 The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II (ISBN 0-465-06835-9) is a 1997 book by the late Iris Chang which presents a history of the 1937-1938 Nanjing Massacre. This book is by no means the authoritative book on the subject; however, according to William C. Kirby, Professor of History at Harvard University, "Ms. Chang shows more clearly than any previous account just what (the Japanese) did." It is one of the first major books to introduce the Nanjing Massacre to Western and Eastern audiences alike as it has been published in several languages. This image is a book cover. ...
1997 (MCMXCVII) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Iris Chang Iris Shun-Ru Chang (Traditional Chinese: 張純如, Simplified Chinese: å¼ çº¯å¦‚; Pinyin: ZhÄng Chúnrú; March 28, 1968 – November 9, 2004) was a freelance Chinese American historian and journalist. ...
1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ...
1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ...
The Nanking Massacre (Chinese: 南京大屠殺, pinyin: Nánjīng Dàtúshā; Japanese: 南京大虐殺, Nankin Daigyakusatsu), also known as the Rape of Nanking and sometimes in Japan as the Nanking Incident (南京事件, Nankin Jiken), refers to what many historians recognize as widespread atrocities committed by the Japanese army in and around Nanking (now Nanjing...
The term Western world or the West can have multiple meanings depending on its context. ...
Inspiration
When Iris Chang was a child, she heard from her immigrant parents, who had escaped from China via Taiwan to the US during the Second World War, how the Japanese “sliced babies not just in half but in thirds and fourths”. As she wrote in the introduction to her book: “Throughout my childhood Nanjing Datusha (Nanking Massacre) remained buried in the back of my mind as a metaphor for unspeakable evil.” But when she searched the local public libraries in her grade school and found nothing, she wondered if these terrible things had ever happened, since there wasn't a single book about it in the US. As she said, “I was suddenly in a panic that this terrifying disrespect for death and dying, this reversion in human social evolution, would be reduced to a footnote of history, treated like a harmless glitch in a computer program that might or might not again cause a problem, unless someone forced the world to remember it.” Combatants Allied Powers Axis Powers Commanders {{{commander1}}} {{{commander2}}} Strength {{{strength1}}} {{{strength2}}} Casualties 17 million military deaths 7 million military deaths World War II, also known as the Second World War (sometimes WW2 or WWII), was a mid-20th century conflict that engulfed much of the globe and is accepted as...
Response The book sold more than half a million copies when it was first published, and Chang became an instant celebrity in America. Hillary Clinton invited her to the White House and US historian Stephen Ambrose described her as “maybe the best young historian we’ve got”. Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton (born October 26, 1947), was First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001, as the wife of President Bill Clinton. ...
Stephen Ambrose, at the 2001 premier of Band of Brothers Stephen Edward Ambrose (January 10, 1936 – October 13, 2002) was a popular historian and biographer of U.S. Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon. ...
This book is the main source of fame for Iris Chang, who is deeply respected in China and among overseas Chinese for raising awareness of the Nanjing Massacre in the Western world. After her suicide a memorial service was held in China by Nanking Massacre survivors at the same time as her funeral in Los Altos, California, and the victim memorial hall in Nanjing will add a wing dedicated to her in 2005. Nickname: {{{nickname}}} Motto: {{{motto}}} Official website: http://www. ...
2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Debate
 A photo the accuracy of whose caption in the book is disputed. As to be expected from a subject of high sensitivity, Chang's book has provoked widespread response from readers and critics alike. Download high resolution version (1024x670, 489 KB) This work is copyrighted. ...
Download high resolution version (1024x670, 489 KB) This work is copyrighted. ...
Some US and Japanese scholars have disputed the accuracy of the book, claiming it contains many serious factual errors. Scholar Joshua Fogel has claimed that "no serious scholar of modern Chinese or Japanese history accepts (Chang's The Rape of Nanking's ) findings." He also cited the fact that Chang's book had become a tool of Japanese right-wing fanatics who had "been using the numerous errors in Chang's book to discredit all discussion of the Nanjing Massacre." [1] Critic Timothy M. Kelly says a "lack of attention to detail" calls the book's credibility into question and presents a case that Chang plagiarised passages and an illustration from Japan's Imperial Conspiracy by David Bergamini. [2] Robert Grey has argued that that "some of the best scholarly research on the Rape of Nanking has been done in Japan by dedicated Japanese scholars", [3] in contrast to Chang's view that Japanese scholars are too afraid of the subject to deal with it. Motto: E pluribus unum (1789 to 1956) (Latin: Out of Many, One) In God We Trust (1956 to present) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington, D.C. Largest city New York City Official language(s) None at federal level; English de facto Government • President • Vice President Federal republic George...
In Japan, while much of the criticism came from right-wing nationalists, Chang was also attacked by "liberals, who insist [the massacre] happened but allege that Chang's flawed scholarship damages their cause." (Los Angeles Times, June 6 1999).
Chang responded to criticisms of the book in a 1998 letter to the San Francisco Chronicle, in which she said there was no evidence that photographs in the book had been fabricated; that the photographs were properly captioned; that the Japanese Foreign Minister at the time, Koki Hirota, had given a figure of 300,000 civilians killed; and that her critics in Japan were right-wingers who denied the existence of the massacre and, in some cases, of the Holocaust [4]. The San Francisco Chronicle, the self-described Voice of the West, is Northern Californias largest newspaper. ...
Koki Hirota Koki Hirota (広田 弘毅 Hirota KÅki, February 14, 1878–December 23, 1948) was a Japanese politician and the 32nd Prime Minister of Japan from March 9, 1936 to February 2, 1937. ...
Child survivors of the Holocaust filmed during the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp by the Red Army. ...
The Japanese translation was halted following disagreement between Chang and Kashiwa Shobo, the publisher. As a result of the controversy and evidentiary disputes surrounding the book, Kashiwa Shobo had planned to publish a critical commentary about some factual errors in the same volume.
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