japanese devils
the film' s success in berlin sparked an interest from the japanese media and a tiny theater in tokyo ran the film, japanese devils, last december .
some japanese critics have hailed japanese devils as among the best films of 2001. the documentary was also shown in canada, netherlands, the united states and hong kong .
until now, that is .
japanese devils ,
a japanese documentary by filmmaker minoru matsui, interviews 14 japanese soldiers about their crimes in china from the beginning of the invasion - - 1931' s manchurian incident - - to the end of the war in 1945 .
partly as a result - and also because japanese devils is about as un - commercial as a film can get - few japanese will get a chance to see this documentary, which is only scheduled for screening at one theatre in tokyo in december .
china’s war dramas about the second sino - japanese war (1937 - 1945) are much discussed online topics this month since china’s official censorship bureau spoke out against those war shows that are “overly entertaining”. “japanese devils” die a 1000 times a year .
japanese devils
opened in tokyo in december. as the film illustrates in a prologue, many japanese find the war crimes issue shameful and feel it should not be discussed. those who do bring the subject up are accused of traitorous behavior .
japanese devils features 14 ex - servicemen whose backgrounds vary from farming to medicine, whose military ranks range from privates to lieutenants, and whose atrocious deeds extend from rape and torture to bacteriological experiment and vivisection .
ar: his second movie
devils on the doorstep ,
a vivid depiction of the japanese occupation of chinese villages during world war ii, won the grand prix at cannes but was banned in china .
perhaps the most hopeful image of japanese devils is one of the ex - soldiers at a
war exhibition for peace
conducting a q & a to a crowd, many of them teenagers and women, patiently answering their questions .
i thought the story was very interesting because i didn' t even realize that non - japanese people had served in the imperial japanese army .
5: this term is a pejorative term used for a japanese imperial soldier .
devils on the doorstep by chris dashiell the tragedy of war is a familiar subject for art - a never - ending one, it would seem. sometimes, though, the sheer stupidity of war is a more potent topic. that' s the approach director jiang wen has taken in devils on the doorstep, a savage satire that spares no one, least of all the audience .
they' ve been taught somehow that only the japanese have been so consistently inhumane .
the asia society spoke with matsui minoru and one of the producers of the film, oguri ken' ichi, before their san francisco screening. translation was conducted by linda hoaglund. for more information or to purchase the video for educational institutions, go to the japanese devils website .
this is one of many disturbing questions raised by the award - winning documentary japanese devils, which had its first showing in japan yesterday. the film is a sledgehammer that aims to smash through a surface of public and private denial about the atrocities carried out by imperial army troops .
the war crimes committed by the japanese in asia have been extremely controversial both inside and outside japan. for instance, the debate about the accuracy of japanese history textbooks has angered korea and china for years. do you hope your film can be played at japanese schools ?
the japanese version of this was to pump your stomach full of water til it burst .
japanese devils is a documentary featuring 14 veterans of the imperial army testifying to their brutal participation in japan' s 15 - year war against china. director matsui minoru presents a powerful historical record of these soldiers' individual crimes, helping to break japan' s long silence about its wartime atrocities in china .
“you can play whatever you like, as long as you don’t play a japanese person. ”
last week, cdt chinese published the text of a decision by the state administration on radio, film and television about the 2000 movie, devils on the doorstep. the movie, directed by jiang wen, depicts the relationship between chinese villagers and a japanese prisoner during the japanese invasion of china during world war ii. the movie was nominated for the golden palm at the cannes film festival but was banned in china .
i was captured again by the japanese near sanhe village, and sent to work at a japanese - occupied silk factory near nowadays’ nanjing medicine factory. it was at this time that i witnessed more japanese atrocities first - hand. one time, after i finished transporting ten barrels of gasoline to the japanese military depot near the train station, japanese soldiers brought me to a basement. aside from large wooden boxes, the basement also contained a bed. the two japanese soldiers ripped off the bedsheet covers and indiscriminately opened fire upon it. on the bed lay four women, all dead .
there' s a huge difference between' official apologies' made by japanese political figureheads and the way the german nation collectively acknowledges their wrongdoings in wwii. one japanese politician might make a genuine apology in attempt to reach out to those who were impacted by japanese imperial policy, then another might go on to say that all japanese wrongdoings are chinese fabrications - - none of this matters. politicians' words don' t represent what the average japanese feels about the topic. try talking to a german and a japanese about what went on during this time period and you' ll notice the difference .
our japanese foreign exchange student came home in tears over the
lies
being told at school .
notorious scene from ‘anti - japanese divine drama’ ‘the wondrous knight of the war of resistance against japan’ .
