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

• Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Maps Ginling Refugee Camp Staff 1. War Breaks Out in Shanghai 2. Plans for College's Relocation 3. Aerial Bombing Escalates 4. Courage and Persistence 5. A Spinal Downturn at Shanghai Front 6. War Gets Closer to Nanjing 7. Safety Zone Is Established 8. Brutality Follows Japanese Entry into the City 9. Registration of Refugees 10. Refugees, Poor Refugees 11. Miseries Continue 12. Refugees Would Rather Starve than Leave Ginling 13. Violation of Women Still Rampant 14. Thousands of Victim Bodies Remain Unburied Notes Index Illustrations follow page 000.