The Rape of Nanking

"The Rape of Nanking" details events that lead up to the rape, the attrocities during and what happened to the world after. Iris Chang goes into the causes leading to the rape of Nanking. She explains the beginning that Japan wanted more land and greater power in Asia. the Japanese government decided to look to other nations for military tactics and favored those of the Nazis. The government raised and taught children to be militaristic in preparation for an attack on mainland Asia. They started small terrorist attacks in China and fabricated events to be able to declare war on China. The Japanese took Manchuria and then attacked Shanghai. The seizure of Shanghai took longer than expected and the strain of this may be attributed to further brutality in China. the military leader for the Japanese force heading to Nanking became ill and was replaced by Prince Asaka. Civilians and soldiers alike knew that the Japanese were coming and fled Nanking. Many Chinese died in this mass evacuation. The Japanese then surrounded the city and cut off all transport then asked for a surrender and told the Chinese they would be treated humanely. When the Chinese didn't at first surrender the Japanese started to attack. Eventually more Chinese military leaders including Chang Kai Shek fled Nanking and the remaining soldiers surrendered. The Japanese then captured the larger Chinese force and systematically killed them. Once most of the soldiers were dead the Japanese turned on the civilian population. Their policy was to loot all, kill all, burn all. An estimated 300,000 civilians were killed in Nanking and tens of thousands of women were raped. The Japanese tortured civilians, experimented on them, held killing contests, brutally raped and committed attrocities worse than the Nazi holocaust. The international safety zone in Nanking helped to save hundreds of thousands of civilians and a Nazi, John Rabe, was one of the biggest heroes of Nanking. The Japanese tried to cover up what happened at Nanking after they lost the war and still today try to hide forever the Rape of Nanking. The attrocities committed weren't soley in Nanking but all along the Japanese war path. The Japanese never appologized to the Chinese and never paid for what they did to the Chinese civilians. Some of the Japanese commanders involved were sentenced to death or had their reputation ruined. When the PRC was established it forgave the Japanese much to the Chinese people's dismay.
In my education not much was ever said about the Sino-Japanese war and certainly nothing about the Rape of Nanking. More people should read Iris Chang's book in their schooling and be taught more about the rape. Learning it aids in preventing future similar incidents and demonstrates clearly that "the veneer of civilization seems to be exceedingly thin-one that can easily be stripped away."

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.

Mao Zedong: A life Book Review

Mao Zedong: A life

“Mao Zedong: A life” was written by Jonathan Spence. It is an Autobiography of Mao’s life from when he was born to the day he died. In his early years, starting in 1893, Mao worked for his father on their village farm in Shaoshan. After working he deiced to go back to school. At the new Xiangxiang school he found new radical ideals and was swept up into joining the student army. After the stint in the the army Mao once again wanted to “go back to the books” he enrolled in another school where he was encouraged to study the Chinese text and other subjects of his choice. After graduating he made his way to Beijing where with the help of one his professors he was able to get a job in the library. Mao explored his writing and studying during this warlord time in which he and some colleagues formed a secret Cultural Book Society. From then, Mao became interested in the political aspects of the Russian communists and Karl Marx, he joined the Communist party and would later become one its most successful leaders. As the Chinese Nationalist went to war Against the Chinese communist many labor unions were broken up and dispersed throughout Shanghai and Beijing. The Nationalist were hot on their trail and forced them into the long March. This march across China would cripple the Communist, enough to make them retreat to a highly defensible position to give them time to rebuild. However, Surprise, Japan decides to attack china through the north. So Chang Kai Shek is forced to deal with two enemies at once. Mao suggests that the enemy of my enemy is my friend and asks Chang Kai Shek to team up and defeat the foreign invaders from China. Chang at first refuses, but after a Coup de tah, in his own group he is kidnapped. When returned his mind has been changed and decides to team up with Mao to fight back the Japanese. After the war ends with the Americans dropping the bombs on Japan, Mao and Chang race to clear out the rest of the forces in Manchuria. After the Japanese had left, the fighting between the Nationalist and the Communist had resumed. However, the Communist spread out a crossed the farm field of Manchuria were able to use Guerrilla tactics and wiped the floor with Nationalist. When their forces reached the Capital, October 1 1949, they announced at Tinamen gate, the formation of The Peoples Republic of China. From here Mao introduced his vision the great leap, where there would be evenness throughout all china. Everyone would have food and community shelter. Everything would be shared. An ideal Communist theory. But over time the growing season failed and harvest were down. In this time Mao had to deal with his control over the Newspaper written for him the People’s Daily, and how some articles would not promote the Great leap but would point out its failures. As Mao got older his view became more extreme for his people, with the failure of the great leap came the Cultural Revolution. Little Pamphlets were doled out to the people of china, and inside were description of what was to be and not to be. All foreign art work and foreign goods were destroyed and people were arrested for possessing such materials. Many students formed military groups called Red Guards in which they did the bidding of the Cultural Revolution. Mao never wrote about what he wanted to achieve with the Cultural Revolution. Mao died in 1976 and passed the goal of a unified and successful China on to the next generation.

