Well, I don't like to address them as prostitutes. So, here is my question - What really happened to them? Any idea based on actual facts and events?
My Favs: Hurt Locker, A Beautiful Mind, Schindler's List, Inglourious Basterds
I don't know, but if someone knows, I'd like to know as well.
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I mean, any idea based on actual facts and events that many are not aware of.
My Favs: Hurt Locker, A Beautiful Mind, Schindler's List, Inglourious Basterds
The film is based on the novel "13 Flowers of Nanjing" by Geling Yan. I have not read the book so I don't know if the fate of the prostitute characters is revealed there.
It should however be noted that whilst the "Rape of Nanking" was an actual event in the Japanese invasion of China, the characters in the film are fictitious.
Whilst many similar events doubtless happened in Nanking during the Japanese invasion and occupation, the particular characters in this film are no more real than Colonel Landa from Inglourious Basterds.
World War II is most often described as 1939-1945, but many believe that (IMHO with a convincing strong argument)that World War II actually started in 1937 with the Japanese invasion of China.
World War II is most often described as 1939-1945, but many believe that (IMHO with a convincing strong argument)that World War II actually started in 1937 with the Japanese invasion of China.
Actually if u count 1 country violating another's sovereignty by force, it started in 1931, with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. All the same elements there: surprise attack, atrocities, occupation. In fact when u consider that Unit 731 was in Harbin and responsible for many war crimes, the invasion of Manchuria had significant impact on the rest of the war.
Nothing bad happened to them, they sang few songs and were transported back to convent.
shareThat was not stated or given in the movie, if you paid attention. IMO, in combination with the real facts at Nanjing, I believe they didn't make it out alive and got raped multiple times. You saw the doubt on Christian Bale's character when he adressed that officer. Even though that man had 'culture', a soldier's / man's behaviour can be very desperate or selfish in times of war.
( 8 (|) homer 'n marge @@@@@@:)
lol his answer was laced with obvious sarcasm.....
It's mercy, compassion and forgiveness I lack. Not rationality...
I think they were fictional characters. But if they were real, or had been real i would bet 9 to 1 that they were raped repeatedly and then killed. It's a sad truth but if you read up on the rape of nanjing and the overall occupation of china you'll see more stories like that than you would ever care to think existed. The japanese army of that time period was as ruthless and brutal as any army has been in all of history.
I am not drinking any *beep* merlot!
100% sure they all died. Japanese soldiers didn't rape women repeatedly just to send them back to the place where they took them from. They raped them, and left them to die. Plus in the movie, all the women had a shard of mirror glass because they knew their fate. They'd rather die AFTER injuring or possibly killing at least one Japanese soldier.
Also what do you think the Japanese did when they found out George was male? They wouldn't have just "let him go"...
I think they were raped and slaughtered, as mentioned in Minnie Vautrin's diaries.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-16638897
Author Geling Yan says she was inspired to write her novel after reading an account by Minnie Vautrin, an American missionary who ran a college in Nanjing.
Continue reading the main story
Extract from Minnie Vautrin's diary, 16 December 1937
"There probably is no crime that has not been committed in this city today. Thirty girls were taken from the language school last night, and today I have heard scores of heartbreaking stories of girls who were taken from their homes last night - one of the girls was but 12 years old."
The Ginling Girls college became a haven for students and other women in the city, including some prostitutes.
When Japanese soldiers arrived demanding "comfort women" - a euphemism for sex slaves - Ms Vautrin faced the dilemma of letting the so-called "good" women go or giving them the prostitutes.
"This moment is very crucial," Geling Yan told the BBC. "If those prostitutes don't step forward, the Japanese will take the civilian women."
The prostitutes did step forward and were taken away by the soldiers and never heard from again.
"Ms Vautrin spent her whole life thinking [about] and contemplating this event, and she regretted that she submitted these women to the Japanese," says Ms Yan.
"These few lines in her biography touched me... even though the prostitutes were seen as very base, not so pure... they stepped forward to protect these young women. I think it was an extraordinary action."
Thanks for the link.
My Favs: Hurt Locker, A Beautiful Mind, Schindler's List, Inglourious Basterds
I believe they killed themselves with the broken glasses they hid inside their clothes
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I don't think those broken glass shards were meant for themselves. I think they were going on a suicide run. One of the women mentions how she's going to at least take an eye out. Bale's character comes clean about how their friends died. IMHO they went with the intention of making the Japanese officers pay. After which they would have probably been killed like their friend who bit the soldier's ear off.
shareSadly, "whole life" of Minnie Vautrin after these events was very short. About two years after the fall of Nanjing, she took temporary leave to return to the US. Shortly after arriving, she killed herself, unable to bear what had happened in Nanjing.
As the others here have said, the outlook for those prostitutes was bleak, at best. It is likely that the majority - perhaps 2/3 - of the women forced into sexual (and domestic) slavery during the war did not survive. Even among those who survived their slavery, the rates of death from wartime conflict and destruction, disease, malnutrition, and suicide were high. In some cases, their Japanese captors did make some effort to protect them, in some cases they killed them, sometimes they were sent home, and in perhaps most cases they simply abandoned them at some point along the way. If we look at these fictional women in the film as if they were real, then the odds were even worse. The deception would have been uncovered, most of the women would likely have been relegated to serving common soldiers, and whether they were then killed, transported off to continue, or just turned out onto the street would have been up to the whims of chance...
Yea at some point I’m sure they determined that they were NOT virgins. Maybe in a best case scenario they just served to please the officers sexually. As for George, yikes. He was either killed, punished, or made to sexually appease some of the more sexually fluid officers I would imagine. I’m sure he had it worst of all … unless he managed to escape, which I hope he did.
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