John H. D. Rabe (* 23. November 1882 in Hamburg; † 5. Januar 1950 in Berlin) war ein deutscher Kaufmann. Er wird wegen seiner humanitären Verdienste um die chinesische Zivilbevölkerung im Zweiten Weltkrieg auch als der „Oskar Schindler Chinas” bezeichnet.

Rabe setzte sich während des Massakers von Nanking  1937/38 für die Errichtung einer etwa zwei mal zwei Kilometer großen Schutzzone ein, um der chinesischen Zivilbevölkerung Schutz vor den japanischen Soldaten zu bieten. Damit rettete er mehr als 200.000 Chinesen das Leben.

Im Herbst 2007 begann unter der Regie von Oscar-Preisträger Florian Gallenberger in Shanghai die Verfilmung von Rabes Leben mit  Ulrich Tukur in der Hauptrolle.  Der Film wurde auf der Berlinale 2009 uraufgeführt.

Sehen Sie hier den Trailer zum Film, den Sie als DVD in der Stadtbibliothek bekommen:

De film John Rabe die op 26 november in première gaat is erg goed te noemen. ‘Huh hoe kan dat?’, zult u zeggen. Zij wordt immers nog niet vertoond? Nee, nog niet vertoond, behalve dan als u hierrr klikt en vervolgens enige tijd later de file in Media Player opent. Dikke leak dus en dat is maar goed ook. Dit oorlogsdrama, dat gebaseerd is op een waargebeurd verhaal, is zowel aangrijpend als weerzinwekkend. De Japanse oorlogsmisdaden worden in kaart gebracht en dat is niet mis kan ik u zeggen. Toch is het geen maagomkerende film, sterker nog: zij roert op vele momenten en laat de kijker achter met een goed beeld van wat er toen gebeurd is. Maar ook met het bekende ‘even napuffen’ na een goede film. Veel kijkplezier!

John Rabe: hulde!

Okay, so my first post may have been a bit wordy for the world of internet commentary, so here are a couple of capsule reviews of films I caught at the Vancouver International Film Festival last week:

Popstar on Ice (dir. David Barba and James Pellerito)
Vancouver International Film Festival, Sunday October 11, 2009

This is a fun documentary that will make you love American figure skater Johnny Weir. He is over the top, larger than life, and camp, camp, camp. The film follows Weir as he tries to make the American Olympic team in 2006. The filmmakers are now shooting a reality TV series for the Sundance Channel following Weir’s attempts to make the 2010 team, and the film has the feel of reality TV – a lot of cinema veritésque camera work followed by confessional interviews. It’s not groundbreaking, but it is effective. The most interesting thing in the film is its treatment of Weir’s sexuality. Although Weir’s public and private (well reality-TV private) personality is flamboyant and unapologetic, he demurs when it comes to specific questions about his orientation: “What I do in my bedroom is personal. I don’t think anyone needs to know if I’m sleeping with Sienna Miller or Orlando Bloom.” Still, using quotes from prominent coaches and Olympians as well as sportscasters, who criticize Weir for not being “masculine enough,” the film does an excellent job of demonstrating and indicting the homophobia present in figure skating (of all places) while still playfully resisting the need to define Weir sexuality.

John Rabe (dir. Florian Gallenberger)
Vancouver International Film Festical, Wednesday October 14, 2009

This film follows John Rabe, a loyal but naïve Nazi businessman stationed in China in the 1930s.  Rabe and his fellow foreigners lead the effort to establish a safe zone in Nanking, protecting up to 200,000 Chinese civilians from the Japanese Imperial Army.  It’s sort of a German Schindler’s List and it has already been successful in Germany – after all there are not many Nazi heroes. The film can certainly be criticized for lionizing the foreigners at the expense of its Asian characters. The Chinese are depicted as a barely differentiated mass of victims, while the Japanese are shown as cruel – or, in one case, guilt ridden, but too entrenched in Japanese notions of obedience and honour to resist commands to slaughter Chinese prisoners and civilians. Despite these real flaws, the film dramatizes a forgotten and important historical atrocity. Hopefully the film will prompt people to learn more about the abuses in Nanking and elsewhere in China during the Japanese occupation. If so, viewers of this film should check out Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman’s documentary Nanking – which I saw at VIFF a couple of years ago. To my mind, this documentary is more powerful than John Rabe. This film uses an original technique of filming actors reading letters, diaries, and other primary documents related to the Nanking Massacre. Layering these re-enactments alongside survivor interviews, historical photographs and newsreel material works in a counter intuitive way to draw one in to the horrors of those events. But unlike John Rabe, where we are drawn into a cinematic drama (like so many fictional dramas), the documentary confronts us with the reality of the Nanking Massacre as well as with the tragedy of its disappearance from our collective memories.

We all know that the Religious Right no likey the same sex marriage or even the gay sex (or at least not publicly. I’m looking at you Ted Haggard!). But now they’re extending their disdain for same-sex ice cream.

Ben & Jerry’s, liberal hippies that they are, had not long ago announced their re-release of their Chubby Hubby ice cream flavor under the name, Hubby Hubby in honor of gay marriage.

Well, apparently Coral Ridge Ministries objects to ice cream on ice cream action:

I always find it hilarious that these nuts make such a big deal about gay marriage but find divorce so acceptable despite the fact that according to the Bible, their god hates divorce infinitely more than two dudes doin’ it.

Then they quote clearly biased sources like “Americans for Truth about Homosexuality” and make up flat-out lies to justify their hypocrisy such as “the health risks of homosexual behavior.” Like what, John Rabe? AIDS? What decade are you living in?

Ya gotta love this line though:

“The next time you’re tempted to surcome to the temptations of Chunky Monkey or Cherry Garcia, know that part of your money will go to some patently unholy causes.”

Mmm, unholy causes.

I think I’ll make an extra special trip to Ben & Jerry’s tomorrow to get a taste of those delicious, unholy causes. And please take a moment to tell them how much you support Ben & Jerry’s evil gay agenda here.

