 The Rape of Nanking is structured into three main parts . The first uses a technique that Chang called " the Rashomon perspective " to narrate the events of the Nanking Massacre , from three different perspectives : that of the Japanese military , the Chinese victims , and the Westerners who tried to help Chinese civilians . The second part concerns the postwar reaction to the massacre , especially that of the American and European governments . The third part of the book examines the circumstances that , Chang believed , have kept knowledge of the massacre out of public consciousness decades after the war . 
