Iris Chang (1968–2004)

Read on Audio. This was the story of the really disturbing history of the atrocities that occurred in Nanking by the Japanese during WWII. In the first quarter or so, where the main descriptions of what went on were given was a really intense read. There are images that I'm sure I'll never be able to scrub out of my brain. The rest of the book was about the aftermath and what the world knew, what the US and the other allies knew. Almost as tragic is the fact that even to this day, there is efforts to ignore, obfuscate and deny that this ever occurred. While Germany has paid billions of dollars in reparations for the Holocaust, Japan has never paid anything to China and the city of Nanking for what went on (a Holocaust in its own right). As I said in an earlier post, people, in general, are awful. One amazing high point that I learned was that John Rabe, who worked for Siemans in China and was a Nazi during the war, did much to save thousands of Nanking citizens, created the Nanking Safety Zone and documented and filmed some of the atrocities. It is an important subject that we should all know about. Not for the faint of heart, but I recommend it.… (mer)

Incredible book but even better story about the author and the book itself. It's hard to believe when people think of war crimes in ww2 everyone assumes it's Germany and the concentration camps you're talking about but the Japanese War Crimes were just as, if not more, sadistic than the Nazis. It's hard to imagine this being such recent history. The author of this book actually becomes a part of the story because she committed suicide about 7 years after finishing this book. She was working on another book about another Japanese war crime, the Battan Death March. She started deteriorating fairly quickly and killed herself. Her husband writes an epilogue to finish the book and it's really interesting and so tragic. I also didn't know the lengths Japan was currently going to try and whitewash this part of history and just like they are Holocaust deniers, they are also many people who say the Rape of Nanking didn't happen, or didn't happen to the extent that it did. I hope this book serves the purpose of opening peoples eyes to the brutal truth that the Japanese military did to Chinese soldiers and civilians. 5 stars for sure. The author has an autobiography written about her and I'm interested in reading that too.… (mer)

Incredible book but even better story about the author and the book itself. It's hard to believe when people think of war crimes in ww2 everyone assumes it's Germany and the concentration camps you're talking about but the Japanese War Crimes were just as, if not more, sadistic than the Nazis. It's hard to imagine this being such recent history. The author of this book actually becomes a part of the story because she committed suicide about 7 years after finishing this book. She was working on another book about another Japanese war crime, the Battan Death March. She started deteriorating fairly quickly and killed herself. Her husband writes an epilogue to finish the book and it's really interesting and so tragic. I also didn't know the lengths Japan was currently going to try and whitewash this part of history and just like they are Holocaust deniers, they are also many people who say the Rape of Nanking didn't happen, or didn't happen to the extent that it did. I hope this book serves the purpose of opening peoples eyes to the brutal truth that the Japanese military did to Chinese soldiers and civilians. 5 stars for sure. The author has an autobiography written about her and I'm interested in reading that too.… (mer)