Also, on a related note, these guys also hate Pepsi for also supporting the evil gay agenda, so show them some love too. After all, be honest. The product tastes so much better knowing how much it pisses off bigoted assholes like this.

Viel wurde schon über diesen Film gesprochen. Auszeichnungen gab es auch schon reichlich. Und für wahr: “John Rabe” sollte man gesehen haben.

John Rabe, wunderbar gespielt von Ulrich Tukur, hat bis 1938 27 Jahre lang den Betrieb einer Tochtergesellschaft von Siemens in Nanking/China geleitet. Rabe ist NSDAP-Mitglied, behandelt seine angestellten Chinesen gut und hat sich ihren Respekt erarbeitet. Nun soll er befördert und nach Berlin zurückgeordert werden. Ein Trugschluss, wie er bald feststellen muss. Die Beförderung ist nur Vorwand für die Schließung seines Werkes in Nanking. Doch es sollte anders kommen. Die Japaner greifen die damalige chinesische Hauptstadt an. Rabe schützt seine Angestellten und etliche Anwohner mit einer großen Hakenkreuzflagge vor den Kampffliegern – denn Japan ist zu dieser Zeit Verbündeter der Deutschen. Rabe wird von anderen euroäischen Kollegen dazu gedrängt, den Aufbau einer internationalen Schutzzone zu leiten. Er stimmt zu und verzichtet damit auf seine Heimreise. In den kommenden Wochen wird er um Lebensmittel, Waffenfreiheit und Schutz für die in der Zone lebenden Menschen kämpfen. Am Ende haben er und seine Helfer etwa 200.000 Chinesen das Leben gerettet.  Er selbst wird bei seiner Rückkehr nach Deutschland der Kollaboration mit den Chinesen verantwortlich gemacht und darf über seine Geschichte nicht erzählen. 1950 stirbt er verarmt.

Nur seine 60 Jahre nach der Rettungsaktion aufgetauchten Tagebücher erzählen noch Rabes Geschichte. Und nun auch der Film. Es gibt nicht viel zu bemängeln. Ein einfühlsamer, spannender und intensiv gespielter Plot, der das Grauen eines Krieges zeigt, der in Europa zu dieser Zeit noch nicht begonnen hatte. Der Film zeigt auch, wie naiv John Rabe in Sachen Deutschland und Hitler gewesen ist (er bittet Hitler um Hilfe gegen die Gräueltaten der Japaner, obwohl Gleiches und Schlimmeres wenige Monate später auch im namen Hitlers passieren wird), wie menschlich er geblieben ist und welche Belastung seine Entscheidung für ihn darstellte, in Nanking zu bleiben.

Einziges Manko des Films: es wird sich komplett auf deutsch unterhalten. Dem Zuschauer fällt es schwer zu trennen, wer sich denn nun eigentlich ursprünglich in welcher Sprache mit wem unterhalten hat. Besser wäre gewesen, die Unterhaltungen zwischen Chinesen, Japanern und auch den anderen Europäern in den damals wirklich verwendeten Sprachen zu belassen und nur Untertitel einzublenden. Das hätte nicht nur den Film authentischer wirken lassen, sondern hätte auch die Zuschauer etwas weniger verwirrt zurückgelassen.

Trotzdem. “John Rabe” ist ein Muss.

Die Chinesen verehren John Rabe als Helden, weil er bei Japans Einmarsch in Nanking 1937 eine Sicherheitszone errichtete und damit tausende Menschen vor Vergewaltigung, Mord und Vertreibung bewahrte. Deswegen wurde er kürzlich in die chinesische Memorial Hall aufgenommen. In Deutschland war der 1950 gestorbene Deutsche bis vor kurzem vergessen: Zu unbequem erschien ein Held, dessen Vergangenheit so deutliche braune Spuren hatte. Das Tagebuch John Rabes rehabilitiert nicht nur “den guten Deutschen von Nanking”, es ist auch der einzige umfassende Augenzeugenbericht der Greueltaten von Nanking und somit ein wertvolles zeitgeschichtliches Zeugnis.

Nur zu blöd, dass Stuttgart seiner nicht gedenkt und ihn in bester deutscher Nachkriegstradition der Vergessenheit preisgibt.
Denn in der neuen Partnerschaftsvereinbarung zwischen Stuttgart und Nanjing werden Menschenrechtsfragen ausgeblendet. Nanjing ist nicht nur eine Wirtschaftsmetropole, sondern eine chinesische Großstadt, in der systematisch grundlegende Bürgerrechte verletzt werden. Unser Göttinger Kollege Uli Delius erklärt das so: “Regierungskritiker werden ruhig gestellt und Glaubensfreiheit unterdrückt.Daher wäre es nur konsequent, sich im Rahmen der Partnerschaft auch um mehr Verständnis für Menschen- und Bürgerrechte einzusetzen.” Nur zehn Tage nach dem 20. Jahrestag der blutigen Niederschlagung des Massakers auf dem Himmlischen Frieden ist es ein falsches Zeichen, das Schicksal inhaftierter Reginekritiker aus dem Jahr 1989 zu missachten.

Das gilt insbesondere für den Dichter und Roman-Autors Yang Tongyan. Passender Weise sitzt er seine zwölfjährige Haftstrafe in Nanjing ab. Der Regimekritiker wurde am 23. Dezember 2005 festgenommen. Sein Verbrechen: In seinen Schriften setzt er sich friedlich für Demokratie in China ein. Elf der vergangenen 17 Jahre hat der 48 Jahre alte Essayist schon im Gefängnis verbracht. Denn in den 90er-Jahren musste er bereits eine zehnjährige Haftstrafe verbüßen, weil er die blutige Niederschlagung der Demokratiebewegung 1989 verurteilt hatte. Tongyan gilt mit seinem unermüdlichen Engagement für Demokratie als einer der bekanntesten Vertreter der Demokratiebewegung Chinas. Im April 2008 wurde ihm vom Schriftstellerverband P.E.N. in den USA in Abwesenheit die höchste Auszeichnung verliehen.

