Miner Searle Bates

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Miner Searle Bates (b.1897, Newark, Ohio; d.1978) was educated at numerous, prestigious institutions such as the University of Oxford, Yale University, and Hiram College. He worked with the YMCA in India and Mesopotamia before finally beginning work at Nanking University from 1920-1950.^[1] Bates was a history professor at Nanking University, present during the period in late 1937-early 1938 known as the Rape of Nanking.^[2] During this time, he became one of the leaders of the International Safety Zone and worked to secure the safety of the population of Nanking. This task was dangerous and his life was put at risk on many occasions, most notably when he was shoved down a flight of stairs by Japanese military police after inquiring about the fate of a student who had been abducted by Japanese soldiers.^[3]