illustrates Marcus Penna
It was an episode of mass murder committed by the Japanese against the Chinese in 1937 and 1938. The event is considered the most traumatic of the Second Sino-Japanese War, fought between the powerful and expansionist Empire of Japan and the poor and fragile China. The massacre lasted six weeks and started when the Japanese landed in Nanjing, which was the Chinese capital at the time. About 260,000 people died. Twenty thousand women were raped and killed, including girls under the age of ten. To this day, the event is traumatic for the Chinese and controversial for the Japanese, who downplay the atrocities and do not recognize most of the crimes committed.
japanese horror
The hometown of India ink witnessed one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century
DRAGGED CONTEXT
China had been in civil war since 1926, between nationalists and communists (led by Mao Zedong). As a weakened country, some regions were controlled by foreign powers. Japan dominated Manchuria and advanced into Chinese territory when it saw that the nationalists were preparing to confront it.
IT’S WAR!
In 1937, the Japanese attacked the coast of China. They conquered Shanghai after four months of fighting, which left 250,000 Chinese casualties against 40,000 Japanese. The Chinese fled to Nanjing, destroying rice fields and everything that could help the Japanese troops.
NO SUFFOCATION
Japan surrounded the capital, and on December 5 entered the city. General Tang Shengzhi, commander of Chinese troops in Nanjing, recruited 100,000 troops in the city to try to contain the Japanese advance. After violent clashes, the Japanese overthrew the capital’s defenses in eight days of fighting.
THE BEGINNING OF THE MASSACRE
Japanese General Asaka Yasuhiko ordered the execution of all POWs. They separated civilians, military, men and women. They tortured, hanged and shot the soldiers. They massacred civilians in the street. Some took refuge in temples but were caught anyway.
SILENCE IN THE QUARRY
The Japanese led the citizens into a crater in a quarry. They lined up everyone and opened fire. Many fell still alive, and soldiers searched for survivors to execute them. Today, there is a memorial on the site in honor of the victims of the massacre.
HELL OLYMPICS
The horror worsened under General Iwane Matsui. Beheading became a sport. You could see who was faster and more accurate in cutting. They counted who killed the most babies and ripped the most fetuses out of their mothers’ bellies. They hung heads so as not to lose count and fed the bodies to stray dogs, hungrier than ever at that moment. To complete, they practiced vivisection, that is, dissecting the person still alive
RAPE AND KILL
But the worst was in store for the women. They dragged mothers, singles and teenagers onto trucks to turn them into sex slaves. Many of them, which the Japanese called “comfort women”, were exported as slaves to the 2,000 military brothels that Japan had spread across the Asian continent.
CITY IN RUINS
In two months, few were left standing. The Japanese still beat, drowned, burned and shot the citizens. They buried children alive. International observers spoke of piles of heads and bodies littering the street. Among the thousands of women raped, many were gang-raped, maimed, killed and left in plain sight to terrorize those still alive.
MORE WAR
The Chinese government continued to flee until its final defeat in 1938. Japan divided China into puppet states and maintained an expansionist policy. He tried unsuccessfully to invade Russia, took Hong Kong and Shanghai, and attacked the base at Pearl Harbor, leading the country – and the United States – into World War II.
ONE LAST CURIOSITY –The violence was such that even the Nazis asked the Japanese to hold back!
READ TOO
– What are the ten worst crimes against humanity?
– What was the Tiananmen Square Protest?
– How does censorship work in China?
– Why does China occupy Tibet?
SOURCES Books The Search For Modern Chinaby Jonathan D. Spence, Dictionary of Genocideby Paul R. Bartrop and Samuel Totten and The Making of “The Rape of Nanking”by Takashi Yoshida