Nicht besser sieht es aus mit den Anhängern der Falun-Gong: diejenigen von ihnen, die in Nanjing im Gefängnis inhaftiert waren, berichteten nach ihrer Freilassung von massiver Folter und systematischem, tagelangen Schlafentzug in den Gefängnissen. Weniger als 40 Tage nach seiner Verhaftung starb im April 2006 der Falun-Gong-Praktizierende Wang Jianguo an den Folgen der in der Haft erlittenen Folter. Besonders massiv gefoltert wird in dem neuen Frauengefängnis von Nanjing, berichten ehemalige Gefangene. Doch in den staatlich kontrollierten Medien wird die Haftanstalt als vorbildlich dargestellt.

All das sind nur Beispiele, wie es um Bürgerrechte in Nanjing aussieht. Und Stuttgart vergisst dabei, dass es auch mal Deutsche gegeben hat, die gerade in Nanjing gezeigt haben, dass es Mitmenschlichkeit gibt. Mitmenschlichkeit und Solidarität. Das aber wird alles bei der Städtepartnerschaft systematisch ausgeblendet. Warum? Vielleicht einfach nur deswegen, weil die Wirtschaftsbeziehungen zu China dann doch wichtiger sind.

John Rabe hieß der Film, den ich mir gestern im Kino der Stadt ansah. Das Kino etwas grundsätzlich Voyeuristisches hat, muss nicht weiter erklärt werden. Aber der Hang zum Melodram, zum Dramatischen im Allgemeinen, schon. Florian Gallenberger, seines Zeichen Regisseur des Films, baut seine Gesichte ganz geschick darum auf – er versucht einen Mann zu zeigen, der als Held von Nanking berühmt geworden ist. John Rabe rettet, gemeinsam mit anderen Ausländern, 200000 Chinesen vor der Vernichtung durch die Japaner. Gallenberger inszeniert historisierend, baut immer wieder Schnipsel von Originalaufnahmen ein und lässt, in der absoluten Perversion, sogar Historisches und künstlerisches Material ineinander laufen. Durch einen opulenten Orchestersound, der überflüssigen nebenher Liebesgeschichte des Nebendarstellers Daniel Brühl und das widerliche Happy End am Hafen, bei dem sich John Rabe und seine Frau Dora wiedersehen, können über eins nicht Hinwegtäuschen: Film kann Realität nur verzerrt darstellen – Er muss zwangsläufig erfinden, den es wird aus der Dritten Person gefilmt, die Kamera als Beobachter.  Und so wir auch John Rabe’s Geschichte zumindest heroisiert, und dann auch nur zu Zwei Drittel erzählt – er spart auf, wie das weitere Leben des John Rabe verläuft – am Schluss gibt es einen kurzen, schriftlichen Hinweis auf den traurigen Verlauf seines weiteren Lebens – aber, dass war zu traurig um gezeigt zu werden. Erklären kann ich mir das eben nur aus dem Sicht des Melodramatischen – und habe noch einen zweiten Ansats hierzu: Ich glaube, Gallenberger konnte sich nicht entscheiden, für welches Publikum er diesen Film macht – für ein aufgeklärtes kritsiches aber dünneres Publikum oder ein zur Romantik mehr als neigendes Massenpublikum, deren Vordergründigste Probleme eben die Liebschaft, und nicht die Gerechtigkeit scheint. Hier soll nicht verschwiegen werden, dass auch der Autor diesen Emotionen sein Herz schenkt, dennoch muss kritsich gefragt werden ob es funktioniert – wahre Geschichte und Dichtung?

Ich hatte dennoch einen schönen Abend vor allem Dank Steve Buscemi, der als zynischer Doktor mal wieder zeigt, dass er der geborene Nebendarsteller ist – nie vordergründig überdeckend oder hintergründig versteckend. Immer da mit Präzision und klasse Schauspiel. So let’s sing along: Hitler has only got one ball!

  以1937年南京淪陷為背景，一部黑白製作的電影，帶著期望和好奇看看導演陸川如何拍攝這段歷史事蹟。黑白片予人莊嚴、殘酷、冰冷、回憶等之感覺。片中前之部份，很多戰爭混亂的場面，故用上了搖晃的鏡頭，戰火咆哮，攝人心弦的戰彈轟炸，屍橫遍地，卻看不到血漬斑斑，反是在一些人物臉龐上看到血漬和疤痕。影片後半部，就為轉為劇情化，也是製作此部電影的焦點，交出一百名慰安婦，這一場就以慢鏡，鏡頭突出了婦人高舉願意犧牲的手。是哀痛 ….還是歌頌….. ，留待觀眾去思想。

片中還有兩個角色在同類的電影或記載中鮮有提到的，就是拉貝先生(裴中中飭)，身份是南京國際安全區委員會主席，本身也是納粹黨員，保護當時數十萬的中國人。另一個人物角川 (Hideo Nakaizumi 中泉英雄飭)，是貫通全片的一個角色，身份是日本進攻南京時的一員士兵，面對瘋狂的殺戮，精神近乎崩潰，導演對他有很多性格上衝突的描繪，片中一場他看到女老師姜(高圓圓)回轉多次救出同胞，他都看在眼裏，卻沒有揭穿，及至姜老師最後被發現了，反而開搶把她射殺，很難猜測他當時的心理狀況。 片末他說 :「活著比死更難受」他放過了小逗父子，而後吞搶。

片末交待劇中幾個主要人物的情況，小逗至今仍存活，中華民族仍然延續。

看完此片初時有點驚訝，但細想之後，雖然是一個舊題材，加上新的創作思維，使得整套黑白電影，在黑白以外，加上色彩。

IMDB

Gestern Abend, 19:25 Uhr, ein Kino, zwei Menschen, ein roter Taco-Soßen-Fleck, viele Popcorn-Krümel und lahme Mitarbeiter. Fast wie zu Hause… also zumindest in Anbetracht der Zuschauerzahl vor der Leinwand.

