The Rape of Nanking

Rating:
Summary: A little-known, but astonishing story!
Review: In highly readable book which is not meant to malign an entire people or culture, but rather to record a little-known history, Iris Chang presents an account of the events that occurred in the city of Nanking, China, during World War II. Beginning with a brief history of Sino-Japanese relations and some insights into the Japanese culture, Chang proceeds to tell about the Japanese invasion of China and atrocities perpetrated both on Chinese soldiers and civilians by the Japanese forces occupying Nanking. In conclusion, she relates how Japan to this day has not taken responsibility for those atrocities nor has atoned for them.

THE RAPE OF NANKING is a detailed and well researched chronicle of a situation of man's inhumanity to man and an important lesson in history. It must made more public despite Japan's attempt to cover up the facts of what truly occurred. Some of the barbaric torture that the Chinese victims were forced to endure at the hands of the Japanese and the speed at which it occurred make the systematic murders of Nazi Germany seem tame by comparison. Chang tries to understand how any individual or group of people can become so completely insensitive to life as to perform unthinkably barbarian attacks and murders and then go on to live an otherwise normal life and never be held accountable for past animal-like brutality. She paints a clear picture of what happened to the Chinese population of Nanking at that point in history in an attempt to prevent such tragedies and waste of human life from ever happening again.

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Summary: I Didn't Know If There Were Freedom of Speech in China ...
Review: It is an interesting book; however, Chang's craftsmanship is never accurate.

Her book "The Rape of Nanking" argues that Japanese soldiers systematically killed 300,000 civilians in Nanking (or Nanjing) during World War II. She is trying to prove such genocide based on the following evidence: statistics, photographs, and testimony. But, they are all too unclear to conclude the certainty of Chang's arguement.

First of all, the statistics by the International Committee for the Nanking Safty Zone indicates an increase of 50,000 in population from December 17, 1937 (approx. 200,000), to January 14, 1938 (approx. 250,000), and that contradicts Chang's fearful illustration of the massacre. If Japanese soldiers were slaughtering civilians, why did people come back to Nanking? In this book, Chang is ignoring the explanation for the increase of civilians which was recorded in the first-class source. Japan has given resident passes to, at least, 200,000 civilians in the Safty Zone. On the other hand, today, China is advocating that Japanese Army has killed 450,000 civilians in Nanking. That is completely false and nonsense!

Secondly, the pictures that Chang has provided do not prove the attrocities that Chang is describing. Some of the photos are even fake. A picture of the dead soldiers beside a river does not mean a picture of massacred civilians. A picture of a Japanese soldier that is executing a mutinous war prisnor does not refer to a game of killing innocent civilians. Also, playing with dead bodies and torturing people in strange appliances are rather old Chinese brutal manners, and the sources of some photos are questionable. Chang is including even pictures that are unrelated to Nanking. (For instance, a "type 97 light armored tank" has not yet been produced in 1937 or in early 1938, but one photo in the book shows it; it also has a flamethrower which the same tank is not supposed to have, and it seems to be a manipulated picture.) Several photos are taken from questionable sources, and they are presented with unjust captions in the book. At least, none of the pictures, even Magee's pictures, can be clear evidence of massacre that killed 300,000 civilians.

And, finally, Chang's biased inference is drawn based on doubtful rumors, but they are not good sources either. When the walled city of Nanking fell, the leader Chiang Kai-Shek and other generals of the Nationalist Party ran away from the city, and that has caused great confusion; Chinese soldiers who lost their leader became rioters and guerrillas, and they refused Japanese Army by setting Nanking on fire by themselves. Harold John Timperley was in Shanghai, and he heard about the chaos in Nanking, and he thought, without investigation, it was the attack on Nanking citizens by Japanese soldiers. Frank Tillman Durdin from the New York Times reported four hundred Chinese were arrested in Nanking, and he saw two hundred people were executed (the New York Times, December 18, 1937, and January 9, 1938). But, in a larger part of the same report, Durdin also criticized Chinese guerrillas who sneaked in the refugees' area of Nanking for plundering and destroying the town. At the same time, his guess at the number of executed Chinese soldiers is uncertain, and just as Timperley, who was absent in Nanking, it has been causing a rumor of Nanking massacre. Major news companies, including Reuter, AP, and UP, were in Nanking and Shanghai, but they did not catch such systematic genocide in Nanking either. Major newspapers, such as the London Times, Chicago Daily News, or New York Times, did not report massacre of civilians in Nanking. Even the Time magazine that criticized Japan's war never referred to great massacre. In addition, neither the Nationalist Party nor the Communist Party of China reported systematic murder in Nanking that supposedly killed 300,000 innocent Chinese civilians to the League of Nations during the war. They did not do so because there was not such massacre. All stories of Nanking atrocities are coming from biased secondary sources, and there is no static testimony that can prove massacre by Japanese Army that killed 300,000 Nanking civilians.

