The rape of Nanking

"Utilizing many unmined sources, both Chinese and Japanese, this book challenges the prevailing view that the Rape of Nanking was a deliberate, planned effort on the part of the Japanese military and concludes that it was instead a horrible but unfortunate tragedy of conventional warfare with precedents in both Eastern and Western military history.

In addition, post-war events such as the war crimes trials and the impact of the Holocaust on Europe affected public opinion regarding Nanking and led to a dramatic reinterpretation of events.".

"This is a revisionist study, in the sense that it reaches conclusions at variance with the currently accepted version of events. Yamamoto in no way denies Japanese involvement or responsibility, but he does convincingly reconstruct a series of actions and reactions by various elements of the Japanese military and in so doing casts serious doubt on the idea that the Rape of Nanking was the result of an over-all plan or policy to terrorize the Chinese population.

No other book gives such a detailed depiction of exactly what transpired, day by day, in Nanking."--BOOK JACKET.