Review of "The Rape of Nanking," by Iris Chang

 Review of

The Rape of Nanking, by Iris Chang, ISBN 0140277447

Five out of five stars

History that must not be ignored

 Although no one doubted that the Holocaust in Europe took place after the end of World War II due to the extensive documentation, recently there has been a small, but determined effort to deny that it took place. So far, that effort has been minor with little real altering of how it appears in history.

 There was another event that could be described by the term Holocaust, and it took place in China. In December of 1937, the Japanese army entered the Chinese capital city of Nanking. For approximately six weeks, the Japanese engaged in a brutal exercise where Chinese soldiers that had been captured were systematically executed, women were gang raped, sometimes to death and civilians were killed in some of the most brutal ways. Japanese soldiers held contests to see who could kill 100 Chinese in the shortest period of time. Estimates of the number of deaths varies, it is reasonable to assume that over 300,000 people were murdered.

This book is a history of that event, which has largely been ignored in Japan. It has three parts, the first is a rendition by Japanese soldiers, the second from the perspective of the Chinese and the third from Westerners that remained in the city and set up a safety zone that saved countless lives. One of the most ironic circumstances was that of Christian Kroger, and ardent Nazi that was tireless in his efforts to save Chinese people. He even appealed directly to the German leader to intervene with the Japanese on behalf of the Chinese.

 The message of this book is a powerful one, although somewhat difficult to read. Yet, it is necessary that books like this be read by repeated generations of people, so that the memory of the event is kept alive. There are powerful forces in Japan that dismiss what happened in Nanking as a much smaller and isolated incident. Through books like this, that effort will continue to fail.

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