Reviews tagging 'War'

The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II by Iris Chang

78 reviews

dlajoie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Death, Genocide, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

kenomilligan's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense

5.0

I don't have enough words in my vocabulary to describe how amazing, thrilling, disturbing, and enticing this book was.

I could not put it down.

I learned about the Nanking Massacre in my World Studies class. I immediately went home that day and bought the book, which my teacher had held up for us to see.

I hate that I waited almost a full year to read it. I don't regret it at all. I could talk about this book for hours and write an entire paper about it.

The end of Chang's life was extremely unfortunate, but she has done a remarkable and a world-changing thing by writing this book. She wrote the un-writeable. She talked about what no one would. She went more than that extra mile to make sure we knew even the smallest of small details about this event.

Easily my favorite non-fiction book. Truly eye-opening.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Torture, Murder, Rape, War, Physical abuse, and Sexual violence

e_gracereads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.75

Should be required reading in any and all world history courses, military history courses, and quite frankly, history in general. Tough and emotional, but straightforward and informative. Devastating in its details, but a powerful read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Xenophobia, Suicide, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Sexual harassment, Torture, Sexual assault, Rape, War, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Child death, Genocide, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Miscarriage, Sexual violence, and Violence

lycheeteareads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual harassment, Torture, and War

computerwhiz's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Child death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Antisemitism, Confinement, Blood, and Torture

Minor: Suicide and Mental illness

christine_beatrice's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Death, Torture, Colonisation, Sexual violence, Violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Kidnapping, Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, Excrement, Cannibalism, Body horror, Blood, Slavery, Gore, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, Child abuse, and Child death

_meeg's review

challenging dark informative sad tense medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Rape, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Suicide attempt, Torture, Violence, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Suicide, and War

mexgumi's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, and War

Very informative and well researched. I am just too weak lol

bleedingphoenix's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Incredibly important book that everyone should read (if you can stomch the topic). It was hard to read and I had to take several week long breaks because the book was so shocking and depressing. But that is exactly the reason why everyone should read this book. The author, Iris Chang, did an incredibly job researching for this book. She collected many eyewitness reports, things no one had even heard of before. For example, she was the reason, why the world learnt about wwhat happened to John Rabe, the so-called Buddha of Nanjing, a person who saved thousands of people and ended up living in poverty. 
The world was about to forget what had actually taken place in Nanjing in 1938/9, how horrific those the actions of the Japanese soldiers actually had been and how mich the Chinese population had suffered. The goal of the Japanese Government is to forget the atrocities they did in China (and Korea, etc.) and is doing a really good job of it with the help of the US, as economic interests weigh more than justice apparently. You cannot overstate how important Chang's work has been and I'm thankful and inspired by her work. Her book has been one of the very few way the victims of the rape of Nanjing have been given some justice. 
Please, if you have the time, read this book and then tell everyone you know about what you've learnt. 
RIP Iris Chang

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Rape, War, Colonisation, Death, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Physical abuse, Racism, Animal cruelty, Blood, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, Child abuse, Child death, Gun violence, Violence, Gore, Grief, and Hate crime

ehmannky's review

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

4.75

Like a lot of people, my knowledge of World War II in the Pacific is not particularly comprehensive and my awareness of what Japanese imperialism and war crimes was limited to a hazy understanding of "they were bad." But I don't think I could have fathomed the depths of suffering that occurred during the Rape of Nanking. Cheng does a really good job summarizing the forces behind the massacre, going into details about the brutal acts (which even when reported on using what I felt was pretty neutral language is just wildly horrific to read), and the global collusion between world governments (including China's!) about why this is so understudied and unknown. 

I didn't love the audiobook narrator for this, but listening to her read at, like, 1.25x speed was just fine. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Blood, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Murder, Rape, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Colonisation, Genocide, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Incest, Sexual violence, Torture, and War