The Nanjing Massacre: A Japanese Journalist Confronts Japan's National Shame (Studies of the Pacific Basin Institute) [Paperback]

Honda Katsuichi (Author), Frank B. Gibney (Editor), Karen Sandness (Translator)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Japanese investigative journalist Honda's authoritative study of the Japanese Imperial Army's campaign of wholesale destruction, rape, and murder in central China (November 1937-March 1938) is far superior to Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanking (LJ 1/98), a powerful but deeply flawed best seller that made its author an international celebrity. Honda's study, based on Japanese wartime soldiers' diaries, contemporary newspaper accounts, and numerous interviews in the 1970s and 1980s with Chinese survivors of the massacres, is an unflinching and relentlessly horrifying tale of the systematic savagery of Japan at war against the people of China. He confirms beyond any doubt that the massacres began as soon as the Japanese expeditionary forces landed in Hangzhou Bay, that they were sanctioned by the military commanders, and that they continued not for weeks but months. His refutation of the Japanese "massacre denial" literature is caustic and compelling. Essential for all academic and larger public libraries.ASteven I. Levine, Univ. of Montana, Missoula
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Japanese --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: East Gate Book; 1 edition (January 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765603357
• ISBN-13: 978-0765603357
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #182,366 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #53 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Ethnic & National > Japanese
  • #100 in Books > Law > International Law

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for all with interest in the Nanking massacre, November 12, 2004

By 

Luke - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Nanjing Massacre: A Japanese Journalist Confronts Japan's National Shame (Studies of the Pacific Basin Institute) (Paperback)

Honda Katsuichi has written what may possibly be the most brutally important book yet published in English on the truth about the Nanjing massacre, something which he conceived as an investigative journalist after interviewing tens of victims on his journey to China. It's a factual, highly authentic account of eyewitnesses' interviews after Katsuichi traces out en route batches of living victims which has survived those terrible times. Back in Japan, its Japanese original version was one of the few publications which forced academic recognition that the Nanjing massacre is no longer something which could be swept under carpet.

I wonder why some Japanese reviewers still strenuously refused to admit the truth of the matter, a thing which is even in Japan no longer denied. Are they really so uninformed by the Japanese mainstream history academia, or is it really something else? Taking one misleading example of the "truth" as reported by a previous reviewer, Hiromi, China has always tended to downplay the massacre in Mao's time, not to up-play it. One wonders how "anti-Japanese" Honda is; what he has done is merely to uncover the truth, and the accusation is the equivalent of branding a German who admits to the Holocaust as an "anti-German". This book is certainly even more credible and better-written than Iris Chang's Rape of Nanking, since it is written by a Japanese for the Japanese themselves.

36 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Detractors Blinded by Hate, March 2, 2005

By 

Steamboater - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Nanjing Massacre: A Japanese Journalist Confronts Japan's National Shame (Studies of the Pacific Basin Institute) (Paperback)

This is one of several books detailing the atrocities Japan committed in China during WWII, atrocities the Japanese and their government have yet to face up to in a mature and honest manner. I suppose, for Japan, it's a matter of losing face, and if that's so, Japan has a lot face to lose. Those who deny the Nanjing butchery are so blinded by their hate of communism that any truth exposed by anyone who even minutely appears to support China's view is instantly shrugged off as a lie(s). The bottom line is, the Nanjing Massacre and other Japanese atrocities are about as untrue as the existence of the Comfort Women (Chinese and Korean women kidnapped by Japanese soldiers so as to whore themelves among the Japanese military), and the Bataan Death March where so many American and British military and civilians were murdered along the long walk to Japanese POW camps, none of which Japan has yet to come to terms with either. In fact, the Japanese government even refuses to discuss the Comfort Women.
Those who deny Japan's responsibilty are the same kind we in the west refer to as revisionists when they say the Holocaust never happened. They're not revisionsists; they're liars. A few of the reviews of this book are so full of philosophical and political claptrap that it reminds one of a cheap hamburger loaded with filler. Unfortunatley, the burger is so full of God-knows-what that instead of pleasing the customer with its juicy full rounded appearance, one distasteful bite and you instantly realize you're about to throw up.

37 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great work by a Japanese Journalist., October 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Nanjing Massacre: A Japanese Journalist Confronts Japan's National Shame (Studies of the Pacific Basin Institute) (Paperback)

This is the perfect translation of 'Nankin e no Michi'(The Road to Nanjing) written by Honda Katsuichi. Nanjing Massacre was not an accidental incident. The atrocities in China by Japanese soldiers began in Shanghai and resulted in the massacre in Nanjing. The author traces back the incident by detailed interviews with survivors, documents, diaries of Japanese soldiers and photographs. He doesn't argue about the numbers of victims, but why and how it occurred in the period. Appendix is also great.It consists of some significant victim interviews, quote from diaries and reminiscences of Japanese soldiers which are excerpts from other Honda's works. I'm sure this book will never disappoint the readers who really want to know the facts on Nanjing Massacre.