The Rape of Nanking

Iris Chang THE RAPE OF NANKING The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II

To the hundreds of thousands of victims in the Rape of Nanking

Acclaim for the international bestseller, THE RAPE OF NANKING

“A powerful new work of history and moral inquiry. Chang takes great care to establish an accurate accounting of the dimensions of the violence.”

—Chicago Tribune

“Meticulously researched… A gripping account that holds the reader’s attention from beginning to end.”

—Nien Cheng, author of Life and Death in Shanghai

“Iris Chang’s research on the Nanking holocaust yields a new and expanded telling of this World War II atrocity and reflects thorough research. The book is excellent; its story deserves to be heard.”

—Beatrice S. Bartlett, professor of history, Yale University

“Heartbreaking… An utterly compelling book. The descriptions of the atrocities raise fundamental questions not only about imperial Japanese militarism but the psychology of the torturers, rapists, and murderers.”

—Frederic Wakeman, director of the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley

“Something beautiful, an act of justice, is occurring in America today concerning something ugly that happened long ago…. Because of Chang’s book, the second rape of Nanking is ending.”

—George F. Will, syndicated columnist

“In her important new book… Iris Chang, whose own grandparents were survivors, recounts the grisly massacre with understandable outrage.”

—Orville Schell, The New York Times Book Review

“Anyone interested in the relation between war, self-righteousness, and the human spirit will find The Rape of Nanking of fundamental importance. It is scholarly, an exciting investigation, and a work of passion. In places it is almost unbearable to read, but it should be read—only if the past is understood can the future be navigated.”

—Ross Terrill, author of Mao, China in Our Time, and Madame Mao

“One of the most important books of the twentieth century, Iris Chang’s The Rape of Nanking will endure as a classic among the world’s histories of war.”

—Nancy Tong, producer and co-director of In the Name of the Emperor

“A very readable, well-organized account… Chang has rescued this episode from its undeserved obscurity.”

—Russell Jenkins, National Review

“When this turbulent century draws to an end, Chang’s book will shine light on the passage to a more peaceful era by invoking public consciousness on one of the darkest pages of World War II history.”

—Shi Young, coauthor of The Rape of Nanking: An Undeniable History in Photographs

“The story that Chang tells is almost too appalling for words… a carefully documented cry of moral outrage.”

—Houston Chronicle

“A compelling piece of history that speaks volumes about humankind’s inhumanity in the atrocities that have been documented and offers some vestiges of hope in the individual acts of heroism that also have been uncovered.”

—San Jose Mercury News

“Chang reminds us that however blinding the atrocities in Nanking may be, they are not forgettable—at least without peril to civilization itself.”

—The Detroit News

“A story that Chang recovers with raw urgency… an important step towards recognition of this tragedy.”

—San Francisco Bay Guardian

FOREWORD

ON DECEMBER 13, 1937, Nanking, the capital city of Nationalist China, fell to the