The Rape Of Nanjing: The Nanking Massacre

“Kill all, loot all, burn all.” This was the Japanese policy towards China dealing with the massacre (Sheng-Ping). To begin, the term genocide has eight unique stages, various interpretations, and a specific root. In Japan, opposing perspectives on who was to control Nanking created tension between the Japanese and Chinese. The horrendous actions inflicted on the Chinese resulted because of eight specific stages. Sadly, genocide will not end unless nations across the world work together to put an end to this horrifying concept. The genocide of Japan, directed by the malice of the Japanese military regime, was based on the idea that any enemy soldier who surrendered was considered criminal, and therefore, many people perished because

Most people in the world never seem to realize the mass number of raping or killings that are going on around them. Meanwhile, during the holocaust, no one understood how much it was happening around them then either, except for the people it was happening to. Most people are aware of the savagery that occurred during the holocaust in Germany, but few have ever even heard of Nanjing, much less the rape of Nanjing. Both genocides share very close similarities, and they both also share their differences.

Truths can be easily concealed. Entire massacres can be swept under a carpet and corpses can be burned. Victims can hide their secrets in the darkest caves of their minds. Books, however, tell hidden stories and exploit atrocities. As Salman Rushdie said, “Literature is where I go to explore the highest and lowest places in human society and in the human spirit, where I hope to find not absolute truth but the truth of the tale, of the imagination of the heart.” Human history is recorded in literature. Horrors and carnage but also bravery and love. Two pieces of literature that record Japanese history are Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden and The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang. Both divulge into the clandestine history of geishas and citizens

In December of 1937, the Japanese Imperial Army invaded Nanking, China. They killed 300,00 out of the 600,000 people in China’s capital city. The six-week rampage by the Japanese is now known as the Rape of Nanking and the single worst atrocity during WWII era in either the European or Pacific theaters of the war.

Throughout The Rape of Nanking, the brutal massacre of thousands of innocent Chinese citizens is brought forth through the invasion of this ancient city taken over by the Imperial Japanese army. Iris Chang illustrates the graphic details of the murder and rape of these victims through the perspectives of different sides of the attack. Chang; furthermore, ties in the mass genocide and destruction displayed throughout the book with the example of the Japanese government’s desperate attempt to cover up the incident and the reluctance of the survivors to discuss it. In addition, the horrifying events of The Rape of Nanking only further motivated an uncontrollable desire for aggression, violence, and imperialism in the Asian community evidently

During world war two, the Imperial Japanese army forced an estimated 200,000 women into sexual slavery. This is just one of the many atrocities committed by Japan during world war two. Even though many say that the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were inhumane, the US was completely justified because the future casualties were minimized and Japan and its allies committed atrocious war crimes.

As a species, humans have a long and bloodied history of attempting to eliminate one another to become dominant, from the Armenian genocide to the ethnic cleansing of the Tutsis in Rwanda. This mentality is not a new phenomenon, but has evolved to become even more lethal and prolific with the innovations in weaponry and transportation. Due to this disturbing universality, parallels are easily drawn between Iris Chang’s The Rape of Nanking and the art that was being created in Europe and the United States during the time of Hitler’s reign, including the work Seligmann, Stael and Albright. We must look to other global sources for this insight, due to the lack of photographic documentation in China and creation of art after the fact.

The Japanese soldiers had no sense of remorse or sorrow for the prisoners instead they pushed them to their breaking point. Many prisoners collapsed which proved fatal because if you fell behind you became a practice dummy for the Japanese to sharpen their bayonet skills and techniques of killing on you. On one occasion, a prisoner was falling behind in the rear so tanks that followed lined themselves up to run over the victim and squish him into the pavement to make it look as if he were from a cartoon. Since the Japanese could

World War II was a devastating war, whether you were directly in the war zone, or away from the battlefield, you were impacted greatly. Flyboys is a book written by James Bradley, in this book Bradley tells stories of World War II using first-hand accounts. In chapter five, Bradley discusses “The Rape of China” which was a battle that took place in 1937 during the beginning of World War II. In this battle, the Japanese fight the Chinese and destroy China. Both Japan and China had very different moral beliefs on fighting in the war. China believed that the soldiers needed to “be courteous,” and to also be “neither selfish nor unjust” to civilians (Bradley 54). Meanwhile, the Japanese had totally opposite policies known as the “Three Alls” meaning

