The New York Times bestselling account of one of history' s most brutal—and
forgotten—massacres when the Japanese army destroyed China' s capital city on the eve of
World War II “piecing together the abundant eyewitness reports into an undeniable tapestry of
horror” (Adam Hochschild Salon ) In December 1937 the Japanese army swept into the
ancient city of Nanking. Within weeks more than 300 000 Chinese civilians and soldiers were
systematically raped tortured and murdered—a death toll exceeding that of the atomic blasts
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. Historian Iris Chang tells the story from three
perspectives: that of the Japanese soldiers that of the Chinese and that of a group of
Westerners who refused to abandon the city and created a safety zone that saved almost 300 000
Chinese. More than just narrating the details of an orgy of violence in The Rape of
Nanking Chang analyzes the militaristic culture that fostered in the Japanese soldiers a total
disregard for human life. It also tells of the concerted effort during the Cold War on the part
of the West and even China to stifle open discussion of this atrocity. Drawing on extensive
interviews with survivors and documents brought to light for the first time Iris Chang’s
classic is the definitive history of this horrifying episode.
