The Sino-Japanese War atrocities employed by the Japanese army when it invaded Nanking in December 1937 is the main subject of Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanking, that she subtitles "The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II." Chang is as concerned with why the ensuing, brutal massacre was "forgotten," or at least kept relatively secret, as with exposing what happened in the Chinese capital. The influence of post World War II Cold War politics on this horrific episode, as well as the militaristic culture of Japan, is explored by Chang to understand the dynamics of the destruction of Nanking. In writing the book, she explains, she delved "into not only history but historiography-to examine the forces of history and the process by which history is made. What keeps certain events in history and assigns the rest to oblivion?" (200).
Chang uses three points of view to present the story of Nanking: the Chinese victims, The Japanese invaders, and a small group of Westernersù-a French priest, a German Nazi businessman, and American missionaries among others--who attempted to save as many people as they could from the brutal massacre of 1937 by creating a "safety zone." Chang holds these few in high regard. "It seems almost miraculous that (they) managed to do everything they did while fifty thousand Japanese soldiers ripped apart the city" (108). However, she states her belief that "in the history of every war, there are always a few rare individuals who emerge as beacons of hope for the persecuted" (105). In the case of Nanking, during only a six-week time period, about 350,000 civilians and soldiers were slaughtered, many tortured and raped first. Chang suggests that this was more than persecution, but an example of cruelty and crimes against humanity that was nothing less than a holocaust.
The title of the book derives from the mass rape and mutilation of women-from as young as seven to as old as 80 (and some men as well)-that occurr...