The Rape of Nanking

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Summary: Nazis as Heros
Review: Lots of people have said lots of stuff about this book, so I'll try not to bore you:

The most interesting thing about this book was the part about the Nazis as heros. Before I go on, let me enlighten those who don't know what the book contains: there is a sifnificant vignette in the book about the role several Westerners played in protecting the Chinese population during the Japanese occupation. Notably, a couple of Germans, who were relatively highly placed socially and thus co-incidentally members of the Nazi party, play a significant role in "saving" people. The back of the book calls one of them the 'Oscar Schindler of China', or something like that.... Yes, it's kind of a wierd perspective. And I'm about to say something even wierder: I would (and do) reccomend this book to all the Germans I know.

Reading this book during the horrors of the Yugoslavian war and reading as someone who lived for a long time in Germany (one of the few countries on the planet that openly and repeatedly beats itself over the head with its WW II guilt), I found it to be a fascinating illustration of a principal which we too often forget: no one nationality or group has cornered the market on cruelty. (...) (Aside from all that, the book is quite well written: it would be a good read even if it were fiction.)

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Summary: A Truly Disturbing Account of the Massacre
Review: Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanking undeniably accomplishes its primary goal: to ensure that no one reading the book will be able to forget the brutality and horror of Japan's incursion into Nanking, which left some 300,000 Chinese soldiers and civilians dead and numerous others horribly disfigured. Her detailed description of the treatment of women by the Japanese soldiers is particularly effective in this respect, and properly shines a light on the sorts of practices that often go unchronicled in wartime narratives.

She is somewhat less effective in giving a compelling account of why the Japanese did what they did. She points to the abusive treatment of Japanese soldiers by their officers, notions of racial superiority, and religion, but in my mind fails to give a systemic explanation for the scope of the brutality. Perhaps such a task is impossible. But her attempts to do so seem to rest on stereotypical notions of Japanese behavior, and do not seem to be as sufficiently grounded in historical research as the rest of the work.

I also find unconvincing some of her contentions that support her argument that the massacre was 'forgotten' for political reasons. As one reviewer has pointed out, her assertion that Americans never fully understood the scope of the tragedy is not precisely correct; rather, it would be more precise to say that recent generations of Americans (including my own) have no real knowledge of the tragedy. I also have some difficulty accepting'although I have no knowledge to the contrary'the way in which the author portrays mainstream Japan as failing to accept the seemingly irrefutable evidence of the existence and scope of the atrocity

From a historicist perspective, the most important portion of the work is the author's discovery of the extent to which European members of the safety zone saved the lives of countless Chinese. The information contained in their personal diaries provides irrefutable proof of the scope of the massacre.

The Rape of Nanking is requisite reading for anyone who seeks to understand the bounds of humanity's capacity for brutality.

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Summary: A retching look at the "Forgotten Holocaust" of WW2
Review: This is not an entertaining book. In fact, it's a full scale, IN YOUR FACE account of arguably THE most autrocious crime in WW2.

The Japanese forces invaded Nanking in mid-december and left at the end of January, leaving a trail of mass destruction, shameless slaughter, and 300,000 people dead. For six weeks, civilians in Nanking were systematically and ruthlessly raped, tortured and killed (usually all three). One shudders to wonder what would have happened had they stayed.

Ms. Chang did an excellent job uncovering the truth (although "truth" itself if subjective and faceted) about this forgotten holocaust. It's a retching read, with the graphic descriptions of torture, as well as the pictures. Like of the captives being buried alive, or the boy tied at a stake to be used as target practice, these pictures are worth a thousand words, and are a mute testimony that this had really happened.

Intersped, though, are tales of heroism, most notably that of John Rabe, whom she calls "the Good German of Nanking" (who, for all he did -a review said he "out-Schindlered Schindler"- during the war, was a near-pariah when he got back home to Germany), and a group of expatriates who refused to leave the city when all foreigners were ordered to evacuate. Their safety zone save up to 250,000 lives. Most civilians who did not make it in had ultimately perished.

While the incident was downplayed, both by the Japanese government and was hardly known in America for years, the survivors died off. Now that the Americas are getting to know more about it, the denials still ring. How long will it be before it's known all over?

And yet, despite all the senseless horror, there was a plea to never forget, like with the Holocaust in Europe, and a little hope, because no one who has read about it (the Rape of Nanking) ever will.