Mao Zedong A Life

Mao Zedong A Life, started out from when Mao was born in 1893 and ends when he died in September 9, 1976.

Mao grew up on working on his father’s farm. Mao then got an interest in learning and reading about new and classical ideas. He soon after left the farm and began to study at a variety of different school. When he was done with school, which he began to not enjoy, he started teaching and began to have various side projects. Soon he became part of the communist party and really enjoyed the teachings of Lenin and the ideas of the Soviets. Mao then began to work his way through the ranks of the Communist party by various ways. He thought that the guerrilla fighting style against the Nationalist armies worked the best. Though after some higher ups in the party changed they way they fought, the Communists where forced to retreat and the march was known as the Long March. Much of the Red Army was lost during this march, the march ended up strengthening Mao in the Communist Party. When they finally made it to Shaanxi Mao scouted for a new base and ended up setting one up in Yan’an. During this time the Japanese were starting to attack and although the Nationalist party was still focusing their troops on eliminating the Communists they ended up joining forces, after the leader of the Nationalist party Chiang Kai-shek was kidnapped then later returned, to try and force the Japanese from China. Soon after Mao continued to strengthen his power in the Communist Party and before long was using his old guerrilla fighting against the Nationalists, after WWII. Even with the help Chiang Kai-shek received from the US, Mao was able to slowly defeat his armies and began to drive him further south. Once Mao had most of China taken over he announced the Peoples Republic of China and the start of Communist rule.

After Mao began to stabilize China’s economy he began to move further away from his ideals as a youth. He made it publicly known that all those so called “intellectuals” were in fact dumb, and that the true intellectuals were those of poverty who worked hard. He then began to make crazy laws and try to push through his Great Leap plan, which truly did far more harm than good. Soon he began to suspect that there were many rightly peoples in China that wanted to attack what the left was doing so he tried to lure them all out with what he called the Hundred Flowers movement. Slowly suspecting many of plotting against him he also started the Cultural Revolution to further tighten his grip on China and his enemies. Mao die in September 9, 1976. He was married several times and had many children, but only a few survived. The author Jonathan Spence was very detailed about certain things but was very brief about others. Overall this book was very insightful to the life of Mao, but it is still very puzzling why he ended up moving away from many of his earlier ideas in life to the much more restrictive ideas when he was older.

The Rape of Nanking

Reading Iris Chang’s novel, The Rape of Nanking, left me in complete sorrow and disbelief as to how little this horrific event receives little to absolutely no attention in classrooms or historical publishing. While reading the chapter on the different ways the Japanese tortured the Chinese, I was left feeling angry and disgusted.  I couldn’t understand how these soldiers could have so much hatred towards the Chinese.  It was barbaric for one, especially when I read the paragraphs on how the Japanese would cut off body parts and eat them or sell them to others?!  To me, it’s beyond the point of insanity.  How could someone do that to another person? Mass exterminations such as this, Darfur and the Holocaust leave me lost in how humans are truly capable of horrible things. 
It begins with the Japanese invading China because they felt it was there right, since they were becoming overpopulated and they was a lack of essentials, which, to me, seems absolutely absurd to be so cruel to the Chinese.  The Japanese surrounded Nanjing and told the Chinese they would be taken care of by the Japanese, and they gave them pamphlets to prove such actions.  However, things took a turn for the worse.  Mass killing sprees, rape, torture, and decapitation were some of the ways the Chinese were treated.  Since Japan has not apologized, I for one, look at their government with uncertainty, why haven’t they apologized?  Though I wasn’t there and don’t know anyone that is related to this event, my heart goes out to the Chinese that had to deal with this, and I was hurting for them.  I think Iris Chang does an excellent job presenting the information, those she is bias in her writing, and she has a right to be.  I would find it diffucult to study something like this in depth, because just by reading this book, I felt so many emotions of sadness, confusion, anger and so on. It was an emotionally difficult novel to read. I give her a lot of credit for writing this novel and getting the Nanjing Massacre out in the Western world. While reading thr book I was grateful to people like John Rabe, Robert Wilson, and Wilhelmina (Minnie) Vautrin for creating the safety zones and saving many Chinese. 

