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

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Since the editorial requests were against the publishing contract between Chang and her publisher, she decided to withdraw the Japanese publication of her book and criticized her publisher for capitulating to right-wing threats. [51] [32] A Japanese translation of her book was not published and circulated in Japan until December 2007. [52] [53] Chang's death [ edit ] Though I am compelled by my own Chinese heritage and the anti-Japanese stories of my childhood to believe every word of Chang’s book, I understand the criticisms of The Rape of Nanking as an exaggerated and melodramatic story. However, I believe this book is important to remind people of what had happened.

On December 13, the first troops of Japan’s Central China Front Army, commanded by General Matsui Iwane, entered the city. Even before their arrival, word had begun spreading of the numerous atrocities they had committed on their way through China, including killing contests, arson and pillaging. Chinese soldiers were hunted down and killed by the thousands, and left in mass graves. 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." She wrote that her book dealt with the "horror of the Japanese invasion of China," and that the caption reading "The Japanese rounded up thousands of women. Most were gang-raped or forced into military prostitution" contained two statements of indisputable fact. [47]Chang, Iris (2011). The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II. New York, NY: Basic Books. p.224. ISBN 978-0-46506836-4. Iris Shun-Ru Chang (March 28, 1968–November 9, 2004) was an American journalist, author of historical books and political activist. She is best known for her best-selling 1997 account of the Nanjing Massacre, The Rape of Nanking, and in 2003, The Chinese in America: A Narrative History. Chang is the subject of the 2007 biography Finding Iris Chang, [1] and the 2007 documentary film Iris Chang: The Rape of Nanking starring Olivia Cheng as Iris Chang. [2] The independent 2007 documentary film Nanking was based on her work and dedicated to her memory. One of the famous personal testimonies involves Li Xouying, " a woman who not only suffered thirty-seven bayonet wounds during her struggle against the Japanese but survived and remained robust enough to narrate and play-act the story almost sixty years later." Gergen, David, interviewer. 20 February 1998. " Iris Chang and the Forgotten Holocaust" (transcript). The NewsHour. US: PBS. Archived on 19 March 2012. Book review of The Rape of Nanking". University of the West of England. Archived from the original on 2008-12-11 . Retrieved 2007-07-23.

a b c d e "Iris Chang's Letter to the San Francisco Chronicle". IrisChang.net. Archived from the original on 2011-02-23 . Retrieved 2007-07-21. Iris intends to rescue victims of the Nanking massacre from historical oblivion by allowing them to tell their stories. She interviewed several survivors of the Nanking massacre most of whom lived in poverty. Even small financial compensation from Japan could have been a great help to them. Historian Iris Chang won many battles/The war she lost raged within". San Francisco Chronicle. April 17, 2005 . Retrieved September 22, 2007. She notes that although the world knew about what was happening, Japanese propaganda portrayed a different picture (150). Additionally, although the worst of the massacre took place in the first six to eight weeks (159), Japan occupied Nanking and subjected the citizens to numerous brutal acts until Japan surrendered World War II in August of 1945 (167). Finally, Chang notes that one of the worst implications of this event is the dispute between China and Japan over what actually occurred. Because of the secrecy of the massacre, and Japan’s ability to hide the events from the people of Japan, there is a major conflict over what actually took place in Nanking. Chang notes that even “sixty years later, the Japanese as a nation are still trying to bury the victims of Nanking…into historical oblivion” (220). In the concluding words of her book, Chang suggests that “the Japanese government needs to issue and official apology to the victims…and, most important, educate future generations of Japanese citizens about the true facts of the massacre” (225).Guide to the Iris Chang Papers at the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives of the University of California at Santa Barbara LDP-DPJ group plan to scrutinize 'Rape of Nanking' ". The Japan Times. 2007-02-23 . Retrieved 2007-07-21. the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE) judges concluded that more than 260,000 people were killed; The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II, with a foreword by William C. Kirby. USA: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-027744-9.

In more than a half-century since the end of World War II, relatively little has been published about the Japanese occupation of China, during which an estimated 30 million Chinese were killed. The Rape of Nanking, or Nanking Massacre, in which at least 369,366 people were slaughtered and 80,000 women were raped by Japanese invasion troops, has become little more than a historical footnote in the West. David M. Kennedy (April 1998). "The Horror: Should the Japanese atrocities in Nanking be equated with the Nazi Holocaust?". The Atlantic Monthly. Vol.281, no.4. pp.110–116.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.

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. Chang, Iris. 18 January 2012. " The Nazi Leader Who, in 1937, Became the Oskar Schindler of China." The Atlantic.The book includes the comptemporary Japanese critics of the atrocity, including from official photojournalists reporting what they witnessed with revulsion and numbness, unable to stop events only to record them with cold honesty. To review this book is to grapple with the piercingly harsh questions of why such an egregious event not only happened, but continues to happen around the world. Iris Chang succinctly depicts what occurred, as well as how the Japanese advance on the Chinese city of Nanking manifested itself over the course of three weeks, but I am not convinced that she successfully argues deeply enough about the reasons why this atrocity of Herculean proportion occurred. a b Burress, Charles (2004-11-11). "Chinese American writer found dead in South Bay". SFGate . Retrieved 2007-07-21.