The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II

Iris Chang

Feb 2012 · Blackstone Audio Inc. · Narrated by Anna Fields

About this audiobook

In December 1937, one of the most brutal massacres in the long annals of wartime barbarity occurred in the capital of China. The Japanese army swept into Nanking and not only looted and burned the defenseless city but systematically raped, tortured, and murdered half of the city’s remaining population, some 300,000 Chinese civilians. Amazingly, the account of this atrocity was denied by the Japanese government.

The Rape of Nanking tells the story from three perspectives: that of the Japanese soldiers who performed it, that of the Chinese civilians who endured it, and finally, that 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 John Rabe, the tireless German leader of the rescue effort, whom Iris Chang called the “Oskar Schindler of China.”

Ratings and reviews

How hard can it be to enclose a PDF file with the pictures from the book? This is the only thing I can't understand about audiobooks. The book itself is very good, but the pictures are 30% of the experience, so you don't get what you pay for.

The book is a historical nonfiction account of the atrocities committed by the Japanese army after invading the city of Nanking, China. Referred to as the forgotten Holocaust of World War II, few people are aware that the Japanese military systematically raped, tortured, and murdered more than 300,000 Chinese civilians—a wild piece of history.

wow!!! what a real happiness of life Japanese troops got!

About the author

Iris Chang was a journalism graduate of the University of Illinoisat Urbana, and she worked as a reporter for the Associated Press and the Chicago Tribune before winning a graduate fellowship to the writing seminars program at Johns Hopkins University. Her first book, Thread of the Silkworm, the story of Tsien Hsue-shen, father of the People’s Republic of China missile program, received worldwide critical acclaim. She was the recipient of the John T. and Catherine D. MacArthur Foundation’s Program on Peace and International Cooperation Award and major grants from the National Science Foundation, the Pacific Cultural Foundation, and the Harry Truman Library.

Anna Fields (1965–2006), winner of more than a dozen Earphones Awards and the prestigious Audie Award in 2004, was one of the most respected narrators in the industry. Trained at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, she was also a director, producer, and technician at her own studio, Cedar House Audio.