Selected quotes from the book of
essays
by the mother of Iris
Chang
“I witnessed many refugees stream
from my country of Uganda into our home in Kenya, where I grew up as the
daughter of exiles…Until I read The Rape of Nanking, I was convinced
that the war in Northern Uganda was the only war that the world had ever
turned it's back on. It turns out it wasn't.”
-- Juliane Okot Bitek,
a college student in British Columbia., Canada
“After having read the Rape of Nanking, I felt compelled to deeply
explore my Chinese heritage and I began to make inquiries to my father
about our family roots in China. I consider myself multiethnic -
Chinese-Hawaiian-Mexican-American.”
-- Lani Cupchoy, a
history graduate student in California
“The highest praise that one could give to Iris Chang is that she has
smashed the naïveté of the world and forced us to examine the past so
that we might learn from it.”
-- Ed Dubois, a college
student in New York
“Nanking and the forgetfulness that descended upon us, raises many
questions that we must answer as a people and as a government.”
-- Michael Dyer, a
college student in Washington
“Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanking has opened my eyes to both the
brutality and the nobility of the human spirit. I am forever changed.”
-- Teague Briana
Harvey, a high school student in Wisconsin
“As I have been taught to preserve the Jewish Holocaust, so now I will
preserve the other great Holocaust of World War II. Because of Iris
Chang’s work, they are now both folded into my identity.”
-- Sabrina Howell, a Yale student from NY
“Among the many truths I have learned from Iris Chang, that which
impressed me most, and which I will carry with me throughout life, is
the profound importance of giving voice to the silenced and ensuring
that the lessons of the past are not forgotten.”
-- Alissa Magorian, a
free-lance editor in California
“Iris Chang warns us time and time again that silence (in the face of
oppression) is a form of consent… I’ve learned from Ms. Chang, that
progress cannot happen without understanding. And understanding cannot
happen without remembering.”
-- Adeline Oka, a
college student in Massachusetts
“It is worth, because the answers to the questions of the future lay in
the past, and Chang’s insistence on knowing the truth about Nanking is
an attempt to contribute to the prevention of possible analogue
atrocities.”
-- Alesia Sidliarevich,
a student of Journalism in the country of
Belarus
“I found myself through Chang’s books. No longer ashamed of my heritage,
I learned not only to accept my Chinese ancestry but be proud of it.”
-- Lily Yan, a college student from Arizona
“The Rape of Nanking has furthered my belief that one voice crying out
can pierce the darkest of shrouds and illuminate the truth.”
-- James L. Young Jr., a graduate from USMA, Kansas
“In fact, the story of The Rape of Nanking transcends a litany of
destruction. It is a grim reflection of the banality of evil, reminding
us once more how thin the veneer of civilization truly is. Today we have
Darfur. Yesterday was Rwanda. Nanking, in that sense, is but another
grey stain on the mosaic of human existence.”
-- Hann-Shuin Yew, a Harvard student, Singapore |
