(1)
I remember that when I was very young, as if I had just entered elementary school, I knew about Japan and subconsciously associated this country with the Nanjing Massacre. The first- and second-grade students of primary school my age know all about Japanese devils and the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, even if they are only seven or eight-year-old children. In the second grade of elementary school, all of us can sing "Second Elementary Cowherd" and "March of the Big Knife", and we all know about the big sweep, and about the Nanjing Massacre, we know that the Japanese army killed many, many people there. Know that the number is three hundred thousand.
Who told us this? Of course, it is our primary school teacher, and it must be a Chinese teacher. In our impression, we have countless stories about how the Japanese devils carried out slaughter and encirclement. In that story, how the kind-hearted Chinese were killed by the Japanese army, and how the heroic anti-Japanese hero was outnumbered in front of the Japanese army and finally died heroically. Not only the anti-Japanese heroes, but also the heroes of resisting U.S. aggression and aiding Korea, who turned themselves into human flesh bombs, after shouting some slogans or dying words that were obviously impossible to hear on the battlefield even with the most advanced sound transmission equipment in the world. , and perish with the enemy. Coincidentally, just a few years ago, there was a world-renowned gang that was also promoting body bomb suicide attacks to its members and instilling in them patriotism and such behaviors - this gang called al-Qaeda .
Of course, to understand the Nanjing Massacre only through such Chinese texts can only be one-sided and preconceived. Not to mention seven or eight-year-old children, even their parents with full behavioral ability and judgment, don't think there is anything wrong with this. The school calls it "patriotic education".
The seeds of hatred were quietly planted in our young hearts. Under the nourishment and care of the "patriotic education" of our hard-working "gardeners", this seed of hatred began to slowly take root in the soil of our hearts.
(two)
Things changed in the second half of my fifth grade in elementary school: my family of three came to live in Tsukuba, Japan because of my father's exchange to work in Japan. The second day after arriving in Japan, the phone at home rang—from a local Japanese public elementary school closest to my home. That afternoon, I stepped into an elementary school classroom in Japan, and it was logical to start school in Japan. There are only twenty students in the class, and there are only three classes in a grade. In the whole grade, besides me, there are two Chinese girls, and they are the kind who have never been in primary school in China, and the rest are all Japanese.
In Japanese elementary schools, there are history classes starting in the fourth grade, and of course it tells about Japanese history. From the Yayoi period, to the Dahua innovation, to the Kamakura shogunate, the Warring States period, the Edogawa period and the Meiji Restoration, I have been fond of reading history books since I was a child, and I have learned with great interest. Thinking about it now, at that time I really had a bit of an internationalist spirit. I felt that history did not distinguish between nationalities, so I was very willing to learn.
Gradually, however, World War I broke out, and the Russo-Japanese War also broke out, and I gradually felt a little grudge in my heart. Then, World War II broke out.
At this time, the history teacher in the class announced that for the next World War II study, everyone will be divided into groups to study different topics, and then prepare slides after class and report on their own. Topics include the Sino-Japanese War (also known as the War of Resistance Against Japan, the War of Aggression against China), the Pacific War, Pearl Harbor, and the Atomic Bomb (the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki).
As a Chinese child who has received "patriotic education" since childhood, I really want to study the "Japan-China War" group.
At this time, the teacher did something that still makes me think about it today: After the results of the grouping were announced, I was assigned to the "Atomic Bomb" group.
In Japan's national language (that is, our language) textbooks, there are also some articles about World War II. However, unlike domestic textbooks that directly tell the story of life-and-death battles, Japanese WWII texts never touch on these, but tell about the desertion of soldiers during wartime, their sisters sending their thin younger brothers to the battlefield in China, and in sixth grade, an article about the atomic bombing Survivor's Diary. In all the articles, there is no militarism, no hatred instilled, only the sorrow of war and the cruelty of the atomic bomb. In the article on the atomic bomb, there is not even a little bit of hatred for the United States, although this country has killed a total of 390,000 people in their country through these two super bombs, exact data.
Now that I think about it, it's no coincidence that I'm in the "Atomic Bomb" group. But the meaning behind it is whether it narrowly evades me from exposing the "crime" while letting me understand the harm that Japan has suffered, or whether it is sublimated to let me appreciate the pain caused by the cruel war to human beings, I have no idea.
All I know is that one preaches hatred, and the other never preaches hatred; one makes young children face cruel words that they don't even know if it's fact or fiction, and one is protecting children from one-sided and even deformed forms caused by premature contact. ideology, which is right and which is wrong.
Obviously, the war they were wrong. But for the education of the post-war generation, I think we were wrong.
(3)
I watched "The Thirteen Hairpins of Jinling" today. As a film industry worker who understands the whole process of film making, I think this is a great film from a purely cinematic point of view. The plot of the film is interlocking, neither procrastination nor sloppy, the story itself has no obvious loopholes and unreasonable points, and at the same time, the lines and performances of each character are handled very well; I don't know how much money was spent on art. Scenes and explosions, well-designed costumes and props, plus the atmospheric composition of photography, color matching for the balance of the sense of the times and beauty, composition for the grasp of characters' emotions, plot atmosphere, and national characteristics, and sound design. Rarely. As for the movie itself, this is a movie worth watching.
However, the so-called kung fu is outside the article. Judging from the social impact of watching this film, this is a film that should be banned from watching under the age of 18, and should even be discouraged from watching at all ages.
The problem with "The Thirteen Hairpins of Jinling" is that if the story of the film is generally summarized, the result is only equivalent to another elementary school Chinese text of "patriotism education", except that the heroes in the text are a group of prostitutes, and the prostitutes It is not allowed to appear in primary school Chinese textbooks. In addition to this, I cannot see the director’s reflection on the Nanjing Massacre, the anti-human behavior of the Japanese army, the fate of people in the war, and the pain caused by the war for mankind (not only the Chinese military and civilians, but also the Japanese military and civilians). What unique and thought-provoking insights into this. The collective unconscious behavior of people in the state of war led to atrocities, massacres and even bestiality, which is not covered; the struggle of human nature caused by the extreme conditions of the occupied areas has been taken care of. In the end, this film became a veritable "audio-visual" feast with a strong sign of "patriotism" - only "seeing" and "listening", and the brain did not turn at all.
Some people may say that movies are for entertainment, not for education. To be honest, I have always agreed with this sentence before, because movies with general themes as entertainment products do not necessarily need to be serious. But war is a very special subject, and I don't know what could be more harmful than "using war to entertain the people and using hatred to attract resonance".
Regarding the huge disaster caused by war like the Nanjing Massacre, we did not reflect on how it came about, how to avoid the recurrence of the tragedy, and how to engrave the pain of war in our hearts to warn future generations. Instead, we regarded ourselves as victims. Sowing the seeds of hatred to the next generation. For them, this hatred is completely unprovoked, and unprovoked hatred is likely to lead to new tragedies. Jesus was crucified by a Jew at the beginning of AD, and the narrow-minded nationalists a thousand years later could still carry out genocide against the Jews; we are now spreading hatred to our next generation on the grounds of the Nanjing Massacre When the country's military power is really strong in the future, who can guarantee that we will not give birth to a demon that kills without blinking an eye like the Nazis?
The success of "The Thirteen Hairpins of Jinling" reflects the complete failure of war pain and humanitarian education. Maybe that's not even a failure, because they never existed in China.
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