. it may portray a truth but it is unlikely to THE truth.

     Reply
2. Kai

   Friday, May 1, 2009 at 12:15 am

   Saw the movie this past Tuesday. I’m glad it wasn’t a propaganda piece and overall thought it was very well done. For those interested, more of my thoughts on Nanjing! Nanjing! over at CNR. I really recommend people to go watch it. It’d be interesting to see how people of different backgrounds react to it. I’ve been asking around and have gotten a lot of interesting responses from the locals that I admit I didn’t really expect. I’ll probably write about it later.

   Reply
3. vam

   Friday, May 1, 2009 at 5:32 am

   there are some really interesting issues around this whole thing.

   using nanjing to bitch about modern-day china is a p-h-e-n-o-m-e-n-o-n. i really want to do it too. cos, i do see china as quite a murderous entity: the air pollution wipes out 300k to 600k people in china every year. but theyre revelling in the shit, as an ‘inevitable’ ‘part’ ‘of’ ‘modernization.’ and cos it’s a necessary byproduct of consumerism, and who in their right mind would fault that… ok, second point on china being murderous: young chinese are the new japanese. because they fail to identify with the nation across the ditch as fully and equally human. chinese often tell me when discussing this that they dont hate japanese, but… the truth is, their image of japs is pretty hackeyed, and not very warm, or informed. i do fear the rising tide of anti-japanism. it is inexcusable, and very ignorant. piggish. the self righteousness imbued, its really scary.
   HOWEVER, i strongly want to encourage everyone hating on china to please consider nanjing in its own right. please meditate on the deaths of all those people. it DID happen to china, but it first happened to those hundreds of thousands of dead, and to the tens of thousands of families who lost loved ones. it’s a sacred thing and we need to honour it with our silence. not that we should shut up about it, but that we consider it quietly from time to time, as its own thing. the massacre is a very important part of modern day china, but modern day china has nothing to do with the massacre, if you get what i mean.

   Reply
   • yellow master race

     Friday, May 1, 2009 at 11:27 pm

     @vam

     Whatever.. just bow and lick the shoes of yellow master race al. not that everyone is happy and live free in PRC. well.. aside that time of reeducation, propaganda class and comunity meeting. ohh yeahh dont forget that funy time when you dad is going to feed the cheeps through 3 paramillitary police cordons.

     All heil our yellow master race!

     Ps.. dont translate this into forigners languages, or they will take our grany back to police again..

     Reply
4. vam

   Monday, May 4, 2009 at 1:26 am

   what would be cool is a comparative historiography of the massacre. cos, people say lots about what japanese are or arent thinking/teaching/writing/saying, but there’s alot of ignorance…

   Reply
5. chinaman

   Monday, May 4, 2009 at 3:28 am

   What should we do as a chinese? What should we do as a chinese man? …

   Reply
6. Steven

   Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 2:22 pm

   ‘The City of Life and Death’is awfully re-creation of the brutality of the Japanese. Do not pretend that we do not have hatred of the Japanese militia personnel, be they the foot soldiers, or the airmen, or the sailors.To use brute force to shake the will of the Chinese Government as well as the frontline soldiers is common in war but of such a horrifying way is really unusual and reflect the inner psyche of the Japanese, They want to conquer and excel….just like what they continue to do in the SOuthern Ocean to kill whales, which is totally illegal and ruthless but continue to be repeated by the Japanese. Do you still believe we should forgive and forget….

   Reply
   • blaskowitz

     Wednesday, May 13, 2009 at 5:02 am

     Now the thing about your comment is that it is built on stereotypes. Forgive? Maybe, depends on the individual person. If that guy is a denying scum, he should be beaten but there are good people too. As for whaling, it is out of topic, as whaling and Nanjing has nothing to do with each other. Besides, as for China, I find myself defending the fact that all Chinese are not dog eating barbarian “chinks” from racist westerners. Connection to Tibet? some people state that Chinese are brutal in Tibet because they eat dogs which is immoral. No connection whatsoever. It is reasonable to hate the military personnel but many people now have no direct responsibilities for the brutality of the past.

