Nanking!

This is coolbert:

A movie review. The war movie "City of Life and Death". From the period of the Second Sino-Japanese War [1937]. I consider this cinematic productiuon to be exceptional in all regards. I highly recommend to all devoted readers to the blog and those merely perusing casually. With English subtitles.

WARNING: For those of you easily offended or disturbed by images of a frank, intense and adult nature with graphic scenes of extreme gratutious violence, hit ESCAPE now!

"'City of Life and Death' is a 2009 Chinese drama film written and directed by Lu Chuan, marking his third feature film. The film deals with the Battle of Nanjing and the following massacre committed by the Japanese army during the Second Sino-Japanese War . . . In order to vent their emotions and prove that they conquered their former masters, Japanese commanders allowed soldiers to vent without legal restrictions for six weeks."

"On December 9, 1937, the Imperial Japanese Army laid siege to the Chinese capital of Nanking, beginning a reign of terror that killed as many as 300,000 civilians, an infamous tragedy now referred to as the Rape of Nanking. The first big-budget fiction film by the Chinese to deal with the seminal event in their modern history, City of Life and Death is a visceral, heartbreaking portrait of life during wartime, and an unforgettable masterpiece of contemporary world cinema."

The comportment of the Japanese soldier in 1937 and in the subsequent years up unto the end of the war in 1945 has been commented upon by many authoritative sources.

Strange [?] considering that during the First Sino-Japanese War [1894], the Russo-Japanese War [1905],  and the limited participation of the Japanese in World War One,  Japanese military behavior was correct, in keeping with the rules of Land Wafare as they existed at the time. So what occurred in that nearly twenty year period between 1918 and 1937 that caused such a marked change in Japanese conduct and demeanor?

coolbert.