This book has probably disturbed me the most of any WWII book that I've read. There are some amazing stories of bravery--but you are already so blown away by the absolute horror of what happened in Nanking that you can't focus on anything positive that occurred.

It's the story about the Japanese invasion of China, and eventually the takeover of Nanking-China's capital city at the time. The Japanese come in and literally rape everything in site. What blows me away the most however is the free pass this part of the war has received. It's as if the history itself closed the book on this event and labeled it non existent. How did we not read about this in school? How on Earth did this happen? Interestingly enough, Japan has basically said, "Uhhh yeah, we did it. So what?"

As I was reading it a quote from Kurt Vonnegut came to mind, "Can it be doubted that three-kilo-gram brains were once nearly fatal defects in the evolution of the human race?"

If you are at all curious about anything not European Holocaust related during WWII, you have to read this book. You won't walk away happy, but you'll sure see the war, and life, in a different perspective. All of a sudden my little, sore ankle doesn't hurt so much after reading quotes from survivors.