Safety Zone
On a recent weekend, my husband Dan and I had the privilege of seeing the film "Nanking." It was the last weekend and the last evening of the Hawaii International Film Festival—the last of only two showings at the festival—and Dan got the last two tickets at the box office.
The film documents the 1937 occupation by the Japanese imperial army of Nanjing, China (romanized “Nanking” during that time). Beginning with the December 13, 1937 invasion and over the 50 days, the Japanese army killed more than 200,000 people and raped 20,000 women —according to the post World War II International Military Tribunal for the Far East, also known as the “Tokyo Trials.” Other reports claim numbers exceeding 300,000 killed and 30,000 women raped. History now remembers it as “The Rape of Nanking.”
Amid the horrific, hardly mentionable atrocities, some 250,000 Chinese people were saved by a small, unlikely group of ex-patriots: twenty-two Europeans and Americans that included missionaries, businessmen, an American surgeon, a Nazi, and the headmistress of a women’s missionary college.
The Japanese seized Shanghai, China’s major port to the northeast, on November 12th, then began their march down the Yangtze to Nanjing, China’s then capital. The Chinese government fled to Chongqing in the southwest. Foreign businesses evacuated their staff. Chinese with any means to leave and save their families did—leaving behind those who could not: the poor and the weak from Nanjing and the surrounding countryside.
But twenty-two men and women, who had the chance, refused to leave. Nanjing was their work, lives, love. Dr. Robert Wilson had grown up in Nanjing, the son of American missionary parents. He evacuated his wife and infant child to the States, but when his time came, he chose to stay — the only surgeon in the city. He wrote, “I can not pass up this opportunity to do something of the highest good” [my recollected paraphrase from the film].
Calling themselves the “International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone,” the 22 marked out a 3.4 square-mile Safety Zone in the Western Nanjing area providing refuge, care, food, and protection for anyone within its bounds. Before evacuating, the mayor of Nanjing gave them municipal authority over the city once the government left. They elected the Nazi businessman to chair the committee, and sent the Japanese imperial government a formal letter to establish this sanctuary for the innocent. And when the Japanese imperial army entered the city on December 13, they stood their ground without weapons, armed only with their convictions. They put themselves between the Japanese army and the Chinese people, caring for men, women and children who had been beaten, bayoneted, raped, burned, widowed, orphaned, and left to die.
250,000 people were killed in 50 days by an army. And 250,000 were saved by 22 people.
Where are the Safety Zones in our lives, and how are Safety Zones made? In the case of Nanjing, in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide that claimed the lives of 800,000 Tutsis in 100 days, and in the WWII Holocaust that took 6 million Jews’ lives, those spared were not protected by weapons and gunfire. People were not saved by military strength. Those that defended them were not government officials, diplomats, or troops trained for war.
In all these cases, they were saved by people who cared.
That is what the gospel, the “good news” is all about. God cares so much about us that He did not leave us alone in the world to fight off death and violation, but sent His son Jesus Christ to live among us and be our safety. The world is a dangerous place but if we lean on the relationship that God has made for us in His Son and through the Holy Spirit, we become walking safety zones – not because we are strong but because we can stand behind our relationship with God.
The psalmist says it this way in Psalm 91:
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare
and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust." [Ps 91:1-4]
By consequence, when we live in God’s safety zone and in his shadow, every person whom we take in, we also gather into safety. We are Safety Zones every time we care. We don’t have to worry if we have enough room because the Almighty is Mighty Big. He casts a wide shadow.
God may not call us to save 250,000 people like the 22 in Nanjing, or 1200 Jewish people like Oskar Schindler during the Holocaust, or 1200 Tutsis in Rwanda like Paul Rusesabagina in the Hotel des Mille Collines. The good we do may never be immortalized in films like “Schindler’s List,” “Hotel Rwanda,” or now “Nanking.” But the good we do will forever play in the hearts and minds of those whom we care for.
Hardly a day goes by when I don’t see my father’s life in my own.
My four sisters will likely say the same. I will think something good, say something, see something, decide something for the good, and realize that they are imprints from my father who as a medical doctor and a follower of Christ saved lives every day. In the Korean War, he saved lives of men whose names and numbers his daughters will never know this side of heaven—American, South Korean and North Korean soldiers alike. His only memorials are his vault at the National Memorial Cemetary of the Pacific reserved for the U.S. veterans, and the testaments in the hearts of those to whom he gave life.
Not a day goes by when I don’t see my Heavenly Father’s life in my own. I will think something good, hear something, act on something for the good, see the good in others that I would never otherwise see, and realize that they are imprints from my Heavenly Father who calls me to touch people’s lives wherever He puts us—starting with the relationships he’s given me: my family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, grocery store clerks, fellow Earth walkers.
Truth be known, the Nanking Safety Zone didn’t materialize when the Japanese started their advance on Nanjing. It began a long time before when God started planting people in those 22 men and women’s hearts:
People, not numbers.
People, not heroic efforts.
People not memorials or books or award-winning films.
People.
* * * *
Pamela A. Chun, November 12, 2007 / Veteran’s Day ©2007
Notes “Nanking” the movie will be opening in theatres for a limited commercial run in the U.S. December 12, 2007. It is an award-winning Sundance Film Festival entry, and was featured at the Hong Kong International Film Festival, Cannes, the Tribeca Film Festival and the Hawaii International Film Festival. I would highly recommend the film for all adults and mature teens accompanied by adults. See http://nankingthefilm.com/home.htm
Among many other references:
The Rape of Nanking, Iris Chang
http://www.geocities.com/nankingatrocities/Table/table.htmhttp://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-17425624.html
The Japanese government does not agree with the facts established at the World War II International Military Tribunal for the Far East.
