The Rape Of Nanking

The New York Times bestselling account of one of history's most brutal-and forgotten-massacres, when the Japanese army destroyed China's capital city on the eve of World War II. A powerful, landmark book, riveting in its horror. -Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of The Making of the Atomic BombIn December 1937, the Japanese army swept into the ancient city of Nanking. Within weeks, more than 300,000 Chinese civilians and soldiers were systematically raped, tortured, and murdered-a death toll exceeding that of the atomic blasts of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.Historian Iris Chang tells the story from three perspectives: that of the Japanese soldiers, that of the Chinese, and that of a group of Westerners who refused to abandon the city and created a safety zone that saved almost 300,000 Chinese.More than just narrating the details of an orgy of violence, in The Rape of Nanking Chang analyzes the militaristic culture that fostered in the Japanese soldiers a total...