Massacre movie "John Rabe" featuring Japan's atrocities in WWII Censored in Japan

[Shuimo]

News of the story in ENglish is not available yet.
But the title is just the gist of story.
Click the following link for more in Chinese.
《拉贝日记》因正面表现南京大屠杀 遭日本禁映
http://news.ifeng.com/world/200903/0331_16_1085336.shtml (http://news.ifeng.com/world/200903/0331_16_1085336.shtml)

[budgie]

Japan has a history of censoring such things. The education ministry makes sure no history books used in schools have much detail and that they gloss over Japan's atrocities. Iris Chang's Rape of Nanking can be bought in Japan in English but never found a Japanese publisher for a translated version.

Politicians visiting Yasukuni Shrine to "pay their respects" don't help either. Yasukuni was a focal point of Nationalism in those years and is where the remains of several class-A war criminals were interred.

As victims of the atomic bombing and a deeply pacifist nation today, they like to see themselves as the victims in the war and are, I think, too deeply ashamed to admit they had ever been aggressors. Moreover Japan's national characteristics of homogenity and some xenophobia make them wary of foreign countries reminding them: it feels like finger-pointing.

However, from the outside looking in, when China does it, it often is finger-pointing. China consistently uses Japan's wartime aggression as an opportunity to accuse them of barbarism and to shore up nationalist sentiment at home. Though I can't read the site and haven't seen the movie I find it hard to imagine an increasingly nationalist China could create an objective movie about the Nanking Massacre.

It might be China's Schindler's List or it might be just another movie about how horrible Japan was back then, and as far as the Chinese may be concerned, still is.

Japan's reason for censorship could be due to their own bias, China's, or a bit of both.

[Fage]

wait for the comment by Scriptable
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showpost.php?p=4025039&postcount=43

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showpost.php?p=4025049&postcount=44

[Captain China]

However, from the outside looking in, when China does it, it often is finger-pointing. China consistently uses Japan's wartime aggression as an opportunity to accuse them of barbarism and to shore up nationalist sentiment at home. Though I can't read the site and haven't seen the movie I find it hard to imagine an increasingly nationalist China could create an objective movie about the Nanking Massacre.

h.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rabe_(film)
this is a sino-german film, it is directed by german

[Scriptable]

wait for the comment by Scriptable

LOL, you think everyone is out to refute you. But please let me know when a film about the Tiananmen Square Massacre clears the Chinese censors if you think the Japanese are restricting the viewing of the John Rabe film.

Anyway, there is no evidence that the film "was fully banned in Japan" as the article claims. The only reason it would not be shown is that theaters would get threats from the extreme right wing ultra nationalists who are unfortunately supported by Tokyo's governor, Shintarō Ishihara. These are exactly the sorts of people who would gladly commit attrocities against foreigners and its sad reflection on Japan that they are tolerated. These people are the worst of the worst, complete scum and usually associated with the Yakuza. I wish I could send these bastards to China so you could do something about them. I have to listen to their bull**** are they drive around in their black vans screetching it out on loudspeakers. I remember one guy got so frustrated that he cut the cable to their megaphone, but then the police arrested him.

[xav]

Movie will probably be #1 in China....

[ViktorNavorski]

Teruyuki Kagawa and Akira Emoto are in it, I'm sold.

[ASAT]

Feb 10,2009

BEIJING, Feb. 10 -- The movie "John Rabe", which depicts a terrible period of Chinese history during the Second World War, has premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Directed by German director Florian Gallenberger, "John Rabe" is based on the true story of the head of the Nanjing branch of the "Siemens" company who helped save 200,000 Chinese people in Nanjing from Japanese troops in 1937.

The film is adapted from John Rabe's book named "A Good Man of Nanking: The Diaries of John Rabe". It recorded the 1937 Nanjing Massacre in which about 300,000 people were killed by Japanese troops.

Thomas Rabe, the grandson of John Rabe, attended the movie's premiere in Berlin.
"We are very satisfied with the movie. I'd like to express my family's gratitude to the cast and crew. We also feel very proud because the true history can finally be understood by many."

Audiences applauded the movie after its debut.

"I have lived in Japan for 11 years and I hope this film will be shown there. I hope this outstanding film will help some Japanese to change their mindset, that is to say, to correctly recognize the facts of history."
"John Rabe" is expected to be released in China in June.

(Source: China Daily)

film photograph
http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/9293/61371652.jpg (http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/9293/61371652.jpg)

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/8599/32801611.jpg (http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/8599/32801611.jpg)

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/2451/63808833.jpg (http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/2451/63808833.jpg)

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/4485/43286102.jpg (http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/4485/43286102.jpg)

[budgie]

It appears despite the potential for political posturing the film has merit after all. What sections were censored in Japan, I'll be interested to know and what are my chances of seeing an undeited version here.

[SimaGine]

Movie will probably be #1 in China....

not possible