Rating: 
Summary: Remarkably Powerful!!!!!
Review: "The Rape of Nanking" has been well-researched by Iris Chang. It is one of the very few nonfiction that I could not put down. It is a shame that Americans have so little, or even, no knowledge at all, on this unforgettable holocaust. "The Rape of Nanking" should be a reading requirement for high school and college students. Being a high school junior myself, I don't think the Educational Board is doing a very good job letting us to know the history of Asia. The U.S. History textbook might as well be renamed as 'History of United States, Russia, and European countries.'
Rating: 
Summary: Rape of Nanking is an extremely important hsitorical book
Review: It is disturbing and precise. One leaves the finished book with a clear understanding of how atrocities can be swept under the rug and history can be re-written by governments. The only criticism of the book lies in Chang's writing style. Had the book been less concerned with justifying itself and it's facts and written more cohesively and with broader style, the readability of the text would be greatly enhanced.
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Summary: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Review: History astonishes many with potentials for good and evil in mankind. From December 12th 1937 to Mid February 1938, Japanese Imperial Army has committed the inhuman crime of slaughtering over 300,000 Chinese civilians in Nanking City along, twice as many as would die in atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. The carnage was the result of a secret order sent to Japanese forces in China under the seal of Prince Asaka, uncle of Emperor Hirohito: "Kill all captives." Soon competitions arose among soldiers to see who could kill most efficiently (Orville Schell, New York Times, Dec. 14, 1997). 60 years later, Japan still refuses to face the facts and come to their terms as criminals. Instead, they paint themselves as victims of the war and their youngsters don't even know who started it. War criminals have been important politicians in Japan, showing no sign of regret for the murder. For victims' descendent, revisiting the past is painful and shameful, but absolutely necessary. At this 60th anniversary, peoples' conscience were put into a new test. Everyone knows that Nazi means bad, but there was a man whose humanitarian deeds compelled Ted Koppel, ABCNews Nightline Anchorman, to put these words together, "The Good Nazi" (Dec. 11,1997). His name is John Rabe, who was an executive of Siemens in China at the time of Nanking Massacre and he happened to be a Nazi. John Rabe, after the fell of Nanking, headed a handful of westerners in setting up a safety zone to protect Chinese civilians. He was on call day and night, sometimes directly to the crime scene (in schools and churches near John Rabe's house) to stop raping or shooting in progress. He used his swastika (Nazi symbol) to the fullest extent in saving lives (Japanese would only fear German). He risked his own life to save thousands of others. John Rabe earned his name as "The Living Budda of Nanking", or "Oskar Schindler of Nanking" as Iris Chang put it. This book is the first narrative history aimed at a mass American market. It is "a powerful, landmark book", as Richard Rhodes (Pulitzer Prize-winner) reviewed. The Nanking atrocities were presented as facts known to survivors, Japanese soldiers, and neutral observance of John Rabe and other westerners (Doctors, missionaries, etc.), vividly and convincingly. In addition, Iris Chang tried to answer, at the cultural level, the questions asked when one is first introduced to this piece of history: How could the Japanese Army have engaged in such a monstrous and protracted crime against humanity with such enjoying smiles as the photographs show, were they human at all ? During her two years of research for the book, Iris Chang unearthed the detailed 1,200-page diary of John Rabe chronicling the Nanking atrocities. "I have to see these atrocities with my own eyes so that in the future I can bear witness and tell others what happened. One must not be silent facing such cruel deeds." John Rabe wrote. Scholars regard the discovery of John Rabe Diary as outstanding historical finding: "an incredibly gripping and depressing narrative...that will reopen this case in a very important way." (William C. Kirby, Harvard). Yet, even the liberal Japanese media were not impressed (Johns Hopkins Magazine, Nov. 1997). Japanese government is supporting those openly denying Nanking Massacre ever happened. Not a word (about Nanking Massacre) allowed in Japanese textbooks. So far, Japanese government has not paid a penny for any damage they have forced on to Asian countries, including issues like comfort women, Troop 731's testing Germ warfare on live human bodies. There are still tons of Biological/Germ warfare leftovers in China that Japanese government refused to cleanup. It is a total denial that did not surprise me: bad guys stay bad and crimes were denied the same way they were committed --- senseless ! What I found difficult to explain to my colleagues and friends is the ugly part of this history: How could such mass barbarity have remained so neglected by historians for so long? Why have the Chinese never asked Japan for reparations and apologies ? Most scholars blame the cold war for the International community's failure to focus on the Nanking Massacre: the US need a loyal Japanese alliance, Taiwan and Mainland China both eagerly seeking recognition and trade advantages from Japan, while fighting each other to death has been their highest priority. However, the cold war has been over for years, the ugly ones are getting more disgusting. One can hardly expect the government in Taiwan would discomfort Japan. Mainland government won't standup against the Japanese either. The fact is, both of these two governments chose to keep silent on the atrocities instead of to let the world, including Japan, know that those 300,000 lives are valuable and we all have a lesson to learn from Nanking Massacre. The 300,000 innocent people should not perish from history as did their lives. The Chinese Americans have fought hard for two generations, with Iris Chang and her parents