I knew almost nothing about this event, although I had heard of it vaguely. Reading this was eye-opening. Not only for the incredible brutality of the event, but how well it had been hidden from most people's knowledge of history of the WWII era.

The book tells a lot of interesting stories of people who were there, and what they experienced. One of the most ironic was the Nazi who was dedicating himself to saving as many Chinese people from the Japanese as possible.

It's a well-written book, and covers a lot of the bases - both of the even itself, and how the event was kind of buried in history. The one quibble I have with the book is that it is very repetitive in describing the brutality of the event. I think the author thought this was necessary, and I could see how you could argue that - but it made the book a very difficult read.