The Rape of Nanking

The Rape of Nanking, by Iris Chang, goes into vivid detail the atrocities committed by the Japanese army in China during World War II. This book focuses in on the city of Nanking, the capital of China during this period in time. Not only does it describe the actions of the Japanese, but also gives insight as to why the Japanese may have committed these acts. Also, the book honors the heroes of The Rape that stood up to the Japanese and saved hundreds of thousands of Chinese lives. Finally, it informs readers about the ease with which the Japanese avoided heavy charges for war crimes, and how the Japanese are still currently working to prevent the truth from leaking out.

The book takes place mostly during World War II. However, it does give some information over the time both before and after the war. The years in this book range from Japan's early interactions with America in the 1850's all the way toe the results of the Rape and the war in the 1980's. The main location in the book is Asia, in particular Japan and China. It also mentions a few islands on which the Japanese fought, including the infamous Pearl Harbor bombing.

The first major event that occurs in the book is the visit of Matthew Perry to Japan. This visit gave the Japanese the first glimpse of steam power along with a showing of the military might of America. The visit eventually leads to the industrialization of Japan, the adoption of bushido as the moral code for the people, and the building of its army in hopes to become more powerful than even the Western nations.

The training of the army began in frenzy. Starting from elementary school onward, everything taught in the schools helped prepare the people for war. Children would be seen marching by the thousands in straight lines. Also, the abuse used by the teachers, such as slapping the students, hitting them with fists, and smacking them with bamboo weapons, only served to harden them for the future. Only more abuse followed these brutal first years if you wished to continue towards a military career. Military schools were isolated, and while there, you were taught to kill without feeling. In fact, some soldiers lost all feeling to the point where they would compare the Chinese people to pigs. According to the diary of one Japanese soldier, "a pig is more valuable now than the life of a [Chinese] human being. That's because a pig is edible" (page 218).

Finally, in 1894, war broke out between Japan and China over Korea. Within six weeks, the war was over, and Japan had won. Then, in 1905, the Japanese went to war with Russia, again emerging victorious. These victories marked Japan's emergence as a military power in Asia. One activist even went as far as to prophesize that "...these two countries

Japan soon started a full-scale war with China in the summer of 1937. The invasion of China's mainland began with Japanese defeating the city of Shanghai. However, this task proved to be much more difficult than the Japanese anticipated. When Shanghai finally fell after months of fighting, the city was destroyed. Japanese troops then marched on Nanking with revenge in their minds. While on the warpath, the Japanese burned and pillaged almost everything, from small villages to large cities. One city that was hit particularly hard was Suchow, a city located on Tai Hu Lake. According to China Weekly Review, the invasion "caused the population of the city to drop from 350,000 to less than 500" (page 38). Finally, in December of 1937, the Japanese reached Nanking.

Fighting around Nanking began on December 9 when the Chinese refused to surrender the city. Even though the Chinese outnumbered the Japanese and had enough ammunition to last five months of siege, the city fell in only four short days. This was due to many reasons, including that orders could not be spread among the entire army. Therefore, when the army was ordered to make a retreat, only about half the troops received the order. What started as an orderly retreat quickly became a rout. By the time it was all over, around 90,000 Chinese troops had surrendered. Then the killing and the rape began.

The Japanese killed tens of thousands of soldiers, using the excuse that they didn't have the food to feed so many POW's. Even so, hundreds of thousands of Nanking civilians who possessed no weapons were tortured and killed. Numerous methods of torture and extermination were used. These included live burials, mutilation, death by burning, death by freezing, and death by dogs. At some points, the Japanese would entertain themselves during these mass exterminations by having killing contests. During one of these, the only survivor recounts that "...a pregnant woman began to fight for her life...in the end the soldier killed her ripping open her belly with his bayonet and jerking out not only her intestines but a squirming fetus..." (page 86). Also, tens of thousands of Chinese women became the victims of rape. Many of these women were killed right afterwards or died of diseases after months of continuous rape. However, even in these times of death and despair, heroes emerged from the pack.

Some of these people were attacked by the Japanese, yet survived through unbelievable odds. For example, a rape victim had her head nearly severed down to her vertebral column, yet managed to survive long enough for surgeons to sew her neck back on. Another woman was stabbed thirty-seven times when she fought her Japanese captors, yet is still alive today to tell the tale. Also, the small group of foreigners, consisting mainly of Germans and Americans, in Nanking at that time made valiant efforts to save the Chinese civilians from death and rape. They first established a Nanking Safety Zone which housed over 300,000 civilians by the time the Rape had ended. They managed to feed these people, and continuously patrolled the Safety Zone to prevent the Japanese from attacking the people within the zone. Many of these people ended up suffering for their heroic actions.

After about six main weeks of torture, rape, and mass murder, the majority of violence ended. Finally, World War II came to an end with the dropping of the Uranium bomb on Hiroshima, and the Plutonium bomb on Nagasaki. Finally, on August 14, the Japanese surrendered. Following this were the war crime trials. Thousands of Chinese citizens attended these to act as witnesses while tens of thousands of others came to see the execution of Japanese war criminals. For example, on the day when one criminal, Tani Hisao's verdict was announced, the "courtroom was not large enough to accommodate everyone who wanted to attend. More than two thousand spectators packed the courtroom while loudspeaker [broadcasted] the proceedings to tens of thousands of residents gathered outside" (page 171). However, only a small portion of the Japanese criminals were caught and executed. This was brought upon by the Cold War, and America's desire to make Japan a sort of "puppet" so that all of Asia would not be lost. Therefore, the amount of money Japan had to pay was minimal and many former criminals were allowed to stay in relative comfort.

I felt that all of the information that the author presented was relevant, though some aspects of it may have been repeated more than enough. At some points, the details were extremely gruesome and gory, but were necessary for the overall gist of the book. I felt it was important that all these facts be placed in here because people need to know everything that has happened, especially those in denial about the Rape of Nanking's occurrence. This is especially important in that "[t]hose who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" (page 16). I learned lots of information from this book, and would definitely recommend it in the future to any looking to learn more on this topic.