The Rape of Nanking: A Tale of Three Heroes

Camille Xiang and Kelvin Zhang

Senior Division
Group Website
Process Paper:500 words

Process Paper
As Chinese Americans, we knew that we wanted to study an event in history that deeply
affected our familys lives. As we began looking at topics regarding Chinese history, and
conversing with family members regarding events that they learned about or experienced, we
came across the Rape of Nanking. The topic was filled with narratives regarding the suffering
and heartbreak that people endured, and we were set on learning more about this event, as it is a

part of history that is generally overlooked compared to similar genocides. After doing research
online, we learned that there were many sources that were available to us through local public
libraries and those of universities and colleges. With this new information, we chose to focus on
the Rape of Nanking and the Nanking Safety Zone as our topic for National History Day.
Our research commenced with a struggle to find and collect all of the resources that we
had discovered from our online research. After travelling to libraries such as the Boston Public
Library, Winchester Public Library, and the Harvard University Library, we were able to gather
all of the resources that we required, and decided that the best way to effectively research the
topic was to split the sources evenly. By the end of our numerous trips to the libraries, we had
taken notes on nearly all of the resources.
As we conducted our research, we noticed that certain sources were extremely useful and
provided information that was essential to our understanding of the Safety Zone and the severity
of the crimes that had occurred. One notable source was Iris Changs The Rape of Nanking,
which provided details regarding context, war crimes, and members of the Safety Zone. John
Rabes diaries were also informative on the daily lives of those in the Safety Zone and the
different ways that he provided aid to Chinese citizens. Another extremely noteworthy source
that provided many documents, photographs, and telegrams was the Yale University Librarys
online database regarding the Rape of Nanking. These primary sources were essential to our
website, and provided us with a better understanding of the topic.
However, even with access to numerous libraries, we still had difficulties locating
photographs that were deemed appropriate. However, through copious amounts of searching
online and through books, we were able to find many images that we deemed appropriate for a
website, without making readers feel uncomfortable due to gory or grotesque images. After

finding many multimedia sources, we decided that a website would be the best way to display
the information that we have obtained.
Our topic, the Nanking Safety Zone of the Rape of Nanking, perfectly portrays this years
theme, taking a stand, because it demonstrated a group of outsiders taking a protective stand
for helpless people. The Nanking Safety Zone shows people taking a stand in history, because it
was founded by a group of foreigners in Nanking who took a stand against Japanese troops in
order to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens.