First of, I would like to express that it is important for everyone to know about the Rape of Nanking, as I believe it is an important subject and that it is not talked about enough in schools today.

I had to read this book for one of my classes. I already knew a bit about the event, having covered it in other courses throughout college, but I was highly disappointed with the factual errors and oversimplification exhibited by the author in the book. Chang is blatantly biased, which I suppose is acceptable considering the horrendous tragedy inflicted on the Chinese of Nanking, yet she lets this bias spill over into her books and states many inaccuracies and exaggerations as facts. For instance although it was one of many historical capitals of China, Nanking was a fairly small city during World War II due largely to famine and civil war before Japanese invasion. Many of the people executed in Nanking were not only from the city but also from the surrounding provinces or other POW's, thus it is hard to say if the actual number is significantly higher or lower, though I must say that I personally believe it to be between 150,000-200,000 people.

I also find it disturbing that Chang does not adequately have a reason for the Japanese causing such devastation in Nanking. Even a brutal military government must find a legitimate reason to butcher hundreds of thousands of people. In the epilogue, she stated that the violence was an act of love, "a struggle between brothers," while also stating the Japanese had "virulent contempt" for the Chinese. These are quite contradictory, and although i can never say for certain if these are true there is a more plausible reason. The Chinese did not have a regular army at this point; they were split into nationalist, communist, and warlord militias or guerrilla groups, with the nationalists bearing the brunt of fighting the Japanese. As irregular soldiers, they often fought in civilian clothes in hit and run tactics. The soldiers would often hide within the general population until a chance to strike again then melt into another sector of the populace. This is not a new tactic, it has been used by guerrilla's around the world for a very long time. The Japanese Army had suffered many casualties and had been frustrated at not facing regular troops like they had been trained to do. When they subjugated Nanking they did what they thought best to do at the time: preserve their own lives, kill as many of the able bodied men they found and cast fear into the population so they won't harbor irregular troops. The Rape of Nanking was the venting of frustration Japanese troops had endured in China with few rewards in between and little chance of returning home whole.

I find the overall view of Japanese history, modern culture and character to be overly simplified and stereotyped. Much of the revisionist views expressed towards the end of the book are from Japanese ultra-nationalists and is hardly reflective of Japanese society. The Japanese left is very prominent in offering apologies and amends and has kept the issue alive and hot. We must also remember that Japan today is not the same as Imperial Japan, that it is a nation ashamed of it's expansionist past and has kept quiet for so long because the country as a whole knew it had done something horrendous. What neo-nazi's say in places like Germany is not reflective of the general population, it is just a fringe group.

Overall, I would say the book covers an important subject but the author should have researched more and not stereotyped the Japanese and perhaps given the book a more balanced look at the reaction in China, Japan, and the West

Although this book is horrifying in its detail, it is a must read for anyone who wants to learn more about what happened in Asia during WWII. It is truly sad that as Americans we seem to only focus on what has happened to us and our European neighbors during the war.

Though I know Japanese Army committed war criminal in Nanking and I don't want to justify it, this book contains a lot of factual inaccuracies and misrepresented and fake photographs. Many of her assertions aren't based on academical facts, and her view is smudged by a strong prejudice against Japan. Her attitude toward this problem and Academic itself is simply unacceptable. Those who want to study not Chinese Propaganda but History should NOT trust this book.

I had known about this book for quite some time, but only got around to reading it recently. You need quite a bit of mental fortitude to get through such a book; it is graphic in the extreme. I stealed myself for the effort, but got quite upset by about page 80. The accounts of savagery - gang rape almost always followed by murder, dousing people with gas and setting them alight, bayoneting practice, ad infinitum - require a kind of mental detachment that may be hard to summon. But the book is much, much more than accounts from diaries, etc., although these are fascinating. There is all sorts of research here; interesting tidbits on everything from the manner in which the city of Nanjing was abandoned by Chiang Kai-shek to the Tokyo War Crimes tribunal to CCP spin on the atrocities after it came to power to the incredible efforts to deny and cover up the event in Japan. I seldom use the phrase 'page-turner' to decribe a book (it's a bit cliche, no?), but that's what this book is; one mind-boggling, shocking scenario after another, brimming with facts and examples all penned in a fine style. The subtitle, 'The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II,' is apt, not some marketing ploy. The parts about John Rabe alone, a Nazi living in Nanjing at the time, who did whatever he could to save people's lives (including inform Adolf Hitler of the genocide), make this worth reading. The Rape of Nanking is a fascinating "lost chapter" of twentieth century world history.

Reading this book reminded me about the unsightly tragedies that happened in Korea during the wartime as well. I remember my Korean grandmother telling me horrible stories of her childhood as she witnessed the people around her getting killed and bombed from the Japanese.

I am surrounded by Japanese-American and native Japanese friends, and I can say with a certain fact that they are not stupid or ignorant to this history. Also, they are very keen in understanding what has transpired and apologetic about their ancestors doings, but don't feel guilty themselves...for, why should they?

I remember many of my friend's Korean parents would tell me, as I grew up playing at my friend's house, to never play with Japanese people and that they were all cold-hearted. Maybe they were then, because of the pressures of the war, but this is not true now. My point is, we should not blame the current society and spread racist remarks or hatred to the individual people of Japan, but instead show our concerns to the government.

I also think that war makes people inhuman. This is unfortunate, but from the history I've studied, is true. Looking at the Al Qaeda, Nazi, Stalin's slaughters, Darfur, and the constant wars that go on today, it is not the people but the war itself that creates beasts within us.

It astounds me that so few people know about the horrific events in China, and particularly Nanking, during WWII. This book can change that. No one can read the work without coming away with a new understanding of how easily human nature can be twisted to doing the unthinkable. Like the Nazis of Germany, the Japanese soldiers talked about in the work are people just like we are, but because of the circumstances and culture in which they were thrust they were capable of truly horrific things. The Rape of Nanking primarily describes what happened when the Japanese occupied the city. It is an apt title. Huge numbers of women were literally raped to death. The numbers of atrocities described in the book are astounding and terrifying. Like the Holocaust in Europe, however, they are important to remember.

When I read the work, the stories of heroism and courage literally brought me to tears. I eagerly examined the pictures in the center of the book so I could see with my own eyes the people that I had grown to admire and feel such overwhleming compassion for while reading. Not only is the work full of the terrifying reality of what people are capable of, it also contains amazing stories of heroism. This, more than the atrocities, was what brought the tears to my eyes.

One cuatiounary note: I have seen some reviewers question some of the figures given in the work. Many believe that it severely overestimates the numbers of people who died during the occupation. However, even if the numbers are vastly overestimated, the events described in the book are real and staggering. Everyone should know what happened there, and I recommend this book to readers mature enough to handle the graphic content.

