Rating: 
Summary: Not to be read before bedtime...
Review: The book gives the reader a "Path to Nanking" (chapter one) - a history of Japanese/Chinese conflicts. Then enters into what happen in Nanking during late 1937 and early 1938. There is also a chronicle of what happen afterwards to the main characters and how the countries remember Nanking. It took me more than a month to read this book as the subject matter was so unsettling. I would recommend this book but advise against reading before bedtime. I lost much sleep because of it. It s impossible to believe that such horrors could take place unfortunately they did and still do. We study history so that we will not repeat the mistakes of our past. I hope everyone reads this book so that these crimes are not repeated.
Rating: 
Summary: Gives reasons why
Review: The first question that comes to mind is "How can otherwise decent people commit such horrendous atrocities and on such a large scale?" Chang explains how new unjaded japanese soldiers who arrived in China were forced unwillingly to bayonet Chinese prisoners, and the shame and guilt that they first felt at doing this. But later, after repeatedly engaging in these atrocities, they became inured to it. I recommend this book to everyone who is curious about the very worst effects that war has on soldiers and civilians.
Rating: 
Summary: Ridiculous
Review: The book is full of third level data which has never been autholized. Author does not know or know very well that any picture can create new stories. Purpose justified her mean.
Rating:
Summary: A must read book for mature readers.
Review: If you ever want to know an important but forgoten fact about history, this is the right book. Not many books or facts reveal about such an unbelievable chapter in history. This book highlights what really happened in Nanking and how the Japanese responded to it.
Books, articles, and movies like these are not to be anti-Japanese, but they are to reveal the Japanese atrocities during World War 2. Remember that it was not just Nanking that the Japanese did, the Japanese were responsible for other crimes such as the harsh treatment of allied POWs, the massacres in other areas of China, the Philipines, Korea, and other South East Asian countries.
What the Japaese did was far worse than what the Germans did to the Jews and other people. If Germany was able to recognize and apologize for what they did, why can't Japan?
I recomend this book and other books similar about the Japanese atrocities. I rate it as a must read book for those who can handle painful and horrifying facts.
Rating:
Summary: Horrifying
Review: This book gives an incredibly horrifying look at the autrocities of war commited in Nanking. The stories of rape, murder, and overall brutality are enough to give you nightmares. Iris Chang often uses the metaphor "orgy of violence" to help readers understand how horrific the acts of the Japanese were. This book sheds light on the trajedy in the gorriest of details. These graphic details made it impossible for me to sit down and read the book straight through, I had to read it in spirts so as to not make myself sick. This is not meant to be taken in a negative manner, however. Had these details not been included, the book would not have told the truth of the autrocities. Had Chang downplayed the violence, justice would not have been done.
Rating:
Summary: The "Rape of Nanking" is not forgotten. It merely ignored,
Review: marginalized & denied by the perpetrators. Most people are aware of "the rape". It gets a paragraph in most history books. I thank Iris Chang for adding a major mainstream book on the subject. It can only add to the pressure on Japan to confront this stain on their national reputation. Ms Chang's story is a chapter in the much larger war of annihilation waged by Japan against the people of China. This war made hardened Nazi recoil in horror. Ms Chang recounts the days before, how could it have been prevented & the absymal condition of the Chinese army unable or unwilling to put up even token opposition despite superior numbers. After a while her blizzard of numbers becomes to much: number of rapes, numbers of murders, combinations, numbers of torture, those used for bayonet practice etc. They become meaniless. Her suggestion that Japan pay reparations (such as The United States did to its Japanese citizens intered in World War II) is unrealistic. More real is an official apology from the Japanese government. Maybe when every Japanese soldier form World War II & their next of kin are dead will that apology come.
