One of the most unpalatable episodes of the Japanese postwar inability to come to terms with their nation's war guilt is the attempt by prominent politicians either to deny that the Nanjing massacre took place, or to downplay the extent of the killings. Iris Chang takes great care to cross-check her sources for this book, citing archival and statistical work by scholars who have compared the population of Nanjing before and after the massacre to produce trustworthy assessments of how many people really died.

However, the Rape of Nanking was not simply a question of numbers killed. How the victims died is equal

ly important, for the brutality of the Imperial Army's actions shows how they intended to terrorize and humiliate the population of the city. (Countries at war seem to believe that mass destruction will inevitably destroy the enemy's morale, while similar action by the enemy on them will only stiffen it.) It is here that the voices discovered by Chang really come into their own. Naturally, she has interviewed survivors of the massacre, and their testimony stands central to her narrative. They include Tang Shunsan, who was one of dozens of Chinese forced to line up by the side of a deep pit. He remembers, "As soon as I saw the newly dug pit, I thought they might either bury us alive, or kill us on the spot. I was too frightened to move, so I stood there motionless. It suddenly occurred to me to jump into the pit but then I saw two Japanese military wolf dogs eating the corpses." Then there began a killing contest (similar events were reported openly in Japanese newspapers of the time), as eight soldiers competed to cut the prisoners' heads off as quickly as possible. Tang survived by deliberately toppling into the pit as fresh corpses fell in, and hiding until the contest was over.

But Chang does not rely on this oral testimony alone, although it is supplemented by the memories of repentant Japanese soldiers, now in their eighties, who took part in the Rape. Those who wish to dismiss the massacre can claim that oral history is easily fabricated, and even those who assess the evidence more neutrally will point out tha

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1029
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)