NANJING REQUIEM. (2011). Ha Jin. ***.
The author is normally a writer whose prose resembles poetry. His sentences flow smoothly and precisly describe his characters, their surroundings and their actions. This book is no exception, but somehow it doesn’t all come together the same way. This is the story of The Rape of Nanjing (Nanking) by the Chinese in 1937. The protagonist is Minnie Vantrin, an American missionary, the dean of Jinling Women’s College. The school is for young women only and is well regarded throughout China. When the Japanese invade, Minnie decides to stay on at the school, thinking that the fact that she is an American will help protect the girls along with the men and women who work there. She decides – after the Japanese have taken over the city – to convert the school and its grounds into a safe haven – a safety zone or refugee camp – for young women and their mothers. The school under this plan could accomodate about 2,000 people. She soon finds herself providing shelter for over 10,000. She is constantly battling the incursion of Japanes troops, who see this safety zone as a concentrated source of young women. Along with this constant threat, she has to somehow deal with the administrative staff of Japanese who control the distribution of food and water throughout the city. In her travels from the school to the various administration buildings she sees and learns of the various atrocities committed by the Japanese soldiers. Thousands of people had been slaughtered and thousands of young women raped then killed by the lustful men of the army. All of these atrocities are described in sufficient detail to have them inscribed on the readers’ minds. But, yet, the book reads more like the notes of a newspaper reporter. Somehow the usual spark of Ha Jin’s writing was missing and I was left cold and, frustratingly, unfeeling at all of the despicable acts described. It was certainly a sad story, especially the tragic ending, but I felt like a reader twice removed.