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Summary: RAPE OF NANKING
Review: IN 1975 I WENT TO COLBY COLLEGE INM WATERVILLE MAINE.I HAD SEVERAL CHINESE FRIENDS DURING THIS TIME AND I WAS TOLD ABOUT "THE RAPE OF NANKING"YEARS BEFORE THE BOOKK BY IRIS CHANG WAS WRITTEN.I WAS TOLD ABOUT HORRIFIC CRIMES BY THE JAPANESE AGAINST THE CHINESE.I HEARD ABOUT JAPANESE RAPING AND MURDERING INNOCNET CHINESE CIVILIANS.WHEN I READ IRIS CHANG'S BOOK ABOUT NANKING IT SOUNDED TOTALLY TRUE TO ME.BASICALLY MS.CHANG FLESHED OUT THE STORIES I HEARD IN 1975.THE JAPANESE CRIMES IN NANKING ARE TRULY BLOOD CURTLING AND HORRIFIC.THREE CHEERS TO MS.CHANG FOR EXPOSING THE TRUTH.
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Summary: The 2nd Rape of Nanking is still alive on Amazon.com
Review: This book had been on my shelf for a long time, after the recent discussions about Disney, political correctness and "Pearl Harbor" I read it, and I'm very glad I did. Skip the silly movie and read this instead. As many others have noted the story is a compelling and a terrifying one. Ms. Chang tries to present both sides of the story, but the nature of the crime is so enormous that her objectivity sometimes fails her. Despite the claim by the Japanese reviewers that only "20,000" were murdered. A figure of 20,000 military plus 200,000 to 300,000 civilian death seems to be accepted. Frankly, it doesn't matter the brutality of the murders speaks for themselves. Ms. Chang other claim is that the 2nd rape of Nanking was the downplaying of the atrocity by the Japanese with tact acceptance by the US. Here she is on pretty strong ground. It is obvious after reading the one star reviews from many Japanese citizens, that a significant group of Japanese have not fully accepted their countries guilt As a student of WWII, I was aware of Rape of Nanking. However, when pulled eight WWII books of my shelves I was shocked to see only two references. All of the books discussed the attack on the gunboat Panay, which was sent to evacuate foreigner trapped in Nanking. How ironic that an attack which killed a handful of American and westerns merits discussion, yet a massacre right next door doesn't. This is not the definitive history book on the Rape of Nanking. However, if you think that Japan was a victim in WWII read this.
Rating: 
Summary: a piece of information
Review: I want to write about so called "killing contest" or "killing competition". My knowledge of this case are mainly from Mr Akira Suzuki's two books, "Nanking Daigyakusatsu no Maboroshi(1973;hardcover, 1983;paperback)" and "Shin Nanking Daigyakusatsu no Maboroshi(1999)". This "killing 100 Chinese with a Japanese sword" case began with an article appeared in "Tokyo Nichi-nichi" on November 10th in 1937. This article was reproduced in "Japan Advertiser" on December 7th 1937, and then in the last part of "Japanese Terror in China(1938)" by Timperley as a supplement. Timperley's manuscript was immediately translated into Chinese language by Kuomintang, and the story of the "killing contest" has prevailed among Chinese people. The questions are whether or not the original Tokyo Nichi-nichi article told the truth, whether or not the original article havn't been distorted when it was reproduced or prevailed among the pubic. The answer to the former question is that the original Tokyo Nichi-nichi article was a fabrication. In order to whip up war sentiment, a news reporter of Tokyo Nichi-nichi (Mr. Asami) fabricated the article of brave battle actions (not of atrocities to civilians) from a joke talked in the playful conversation after lunch with Mr Mukai and Mr Noda. The answer to the latter question is that the original article seems to have been distorted at some important points when it was reproduced or prevailed among the public. For one thing, the original article was about battle actions, not about atrocities to civillians. As criminals of this case, two ex-Japanese-soldiers were sentenced to death. A defence counsel, who was a Chinese, tried to defend them conscientiously, but in vain. Mr Mukai, one of the two, wrote in his farewell note to his mother, "I swear by heaven and earth, and before God, I have never killed a single civillian, --- " Iris Chang wrote, "One vociferous critic of Hora and Honda was the ultraconservative author Suzuki Akira, --- "(p.211 in her "The Rape of Nanking"). This statement is wrong. Mr Suzuki is neither vociferous nor ultraconservative. He has sit out of so-called "Nanking Dispute" after he wrote "Nanking Daigyakusatsu no Maboroshi". He seems to be a calm, sober-minded person. He is by no means "vociferous". Indeed he didn't eat up the propaganda from China like many or most "liberals" did when China was performing the Cultural Revolution, but it naturally doesn't mean Mr Suzuki is "ultraconservative". He is a devoted fan of Laoshe, and likes Shen-Congwen and Dingling among Chinese writers. He seems to be sympathetic toward Pan-Hannian and Dong-Jianwu. This case still doesn't seem to be settled even in Japan. The left-wing don't agree with Mr Suzuki. A daughter of Mr. Mukai seems to have said, in "Monthly Seiron, March 2000", that her father was innocent. She went to China several times to look into the documents of her father's trial.
