Ingrid Ellis’s Reviews > The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II > Status Update

It’s honestly such a crime that they’ve coined the term “comfort women” for the women the Japanese stole for their military brothels. Some were raped until they died from wounds or disease. Some had to please up to 40 men a day. Many who survived ended up killing themselves because of the shame. Nothing “comforting” about what they did to these women.

The author keeps comparing these atrocities to the Holocaust and contemplating why we know so much about the Holocaust and so little about The Rape of Nanking. In addition to her thoughts, I can’t help but wonder, what if historians (typically men, historically) simply do not care much about women being raped.

Gosh I shouldn’t read this before bed. Content warning: violence.

“soldiers impaled babies on bayonets and tossed them still alive into pots of boiling water.”

And the Yangtze river literally ran red with blood…

“So sickening was the spectacle that even the Nazis in the city were horrified…”

“Hitler killed about 6 million Jews, and Stalin more than 40 million Russians, but these deaths were brought about over some few years. In the Rape of Nanking the killing was concentrated within a few weeks.”