What has outraged many people who have first learned of the Nanking Massacre, and those who knows of its occurrence, is the cover up attempts by the American and Japanese government. The American at the time was in a cold war against the communist. Needing someone to champion democracy in Asia, it sought out to soften the incident in Nanking. The author claims that the U.S. had the ability to decode Japanese secret messages at the time. Having this ability, the U.S. was able to decode many Japanese messages to the Japanese correspondent in America. They learned of the Japanese conduct in Nanking, but did nothing about it. It failed to release vital information to the press, which would have surely condemned Japan. But for America this did not serve their purpose so they decided to cover it up.

un fire, or doused with gasoline and burned. This is a brief and very short summary of what happened in the Nanking massacre. This is necessary background information to further discuss and analyze Iris Chang’s book, The Rape of Nanking.

Iris Chang has written a remarkable book that is well written and systematically planned. She gives an unprejudiced account of what happened in Nanking by providing the views and accounts of not only Chinese, but also Japanese and Westerners alike. How can the Japanese government refute it’s role in the Rape of Nanking, when it’s own soldiers confess to their crimes. How can the same government refute the many photographical facts? Just ignorance by the Japanese is the answer. These are all evidences on how well she has written the book. But if I was to change one thing, it would have been the blame of the Emperor Hirohito. For he has the ultimate power and say at the time. Asaka was merely a pawn in the emperor’s game of Asian Conquest. It is true Asaka had the power to stop the atrocities in Nanking, but he was sent to Nanking to make a good impression for the emperor. Asaka knowing he could not fail the emperor again could not lose the battle because his morals were in the way. Asaka had to conquer Nanking at all costs. Thus, the blame should be directed to the Emperor Hirohito. Even though he has received an imperial immunity, he should not have received immunity from this book.

Many ultranationalistic Japanese believe they entered the war with China out of necessity for their survival. This is not the same view the author has. The war between China and Japan was unavoidable in the author’s view because of Japanese willingness and persistence to make war with China. China was the key to Japan’s ever growing ultranationalistic view as the dominant ruler of Asia. Japan sought to occupy all of China in the early 20th Century. During this time, China also was reinvigorating itself as a count

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