Nanjing Massacre
In November 1937, the Japanese army captured Shanghai after months of bloody urban combat. General Iwane Matsui led the Central China Area Army toward Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China. The march covered 170 miles through a landscape transformed into a zone of death and destruction. Japanese aircraft strafed unarmed farmers and refugees for fun along the route. On November 23, soldiers set fire to the hamlet of Nanqiantou near Wuxi. They locked inhabitants inside burning houses and killed those who tried to escape. Two women were raped repeatedly until they could not walk. A broom was rammed into one teenager's vagina before she was stabbed with a bayonet. Soldiers cut open the belly of a pregnant woman and gouged out her fetus. A crying two-year-old boy was wrestled from his mother and thrown into flames while his mother was bayoneted and dumped in a creek. Thirty villagers were disemboweled and cast into a nearby stream. By late December, the Japanese forces had surrounded 300,000 Chinese troops near Nanjing.
German businessman John Rabe formed the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone on the 22nd of November 1937. He elected himself leader partly because he held membership in the Nazi Party. The committee mapped out a western quarter of the city to protect civilians. Red Cross flags demarcated the safe area. Minnie Vautrin established Ginling Girls College within this zone. She sheltered up to 10,000 women during the massacre. Bernhard Arp Sindberg converted a cement factory into a refugee camp for 6,000 to 10,000 people. He painted a large Danish flag on the roof to deter bombing. Karl Gunther helped guard the site alongside him. Twenty-seven foreigners remained in the city when the Japanese arrived. Five journalists stayed until December 16. The Safety Zone saved at least 200,000 lives from immediate slaughter. On December 15, Minnie Vautrin wrote that one thousand disarmed soldiers were taken away and likely shot or bayoneted. John Rabe recorded that Japanese soldiers entered the zone to execute men and rape women despite the international protection status.
Japanese troops conducted mopping-up operations after capturing Nanjing on the 13th of December 1937. They identified former Chinese soldiers using arbitrary criteria like shoe sores or calloused faces. Men with good posture or sharp eyes were automatically presumed to be combatants. Rikshaw coolies, carpenters, and laborers were frequently rounded up. Police officers and firefighters faced execution as well. Street sweepers and Buddhist burial workers were marched away on suspicion of being soldiers. On December 15, Yamada Detachment led 17,000 to 20,000 prisoners to the banks of the Yangtze River near Mufushan. Machine guns fired into the crowd before bodies were burned or flushed downstream. A soldier from the 13th Division described stabbing thirty wounded survivors while climbing atop a mountain of corpses. The Straw String Gorge Massacre occurred on December 18 along the riverbanks. Soldiers tied prisoners hands together and opened fire at dusk. It took an hour for the sounds of death to stop. Most bodies were dumped directly into the Yangtze River. One thousand five hundred men were executed at Taiping Gate. Landmines blew them up before petrol doused their remains. Survivors were killed with bayonets. U.S. news correspondent F. Tillman Durdin reported seeing mounds six feet high formed by massacred soldiers.
The International Military Tribunal estimated 20,000 cases of rape in the first month of occupation. Some scholars conclude there were 80,000 rapes total. Women ranging from infants to the elderly became targets. Japanese soldiers sent coal trucks to seize women from streets and villages. Each woman was allocated to fifteen to twenty soldiers for sexual intercourse. Afterward, many victims were killed through explicit mutilation. Bayonets penetrated vaginas alongside long bamboo sticks. A six-months pregnant woman received sixteen stabs in her face and body. Her unborn child died from one piercing stab. A young woman had a beer bottle rammed into her vagina after being raped before she was shot. On December 19, Reverend James M. McCallum wrote that he knew not where to end his diary entry about such brutality. He estimated at least 1,000 cases occurred every night. A fifteen-year-old girl was locked naked in barracks housing two hundred to three hundred soldiers. She was raped multiple times daily. Mothers watched their babies beheaded before submitting to rape themselves. One infant was deliberately smothered to stop crying while its mother was assaulted. Robert O. Wilson, a surgeon at the University Hospital, reported that thousands of people were slaughtered in cold blood. His hospital capacity was normally 180 beds but remained full to overflowing for six or seven weeks.
