Reviewed by
Terence Kam
Edited by
Ann Ring
Iris Chang's purpose of writing The Rape of Nanking- The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II is to redress the injustice of having one of the worst war atrocities ever committed recently to be forgotten by people outside China. Most people know about the infamous Holocaust in Europe during the Second World War. But not many people outside China know about the barbaric atrocities committed by the Imperial Japanese Army in genocidal proportion on a single defenseless Chinese city of Nanking. These atrocities are known as the Rape of Nanking. Despite the sheer intensity, scale, brutality and horror of the atrocities, the Rape of Nanking still remains an obscure incident (at least before this book was published). Furthermore, just as bad as the atrocities themselves were the attempts by some elements within the Japanese society to whitewash the Rape of Nanking from public consciousness.
This book is structured into three parts. The first part is the story of the savage butcheries as depicted from three perspectives and its immediate aftermath. The first perspective is from the point of view of the Japanese- the perpetrator. The next perspective is from the point of view of the Chinese- the victim. The last perspective is from the American and Europeans members of the International Committee and the outside world- the outsider. The second part of this book covers the aftermath of the massacre. The final part looks at the cover-up and whitewash of the actual Rape of Nanking.
Part 1- Atrocities of the Rape of Nanking
Japanese Perspective of the Rape of Nanking
How did such naked brutality of the Imperial Japanese soldiers get to replace civilized humanity in the first place?For this question, Iris Chang began with a short history of modern Japan. The seed of such atrocities began from the corruption of the ancient Samurai culture that permeated from a small handful of the male population to a “model of behaviour” for every young men of that country. Till the mid-nineteenth century, Japan was culturally isolated until she was humiliated and forced to open up her doors to foreigners in July 1853 by the Americans. This sets the scene for the culturally proud (or perhaps xenophobic) Japanese to overthrow their ruling Shogun and restore authority (in name only) to the Emperor in order to intensely “transform Japan from a patchwork of warring fiefdoms into a modern, powerful Japan.” The tool for such end is the adoption of the Samurai ethic (called Bushido) for the entire nation.
With rapid modernization, the Japanese achieved, up till then, unprecedented power and prosperity. Unfortunately, such prestige was short-lived for Japan. Discrimination from the Western nations and worldwide economic depression led to despair. From the 1920s, the ground was fertile for the militarists to usurp control (an interesting parallel happened in Germany at around the same time, allowing Hitler to take power).
By the 1930s, the increasingly autonomous Japanese army began aggressive actions (covert and overt) on emerging China under the nationalist party (Kuomingtang) headed by Chiang Kai Shek. With the militarists more firmly in control, martial culture soon began to seep more into every aspects of every young Japanese male, right from the day they enter school. Harsh discipline, constrictions of individuality, pressure to conform and ideological insistence that blind obedience is the ultimate virtue were the methods used in the Imperial Japanese educational system and military. Such martial molding, conditioning and indoctrination, along with xenophobic and racist brainwashing planted the right seed for the infamous brutality of the Imperial Japanese Army.
In July 1937, Japan, under the control of the militarists, provoked a full-scale war with China. By November, Shanghai fell. Pillaging and razing along their warpath from Shanghai, Nanking fell too on December 1937 when the defending Chinese army surrendered.
That was the beginning of the Rape of Nanking.
First, the Japanese proceeded to massacre the vast number of prisoners-of-war. Then, with the Chinese soldiers out of the way, the Japanese turned on the civilians with inhumanly brutal rapes and murders as they occupied Nanking. Even the brief arrival of General Matsui Iwane, a frail and compassionate man, was unable to put a stop to the carnage as he was sidelined.
At this point, Iris Chang brought back the question of the state of mind of an average Japanese soldier in Nanking. “What was inside the mind of the teenage soldier handed a rifle and bayonet that propelled him to commit such atrocities?”
That was an extremely difficult question.
Some scholars came up with the theory that it was the Japanese culture and religion that made such atrocities possible. Iris Chang rejects such theory because, firstly, that implies that the Japanese, by virtue of their religion and culture, are different from the West and thus must be judged with a different standard. In addition, such theory also implies that the Judeo-Christian cultures of the West are inherently superior, such that atrocities of those forms are harder to be perpetrated. Upon looking at history, certainly no race, cultures or religions have a monopoly on atrocities. The average Japanese soldiers and officers were able to commit such atrocities because their conscience were gradually and deliberately seared through desensitization and conditioning during military training, games and exercises. Also, given the “arbitrary and cruel treatment that the Japanese military inflicted on its own officers and soldiers,” violent sadism became the only outlet for suffocating repression. In addition, many in the Japanese military had socially engineered contempt for the Chinese that allowed them to see the Chinese as less than human beings. Lastly, by “imbuing violence with holy meaning,” the average Imperial Japanese soldier could only believe that they have the Divine on their side (compare this attitude with today’s Islamist terrorists).
