Text 1

Overdue Interest

by Matt Miller

    In America many people are ignorant of the horrible crimes committed by the Japanese Imperial Army during their invasion of China. In Japan, many even try to deny the Great Nanjing Massacre. Iris Chang wrote The Rape of Nanking to remind people of the evil done 60 years ago and the following is a comment on her book.

    The Japanese Imperial Army made a prominent spot in the annals of collective evil 60 years ago when it launched the Great Nanjing Massacre. In less than two months, Japanese troops killed from 150 000 to 300 000 unarmed Chinese civilians and raped and tortured more than 100 000 women. It was an act of mass barbarism that much of Japan to this day either can't explain or simply won't admit could have happened.

    In the United States, a series of conferences timed to the anniversary of the massacre － which began on December 13 and lasted for about six weeks － is attempting to revive long-dormant interest in this horrific event. Most Americans have absolutely no idea about either the December 1937 － January 1938 massacre or its relationship to World War II. Central to this attempted revival is a new book by Iris Chang, The Rape of Nanking.

    Chang, 29, lives in the California Silicon Valley city of Sunnyvale, 100 kilometres south of San Francisco. It's no coincidence that a Chinese-American writer in America's technology heartland is leading the charge that demands both Japanese acknowledgment of responsibility and mainstream American recognition. Chang and her book are indications of an important movement within America. It is a demand for shared history. As ethnic groups gain economic, social and political confidence, they prod and push for their historic tales to be heard.

    "This is an invitation to Americans as a whole to become larger by incorporating the history of others," says Vera Schwarcz, a professor of Chinese history at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. Nowhere is this movement more visible than among some of the more affluent Asian-American communities in California. "I go into school libraries and I'm shocked at how little there is," says Los Angeles-based Korean-American writer Helie Lee. Her critically-acclaimed memoir, Still Life With Rice, is a fascinating tale of her grandmother, who overcame extraordinary adversity at the hands of Japanese. "It is up to us as Asian-Americans to supply the resources, it is up to us to speak."

    The Nanjing massacre provides a compelling focus for Chinese-Americans, who pressured the San Francisco Unified School District into including the massacre in high-school history courses. Similar demands are being made in Southern California's Orange County. Now, Chang is offering this history for mainstream consumption.
    For Chang, the Nanjing massacre began with self-discovery. The daughter of Taiwan scientists who came to America in the 1960s, Chang heard stories about the massacre － how the Yangtze River ran red with blood － and how her grandparents had miraculously escaped the carnage.

    Her grandfather － a journalist stationed in the then Nationalist capital of Nanjing － was being evacuated by boat from Wuhu. Her grandmother and infant aunt were making their way from their ancestral village by sampan. Her grandfather waited on the docks for four days. Time was running out. "In despair, he screamed his beloved's name － Yi-Pei － to the heavens," Chang writes. "Then, like an echo from far away, he heard a reply. It came from one last sampan approaching the docks."

    But as a child, Chang could find nothing that tied those personal accounts to history as Americans understand it. "While still in grade school I searched the local public libraries to see what I could learn about the massacre, but nothing turned up," she says. "It made me wonder. If it was really as bad as my parents said it was, then why couldn't I find it in the library?"

    Three years ago, Chang had just finished Thread of the Silkworm, a book on Chinese-American scientist Tsien Hsue-shen (Qian Xueshen), a victim of the McCarthy era in the 1950s who then helped China develop its missile programme. She attended a conference on the Nanjing Massacre in the Silicon Valley community of Cupertina, organized by the Global Alliance for Preserving the History of World War II in Asia, an umbrella group of 30 organizations.

    "We feel that if we don't hold these people, this government, responsible, future generations will say, ‘Well, these people got away with it, so can we,’" explains Ignatius Ding, an engineer and an alliance founder. Ding adds: "The continued denial is an insult to our heritage."

    The 1994 conference showcased dramatic and gruesome photographs of the massacre. "Nothing prepared me for these pictures," Chang writes in her book, "stark black-and-white images of decapitated heads, bellies ripped open, and nude women forced by their rapists into various pornographic poses, their faces twisted into unforgettable expressions of agony and shame."

