But, Chang writes: "I would have to conclude that Japan's behavior during World War II was less a product of dangerous people than of a dangerous government, in a vulnerable culture, in dangerous times, able to sell dangerous rationalizations to those whose human instincts told them otherwise. The Rape of Nanking should be perceived as a cautionary tale -- an illustration of how easily human beings can be encouraged to allow their teenagers to be molded into efficient killing machines able to suppress their better natures" (Chang 244). Chang does not believe that the Japanese are uniquely prone to racism, but she does believe that the Japanese government has not been held accountable for its actions. In an interview about her book, Chang stated that because of the Cold War, even the American government had been complicit in the mass forgetting of the Rape of Nanking: "During the war, Japanese doctors performed live medical experiments and even vivisection on American and Chinese POWs, but after 1945 the United States government not only failed...

The American government also exempted the Japanese royal family from war crimes trials, permitted Emperor Hirohito to stay on the throne and even encouraged many officials of the Japanese wartime government to return to power" ("An interview with Iris Chang," Penguin Reading Guide, 2011).Of course it is possible to argue that the Rape of Nanking was merely one incident, and not comparable to the Holocaust in its systematic destruction of human life. But it is still important to learn the lessons of the massacre for all armies, given that it illustrates how quickly the values of empathy and humanity can be conditioned out of soldiers during times of war.
Works Cited

"An interview with Iris Chang." Penguin Reading Guide. 2011. [19 Nov 2011]

http://us.penguingroup.com/static/rguides/us/rape_of_nanking.html

Chang, Iris. The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II.

New York: Penguin, 1997.