Mao Zedong: a Life

Jonathan Spence, the author of Mao Zedong: a Life, gives an unbiased view of Mao’s life and the trials and tribulations he’s faced, and the great victories he’s accomplished.  Prior to reading the novel, I didn’t know much about Mao’s adolescent years, which I found rather interesting to read about.  He grew up in a farm village called Shaoshan, west of Changsa.  He loved reading and really enjoyed school and after a couple of years of schooling, he helped his father with various family accounts.  He moved back and forth between his parent’s home and his grandparents, where he absorbed their views on what was happening in China.  He eventually was drawn away from the education system, though still focused on learning, publishing essays, and reading. At the age of seventeen, Mao witnessed the fall of the Qing Dynasty.  He wrote many essays on the government and what he thought was the best solution.  He also wrote about Lord Shang od the Qin Dynasty back in middle school.  He was very fascinated by the laws Lord Shang created, and said, “ he [Lord Shang] was one of the very first on the list in the four-thousand-year-long record of those who had sought Chinas welfare” (18.)  The thing I found interesting about Mao is he lived in a cave at one point and many found it as symbolic of his revolutionary simplicity.  Mao had three wives whose names were Yang Kaihui, Jiang Qing, and He Zizhen. In the 1920s Mao joined the Communist party, where eventually he became a figure that thousands looked to for hope for a better future for China. In 1953, Mao became Chairman of the People’s Republic of China.  He established the Great Leap in the 60s, trying to create a utopia of agriculture.  He was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease eventually leading to a coma on September 8^th.  On September 9^th, 1976 Mao died.  He felt his achievements were conquering Chiang Kai-shek, fought his way into the Forbidden City, and having the Japanese return to their home. 

For those of you interested in learning more about the author of The Rape of Nanking, there is a new book on Iris Chang written by her mother and titled The Woman Who Could Not Forget.

Taking it to the Internet

In the beginning of her book, Iris Chang talks about a web of first generation Asian Americans working to raise awareness and do research on the hushed events of the Nanking Massacre. Groups of people like that are taking it to the web, apparently!
After tweeting about reading Iris Chang's book, I noticed it was retweeted by a Twitter user with the username 'NankingMassacre1937.' The feed was all retweets of users using the words "Nanjing(/Nanking) Massacre," "Rape of Nanking," or mentioning Iris Chang or her book. Their bio was the wikipedia article, a couple of websites devoted to the history of this event, and, surprisingly, a myspace page. There is quite a web of information reaching users on these popular social platforms. The lack of a facebook I can only attribute to the fact that "liking" a page with this title would be atrocious.
If you are a user on any of these sites, I encourage you to follow the linked phrases above, and join the web!
-JMY-L

Rape of Nanking

In the book “The Rape of Nanking” Iris Chang discusses a very depressing topic of the mass destruction that occurred in December of 1937 in China. At the beginning of the book Chang discussed in detail the events and situations that brought this war upon the Chinese. This event stemmed from many different events and wars that the Japanese were involved in but one of them was in 1895. The Japanese realized that the Chinese had become stronger and the Japanese had to take action fast if they wanted to succeed in their attempt to take over the Chinese people. As the 1920s rolled around, Chiang Kai-shek led the nationalist Chinese to defeat the warlords. The Chinese were able to unite their country and gain even more power as a whole. At this point, the Japanese were even more concerned about their mission to conquer China. From the 1920s to the 1930s was when the Japanese started their plots against china and began the war of Nanking. The Japanese surrounded the Chinese so there was no possible way for them to escape from Nanking. The war began and the Chinese were tricked into surrendering and were then led to be killed by the Japanese. Civilians were murdered in ways that are inhuman. While reading this book, I could not believe the information that I was reading, that the Japanese army was so heartless to perform the actions that took place in this war. It was an extremely brutal war that consisted of horrific murders of the Chinese people. The Japanese army took over Nanking and the Chinese were slaughtered and burned to death, hanged, buried alive, mutilated, frozen to death, buried to their waist and killed by German Shepherds, and women were raped. The extent that these women were raped (no matter who they were, their age, or whether or not they were pregnant) is unspeakable. The pictures in the book that illustrate the rape of women and other murders are horrific. There was an effort to create a safety zone in China where the Chinese were able to stay if they please. The details of this war was all over the news at the time, everyone in the world was notified. As the war in Nanking went on for months about 300,000 Chinese people were murdered in these horrendous ways. It was hard to read and picture in my mind these torturous situations people were put through, it was sickening. I had never heard of this massacre before entering this class and to think that there are so many other people that have no idea that this occurred, and know nothing about it, is even more depressing.

