| Iris Chang : "More than 260,000 noncombatants died, ...well over 350,000...a few statistics must be used to give the reader an idea of the scale of the massacre...the killing was concentrated within a few weeks." (pp.4~5, Penguin paperback edition) |
| Basic question : "How can 260,000 to over 350,000 noncombatants be killed in a city of 200,000, which increased to 250,000 a month later, right after all 'the killing' supposedly take place?" |
lecture at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Tokyo, Sept.30, 1999 Higashinakano Shudo, Professor of Intellectual History, Asia University
| "When Reverend Magee was cross-examined about how many homicides he actually witnessed, he was able to cite only one, and that was a legal execution" |
Sankei Newspaper, Sept. 5th 1999, Higashinakano Shudo
| Iris Chang : "On January 17, 1938, Foreign Minister Hirota Koki in Tokyo relayed the folowing message to his contacts in Washington, D.C." |
| Not mentioned : the "message" was written by Timperley, an advisor to the Chinese intelligence service, not Koki |
| "Throughout his life, (my father-in-law) repeated, 'Nanking Massacre, that is a lie' and died in 1993 when he was 93 years old." |
authorized translated version from Getsuyo Hyoron, July 25th 1999 by AALVH member Tomizawa Shigenobu
| First error : 300,000 people were massacred in Nanking Second error : Population of Nanking was 600,000 |
| "I would like to discuss with common sense, that is, without distortion or bias, and ready to accept truths about both sides if they are verified." |
Nakamura Akira, Professor of History, Dokkyo University
| Iris Chang cites a long list of incredible mass "atrocities" allegedly by Japanese soldiers, such as disemboweling of victims, nailing prisoners to wooden boards, and eating penises to 'increase virility'. Such acts are almost totally alien to Japanese culture and history. Many scholars say such stories could have been easily believed by the Chinese people, many of whom had suffered such fates not merely throughout history and in 1937 at the hands of fellow Chinese, but even as recently as during the Great Cultural Revolution |
| One of the chief proponents of Japanese "atrocities"
by foreigners in Nanking was E.W.Jefferey, the British Consul in Nanking. On January 28th 1938, he denounced the Japanese as follows : "The atrocities committed during the first two weeks of the occupation of the city were of a nature and on a scale which are almost incredible." He never specifies what those "atrocities" were. |
| However, his report of January 29
contains the following : "Military lawlessness continues due to a lack of centralized control. Majority of cases are of ransacking." ("Records of the Department of State Relating to Political Relations between China and Japan, 1930-1944") |
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updated 12/04/1999 |
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Iris Chang's "The Rape of Nanking" is a book that fails to heal but rather sears all efforts for good international relations because it prioritizes passion at the cost of basic historical facts. We cannot ignore the book's inability and refusal, as witnessed by the usage of numerous doctored photos, to differentiate between fact and war-time propaganda. We dedicate this site to all those who believe that constructive relations between nations and peoples should stem from an honest look at historical truths, not propaganda or twisting of historical materials for what appear to be political gains.
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