19:35 Uhr, zwei Amerikaner, zwei sich lautstark unterhaltende Frauen schräg hinter uns und zwei, die uns höflich darauf aufmerksam machen, dass wir einen Platz zu weit rechts sitzen (sonst schmunzle ich immer über Menschen, die nicht richtig auf ihr Kinoticket gesehen haben), haben sich im Kinosaal eingefunden. Jetzt sitzen wir auf jeden Fall direkt vor den zwei kommunikativen Damen. Im Kino befinden sich inzwischen etwa 20 Personen, hauptsächlich Frauen, Durchschnittsalter 45+, zwei Enkelkinder und ich.

19:45 Uhr, Werbung, Trailer, Eis.

Irgendwann danach beginnt der Film. Über den Inhalt will ich an dieser Stelle gar nichts verraten, die Seite zum Film enthält ausreichend Infos (inklusive Making-of) und etliche Filmausschnitte.

Ulrich Tukur, ich bin da vorbelastet (favorisierter Schauspieler und zur Zeit der Dreharbeiten zu “John Rabe” auf der Frankfurter Buchmesse getroffen), spielt seine Rolle als John Rabe überzeugend und wirklich gut. Wobei ich über keinen der Darsteller etwas Negatives berichten kann, da sie meiner Ansicht nach, tatsächlich ausnahmslos gut gecastet wurden. Selbst Daniel Brühl, der mir in seinen bisherigen Rollen nicht sonderlich gut gefiel, überzeugte mich erstmals als Dr. Rosen.

“John Rabe” ist ein überaus sehenswerter Film, läuft viel zu selten (zumindest in Wiesbaden und das bereits in der 2. Woche!) und … ach… angucken!

ab Donnerstag neu im Kino:

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Knowing – Die Zukunft endet jetzt

Thriller/Science-Fiction – USA 2009
Regie: Alex Proyas
Darsteller: Nicolas Cage, Chandler Canterbury, Rose Byrne

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Die Jagd zum magischen Berg

Abenteuer/Science-Fiction/Thriller – USA 2009
Regie: Andy Fickman
Darsteller: Dwayne Johnson, AnnaSophia Robb, Alexander Ludwig

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Die Ludolfs – Der Film: Dankeschön für Italien!

Dokumentation/Komödie – Deutschland 2009
Regie: Matthias Benzing, Tobias Streck, Stefan Vaupel
Darsteller: Peter Ludolf, Manfred Ludolf, Uwe Ludolf

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Bedingungslos

Drama/Thriller – Dänemark 2007
Regie: Ole Bornedal
Darsteller: Anders W. Berthelsen, Rebecka Hemse, Nikolaj Lie Kaas

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Chaostage

Action – Deutschland 2008
Regie: Tarek Ehlail
Darsteller: Ben Becker, Christian Beuter, Stipe Erceg

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So glücklich war ich noch nie

Drama/Lovestory – Deutschland 2009
Regie: Alexander Adolph
Darsteller: Devid Striesow, Nadja Uhl, Jörg Schüttauf

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Bis später, Max!

Drama – Österreich/Deutschland/USA 2007
Regie: Jan Schütte
Darsteller: Otto Tausig, Rhea Perlman, Tovah Feldshuh

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Snow

Drama – Deutschland/Frankreich/Iran/Bosnien-Herzegovina 2008
Regie: Aida Begic
Darsteller: Zana Marjanovic, Jasna Beri, Sadzida Setic

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Kinostarts Hamburg

Hamburgs Kinos und
alle aktuellen Filme
in der Übersicht.

John Rabe nació el 23 de Noviembre de 1882 en Hamburgo (Alemania). Tras estudiar el bachillerato y con sólo 20 años viajó como hombre de negocios a Mozambique, teniendo que regresar con premura a causa de la malaria.
En 1909 viajó a China, casándose allí con su novia alemana.
En 1911 y ya en Shanghai empezó a trabajar en la compañía Siemens, donde alcanzó en 1931 la jefatura de la multinacional alemana en el país asiático.
En 1934, meses después de la llegada de Hitler al poder, se afilió al partido nazi, ya que tras vivir en China durante 30 años, tenía una imagen inocente del nacionalsocialismo alemán, viéndolo como un movimiento humanista de los trabajadores.

Tras recorrer varias ciudades chinas como Shenyang, Pekín, Tientsin y Shanghai, se encontró con la invasión japonesa de 1937 en Nanjing.

Las tropas chinas pronto se apiñaron en el río Yangtsé intentando montar en un barco e huir de las hordas niponas.
La familia de Rabe también marchó junto al resto de extranjeros a sus países de origen, pero John sin embargo desoyó tanto las órdenes de Siemens como de la Embajada alemana y se quedó en la ciudad sustituyendo en el cargo al antiguo jefe nazi.

John Rabe en la oficina de Siemens en Nanjing

El 13 de Diciembre de ese año, las tropas japonesas tomaron la capital, y se desató el conocido holocausto de Nanjing en la cual decenas de miles de mujeres fueron violadas, multitud de niños fallecieron asesinados a golpe de bayoneta, y donde se sucedieron fusilamentos durante seis semanas.

Rabe filmó y escribió en su diario toda la tragedia vivida por aquellos días, y mandó telegramas a Hitler con la esperanza de que aquella matanza fuera detenida gracias a su intervención.
Aunque esto no fue así, en múltiples ocasiones gracias a las credenciales nazis de Rabe se pudo interceder ante los japoneses retrasando algunas ejecuciones y permitiendo a cientos de ciudadanos chinos escapar de una muerte segura.

En la ciudad apenas quedaron un puñado de extranjeros, la mayoría de ellos hombres de negocios, médicos y pastores protestantes americanos.

John Rabe en 1938

Entre 17 hombres decidieron construir una zona de seguridad de apenas 7Km cuadrados, situada en las embajadas extranjeras y en la Universidad de Nanjing.