    Chang was appalled. "It was worse than I could ever have imagined," she says. "I felt sick to my stomach. I remember walking around in a state of shock." But the photos also hooked her on the need to relate this horror to other Americans. "I remember being very angry, especially at the intensity of the massacre, that more than 300 000 people may have died in the slaughter and that this could so easily be ignored. I felt I had almost a moral obligation as a Chinese-American writer to let the rest of the world know what happened. And I felt a kind of urgency."

    She spent the next two years researching the massacre. Her conclusion: "This went beyond just a mere slaughter. This is one of the greatest atrocities the world has ever seen."

    The young author describes her emotional and historical quest over lunch in a seafood restaurant near the apartment complex where she and her engineer husband, Bretton Lee Douglas, live. Chang talks in often-indignant tones, only occasionally picking at the fried squid in front of her. Her stories are laced with outrage, most often directed at Japan's dogged refusal to come to terms with its past.

    "It's appalling that the Japanese continue to deny that it happened, that they really have escaped moral and financial responsibility," she says. Japan is "sending out the message to countries in the future that if you're rich and powerful enough, you can go ahead and kill and rape or torture hundreds of thousands of men, women and children and get away with it 60 years later."

    Chang's research uncovered a 2 000-page diary of John Rabe, a German businessman who spearheaded expatriate efforts in Nanjing to counter the Japanese army's insanity. His account adds to the growing body of non-Chinese accounts that support the case of a systematic carnage by Japanese troops. Rabe's witnessing is all the more credible as he both headed the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone and the local Nazi Party.
    Chang believes the Nanjing Massacre is indicative that the Japanese conquerors purposely dehumanized the Chinese. The massacre was also a systematic attempt at annihilation, Chang argues, adding that the massacre should be likened to the Holocaust.

    Yet there is Japan's continued denial. Chang believes it stems from legal concerns: If Japan were to admit responsibility, the door would be open to lawsuits demanding billions of dollars in reparations. But that is an oversimplification. Japan continues to wallow in its own mythology of the Japanese as victims. The country maintains a self-righteous belief that it was pushed into military adventure.
    Palace politics also plays a role. The late Emperor Hirohito's uncle, Prince Yasuhiko Asaka, commanded the army around Nanjing. Orders, stamped with his seal, told officers to kill all captured Chinese soldiers. Even if one assumes that Japanese authorities lost control and their troops went crazy, why was the carnage allowed to continue for so long? Who or what finally stopped it?

    All these issues are of little interest to most Americans, who suffer from what Schwarcz terms an "allergy to history." The Rape of Nanking stands as one of the only nonfiction accounts of the massacre in the English language. Yet it is barely 200 pages long, and appears to be aimed at an audience with little historical perspective. Chang and other Chinese-Americans ask that fellow citizens understand this horror in the most fundamental terms. The first task, they are saying, is basic education.

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课文一

迟来的关注

马特•米勒

    在美国，许多人并不了解日本帝国军队在侵略中国时所犯下的滔天罪行。在日本，许多人甚至试图否认南京大屠杀。艾里斯•张写的《南京大屠杀》，就是要提醒人们牢记60年前犯下的罪行。下面这篇文章是对这本书的评论。

    60年前，日本帝国军队发动的南京大屠杀，在人类所犯下的集体罪行记录中位置醒目。在不到两个月的时间里，日军杀害了15-30万手无寸铁的中国公民，强奸折磨了10多万中国妇女。这是一次野蛮的集体暴行，至今许多日本人 不能解释，或根本不承认曾经发生过这样的事情。

    在美国，有一系列会议安排在南京大屠杀周年日召开——自12月13日起持续近六周的时间 -- 试图重新激起对这一被长期冷漠了的恐怖事件兴趣。多数美国人根本不了解发生于1937年12月至1938年1月的大屠杀，也不清楚它与二战之间的关系。 在这次试图重新激起人们关注活动中起中心作用的，是艾里斯•张的新作《南京大屠杀》。 

    张，29岁，住在加利福尼亚硅谷桑尼威尔市，它位于旧金山以南100公里。一位美籍华人作家在美国科技腹地正率先对日军进行谴责，既要求日方承认罪行，担负责任，又要求得到美国大众的认可，这并非偶然。张和她的著作是美国国内的一场重大运动的标志。它要求共享历史。随着少数民族群体逐渐在经济、社会和政治方面树立起了信心，他们努力工作，向前迈进，好让人们听到自己的历史故事。