Mao Zedong Review

The book Mao Zedong by Jonathan Spence was the most interesting biographies that I have read. This book gave a very detailed time line of Mao Zedong's life and all the things that he accomplished. When Mao was seventeen the Qing dynasty had began to collapse. Mao loved to learn he went to school and became a teacher. He married three times having many children, only three grew to see adulthood. Mao wrote many articles giving his view points on what was happening in China. In the 1920s Mao joined the communist party. Mao believed in the communist party but was not committed to his family life. After the Japanese had attacked China Mao and his group of communist's started the long march to Northern China. Mao eventually became the party leader and hundreds of thousands of people looked up to him. When the Japanese left China, Mao took charge and China became a communist country. Mao tried many things to help the poor people and to even out the class system. He made all land owned by the government so that when people worked it benefited everyone. In 1953 Mao became the chairman of the People's Republic of China. In the 1960s the Great Leap happened. "In Mao's mind, would combine the imperatives of large-scale cooperative agriculture with a close-to-Utopia vision of the ending of distinctions between occupations, sexes, ages, and levels of existing cooperatives"(132) Has Mao grew older he became weak and wanted to become second in command, in doing so he took much more time off for himself enjoying the train car and vacation homes to visit. When he felt he was loosing some control he meant with the president of the United States. In 1972 Mao was treated for Lou Gehrig's disease, he had three heart attacks and went into coma on September 8 1976 and died on September 9 1976. "Mao had done two things that mattered, he said. He had battled Chiang Kai-shek for years and finally chased him off to "that little island" of Taiwan. And in the long war of resistance he had "asked the Japanese to return to their ancestral home" and had fought his way into the Forbidden City."

Book Review: Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong: A Life is a well written novel by Johnathan Spence. It illustrates his complete life from childhood until his dealth in 1976. He grew up in a farming family but noticed that he wanted more in his life. The book showed that early in life that he was very impressionable. He was very fond of learning and especially reading. He felt moved by whatever he read. Later in life Mao becomes to become less interested in school and the education system, which I found rather odd considering in the beginning of the book how much he loved knowledge and educating ones self. Mao, while doing his studies in school, becomes very interested in the happenings in China, especially the revolution. He later comes to lead a civil war against the Nationalists and a series of other events. He becomes the leader of the Communist party in China (The Republic of China, later being named The People's Republic of China). Mao was a hard fighter and very concentrated on his life as the leader of the Republic of China that he goes through four wives and numerous children in which only a few survive, the either pass away or disappear (they were unable to travel with him and his wife at the time so the child would stay with a family in the village they were staying in, sometimes never hearing from them again). Early in his position as Republic leader, Mao listened to his people and strived to give them what they wanted. He was the voice of the people. In his eighties Mao's health started to go downhill, but that did not stop him from getting involved with his people, he later passed away after three heartattacks and a few other health problems. Mao was a strong and courageous leader of the People's Republic of China, and China to this day remains a republic.

Review: The Rape of Nanking

Prior to this class and this book, I had only encountered the Sino-Japanese War in passing. In truth, I didn't understand the event as I continue to lack understanding of many of our historical wars. However, the book The Rape of Nanking provides the reader with a truly heart- and gut-wrenching tale of the horrific travesties that occurred during this facet of the Sino-Japanese War. Within the beginning of the book, the author does a good job of exploring the history of Japan and the events that eventually led to the Rape of Nanjing itself. Due to my own knowledge of Japanese culture and history, this evidence and the mindset of the Japanese people is entirely believable. They are a people with devout honor that would do anything to protect it, including ritualistic suicide. They, generally speaking, will follow their respective leader (whether he be religious or political) to any ends in order to obtain praise and honor. This sort of mindset is key to molding a mindless humanoid that is intent on doing anything to satisfy its leader. Compare this to the Nazi party's agenda; brainwashing, if you will.

