"The Nanjing Massacre is now an iconic event in international history. This book adroitly summarizes how this state of affairs came to pass."--Laura Hein, Northwestern University
"This is by far the most comprehensive and judicious survey of how Japanese, Chinese, and American journalists, scholars, and propagandists have interpreted and polemically exploited this tragic atrocity from its occurrence in 1937 to the present day. Yoshida's incisive, sensitive, and even-handed account is a must-read for anyone interested in World War Two, modern Sino-Japanese history, and East Asian current affairs."--Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi, York University
"A serious, sobering dissection of the shifting and conflicting images of the Nanjing Massacre. Yoshida's eye-opening account shows how the popular media in each country have helped to frame the debates and stir controversies about Nanjing ever since. A high point is the author's no-nonsense examination of changing Japanese representations of the massacre and what Nanjing means for Japan's war responsibility."--Tom Havens, Northeastern University
"Recent years have witness an explosion of scholarly interest in the West in the atrocities committed by the Japanese army when it conquered the wartime Chinese capital of Nanjing in late 1937, although the topic has been under research scrutiny for decades in Japan. No one is better placed in both of these academic discourses than Takashi Yoshida, and
The Making of the "Rape of Nanking" demonstrates the wealth of scholarship that he has pored over. Although not without views of his own on the many debates surrounding the issues of this topic, Yoshida's judgments are always fair and profoundly thoughtful."--Joshua A. Fogel, editor of
The Nanjing Massacre in History and Historiography"Yoshida does the field a service in bringing myriad insights together in one manuscript. He succeeds in opening windows on the psychologies behind all positions in the debates, and in highly readable prose."--James Orr,
acific Affairs