The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II
by: Iris Chang


Iris Chang is an American-born Chinese who has spent a good portion of her life exploring the culture for which she born into. As a fellow Chinese-American, I was compelled to her book and thrilled with what she has chosen to share.

Like Ms. Chang, I grew up with parents who lived through the terrors of war and conflict. From them I've heard many stories about what happened during World War II, most facts and information that never made it into American textbooks. I grew up believing that somehow these were fairy tales or such isolated incidents that no one paid attention to them. However, these weren't just products of vivid imaginations and like Iris, I grew up discovering the horrors of a World War II that few understood or experienced outside of Asia.

In Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II, Ms. Chang gathered very detailed information of the few month period in which would forever stain Chinese soil with the blood of many. Her book not only contains graphic details of the events that occurred, but the events that lead up to and followed the assault on Nanking.

For those unfamiliar with the geography, Nanking is towards the north of Shanghai. Because of its location, providing one of the major ports in the area, it has been a target throughout its history for conflict and battles. During the 1920's, just prior to the invasion of the Japanese into China, Nanking was the capital of the Nationalist Party of China, one of the governing bodies of China after the fall of the Qin Dynasty and prior to the rise of Communism.

Thus, to begin with, the city was a nexus and point of contention. Ms. Chang provides a compelling story of the horrors that occurred during the Japanese occupation of this land, which began roughly around the late 1930's.

This book is known as one of the first to truly bring light to this event in history, and as such, has received much praise and criticism. The largest argument against the facts of this book seems to arise from sentiments that the magnitude and cruelty Ms. Chang portrays could never have occurred.

While I'm not sure if we will ever know all the true facts and figures of the events that occurred during that period, war is a violent act of humankind and this is no different. Just as it is important we do not forget the cruelties enacted onto the Jewish in Europe during the same period of time, we should not forget these events either. This book is a powerful message of just how quickly and easily things can go wrong. It hauntingly echoes many of the same brutal mentalities that have been repeated time and time again throughout our history.

For those unfamiliar with Ms. Chang, exposure to these stories drained her of life. A mother and wife, her life changed greatly after the publishing of this book. No one can be exposed to war and not returned changed in some fashion, even when it's second-hand as in Ms. Chang's case.

In November 2004, at the young age of 36, Ms. Chang committed suicide. Many loved ones have come forward sharing the struggles and deep depression she suffered the last few months of her life. Her legacy to the world, both in Rape of Nanking and her other literary works, was to share a view of China and Chinese-Americans to a world that mostly wishes to ignore and forget.