Main Reasons for the Nanking Massacre

The tight control of the Japanese Army promoted resistance from the civilians of South East Asia. This occurred in areas of strategic importance for the Japanese. Starvation and brutality towards civilians in territories led to outbreaks of political violence and strong resistance. The civilians of Malaya met the Japanese forces with strong resistance in the form of guerilla warfare and sabotage to capture Japanese outposts and encourage social revolution. As Falk argues the Japanese responded to the networks of resistance by ‘drawing out forces and firing on them unexpectedly’, leading to the death of over 50,000 people in Malaya. It is evident that the increase in political violence led to a considerable amount of occupied death in territories of South East Asia.

In the media, there were respectable figures who spoke out against the existence of the massacre. Chang gives many examples of political figures who spread the idea that the Nanking massacre was a falsified event. In 1988, minister of education and prefectural Kempeitai director, told reporters at the notorious Yasukuni shrine, where the lives of the cruellest war criminals are celebrated, that “there was no intention of aggression” in China. Instead, he claimed that the “white race made Asia into a colony, but only Japan is blamed”. Later, after facing heated backlash in Asia, he changed his argument, explaining he “didn’t say Japan

Knowing this Japanese poured into Nanking.” (Chang) When the troops arrived to Nanking, they occupied businesses, banks, warehouses and much more all while shooting innocent people during the process.

“The Rape of Nanking is a story not only of mass victimization but of individual strength and courage” (83). “ There were men who clawed their way out of shallow graves . . . . or lay buried for days under the corpse of friends before dragging their bullet ridden bodies to the hospital” (83). Many devastating events happened, for example women would run through burning houses to rescue there babies. “ I learned that many of the Chinese victims of the Japanese were apparently murdered for no other reason than pleasure”

On December 13, 1937, one of the worst atrocities in history took place generating what the majority of the population in the world is unaware about. Students learn about World War Two almost every year, specifically what happened in Europe while missing what took place in China. When Prince Akaska was the in charge of China in the absence of General Matsui, the Japanese decided to invade the City of Nanking. Nanking, the capital of China, went from being great to ruins in a matter of six weeks. As soon as the Japanese invaded China, about 300,000 soldiers surrendered along with a lot of citizens of Nanking in order to avoid experiencing one of the worst acts ever taken place. Soldiers knew, if they chose to fight, conditions were going to

On the other hand, the archive of the first-hand accounts by the American missionaries was new to me. It never occurred to me that that much foreigners were staying at Nanking when they were trying their best saving Chinese people and recording the massacre. A huge amount of written witness accounts were saved till today to tell the world what they saw with their own eyes as critics question the authenticity of the witness accounts of the Chinese survivors or the Japanese soldiers. The American missionaries were like a third party as they were not as involved in the Nanking Massacre as the Chinese or the Japanese, and they tried to keep their emotions away while taking down the facts. However, bearing all those people being killed, being raped but having little they can do for those innocent lives, the missionaries wrote from hopeful and hopeless, but they were always standing with the Chinese people, building safe zones, tending to the injured, the orphans, and burying the bodies. I learned their heroic acts and admire them for showing the light of humanity during that horrific and dark

Once Japanese troops had taken control of Nanjing, they began looking for anyone who might have been in the military. If they found anyone who even looked like they were in the military, the would execute them. The japanese also began creating games to kill people , they looted nanjing and raped several thousand women and children. In this situation, if china would have sent more troops to support and defend Nanjing, the massacre would have had a chance of never happening in the first place. Japanese soldiers appeared to be quite willing to be photographed with raised swords beside their intended victims, in the act of bayoneting their victims, and posing with their dead victims in the slaughter pits……...encirclement of the city would be complete by the early hours of 13 December. Across the lines, commander Tang Shengzhi did not order a retreat until 5:00 p.m. on the twelfth. Tang was the very first to flee, crossing the Yangzi at 6 p.m. Tens of thousands of his troops-- until then trapped in the city with orders to defend it at all costs-- fled in chaos as their command structure totally broke down.”