ar: the last film you directed ,
devils on the doorstep ,
won the grand prix at cannes in 2000, which is that particular event' s second - biggest prize. what was your inspiration for telling that particular story ?
you act like the japanese didn' t also kill and chop off the heads of many us soldiers .
japanese devils
is a literal translation of the film' s original title
riben guizi .
riben guizi
was a phrase used by the chinese in the' 30s and' 40s expressing hatred of foreign oppressors. for many japanese, this phrase and the facts about japan' s war against china are unfamiliar. japan' s war against china is often downplayed in comparison to the historical significance of the pacific war, pearl harbor, and hiroshima .
but due to race, it' s harder for white american teens to detached that information towards the japanese .
matsui' s effort was praised by large festival audiences who saw for themselves the courage of the film' s japanese veterans who gave appalling accounts of the atrocities they personally committed during the 15 years of sino - japanese war .
japanese devils may be the first time that those who committed war crimes have so freely described what they did - i don' t recall seeing any such documentary on nazi war criminals, for example. these men are doing this because they now realize they were wrong, and they do not want anyone to forget it happened, so that hopefully it will not happen again .
what was so scary about the japanese at the time was how celebrated and spontaneous it seemed. like this story .
ar: jiang had not run this black - and - white film past the censors in china, and he was reportedly told to stay clear from the director' s chair for the next seven years .
devils on the doorstep
is yet to be officially released .
i understand your anger towards the japanese, but your comments seem to generalize all japanese. the glorification of
war heroes
and apologizing for their war crimes is still an issue in japan. those people that are against the japanese war crimes are bashed by their own countrymen and also became victims of hate crimes. it is even shown in the documentary .
now the japanese devils, they wouldn’t let a single woman off the hook, right. after my mother gave birth, she put the bloodied paper on the floor. when they came they’d want to see it, and after they saw it, they knew she’d had a baby, they didn’t want her and they’d leave. this harassment went on everyday, there was nothing we could do. 7
the power of
japanese devils
- - a literal translation of the original title
riben guizi ,
a mandarin - language insult coined by chinese in the 1930s and' 40s - - lies in the calm delivery of its subjects. matsui wanted to create a historical record about events that have not been elsewhere documented in the japanese language. although the men who came forward for interviews all regretted their wartime acts, matsui asked them to hold back on their emotions and relate their activities in a clear, accurate manner .
the eighth route army park performances are different from the ‘divine drama’, say the actors. in the theme park, they imitate the reality as much as possible. the ‘japanese devils’ wear the right yellow uniforms, caps, white gloves and boots. the actors use fake blood and cap guns that create a loud sound and a puff of smoke when the trigger is pulled – everything to make the scenes look real .
as a malaysian chinese, our grandparents constantly remind us of the occupation. anti - japanese sentiment still rather high in these parts
i will never forget the violence, the atrocities and the aggression that the imperial japanese soldiers enacted during the nanjing massacre. 4
the issue first emerged from a series of wartime japanese - language newspaper articles, which celebrated the
heroic
killing of chinese by two japanese officers, who were engaged in a competition to see who could kill the most first. [ 3 ] the issue was revived in the 1970s and sparked a larger controversy over japanese war crimes in china, and in particular the nanking massacre .
interviews yang lei, a 27 - year - old actor that has been playing a japanese soldier (“a japanese devil”) for over four years in the eighth route army park. during the weekends or holidays, the park has hundreds of visitors who come to watch the performance. when it is very busy, yang has to ‘die’ up to four times a day. “in the past few years, i have died over a 6000 times in total, ” he says. the plays take about twenty minutes per show, and are focused on the events of 1943, the year that the chinese eighth route army fought against japanese troops in wuxiang. one of the shows is about a small village in anning that is invaded and occupied by japanese troops. when a chinese spy steals secret information from their camp, the whole village is held for questioning. a chinese underground party member sacrifices his life to protect the spy’s identity. just when the japanese general orders to have the entire village killed, china’s eighth route army storms in and wipes out all the ‘japanese devils’ .
features the terrible story behind wwii
unit 731
, a japanese military base located in the puppet state of manchuria, china .
but that' s only a warm - up. one army doctor experimented with biological weapons such as concentrated cholera, anthrax, and the plague on living chinese subjects. sometimes he performed vivisections; another doctor claimed soldiers would shoot chinese prisoners and then force the doctors to try and save the victims as a form of training. the united states war crimes commission actually exonerated the doctors who spoke in japanese devils - in exchange for their research data .
don' t forget the japanese secret lab where they did experiments like cutting off all your limbs and leaving your body to experiment on .
