Nanjing 1937: Battle for a Doomed City

When we think of Republican-era Nanking today, rape, pillage and massacre come first to mind. But there is much more to the story of the city's fall to the Japanese invaders. Peter Harmsen's new book tells the whole story in great detail. Only the last ten percent of the text deals directly with the subsequent occupation and its atrocities.

Harmsen recounts the fall of the Republic of China's capital in terms of military tactics, but he also explains the behind-the-scenes diplomacy and reports some personal accounts of those involved. Unusually, most of his reporting emphasizes the Japanese point of view. The book's extensive list of sources suggests that few accounts from the Chinese viewpoint survived the occupation, the civil war and then the Cultural Revolution.