The Rape of Nanking

The Rape of Nanking is a brilliant true story of how the Japanese took over Nanking with no mercy towards the Chinese civilians as they heartlessly killed, tortured, and rape their way in. How strong propaganda played its role in covering this forgotten Holocaust of World War II. It's truly amazing the way things were during those days. Leaders fought for power hence resort to war, thus many lives were taken unnecessary in a brutal way. I'm really thankful that I wasn't born during those times. Craziness.


Here are some interesting quotes from the book...

"Chinese men were used for bayonet practice and in decapitation contests"

"An estimated 20,000 to 80,000 women were raped. Many soldiers went beyond rape to disembowel women, slice off their breasts, nail them alive to walls. Fathers were forced to rape their daughters, and sons their mothers, as other family members watched. Not only did live burials, castration, the carving of organs, and the roasting of people become routine, but more diabolical tortures were practiced... So sickening was the spectacle that even the Nazis in the city were horrified."


Interesting quote from a website... (http://www.centurychina.com/wiihist/njmassac/rape.htm)

Those suffered most from the barbarity were women. They were not only raped by the Japanese, they were often brutally killed by the Japanese after the rape. "Sometimes (Japanese) cut off their breasts to reveal their white ribs; sometimes Japanese pierce through their lower body with bayonets, let them cry in pain! Sometimes they sticks wooden sticks, reed pipe or carrots into their lower body and stir, until they are dead, Japanese soldiers clap their hands and loudly laugh alongside" (Ref. The Record of the Brutal Acts of the Japanese Invaders, Political Department, KMT Military Commission, Published July 1938).


Young girls were usually not mature,..., the Japanese then tear open their lower body and gang rape them.
(Ref. "The Atrocities of Japanese Invaders", Du ChengXiang, Time Publisher, p55, 1939 edition )


Outside HongWu gate, Japanese soldiers raped a pregnant woman in a farmer home, and then cut open the abdomen of the woman and took out the fetus. In another case, Japanese soldiers wanted to rape a pregnant woman, her mother-in- law struggled to stop them, the Japanese were brutal than anything, they kicked the old lady, and cut the pregnant woman with knife, a fetus of several month flew out of the body, in a moment two lives ended like this. (Ref. XinHua Daily, Feb 24th, 1951)


Here are some pictures on the net which some can also be found in the book...

Burying alive.

Captured civilians were used as bayonet practice.

Two Japanese officers, Toshiaki Mukai and Iwa Noda, held a competition of beheading Chinese. They denied the accusation as "imagination" but were confronted with the above evidence published in Tokyo Nicinichi Shimbun. They were executed in 1947 in Nanjing.

A raped body

Female dead bodies were laid everywhere on the floors of Nanking

These three photos are not about the Massacre but taken in Xuzhou a few months later. They were put here to show that the Japanese soldiers were so proud about the killing because the photos were sent back to Japan as postcards.





This book basically wants to inform the people out there that The Rape of Nanking exists (as it was denied many time by the Japanese due to the strong propaganda at that time) and to hopefully bring Japan to their senses to not deny their past but to admit it and insert it into their history books. They are so ashamed about their own past that their Education minister tried to sugar coat it and to eliminate the past that would have a bad name for Japan. The stupidity of it all. I mean, how can they NOT admit these atrocities when there's clear photographic and recording evidence that supports it. *sighs*


At a 1994 conference on Japanese war atrocities in Cupertino, she (Iris Change) saw poster-sized photographs of Nanjing victims -- "some of the most gruesome photographs I had ever seen in my life." In a "single blinding moment,"she found herself "suddenly in a panic" that the massacre "would be reduced to a footnote of history," or, worse, that "the world might actually one day believe the Japanese politicians who have insisted that the Rape of Nanking was a hoax."


This is definitely one of my most favourite books to read. To be honest, the first reason why I picked this book up in the first place was due to the fact that it talks about the horrific torture methods during that time of the Japanese invasion. Yea, I have to admit, i'm pretty sadistic. Sorrylaaa. But seriously, everyone should pick this book up for a good read and it'll make you think about things. Depends on the individual itself on what you'd like to ponder about.

This book has intrigued me into watching the documentary, which I am patiently waiting for Siree to pass it to me. Hehe. Can't wait! There is also a movie based on the Rape of Nanking that was featured last year 2007. But i'd rather watch the documentary.

So hurry up and grab a book today! or the documentary... Whichever works.

Cheers!