IRENE
That’s what I wanted to imply!
JULIA
But by doing so, by implying that Nanking was the “other holocaust,” by default you’re also implying that “The Holocaust” was the only other one in history.
FRANK
Definitely more problematic than the first.
IRENE
So—what are you saying? What are you saying? That my book has gone to print with an unknown title!
JULIA
It was going to print. And you were in the hospital. Kurt and
I couldn’t find Audrey…
IRENE
What is the title?
JULIA
I consulted with legal and with Kurt. He had your power of attorney. We made a decision.
IRENE
What is the title, Julia?
JULIA
We made a decision that got your book on the shelves. We made a decision that would make sure people will read about Nanking!
IRENE
What is it!!
Beat.
JULIA
It’s called The Nanking Incident.
Bigger beat.
KURT
Irene…
AUDREY
Omigod.
IRENE
I don’t know what to say. I don’t. Frankly—I’m shocked.
I’m shocked and hurt that you, all of you, would let this happen.
JULIA
No, wait—
IRENE
The Nanking Incident? It wasn’t an incident. It was far,
far worse and more horrible than an incident.
JULIA
I know, but let me explain our reasoning—
IRENE
There is no reasoning. There can’t be any reason behind
a decision like that! That title is absurd! It’s ridiculous! It’s not only reductive, it’s revisionist!
JULIA
I want to talk about the revisionists! The people who’ve been harassing you, they were behind the delay…
IRENE
I gathered that.
JULIA
But this is precisely why we chose “Incident.”
IRENE
Because you’re playing right into their hands. You’re helping them to erase history. You’re aiding a denial of war crimes on
a massive scale. Diminishing any culpability, any responsibility—
JULIA
No, no, no, no—
IRENE
Then what? Yes! Please explain to me!
JULIA
If I was some kind of right-wing nut, which you know very well that I’m not. But if I was, and hell-bent on Japanese nationalism, it would be much easier for me to argue against a Nanking Holocaust than a Nanking Incident. Do you see? There is too much evidence to deny an “Incident.” It would make those radicals seem completely irrational if they tried to do that. These groups would lose any credibility they had with moderate thinkers. Do you see? Do you see how it’s a better choice?
IRENE
It’s easier to build a case against a holocaust—
JULIA
Yes…
IRENE
But harder to build against an incident?
JULIA
Not harder—virtually impossible.
AUDREY
So the title… makes it more difficult for people to deny what happened.
JULIA
Exactly.
AUDREY
I see.
IRENE
I don’t.
JULIA
I’m trying to help you, your book.
IRENE
Changing the title doesn’t have to do with sales?
JULIA
Oh, I would never presume to say that. Never. Doesn’t selling more books help you?
IRENE
Yes—but…
JULIA
Say you’re browsing in a big bookstore on a Saturday afternoon? You come across a series of books, each with the title Holocaust and Massacre and Atrocity and lastly Incident. Which one of those would you pick up?
IRENE
Well…
JULIA
I know exactly which ones you’d pick up. The rest of us folk, us average types wouldn’t bother with those for our weekend reading. No, we would choose Incident.
FRANK
It almost sounds like “innocent,” doesn’t it?
JULIA
(to FRANK) You’re not helping.
AUDREY
So these average types, they’d end up reading her book. Otherwise they would’ve walked right by it?
JULIA
Exactly. Don’t you want more people reading your book? How much of the market would you be eliminating if they don’t even bother to pick the book up? That’s marketing. Tricking people into doing things they don’t want to do. And facing Nanking? Not many people want to do that.
IRENE
This is not my title. I will not allow it to be published this way.
FRANK
It’s done. Your husband signed off on it. There’s nothing you can do.
IRENE
No. I won’t let it. Kurt? Say something!
AUDREY
Irene. Think about it. It’s just a title!
IRENE
No! Kurt?!
KURT
Irene—Julia’s right! She’s right! That’s why I agreed!
IRENE
Kurt!
JULIA
It would not have been published at all with “holocaust” in
the title. Referring to Nanking as a holocaust is inflammatory.
FRANK
You can’t compare Nanking to the Holocaust—
IRENE
The facts are here and it is indisputable. In Nanking, 1937, Japanese troops committed some of the most horrific atrocities in
the history of warfare. I’m not trying to say that Nanking was more important, or that more people died, or it was the only time in the history that—
FRANK
What then?
