The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II

by Iris Chang

Book Overview

The New York Times bestselling account of one of history's most brutal--and forgotten--massacres, when the Japanese army destroyed China's capital city on the eve of World War II, "piecing together... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0465068359
• ISBN13: 9780465068357
• Release Date: November 1997
• Publisher: Basic Books (AZ)
• Length: 290 Pages
• Weight: 1.32 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.6"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Great read for history lovers.

I loved this book, it’s a real page turner. I missed history books like these. Very much enjoyed it.

Disappointed

Book was highly recommended. Seem to be well researched but to be writting stilted and hard to read!

you can't say it didn't happen!!

Reading these reviews are making me more and more upset. First of all, I'm not trying to comment on Ms. Chang's journalism technique/sources/etc, because I don't have enough information to be a judge of that. I'm also not commenting about the "numbers war" in the reviews etc., because I didn't count the bodies; therefore, I don't know. But regardless of the discrepancies in numbers or the level of objectivity of Ms. Chang's work, the fact remains that the Japanese soldiers' atrocities against the Chinese DID happen. I KNOW for sure that the Japanese soldiers did in fact commit many terrible atrocities against Chinese civilians, and often times in very sickeningly cruel systematic ways. Though I am American, both my parents are from Asia, and my father was a child in China during WWII. Ever since I was young, they've both told me about many of the horrible crimes that the Japanese committed against the Chinese during the war, as well as direct accounts that they've heard from people older than them. (So I guess my experience was similar to Iris's...hearing oral accounts from the older generation etc.). A lot of the atrocities that my parents told me about as a child coincided with the exact same happenings that Ms. Chang describes in the book. And mind you, my parents are NOT communist!! In fact, my Fathers family fought AGAINST the communist party in China, so he has no reason for spreading what many here are calling "communist propaganda." My experience is similar to many other second-generation Chinese people my age, in that many of my Chinese peers have parents who told them similar accounts as well. Do you mean to tell me that my parents, the people they knew, and all my peers' parents are all communist and liars who, for some deranged reason, all want to spread random lies and propaganda about the Japanese for no good reason? No. That's just ridiculous! NOT ALL CHINESE ARE COMMUNIST LIARS. It's so unfair to consider all Chinese accounts as being propaganda based on the assumption that it's all from the Communist government. It. Happened. Face it. How is it fair that according to some of these reviews, the only credible sources about the killing of Chinese are European/Western accounts & figures?? That is ridiculous...keep in mind how obviously racist & close-minded the West was in the 1940's compared to today (and even today, we have a long way to go in terms of racism & how America treats the rest of the world). How can you ONLY trust Eurocentrically skewed outsider perspectives for Asian history? While I'm not saying that the Chinese communist government is a very credible source, relying only on non-Asian accounts is also VERY seriously flawed. How can you ignore all Chinese accounts when attempting to reconstruct Chinese history? It makes me sick. But if it makes you feel any better, TIME magazine (I think it was TIME...if it wasn't time it was U.S. news) ran an article on it a few years ago, and also acknowl

History shall not be forgotten

Although some people will argue about the statistics, this tragedy should be remembered by Chinese people, by Japanese people and by the whole world.

Educational. Japanese atrocities know no bounds.

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.