Chinese Perspective of the Rape of Nanking
When the battle for Shanghai was underway, Nanking endured months of Japanese air raid. By November 1937, Shanghai fell and the Japanese were heading for Nanking. Generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek decided to move the capital of China from Nanking and dispatched General Tang Sheng-Chih to stay and defend Nanking. Initially, after the Chinese rejection of the Japanese ultimatum, the Japanese army encountered stiff resistance. But while the Chinese forces were slowly crumbling in the midst of fierce battles, Chiang ordered Tang to retreat and abandon his troops. Since fierce fighting was still going on, that retreat quickly descended into a chaotic and humiliating rout.General Tang, despite his best effort and having ninety thousand soldiers and five months worth of ammunition at his disposal, Nanking fell in just four days.
What was the reason?
Their entire air force at Nanking was withdrawn and consequently, without strategic aerial intelligence on the Japanese forces, the Chinese were at a significant disadvantage from the Japanese forces. Compounding this problem, the Chinese forces lacked communication equipment to coordinate their defenses and suffered language barriers because of the different regional dialects spoken by their soldiers. Also, most of the soldiers were either untrained or too exhausted from the previous battles to fight. Lastly, the Chinese army had no cohesiveness and there was distrust among the commanding officers, thus allowing the Japanese army to defeat each Chinese army one by one.
After the fall of Nanking, the six weeks of horror, which is known as the Rape of Nanking, began….
From war crimes transcript, eyewitness accounts and Chinese government documents, stories after stories of unimaginable horror will fill the reader with repulsion- killing competitions, tortures (e.g. live burials, mutilations, death by fire, ice and dogs, etc), rapes cum murders cum tortures of women, mass slaughter of families, forced incest of families, etc. “There seemed to be no limit to the Japanese capacity for human degradation and sexual perversion in Nanking.” Despite the horrifying magnitude and dimension of these atrocities, there were occasional bright spots- stories of heroic resistance by the helpless Chinese civilians.
How many Chinese died in the Rape of Nanking? We will never know for sure, but historians give the figure from 200,000 to 300,000 (some even as high as 400,000).
International Committee’s Perspective of the Rape of Nanking
During the Rape of Nanking, there were a few heroic American and European members of the International Committee who defied the Japanese to set up the Nanking Safety Zone to save the lives of countless Chinese from the massacre. The Safety Zone was initially set up for non-combatants caught in the crossfire between the Japanese and Chinese militaries. Then, as time progressed till the culmination of the Rape of Nanking, the Safety Zone housed more and more refugees, till at one point, it peaked at around 300,000. “In retrospect, it seems almost miraculous that some two dozen foreigners managed to do everything they did while fifty thousand Japanese soldiers ripped apart the city.” These foreigners not only had to find ways to shelter and feed thousands of Chinese refugees, but also had to, at times, physically protect them from the Japanese soldiers. Thanks to these heroic people, they left many written records of the atrocities for posterity and “broadcasted Japanese outrages to the world.”Iris Chang concentrated on three of these foreigners:
- John Rabe, a German businessman and surprisingly, a Nazi party member, was elected head of the Safety Zone. Despite persuasions and warnings to leave Nanking for his own personal safety, he chose to stay. Administering the Safety Zone and looking after thousands of helpless refugees was a very difficult task. With just his status of an official of an allied country (to the Japanese), he roamed around Nanking himself to stop as many atrocities as possible as they were committed. John Rabe was feared by the Japanese war criminals, revered by the Chinese and even respected by other members of the International Committee “fundamentally opposed to Nazism.”
- Robert Wilson was born into a Methodist missionary family who had shaped many of Nanking’s educational institution. By December 7, he was the only surgeon in the entire war-torn city, serving an overwhelming number of war victims. As Nanking fell to the Japanese, the senseless rapes and murders that he personally witnessed horrified him. As one of the few medical personnel in the city during the massacre, “Wilson and other volunteers stayed in the hospital [University of Nanking Hospital] until they wavered on the verge of collapse.”
