Eyewitnesses to Massacre: American Missionaries Bear Witness to Japanese Atrocities in Nanjing

by Donald E. MacInnis, Zhang Kaiyuan, Donald Macinnis

Book Overview

The infamous Nanjing Massacre of 1937, in which the Japanese Imperial Army raped and slaughtered countless Chinese citizens on the eve of World War II, has been described in well-publicized books from... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0765606852
• ISBN13: 9780765606853
• Release Date: April 2001
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Great book ALL Japanese should read and re-read

You can tell the quality of this book's account just by looking through the first few pages of the book, its specific and detailed style should establish the credentials within minutes. By clicking on the book icon, you can even read the first few pages (including TOC), of the book in PDF format. However, agreeing with the reader below, the denial of Japanese even to this day that the massacre even existed is baffling. Should I have follow the line of thinking Mr. or Mrs. Hiromi's line of thinking, then yes, the nukes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were botched experiments of Japan military weapon program formed with the Nazi's before its fall. Oh yeah, by the way, that was the testimony of seven Japan's highest ranking officers' last words before they were hung by the Aggressors' kangaroo court. As Mr./Mrs. Hiromi seem to think there is more than the obvious, he also wrote disagreements in "The Good Man of Nanking : The Diaries of John Rabe" review. Mr./Mrs. Hiromi got me thinking, did WWII actually took place, I don't think America military actually defeated Japan and occupied it after 1945. Goodness gracious, I didn't believe such people like Hiromi existed in present history! How many true accounts do you need before acknowledging Japan committed some of the most heinous war crime against humanity in the annals of modern history? Mr. Laurence Rees stated in "Horror in the East" that Germany has by far done a far better job making actual restitution to the crimes it committed in WWII, than Japan who continues to deny its existence. So it is an eye opener to confirm the reason behind this phenomenon. The reason being people in Japan such as Hiromi himself. I have great Japanese friends and even shared tables with them over dinner; though I must admit that this part of their history always confounded and disturbed me. Also, I am not sure if the book in this review and many books on this subject appearing on Ebay (including Iris Chang's "the Rape of Nankin") really offers an explanation why the atrocity happened in China; save for one book I came across in my study of this subject - Lauence Ree's "Horror in the East." The foreward by Professor Akira Iriye (himself born and raised in Japan) of Harvard is well worth the price of the book. In it, very historic documentation of the initiation of Japanese imperialism dating back to the failure of the Meiji constitution became the leading cause of what contributed to the formation of the attitude of racial superiority, not unlike those of the Nazi's. Racial superiiority formed the backbone of the determination of the Japanese imperialist army to stamp out the so called "sub-humans" in China and other South East Asia countries. Rees even examined the vast difference in the treatment of POW in WWI and WWII by the Japanese, and how their genocidal attitude differs from that of the Nazi's. But back to Hiromi...this Hiromi is one sick puppy who needs some serious help like reality check. Has

A Must Read for All Truth Seeker

This book is a bandle of the most precious records written by the people who were present during the period of the capture and the occupation of Nanking, December 1937 to 1938. By reading this book along with other contemporary records like "The Documents of the Nanking Safety Zone" and "Diaries of John Rabe", you will get a clearer picture of the series of events happened in Nanking at the time in question. One crucial question should be asked here: Did they really see the so-called "The Rape of Nanking / The Nanking Massacre"? The clear answer everyone can get from this book is, NO. In the perfect matter of fact, NO ONE EVER SAW "MASSACRE" AT ALL!! As Rev. John G. Magee crucially testified in Tokyo Trial, actual "killings" those foreigners saw were only two cases: (1) "Legitimate execution" of an illegal Chinese combatant by the Japanese Army witnessed and acknowledged by Kroeger and Hatz of International Committee of Nanking Safety Zone (Documents of Nanking Safety Zone case No.185) and (2) A Chinese who "when challenged foolishly [started] to run" and got shot by a Japanese soldier. (P.171 of this book; John Gee Magee's diary, Sun. Dec 19) One salient fact is that both "killings" were acknowledged by those foreigners as legitimate action of the Japanese Army, not "murders". (On top of that, honest Magee even told us in his diary abovementioned that the second one was not actually seen.) If you are familiar with The Documents, you also well know that, in fact, the murder cases actually reported were only 26 cases of 53 victims which include abovementioned legitimate execution and only 7cases of 8 victims which they know the names of the victims. In any case, it is clear that everything except the case no.185 was hearsay and the Committee openly admitted in the Documents that those reports were even second-hand hearsay which they never bothered to check upon. As for the looting, raping and burning, the International Committee members say that they saw some "soldiers" committing those crimes, but their real nationality is always obscure. Following are some evidences that suggest those soldiers the foreigners mentioned were, in fact, the Chinese. On 12 Dec 1937, the night before the city was captured, the tens of thousands of retreating Chinese soldiers who disguised themselves as civilians poured into the Safety Zone in which the Nationalist Army had its headquarters, arsenal, antiaircraft batteries and everything. (The Documents, Rabe's diary, and in this book, p. 253: Diaries of L.S.C. Smythe, etc..) And the Committee let it happen. They even protected them, insisting that they were civilians, from being captured by the Japanese Army who naturally had to exercise mopping-up operation from 14th to 16th Dec. Anyway, as the Committee thanked Japanese Army in the letter on 14 Dec 1937, the Japanese Army did spare the refugees in the Safety Zone and soon after the mopping-up operation, in which 6,500 of hostile Chinese deserters were c