August 2, 2005 > Nightmare in Nanking, a documentary

by Rhawn Joseph, Ph.D.

In 1937, Japan launched an all out war against China, concentrating their forces on the port city of Shanghai, the banking and commercial center of China. Following the fall of Shanghai, the Japanese military began killing Chinese POWs, and savagely murdering civilians, and raping and torturing women and little girls as they marched onward to Nanking which was the capital of China.

On December 13, 1937, Nanking was captured by the Japanese army. For the next eight weeks, Japanese soldiers murdered, tortured, beheaded, bayoneted, burned, and buried alive, old men, women, and children. Tens of thousands of men, women, and children, were tied together and set on fire. Over 80,000 women and girls were gang raped, tortured, and then murdered. Even Nazis living in the security of the Nanking Safety Zone were horrified by the savagery of the Japanese, likening their experience as a Hell they could never have imagined. Nearly 300,000 Chinese civilians were tortured and murdered over an eight week period. The Japanese proceeded to commit identical atrocities in other Asian cities and the Philippines, including establishing fiendish medical laboratories where humans were exposed to horrible diseases and then dissected alive.

Nightmare in Nanking is not for the faint hearted. Japanese soldiers took pictures of the atrocities they committed. These pictures are reproduced in the last third of this film.

The Rape of Nanking was an event unique in the history of humanity. And yet, despite these well documented crimes against humanity, the Japanese government continues to deny that Japanese soldiers committed these atrocities. Japanese war criminals continue to be honored by the Japanese government. Emperor Hirohito, and the WWII Japanese government was in fact never punished, and Prince Asaka, who commanded the Nanking invasion force, became a professional golfer.

Nightmare in Nanking, a documentary by Rhawn Joseph, Ph.D., will be shown at 7 p.m. on August 3 at the Fremont Main Library, 2400 Stevenson Blvd. The documentary is in black and white and 76 Minutes in length. Admission is free and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Parents should be advised that this film contains disturbing images from the war. Contact the library at (510) 745-1400 for more information.