Rating:
Summary: Killing Neighbors
Review: I have read this book four times now, and it is not getting easier with each read. Chang tells the story of the attrocties that the Japanese army rained down upon the Chinese military and civilians of Nanking in very vivid detail. There is no need for me to tell of the numerous murders and rapes here, because there has already been more than 200 reviews, but let me say to those who have never read about the Rape of Nanking prepare yourself for a shock, but also be prepared to read of people who were completely selfless, such as the Nazi John Rabe who did everything in his power to help the Chinese people. Also be prepared to be angered to see how the sand of history have pushed the Rape of Nanking to the side, and how many Japanese have tried to cover it up. A very powerful read.
Rating:
Summary: The Rape of Nanking
Review: From the ashes of World War II, only one nation has been held accountable for its past: Germany. Why? Communism has proven to be far more bloodthirsty that Nazism, yet its sympathizers are legion. Why? Indeed, in such an environment comes Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanking. A book that documents the events that took place from December 1937 to January 1938: The Rape of Nanking. To put it simply: the Japanese Imperial Army went on a killing spree, slaughtering over 300,000 of the city's residents. Slaughter, indeed. The Japanese soldiers subjected their victims to mass incineration, death by freezing, being torn apart by dogs, disembowelment, and beheading. Chang interviewed survivors of the massacre, and their testimony stands central to her narrative. But Chang does not rely on oral testimony alone. The clinching evidence comes from the new, contemporary material Chang has found, in particular the diaries of Westerners living in Nanjing in 1937-8. Chang's work goes on to discuss the failure of the world to respond to the newsreels and newspaper reports of the time, which reported the Rape in full detail. And while Chang naturally demands that Japan be held accountable for its past, it's important to remember the way in which the Rape has been used by China as a political football to shape international and domestic policy. In the 1970s and 1980s, China's need to cosy up to Japan meant that survivors of the Rape were officially prevented from presenting petitions to the Japanese embassy demanding compensation. It must be said that one of the books more ironic accounts is that of heroic Nazi, John Rabe. Rabe was a business man who ran Nanking's Nazi party branch when the Japanese arrived. He began recording what he saw. Rabe tried to warn Germany of the atrocities and held out hope that Hitler would assist China. Rabe oraganized a "Saftey Zone" that ultimately saved the lives of many thousands of Chinese. He eventually moved back to Nazi Germany. So in the end, Iris Chang's book is a moving and important documentation in a world controlled by self-interest and hypocrisy.
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Summary: Capt USMC
Review: This book is a must for all servicemen who serve in Asia. It will help to explain how 400,000 Women, children, elderly, and prisoners of war were raped and slaughtered in a month and a half. The author does not just blame the Japanese for their actions, but she tries to describe the Japanese mindset that could have caused these atrocities. The book is very well researched and a pretty easy, although gruesome, read. The last third of the book is excellent and ties up history from the end of WWII until the present. It describes the geopolitical tensions in this region and why the Japanese text books cause a major point of contention in this theater. Those who don't study history are bound to repeat it. I nominated this book for entry into the Marine Corps Reading List for what it has to offer.
Rating:
Summary: Book of Vile Darkness
Review: I used to play Dungeons&Dragons many many moons ago. Just picking this book up and flipping thu it, I was repulsed and horrified. I had to open up my old Dungeon Masters Manual and remember the item called the Book of Vile Darkness. That is how the images left their impression on me. The Japanese commited an atrocity many more times depraved than what the Jews mostly endured, but yet, ask most people what they know of the Pacific campaign during WWII - usually only the old-timers can tell you what it was all about.
Now I can only imagine what the Americans had to endure during the Bataan Death March and on the hell boats as POWs. Pictures of Japanese soldiers using Chinese citizens as bayonet practice - contests to see who could behead the most Chinese - rape and prostitution of the women, huge round-ups of the men to be taken and shot - beheadings with grinning Japanese soldiers standing triumphantly. Without reading the book, I know more about Nanking then I want to. The images tell a thousand words. You only have to take a look at the Japanese soldier on the cover to know it was horrible. I give this book 5 stars only to draw people's attention to it, and for people to be aware of none-to-distant events that have been mostly successful to repress. I want to learn more, but I shall start of by understanding all I can about the WWII campaign first. The Rape of Nanking is much to horrifying to begin with.
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