Today I am reviewing the film “The Children of Huang-Shi” that deals with the massacre at Nanjing. A film that focuses on adventurer George Hogg who witnessed atrocities in Nanjing and then stays in China to educate 60 Chinese orphans and then escape by traveling with them over a hundred miles to safety.
Although not a film entirely about the atrocities in Nanjng, nevertheless I am glad to see more films informing many people about the atrocities commited againsts hundreds and thousands of people in Nanjing who were slaughtered by the Japanese army in 1937-1938.
I have been familiar with the late Iris Chang’s work on “The Rape of Nanjing” and what I have read on the Internet and I believe that she was quite instrumental and continues to lead the charge posthumously of letting people know what happened in 1937-1938 in Nanjing.
But growing up and learning in school or college or through the many people I have met in my life that would talk about the atrocities committed against humanity, may it be the Nazi genocide of the Jewish people, massacres in Nanjing, the Native American genocide, the Armenian genocide, the Rwanda Genocide.
Of course, many will point out that these atrocities are nothing new. They have been going on since the beginning of humanity and of course, some will point out how its also bee recorded in the Old Testament and other historical writings.
Many of us have grown up not knowing the atrocity against humanity. Before the Internet, we could only learn what we see from films, what news was willing to report and books. But now with the Internet at our disposal and through various cultural organizations or minority journalism in college, we learn about the past that we had no idea about.
But it definitely saddens me because despite the terrible atrocities that have happened in our past for centuries, these atrocities continue to exist today.
And yet, even with technology, many don’t know that it’s happening. And many continue to die today.
Times may have changed with technology…but our knowledge of the atrocities that have happened in the past and what’s happening in the present still remains quite limited, if anything nil unless it’s a film made by a world renown director or featuring popular top tier celebrities.
I’m fortunate to have met so many people who wanted to communicate a part of their culture, tragedies commited upon their ancestors that they will never forget especially when the governments and the politicians of the countries who have commited the atrocities, to this day refuse to acknowledge it.
So, I’m glad these films, these books, these clubs, these writers and those who refuse to forget continue to inform the masses. Never forget….