     Reply
     • Steven

       Thursday, May 14, 2009 at 10:40 am

       If anyone says that Whaling and Naning massacre are separated, I guess you do not respect life on earth. To inflict pain to other living creatures for the sake of what they call “Scientific Research” is just like what they said in WWII… We are here to create a “Prosperity Circle” for your own good. So be conquered and be killed and this logic lingers till now. and if you see how the Japanese fishermen dolphins in Taiji, I would suggest you take a look of the spawn of blood in the sea….The insanity goes on……

       Reply
       • blaskowitz

         Thursday, May 14, 2009 at 11:02 pm

         In that retrospect I agree, life is precious. I apologize if I came off wrong. But the problem I am mentioning is that Nanjing Massacre is a human killing human problem, not a human killing animal problem. Now the latter gains little to no publicity because it happens everywhere. Like I said, if I wished to engage in a tit for tat argument, I can ask you to view a youtube video showing “Chinese farming and killing thousands of dogs for consumption.” But I am against such linkings of the tibetan scenario and dog consumption because they make no sense. In my opinion, it is just piling irrelevant topics on the primary topic to make a nation and its citizen look bad. Yah, I do not condone whaling, but I don’t think whaling should be an issue when looking at the picture of World War atrocities. I don’t understand how one can say can safely conclude that a nationality is this and that because of this event and so forth. Generalizing and assuming is usually the first mistakes which lead to the horrors of Nanjing and Holocaust.

         Reply
7. rapa

   Friday, May 15, 2009 at 9:44 am

   Something is linking Chinese eating dogs and the Tibetian unrest to Nanjing Massacre. Does anyone want to make comment on that ?? For me, how can we do so when cruety of killing children and babies and their mothers in open streets in broad daylight reigned in Nanjing ? Even not a CHinese, I feel shame and such could be compared to the Holocaust in Europe during WWII…..IS it a shame

   Reply
8. vam

   Friday, May 15, 2009 at 11:58 am

   the whaling thing does have an interesting link to the nanjing massacre in that the majority of japanese don’t support it. but they get blamed for it cos of government decisionmakers…

   Reply
9. a mau

   Saturday, May 16, 2009 at 11:23 am

   I’ve seen that movie yesterday and i find it’s really good movie, it’s not only show what Japanese soldiers did to Nanjing people,but also show same Japanese soldiers feeling, some soldiers still have feeling, still have love and care, which reflect that we should not forget the history but not to hate Japanese or need to make revenge, we need to know the tragedy and let the Governors not to do the same things, coz no one will gain and no one win ….at the war..those Japanese and Chinese only get tear and fear…all lost.

   Reply
10. ChinaJim

    Wednesday, May 20, 2009 at 1:26 pm

    Viewpoint from an American:
    This movie is really an epic.From a film making point of view it was an amazing achievement. The images ,however, are very difficult to watch and make almost everyone who sees it in some way less innocent.

    I don’t belive the filmaker was to nice on the Japanese, there was only one who seemed to have a soul. The majority were mindless barbarians, which is usually the case in such artocities. On the drum scene , he showed their almost demonic organziational skills and mad fever.
    Don’t lose the main point at the end…which is the little boy is still alive today….which shows the spirit of the people lived on. You cannot kill the patriotism and sprit of the people. Nanjing is still there! The Japanese Imperial government is long gone.
    The Japanese suffered under atomic bombs which is what they deserved. This is all history now, lets move forward and create a better planet for all.

    Reply
11. MarcL

    Friday, May 22, 2009 at 1:25 am

    As a chinese person myself, I feel that Chinese are wasting time by still hating japanese. Our government supports horrible governments in Burma and Tibet.

