The Making of the "Rape of Nanking": History and Memory in Japan, China, and the United States (Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute) (9780195180961): Takashi Yoshida: Books

The Making of the "Rape of Nanking": History and Memory in Japan, China, and the United States (Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute) (9780195180961): Takashi Yoshida: Books

The Making of the "Rape of Nanking": History and Memory in Japan, China, and the United States (Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute) 1st Edition
by Takashi Yoshida  (Author)
3.6 out of 5 stars    9 ratings

 On December 13, 1937, the Japanese army attacked and captured the Chinese capital city of Nanjing, planting the rising-sun flag atop the city's outer walls. What occurred in the ensuing weeks and months has been the source of a tempestuous debate ever since.

It is well known that the Japanese military committed wholesale atrocities after the fall of the city, massacring large numbers of Chinese during the both the Battle of Nanjing and in its aftermath. Yet the exact details of the war crimes--how many people were killed during the battle? How many after? How many women were raped? Were prisoners executed? How unspeakable were the acts committed?--are the source of controversy among Japanese, Chinese, and American historians to this day.

In The Making of the "Rape of Nanking" Takashi Yoshida examines how views of the Nanjing Massacre have evolved in history writing and public memory in Japan, China, and the United States. For these nations, the question of how to treat the legacy of Nanjing--whether to deplore it, sanitize it, rationalize it, or even ignore it--has aroused passions revolving around ethics, nationality, and historical identity. Drawing on a rich analysis of Chinese, Japanese, and American history textbooks and newspapers, Yoshida traces the evolving--and often conflicting--understandings of the Nanjing Massacre, revealing how changing social and political environments have influenced the debate. Yoshida suggests that, from the 1970s on, the dispute over Nanjing has become more lively, more globalized, and immeasurably more intense, due in part to Japanese revisionist history and a renewed emphasis on patriotic education in China.

While today it is easy to assume that the Nanjing Massacre has always been viewed as an emblem of Japan's wartime aggression in China, the image of the "Rape of Nanking" is a much more recent icon in public consciousness. Takashi Yoshida analyzes the process by which the Nanjing Massacre has become an international symbol, and provides a fair and respectful treatment of the politically charged and controversial debate over its history.
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Editorial Reviews
Review

"The Nanjing Massacre is now an iconic event in international history. This book adroitly summarizes how this state of affairs came to pass."--Laura Hein, Northwestern University


"This is by far the most comprehensive and judicious survey of how Japanese, Chinese, and American journalists, scholars, and propagandists have interpreted and polemically exploited this tragic atrocity from its occurrence in 1937 to the present day. Yoshida's incisive, sensitive, and even-handed account is a must-read for anyone interested in World War Two, modern Sino-Japanese history, and East Asian current affairs."--Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi, York University

"A serious, sobering dissection of the shifting and conflicting images of the Nanjing Massacre. Yoshida's eye-opening account shows how the popular media in each country have helped to frame the debates and stir controversies about Nanjing ever since. A high point is the author's no-nonsense examination of changing Japanese representations of the massacre and what Nanjing means for Japan's war responsibility."--Tom Havens, Northeastern University

"Recent years have witness an explosion of scholarly interest in the West in the atrocities committed by the Japanese army when it conquered the wartime Chinese capital of Nanjing in late 1937, although the topic has been under research scrutiny for decades in Japan. No one is better placed in both of these academic discourses than Takashi Yoshida, and The Making of the "Rape of Nanking" demonstrates the wealth of scholarship that he has pored over. Although not without views of his own on the many debates surrounding the issues of this topic, Yoshida's judgments are always fair and profoundly thoughtful."--Joshua A. Fogel, editor of The Nanjing Massacre in History and Historiography

"Yoshida does the field a service in bringing myriad insights together in one manuscript. He succeeds in opening windows on the psychologies behind all positions in the debates, and in highly readable prose."--James Orr, 