Chang's argument is totally political propaganda, and it is not trustworthy at all in terms of the three following points; contradiction in the statistics, questionable sources of the photos, and biased testimony. My impression is that this book is a product of her hostile bias more than of her will to search for the truth. All the battles that took between Japan and China should be studied further than Chang's research. I understand the national anger among Chinese people who believe there was brutal massacre as described in her book, but I also hope they will discover injustice in her phony journalism. Distortion of facts by the goverment is not a good thing. If China wants to talk about history, they should first set their speech free.

Rating:
Summary: No more agitation, just learn it, Asia
Review: This is a good book that reveals one unknown side of WW2. I don't think this thin book fully covers about the Nanking massacre incident, but it surely spots a light on the subject. The facts in this book may be incomplete (I guess god knows the truth of war; you know what I mean?), however, still worth reading if you need to look back the past in China, Japan, and other Asian countries. How horrible the invasion by the Japanese empire at the time must have been for the invaded in Asia! This book seems to stand for rather those victims than Chinese governers. This book is actually not finished really well, but gives an oppotunity to other journalists for their further research. Also, I imagine arms bazaars in the world are now targetting Asia for the future battle field, so don't get too serious about "your own countries". I'm telling you, a few Asian idiots who are planning a meaningless war in Asia! Don't be stupid! Young men who are in China, Japan, and in other Asian countries, don't waste your time for your nebulous flags since they are just unreal products. Your racial hatered just makes bankers, politicians, and weapon industries happy. Stand up, and defend your peace from those devils! Don't be agitated easily. Stay calm. And, keep learning your histories all together!

