Rating: 
Summary: Exposition of a tragic event marred by lack of style points.
Review: "Who can forget Mies Giep?" asks Iris Chang. Apparently, Ms. Chang and her editor can. The name of Anne Frank's lookout was MIEP GIES, and it's one example of the slipshod construction of this book. The book and other reviews say enough about the horror of what occurred in Nanking. I will admit to being simulataneously intrigued and repelled by the events chronicled in the book. Unfortunately, the potential emotional, historical and/or psychological impact of this book is hampered by frequent stylistic breakdowns. The book careens from stilted term-paper paragraphs chock full of confusing and/or conflicting statistics to narratives involving characters who we never hear from again to matter-of-fact descriptions of the atrocities committed by the Japanese. "The Rape of Nanking" also includes an annoying amount of slang ("anyone with half a brain") which further endangers its chances to be viewed in the same light as nonfiction titles such as "Hiroshima" or "Night."
Rating: 
Summary: For once, a comparison with the Holocaust is justified
Review: References to Hitler and the Holocaust are so often made to draw attention to situations that are not at all comparable. In this case the comparison is apt. While the German holocaust strikes me as a chillingly efficient extermination, the story of the fall of Nanking seems more a wonton orgy of murder, rape and destruction. This book has enlightened me about a part of history (World War II in China) that I previously knew very little about. I don't think a book needs to be a weighty historical tome in order to be interesting and informative. After reading this short, fascinating treatment of the subject, I am looking forward to reading the lengthier, more indepth works that I'm sure will follow.
Rating:
Summary: Spread the Info
Review: For importance of topic I would give this book a 10. I would give it a 10 as well for the impact it had on me. Unfortunatly it was, as many others have pointed out, a little too abrupt and slightly superficial in it's treatment. My mother-in-law's generation suffered through the Japanese occupation of China and having heard the stories she tells, I was left feeling that Iris Chang's book needed to more fully explore the specifics of the massacre. On the whole, I still think the book is monumental in that it has finally popularized an event that remained little more than a rumor (outside of China) to those who didn't live through it. Let's hope that, in Japan, the veils of denial, on the part of those who know better, and ignorance, on the part of the younger generations, can start to be pulled away. In America, let's hope that national policies will not supercede justice (as they did with regards to Japan after WWII) in the aftermath of tragedy.
Rating:
Summary: Japan! wake up and smell...
Review: A very important book. The japanese need to admit to their atrocious wrongdoings in the past lest they be condemned to repeat them. Their revisionist history being taught to japanese children will ultimately lead to dire consequences if not changed. If there will be a World War III, the japanese will be the aggressor because they not only refuse to examine and learn from their past, but also add insult to injury by claiming that THEY were the victims of WWII.
Rating:
Summary: Thankyou for exposing the truth.May it never be forgotten.
Review: This book does correctly blame Japanese,as they are the true culprits in this case.What they did should be condemned.But it is not only Japanese soldiers,but even while I type this slaughter of innocent is happening in other countries.Least not us remember,we are human beings and inside evil exists in us all,of all races & colours. When we are out of control and start to operate below all acceptable human standards we adjust and then become nothing but beasts.Also let us also not forget what CHAIRMAN MAO has done.Some of the other ,even more well hidden "Nanking's" were recreated & replayed in his cultural cleansing days.Yet hardly a Chinese person really knows or admits it.I lived 3 years in Shanghai and no-one seems to know about what really did happen back in MAO's days.Like Japan,China hides shame on their own and thinks to bury it and hope its forgotton.Lets us not also forget the death,pointless destruction & wonton destruction in Vietnam,Rawanda and Bosnia.Humans,we are the core of the problem.Let us spend our money on more books and education and less on miltary and condemn all war and warmongers everywhere.
Rating:
Summary: Japanese must read this book.
Review: As I know Japanese Government still says that there was no holocaust happened in Nanking. Besides, the education department eliminates such history from their textbook and not allow the Japanese youth know the correct one. I'm so angry about that.
Rating:
Summary: A timely expose of Japanese atrocities!
Review: This is a very timely expose of Japanese atrocities. For Japan to continue to claim that: (1). It was invited by Asian nations to purge them of colonialists, (2). Nanjing and other massacres never really happen, but were exaggerated small incidents, and (3). Many Asians are quite thankful to what Japan did for their countries, it would be appropriate to use the same denials and arguments to say that: THE U.S. GOVERNMENT WAS INVITED TO CLEANSE JAPANESE RAT-INFESTED CITIES. ALL THAT WAS USED WERE 2 6-OZ CANISTERS OF PEST CONTROL THAT PEOPLE HAVE EXAGGERATED INTO 2 ATOMIC BOMBS. AND, YES, MANY JAPANESE ARE RATHER HAPPY WITH WHAT THE U.S. GOVERNMENT HAS DONE FOR JAPAN.
