The making of the "Rape of Nanking" : history and memory in Japan, China, and the United States / Takashi Yoshida.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 185-257) and index.

Japan : mobilizing the nation, sanitizing aggression -- China : intolerable atrocities -- United States : the "rape of Nanking" -- Japan confronting the Nanjing massacre -- China : in times of civil and cold war -- United States : rebuilding Japan -- Japan : from "victim consciousness" to "victimizer consciousness" -- China : nationalizing memory of the Nanjing massacre -- United States : focus on Japanese denials of the past -- Japan : a war over history and memory -- China : the Nanjing massacre and patriotic education -- United States : rediscovery of the Nanjing massacre.

"Drawing on a rich analysis of Chinese, Japanese, and American history textbooks and newspapers, Takashi Yoshida traces the evolving, and often conflicting, understandings of the Nanjing Massacre, revealing how changing social and political environments have influenced the debate. Yoshida suggests that, from the 1970s on, the dispute over Nanjing has become more lively, more globalized, and immeasurably more intense, due in part to Japanese revisionist history and a renewed emphasis on patriotic education in China. While today it is easy to assume that the Nanjing Massacre has always been viewed as an emblem of Japan's wartime aggression in China, the image of the "Rape of Nanjing" is a much more recent icon in public consciousness.

Takashi Toshida analyzes the process by which the Nanjing Massacre has become an international symbol and provides a fair and respectful treatment of the politically charged and controversial debate over its history."--BOOK JACKET.