acific Affairs

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About the Author

Takashi Yoshida was educated in both Japan and the United States and is an Assistant Professor of History at Western Michigan University.
Product details
Series: Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute
Hardcover: 278 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press; 1 edition (March 23, 2006)
Language: English
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Customer reviews
3.6 out of 5 stars
3.6 out of 5
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Top Reviews
  Gerald Figal
5.0 out of 5 starsit is a great example of the malleability of history when it is ...
October 19, 2015
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
Contrary to what the lazy misreaders of this book have suggested here, this is not a whitewashing or denial of the Nanjing Massacre. They either didn't really read it or read it with filters on. It is a detailed contextualized study of how the event entered into and out of and back into public media and textbooks in Japan, China, and the US from the time of its happening to the present day. As such, it is a well-researched and well-argued book that goes a long way to explaining why there are different perceptions in different places at different times. The negative reviewers apparently do not understand the subject matter of the book -- the reportage of the Nanjing Massacre in public media, memory, and textbooks, etc. over time in very different contexts. Maybe that is too "meta" for them. Whatever. In any case, it is a great example of the malleability of history when it is put to the service of different political presents--and I say that as a professional historian.
9 people found this helpful
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4.0 out of 5 starsGood unbiased review of Nanking from 3 countries
November 19, 2013
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
Interesting book, opened my eyes to another side of pre-WWII Japan. Author is fairly unbiased and presents both sides of the arguments from 3 different countries. Good Asian history book
4 people found this helpful
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Kaodake
5.0 out of 5 starsA rare balanced examination of a deeply polarized issue
June 4, 2009
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
This is a rational, lucid exploration of the way the Nanking incident has been treated in China, Japan, and the United States. The author has managed to avoid outright denial, raging indignation and smug Japan bashing while dissecting all three. Truly unique. It is unfortunate that this book is not more widely available.

Anyone who wishes to explore this topic will find this short book a very good place to begin.
19 people found this helpful
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Richard Dickens
5.0 out of 5 starsAddressing some Concerns
March 7, 2012
Format: Kindle Edition
I have given this book 5-stars, although I honestly believe it deserves between 3 to 4 stars. I gave it 5 stars to balance out reviews based on misreadings of this book.

I would like to address some points brought up in other reviews.

1) The book's goal is NOT to arrive as some kind of "truth" about the events that occurred at Nanjing. Rather, it is to trace how the memories of this tragedy have been exploited for various political purposes.

2) Yoshida's assertion that the Nanjing Massacre was largely overlooked in the greater international sphere is supported by many other scholars. People obviously knew about the Massacre, and I have no doubt that there were numerous accounts of the Massacre being published in China, Japan, and the US. However, the Massacre was NOT the emblem of Chinese suffering or Japanese aggression through the 1940s, 1950s, or 1960s.

For example, Daqing Yang (PhD Harvard and BA from NANJING University, Sino-Japanese History) notes that the event was "hardly ever mentioned" in Chinese or Japanese newspapers in the 1950s and 1960s. (See Daqing Yang, "The Malleable and the Contested: The Nanjing Massacre in Postwar China and Japan"). For those who read Chinese or Japanese, I would challenge them to go to a major historical newspaper database (like Kikuzo) to see for themselves.

3) Yoshida is most critical of the way that the memories of the Massacre have been exploited by all sides: American, Japanese, Chinese (PRC) and Taiwanese (ROC) ethnocentric nationalists. We see all kinds of ridiculousness: the PRC originally put ultimate blame for the massacre on Western missionaries, Japanese ultranationalists deny the very existence of a massacre, etc.

Anyways, my problems with this book have nothing to do with Yoshida's supposed "subtle whitewashing" of the Massacre, but rather his failure to address the vast scholarship on memory studies that's out there. There's important work being done on individual memory, how this is shaped in a community, etc. that would have added immensely to this work.

But anyways, take what you want from this review, but I honestly think a few of the other reviews were a bit unfair in their reading of this book.

(In the interest of disclosure, I'm Korean American).
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28 people found this helpful
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Lanzhou Sinophile
1.0 out of 5 starsSome so-called scholars like David Irving have done this very thing
January 17, 2015
Format: Paperback
To the readers who contend that that this is a balanced account and not a whitewashing, I have one question: would you be so charitable to a similarly "balanced" account that subordinates the horrific and unspeakable crimes of Nazi Germany to some relatively trivial and disgustingly pretentious scholarly reseach on how the holocaust has been manipulated since WWII? Some so-called scholars like David Irving have done this very thing. They have been discredited as Holocaust deniers. Apparently such scholars are given more respect in the west if the victim of unbelievably inhumane war crimes is China. Despicable book.
9 people found this helpful
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Yamabushi
5.0 out of 5 starsA decent look at the opposition's argument.
January 20, 2015
Format: Paperback
Although I disagree with Mr. Yoshida's belief that there was nothing going down at Nanking. He does a good job of pointing out holes in his opponents' arguments. He can be a bit insulting though.
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Gilbert
1.0 out of 5 starsThe massacre
March 3, 2011
Format: Hardcover
In his book, he attributed (or blamed) that the "controversy" of Nanking Massacre was provoked because of the movement carried out by the Chinese diasporas especially those in North America. Surely, we (GA and its member organizations) should be proud of our work, but we are not the instigator of the so-called "controversy" as we don't think there is any controversy because the history of Nanking Massacre is crystal clear to us. It is the deniers who want to create a perception that there are controversies on this issue. The mere name of Yoshida's book reveals his hidden intention to making people think that Nanking Massacre is an exaggeration, if not a fabrication.
28 people found this helpful