The sharper edge to traveling in Asia

WoWasis book review: Iris Chang’s ‘The Rape of Nanking’

Written By: herbrunbridge - Sep• 03•10

When we at WoWasis attended Iris Chang’s funeral in 2004, it became apparent to us, after the heartfelt tributes of her friends and family, that she was Japan’s final Nanking victim. For a number of years, Chang lived and breathed the Nanking massacre as she was writing her book. After it was published, the ghosts, that had captivated and finally captured her, remained. She sought still more ghosts prior to her death by her own hand, as she was engaged in writing a book about the Bataan Death March at the time.

Chang’s The Rape of Nanking: the Forgotten Holocaust of World War II (1997, ISBN 02-7744-7) is a tough story, essential reading for individuals whose interests span WWII, Asia, and Chinese-Japanese relations. For atrocity buffs, it’s a masterpiece, on par with the best writings on the Khmer Rouge and the Holocaust.  Beacuse of Chang, the story is now well-known, how the Japanese army slaughtered 300,000 Chinese within a period of a few months. What pushes Chang’s book beyond the realm of “accident watching” is it’s meticulous research, detailing the events leading up to the event, those who attempted to prevent it, the story of John Rabe, who prevented thousands of more murders, and efforts successful and unsuccessful to bring the perpetrators to justice. The photographs in the book are harrowing and grisly, and it’s difficult to believe that these images, burned permanently into Iris Chang’s mind, didn’t play a major role in her death. Buy it now at the WoWasis estore, powered by Amazon.

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  1. […] to that of the Native American, giving no regard to the privations at Nanking, as documented by Iris Chang, among […]

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