Nanjing Massacre


A Japanese soldier pictured with the corpses of Chinese civilians by the Qinhuai River

Location: Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
Coordinates: 32°2'15"N 118°44'15"E
Date: From December 13, 1937, for six weeks
Target: Chinese people
Attack type: Mass murder, wartime rape, looting, torture, arson
Deaths: 200,000 civilians (consensus); estimates range from 40,000 to over 300,000
Victims: 20,000 to 80,000 women and children raped, 30,000 to 40,000 POWs executed (another 20,000 male civilians falsely accused of being soldiers executed)
Perpetrators: Imperial Japanese Army, Prince Yasuhiko Asaka (granted immunity), Gen. Iwane Matsui, Lt. Col. Isamu Chō
Motive: Anti-Chinese racism, Ethnic hatred, Japanese ultranationalism

The Nanjing Massacre or the Rape of Nanjing (formerly romanized as Nanking) was the mass murder of Chinese civilians by the Imperial Japanese Army in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, immediately after the Battle of Nanking and retreat of the National Revolutionary Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The massacre took place over a period of six weeks beginning on December 13, 1937. Estimates of the death toll vary from a low of 40,000 to a high of over 300,000, and estimates of rapes range from 20,000 to over 80,000. Most scholars support the validity of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, which estimated that at least 200,000 were killed. Other crimes included torture, looting, and arson. The massacre is considered one of the worst wartime atrocities in history In addition to civilians, numerous POWs and men who looked of military-age were indiscriminately slaughtered.

After the outbreak of the war in July 1937, the Japanese had pushed quickly through China after capturing Shanghai in November. As the Japanese marched on Nanjing, they committed violent atrocities in a terror campaign, including killing contests and massacring entire villages. By early December, the Japanese Central China Area Army under the command of General Iwane Matsui reached the outskirts of the city. The Chinese army withdrew the bulk of its forces since Nanjing was not a defensible position. The civilian government also fled, leaving the city under the de facto control of German citizen John Rabe, who created the Nanking Safety Zone in an attempt to protect its civilians. Prince Yasuhiko Asaka was installed as temporary commander in the campaign, and he issued an order to "kill all captives". Iwane and Asaka took no action to stop the massacre after it began.

The massacre began on December 13 after Japanese troops entered the city after days of intense fighting and continued to rampage through it unchecked. Thousands of captured Chinese soldiers were summarily executed en masse in violation of the laws of war, as were male civilians falsely accused of being soldiers. Widespread rape of female civilians took place, their ages ranging from infants to the elderly, and one third of the city was destroyed by arson. Rabe's Safety Zone was mostly a success, and is credited with saving at least 200,000 lives. After the war, Matsui and several other commanders at Nanking were found guilty of war crimes and executed. Some other Japanese military leaders in charge at the time of the Nanjing Massacre were not tried only because by the time of the tribunals they had either already been killed or committed ritual suicide. Asaka was granted immunity as a member of the imperial family and never tried.

The massacre remains a wedge issue in Sino-Japanese relations, as Japanese nationalists and historical revisionists, including top government officials, have either denied or minimized the massacre.

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