Deep in this book are some incredibly gruesome and horrifying stories. I freely admit that I did not read every page of this book due to these particular details. Especially with the included photographs, I grew sick to my stomach and had to put the book down for a long while. I am not sure I will ever be able to read every page of this book. I however commend the book's writer, Iris Chang, for not leaving out any horrific details and describing the events that occurred in Nanjing in full. Despite how disgusting they may be, these stories need to be told. I struggle with comparing these events to Nazi occupation during WWII because the raping, mutilating and torturing seems so much more prominent during Nanjing. When thinking of WWII, gas chambers and mass cremations come to mind. Even if these are horrendous events they seem far more humane than what happened to the Chinese.

There were many kind people who assisted in the saving of thousands of Chinese people, such as John Rabe (a Nazi no less!), Miner Searle Bates, Lewis Smythe, Reverend John Magee, George Fitch and Minnie Vautrin. In spite of their good deeds they did not receive the proper thanks one would think they should have, and they in fact overall led rather torturous lives after the events at Nanjing had ceased. John Rabe was questioned over and over again by German, Soviet and British forces. His journal and other bound materials about the events at Nanjing were long held by his son and have since been released into the public, verifying the terrible happenings both during Nanjing and after. His family was lucky to have survived the harsh conditions they endured during WWII, poor and starving until the Chinese people heard of Rabe's plight and began sending food his way. If it weren't for their heartwarming generosity, the Rabe family would surely have perished.

Many people doubt the reality of the Rape of Nanjing just as many speculate the validity of the events that occurred due to Nazi labor camps and other effects of their invasion. There is obvious proof that all of these events occurred, even from the mouths of people who experienced them firsthand. Iris Chang, despite the bias she may contain due to her own Chinese blood, is clearly only trying to bring these terrible events out into the public eye so they may be judged accordingly. We cannot deny what happened in Nanjing even if we don't want to hear about it.

Book Review: The Rape of Nanking

The Rape of Nanking (The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II) by Iris Chang is a book that I will never forget. First off Iris states that she is Chinese and that there will be some bias to the book, but I believe that that just adds more fire and passion to the book to help the reader get more involved. Many have not heard of the Rape of Nanking and very few know the horrific events that happened from 1937 to 1938. The Japanese invaded the city, Nanking, which once was a beautiful, prospering place described to have had literature and arts, until the Japanese came in and ransacked the city. Women were raped in ways unthinkable and men, women, children, old and young alike were killed brutally. The Japanese soldiers were not shocked by what they saw and nor did the torture stop anytime soon. Killing and shooting contests were a sport to them. Safety Zones were set up by a small group of Americans and Europeans who chose to stay back and help the people of China. For those who were able to make it to the Safety Zones their lives were saved, those who did not were not so lucky. Three Safety Zone leaders are spoke about in the book. John Rabe, a European Nazi, who kept many journals during the atrocities at Nanking and hid Chinese in his home. Robert Wilson, a surgeon, stayed back in Nanking to help the wounded and worked for hours on end to help save lives. Also, there was Wilhelmina (Minnie) Vautrin who defended thousands of women from the from the grubby and grimy hands of the raping soldiers. The war with the Japanese ended with the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagaski by the United States. After the war, Nanking did not gain much from the Japanese, they did little to acknowledge what they did and tried to cover up as much as possible from what was written in textbooks to what was shown on television. Also, they never recieved an official apology. It saddens me that many do not know about what went on but I am glad that I read this book so I can educate others on the unknown massacre that went on during World War II.

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

Iris Chang’s The Rape of Nanjing: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II chronicles one of the most violent yet obscure instances of mass extermination ever carried out within a historical context. As suggested by the books title, this topic has received little attention or scholarship, unlike contemporary events in Europe during this period, despite the estimated 260,000 Chinese tortured and killed by Japanese soldiers. Thus in the minds of many, the Rape of Nanjing has been forgotten, or worse erased from history all together.

