這是一位母親的回憶錄， 也是她寫給已逝女兒的情書。 2004年11月9日是張盈盈最沉痛的一天。她的女兒張純如（《被遺忘的大屠殺－1937南京浩劫》作者）在加州公路旁邊舉槍自盡，結束短短的36年花樣人生，並遺下一名患輕微自閉症的幼子。過去七年裡，張盈盈寫下了23萬字的回憶錄，試圖分析女兒自殺的原因，以及喚醒人們對憂鬱病患者的關注。 作者張盈盈透過與女兒張純如的來往信件、演講稿和電郵，以及她平日交往甚密的朋友們口中，一點一滴回憶女兒的童年、求學、堅持記錄史實的辛苦調查過程、在美國文壇力爭上游、爭取出版的經過。張盈盈清晰刻劃出一位華裔年輕作家與歷史學者的熱情與自信，甘於貧困並堅持書寫的理想性格，字裡行間流露出身為母親的疼惜與不捨。 張盈盈表示，女兒死後初期，他們不斷自問「女兒為什麼自殺」，懊惱未能即時阻止這樁悲劇。當時的他們，並不了解什麼是憂鬱症，更不知道有關診斷和用藥之後可能帶來的副作用。這幾年來，張盈盈爬梳女兒生前的字字句句，拼湊出女兒的病情，也慢慢療癒她的喪女傷痛

内容简介 Bestselling author Iris Chang takes on her largest subject yet in The Chinese in America，the extraor-dinary history of one the fastet-growing ethnic groups in the United States.In an epic story that spans150 years and continues to the present day，Chang tells of a people's search for a better life-the determination of the Chinese to forge an identity and a destiny in a strange land，to help build their adopted country，and，often against great obstacles，to find success. In the course of her narrative，Chang chronicles the many accomplishments in America of Chinese immigrants and their descendants:building the transcontinental railroad，working on southern plantations after the Civil War，fighting racist and exclusionary laws，walking the racial tighrope between black and white，contributiing to major scientific and technological advances，expanding the lit-erary canon，and influencing the way we think about racial and ethnic groups.At the heart of her book are the stories of individuals-the activists，workers，entrepreneurs，politicians，scientists，writers，and families whose lives，struggles，and victories have shaped and been shaped by this history. Interweaving political，social，economic，and cultural history in an engrossing and passionately told account，Iris Chang offesrs a fresh view not only of what it means to be Chinese American，but of what it is to be American.

1937年12月，日军攻入中国古都南京。几周之内，30多万中国平民和士兵遭到有计划地强暴、折磨和屠杀——死亡人数超过广岛和长崎原子弹爆炸遇难人数的总和。 张纯如不仅在书中详述了日军疯狂暴行的细节，而且分析了在军国主义文化背景下成长起来的日本士兵对人类生命的漠视。张纯如对南京大屠杀的幸存者进行了大量采访，并首次发掘了许多重要文献。 全书先是从日本士兵、军官为什么完全脱离了人类基本的行为规范，日本学校和教科书从心理层面向学生灌输对中国人民的仇恨和蔑视，以及高度军事化的教育体制等多个方面阐述了南京大屠杀发生的根源性原因。 在这本书的核心篇章里，作者通过采访当事人、查阅档案资料以及实地考察与研究，极其详实地记录了日本军队残暴、灭绝人性的屠杀行动，深刻揭示了日本侵略军的凶残本性。同时，作者还生动记述了南京安全区里以德国商人约翰•拉贝、美国外科医生罗伯特•威尔逊、“南京活菩萨”明妮•魏特琳拯救中国人的英雄壮举。 最后，作者以悲愤的笔触揭露了世人所了解的南京大屠杀、日本占领下的南京、对日本战犯的审判、幸存者的命运等鲜为人知的情节。 这本书是关于这段恐怖历史的权威之作。

In an epic story that spans 150 years and continues to the present day, Iris Chang tells of a people’s search for a better life—the determination of the Chinese to forge an identity and a destiny in a strange land and, often against great obstacles, to find success. She chronicles the many accomplishments in America of Chinese immigrants and their descendents: building the infrastructure of their adopted country, fighting racist and exclusionary laws, walking the racial tightrope between black and white, contributing to major scientific and technological advances, expanding the literary canon, and influencing the way we think about racial and ethnic groups. Interweaving political, social, economic, and cultural history, as well as the stories of individuals, Chang offers a bracing view not only of what it means to be Chinese American, but also of what it is to be American.

