Ha Jin was born in China, is a professor of English at Boston University and is the recipient of numerous awards. This fine book could best be desribed as the novel as narrative history. He pretty much spends three-quarters of the book telling the story of the Rape of Nanjing by the Japanese Army in 1937.
The story is compelling and, as I am one of those who abhor Japan's refusal to acknowledge their war crimes, it is a story that needs to be told over and over again. The story has been well-told before, particularly by Iris Chang in 1997 in her book 'The Rape of Nanking". Chang was a journalist and an historian and her book was fabulous. Her call for the Japanese to acknowledge and apologize caused a public stir, led to the US Congress considering a resolution on the topic and got her a meeting with First Lady Hillary Clinton. Chang was researching a book on the Bataan Death March when her depression overwhelmed her and she committed suicide in her late 30's.
Jin uses the diary of Minnie Vautrin, the President of Ginling College, as his primary source material. Ginling was an American missionary college and Vautrin was honored by the Chinese government for her heroic efforts that saved thousands of lives.
As we know, the past isn't even past, and Nanking remains a major issue between the China and Japan to this day. Both countries have stated a willingness to fight over some barren islands midway between them, and the Japanese have recently elected a Prime Minister who wants to withdraw the half-apology for Japanese conduct during WW2 issued by a predecessor and appropriately honor all of their war dead, including the criminals behind Nanking.
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