Rating:
Summary: Not complete, but general truth passionately written
Review: This is the third, and probably the last attempt for me to give this book five-star evaluation. I had already given ten stars before, but since I have received a wonderful reply from Mr. B. T. Laycock, a well educated young man, I felt there is need of my response using this review section; if the sum of all reviews upon this book can help you, any of you, create a new, positive perspective of life with your deep awareness of the suffering of another, regardless of any time and space, that will be a good, beneficial start that enables whoever, or whatever that will keep surviving in this world to accomplish the order of less violence and unswayed peace. And, that will be the intrinsic compensation for any beings that have experienced succesive severe suffering from all our war crimes. In my political view, the current Japanese government should react to Asian countries with greater respect than ever, and they should make as much compensation as possible in the reality, in the same way the German politicians have done for the Jewish people. I simply think so because, otherwise, they would hardly believe the Japanese constitution even if that were designed right after world war II by many Japanese who have realized the true color of the Japanese empire at the time, with the help of the U.S. General Headquarters in Tokyo, to swear peace. The incommensurable wrath of the war victims especially in Asian countries such as China, Korea, and several others will never calm down without the reciprocal act of recognizing all histories between Japan and them. To desparately defend a position for a continuum of conscientious dialogue between us is, I think, a moral and logical way of being as a country, and Japan needs more of that positive action. The insult and hatred that the Japanese empire generated all over Asia since the war time, while most of that is not yet known to citizens in Europe and the U.S. because of suppressed situations of journalism in Asian countries, has become a large undergoing force in Asia based on mistrust, and obviously, things will get just worse if the Japanese citizens keep ignoring or denying the fact of the invasion and massacre by the Japanese military. In the past several decades, policies that the Japanese government chose, however, reflected many Japanese individuals' partial understanding of their neighbors. And, needless to say, Japan needs to make a proper apology that can clearly reach to the heart of American citizens, for attacking Pearl Harbor, and for starting the gory battle. It is a right thing to cast the blame on Japan for their faults in the past and present, and in my opinion, there is no argument about that. Sooner or later, Japanese citizens will have to attain sanity in their politics, and fundamentally, in their education system as well. While having opinions like above, however, I regret to state that my understanding about world war II is still insufficient to lead a concrete answer, and for me, the entire truth of the same war is beyond the mist of nihilism. According to a fact in an official document that the Department of State of the U.S. announced in 1943, Joseph Clark Grew, an American ambassador in Japan, sent his correspondence to the U.S. on January 27, 1941, carrying the information about Japan's sneak attack of Pearl Harbor. That was ten months earlier than the actual attack by the Japanese military. Also, one day before the miserable chaos at Pearl Harbor on December 8, 1941, a decoder team from England had decoded the Japanese empire's plan of attacking Pearl Harbor, by catching their correspondence in Singapore, and therefore Churchill and Roosevelt should have been informed about the Japanese attack in advance. This is not to say that this fact makes any allowance for the war crime committed by Japan. And, this is not to say that England and the U.S. were sharing any part of responsibility for casualities at Pearl Harbor. But, it was possively not a total sneak attack, and there were probably specific people who took advantage of the Japanese military action awaiting for the U.S. to fight. Bankers? Politicians? Or, industries? I don't know. B. T. Laycock's sincere and kind reply to my confusing comment posted before has presented his reasonable viewpoint of the two atom bombs that were actually used, in August 1945, to terminate the unprecedented brutal behaviors of the Japanese empire. I don't think that the use of atom bombs was the best way to stop the war. But, he inferred the war continued unnecessarily longer since the use of nuclear arms was delayed. That makes me think that there were specific unknown reasons to keep Tokyo and Berlin undestroyed by nuclear arms (maybe, to effectively exploit them after the war?). Furthermore, the U.S. General Headquarters failed to judge a part of the party of Japanese war criminals. Secret dealings may have been made during the processes of the judgement after the war, between specific people among Europe, the U.S., and Japan. Also, I wonder why we are talking about the Japanese war crimes now, but not much before? What is the full reason for it? Who and who have made the true control of the war? Many facts of the technocratic war disasters seem to be, unfortunately, still out of the sight for the empty sagacity of pseudo interectuals who always hide themselves behind either the sword and the pen. Finally, I would like to show my respect to Mr. Barron T. Laycock for being kind and honest to my sensational, controversial, and impolitic review. I apologize for shocking him, and other readers if there are any. *Do not post this if the same review has already been posted* Hirofumi Wakimoto

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Summary: Neo-Nazism in Japan
Review: Chang's book has obviously struck a nerve with right wing extremists in Japan. These extremists are called "uyoku" in Japanese, they dress in all-black poor-man's SS garb or in stylish camo patterns, and can be heard in major cities driving around in big black buses adorned with rising sun flags blaring out ear-shattering screeds over loudspeakers - "Death to the lying Chinese" I heard a few weeks ago, and like Tokyo's democratically-elected Mayor, Ishihara Shintaro, they use the derogatory word "shinajin" or "chink" for Chinese. (By the way, Ishihara has also called the Rape "a fabrication, a lie made up to embarrass Japan.") In Yokohama, a screening of a documentary on Nanking had to be stopped when a berserk neo-nazi actually slashed the screen with a knife. Subsequent screenings were cancelled. A Japanese translation Chang's book could not be published because of pressure from extremists. "Shingnichy," a Japanese apologist posing as an American (he makes all of the characteristic grammatical mistakes of Japanese speakers of English, and his arguments are identical to those of Nanking deniers in Japan), in his review of 7-20, writes about how contrite the Japanese are. I'd say, based on my experience living here, that the situation is really quite the opposite: virtually complete denial, no dissent tolerated by the active, noisy, and dangerous "uyoku" enforcers, as well as from influential non-historians like the shrill Ishihara or that hack professor at "prestigious" Tokyo University

Rating:
Summary: Japanese lies can't hide the truth.
Review: This is a great and courageous work that tells it like it was. Whatever ludicrous and vicious lies the Japanese may tell to distort the truth and no matter how hard they try to attack this book, there's no escaping from the truth.