The Rape of Nanking is historically accurate. Since I have lived in China for a very long time, I have heard about this horrible massacre since I was a little girl. I have heard in news that Japan had concealed this event even from its own people. The leaders of the country had been in denial of this whole historical event for many years. The teachers had taught the students the false information in their history class. I even heard that Japan had burned those textbook that included the details about the Rape of Nanking. Japan had really infuriated the Chinese people by not facing what they had done decades ago. These things were all revealed in this book. Although The American Pageant did not really talk about the Rape of Nanking, we did learn from the textbook that Japan tried to follow Germany's path to take control over the continent of Asia, including China. This fact led to the great massacre and was included in The Rape of Nanking.
The author of this text, Iris Chang, had heard about the Rape of Nanking when she was little. She heard this from her parents, who had immigrated to America from China during World War II. Therefore, she had the background information about this event. However, she said in the book that the Nanking Massacre had "remained buried in the back of mind as a metaphor for unspeakable evil" because she had never found any books in any public libraries that had been written about this massacre. Thus this triggered her to collect information to write a book about this. The text interprets the Rape of Nanking as inhuman. The book describes all the details about the tortures and killings that happened during the massacre as well as the data of the total number of people who died during the seven weeks. The text also records how Japan had kept the massacre as a secret to the rest of the world. The book hence has exposed the truth the public about the event and criticized the lies that Japan has been using for years.
Iris Chang said in the book that "the Rape of Nanking should be remembered not only for the number of people slaughtered but for the cruel manner in which many met their deaths." I believe the author really wanted the audience to understand the pain that many had suffered during the massacre rather than just simply knowing how many people had been killed during this event. The text also helps the readers to understand that not all historical events will be revealed in the light because some of them will be concealed by the government or denied by the government.
I would recommend this book to anybody, especially those people who are interested in Asian history. I really wanted to know more about the Rape of Nanking, and I liked this book because I think this book provides a lot of great details about the event. I would give this book a rate of 4 because I really like the information it is giving throughout the book, but I think it gets a little bit boring as the book goes on.

In the years since World War II era China, much has been done to cover the atrocities of the Japanese army in Nanjing. Relatively few people know about what happened during this horrific time, and even fewer understand the many years of persecution which led to this event. Japanese aggression was not limited to this event, nor was it limited to the era: decades before this Japan was attacking and manipulating China (as were other foreign powers).

For understanding exactly what happened during this event, this might be a helpful place to begin. I sensed some bias on the part of the author, though it didn't seem so overwhelming to discount the facts of what happened.

Anyone who has traveled to China probably wonders why the Chinese people are so adamantly opposed to the Japanese. They think, "Even if these events were terrible, they were so LONG ago! How can they still be upset?" There are two answers for this. The first is a long history of government censorship and manipulation of information in China. This is self-explanatory. The second takes a little more thinking. From what moral platform do we say, "they should just get over it!"? Are we speaking from experience? Because the last time I checked we have not been invaded by a foreign government in the last several hundred years. If we are alluding to our ability to "get over" WWII, the fact is, we were not being invaded, raped and pillaged. I guess I'm saying not to compare apples and oranges when you make an argument that the Chinese are out-of-line for still feeling such anger.

Another lesson I was reminded of in this book is that governments manipulate their people. It is in their interest to deceive and take advantage of people for many reasons (not the least of which is survival).

I wish the author would have gone into more depth about the reasons behind Japanese criminality at the time, but otherwise this book is the perfect beginning to help you understand this tragic event.

I have read other accounts of Japan's barbaric behaviour in China but this one is as nightmarish as the accounts of Germanys' entry into Poland and Russia in WW2 . .Japan still does not acknowledge its culpability for the atrocities it committed,whereas Germany has compensated those most affected by their action.Whereas Germany has exhibiter remorse Japan's history books do not acknowledge their involvement.The author serves to remind us those who don't learn from history are bound to repeat it.

I could not believe what I was reading, a horrific story of just how bad the human race can be. I honestly had never heard of Nanking and I've read several books on WWII. This book is graphic in its detail of just how badly the Chinese people, women in particular, we treated. I found it difficult to put the book down and would certainly recommend it.

Iris Chang does not spare any details in this brutal narrative of the Japanese brutalization of the city of Nanking. This book can be hard to read at times due to the way in which Chang wrote it. I have never been moved by a book before, but there were times when I had to put this book down and do something else due to the graphic nature of Chang's account. No matter how disturbing it may have been, in the end it was worth it, because Chang portrayed the events in their true light, not glossed over or reduced in intensity, and this is what makes her work so great. This is one of the best historical works that I have ever read, and I read history for a living.

.....is condemned to repeat it. I remember the storm of controversy over this book when it came out ten years ago, and the torrent of abuse that Miss Chang had to take. Some, like G. Gordon Liddy, openly supported her, but too many did not. While no reasonable person today denies the German murder of Jews, many highly placed people still deny that over a six week period begining December 13, 1937, the Japanese army murdered upwards of 400,000 Chinese in Nanking...they did, and Miss Chang has the evidence to prove it.....

When WWII ended, German war criminals were made to pay the price, or to become hunted fugitives. Some Japanese leaders, did, indeed, hang for their crimes, but many, of high rank and low, lived openly while proclaiming their deeds. You see, we needed Japan as a trading partner, and, besides, China had gone over to the Dark Side. Is that so strange to us? Phil Sheridan and David Hunter lived out their days with "respect", and if Beast Butler was held in contempt by his own troops, he was still able to hold political office. And no Union soldier ever paid for his war crimes, which I admit are nothing in comparison with the story told here. Miss Chang was right; the capacity for atrocity exists in EVERY nation, and race.

In the midst of great evil, there was still great good...the International Safety Zone, organized and run by Nazi businessman John Rabe, saved around 200,000 lives. Oskar Schindler is renown, as he should be, but John Rabe is known to but few. [The parallels between Schindler and Rabe are uncanny, and , ultimately, sad].

I think Miss Chang missed the boat on one or two points; she accepts religion as a motivation for murder in China, but dismisses it in Germany; it is true that Germany was Christianized, but the Lutheran Church had embraced Augustinian Amillenialism, which ultimately makes the Jew an unperson, then makes it OK to kill him. Read Martin Luther...a truly vile anti-Semite....

This is one of the most profound books I have ever read...you NEED to read it, though, be warned, it will make you sick. The documented detail is too great to refute, and those who deny the Nanking massacre need to be marginalized with the Nazi Holocaust deniers. God rest Iris Chang's soul...in the end, it was too much for her to live with...may it be too much for all of us to tolerate....Never Again....

Reading Iris Chang's "The Rape of Nanking", it staggers the mind to think that the brutality she describes is even imaginable. Yet, as countless records and testimonies have shown, the cruelty of the Japanese forces in Nanking (Nanjing) was real and should not be overlooked or ignored by history. By the end of the Japanese occupation, hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians were murdered in cold blood, many after being raped and tortured. This book tells the harrowing story of those who died, those who did the killing, and those who bravely worked to save Nanjing and it's inhabitants from certain death.

This is not an easy book to read. Iris Chang provides grisly details about the most inhuman acts of violence documented during the occupation. The accounts she gives are both shocking and unforgetable - yet, that is the point. We should understand just how evil human beings can become and strive for something better.

Of course, many will no doubt fault Iris Chang for her lack of objectivity (her family narrowly escaped the city before the Rape began). But this is not meant to be a dispassionate analysis of military movements or statistics related to population decline. Instead, this is a passionate work which is meant to call attention to one of the worse war-time atrocities in modern history. Published almost 10 years ago, the author begins her work by saying that the Rape of Nanking is largely unknown outside of Asia. Over the past decade however, I think this book has changed that, and has lead to an increased awareness of this tragedy in the West. But, as world understanding of this event has grown, the Japanese government still insists on minimizing the true scope of the Rape. It seems the only people who were influenced by the pro-Japanese propoganda which circulated in Asia during World War Two, were the Japanese themselves.

This is one of the most influential popular history books ever written. It deserves to be read by everyone, especially in an age where the brutality of war is becoming more common and more destructive.

Many people have a general awareness that Japan was one of the more violent and barbaric nations on earth prior to being bombed into pacifism and docility by the United States. But such a description is rather generic, lacking the meat on the bones narrative that really allows the reality to come to life. Iris Chang changed that situation dramatically with THE RAPE OF NANKING, in which she introduced not only the Nanking atrocities, but Japanese barbarism of the period, to a wider audience.

