Nanking Massacre

The Nanking Massacre, commonly known as the Rape of Nanking, was an infamous war crime committed by the Japanese military in Nanjing (Nanking), then the capital of the Republic of China, after it fell to the Imperial Japanese Army on December 13, 1937. The duration of the massacre is not clearly defined, although the violence lasted well into the next six weeks, until early February 1938. Japanese officials lied about civilian death figures and still refuse to reveal them properly today. During the occupation of Nanking, the Japanese army committed numerous atrocities, such as rape, looting, arson and the execution of prisoners of war and civilians. The executions began under the pretext of eliminating Chinese soldiers disguised as civilians, and a large number of innocent men were intentionally misidentified as enemy combatants and executed as the massacre gathered momentum. A large number of women and children were also killed, as rape and murder became more widespread.^[1]

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 Nanking and its vicinity during the first six weeks of the Japanese occupation was over 200,000. That these estimates are not exaggerated is borne out by the fact that burial societies and other organizations counted more than 155,000 buried bodies. Most were bound with their hands tied behind their backs. These figures do not take into account those persons whose bodies were destroyed by burning, by throwing them into the Yangtze River, or otherwise disposed of by the Japanese.^[2] The extent of the atrocities is debated between China and Japan, with numbers^[3] ranging from some Japanese claims of several hundred,^[4] to the Chinese claim of a non-combatant death toll of 300,000^[5]. A number of Japanese researchers consider 100,000 – 200,000 to be an approximate value.^[6] Other nations usually believe the death toll to be between 150,000–300,000.^[7] The casualty count of 300,000 was first promulgated in January 1938 by Harold Timperley, a journalist in China during the Japanese invasion, based on reports from contemporary eyewitnesses. Other sources, including Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanking, also conclude that the death toll reached 300,000. In December 2007, newly declassified U.S. government documents revealed an additional toll of around 500,000 in the area surrounding Nanking before it was occupied.^[8]

In addition to the number of victims, some Japanese nationalists have even disputed whether the atrocity ever happened.^[9] While the Japanese government has acknowledged the incident did occur,^[10] some Japanese nationalists have argued, partly using the Imperial Japanese Army's claims at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, that the death toll was military in nature and that no such civilian atrocities ever occurred. This claim has been criticised by various figures, citing statements of non-Chinese at the Tribunal, other eyewitnesses and by photographic and archaeological evidence that civilian deaths did occur.

Condemnation of the massacre is a major focal point of Chinese nationalism. In Japan, however, public opinion over the severity of the massacre remains widely divided — this is evidenced by the fact that whereas some Japanese commentators refer to it as the 'Nanking massacre' (南京大虐殺, Nankin daigyakusatsu^?), others use the more ambivalent term 'Nanking Incident' (南京事件, Nankin jiken^?). However, this term can also refer to a separate Nanjing Incident that occurred during the 1927 Nationalist seizure of the city as a part of the Northern Expedition, in which foreigners in the city were attacked. The 1937 massacre and the extent of its coverage in school textbooks continues to be a point of contention and controversy in Sino-Japanese relations.

Historical background

The bold headline of a presumed fictitious article written by Japanese wartime journalists reads, "'Incredible Record' (in the Contest to) Cut Down 100 People—Mukai 106 – 105 Noda—Both 2nd Lieutenants Go Into Extra Innings" [3]

Invasion of China

By August 1937, in the midst of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Imperial Japanese Army encountered strong resistance from the Kuomintang (KMT, Chinese Nationalist Party) army in the Battle of Shanghai. The battle caused high casualties on both sides as they were worn down by attrition in hand-to-hand combat. On August 6 1937, Hirohito personally ratified his army's proposition to remove the constraints of international law on the treatment of Chinese prisoners. This directive also advised staff officers to stop using the term "prisoner of war".^[11]

On the way from Shanghai to Nanjing, Japanese soldiers committed numerous atrocities, showing that the Nanking Massacre was not an isolated incident.^[12] The most infamous event was the "contest to kill 100 people using a sword" which, according to an academic study, was a newspaper fabrication. ^[13] By mid-November, the Japanese had captured Shanghai with the help of naval and aerial bombardment. The General Staff Headquarters in Tokyo decided not to expand the war, due to the high casualties incurred and the low morale of the troops.

