Author nally tells truthful war history

The Rape of Nanking

Penguin Books

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If asked about the Holocaust or the atomic bombs dropped on Japan, the average person often recalls these unfortunate events in detail. Ask people on the street about the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Chinese during the so-called "Rape of Nanking" and Iris Chang, the author of "The Rape of Nanking," would not be surprised if they responded "Nanking who?"

Chang's new book is the depiction of a historical event that occurred in the early '30s when Japanese armies invaded China. By December of 1937, the army had reached Nanking, the Chinese capital, and begun a six-week long spree of killing and torturing innocent and, for the most part, unarmed civilians. The death toll is estimated at more than 300,000 people - a number that is greater than the toll from both atomic bombs dropped on Japan. Chang's own grandparents barely escaped Nanking before the killing began.

As a child, Chang turned with little success to her schoolbooks and the public library for information about the massacre her parents talked about. Until recently, there has been little information about the Rape of Nanking available in American libraries and schools.

In a recent interview Chang explained, "there are Chinese historians who have been documenting (these events) for decades. There is no shortage of information, (but) the records had never been published (in English) until I excerpted them in my book."

Chang relied heavily on primary source material in her book, such as victims' accounts of the tragedy, diaries and eyewitness accounts made by foreign reporters and workers in the city. One source Chang discovered is the diary of John Rabe. Rabe was a Nazi businessman who helped save hundreds of Chinese from torture, rape and death.

John Rabe may seem an unlikely hero since he was a Nazi, but as the author remarks, "to tell John Rabe's story reveals heroism in the most unlikely places."

"The Rape of Nanking" is not an easy read; its graphic depictions of torture repeatedly turn the stomach and try the reader's emotional state. Yet Chang reminds us that these descriptions are vital to "understand the magnitude of the pain and suffering inflicted on the victims." Despite the sensitive nature of the material, Iris Chang believes the right place for the "The Rape of Nanking" is in libraries and classrooms. As she said in the interview, "this is not gratuitous violence put here for pleasure. This is a work of history that should serve as a cautionary tale for future generations."

Although the Rape of Nanking was front page news across the globe in 1937, at the end of World War II the Japanese government was never made to own up to the unspeakable things it had done to the Chinese people in Nanking and elsewhere. With her book, Chang hopes to bring an end to the suffering of the Nanking victims.

But the Japanese continue to deny the occurrence of many horrors outlined in "The Rape of Nanking." For example, despite two years of extensive research and her undeniable historical accuracy, the Japanese ambassador to the United States denounced Iris Chang and her book as "the most outrageous world class lie" without being able to cite any evidence for his statement. The ambassador's claim drew immediate criticism from the People's Republic of China, who issued letters supporting her and the position of her book.

Shocked but not thrown by reactions to her book, Chang continues to push for a resolution to the Nanking massacre. She hopes the Japanese government will own up to their past mistakes by issuing a specific apology, paying reparations to the victims, calling a halt to the censoring of school textbooks, and opening its wartime archives. She would also like to see an oral history video project, similar to that which the Holocaust has received, for the victims of the rape as a memorial. Iris Chang is not about to let history stay buried, but she fears what would happen if it did. She said she believes that "eventually more books will be written and these events will be rescued from oblivion. The Japanese are not uniquely capable of these crimes. Each century is bloodier than the one preceding it because we have the technology (to kill)."

- Kelly Lutes

11-04-98