The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II - The Rape of Nanking

This book is not by a professional historian, but by a non fiction "populizer". Due to her training, and she is a talented woman, Ms. Chang does a very good job with her writing, and a respectable job in creating a historical monograph. Some things could have been done better by a professional historian, such as putting the event in the context of military operations, but it is clear that Ms. Chang has an emotional investment in the subject. The actions by the Japanese were vicious and brutal, every bit the equal in barbarity to the Nazi treatment of Jews. Its hard to tell from this book if the Japanese engaged in a policy of extermination regarding the Chinese as the Nazi's did for the Jews & Gypsys. Certainly, there were deliberate attempts to "depopulate" areas, but the book does not really nail down whether there was a policy of Chinese extermination on the highest levels. Reading this book I think not, but of course that did not really matter to the 300,000 Chinese the Japanese killed in Nanking. The book is very, very well written and I recommend it. It is a fast read. However, its a fair criticim to note that the BIG (and in terms of research really, really tough) issue of Japanese policy on exterminating Chinese is left for another author. What this author does very well is show the reader how the Japanese, even after more than 60 years, just cannot come to grips with the truths of the massacre, or even WWII in general. Interesting commentary on Japanese society, vis a vis Germany. Chang mentions that the blame likely goes to US Cold War policy towards Japan, but is that the full answer? The US needed West Germany during the Cold War but the West Germans (eventually) delved into the issues of the Holocaust and very critically examined themselves & their actions(I'm a Jew, have been several times to Germany, and am satisfied they have). Yet, the Japanese just can't seem to wrestle with the same issues the Germans did, and still do. Let's be politically incorrect and say that it must be something different about Japanese, or Asian, society & thinking. Ms. Chang also makes it clear that many of the Western angels of mercy during the massacre (including a committed Nazi)ended up completely physically and mentally broken by their experiences.

Iris Chang did an amazing job writing this book. It is so well written that when you don't think you can read anymore due to the sickening things you find people are capable of doing to one another you realize you have to continue on to learn the rest of the story, to understand it, and to come to the conclusion that there is no good reason it wasn't prevented or stopped by the international community and remains such a source of pain for both sides involved in two totally different ways. To think there are victims of the atrocities outlined in this book still alive today and suffering in many ways for a lack of recognition and closure is just sickening. This book should be read by every child alongside the Diary of Anne Frank.

This book gives a very vivid picture of the atrocities commetted by the Japanese Military with the blessing of both higher military authority and the Japanese government. It also points out the fact that even today the Japanese continue to try and revise history and either put the blame on someone else or claim that it never happened.

Very few Japenese were convicted of war crimes. This may be because of the fear that Communisim might spread out into the Pacific through Japan, from either China or the USSR. And it was felt that Japan was needed as an allie to prevent this from happening. This seems to makes the allies a party to the Japanese Holoccost, if only by omission, in which more human lives were destoyed than in the Holocost in Europe.

If your a history buff, this is the book for you. If your not this book may give you better insight into how a nation can teach racial hatered to its military so that the individual solder will look upon anyone who is different either racially or ethnically as something other than human, something to murder and rape with out thought or pitty.

As a historian, books of this type are important because they challenge the status quo of the established academic ideal. Chang's little book is by no means revolutionary in the field of history, but it is important. The history of the Nanking massacre is one that the Japanese have obscured to save face. You could search the store.com right now and even find a few versions of the events at Nanking written from the Japanese perspective, and very quickly discover that Chang and Japanese historians differ widely on what exactly happened in Nanking for the six weeks following December 13, 1937.

As a human being, it is impossible to read this account without being affected by the story of thousands of innocent lives perishing at the hands of others, who then escaped justice. As emotional as the account may be, all of Chang's facts seem to line up correctly, and her analysis of the statistics of the massacre seem to be handled fairly and with due compensation given (her research is solid). Whatever the biases of the author, she makes clear attempts to show that the higher estimates for the total number killed at Nanking are not ridiculous at all, but actually quite logical. Her argument is that the rape of Nanking was historically obscured because of various socio-political factors immediately after WWII, and that not all of the perpetrators of the crimes were brought to justice. Both of those arguments are clearly and logically supported, with a minimum of emotional hysterics (a very difficult thing to do, especially concerning the topic and Chang's Chinese background).

Not only do I recommend this book because of its information about the Nanking massacre, I recommend it because it is a very revealing look at how war and politics can warp the morals of any man, and it is a very detailed look at the darker side of human nature; a look at man with his civilization stripped off him.

It's obvious that Ms Chang thoroughly researched this book and was able to put so much of the history and atrocities into a format that was interesting as well as horrifying. I have read so much history of WWII and had barely even heard of the Rape of Nanking. I found the book to be quite enlightening and found myself very much aligned with her final conclusions. I found this to be a "must read" book on the war in China.