Approach towards Nanking

As the Japanese army drew closer to Nanking, Chinese civilians fled the city in droves, and the Chinese military put into effect a scorched earth campaign,^[14] aimed at destroying anything that might be of value to the invading Japanese army. Targets within and outside of the city walls—such as military barracks, private homes, the Chinese Ministry of Communication, forests and even entire villages—were burnt to cinders, at an estimated value of 20 to 30 million (1937) US dollars.^[15][16][17]

On December 2, Emperor Showa nominated one of his uncles, Prince Asaka, as commander of the invasion. It is difficult to establish if, as a member of the imperial family, Asaka had a superior status to general Iwane Matsui, who was officially the commander in chief, but it is clear that, as the top ranking officer, he had authority over division commanders, lieutenant-generals Kesago Nakajima and Heisuke Yanagawa.

Nanking Safety Zone

Main article: Nanking Safety Zone

Many westerners were living in the city at that time, conducting trade or on missionary trips. As the Japanese army began to launch bombing raids over Nanking, all of them except 22 people fled to their respective countries. Siemens businessman John Rabe stayed behind and formed a committee, called the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone. Rabe was elected as its leader, in part because of his status as a Nazi and the existence of the German-Japanese bilateral Anti-Comintern Pact. This committee established the Nanking Safety Zone in the western quarter of the city. The Japanese government had agreed not to attack parts of the city that did not contain Chinese military, and the members of the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone managed to persuade the Chinese government to move all their troops out of the area. It is said Rabe rescued between 200,000 - 250,000 Chinese people.^{[18] [19]}

The Japanese did respect the Zone to an extent; no shells entered that part of the city leading up to the Japanese occupation except a few stray shots. During the chaos following the attack of the city, some were killed in the Safety Zone, but the atrocities in the rest of the city were far greater by all accounts.

Siege of the city

Iwane Matsui enters Nanjing

On December 7, the Japanese army issued a command to all troops, advising that because occupying a foreign capital was an unprecedented event for the Japanese military, those soldiers who "[commit] any illegal acts", "dishonor the Japanese Army", "loot", or "cause a fire to break out, even because of their carelessness" would be severely punished.^[20] The Japanese military continued to move forward, breaching the last lines of Chinese resistance, and arriving outside the walled city of Nanjing on December 9. At noon, the military dropped leaflets into the city, urging the surrender of Nanking within 24 hours:^[21]

"The Japanese Army, one million strong, has already conquered Changshu. We have surrounded the city of Nanking… The Japanese Army shall show no mercy toward those who offer resistance, treating them with extreme severity, but shall harm neither innocent civilians nor Chinese military [personnel] who manifest no hostility. It is our earnest desire to preserve the East Asian culture. If your troops continue to fight, war in Nanking is inevitable. The culture that has endured for a millennium will be reduced to ashes, and the government that has lasted for a decade will vanish into thin air. This commander-in-chief issues [b]ills to your troops on behalf of the Japanese Army. Open the gates to Nanking in a peaceful manner, and obey the [f]ollowing instructions."^[20]

The Japanese awaited an answer. When no Chinese envoy had arrived by 1:00 p.m. the following day, General Matsui Iwane issued the command to take Nanking by force. On December 12, after two days of Japanese attack, under heavy artillery fire and aerial bombardment, General Tang Sheng-chi ordered his men to retreat. What followed was nothing short of chaos. Some Chinese soldiers stripped civilians of their clothing in a desperate attempt to blend in, and many others were shot in the back by their own comrades as they tried to flee.^[15] Those who actually made it outside the city walls fled north to the Yangtze, only to find that there were no vessels remaining to take them. Some then jumped into the wintry waters and drowned.

The Japanese entered the walled city of Nanjing on December 13 and faced little military resistance.

The Nanking Massacre begins

Prisoners being buried alive^[22]

Eyewitness accounts from the period state that over the course of six weeks following the fall of Nanking, Japanese troops engaged in rape, murder, theft, and arson. Some accounts came from foreigners who opted to stay behind in order to protect Chinese civilians from certain harm, including the diaries of John Rabe and Minnie Vautrin. Others include first-person testimonies of the Nanking Massacre survivors. Still more were gathered from eyewitness reports of journalists, both Western and Japanese, as well as the field diaries of certain military personnel. An American missionary, John Magee, stayed behind to provide a 16mm film documentary and first-hand photographs of the Nanjing Massacre.