The massacre occurred over six weeks, the Japanese soldiers committed horrible crimes including looting, rape, murder and another large number of civilians and prisoners of war. The massacre is such a brutal, about 300 thousand people died, it had become a shame for China, which causing Chinese people have a bad impression on the Japanese. And another example is also happened in the World War II, in August 1945, the America dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, more than eight million Japan citizens are killed and about thirty-five thousand people are injured. The Unites States used the atom bomb to end the war because they wanted to protect their citizens, they trying the lower the rate of deaths. Wars are always connected to death, but not everyone understands the way of saving .

“Ethnic and cultural distinctions [resulted] in the formation of ‘in-group’ and ‘out-group’ thinking” during the Asian War time, creating increased tension and indifference between China and Japan in a time of war (Burgess). The Japanese Soldiers became the overpowering force in the war between the two societies, and when they were able to overtake Nanking, they thought the elimination of this ethnic group would protect their in-group. The “[p]erpetrators of genocide [felt] completely justified in their actions, and [drew] on local cultural or political values to curry favor” (Burgess). With tensions already at a high, the “Japanese Military condoned the murder of hundreds of thousands of Chinese Civilians” (Nanjing). The Japanese cultural values taught soldiers the notion that the only people in their Universe of Obligation were themselves and their government body, and that questioning either would lead to physical

Juliette West has been a teen activist since age 9. Juliette has inspired many people about saving elephants. She even has her own movie called How I Became An Elephant! One of her biggest goals is to stop the Ivory Trade. Her goals to teach children around the world to make a difference. Part of her fund Juliette Speaks is to help inspire children and teens around the world to start an organization to help or make a difference for the world. She also hopes to help save the elephants from growing extinct over the years.

The Rape of Nanking was one of several atrocities committed by Japanese troops in the Second Sino-Japanese War. Throughout the eight years of war, Japanese troops utilized a number of war tactics, of which one was humiliating and dehumanizing residents of Nanking or Nanjing. Japanese troops headed toward Nanking on November 11, 1937, after they gained control over Shanghai, China. They wanted Chinese troops to surrender, instead of attacking them. Once they arrived to Nanking, Japanese troops gave them a chance to surrender, however Chinese troops did not. Consequently, Japanese troops started attacking the city; they burned down homes, raped, and looted residents of Nanking. They raped between 20,000 and 80,000 women and killed them afterwards. Some Japanese troops kept women alive so they could abuse them repeatedly. When troops went out and raped women, they spread terror and revealed what they were capable of doing. Women of all ages were abused and killed brutally. Some Japanese troops forced fathers to rape their own daughters, so they could display the civilians inferiority. As Japanese troops were raping innocent females of Nanking, they were gaining power over China.

On the march from Shanghai to Nanjing, the Japanese soldiers marched relentlessly as they believed that they could easily gain control of Nanjing before Chinese troops could do as little rebuilding as they could. During the march to Nanjing two Japanese officers had a bet to see who could kill more people by sword. The bet made was that they would see who could kill one hundred people before the capture of Nanjing. After Japan eventually surrendered, the two officers, Toshiaki Mukai and Tsuyoshi Noda, were arrested and executed for what they had done in Nanjing. “Those in charge of the Japanese forces went so far as to use killing "competitions" as a way to boost morale among the troops. They even organized interview teams and sent newspaper reporters to conduct interviews with the "winners" of these competitions to kill people.” The Japanese went so far as to reward the people who could kill more

The Japanese troops were expected to find their own food and were even ordered to eat captured enemies, even dead Japanese soldiers. When they ran out of bullets they had to fight with rocks and did not have the supplies they needed to win. Japanese troops were left to fend for themselves and did not get support from the government like other troops did during World War II. Japanese soldiers were fighting for their emperor and did whatever they needed to to win. Even if that meant using their natural resources. The soldiers did things that were unethical because they were told to. The Japanese were not given enough supplies but were still told to fight till their