Opinion | Remembering the Chinese war pain deemed unworthy in the West
Japan’s wartime atrocities were covered up by the US, and have been disregarded by Western scholars. This cuts deep
Scanning international media, I found commentary interpreting the parade as a show of force by China and Russia against the United States, or warning about the Taiwan Strait and wider region. On Weibo, Chinese sentiment was summed up by a netizen who remarked: “Only when the motherland is strong can we live a good life.”
The film unfolds against the backdrop of the Nanking massacre in 1937, after the fall of the Chinese capital to the Japanese army. Based on true events, it tells of several civilians taking refuge in a photo studio. To survive, they have to help develop a Japanese photographer’s pictures – only to stumble on irrefutable evidence of atrocities, which they risk their lives to smuggle out. The storytelling is restrained: it neither dwells on brutality nor indulges in fiery denunciation.
Over the course of two hours, the theatre shifted from utter silence to muffled sobs. When the credits finally rolled, many, like me, rose slowly with tear-streaked faces.