Immediately after the city's fall, a group of foreign expatriates headed by John Rabe formed the 15-man International Committee on November 22 and drew up the Nanking Safety Zone in order to safeguard the lives of civilians in the city, where the population ran from 200,000 to 250,000. . Rabe and American missionary Lewis S. C. Smythe, the secretary of the International Committee, who was also a professor of sociology at the University of Nanking, recorded atrocities of the Japanese troops and filed reports of complaints to the Japanese embassy.

Rape

The International Military Tribunal for the Far East stated that 80,000 women were raped, including infants and the elderly.^[23] A large number of them were systematized in a process where soldiers would search door-to-door for young girls, with many women taken captive and gang raped.^[24] The women were often then killed immediately after the rape, often through mutilation, including breasts being cut off;^[25] or stabbing by bamboo (usually very long sticks)^[26], bayonet, butcher's knife and other objects into the vagina. There are also claims of Japanese troops forcing families to commit acts of incest.^[27] It has been claimed that sons were forced to rape their mothers, fathers were forced to rape daughters. One pregnant woman who it is claimed was gang-raped by Japanese soldiers gave birth only a few hours later; the baby was perfectly healthy (Robert B. Edgerton, Warriors of the Rising Sun). Monks who had declared a life of celibacy were according to some claims forced to rape women.

Murder

Immediately after the fall of the city, Japanese troops embarked on a determined search for former soldiers, in which thousands of young men were captured. Many were taken to the Yangtze River, where they were machine-gunned so their bodies would be carried down to Shanghai. The Japanese troops gathered 1,300 Chinese soldiers and civilians at Taiping Gate and killed them. The victims were blown up with landmines, then doused with petrol before being set on fire. Those that were left alive afterwards were killed with bayonets.^[28]

Thousands were led away and mass-executed in an excavation known as the "Ten-Thousand-Corpse Ditch", a trench measuring about 300m long and 5m wide. Since records were not kept, estimates regarding the number of victims buried in the ditch range from 4,000 to 20,000. However, most scholars and historians consider the number to be more than 12,000 victims.^[29]

Pregnant women were often the target of murder, as they would often be bayoneted in the belly, sometimes after rape.^[30]

Theft and arson

One-third of the city was destroyed as a result of arson. According to reports, Japanese troops torched newly-built government buildings as well as the homes of many civilians. There was considerable destruction to areas outside the city walls. Soldiers pillaged from the poor and the wealthy alike. 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. This resulted in the widespread looting and burglary.^[31]

Death toll estimates

There is great debate as to the extent of the war atrocities in Nanking, especially regarding estimates of the death toll. The issues involved in calculating the number of victims are largely based on the debatees' definitions of the geographical range and the duration of the event, as well as their definition of the victims.

Range and duration

The most conservative viewpoint is that the geographical area of the incident should be limited to the few km² of the city known as the Safety Zone, where the civilians gathered after the invasion. Many Japanese historians seized upon the fact that during the Japanese invasion there were only 200,000–250,000 citizens in Nanking as reported by John Rabe, to argue that the PRC's estimate of 300,000 deaths is a vast exaggeration.

However, many historians include a much larger area around the city. Including the Xiaguan district (the suburbs north of Nanjing city, about 31 km² in size) and other areas on the outskirts of the city, the population of greater Nanjing was running between 535,000 and 635,000 civilians and soldiers just prior to the Japanese occupation.^[32] Some historians also include six counties around Nanjing, known as the Nanjing Special Municipality.

The duration of the incident is naturally defined by its geography: the earlier the Japanese entered the area, the longer the duration. The Battle of Nanking ended on December 13, when the divisions of the Japanese Army entered the walled city of Nanking. The Tokyo War Crime Tribunal defined the period of the massacre to the ensuing six weeks. More conservative estimates say the massacre started on December 14, when the troops entered the Safety Zone, and that it lasted for 6 weeks. Historians who define the Nanking Massacre as having started from the time the Japanese Army entered Jiangsu province push the beginning of the massacre to around mid-November to early December (Suzhou fell on November 19), and stretch the end of the massacre to late March 1938. Naturally, the number of victims proposed by these historians is much greater than more conservative estimates.

