Although most sources suggest that the final phase of the battle consisted of a one-sided slaughter of Chinese troops by the Japanese, some Japanese historians maintain that the remaining Chinese military still posed a serious threat to the Japanese. ", "Japanese Crimes in Nanjing, 193738: A Reappraisal", "The Memorial Hall for the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre: Rhetoric in the Face of Tragedy", Japan's Last Vets of Nanking Massacre Open Up, "The Memorial Hall for the Victims of the Nanking Massacre: Rhetoric in the Face of Tragedy", "The Chinese Islamic "Goodwill Mission to the Middle East" During the Anti-Japanese War", "John Rabe's letter to Hitler, from Rabe's diary", "Denial of the Holocaust and the Rape of Nanking", "The Rape of Nanking vs. the incident of Nanking: a Literature Review", "The Nanjing Incident: Recent Research and Trends", Paragraph 2, p. 1012, Judgment International Military Tribunal for the Far East, "Convergence or Divergence? The death toll of 300,000 is the official estimate engraved on the stone wall at the entrance of the "Memorial Hall for Compatriot Victims of the Japanese Military's Nanking Massacre . It also lists the Japanese army units that were responsible for each of the deaths and states the way in which the victims were killed. [90], Numerous factors complicate the estimation of an accurate death toll.[91][92]. I shouldn't say all right. Two girls, about 16, were raped to death in one of the refugee camps. All three men were found guilty of war crimes and sentenced to death. [citation needed], The remembrance of the massacre has evolved drastically in China. The battle was bloody as both sides faced attrition in urban hand-to-hand combat. The visitor is left to assume they did. The Nanking Massacre was an episode of mass murder and rape committed by Japanese troops against the residents of Nanking, then the capital of China, during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937 - 1945). Friday December 17 2021, 10.25am, The Times. [note 1] A group of foreign expatriates headed by Rabe had formed a 15-man International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone on November 22 and mapped out the Nanking Safety Zone in order to safeguard civilians in the city.[38]. [6] Over the course of its subsequent occupation of Nanking the Japanese Army hunted down the former Chinese soldiers within the city and in a large number of cases summarily executed them. A People's Liberation Army honor guard bearing large funeral wreaths marched slowly past a memorial showing the figure 300,000, China's official death toll in the events of December 1937, as . He further argued that he had directed his army division commanders to discipline their troops for criminal acts, and was not responsible for their failure to carry out his directives. [40], By contrast, Ikuhiko Hata also examined the Japanese Army's documents and tallied up a total of 30,000 Chinese POWs massacred out of a total Chinese force of 100,000. During the chaos following the attack of the city, some were killed in the Safety Zone, but the crimes that occurred in the rest of the city were far greater by all accounts. [11] Here Australian journalist Harold Timperley was quoted as stating that 300,000 civilians had been killed. In one of the houses in the narrow street behind my garden wall, a woman was raped, and then wounded in the neck with a bayonet. [7] At the same time soldiers of the Japanese Army also committed random acts of murder against civilians, and engaged in rape, arson, and looting. Files. Since the area outside the safety zone had been almost completely evacuated, the mopping-up effort was concentrated in the safety zone. Because dead bodies don't talk. [35], In addition, the total civilian population of Nanking in December 1937 and the size of the Chinese garrison defending the city are used as a basis for calculating the death toll, though the matter is complicated due to greatly varying estimates for both of these numbers. [71] In The Cambridge History of China, historian Lloyd Eastman asserted that the death toll was "at least 42,000",[72] whereas military officer Frank Dorn wrote in his book The Sino-Japanese War, 1937-41 that the death toll was "over 200,000 civilians". While the extent of Prince Asaka's responsibility for the massacre remains a matter of debate, the ultimate sanction for the massacre and the crimes committed during the invasion of China were issued in Emperor Hirohito's ratification of the Japanese army's proposition to remove the constraints of international law on the treatment of Chinese prisoners on August 5, 1937.[32]. In his novel Ikiteiru Heitai ('Living Soldiers'), Tatsuz Ishikawa vividly describes how the 16th Division of the Shanghai Expeditionary Force committed atrocities on the march between Shanghai and Nanjing. On trial with them was Gunkichi Tanaka, a captain from the 6th Division who personally killed over 300 Chinese POWs and civilians with his sword during the massacre. In response, Shichihei Yamamoto[140] and Akira Suzuki[141] wrote two controversial yet influential articles[clarification needed] which sparked the Japanese Negationist movement. These estimates are borne out by the figures of burial societies and other organizations, which testify to over 155,000 buried bodies. "Case 5 On the night of December 14th, there were many cases of Japanese soldiers entering houses and raping women or taking them away. He alleged it would have been impossible to kill so many people in such a short period of time. I think he will live. The safety zone, an area of 3.85 square kilometres, was packed with the remaining population of Nanjing. She said that the people of China "don't believe that an unequivocal and sincere apology has ever been made by Japan to China" and that a written apology from Japan would send a better message to the international community. The last refugee camps were closed in May 1938. In July 1937 