Chang did extensive research for the book, including interviewing Nanking survivors and using diaries, photographs and film of various Westerners in the city at the time. The result is one of the more heartbreaking books one is likely to come across. Indeed, one friend of mine returned the book unread despite having specifically requested to borrow it. The book was so disturbing that she just could not get very far into it without becoming too emotionally agitated.

The atrocities described in THE RAPE OF NANKING are indeed horrific and it takes some spine to get through them. Simple rape and decapitation were just the appetizers. Some of the more inhumane tortures were so gruesome that it leaves a reviewer in the position of being considered indelicate simply for describing them here. On a brighter note (a relative phrase here, to be sure), Chang also discusses the efforts of those who tried their hardest to save as many lives as possible. War really does bring out the best and worst of mankind.

Despite Chang's extensive research, she failed to do any research in Japan itself. Of course, any official Japanese statement must be taken with a grain of salt, yet other sources within that nation should have been used. The book is not without errors that a simple internet search will reveal and, although that may be true of any historical book, a broader research inventory might have been helpful. I saw Chang speak once and, although she was not overtly hostile to the Japanese, I found her to be slanted enough that I could not help but wonder whether it affected her research. I do not mean that to be negative, but just a thought.

Any defects in Chang's research, however, are minor compared to the overall picture. Anyone thinking of going to Hiroshima to protest against American militarism should read THE RAPE OF NANKING instead and save the two thousand bucks in plane fare.

This is the first book I've read on Japanese aggression in Nanking, and as far as that goes, it's a very good, easy read, and gives a good overview of a depressing point in history. It is very eye-opening in some unexpected ways, such as having a Nazi being really one of the "good guys", and on the other hand the continued evasion of Japan in facing their responsibilities.

I think it's worth reading, and hesitate to try and describe any faults. There are areas I'd like more detail on, but OTOH, if the book became too mired in detail, it might become unreadable. I would appreciate more photos, but OTOH, too many more could be construed as grisly for grisly's sake. Overall, it's a good mix and a good book. I feel better educated than before I read it.

The bestial massacre of Nanking is by any standards one of the worst evil deeds in the history of mankind. Hundreds of thousands of men, women, children and babies were brutally slaughtered in a few weeks. For those who will (or can) not read this book only one example: babies were impaled on bayonets and thrown in boiling water. Even the dead didn't receive a human treatment. Their bodies were thrown to the dogs as food.

How (was) is it possible that part of mankind sank bank into such unlimited barbarism?
The author sees different reasons:
Religion: the emperor was a god and `next to the emperor all individual life was valueless.'
Politics: Japan was an unchequed authoritarian regime dominated by the military.
Racism: the Japanese considered themselves as a master-race, with a virulent contempt for the Chinese.
Education (military) and indoctrination: teenagers were molded into killing machines.'
As one soldier put is: `In Nanking everyone became a demon within three months.'

What happened in Nanking was received jubilantly by the jingoist Japanese press. Newspapers even published the outcome of a decapitation contest. The events were also covered internationally, but it was `frightening to see how easily mankind can accept genocides.'
In sharp contrast with the unmoved international community, a courageous group of foreigners created a safety zone saving thousands of Chinese lives.

Japan has a moral obligation to present at least an official apology for what happened during the war. `Nanking was only a fraction of the totality of the atrocities committed.'
The culprits received pensions and benefits, while the victims who survived continue to suffer shame, poverty and chronic physical and mental pains.

This book is a truly exceptional illustration (also graphically) of how the thin veneer of civilization can be broken.
Highly recommended, but only for those with a strong stomach.

The bestial massacre of Nanking is by any standards one of the worst evil deeds in the history of mankind. Hundreds of thousands of men, women, children and babies were brutally slaughtered in a few weeks. For those who will (or can) not read this book only one example: babies were impaled on bayonets and thrown in boiling water. Even the dead didn't receive a human treatment. Their bodies were thrown to the dogs as food.

How (was) is it possible that part of mankind sank back into such unlimited barbarism?
The author sees different reasons:
Religion: the emperor was a god and `next to the emperor all individual life was valueless.'
Politics: Japan was an unchequed authoritarian regime dominated by the military.
Racism: the Japanese considered themselves as a master-race, with a virulent contempt for the Chinese.
Education (military) and indoctrination: teenagers were molded into killing machines.'
As one soldier put is: `In Nanking everyone became a demon within three months.'

What happened in Nanking was received jubilantly by the jingoist Japanese press. Newspapers even published the outcome of a decapitation contest. The events were also covered internationally, but it was `frightening to see how easily mankind can accept genocides.'
In sharp contrast with the unmoved international community, a courageous group of foreigners created a safety zone saving thousands of Chinese lives.

Japan has a moral obligation to present at least an official apology for what happened during the war. `Nanking was only a fraction of the totality of the atrocities committed.'
The culprits received pensions and benefits, while the victims who survived continue to suffer shame, poverty and chronic physical and mental pains.

This book is a truly exceptional illustration (also graphically) of how the thin veneer of civilization can be broken.
Highly recommended, but only for those with a strong stomach.

Iris Chang has close personal ties to the Nanking Massacre - her parents narrowly escaped the orgy of violence that ensued in 1938 - 1939. This raises questions of objectivity, which Chang clearly struggles with, hence the four stars. However, the book is well-researched and credible sources are cited - a necessary point given the accusations made.

Chang begins with a brief history of modern (since the Meji restoration) Japanese history, seeking to provide some explaination for the barbarity that happened in China during the Japanese occupation. This provides some critical background information before the catalogue of atrocities are presented in gruesome detail: gang rapes, the desecration of corpses, torture - the savagery and brutality of which appalled me. The primary sources used in researching this are irrefutable to the serious historian.

Chang then goes on to talk about the aftermath of the "Rape of Nanking" begining with the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (the "Asian Nuremburg" trial) concluding with an excellent analysis of why so few were punished and what the long-term consequences of not addressing the larger issue of Japanese war crimes are, especially in light of her claim that what happened in Nanking was deliberate Japanese policy; in fact, she goes on to write that the Nanking massacre was "a metaphor for Japanese behaviour during the war." The book concludes exploring why the Holocaust in Europe is much more familar than the atrocities committed in Asia.

To some Japanese, Chang's claims are exaggerations or fabrications. (See Tanaka Maasaki's "What Really Happened in Nanking" for this perspective.) The historical record, however, clearly supports Chang's account. What struck me most deeply, however, was the similarity between the accounts of 1938 China and Yugoslavia in the 1990's, particularly the contest over whose story is told (and which history is written) and who is punished. There are lessons to be learned here larger than a single event. Recommended reading for armchair historians.

Iris Chang has close personal ties to the Nanking Massacre - her parents narrowly escaped the orgy of violence that ensued in 1938 - 1939. This raises questions of objectivity, which Chang clearly struggles with, hence the four stars. However, the book is well-researched and credible sources are cited - a necessary point given the accusations made.

Chang begins with a brief history of modern (since the Meji restoration) Japanese history, seeking to provide some explaination for the barbarity that happened in China during the Japanese occupation. This provides some critical background information before the catalogue of atrocities are presented in gruesome detail: gang rapes, the desecration of corpses, torture - the savagery and brutality of which appalled me. The primary sources used in researching this are irrefutable to the serious historian.

