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The Nanking Massacre and Other Japanese Military Atrocities, 1931-1945
INTRODUCTION to UNIT 4
The Nanking Massacre: “The Rape of Nanking”
The Japanese invasion of China, prior to, and during World War II lasted from the early 1930s to 1945,
with the eight years from 1937-1945 the most intense period, known by the Chinese as the “Eight Year War
of Resistance.” European and American historians generally have not treated this war with the same attention
as WWII in Europe and the Pacifi c, ignoring Japan’s long-standing ambition to conquer China and the rest of
Southeastern Asia and to build a powerful empire, euphemistically called by the Japanese, the “Great East Co-
Prosperity Sphere.” While intrigues and atrocities followed the Japanese armies wherever they trampled over
Asia during the war, The Nanking Massacre was by far the most monstrous episode in terms of the number of
people killed and the speed with which the massacre was accomplished.
In July 1937, the Japanese army used the temporary disappearance of a soldier around the Marco Polo
Bridge south of Beijing, as a pretext to launch an attack on the city of Beijing, followed by a full-scale invasion
of Northern China. The ill-equipped Chinese armies put up a weak defense, so the Japanese quickly pushed its
way southwards to Shanghai. After a ferocious battle, lasting three months, with heavy casualties, the Japanese
occupied Shanghai and headed northwest towards Nanking, the capital of China at that time. Numerous
atrocities were committed en route to Nanjing, but these could not compare with the carnage the Japanese
unleashed on the defenseless city.
About 100,000 Japanese soldiers entered Nanking on December 13, 1937, encountering little resistance
since most of the Chinese soldiers had evacuated the city. Nanking had a population of about one million, but
approximately half of the residents had fl ed the city before the Japanese entered. Over the next seven weeks,
about 350,000 people, including thousands of unarmed Chinese soldiers, were systematically massacred using
bayonets, guns, machine guns, and grenades. Some were burned alive with gasoline or drowned, while others
were buried alive or buried to their waists to be used for bayonet practice. One third of the city was burned to
the ground with the fi res lasting for thirty-nine days.
During this period, there were foreign businessmen and missionaries, both European and American in
the city. Some escaped, for example, on the U.S.S. Panay that was bombed by the Japanese. However, during
the invasion and killing, other foreigners decided to stay in order to protect Chinese civilians by organizing
an International Committee. This committee established the Nanking Safety Zone in an area of about 3.8
square km that encompassed the American Embassy, Nanking University, and Nanking Women’s College of
Arts and Sciences (Ginling College).
This International Committee appealed to the Japanese government to recognize the zone but without
success. The Japanese even killed Chinese citizens, including the old, women, and children, in front of
members of the International Committee.
The Japanese army went on a rampage in Nanking following a policy of slaughter known as “The Three
Alls” —“Rape all, loot all, and burn all.” However, there are survivors of this horrifi c event. There are
eyewitness documented accounts by various foreigners. They have told their tales of horror to historians and
writers like Iris Chang, who wrote the defi nitive book of the event called The Rape of Nanking.
Many Japanese soldiers described the scene and their actions in their diaries, and many took photographs.
Regardless of age, about 20,000 women were raped or gang-raped before being tortured or brutally killed.
In addition to other brutalities, the Japanese wanted to steal the cultural heritage of the Chinese. The
Japanese had set up a special committee for sorting transporting and cataloguing looted books. The loss was
devastating: 897,178 volumes from public and private libraries in Nanjing—a priceless collection of Chinese
classical texts and printed texts.
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