war broke out in northern China between China and Japan, and by August the fighting had spread to the city of Shanghai. [57] Soon after some denialists claimed that no massacre had taken place at all. At noon on December 9, the Japanese military dropped leaflets into the city, urging the city of Nanjing to surrender within 24 hours, promising "no mercy" if the offer was refused. Honda believes all those atrocities that were committed on "the road to Nanking" were part of the massacre. However, according to historian Tokushi Kasahara, the evidence used to convict Hisao Tani was not convincing. [67], Soon after the fall of the city, Japanese troops made a thorough search for Chinese soldiers and summarily arrested thousands of young Chinese men. [54] Sons were coerced in to rape their mothers, fathers were forced to rape their daughters, and brothers were forced to rape their sisters. Following the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese Imperial Army marched from Shanghai to the Chinese capital city of Nanking, and though a large number of Chinese POWs and civilians were slaughtered by the Japanese following their entrance into Nanking on December 13, 1937, the precise number remains unknown. Iwanami Shinsho, Fujiwara Akira (editor). Death Toll Estimates. Following the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese Imperial Army marched from Shanghai to the Chinese capital city of Nanking, and though a large number of Chinese POWs and civilians were slaughtered by the Japanese following their entrance into Nanking on . "[142], On August 15, 1995, the fiftieth anniversary of the Surrender of Japan, the Japanese prime minister Tomiichi Murayama gave the first formal apology for Japanese actions during the war. [44] Most Japanese ultranationalists who deny the Nanking Massacre admit that the Japanese Army killed a large number of Chinese POWs, though they consider these to be legal executions,[45][46] an argument denounced by mainstream historians. Each girl was raped six or seven times daily reported December 18th. If husbands or brothers intervene, they're shot. [citation needed], On 18 February 1938, the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone was forcibly renamed the Nanjing International Rescue Committee, and the Safety Zone effectively ceased to function. It was truly a regrettable act of barbarity. [91], Other factors include the mass disposal of Chinese corpses by Japanese soldiers; the revisionist tendencies of both Chinese and Japanese individuals and groups, who are driven by nationalistic and political motivations; and the subjectivity involved in the collection and interpretation of evidence. But even last night between 8 and 9 p.m. when five Occidental members of our staff and Committee toured the Zone to observe conditions, we did not find any single Japanese patrol either in the Zone or at the entrances! THE NANKING MASSACRE - Page 4: Defining the victims. The first was to Chiang through an American ambassador in Hankow, asking that Chinese forces "undertake no military operations" within Nanjing. Five of these were journalists who remained in the city a few days after it was captured, leaving the city on December 16. In the University Middle School where there are 8,000 people the Japs came in ten times last night, over the wall, stole food, clothing, and raped until they were satisfied. [59] However, Jean-Louis Margolin does not believe that the Nanjing atrocities should be considered a genocide because only prisoners of war were executed in a systematic manner and the targeting of civilians was sporadic and done without orders by individual actors. [139] The publication of these articles triggered a vehement response from Japanese right-wingers regarding the Japanese treatment of the war crimes. The Nanjing Massacre, commonly known as "The Rape of Nanking," was an infamous war crime committed by the Japanese military in and around the then capital of . By the time they had arrived at Zijin Mountain, Noda had killed 105 people while Mukai had killed 106 people. The lack of resistance from Chinese troops and civilians in Nanjing meant that the Japanese soldiers were free to divide up the city's valuables as they saw fit. Only after firmly establishing 'historical particularities' can one clearly define Japans responsibility. I am really, therefore, quite happy that I, at least, should have ended this way, in the sense that it may serve to urge self-reflection on many more members of the military of that time. On December 13, about 30 soldiers came to a Chinese house at No. [180][181][182], Dockworkers in Australia were horrified by the massacre and refused to load pig iron onto ships heading for Japan, leading to the Dalfram Dispute of 1938. The Chinese scholars of the committee maintained that at least 300,000 were killed. The poems capture all perspectives of the tragedyfrom the weary, casually cruel Japanese soldiers to the uncomprehending child victims, and from the desperate helpless parents and the brutalized comfort women to the bloodless yet vicious bureaucrats of death. Physical evidences are almost everywhere to the killing of men, women and children, of the breaking into and looting of property and of the burning and destruction of houses and buildings. Rape! In what is known as the Nanking Massacre, Japanese soldiers systematically raped thousands of Chinese women and girls of all ages. ", "Case 13 December 18, 4 p.m., at No. Updated on March 06, 2017. The Shanghai Aurora College on Thursday said the teacher, surnamed Song, made "wrong comments" during class. [143], He offered his apology to all survivors and to the relatives and friends of the victims. There was also virtually no public commemoration until after 1982. There was considerable destruction to areas outside the city walls. The victims were blown up with landmines, then doused with petrol and set on fire. The death toll reckoned at the Nanking War Crimes Tribunal, is