in response to the recent critique on china’s ‘anti - japanese divine drama’, various chinese media have reported on another type of war drama: the life - like war play. in wuxiang, shanxi province, there is a theme park dedicated to the second sino - japanese war (
the actors greatly disapprove of ‘divine drama’. instead of distorting history, they claim to provide an accurate representation of the second sino - japanese war .
stay up to date with the latest and best in japanese cinema. be the first to hear about our new reviews, exclusive interviews and features .
at that time, my cousin was only eighteen - years - old. he was taken away by the japanese troops and never returned. i personally watched as the japanese troops massacred many people. we had a neighbor, elderly ms. zhen, who was about eighty - years - old. she thought that because she was old, she could remain at home and be fine. in actuality, she was brutally murdered by the japanese, with her stomach slashed open. there was also a tea specialist, who couldn’t bear leaving his home. he was also murdered by the japanese. 3
that was nothing but opinion. why would the behavior of the japanese toward their neighbors make students racist against asians in general or the japanese in particular? it' d be as easy as saying ,
and don' t forget about the atrocities committed by white people during this time period
.
details of japanese world war ii atrocities are known all over asia. except, that is, in the place it matters most - - japan itself .
i' m a little confused. none of these guys were speaking chinese. that is clearly japanese. i' m partially fluent in both mandarin and cantonese. are you saying that these guys were japanese pows from chinese prisons or chinese guys from japanese prisons? if they were chinese, then why are they all speaking japanese? edit: according to my father - in - law, a native of nanjing, he lost seven of his brothers and sisters; the youngest was pistol whipped to death in her mothers arms. his brother vividly and through a great deal of obvious pain recounted to me how his father was poisoned to death in front of him as part of a
joke
by japanese soldiers. edit 2: clearly japanese men. you are saying that because they were pow' s that there is some claim that they have been brainwashed to falsely admit to war crimes. that seems like a bit of a stretch .
throughout its three - month run, the theater was packed every day with young japanese who knew little about what their grandparents' generation did during the war .
because high school students. you can say this kind of stuff to those kids and some of them will come out with a tainted view on japanese people .
starving japanese soldiers stranded on the various pacific islands would resort to cannibalism and referred to pows as
white pork
and natives as
black pork
.
the average american likes jews way more than the chinese too, so that has a lot to do with the willingness to give gloss over the japanese actions .
he has played a japanese ‘devil soldier’ for years, and is still afraid to tell his grandfather, who served in the chinese army (sina 2015) .
curious about china’s “anti - japanese divine drama”? the video below is a compilation from the wondrous knight of the war of resistance against japan (抗日奇侠) .
3: zhu chengshan, ed. , japanese invaders in nanjing massacre survivor t estimon y (beijing: social sciences academic press, 2005), 469 .
you can see how the japanese seem to be fine with having issei sagawa not in prison or a mental hospital. he seems small - fry by comparison. urltoken
if they seem emotionally unaffected it' s because they' re old japanese dudes and keeping a straight face is their culture' s way of dealing with it .
it is something the nation - which has not had an official military since world war ii - still struggles with today, and especially today. recently, japan' s wartime activities have stirred fresh controversy because official history books taught in schools do not mention the atrocities. also, visits by japanese prime minister junichiro koizumi to yasukuni shrine, where the memorial tablets of many japanese soldiers are mourned, went so far as to strain diplomatic relations between japan and korea, a victim of japanese aggression .
it' s just not talked about. likely because the us made an agreement with the imperial japanese scientists (namely shiro ishii) for access to the research data .
there' s still a high level of distrust among older chinese people towards the japanese. it' s hard to understand how war can make monsters of regular men .
lam, oiwan. 2013. “china’s anti - japanese tv war dramas knocked for vulgarity. ” global voices, april 2014 urltoken [ 15. 4. 15 ] .
the 14 were among that number. nowadays, they want to tell of their activities so that japanese youngsters will know the truth about what took place during the war .
japanese devils, then, is a movie the japanese people desperately need. director minoru matsui lets his video camera roll on the frank recollections of 14 men, all in their 80s, who were japanese soldiers during that time, and who committed atrocities. they detail with shocking frankness what they witnessed - and what they did. the film opens in front of the yasukuni shrine, where two sets of protesters square off: a group of mostly young people, who shout ,
stop praising our deceased soldiers as war heroes !
and an older group of veterans and other citizens who honor
those who had to die
. then, separated by a thumbnail sketch of japan' s military excursions from 1931 - 45, come the interviews. one by one, the 14 men, looking kindly, sitting politely as if engaged in simple conversation at a coffee shop, detail their experiences .
