The Japanese and English translations of the Chinese book, A History of the Nanjing Massacre, will help more foreigners know about one of the darkest chapters in 20th-century history.

Recently published by Nanjing University Press, the two books have been translated from the 2014 Chinese version that was written by Zhang Xianwen, a history professor at Nanjing University, in East China's Jiangsu province, and other Chinese historians.

Zhang spent a decade rummaging through relevant historical files around the world, ranging from the US Library of Congress to the national archives in Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom, as well as top academic institutions in Taiwan. Archived government documents, newspaper reports, personal stories of survivors and other sources formed the basis of the book.

While it is considered one of the most comprehensive books on the Nanjing Massacre - the mass killing and rape of Chinese by invading Japanese troops - which occurred over six weeks starting in December 1937, it also offers a deeper understanding of war atrocities and genocides in general.

"It is a book for all readers," says Dong Ying, an editor for the book. "Also, we've tried to keep the book objective and rational."

It is also the first comprehensive narration of the massacre, written by Chinese scholars from Nanjing. The massacre was relatively unknown to younger people in the West until Iris Chang's popular book, The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II, came out in 1997.

Today, some right-wing Japanese politicians and scholars continue to deny or downplay the massacre, making it necessary to tell people, especially youth abroad, Dong says.

"We believe that the publication of A History of the Nanjing Massacre in English and Japanese offers Western and Japanese audiences a more comprehensive understanding of this atrocity and its repercussions."

Michelle LeSourd, from the Seattle-based Chinese-English translation company C2E, is one of the translators for the English version of the book.

"Translating the book was also a process of coming to terms with the reality of the Nanjing Massacre atrocities themselves," she says.

"As an American who had lived and studied in Nanjing, I was not unfamiliar with the Nanjing Massacre, but had managed to avoid much of the brutal detail."

Nevertheless, while immersing herself in the book project for months, that was no longer possible.

"As I translated hundreds of descriptions of killing, rape, burning and looting meticulously documented by Chinese, Western and Japanese sources, I had to find time to turn away from the text and process my emotions.

"I could not help but ponder the tragic fact that similar acts of brutality continue to occur in various places around the world at any given moment," LeSourd says.

For translator Liang Kan, an associate professor of history and associate dean at Seattle University who graduated from Nanjing University, the English translation will help people better understand the massacre abroad.

"I believe that the Nanjing Massacre helps us understand how politics and geopolitics impact history research and learning," he says.

"The US-Japan alliance during the Cold War also discouraged, if not completely prevented, this dark piece of history from coming to light.

"It is our sincere hope that this historical work and its translated editions contribute to humanity's understanding of the nature of war and what can be done to prevent it," Liang says.

A Korean translation of the book is expected to be released in 2017.

wangkaihao@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 03/09/2016 page20)