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Rape of Nanking: An Undeniable History in Photographs

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This 319 page book, with over 400 photographs, graphically illustrates the many unbelievable horrors that befell the citizens of Nanking and its defending soldiers who unwisely surrendered to the Japanese in December, 1937. It is claimed that more than 350,000 Chinese died during the period of just a few weeks--death at a rate exceeding 8,000 per day. If you are the squeamish type with a weak stomach when it comes to blood and gore, this will not be your book. The photographs are explicit with no holds barred. Explanatory text is interwoven with the photos. The authors wanted to make sure that the horrors that the Japanese inflicted on the Chinese were clear and undeniable beyond a shadow of a doubt. Chapter headings are: 1. The Road From Shanghai to Nanking. 2. The Fall of Nanking. 3. The Systematic Massacre of Prisoners of War. 4. Killing Methods. 5. Brutal Assaults on Women. 6. Arson and Looting. 7. Heroic Foreigners. 8. The Undeniable History and the Responsibility of Japanese Royalty.

That the necessity for this book is recognized by Desmond Tutu speaks volumes.

Not nearly enough has been told of Imperial Japanese agression in Asia. Not many know that the Japanese were accountable for 20 million deaths in Asia in World War II. Fewer still know the gruesome details of the atrocities the Japanese committed in Nanking. Knowlegde of that event is restricted in Japan and World War II is glossed over if mentioned at all in secondary schools. Too often the Japanese are portrayed only as victims at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. If one is to understand why older (and a few younger) Chinese, Koreans and Filipinos bear such residual animosity toward the Japanese, this book is a good starting point.

It is good to see a counterpoint to the plethora of literature which casts the Japanese as victims. Hopefuly, one day research and documentation of Japanese atrocities will be completed in the depth which is needed. For example, very few people (outside of Korea) know of the merciless way the Japanese dealt with Korean Independence movements or of the several thousand Korean martyrs like the 15 year old school girl Yu Kwan Soon (who was beaten to death for making a Korean flag). Hopefully, the Rape of Nanking will inspire more of these stories to be written.

to all Anti-Japanese books at Amazon. Check the identical posting at "Hidden Horrors : Japanese War Crimes in World War II". Don't be deceived by Japanese Nationalist lies.

This book is a powerful account of the atrocities of Nanking, but it is by no means for everyone. If war footage of Auschwitz and Dachow turns your stomach, avoid this book. If you're politically correct, and don't want to face up to the crimes of the past, don't read this book. If you can be open-minded about the past without destroying the present, read this book.

hey, here is the japanese cannibalism:
The 1987 Japanese documentary film Yuki Yuki te Shingun (Onward Holy Army) contains interviews with Japanese war veterans who confessed to engaging in cannibalism during the New Guinea campaign. Several autobiographies by Japanese veterans of that campaign also make explicit references to cannibalism. (Tanaka, 1996, p. 112)
My recent discovery of extensive reports of the Australian War Crimes Section and records of war crime trials by the Australian military has made it possible to undertake a more comprehensive analysis of the practice of cannibalism committed by the Japanese in New Guinea. I also obtained U.S. National Archives documents that refer to Japanese cannibalism in New Guinea. (Tanaka, 1996, p. 115)

It is clear from these reports that the widespread practice of cannibalism by Japanese soldiers in the Asia-Pacific War was something more than merely random incidents perpetrated by individuals or small groups subject to extreme conditions. The testimonies indicate that cannibalism was a systematic and organized military strategy, committed by whole squads or by specific soldiers working within the context of a larger squad. This is particularly so in the case of the Indian POWs and Formosan workers, who had outlived their usefulness as laborers and were now regarded by their captors as human cattle, as a food supply. The moral and psychological bearings of the Japanese soldiers and guards were transformed to such a degree that the act of cannibalism and even the murder of prisoners for the purpose of cannibalism became a normal occurrence rather than an extreme and grotesque activity. The fact that such activities were committed by whole groups, working within the normal military structures, resulted in a situation in which the act of cannibalism ceased to be horrific and became instead a part of everyday life. As was noted in the account of the cannibalistic consumption of Australian and American soldiers killed in battle, the gaining of bodies for this purpose was often carried out in the midst of battle, with one section of the Japanese squad continuing the fighting while another section removed the bodies from the battlefield to a safe area where they could be prepared for consumption. (Tanaka, 1996, p. 126)

The Japanese had motives for cannibalism beyond the prevention of starvation

What occurred in Nanjing in 1937, was an abomination. One of many unfathomable cruelties inflicted upon humankind by humankind during the Second World War. But the history of the war in China and the suffering of the Chinese people at the hands of the Imperial Japanese Army (and sometimes their own country men) has been under reported, perhaps due to the isolation of China from the West following Mao's postwar victory over the Nationalists. Worse, most efforts to record the extreme brutality and the suffering inflicted upon China's citizenry, including this one, are incessantly hounded by modern day Japanese revisionists who seem intent upon convincing the world that their fathers invaded China and most of the Pacific rim to hand out candy to children and find homes for stray cats. This book is a powerful, shocking, disturbing, even sickening record of an atrocity. As uncomfortable as it may be, this book needs to be seen to understand the war. If you can locate a copy, buy it, read it, and show it to all who would try to rewrite history.

This book is a wonderful account of the events during in Nanking during the period of Japanese Occupation. Presented in photographs with full analysis, this book presents the facts shown in the photos quite objectively. However, because of the controversial nature of the Nanking Incident itself, much of the "facts" presented within this book is debatable by historians in this field.

In conclusion, this is a thoroughly interesting and objective history book, with easy to understand analysis of the basic events and aftermath of the Nanking Incident.

Despite Chang's shocking description of the events in Nanjing, she gives the reader little reason to conclude that what happened there should be compared to the systematic killing of the Holocaust, an episode that was surely the loathsome spawn of Hitler's purposeful policy -- not an incident of war or the mere excrescence of individual cruelty or the result of a poorly disciplined army run amok.

ACCUSATION and outrage, rather than analysis and understanding, are this book's dominant motifs, and although outrage is a morally necessary response to Nanjing, it is an intellectually insufficient one.