the contest to kill 100 people using a sword (百人斬り競争 hyakunin - giri kyōsō ?) is a wartime account of a contest between two japanese army officers during the japanese invasion of china over who could first kill 100 people with a sword. the two officers were later executed on war crimes charges for their involvement. [ 1 ] since that time, the historicity of the event has been hotly contested, often by japanese nationalists or revisionist historians seeking to invalidate the historiography of the nanking massacre. [ 2 ]
the most important part of the verdict relates to the portrayal of chinese villagers and japanese soldiers against the background of the second world war, or, using the chinese term, the war to resist japan. throughout, sarft takes the film to task for incorrect depictions of the nature of the chinese people. an old grandfather should not be shown as being sympathetic to a young chinese soldier, it is deemed incorrect that the villagers care for the japanese soldier and the chinese traitor (汉奸 hanjian), or that they indicate that they haven’t really suffered under the occupation. when the japanese soldier imagines being attacked by the villagers, he imagines them as samurai. however, sarft feels that what he should feel most are “the armies resisting japan, such as the eighth route army or guerrilla forces”. imagining villagers as samurai “uglifies the chinese people”. in short, in this film, the “common chinese people” do not show sufficient hatred towards the japanese, do not sufficiently differentiate between foe and friend, and display ignorance and apathy. at the same time, according to sarft, the film does not correctly display the cruelty of the japanese army but, amongst others, shows a japanese soldier giving sweets to children. also, “japanese army songs are played often, putting a spin on the japanese imperialists flaunting their strength, which may gravely hurt the feelings of the chinese people. ”
i studied infectious diseases and it shocks me that events like nanking massacre and unit 731 happened. yet there are those in the japanese government who will not acknowledge these events, claim they never happened, and that they are the victims because those are mere fabrications of chinese propaganda. a japanese - born reporter for the the bbc even wrote an article on what japanese education leaves out. so new generations think that chinese people don' t like japan for no reason at all. this vicious cycle needs to be broken by education .
japanese troops round up chinese and russian prisoners of war and take them to a place called squadron 731, where they are grotesquely tortured and experimented on to test new biological weapons .
a documentary recording the testimony of fourteen former japanese soldiers as they recount atrocities and war crimes committed during the second world war, including the infamous unit 731... see more »
in the war' s closing days, when a conscience - driven japanese soldier fails to get his countrymen to surrender to overwhelming force, he adopts the lifestyle of a buddhist monk .
others say peer pressure was a factor. the war veterans, who would often beat and humiliate new japanese army recruits, called them cowardly if they did not participate in the crimes .
there' s a lot of history and a lot of shitty things - this thread is about the japanese. i really do not understand what your point is - it seems to be
ok the japanese were cruel and so were others in wars
- and my thought is
yeah, so
? it' s not a revelation nor does it add anything .
a documentary recording the testimony of fourteen former japanese soldiers as they recount atrocities and war crimes committed during the second world war, including the infamous unit 731... see full summary »
the japanese have a shame culture where it' s more important to keep up a public appearance of having apologised than the deeper intention or meaning behind it. this is known as tatemae and honne. they want to fool the world with their public facade (tatemae) but they are hoping that their true intentions (honne) doesn' t get found out or that we' accept' their facade out of politeness (this' polite accepting' is a common feature of japanese society). of course we aren' t as oblivious to this as the japanese think we are .
when the japanese entered the city on the december of 1937, many retreating chinese nationalist troops attempted to cross the river to escape, with some even coming to my house to board. when the sky was getting dark, my entire family took refuge at the nearby [ hutchinson international ]. 2 en route, we saw japanese warships rake down crossing chinese troops with indiscriminate machine gun fire .
the film describes how many of the japanese pows who returned to japan from china were perceived as being brainwashed by communists and were then shunned from society. did any of these 14 witnesses experience this ?
chinese video platform youku released shanghai women’s manual (or women in shanghai) last may, following the series beijing women manual; both series are adapted from 2016 popular japanese drama series tokyo joshi zukan .
the satos made their decision without help. the father, who runs a snack restaurant, said he picked the name to show he wants his son, whatever he became in the future, to
stand at the top .
he also wanted his son to have a name different from other boys and was sure that
there will be only one japanese with this name ,
he told japanese reporters .
it is not easy playing a japanese devil. throughout the years as a japanese officer, yang lei has gone through four military uniforms, fifteen pairs of boots and hundred pairs of socks. some of his colleagues are afraid to talk about their job. “i don’t know how to tell my friends and family about my role as a devil, ” liu chuan says. his grandfather used to be in the chinese army, and he might not be too happy about his grandson playing a japanese soldier. the fear of telling relatives is not unreasonable, according to the article, as it has happened before that actors were removed from the theme park by their parents. “you can play whatever you like, ” said the parents of one 19 - year - old actor: “as long as you don’t play a japanese person. ”
nationalism, of course, was the greatest spur. these onetime fanatical japanese nationalists showed no qualms about murdering and raping if they thought it would further the cause of japan and increase the glory of the emperor .
