Poster of "Nanking Nanking."
"Nanking Nanking," a Chinese film on the Nanjing Massacre hit the largest Japanese video website Niconico, while viewers' live comments exposed the ignorance of history of the Japanese netizens.[Special coverage]
The movie, which is directed by Lu Chuan, was released in China in April 2009 and was temporarily and limitedly screened in Japan in 2011 amid strong criticism from the Japanese rightwing forces who view the movie as "anti-Japanese."
The "Nanking Nanking," also known as the "City of Life and Death," attracted over 26,000 viewers in its debut on Niconico late Tuesday and received over 22,000 live comments during the screening, according to the website.
Niconico said that showing the movie, among other Chinese and South Korean films related to the issues of Yasukuni Shrine and comfort women, is aimed at letting the Japanese audience to access to the so-called "anti-Japanese" movies produced by the two major victimized countries of Japan's aggression and colonial rule before and during WWII.
Movies reflecting real Japanese wartime atrocities, known here as "anti-Japanese" works, are always being opposed by the Japanese rightists. Angelina Julie's movie "Unbroken: a World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption," which was based on a true story, met such doom last year.
During the 133-minute screening, some or even a majority of viewers questioned the occurrence of the Nanjing Massacre, with commentaries like "stop lying," "then reporters in Nanjing at the time said they did not witness the massacre," "the massacre is fake" and "how to kill about 300,000 in a city with only population of about 200,000."
Some even said "it is OK to kill someone with strange moves in war zone" and "it is reasonable for military to loot," although there were remarks like "the Nanjing Massacre is historical fact" and "it is no good to kill civilians," or asking "are there anyone who knows about the truth?"
However, the comments clearly betrayed their ignorance of history, poor education on history and increasing nationalism among the Japanese society's right-leaning tendency influenced by the historical revisionism.
