{"id":4301,"date":"2006-02-07T09:10:12","date_gmt":"2006-02-07T14:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=4301"},"modified":"2026-04-03T10:31:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T14:31:48","slug":"the-books-the-rape-of-nanking-iris-chang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=4301","title":{"rendered":"The Books: \u201cThe Rape of Nanking\u201d (Iris Chang)"},"content":{"rendered":"

My history bookshelf. Onward.<\/p>\n

\"RapeOfNanking.jpg\"Next book on this shelf is called The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II<\/a>\"\"<\/i> by Iris Chang. An absolutely tormenting book – unforgettable. I had a very very hard time getting through this book, but I really think it’s so important for people to read it. Iris Chang, a young author (who sadly committed suicide last year<\/a>), was determined to get this story, in all its fullness and awfulness, out. Her horror at what she learned, at the stories she heard, breathes through every word on the page.<\/p>\n

Chang obviously suffered from clinical depression as well – but I wonder if that was exacerbated by the stories of human monstrosity that she uncovered in her research. I wonder if steeping herself in such evil made her depression run even deeper? Made the sun go out forever? The Rape of Nanking<\/i> is so dark that the so-called HERO of the book is a Nazi, stationed in Nanking, who – with little to no bureaucratic support – walked through the war-torn streets shouting into a bullhorn, telling the gangs to stop raping people. He personally broke up gang-rapes. He used his position to set up a “safety zone”. A true-believer Nazi. Like I said – it’s a rough book. An important book. Don’t avert your eyes. <\/p>\n


\nFrom The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II<\/a>\"\"<\/i> by Iris Chang. <\/strong><\/p>\n

In the summer of 1937 Japan finally succeeded in provoking a full-scale war with China. In July a Japanese regiment, garrisoned by treaty in the Chinese city of Tientsin, had been conducting night maneuvers near the ancient Marco Polo Bridge. During a break several shots were fired at the Japanese in the darkness, and a Japanese soldier failed to appear during roll call. Using this incident as an excuse to exercise its power in the region, Japanese troops advanced upon the Chinese fort of Wanping near the bridge and demanded that its gates be opened so that they could search for the soldier. When the Chinese commander refused, the Japanese shelled the fort.<\/p>\n

By the end of July, Japan had tightened its grasp on the entire Tientsin-Peking region, and by August the Japanese had invaded Shanghai. The second Sino-Japanese War was no longer reversible.<\/p>\n

But conquering China proved to be a more difficult task than the Japanese anticipated. In Shanghai alone Chinese forces outnumbered the Japanese marines ten to one, and Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Nationalist government, had reserved his best troops for the battle. That August, while attempting to land thirty-five thousand fresh troops on the docks of Shanghai, the Japanese encountered their first setback. A hidden Chinese artillery emplacement opened fire and killed several hundred men, including a cousin of the Empress Nagako. For months the Chinese defended the metropolis with extraordinary valor. To the chagrin of the Japanese, the battle of Shanghai proceeded slowly, street by street, barricade by barricade.<\/p>\n

In the 1930s, Japanese military leaders had boasted — and seriously believed — that Japan could conquer all of mainland China within three months. But when a battle in a single Chinese city alone dragged from summer to fall, and then from fall to winter, it shattered Japanese fantasies of an easy victory. Here, this primitive people, illiterate in military science and poorly trained, had managed to fight the superior Japanese to a standstill. When Shanghai finally fell in November, the mood of the imperial troops had turned ugly, and many, it was said, lusted for revenge as they marched toward Nanking.<\/p>\n