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by: Iris Chang  List Price: $16.00 Amazon.com's Price: $10.88 You Save: $5.12 (32%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 951.042 EAN: 9780140277449 ISBN: 0140277447 Label: Penguin (Non-Classics) Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics) Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 328 Publication Date: November 01, 1998 Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics) Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Amazon.com: China has endured much hardship in its history, as Iris Chang shows in her ably researched The Rape of Nanking, a book that recounts the horrible events in that eastern Chinese city under Japanese occupation in the late 1930s. Nanking, she writes, served as a kind of laboratory in which Japanese soldiers were taught to slaughter unarmed, unresisting civilians, as they would later do throughout Asia. Likening their victims to insects and animals, the Japanese commanders orchestrated a campaign in which several hundred thousand--no one is sure just how many--Chinese soldiers and noncombatants alike were killed. Chang turns up an unlikely hero in German businessman John Rabe, a devoted member of the Nazi party who importuned Adolf Hitler to intervene and stop the slaughter, and who personally saved the lives of countless residents of Nanking. She also suggests that the Japanese government pay reparations and apologize for its army's horrific acts of 60 years ago. Book Description: In December 1937, the Japanese army swept into the ancient city of Nanking. Within weeks, more than 300,000 Chinese civilians were systematically raped, tortured, and murdered--a death toll exceeding that of the atomic blasts of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. Using extensive interviews with survivors and newly discovered documents, Iris Chang has written what will surely be the definitive history of this horrifying episode. The Rape of Nanking tells the story from three perspectives: of the Japanese soldiers who performed it, of the Chinese civilians who endured it, and of a group of Europeans and Americans who refused to abandon the city and were able to create a safety zone that saved almost 300,000 Chinese. Among these was the Nazi John Rabe, an unlikely hero whom Chang calls the "Oskar Schindler of China" and who worked tirelessly to protect the innocent and publicize the horror. More than just narrating the details of an orgy of violence, The Rape of Nanking analyzes the militaristic culture that fostered in the Japanese soldiers a total disregard for human life. Finally, it tells the appalling story: about how the advent of the Cold War led to a concerted effort on the part of the West and even the Chinese to stifle open discussion of this atrocity. Indeed, Chang characterizes this conspiracy of silence, that persists to this day, as "a second rape." Average Rating:
 Rating:  - A must readAlthough this book is horrifying in its detail, it is a must read for anyone who wants to learn more about what happened in Asia during WWII. It is truly sad that as Americans we seem to only focus on what has happened to us and our European neighbors during the war. Rating: - An Emotive, Powerful and Well-Researched PieceI had known about this book for quite some time, but only got around to reading it recently. You need quite a bit of mental fortitude to get through such a book; it is graphic in the extreme. I stealed myself for the effort, but got quite upset by about page 80. The accounts of savagery - gang rape almost always followed by murder, dousing people with gas and setting them alight, bayoneting practice, ad infinitum - require a kind of mental detachment that may be hard to summon. But the book is much, ... Read More Rating: - From a Korean reader with Japanese friends.Reading this book reminded me about the unsightly tragedies that happened in Korea during the wartime as well. I remember my Korean grandmother telling me horrible stories of her childhood as she witnessed the people around her getting killed and bombed from the Japanese. I am surrounded by Japanese-American and native Japanese friends, and I can say with a certain fact that they are not stupid or ignorant to this history. Also, they are very keen in understanding what has transpired and ... Read More Rating: - Shocking, Heartbreaking, but NecessaryIt astounds me that so few people know about the horrific events in China, and particularly Nanking, during WWII. This book can change that. No one can read the work without coming away with a new understanding of how easily human nature can be twisted to doing the unthinkable. Like the Nazis of Germany, the Japanese soldiers talked about in the work are people just like we are, but because of the circumstances and culture in which they were thrust they were capable of truly horrific things. The Rape of ... Read More Rating: - remember not only the number of people slaughteredThe Rape of Nanking is historically accurate. Since I have lived in China for a very long time, I have heard about this horrible massacre since I was a little girl. I have heard in news that Japan had concealed this event even from its own people. The leaders of the country had been in denial of this whole historical event for many years. The teachers had taught the students the false information in their history class. I even heard that Japan had burned those textbook that included the details about ... Read More 
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