I'm watching Lu Chuan's City Of Life And Death, a film on The Rape Of Nanking. I found the whole thing online, but be warned - this ain't your normal war movie:
"The International Military Tribunal for the Far East estimated that 20,000 women were raped, including infants and the elderly. A large portion of these rapes were systematized in a process where soldiers would search door-to-door for young girls, with many women taken captive and gang raped. The women were often killed immediately after being raped, often through explicit mutilation or by stabbing a bayonet, long stick of bamboo, or other objects into the vagina. Young children were not exempt from these atrocities, and were cut open to allow Japanese soldiers to rape them."
How wild is this one? There's a Nazi in it and I even feel sorry for him.
History's fucked up.
I watch a lot of war movies now. I can identify their motivations easier than in the rest. (The Rape Of Nanking - Get it?) I guess, growing up in South Central, Los Angeles and seeing all manner of violence and death before I left elementary school, and then all the malignant NewAge nonsense as an adult (the part I've had no preparation for) this shouldn't come as a surprise. But it does.
History's fucked up.
I watch a lot of war movies now. I can identify their motivations easier than in the rest. (The Rape Of Nanking - Get it?) I guess, growing up in South Central, Los Angeles and seeing all manner of violence and death before I left elementary school, and then all the malignant NewAge nonsense as an adult (the part I've had no preparation for) this shouldn't come as a surprise. But it does.
Until now, I never looked on Saving Private Ryan as a comfort, y'know?
I wish there was a way to make it stop but there ain't. People are going to do the terrible things that lead to war and further atrocities - in peacetime. "They were bored, angry, frustrated, tired." I get it:
That dance - of declaring ourselves rational as we go insane - it trips us up every time,...
Cool find; have to watch it.
ReplyDeleteI've done some hobby study on Nanking (the Pacific War in general -- it was my dad and uncle's war, and gets neglected so often in favor of Europe).
It wasn't just boredom, frustration, and tiredness that cause those troops to run amuck -- it was an encouraged, sanctioned thing; an excercise in terror occupation, a member of the imperial family was a key person in the event (who got off after the war because he was), and helped in part by the Japanese version of New Age loopiness (see your clip on Buddhism below) of which the Emperor was a key adherent -- and the only thing usually forgotten is: the Japanese version worked better than the German version on the individual men -- the only reason they didn't have a bigger bodycount is due to the men getting tired and their methods frustrated them from achieving it.
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1978506?uid=3739656&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21101912605421
Bergamini's work has been discounted, and I'm a bit certain his own bias was the reason: but he did bring up some very interesting bits...and maybe in the end he wasn't all wrong:
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1859623?uid=3739656&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21101912605421
PW
Ahh, yes, Buddhism. I'm so glad it's making the rounds, here, and gradually turning us into those same little brain-dead monsters.
ReplyDelete"Life is about suffering."
And they'll do everything in their power to deliver,...
Well, from what I've witnessed life does indeed involve quite a bit of suffering...but I don't have to be all zen about it ;)
ReplyDeleteThank goodness my daddy spent 3 1/2 years on/in godforsaken atolls and stinking jungles(where he got some rather got some rather firsthand experience of the type of "oneness" the Japanese were spreading back then), which caused him to spend the next 63 years questioning his own humanity from the bottom of a fifth -- his suffering warned me off of goofy, brainfucking oriental mysticism.
And thank goodness his PTSD caused him to marry late, so I had the great fortune of not being born with those damn Boomers -- who have gone in for goofy, brainfucking oriental mysticism (and behaving like good little nazis about it).
PW