Many innocent men were misidentified and killed.[1]. He and his staff realized that they could not risk the annihilation of their elite troops in a symbolic but hopeless defense of the capital. Chinese soldiers were summarily executed in violation of the laws of war. Fifteen of the remaining 22 foreigners formed a committee, called the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone in the western quarter of the city. [134] Jung Chang and Jon Halliday's biography of Mao claims Mao never made any comment either contemporaneously or later in his life about the massacre, but did frequently remark with enduring bitterness about a political struggle between himself and Wang Ming which also occurred in December 1937. As we pulled the string, the buttocks were exposed. Both officers supposedly surpassed their goal during the heat of battle, making it impossible to determine which officer had actually won the contest. In August 1937, the Japanese army invaded Shanghai, where they met strong resistance and suffered heavy casualties. [19] The same month a representative of the Nationalist Government of China claimed that the Japanese had killed 20,000 civilians during the Nanking Massacre. Robert Sabella, Fei Fei Li and David Liu, eds. According to reports, Japanese troops torched newly built government buildings as well as the homes of many civilians. ", Organized and wholesale murder of male civilians was conducted with the apparent sanction of the commanders on the pretext that Chinese soldiers had removed their uniforms and were mingling with the population. [87] In 1994, nearly 20 diaries in his collection were published, which became an important source of evidence for the massacre. As those who are related to the prewar military, we simply apologize deeply to the people of China. The following day, on December 10, Rabe got his answer from the Generalissimo. In light of the 40,000 corpses which Hata believes were buried in and around Nanking, he estimates the total death toll at between 38,000 and 42,000 POWs and civilians. 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 . This definition was supported by Hora and other early scholars. [12] Consequently, Askew estimates that the true number of corpses buried in and around Nanking was 17,500,[21] whereas military historian Masahiro Yamamoto puts the number at 43,000. 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. What happened within the city limits was even more humiliating for humanity. Each girl was raped six or seven times daily reported December 18th. On 13 December, the 6th and the 116th Divisions of the Japanese Army were the first to enter the city, facing little military resistance. And based on a clear definition of the responsibility there can be an answer to the 'moral' question. Stories are heard of civilians being shot or bayoneted for no apparent reason.[62]. The women and children are crying all nights. However, the actual number of victims is hard to determine, according to the government of Japan. 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 . They also murdered hundreds of thousands . Wealthy families were the first to flee, leaving Nanjing in automobiles, followed by the evacuation of the middle class and then the poor, while only the destitute lowest class such as the ethnic Tanka boat people remained behind. This is caused by the Army's misbehaviors after the fall of Nanjing and failure to proceed with the autonomous government and other political plans. Then the soldier stabbed the fetus, with its umbilical cord clearly visible, and tossed it aside. More conservative estimates say that the massacre started on December 14, when the troops entered the Safety Zone, and that it lasted for six weeks. This sense of mistrust is strengthened by Japan's unwillingness to admit to and apologize for the atrocities. We thus have a total of more than 300,000 victims. [21][31][34] According to Smythe's survey, as many as 12,000 civilians were killed within the city of Nanking plus another 26,870 in the rural counties outside Nanking. Beginning, I believe, on the 19th or 20th of December, burning was carried on regularly for six weeks. Yoshida contended that over time the event has acquired different meanings to different people. Title. [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". U.S. news correspondents F. Tillman Durdin and Archibald Steele reported seeing corpses of massacred Chinese soldiers forming mounds six feet high at the Nanjing Yijiang gate in the north. Only after firmly establishing 'historical particularities' can one clearly define Japans responsibility. The massacre occurred over a period of six weeks starting on December Groups of Chinese civilians were formed, bound with their hands behind their backs, and marched outside the walls of the city where they were killed in groups by machine gun fire and with bayonets. [31] His more specific range of figures is roughly 160,000 to 170,000. 18 I Ho Lu, Japanese soldiers wanted a man's cigarette case and when he hesitated, one of the soldier crashed in the side of his head with a bayonet. What many people don't know is that the emperor had largely lost control of the army and Japan, which was a flourishing democracy before was taken over by the military (basically) following . [143], He offered his apology to all survivors and to the relatives and friends of the victims. The total death toll of the Nanjing Massacre is a highly contentious subject in Chinese and Japanese historiography. They believed the 300,000 toll typified a "Chinese-style exaggeration" with disregard for evidence. Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi (New York: Berghahn Books, 2008), p. 85. 