The Nanking Massacre, commonly known as the Rape of Nanking, because many local women were raped, was an infamous war crime committed by the Japanese military in Nanjing (historically known as Nanking), then the capital of the Republic of China, after it fell to the Imperial Japanese Army on December 13, 1937. The duration of the massacre is not clearly defined, although the violence lasted well into the next six weeks, until early February 1938.
During the raping of Nanking, the Japanese army committed numerous atrocities, such as rape, looting, arson and the execution of prisoners of war and civilians. Although the executions began under the pretext of eliminating Chinese soldiers disguised as civilians, it is claimed that a large number of innocent men were intentionally identified as enemy combatants and executed as the massacre gathered momentum. A large number of women and children were also killed, as rape and murder became more widespread.
According to the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, estimates made at a later date indicate that the total number of civilians and prisoners of war murdered in Nanking and its vicinity during the first six weeks of the Japanese occupation was over 200,000. That these estimates are not exaggerated is borne out by the fact that burial societies and other organizations counted more than 155,000 buried bodies. Most were bound with their hands tied behind their backs. These figures do not take into account those persons whose bodies were destroyed by burning, by throwing them into the Yangtze River, or otherwise disposed of by the Japanese.[1] The extent of the atrocities is debated between China and Japan, with numbers[2] ranging from some Japanese claims of several hundred,[3] to the Chinese claim of a non-combatant death toll of 300,000[4]. A number of Japanese researchers consider 100,000 – 200,000 to be an approximate value.[5] Other nations usually believe the death toll to be between 150,000–300,000.[6] This number was first promulgated in January of 1938 by Harold Timperly, a journalist in China during the Japanese invasion, based on reports from contemporary eyewitnesses. Other sources, including Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanking, also conclude that the death toll reached 300,000. In December 2007, newly declassified U.S. government documents revealed an additional toll of around 500,000 in the area surrounding Nanking before it was occupied.[7]
In addition to the number of victims, some Japanese nationalists have even disputed whether the atrocity ever happened.[8] While the Japanese government has acknowledged the incident did occur,[9] some Japanese nationalists have argued, partly using the Imperial Japanese Army's claims at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, that the death toll was military in nature and that no such civilian atrocities ever occurred. This claim has been criticised by various figures, citing statements of non-Chinese at the Tribunal, other eyewitnesses and by photographic and archaeological evidence that civilian deaths did occur.
Condemnation of the massacre is a major focal point of Chinese nationalism. In Japan, however, public opinion over the severity of the massacre remains widely divided — this is evidenced by the fact that whereas some Japanese commentators refer to it as the 'Nanking massacre' (南京大虐殺, Nankin daigyakusatsu?), others use the more ambivalent term 'Nanking Incident' (南京事件, Nankin jiken?). However, this term can also refer to a separate Nanjing Incident that occurred during the 1927 Nationalist seizure of the city as a part of the Northern Expedition, in which foreigners in the city were attacked. The 1937 massacre and the extent of its coverage in school textbooks continues to be a point of contention and controversy in Sino-Japanese relations.
[edit] Invasion of China
By August of 1937, in the midst of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Imperial Japanese Army encountered strong resistance from the Kuomintang (traditional Chinese: 國民黨; simplified Chinese: 国民党) army in the Battle of Shanghai. The battle caused high casualties on both sides as they were worn down by attrition in hand-to-hand combat. On August 6, 1937, Hirohito personally ratified his army's proposition to remove the constraints of international law on the treatment of Chinese prisoners. This directive also advised staff officers to stop using the term "prisoner of war".[10]
On the way from Shanghai to Nanjing, Japanese soldiers committed numerous atrocities, showing that the Nanking Massacre was not an isolated incident.[11] The most infamous event was the "contest to kill 100 people using a sword" (although there is a disagreement today that this contest ever took place).[12] By mid-November, the Japanese had captured Shanghai with the help of naval and aerial bombardment. The General Staff Headquarters in Tokyo decided not to expand the war, due to the high casualties incurred and the low morale of the troops.