IRENE
I’m just trying to put a spotlight on it. It’s been forgotten for so long—I don’t want people to forget! The numbers from Nanking are real. The Japanese army kept records, the Red Cross kept records, the journalists from all countries kept records. The established numbers—from a number of sources—during the initial six week invasion period, twenty thousand women and children raped. At least three hundred thousand dead! In six weeks! I know that three hundred thousand Chinese is not the same as six million Jews. They are not comparable—nor are they meant to be. They were individuals… men, women, children, people! This is not about victims or who has been more victimized in history! Of course, there are countless atrocities, the Turks against the Armenians, Hutus against the Tutsis, hell, the Chinese amongst themselves! I am not talking about those atrocities, I am not talking about the numbers! I am talking about Nanking, 1937. This is what I am talking about. And to dismiss Nanking—to dismiss the three hundred thousand dead, to dismiss three hundred thousand individuals—to treat them as trivial, to refer to their deaths as an “incident,” well—its as bad as denial of the Holocaust.
JULIA
No one is dismissing your claims.
FRANK
It’s just that Holocaust, even in your usage now, has long been associated with the Jews and the Nazis…
IRENE
Okay! Let’s talk about the Jews and the Nazis.
FRANK
You just finished saying it has nothing to do
with them!
IRENE
Let’s talk about them, because I want to talk about them!
Yes, there was Niklas Hermann. He wrote and complained to Hitler. But there were other Germans, other Nazi members in Nanking. And when it was all over, when all the raping and pillaging had been done, they wrote reports too. They were witness to the unequivocal disastrous invasion of Nanking, the sloppiness, the heaps of bodies in the street, the killing of citizens one by one with bayonets. It was messy and time-consuming and put the average foot soldier at risk. The undisciplined nature of the invasion by Japan had such an effect that these Nazis recommended that Germany never operate this way. They condemned Japan for their inefficient and bad warfare. So—what? Better to keep citizens complacent, so they would not panic, so that foreigners would not have time or cause to react. Better, at first to cordon off the citizens in their own city. Mark them so that everyone knows who they are. Control them with walls and checkpoints, and eventually… eventually, invite them to pack a bag and take a train ride into the countryside. I believe the legacy of Nanking is that it instilled in the Nazis a need to be more efficient killers!
KURT
Let’s try, let’s try and talk about this rationally—
IRENE
Talk? Talk about what, Kurt? What do you want to talk about?
KURT
God. I can’t even hear you! Listen to yourself!
IRENE
We are talking about my book, my work—
JULIA
Let’s try and calm down, c’mon—
IRENE
My work—you’re trying to deny me a voice. This is how it starts goddamit. This is how it starts. You are trying to deny me and in doing so, you’re denying every person who was killed in Nanking, every woman who was systematically raped—
KURT
Stop, I can’t stand it!
IRENE
And not just the Japanese in Nanking… I’m talking about all women caught in war! Rape as a weapon of war, as a part of an imperialistic plan to terrorize a population! Rape as a genocidal plan to wipe out child-bearers and ruin ethnic lines! But worse! Omigod worse than that! The refusal to acknowledge it. The systematic denial of it! That’s like taking the women and raping them again!
KURT
Stop it! Shut up! Shut up!
IRENE
I know you can’t acknowledge it. I know you can’t! Your family has you so fucked up and turned around you can’t even see straight! I know that you wish the raping of women in Nankingwas a “by-product,” a happenstance amidst chaos, an unfortunate consequence of war, but it was not! It was not some wishy-washy story of your grandfather on the beach stuck between two hard choices. Your grandfather had a choice. He either participated in
the rapes as a loyal member of the Japanese army or he did not.
My evidence says he did.
Silence. Then FRANK clears his throat.
FRANK
Irene. The book has gone to print. Your contract commits you to promoting it. I ensure that you don’t get Hartford into
a lawsuit. I expect you at the meeting tomorrow before the launch.
I think we’re done here.
He starts to go.
IRENE
Julia, please—you’re not going to let this happen, are you?
JULIA
I’m not sure what you want me to say.
IRENE
I want you to say that you’re not going to let this happen.
JULIA
I can’t…
FRANK
It’s a done deal.
IRENE
Why keep it from me? Why wait until—
JULIA
It came up, and Kurt and I discussed it…
IRENE
Why not discuss it with me?
JULIA
You were not available!
FRANK
Julia! Let’s go!
IRENE
I don’t believe this!
JULIA
Look! I want nothing more than to see the book’s success! Do you understand? I would not have commissioned it otherwise. It’s just a title, a small compromise! It will get your book on the shelves! You may hate me, you may curse my name up and down, but it doesn’t change the fact that I’m on your side!
