Nanjing Massacre Research Paper

During December of 1937 the Japanese Imperial Army marched into China's capital Nanjing, killing 300,000 out of 600,000 civilians and soldiers in the city during the Second Sino-Japanese War between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan . While this mass murder is often referred to as the Nanjing Massacre, it is also called the Raping of Nanjing since around 20,000 and 80,000 women were sexually assaulted and/or forced into sex trade. The Nanjing Massacre occurred over six weeks starting December 13, 1937, the day the Japanese captured Nanjing . Even though the Japanese government admitted to the massacre and the criminal activities that took place at Nanjing, China, some Japanese government employees and veterans claim that “the death

They viewed all 90,000 Chinese Prisoners of War (POW) as less than human and unworthy of living. The elimination of Chinese POW began after they were all transported to remote locations. Japanese soldiers directed bayonet practice on live prisoners, decapitated them and displayed their detached heads as souvenirs while they proudly stood among maimed corpses . Other Chinese POWs were shot down by machine-guns or soaked with gasoline and burned alive. The Japanese encouraged the higher ups to inflict as much pain as possible to “[toughen] them up for future battles” . Some soldiers can be seen in photographs and films smiling while they conduct these inhumane acts. After mutilating the POWs, the Japanese soldiers then focused on the women in

More than 20,000 women were ganged raped and then stabbed to death by bayonets or shot so they could never bear witness . Women who were already pregnant were raped and then had “their bellies slit open and fetuses torn out” . Some fathers, brothers and sons were made to rape their daughters, sisters and mothers while the rest of the family was forced to watch . The Comfort Women system was later introduced where young Chinese women were unwillingly put into slave-prostitution only for Japanese soldiers . Beyond the raping and the torture of the POWs, the Japanese would randomly murder people as they fired their rifles into crowds of civilians. Other troops killed shop owners, loot the stores and then would set the buildings on fire after locking people inside. People were shot on a whim, littering the streets with corpses; the Japanese even had “killing contests” throughout the city . If they were not shot inside the city, the Chinese were brought to the outskirts of Nanjing where they were forced to dig their own graves and be buried