Iris在一九九七年之前寫作《南京大屠殺》一書時，由於每天接觸到大量的日軍殘暴屠殺中國人民的具體史料，精神上受到很大的震撼。該書出版之後，獲得了空前的成功，受到學術界和讀書界的好評，連續十個月成為《紐約時報》的暢銷書，洛陽紙貴，並被《紐約時報》列為優良讀物，讀書人書評(Bookman Review syndicate)稱讚它是年度最佳書籍之一。 本書從三個不同度—日本人、中國受難者與當時在場的歐美人士的敘事觀,點，全方位地呈現整個大屠殺事件；另一方面,抽絲剝繭地檢視這長達五十多年的黑暗勢力，探討日本政府如何處心積慮地抹煞世界對大屠殺的記憶。 寫這本書毫無疑問需要無比的勇氣，面對無法想像、不忍卒睹的殘忍暴行，絕大部分的人反應是別過臉去，只有最勇敢、最有正義感和最義憤填膺(sense of moral outrage)的人才會對這些暴行加以正視、凝視，甚至審視。 作者蒐集海峽兩岸、歐美、日本許多第一手資料並且整合大屠殺倖存者的訪談紀錄，重新呈現南京大屠殺的完整面貌。過流利、細緻的文字，讀者可以完整了解南京大屠殺歷史的始未，同時省思歷史事件留予世人的寶貴教訓。 教訓要記取，仇恨要遺忘；只有在見證了人性的醜惡之後，仍能保持寬容、保留對人類的熱愛，才是真正的人道主義者。 - 長久以來，日本政府一直想盡辦法抹滅大屠殺的罪行，更企圖讓侵略中國的行為合理化，更可悲的是：西方各國甚至中國自己竟然也同等壓抑這段南京悲歌。身為美籍華人的作者，憑著幼時雙親敘述大屠殺慘烈故事的記憶，抽絲剝繭找出南京浩劫的真相，寫成第一本討論南京大屠殺的專書。作者蒐集大量檔案資料，親自走訪南京、日本等地，訪問倖存者、受難家屬、目擊者、施虐者並親見當年留在淪陷區的外籍商人、傳教士、醫生、記者等留下的日記和影片，同時與歷史學家深入討論，完整呈現一段不容歷史遺忘的悲慘事件。

Iris Chang's best-selling book The Rape of Nanking forever changed the way we view the Second World War in Asia. It all began with a photo of a river choked with the bodies of hundreds of Chinese civilians that shook Iris to her core. Who were these people? Why had this happened and how could their story have been lost to history? She could not shake that image from her head. She could not forget what she had seen. A few short years later, Chang revealed this "second Holocaust" to the world. The Japanese atrocities against the people of Nanking were so extreme that a Nazi party leader based in China actually petitioned Hitler to ask the Japanese government to stop the massacre. But who was this woman that single-handedly swept away years of silence, secrecy and shame? Her mother, Ying-Ying, provides an enlightened and nuanced look at her daughter, from Iris' home-made childhood newspaper, to her early years as a journalist and later, as a promising young historian, her struggles with her son's autism and her tragic suicide. The Woman Who Could Not Forget cements Iris' legacy as one of the most extraordinary minds of her generation and reveals the depth and beauty of the bond between a mother and daughter. 24 pages of black-and-white photographs

梁伯华所著的《正义的天使张纯如》分为六章，内容包括：“我一生所关注的主题就是社会不公”；成长岁月；历史的伤痛；艰辛而成功的写作；逝去的与留下的等。 《正义的天使张纯如》作者全面收集张纯如生前资料，以动人的笔触，描绘和记录了这位正义、勇敢的女作家的生前事迹，引人追思。

The definitive biography of Tsien Hsue-Shen, the pioneer of the American space age who was mysteriously accused of being a communist, deported, and becameto America’s continuing chagrinthe father of the Chinese missile program.

