Nanking Safety Zone

The Nanking Safety Zone (Chinese: 南京安全區; pinyin: Nánjīng Ānquán Qū; Japanese: 南京安全区, Nankin Anzenku, or 南京安全地帯, Nankin Anzenchitai) was a demilitarized zone for Chinese civilians set up on the eve of the Japanese breakthrough in the Battle of Nanking (December 13, 1937).

The Battle of Songhu was fought following the Full Outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, during which the Japanese bombed Nanking indiscriminately, resulting in the fatalities of a significant number of innocent civilians. In an effort to prevent additional casualties, Hang Liwu and a number of expatriates residing in Nanjing endeavored to establish a neutral zone within the city for refugees. Based on the Nanshi Refugee Zone (Jesuit Father Robert Jacquinot de Besange) in Shanghai, they designated a 3.86 square kilometer area in the western region of Nanjing city with the intention of leveraging the influence of foreigners to secure the area. The International Committee for the Safe Zone was formally established on November 22, and committees for sanitation, lodging, and food were established to ensure the safe zone's normal operation. Additionally, letters were dispatched to Japan and China in an effort to secure recognition. Despite the fact that the Chinese accepted the delineation of the Safety Zone and transferred the actual jurisdiction of the territory to the committee, the Japanese have maintained an attitude that is somewhere between ambiguity and denial regarding the Safety Zone.^[1]

The Safety Zone was overwhelmed as a result of the continuous influx of refugees, which assumed responsibility for the municipal administration of certain areas of Nanjing following the National Government's withdrawal. While it did to a certain extent guarantee the basic necessities of life for the refugees within the Safety Zone, it did not entirely shield them from the Massacre. From December 14, 1937, the Japanese army disregarded the existence of the Safe Zone and, under the guise of searching for Chinese soldiers, embarked on a spree of burning, looting, and raping women within the boundaries of the Safe Zone. The Japanese army also burned and killed some of the refugees in shelters, which occurred in the aftermath of the Fall of Nanking. The International Committee for the Safe Zone lacked the necessary resources to prevent it from beginning to end. In February 1938, the Japanese army forcibly expelled the refugees from the zone on the grounds that the zone was impeding the operation of their puppet government. The International Committee for the Safe Zone was reorganized into the Nanking International Relief Committee on February 18, 1938, marking the conclusion of the safe zone. The refugee shelters within the safe zone ceased to operate entirely by June 1938. The safe zone concluded with the reorganization of the International Committee for the Safe Zone into the Nanking International Relief Committee.^[2]