Terror in Minnie Vautrin's Nanjing

Wilhelmina (Minnie) Vautrin (1886-1941), raised in Secor, Illinois, was a graduate of the University of Illinois and moved to China in 1912 to serve as a missionary and educator. Suping Lu is a professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the author of They Were in Nanjing: The Nanjing Massacre Witnessed by American and British Nationals.

“In what was undoubtedly a labour of love, Suping Lu has provided a moving account of Wilhelmina "Minnie" Vautrin, an American missionary and educator trapped in Nanjing during the Japanese occupation. . . . This book will immediately communicate the severity of the massacre to a general audience. . . . The terrible psychological effects of the Japanese invasion on such a good-hearted person come across vividly, and are difficult to forget.”--The China Quarterly"This diary is not only an important record of a tumultuous period of wartime Nanjing, but also a valuable document about the life of a female American missionary teaching in Republican China."--Daqing Yang, coeditor of Rethinking Historical Injustice and Reconciliation in Northeast Asia: The Korean Experience "Through the harrowing stories of the victims, accounts of heroic confrontation with Japanese soldiers, and personal testimony, Minnie Vautrin's diaries provide a wealth of information on the Nanking Massacre. A close reading of her remarkable descriptions will help historians and students understand the tragic consequences of war from the vantage point of a civilian who worked helplessly to protect Chinese civilians from Japanese brutality."--Christian Henriot, author of Prostitution and Sexuality in Shanghai: A Social History, 1849-1949 "A powerful account. . . .This book will immediately communicate the severity of the massacre to a general audience. . . . The terrible psychological effects of the Japanese invasion on such a good-hearted person comes across vividly, and are difficult to forget."--The China Quarterly