Thursday, November 12, 1998
Author on campus addresses neglected wartime massacre
SPEAKER: Book recounts Japan’s atrocities against Chinese in
World War II
By Karen Thompson
Daily Bruin Contributor
Iris Chang, author of "The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten
Holocaust," spoke about the Japanese army’s World War II massacre
of thousands of innocent Chinese people, to an audience of more
than 120 students in the Charles Young Grand Salon on Tuesday.
Chang’s UCLA appearance was one in a series of national
tour-dates following the recent paperback release of her book.
Chang’s talk focused on her book, which details the events of
seven weeks in 1938, during which 300,000 Chinese soldiers and
civilians were killed, and 20,000 women were raped and mutilated by
the Japanese army in the town of Nanking.
"It’s unfortunate, but I think that in large sections of the
U.S., outside of UCLA, very few Americans are aware of the whole
Pacific side of World War II," said Chang, as she began her summary
of what she called "one of the worst atrocities in the world’s
history."
"There’s been a real wellspring of interest in this book since
it first came out in hardback, so I was delighted when I heard that
she could come," said Richard Bryer, BookZone’s book buyer and
event organizer.
Chang disputed assertions by some Japanese groups that the
Nanking incident  which included the skinning, crucifying and
bayoneting of adults, children and babies  occurred in the
heat of battle, or that it never happened at all.
She also criticized the Japanese government for failing to pay
reparations to its victims and censoring textbooks which included
descriptions of the incident.
"There are revisionist forces who try to write the victims out
of history. This was a cold and systematic massacre that was
perpetrated against innocent Chinese civilians and unarmed Chinese
prisoners of war," Chang said.
"I really admire her courage to tell the truth," said Scott Ma,
a fourth-year molecular biology student. "She’s an
inspiration."
Chang’s appearance drew several Chinese American students whose
relatives were in China, or specifically in Nanking at the time of
the incident. Like Chang, whose grandparents narrowly escaped the
massacre, some had heard stories of the incident from
relatives.
"My grandfather was in Nanking at the time. He’s told me that
the only reason the Japanese kept him alive was because they used
him as a lapdog, a messenger. He was their errand boy," said Eric
Pong, a second-year pre-business economics student.
Some members of the audience were struck by the graphic nature
of Chang’s descriptions. Kelli Nakayama, a fourth-year English
student was especially affected by Chang’s talk.
"I’m Japanese and it was sometimes hard to listen to her talk
about the violence of the Japanese military," said Nakayama. "I
really had no idea about the level of brutality, especially against
women. That was really horrifying," added Nakayama.
Other students attended Chang’s speech after learning of the
incident during their Chinese history courses.
"I came because I’m taking (a class about) women and children in
Chinese history. It’s so interesting that the Japanese government
has the ability to brush this under the table," said Judy Berg, a
fourth-year history student.
The event was the second in BookZone’s author series, which
began with an appearance by Donald Norman, who spoke about the
future of computers.
Following her talk, Chang answered questions from the audience
and signed books. She concluded her speech with a reminder of the
importance of history.
"As scholars, as members of the human race, we have to be
ever-vigilant to ensure that accurate records of atrocities remain
open to the public, because that’s the only way we can learn from
the past and use these incidents as cautionary tales," she
said.ASUCLA BookZone
Author Iris Chang discussed her book at UCLA.
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