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Summary: Horrific...
Review: An unbelievable story but the sad thing is that it's true. Once you read this book you will be outraged when you realize that you have never even heard of Nanking before. The atrocities committed by the Japanese unpon the Chinese in the city of Nanking is so horrific it's almost unbelievable. The author does an excellent job of research on this work and she also has a personal connection to the story. Required reading for all students of World War II history. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

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Summary: A painful, but necessary book.
Review: I grew up as a post-World War II baby boomer, much the same as millions of others within the US. In studying US history in school, I was as familiar as anyone with the atrocities and massacres of war. However, as I've come to realize, there's a great deal about the best and worst of mankind that doesn't always make the cut in the history books. In my education Nanking, just before the beginning of WW II, didn't make the cut. In the early 1930's Japan was engaged in an undeclared war with China, marching through Manchuria against the forces of Chiang Kai-shek (read some of the commentaries in any of a number of editions of Sun Tzu's Art of War for some insight into his effectiveness as a general). While war is unarguably one of the worst creations of mankind, some aspects are significantly worse than others. Iris Chang describes one of these, as Japanese forces occupy and methodically destroy the city and people of Nanking. Iris Chang has been widely criticized for presenting these events in journalistic (as opposed to historic) fashion, for playing fast and loose with historical research, and for fabricating pieces of the story to make it a better read. As an attorney friend often points out, there is no truth after the event, only differing perceptions. Regardless of the existence or absence of the [accepted] historical truth, of the details of the numbers of the dead, or of the reasons for the lack of resistance on the part of the Chinese; an atrocity occurred that bears acknowledging and recording. And while we as Americans certainly didn't end this war (or any other, for that matter) with spotless record, it doesn't mean that we shouldn't ask for apology and recognition from responsible parties; or that we shouldn't critically study what occurred. Iris Chang's presentation is gripping in the same way it's nearly impossible to look away from an accident. It's painful but something you need to see at times. I can't call it a good book, but I can call it a necessary book. Read it.

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Summary: You must read this book
Review: This book exposes the atrocities committed by the Japanese that was often ignored by the world for political reasons. This book is also more interesting than a normal nonfiction book, because it contains first-hand accounts. Despite the criticism from Rape deniers, this book is very well researched. Other recommendations: A Gesture Life by Chang Rae Lee, written in the perspective of a Japanse veteran tortured by the death of a comfort woman.

Rating:
Summary: A precious reminder
Review: Nowhere is the Japanese propensity for industrious hard work and duty to one's ancestors more evident than in their busy effort to destroy evidence and deny the heinous atrocities they committed in the first half of the last century. This book is a sobering, albeit depressing, reminder of the rape and sadistic torture perpetrated by the Japanese during that time.

Until a Steven Spielberg rises up from among Chinese, Korean, or Filipino film makers to tape thousands of interviews of survivors (he had better do it soon while there are still living survivors), meager books like this one are all we have. They are beacons of light along the dark corridor of Japanese oppression.

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Summary: Simply put, this book is disgraceful.
Review: It goes without saying that in the Pacific theatre of WWII, both the Japanese and Americans committed despicable atrocities. I agree absolutely that the Japanese' systematic medical experimentation on POWs and raping of tens of thousands of Korean and Chinese women is separated from the evils of Nazi Germany only by an order of magnitude or two. But the Americans were hardly saints: besides the mobilization of Japanese-Americans into concentration camps, the nuclear bombing of two civilian cities on the eve of the Japanese surrender was entirely unjustified (if you think that the nuclear bombings were necessary to forestall an invasion, I highly recommend Gar Alperovitz's "The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb" to dispel your delusions). Nonetheless, as an American who has spent a year in China, I'll be frank in admitting my bias against the Japanese side in interpreting the events of WWII Reading or watching depcitions of the Rape of Nanjing (The HK-produced movie "Nanking 1941" was a particularly engrossing dramatization) viscerally disgust and anger me.

All of that being said, I find it a terrible shame that this amatuerishly written, poorly researched book has become the definitive word on the subject. While Chang's description of some of the gruesome details of the Rape of Nanjing were riveting (how groups of Japanese generals would go around having contests seeing who could decapitate the most civilians, the use of POWs as live bayonet practice, the sheer number of rapes), nonetheless she clearly lacks a full understanding of the broader historical or cultural background underlying this 'incident.' Chang would have benefited from taking an intro level class on modern Asian history at a local community college before starting to write this book. For a more nuanced take on early 20th century Japanese history, you would do better to ignore her one paragraph summary and look it up in Grolier's encyclopedia. While she was not aiming to write a dense footnote-laden tome for an academic audience, the popular audience nonetheless deserves more than context than the pitiful scraps that she offers.

Her coverage of the Japanese denial is only marginally better. Indeed, the erasing of historical memory in the 20th century by both the Japanese and Chinese (ahem... June 4, 1989) is another tragedy in itself. It is frustrating to see all the effort being put into preserving the memory of the Holocaust, while Japan publishes history textbooks that don't even mention 'comfort women.' Still, her insistence on calling the Japanese government's head-in-the sand denial that these events ever took place as "the second rape of Nanjing" is utterly maudlin. It is more fitting of a Lifetime movie than a history book.

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Summary: A shocking and important book
Review: Iris Chang has done a great service to the cause of historical truth with this blunt, plainly written book. Despite its graphic and sickening descriptions of atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers, "The Rape of Nanking" is truly riveting. The story which it tells and the lessons which it teaches can, I believe, have a life-changing effect upon those who read it.