among them, never took no for an answer. Jews learned a lesson from the Holocaust, their persistence and hard work had forced Germans to face their past and pay dearly. Chinese has got a lot to learn from Jews in preventing history from repeating itself--- anything but forgetting. It is true that Jews have the full backup of Israeli Government and Israeli Commandos but Chinese Americans don't. They would have to fight harder and longer, believing in the Good side of human nature. Nanking was not the only city suffered the Japanese brutality. Countless villages in Northern China just disappeared under Japanese. Thousands of captured resisting soldiers were used to test Germ warfare. Even the United States Citizens were not spared either. US POWs captured by Japan during World War II had 31 times higher death rate than those captured by Germany. Recently, A Few Good Man in Congress led by Rep. Lipinski introduced a bill (H.CON.RES126) to express the sense of Congress concerning the war crimes committed by the Japanese military during World War II. The bill particularly mentioned Nanking Massacre and comfort women issue, asked Japanese Government to formally apologize and pay reparations. It has been submitted to the Committee on International Relations. Transcripts of the bill is available on internet Remember, Devils only KowTow to power. It was true 60 years ago and still true today. The United States is yet to finish the mission it started 55 years ago --- bringing down war criminals. This book is highly recommended, librarians should buy the book if they don't have it yet. As a taxpayer, it is your right and responsibility to ask the public library buy the right book, in spending your tax money.
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Summary: A forgotten holocause
Review: I could not read Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II more than a few pages or at most a chapter at a time. I could not bear to look at many of the pictures. The story she tells -- of the brutal murdering, rape, and desecration of Nanking in 1937, causing several hundred thousand deaths -- was just too much for me. This is a story, however, that must be learned and read. Beyond the individual tales of torture, rape, vivisection, beheadings, and rapes, however, are the larger questions. First, the events of Nanking were front page news (with photographs) in the New York Times and other sources as it occurred, yet apparently little western reaction ensued. How can the world so easily accept genocide or democide? Chang's comment: "Apparently some quirk in human nature allows even the most unspeakable acts of evil to become banal within minutes provided only that they occur far enough away to pose no personal threat." (As Chang notes, the modern equivalent to Nanking is the nightly CNN tapes of Rwanda and Bosnia, again seen in the comfort of our homes). Second, and mercifully balanced against this corporate apathy are the few heros, Europeans and Americans, who created a "safety zone" in the city and saved perhaps hundreds of thousands of lives. She describes John Rabe, a Nazi party member resident in Nanking, as the "Iskar Schindler of China". Stories such as the Nanking Rape, the Jewish Holocaust, and other modern holocausts must be taught and remembered, or they bear even greater likelihood of repetition than the already depressing scorecard from this century shows.
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Summary: Historically very important; must never be forgotten
Review: This is a great book. I haven't gotten very far but am going to read this to the end. How many other slaughters and battles have taken place remiss of public knowledge?
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Summary: I only hope that this book has been translated into Japanese
Review: I taught in the Japanese school system for three years. The history books that are used are still very vague on Japans role in WWII. What is even scarier is that military type drill formation is still being taught in some junior high schools.
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Summary: Devastatingly important book
Review: The veneer of civilization is striped bare in this phenomenally sad book; it can't be read without crying out to the better angels that sometimes abandon mankind. How could this outrage happen, and then be forgotten? And have we learned anything with the ongoing slaughter of innocents in former Yugoslavia? This book should be mandatory reading in all history classes worldwide. Perhaps a sense of shame can be found in all of us, and we can repent. But until the world owns up to its horrors, we are condemned to fail again & again.
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Summary: this book is long overdue
Review: The japanese government has repeatedly denied that the massacre and rape took place at all. Iris Chang has done a terrific job of reminding people how history can be so cruel and shocking.
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Summary: The book is rated 4 stars on the topic alone
Review: This was definitely not a "perfect" book. Certain parts dragged and was somewhat repititious. Iris Chang took a subject that was long overdued to be recognized. I felt like a lot of facts were just thrown in. Although the descriptions were graphic and horrifying, it is extremely important to acknowledge that these events did occur. One or two misquotes or mistakes does not erase that. We should applaude the author's attempt to educate us the other horrors of WWII.
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Summary: God of our fathers, lest we forget
Review: A passionate book, well presented and well written, the text nonetheless reverberates with what I interpret as the author's underlying outrage not so much that the rape of Nanking occurred -- that goes without saying -- but that events subsequent to WWII resulted in effectively hiding the atrocity from the public view. The discussion of the information available about the rape of Nanking and how political considerations militated against full public acknowledgment of the horrific event was for me the most involving portion of the book.
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