Various estimates

Japanese historians, depending on their definition of the geographical and time duration of the killings, give wide-ranging estimates for the number of massacred civilians, from several thousand to upwards of 200,000.^[33] Chinese language sources tend to place the figure of massacred civilians upwards of 200,000.^[33]

A 42-part ROC documentary produced in 1995, entitled "An Inch of Blood For An Inch of Land"^[34] (一寸河山一寸血), asserts that 340,000 Chinese civilians died in Nanking City as a result of the Japanese invasion, 150,000 through bombing and crossfire in the 5-day battle, and 190,000 in the massacre, based on the evidence presented at the Tokyo Trials.

Prince Yasuhiko Asaka

The judgments

Among the evidence presented at the Tokyo trial was the "Magee film", footage included in the American propaganda film "The Battle of China", as well as the oral and written testimonies of people residing in the international zone.

Based on evidence of mass atrocities, General Iwane Matsui was tried by the Tokyo tribunal for "crimes against humanity". At trial he went out of his way to protect Prince Asaka by shifting blame to lower ranking division commanders. ^[35] Matsui was convicted, sentenced to death, and executed in 1948. Generals Hisao Tani and Rensuke Isogai were sentenced to death by the Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal. ^[36]

Under the pact concluded between General MacArthur and Hirohito, the Emperor himself and all the members of the imperial family were not prosecuted. Prince Asaka, who was the ranking officer in the city at the height of the atrocities, made only a deposition to the International Prosecution Section of the Tokyo tribunal on 1 May 1946. Asaka denied any massacre of Chinese and claimed never to have received complaints about the conduct of his troops.^[37] Prince Kan'in, who was chief of staff of the Army during the massacre, had died before the end of the war, in May 1945.

Historiography and modern treatment

China and Japan have both acknowledged the occurrence of wartime atrocities. Disputes over the historical portrayal of these events continue to cause tensions between China and Japan.

The widespread atrocities committed by the Japanese in Nanjing were first reported to the world by the Westerners residing in the Nanjing Safety Zone.

Post-1972 Japanese interest

Interest in the Nanking Massacre waned into near obscurity until 1972, the year China and Japan normalized diplomatic relationships.

The debate concerning the actual occurrence of killings and rapes took place mainly in the 1970s. The Chinese government's statements about the event came under attack during this time, because they were said to rely too heavily on personal testimonies and anecdotal evidence. Also coming under attack were the burial records and photographs presented in the Tokyo War Crime Court, which were said to be fabrications by the Chinese government, artificially manipulated or incorrectly attributed to the Nanking Massacre. For an example of modern Japanese thinking and so-called "scholarship" on these issues, see "THE NANKING MASSACRE: Fact Versus Fiction". Retrieved on 2008-05-06.

The Japanese distributor of The Last Emperor (1987) edited out the stock footage of the Rape of Nanking from the film.^[38]

The Ienaga textbook incident

Main article: Japanese history textbook controversies

Controversy flared up again in 1982, when it was reported that the Japanese Ministry of Education censored any mention of the Nanking Massacre in a high school textbook.^[39] Later, it became clear in Japan that the report was based on an erroneous report by commercial television network NTV (Nippon Television). ^[39]

On June 12, 1965, an author of the school textbook, Professor Saburō Ienaga, sued the Ministry of Education.^[40] He claimed that he suffered through his experience that the government's allegedly unconstitutional system of textbook authorization made him change the contents of his draft textbook against his will and violated his right to freedom of expression. This case resulted in Ienaga's winning his case in 1997.^[40]

A number of Japanese cabinet ministers, as well as some high-ranking politicians, have made comments denying the atrocities committed by the Japanese Army in World War II. Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara has claimed "People say that the Japanese made a holocaust but that is not true. It is a story made up by the Chinese. It has tarnished the image of Japan, but it is a lie."^[41] Some subsequently resigned after protests from China and South Korea. In response to these and similar incidents, a number of Japanese journalists and historians formed the Nankin Jiken Chōsa Kenkyūkai (Nanjing Incident Research Group). The research group has collected large quantities of archival materials as well as testimonies from both Chinese and Japanese sources.