the official estimate engraved on the stone wall at the entrance of the "Memorial Hall for Compatriot Victims of the Japanese Military's Nanking Massacre" in Nanjing. The massacre camp generally supports the Tokyo War Crimes Trials figure of "upwards of 100,000" deaths; skeptics claim 15,000 to 50,000, while others venture only up to 10,000. The horrific events are known as the Nanjing Massacre or the Rape of Nanjing, as tens of thousands of women and girls were sexually assaulted. Please give us help. Recent Historical Writings on the Rape of Nanjing", This page was last edited on 31 December 2022, at 03:33. The contesta race between the two officers to see who could kill 100 people first using only a swordwas covered much like a sporting event with regular updates on the score over a series of days. Even with such a huge death toll, some even deny the existence of this massacre. Chinese teacher sacked for questioning death toll in Nanjing massacre. Perhaps all Chinese, regardless of sex or age, seemed marked out as victims. The tribunal determined that more than 200,000 people were killed in Nanjing. By contrast, Minoru Kitamura argues that Smythe's links to the Nationalist Government of China may have led him to skew his figures upwards. [31] His more specific range of figures is roughly 160,000 to 170,000. The center of the debate rests on the validity of burial records and oral history. Fuller data and our own observations have not brought out facts to discredit their information. At trial, Matsui went out of his way to protect Prince Asaka by shifting blame to lower-ranking division commanders. Durdin, F. Tillman. For Japan, it was a question they needed to answer but were reluctant to do so because they too identified themselves as victims after the A-bombs. The massacre occurred over a period of six weeks starting on December In 2005, John Rabe's former residence in Nanjing was renovated and now accommodates the ". [29] Some authors record that Prince Asaka signed the order for Japanese soldiers in Nanjing to "kill all captives". However, Askew notes that Japanese units often exaggerated their body counts. Live Statistics. From February 7, 1938, killings were no longer in mass fashion as the senior Japanese officers came to restore discipline of their troops, according to the testimony of, Quote: "The Japanese Army, one million strong, has already conquered. [89] His claims have been corroborated with the diaries of other Japanese combatants and medics who fought in China. [27][50] French historian Jean-Louis Margolin, for instance, has strongly criticized Honda's argument, noting that "As, in our present knowledge, it is impossible to get convincing figures for such large areas, such methods may be considered as attempts to blur hopelessly the debate. The U.S., which served as the melting pot of cultures and is home to descendants of members of both Chinese and Japanese cultures, took up the mantle of investigator for the victimized Chinese. The Tokyo War Crime Tribunal defined the period of the massacre to the ensuing six weeks. [20], The Nanjing garrison force set fire to buildings and houses in the areas close to Xiakuan to the north as well as in the environs of the eastern and southern city gates. [12][26][60] The figure was originally based on the verdict of the Nanking War Crimes Tribunal which added the burial records of 155,300 bodies with 72,291 destroyed corpses to arrive at a total of 279,586, though there was an apparent adding mistake in this calculation. As the Japanese army approached Nanjing, most of them fled the city, leaving 27 foreigners. [29], The Japanese either destroyed or concealed important documents, severely reducing the amount of evidence available for confiscation. "[1], One-third of the city was destroyed as a result of arson. To the invading army, the Rape of Nanking was sometimes even a game. A 42-part ROC documentary produced in 1995, entitled "An Inch of Blood For An Inch of Land . Instead of refuting the allegations, the interviewed veterans confirmed that a massacre had taken place and openly described and admitted to taking part in the atrocities. Following the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese Imperial Army marched from Shanghai to the Chinese capital city of Nanking, and though a large number of Chinese POWs and civilians were slaughtered by the Japanese following their entrance into Nanking on . The massacre finally wound down in early 1938. The Japanese government had previously agreed not to attack parts of the city that did not contain Chinese military forces, and the members of the Committee managed to persuade the Chinese government to move their troops out of the area. Jones, Paul. As stated in the Judgment of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, "Estimates indicate that the total number of civilians and prisoners of . The Nanking Massacre, commonly known as the Rape of Nanking, was a war crime committed by the Japanese military in Nanjing, then capital of the Republic of China, after it fell to the Imperial Japanese Army on December 13, 1937. [107] Other sources, including Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanjing, also conclude that the death toll reached 300,000. The soldier thought he might as well rape her before killing her, so he pulled her out of the group to a spot about ten meters away. Some Japanese scholars claim that the numbers are greatly exaggerated, and that the actual toll is somewhere from 40,000 to only several . [70], By the year 2000 very little research had been done by Western scholars concerning the death toll of the Nanking Massacre, and instead most Western sources simply repeated the early death toll estimates, including those proposed in the 1930s and 1940s by the International Military Tribunal of the Far East, which put the toll at 100,000 or more, and by Miner Searle Bates, who said roughly 40,000. 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