Description
In this episode of Rosie the Reviewer, we discuss Empire of the Sun (1987), Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s semi-autobiographical novel about a kid more or less growing up in a Japanese POW camp and making it home. We feel a little old because Christian Bale is in this, and he’s a child.
Also: the Shanghai International Settlement, and Cadilacs of the Sky, baby.
Empire of the Sun trailer
Empire of the Sun Historical Context
The Shanghai International Settlement
Following the Opium Wars, Western nations forced China to open treaty ports and grant extraterritoriality to their citizens. The International Settlement in Shanghai grew from this into a self-governing enclave where British, American, and other foreign nationals lived with their own laws, outside Chinese jurisdiction.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_International_Settlement
The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937)
Japan invaded China in 1937 (could we call this the real start of WWII?), starting a conflict that killed an estimated 20 million people and that the Chinese call the War of Resistance. Japanese forces occupied Shanghai, but the International Settlement was initially left intact. With the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, that protection ended, and Western civilians were interned.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Sino-Japanese_War
Lunghua Civilian Assembly Centre
After Pearl Harbor, Japanese authorities interned European and American civilians across China. In Shanghai, most were sent to Lunghua Civilian Assembly Centre, a camp built on the grounds of a former school south of the city. Around 13,500 civilian internees were held in China throughout the war. Conditions deteriorated sharply by 1944 as food rations fell to a few hundred calories a day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunghua_Civilian_Assembly_Centre
The Rape of Nanjing (1937)
In December 1937, Japanese forces captured the Chinese capital of Nanjing and carried out six weeks of mass murder, rape, and looting. Estimates of the death toll range from 100,000 to 300,000 civilians and prisoners of war. The massacre remains one of the most documented and contested atrocities of the Second World War.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanjing_massacre
The Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki (1945)
On 9 August 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, three days after the bombing of Hiroshima. The bomb killed an estimated 40,000 people instantly. Japan announced its surrender on 15 August 1945. In Empire of the Sun, the distant flash of the Nagasaki bomb is one of the film’s central images.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki
China After the War: The Road to 1949
World War II bankrupted China and weakened the Nationalist government. The civil war between Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang and Mao Zedong’s Communist forces, which had paused during the Japanese occupation, resumed in full. The Communists won in 1949, establishing the People’s Republic. The war’s legacy shaped the political map of Asia for the rest of the century.
Other episodes mentioned
Ep 16 – Life Is Beautiful – A Heartfelt Journey Through Tragedy and Comedy
Buongiorno Principessa! In this episode, we laugh and we cry about this magical and tragical Italian masterpiece. Is it just us, or do hilariously funny films make the best tragedies?
Book Rec by Sam
Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard
Sam read it for the episode and and agrees with the many who call it one of the best novels to emerge from the Second World War. Ballard’s account of internment in Shanghai has the strange, almost dreamlike quality of a child who has never known the world before the war, and who cannot quite imagine one after it.