    It’s really two faced to say we hate Japanese people for what they have done to us. I pray for those who we lost during the war. However I still pray for those living under bad regimes in Burma and Tibet. Chinese people wake up.

    Reply
12. Vtraveller

    Saturday, May 23, 2009 at 10:51 pm

    Ok, I have just seen this movie. I was planning a lengthy hateful reply to the animal Japanese. I am a Scandinavian, China know it as “North Europe” What I need to say today is that the director made a very gentle movie. I hope it will be shown in fucking Japan. It is the best of 2009 today and maybe ever. The point is gently served: Meaningless killings, what system make so animals? It could be easy you and me be the animals. Now stop and think and never forget Nanjing! Nanjing!

    Reply
13. rad&bad dude

    Wednesday, June 17, 2009 at 4:20 pm

    I’ll watch the movie because I’ve heard a lot of good things about it. I think it’s important to keep these events in history alive. However, I’m not quite sure that this type of film is necessarily good for CN ppl because most of their minds are already so clouded by anti-JP rhetoric. The ppl in charge of the system have done a good job of creating an enemy to distract ppl from more important issues. In the end, it’s all about the struggle to be No. 1 in the region. CN is trying to dethrone JP. They can’t have CN people buying JP products if they want to be No. 1. The other problem is, how do you get CN ppl to quit pirating everything? Why can’t CN come out with products like JP that everyone in the world wants to buy? There isn’t too much new and original stuff coming out of CN these days. Even this type of film is pretty played out if you ask me. It seems like movies on the Nanjing Massacre come out every year.

    Reply
14. Joe

    Thursday, July 9, 2009 at 10:36 am

    Last night I watched online a movie entitled “Nanjing! Nanjing!” that was directed by LU Chuan. What I viewed is a group of despicable people from Nanjing who believed that even a good death is not like a wretched existence when facing the cruel Japanese invaders. On seeing such people struggled to drag out an ignoble existence and lived dog lives even though to live is inferior to die, one of Japanese military officers, Kadokawa, was unable to stand such living as a torture, resolutely killed himself for those mangy dogs after signing, “It’s harder to live than to die.” His suicide set off this tragic Nanjing massacre that left the Chinese whole nation a forever ignominious and pitiful brand mark. When a nationality that covets life and fears death meets another external nationality that would rather die than surrender, a conclusion regarding the victory and defeat can already be reached. Somebody may say that those bowed to seek a humble living mostly are the weaponless proletariat populace and they did not have the resistance ability. When the US military attacked the Ryukyu Islands and the Japanese native place, how about the similarly weaponless Japanese ordinary people, even the women and children, all united together, shared a common hatred, and came out into the open to fight with American invaders, a fight in which Japanese perished with the enemy troop till their strength using up. To exempt from an insult, the defeated Japanese did not live dishonorably but rather die honorably. Let alone a flood of Chinese coward servicemen laid down their weapons of their own accord in order to have a disparage living before the fall of the Nanjing city to the enemy, ending up entirely the merciless slaughter on those surrendered. Haruki Murakami has a famous saying, “The death is a part of living.” Speaking of the universe, the human being just likes an insignificant drop in the ocean, not worthy of any mentioning, so why did Chinese people fear death? Although Japanese surrendered reluctantly under the atomic bombs’ might, why have they still looked down upon Chinese people till now? According to Japanese disposition, if some day those brave and dauntless Chinese who would be able to return an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, also making an extremely tragic Tokyo slaughter, the Japanese would hold in high esteem to them. Look at how Japanese have flattered Americans in a servile attitude since Japan became one of American colonies, you may understand this.