Many accounts Chang includes in her book are based on interviews whose content relies merely on memory. While I am not suggesting that these awful accounts did not happen, I am curious how cultural bias and the passing of time have possibly altered these accounts. She also references diary entries from Westerners who were living in Nanjing throughout the massacre and documented their experiences. She includes perspectives from various individuals and groups. Japanese, Chinese, American and German perceptions are all considered, though some more thoroughly than others.

Chang explores the events leading up to the unthinkable atrocities which occurred after December 7, 1937 by laying out a historical narrative regarding the planning and execution of the Japanese invasion and occupation of Nanjing. She then chronicles the “Rape” itself and finally the after affects from all sides. However, Chang writes in a manner more closely related to a novel rather than a historical text. Relying only on only a few Japanese primary documents, her style of writing and voice reflects a sensationalized historical account at the expense of objectivity.

However, while Chang has been criticized because of her “lack of training as a historian”, one must also bear in mind her intentions for the book. Chang writes in the introduction, “I had first learned of the Rape when I was a little girl… (My parents) had grown up in China in the mist of World War II and after the war fled with their families to Taiwan and finally to the United States.” (8) She further writes, “They did not want me to forget about the Rape of Nanjing… their voices quivering with outrage, my parents characterized the Great Nanking Massacre… as the single most diabolical incident committed by the Japanese in a war that killed more than 10 million Chinese people.” (8) She also writes of her grandparents who were living in Nanjing before the massacre and includes accounts of their evacuation from the city during this period of chaos.

Wanting to learn more of this “massacre” she sought more historical resources. Finding none, she ultimately embarked on a life long project to understand the truth about Nanjing and believed in the importance of sharing her findings with the world. In my mind, this book shouldn’t be regarded as a history text. Chang never asserts herself a “historian”. The book is the result of her need to understand her own history, the history of her family and friends and the truth behind their personal accounts and in a broader sense, history associated with her own cultural identity.

This book has been viewed as highly controversial, viewed as misinformed and “seriously flawed” by several historians.

Chang presents information from an admittedly biased point of view. She belabors on the fact that the Nanjing massacre has left an atrocious stain in world history that has been subsequently ignored and then covered up. It seems that Chang was unable to separate herself from the tragedy of this massacre and the lifelong affects it had on those involved. Her writing reflects this as the counterarguments she includes seem too weak or disregardable. For example, she includes a quote from Ishihara Shintaro’s 1990 interview for Playboy suggesting that the Rape of Nanjing was fabricated by the Chinese. (201)

However, disregarding her own bias established and sustained by her research, if one simply looks at images of this massacre, there is no doubt that Chinese citizens (regardless of disputed numbers) were maliciously raped, tortured, mutilated and murdered in late 1937 through early 1938. I find it troubling that how many people who were actually killed is even an issue. The fact is that this massacre happened. Before this book, there was virtually no English scholarship devoted to the Rape of Nanjing. The Rape of Nanjing inaugurates a dialogue between historians and non-historians alike in regards to the topic. Chang’s book is simply an introduction to further understanding and research, thus successfully ensures that this tragedy will not be forgotten.

Mao Zedong: A Life

Recognized as The Peoples Republic of China’s supreme ruler from its foundation in 1949 until his death at 83 in 1976, Mao Zedong is arguably one of the world’s most complex and misunderstood figures. With this assertion, Jonathan Spence’s book Mao Zedong: A Life faces the challenge of chronicling the life of such a complicated character, the son of a wealthy Hunan farmer who would eventually rule over the most populous country in the world.

Spence places emphasis on Mao’s formative years, focusing more than half the text on those years preceding 1949. This is necessary as these chapters highlight historical events along with political figures and thinkers whose writings influenced Mao’s own philosophical writings and future policy making. As a young student, he wrote of Lord Shang, the Qin Dynasty’s first famous minister whose laws echo those of Mao’s later mandates. (19) Spence also details Mao’s extensive study of the writings of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin. During these chapters, Spence also exemplifies early inconsistencies that Mao later termed “contradictions” in the context of his later policies. (vii) For example, Spence sights that Mao expressed his “intense hatred for school”, yet he himself was a teacher and said “education is my profession”. (48)

Spence includes a wealth of Mao’s own writings which supplement his story told from a chronological point of view. The author eliminates any personal commentary and focuses on factual accounts based on Mao’s personal records along with his inner circle. He creates an intimate portrayal Mao and his personal life with the inclusion of poetry written for his second wife while the two were separated. He also writes of the estrangement between Mao and his fourth wife Jiang Qing as told by her Soviet physician. Spence also writes of Mao’s own personal tragedies with the death of his second wife and the loss of six children by 1940. He depicts the humanism of Mao Zedong which has been overlooked by most historians.

