![]() Nevertheless, on December 1, headquarters ordered the Central China Area Army and the 10th Army to capture Nanjing, then-capital of the Republic of China.Īfter losing the Battle of Shanghai, Chiang Kai-shek knew that the fall of Nanjing was a matter of time. The General Staff Headquarters in Tokyo initially decided not to expand the war due to the high casualties incurred and the low morale of the troops. By mid-November the Japanese had captured Shanghai with the help of naval and ( aerial) bombardment. The battle was bloody as both sides faced attrition in urban hand-to-hand combat. In August 1937, the Japanese army invaded Shanghai where they met strong resistance and suffered heavy casualties. 14.2 As a component of national identity. ![]() 13.4 Denials of the massacre by public officials in Japan.13.3 Apology and condolences by the Prime Minister and Emperor of Japan.6.6 Nanking Safety Zone and the role of foreigners.6.4 Extrajudicial killing of Chinese prisoners of war.3.4 Prince Asaka appointed as commander.3.3 Establishment of the Nanjing Safety Zone.3.2 Retreating Chinese Troops' Scorched-Earth Policy.3.1 Japanese war crimes on the march to Nanjing.3 Approach of the Imperial Japanese Army.2.1 Strategy for the defense of Nanjing.However, the most sophisticated and credible scholars in Japan, which include a large number of authoritative academics, support the validity of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and its findings, which estimate at least 200,000 casualties and at least 20,000 cases of rape. īecause of the myriad of factors, death toll estimates vary from 40,000 to over 300,000, with rape cases ranging from 20,000 to over 80,000 cases. The massacre was one of the worst atrocities committed during World War II. The perpetrators also committed other atrocities such as mass rape, looting, and arson. Beginning on December 13, 1937, the massacre lasted for six weeks. The Nanjing Massacre or the Rape of Nanjing (formerly romanized as Nanking ) was the mass murder of Chinese civilians in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, immediately after the Battle of Nanjing in the Second Sino-Japanese War, by the Imperial Japanese Army. American Goddess at the Rape of Nanking.Japanese history textbook controversies.International Military Tribunal for the Far East.Contest to kill 100 people using a sword.International Committee for the Nanjing Safety Zone.Prince Yasuhiko Asaka ( granted immunity).A puppet government was installed, which would rule Nanking until the end of World War II.Mass murder, genocide, wartime rape, looting, and arsonĢ00,000 (consensus), estimates range from 40,000 to over 300,000. In January 1938, the Japanese declared that order had been restored in the city, and dismantled the safety zone killings continued until the first week of February. Though the Japanese initially agreed to respect the Nanking Safety Zone, ultimately not even these refugees were safe from the vicious attacks. Determined to destroy the city, the Japanese looted and burned at least one-third of Nanking’s buildings. Bodies littered the streets for months after the attack. Entire families were massacred, and even the elderly and infants were targeted for execution, while tens of thousands of women were raped. Chinese soldiers were hunted down and killed by the thousands, and left in mass graves. Even before their arrival, word had begun spreading of the numerous atrocities they had committed on their way through China, including killing contests and pillaging. On December 13, the first troops of Japan’s Central China Front Army, commanded by General Matsui Iwane, entered the city. Many ignored this order and fled, but the rest were left to the mercy of the approaching enemy. Chiang also ordered the city held at any cost, and forbade the official evacuation of its citizens. Fearful of losing them in battle, Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-Shek ordered the removal of nearly all official Chinese troops from the city, leaving it defended by untrained auxiliary troops. Preparing for Invasionįollowing a bloody victory in Shanghai during the Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese turned their attention towards Nanking. Nanking, then the capital of Nationalist China, was left in ruins, and it would take decades for the city and its citizens to recover from the savage attacks. The horrific events are known as the Nanking Massacre or the Rape of Nanking, as between 20,000 and 80,000 women were sexually assaulted. In late 1937, over a period of six weeks, Imperial Japanese Army forces brutally murdered hundreds of thousands of people–including both soldiers and civilians–in the Chinese city of Nanking (or Nanjing).
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