The Nanking Massacre is one of a series of important crimes against humanity during the timeframe of and lead up to World War II. Other important crimes against humanity during this time include the Ukraine Famine (Holodomor) and the Holocaust. The Nanking Massacre occurred from December 13th, 1937 until January in 1938 over a period of approximately six weeks. It is sometimes also called the Rape of Nanking in reference to the brutal events that took place.
The events of the Nanking Massacre are linked with the larger Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. The Second Sino-Japanese War was a conflict between China and Imperial Japan that began in July of 1937, before the events of World War II, and continued until Japan’s formal surrender in August of 1945 with the end of the Second World War. In general, Japan was in a period of military expansion in the decade before World War II and had expanded its empire throughout much of the region of the South Pacific including China. More specifically, in August of 1937, the Japanese Imperial Army carried out an attack against Chinese forces in the Chinese city of Shanghai. The resulting battle was called the Battle of Shanghai and saw the Japanese Army overwhelm the Chinese forces and capture the city in November of 1937. In response, Chiang Kai-shek, who was the leader of the Republic of China, ordered his forces to retreat to the interior of China in an attempt to slow the push of the Japanese through the country. This strategy was similar to that used by the Soviet Union in Europe during World War II when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union as part of Operation Barbarossa. The retreat of Chinese forces left the city of Nanking (or Nanjing), which was the capital of the Republic of China, relatively undefended. While many people in the city fled for fear of a Japanese attack, many others stayed in an attempt to defend it. This proved to be disastrous, because in December of 1937, the Japanese Imperial Army invaded the city and began carrying out widespread destruction and brutality.
While most people focus on the six-week period from December 1937 to January 1938 when discussing the atrocities of the Nanking Massacre, it’s important to also understand the brutality that occurred in the weeks before. Historians have noted that while the Japanese Army moved through China, from Shanghai to Nanking, they undertook a series of mass murders and rapes against the Chinese Army and civilian population. Regardless, once the Japanese army entered Nanking it carried out horrible atrocities against the people of the city.
There were many westerners living in the city of Nanking at the time of the massacre. While most of them left in the days and weeks before the Japanese assault on the city, several of them decided to stay and established the ‘Nanking Safety Zone’. Led by German businessman John Rabe, the westerners formed the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone and worked to establish an area in the city where Japanese forces would not attack. It was hoped that Nanking civilians could seek refuge in the zone, along with the westerners who had also remained in the city. Many of the westerners in this zone played an important role in the history of the Nanking Massacre because they provided a firsthand account of the atrocities.
The Japanese forces entered the city of Nanking on December 13th, 1937 led by General Iwane Matsui. They quickly overwhelmed what Chinese forces remained in the city and soon began to carry out the massacre. For example, the Japanese Army carried out raids inside and outside of the Nanking Safety Zone in hopes of finding any remaining Chinese soldiers. Many Chinese soldiers had changed into plain clothes and hid among the civilians in the zone, and the Japanese Army wanted to find and remove them as part of their attack on the city. It’s estimated that Imperial Japanese Army found and removed nearly 4000 Chinese soldiers hiding among the civilians. Regardless, the Japanese soldiers began their attack against the helpless Chinese civilians soon