Customer Reviews

American Goddess at the Rape of Nanking: The Courage of Minnie Vautrin

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Author Hua-ling Hu presents the deeply moving biography of an American educator/missionary who remained in Nanking to help thousands of women and children facing death. I could not set down the book until I finished it, then I started again in order to gain a keen appreciation for the thorough historical scholarship using sources that have not been available until Hu brought them to our eyes. This book should be read by historians, by missionaries, by anyone interested in fascinating biographies -- it is a compelling story with exceptional historical scholarship as the backdrop.

I first heard of the Rape of Nanking back in the year 1998 when I came across Iris Chang's _Rape of Nanking_ Since then I have read every book that I came across on the subject. Dr. Hu's book tells us of Minnie Vautrin an extraordinary woman who spent most of her life in China trying to help the Chinese people through education in religion. The book goes on to tell how Miss Vautrin risked her life day after day protecting thousands of Chinese women who seeked sanctuary at Miss Vautrin's college, Ginling.
Dr. Hu does a wonderful job giving the reader a backdrop of information, so the reader knows Japan and China's relationship with each other and the circumstances that led up to the Rape of Nanking. Dr. Hu also gives very detailed information in a short section about the history of American missionaries going to China. Wonderful book and an extraordinary woman.

Minnie Vautrin was a lady with compassion. She devoted her life in bringing education to Chinese women and girls in 1920s to 30s. She was well remembered not only by the people of Nanking but also by all Chinese people. During the Rape of Nanking committed by the invading of Japansese military in 1937, she risked her life in protecting over ten thousand women and girls in her campus. This book showed her courage. It was a remarkable story of the female over the male, the weak over the strong, the peace over violence. However, over the past sixty years, not many Americans know of this woman of humanity and internationalism. In 2001, I had the good fortune to attend her memorial at Shephard, Michigan with a small group of friends and her relatives. I delivered a brief paper on behalf of the citizens of Nanking for their respect and love to her. Dr Bates, another international team members son of 1937 delivered the grave site prayer.
As Americans, you should not miss this woman of the greatest generation. In December 13 2002, a statue will be set up in Naking to honor this American to China.
In 2004, Missouri House, City of St Louis and City of Overland made Proclamation on her birthday as Ginling Forever, Minnie Vautrin Day. In 2005, Illinois Governor honored her on her birthday and called for citizens of Illinois to follow her example. In September 27 2006, California Congressman Mike Honda introduced her on the floor for a Celebration Resolution - a significant gift for her 120 years birthday!
In 2003, with a group of friends, we set up Friends of Minnie Vautrin Scholarship Project to raise funds to honor her and her mission of Chinese women education in her Ginling College through United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia. [...]

Minnie Vautrin died at 55, by her own hands. Today we would call it post traumatic stress syndrome. Sometimes people have seen too much and given too much and they can't carry it all. Today Minnie Vautrin is remembered for the hope in Nanking she gave when all seemed lost before world war II as the Japanese invaded China.

Imagine being a simple school teacher from the Mid West, sent as a missionary to China to teach. Suddenly your school becomes a haven for 10,000 women who seek shelter against the invading Japanese Army. Vautrin could not even finish a meal or sleep a night without going out to fight off Japanese soldiers intent on hauling off Chinese girls from the international compound that had been declared a safe haven. She was slapped and pistol whipped. She was threatened repeatedly. She went without sleep. She went repeatedly to the Japenese authorities to protest. She even grabbed girls from the clutches of soldiers.

In the broader story, twenty four foreigners, including a Nazi German named John Rabe, saved 200 hundred thousand Chinese from extermination in a 3.8 km square safety zone in Nanking. The foreigners could have walked away. Instead they broke up rape attemtps, were pistol wiped, beaten, threatened at gun point. Unfortunately another 300,000 Chinese were killed, and at least 20,000 were raped, including grandmothers of 80 and girls as young as nine.

American missionaries in China have a mixed record. Those who stayed and saved the Chinese at Nanking have earned a special place in China's history. This book explains this history. If you want to understand China, this is worth reading.

What a brave woman Minnie Vautrin was. She should be sainted. Facing the brutal Japanese soldiers time and time again is like that Chinese dissident standing in front of the tank during the Tianamen Square massacre. If you want to know what the term "brave" really means then read this book. Everyone should know about this wonderful woman.

With Iris Chang's Rape of Nanking, this book is essential reading for those who would like to know about the Chinese Holocaust: many millions of Chinese murdered by the Japanese during the Second World War.

This is an excellent secular biography of a very brave woman. However, it is impossible to determine the depth of her spiritual life from it. The few quotes from her diary do not support any real determination of her deepest beliefs. We must rely on circumstantial evidence for any hint of them, i.e. the fact of her work for a Christian missionary society. But usually in biographies of those who would be considered heroes of the faith one sees much more first person testimony about their faith and relationship with Christ as motivations. See as an example "The Hiding Place" about Corrie ten Boom, an equally courageous heroine of the faith.

My personal opinion is that Minnie Vautrin is a heroine of the faith, regardless that she was possessed in the end by the horrors she saw and fought. But it cannot be determined from this book alone.