Chang then goes on to talk about the aftermath of the "Rape of Nanking" begining with the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (the "Asian Nuremburg" trial) concluding with an excellent analysis of why so few were punished and what the long-term consequences of not addressing the larger issue of Japanese war crimes are, especially in light of her claim that what happened in Nanking was deliberate Japanese policy; in fact, she goes on to write that the Nanking massacre was "a metaphor for Japanese behaviour during the war." The book concludes exploring why the Holocaust in Europe is much more familar than the atrocities committed in Asia.

To some Japanese, Chang's claims are exaggerations or fabrications. The historical record, however, clearly supports Chang's account. What struck me most deeply, however, was the similarity between the accounts of 1938 China and Yugoslavia in the 1990's, particularly the contest over whose story is told (and which history is written) and who is punished. There are lessons to be learned here larger than a single event. Recommended reading for armchair historians.

Iris Chang's "The Rape of Nanking" is a horrifying and gruesome account of the infamous "Rape of Nanjing" where in less than a two month span from 1937-1938, an estimated 200,000-450,000 captured Chinese civilians and unarmed, surrendering solders were massacred and/or raped in cold blood by the Japanese Military during World War II. It is also about the aftermath of the massacre in a historical sense, and the toll it has had on the victims, historians, and the world, especially Sino-Japanese relations.



Chang's writing is intense, emotional, detailed, and thought provoking. Given that her grandparents were from Nanjing and narrowly escaped their own fate from the hell of what happened there, we must read this with an understanding that Chang is inherently biased in her accounts and at times comes off as extremely emotional in her contempt of the Japanese in certain passages.



Despite her bias, she desperately tries to stay objective in her accounts, though not always successfully (the passage, even despite the cited references, on Japanese being cannibals of murdered chinese male's genitalia seemed highly questionable and speculative).



Chang makes strides in her discussion of historiology by pointing out the cancer of how history is manipulated by politics, government intervention, propaganda, radical Conservatism/Liberalism, diplomacy and political events. Because of the "Cold War", "Sino-Japanese relations", WWII itself" and "US-Japanese allegiances", the events of Nanjing have been eerily and perhaps permanently distorted at the expense of 100's of thousands of innocent victims.



The book is well organized and informative although I question her premise which nearly implies that American society and that even Japanese society is ignorant of the events that occurred in Nanjing in 1937-1938. In her premise for writing the book, she attempts to imply that there was nearly no literary English reference to the Rape of Nanjing and provided only two literary accounts in English (both written 50 years after the "Rape") of this massacre. However, she failed to site the well documented account of this Massacre in the famous military television documentary seen by millions of Americans and Europeans in the 1970s, "The World at War" where Sir Laurence Olivier made a very clear historical historical reference while footage was shown of the massacre including General Matsui's march on horse through the streets of Nanjing and footage of tied Chinese captives murdered execution style while on their knees and hands tied behind their backs:



"It was here that Nanking in December 1937 that the Japanese perpetrated what was until then, one of the worst atrocities of this century when their troops massacred more than 200,000 Chinese in cold blood.



There is also a minor question statistic she references with respect to the number of Americans killed in the Korean ar which she noted 34,000. In Washington DC, the memorial noted over 54,000 Americans dead. But, to Chang's credit, as I've learned in this book, accounting for the number of dead is never an absolute accuracy. For example, is a person dying of a disease or out of accident during war considered having been killed in a war? That's highly subjective. An American bias would count that death as a casualty of war whereby Pro Chinese or North Korean source might not accounts for that death. Both have case to include or exclude that number from the number of casualties.



The most interesting passages relate to Chang's discussion of the acts of humanity during this catastrophe, specifically of the spectacular irony of how John Rabe, an educated German who even held a stron Nazi fervor (the Nazi's were allies of Japan during the war) was responsible for saving the lives of over 300,000 Chinese by setting up a miniscule 2.5 square mile safety zone within proximity of where the Rape and Massacre happened.



My favorite passage in this entire book was on her research of what happened to John Rabe after he left Nanjing. It was beautifully written and had me reading copiously to find her resolution on what happened to thsi "Schindler of Nanjing."



Poignant also was her research on the outcomes of other European and Americans who were in Nanjing during the siege and how politics ostracized these heros whose humanitarian efforts went unnoticed.



In her introduction, Iris Chang mused that her "greatest hope is that this book will inspire other authors and historians to investigate the stories of Nanjing" and that it will "stir the conscience of Japan to accept responsibility for this incident.



This book should really inspire the world to skeptically evaluate their own histories with a fine tooth comb given the Japanese Government's attempt to undermine what happened in Nanking.



On a side note, this book also inspires me to read more of the Jewish communities who fled Nazi Persecution Europe to live in Shangahi, which had been coincidentally the starting point of Japanese occupation prior to the capture of Nanjing. This book also inspires me to research the horror of the Bataan Death March and of the mass burials that occurred in Hong Kong, other areas of China, the Phillipines and other areas that had been seized by the Imperialist Japanese forces during WWII.

Iris Chang's "Rape of Nanking" is the horrifying and gruesome account of the infamous Rape of Nanking where in 1937-1938, an estimated 200,000-450,000 captured Chinese soldiers and civilians were massacred, murdered in cold blood by the Japanese Military during World War II. It is also about the aftermath of the event in a historical sense, and the toll it has had on the victims, historians, and the world.





Chang's writing is intense, emotional, detailed, and thought provoking. Given that her grandparents were from Nanjing and narrowly escaped their own fate from the hell of what happened there, we must read this with an understanding that Chang was rightfully biased in her accounts and at times extremely emotional in her contempt in certain passages.





Despite her bias, she desperately tries to stay objective in her accounts, though not always successfully (the passage, even despite the footnote references, on Japanese being cannibals of executed Chinese male genitalia seemed highly speculative).





Chang makes strides in historiology by pointing out the cancer of how history is manipulated by politics, government intervention, propaganda, extreme conservatism and liberalism, diplomacy and political events. Because of the "Red Scare", "Sino-Japanese", "WWII itself" and "US Japanese" relations, the events of Nanjing have been eerily and perhaps permanently distorted at the expense of 100's of thousands of innocent victims.





The book is well organized and informative although I question her premise which nearly implies that American society and that even Japanese society is ignorant of the events that occurred in Nanking in 1937-1938:





1. In her premise for writing the book, she attempts to imply that there was nearly no literary English reference to the Rape of Nanking and provided only two literary historical accounts (both over 50 years after the Rape) in English of any reference to the Rape. However, she failed to account for the well documented account of the Rape in the famous military television documentary seen by millions of Americans and Europeans in the 1970s, "The World at War" where Sir Laurence Olivier made a very clear historical reference of the Rape of Nanjing while footage was shown of the massacre including General Matsui's march on horse thru the streets of Nanjing and footage of tied Chinese captives murdered execution style while on their knees and hands tied behind their backs:





"It was here that Nanking in December 1937 that the Japanese perpetrated what was until then, one of the worst atrocities of this century when their troops massacred more than 200,000 Chinese in cold blood."





There is also a minor questionable statistic she references with respect to the number of Americans killed in the Korean war which she noted 34,000. In Washington DC, the memorial noted over 54,000 dead. But, to Chang's credit, as I've learned in this book, accounting for the number of dead is never an absolute accuracy. For example, is a person dying of a disease or out of accident during war considered having been killed in a war? That's highly subjective. An American bias would count that death as a casualty of war whereby a Pro Chinese or North Korean source might not account for that death. Both have cases to include or exclude that number from the number of casualties.