Spence’s book serves as an abbreviated introduction of the life of such a multifaceted character. It is meant to be a survey of Mao and his PRC leadership. It encourages further research of topics sometimes only briefly addressed within this text.

Appropriately, it ends with his death. No epilogue is necessary as this book achieves what it seeks to accomplish. Remaining constant throughout, this is a biography of a life.

Review of The Rape of Nanking

The Rape of Nanking is a book that describes in gruesome detail the events that took place when the Japanese invaded Nanking during World War II. Most have no idea that such a rape took place, and many deny it even happened. For these reasons Iris Chang wrote this book, not only for most Americans to now of this holocaust, but so that no one will forget what happened.

She starts this book giving a background on the Japanese. Starting with the American Matthew Perry who went to Japan and demanded they open trading. Japan became very successful and were very wealthy during World War I. After that nothing was needed for them to produce and they became very poor and angry that other countries had more space and food than they did. Soon trying to build an elite country they trained their children twice as hard as other countries did, trying to toughen them up for future conquests. All this building up eventfully paid off when the Japanese started the Second Sino-Japanese War against China on July 7, 1937.

Eventually after the fall of Shanghai the Japanese started their march to take the capital of China, Nanking. The Japanese did eventually take Nanking with little resistance and upon capturing it began many gruesome months of rape for the Chinese. Iris writes of the horrible acts that the Japanese committed during their occupation of Nanking. As much as 150,000-350,00 people died during this time. The Japanese realized that they had no extra food for the POW’s captured and they instead killed them. Either by just lining up and shooting them, or playing games, such as who can chop of the most heads in a certain time. Not only POW’s had these gruesome deaths, most men even those not in the army were killed this way or in other variously brutal ways. Then there was the women, if found they were rapped, women as young as 9 and as old as 80’s were rapped by the Japanese soldiers. Most of the time they would then kill these women after word to remove any proof of rape. They would even rape women who were pregnant.

There were some sources of light within Nanking during this time for the Chinese people. The International Safety Zone was the safest place that could be found for the Chinese. This place was ran by the westerners of the city who risked their lives to save thousands of Chinese from rape and death. Although the Japanese beat many Americans they managed to keep many Chinese save. After having read about the safely zone I am surprised that the Japanese even let this happen. They could have easily just gone in and killed them all. But for some reason they didn’t. They did how ever try time and time again to steal women from these camps or just rape then in the camps. Many were chased away by the Westerners, and the Westerners fought every hour of the day to spare the lives of every man and woman in the camps. There were individual heroes in these camps who did most of the saving; surprisingly by the Nazi John Rabe was the most significant hero of the Nanking Raping. His efforts to save Chinese were very tremendous and Iris talks very high of him and what he did. After looking into it more I found there was a movie made in 2009 about John Rabe and his heroism during the Rape of Nanking.

Overall this was a good book that should be read by all so that this even like the Holocaust in Germany can never be forgotten. Before reading this book I was unaware of this even happening as I would assume most Americans have no idea of it either.

