Editing The Rape of Nanking (book) (section)

===Research===
Chang spent two years on research for the book.<ref name="SFGate2005-04-17" /> She found source materials in the US, including diaries, films, and photographs of missionaries, journalists, and military officers who were in Nanjing at the time of the massacre.<ref name="RapeOfNanking8-9" />{{Rp|11}} Additionally, she traveled to Nanjing to interview survivors of the Nanjing Massacre and to read Chinese accounts and confessions by Japanese army veterans.<ref name="SFGate1998">{{cite news|url=http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1998/07/26/SC77214.DTL|title=Wars of Memory|publisher=SFGate|date=1998-07-26|access-date=2007-07-21|first=Charles|last=Burress|archive-date=2012-02-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204145926/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=%2Fchronicle%2Farchive%2F1998%2F07%2F26%2FSC77214.DTL|url-status=dead}}</ref> Also, she incorporated the most recent work on the subject by Chinese and Chinese-American historians by including many disturbing photographs and a myriad of translated documents.<ref> Yang Daqing, "Convergence or Divergence? Recent Historical Writings on the Rape of Nanjing", ''The American Historical Review'' 104 (1999), p. 7.</ref>

Before publication, the book was reviewed by [[Rana Mitter]] and Christian Jessen-Klingenberg of the [[University of Oxford]]; [[Carol Gluck]] of [[Columbia University]]; and [[William C. Kirby]] of [[Harvard University]].<ref>Chang, Iris; The Rape of Nanking; Penguin, London, 1998</ref> At the time of writing, the Japanese government classified Japan’s World War 2 archives, making archival records unavailable to investigators.<ref name="Alan Rosenbaum">{{cite book|author=Alan S. Rosenbaum|title=Is the Holocaust Unique?: Perspectives on Comparative Genocide|publisher=Routledge|year=2018|isbn=9780813344065| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PxdWDwAAQBAJ&q=If+the+Japanese+Foreign+Ministry+and+the+rest+of+the+Japanese+government+truly+care+about+historical+truth,+then+they+should+open+all+their+wartime+archives+to+the+rest+of+the+world+%E2%80%A6+They+shouldn%E2%80%99t+mind+inviting+an+international+task+force+of+historians+%E2%80%93+historians+from+the+U.S.,+China,+Japan,+Ko&pg=PT244}}</ref>

==== The diaries ====
Chang's research led her to make what one ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]'' article called "Significant Discoveries" on the subject of the Nanjing Massacre, in the forms of the diaries of two Westerners who were in Nanjing leading efforts to save lives during the Japanese invasion.<ref name="SFGate2005-04-17" /> The diaries documented the events of the Nanjing Massacre from the perspectives of their writers, and provided detailed accounts of atrocities that they saw, as well as information surrounding the circumstances of the [[Nanking Safety Zone]].

One diary was that of [[John Rabe]], a [[Germans|German]] [[Nazi Party]] member who was the leader of the Nanking Safety Zone, a [[demilitarized zone]] in Nanjing that Rabe and other Westerners set up to protect Chinese civilians.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/NanjingMassacre/NMNR.html|title=Rabe's Records of "The Rape of Nanjing" Discovered|publisher=The Chinese University of Hong Kong|date=1996-09-26|access-date=2007-07-23}}</ref> Rabe's diary is over 800 pages, and contains one of the most detailed accounts of the Nanjing Massacre.<ref>{{cite book|author=Malcolm Trevor|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PrAoHzoP1QkC&q=%22john+rabe%22+diary+%22detailed+accounts%22&pg=RA1-PA121|title=Japan: Restless Competitor|publisher=Routledge|year=2001|isbn=1-903350-02-6|pages=121}}</ref> Translated into English, it was published in 1998 by [[Random House]] as ''[[The Good Man of Nanking: The Diaries of John Rabe]]''.<ref>{{cite book|author=John Rabe|url=https://archive.org/details/goodmanofnanking00rabe|title=The Good Man of Nanking: The Diaries of John Rabe|publisher=Random House|year=1998|isbn=0-375-40211-X}}</ref>

The other diary belonged to [[Minnie Vautrin]], the American missionary who saved the lives of about 10,000 women and children when she provided them with shelter in [[Ginling College]].<ref name="Vautrin">{{cite web|url=http://www.siu.edu/~siupress/titles/s00_titles/hu_goddess.htm|archive-url=https://archive.today/20070525134253/http://www.siu.edu/~siupress/titles/s00_titles/hu_goddess.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=2007-05-25|title=American Goddess at the Rape of Nanking|publisher=Southern Illinois University|access-date=2007-07-23 }}</ref> Vautrin's diary recounts her personal experience and feelings on the Nanjing Massacre; in it, an entry reads, "There probably is no crime that has not been committed in this city today."<ref>{{cite news|date=2005-04-11|title=Scarred by history: The Rape of Nanjing|work=BBC News|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/223038.stm|access-date=2007-07-27}}</ref> It was used as source material by Hua-ling Hu for a biography of Vautrin and her role during the Nanjing Massacre, entitled ''[[American Goddess at the Rape of Nanking: The Courage of Minnie Vautrin]]''.<ref>{{cite web|date=2002-08-24|title=An American hero in Nanking|url=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/DH24Ad01.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020826201217/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/DH24Ad01.html|url-status=unfit|archive-date=2002-08-26|access-date=2007-07-27|publisher=Asia Times}}</ref>

Chang dubbed Rabe the "[[Oskar Schindler]] of Nanking" and Vautrin the "[[Anne Frank]] of Nanking."<ref>Chang, Iris. 18 January 2012. "[https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/01/the-nazi-leader-who-in-1937-became-the-oskar-schindler-of-china/251525/ The Nazi Leader Who, in 1937, Became the Oskar Schindler of China]." ''[[The Atlantic]]''.</ref><ref name="SFGate2005-04-17" />