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Summary: This book creates nothing but racism
Review: I have been in Japan for three years. I have just read so many postings from us that are not mere reviews to promote our understanding of the Japanese history; they are actually one-sided attacks on Japan and Japanese--and what's worse, typical racial-discrimination with strong bias. In fact Iris Chang's expertness and knowledge of Japanese language and history are too little to write such a book as she did. Besides Japanese are well-aware of dark side of their history. What's more it is true that they haven't repeated the mistake for more than a half century since 1945. However, so many of us are making critiques based only on what we know to be true at home. Let me put it in this way. If we started to condemn Europeans about their atrocities in days past, they would laugh at us-- " Go back to the cowboys and Indians time, and see what you did!" --Europeans don't want to hear "preach" on their history, particularly from us, Americans. But every one of us loves to talk about how our country is better, how things we do are the best way and how the world we percieve is true. So I suggest the Americans who carelessly blame Japan stay for a while in Japan. Then they will notice how humbly and sincerely Japanese are feeling guilty about the war crimes. Without konwing it, unfortunately, we tend to become a watchdog, ready to bark at their flaws we supposedly find. However, it is an issue that is supposedly left for Japanese, not for us, Americans, to judge how far the Japanese owe China an apologize for the incident during WWII. I would rather say that attacking only Japanese as many of us did here, is hurting sincere Japanese--and in fact it's a sly racism. I am afraid it helps nothing but raises their hostility against Americans. For them I would like to apologize.

Rating:
Summary: Eye Opening
Review: I picked this book up from a friend with his enthusiastic recommendation. I was amazed that I had never previously never heard of this horrific incident in any history classes I had taken up to that point in my life. It would be difficult for any author to remain completely objective while writing on such a sensitive and violent issue. Read this while keeping the writer's ethos in mind. Overall, the book is excellent, and I would urge everyone to read it.

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Summary: If the writer of this book wrote "The Rape of AMERICA..."
Review: If I. Chang, the writer of this book, wrote "the Rape of AMERICA," it would go like this...

"The Anglo-Saxon intruders slaughtered THREE HUNDRED MILLION of Native Americans and PEELED their HEAD-SKIN as the Anglo-Saxons used to commit in England and...."

What if a Chinese juornalist--not even a historian--who can't understand even English wrote a book like that? Would Americans keep silent? What Iris Chang committed is almost like the above. First, she is not an eligible scholar to write on such a controversial theme. Second, she can't understand neither Japanese nor English which skill is essential to research the huge amount of historical resources written in Japanese or Chinese. Without any expertness nor knowledge of Japanese-Chinese history she accomplished her work. We could easily imagine how the reult would be. 300,000 were killed?-No way. The Japanese ate Chinese?-It's Chinese custom to eat person.

Those people who are inteligent enough to notice her errors from fabrication and imagination wouldn't be able to believe her description. I hope no more people of the world will humiliate themselves talikng about the Nanking insident based on her book.

Rating:
Summary: Historical Half-Truths
Review: As the self-proclaimed first English text to deal throughly with the Nanking Massacre,The Rape of Nanking, does not deliver much. Pioneers may blaze a trail for others, but their work is usually sub-par. This is certainly true of Ms.Chang's work. I commend her for trying to enlighten a public that was unaware of the Nanking Massacre, but her book does not add to intellectual debate.

As a history student I was aghast to read such a thinly researched book in print. Ms. Chang's journalistic background perhaps dooms her to only delve beneath the shallow surface of the Japanese occupation of China. She makes sweeping generalizations without qualifying them. She also makes false comparisons between Germany's actions and that of Japan's during and after the war. She claims that compared to Germany, Japan did little to weed out the perpetrators of war crimes. But anyone with a modicum of knowledge about WWII would know that the 'de-nazification' program in Germany was far from sweeping. Many Nazis continued successful carrers in both public and private life. This is but one of many glaring historical mistakes. I find it striking that while Ms. Chang bemoans the historical obscurity of the Nanking Massacre, she falls victim to historical inaccuracy.

For those readers who are expecting an historical account of this book, be fore-warned that this book fails by all accounts.

As if the historical half-truths and inaccuracies weren't bad enough, Ms. Chang's halting and almost monosyllabic writing leaves the reader bored and irrated. I will not even comment on the shrill and baised tone she adopts throughout the book. I hope that the next time that Ms. Chang decides to write a book she will spend more time on researh and improving the quality of her writing. All in all, if you are looking for historical account pass this book.