IRENE cannot answer. The cell phone, forgotten, rings.
The room stops.
IRENE
What should I do?
KURT
Get it if you want.
AUDREY
Maybe it’s Mom?
JULIA
Someone get it.
It rings. Finally FRANK answers the phone.
FRANK
Hello?… This is Frank. Who’s calling?… (to the group, handing over the receiver) Sean? Do you know a Sean?
AUDREY
Claire’s boyfriend?
FRANK
(into the phone) And what would this be regarding?… Hang on. (to the group) Wants to congratulate you on the book. (into the phone) Look, this isn’t really the best—
IRENE takes the phone from him.
IRENE
Hello, Sean? Irene. What?
Her tone and body language immediately shift.
They move towards her, but she shakes her head and waves them off. They try to get the phone from her, but she is insistent on taking the call herself.
Why would you say something like that?… Are you going to read the book?… No, I want to know. Are you going to read it?… Give me your address, I’d be happy to arrange a copy…. Look, I think if you actually read it…
A long extended beat as IRENE listens intensely. And then suddenly—
Shut up! Shut the fuck up! You’re perverted—you know that! You’re fucking sick!
JULIA takes the phone.
JULIA
I don’t know who the hell you think you are, but we’ve had security tracing these calls for weeks, so we’ll find you, don’t you fucking worry! You stupid fuck! We’ll sue your ass so bad you won’t even know— (to the group) He hung up.
KURT
Damn, damn, damn, dammit!
JULIA
Honey, are you okay?
AUDREY
Is that true? Are the calls being traced?
JULIA
No.
IRENE
Oh god.
AUDREY
What did he say?
IRENE
He said—that if I didn’t stop writing about this. He’d give me what I deserve. He do to me what the soldiers did in Nanking. He’d tie me down, take a bayonet and…
She cannot finish.
JULIA
Frank—what legal recourse does she have? What can we do?
FRANK
Where’s my phone?
JULIA
Should we tap her phones?
KURT
But it’s an actual threat isn’t it?
FRANK
Kurt! We’re working on it!
JULIA
I’ll call head office!
FRANK
Hello… yes… I’d like to make a report.
IRENE
Stop it.
They ignore her.
FRANK
My client has just received a very nasty call…
IRENE
I said stop it! Stop it, stop it, stop it!
She grabs FRANK’s phone and throws it.
FRANK
What the hell!?
IRENE
I’m not going to go along with this! I won’t!
AUDREY
Calm down!
KURT
We’re trying to keep you safe!
JULIA
Irene—
IRENE
No! I don’t want my phones tapped! I’m not going to live
that way!
JULIA
But this threat, it is a real threat. For your protection—
IRENE
Nooooo! I said no! Am I making myself clear?
KURT
Irene—we’re only trying to help you—
IRENE
Get out! Get out of my house!
AUDREY
Irene!
JULIA
I’m going to send security okay? I’ll make sure—
IRENE
No! No security! I don’t want to be guarded!
JULIA
I’m sorry—I have to. You’ll thank me later.
IRENE
I’ll thank you?
IRENE is calm for a second and then flips out, lunging
for JULIA.
Get out! Get out of my house! Get out!
Everyone pulls her back but she struggles.
KURT
Hey! Hey! C’mon now. C’mon.
She is held back, still yelling.
IRENE
Get them out! Get them out!
AUDREY manages to separate IRENE from JULIA.
KURT
(to JULIA) Are you okay?
FRANK
You are crazy!
JULIA
I am trying to help you! Kurt, we’ll talk tomorrow. I’ll call
you tomorrow.
They exit.
AUDREY
(to IRENE) Are you okay? Do you want water or something?
IRENE nods. AUDREY goes.
IRENE
Why did she say that?
KURT
What?
IRENE
That you’ll “talk tomorrow”?
KURT
We will.
IRENE
No, she meant that you will. You will talk to her about me.
As if I am an item to be discussed—
KURT
I didn’t mean it that way—
IRENE
Why can’t you support me?
KURT
What more do you want?
IRENE
I want you to support me!
KURT
How am I not doing that!? I’m coming tomorrow!
IRENE
So we’ll look like a happy couple!
KURT
When you started this, I supported you. I stopped working. I helped you research, I translated. I made a choice to support you and I did everything that I could! It was hard, god it was hard. It only got harder and harder as you got more obsessed. Your head was always buried in some new research. It was always your work.
A Nanking Winter Page 4