一位歷史學家曾經估算,如果讓所有南京大屠殺的死難者,手牽著手,長度可以從南京到達杭州,延展的距離約兩百英里長。他們身上的血共重達一九兩百噸,屍體可裝滿兩千五百節火車車廂。如果把這些人一個個疊起來,將達七十四層樓高。
本書從三個不同角度──日本人、中國受難者與當時在場的歐美人士的敘事觀點,全方位呈現整個大屠殺事件;另一方面,抽絲剝繭地檢視這段長達多年的黑暗勢力,探討日本政府如何處心積慮地抹煞世界對大屠殺的記憶。
作者蒐集海峽兩岸、歐美、日本許多第一手資料,並且整合大屠殺倖存者的訪談記錄,重新呈現南京大屠殺的完整面貌。透過流利、細緻的文字,讀者可以完整了解南京大屠殺歷史的始末,同時省思歷史事件留予世人的寶貴教訓。
本書中譯本《被遺忘的大屠殺:1937南京浩劫》由天下文化出版。
The New York Times bestselling account of one of history’s most brutal--and forgotten--massacres, when the Japanese army destroyed China’s capital city on the eve of World War II, "piecing together the abundant eyewitness reports into an undeniable tapestry of horror". (Adam Hochschild, Salon)
In December 1937, one of the most horrific atrocities in the long annals of wartime barbarity occurred. The Japanese army swept into the ancient city of Nanking (what was then the capital of China), and within weeks, more than 300,000 Chinese civilians and soldiers were systematically raped, tortured, and murdered. In this seminal work, Iris Chang, whose own grandparents barely escaped the massacre, tells this history from three perspectives: that of the Japanese soldiers, that of the Chinese, and that of a group of Westerners who refused to abandon the city and created a safety zone, which saved almost 300,000 Chinese. Drawing on extensive interviews with survivors and documents brought to light for the first time, Iris Chang’s classic book is the definitive history of this horrifying episode.