INTRO

The chronicle of humankind's cruelty to fellow humans is a long and sorry tale. But if it is
true that even in such horror tales there are degrees of ruthlessness, then few atrocities
in world history compare in intensity and scale to the Rape of Nanking during World War
II.
The Rape of Nanking was not widely remembered despite the death toll exceeding that
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.
So sickening was the spectacle that even the Nazis in the city were horrified, one
proclaiming the massacre to be the work of bestial machinery. (pg 6)
The Japanese Government-sanctioned denial of atrocities and continual reverence for
the persons committing them was the primary reason the holocaust wasnt remembered.
It is about the power of cultural forces either to make devils of us all, to strip away that
thin veneer of social restraint that makes humans humane, or to reinforce it. (pg 13)
As the Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel warned years ago, to forget a holocaust is to kill
twice.(page 16)
This book was written with George Santayanas immortal warning in mind: Those who
cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

THE JAPANESE PERSPECTIVE

Isolation, both physical and self-imposed insulated Japanese society from new
technology of the industrial revolution, making it less secure.
Resentment against Western Imperialization as well as the deeply imbedded bushido
ethic allowed Japan to develop an imperialistic attitude of itself, conquering Chinese
territory in the first Sino-Japanese War.
Fear of the increasing strength and unity of China under Chiang Kai-Shek and following
a nationalistic policy similar to the Nazi doctrine of Lebensraum, Japan was actively
preparing for inevitable war with China, beginning with the military training of an entire
generation of Japanese Youth.
Mob violence in 1932 resulted in the death of one Japanese Buddhist Priest. The Battle
of the January 28th Incident occurred in which Japan bombed Shanghai. Japan withdrew
in 1933 from the League of Nations amid international criticism.
Japanese schools became vehicles of nationalistic propaganda.
Training of an entire generation of young Japanese to be soldiers would have lasting
impact on Japanese Society.
The Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937 began the 2nd Sino Japanese War. The
conquering of Shanghai was a blow to the morale of the Imperial Army.
The Japanese Army plowed through the Chinese countryside towards Nanjing, leaving a
wake of destruction in its wake.
General Matsui, the man in charge of the Japanese offensive on Nanking became ill,
and was replaced by Prince Asaka Yasuhiko.
At the time it seemed like a trivial change, but later, for the lives of hundreds of
thousands of Chinese, it would prove to be a critical one.
 The Japanese army were vastly outnumbered by the Chinese civilians and feared an
insurgency as well as a lack of food. Under Asaka, an order was issued to Japanese
troops to begin executing all Chinese Captives.
Resistance by Chinese captives was sporadic.
Chinese prisoners were divided into columns, marched to various execution points and
gunned down. Body disposal became a problem, and many bodies were simply dumped
into the Yangtze.
After the en masse surrender of soldiers, the citizens of Nanking were left unprotected.
Wounded soldiers, elderly women, and children were all victims to massacres, and the
streets literally ran rivers of blood. Hills of corpses resulted, and Nanking was laid to
ruins.
Women, old and young, suffered the most. Rape, sexual assault and subsequent murder
occurred to many innocent women. Orgies occurred, and some generals even urged
soldiers to commit gang rape and dispose of the bodies afterwards.
General Iwane Matsui arrived after the killing and raping subsided. He initially was
unaware of the atrocities that occurred, but when he began to comprehend the full extent
of the rape, murder and looting in the city, he was dismayed and threatened discipline.
However, Matsui was unable to stop it, and the killing and raping continued. It was noted
that several lakes were so full of corpses they actually disappeared.
Comfort Women: in an attempt to reduce the incidence of random rape of local women,
to contain STDs, and to award soldiers, hundreds of thousands of women from Korea,
China, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Indonesia were lured, purchased or kidnapped and
forced into comfort houses where they were used as prostitutes by Japanese Soldiers.
Untold numbers of women committed suicide or died from disease or murder. Few
survivors are unwilling to speak up due to deep cultural shame.
Soldiers often dehumanized their victims. Killing competitions, in which competitors
competed to see how many heads they can decapitate, were covered by Japanese
media like sporting events. New soldiers at first were horrified at the behavior of their
colleagues, but soon were desensitized and learned to kill.
One possible explanation for the mindset of the Japanese Soldier was the belief that
next to the Emperor, individual life- even their own- was worthless. Japanese veterans
from the Nanking massacre were found to lack remorse or even a sense of wrongdoing.