from these confessions, it is clear that the violence that occurred during the war was exceptionally brutal. one soldier, for instance, recounts that a chinese woman was eaten by japanese troops. similarly, the elaborate medical experiments that were carried out really emphasized that the chinese were not perceived as humans by the imperial army. do you think there was anything distinctive about japanese military training that could allow the violence to escalate like this ?
looking forward to seeing this. i know from other interviews i' ve seen with former japanese soldiers who were in china that these guys have basically no remorse. most of them were never even punished. sad .
headquarters encouraged the atrocities with their various campaigns. aside from strict disposal, there was the' three alls policy' (
kill all, burn all, loot all
) and, when the u. s. began winning the war in 1942, the' compulsory seizure campaign', in which the japanese army kidnapped chinese citizens and exported them to japan to work in forced labor factories, aiding the japanese war effort .
people are literally saying the mass rape of germans at the end of the war is morally equivalent to the invasion and massacre of chinese people by the japanese! jesus... i really lost my toucan ...
the tokyo war crimes trial (1946 - 48) condemned a select group of generals, admirals and diplomats, making many japanese believe that war criminals had been justly tried and punished. during this period, the u. s. decision to exempt the japanese emperor from culpability for these war crimes lessoned the need for serious examination of individual and national responsibility. in addition, japanese citizens became more focused on the challenges of rebuilding japan after post - war destruction. director matsui minoru states ,
what is truly repugnant and dangerous is the attitude of those who avert their eyes from the brutality that took place. therein lies the path to repeating the errors of our past .
a documentary recording the testimony of fourteen former japanese soldiers as they recount atrocities and war crimes committed during the second world war, including the infamous unit 731 medical experimentation group. having been trained by their country to be nothing but killers, the soldiers claim to have become morally numb and unable to see non - japanese as even human. perhaps feeling some remorse for what they have done, they now choose to tell their stories for the world to hear .
i think if you see it once, you would know what had happened during the sino - japanese war. then audience should decide themselves what to make of it, rather than me explaining what is there to learn .
director matsui did not want to show any apologies on film, lest this shift the tone from historical record to confessional. but the ex - soldiers do try to give some reasons, even if they do not shirk personal responsibility for their acts. the fact that japanese military training taught recruits that the chinese were worth less than animals is cited :
we japanese all thought about the chinese the same way - - as subhuman scum ,
says yoshio tsuchiya .
ar: despite this reputation, jiang refused to speak about the
devils on the doorstep
controversy, saying he wants to forget about the past and focus on his upcoming film. china' s most sought - after director is now behind the camera again. his latest film
the sun also rises
is due to premier at the venice film festival next month. a complex plot spanning 50 years of history told through four separate stories, this adaptation of a short story is expected to be jiang' s defining directorial comeback .
from what i recall of my stay in japan, grinning and laughter are both a way of showing embarassment, mostly for girls but you never see a japanese man grin wider than when he gets stopped by cops for a traffic violation .
the chinese translation of ‘rage comics’ is bàozǒu mànhuà (暴走漫画), with ‘baozou’ literally meaning ‘out of control’, and ‘manhua’ meaning ‘sketches’, popularized through the japanese manga term. the term baozou manhua is also abbreviated as baoman (暴漫) .
my name is chen jiashou. i was born on september 16, 1918. when the imperial japanese army invaded nanjing in 1937, i was living in a small nanjing district with my uncle, mother and father, my two brothers and my sister. at that time, i was only 19 years old. i was an apprentice. after the japanese invasion, i, along with several other people, collectively escaped to a refugee camp by shanghai road. at that time, since the refugee camp had run out of food, i ventured out to replenish the supply. but because of some casual remarks i made while lining up, i was taken by some nearby japanese soldiers and brought to a pond adjacent to shanghai road. having not stood there for more than two minutes, i watched as a group of armed japanese soldiers hustled several lines of about two hundred chinese troops toward the edge of the pond, surrounding them with weapons to prevent them from escaping .
a smaller issue comes at the end of the film, where a guomindang general declares that only the guomindang can legally accept the surrender of japanese troops. again, this does not fit in official ccp historiography and is therefore beyond the pale .