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Summary: Unfortunately full of flows and mistakes
Review: As for numbers murdered and raped in Nanking, Iris Chang spends so much time establishing an extraordinarily high figure with little evidence . Although Chang refers to John Rabe's testimony for alleged Japanese Army's brutality, she never accept or even pay attention to the fact that he clearly mentioned, in his letter to Hitler in June 1938, estimated number of civilian killed was between 50,000 to 60,000. A little investigaton showed me that Miner Searle Bates, a member of the International Safety Zone Committee for Nanking, recorded that estimated number killed was around 12,000 as reported to Tokyo Trial later. Also, Ku-Wei Chun mentioned 20,000 citizens were killed in his speech to the League of Nations on Feburary 2, 1938. Anyway, some people may argue that the number of victim doesn't matter so much. But since Iris Chang herself put so much emphasis on this issue, she shoud have been fairer and provided readers with more data.
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Summary: Sad Truths, with slightly personal aspects
Review: I read this book last year in High School and wrote a report on it for a history class. No one, including my teacher, had ever heard of this event. It is a story that needs to be told, but as of now the voice that tells it is only a whisper. The library in my town had this book for a few months and then, without being checked out, mysteriously "disapered." People don't want this story told and for that reason alone, I believe it should be read.
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Summary: Emotionally Powerful Topic Handled Objectively
Review: It's easy to see why Iris Chang's master thesis made the New York Times Best Seller list. Her scholarship in handling a powerfully emotional topic is clean, solid erudition. She neither demonizes the Japanese soldiers nor glorifies war. Her interviews with Japanese soldiers help the reader see what was going through the minds of people involved in one of the bloodiest massacres of civilians in World War II. Chang uses comparisons from other historical moments to position these events in the greater global situation. She uses documentation as well as oral history to create a literary masterpiece. The work is both a powerful piece of reading and an inspiring work of scholarlship. The message she concludes with does not condemn the men who participated, but rather questions the nature and future of humankind.
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Summary: Flawed as a work of history
Review: While Chang emotionally insists that Japanese teachers don't teach children about Nanking or most Japanese don't know about this issue, as a foreigner who actually spent many years in school in that country, I can clearly say that is not true at all. ALL the Japanese know and learn about Nanking and other war crimes. Also, it is very clear that so many historical details are flawed and so many pictures are decoyed or forged in her book. But if you can not investigate into the current Japan, which you can do so easily with so many databases and other sources, how could you qualify your investigation into something that happened more than 60 years ago? I don't think Iris Chang was incapble of research. I'm afraid that she simply had no intention to pursue the truth of the history.
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Summary: Poorly written without strong arguement based on facts
Review: The Chinese in this book are all depicted as victims, people without agency; the Japanese are depicted solely as aggressors. As she adds a work to the growing body of victim studies, Chang never asks some of the most serious questions of all: How could so many hundreds of thousands of people have been slaughtered by so many fewer Japanese troops? While Chang offers third-rate pop psychology to analyze " the Japanese", she is curiousely silent on "the Chinese". This is a typical book journalists would write, not historians. Unfortunately, people like the former.
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Summary: A Dramatic Account
Review: Iris Chang has done a good job of relating the Japanese atrocities in China. Her writing style is none too fluid, but the content is so dramatic that it really doesn't matter. It made me want to explore this subject further.
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Summary: Excellent Account Of A Tragic Event
Review: Iris Chang has given us a full and detailed account of the Japanese atrocities in Nanking, China. Her writing style does not always flow, but the content is so moving and disturbing that the writing style does not matter all that much. The book makes me want to explore the subject in greater detail.
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