Customer Reviews

The Rape of Nanking

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

marginalized & denied by the perpetrators. Most people are aware of "the rape". It gets a paragraph in most history books. I thank Iris Chang for adding a major mainstream book on the subject. It can only add to the pressure on Japan to confront this stain on their national reputation. Ms Chang's story is a chapter in the much larger war of annihilation waged by Japan against the people of China. This war made hardened Nazi recoil in horror. Ms Chang recounts the days before, how could it have been prevented & the absymal condition of the Chinese army unable or unwilling to put up even token opposition despite superior numbers. After a while her blizzard of numbers becomes to much: number of rapes, numbers of murders, combinations, numbers of torture, those used for bayonet practice etc. They become meaniless. Her suggestion that Japan pay reparations (such as The United States did to its Japanese citizens intered in World War II) is unrealistic. More real is an official apology from the Japanese government. Maybe when every Japanese soldier form World War II & their next of kin are dead will that apology come.

Ms. Chang has done both the Chinese people and the larger world a great service by retelling the stories behind this senseless atrocity. The book must be included on high school and college reading lists with at least one mandatory book report assigned on the subject per year for all undergraduates. Lastly, Chang should explore the option of taking her project onto the college lecture circuit and getting grants from Japanese companies like Honda to fund her efforts.

I knew absolutely nothing about the China/Japan conflicts of WWII until I stumbled upon this book. It was extremely informative and gave a graphic description of the horrible events that took place in China. I also liked the background that the author gave regarding the China/Japan differences. Although I was into the first hundred pages, I sort of lost interest as I continued and I found myself reading other things and daydreaming. All around a good book though.

Iris Chang has done a great service for the Western World. The Rape of Nanking is only one of the horrendous atrocities committed by the Japanese during WW2. I personally suffered in a POW camp with 85% death rate. Rabaul Island POW camp had a 97% death rate. On Sado Island all the POWs were deliberately burried alive at the 400 foot level of the mine they worked. My experiences are recounted in my book "My Life With the Samurai." When Gen. Mac Arthur stopped the War Crimes investigations in 1952 he did the world a great disservice. The holocaust is kept alive and Japanese atrocities are hidden. This book should be read in every senior educational institute in the Western World.

The topic was interesting. I knew very little about the China-Japan part of WWII. That such horrific occurance has gone under-reported is really a crime. But this book is, sadly, kind of boring. It is also very repetitive, as though the story could have been a short news artiicle or series of articles. (A magazine article). Too bad this had to be expanded to make it appear book-size. If you buy a hard-copy, the font of the print is large and the margins are wide. May have made a passable graduate thesis.

On the earth, only Americans are believing the Atmic Bomb attacks to Hiroshima and Nagasaki have saved millions people's life. The truth is they were done only for the demonstration to the Congress and the Soviet. The last chapter in WW2 might start like this if a Japanese writes the American history textbook. I would not miss that Japanese POWs suffered several kinds of cruelty by American soldiers.

Actually, this will never happen in America but happened in the case of Japan. After WW2, China has been interfering with Japan's domestic affairs. As for "Nanking Masscre", it was forged by Chiang Kai-Shek's Kuomintang (KMT) and supported in the Tokyo Trials with no evidences other than the testimonies of few eyewitnesses. Japan's cross-examinations were rejected (therefore, America might be an accomplice of this forgery).

Chinese Communist Party has succeeded in putting this forged holocaust on history textbooks for Japanese students. In Japan, anyone can write and publish textbooks if they pass the Japanese government's examination and, as you can imagine, Japanese government can not deny "Nanking Masscre" since it was "confirmed" in the Tokyo Trials though it was victors' unilateral judgement.

After the Tokyo Trials, Americans have "forgotten" that they supported China's conspiracy. Iris Chang's "The Rape of Nanking" is supposed to be the 2nd stage of spreading the propaganda in America.