作者张纯如历时三年，向美国国家档案局、美国国防部等相关单位搜集了大量的历史绝密资料，查阅了相关的大学的档案、公开出版物和学术杂志中的大量文献记录，并实地访问上百位钱学森的同事、师长、学生、邻居、朋友以及他的儿子钱永刚，采用洗炼而故事性的笔法撰写而成，译文流畅，可读性强，给我们讲述了这位最严谨、最具科学精神的天才如史诗般传奇的一生。 1949年，钱学森向美国提交了加入美国国籍的申请，他当时是处于怎样的考虑做出这一决定的？ 在他旅居美国的20年中，他是否效忠于美国？是什么原因促使他在1950年突然决定返回中国？美国如何会怀疑他是间谍？钱学森归国经历了怎样的曲折历程？自从钱学森1955年回到中国，就再也没有踏进美国一步。他对美国的真实感情是怎样的？本书还叙述了钱学森的爱情。钱学森和蒋英两人相濡以沫走过了大半生，当初经历了怎样的恋爱过程? 可以说本书不仅仅是钱学森个人成长的传奇史，也是20世纪百年世界史、世界航天发展史、中国航天发展史。

“这是我真正不得不写的一本书。我写，是出自义愤。即使拿不到一分钱，我也不在乎。让世界知道1937年在南京发生了什么事，对我来讲，这才是重要的。” 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　——张纯如 作者照片： 张纯如，在新泽西州普林斯顿出生，在伊利诺州长大。1989年从伊利诺大学毕业后，曾在美联社和芝加哥论坛报当记者，后来从约翰·霍普金斯大学获得写作学位，并开始全职写作和演说。 张纯如出身书香门第，祖父是抗日国军将领张铁军，后曾为台湾中华日报总主笔。其父当年是台大物理系“状元”，其专著《量子场论》在美国理论物理学术界颇有影响。张纯如的母亲一直从事生物化学的研究工作。 张纯如曾荣膺麦克阿瑟基金会“和平与国际合作计划”奖、美国华人团体“年度女性”称号，并且获得美国“国家科学基金会”、“太平洋文化基金会”及“哈利·杜尔门图书馆”赞助。张纯如曾成为世界最著名的文摘杂志《读者文摘》的封面人物，受到许多电视节目邀请，包括著名新闻访谈节目《夜线》(Nightline)和《吉姆莱赫新闻时间》(NewsHour With Jim Lehrer)，也为多家出版物(包括《纽约时报》和《新闻周刊》)写稿。她与NBA体育明星“东方小巨人”姚明、著名钢琴家郎朗被誉为当下美国最引人瞩目的三位华人青年。 1997年，张纯如的《南京大屠杀：被二战遗忘的浩劫》在美国出版。与南京大屠杀有关的研讨会也因此在美国哈佛及斯坦福等大学举行，美国新闻媒介都大幅报道了南京大屠杀。张纯如自己也曾到纽约等地作关于这段历史的演讲。《南京大屠杀》是首部全面记录当年日军血洗南京城暴行的英文著作，曾连续5个月被列为《纽约时报》书评的最佳畅销书，引起英语世界对二次大战时日本在中国实施暴行的关注。1998年4月，东方出版社翻译的20万字《南京大屠杀：被二战遗忘的浩劫》中译本在北京出版。 2004年11月9日，张纯如突然在美国加州自己的轿车内用手枪自杀身亡。有消息推测，年仅36岁的她可能因患抑郁症自杀。 在她的网上祭奠堂的挽联中这样写道： 历经千辛示倭鬼恶昭告世界中华第一人， 自古有死太息青云一瞬如君摇落更堪悲。 Publisher Comments : In December 1937, the Japanese army swept into the ancient city of Nanking. Within weeks, more than 300,000 Chinese civilians were systematically raped, tortured, and murdered — a death toll exceeding that of the atomic blasts of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. Using extensive interviews with survivors and newly discovered documents, Iris Chang has written what will surely be the definitive history of this horrifying episode. The Rape of Nanking tells the story from three perspectives: of the Japanese soldiers who performed it, of the Chinese civilians who endured it, and of a group of Europeans and Americans who refused to abandon the city and were able to create a safety zone that saved almost 300,000 Chinese. Among these was the Nazi John Rabe, an unlikely hero whom Chang calls the "Oskar Schindler of China" and who worked tirelessly to protect the innocent and publicize the horror. More than just narrating the details of an orgy of violence, The Rape of Nanking analyzes the militaristic culture that fostered in the Japanese soldiers a total disregard for human life. Finally, it tells the appalling story: about how the advent of the Cold War led to a concerted effort on the part of the West and even the Chinese to stifle open discussion of this atrocity. Indeed, Chang characterizes this conspiracy of silence, that persists to this day, as "a second rape". Amazon.com China has endured much hardship in its history, as Iris Chang shows in her ably researched The Rape of Nanking, a book that recounts the horrible events in that eastern Chinese city under Japanese occupation in the late 1930s. Nanking, she writes, served as a kind of laboratory in which Japanese soldiers were taught to slaughter unarmed, unresisting civilians, as they would later do throughout Asia. Likening their victims to insects and animals, the Japanese commanders orchestrated a campaign in which several hundred thousand--no one is sure just how many--Chinese soldiers and noncombatants alike were killed. Chang turns up an unlikely hero in German businessman John Rabe, a devoted member of the Nazi party who importuned Adolf Hitler to intervene and stop the slaughter, and who personally saved the lives of countless residents of Nanking. She also suggests that the Japanese government pay reparations and apologize for its army's horrific acts of 60 years ago. From School Library Journal The events in this book are horribly off-putting, which, paradoxically, is why they must be remembered. Chang tells of the Sino-Japanese War atrocities perpetrated by the invading Japanese army in Nanking in December 1937, in which roughly 350,000 soldiers and civilians were slaughtered in an eight-week period, many of them having been raped and/or tortured first. Not only are readers given many of the gory details?with pictures?but they are also told of the heroism of some members of a small foreign contingent, particularly of a Nazi businessman who resided in China for 30 years. The story of his bravery lends the ironic touch of someone with evil credentials doing good. Once the author finishes with the atrocities, she proceeds with the equally absorbing and much easier-to-take story of what happened to the Nazi businessman when he returned to Germany and the war ended. This by itself is material for a movie. The author tells why the Japanese government not only allowed the atrocities to occur but also refused, and continues to refuse, to acknowledge that they happened. She is quite evenhanded in reminding readers that every culture has some episode like this in its history; what makes this one important is the number of people killed and tortured, the sadism, and the ongoing Japanese denial of responsibility. Mature readers will look beyond the sensational acts of cruelty to ponder the horror of man's inhumanity to man and the examples of heroism in the midst of savagery. 