Rabe además albergó en sus propiedades a unos 650 refugiados, siendo él por su condición de nazi y por tanto aliado de los japoneses, el representante y portavoz de todos ellos ante las autoridades militares niponas.
Gracias a estos esfuerzos se consiguió albergar y salvar de la muerte a unas 250.000 personas.

Entrada al campo de refugiados

E 28 Febrero de 1938 John Rabe regresó a Alemania, allí mostró las evidencias de la masacre de Nanjing e intentó en vano conseguir audiencia con Hitler, escribiéndole en Junio de ese mismo año una carta certificada que nunca llegaría a su destinatario.
Fue entonces detenido por la Gestapo e interrogado durante tres días.
Gracias a la intervención del dueño de Siemens fue puesto en libertad a condición de abstenerse de hablar en público sobre lo sucedido en Nanjing, se le incautó todo el material filmado y fue acusado de boicotear los intereses alemanes en política exterior.

Siemens le dio trabajo en la oficina central de Berlín hasta el fin de la guerra, siendo denunciado entonces por sus socios del Partido y detenido tanto por los rusos como por los británicos, bajo la acusación de haber sido el jefe nazi durante la masacre de Nanjing. Sin embargo, las investigaciones lo exoneraron de cualquier crimen y en 1946 fue declarado oficialmente “desnazificado”.

Murió en Berlín en 1950 a causa de un ataque cerebral. Sus últimos años de vida les pasó en medio de una absoluta pobreza, subsistiendo gracias a la ayuda alimentaria enviada por el gobierno chino, la cual fue suspendida en 1949, momento de la llegada al poder del régimen comunista de Mao.
En 1997 su lápida fue trasladada desde Berlín a Nanjing donde fue depositada en un lugar de honor situado en el Memorial allí levantado.
En 2005 la antigua residencia de Rabe en Nanjing fue renovada y desde el 2006 alberga el “John Rabe and International Safety Zone Memorial Hall”

Sus diarios de guerra están publicados en inglés bajo los títulos “The Good German of Nanjing” (UK), “The Good Man of Nanking” (USA), o el original alemán “Der gute Deutsche von Nanjing”

”¡Un hombre no puede mantenerse en silencio ante tanta crueldad!”. Diario de John Rabe

En estos días se acaba de estrenar una película titulada “John Rabe” basada en sus diarios, abriendo con el recuerdo la posibilidad de viejas tensiones históricas entre Pekín y Tokio, aunque lo ideal sería que el homenaje sirviera para cerrar el debate y curar antiguas heridas.

ab Donnerstag neu im Kino:

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Monsters vs. Aliens

Zeichentrick – USA 2009
Regie: Rob Letterman, Conrad Vernon
Dt. Synchronsprecher: Oliver Kalkofe, Ralph Möller, Diana Amft

Die 3D-Version ist in Hamburg in diesen Kinos zu sehen>>

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Fast & Furious – Neues Modell. Original Teile.

Action – USA 2009
Regie: Justin Lin
Darsteller: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez

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Rachels Hochzeit

Drama/Lovestory – USA 2008
Regie: Jonathan Demme
Darsteller: Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Mather Zickel

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John Rabe

Drama – Deutschland 2009
Regie: Florian Gallenberger
Darsteller: Ulrich Tukur, Daniel Brühl, Steve Buscemi

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Religulous

Dokumentation – USA 2008
Regie: Larry Charles
Darsteller: Bill Maher

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Diese Nacht

Drama – Frankreich/Portugal 2008
Regie: Werner Schroeter
Darsteller: Pascal Greggory, Bruno Todeschini, Amira Casar

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Stellet licht

Drama – Deutschland/Frankreich/Niederlande/Mexiko 2007
Regie: Carlos Reygadas
Darsteller: Cornelio Wall, Maria Pankratz, Miriam Toews

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Kinostarts Hamburg

Hamburgs Kinos und
alle aktuellen Filme
in der Übersicht.

By Lucinda Mae Leong

Iris Chang’s book, “The Rape of Nanking“, is an account of Japan’s occupation of that city in 1937/38 – one of the most sanguinary episodes in history, let alone twentieth century history.

However, while what happened in Nanking brought out what is worst in human nature, it also brought out what is finest, since many foreigners risked their lives resisting the Japanese occupiers, when they could so easily have left the city. Iris Chang was spurred to write “The Rape of Nanking“, since she felt that, in her native USA, almost nothing was known by today’s Americans about what happened in Nanking in 1937/38, and she considered this not a good thing.

In the early 1930s Japan invaded China. While there, the Japanese soldiery, in December 1937 and January 1938, laid siege to and overran Nanking, running amok among its citizenry, pillaging raping looting burning shooting bayoneting decapitating mutilating hanging, and otherwise committing every atrocity of which the human mind can conceive. So many were the corpses piled high and everywhere, that the Japanese knew not what to do with them all.

After six weeks, 350,000 of Nanking’s one million people were dead. This is more than those vaporized by the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined; and more than those incinerated by the firebombing of Dresden.

The slaughter in Nanking was perpetrated by all the Japanese soldiers, whether teen-aged conscripts or seasoned officers, and they did what they did with apparent insouciance, even with enjoyment, as photos of grinning soldiers watching their colleagues cutting off with swords the heads of Chinese captives testify. Groups of soldiers frequently engaged in competitions to see who could bayonet the most people within, say, an hour.

Did these soldiers belong to the same human species over whose nobility our philosophers moralists and poets have waxed lyrical throughout the ages? To answer this, we must look at the life of a boy growing up in pre-war Japan. Starting when he first went to school, his teachers drummed into his head that he must always obey authority; that he must always be unconditionally loyal to the emperor; that he was an instrument of Japan’s destiny to rule all of Asia; and that, of the peoples of Asia, the Japanese were innately the superior.