The film documents the 1937 occupation by the Japanese imperial army of Nanjing, China (romanized “Nanking” during that time). Beginning with the December 13, 1937 invasion and over the 50 days, the Japanese army killed more than 200,000 people and raped 20,000 women —according to the post World War II International Military Tribunal for the Far East, also known as the “Tokyo Trials.” Other reports claim numbers exceeding 300,000 killed and 30,000 women raped. History now remembers it as “The Rape of Nanking.”
Amid the horrific, hardly mentionable atrocities, some 250,000 Chinese people were saved by a small, unlikely group of ex-patriots: twenty-two Europeans and Americans that included missionaries, businessmen, an American surgeon, a Nazi, and the headmistress of a women’s missionary college.
The Japanese seized Shanghai, China’s major port to the northeast, on November 12th, then began their march down the Yangtze to Nanjing, China’s then capital. The Chinese government fled to Chongqing in the southwest. Foreign businesses evacuated their staff. Chinese with any means to leave and save their families did—leaving behind those who could not: the poor and the weak from Nanjing and the surrounding countryside.
But twenty-two men and women, who had the chance, refused to leave. Nanjing was their work, lives, love. Dr. Robert Wilson had grown up in Nanjing, the son of American missionary parents. He evacuated his wife and infant child to the States, but when his time came, he chose to stay — the only surgeon in the city. He wrote, “I can not pass up this opportunity to do something of the highest good” [my recollected paraphrase from the film].
Calling themselves the “International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone,” the 22 marked out a 3.4 square-mile Safety Zone in the Western Nanjing area providing refuge, care, food, and protection for anyone within its bounds. Before evacuating, the mayor of Nanjing gave them municipal authority over the city once the government left. They elected the Nazi businessman to chair the committee, and sent the Japanese imperial government a formal letter to establish this sanctuary for the innocent. And when the Japanese imperial army entered the city on December 13, they stood their ground without weapons, armed only with their convictions. They put themselves between the Japanese army and the Chinese people, caring for men, women and children who had been beaten, bayoneted, raped, burned, widowed, orphaned, and left to die.
250,000 people were killed in 50 days by an army. And 250,000 were saved by 22 people.
Where are the Safety Zones in our lives, and how are Safety Zones made? In the case of Nanjing, in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide that claimed the lives of 800,000 Tutsis in 100 days, and in the WWII Holocaust that took 6 million Jews’ lives, those spared were not protected by weapons and gunfire. People were not saved by military strength. Those that defended them were not government officials, diplomats, or troops trained for war.
In all these cases, they were saved by people who cared.
That is what the gospel, the “good news” is all about. God cares so much about us that He did not leave us alone in the world to fight off death and violation, but sent His son Jesus Christ to live among us and be our safety. The world is a dangerous place but if we lean on the relationship that God has made for us in His Son and through the Holy Spirit, we become walking safety zones – not because we are strong but because we can stand behind our relationship with God.
The psalmist says it this way in Psalm 91:
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare
and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust." [Ps 91:1-4]
By consequence, when we live in God’s safety zone and in his shadow, every person whom we take in, we also gather into safety. We are Safety Zones every time we care. We don’t have to worry if we have enough room because the Almighty is Mighty Big. He casts a wide shadow.
God may not call us to save 250,000 people like the 22 in Nanjing, or 1200 Jewish people like Oskar Schindler during the Holocaust, or 1200 Tutsis in Rwanda like Paul Rusesabagina in the Hotel des Mille Collines. The good we do may never be immortalized in films like “Schindler’s List,” “Hotel Rwanda,” or now “Nanking.” But the good we do will forever play in the hearts and minds of those whom we care for.
Hardly a day goes by when I don’t see my father’s life in my own.
My four sisters will likely say the same. I will think something good, say something, see something, decide something for the good, and realize that they are imprints from my father who as a medical doctor and a follower of Christ saved lives every day. In the Korean War, he saved lives of men whose names and numbers his daughters will never know this side of heaven—American, South Korean and North Korean soldiers alike. His only memorials are his vault at the National Memorial Cemetary of the Pacific reserved for the U.S. veterans, and the testaments in the hearts of those to whom he gave life.Not a day goes by when I don’t see my Heavenly Father’s life in my own. I will think something good, hear something, act on something for the good, see the good in others that I would never otherwise see, and realize that they are imprints from my Heavenly Father who calls me to touch people’s lives wherever He puts us—starting with the relationships he’s given me: my family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, grocery store clerks, fellow Earth walkers.
Truth be known, the Nanking Safety Zone didn’t materialize when the Japanese started their advance on Nanjing. It began a long time before when God started planting people in those 22 men and women’s hearts:
People, not numbers.
People, not heroic efforts.
People not memorials or books or award-winning films.
People.
* * * *
Pamela A. Chun, November 12, 2007 / Veteran’s Day ©2007
Notes “Nanking” the movie will be opening in theatres for a limited commercial run in the U.S. December 12, 2007. It is an award-winning Sundance Film Festival entry, and was featured at the Hong Kong International Film Festival, Cannes, the Tribeca Film Festival and the Hawaii International Film Festival. I would highly recommend the film for all adults and mature teens accompanied by adults. See http://nankingthefilm.com/home.htm
Among many other references:
The Rape of Nanking, Iris Chang
http://www.geocities.com/nankingatrocities/Table/table.htmhttp://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-17425624.html
The Japanese government does not agree with the facts established at the World War II International Military Tribunal for the Far East.
posted by Pam Chun at 2:27 AM
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