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. Iris Chang, author of the Rape of Nanjing (book), wrote one of the most comprehensive accounts of Japanese war atrocities in China. [1] Today most Japanese historians of the so-called "great massacre" school have reduced their death toll estimates somewhat and now advocate the figure of "100,000 plus" in contrast with the old consensus of 200,000. On the other side of the city, the 11th Company of the 45th Regiment encountered some 20,000 Chinese soldiers who were making their way from Xiakuan. [56], In the early 1970s, Japanese historian Hora's estimate of 200,000 massacre victims was challenged for the first time by the journalist Akira Suzuki, who suggested that "several tens of thousands" had been killed. [15], Between then and the late 1940s these two estimates were commonly cited by reporters and the media. From this gunboat, Rabe sent two telegrams. The Chinese government left for relocation on December 1, and the president left on December 7, leaving the fate of Nanjing to an International Committee led by John Rabe, a German national. David Askew, "The Scale of Japanese Atrocities in Nanjing: An Examination of the Burial Records," Ritsumeikan Journal of Asia Pacific Studies, June 2004, 710. 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. [18] However, in a 1942 speech Chiang Kai-shek raised that figure to "over 200,000 civilians". For example, Edgar Snow stated in his 1941 book, The Battle for Asia, that 42,000 were massacred in Nanking and 300,000 in total between Nanking and Shanghai, figures which were apparently based on these estimates. Recent. In the latter process we are glad to cooperate in any way we can. [18][33] Though Ikuhiko Hata has also used Japanese military records to calculate the death toll of the massacre, he does not account for exaggeration as Itakura did. Never I have heard or read such brutality. The Nanking Safety Zone was demarcated through the use of Red Cross Flags.[25]. Pi means "hip," kankan means "look." He further added that aspersions were cast regarding the authenticity and accuracy of burial records and photographs presented in the Tokyo War Crime Court, which the Japanese government claimed were fabrications by the Chinese government, artificially manipulated or incorrectly attributed to the Nanjing Massacre. Chinese women didn't wear under-pants. 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. That day, the prime minister and the Japanese Emperor Akihito pronounced statements of mourning at Tokyo's Nippon Budokan. It would be all right if we only raped them. [69] She found that Chinese historians favor estimates between 40,000 and 150,000 and that they "speculated that reducing the official Chinese estimate of victims would pave the way for greater reconciliation between Japan and China". [39], In 1937, the Osaka Mainichi Shimbun and its sister newspaper, the Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun, covered a contest between two Japanese officers, Toshiaki Mukai and Tsuyoshi Noda of the Japanese 16th Division. Due to multiple factors, death toll estimates vary from 40,000 to over 300,000, with rape cases ranging from 20,000 to over 80,000 cases. [35] Three quarters of the population had fled Nanjing before the Japanese arrived. Table of Content Show Japan's invasion of Chinese . 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. [173][174][175], "During this period, when the Japanese Army occupied Nanjing it killed a large number of Chinese and carried out looting, arson and assaults. 'Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine, 19581962' by Yang Jisheng", "China cites Japan wartime 'confessions' in propaganda push", "The Chinese, Too, Have Much to Apologize For", "Japanese statement protesting UNESCO registration of Nanjing Massacre docs backfiresCanada ALPHA ", "China athletes unlikely to stay at controversy-linked Sapporo hotel", "Japan threatens to halt Unesco funding over Nanjing massacre listing", " | JBpress ()", " | JBpress ()", "What Japanese history lessons leave out", "History Education: The Source of Conflict Between China and Japan", "The Nanjing Incident Recent Research and Trends", The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II, The Nanking Atrocity: An Interpretive Overview, The Nanking Massacre: Fact Versus Fiction: A Historian's Quest for the Truth, Analyzing The 'Photographic Evidence' of The Nanking Massacre, War Damage in the Nanking area Dec. 1937 to Mar. [56], According to the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, estimates made at a later date indicate that the total number of civilians and prisoners of war murdered in Nanjing and its vicinity during the first six weeks of the Japanese occupation was over 200,000. The Japanese army mounted its assault on the Nanjing walls from multiple directions; the SEF's 16th Division attacked three gates on the eastern side, the 6th Division of the 10A launched its offensive on the western walls, and the SEF's 9th Division advanced into the area in-between. [9] The number of Chinese soldiers in plain clothes that were executed is estimated to be around 4,000. Some Chinese soldiers stripped civilians of their clothing in a desperate attempt to blend in, and many others were shot by the Chinese supervisory unit as they tried to flee.[21]. [17], In 2005, a Tokyo district judge dismissed a suit by the families of the lieutenants, stating that "the lieutenants admitted the fact that they raced to kill 100 people" and that the story cannot be proven to be clearly false. The Nanking Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanking, was an episode of mass murder and mass rape committed by Japanese troops against the residents of Nanki. Various Japanese officials and historians have disputed the death toll since the war, angering China. Tang gathered about 100,000 soldiers, largely untrained, including Chinese troops who had participated in the Battle of Shanghai. [73], According to Canadian scholar David Bruce MacDonald, the higher range of estimates of over 100,000 victims are more likely to be accurate,[74] whereas by contrast the Irish historian LM Cullen argues that the lower range of estimates, which put the death toll in tens of thousands, "are probably the most credible. Improved in 24 Hours. [16], In 2000, historian Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi concurred with certain Japanese scholars who had argued that the contest was a concocted story, with the collusion of the soldiers themselves for the purpose of raising the national fighting spirit. In December 2007, newly declassified U.S. government archive documents revealed that a telegraph by the U.S. ambassador to Germany in Berlin sent one day after the Japanese army occupied Nanjing, stated that he heard the Japanese ambassador in Germany boasting that the Japanese army had killed 500,000 Chinese soldiers and civilians as the Japanese army advanced from Shanghai to Nanjing. In our South Hill House Japanese broke the panel of the storeroom and took out some old fruit juice and a few other things. The Japanese awaited an answer to their demand for surrender but no response was received from the Chinese by the deadline on December 10. [28], David Askew, a historian at Ritsumeikan University, states that the death toll of the Nanking Massacre can be calculated by modern-day historians on the basis of four types of sources. "[178], The Nanjing massacre has emerged as one fundamental keystone in the construction of the modern Chinese national identity. The International Military Tribunal for the Far East estimated that 20,000 women, including some children and the elderly, were raped during the occupation, with Yale University claiming over 80,000 rapes. The tribunal determined that more than 200,000 people were killed in Nanjing. [58], The official stance of the People's Republic of China is that 300,000 or more Chinese were massacred in Nanking. [citation needed], In February 1938, both Prince Asaka and General Matsui were recalled to Japan. When I appear they give the excuse that they saw two Chinese soldiers climb over the wall. [11] Here Australian journalist Harold Timperley was quoted as stating that 300,000 civilians had been killed. Yet, in China, this figure has come to symbolize the justice, legality, and authority of the post-war trials condemning Japan as the aggressor.[113]. A year before that a series of "smaller courts" held in China, including in Nanjing, put the death toll at 300,000. [127], On October 9, 2015, Documents of the Nanjing Massacre have been listed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. Death toll of the Nanjing Massacre Last updated May 04, 2022. [49] Though many still support the IMTFE's geographic scope for the massacre, in 1984 the journalist Katsuichi Honda became the first individual to voice disapproval of this definition. The last refugee camps were closed in May 1938. [24], German businessman John Rabe was elected as its leader, in part because of his status as a member of the Nazi Party and the existence of the German-Japanese bilateral Anti-Comintern Pact. Japan Advertiser, 7 December 1937 (an American-owned and edited English-language daily paper in Tokyo), harvnb error: no target: CITEREFKingston2008 (. [153], On February 3, 2014, Naoki Hyakuta, a member of the board of governors of Japan's public broadcasting company, NHK, was quoted as saying the massacre never occurred. From Judgment of the International Military Tribunal, On November 12, 1948, Matsui and Hirota, along with five other convicted Class-A war criminals, were sentenced to death by hanging. 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. As Nanking fell to the Japanese, and their troops entered the city on the 13th of December, the streets were already crowded with a large number of . This rejection of the committee's ceasefire plan, in Rabe's mind, sealed the fate of the city. [133] In her book Rape of Nanjing, Iris Chang asserted that the politics of the Cold War encouraged Chairman Mao to stay relatively silent about Nanjing in order to keep a trade relationship with Japan. Dublin Core. But we always stabbed and killed them. Yoshida argues that "Nanjing crystallizes a much larger conflict over what should constitute the ideal perception of the nation: Japan, as a nation, acknowledges its past and apologizes for its wartime wrongdoings; or stands firm against foreign pressures and teaches Japanese youth about the benevolent and courageous martyrs who fought a just war to save Asia from Western aggression. [21] By contrast Bob Wakabayashi sets the bar higher and believes that the estimate of 40,000 victims put forward by Ikuhiko Hata is the lowest reasonable estimate of the total death toll and considers numbers below this to be attempts at minimizing the atrocity. [21] When Yoshiaki Itakura, an independent writer who became one of the leading researchers of the Nanking Incident,[21][32] analyzed the records of the Japanese Army, he multiplied his final tally by 0.6 in order to account for exaggeration and reached the total of 13,000 to 19,000 massacre victims. There was considerable destruction to areas outside the city walls. At first we used some kinky words like Pikankan. These figures also do not take into account those persons whose bodies were destroyed by burning, drowning or other means, or whose bodies were interred in mass graves. . Bergamini, David, "Japan's Imperial Conspiracy," William Morrow, New York; 1971. [51] In her book, she estimated that the number of Chinese women raped by Japanese soldiers ranged from 20,000 to 80,000. [21], The second type of source is the burial records written down by Chinese charitable associations. Numbers smaller or larger than the empirically verifiable, scholarly valid victimization range have been put forward by Japanese revisionists and the China Communist Party. General Matsui was indicted before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East for "deliberately and recklessly" ignoring his legal duty "to take adequate steps to secure the observance and prevent breaches" of the Hague Convention. As the Japanese approached, the Chinese army withdrew the bulk of its forces since Nanjing was not a defensible position. . According to Xinhua News Agency, it is the most complete record to date. While the books' take on Nanjing is stilted and feels like the product of a committee, in various versions they acknowledge the deaths of thousands of Chinese including women and children, as well as looting, arson and assaults by Japanese soldiers. 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