Nanjing Massacre

Nanjing Massacre
Part of the Battle of Nanking
A Japanese soldier pictured with the corpses of Chinese civilians by the Qinhuai River
Location	Nanjing and the surrounding countryside, Jiangsu, Republic of China
Coordinates	32°2′15″N 118°44′15″E / 32.03750°N 118.73750°E / 32.03750; 118.73750
Date	From December 13, 1937, for six weeks[a] (traditional historiography), atrocities in the Nanjing Area began December 4, 1937 and ended March 28, 1938[1]
Target	Chinese people
Attack type	Mass murder, wartime rape, looting, torture, arson
Deaths	100,000 to 200,000+ civilians and POWs (IMTFE Judgement),[2] other estimates range from 40,000 to over 340,000, depending on scope, timescale and geography
Victims	20,000 women and children raped, 30,000+ POWs illegally executed, 20,000 falsely accused male civilians executed as soldiers, 12,000 to 60,000 civilians murdered inside the city walls, 30,000 civilians murdered in the surrounding countryside
Perpetrators	Imperial Japanese Army Prince Yasuhiko Asaka (granted immunity) Gen. Iwane Matsui Lt. Col. Isamu Chō
Motive	Anti-Chinese racism Japanese ultranationalism Cultural violence within the Japanese military[3] Misogyny[4] A breakdown in Japanese military discipline

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The Nanjing Massacre^[b] or the Rape of Nanjing (formerly romanized as Nanking^[c]) was the mass murder of Chinese civilians, noncombatants, and surrendered prisoners of war by the Imperial Japanese Army in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, immediately after the Battle of Nanking and retreat of the National Revolutionary Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War.^[5][6][7][8]

Traditional historiography dates the massacre as unfolding over a period of several weeks beginning on December 13, 1937 following the city's capture, and as being spatially confined to within Nanjing and its immediate vicinity.^[a] However, the Nanjing Massacre was far from an isolated case, and fit into a pattern of Japanese atrocities along the Lower Yangtze River, with Japanese forces routinely committing massacres since the Battle of Shanghai. Furthermore, Japanese atrocities in the Nanjing area did not end in January 1938, but instead persisted in the region until late March 1938.^[10]

Estimates of the death toll vary from a low of 40,000 to a high of over 340,000, and estimates of rapes range from a low of 4,000, a consensus of 20,000, and a high of over 80,000.^[11] Many scholars support the validity of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, which estimated that some 200,000 were killed. Others adhere to a death toll between 100,000 and 200,000.^[12]

Other crimes included torture, looting, and arson. The massacre is considered one of the worst wartime atrocities in history.^[13][14][15] In addition to civilians, numerous POWs and men who looked of military age were indiscriminately murdered.

After the outbreak of the war in July 1937, the Japanese had pushed quickly through China after capturing Shanghai in November. As the Japanese marched on Nanjing, they committed violent atrocities in a terror campaign, including killing contests and massacring entire villages.^[16] By early December, the Japanese Central China Area Army under the command of General Iwane Matsui reached the outskirts of the city. Nazi German citizen John Rabe created the Nanking Safety Zone in an attempt to protect its civilians.

Prince Yasuhiko Asaka was installed as temporary commander in the campaign, and he issued an order to "kill all captives". Iwane and Asaka took no action to stop the massacre after it began.

The massacre began on December 13 after Japanese troops entered the city after days of intense fighting and continued to rampage through it unchecked. Civilians, including children, women, and the elderly, were murdered. Thousands of captured Chinese soldiers were summarily executed en masse in violation of the laws of war, as were male civilians falsely accused of being soldiers. Widespread rape of female civilians took place, their ages ranging from infants to the elderly, and one third of the city was destroyed by arson. Rape victims were often murdered afterward.

Rabe's Safety Zone was mostly a success, and is credited with saving at least 200,000 lives. After the war, Matsui and several other commanders at Nanjing were found guilty of war crimes and executed. Some other Japanese military leaders in charge at the time of the Nanjing Massacre were not tried only because by the time of the tribunals they had either already been killed or committed ritual suicide. Asaka was granted immunity as a member of the imperial family and never tried.

The massacre remains a contentious topic in Sino-Japanese relations, as Japanese nationalists and historical revisionists, including top government officials, have either denied or minimized the massacre.

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