Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

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

29 reviews

bringlaurasnacks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

What can you even say about this book? It was horrifying, but I could not stop reading. This account of the real events of the Japanese atrocities in Nanking and by extension the rest of China during WWII will haunt you. It is a further crime against humanity how unaware the general public is of these events.

Beyond the historical accounts I found the second half of this book nearly as troubling as the first. I could not help but draw parallels between Japan's attempt to censor and minimize their own crimes (can we just call this genocide?) in texts and their education system to the current attempt to purge black history from the American school systems. This is an absolutely necessary read for every citizen of the world. "As Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel warned years ago, to forget a holocaust is to kill twice."

"Apparently some quirk in human nature allows even the most unspeakable acts of evil to become banal within minutes, provided only that they occur far enough away to pose. O personal threat." -Iris Chang

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Trafficking, Murder, Colonisation, and War

nina_rae_131's review against another edition

challenging dark informative medium-paced

5.0

Not for the faint of heart. It was very difficult to read, but I’m glad I did. It was very informative and well structured. 
I believe it’s still relevant today: 
“And there is yet a third lesson to be learned, one that is perhaps the most distressing of all. It lies in the frightening ease with which the mind can accept genocide, turning us all into passive spectators to the unthinkable. The Rape of Nanking was front-page news across the world, and yet most of the world stood by and did nothing while an entire city was butchered.” p221

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Police brutality, Murder, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Slavery, Medical content, and Trafficking

Minor: Drug use and Suicide

purplepickle's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

This is an incredibly well written and researched book. I felt physically ill many times throughout the book, and I struggled to push through all the chapters. Anyone who is interested in history must read this book, as it is unfortunately a very much forgotten chapter of human history. I'm glad to be infinitely more educated on this event then I was previously. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Mental illness, Cannibalism, and Abandonment

dmathuna's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

I don’t even know what to say about a book that covers such topics. I’ll start by saying that it’s short enough at around 230 pages and aims to give an overview of such a wide ranging event that it can’t seriously detail much but what is told in here is extremely harrowing to read and then to comprehend that these acts were all done by humans to other humans. 

The sheer barbarity and brutality shown to the Chinese inhabitants of Nanjing  is staggering and each page you uncover a new horror you previously thought incomprehensible. The detailing of how widespread the systematic rape of all women regardless of age, pregnancy, occupation churned my stomach in a way I don’t think has ever happened to me. I am absolutely forever changed by the contents of this book and it will never leave me for the rest of my life..

The fact that elements of Japanese society still can’t accept that this event occurred much less that their soldiers carried it out with explicit knowledge by their government leaders is tragic and should be a crime akin to denial of the holocaust. I can only hope that since the time the book was published that attitudes there have started to change. More than 300,000 people were murdered by the occupation and we did them a disservice by not remembering this event more. 

At the time of me writing this review Iris Chang would have been 56.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Xenophobia, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Miscarriage

birddie's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

This is the hardest book l've ever read. It's sad I'm 24 years old and this is the first and only time l've heard of this. It's even more sad that the stories and crimes in this book aren't even unique. This is something that's happening in our world right now. We don't learn about our history any more and that's why it repeats itself...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

klacebo's review against another edition

dark informative sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Cannibalism, Murder, Colonisation, and War

vapblack's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective sad fast-paced

She has obvious anti socialist biases, but she grew up in usa so that's expected. 

As long as you're aware of her bias, it's a good and informative book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Incest, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Excrement, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, and Classism

gaeliloveweiss's review

dark emotional informative sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

sgallagherr's review against another edition

challenging dark informative medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Incest, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, Colonisation, and War

christine_beatrice's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective

4.0

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Content Warnings

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