Nanking Revisited A NEW BESTSELLER RECOUNTS FORGOTTEN ATROCITIES OF WWII by Stephanie Lape graphic courtesy of Basic Books The average American high school student would be hard pressed to discuss the Pacific War at length. Don't be too critical. That same student has statistically proven himself incapable of comprehending even the most basic of United States history. His inability to historically place a conflict more than 60 years old and thousands of miles away comes as no surprise. But perhaps Johnny's ineptitude has a valid excuse this time. High school students and the public at large do not know about the conflict in Asia and the Pacific because few popular books have been published on the subject. That is why Iris Chang's new book, The Rape of Nanking: Forgotten Holocaust of World War II, is creating such a stir, and why I jumped at the chance to hear her speak at the U.S. Holocaust Museum over spring break. With refreshingly accessible prose, the 29-year-old former journalist has succeeded in illuminating the atrocities of Japanese soldiers with relatively little bias. Doing so seems to have garnered her more than academic applause: it has sparked an almost cathartic response from those intimately associated with the event, for the story she paints is often grim and personal. It is December 13, 1937. The Japanese imperialist army has just conquered Nanking. What took them three months to accomplish in Shanghai took fewer than four days in the capital city. It was a symbolic victory, and the Japanese, under the command of Prince Asaka, intended to set a precedent. With Chinese forces making a hasty and haphazard retreat under direct orders from Chiang Kai-chek, the Japanese engaged in some of modern history's most horrific unconscionable acts. The invaders incinerated nearly one-third of the city and caused millions of dollars in property damage. The majority of Chang's book, however, is devoted not to the physical destruction of a city, but to the gruesome violation of its inhabitants -- acts so horrendous as to prompt one witness to write in her diary: "Oh, God, control the cruel beastliness of the soldiers in Nanking tonight ... How ashamed the women of Japan would be if they knew these tales of horror." The critical acclaim awarded Chang praises her work's detailed accuracy. Indeed, the strength of the book lies in its use of direct sources. At the onset of the occupation an International Safety Zone was established within the city. Its creators, well-educated and influential multinationals, kept diaries, wrote dispatches, and sent letters abroad. The events were filmed on newsreel. The Japanese press corps was equally diligent in their coverage, wiring Tokyo daily and taking unknown numbers of photographs. All told, the events of the Rape of Nanking were reported in four different languages -- Chinese, English, German, Japanese -- and Chang has pieced them together. What they tell is a story of how men, soldiers and civilians, were rounded up, taken to the outskirts of the city, forced to dig their own graves, and executed by the thousands. Others were buried alive or mauled to death by attack dogs. Some were doused with gasoline and set on fire. Bodily mutilation, including genital mutilation, was not uncommon and there were even confirmed cases of cannibalism. Nor were the men of Nanking the only victims of the Japanese. Women were raped, brutally mutilated, and killed in staggering numbers. From the ages of eight to 80, no one was spared. Condoned and even encouraged by their officers, Japanese soldiers, in broad daylight and under the scrutiny of the world press, assaulted pregnant women and ripped fetuses from the womb. Entire regiments violated teenage girls. Fathers and husbands were forced to watch the mutilation of daughters and wives and in extreme cases, even coerced into performing acts of incest. Most incredibly, these events occurred within a six to eight week period. Rape figures vary from 20,000 to 80,000. Scholarly estimates place the death toll between 280,000 and 300,000 people. More people were killed in Nanking in less than two months than the combined civilian death count of major French, British, and Belgium cities during the entire second world war. While the bulk of The Rape of Nanking retells stories of horrors from the past, there are attempts to explore the conditions under which such events could happen. Speculation abounds as to the causes of Japanese audacity: an intensely militaristic society had blossomed during the economically challenging period of the 1930s; military strategy became paramount to domestic policy and the emperor-figurehead was worshipped as a god. The barbaric actions of average Japanese men, Chang contends, were the extensions of an incomprehensible system of hierarchy -- one in which superiors, in this case Japanese officers, were infinitely more legitimate and powerful than their troops. As one soldier recounts, it was easy to take another's life when one didn't value his own. Chang insists that brutality and barbarism are not relegated to any one people at any one time in history. While she does not easily forgive the Japanese, the brunt of her condemnation falls on the collective amnesia of the world a selective forgetfulness Chang describes as Nanking's second rape. Her message is one of atonement and hope in remembrance. If the atmosphere at the Holocaust Museum lecture -- a lecture, which, incidentally, had been solidly booked more than two weeks in advance -- is any indication, then Chang has achieved far more then best-seller status. She has roused the latent consciousness of the average citizen.

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