The Rape Of Nanking Essay

During November 1937, Japanese Imperial Army too Nanjing, the capital of China at the time and home to more than one million Chinese citizen. The Japanese began a spree of murder, rape and looting, destroying and burning everything. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Chinese citizen were dead, with hundreds of thousands more starving, traumatized and homeless. This historical event The Rape of Nanjing is the focus of this book. The book “The Good Man of Nanking” by John Rabe also known as “The Good Man of Nanking: The Diaries of John Rabe”. Just like the tittle stated “The Diaries of John Rabe”, this book is a collection of personal journals John Rade kept during the Nanjing Massacre. As a German businessman who lived in Nanjing during the time of the Nanjing Massacre in 1937-1938 the writings are from his personal experience and observation of the events that took place. Rabe was a businessman who saved the life of 250,000 Chinese residents of Nanking. As the Japanese army closed in on the city, all foreigners were ordered to evacuate, but Rabe didn’t he gathered up the remaining Westerners and organized an “International Safety Zone”. The Journals covers a six-month period form September, 1937 when the Japanese began bombing the city through February, 1938 when Rabe was
recalled to Shanghai. During this period Rade witness the occupation of the Chinese capital by the Japanese forces, the account is graphic and horrific. February 1938 Rabe was recalled to Shanghai by his employer then back to Germany. In Germany he wrote to Adolf Hitler describing the atrocities he witnessed, soon after he was arrested by the Soviets then by the British Army. However, both let him after intense interrogation. Rabe’s last journal entry was June 6th 1946 he never began another. His family lived in poverty, until 1948 the citizen of Nanjing learned the very situation in occupied Germany and quickly raised money and large amount of food for the Reba family. On June 5th 1949 John Rade died of a stroke while working, but his dairies still lives on. The author John Reda born in Hamburg, Germany like many Westerners were living in the Chinese capital city of the time as Nanjing until December 1937 conducting trade or on missionary trips. As the Japanese army approached Nanjing and raided the bity by bombing most foreigners fled the city. Instead of fleeing the city Reba emerges as an authentic hero. He and alone with other foreign nationals organized the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone and created a safety zone to provided Chinese refugees with food and shelter from Japanese slaughter. Reba saved many thousands of Chinese from starvation, rape and robbery. He attempts to appeal to the Japanese by using his Nazi Party membership credentials, this only delayed the Japanese; but this delay allowed hundreds of thousands of refugees to escape. Many might have died without his efforts. During the six-months of Rabe’s journal the events were graphic and horrific, yet it is told in this matter-of-fact manner. Certainly, Rabe’s efforts to establish a safety zone for the poorest and sadness of Nanking’s citizens, his attempts to offer some sort if protection is what anyone would have done if they could. It is simply the right thing to do and the natural thing to do. In these efforts he was largely successful, saving tens of thousands of people that would otherwise been slaughter. The Nanking Massacre is a historical event took place from December 13 1937 to January 1938.
During Second Sino-Japanese War, mass murder and mass rape by Japanese troops against the residents of Nanjing. Over a period of six weeks over 300,000 innocent citizens were killed. The diaries of John Reba on one hand showed the life’s he saved but on the other it also showed the awful and brutal reality that was happening. “It is not until we tour the city that we learn the extent of the destruction. We come across corpses every 100 and 200 yards. The bodies of civilians that I examined had bullet holes in their back. These people had presumably been fleeing and were shot from behind.”
(Pg.67) The second part of the book talking about Rabe’s life after he returned to Germany, and the experience in immediate post-war Berlin. After Reba left Nanking he traveled to Shanghai, then back to Germany. Rabe brought number of source materials documenting the atrocities committed by the Japanese in Nanking. He wrote to Adolf Hitler, waning to use his influence to persuade the Japanese to stop further inhumane violence. As a result, his letter never was deliver to Hitler and he was arrested by the Soviets then the British that was occupying Germany at the time. He was intensely interrogated, then was released. The Belin Dairy stars on April 24 1945, until the last entry on June 7th 1946. During this period Rade when through de-nazification process, unable to work to support his family even after he formally declared “de-Nazified” they lived in poverty. Because of his success efforts in saving life in Nanking when the Chinese government learned that he was alive, they raised money and large of food for the “Living Buddha” as Rade is refer to in China. “The Good Man of Nanking” is the journal John Rade kept each night during those months of horror and difficult years. It details the heroism of one good man, who when faced with the inhuman refused to yield his ground. It shows the kind of difference that on man can make in a brutal century.