The most interesting passages relate to Chang's discussion of the acts of humanity during this catastrophe, specifically of the spectacular irony of how John Rabe, an educated German who even held a strong Nazi fervor (the Nazi's were allies of Japan during the war) was responsible for saving the lives of over 300,000 Chinese by setting up a miniscule 2.5 square mile safety zone within proximity of where the Rape and Massacre happened.





My favorite passage in this entire book was on her research of what happened to John Rabe after he left Nanking. It was beautifully written and had me reading copiously to find her resolution on what happened to this "Schindler of Nanking."





Poignant also was her research on the outcomes of other European and Americans who were in Nanking during the siege and how politics ostracized these heros who saved the lives of 100's of thousands of Chinese.





In her introduction, Iris Chang mused that her "greatest hope is that this book will inspire other authors and historians to investigate the stories of Nanking" and that it will "stir the conscience of Japan to accept responsibility for this incident.





As a non-historian and non-Japanese, her book has inspired me at a higher level which is to acknowledge my own country's Rapes and Massacres of other societies that my country's history has obfuscated from my own country's history books. As an American, I apologize to the Japanese for the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the murder of innocent civilians that happened instantaneously over two nights. I also apologize to the Japanese for the very fact that my US History books make no direct reference to the elderly, the children who suffered because of a decision my country's generals have made. I apologize to the millions of American Indians who were raped, murdered for no reason other than political means to an end. I apologize to my fellow African Americans for the murders of Africans during slavery from 1776-1854 and for the 110 years after that during the years of "Jim Crow laws" and Segregation Laws.





This book should really inspire the world to skeptically evaluate their own histories with a fine tooth comb, especially the history of the "victorious nations." Contrary to Chang's opinion that a "second rape" has occurred with the denial of what happened, I sense that most Japanese accept what happened in the same light as to how Americans, Spanish, Portuguese, English, French, Belgian, etc. accept their responsibilities in history for the murdering and pillaging of Indians, Africans, Aborigine, Irish, etc.





Sadly I think this book should make us accept that Santayana's immortal words, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" have been spat upon endless numbers of times by all "Advanced Societies" even after the rape of Nanking.





On a side note, this book also inspires me to read more of the Jewish communities who fled Nazi Persecution Europe to live in Shanghai, which had been coincidentally under Japanese occupation just prior to Nanking. This book also inspires me to research the horror of the Bataan Death March and of the mass burials that occurred in Hong Kong, other areas of China, the Philippines and other areas that had been seized by the Imperialist Japanese during World War II.





This was an incredible read for me, but for perhaps a different reason than Chang had intended. Her suicide seems understandable to me because in this book, she attempted to reconcile history from myth and at the same time, tried to idealistically rationalize the irony of barbaric war behavior that has continued to this day with the advent of 9/11, the theatre and school bombings by Chechnyans (and Russia's treatment of Chechnya), the murder of Tutsi's by Hutu's and the atrocities that exist beneath world publicity and scrutiny in Haiti, various nations in Africa, the Middle East, and less publicized events in Bangladesh (by Pakistanis), etc. etc.





When will humanity learn? Only when all of humanity has been educated under an agreed upon history which means such an endeavor is more than likely impossible.





All we can do as a humanity is to be weary and to do our best to evolve beyond the boundaries of our borderline barbaric nature.

Iris Chang's "Rape of Nanking" is the horrifying and gruesome account of the infamous Rape of Nanking where in 1937-1938, an estimated 200,000-450,000 captured Chinese soldiers and civilians were massacred, murdered in cold blood by the Japanese Military during World War II. It is also about the aftermath of the event in a historical sense, and the toll it has had on the victims, historians, and the world.



Chang's writing is intense, emotional, detailed, and thought provoking. Given that her grandparents were from Nanjing and narrowly escaped their own fate from the hell of what happened there, we must read this with an understanding that Chang was rightfully biased in her accounts and at times extremely emotional in her contempt in certain passages.



Despite her bias, she desperately tries to stay objective in her accounts, though not always successfully (the passage, even despite the footnote references, on Japanese being cannibals of executed Chinese male genitalia seemed highly speculative).



Chang makes strides in historiology by pointing out the cancer of how history is manipulated by politics, government intervention, propaganda, extreme conservatism and liberalism, diplomacy and political events. Because of the "Red Scare", "Sino-Japanese", "WWII itself" and "US Japanese" relations, the events of Nanjing have been eerily and perhaps permanently distorted at the expense of 100's of thousands of innocent victims.



The book is well organized and informative although I question her premise which nearly implies that American society and that even Japanese society is ignorant of the events that occurred in Nanking in 1937-1938:



1. In her premise for writing the book, she attempts to imply that there was nearly no literary English reference to the Rape of Nanking and provided only two literary historical accounts (both over 50 years after the Rape) in English of any reference to the Rape. However, she failed to account for the well documented account of the Rape in the famous military television documentary seen by millions of Americans and Europeans in the 1970s, "The World at War" where Sir Laurence Olivier made a very clear historical reference of the Rape of Nanjing while footage was shown of the massacre including General Matsui's march on horse thru the streets of Nanjing and footage of tied Chinese captives murdered execution style while on their knees and hands tied behind their backs:



"It was here that Nanking in December 1937 that the Japanese perpetrated what was until then, one of the worst atrocities of this century when their troops massacred more than 200,000 Chinese in cold blood."



There is also a minor questionable statistic she references with respect to the number of Americans killed in the Korean war which she noted 34,000. In Washington DC, the memorial noted over 54,000 dead. But, to Chang's credit, as I've learned in this book, accounting for the number of dead is never an absolute accuracy. For example, is a person dying of a disease or out of accident during war considered having been killed in a war? That's highly subjective. An American bias would count that death as a casualty of war whereby a Pro Chinese or North Korean source might not account for that death. Both have cases to include or exclude that number from the number of casualties.



The most interesting passages relate to Chang's discussion of the acts of humanity during this catastrophe, specifically of the spectacular irony of how John Rabe, an educated German who even held a strong Nazi fervor (the Nazi's were allies of Japan during the war) was responsible for saving the lives of over 300,000 Chinese by setting up a miniscule 2.5 square mile safety zone within proximity of where the Rape and Massacre happened.



My favorite passage in this entire book was on her research of what happened to John Rabe after he left Nanking. It was beautifully written and had me reading copiously to find her resolution on what happened to this "Schindler of Nanking."



Poignant also was her research on the outcomes of other European and Americans who were in Nanking during the siege and how politics ostracized these heros who saved the lives of 100's of thousands of Chinese.



In her introduction, Iris Chang mused that her "greatest hope is that this book will inspire other authors and historians to investigate the stories of Nanking" and that it will "stir the conscience of Japan to accept responsibility for this incident.



As a non-historian and non-Japanese, her book has inspired me at a higher level which is to acknowledge my own country's Rapes and Massacres of other societies that my country's history has obfuscated from my own country's history books. As an American, I apologize to the Japanese for the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the murder of innocent civilians that happened instantaneously over two nights. I also apologize to the Japanese for the very fact that my US History books make no direct reference to the elderly, the children who suffered because of a decision my country's generals have made. I apologize to the millions of American Indians who were raped, murdered for no reason other than political means to an end. I apologize to my fellow African Americans for the murders of Africans during slavery from 1776-1854 and for the 110 years after that during the years of "Jim Crow laws" and Segregation Laws.



This book should really inspire the world to skeptically evaluate their own histories with a fine tooth comb, especially the history of the "victorious nations." Contrary to Chang's opinion that a "second rape" has occurred with the denial of what happened, I sense that most Japanese accept what happened in the same light as to how Americans, Spanish, Portuguese, English, French, Belgian, etc. accept their responsibilities in history for the murdering and pillaging of Indians, Africans, Aborigine, Irish, etc.