The Fall of Nanking

Nanjing was the former imperial capital of China, a city of splendor, history, and extreme
cultural value.
During the Invasion of Nanking, the authors grandparents were nearly separated during
the aerial bombing and subsequent evacuation. However, many residents of Nanking
remained in the city.
The loss of Shanghai came as a blow to Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Nationalists. He
handed the responsibility of defending Nanking to a subordinated named Tang
Sheng-chih.
 The Siege of Nanking ended in four days on December 12, 1937. This can be partly
attributed to the militaristic superiority the Japanese had over the Chinese. The lack of
communication equipment, the lack of Chinese air corps, the language barriers between
personel speaking different dialects, the complete lack of training of soldiers, and worst
of all, the lack of cohesiveness of Chinese soldiers all contributed to the eventual doom
of the city.
On December 11, an order came from Chiang calling for Tang to retreat. This retreat
threw the Chinese military into an uproar, and officers and soldiers immediately tried to
escape for themselves. The only path out of the city without encountering the Japanese
was the northern harbor to the Yangtze River. Congestion and chaos caused by
retreating soldiers resulted in the innumerable deaths of men attempting to cross the
river that night.
Six Weeks of Horror:
With the entrance of the victorious Japanese into Nanjing, civilians were gunned down
on a whim and began the brutal execution of POWs. Tang Shunsan was a 25 year-old
shoemakers apprentice who hid in the homes of two fellow apprentices. He succumbed
to his curiosity about seeing a Japanese Soldier, and came out of his hiding place only to
be herded to a group of Chinese men doomed to be victims of a killing competition. He
survived purely out of luck when the soldier decapitated the man directly in front of Tang,
and the victims body fell on Tang into the pit. Tang was the only survivor of the hundreds
of people killed that day.
Few example of torture include:
Live burials
Mutilation, disembowelment, decapitation occurred en masse. Prisoners were
nailed to wooden boards and then ran over with tanks. At least 100 men had their
eyes gouged out and their noses and ears hacked off before being set on fire.
Captives including men, women and children were pushed into pits ten at a time,
sprayed with gasoline and ignited.One method of of entertainment was when
Japanese forced to the top stories of roofs and buildings, tearing down stairs, and
setting the bottom floor on fire.
Victims were intentionally frozen to death. Chinese prisoners were forced to strip
naked at the edge of a frozen pond and plunge into the frigid waters.
Chinese prisoners were buried to their waist and were torn apart by German
shepherds.
Impaled babies with bayonets
Hung people by their tongues
One Japanese reporter learned that at least one Japanese soldier tore the heart
and liver out of a Chinese victim to eat them.
Genital mutilation.

The Nanking Massacre was one of the greatest mass rapes to ever occur in world
history. Estimates range from 20,000 to 80,000.
 Farm wives, students, teachers, white-collar and blue collar workers, wives of
YMCA employees, university professors, and even Buddhist nuns were victims,
sometimes, gang-raped to death. They were systematically hunted down or lured
for rape.
The Japanese attacked women in nunneries, churches, and Bible training
schools. 17 soldiers raped one woman in succession in a seminary compound
Little girls under ten years old were raped in the streets and slashed in half with a
sword. In some cases, the Japanese sliced open girls genitalia in order to ravish
them more effectively.
Even women in advanced stages of pregnancy were raped or kicked to death.
A particularly horrific atrocity occurred when after gang rape, Japanese soldiers
would rip open the belly of a pregnant woman with a bayonet and jerk out not
only her intestines but a squirming fetus for pure amusement.
The rape of women frequently accompanied the slaughter of entire families. One
incidence occurred in December 13, 1937 when Japanese soldiers murdered the
husband, brutally raped two teenage daughters and shoved objects up their
genitals and afterwards bayoneted, murdered two children, and shot the
grandparents and the mother. The sole survivor, an 8 year old, lived for fourteen
days on rice crusts before being discovered by a member of the International
Committee.
Many girls captured were tied naked to chairs, beds or poles as permanent
fixtures for rape and often did not survive such treatment. One 11 year girl died
after she was continuously raped for two days.
Infants were often suffocated and bayoneted to death because they wept while
their mothers were being raped.
Countless men died trying to protect their loved ones. Chinese men were often
sodomised and forced to perform repulsive sexual acts like necrophilia and incest
for the pleasure of Japanese soldiers.
Entire families would commit suicide rather than participate in their own
destruction
Women would avoid rape by using disguises, hiding, feigning illness, and
escaping pursuit.
Li Xouying was an example of resistance by women against the Japanese: she
fought off Japanese soldiers before being knocked out with bayonets and left for
dead.

The death toll is widely disputed due to the extensive nature of the killing- one
calculation estimated it at exceeding 377,400.
The few Americans and Europeans left in the city tried to establish the International
Safety Zone for refugees protected from Japanese intrusion. The safety zone provided
food, shelter and medical care. However, due to the number of refugees, overcrowding
soon became an issue, as would food shortage and sanitation. Nevertheless, they
 courageously saved lives and documented Japanese atrocities for the world and
posterity.
John Rabe: head of the International committee safety zone who saved hundreds of
thousands of Chinese lives. A German national and a Nazi, he was an unlikely hero. He
even once addressed a letter to Adolf Hitler asking him for help with establishing the
safety zone. He bargained unsuccessfully with Japanese officials to prevent atrocities,
using his Nazi party membership as leverage. Eventually, he would go unprotected into
the city in his car and stop rapes in person. He sheltered Chinese refugees in his house
and office. He tried to keep hope alive for his refugees, hosting birthday celebrations for
the children born to refugee women. He eventually won the respect of his American
colleague despite his affiliation with Nazism.
Robert Wilson: An American doctor working in Nanjing who would later be a member of
the International Committee as well as the only physician active in Nanjing. He was
responsible for the lives of hundreds of refugees, risking his life working overtime and
unpaid. Being a physician, he was witness to hundreds of atrocities in the emergency
room like charred victims or victims whose head was nearly cut off. It was believed that
his love for China and his faith as a devout Methodist contributed to his hard work and
dedication.
Wilhelmina Vautrin: As a former missionary and current acting principal of Ginling
Women's College she was one of the last Western women left in Nanjing
Final Thoughts: Riveting and detailed read. But be warned, contents are extremely
graphic. Be sure to read with tissues and the number of a local therapist.