Around the same time, Japan and China's conflict were growing. In 1931, a railway explosion caused by Japaneses army officers was blamed on Chinese bandits. They then used the event to take over Manchuria in northeastern China. And set up a puppet state there. Following this incident were numerous Excursions and by 1937, war had broken out. During that winter, the Japanese army murdered about 200,000 civilians and Prisoners of War in the area surrounding and within Nanking. HiroHito did not condone the more unpleasant parts of this invasion, but he failed to punish those responsible. HiroHito also allowed the use of chemical warfare and the uprooting of

Hannah Kim Ms. Manning 9F English Writing Piece #1: Analytical writing 14 November 2014 The first few chapters of First They Killed My Father is serious and humorless, since the overall matter in this section is the war and Loung and her family’s escape for safety. Due to the lack of food, deaths of family members and friends, and just an overall terrible life with petrifying Khmer Rouge soldiers, Loung and her family has no energy nor time for happiness. Loung Ung, who is also the author of this book, delineates her despair towards her changed life, and expresses her need for food. In the past, back in Phnom Penh, Pa told Loung that “people should be good not because they are afraid of getting caught, but because bad karma will follow them around them through their lifetime” (Ung 90).

The Rape of Nanking is an historical event in China’s history that explains some of the tension between Chinese and Japanese relations today. This is an event that the Japanese, U.S, and Chinese governments tried to erase for various political reasons. It wasn’t until after World War II that the Rape of Nanking was brought to the surface. It is estimated that the number of deaths were between 250,000 and 350,000 people, many were woman and children. The number of women raped was around 20,000.

In 1937 Japan committed one of the bloodiest battles in history. A three month process had overtaken both Shanghai and Nanking. Months prior to the actual massacre, Japan sent over 100 air raids into both Nanking and Shanghai to kill endless civilians before they had even arrived. This helped sweep out the land to create less survivors. Japan rounded up thousands of Chinese men, women, and children only to slaughter them mercilessly. Women in China would shave their heads to look like the men and the Chinese soldiers were forced into hiding. Everyone was a target in order for Japan to overthrow the Chinese government. Over the course of three months, 300,000 Chinese civilians were murdered in cold blood. The Japanese would disguise themselves

​There are numerous massacres that have occurred long ago that people aren’t aware of, for instance the Nanjing Massacre, or more commonly known as “The Rape of Nanking” was something so frightful to even read about, I can’t even imagine the pain and agony they felt. This massacre took place in Nanjing, China in late 1937 following the midst of the Second Sino-Japanese War, when Hirohito (the emperor of Japan) ratified his army’s proposition to remove the restrictions of international law on the treatment of Chinese prisoners that is when the term “prison of war” was terminated. The Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek ordered the removal of a great amount of Chinese troops from the city in order to be successful in this battle. In effect, the

I remember when I was a middle school student, we are required to keep in mind about the rape of Nanjing. The textbook we read in China listed a large number of crimes Japanese army created that can hardly forget in my young heart. Every spring and autumn, we made many white flowers and held a memorial ceremony for the sacrifice of Nanjing Massacre. I don’t want to talk too much about the truth of Nanjing Massacre, because I lived near Nanjing when I was young and I always went to the Memorial Hall of The Victims in Nanjing Massacre. I still remember the huge black wall out of the hall written “VICTIMS 300000”. The number, 300000, is such a shocking by my sight.

This distorted historic memory of the Rape of Nanking has China yearning for an official apology from Japan and desiring the world to know about the largest single city massacre in the history of the world. Unlike the Japanese, the Chinese do not view the rape, death, mutilation and torture of what some suspect to be more than 300,000 civilians and surrendered soliders in a city of less than 650,000 inhabitants to be a hazy, forgettable past (Stanford). In motivation of her own grandparents’ stores about the escape from the massacre, Iris Chang wrote The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II. She details atrocities committed against Chinese by forces of the Japanese Imperial Army and includes rare interviews with victims. Chang describes in gruesome detail the types of cruel torture thrust upon the people of Nanking including mutilation, live burials, “death by ice”, “death by fire” and “death by dogs” (Chang 88). She also illustrates a brutal killing contest amongst the Japanese soldiers to determine who was the quickest. On the rapes that took place during the massacre she states that “certainly it was one of the greatest mass

A massive part of the text that shocked me was how brutal the Thai guards were. A piece of the text that shows this is when a lost minded german prisoner launched himself at the guards throwing punches shortly 15 other guards are on the scene they take to him with batons and canes the guards continued to bash the german as he lay prone on the ground adventually his bones started breaking and skin starting to burst. I personally find this disgusting due to the fact he wasn't controlling himself when he launched at the guards