Some victims of the Nanking Massacre were thrown into mass, unmarked graves others were just left to rot in the sun. They then slaughtered scores of people they happened upon. They looted nearly every building they could find, stealing from the poor and the rich alike. The burned down the city’s walls, the people’s homes, the surrounding forests, and even whole villages situated in their path. When the Japanese Army reached Nanking, their brutality continued. One Japanese journalist, traveling with the 10th Army, wrote in his notes that he believed the army was moving forward with such strength because of the “tacit consent among the officers and men that they could loot and rape as they wish.” The Nanking Massacre Begins Among the invading army, nothing was forbidden and they believed that gave them strength. The Japanese Army was moving through China at the outset of their invasion, massacring and looting with strict orders to “kill all captives.”
The rape and murder that would soon envelop Nanking started before the Japanese Army ever reached the city walls. Some of the worst of it occurred over the six weeks after the Japanese stormed into the Chinese capital of Nanking (now known as Nanjing) in December 1937. They were civilians, unarmed and defenseless, and many of them were put through unimaginable hell before they were killed. They fought hard, in the end losing as many as 20 million lives (the second most of any country involved in the war) to keep the Japanese Empire from conquering much of East Asia and the Pacific.Īnd as many as 17 million Chinese casualties weren’t soldiers. While Europe was struggling to hold off the Nazi war machine, China was fending off the Japanese invasion that first launched in late 1937. But, all too often, when an atrocity has happened on the other side, we don’t hear much about it.Īlongside all the catastrophes that plagued Europe during World War II, the atrocities committed in Southeast Asia were every bit as disturbing - even if most of us in the West hardly ever learn about them in school.Īnd few of the atrocities committed in Asia during World War II were as terrible as the Nanking Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanking.
We know all about the horrors that have happened on our side of the world.
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