Chinese filmmaker shines spotlight on Japan's wartime sexual violence

What a contrast ! The way Chinese and Japanese women were treated when they both needed help.

Never return back to the dark side, never, never.

This movie opened in Tokyo and in other places in Japan.

So much for those who continue to claim that 'all' Japanese only want to white wash and ignore their history.

By contrast, when will we see new documentaries and movies highlighting the terrible things the Chinese government and military did, open throughout China, by comparison.

Japan of course is guilty of this. but so are every other country involved in wars. Women are free game as you can discover in any meaningful research. The Americans did it. The Russians did it. The Germans did it. The Japanese did it. The Serbs did it.

Folks, get a life! War is war... everybody does the worst thinkable things when it happens. That is why it is called war. Nobody goes complaining or criticizing Germany now... Americans too did their share. So what? Go on with it, get a life.

Nobody goes complaining or criticizing Germany now... 

Simple.....Germany admitted fault and took responsibility. They have tried to correct all of their wrongs. That is why Merkel is currently the "Leader of the Free World".

Japan nor the US has attempting to right their wrongs. They will barely or rarely admit any wrongdoing, so the issues keep coming up over and over again. Their attitudes are just get over it, but hypocritically, they want to remember every bad thing that has happened to them. The attempts to "whitewash" their histories by the conservative movements just makes things worse.

The current US president is the physical embodiment of both countries attitudes. Bully or whine, Bully or whine!

The point is to prevent it from happening ever again. We cannot consciously correct a problem until we first acknowledge it. Yes, it’s true that war is insane and commanding people to commit atrocities naturally puts horrific stress on their psyches, leading them sometimes to crack and look for means of relief in tragic ways. That doesn’t mean that the chain of command should sanction and organize mass sexual violence and other horrific human rights violations as a means of “servicing” or rewarding their soldiers or as a means of spreading terror — or DNA. There’s a reason we make rules and laws and a reason that many are effective in reducing crimes and modifying behaviors. Don’t just throw up your hands because your uncomfortable or tired of hearing about a problem when you can demonstrate your love and compassion for your fellow human beings.

Too bad this chinese filmmaker doesn't have the guts to highlight the torture and sexual violence by the PLA against Tibetian nuns, Fulongong girls & women and Urgur girls & women. Not to mention the South Korean girls & women during the Korean war. And their own chinese women prisoners.

@ Pelham

The point is to prevent it from happening ever again. We cannot consciously correct a problem until we first acknowledge it. Yes, it’s true that war is insane and commanding people to commit atrocities naturally puts horrific stress on their psyches, leading them sometimes to crack and look for means of relief in tragic ways. That doesn’t mean that the chain of command should sanction and organize mass sexual violence and other horrific human rights violations as a means of “servicing” or rewarding their soldiers or as a means of spreading terror — or DNA. There’s a reason we make rules and laws and a reason that many are effective in reducing crimes and modifying behaviors. Don’t just throw up your hands because your uncomfortable or tired of hearing about a problem when you can demonstrate your love and compassion for your fellow human beings.

Not all of us have the ability to learn and correct. If EVIL is wired in our DNA , that will always be our default setting. Laws and rules have limitations some of which are inherently human. On the other hand, good MORALS trump laws anytime. With good morals laws are redundant.

Silvasan is absolutely right. I would like to put Abe san here next to Trump.

Under Abe things went from bad to worse, funding extremist schools trying to whitewash history books and all his grandfather was responsible for being the A-class war criminal he was.

Movies like this are needed to keep the balance and give Japanese youth a chance to learn what really happened.

Wesley, did PLA do that to Japanese women ? Obviously you can't answer that but the article said it all.

Under Abe things went from bad to worse, funding extremist schools trying to whitewash history books and all his grandfather was responsible for being the A-class war criminal he was.

Kishi Nobusuke was arrested but never indicted let alone tried or convicted. "Class A" war criminals were judged in terms of political crimes, not atrocities.

Schools don't whitewash history textbooks. These are produced by larger publishers. The texts are written by the people they hire.

Simple.....Germany admitted fault and took responsibility. They have tried to correct all of their wrongs. 

There were two Germanies. East Germany admitted no fault and took no responsibility. West Germany accepted responsibility "for what the Nazis did" but paid no compensation to the countries it invaded.

Just a few days ago, this was news.

Germany has recognized its moral responsibility for Nazi wartime atrocities in Poland. But Foreign Minister Heiko Maas ruled out financial reparations.

https://www.dw.com/en/germany-expresses-deep-shame-for-nazi-destruction-of-poland/a-49838740

Japanese have to remember that what they had done during ww2 had been criminal & will not be forgiven.

even in modern times like now, some bad Japanese still abuse other nationalities.

war is hell

@Henny Penny

Really?

About Kishi:

The only reason he was not hanged was that the US thought he was at use to them. ( please take a minute to read below)

Known for his brutal rule of the Japanese puppet state Manchukuo in Northeast China, Kishi was called Shōwa no yōkai (昭和の妖怪; "Devil of Shōwa").[2] After World War II, Kishi was imprisoned for three years as a Class A war crime suspect. However, the U.S. government released him as they considered Kishi to be the best man to lead a post-war Japan in a pro-American direction.