To this day, Japan refuses to acknowledge history.

It does not print accurate history in its schoolbooks, and the national Japanese attitude is an extremely off-putting and whiny one: "We didn't start WWII. We only fought on defense."

So: Pearl Harbor goes down the memory hole, and so does the Rape of Nanking. While the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki are memorialized year after year by thousands of "innocent Japanese."

Once you open this horrifying book by the late Iris Chang, the myth of the "innocent Japanese" will vanish before your eyes. Iris Chang is a very good writer, and she begins her highly informative book with a mini-history of Japan which is worth its weight in gold.

She then proceeds to the subject: The Rape of Nanking. She deals with it by imitating the famous film "Rashomon:" she tells the entire story from three different perspectives. These are the perspective of the Japanese (many of them horrified), the perspective of the Chinese victims, and the perspective of the Europeans living in Nanking, who established a "safe zone" for the desperate Chinese and kept copious notes on the Rape of Nanking.

The Japanese massacred 300,000 innocent Chinese here. If you want to fetch out your slide rule of evil, you may note that both atomic bombs dropped on Japan did not reach this level of slaughter. If you read this book, you will also note that the massive rape, slaughter and torture carried out by the Japanese during the Rape of Nanking was extremely personal. Women were gang-raped, and then instantly killed (if they were not tortured before death.)

This is mandatory reading, especially for zealots who believe that the West is the source of all evil. It is particularly disturbing that the Japanese, unlike the Germans, simply refuse to admit their past actions, which are becoming universally known.

More than one Japanese soldier said that they were deliberately trained to be "devils."

It is wonderful that the truth emerges at last.

Even those of us in the "older generation" heard little of the Sino-Japanese War. The brutality the Japanese exhibited in their 6 year occupancy of China ranked with that of Hitler and Stalin and ranks with the more recent genocides in Tibet, Rwanda and Darfur. It may have been worse.
In this highly readable, extraordinarily well researched work, the actions and treachery of the Japanese occupiers of China and Nanking are revealed in vivid detail. In one of those strange ironies, it was a German Nazi, John Rabe, who was totally unaware of Hitler's actions in Germany who created a "safe zone" that prevented the carnage from being worse.This hero died in obscurity in Germany.His carefully chronicled diaries provide vivid documentation of the events.

The reason this is historically important is it forms the basis of the current hostility between China and Japan...unlike Germany, the Japanese never had to make reparations to China, nor apologize. There were no Nuremberg Trials to bring justice. The Japanese have white washed their history books and have tried to pretend these actions never occurred. The West was complicit in this due to their fear of the Communist regimes in Russia and later China after Mao defeated Chiang Kai-shek who withdrew to Taiwan. Whether the witnessed brutality of the Japanese on defenseless Chinese was the "program" which triggered Mao's later brutality in China during the "Cultural Revolution" and the subsequent genocide in Tibet is a matter of conjecture. Despite the fact that most of the players are now dead, animosity remains between these countries for justifiable reasons.
While this in no way condones the actions of the Chinese on their own citizens of on the Tibetans, it may explain the unexplainable.

I love the book simply because it reminds me "NEVER TO FORGET". Although very graphic, I believe it is important to know that there was a time in our history when there was no respect for life by some. How could one human being treat a fellow human being so? History is supposed to teach us a lesson. Thank you Iris Chang for all your hard work and dedication to keeping this horrific story alive although you are not here to hear me.

This documentary is a very important piece of history which was completely excluded from my and my children's education. A very dark side of humanity told in a very detached yet informative voice. Iris Chang's uncovering and discussion of horrifying old wounds was life changing for me. Without the proof provided in her book it is impossible to believe humans are capable of committing these crimes. I have purchased 5 copies so far and given them away as precious gifts of knowledge, iteration of the role of politics, and the Roman Catholic Church in keeping this out of our history books.

The author takes us through a sad and deeply disturbing event during WWII. To read the depiction of horrid events while knowing that Japan never has, nor seems to be willing in the future to, publicly acknowledge and atone for their actions is heart-wrenching. The author's own torment and ultimate early death is yet another tragedy. This book moved me deeply with glimmers of hope that something like this will never happen again.

First hand accounts, testimonies, pictures, great detail. A cover up of grand scale now exposed. Details of horrific mutilations, rapes, dehumanizations, mayhem. History leading up to occupation of Nanking, what happened in Nanking, intricacies of happenings within safety zone, how events were perceived by world, how events were covered up, how events still denied to this day. Only read a few intriguing paragraphs of epilogue about Ms. Chang, hope to read the rest sometime.

