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Summary Of Iris Chang's The Rape Of Nanking

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Summary Of Iris Chang's The Rape Of Nanking
In The Rape of Nanking, Iris Chang clearing outlines the perceptions of both the Japanese and the victims of the Nanking Massacre, also known as a Holocaust of the Second World War. It is important to understand the different stories that every country can tell about the events that unfolded during World War II, one of the controversial ones being the Nanking Massacre. Chang’s main purpose of writing this book is to provide a reminder of the cruel acts that extended to the Chinese prisoners of war by the Nipponese army, where torture, rape, stabbing, drowning, shooting and sometimes torching were some of the acts they were forced to endure. The book is structured into three main parts. The first is a narration the events of the Nanking Massacre, …show more content…
First, during world war II, the Japanese had a very strong will to become the biggest race of the pacific, but china was a major threat to their success during this time. During the 1930s, the capital of China was Nanking and which made it a good move on the Japanese side, to attack the capital so that they could weaken the Chinese government. According to Chang, in December 1937 there was an invasion that extended to almost eight weeks. The Nipponese army of japan brutally tortured and murdered the Nanking people who then could be considered prisoners of war since their city had been invaded by the Japanese people. Chang gives several accounts of how horrible these acts were when the Japanese army shot the Chinese by setting them on fire after pouring gasoline on them and then making them run. This was like a game to the Japanese army. Chang listed and described the kinds of torture that were visited upon the residents, including being buried alive, mutilation, "death by fire", "death by ice", and "death by dogs". Based on the testimony of a survivor of the massacre, Chang also described a killing contest amongst a group of Japanese soldiers to determine who could kill the fastest. On the rape that occurred during the massacre, Chang wrote that "certainly it was one of the greatest mass rapes in world history." She estimated that the number

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