A review by ljrinaldi
Nanjing: The Burning City by Ethan Young
4.0
I admit, when I picked this up, I knew a little bit about the story of the rape of Nanjing, but that was about as far as it goes. This, as most good war stories, is told from the view of a soldier in the conflict, a Chinese officer.
And of course, the way war is, this does not have a happy ending. Why should it? Well, most of the books I have that are set in war have some glimmer of hope in them, that the main characters will survive, and live another day. But I'm sure the point of this book is to show how horrific the war was. So, no such glimmer of hope for us here.
Still, this was well told, and for those who want to teach about what happened pre-WWII (there are those that say that this conflict should be when WWII started, rather than 1939), this is a good introduction.
I thought I was just going to look inside, and then finish this later, but read the whole thing in one sitting.
And of course, the way war is, this does not have a happy ending. Why should it? Well, most of the books I have that are set in war have some glimmer of hope in them, that the main characters will survive, and live another day. But I'm sure the point of this book is to show how horrific the war was. So, no such glimmer of hope for us here.
Still, this was well told, and for those who want to teach about what happened pre-WWII (there are those that say that this conflict should be when WWII started, rather than 1939), this is a good introduction.
I thought I was just going to look inside, and then finish this later, but read the whole thing in one sitting.