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Judy McAloon, Potomac Library, Prince William County, VA From Library Journal Even though the Japanese government still refuses to acknowledge the massacre of at least 250,000 Chinese civilians by invading Japanese troops in 1937, freelance writer Chang (the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times, the Associated Press) has exposed in detail the full, terrible account of what happened to the war-torn capital of Nanking. Chang, whose grandparents survived the brutality, first establishes Japan's social hierarchy by martial competition, then shows how the city of Nanking fell, the six weeks of horror following, and the Nanking safety zone created by Americans and Europeans. The book goes on to depict the city's occupation, the judgment day for Japanese war criminals, the cover-up perpetrated by Japanese textbooks, and Japan's self-imposed censorship. The unseen illustrations will certainly complement the vivid description of one of the most horrible massacres of all. This unique, deeply researched book, with its firsthand account, is an excellent choice for larger public libraries and the East Asia collections of academic libraries. 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Steven Lin, American Samoa Community Coll. Lib. From AudioFile Few know the details of the Japanese invasion of Nanking during WWII. Once a capital city of China, it became a scene of holocaust, rivaling any of Europe's in brutality and numbers. This is not history for the squeamish. Chang unfolds episodes with painstaking detail. She documents facts, reactions and rebuttals and includes a psycho-sociological analysis of the Japanese character to explain (if not excuse) their excesses. With a dry voice, Fields keeps her narrative from overreaction, using a finely tuned ear for inflection to emphasize the worst horrors. This is a real accomplishment as it would be hard NOT to express indignation. Her intelligent performance makes this a remarkable and compelling experience. S.B.S. From Kirkus Reviews Billing itself as the first English-language history devoted to the Japanese Army's 1937 massacre in China's capital, this slight account will by no means be the last word. Repeated references to Schindler's List point to the problem with this overdigested version of the past: It reads like a treatment for a probably inevitable cinema version of the hideous incident. Its economical, blandly shocking anecdotes of crimes against humanity and its cardboard heroes suggest scenes ready-made for screenwritten history. Thus, while rigorous in its moral earnestness, the book is inadequate as a history. After a minimal background chapter on Japanese militarism, Chang, a freelance journalist, describes the Japanese assault on Nanking. The specifics are deeply horrific: Over a period of several months Japanese soldiers killed approximately a quarter of a million Chinese, almost all of them noncombatants, including the elderly, women, and children. But the potential ingredients of a skillfully woven narrative are separated here into lifeless clumps of facts--catalogues of atrocities by kind; tiny summaries of topics of significant contextual interest, like foreign intelligence concerning the massacre; and probably gripping oral recollections flattened into clunky prose (``of the hundreds of people killed that day . . . Tang was the only survivor''). Chang tells only as much as one needs to know to indignantly draw the familiar lessons for humanity--``the frightening ease with which the mind can accept genocide, turning us all into passive spectators to the unthinkable.'' What's needed is to vivify such truths with intense historical reality. Chang fails because he rushes to simplify complex events and to universalize what happened at the expense of a careful, comprehensive appreciation of a world violently destroyed. (photos, not seen) (First serial to Newsweek) Frederic Wakeman, Director of the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley Iris Chang's RAPE OF NANKING is an utterly compelling book. The descriptions of the atrocities raise fundamental questions not only about imperial Japanese militarism but the psychology of the torturers, rapists and murderers. Many Japanese have denied that these events ever took place, substituting amnesia for guilt, but Iris Chang's heartbreaking account will make such evasion impossible in the future for all but the most diehard right-wing Japanese extremists. About Author Iris Chang, a full time author living in California, heard stories about the Rape of Nanking from her parents, who survived years of war and revolution before finding a serene home as professors in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. A journalism graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana, she worked briefly as a reporter in Chicago before winning a graduate fellowship to the writing seminars program at The Johns Hopkins University. Her first book, Thread of the Silkworm (the story of Tsien-Hsue-shen, father of the People's Republic of China's missile program) received worldwide critical acclaim. She is the recipient of the John T. and Catherine D. MacArthur Foundation's Program on Peace and International Cooperation award, as well as major grants from the National Science Foundation, the Pacific Cultural Foundation, and the Harry Truman Library. She is 30 years old. Book Dimension : Height (cm) 19.8 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 Width (cm) 12.8

