Nanjing Requiem by Ha Jin
Ha Jin’s historical novel tells the sad, oft repeated story of an invading army’s conquest of a defenseless city: what happens afterward is not nice. Minnie Vautrin, the story’s main and real character, is my new hero. An American missionary in Nanjing China in 1937, she chose to remain as dean of a Christian women’s college in spite of the Japanese invasion. Working under impossible conditions, she maintained the campus as a refugee center for women and children. Initially the conquerors, as to be expected, sought out all Chinese fighting-age males–whether solders or not–and killed or confined any suspected of being in the army: many of the college’s younger male employees were taken away. Secondly, of course, were dean Vautrin’s charges, the women. How could she protect them all? Most telling was her tacit agreement to allow “known” prostitutes to be taken from the campus by the Japanese. Of the 27 taken out of the 1000s of women housed on the campus, several turned out to be neither prostitutes nor desirous to go. But were taken anyway–in spite of Minnie’s protestations. Three years later, when the event surfaced in a local newspaper, Minnie could neither explain to her superiors nor manage her overwhelming grief over her inability to prevent the atrocity. Soon thereafter–still prior to Pearl Harbor–she returned to the USA, confined to a psychiatric hospital. Within the year, she committed suicide. For her it was not good enough to say that she saved more than 98% of the women who entered the college grounds–the Chinese awarded her their highest accolades. She never was able to overcome the loss of the few. At what cost do we compromise? At what cost do we not?
