Abstract:

It was an atrocity so shocking that even the Nazis were astounded by it. On December 13, 1937, Japanese troops overran the Chinese lines and occupied the city of Nanking. It was the beginning of one of the most horrifying episodes in the 20th century. The Rape of Nanking documents the death and destruction that followed the Japanese occupation. In the next two months, over 350,000 Chinese soldiers and civilians were killed, not with the cold efficiency of the German death camps, but with gleeful and inventive cruelty. So sickening was the spectacle that one Nazi representative in the city, a Schindler-like businessman named John Rabe, was moved to save a quarter million Chinese. The Rape of Nanking draws extensively on Rabe's 1,200-page diary for a unique perspective on this tragedy. Interviews with descendants of the victims and eyewitnesses to the crimes along with gruesome photos--many never seen before--help separate fact from fiction, while scholars and historians reflect on the legacy of this shattering event.