Sadly I think this book should make us accept that Santayana's immortal words, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" have been spat upon endless numbers of times by all "Advanced Societies" even after the rape of Nanking.



On a side note, this book also inspires me to read more of the Jewish communities who fled Nazi Persecution Europe to live in Shanghai, which had been coincidentally under Japanese occupation just prior to Nanking. This book also inspires me to research the horror of the Bataan Death March and of the mass burials that occurred in Hong Kong, other areas of China, the Philippines and other areas that had been seized by the Imperialist Japanese during World War II.



This was an incredible read for me, but for perhaps a different reason than Chang had intended. Her suicide seems understandable to me because in this book, she attempted to reconcile history from myth and at the same time, tried to idealistically rationalize the irony of barbaric war behavior that has continued to this day with the advent of 9/11, the theatre and school bombings by Chechnyans (and Russia's treatment of Chechnya), the murder of Tutsi's by Hutu's and the atrocities that exist beneath world publicity and scrutiny in Haiti, various nations in Africa, the Middle East, and less publicized events in Bangladesh (by Pakistanis), etc. etc.



When will humanity learn? Only when all of humanity has been educated under an agreed upon history which means such an endeavor is more than likely impossible.



All we can do as a humanity is to be weary and to do our best to evolve beyond the boundaries of our borderline barbaric nature.

The Rape of Nanking is an amazingly easy read considering the dark subject that it addresses. Chang did an outstanding job of compiling absolutely airtight, irrefutable information about the atrocities committed by the Japanese military in 1937, but this book is far more than simply an endless recitation of that evidence. When I first picked up this book I feared that it would simply be 200+ pages of stories about atrocities. But as Chang herself noted early in the book, doing so would simply be monotonous and would eventually numb the reader. Instead, she discusses several different and important aspects about the Rape of Nanking, beginning with an historical overview of the roots of imperial Japan and the culture that allowed an entire generation of young men to become cruel, inhumane butchers. She goes on to inform the reader about the conflict between Japan and China, and eventually of course relates specific facts about the savagery committed against so many hundreds of thousands of Chinese in Nanking. But the book does not stop there. Chang goes to great lengths to describe the heroic efforts of a handful of westerners who were able to save hundreds of thousands of Chinese from certain torture and death. She concludes by discussing the aftermath of the Rape of Nanking and how it remains an incredibly sensitive topic for so many people. This is an absolutely outstanding work of nonfiction that everyone should read. The reviewers here who have disparaged Chang and her effort to ensure that the world never forgets about the evil that occurred in Nanking should be ashamed of themselves. People like that only illustrate how important it is to keep the memory of Nanking alive and never surrender to those who would bury the truth because they are too cowardly to face it.

Chang's account has inspired a 2007 expensive and carefully-marketed documentary film of the same title, and that is the book's chief value--as an awareness-raising event that exposes our frequently "selective" focus on incidents of man's inhumanity to man (Rwanda being one such incident of selective amnesia). The book is an essential artifact, and Chang should be applauded for her conscientiousness, diligence, and courage in producing what has already proven to be a seminal work, producing ground-shaking tremors throughout the international community.

For many, if not most, readers, the Introduction and Epilogue will most likely prove sufficient to convey the author's intended purpose and effect. Those who take pleasure in marking the historical circumstances of war and its aftermath, along with reading graphic descriptions of sensational, specific incidents of torture, etc.), will no doubt wish to read the entire account. For others the aforementioned two sections, an account such as the one on Wikipedia, and the two-part video on Youtube, "The Rape of Nanking" (ignore the transparently weak rebuttals), should be sufficient.

Some readers will appreciate Chang's simplification of the atrocity and the reasons for it. She issues a disclaimer in the Introduction that "Japan bashing" is the farthest thing from her mind, but the ensuing account is one that paints the Japanese--from the ancient Samurai/Bushido code to the 20th-century expansionist mentality to the deification of the emperor to the robotic school system to the cruel and inhuman training of its own military youth to the enforced slavery of "comfort women" to Japan's continual and continuing denial of the past--in broad, culturally incriminating, stereotyping strokes. A reader, therefore, needs to exercise some counterbalancing skepticism--for example, toward the account of the Samurai, who represented an ideal, much like the knights of Camelot or the radical individualists of the American frontier, from which modern Japan deviated rather than suffered. Also, it has been shown that the "comfort women" were also supplied, following World War II, to thousands of American troops, and with the cooperation of the American post-War military command.

In answering the all-important question of "why," Chang is quite convincing with her limited, though largely undeveloped, list of reasons--ranging from "transference of oppression" (what we might refer to as the "wife-battering syndrome") to the herd mentality of losers suddenly cast in the role of conquerors to an entire culture's utter conviction of following a divine imperative in the best interests of China as well as Japan. Chang hits hardest on the genocide that occurs because nations who should know better (the U.S., for example) are content to remain disengaged from whatever doesn't affect them directly. But her most compelling reason, to my mind, is cultural-racial pride, a theme that during the American Civil War produced suffering and death exceeding by far anything that occurred at Nanking.

Chang even suggests that because the Japanese and Chinese were so similar in skin color and physical appearance, the racial antagonism was intensified. Not possessing the verifiable demarcation of lighter or darker skin color, the Japanese were all the more zealous to proclaim their superiority. So again and again we're brought back to the deadliest sin of all--from Greek tragedy to Biblical writings to Faulkner's accounts of the tragic fall of the Old South: hubris, arrogance, or just plain pride, which unfortunately is exclusive to no individual human being or nation.

By now, you'd think we'd begin to get the message. And it's not about the Japanese.

Chang's account has inspired a 2007 expensive and carefully-marketed documentary film of the same title, and that is the book's chief value--as an awareness-raising event that exposes our frequently "selective" focus on incidents of man's inhumanity to man (Rwanda being one such incident of selective amnesia). The book is an essential artifact, and Chang should be applauded for her conscientiousness, diligence, and courage in producing what has already proven to be a seminal work, producing ground-shaking tremors throughout the international community.

For many, if not most, readers, the Introduction and Epilogue will most likely prove sufficient to convey the author's intended purpose and effect. Those who take pleasure in marking the historical circumstances of war and its aftermath, along with reading graphic descriptions of sensational, specific incidents of torture, etc.), will no doubt wish to read the entire account. For others the aforementioned two sections, an account such as the one on Wikipedia, and the two-part video on Youtube, "The Rape of Nanking" (ignore the transparently weak rebuttals), should be sufficient.

Some readers will appreciate Chang's simplification of the atrocity and the reasons for it. She issues a disclaimer in the Introduction that "Japan bashing" is the farthest thing from her mind, but the ensuing account is one that paints the Japanese--from the ancient Samurai/Bushido code to the 20th-century expansionist mentality to the deification of the emperor to the robotic school system to the cruel and inhuman training of its own military youth to the enforced slavery of "comfort women" to Japan's continual and continuing denial of the past--in broad, culturally incriminating, stereotyping strokes. A reader, therefore, needs to exercise some counterbalancing skepticism--for example, toward the account of the Samurai, who represented an ideal, much like the knights of Camelot or the radical individualists of the American frontier, from which modern Japan deviated rather than suffered. Also, it has been shown that the "comfort women" were also supplied, following World War II, to thousands of American troops, and with the cooperation of the American post-War military command.

