Book Review of the Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang

Pingping Chang
Teaches 6th,7th and 8th grade Chinese Language in Parkland Middle School
Book Review of the Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang
Though I am compelled by my own Chinese heritage and the anti-Japanese stories of my childhood to believe every word of Chang’s book, I understand the criticisms of The Rape of Nanking as an exaggerated and melodramatic story. However, I believe this book is important to remind people of what had happened.
In The Rape of Nanking, Chang condemns the violent attack of Nanking by Japanese armies in 1937, deplores the passive international reactions, and denounces the “cover-up” of the attack as a “second rape.” According to Chang, the Japanese government continues to deny the massacre of over 250,000 Chinese civilians. It is clear that Chang repeatedly tries to make the point that the brutality was planned, a systematic scheme coming down from the highest levels of Japanese government, a violence extending into generations of Japanese culture. Repeatedly, Chang makes the comparison of the Rape of Nanking to the Holocaust. Often, these examples are described in horrifically graphic details.
The particular value of this text, in my opinion is twofold. First, I think it was important for the story of the 1937 Rape of Nanking to be told to mainstream western audiences. As Chang laments, this story has not received half as much attention as massacres that were less violent and killed less people. Second, I think it is a great contribution to our historical studies that she interviewed so many victims and perpetrators first hand (though, as various historians critique, she does little to sift through the information fed to her in these interviews).
Due to the sensitive content and the questionable historiography of the book, I would adapt the contents of The Rape of Nanking for my students by highlighting the emotional rage and shame engendered by the massacre. I think that it is very important for my students to know that this happened, in the same way that they learn early on about the horrors of the Holocaust. What is important here, for me, is for my students to learn from these past examples of cruelty in order to avoid any similar forms of hatred in the future. Though I wouldn’t ask my students to read the whole text, I may ask them to read the Time magazine spread by Iris Chang with highlights from her book.