When you tie in this book with Iris Chang's excellent research on the sluaghter in Nanking, it really brings home to Western eyes the unknown side of Japan's war in Asia. Rabe was obviously moved by the plight of the people of Nanking, and was determined to help out the unfortunates who did not flee the city when the Japanese invaded, but I was disturbed that the editor of his diaries decided to leave out sections (i.e personal notes on his family) that could have been relevant to the person John Rabe rather than just his eyewitness accounts of the attrocities. However, perhaps this would be better left to any biographies of the man, and maybe his feelings towards the Nazi regime in Berlin would cast him in an unfavourable light when the book is obviously portraying him as a hero. Having said that the book is as moving as Chang's account, but certainly not as graphic nor as disturbing, and is certainly something I recommend to anyone interested in the Second World War in the Far East, or any student of modern history. It certainly helps to shoot down the recent arguments of Japanese nationalists who are in denial of the attrocities, and anyone who thinks even for one minute that they may have a valid argument can't deny the truth that exists in this book.