The boy’s teachers, in order to press home the points they wished to make, would capriciously but regularly slap his face, pound him with fists, bludgeon him with bamboo or wooden swords, make him lift heavy objects, make him stand barefoot in the snow, or make him run round the playground till he dropped.

This prepared the boy for when he entered the army where, this time, it was drill sergeants who slapped his face, beat him with rods, made him march till he dropped, and so on. He was also told that to die for his emperor on the battlefield was the highest honour. If he was sent to China his training would include bayoneting rows of Chinese captives tied to stakes. The Japanese soldier might well have blanched when first ordered to do this, even though told to look upon his victim as no more than a dog or cat. After some weeks he became inured to it.

How quickly the Japanese soldier became a torturer, rapist, and killer, instead of the innocent schoolboy he’d so recently been, is as good an example as any of how thin is our civilised veneer.

If I might digress ever so briefly, Japan, the erstwhile scourge of Asia, the mere utterance of whose name caused the peoples of that region to quake in their boots, is today the most pacifistic of nations, for whom even its sending of 500 soldiers, mostly engineers, to Iraq, evoked passionate protests throughout Japan.

The other side of the coin of the brutality of the Japanese invaders, was the selflessness and bravery showed by so many of the foreign expatriates in Nanking, most of them doctors teachers priests and missionaries, who created the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone, an area of sanctuary for non-combatants caught in the crossfire. The Japanese for the most part, doubtless for reasons of public relations, did not enter this zone in which an estimated 250,000 residents of Nanking found refuge from almost certain death.

The creators of this zone, headed by, ironically, a German card-carrying Nazi, John Rabe, whom Iris Chang called the Oscar Schindler of China, could easily have gone back home but, instead, chose to stay in Nanking at great danger to their lives and health. Indeed, most suffered ill health, both physical and mental, after the war and died early deaths.

The Japanese killed an estimated 19 million Chinese during their 14 year stay in the country. So, in terms of killing, the Rape of Nanking was indeed a mere tip of the iceberg, but a very graphic one.

Despite the scale of this slaughter, many in post-war Japan are quite ignorant of it, since many of their elders deny it ever happened, so ashamed are they. According to Iris Chang, should anyone in today’s Japan point out inconvenient facts about what happened in Nanking, the custodians of official truth will admit to, at most, a few rotten apples having been in the barrel of the Japanese army, and that it’s China  which has largely made up the story of the Rape of Nanking.

And the various post-war US administrations were also not much interested after the war in spreading the truth about Nanking, because they wished not to upset Japan, needed as a bulwark against communist China, which in turn didn’t shout much about Nanking, because, needing trading partners, China wished not to endanger its growing trade with the emerging Japanese economic giant.

Thus we now know a little of why we don’t know much about the Rape of Nanking.

Iris Chang’s maternal grandparents nearly became separated for ever in the chaos that was Nanking when everyone was trying to leave. Her grandfather was already on a train about to depart the city and was frantically looking for his wife who was supposed to meet him at the station, but somehow hadn’t. In desperation, as the train was about to move, he shouted his wife’s name over the babble of the swarming multitude and, amazingly, from far away she heard his voice and shouted back, and he was able to get her on to the train.

Had Iris Chang’s grandfather not had the flash of intuition to shout his wife’s name, he would never have seen her again, conditions in Japanese-invaded, civil war-wracked China being what they were. His wife’s subsequent life would consequently have taken a different fork in life’s road, even supposing she didn’t die in Nanking. Iris Chang would thus never have existed, nor her book, and I would not now be writing about it.

Do you not find it sobering that had a man on a train in a railway station in Nanking seventy years ago not called out the name of his wife, you would not now be reading this?

Two movies that I’m looking forward to, both Sino-other country co-productions.

“The Shinjuku Incident” is a thriller starring Jackie Chan in a non-kungfu/non-Asian-sidekick role.  China/Japan co-production.  The trailer was leaked recently, and it looks good (in Chinese/Japanese):

“John Rabe”, the film about the man dubbed as the “Oskar Schindler of Nanking”, has already won awards in Germany.  A China-Germany co-production.  The star of the film was also in The Lives of Others, another German movie that won major awards two years ago.  Trailer (in German):

Last week, I finished reading Iris Chang’s “The Rape of Nanking“, and it was easily the most disturbing book I’ve read.  We’ve discussed “man’s inhumanity to man” on several occasions, and never was it more glaringly apparent than in the Chinese capital.

The Japanese military leaders were somewhat embarrassed by the 3 months it took to conquer Shanghai, because they believed so strongly in the gross inferiority of their Chinese opponents.  So as they moved inland toward the capital, their anger and bloodlust came in trail.  Retreating Chinese soldiers and refugees entering Nanking told stories of atrocities…entire villages being razed and their inhabitants scattered or slaughtered.  But nothing could have prepared them for what was to come.

When the Battle of Nanking began, I mentioned a change in Chinese leadership, as General Iwame Matsui returned home due to illness.  It was either his successor, Prince Asaka Yasuhiko, or Lt. Col. Isamu Cho (forging Yasuhiko’s name), that ordered all captives of Nanking were to be killed.  Part of their logic was (to them) practical…it would have taken a bundle of resources to feed and govern the people of Nanking.  But more than that, the Japan’s military schools taught soldiers that the Chinese were less than dogs…worthless animals with no stomach to fight and no reason to live.

So when Nanking (largely undefended except by untrained troops) fell on December 13, 1937, General Matsui (who was more moderate, ordering his soldiers not to defile themselves before the world) was not on scene.  And the lack of resistance was an abomination to Japan’s warrior culture of “bushido”, further fueling their hatred.

I don’t know all military history, but based on what I’ve read (and seen on video, because it’s available), the subsequent weeks in Nanking were some of the most excrutiatingly brutal…ever.  Citizens of Nanking were rounded up, the men were executed, the women raped then executed, and the children used as gruesome experimental subjects.  Chinese were buried alive, doused with kerosene and set aflame, buried to their heads and then run over with trucks, and used as live bayonet targets…and that isn’t the worst of it.

