Iris Chang Books

In December 1937, the Japanese army swept into the ancient city of Nanking. Within weeks, more than 300,000 Chinese civilians were systematically raped, tortured, and murdered?a death toll exceeding that of the atomic blasts of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. Using extensive interviews with survivors and newly discovered documents, Iris Chang has written what will surely be the definitive history of this horrifying episode. The Rape of Nanking tells the story from three perspectives: of the Japanese soldiers who performed it, of the Chinese civilians who endured it, and of a group of Europeans and Americans who refused to abandon the city and were able to create a safety zone that saved almost 300,000 Chinese. Among these was the Nazi John Rabe, an unlikely hero whom Chang calls the "Oskar Schindler of China" and who worked tirelessly to protect the innocent and publicize the horror. More than just narrating the details of an orgy of violence, The Rape of Nanking analyzes the militaristic culture that fostered in the Japanese soldiers a total disregard for human life. Finally, it tells the appalling story: about how the advent of the Cold War led to a concerted effort on the part of the West and even the Chinese to stifle open discussion of this atrocity. Indeed, Chang characterizes this conspiracy of silence, that persists to this day, as "a second rape."

A quintessiantially American story chronicling Chinese American achievement in the face of institutionalized racism by the New York Times bestselling author of The Rape of NankingIn an epic story that spans 150 years and continues to the present day, Iris Chang tells of a people’s search for a better life—the determination of the Chinese to forge an identity and a destiny in a strange land and, often against great obstacles, to find success. She chronicles the many accomplishments in America of Chinese immigrants and their building the infrastructure of their adopted country, fighting racist and exclusionary laws and anti-Asian violence, contributing to major scientific and technological advances, expanding the literary canon, and influencing the way we think about racial and ethnic groups. Interweaving political, social, economic, and cultural history, as well as the stories of individuals, Chang offers a bracing view not only of what it means to be Chinese American, but also of what it is to be American.

Attempts to analyze the degree to which the Japanese imperial government and its militaristic culture fostered in the Japanese soldier a total disregard for human life.

China today is poised to play a key role on the world stage, but in the early twentieth century the situation was very different. In this powerful new look at modern China, Rana Mitter goes back to a pivotal moment in Chinese history to uncover the origins of the painful transition from pre-modern to modern world. Mitter identifies May 4, 1919, as the defining moment of China's twentieth-century history. On that day, outrage over the Paris peace conference triggered a vast student protest that led in turn to "the May Fourth Movement." Just seven years before, the 2,000-year-old imperial system had collapsed. Now a new group of urban, modernizing thinkers began to reject Confucianism and traditional culture in general as hindrances in the fight against imperialism, warlordism, and the oppression of women and the poor. Forward-looking, individualistic, embracing youth, this "New Culture movement" made a lasting impact on the critical decades that followed: the 1940s, with the war against Japan and the civil war between the Nationalist Party and the Communists; the 1960s, with the bizarre, seemingly anarchic world of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution; and the 1980s, with the rise of a semi-market economy against the backdrop of continued single-party rule and growing inequality. Throughout each of these dramatically different eras, the May 4 themes persisted, from the insanity of the Cultural Revolution to the recent romance with space-age technology. China, Mitter concludes, still seems to be in search of a new narrative about what the country is, and what it should become. And May 4 remains a touchstone in that search.

Im Dezember 1937 eroberten japanische Truppen Nanking, die damalige Hauptstadt Chinas. In den folgenden Wochen war Nanking der Schauplatz eines der entsetzlichsten Massaker der modernen Kriegsgeschichte. In einer unbeschreiblichen Gewaltorgie vergewaltigte, verstümmelte und ermordete das für seine Disziplin berühmte japanische Militär etwa 300 000 Männer, Frauen und Kinder. Iris Chang schildert das Geschehen aus drei Perspektiven, der der japanischen Soldaten, der chinesischen Opfer und schließlich der Europäer und Amerikaner, die damals in Nanking lebten.

L'un des plus grands massacres du XXe siècle s'est déroulé en Chine à la fin de 1937. Le 13 décembre, quelques mois après le début du conflit qu'ils imposent aux Chinois, les Japonais s'emparent de Nankin, alors capitale de la Chine. Durant des semaines, ils vont se livrer à une orgie de violence : tortures, viols, meurtres en masse. Dans cet ouvrage pionnier, Iris Chang raconte avec force et précision ce qui s'est passé selon le triple point de vue des bourreaux, des victimes et des Occidentaux. Elle décrit aussi comment une poignée d'Américains et d'Européens, dont un homme d'affaires nazi, John Rabe, qu'elle surnomme l'" Oskar Schindler de la Chine", ont aménagé une zone de sécurité qui leur a permis de sauver des dizaines de milliers de vies. Enfin, elle analyse le lourd traumatisme qui a suivi le drame jusqu'à nos jours, montrant combien la mémoire chinoise s'est cristallisée sur ce qu'il faut appeler le viol d'une nation. Iris Chang avait 29 ans lorsqu'elle publia ce livre incendiaire qui devint aussitôt un best-seller aux Etats-Unis et fut traduit en de nombreuses langues. Quelques années plus tard, le 9 novembre 2004, à 36 ans, elle mettait fin à ses jours sur une route désertique de Californie.

V prosinci roku 1937 bylo tehdejší hlavní město Číny vystaveno jednomu z nejhrůznějších masakrů v dějinách válek. Japonští vojáci vtrhli do starobylého Nankingu a během několika měsíců systematicky znásilňovali, mučili a zavraždili víc než 300 000 bezbranných mužů, žen a dětí. Iris Changová, americká spisovatelka čínského původu, jejíž prarodiče jen o vlásek masakru unikli, pro svou knihu využila rozhovorů s těmi, kteří běsnění Japonců přežili, i nově objevené dokumenty.