The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II

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The authors conclude that between December 1937 and March 1938 at least 369,366 people were murdered and some 80,000 women were raped. Chang, Iris. 18 January 2012. " The Nazi Leader Who, in 1937, Became the Oskar Schindler of China." The Atlantic. a b August, Oliver (2005-03-17). "One final victim of the Rape of Nanking?". Times Online. London . Retrieved 2007-07-21. Joshua A. Fogel (August 1998). "Reviewed Works: The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II by Iris Chang". The Journal of Asian Studies. Association for Asian Studies. 57 (3): 818–820. doi: 10.2307/2658758. JSTOR 2658758. Chinese military specialist Liu Fang-chu proposed a figure of 430,000; officials at the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall and the procurator of the District Court of Nanjing in 1946 stated at least 300,000 were killed;

a b Foreword by William C. Kirby, in: Iris Chang (1998). The Rape of Nanking. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-465-06835-9. As a book on a historical event, The Rape of Nanking is rife with emotional content presented through elaborate prose. There is much more to the book than the simple listing of atrocities committed during the horrific episode in Nanking. It answers questions like: How did Japanese soldiers lose all sense of right and wrong? Why did the world look away? Why has punishment never been allotted to the Japanese soldiers who committed the atrocities and leaders who knew about them? What keeps certain events in history and assigns the rest to oblivion? What can be done to prevent this from happening again? The book acts as a presentation for a mainly American audience and is a must read for anyone who believes that these kinds of brutal happenings are anomalies. The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II. Basic Books. 21 November 1997. ISBN 978-0-465-06835-7. Chang's visibility as a public figure increased with her final work, The Chinese in America. After her death, she became the subject of tributes from fellow writers. Mo Hayder dedicated a novel to her. Reporter Richard Rongstad eulogized her as "Iris Chang lit a flame and passed it to others and we should not allow that flame to be extinguished."The Rape of Nanking did not penetrate the world consciousness in the same manner as the Holocaust or Hiroshima because the victims themselves had remained silent.” Iris Shun-Ru Chang was a Chinese-American historian and journalist. She was best known for her best-selling 1997 account of the Nanking Massacre, The Rape of Nanking. She committed suicide on November 9, 2004, when she was just 36 years old.

The New York Times bestselling account of one of history's most brutal—and forgotten—massacres, when the Japanese army destroyed China's capital city on the eve of World War II, "piecing together the abundant eyewitness reports into an undeniable tapestry of horror".(Adam Hochschild, Salon) Iris Chang became an instant celebrity in the US: [33] she was awarded honorary degrees; [34] invited to give lectures and to discuss the Nanjing Massacre on shows such as Good Morning America, Nightline, and The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer; profiled by The New York Times; and was featured on the cover of Reader's Digest. [12] Moreover, Hillary Clinton invited her to the White House; U.S. historian Stephen Ambrose described her as "maybe the best young historian we've got;" [33] and the Organization of Chinese Americans named her National Woman of the Year. [34] The book's popularity prompted a lengthy book tour, with Chang visiting 65 cities in over a year and a half. [5] Mills, Ami Chen, interviewer. 12 December 1996. " Breaking the Silence." Metroactive. US: Metro Publishing, Inc.

I can never shake my belief that I was being recruited, and later persecuted, by forces more powerful than I could have imagined. Whether it was the CIA or some other organization I will never know. As long as I am alive, these forces will never stop hounding me. [5] Heath, Thomas (2006-07-31). "Ted Leonsis Takes a Sharp Turn". The Washington Post . Retrieved 2007-07-22. Iris Chang was the daughter of two university professors, Ying-Ying Chang and Dr. Shau-Jin Chang, who moved from China to Taiwan and later to the United States. Chang was born in Princeton, New Jersey, and raised in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. The book attempts to explain the events leading up to and during the atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers that occurred in the city of Nanking, China from 1937-1938. Overall the book is very clear and well written and the reader comes away with a general understanding of the event and also pondering the questions of how humanity can be suspended in times of war.

There are many aspects of this book that I found particularly valuable. First, I thought the photographs that are included in the book are important for understanding this event and, even though some are horrific, would be helpful in a classroom as a visual representation of the atrocities. The book also talks about a documentary and articles that have been written in China about the story of how the photographs were saved instead of confiscated by Japanese soldiers. The documentary/articles would be helpful in a discussion about why it is important to preserve historical events no matter how horrible.

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The particular value of this text, in my opinion is twofold. First, I think it was important for the story of the 1937 Rape of Nanking to be told to mainstream western audiences. As Chang laments, this story has not received half as much attention as massacres that were less violent and killed less people. Second, I think it is a great contribution to our historical studies that she interviewed so many victims and perpetrators first hand (though, as various historians critique, she does little to sift through the information fed to her in these interviews).