The Undaunted Women of Nanking

The Undaunted Women of Nanking edited by Hua-ling Hu & Lian-hong Zhang S. Illinois University Press, HK$240

Even now, despite eyewitness testimony from journalists and even Japanese soldiers confirming atrocities, Japanese nationalists still brand the Rape of Nanking a hoax. So any new light on the Japanese rampage that unravelled during the 1937-38 phase of the Sino-Japanese war appears welcome. This chronicle, which interweaves the memoirs of two Samaritans - Minnie Vautrin and Tsen Shui-fang - opens with the facts.

According to the verdict of the Tokyo war crimes trial of 1946, the editors note, during the first six weeks of Japanese occupation of the city, some 200,000 Chinese were butchered. In the first month, at least 20,000 women aged between 12 and 80 were raped. Some victims were tortured to death.

At the onset, some 20 Europeans and Americans refused to evacuate. Led by German industrialist John Rabe - the subject of a Schindler's List-style film - the expatriates set up a 4-sq-km refugee zone. Their little Switzerland included Nanking University, the American embassy, and various missionary schools and institutes.

At the height of the terror, some 200,000 Chinese refugees occupied the zone, which Japanese soldiers routinely breached, wreaking mayhem. Still, by lodging protests to the Japanese authorities and blocking rampaging troops, the defenders saved thousands of Chinese from the horror. Among the vigilantes, Illinois-born Minnie Vautrin - dean of studies at Nanking's Ginling College - was one of the most formidable figures.

Vautrin's quiet assistant, trained nurse Tsen Shui-fang, tended the sick. No matter how tired and terrified the two women felt, they found time to document the exploits of Emperor Hirohito's hyenas.