HISTORY 12 MS LESLIE Nanking (also Nanjing)

During the Sino-Japanese War that preceded WWII. Anywhere between 100,000 – 300,000 died. Nanjing was the capital of Nationalist China from General Matsui ordered the destruction of the city. The army burned and looted 1/3 of all buildings.

Rape of Nanking Often labeled the ‘Forgotten Holocaust’ Dec 1937-Jan ,000 – 80,000 women were raped by the Japanese imperial army. Infants and the elderly were raped soldiers would search door-to-door for young girls many women taken captive and gang raped. The women were often killed immediately after the rape, often through explicit mutilation or by stabbing a bayonet, long stick of bamboo, or other objects into the vagina.

Raped and Murdered Children

Doctors would report up to 1,000 cases of rape a night. It was common for Japanese soldiers to enter an area of refugees and kill, maim and rape until satisfied. If men intervened they would be shot Pregnant women would often be raped, bayoneted in the stomach and then shot

Murder Japanese Soldiers looked for plain clothes Chinese Soldiers hiding in the civilian population Decided all men from were disguised soldiers Mass executions ‘ten-thousand corpse ditch’ – along the Yangtze River. Around 12,000 bodies found

The Japanese officers turned the act of murder into sport. They would set out to kill a certain number of Chinese before the other. Young men would also be used for bayonet training. Their limbs would be restrained or they would be tied to a post while the Japanese soldiers took turns plunging their bayonets into the victims' bodies

Turning killing into sport

Bayonet Practice

In all around 57,000 Chinese soldiers killed 1940, Nanking made the capital for the Japanese puppet government of China After WWII, Matsui was tried and found guilty of war crimes – put to death

Japan still denies the extent of the raping and massacres First formal apology from Japanese government for war crimes was in A general apology, doesn’t acknowledge anything specific End