    Apart from such national moral courage as no external differences, fearlessness to death, and unflinching spirit, Japanese national sense of responsibility is also extraordinary. Once a while I happened to witness a television news, one of Japanese firms produced a defect on its product line out of negligence, the president broke to tears and cried his heart out before audience, apologizing to some innocent victims. Those Chinese counterparts, on the contrary, illegally fabricated a myriad of fake and shoddy products but felt unscrupulously shameless. Should such similar goods appear in the Japanese market, then the chairman of the producer would go seppuku (this is one kind of cruel suicide that most Chinese do not have courage to implement anyway) to wipe out the disgrace on his concern, the so-called knowledge of the shame almost is tantamount to courage.

    When did the Chinese start to worship foreign countries with powers? Is it the day when the country was extinguished by the Mongolian cavalries, or the day when it was conquered by Anglo-Saxons with their firm battleship and violent cannon? The Chinese number one slut – Empress Dowager Cixi – once said in an outrageously opprobrious way, “China should try to win the favor of the powerful countries based on its capabilities and resources.” Today, Chinese sluts continue their previous generation’s shame, a part of whom, like an elegantly and gorgeously dazzling fireworks delimiting China starry sky to scatter in Japanese prefectures, embarking on there as a fad that has been on the rise, either become prostitutes or in a haste, marry some Japanese countryside bumpkins or illiterate and experience suffering the humiliation. Once I read an excerpt from a book written by one of such women, talking that she was frequently being scolded without any complaint by her Japanese husband, “Bitch! I save you from the China’s sea of bitterness; otherwise, how can you have such a dignity life today?” while the hair being seized and the head punched bang against the wall, badly beaten till the blood breading over the face. Is it despicable? Pitiful! The others remain domestic serve the Japanese invaders’ posterity free of charge. Damn it! Several years ago I found at a supermarket in Madrid where those inexpensive made-in-China were put at the corner of the store on sale, the customers can pick up a lot of the cheapest gadget with some pennies. Thomas Paine said: “What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly.” Even so, at least they had a price. However, those disgusting women serve themselves pricelessly. That is really disgraceful, you know. Facing these, I have emotionally shocked.

    Attached herewith is a septasyllabic regulated verse.

    Untitled – - The Feeling after the View of the Movie “Nanjing! Nanjing!”

    The Chinese people from postwar almost forget Japanese invasion,
    I regret to be a Chinese after I gave a bird’s eye view of Japan.
    The dragon’s descendants are really “intelligent”,
    They only know how to wage civil wars and kill each other quite often.

    The century dawn frequently summons,
    Eastern sleeping lion still is sluggish.
    May I ask those Chinese piggies,
    When can you destroy the evil Japan?

    “When can you destroy the evil Japan?” Can we wait till the day when the Sun rises from the West? Perhaps we do not have a chance to see this day fully with pride and joyfulness. Only that day can the whole Chinese nation truly stands up; otherwise, what a shame to appear among the nationalities in the world?

    Also, another pentasyllabic regulated verse is attached.

    Hatred of the Perished Country

    The hatred of the perished country has not melt,
    But China already degenerated.
    Embark on Japan by hook or by crook out of the mercenary spirit,
    And pursue Japanese goods wholeheartedly.

    Absurdly request Japanese to introspect what they did in the past to Chinese people,
    But suffer reviling from them.
    If one day on which Japan would wage another war against China,
    I don’t know which side should be blamed.

    Simply put, this hatred will last forever!

    Reply
    • Sin

      Saturday, February 13, 2010 at 2:32 am

      You are so fucking stupid it’s beyond amazing.

      Reply
15. Fike2308

    Thursday, August 27, 2009 at 5:00 am

    When is the movie about Tianamen 1989 coming out??

    Reply
16. Zlsetrdx

    Sunday, December 5, 2010 at 10:31 am

    The Japanese did macabre things all over Asia. But the worst crime is that they don’t acknowledge it (they even conceal those ugly historical facts in their school textbooks) and have never properly apologized. The Japanese society looks down upon the Chinese (and every other Asian people) up to this day. For me, these three reasons are enough for the Chinese to hate them.

    Reply