About my reference to schools.

Yes ! the Osaka school the Abe family supported is ultra right wing oriented and in denial of historical facts.

Lastly East Germany was under Soviet control as we all know.

I believe you did very well understand my point. Didn't you?

Over the years there have been many movies made, and books written (outside of Japan) regarding this kind of behaviour by the Japanese Imperial Army before and during WW2.

It has taken Japans bureaucratic leaders (Japan is run by bureaucrats at Kasumigaseki) a long time to work out that with modern communications, it cannot be supressed so easily anymore.

Didn’t Chairman Mao have a 15 year old at every single stop he made for the night? When’s that documentary coming out?

War is about killing, enslaving, rape and pillage and wanton destruction. It is the worst state of humanity as everyone is damaged, hurt, killed or at loss in some way shape or form. It is to be avoided if at all possible.

By remembering and discussing past wars we both remember the horror of it and assist in avoiding it again in the future. Those who forget wars, hide the facts, fail to discuss openly and honestly will eventually be doomed to repeat it. It is not about pointing fingers or lording one people above another. It is about honest discourse and disclosure to help the future be better than the past, and for all people to live in safety and harmony.

We are caught in which country did this or that. Japan isn’t the only one. Try not to see it from a nationality but a humanity point of view.

Let them tell their stories. All victims, Germany women, Korean Women, etc should all be able to tell their stories. Don’t cover it up.

Imperial Japan was particularly cruel to those it conquered, but this is generally not recognized among the citizenry of Japan, who seem incapable of comprehending what was done in the name of Empire. In the West and Russia, we pretty much know what happened, and aren't too concerned over whether the Japanese admit what they did, or not. In China and South Korea, however, who had to rely on others to throw out the conquerors, It is important that Japanese admit what they did. This is one of those cultural things that I personally will probably never understand; like the deep-seated racism in much of our country, it just is.

@Henny Penny

There were two Germanies. East Germany admitted no fault and took no responsibility. West Germany accepted responsibility "for what the Nazis did" but paid no compensation to the countries it invaded.

LOL! Please do some reading!

During World War II, Nazi Germany extracted payments from occupied countries and compelled loans. In addition, countries were obliged to provide resources, and forced labour.

After World War II, according to the Potsdam conference held between July 17 and August 2, 1945, Germany was to pay the Allies US$23 billion mainly in machinery and manufacturing plants. Reparations to the Soviet Union stopped in 1953. Large numbers of factories were dismantled or destroyed.[citation needed] Dismantling in the west stopped in 1950.

Beginning before the German surrender and continuing for the next two years, the United States pursued a vigorous program of harvesting all technological and scientific know-how as well as all patents and many leading scientists in Germany (known as Operation Paperclip). Historian John Gimbel, in his book Science Technology and Reparations: Exploitation and Plunder in Postwar Germany, states that the "intellectual reparations" taken by the U.S. and the UK amounted to close to $10 billion.[8] German reparations were partly to be in the form of forced labor. By 1947, approximately 4,000,000 German POWs and civilians were used as forced labor (under various headings, such as "reparations labor" or "enforced labor") in the Soviet Union, France, the UK, Belgium and in Germany in U.S run "Military Labor Service Units".

Probably not real. Communists never tell or accept the truth. Mr director should make movie about the Muslim population in china being forced into reeducation camps. That's real.

Yes. What the Japanese committed were atrocities. It was on another level. But to the Japanese, they were their grandparents and great grandparents. They just can't bear to think that their family committed these crimes against humanity and that are their descendants. So they just keep on denying. It's their coping mechanism.

LB315

That's true. I also think the Japanese education system and media relentlessly portray the Japanese as the world's kindest, most considerate and naive people on Earth (compared to cold, hard foreigners), and thus they can't reconcile that indoctrination with reports on those events that actually happened.

"Ban Zhongyi, a Chinese-born director living in Hiroshima,"

It is nice living in a democratic and free country is not Mr. Ban?

People have long ceased giving Germany a hard time about WWII and it's about time China and South Korea ceased their bigotry against Japan about a war that ended 74 years ago.

Maybe this Chinese director - "Ban Zhongyi, a Chinese-born director living in Hiroshima" - should be grateful for living in a free, democratic country that allows freedom of speech and complete access to the internet? Maybe he should turn his attention to the Tiananmen Square Massacre?

Can't wait to watch! Not. Let's make another film on every atrocity committed by the Chinese against themselves too.

Communists never tell or accept the truth.

Depends on what you mean by "communist", I suppose. My ex-landlady was a communist and was known for being brutally truthful. I worked with one or two communists over the years and they were normal, honest, decent people. Mere anecdotage, I realise.

Mr director should make movie about the Muslim population in china being forced into reeducation camps. That's real.

Yes, that is real and horrific and the world just stands by. But China is a totalitarian regime which uses its own form of market socialism. It's communist in name only.

Is there a European Equivalent to this film ?

(Or dare I ask, Jewish one ?)

Post WW2 atrocities appear to receive lesser attention - particularly within the African Countries. Why ?