The Nanjing Massacre: A Japanese
Journalist Confronts Japans National
Shame (Studies of the Pacific Basin
Institute) by Frank Gibney
Detractors Blinded By Hate
This book is based on four visits to China between 1971 and 1989 by
Honda Katsuichi, an investigative journalist for Asahi Shimbun. His aim is
to show in pitiless detail the horrors of the Japanese Armys seizure and
capture of Nanjing in December 1937. Unvarnished accounts of the
testimony - Chinese victims and Japanese perpetrators - to the rape and
slaughter are juxtaposed with public relations announcements of the
Japanese Army as printed in various Japanese newspapers of the time.
The bland announcements of triumphant victories stand in bitter contrast to
the atrocities that actually took place on the scene. The story unfolds with
horrible detail as we watch the triumphant progress of the Japanese army
whose troops were bent on rape and killing in the so-called heat of battle.
Yet by recalling the testimony of Japanese soldiers and reporters who

were on the scene, as well as reproducing dispatches by Japanese Army
authorities at the time, Honda makes it clear that the atrocities were part of
a studied effort directed by the Japanese high command to impress the
Chinese people with the power of its army and the folly of resistance to it -
the estimate of 300,000 killed in these military operations is no
exaggeratoin. Honda has worked with other Japanese journalists and
scholars who have attempted to reveal the truth of the Nanjing massacre,
provoked by the efforts of right-wing Japanese, including, sadly, many
government officials, to whitewash the whole incident, even to the point of
contending that a massacre never happened. This gripping account of the
atrocities and cover-up joins other exposes - Chinese and now German - in
keeping alive the memory of this shameful event.
Personal Review: The Nanjing Massacre: A Japanese Journalist
Confronts Japans National Shame (Studies of the Pacific Basin
Institute) by Frank Gibney
In Japan Honda Katsuichi has been revered as among his country's finest
journalists in print media. But sadly, his excellent journalism pertaining to
the horrific acts committed by Imperial Japanese military forces against
helpless Chinese prisoners of war and civilians during the three month-
long campaign in late 1937 and early 1938 that led to the fall of Nanking
(Nanjing) - then the Republic of China's capital - has been ignored or
harshly criticized (or both) by his fellow Japanese, who still cling stubbornly
to the historical fiction that they too, were victims, because of the atomic
bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (I have a question for those
Japanese - including several previous Amazon.com reviewers who've
demonstrated that they are delusional - who still deny the great, wanton
crimes against humanity inflicted upon Asians, Americans and Europeans
by the Empire of Japan in its ruthless attempt to create a "Great East Asia
Co-Prosperity Sphere" in the 1930s and 1940s. Why do you think the
United States felt compelled to use the atom bomb against Japan? Could
one of the reasons be the savage, genocidal war which Japan's military
forces waged against the Chinese from 1937 to 1945? In stark contrast,
Germany, Austria, and Italy have atoned for their crimes against humanity.
When will Japan's elected government make the same admission?).
Honda Katsuichi's "The Nanjing Massacre" isn't an easy book to read,
since it is replete with many eyewitness accounts, by Chinese survivors
whom Honda interviewed personally in the 1970s and 1980s, that provide
clear, compelling evidence of countless acts of genocide by Japanese
military forces against the Chinese, and especially, brutal treatment of
civilians, including, most infamously, raping adult women and girls, and
sexual molestation such as stabbing them in their vaginas with bayonets
and swords. It is a better, far more accurate, book than Iris Chang's justly
celebrated "The Rape of Nanking", since it shows that Japanese acts of
genocidal brutality did not begin with the fall of Nanking in mid December,
1937, but instead, started as soon as Japanese troops waded ashore at
Hangzhou Bay, more than a month before. This American edition also
includes excerpts from previous and more recent books written by Honda

on Japanese military atrocities during the campaign to take Nanking, as
well as revealing excerpts from the diaries of Japanese soldiers who were
guilty of committing these crimes. If nothing else, Honda's books ought to
be required reading in Japanese classrooms, and the English translation of
this book may one day compel the Japanese government to atone for the
genocidal actions of its military forces - most notably the Imperial
Japanese Army - in the 1930s and 1940s.
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