The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang relates the invasion of Nanking by the Japanese army and narrates what the Japanese did to the Chinese army, citizens and other people of the city and how the different people acted during the event. Iris Chang's description of the Japanese soldiers, the Chinese, and the Westerners follow what Machiavelli, Locke, and Rousseau say about human nature. Their ideas on how people behave in the state of nature and Machiavelli's behaviors that leaders should exhibit are unfolded in how the Japanese, the Chinese, and the Westerners act in The Rape of Nanking. The Japanese soldiers reporting on how they felt committing atrocities on the Chinese of Nanking supports Machiavelli's view on human nature. Machiavelli states,
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Locke states that "in the state of nature every one has the executive power of the law of nature... it is unreasonable for men to be judges in their own cases...that ill nature, passion and revenge will carry them too far in punishing others; and hence nothing but confusion and disorder will follow," (Locke 12). In the state of nature every man has the power to judge for himself what is right, and this is unreasonable because some men do not act reasonably. The Japanese soldiers are the ones who do not act reasonably in this state of nature. When Minnie Vautrin would confront them, "Many of the soldiers were "fierce and unreasonable" toward her, brandishing bayonets reddened with fresh bloodstains," (Chang 134). Since there is no real commanding power to control what the Japanese soldiers do they run wild and do whatever they want to, harming others, because no one is the judge but themselves in the state of nature. In the streets John Rabe would pass by "scores of female corpses, raped and mutilated, next to the charred remains of their homes," (Chang 119). The Japanese soldiers cause great suffering towards the Chinese: raping, murdering, and destroying property. They do not behave reasonably in the state of nature because they are their own judges and they get to choose what is
Locke states that "in the state of nature every one has the executive power of the law of nature... it is unreasonable for men to be judges in their own cases...that ill nature, passion and revenge will carry them too far in punishing others; and hence nothing but confusion and disorder will follow," (Locke 12). In the state of nature every man has the power to judge for himself what is right, and this is unreasonable because some men do not act reasonably. The Japanese soldiers are the ones who do not act reasonably in this state of nature. When Minnie Vautrin would confront them, "Many of the soldiers were "fierce and unreasonable" toward her, brandishing bayonets reddened with fresh bloodstains," (Chang 134). Since there is no real commanding power to control what the Japanese soldiers do they run wild and do whatever they want to, harming others, because no one is the judge but themselves in the state of nature. In the streets John Rabe would pass by "scores of female corpses, raped and mutilated, next to the charred remains of their homes," (Chang 119). The Japanese soldiers cause great suffering towards the Chinese: raping, murdering, and destroying property. They do not behave reasonably in the state of nature because they are their own judges and they get to choose what is