Book Review: The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang

Purchased from a book store in Hong Kong International Airport, I read Iris Chang’s The Rape of Nanking in one sitting.

The atrocities committed by Imperial Japanese troops in Nanking and throughout Asia are well known, but they were not in 1997 when Chang wrote this book.

Indeed, it was one of the first books to make Western readers aware of the events that took place and indeed some in the East, due to Japanese nationalists denying the events took place and a reluctance from the surviving victims to openly discuss it.

Chang, whose parents were originally from China but escaped to Taiwan and then moved to the United States before she was born was told stories about the events in Nanking by her parents. In a few short weeks, the Japanese forces were responsible for more deaths than the entire British and French civilian death tolls from World War Two combined. Babies were sliced in half according to reports and girls from all ages were raped and some were forced to work as “comfort women” — essentially sex slaves in military brothels.

Chang researched the massacre in her local libraries and found no-one had written a book about it. Chang was later introduced to Shao Tzuping and Nancy Tong who had both produced documentaries on what had occurred and made her aware of a group of activists who were trying to increase public awareness of what happened. In 1994, she attended a conference in California which convinced her it was her duty to write about what happened. She wrote in her introduction she was worried people would treat the massacre as a “harmless glitch in a computer program”, that is “unless someone forced the world to remember it.”

Chang spent two years researching prior to the publication of the book. Chang arrives at the conclusion that 300,000 murders and 80,000 rapes took place. There is controversy over the scholarly accuracy over these figures with some Japanese liberals believing Chang’s work undermines their case for greater recognition and remorse from the Japanese nation. Indeed, it took a decade to translate the book into Japanese, with translators and their families being put under pressure to refuse.

However, after Chang tragically took her life in 2004, after falling into a battle with psychosis and depression, survivors of the massacre held a memorial for her and had a wing built in her honour at a memorial to massacre victims. It has been suggested threats from Japanese ultra-nationalists may have contributed to her illness. Chang herself believed her phone had been tapped.

Chang’s contribution includes raising awareness of attempts with Nanking to save those persecuted by the Japanese. Members working in the international zone refused to abandon the people of Nanking and worked hard to protect them. Chang draws particular attention to John Rabe and Robert Wilson.

Rabe, who was a Nazi Party member, was a German businessman living in Nanking. Rabe was elected the leader of the International Committee due to his party membership and the treaty between Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany in place at the time.

He was able to form a safety zone, which Japanese forces agreed not to attack, the Chinese forces were removed from the zone and thus there was no military advantage to attacking it. Rabe was able to use his credentials to give Chinese citizens more time to escape the city. Some say Rabe saved over 250,000 Chinese people. He opened up his properties to protect people and when he returned to Germany in 1938, the year after the occupation began.

He wrote letters to Hitler himself asking him to stop the massacres and was arrested by the Gestapo though later released he had film of the events confiscated.

Due to his Nazi Party membership, he was unable to find work and had to undergo “denazification”, during this time he struggled to buy food and had to sell his art collection from China. In 1948, the people of the city of Nanking sent him the equivalent of 21,000 US dollars today as a show of gratitude to the contribution he made to the city.

Wilson was an American surgeon born to missionaries in the city. he went to university at Princeton and medical school in Harvard before returning to Nanking. He did not flee the city and remained when many other physicians did and worked tirelessly to save people despite his practise lacking water and electricity. His efforts caused great mental stress but he continued working to save the people of the city.

Chang too offers an explanation of the actions of the Japanese troops. Historical scholars have over the years argued that Japanese troopers were under oppression by autocratic rule back home and when abroad they took their frustrations out at people who could not fight back. Chang does not go anywhere close to justifying it but her book does offer understanding which is crucial to preventing such horrors from repeating.

The book is a must read, it offers insights into one of the darkest chapters of humanity’s past and has been significant in helping make sure it is not forgotten.

In December 2018, Nanjing Tongzi, the city’s basketball team travelled to Shanghai Sharks for a fixture on the anniversary of the invasion. Despite Shanghai also being occupied by the Japanese during the 1940s, Sharks fans began to sing: “Why didn’t the Japanese kill you all?” resulting in a physical altercation with some of the Tongzi staff.

This event highlights why it is still important that the atrocities are remembered and reading Chang’s book is a perfect way of understanding what happened and the tragedy of the events.

Rating — 5/5 Stars.

Next book to review: Quotations from Mao Tse-tung.