at the end of the war in 1945, 570, 000 japanese soldiers surrendered in china and were interned in siberia. after the chinese communist victory in 1950, these 14 witnesses were among 1, 100 war criminals who were returned to china for re - education. when they returned to japan in 1956, they were suspected of being communists and faced years of discrimination. very few japanese veterans have been willing to take the risk of publicly admitting to their individual roles in these atrocities .
a documentary recording the testimony of fourteen former japanese soldiers as they recount atrocities and war crimes committed during the second world war, including the infamous unit 731 medical experimentation group. having been trained by their country to be nothing but killers, the soldiers claim to have become morally numb and unable to see non - japanese as even human. perhaps feeling some remorse for what they have done, they now choose to tell their stories for the world to hear. please keep the discussion civil .
a documentary recording the testimony of fourteen former japanese soldiers as they recount atrocities and war crimes committed during the second world war, including the infamous unit 731 medical experimentation group. having been trained by their country to be nothing but killers, the soldiers claim to have become morally numb and unable to see non - japanese as even human. perhaps feeling some remorse for what they have done, they now choose to tell their stories for the world to hear. written by jean - marc rocher
thus, the instant the japanese soldiers opened fire on us all, i immediately fell toward the ground, faking my death. struck by the flying bullets, my chinese comrades all piled up on my body. right up till it got dark and the japanese soldiers had all left, i lay under the dead bodies, not daring to move. only then did i climb out from under the pile of bodies. it was thus how i became a fortunate survivor of the nanjing massacre .
he' s not justifying the hatred of an entire ethnicity, maybe his lady friends parents were subjected to these war crimes or witnessed them, if so i understand why she would have some hatred towards japanese people however misguided and unjustified it may be .
about the author: manya koetse is the editor of what’s on weibo. she’s a sinologist who splits her time between the netherlands and china. she earned her bachelor’s degrees in literary studies, japanese & china studies and completed her mphil in asian studies. contact :
these shortcomings will certainly be enough for opponents to dismiss the film as chinese propaganda (the usual method of discrediting those who bring shame on japan). but even for those like me who accept that japanese troops carried out atrocities, it adds an element of doubt .
chinese tv dramas about the second sino - japanese war (1937 - 1945) are much discussed online topics this month. on april 7, china’s official censorship bureau spoke out against war - themed tv dramas that are “overly entertaining”. when is war drama too entertaining? in a theme park in wuxiang, war plays are performed daily. the actors insist that their “acting is serious” and the faithful and accurate reenactment of history is their main goal. in their roles as japanese soldiers, they ‘die’ more than a thousand times a year .
the problem with the japanese apologies is that it seems like every time they take one step forward to owning up to their past some right - wing asshole politician later makes some controversial speech or gaffe that takes them two steps back. it makes the whole thing seem insincere .
but in an indicator of japanese sensitivities on the issue, justice minister akira mikazuki, in a cabinet meeting friday, spoke out about devil, opposing the official intervention in the boy' s naming via an
administrative guidance ,
a ruling made without specific legal basis .
since then, japan' s powerful patriotic right wing has ensured that details of the atrocities have been omitted from the country' s history books. consequently, two generations of japanese have grown up ignorant of their countrymen' s perverse behavior in china and other asian countries .
one day after work, i walked to the entrance of changshan park. a man surnamed tse heard the sound of a japanese truck, so stuck his head out to take a look. coincidentally, he caught the eyes of the japanese troops, who immediately disembarked and tied old tse up, forcing him to kneel on the ground. one of them took out a bayonet, and violently hacked at old tse’s head. unfortunately, though the back of old tse’s neck was sliced through, his head hung on by the remaining front part of his neck—he was still breathing and alive, collapsed on the floor. seeing this, the japanese soldiers then raised their leather boots, mercilessly kicking him around the changshan park’s grounds. it was only then, with his head severed and his body trashed, that old tse passed away .
in a village in japanese - occupied northern china in 1944, a peasant named ma dasan (played with nervous intensity by the director himself) is interrupted in his late night love - making by a knock on the door. a gunman only identifying himself as
me
deposits two sacks in ma dasan' s hut and tells him that he must take care of the contents until the gunman' s return three days later, on pain of death. in the sacks, bound and gagged, are a japanese prisoner of war and his chinese translator .
did you not watch this video? as is mentioned many times, japanese soldiers were routinely beaten and treated brutally by their own superior officers. their training was such that they quickly became dehumanized and ambivalent to the suffering of people whom they had been taught to believe were inhuman criminals .
i am working on a feature film looking at the effect of media on the legal system. the producer just finished directing a documentary called
able ,
looking at two japanese teenagers with severe disabilities who went to live with a host family in arizona to train for the special olympics .