Nanking Safety Zone
Main article: Nanking Safety Zone
Many westerners were living in the city at that time, conducting trade or on missionary trips. As the Japanese army began to launch bombing raids over Nanjing, all of them except 22 people fled to their respective countries.[citation needed] Siemens businessman John Rabe stayed behind and formed a committee, called the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone. Rabe was elected as its leader, in part because of his status as a Nazi and the existence of the German-Japanese bilateral Anti-Comintern Pact. This committee established the Nanking Safety Zone in the western quarter of the city. The Japanese government had agreed not to attack parts of the city that did not contain Chinese military, and the members of the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone managed to persuade the Chinese government to move all their troops out of the area. It is said Rabe rescued 200,000 - 250,000 Chinese people.[17] [18]
The Japanese did respect the Zone to an extent; no shells entered that part of the city leading up to the Japanese occupation except a few stray shots. During the chaos following the attack of the city, some were killed in the Safety Zone, but the atrocities in the rest of the city were far greater by all accounts.
On December 7, the Japanese army issued a command to all troops, advising that because occupying a foreign capital was an unprecedented event for the Japanese military, those soldiers who "[commit] any illegal acts", "dishonor the Japanese Army", "loot", or "cause a fire to break out, even because of their carelessness" would be severely punished.[19] The Japanese military continued to march forward, breaching the last lines of Chinese resistance, and arriving outside the walled city of Nanjing on December 9. At noon, the military dropped leaflets into the city, urging the surrender of Nanjing within 24 hours:[20]
"The Japanese Army, one million strong, has already conquered Changshu. We have surrounded the city of Nanking… The Japanese Army shall show no mercy toward those who offer resistance, treating them with extreme severity, but shall harm neither innocent civilians nor Chinese military [personnel] who manifest no hostility. It is our earnest desire to preserve the East Asian culture. If your troops continue to fight, war in Nanking is inevitable. The culture that has endured for a millennium will be reduced to ashes, and the government that has lasted for a decade will vanish into thin air. This commander-in-chief issues [b]ills to your troops on behalf of the Japanese Army. Open the gates to Nanking in a peaceful manner, and obey the [f]ollowing instructions."[19]
The Japanese awaited an answer. When no Chinese envoy had arrived by 1:00 p.m. the following day, General Matsui Iwane issued the command to take Nanjing by force. On December 12, after two days of Japanese attack, under heavy artillery fire and aerial bombardment, General Tang Sheng-chi ordered his men to retreat. What followed was nothing short of chaos. Some Chinese soldiers stripped civilians of their clothing in a desperate attempt to blend in, and many others were shot in the back by their own comrades as they tried to flee.[14] Those who actually made it outside the city walls fled north to the Yangtze, only to find that there were no vessels remaining to take them. Some then jumped into the wintry waters and drowned.
On December 13, the Japanese entered the walled city of Nanjing, facing hardly any military resistance.
Rape
It is a horrible story to relate; I know not where to begin nor to end. Never have I heard or read of such brutality. Rape: We estimate at least 1,000 cases a night and many by day. In case of resistance or anything that seems like disapproval there is a bayonet stab or a bullet.
—James McCallum, letter to his family, 19 December 1937
There probably is no crime that has not been committed in this city today. Thirty girls were taken from the language school last night, and today I have heard scores of heartbreaking stories of girls who were taken from their homes last night—one of the girls was but 12 years old… Tonight a truck passed in which there were eight or ten girls, and as it passed they called out "Jiu ming! Jiu ming!"—save our lives.
