Summary Of The Rape Of Nanking By Iris Chang

On December 13th, 1937 Japan began it's siege on the great city of Nanking to what would stretch to a 6 week period of torture, rape, and plunder of Chinese citizens by Japanese soldiers. This event often referred to as the Nanking Massacre or The Rape Of Nanking, is considered to be the "forgotten holocaust" of World War 2. It's because of this subject's unfamiliarity that author Iris Chang writes her novel The Rape of Nanking. Her book brings to light the stories and realities of the horrors in Nanking that are often overlooked in world history. Chang has a clear passion for the topic that the reader can see throughout the book. Because of her Chinese descent and being two generations removed from the atrocities, she has heard the stories

Even more of a push to her was the refusal of the Japanese government to admit anything happened during the invasion of Nanking. It was these matters that motivated her to want to bring the massacre to light and write her book. Her passion for the awareness of The Nanking Massacre is evident throughout the book, and it is this passion that the overall goal of this book is found; to keep The Rape of Nanking from being forgotten. This message is clearly established from the beginning as Chang writes in her introduction; " My greatest hope is that this book will inspire other authors and historians to investigate the stories of the Nanking survivors before the voices from the past, dwindling in numbers every year, are extinguished

The Rape of Nanking is organized into three parts. Part one consists of the three perspectives of the massacre: The Chinese, Japanese, and the westerners that stayed and helped during the slaughter. Part two concerns what happened after the war with survivors and the Japanese government. Finally, part three tells of the ways the event has been put in the background and mostly unspoken of. The way Chang sets up the book makes understanding the massacre easy for the reader. She is able to talk the reader through every part of the Nanking Massacre. She provides headings to group information together and uses lists to describe collective facts. The book also includes a section that has pictures from the actual massacre, figure charts, and maps that give the reader even more of an idea of the event. Being able to put an image with the information given gives the audience a better