Rape Of Nanking: Unspeakable Tragedy In History

More than any other unspeakable tragedy that has occurred in modern recorded history, the Holocaust of World War II is by far the most well-known. The slaughtering of over six million Jews by the Nazis has been retold and reimagined for decades as the end-all, be-all of suffering and terror brought down by humans on other humans. But thanks to Iris Chang, another unspeakable act of human indecency which was much less well known, but just as valuable a lesson in mankind’s history to know how inhumane and unfathomable humans can be to one another. This terrible tragedy that deserves to have the light of history shed on to it is The Rape of Nanking. Iris Chang authors this chilling account of how the Japanese forces in the 1930’s overran
and captured the Chinese city of Nanking, and the horrors perpetrated by the Japanese soldiers onto the Chinese people. Chang does not cease to elaborate greatly on the horrible atrocities committed by the Japanese, these in depth accounts are by far the book’s most shocking and disturbing moments. The absolute lack of compassion and sympathy shown by the Japanese toward their Chinese victims is comparable to any available story about how the Nazis treated the Jews in the WWII concentration camps. Chang’s horrors she accounts for includes stunning cases of murder, torture, beatings, rapes and defamation of bodies. The amount of detail Chang goes into to describe the horrors of Nanking are brutal and will take an emotional toll on the reader, as many of the vile acts performed by the Japanese require the reader to travel to the darkest, most uncomfortable regions of their minds to visualize the disgusting horrors Chang spells out on the pages of her book. Through such terrible life loss and tragedy, the Japanese taking of Nanking allowed certain individuals to step up and act with valor. Most notable is German businessman John Rabe, who ironically was a high ranking member in the Nazi Party. Rabe was responsible for creating the Nanking Safety Zone, which was a demilitarized zone set up in the center of the city which, after Rabe pressured the Japanese by personally appealing to Hitler, the Japanese left alone. Huge populations of persecuted Chinese fled to the Safety Zone, which was only 2 ½ miles in size, and the population swelled to over 250,000. Rabe felt personally pulled toward the Chinese people, he desperately wanted to help as many as he could. Chang tells of the bravery put forward by Rabe as he travelled through war ravaged Nanking to stop rapes, stop looting, and rescue the persecuted Chinese. Chang points out how Rabe’s Nazi loyalties stemmed more from political socialism than anti-Semitism, which cements his stature as a sympathetic protagonistic character, and someone the reader can rally behind as a character to root for. Other figures who had a positive impact on the denizens of Nanking while the Japanese were raping and pillaging were medical doctor Robert Wilson and teacher Wilhelmina Vautrin.
Wilson was one of the few doctors to stay and work full time inside the safety zone after the rape began, and he showed his dedication to the Chinese people by not leaving and treating the victims by the thousands. Wilson wrote in journals to his wife of the terrible treatment he saw from the Japanese yet was not scared off by the Japanese troops, as he viewed staying to help the Chinese as his duty. Vautrin took it upon herself to single-handedly be a voice and collective protector for the women of Nanking. When most of the faculty of the school she worked at fled, Vautrin stayed and worked tirelessly to keep the rabid Japanese soldiers at bay. Many soldiers attempted to sneak into the safety zone and capture women for rape and prostitution but with Vautrin’s protection many of them were spared. In addition to Rabe, both Wilson and Vautrin kept diaries which chronicled their time and experiences during the rape of Nanking, the accounts of which Chang used to base much of her book’s content on. The inclusion of the accounts of these three courageous individuals gives The Rape of Nanking a shining message of positivity in a book which chronicles one of the darkest periods in modern human
history. One aspect of the novel that Chang touches upon well is the history of the Japanese culture, to attempt to explain how the Japanese soldiers could possibly bring themselves to commit the despicable, dehumanizing acts against the Chinese.
Chang does a fantastic job in giving early explanations of historical evidence that could point to the answer to this question. Chang discusses the prominence of the Samurai and its place in ancient Japanese culture, how for generations Japanese warriors were taught to give their own lives before bringing dishonor onto their family names. Chang compares this to the occurrences of numerous kamikaze pilot suicides recorded during WWII, of how that 'death before dishonor' mentality still survived to that generation of Japanese fighters. Chang also points out that throughout the years Japanese education had systematically taught to children intense, aggressive nationalism and a built in hatred for the Chinese. While Chang gives a great observation of why the Japanese had this thought process ingrained in their system, she also accurately places the blame solely at the feet of the Japanese government (at that time under Emperor Hirohito) who knew of the terrible massacres being perpetrated in China but ignored and did nothing about
it. Chang’s main purpose in writing and releasing The Rape of Nanking was not only to bring to light to one of the less well-known war atrocities of the modern historical era, but also to bring attention to the courageous and heroic efforts of the few people who stayed in the city during its tumultuous time and risked their lives and livelihoods to help complete strangers. In addition, Chang helps answer the main question that many readers will think when they read of the horrors committed by the Japanese army: “How could someone do this to another human being?” by giving history of Japan and how they raise their soldiers. When looked back on in history, The Rape of Nanking can be credited for pulling one of the worst examples of human degradation of their fellow man out of the obscurity of history and presenting it to a worldwide audience.