American Goddess at the Rape of Nanking

The Courage of Minnie Vautrin

1st Edition
  • 0 Ratings
  • 1 Want to read
  • 0 Currently reading
  • 0 Have read
Not in Library

My Reading Lists:

Create a new list

Check-In

×Close
Add an optional check-in date. Check-in dates are used to track yearly reading goals.
Today

  • 0 Ratings
  • 1 Want to read
  • 0 Currently reading
  • 0 Have read


Download Options

Buy this book

Last edited by MARC Bot
January 7, 2023 | History

American Goddess at the Rape of Nanking

The Courage of Minnie Vautrin

1st Edition
  • 0 Ratings
  • 1 Want to read
  • 0 Currently reading
  • 0 Have read

The Japanese army’s brutal four-month occupation of the city of Nanking during the 1937 Sino-Japanese War is known, for good reason, as “the rape of Nanking.” As they slaughtered an estimated three hundred thousand people, the invading soldiers raped more than twenty thousand women―some estimates run as high as eighty thousand. Hua-ling Hu presents here the amazing untold story of the American missionary Minnie Vautrin, whose unswerving defiance of the Japanese protected ten thousand Chinese women and children and made her a legend among the Chinese people she served.

Vautrin, who came to be known in China as the “Living Goddess” or the “Goddess of Mercy,” joined the Foreign Christian Missionary Society and went to China during the Chinese Nationalist Revolution in 1912. As dean of studies at Ginling College in Nanking, she devoted her life to promoting Chinese women’s education and to helping the poor.

At the outbreak of the war in July 1937, Vautrin defied the American embassy’s order to evacuate the city. After the fall of Nanking in December, Japanese soldiers went on a rampage of killing, burning, looting, rape, and torture, rapidly reducing the city to a hell on earth. On the fourth day of the occupation, Minnie Vautrin wrote in her diary: “There probably is no crime that has not been committed in this city today. . . . Oh, God, control the cruel beastliness of the soldiers in Nanking.”

When the Japanese soldiers ordered Vautrin to leave the campus, she replied: “This is my home. I cannot leave.” Facing down the blood-stained bayonets constantly waved in her face, Vautrin shielded the desperate Chinese who sought asylum behind the gates of the college. Vautrin exhausted herself defying the Japanese army and caring for the refugees after the siege ended in March 1938. She even helped the women locate husbands and sons who had been taken away by the Japanese soldiers. She taught destitute widows the skills required to make a meager living and provided the best education her limited sources would allow to the children in desecrated Nanking.

Finally suffering a nervous breakdown in 1940, Vautrin returned to the United States for medical treatment. One year later, she ended her own life. She considered herself a failure.

Hu bases her biography on Vautrin’s correspondence between 1919 and 1941 and on her diary, maintained during the entire siege, as well as on Chinese, Japanese, and American eyewitness accounts, government documents, and interviews with Vautrin’s family.

Publish Date
Language
English
Pages
232

Buy this book

Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: American Goddess at the Rape of Nanking
American Goddess at the Rape of Nanking: The Courage of Minnie Vautrin
March 29, 2000, Southern Illinois University
Hardcover in English - 1st Edition
Cover of: American Goddess at the Rape of Nanking
American Goddess at the Rape of Nanking: The Courage of Minnie Vautrin
October 1, 2000, Southern Illinois University
Paperback in English - 1st Edition edition

Add another edition?

Book Details


Table of Contents

List of Plates
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgements
1. From Secor, Illinois, to Hofei, China
2. Administrating Ginling College
3. In China's Chaotic Years
4. The Year of 1937 and the Barbaric Rape of Nanking
5. The Living Goddess in the Tragic and Dark Days
6. The Last Days if Her Life
Epilogue. Gin Ling Yung Shen (Ginling Forever)
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index

Classifications

Library of Congress
BV3427.V38 H813 2000, BV3427.V38H813 2000, BV3427.V38 H813 2000eb

Contributors

Foreword
Paul Simon

The Physical Object

Format
Hardcover
Number of pages
232
Dimensions
8.8 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
Weight
1 pounds

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL7976980M
Internet Archive
americangoddessa0000huhu
ISBN 10
0809323036
ISBN 13
9780809323036
LCCN
99030526
OCLC/WorldCat
41355746, 45733204
Library Thing
577104
Goodreads
227839

Community Reviews (0)

Feedback?
No community reviews have been submitted for this work.

History

Download catalog record: RDF / JSON
January 7, 2023 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
December 29, 2021 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
December 1, 2020 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
July 27, 2020 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
December 10, 2009 Created by WorkBot add works page