The Making of "The Rape of Nanking"

Abstract

Abstract On December 13, 1937, the Japanese army attacked and captured the Chinese capital city of Nanjing, planting the rising-sun flag atop the city's outer walls. What occurred in the ensuing weeks and months has been the source of a tempestuous debate ever since. The book examines how views of the Nanjing Massacre have evolved in history writing and public memory in Japan, China, and the United States. For these nations, the question of how to treat the legacy of Nanjing — whether to deplore it, sanitize it, or even ignore it — has aroused passions revolving around ethics, nationality, and historical identity. The study traces the evolving, and often conflicting, understandings of the Nanjing Massacre, revealing how changing social and political environments have influenced the debate. This study suggests that, from the 1970s on, the dispute over Nanjing has become more lively, more globalized, and immeasurably more intense, due in part to Japanese revisionist history and a renewed emphasis on patriotic education in China. While today it is easy to assume that the Nanjing Massacre has always been viewed as an emblem of Japan's wartime aggression in China, the image of the “Rape of Nanking” is a much more recent icon in public consciousness. The book analyzes the process by which the Nanjing Massacre has become an international symbol and provides a fair and respectful treatment of the politically charged and controversial debate over its history.