This book is based on four visits to China between 1971 and 1989 by
Honda Katsuichi, an investigative journalist for Asahi Shimbun. His
aim is to show in pitiless detail the horrors of the Japanese
Army's seizure and capture of Nanjing in December 1937. Unvarnished
accounts of the testimony - Chinese victims and Japanese
perpetrators - to the rape and slaughter are juxtaposed with public
relations announcements of the Japanese Army as printed in various
Japanese newspapers of the time. The bland announcements of
triumphant victories stand in bitter contrast to the atrocities
that actually took place on the scene. The story unfolds with
horrible detail as we watch the triumphant progress of the Japanese
army whose troops were bent on rape and killing in the so-called
"heat of battle." Yet by recalling the testimony of Japanese
soldiers and reporters who were on the scene, as well as
reproducing dispatches by Japanese Army authorities at the time,
Honda makes it clear that the atrocities were part of a studied
effort directed by the Japanese high command to impress the Chinese
people with the power of its army and the folly of resistance to it
- the estimate of 300,000 killed in these "military operations" is
no exaggeratoin. Honda has worked with other Japanese journalists
and scholars who have attempted to reveal the truth of the Nanjing
massacre, provoked by the efforts of right-wing Japanese,
including, sadly, many government officials, to whitewash the whole
incident, even to the point of contending that a "massacre" never
happened. This gripping account of the atrocities and cover-up
joins other exposes - Chinese and now German - in keeping alive the
memory of this shameful event.
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