    “这是对全体美国人提出的要求，要他们融合其他民族的历史，壮大自己，”薇拉•施瓦茨说。她是康涅狄格州韦斯勒因大学的中国历史教授。这场运动在任何地方都比不上在加利福尼亚的一些富有的亚裔美国人社区更引人注目。“我去了学校图书馆，发现这方面的资料竟如此之少，非常震惊。”住在洛杉矶的韩裔美国作家李赫利说。她那本颇受批评家好评的回忆录《生存之粮》，讲述了她祖母在落入日军魔掌后战胜巨大困难的故事，非常引人入胜。她说：“作为亚裔美国人，我们应该提供资料，应该说出来。”

    南京大屠杀为美籍华人提供了一个外加的焦点，他们施加压力，使旧金山联合校区把大屠杀写入高中的历史课程。南加利福尼亚的奥伦奇县也正在提出类似的要求。如今，张提出这段历史供美国主流文化思考。

    对于张来说，南京大屠杀始于她的自我发现。作为在20世纪60年代来到美国的台湾科学家的女儿，张听说了许许多多关于大屠杀的故事——扬子江如何被鲜血染红——她的祖父母如何奇迹般地从大屠杀死里逃生。

    然而，张小时侯无法把那些个人描述与美国人所理解的历史联系起来。“上小学时，我到当地的公共图书馆，想看看能了解到多少关于大屠杀的知识，但是什么也没有，”她说，“我感到很纳闷，如果大屠杀真像我父母说的那样可怕，为什么我在图书馆里查不到？”

    3年前，张刚刚完成《蚕丝》。这本书讲述了美籍华人科学家钱学森的故事，他是20世纪50年代麦卡锡主义的受害者，当时他帮助中国开发了导弹计划。张出席了在古柏蒂那硅谷社区举办的关于南京大屠杀的会议。会议由保存亚洲二战历史的全球联盟会组织，这个组织下设30个机构。

    “我们认为，如果我们不能促使这些人民、这个政府担负起责任的话，那么我们的后代会说，‘噢，这些人都不管了，我们也可以不管，’”伊格内修斯•丁解释道。他是一位工程师，也是联盟组织的创立者。丁补充说，“一贯的否认是对我们先辈的侮辱。”

     在1994年的会议上，展出了大批有关大屠杀的阴森恐怖、令人印象深刻的照片。“对这些照片，我根本没有心理准备，”张在书中写道：“黑白分明的照片上是被砍掉的头颅，被切开的腹部，浑身赤裸的妇女被强奸者摆成各种各样的姿势，她们的面容交织着痛苦与羞辱，令人无法忘却。”

    张震惊了。“这比我想象的要可怕得多，”她说，“我觉得恶心。记得我震惊不已，走着看着。”但是这些照片也使她觉得有必要让美国人了解这一恐怖事件。“记得我非常愤怒，尤其是对于大屠杀的残酷程度，可能有30多万人在屠杀中丧生，这一点很容易被忽略。我觉得，作为一名美籍华人作家，我几乎有一种道义上的责任让世界上其他人了解曾发生的事情，我感到一种紧迫感。”

    随后两年她全部花在对大屠杀的研究上。她的结论是：“这已不是一次简单的屠杀，这是世界目睹的最残酷的暴行之一。”

    张和她的丈夫，布雷顿•李•道格拉斯工程师，住在一所公寓。在公寓附近的海鲜餐厅吃午餐时，这位年轻作者描述了她充满情感、富有历史意义的探求过程。张用惯常的语气愤慨地说着，偶尔才吃一块面前的油煎鱿鱼。她的叙述 带着愤怒，多数情况下直斥日本对过去罪行的抵赖。

    “令人惊骇的是，日本人继续否认发生过大屠杀，他们真的是已经逃脱了道德和经济上的责任”，她说。日本“正在向未来的国家发布信息，如果你国富民强，你便可以为所欲为地去杀人、去强奸、或者去折磨成千上万的男人、女人和孩子， 在60年后逃脱所有惩罚。”

    张的研究展示了约翰•拉贝写的一本2000页的日记，他是个德国商人，曾在南京领导侨民力抗日军暴行。拉贝的记述在日益增多的外国人有关大屠杀的陈述中又添一笔，这些陈述力证大屠杀是日军的蓄意屠杀。拉贝伯的目击证据最可信，因为他既是南京安全区国际委员会的负责人，又是当地纳粹党的头目。

    张相信，南京大屠杀表明日本侵略者在蓄意残害中国人。张论争道，大屠杀同样是一次蓄意灭绝人种的尝试，张还说它可以与纳粹屠杀犹太人事件相提并论。

    日本仍然继续对此予以否认。张认为这是出于法律上的考虑，如果日本承认自己负有责任，那么要求数10亿美元的弥补性赔偿的诉讼便敞开了大门。然而，这把问题过分简单化。日本仍旧沉湎于自己是受害者的神话。这个国家自以为是地相信它是被迫进行军事冒险的。

    宫廷政治也起了一定的作用。前任天皇裕仁的叔叔，朝香鸠彦，统领南京周围的军队。盖有他的印戳的命令吩咐军官们把所有被俘的中国士兵全部杀掉。就算人们假定日本官方失控了，他们的军队发疯了，那么，为什么还允许屠杀持续如此之久？是谁，是什么最终结束这场屠杀的？

    多数美国人对所有这些问题不感兴趣，他们患有施瓦茨命名的“讨厌历史症”。是一本用英语写的南京大屠杀的记实报告。但它只有200页，似乎针对的是历史知识浅薄的读者。张与其他美籍华人要求其他公民对这一恐怖事件有最基本的了解。他们说，首要的任务应是基础教育。

    (1322个单词) 返回

Text 2

From G. A. Fitch's Diary

Rec'd in N.Y. 2-18-38

Confidential

Not for publication

Nanking, China, Christmas Eve, 1937

    What I am about to relate is anything but a pleasant story; in fact it is so very unpleasant that I cannot recommend anyone without a strong stomach to read it. For it is a story of such crime and horror as to be almost unbelievable, the story of the depredations of a horde of degraded criminals of incredible bestiality, who have been, and now are, working their will, unrestrained, on a peaceful, kindly, law-abiding people. Yet it is a story which I feel must be told, even if it is seen by only a few. I cannot rest until I have told it, and unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, I am one of a very few who are in a position to tell it. It is not complete for it is only a small part of the whole; and God alone knows when it will be finished. I pray it may be soon － but I am afraid it is going to go on for many months to come, not just here but in other parts of China. I believe it has no parallel in modern history.

    It is now Christmas Eve. I shall start with, say, December 10th. In these two short weeks we here in Nanking have been through a siege; the Chinese army has left, defeated, and the Japanese has come in. On that day Nanking was still the beautiful city we were so proud of, with law and order still prevailing; today it is a city laid waste, ravaged, completely looted, much of it burned. Complete anarchy has reigned for ten days － it has been a hell on earth. Not that my life has been in serious danger at any time; though turning lust-mad, sometimes drunken soldiers out of houses where they were raping women is not perhaps altogether a safe occupation; nor does one feel too sure of himself when he finds a bayonet at his chest or a revolver at his head and know it is handled by someone who heartily wishes him out of the way. For the Japanese are anything but pleased at our being here after having advised all foreigners to get out. They wanted no observers. But to have to stand by while even the very poor are having their last possessions taken from them － their last coin, their last bit of bedding (and it is freezing weather), the poor rickshaw man his rickshaw; while thousands of disarmed soldiers who had sought sanctuary with you, together with many hundreds of innocent civilians are taken out before your eyes to be shot or used for bayonet practice and you have to listen to the sound of the guns that are killing them; while a thousand women kneel before you crying hysterically, begging you to save them from the beasts who are preying on them; to stand by and do nothing while your flag is taken down and insulted, not once but a dozen times, and your own home is being looted; and then watch the city you have come to love and the institutions to which you have planned to devote your best years deliberately and systematically burned by fire － this is a hell I had never before envisaged, but hell it is none the less.

    We keep asking ourselves, "How long can this last?" Day by day we are assured by the officials that things will be better soon, that "we will do our best", － but each day has been worse than the day before. And now we are told that a new division of 20 000 men are arriving. Will they have to have their toll of flesh and loot, of murder and rape? There will be little left to rob, for the city has been well nigh stripped clean. For the past week the soldiers have been busy loading their trucks with what they wanted from the stores and then setting fire to the building. And then there is the harrowing realization that we have only enough rice and flour for the 200 000 refugees for another three weeks and coal for ten days. Do you wonder that one wakes in the night in a cold sweat of fear and sleep for the rest of the night is gone? Even if we had food enough for three months, how are they going to live? They cannot continue much longer in their present terribly crowded condition; disease and pestilence must soon follow if they do.

    Every day we call at the Embassy and present our protest, our appeals, our lists of authenticated reports of violence and crime. We are met with suave Japanese courtesy, but actually the officials there are powerless. The victorious army must have its rewards － and those rewards are to plunder, murder, rape at will, to commit acts of unbelievable brutality and savagery on the very people whom they have come to protect and befriend, as they have so loudly proclaimed to the world. In all modern history surely there is no page that will stand so black as that of the rape of Nanking.

    To tell the whole story of these past ten days or so would take too long. The tragic thing is that by the time the truth gets out to the rest of the world it will be cold － it will no longer be "news". Anyway the Japanese have undoubtedly been proclaiming abroad that they have established law and order in a city that had already been looted and burned, and that the down-trodden population had received their benevolent army with open arms and a great flag-waving welcome. However, I am going to record some of the more important events of this period as I have jotted them down in my little diary, for they will at least be of interest to some of my friends and I shall have the satisfaction of having a permanent record of these unhappy days. It will probably extend beyond the date of this letter, for I do not anticipate being able to get this off for some considerable time. The Japanese censorship will see to that. Our own Embassy officials and those of other countries together with some of the business men who went aboard the ill-fated "Panay" and the Standard Oil boats and other ships just before the capture of Nanking, confidently expecting to return within a week when they left, are still cooling their heels (those who haven't been killed or wounded by Japanese bombs and machine guns) out on the river or perhaps in one of the ports. We are wagering that it will be another fortnight before any of us is permitted to leave Nanking. We are virtually prisoners here.

    ...

    On Tuesday the 14th the Japanese were pouring into the city － tanks, artillery, infantry, trucks. The reign of terror commenced, and it was to increase in severity and horror with each of the succeeding ten days. They were the conquerors of China's capital, the seat of the hated Chiang Kai-shek government, they were given free reign to do as they pleased. The proclamation on the handbills which airplanes scattered over the city saying that the Japanese were the only real friends of the Chinese and would protect the good, of course, meant no more than most of their statements. And to show their "sincerity" they raped, looted and killed at will. Men were taken from our refugee camps in droves, as we supposed at the time for labor － but they have never been heard from again, nor will they be. A colonel and his staff called at my office and spent an hour trying to learn where the “6 000 disarmed soldiers” were. Four times that day Japanese soldiers came and tried to take our cars away. Others in the meantime succeeded in stealing three of our cars that were elsewhere.

    ...

    [On Wednesday, December 15] At our staff conference that evening word came that soldiers were taking all 1 300 men in one of our camps near headquarters to shoot them. We knew there was a number of ex-soldiers among them, but Rabe had been promised by an officer that very afternoon that their lives would be spared. It was now all too obvious what they were going to do. The men were lined up and roped together in groups of about a hundred by soldiers with bayonets fixed; those who had hats had them roughly torn off and thrown on the ground, and then by the light of our headlights we watched them march away to their doom. Not a whimper came from that entire throng. Our hearts were lead. Were those four lads from Canton who had trudged all the way up from the south and yesterday reluctantly given me their arms among them, I wondered; or that all strapping sergeant from the north whose disillusioned eyes as he made the fatal decision still haunt me? How foolish I had been to tell them the Japanese would spare their lives. We had confidently expected that they would live up to their promises, at least in some degree, and that order would be established with their arrival. Little did we dream that we should see such brutality and savagery as has probably not been equaled in modern times. For worse days were yet to come.

    ...

    Friday, December 17. Robbery, murder, rape continue unabated. A rough estimate would be at least a thousand women raped last night and during the day. One poor woman was raped thirty-seven times. Another had her five months infant deliberately smothered by the brute to stop its crying while he raped her. Resistance means the bayonet. And the hospital is rapidly filling up with the victims of Japanese cruelty and barbarity. Bog Wilson, our only surgeon, has hands more than full and has to work into the night. Rickshaws, cattle, pigs, donkeys, often the sole means of livelihood of the people, are taken from them.

    ...

    Saturday, the 18th. At breakfast Riggs, who lives in the Safety Zone a block away but has his meals with us, reported that two women, one a cousin of Wang Ding, our YMCA secretary, were raped in his house while he was having dinner with us. Wilson reported a boy of five years of age brought to the hospital after having been stabbed with a bayonet five times, once through his abdomen; a man with eighteen bayonet wounds, a woman with seventeen cuts on her face and several on her legs. Between four and five hundred terrorized women poured into our headquarters compound in the afternoon and spent the night in the open.

    Sunday the 19th. A day of complete anarchy. Several big fires raging today, started by the soldiers and more are promised. The American flag was torn down in a number of places. At the American School it was trampled on and the caretaker told he would be killed if he put it up again. The proclamations placed on all American and other foreign properties by the Japanese Embassy are flouted by their soldiers, sometimes deliberately torn off. Some houses are entered from five to ten times in one day and the poor people looted and robbed and the women raped. Several were killed in cold blood, for no apparent reason whatever. Six out of seven of our sanitation squads in one district were slaughtered; the seventh escaped, wounded, to tell the tale. Towards evening today two of us rushed to Dr. Brady's house (he is away) and chased two would-be rapers out and took all the women there to the University. Sperling is busy at this game all day. I also went to the house of Douglas Jenkins, of our Embassy. The flag was still there, but in the garage his house boy lay dead. Another servant, dead, was under a bed, both brutally killed. The house was in utter confusion. There are still many corpses on the streets, all of them civilians as far as we can see. The Red Swastika Society would bury them but their truck has been stolen, their coffins used for bonfires and several of their workers bearing their insignia have been marched away.

    (2 047 words)   TOP

课文二

摘自G• A•费奇的日记

记录于1938年2月18日于纽约

机密

勿出版

中国南京，1937年圣诞前夜

    我要讲述的决非是一个令人愉悦的故事。事实上，它如此令人作呕，以致我不能建议那些肠胃不好的人来读，因为这篇故事充满罪恶和恐怖，几乎难以置信。故事讲述的是一群杀人不眨眼、禽兽般的堕落刽子手的罪行，他们曾经，现在仍在，一意孤行、为所欲为地摆布一个和平、友善、遵纪守法的民族。然而，这是一个我认为必须讲出来的故事，即使仅有少数人目睹这个故事。我只有把故事讲完，我的心情才能平静。不幸的是，或者说也许幸运的是，我是能够讲述这个故事的少数人之一。故事并不完整，因为它只是全部事件的一小部分，只有上帝知道它何时才能结束。我祈求上帝让它快点结束——但是，恐怕不仅仅在这儿而且在中国的其他地方，它还要持续好几个月。我相信这在现代史上是绝无仅有的。

    现在是圣诞前夜。我将从12月10日说起。在这短短的两周内，我们在南京经历了一次包围战，战败的中国军队撤走了，日本军来了。那一天，南京仍然是我们引以为荣的美丽城市，法律与秩序仍在起作用；今天，南京却变成了一片废墟，被洗劫一空，许多地方被放火烧了。完全的无政府状态已持续了10天——南京已经成了人间地狱。这并非因为我的生命随时面临重大危险，尽管那些变成了泄欲的疯子、有时从他们强奸妇女的房子里醉醺醺走出来的士兵也许不能给我们安全感；也不是因为一个人发现有人真希望自己不碍事，用刺刀指着自己的胸口，或是用手枪顶着自己的头的时候，他还是感到自己会没有事。日本人建议所有外国人离开，之后对我们呆在此地颇为不满。他们不想有任何的目击者。然而，当穷困潦倒的人被抢走了最后的一点所有——他们的最后一枚铜板，最后一点铺盖（那时正天寒地冻）时，当贫穷的人力车夫被抢走了人力车时，当成千上万向你寻求过庇护、已经被缴械的士兵，连同数以百计的无辜平民在你的眼前被拉出去枪毙，或是被用作刺刀训练的工具，而你不得不听那杀害他们的枪声时，当上千名妇女歇斯底里哭喊着跪倒在你的面前，乞求你把她们从扑向她们的禽兽手中拯救出来时，我们却不得不袖手旁观；你的国旗不止一次、两次而是几十次了，被扯下来，遭到玷污时；你的家园在遭到劫掠时；再看看这座城市吧，你已经渐渐喜爱上它，你已经计划好把自己的黄金年华心甘情愿地奉献给一些组织，但是城市却被蓄意地焚烧殆尽时，我们不得不袖手旁观，爱莫能助，——这是我从未想象过的地狱之城，是真正的地狱。

    我们一直在问自己，“这样还要持续多久？”一天又一天，那些官员们向我们保证，一切很快就会好转，保证“我们会尽力而为”——但是一天比一天糟糕。现在，我们听说一支两万人的军队即将开来。他们也将不得不烧杀抢劫、奸淫掳掠吗？能抢的东西已所剩无几了，因为这座城市已近一贫如洗了。在过去的一周里，士兵们忙忙碌碌地往卡车上装他们从商店里劫抢来的物品，然后把大楼付之一炬。我们惊恐地意识到，我们只有维持20万难民生活3周的大米和面粉，维持10天的煤炭。夜里，一个人一身冷汗从惊恐中醒来，再也无法入眠，你会感到惊讶吗？即使我们有足够的粮食维持3个月，他们以后又将如何生活下去？在目前拥挤不堪的情况下，他们无法长久地撑下去；就算能撑得下去，疾病和瘟疫也会随即接踵而至。

   我们每天去见大使，提出抗议和呼吁，并提交我们证据确凿的有关暴力和罪行的报告。我们受到了日本人老于世故的礼遇，实际上那里的官员也无能为力。获胜的一方必须享有所得 ——他们所得的战利品就是随心所欲地奸淫掳掠；就是对他们前来说是要保护和交友的民族犯下令人难以置信的残暴罪行，因为他们曾经对全世界大声地宣布他们来是保护人民的，是建立友谊的。在全部现代史上，没有一页如南京的奸杀这般黑暗。

    把过去10天左右的故事讲完耗时太长。令人悲哀的是，事情到真相大白于天下之日，真理早已变得冰冷——它将不再是"新闻"。不管怎样，日本人确实已向海外宣布，他们在业已被烧杀抢掠的城市里建立了法律和秩序，宣布备受压制的人民已经张开双臂，挥舞旗帜热烈地欢迎他们的友善之旅。然而，我打算记录下这一时期一些较为重要的事件，这些我已匆匆记在小日记本里了，因为它们至少会令我的一些朋友 有点兴趣，况且我也希望把这悲伤的几天永久地记录下来。它可能会超过这封信的日期，我无法预测在相当一段时间内能否把它发出去。日本的审查机构会过问此事情。我国和其他国家的大使馆官员，连同一些在南京被占领之前登上倒霉的“帕内”号船、标准油船，以及其他船只的商人，离开南京时他们坚信一周内会回来，现今仍旧被迫（那些人没有被日军的炸弹和机关枪打伤或打死）在河上、或者在某个港口等着。我们在打赌，还得再有两周时间我们当中才会有谁获准离开南京。我们成了这里真正的囚犯。

    ……

    星期二，14号，日本兵涌入南京城——坦克、大炮、步兵、卡车。恐怖统治开始了。随后10天里，一天比一天严重和恐怖。他们是遭到痛恨的蒋介石政府所在地南京的占领者，他们可以为所欲为。飞机上撒下的传单宣称，日本人是中国人唯一真正的朋友，他们将会保护好人；当然，这与他们大多数的宣称一样毫无意义。为了显示他们的“真诚”，他们随心所欲地奸淫、掳掠、杀人。男人被成群地从我们的难民营带走，我们还以为是劳动的时间到了——但他们一去就没了音讯，将来也不会有。一位陆军上尉和他的手下来到我的办公室，花了一个小时的时间试图想了解那“6000名被缴械士兵”的去向。那一天，日本士兵先后4次企图弄走我们的汽车。与此同时，其他日本兵则成功偷走了我们其它地方的3辆汽车。