张纯如版《南京大屠杀》， 一部令国人流泪的书，所有的中国人都要看的书！ ★★★★★ 编辑推荐： 中信版《南京大屠杀》的独特价值 1. 《南京大屠杀：第二次世界大战中被遗忘的大浩劫》是张纯如唯一以《南京大屠杀》命名的中文简体版。 2. 张纯如所著《南京大屠杀》数次登上《纽约时报》畅销书榜，被翻译成15种语言，轰动世界。中信版《南京大屠杀》是在原著基础上，增加了张纯如母亲所做的序、张纯如生前丈夫布雷特•道格拉斯于2011年9月撰写的尾声，新增加的内容对这本书创作的前因、后果以及张纯如短暂而伟大的一生进行了一个完整的梳理。因此，本版译著内容更加充实，更具有可读性。 3. 中信版《南京大屠杀》忠实于原著，选择了有一定专业背景的资深译者进行翻译，彻底解决了原著的翻译问题，精妙地传达了原著的神韵。阅读这本书，完全能体验到原汁原味的《南京大屠杀》给你带来的震撼。 ★★★★★ 内容简介： 忘记过去的人注定要重蹈覆辙。 ——乔治•桑塔亚纳（George Santayana） 1937年12月，日军攻入中国古都南京。几周之内，30多万中国平民和士兵遭到有计划地强暴、折磨和屠杀——死亡人数超过广岛和长崎原子弹爆炸遇难人数的总和。张纯如从三个视角讲述了南京大屠杀的故事：一是日本人的视角，二是中国人的视角，三是一群不肯抛弃南京的西方人的视角，他们创立了安全区，最终拯救了近30万名中国人。 张纯如不仅在书中详述了日军疯狂暴行的细节，而且分析了在军国主义文化背景下成长起来的日本士兵对人类生命的漠视。张纯如对南京大屠杀的幸存者进行了大量采访，并首次发掘了许多重要文献。该书是关于这段恐怖历史的权威之作。 ★★★★★ 媒体及专家评论： 对历史和道德进行探究的最新力作。张纯如极其认真地对这场大屠杀的规模进行了认真叙述。 ——《芝加哥论坛报》 该书的研究工作一丝不苟……全书自始至终都引人入胜。 ——郑念 《上海生死劫》的作者 张纯如对南京大屠杀的研究扩展了“二战”暴行的内容，该书反映了她对该问题研究的深入。该书非常精彩，值得一读。 ——白彬菊 耶鲁大学历史系教授 该书读来令人心碎……扣人心弦的一本书。书中对南京大屠杀的描述引发了我们对许多根本性问题的思考，不仅包括日本的军国主义，还包括那些虐待狂、强奸犯和谋杀犯的心理因素。 ——魏斐德 加利福尼亚大学伯克利分校东亚研究所所长 张纯如的外祖父母侥幸逃过了南京大屠杀……她在这部最新力作中，详细叙述了这场耸人听闻的大屠杀，她在文中表现的愤怒之情是可以理解的。 ——夏伟 《纽约时报书评》 任何对战争、自以为是和人类精神之间的关系感兴趣的人，都会发现该书的重要意义。它是一项激动人心的学术研究，也是一本充满激情的著作。该书的很多章节令人不忍卒读，但我们应该阅读，因为只有理解过去，才能更好地驾驭未来。 ——罗斯•特里尔 《毛泽东传》的作者 作为20世纪极其重要的著作之一，张纯如的《南京大屠杀》将成为世界战争史中的经典著作。 ——汤美如 影片《以天皇的名义》的制片人兼联合导演 该书结构严谨，可读性强……张纯如让这段鲜为人知的历史广受关注。 ——拉塞尔•詹金斯 《国家评论》 在这个动荡的世纪即将结束之际，张纯如的著作唤起了民众对“二战”中这段最黑暗历史的关注，为通向未来和平的道路洒满阳光。 ——史咏 《南京大屠杀：历史照片中的见证》的合著者 张纯如的故事读来字字惊心……书中详尽地记录了对这一道德暴行的控诉。 ——《休斯顿纪事报》 这是一段不容否认的历史，该书的意义在于，它既记录了人类在实施暴行时的冷酷无情，又通过个人的英雄主义行为让我们看到了希望。 ——《圣何塞水星报》 张纯如提醒我们，不论发生在南京的种种暴行多么令人难以理解，它们都不应该被遗忘——至少不能让遗忘危及文明自身。 ——《底特律新闻报》 张纯如所做的恢复历史的工作非常急迫……她的著作促使世人迈出了承认这场悲剧的重要一步。 ——《海湾卫士报》