German Businessman John Rabe, living in Nanking and no stranger to his own government’s repression elsewhere, was aghast at what he witnessed and sent word to Adolf Hitler that something needed to be done.  General Matsui returned and ordered the killing to stop, but he was essentially shoved aside…Yasuhiko was a Prince.

The Nanking Safety Zone became the lone haven in a city flowing with blood.  Originally set up by missionaries and concerned men like Rabe, it was a war-free area where foreigners could gather and be safe from Japanese attack.  But  it began to fill with Chinese citizens seeking refuge, and the  Safety Zone was soon crowded beyond capacity with several hundred thousand inhabitants.  And then the administrators of the Zone worked to protect the refugees, feed them, heal them, and comfort them…though they were never asked, nor expected, to do so.

The Safety Zone protected thousands and thousands of lives during those horrific weeks, but many others could not be saved.  There is debate over how many were killed in the Rape of Nanking (Some still argue that it never really happened.  But video doesn’t lie and all the witnesses can’t be lying either.).  In her book, Chang brings together numerous tallies and calculates that more than 375,000 Chinese were killed in 6-8 weeks.

The Rape of Nanking was one of the most gruesome events in man’s often-bloody history.  And to think, World War II and all of its horrors was still two years from officially starting.

Recommended Reading:  The Rape of Nanking – Today, I use the word “recommended” loosely.  There is incredible courage and strength detailed in this book, but also unbelievable suffering and awful violence.

Interested in Asia and movies? Do you love being under the stars of a summer night? Thursday nights at the Pacific Asia Museum will introduce you to the familiar, and local and the strange in this summer film series that includes Lilo and Stitch, a 1929 silent movie and anime.

It isn’t free. The cost is $5 for members, $12 for non-members. Or, buy the entire series and save ($25 members/ $65 non-members). Pacific Asia Museum, 46 North Los Robles Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101. Call (626) 449-2742 ext. 31 to register.

July 17, 8 p.m.
Animated Triple Feature!
The Demon, Dojoji Temple, and The Book of the Dead
by Kihachiro Kawamoto
Introduction and discussion by animation critic Charles Solomon

The Demon
(1970, 8 min., Japanese with English subtitles)

Two brothers are setting traps in the mountains when suddenly a demon’s arm reaches out and grabs the younger brother!

The older brother severs the demon’s arm, to take home. When they look at the arm carefully, it somehow resembles their mother’s arm.

Dojoji Temple
(1976, 19 min., Japanese with English subtitles)

An elderly monk and his young acolyte stop at a lodge where the mistress of the house, a young widow, falls in love with the acolyte. When he lies to her, she is literally transformed by rage and relentless in her pursuit of revenge.

The Book of the Dead
(2005, 93 min., Japanese with English subtitles)

In this ravishing film of mystical beauty, master animator Kawamoto tells the story of a young noblewoman in 8th-century Japan who leaves her home to follow the apparition of an executed prince.

July 24, 8pm
Ugetsu Monogatari by Kenji Mizoguchi
Introduction and discussion by American Cinematheque’s Chris D.

(1954, 94 min., Japanese with English subtitles)

In the civil wars of 16th century Japan, two ambitious peasants want to make their fortunes. Their village is sacked by the marauding armies, and they and their wives head for the city. However, Genjuro soon sends his wife back, promising to return, and Tobei abandons his wife. Meanwhile, a wealthy noblewoman, the Lady Wakasa, shows an interest in Genjuro and invites him to her mansion.

August 7, 8 p.m.
Young, Gifted & Samoan
Introduction and discussion by filmmaker Dionne Fonoti

(2008, 23 min.)

While earning her master’s degree in visual anthropology, Fonoti was challenged to create an ethnographic film. Inspired by concepts of cultural identity and place, she explores the lives of Samoan youth, born and raised in San Francisco.

The film is followed by a tour of the exhibition Pacifika: Young Perspectives on Pacific Island Art

August 21, 8 p.m.
Hawaii by George Roy Hill
Introduction and discussion by 89.3 KPCC’s Off-Ramp host John Rabe

(1966, 189 min.)

Abner Hale, a rigid and humorless New England missionary, marries the beautiful Jerusha Bromley and takes her to the exotic island kingdom of Hawaii, intent on converting the natives. But the clash between the two cultures is too great and instead of understanding there comes tragedy.

September 11, 8 p.m.
Hollywood Chinese
Introduction by Director Arthur Dong

(2008, not rated, 90 min.)

‘What’s amazing about Arthur Dong’s ‘Hollywood Chinese,’ a chronicle of Chinese Americans in Hollywood beginning in the silent era and culminating in today’s success stories, is how much fun it is. Loaded with film clips, celebrity interviews and without an ax to grind, it’s a film not just for Chinese Americans but for film lovers in general.’
-C. Allen Johnson, San Francisco Chronicler

September 25, 8 p.m.
Red Heroine
With a Live Concert by Devil Music Ensemble

(1929, 94 min., silent)

Episode six of RED KNIGHT-ERRANT a.k.a. RED HEROINE, the only surviving episode of the 13-part Chinese serial, is one of the few complete and earliest extant silent martial arts films. A band of outlaws raids a village and kidnaps a maiden, causing the death of her grandmother. The captive maiden is rescued by a mysterious Daoist hermit and reemerges three years later as a full-fledged warrior, flying to the sky to revenge her grandmother’s death.

Critically acclaimed Devil Music Ensemble will bring this classic silent film to new life with a live performance of their all-new score.

Devil Music Ensemble is Brendon Wood Jonah Rapino and Tim Nylander.

Since 2002 Devil Music Ensemble (DME) has striven to present new, original, diverse works with performances in Boston, the rest of the U.S., and now the world. Presenting live soundtrack performances to ‘Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde’ on their first European tour, their experimentation with silent film and music has grown to include classics such as ‘Nosferatu,’ ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’ the western ‘Big Stakes’ and now ‘Red Heroine.’ The attempt to pigeonhole Devil Music’s sound has been frustrating audiences and critics since its incarnation, and will continue as such as long as the love of experimentation stays with the group.

