James K. reviewed on 11/10/2009 + 5 more book reviews

Not an easy read for the simple reason that descriptions of the crimes that were committed against the Chineese people of the city are documented factually and without glossing over the intense suffering present. It is also uncomfortable to probe the author's assertion that the veneer of civilzation is so paper thin that any human being, under the right (or rather, wrong) set of circumstances could perpetrate similar crimes. It was the systematic abuse of young students in Japan's militaristic educational system of the time that indoctronated and desensetized them into a code of thinking and behaving that was feral. The Japaneese or German militarists were no different in their human nature than any other person born to this planet.

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