if you' re in a thread about japanese cruelty during wwii, there is going to be a lot more discussion about that than the chinese long march. if you really want a lot of bloodshed and hideous cruelty in china you could look at the boxer revolution - that was mental .
my husband knows that i was raped by a japanese soldier, but empathizes with me. he passed away a couple of years ago. in my home, i can’t bear to tell my sons and daughters, and i’m worried that other people will find out and look down upon me .
while the japanese prisoner screams insults at his captors, and the translator changes them into compliments, the villagers try to figure out what to do. the three days pass, then three weeks, then three months, but the mysterious person or persons who deposited the prisoners in the village do not return. should they take them to the japanese authorities? kill them? or keep waiting for the gunmen to return? tensions rise between the personalities in the village, with ma dasan at the center of controversy, as the prisoners become more intractable, their presence more difficult to conceal .
this is disturbing in a way that may be familiar to anyone who has watched a documentary on the holocaust. the big difference - perhaps because no one is chasing individual japanese for war crimes - is that holocaust films are usually about victims, whereas this film focuses on confessions of the perpetrators .
i have never pretended to be american. i am chinese and hate japan, just like every other chinese person in the world. you japanese are the ones engaging in subterfuge, hiding the fact that you refuse to acknowledge that the nanjing massacre and other atrocities ever happened, and visiting the yasukuni shrine regularly to honor class a war criminals. given the chance you' d probably join in the contest to behead 100 chinese people with a sword as fast as possible, which i should mention was heartily reported on by the japanese media and ended up being called a draw with a score of 106 - 105 .
lastly, there are a few issues of obscenity and language. a sex scene between ma dasan and his lover yu’er is deemed to “bring about strong, harmful sensual stimulation to people. ” a scene in which the villagers’ pack donkey gets aroused by a japanese army donkey is described as vulgar and boring .
the historical epic follows the stories of people from several generations living on the ‘white deer plain, ’ or north china plain in shanxi province, during the first half of the 20th century. this tumultuous period sees the republican period, the japanese invasion, and the early days of the people’s republic of china .
maybe nobody watched this far, but the most incredible thing that i find about all of this is that the chinese did not execute a single japanese war criminal pow. i think that is an incredible act of humanity and rationality, given the terrible acts which these men committed, which would give every excuse for a return of brutality. and yet at the same time, to live with their crimes is probably a greater punishment for the (hopefully) majority who have consciences: to imagine their children in the shoes of their victims, knowing that the japanese defeat disproved the superiority ideology that had previously absolved them of their guilt .
the refugees at the [ hutchinson international ] were many. one day, six or seven japanese troops arrived, all of them armed with guns, knives hanging by their waists. they took six or seven maidens from the crowd of refugees. i was among those taken. there was also a maiden i recognized, her name was little qiaozi. one japanese soldier forced me into an empty room. i can remember him being chubby, with a beard. once we were both in the room, he used a knife to force me to take off my pants—i would be killed if i didn’t. i was thus raped in this manner .
recently, china’s state administration of press, publication, radio, film and television (sapprft) announced a limit on tv dramas that sensationalise the history of war. the critique is particularly directed at popular war dramas that are mockingly called ‘divine anti - japanese drama’ (抗日神剧) by chinese netizens. these tv dramas generally depict the japanese army as extremely weak and the chinese protagonists as exceptionally strong. in these series, the chinese hero can cut a japanese soldier in half by just using one hand. the fighting scenes are exaggerated; there is blood splattering everywhere while body parts are flying around. these series are unacceptable, according to the sapprft, because their mere goal is to entertain viewers. in doing so, they misrepresent history and disrespect the chinese soldiers who fought to defend the nation. examples of these tv series are the wondrous knight of the war of resistance against japan (抗日奇侠) or the arrow in the bow (剪在弦上) (baidu 2015) .
shot in black - and - white, which lends the film a stark quality, devils on the doorstep keeps upping the narrative ante until it goes over the top in violent, horrifying fashion. jiang doesn' t soften his depiction of the chaotic, hysterical wartime mentality, when anything can happen, and the worst thing probably will. his narrative method - staccato editing rhythm, the camera constantly moving - is designed to set you on edge. the hatred of those who are different from us is one of the film' s targets, but rather than show this willingness to hate as merely ridiculous, jiang makes a connection with the underlying fear that is an inevitable product of war and occupation, and perpetuates itself in endless cycles and reversals .
as the only series in this list, it is set at the time of the second sino - japanese war (1937 - 1945), and tells the story of underground communist party member song xiaqiao on a secret mission, who has to deal with spies and traitors. his love interest is played by the beautiful tong liya .
