Since Iris Chang published "The Rape of Nanking" (1997), the Japanese have taken a beating about their alleged collective amnesia regarding this and other wartime atrocities. Nanjing has become a potent and divisive symbol for Japan's war conduct and war memory, but it was not always so. In this superb and evenhanded book, Takashi Yoshida examines how Nanjing has evolved as a subject of scholarly discourse, media hype, national politics and public memory and explains why the debate has become more polemic.
Yoshida clearly shows that the monochromatic depiction of Japan evident in Chang's flawed account is wide off the mark. The notion of a monolithic Japan where the brutal excesses of war are systematically whitewashed has considerable currency overseas, but overlooks the shifting and vigorous debates among Japanese about the Pacific War. Japanese scholars have been at the forefront in uncovering and elucidating the full gamut of atrocities in publications that are widely available.
However, owing to media hype, conservative scholars and politicians in Japan have disproportionately shaped perceptions of Japan's willingness to accept responsibility for its wartime rampages. These "revisionists" have rejected what they term a "masochistic" view of history focusing on Japan's misconduct and have asserted a valorizing and vindicating counternarrative.