"华裔作家张纯如于1997年出版的非文学畅销书《南京大屠杀》跻身美国《纽约时报》畅销书冠军。2004年，张纯如开枪自杀。从2007年起，张纯如的母亲张盈盈耗费六年时间写成这本回忆录，细腻地为读者呈现了女儿36年的人生：张纯如童年时自办的报纸，她早年作为新闻记者的经历，一名年轻历史学者的冉冉升起，与儿子的自闭症作斗争的历程，以及悲剧性的自杀。《张纯如：无法忘却历史的女子》一书充分证明，张纯如确为她那一代人中的佼佼者，同时，这本书也展现了母女之间深切美丽的爱与疼痛。 "

《南京暴行:被遗忘的大屠杀》材料翔丰富，许多是从对幸存者和目击者的访谈中得到的第一手资料，还有从历史档案中发掘的权威资料。现在已出版的《拉贝日记》就是在她的寻访和促成下公诸于世的。 《南京暴行:被遗忘的大屠杀》是一本完整、全面了解南京大屠杀历史真相和前因后果的权威著作……

《南京浩劫：遗忘的大屠杀》的作者实地采访多位大屠杀幸存者，并佐以大量历史档案、第三方当事人的日记和书信，多视角回溯了南京大屠杀这一被遗忘的历史事件。书中讲述屠杀发生时“中国人个体的故事：失败、绝望、背叛和幸存的经历”以及那些冒着生命危险帮助中国平民的西方人士的故事。并在书的最后部分探讨了某些势力意图将南京大屠杀从公共意识中抹去的行为。