Japan’s Drive For An Empire Did Japan commit war crimes during WWII?

Invasion of Manchuria Military leaders win control of Japan during the depression – think war/expansion will fix economy 1931: Japan invades Manchuria, a Chinese Province which was rich in coal & iron When China complains to the League of Nations, Japan claims they are trying to help Manchuria Japan creates a puppet government & Manchurians declare the independent country of Manchukuo 1937: Japan claims one of its soldiers is missing, wants to enter China to search

Japanese say they will only target Chinese soldiers but start killing civilians when they enter the city China refuses, Japan opens fire on China (Marco Polo Bridge Incident), Japan invades China After conquering Shanghai, Japan ready to invade the capital, Nanking As the Japanese Army drew closer to Nanking, civilians try to flee city Nanking Massacre aka The Rape of Nanking

Women were forcibly raped, some girls as young as eight years old, many are Chinese forced into prostitution becoming “comfort women” One man who helped the Chinese was a Nazi businessman named John Rabe Japan had joined Axis powers, so using his position as a Nazi, Rabe set up a “safety zone” Although Rabe saved close to 200,000 nearly 300,000 were killed in the six-week massacre After the war, many in Japan denied genocide & war crimes – Forgotten Holocaust of WWII Saburo Ienega, a textbook writer sued the Japanese govt ( ) for censorship Saburo won most of his lawsuits

Video Clips: John Rabe 1.How was Rabe able to save Chinese citizens from a Japanese bombing attack? 2.What were Japanese soldiers doing to prisoners of war? 3.What issues did the intl committee face in creating the zone? 4.What was happening to civilians & prisoners, who does Rabe ask for help? 5.Based on the clips, what war crimes were committed?

Map Time! Color Japan’s Empire in key red, Japanese occupation striped red Color Japan (1), Korea (2), Taiwan (3) red Stripe Manchuria (4), China (7) in red