What Really Happened in Nanking [Paperback]

Tanaka Masaaki (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2000

This book, based on primary sources (Japanese, Chinese and Western historical documents and eyewitness accounts), contains all the important facts about the events that took place in Nanking in 1937. The documents include population statistics and burial records. Under instructions from Gen. Matsui, the author went on a fact-finding tour of Nanking and environs in 1938. Tanaka also exposes the fakery behind the photographs used in Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanking.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Read and compare with "The rape of Nanking". You will find which book tells the truth and which tells fabrication. After reading both books, you will have eyes distinguish the truth.

About the Author

Tanaka Masaaki was born in 1911. In 1936, he accompanied Gen. Matsui Iwane on an inspection tour of China, where he met with Chiang Kai-shek and other eminent Chinese. Among his many writings is Justice Radhabinod Pal Absolves Japan, published in 1952.

Product Details

• Paperback: 145 pages
• Publisher: Sekai Shuppan, (December 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 4916079078
• ISBN-13: 978-4916079077
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #763,152 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

113 of 128 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars More Japanese Nationalist Revisionism That Should Be Ignored, June 18, 2005

By 

M "meruchan77" (California USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What Really Happened in Nanking (Paperback)

This revisionist book is a blatant and poorly-organized attempt to counter Timothy Brooks' outstanding work, "Documents on the Rape of Nanking," which had been published the previous year by the University of Michigan (1999). Unlike the clear objectivity of that book, here once again a deluded Japanese ultra-nationalist tries to skew facts that have been verified by numerous international sources. This is done using clumsy English, for the "benefit" for those gullible enough to accept a viewpoint where Japanese soldiers did no wrong in their march from Shanghai, where the Rape of Manila also never occurred, and where Allied soldiers and civilians were "guests" of Japanese "hospitality" during WWII, instead of its very unfortunate victims. The title of this book should read: "What We Hope Really Happened in Nanking", because the book is subjective whitewash. To believe the findings of a Japanese journalist assigned to the Imperial Army in China during WWII is the same as asking readers to embrace the propoganda of Joseph Goebbels or Soviet revisionists.

For those who truly desire to learn about the Rape of Nanking, you are better served to obtain works from legitimate historical sources, most of which unfortunately must come from outside of Japan. While I do admire many aspects of the Japanese culture, ultra-nationalists such as this misguided author do severe discredit to the youth of Japan today. Most of them are not fooled by their elders and harbor much private shame over Japan's role in brutalizing its Asian neighbors during the first half of the 20th Century. Books like this only will result in confusing the reader, rather than dealing forthright with the disturbing reality of what happened in China during the winter of 1937-38.

146 of 168 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars wooden-headedness, September 28, 2004

By 

S. Lu (Atlanta, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What Really Happened in Nanking (Paperback)

Tanaka Masaaki's book does not contain good refutations against the Nanjing Massacre. They are not even coherent. He and other Revisionists focus on the number of people killed but is 200,000 or even 13,000 deaths not enough to constitute a massacre? His arguments using primary sources that say how Japanese reporters who were in Nanjing, contradict collections of Chinese and other Japanese primary sources with testimonies and personal accounts. The Japanese publication, Asahi Shinbun, even published an article on the "beheading race" that was mentioned in Chang's book.

Though Chang's narrative is not the best and leaves holes for attacks like these, she is still correct in saying that a massacre occurred. The Nanjing Massacre in History and Historiography is a better book with scholarly writing on the subject. After reading Tanaka's book, his credibility as a history scholar is greatly undermined. His book is also very old and new research is available, though unfortunately not in English, that refute his arguments.

Seriously, this is one of the worst books that I've read on the Nanjing Massacre. I was literally laughing while reading because of how incoherent and illogical his arguments were. Though if one did not have a solid historical background of the Nanjing Massacre, one could easily be swayed by his "data" and arguments.

As Barbara Tuchman mentioned in the March of Folly,

"Wooden-headedness, the source of self-deception...consists in assessing a situation in terms of preconceived fixed notions while ignoring or rejecting any contrary signs. It is acting according to wish while allowing oneself to be deflected by the facts."

56 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The truth is simply not on his side., April 20, 2006

By 

L. Cooper (Colorado) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What Really Happened in Nanking (Paperback)

My family and I just returned from an extended trip to China where we visited Nanking (Nanjing). More importantly, we visited cities surrounding Nanking and were fortunate enough to personally speak with elderly survivors and witnesses. The atrocities occured, and the truth is much closer to Iris Chang's account. Masaaki's book is simply an abomination.