One-third of Nanjing was destroyed by arson during the occupation. Japanese troops torched newly built government buildings and civilian homes. Soldiers pillaged from both the poor and the wealthy alike. Frank Tillman Durdin described how plunder reached almost the entire city. Men took whatever they wanted often in the sight of officers. Chinese civilians were forced to carry loot away. John Rabe complained on December 17 that all 27 Occidentals and the Chinese population were surprised by the reign of robbery. Five members of the committee toured the zone between 8 and 9 p.m. They found no single Japanese patrol inside the area. The International Committee forwarded 450 cases of murder, rape, torture, and disorder to the Japanese embassy by the 5th of February 1938. Case 16 involved a fourteen-year-old girl named Loh who was shot through the head near Kuling Ssu temple. An old woman aged 62 had a stick rammed up her when soldiers tried to rape her at Hansimen. She survived to return to the camp. One-third of the city lay in rubble while survivors faced constant terror.
Japanese society taught militaristic and racist ideologies before the war began. The fascist doctrine propagated belief in Japanese superiority over other peoples. Recruits suffered harsh abuse during training ranging from slaps to beatings. Officers disciplined subordinates violently while superiors disciplined them further. This hierarchy socialized many members into accepting cruelty against perceived weaker groups. Soldiers vented rage and frustrations against helpless civilians out of excitement or sheer sadistic pleasure. Some derived pleasure from setting houses aflame and watching them burn. A group doused a child in kerosene then set him on fire for refusing to lead them to his mother. Japanese officers ignored atrocities committed by juniors or actively participated in them. Soldiers perpetrated gratuitous acts often out of boredom or cheap search for thrills. The Battle of Shanghai proved more difficult than anticipated contributing to desire for revenge. Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe justified the massacre as retaliation against persistent Kuomintang aggression. He rejected Chiang Kai-Shek's offer of negotiation through a German ambassador. General Iwane Matsui grew increasingly dismayed upon realizing the full extent of rape, torture, murder, and looting. He told a civilian aide that he felt depressed about the future of two countries.
The International Military Tribunal for the Far East estimated more than 200,000 people were killed. Newer death toll estimates adhere to figures between 100,000 and 200,000. Other estimates vary from a low of 40,000 confined just to the city itself to over 340,000 encompassing the entire region. Estimates of rapes range from 4,000 to over 80,000 with 20,000 being most common. Post-war tribunals found General Iwane Matsui guilty of war crimes and executed him. Prince Yasuhiko Asaka received immunity as an imperial family member and was never tried. Lieutenant Colonel Isamu Chō sent orders under the Prince's sign-manual without his knowledge or assent. Some other Japanese military leaders were not tried because they had already been killed or committed ritual suicide. Hirohito singled out Prince Asaka in palace rolls for censure regarding his attitude. The massacre remains a contentious topic in Sino-Japanese relations today. Japanese nationalists and historical revisionists including top government officials have denied or minimized the event. Historian Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi argued that killing contests were concocted stories by the army to raise national fighting spirit. A Tokyo district judge dismissed a suit by families of lieutenants stating the story cannot be proven clearly false.
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Common questions
Who led the Japanese army during the Nanjing Massacre?
General Iwane Matsui led the Central China Area Army toward Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China. He grew increasingly dismayed upon realizing the full extent of rape, torture, murder, and looting committed by his forces.
When did Japanese troops capture Nanjing in 1937?
Japanese troops conducted mopping-up operations after capturing Nanjing on the 13th of December 1937. The International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone was formed earlier on the 22nd of November 1937 to protect civilians before the city fell.
How many people were killed during the Nanjing Massacre according to historical estimates?
The International Military Tribunal for the Far East estimated more than 200,000 people were killed. Newer death toll estimates adhere to figures between 100,000 and 200,000 while other estimates vary from a low of 40,000 confined just to the city itself to over 340,000 encompassing the entire region.
What happened to Prince Yasuhiko Asaka after the war regarding the Nanjing Massacre?
Prince Yasuhiko Asaka received immunity as an imperial family member and was never tried for his role in the massacre. Hirohito singled out Prince Asaka in palace rolls for censure regarding his attitude toward the events.
Who protected civilians in the Nanking Safety Zone during the occupation?
German businessman John Rabe formed the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone on the 22nd of November 1937 to protect civilians. Minnie Vautrin sheltered up to 10,000 women at Ginling Girls College while Bernhard Arp Sindberg converted a cement factory into a refugee camp for 6,000 to 10,000 people.