Most of the criticisms of "The Rape of Nanking" previously recorded in this forum fall into two categories:

The first type of criticism is what might be called the defense of HISTORY. This argument boils down to griping that the book is not written in the dry, arch language of true historians, that it personalizes history and that the author shows her lack of objectivity by injecting herself into the story she is telling. All of these claims have some measure of truth, but are beside the point, nonetheless. Chang is a journalist, not a professional historian, and her writing style is understandably less formal than what might be found in a scholarly historical journal or book. Nevertheless, the narrative is rich in factual material that is copiously documented in the footnotes at the end of the book. Even Chang's ruminations on the sociopolitical and psychological forces underlying the Rape are well supported, if all too brief. Finally, it is more than a bit unfair to criticize Chang for lack of scholarly rigor when so few "genuine" western historical scholars have been willing to take on this disturbing and controversial subject.

The second type of criticism is that of denial and revisionism, most of whose proponents appear to be right wing Japanese ultranationalists. Their contentions are that, on the one hand, the Rape never occurred, and that, on the other hand, even if it did occur (just a little,) it was no worse than the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki or the Chinese occupation of Tibet. The denial argument is so patently false that it cannot be taken seriously by anyone with a modicum of intelligence and honesty. It is especially hard to accept supposed refutations of the numerous eyewitness accounts of Westerners and of Japanese soldiers themselves. Wisely, Chang devotes nearly an entire chapter of her book to meticulously debunking these obfuscators.

The contention that other atrocities and acts of oppression somehow lessen the guilt of the Japanese for their actions in China is an absurdity. One of the weakest forms of argument is to say to one's opponent "You're another." All atrocities and all forms of oppression are inherently evil, regardless of who commits them. Rather than denying the undeniable and defending the indefensible, the Japanese people, as individuals and as a nation, would do well to yield to the truth of their past, regardless of how painful that may be. Living in opposition to reality is ultimately destructive to oneself.

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Summary: A book of monumental importance.
Review:

I picked up a copy of “The Rape of Nanking” to bring with me on a leisurely vacation. I made the mistake of reading the first page three days in advance of leaving and I couldn’t put the book down. I read it at night before falling asleep. I read it first thing in the morning while my coffee was brewing. I read it while standing on line at motor vehicles. As a result I have nothing to read while on vacation.

This is an incredible book in every conceivable respect and when I use the word “incredible”, I mean it quite literally. It boggles the mind to such an extent that the reader can hardly process the material presented as historical fact. The book shines a light upon the details of the December, 1937 Japanese invasion of Nanking, China and exposes the facts of a situation so horrible as to be unimaginable to any reasonable person. If I have one word of warning to the prospective reader of this book it is that you might not want to know these details. First, they will stay with you, maybe forever, and what they will cause you to envision isn’t pretty. Second, these details will frustrate the reader in that human nature as I know it is such that one will want to do something to prevent this horror after the fact.

Iris Chang is a highly talented writer and this book is written so well that if the entire story were a work of fiction it would be a worthy read. Unfortunately, it is not a work of fiction. She is also masterful journalist and this is demonstrated not only by her uncovering of the facts that comprise this book but also by her unbiased presentation of this material. Japan is not simply an “evil empire” in Chang’s presentation. China, and even the Chinese citizenry of Nanking during the invasion, are not simply helpless victims of the Japanese barbarian hordes. She speaks of Chinese traitors as readily as she speaks of Japanese atrocities. In fact, I suspect that I am having more difficulty writing an unbiased review of her book than she apparently had writing an unbiased book. However, rather than go off on a tirade here let me simply say that by today’s standards, the United States would be roundly criticized by the international community as well as by most American people if we were to sit idly by as any aggressor nation inflicted the level of pain and suffering upon the innocent, unarmed citizenry of any country as is described in this book. Today we attack Serbia for being involved in a civil war and for expelling Albanians from its borders and we act as if this is the obvious thing to do. In 1937, we watched and did nothing as the Japanese brought wholesale rape, murder and unimaginable mayhem to the simple people of Nanking. Where’s the justice? Where’s the equality? Where’s the compassion that we so commonly feign today?

As usual, when I finish a great book I am left with questions that I have no way of finding answers to. For example, Ms. Chang, if Chinese soldiers resisting the Japanese invasion fired upon fleeing Chinese soldiers who had gotten word to retreat, and if many Chinese were hurt and possibly killed in the panic to flee Nanking, how many of the 300,000 Chinese dead were not killed by the Japanese? ...

I envision Amy Tan reading this book shortly before having written “The Bonesetter’s Daughter”. It was that book that gave me the idea to read this book. By all means, you should read this book too. It left me with a strong desire to read more about this fiasco and, if I can track it down, to see John Magee’s film, referred to throughout. If you do read this book, keep the following words in mind as you read and tell me they are antiquated and have no meaning in modern society.

"A well-regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed."

Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution