{"id":24146,"date":"2021-05-26T08:00:23","date_gmt":"2021-05-26T08:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=24146"},"modified":"2021-05-25T18:50:49","modified_gmt":"2021-05-25T18:50:49","slug":"nanjing-the-burning-city-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2021\/05\/26\/nanjing-the-burning-city-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Nanjing: The Burning City"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\"\"
\nBy Ethan Young<\/strong> (Dark Horse)
\nISBN: 978-1-61655-752-2 (HB) 978-1-50671-085-3 (TPB)<\/p>\n

Ethan Young comes from New York City, the youngest of three boys born to Chinese immigrant parents. Following studies at the School of Visual Arts, he began work as a commercial illustrator, supplementing that with debut graphic novel Tails: Life in Progress<\/strong> which won Best Graphic Novel award at the 2007 Independent Publisher Book Awards.<\/p>\n

It thrived as a webcomic, as did his other ongoing all-ages project A Piggy’s Tale: <\/strong>The Adventures of a 3-Legged Super-Pup<\/strong> (created and written by Tod Emko). Later works include Firefly: Watch How I Soar<\/strong>; The Dragon Path<\/strong>; The Battles of Bridget Lee and more but they are all a far cry from this masterpiece. Nanjing: <\/strong>The Burning City<\/strong> is a stunning and excoriating anti-war parable, detailing one incomprehensibly dark night of horror in a war most of the world has conveniently forgotten about.<\/p>\n

Whilst many Japanese – like Keiji Nakazawa (author of the astounding Barefoot Gen<\/strong> and a tireless anti-war campaigner for most of his life) – are fully prepared, able to acknowledge and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153own\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Japan’s horrific excesses throughout World War II (and the colonial expansion into China – noncommittally dubbed The Second Sino-Japanese War<\/em> – which preceded it), far too many survivors of the original conflicts and – disturbingly – modern apologists and revisionists find it easier and more comfortable to excuse, obfuscate or even deny Japan’s role.<\/p>\n

Sadly, I suspect today’s China is just as keen to systematically refute the excesses of the Maoist years and beyond\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Every nation that’s fought a war has committed atrocities, but no country or government has the right to dodge shame or excise blame by conveniently rewriting history for expediency or political gain: not Britain, not the USA, not Russia and never, ever those barbaric \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Axis Powers\u00e2\u20ac\u009d who tormented mankind between 1933 and 1945.<\/p>\n

Delivered in stark, stunning yet understated black-&-white in hardback, paperback and digital editions, Young’s tale exposes callous brutality – without resorting to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153us-and-them\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153good guys vs. bad guys\u00e2\u20ac\u009d polemic – by simply focusing on one night and three very different military men caught up in the ghastly events.<\/p>\n

The Second Sino-Japanese War began on July 7th<\/sup> 1937 when an aggressively expansionist Empire of Japan invaded complacent Shanghai. The well-equipped force moved swiftly inland towards Nanking, capital of Kuomintang Generalissimo Chang Kai-Shek’s<\/em> newly established Republic of China.<\/p>\n

The thoroughly modern Imperial army reached the city on December 12th<\/sup>, whereupon Nanking’s military and civil leaders fled in panic, leaving hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers and citizens to bear the brunt of a savage, bestial assault described by author Iris Chang as The Rape of Nanking<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Chinese Republican officers didn’t even issue orders for the soldiers they abandoned to retreat\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Over the next six weeks more than 300,000 died in a campaign of organised torture and massacre. Uncountable numbers of women and children were raped and brutalised. Before the Japanese military chiefs surrendered in 1945, they had all records of the taking of Nanking destroyed. The never-to-be-properly-accounted dead are rightly known as the Forgotten Ones\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

An event almost completely overlooked for decades by western – and Japanese – historians, the torment began with a night of appalling, unparalleled atrocity with Young concentrating his tale on the efforts of a nameless Captain and a sole surviving subordinate making their way through the shredded remnants of the metropolis. The betrayed, beaten warriors harbour a fanciful hope of sanctuary in the enclave occupied by European diplomats, businessmen, missionaries and their servants: the sacrosanct \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Safety Zone\u00e2\u20ac\u009d where white people go about their business largely untouched by strictly Asian \u00e2\u20ac\u0153local politics\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

It’s only a few kilometres to salvation, and the Zone indeed houses many sympathetic foreign souls who will risk their lives for humanitarian reasons, but to get to them the soldiers must avoid the hordes of prowling, drunken, blood-crazed conquerors and deny their own burning desire to strike back at the invaders – even if it costs their lives\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

As they slowly scramble through hellish ruins, they are doggedly pursued by a Japanese colonel who apparently has no stomach for the gleeful bloody debaucheries of his soldiers but rather carries out his duties with a specialised zeal and for a different kind of reward\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Whilst the weary Kuomintang survivors make their way to the Safety Zone, however, a far more deadly hazard constantly arises: crushed, beaten, desperate fellow Chinese begging them to stop and help\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

This is a gripping story with no happy ending, supplemented by Young’s large Sketchbook<\/em> and Commentary<\/em> sections, offering character studies, developmental insights and rejected cover roughs, as well as a formidable Bibliography for further reading\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Nanjing: <\/strong>The Burning City<\/strong> is a beautiful, haunting book designed to make you angry and curious and in that it succeeds with staggering effect. It’s not intended as a history lesson but rather a signpost for the unaware, offering directions to further research and greater knowledge, if not understanding; a provocative lesson from history we should, now more than ever, all see and learn from.
\n\u00c2\u00a9 2015 Ethan Young. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ethan Young (Dark Horse) ISBN: 978-1-61655-752-2 (HB) 978-1-50671-085-3 (TPB) Ethan Young comes from New York City, the youngest of three boys born to Chinese immigrant parents. Following studies at the School of Visual Arts, he began work as a commercial illustrator, supplementing that with debut graphic novel Tails: Life in Progress which won Best … <\/p>\n

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