In answering the all-important question of "why," Chang is quite convincing with her limited, though largely undeveloped, list of reasons--ranging from "transference of oppression" (what we might refer to as the "wife-battering syndrome") to the herd mentality of losers suddenly cast in the role of conquerors to an entire culture's utter conviction of following a divine imperative in the best interests of China as well as Japan. Chang hits hardest on the genocide that occurs because nations who should know better (the U.S., for example) are content to remain disengaged from whatever doesn't affect them directly. But her most compelling reason, to my mind, is cultural-racial pride, a theme that during the American Civil War produced suffering and death exceeding by far anything that occurred at Nanking.

Chang even suggests that because the Japanese and Chinese were so similar in skin color and physical appearance, the racial antagonism was intensified. Not possessing the verifiable demarcation of lighter or darker skin color, the Japanese were all the more zealous to proclaim their superiority. So again and again we're brought back to the deadliest sin of all--from Greek tragedy to Biblical writings to Faulkner's accounts of the tragic fall of the Old South: pride.

By now, you'd think we'd begin to get the message. And it's not about the Japanese.

As a non-Chinese Asian reader, although there are moments when it seems that the author is being rather personal in her writing style when presenting her views, as a whole, I think this is a much needed work to help people all over the world understand some of the workings behind universal human weaknesses and the threat to humanist values. Western readers unfamiliar to the history of the Far East may at times have doubts about the validity of accounts portrayed in this book because they are so shocking, and thus may mistakenly dismiss some parts as attempting to be sensationalist. But, because the brutal Japanese military occupation in Asia from the early 20th century to the end of the WWII brought the same or similar sufferings to China's closest neighbors causing unimaginable subjugation, destruction, and death to millions of innocent lives, it was not hard for an Asian reader like myself to regard this book as honorable in its intension and courageous. In this part of the world, apart from Japan, the content found in this book is just another addition to what is already a commonsense knowledge. It is not so in the West so it is surprising and saddening. This book indicts the "silent majority" of Japan's past, together with the younger post WWII generations of Japanese living today who, unlike the old and young Germans today, take no real responsibility and refuse to properly question the morality of their past and present actions. Also, this work reveals how the U.S. and other Western countries' indifference to justice caused by Geographical Distance and Political Expediency could give a helping hand to evil's cover-up even to this day. This book shows how small this world is for evil to hide, and that it is never too late to stand up to inhumanity. This is a work by a courageous author who has tried to chart a path for a better future for all.

Iris Chang takes to task the political correctness dominating Japan's culture. Many of its citizens prefer to purge the history books of all mention of the Nanking atrocities. She rightfully contends that no ethnic group has a right to its own politically correct version of history. The Japanese fascists were racists to the core. They held outsiders in utter contempt. "The Rape of Nanking" is most certainly not light entertainment. The organized cruelty of Japan's military was truly horrifying . One shouldn't even treat mere insects in such a manner. Researching this era of history is not for the faint of heart. It may have eventually lead to the author's decision to commit suicide. Nonetheless, you need to read it from beginning to end. Ignorance of history only increases the odds of this sort of evil being repeated in the future. Nobody should probably be able to graduate from college unless they have read this book. Yes, it may be that important.

Iris Chang takes to task the political correctness dominating Japan's culture. Many of its citizens prefer to purge the history books of all mention of the Nanking atrocities. She rightfully contends that no ethnic group has a right to its own politically correct version of history. The Japanese fascists were racists to the core. They held outsiders in utter contempt. "The Rape of Nanking" is most certainly not light entertainment. The organized cruelty of Japan's military was truly horrifying . One shouldn't even treat mere insects in such a manner. Researching this era of history is not for the faint of heart. It may have eventually lead to the author's decision to commit suicide. Nonetheless, you need to read it from beginning to end. Ignorance of history only increases the odds of this sort of evil being repeated in the future. Nobody should probably be able to graduate from college unless they have read this book. Yes, it may be that important.

On Dec. 13, 1937, a small, modern Japanese army vanquished a much larger rabble of Chinese soldiers and entered the capital of China, Nanking. Then began a carnage of murder, rape, arson and theft such as the world had not known for five centuries -- since Tamurlane sacked Delhi.
The killing went on unchecked for about eight weeks, slowing down only when the Japanese began to run out of Chinese.
Most historians believe the number of killed was around 300,000. If that is correct, then people were murdered faster in Nanking than at Auschwitz at its busiest.
The Nazis tried to keep their Final Solution obscure. According to Iris Chang, the Japanese reveled in their crimes -- at least for the first few days.
After that, journalists' accounts created worldwide disgust. The Japanese did not stop killing, but they did shut off Nanking from the outside world.
Still there, however, were about two dozen European and American businessmen, doctors, missionaries and teachers. Even before the break-in, they had declared an "International Safety Zone" in the part of the city where the foreign schools, hospitals and businesses were.
The Japanese did not recognize the safety zone and continually stage raids into it to kidnap girls for rape and young men for murder. But they were fearful enough of world opinion that the handful of "white devils" were able to save 300,000 Chinese, mostly civilians but some ex-soldiers.
In other words, says Chang, the devoted foreigners saved almost everybody in the zone, and the raging Japanese killed almost everyone outside it. (Their killing field included the whole province, but "Rape of Nanking" has nothing about what went on in the countryside -- a photograph says the whites set up a rural safety zone, but the text does not even mention where it was or how many people came in.)
Japanese ultranationalists still deny that anything happened or blame "Chinese bandits."
These lies are contradicted by Japanese newspapers of the time, which covered the killing as a sport -- which, says Chang, it was for the Japanese. Two sub-lieutenants started a contest to see which could chop off a hundred Chinese heads first. Japanese newspapers, including the biggest and also the English-language Japan Advertiser, followed the officers' score like a baseball pennant race.
Those two were executed after the war, but very few of the other 20,000 murderers were inconvenienced in any way.
Though the Rape of Nanking was an international sensation at the time, and continued to be publicized for more than a year through such powerful voices as the Reader's Digest, it has receded from public memory -- by suppression in Japan, by competing issues elsewhere.
Histories of the Pacific War in English usually consider the conflict started in 1941. Chang correctly -- and for the first time I have ever seen in print -- says the conflict began in 1894 with Japan's first invasion of China.
This scuttles the Japanese ultranationalist claim that the 1941-45 war was defensive against western imperialism. And the fact that the Japanese army held its men back from overrunning the International Safety Zone gives the lie to claims that the behavior of the Imperial Army was "no worse" than the "excesses" that occur in any war.
It is clear from Chang's account that the Japanese government, as well as the military, deliberately set out to cow the Chinese by a policy of terror and extermination.
Verifiable accounts reveal tortures that "almost surpass the limits of human comprehension." Photographs in this book are the most gruesome I have ever seen in a respectable book. The famous pictures from Dachau that revolted the world in 1945 are tame by comparison.
Chang makes one demand and asks one question.
The demand is for compensation for the few remaining victims. The question is, how can men be directed to behave as the Japanese soldiers did?

On Dec. 13, 1937, a small, modern Japanese army vanquished a much larger rabble of Chinese soldiers and entered the capital of China, Nanking. Then began a carnage of murder, rape, arson and theft such as the world had not known for five centuries -- since Tamurlane sacked Delhi.
The killing went on unchecked for about eight weeks, slowing down only when the Japanese began to run out of Chinese.
Most historians believe the number of killed was around 300,000. If that is correct, then people were murdered faster in Nanking than at Auschwitz at its busiest.
The Nazis tried to keep their Final Solution obscure. According to Iris Chang, the Japanese reveled in their crimes -- at least for the first few days.
After that, journalists' accounts created worldwide disgust. The Japanese did not stop killing, but they did shut off Nanking from the outside world.
Still there, however, were about two dozen European and American businessmen, doctors, missionaries and teachers. Even before the break-in, they had declared an "International Safety Zone" in the part of the city where the foreign schools, hospitals and businesses were.
The Japanese did not recognize the safety zone and continually stage raids into it to kidnap girls for rape and young men for murder. But they were fearful enough of world opinion that the handful of "white devils" were able to save 300,000 Chinese, mostly civilians but some ex-soldiers.
In other words, says Chang, the devoted foreigners saved almost everybody in the zone, and the raging Japanese killed almost everyone outside it. (Their killing field included the whole province, but "Rape of Nanking" has nothing about what went on in the countryside -- a photograph says the whites set up a rural safety zone, but the text does not even mention where it was or how many people came in.)
Japanese ultranationalists still deny that anything happened or blame "Chinese bandits."
These lies are contradicted by Japanese newspapers of the time, which covered the killing as a sport -- which, says Chang, it was for the Japanese. Two sub-lieutenants started a contest to see which could chop off a hundred Chinese heads first. Japanese newspapers, including the biggest and also the English-language Japan Advertiser, followed the officers' score like a baseball pennant race.
Those two were executed after the war, but very few of the other 20,000 murderers were inconvenienced in any way.
Though the Rape of Nanking was an international sensation at the time, and continued to be publicized for more than a year through such powerful voices as the Reader's Digest, it has receded from public memory -- by suppression in Japan, by competing issues elsewhere.
Histories of the Pacific War in English usually consider the conflict started in 1941. Chang correctly -- and for the first time I have ever seen in print -- says the conflict began in 1894 with Japan's first invasion of China.
This scuttles the Japanese ultranationalist claim that the 1941-45 war was defensive against western imperialism. And the fact that the Japanese army held its men back from overrunning the International Safety Zone gives the lie to claims that the behavior of the Imperial Army was "no worse" than the "excesses" that occur in any war.
It is clear from Chang's account that the Japanese government, as well as the military, deliberately set out to cow the Chinese by a policy of terror and extermination.
Verifiable accounts reveal tortures that "almost surpass the limits of human comprehension." Photographs in this book are the most gruesome I have ever seen in a respectable book. The famous pictures from Dachau that revolted the world in 1945 are tame by comparison.
Chang makes one demand and asks one question.
The demand is for compensation for the few remaining victims. The question is, how can men be directed to behave as the Japanese soldiers did?

"The Rape of Nanking" is an investigative journalist's chilling indictment of Japanese soldiers and their shockingly inhumane atrocities--their pervasive traumatizing of both disarmed Chinese infantry and unarmed citizenry through repeated stabbing by bayonet, swift decapitation by sword, mass execution by shooting, gruesome dismemberment of genitalia, violent gang-raping of girls and women, inter alia--inflicted upon those hundreds of thousands of Chinese victims unfortunate enough to have remained in the city of Nanking at the time of siege by the Japanese army during December 1937, in the early days of World War II. The unexpected heroes of the story are a handful of Europeans and Americans--a determined doctor, a courageous academic and, ironically, a compassionate Nazi leader--who each selflessly risked their own lives in spontaneously setting up a safety zone within the city to protect another few hundred thousand innocent Chinese citizens from the senseless killings, lootings and raping being perpetrated by Japanese military personnel. A tragic, disturbing and ironical postscript to the reporting is that the bright, hardworking, overachieving author herself prematurely ended her own life in 2004, in the middle of a promising career at the still youthful age of 36.

The significance of this well-written work is its popularization of an important historical event. Upon publication of the book in 1997, details of the Nanking massacre, which had theretofore been underrepresented (or misrepresented) in the historical dialog throughout the Cold War years, became readily accessible to the non-academic American reader. (Incidentally, this movement to unveil, educate and "come to grips with" controversial events of World War II resumes later this year with the anticipated release of the movie "Nanking," directed by William Guttentag.) A shortcoming of the book is the author's tendency, despite good intentions, to slip into a backward-looking victim-villain trap, siding with the victims (note: the author's grandparents fled Nanking in the days prior to the Japanese invasion) and calling for an official apology and reparations for past wrongdoing from the presumed villains by complicity of inheritance, i.e., today's Japanese government. In my opinion, a more productive, forward-looking stance would be to take a deliberately positive, inherently more healing approach--such as advocating cross-border educational exchange programs for Chinese and Japanese students to bridge the cultural gap--which would encourage friendship and cultural sensitivity and lay the groundwork for achieving a better understanding among nations in future generations. Especially in light of the recent stirrings of potentially destabilizing nationalist re-armament in China, Japan, Korea and elsewhere, our world needs more international cooperation and less accusatory finger-pointing.

Looking beyond the particulars of the Nanking massacre per se, it is interesting to ponder historical cause and effect: If President Millard Fillmore in 1852, apparently "frustrated by Japan's refusal to open its ports to commerce," had not dispatched Commander Perry to end Japan's isolation, Perry would not have landed in Tokyo Bay with "two metal-clad, steam-powered ships belching black smoke" and "decided to shock the Japanese into submission with a massive display of American military force." If Perry, flanked by "some sixty to seventy aggressive-looking men armed with swords and pistols," had not so stunned the Japanese into acknowledging the superiority of American military technology, "humiliating this proud people and leaving a residue of fierce resentment," would the Japanese "with astonishing rapidity . . . [have] hurled themselves into the modern age--scientifically, economically and militarily," and, in 1876, "dispatched to Korea a naval force of two gunboats . . . and forced the Korean government to sign a treaty of commerce--a move hauntingly reminiscent of what Perry had forced on Japan"? After Korea, Japan clashed with China, and, in due course, Nanking became enveloped in the aggression. Taken in historical context, it is perhaps not so surprising that by the 1930s, Japan had followed the expansionist lead of Western nations (which by no means makes it right!), and soon thereafter the world was at war. . . . Hopefully, we have all learned from past mistakes and will behave with more respect for one another and human life the next time around.

Chang's book is a thoroughly researched document about the crimes perpetrated on Nanking from the Imperial Japanese Army 70 years ago and perhaps more importantly a wake-up call to Japan's current indifference and arrogance by refusing to admit or even acknowledge their past crimes. While the book is far from objective, the overall effect is devastating. If there is any justice in the world, one day Japan will make amends for their crimes, and this book will be recognized for having been one small step to that happening. Recommended for anyone with even a passing interest in Japan.

Chang's book is a thoroughly researched document about the crimes perpetrated on Nanking from the Imperial Japanese Army 70 years ago and perhaps more importantly a wake-up call to Japan's current indifference and arrogance by refusing to admit or even acknowledge their past crimes.

A lot has been made about Chang's documentation, but these are petty claims - the fact remains that Japan committed atrocities and is continuing to do so by refusing to face up to what they did. If there is any justice in the world, one day Japan will make amends for their crimes, and this book will be recognized for having been one small step to that happening. Recommended for anyone with even a passing interest in Japan.

Chang's book is a thoroughly researched document about the monstrous crimes perpetrated on Nanking from the Imperial Japanese Army 70 years ago and perhaps more importantly a wake-up call to Japan's current indifference and arrogance to their past crimes. As someone who lives in Japan and is married to a Japanese, I can say firsthand that what Chang says about the current perceptions of Nanking in Japan is one-hundred percent accurate, some ten years after the book was published. Don't believe me? Go to Amazon Japan,