John Rabe - China's Schindler

Last summer, I visited several cities in China as part of a summer study abroad program with Belmont University. One of the cities we visited was Nanjing, an important city in many parts of Chinese history. One of the darker parts of its history occured when the Japanese invaded in 1937 and brutally massacred several hundred thousand Chinese residents which became known as the Nanking Massacre or the Rape of Nanjing (the title of the book by Iris_Chang). I was shocked, not only by the atrocity itself, but also by the fact that I'd never really heard much about it and didn't realize the extent and exceptionally barbaric nature of the Japanese troops which rivaled if not surpassed the worst atrocities committed by the Nazi's. None of the American students in our group had heard of it at all which seems to illustrate the overly Westernized version of history in the U.S. education system.

I bring this up because I just read about a movie being produced in Shanghai about John_Rabe, a real-life hero who most Americans have never heard of. Rabe was a German engineer (and Nazi party member) working in Nanjing when the Japanese invaded who refused to leave i n order to help organize a safety zone which protected a quarter of a million civilians. He also appealed to the Japanese and wrote to Hitler trying to stop the brutal treatment inflicted on the Chinese. The photo below shows members of the Belmont group at the Nanjing Memorial Hall.

The German/Chinese co-produced film, The Diaries of John Rabe is being shot in Shanghai as well as Nanjing and features an international cast including German actors, Steve_Buscemi (playing American doctor Robert Wilson), Chinese star Zhang Jingchu and Japanese actors Teruyuki Kagawa and Akira Emoto. It is scheduled for late 2008 release in Germany and China (American release not yet known). There are several other films dealing with the Nanjing massacre also being produced so it looks like this chapter of Chinese history may finally get some more international publicity.