by Iris Chang
A beautiful and moving historical
account of one of the worst massacres in human history
Reviewed by: Alan McClymont
About Alan McClymont
Having lived in China for about two years, the history
of the country started to intrigue me and for a period
I read as much as I could about the past 100 years.
During this time one of the most intriguing pieces of
history which came to my attention was the Rape of
Nanking. Not only was it interesting because of what
happened but also because of how few people know the
story of what happened.
As a brief introduction, the Japanese took over the
Chinese city of Nanking as the government of China
(led by Chiang-Kai-Shek) fled in 1937. The two
countries had been at war for some time and the
Japanese were rapidly taking over the whole country.
What happened next was probably one of the most
horrific massacres in the history of the world. The
Japanese troops systematically raped, tortured and
murdered everyone that they could. Conservative
estimates suggest that at least 300,000 people were
killed in 2 weeks, many in killing 'competitions'
between Japanese officers.
Chang sets out to make people aware of what happened
and to encourage people to never let such an atrocity
to happen again. She (and others like her) face much
opposition, especially from the Japanese government
who (until recently) refused to even acknowledge that
this happened.
Chang is obviously a talented historian and this book
seems to have been thoroughly researched. From the
very beginning she admits that this is a point by
point account of what took place (and only that which
can be verified by fact) as opposed to the story of
what happened. Even with this approach it never slips
into a simple counting of numbers and always gives a
human edge to the facts and figures which you are
reading.
The book is written from three very distinct points of
view. These are from the Japanese, the Chinese and
from a group of Westerners who remained in the city
throughout. The material is taken from interviews,
diaries and various documents which remain from the
time. This gives the book a sense of realism which
many other studies are missing.
I read much of the book with tears in my eyes and
disbelief at how this could ever happen. I cried for
all of the people who had died and for the horrible
ways in which many of them had met their deaths. More
than that, however, I cried for the fact that someone
had taken the time to sit down and to attempt to
catalogue what had happened to them and to make sure
that the world never forgot them. I defy anyone to
read it without feeling the same way.
Click here to buy this book, or read more about it at Amazon.com: The Rape of Nanking
Copyright © by Alan McClymont, 2003
Reviewed by Alan McClymont :
-- Dead Famous - by Ben Elton
-- Neither here nor there - by Bill Bryson
-- Lucky Jim - by Kingsley Amis
-- Round Ireland with a fridge - by Tony Hawks
-- The River at the Center of the World
- by Simon Winchester
-- The Rape of Nanking - by Iris Chang
-- Timeline - by Michael Crichton
-- How to Be Good - by Nick Hornby
-- Notes from a Small Island - by Bill Bryson
-- Player Piano - by Kurt Vonnegut
-- Wilt - by Tom Sharpe
-- Number9dream - by David Mitchell
Home
-------
All the Reviews