The Rape of Nanking Book Review

The Rape of Nanking was written by Iris Chang. The book documents the horrors and monstrous acts that occurred in Nanking when the Japanese took it over. The book opens with the Japanese perspective of the how the invasion into China went. It describes how Japan thought it was entitled to more resources and how propaganda was spread throughout Japan that they got shortchanged and the Chinese were to blame. The Military invasion of Nanking was well thought out and well practiced. It didn’t help that the Chinese military wayfarer about defending Nanking or not. General Tang of the Chinese Nationalist, I believe, is not to blame for the strange tactics of retreating, but the true person to place the blame on is Chaing Kai Shek. While undoubtedly Many Chinese would have died defending Nanking, they at least would have showed the Japanese that they were willing to defend their country. But that isn’t what happened. Chinese forces pulled out of Nanking and the Japanese rolled in. They did horrorific things to all the civilians in Nanking. Mass murder and Rape were committed by the Japanese. These henous War crimes would later come to trial. However, the book does depict a beacon of light in all the darkness. There were many Europeans and Americans in Nanking that formed a Safe Zone for the Refugees in Nanking. John Rabe, the leader of the zone, was the most notable, as he was a Nazi himself. Other included Robert Wilson, a Surgeon from America who worked day and night to do everything he could to patch up the Nanking wounded and Minnie Vautrin, a locate teacher on the University who made a Refugee camp using the School and Campus to house Women from the Rape squads of Japanese. God bless these individuals for their work in protecting as many of the Chinese as they could from the Regin of terror spread by the Japanese. The book then goes to describe Japanese attempts to cover up to the rest of the world what they were doing in Nanking. The chapter also describes what the Safe zone leaders and news reporters were doing to get the stories and photos out to the world. Smuggling film on board ships, and preserving documents, diaries, and photographs inside walls were only a few of the ways they were able to get the stories out. After the Japanese were defeated the book describes how the rebuilding of Nanking went. The Japanese still held on to the city for as long as they could but when they were eventually ousted Nanking had already started to rebuild its self under the watchful eye of the Japanese. Then the moments of justice came, as the entire war crimes tirals were held. However, much to the disappointment of all Chinese, the emperor of Japan was not even forced to pay for the actions of his troops. This lead to a terrible feeling of betrayal that many of the Chinese felt toward the Japanese to this day. It would also lead to later in the Novel about how censored the Japanese are about the education of what really happened in WWII. It is almost worse than the Massacre at Nanking that many Chinese and people throughout the world have no idea what happened to the Chinese at Nanking. This book really opened my eyes to the horrors of the Japanese and to see how much censor ship they place on education today. It makes me wonder if America has ever censored any textbooks or other war Actions that America has done. This book was very riveting but not for the feint. However, I do believe that this subject should be taught in the education along during the Holocaust in Germany.