The Rape of Nanking

In December 1937, in the capital of China, one of the most brutal massacres in the long annals of wartime barbarity occurred. The Japanese army swept into the ancient city of Nanking and within weeks not only looted and burned the defenseless city but systematically raped, tortured and murdered more than 300,000 Chinese civilians. Amazingly, the story of this atrocity- one of the worst in world history- continues to be denied by the Japanese government.

The Rape of Nanking tells the story from three perspectives: that of the Japanese soldiers who performed it; of the Chinese civilians who endured it; and finally of a group of Europeans and Americans who refused to abandon the city and were able to create a safety zone that saved almost 300,000 Chinese. It was Iris Chang who discovered the diaries of the German leader of this rescue effort, John Rabe, whom she calls the "Oskar Schindler of China." A loyal supporter of Adolf Hitler, but far from the terror planned in his Nazi-controlled homeland, he worked tirelessly to save the innocent from slaughter.

Listen to Iris Chang talk about this book on C-SPAN's Booknotes (11/17/97).

• Unit 731: The Forgotten Asian Auschwitz
• The Painted Bird
• The Road to Wigan Pier
• Modern Man in Search of a Soul
• Beyond Good and Evil
• Maps of Meaning
• In the First Circle
• Devils
• The Woman Who Could Not Forget: Iris Chang Before and Beyond The Rape of Nanking
• Crime and Punishment