Behind the Rape of Nanking

The history of the Nanjing Massacre, was hardly known to the western world before a Chinese American wrote a book 15 years ago about the Japanese troops' atrocity in the then China's capital.

Iris Chang's book, the Rape of Nanking, tells us that the world should never forget entire periods of history with hundreds of thousands of people slaughtered. Due to depression, Iris Chang committed suicide seven years after her book was published. However, her legacy lives on.

A native of New Jersey, Chang was born into a family of Chinese immigrants. After studying journalism in college, Chang started as a reporter for the Associated Press and later New York Times. But it was in writing where Chang found her true passion.

After a number of books documenting the experiences of Chinese Americans, Chang, in 1997, wrote her most famous book to date, The Rape of Nanking. It was the height of World War Two. When the Japanese troops invaded the city of the eastern Chinese city, systematically raping, torturing and killing more than 300, 000 Chinese civilians. The book tells the story of the Japanese soldiers who did it.

Of the Chinese civilians who endured it.And of a group of Americans who refused to abandon the city and stayed to save lives. Among them was a lady named Minnie Vautrin.

Iris Chang's mother, said, " She took over as master of the Jinling Girls College. Established a safety zone in downtown of Nanjing, she saved the lives of more than 200 thousand Chinese civilians. She later found the offsprings of John Rabe in Berlin and found Rabe's diaries. How the Japanese tortured Chinese, she described it as the hell. They, the missionaries have never seen what the hell is like. But they said they've seen the Hell. You could understand how the Japanese kill and tortured the Chinese. They have very detailed descriptions."

The Rape of Nanking brought to global attention what's believed to be a FORGOTTEN HOLOCAUST of World War Two. Chang's book and many accounts like that lends new perspectives to many historians, who now believe what the Japanese did in Nanjing was comparable to what Nazi Germany did to the Jews in Europe.

Last year, Chang's mother published her own book in memory of her daughter. The book was called The Woman Who could Not Forget.