The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II.

CHANG, Iris.

Item Number: 120083

New York: Basic Books, 1997.

First edition of this “powerful, landmark book” (Richard Rhodes). Octavo, original half cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the title page, “For Caroline, a teacher of history- Iris Chang 10-14-98.” Chang has also signed her name in Chinese. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Rick Pracher. First printings are uncommon signed.

In December 1937, one of the most horrific atrocities in the long annals of wartime barbarity occurred. The Japanese army swept into the ancient city of Nanking (what was then the capital of China), and within weeks, more than 300,000 Chinese civilians and soldiers were systematically raped, tortured, and murdered. In this seminal work, Iris Chang, whose own grandparents barely escaped the massacre, tells this history from three perspectives: that of the Japanese soldiers, that of the Chinese, and that of a group of Westerners who refused to abandon the city and created a safety zone, which saved almost 300,000 Chinese. "Chang vividly, methodically, records what happened, piecing together the abundant eyewitness reports into an undeniable tapestry of horror" (Adam Hochschild).