    ……

    [星期三，12月15号]那天晚上，在全体会议上，我们听到消息说，日本士兵正把我们靠近总部的一个难民营中1300名男子全部带走，要枪毙他们。我们知道他们当中有不少曾经是士兵，但是一位官员向瑞伯保证过，当天下午会饶了他们。现在他们要做的事情已显而易见。这些人被手持刺刀的士兵用绳子绑在一起，大约100人一组；戴帽子的难民被粗暴地扯下帽子，扔到地上。在我们车灯的照射下，我们眼睁睁地看着他们走向生命的尽头。人群中没有一声哭泣，我们的心铅 一般沉重。我想，那4个从南方一路跋涉而来的广州小伙子，昨天不情愿地把他们的武器交给了我，他们是否也在此行列？那位来自北方、衣衫褴褛的排长也在其中吗？作出这一生死攸关的决定时，那双不再抱有幻想的眼睛一直萦回在我的脑际。我竟然告诉他们，日本人会饶了他们的命，这是何等愚蠢！我们满怀信心地希望他们会信守诺言，至少在一定程度上，希望他们的到来能建立起新秩序。我们压根没想到，我们竟然会目睹如此残暴、野蛮的罪行，在现代这可能是绝无仅有的。更糟的日子还在后头。

    …星期五，12月17号。奸淫掳掠丝毫没有减少。粗略估计，昨天白天与晚上至少有1000名妇女遭到强奸。一位可怜的妇女竟被强奸了37次。另一位妇女仅5个月大的婴儿因在母亲被强奸时啼哭，而被禽兽活活地闷死。反抗意味着被刺刀刺死。医院里很快塞满了日军暴行的受害者。我们唯一的外科医生，博格•威尔逊，忙碌不停，不得不工作到深夜。人力车、牛、狗、猪、驴，这些人们赖以为生的唯一来源被抢劫一空。

    ……

    星期六，18号。早餐时，住在一个街区之外的安全区但与我们一同吃饭的里格斯报告说，有两位妇女，其中一位是我们YMCA(基督教青年会)秘书王丁（音译）的表妹，在他与我们共进晚餐时，在他的房子里遭到了强暴。威尔逊说有个5岁男孩被送到医院，他被刺刀刺了5下，其中有一下穿透了他的腹部；一名男子被刺伤18处，一名女子脸上有17处刀伤，腿上还有几处。大约四五百名惶恐不安的妇女下午涌进我们的总部大院，在露天里过了一夜。

    星期天，19号。完全无政府状态的一天。今天，士兵们放的几处大火仍在熊熊燃烧，他们扬言还会烧更多的地方。许多地方的美国国旗被扯了下来，在美国中学，国旗被践踏，看门人说，如果他再把旗子挂起来就会被杀掉。日本士兵不在乎日本大使馆张贴的证明是美国和其他国家财产上的公告，有的公告还被蓄意撕掉。一些房屋一天里竟被闯入5到10次，穷人遭抢劫，妇女受奸淫。有些人根本不知何故便被惨害。我们有一个区的7人卫生小组，有6人遭到杀害；讲述事情经过的第七个人逃出来时，身受重伤。傍晚时分，我们有两个人冲到布雷迪大夫的房子里（大夫出去了），把两个准备强奸的士兵赶了出去，把那儿的妇女都带到大学里。一整天，施佩林一直忙于此类事件。我也来到大使馆道格拉斯•詹金斯住处。国旗仍在，但是车库里躺着他的男仆的尸体。另一个仆人死在床下。两人都被残忍地杀害。整栋房子一片狼籍。大街上仍然有许多尸体，我们看得出，他们都是平民。瑞德•斯瓦斯蒂卡协会会掩埋他们，但是他们的卡车已经被盗，他们的棺材已用来生火，还有几位佩戴臂章的工人被押走了。

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