I had known about Nanking before reading this book. I think many of the reviews here are either misconstrued or flat out spurious. Mrs. Chang never claimed to be the source for the Rape of Nanking. Many times, she clearly states that the facts may not be true. At that time and even today, it's difficult to absolutely verify everything. I only know about the invasion through the Internet, which reflects the sad state of the education here. That's the worst part about all of this: the coverup, from all sides. I really wish that there were more interests in events like this.

My family is from China so I do have a certain bias. If you ask any Chinese that lived through this, they will tell you of the atrocious Japanese; it did happen and it is as bad as everyone claims it to be. For me, the foreboding message is that anyone of us is capable of doing things like this. It's easy to blame the Japanese for what had happened, especially if you're Chinese, but as history shows, this will happen over and over again. It's easy to turn on the news, watch a killer go on a rampage, and then claim that I would never do something like that. Put me in their situation, living life as they did, I'm pretty sure that you could.

Mrs. Chang valiantly tries to leave this message with the readers. We need more people like this. She grew so passionate over her work and it affected her so much that it contributed and eventually led to her suicide. I strongly recommend this book to everyone. It's definitely worth the time and effort. It transports you to another part of life and history outside the comfortable that many of us live in everyday, and it's a book that will change you. The facts are not pleasant to read or picture, but neither was Schindler's List.

This is a book that everyone in America should read. It should be an academic requirement for all. It's an incredible story depicting the best and worst of human nature. Sadism and compassion dramatically confronting each other at an isolated period of time and place. It's an event that should never have happened; truly a black mark on all of human history. Iris Chang gave this book her heart and soul. She left us a legacy of truth and knowledge about an event that had been largely ignored by western history.

A heart-wrenching account of a brutal assault on all that is human during the darkest days of the Twentieth Century. It is a must-read for intellectuals as well as petty people who think they have problems.

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 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 Nanjing. It was beautifully written and had me reading copiously to find her resolution on what happened to this "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.

This is a book that everyone in America should read. It should be an academic requirement for all. It's an incredible story depicting the best and worst of human nature. Sadism and compassion dramatically confronting each other at an isolated period of time and place. It's an event that should never have happened; truly a black mark on all of human history. Iris Chang gave this book her heart and soul. She left us a legacy of truth and knowledge about an event that had been largely ignored by western history.

A heart-wrenching account of a brutal assault on all that is human during the darkest days of the Twentieth Century. It is a must-read for intellectuals as well as petty people who think they have problems.

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 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 Nanjing. It was beautifully written and had me reading copiously to find her resolution on what happened to this "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.

Excellent book - It tells some of the saddest and most horrible war crimes during World War II committed by the Imperial Japanese military. The sad true is that Japanese government still has not offically apoloized to the Aisa countries for its war crime. I highly recommend this book for everyone and hopefully history would not repeat itself.

I was a mediocre student of history. Never really finding history interesting enough to keep my attention. Iris Chang, takes a horrific period of time, and makes it so I cannot put it down. Her research, her writing, makes the reader a part of this great tragedy still not fully atoned for. It brings to light another episode of mans inhumanity to man that was swept under the carpet and hidden. If not for Iris Chang, I never would have known about this. But also she does a follow up for the main characters who were the good guys and lets you know how this tragedy affected them. It is truly a sad story, but written by a superb author who was taken from us to early. This book is truly a must read for people who believe that there are people in the world suffering cruelty beyond imagination who have no voice. This book gives a voice to those people and creates discussion.

"Civilization itself is paper thin." Roughly 350,000 Chinese were slaughtered in the city of Nanking by the Japanese during a seven week period. Women were raped and mutilated while the men were used for bayonet practice. People were buried alive, set on fire and tortured. In the midst of a real-to-life Dante's inferno a small number of foreigners fought to protect Chinese lives.

The book was written in a very factual, unemotional manner and did not gloss over the atrocities of Nanking. It is thought provoking and makes one think about civilization and the capacity of humankind . Overall, this is a very well written book and highly recommended.

For reasons explained in the book this event is not widely known. Well researched and written. I have heard that the author later committed suicide, for reasons unknown to me at this point.
The Japanese truly did horrible things as documented by American and European direct observers. Yet even today they deny it and continue to honor some of those responsible. What is wrong with the Japanese culture that they can't take responsibility like the Germans did?

Having grown up in the Americas, the history of some some parts of the world is completely unknown to me. This book makes me want to learn more about the wars in Asia. The story is very well told and gives a voice to some people who had none, and perhaps think they do not need one. Too bad it seems like this very story consumed the author to the point of costing her her life.

Kind of a hard pill to swallow learning about the atrocities placed upon the Chinese residents of Nanking. Very troubling to see the "pattern" of sociopathic hate and activity of the Japanese conquerers. As an American, to understand the ruthlessness as the Japanese Military is to understand what drove the Americans to consider and then act upon the dropping of the bombs on H and N.