The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

This is the third, and probably the last attempt for me to give this book five-star evaluation. I had already given ten stars before, but since I have received a wonderful reply from Mr. B. T. Laycock, a well educated young man, I felt there is need of my response using this review section; if the sum of all reviews upon this book can help you, any of you, create a new, positive perspective of life with your deep awareness of the suffering of another, regardless of any time and space, that will be a good, beneficial start that enables whoever, or whatever that will keep surviving in this world to accomplish the order of less violence and unswayed peace. And, that will be the intrinsic compensation for any beings that have experienced succesive severe suffering from all our war crimes. In my political view, the current Japanese government should react to Asian countries with greater respect than ever, and they should make as much compensation as possible in the reality, in the same way the German politicians have done for the Jewish people. I simply think so because, otherwise, they would hardly believe the Japanese constitution even if that were designed right after world war II by many Japanese who have realized the true color of the Japanese empire at the time, with the help of the U.S. General Headquarters in Tokyo, to swear peace. The incommensurable wrath of the war victims especially in Asian countries such as China, Korea, and several others will never calm down without the reciprocal act of recognizing all histories between Japan and them. To desparately defend a position for a continuum of conscientious dialogue between us is, I think, a moral and logical way of being as a country, and Japan needs more of that positive action. The insult and hatred that the Japanese empire generated all over Asia since the war time, while most of that is not yet known to citizens in Europe and the U.S. because of suppressed situations of journalism in Asian countries, has become a large undergoing force in Asia based on mistrust, and obviously, things will get just worse if the Japanese citizens keep ignoring or denying the fact of the invasion and massacre by the Japanese military. In the past several decades, policies that the Japanese government chose, however, reflected many Japanese individuals' partial understanding of their neighbors. And, I feel Japan needs to make a proper apology that can clearly reach to the heart of American citizens, for attacking Pearl Harbor, and for starting the gory battle. It is a right thing to cast the blame on Japan for their faults in the past and present, and in my opinion, there is no argument about that. Sooner or later, Japanese citizens will have to attain sanity in their politics, and fundamentally, in their education system as well. At the same time, however, I regret to state that I can find no justice anywhere since my understanding about world war II is still insufficient to lead a concrete answer, and for me, the entire truth of the same war is beyond the mist of nihilism. For instance, according to a fact in an official document that the Department of State (of the U.S.) announced in 1943, Joseph Clark Grew, an American ambassador in Japan, sent his correspondence to the U.S. on January 27, 1941, carrying the information about Japan's sneak attack of Pearl Harbor. That was ten months earlier than the actual attack by the Japanese military. Also, one day before that miserable chaos at Pearl Harbor on December 8, 1941, a decoder team from England had decoded the Japanese empire's plan of attacking Pearl Harbor, by catching their correspondence in Singapore, and I can conclude that Churchill and Roosevelt should have been informed about the Japanese attack in advance. This is not to say that this fact makes any allowance for the Japanese war crime. And, this is not to say that England and the U.S. may share any part of responsibility for casualities at Pearl Harbor. But, it was possively not a total sneak attack, and there were probably specific forces who took advantage of the Japanese military action, in order to make the U.S. to fight. Bankers? Politicians? Or, industries? I don't know. B. T. Laycock's sincere and kind reply to my confusing comment has presented his reasonable viewpoint of the two atom bombs that were actually used, in August 1945, to terminate the unprecedented brutal behaviors of the Japanese empire. I still don't think the use of nuclear arms was the best way to end the world war; i personally think it was a wrong decision. But, Mr. Laycock inferred the war continued unnecessarily longer since the use of nuclear arms was delayed. This may make you doubt my sanity, but I know there was a specific reasons to keep Tokyo and Berlin undestroyed by nuclear arms. I infer that that was to effectively exploit those cities after the war. Furthermore, the U.S. General Headquarters failed to judge a part of the party of Japanese war criminals. In my doubt, secret dealings may have been made during the processes of the judgement after the war, among some specific blood-related capitalist groups among Europe, the U.S., and Japan, but who knows the truth? I think no one does. Also, I wonder why we are talking about the Japanese war crimes now. We should have finished talking about the war. But, what we have learned is a very few. What did logical explanations of wars mean to you? Who and who have made the true control of the war? Many facts of the technocratic war disasters seem to be, unfortunately, still out of the sight for the empty sagacity of pseudo interectuals all over the world. How much do we know, for example, about Gulf War? It seems like we don't care much. . . And, that's sad. Finally, I would like to show my respect to Mr. Barron T. Laycock for being kind and honest to my sensational, controversial, and impolitic review. I apologize for shocking him and other shocked readers if there are any. May the peace celebrate every living being!

A sophmoric, maudlin romp through something requiring much more thorough analysis. It is emotional, and like most low-mid brow atrocity/holocaust literature, it degenerates into vapid op.ed. piece moralizing. (Yes, shoving a bayonet into a woman's uterous is a bad, bad thing. Are these men? Are these monsters, etc. ) This is unfortunate, but sales and reader reaction indicates that such treatment (and violence-porn.?) goes down disturbingly well with the reading public. Critical readers may be bothered by the inflation of causualties, but that goes with the territory of counting the dead in virtually any conflict or massacre. Tone and treatment are unprofessional, but then again IC is no scholar, nor does she pretend to be. Conclusions are spurious to say the least, and someone should have taken a red pencil to her introductory musings on human behavior.

It was written by a young American female freelance journalist of Chinese background, and it reads like it. Nanking, and its dead, deserve better than this. However, if you know little about China, the Japanese occupation of Korea, atrocities in general, or any of the various 'rapes' and 'holocausts' that pepper the 20th century, reading it won't hurt. If you enjoy reading about what sadistic Japanese troops can do, you'll love it. If you are of an historical bent, you'll grind your teeth. If you are Japanese it might make you realize that there was more to WWII than two A-bombs. NOTE: The best part about this book is the Japanese reaction to it (here @Amozon.com. Some of their reviews are a hoot, albiet a frightening hoot at that). Maybe someone should write a book about that...

It has been well known that Japanese imperial army has brought an unprecedented catastrophe to the world, especially to the rest of Asian countries during the WWII. Nanking massacre is particularly a disastrous tragedy in the history of the human being. During Japanese army's occupancy of Nanking, more than 300,000 civilian and Chinese P.O.W.s were brutally slaughtered and thousands of Chinese women were killed after gang rape. Unfortunately, in Japan there are still quite a few right-wing politicians and ignorant people insisting to deny these crimes and trying to distort history by claiming that Japan liberated Asian nations and Nanking massacre is being faked. How ridiculous! If you really want to know what barbaric Japanese imperial army did in Nanking during that hellish six weeks, please make every effort to get this book. The brutality shown in the book is far beyond any human imagination.