In the media

Books

• The Tent of Orange Mist by Paul West
• Nankin Jiken Gyakusatsu no kozo (南京事件―「虐殺」の構造) by Ikuhiko Hata ISBN 4121007956, ISBN 4121907957
• The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang
• Tokyo (novel), a crime novel by British author Mo Hayder

Films

• The Battle of China (1944) a documentary film by American director Frank Capra includes footage of the Nanking massacre from the "Magee film".

• Black Sun: The Nanking Massacre (1995), by Chinese director Mou Tun Fei, recreates the events of the Nanking Massacre and includes original footage of the massacre from the "Magee film".

• Don't Cry, Nanking aka (Nanjing 1937) (1995) directed by Wu Ziniu is a historical fiction centering around a Chinese doctor, his Japanese wife, and their children, as they experience the siege, fall, and atrocities of Nanking.

• Tokyo Trial (2006) is about the International Military Tribunal for the Far East.

• Nanking (2007) another documentary film, directed by Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman, makes use of letters and diaries from the era as well as archive footage and interviews with surviving victims and perpetrators of the massacre.

• The Truth about Nanjing (2007) a Japanese-produced documentary denying that any such massacre took place.

• The Children of Huang Shi (2008), will cover in part the massacre.

• a Sino-German co-production about the life of John Rabe will be released in 2008, featuring Ulrich Tukur in the title role.^[42]

Records

In December 2007, the Chinese government published the names of 13,000 people who were killed by Japanese troops in the Nanking Massacre. According to Xinhua News Agency, it is the most complete record to date.^[43] The report consists of eight volumes and was released to mark the 70th anniversary of the start of the massacre. 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. Zhang Xianwen, editor-in-chief of the report, states that the information collected was based on "a combination of Chinese, Japanese and Western raw materials, which is objective and just and is able to stand the trial of history."^[43] This report will form part of a 28-volume series about the massacre.^[43]

Gallery

See also

References

Further reading

External links

• BBC News: Scarred by history: The Rape of Nanjing
• BBC News: Nanjing remembers massacre victims
• "Denying Genocide: The Evolution of the Denial of the Holocaust and the Nanking Massacre," college research paper by Joseph Chapel, 2004
• English translation of a classified Chinese document on the Nanjing Massacre
• Genocide in the 20th Century The Rape of Nanking 1937-1938
• Japanese Army's Atrocities — Nanjing Massacre — Contains archived documents including photos and maps.
• Japanese Imperialism and the Massacre in Nanjing by Gao Xingzu, Wu Shimin, Hu Yungong, & Cha Ruizhen
• Kirk Denton, "Heroic Resistance and Victims of Atrocity: Negotiating the Memory of Japanese Imperialism in Chinese Museums"
• The Nanjing Incident: Recent Research and Trends by David Askew in the Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies, April 2002
• Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall
• 1937 Nanking Massacre Nanking Massacre website including articles and photos
• Never Forget — Historical Facts of Nanjing Massacre.
• 'No massacre in Nanking,' Japanese lawmakers say
• War and reconciliation: a tale of two countries
• Online documentary: The Nanking Atrocities — Comprehensive account of the Nanjing Massacre.
• Princeton University's exhibit on the massacre — Student-run event. Contains a gallery of the atrocities.
• Refutation by Tanaka Masaaki
• Research Institute of Propaganda Photos (Machine translation of Japanese site)
• WWW Memorial Hall of the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre
• The Rape of Nanking — Nanjing Massacre — English Language Edition. Two hour web documentary.
• USSPanay.org Webpage about the evacuation of Nanking and the Panay Incident
• Site denying Nanking Massacre
• (Japanese) Japanese soldiers in Nanjin, 1937-1938
• (Japanese) (Author ja:東中野修道/小林進/福永慎次郎) 南京事件「証拠写真」を検証する ~ Nanking Massacre's "Photo": Verification of Credibility~ ja:草思社 ISBN 4794213816