《Rape of Nanking》 About the Author: Iris Chang

THE RAPE OF NANKING
China has endured much hardship in its history, as Iris Chang shows in her ably researched The Rape of Nanking, a book that recounts the horrible events in that eastern Chinese city under Japanese occupation in the late 1930s. Nanking, she writes, served as a kind of laboratory in which Japanese soldiers were taught to slaughter unarmed, unresisting civilians, as they would later do throughout Asia. Likening their victims to insects and animals, the Japanese commanders orchestrated a campaign in which several hundred thousand--no one is sure just how many--Chinese soldiers and noncombatants alike were killed. Chang turns up an unlikely hero in German businessman John Rabe, a devoted member of the Nazi party who importuned Adolf Hitler to intervene and stop the slaughter, and who personally saved the lives of countless residents of Nanking. She also suggests that the Japanese government pay reparations and apologize for its army's horrific acts of 60 years ago.
- Amazon, Inc.

Find more on :Iris Chang [張純如] – Author | Historian | Human Rights Activist

She has been Threatened by Japanese right wing for many times .

Here is details : http://arts.tom.com/1029/2005114-19305.html

From the reviews I have read, there are many factual mistakes in her book. So read carefully.

i haven't read the book, and i doubt i would read it, i don't like reading such kind of books because i might feel heavy hearted

however, i've read some reviews in that amazon.com, i would like to reply to a couple of those reviews:
by Katie "sporkgoddess" (Appleton, Wisconsin United States)
"Japan has apologized numerous times for its WWII atrocities. It paid reparations eventually; not in terms of money but in helping China build things."

Japan has apologized, but no apologies were directed to China, and they keep denying history and change history textbooks while they apologize.
about the money, those are loans, not free money, China will stop borrowing money from Japan next year, you kill someone and lent money to the victim's family? i don't think i will need to say thank you.

"Though I do think that people just need to give Japan a break; we've forgiven Germany, haven't we?"

Germany is forgiven because they show that they regret of their country's war crimes, Japan however keeps denying history and shows no sign of regrets, they do not deserve to be forgiven.

Iris Chang's work is in fact of the greatest importance for modern east Asian history, esp. at this time when historical revisionism is running high in Japan, when US mainstream historians have been bending their standards of scholarship towards deemphasising Japan's war crimes for the sake of slighting US involvement in neglect of justice, forcing the allies out of the justice process. This unfortunate trend was set by the maxim of the Tokyo Trials of the farcical International Military Tribunal of the Far East espressed by, "He who holds the key to life and death shall rule with the ultimate power from on high."

Growing up in the US, Iris was bewildered by the mysterious silence on the Pacific War atrocities. She was torn between the family traditions she heard as a child and the dead silence she found in the high school and college libraries. Recently Huang He Yi's 黃窶凖淪?ｭ The Great Tokyo Trials 窶愬停?ｹﾅｾ窶佚･ﾂ審窶敖ｻ (simplified hanzi: 窶ｰﾂｩ鹤ﾋ?ｭ 东窶ｹﾅｾ窶佚･审窶敖ｻ), 2nd edition, 1998, exposed the sub-standard behaviour of Gen. MacArthur during those dark hours of manipulating justice for US hegemony. The full text of the book in
simplified characters: 东窶ｹﾅｾ窶佚･审窶敖ｻ
traditional characters: 窶愬停?ｹﾅｾ窶佚･ﾂ審窶敖ｻ
cover of 东窶ｹﾅｾ窶佚･审窶敖ｻ

[edit: I have an abridged Korean translation of Mr. Huang's book. Does anyone know if there is any other, full translation in any language, perhaps English ?
Also there was an announcement they were planning a 35-piece TV documentary series on the Tokyo Trials based on Mr. Huang's work. Any update on that ?]

Criticisms on historical details are most welcome. It is only with the greatest regret that we cannot see Iris Chang's revised edition by her own hands; also the work to supplement her three major books Thread of the Silkworm (1995), The Rape of Nanking (1997), and Chinese in America (2003) was never realised for she had died a premature death on November 9, 2004. She had been preparing her fourth book about U.S. soldiers who fought the Japanese in the Philippines during World War II and the Bataan Death March. Wikipedia summarises her life in one page. Iris Chang