As looked at the growing relationship between ‘the West’ (primarily Western Europe) and ‘Asia’ (primarily China). We have seen that this relationship began primarily

as a trading relationship, but that transculturation was occurring throughout this period, changing many of the civilizations of the Eurasian continent.

For this paper, we are going to move away from this history and look at a more recent event- the Rape of Nanking. This event, which occurred in the last months of

1937, has remained controversial since it first happened. China contends that the Rape of Nanking was indeed a war crime, and that Japan must apologize for it. The

Japanese government, on the other hand, has refused to apologize, insisting that the events of 1937 in Nanking were simply a part of war, and that while brutalities

occurred, this is normal in the course of war.

Structure

The essay should address the following questions:

1. According to most sources, what exactly was the ‘Rape of Nanking’, and what events immediately led up to it?

2. Why might it be difficult to write the history of this event with absolute precision? What kind of sources might historians use for this? Why might these sources be

problematic?

3. Why was little said about the Rape of Nanking, in both China, the United States, and Japan, for nearly 50 years?

4. Has China’s government, since the 1980s, exploited the memory of the event for political gain?

5. Why does Japan refuse to officially apologize for the event? Do current relations China and Japan have anything to do with this?

6. Has the United States exploited the memory of the Rape of Nanking for its own purposes as well?