Powerful

I disagree with one of the other reviewers who said that this book was biased. Chang makes a point of saying that this type of atrocity is not limited to the Japanese people and she gives credit to some Japanese officials who wept when they saw what had taken place. She merely points out that this event in history is too often overlooked. While almost everyone knows about the Holocaust, how many can tell the hideous tales of Nanking, Baatan (Tears In The Darkness) or of Pol Pot in Cambodia (To Destroy You Is No Loss)? We must learn from these historical horrors as well, and, most importantly, as Chang says, acknowledge their victims.

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83 people found this helpful

Well worth your time

The story is reviewed very well. This is a formerly untold war story about Japanese atrocities. While this may put you off, the book was very well written and gives you a perspective of China toward Japanese that may continue to this day.

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36 people found this helpful

Important, Brutal, Critical WWII Reading

After years of learning about World War II (from elementary school through college through personal reading as an adult), I finally turned to this classic and important part of the World War II historical canon. Iris Chang's work chronicling the horrors of the Rape of Nanking is overwhelming. As the subtitle of the book makes clear, while the atrocities committed during the Holocaust by the Nazis have been thoroughly and voluminously studied the same attention to detail and extensive scholarship has not been expended on the months-long atrocities at Nanking. The brutality of the conquering Japanese military against the largely civilian population of Nanking epitomizes savagery and, unlike much of the Holocaust, took place in the open with little subterfuge or euphemisms, in full view of multiple international witnesses.

Chang is meticulous in her work, having gathered information from numerous primary sources, ranging from the letters and diaries of Western observers (including Americans, British, and Germans), as well as interviews with and the writings of the Chinese that survived the event. The scale of the murder, torture, and rape is hard to conceive of -- in fact, just calling it murder and rape makes the cruelty seem mundane when the forms it took were beyond the pale. The inhumanity of the Japanese to the residents of Nanking beggars belief.

This crime against humanity still has ramifications today. The tense Sino-Japanese relationship of the present plays out in a world where the Japanese have never fully admitted their actions or culpability, have never apologized, have never truly educated their population about the myriad shameful acts. Where Germany was forced to face the Holocaust, Japan to this day will not reckon with Nanking. And Western peoples likewise do not pay nearly enough attention to what WWII meant for Asians, only seeming to pay attention to the Japanese to the extent their actions directly impacted the United States. This book is as important now as it was when it was published, and shines a much-needed light on at least one part of the non-Western events of WWII and on the depravity that is possible during wartime.

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30 people found this helpful

One of the most powerful stories ever told

This book should be required reading for any WWII history class. The Nanking Massacre is tragically unknown to most people yet the Jewish holocaust is known about by all. It could be argued that the events in Nanking hold at least the same historical importance and this book tells the story in a truly gripping manner

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13 people found this helpful

Necessary reading.

Evil. exists not in the"other" but in every individual human being.

Weakness/capitulation is no solution.

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12 people found this helpful

A Story that needed telling!

I've heard the term much of my life. I lived through WWII and never got the details on what the "Rape of Nanking" meant. This was a story I needed to hear. The Japanese culture needs correcting....but only exposes like this will let the current generation know what thier forebears did.......

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11 people found this helpful

good reminder but not balanced

I downloaded this audio book because I wanted to know what my grandfathers and grandmothers did during the WW.The author described the wartime atrocities so vividly and acurately and I'm sure this is what happened then.However,when I finished reading this book ,I got the feeling that this author is a bit biased and unfair.First of all,Japanese Prime Minister has apologized to the chinese over and over again(as he did in 2005,maybe you saw it on CNN) and secondly Japan sends $1bil annually not as reparation but as ODA.(Which contradicts this authors accuasation that Japan hasn't sent money to China)And the chinese government spends that amount of money reinforcing its military as you know.As for the text book,I was strongly appalled that the author didn't mention that only 0.1% of the students in Japan use the text book which whitewashed our war time atrocities,published by "atarashii kyokasowo tsukurukai"and chinese text book is more whitewashed and censored by chinese govenment.
I feel sorry for chinese victims and I want to apologize on behalf of my grandfather(who passed away 50 years ago) for the crimes commited by Japanese troops 70 years ago.

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11 people found this helpful

A Must LISTEN

Would you listen to The Rape of Nanking again? Why?

Yes, with a pen and paper to get the facts written down.

What did you like best about this story?

The incredible research that has gone into the work.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It astounded me

Any additional comments?

Anyone living-with or dealing with the Chinese should listen to this to gain an understanding into their intense distrust of their neighbours.

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9 people found this helpful

Simply a must read

Crucial history well told. Told from the perspective of the Japanese, a Nazi, and an American. Thoroughly researchers and told in with eloquent and compelling prose. Let us never forget and never repeat.

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7 people found this helpful

The world should be made to study this tragedy

Iris Chang does and excellent job and Anna Fields narrates this book well but what the book lacks is more from the Japanese side. Unfortunately the Japanese seem to be trying to hide this past of theirs. Whilst Germany has to live with the guilt and shame of WWII the Japanese seem to have white washed it. Never the less, I think if the rest of the world remembers, studies, and discusses the Rape of Nanking, then the Japanese will have to come to grips with it. I can't understand how people can do the atrocities they do, lucky I have never been put in that situation but I hope by reading about these events I will think twice and do the right thing and be a human being if ever put in a situation like the Rape of Nanking.

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6 people found this helpful