Make an evening of it! Come early and visit the galleries. Bring your own picnic and enjoy dinner in the courtyard garden. Or, you can purchase refreshments at the concessions stand.

All galleries open until programs start. All programs begin at 8pm.

Programs are subject to change.

The wind feigned apocalypse, knocking down rows of bikes so if your field of vision was exceedingly narrow it would look like the city had been long abandoned. We needed a good thick layer of that Gobi Desert dust that covers this part of the world every once in a while swirling across to Korea to age everything that’s outside immensely.

I ducked into a courtyard for shelter, grey brick, very neat, only to be accosted for money. “Ticket! Ticket! Ten kuai!” The man wasn’t young and when I nodded my consent he shufflingly beckoned me into the guardhouse. The sign listed the variety of prices one could pay for the privilege of this courtyard (and house, I learned) from Free for retired cadres to 10RMB for me. He tore the end off the ticket himself. It was a pretty, quiet place, very clean. Obviously I’d be hard to lose while the wind pushed through beyond the walls.

This was the restored former residence of John Rabe, the Good German of Nanjing. I liked how in one of the photos that was the title of his diaries or his biography or something, but in all the rest he was the Good Man of Nanjing. And really, he was quite a man. An “unremarkable businessman he turned to heroism” or something similar is how one card put it. There were phtos of his achievements, a case for his medal (the card said it was the medal but the box was closed – I assume it wasn’t actually inside) he received from the Nationalist government for his work saving people in the International Safety Zone during the city’s rape. The house/courtyard that made up this small museum held 600 refugees, some of whom needed personal defending from charges they were de-uniformed soldiers. It was a big Western style house but not 600 people big. There were pictures of him with his Nazi flag (carefully labelled as NDSP or whatever the acronym is) that kept them from being bombed by the Japanese.

He had a rough time after the war getting de-Nazified. The museum stressed he was only a member of the part to get funding for some school or something, he wasn’t a Jew-killer or anything. There was a poem in the airraid shelter about women and kids getting the centre seats while the men should stand around them. The poem called the listener Curly in a sort of affectionate way. I don’t know what the original language of the poem was, Chinese German or English. The English had a singsongy rhyme to it so maybe that was an international concession. Is Curly a Chinese nickname?

The second floor held a shrine to Siemens (the company Rabe had worked for) and all their fine products. A strange ghostly blown up picture of Mao and his buddies from 1950 when China and Germany began official relations sat on one wall. That room had no mention of the countries being enemies in WWI (or WWII). They’ve always been One World One Dream.

I ate well yesterday. Sweet meat sacks for lunch at the place where the employees (almost) all wear their green smocks. I sat in a row of people and gobbled them down quickly, dropping only one or two into my sauce bowl. Old ladies sat to my left and then a business man with a plate of rice and vegetables. They asked how much his food cost and seemed impressed with his six kuai answer.

Out in the lane just to the north as I’d approached the restaurant were four women with identical twin baskets on shoulder poles sitting on the ground (the baskets not the women – there was a guy in Chengdu wearing an excellent fedora who sat on the wheel well on the bus without any newspaper to keep the dirt off his ass. He was part of what seemed a family group. They all carried shopping bags filled with yoghurt). The baskets were filled with mangoes. When I left 20 minutes later they were gone and only a cop car remained.

I saw more mango ladies scattered through Xin Jie Kou in the evening when we went to satisfy Holly’s dream of eating Papa John’s pizza. Some of them were on the steps leading to the underground. We’d left the apartment early after an afternoon of sitting and talking about our various cousins. Holly was wrapped in blankets after a nap but still feeling a little sick. I perched in a huddle on a chair, as is my wont. We killed some time up in the Suning looking at the cutest computer in the world plus some Apple products. The MacBook they had was running Windows XP. Oh China.

Pizza was good though low on sauce compared to my preferences. I felt bad finishing it but Holly said her dream had a lot more to do with the first bite than the last piece. She felt the employees had a good working relationship compared to many restaurants she’d seen.

And then it was off to Zhi Mian where Myrrl’s friend was giving a talk that ended up lasting two and a half hours. He discussed psychology and family run businesses I think. Hong Tao did the translating and everyone asked good questions. I guess. I hung around outside that jam-packed room with James talking cameras cats and comedy. Holly said she could hear us laughing sometimes. James is a pretty cool guy. He wants to be doing work at Chuan Da in comparative literature dealing with Sichuanhua writers and those of the American south, talking about languages of exclusion instead of just local colour. But. Chuan Da doesn’t have anyone who knows American Southern literature. So new plans are being formulated. And as always he asked what I might be doing. I did tell him about maybe going to Japan, and my theory that I’ve got a good number of characters for learning and not too many to freeze out the Japanese sounds etcetera. He didn’t laugh in my face at my naivete, so that’s a plus.

I was telling Holly my fear that going to Japan to teach in a place I’d have to shave and wear a suit and possibly even a tie might be giving up the freedom of my expectationless life in Winnipeg at the library. That somehow not wearing whatever I feel like would compromise me deeply. She doesn’t think I should worry about that. But wouldn’t she say the same thing if I were saying I was getting a PR job for some company in Canada? I hate how I feel like everyone is always lying to me, telling me only what I want to hear. This is why, I think, I hate telling anyone what I want. As soon as you make that known there’s no way you can possibly achieve/acquire it. To go back to an overused and misunderstood analogy, the cat’s both alive and dead until you check. Until you say something and let everything sort itself out into truths and lies.

I learned yesterday that Xiao Meng’s brother was really expecting me and her to hook up the other evening. He bought fancy 15RMB cigarettes because of it, which his sister made fun of him for. When Holly first got here she and Zhao Xing weren’t together and her other roommate tried to fix Holly up with a cousin in Beijing who “makes lots of money and speaks really good English.” Holly had to explain how things didn’t work like that.