Review of the Rape of Nanking

“The forgotten Holocaust of World War II”, The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang, is a book about the horrific events that occurred in Nanking, China, as a result of the Japanese conquer of the city. The book is meant to be a source of knowledge as to what went on in China, specifically China’s capital, during World War II, because few know about it. Chang focuses on the three different aspects of the story, the Japanese military experience, the Chinese victims, and the foreign aid. She describes the training of the Japanese military as a social order. Many of the lower ranking soldiers were abused and mocked by higher guards. These actions were apart of the contribution to the negative attitudes of the Japanese soldiers to the Chinese. In addition, the Japanese were taught that to surrender was worse than to be killed. When the Chinese soldiers began to surrender, the Japanese saw them as worthless humans. The exact number of deaths of the Chinese is argued. However, it is clear the brutality that the Chinese experienced by the Japanese. Chang includes some of the many gruesome tortures and deaths the Chinese people experienced. Emphasizing the idea of being shot in the head lucky compared to other torturous deaths. It was very difficult to read about the detailed deaths and see actual images. I often had to stop reading because it would make me nauseous. Unfortunately as the book progressed I almost became accustomed to the nasty killings. Towards the end of the book it became somewhat uplifting which made it a little more bearable to read, but still contained some brutal stories. Although hundreds of thousands of Chinese died, it is reasonable to say many Chinese survived The Rape because of the foreign people who remained in Nanking. To some extent, the Japanese were harmless to the foreigners. However, they too sometimes suffered beatings or even death. The foreigners assisted in rescuing many women from rape, medical assistance, as well as establishing a safety zone within the city. I thought it was amazing the sacrifices the foreigners had made to assist the Chinese. I also found it interesting that the Japanese did not hurt them for aiding the Chinese. It is unfortunate that many people do not know about this event and that people ignore it ever happening, including some of the Japanese. While reading the book it was difficult to not be bias against the Japanese. It is clear Chang wanted us to feel resentment toward the Japanese. Genocides have happened and are happening all over the world yet we are not always informed of them or we choose to push aside what is happening. It is difficult to accept these events as realities and sometimes seems much simpler and less emotionally draining to forget about them. 

Review of The Rape of Nanking

After reading this book the first word that comes to mind is crazy. How can such a huge event in history be covered up? How come so many people have never heard of the Rape of Nanking? Why did people sit back and watch this happen? These are all questions that ran through my mind as I read The Rape of Nanking. This book is an eye opening experience to what people can really do to others. Though the book gave details that I may not have wanted to hear, the details are what made the Rape of Nanking so horror able. The Rape of Nanking happened during the World War II from 1937 to 1938. Around three hundred thousand Chinese military and civilian people were murdered in ways that are unthinkable. This book covers very detailed descriptions of what happened to the victims. Also shows that the Japanese military had to think of "fun" new ways to kill the Chinese people. "There seemed to be no limit to the Japanese capacity for human degradation and sexual perversion in Nanking. Just as some soldiers invented killing contests to break the monotony of murder, so did some invent games of recreational rape and torture when wearied by the glut of sex."(Chang 94) This book also gives a voice to the people that gave their life to help the Chinese people. The organizers of the Nanking Safety Zone gave up their opportunity to leave Nanking in the hopes that they could help. Dr. Robert Wilson was the only surgeon to stay in Nanking and he worked twenty-four hours a day to help the wounded and dying Chinese people. Minnie Vautrin "The Living Goddess of Nanking", put her life on the line to help prevent the Chinese women from becoming rape victims to the Japanese soldiers. (Chang 167) There are many more heroes described in this book. The killing of so many Chinese people is horrifying but maybe almost worst or just as bad is the way the Japanese government had tried to cover up and hide what happened during the Rape of Nanking. When people show evidence of what happened the government would intimidate them and try to prove that their evidence was false. The Japanese government had not had to pay anything to the victims of the Rape of Nanking.

Review of Mao Zedong

Jonathan Spence, the author of the book Mao Zedong, had an interesting approach on the point of view of Mao Zedong’s life. The book differed from other biographies of political leaders in which it did not praise Mao Zedong nor did it condemn him. It was more of a balance between his successes and failures. It discussed many of the difficulties he faced, rising to leadership as well as maintaining his family life. He was often separated from his family causing difficulty for him to keep a healthy relationship with family members. His first wife Kaihui and his brother were killed by Mao’s opponents. Aside from his political influences, Mao had suffered the loss of his siblings and children. With three different women, Mao had had ten children. Only four of these children survived into adulthood. The other six children had died or disappeared. Mao himself suffered from a painful death. He was almost completely paralyzed on his right side and had three heart attacks that eventually led to his death. Similar to the change in government that Mao fought for in China, there are currently other countries who are also experiencing a political change. Egypt recently overthrew their government to establish a democracy through peaceful demonstrations. Libya is trying to overthrow their government as well in order to create a democracy. Libya’s actions have become violent. Other countries, including the United States, are becoming involved in assisting Libya to create a change. Many countries have experienced these political changes that have torn apart the country in order for hope to unify. Mao Zedong’s life is an example of the struggles, sacrifices and triumphs involved in mass transformations.