it may be pointless to try to establish which world war two axis aggressor, germany or japan, was the more brutal to the peoples it victimised. the germans killed six million jews and 20 million russians [ i. e. soviet citizens ]; the japanese slaughtered as many as 30 million filipinos, malays, vietnamese, cambodians, indonesians and burmese, at least 23 million of them ethnic chinese. both nations looted the countries they conquered on a monumental scale, though japan plundered more, over a longer period, than the nazis. both conquerors enslaved millions and exploited them as forced labourers—and, in the case of the japanese, as [ forced ] prostitutes for front - line troops. if you were a nazi prisoner of war from britain, america, australia, new zealand or canada (but not russia) you faced a 4% chance of not surviving the war; [ by comparison ] the death rate for allied pows held by the japanese was nearly 30% . [ 40 ]
i wanted to record the true nature of war and how it transformed ordinary men into weak, abnormal, and cruel characters. i wanted to record the history from the views of aggressors. we (japanese) were perpetrators in the war, and i wanted to pass the message to people, especially to the younger generation .
interesting. for a real eye opener regarding acts committed by the japanese against the chinese the rape of nan king is an excellent read. it' s something that is never talked about here in the us, we didn' t learn about these things in school. i only learned about it due to my interest in military history .
after the rape, the japanese soldier turned to me and said “opened path, opened path” and i was released. in order to avoid the japanese soldiers coming again to hurt us, that night, the manager of the [ hutchinson international ] ferried us—about eighteen maidens—to the cellar of the egg beating room. those among us also included several maidens who had escaped from the suzhou prefecture of jiangsu. i hid in that cellar for several months, with the owners secretly sending me food. only after the situation was deemed “peaceful” did i return to live with my mother and father. i had lived in the [ hutchinson international ] for more than a year before i had returned home .
it' s a cultural difference. apologies in japan are percieved to be more sincere than they are in other countries. from the japanese perspective apologizing once, let alone several dozen times, takes a lot of humility. japan' s war apologies are sincere apologies, they have just been overshadowed by high ranking politicians that have made revisionist remarks .
in the days and months leading up to the occupation of nanjing, foreign nationals living in the capital city played a key role in resisting the japanese assault. those who chose to remain served both as witnesses to history and as emblems of courage. minnie vautrin, one of only two foreign women who remained in nanjing, was one such individual .
from my perspective it is interesting purely as a student of history. my grandfather fought the japanese in malay, india and burma. i am a regular travaler to japan. trying to re imagine the first and second hand stories (like this documentary) and marry that with my present day knowledge of the country and it' s people is very difficult.
japanese devils ( or riben guizi 日本鬼子 ) is a japanese documentary about the war crimes committed by the imperial japanese army between 1931 and 1945 . the documentary is a series of interviews with 14 japanese veterans of the second sino-japanese war who recount rape , massacres , bio-experiments , and cannibalism . the accuracy of these interviews is contested by japanese nationalist critics . minoru matsui 's inspiration for the film came after one of his original interviewees died . feeling that it was his last chance to document the stories , he began the process of creating the documentary . initial support was minimal , with all production companies showing no interest . the film did not gain any traction until it was entered into the berlin film festival . the original title , riben guizi , is a chinese phrase popular in the 1930s and 1940s used to express hatred for japanese invaders . 
japanese devils (or riben guizi 日本鬼子) is a japanese documentary about the war crimes committed by the imperial japanese army between 1931 and 1945. the documentary is a series of interviews with 14 japanese veterans of the second sino-japanese war who recount rape, massacres, bio-experiments, and cannibalism. the accuracy of these interviews is contested by japanese nationalist critics. minoru matsui's inspiration for the film came after one of his original interviewees died. feeling that it was his last chance to document the stories, he began the process of creating the documentary. initial support was minimal, with all production companies showing no interest. the film did not gain any traction until it was entered into the berlin film festival. the original title, riben guizi, is a chinese phrase popular in the 1930s and 1940s used to express hatred for japanese invaders.
japanese devils (or riben guizi 日本鬼子) is a japanese documentary about the war crimes committed by the imperial japanese army between 1931 and 1945. the documentary is a series of interviews with 14 japanese veterans of the second sino-japanese war who recount rape, massacres, bio-experiments, and cannibalism. the accuracy of these interviews is contested by japanese nationalist critics. minoru matsui's inspiration for the film came after one of his original interviewees died. feeling that it was his last chance to document the stories, he began the process of creating the documentary. initial support was minimal, with all production companies showing no interest. the film did not gain any traction until it was entered into the berlin film festival. the original title, riben guizi, is a chinese phrase popular in the 1930s and 1940s used to express hatred for japanese invaders.