—Minnie Vautrin's diary, 16 December 1937
The International Military Tribunal for the Far East stated that 20,000 women were raped, their ages ranging from infants to the elderly (as old as 80).[21] Rapes were often performed in public during the day, sometimes in front of spouses or family members that were tied up and forced to watch. A large number of them were systematized in a process where soldiers would search door-to-door for young girls, with many women taken captive and gang raped. The women were then killed immediately after the rape, often through mutilation, including breasts being cut off, or stabbing by bamboo (usually very long sticks), bayonet, butcher's knife and other objects into the vagina. According to some testimonies, other women were forced into military prostitution as comfort women. There are even stories of Japanese troops forcing families to commit acts of incest.[22] Sons were forced to rape their mothers, fathers were forced to rape daughters. One pregnant woman who was gang-raped by Japanese soldiers gave birth only a few hours later; the baby was perfectly healthy (Robert B. Edgerton, Warriors of the Rising Sun). Monks who had declared a life of celibacy were forced to rape women for the amusement of the Japanese.[22] Chinese men were forced into intercourse with corpses and infants, Chinese men were forced to have their penises cut off by bayonets for "humorous" reasons as detailed by some Japanese soldiers, and the testicles were as well, cut off (some men were forced to eat them), farmers were forced to commit zoophiliac acts with their livestock. Men were tied up by Japanese soldiers and hit in the crotch area with bamboo sticks. Any resistance would be met with summary executions. While the rape peaked immediately following the fall of the city, it continued for the duration of the Japanese occupation.
Various foreign residents in Nanking at the time recorded their experiences with what was going on in the city:
Robert Wilson in his letter to his family: The slaughter of civilians is appalling. I could go on for pages telling of cases of rape and brutality almost beyond belief. Two bayoneted corpses are the only survivors of seven street cleaners who were sitting in their headquarters when Japanese soldiers came in without warning or reason and killed five of their number and wounded the two that found their way to the hospital.[24]
John Magee in his letter to his wife: They not only killed every prisoner they could find but also a vast number of ordinary citizens of all ages.... Just the day before yesterday we saw a poor wretch killed very near the house where we are living.[25]
Robert Wilson in another letter to his family: They [Japanese soldiers] bayoneted one little boy, killing him, and I spent an hour and a half this morning patching up another little boy of eight who had five bayonet wounds including one that penetrated his stomach, a portion of omentum was outside the abdomen.[26]
Immediately after the fall of the city, Japanese troops embarked on a determined search for former soldiers, in which thousands of young men were captured. Many were taken to the Yangtze River, where they were machine-gunned so their bodies would be carried down to Shanghai. The Japanese troops gathered 1,300 Chinese soldiers and civilians at Taiping Gate and killed them. The victims were blown up with landmines, then doused with petrol before being set on fire. Those that were left alive afterwards were killed with bayonets.[27] Some people were beaten to death. The Japanese also summarily executed many pedestrians on the streets, usually under the pretext that they might be soldiers disguised in civilian clothing.
Thousands were led away and mass-executed in an excavation known as the "Ten-Thousand-Corpse Ditch", a trench measuring about 300m long and 5m wide. Since records were not kept, estimates regarding the number of victims buried in the ditch range from 4,000 to 20,000. However, most scholars and historians consider the number to be around 12,000 victims.[28]
Women and children were not spared from the horrors of the massacres. Often, Japanese soldiers cut off the breasts, impaled them with bayonets until the blade protruded out of the back, disemboweled them, or in the case of pregnant women, cut open the uterus, removed the fetus. Witnesses recall Japanese soldiers throwing babies into the air and catching them with their bayonets. Pregnant women were often the target of murder, as they would often be bayoneted in the belly, sometimes after rape.[29] Many women were first brutally raped then killed. The actual scene of this massacre is introduced in detail in the documentary film of the movie "The Battle of China".
The Konoe government was well aware of the atrocities. On 17 January, Foreign minister Koki Hirota received a telegram written by Manchester Guardian correspondent H.J. Timperley intercepted by the occupation government in Shanghai. In this telegram, Timperley wrote:
"Since return [to] Shanghai [a] few days ago I investigated reported atrocities committed by Japanese Army in Nanking and elsewhere. Verbal accounts [of] reliable eye-witnesses and letters from individuals whose credibility [is] beyond question afford convincing proof [that] Japanese Army behaved and [is] continuing [to] behave in [a] fashion reminiscent [of] Attila [and] his Huns. [Not] less than three hundred thousand Chinese civilians slaughtered, many cases [in] cold blood."
_courtesy of Wikipedia sources_ copyright
WHAT REMAINS IS MEMORIES OF THE OLD AND TERROR THE YOUNG FORGOTEN...i plea that if u dont like it spread word of it.....LET IT REMAIN IN OUR MIND THAT IT WILL NOT BE FORGOTTEN....and the dead will always be remembered.....>_< peace
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