- Wilhelmina Vautrin, known as the “living goddess of Nanking” was the head of the Education Department and dean of studies at Ginling Women’s Arts and Science College. She was remembered “not only for her courage in protecting thousands of women from Japanese soldiers, but also for the diary she kept, a diary that some historians believe will eventually be recognized.”
Part 2- Aftermath of the Rape of Nanking
The world was not kept in the dark about the atrocities in Nanking. There were American journalists who, although left Nanking soon after the fall of the city, personally witnessed the carnage. There were also American newsreel men who filmed the illegal bombing of the American gunboat, the Panay. Although the Japanese military tried to control the movement of the international media and diplomats into and out of Nanking, they were largely unsuccessful in hiding their acts of scandalous savagery. Foreign intelligence, especially the American and German intelligence soon learned of the real reason for such control. It was ridiculous that the Japanese even attempted to hide such colossal bloodbath with propaganda. Most thankfully, the International Committee administering the Nanking Safety Zone documented and even filmed in detail the savage butchery in Nanking and broadcasted the truth to the world.The worst of the atrocities were concentrated during the first six to eight weeks of after the fall of the city. In addition to the senseless slaughter of human lives and rapes of women, the Japanese army committed widespread destruction, arson and plunder. As the massacre subsided, Nanking gradually began to function as a normal city again, albeit under brutal Japanese occupation.
After Japan surrendered in 1945, war crimes trials were held in Nanking. The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE) was held in Tokyo. Despite these trials and tribunals, most of the Japanese war criminals were never held accountable for their evil deeds. There were also no full moral accounting of Emperor Hirohito.
Iris Chang interviewed many of the remaining survivors of the Rape of Nanking. What she found were shocking and depressing. Many of the survivors lived in abject poverty. Some sustained permanent injuries that robbed them of their livelihood. Many of those survivors clung on to dear hope of vindication by their government pushing for Japanese reparations and official apology. Sadly, their hopes were dashed when their government pronounced ‘forgiveness’ on the Japanese. Just as tragic, many of the sacrifices by the few foreigners in the Nanking Safety Zone were woefully unappreciated. Many of them paid the price with their physical and mental well-being. John Rabe was even persecuted for speaking out the truth. Fortunately, his diaries during the Rape of Nanking eventually received historical prominence.
Part 3- Whitewash After the Rape of Nanking
Sixty years after the Rape of Nanking, it was consigned into oblivion outside China. Within Japan, there are continual denials of their wartime guilt. In the Japanese educational system, there is “deliberate obstruction of important historical information about World War II through textbook censorship.” The Japanese academic community mainly avoided the Rape of Nanking. Within the media, there is self-imposed censorship. Individual Japanese who have the courage of writing about the butchery faced unrelenting attacks. Former Japanese soldiers who confessed and apologized their wartime guilt faced intimidation and harassment from ultra-nationalist extremists.Conclusion- The Rape of Nanking
Ultimately, the Rape of Nanking was just a small fraction of Japanese savage brutality throughout the Sino-Japanese War (1931-1945) and the wider Second World War. For example, in many parts of northern China (where the Chinese Communist guerrillas had fought an effective insurgency war), the Imperial Japanese government endorsed policies that would “wipe out everyone,” namely the ‘Three-all’ policy (“Loot all, kill all, burn all”).From the lessons learned from the Rape of Nanking, Iris Chang concluded that “Japan’s behaviour during World War II was less a product of dangerous people than of a dangerous government, in a vulnerable culture, in dangerous times, able to sell dangerous rationalizations to those whose human instincts told them otherwise.” Civilization is only a thin veneer for which the darker impulse of human evil can easily emerge. Throughout history, the sheer concentration of power in government is lethal. Iris Chang made the observation that “atrocities such as the Rape of Nanking can be seen as a predictable if not inevitable outgrowth of ceding to an authoritarian regime, dominated by a military and imperial elite, the unchallenged power to commit an entire people to realizing the sick goals of the few with the unbridled power to set them.” Even more frightening is the fact that we humans can easily turn into passive spectators of evil- the “Rape of Nanking was front-page news across the world, and yet most of the world stood by and did nothing while an entire city was butchered.” The recent atrocities of Bosnia and Rwanda are testament to this chilling fact. Even as tragic, the world are still watching with folded arms as the “second Japanese rape” occurred- “the refusal of the Japanese to apologize for or even acknowledge their crimes at Nanking, and the attempts by Japanese extremists to erase the event from world history.”
Japan has the moral obligations to own up to this dark chapter of their wartime history.
In November 2004, Iris Chang was found dead at the age of 36. It is believed that depression led to her suicide.