Rating:
Summary: Are we reviewing Kirkus or this book?
Review: When reading the customer comments to this book, I was surprised at how many reviewers opined on the Kirkus Review, either agreeing with some or all of it or (more frequently) vehemently disagreeing with it. I found that the book could have been a little fuller in its treatment and that 206 pages (excluding introduction) did seem a bit brief for a book dealing with such an important and incredibly undercovered event in history. This is particularly so given that the coverage of the actual 6-8 week period of terrorism accounts for only 100 pages of the book. One other criticism was chapter organization. First comes Chapter 2, entitled "6 weeks of terror", which describes the Rape of Nanking. Then Chapter 3 covers an historically earlier event, namely "the fall of Nanking". Then we return in Chapter 4 to more about the RON, except now the chapter is called "6 weeks of horror" which seemed simply a continuation of Chapter 2. Having said all of this, I gave the book a 9 because I agreed with everything the author had to say in her introduction and her epilogue regarding the lack of historical attention paid to this important and incredibly gruesome event, and I think she told the story well, albeit briefly. Thus, I would recommend it to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: A National Shame
Review: This is an important book, not so much because of its length, quality of writing, or style Ñ which all could be improved, but because there is so little that is available on this subject and this book is better than nothing. I agree with many of the reviews here and wished that the book was longer, more detailed, and (I would add) maybe a bit more academic. I say this because it is too easy for responsible Japanese officials, not to mention the average Japanese citizen, to dispute the details in the book without detailed proof behind it. This has hapenned more than once by former Japanese Gov. officials who say there is no proof of the so-called atrocities. I have lived in Japan for the last 22 years, and have a number of wonderful Japanese friends, but for the most part they will not discuss in detail any of the following: 1. the poor treatment by Japanese of Koreans who have to carry Korean passports even though many second and third generation Japanese Koreans have never been in Korea (they - on the other hand - have given me many opinions over the years of how poorly America has treated its Black citizens), no will they discuss Japan's war crimes in Asia or China. The practices found in this book could be found almost anywhere the Imperial Japanese Army had gone (some 60,000 men women and children in Manila were raped and murdered on order of the Japanese Command before the Japanese retreated from the city). Atrocities similar to those in Nanking were hapenning before Nanking and after throughout occupied China. I have tried to get some of my Japanese friends to talk about what they know about the Nanking Incident (as it is known in Japan), but one friend told me that its best to not talk about it because of what the right wing might do. The right wing here is strong and can be very ugly, but I am concerned that the Japanese are close to getting away with altering history and eradicated any responsibility for what they did. Here in Japan, there is no wide public discussion of responsibility of the war. Watching the ceremonies every August for Hiroshima and Nagasaki, one would think that Japan had been attacked by the USA and that the A-bombs were something that had hapenned to them. There is no discussion of the Japanese government's responsibility before and during the war. Young Japanese people do not know what their country's role was in WWII nor do they know what provoked the war not what their country did to other counties, and leaders of the government today are too busy visiting Yasukuni Shrine - or trying to - where Class A war criminals like Tojo and others are enshrined, to worry or care about the gap in young people's education. I believe that the Japanese should be made by the UN to set the record straight in Asia, reform their curriculum which does not only cover up the facts, but because of its nature (too much emphasis on authority, retarding individualism, and too much following the crowd) is one of the reasons why the Japanese acted as they did everywhere they were during the war. If Japan does not begin to change its tune and formally appologize to the countries they so violated they should not be allowed a chance at a permanante seat on the UN Security Council, this would have tremendous effect because this seat on the Secutrity Council is what it wants more than anything els.
Rating: 
Summary: Important and necessary
Review: I found that I agreed with much of what the Kirkus reviewer wrote. Personally, I would have preferred a more rigorous, scholarly account--it's not so much history as it is journalism. Having said that, I believe Chang has done a service to the memory of the victims in recounting the massacre. As a resident of Japan, I wish that this book would help to change the stance of Japanese officialdom which continues to downplay and deny its role as a wartime aggressor. Every August, we are reminded by the Japanese media how horrible the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was. I agree. It would also be helpful if the Japanse media provided the same degree of coverage every December to remind us of the horrors that were visited upon the people of Nanking in the winter of 1937.
|
