The Rape of Nanking, also known as the Nanking Massacre was a six week period when mass numbers of Chinese men and woman were killed by the Japanese. Embarrassed by the lack of effort in the war with China in Shanghai, the Japanese looked for revenge and finally were able to win the battle. The Japanese moved toward the city of Nanjing also known as Nanking and invaded it for approximately six months. Even though the people of Nanjing outnumbered the 50,000 Japanese, they were not as masterful in warfare as their opponents. Chinese soldiers were forced to surrender to the Japanese and the massacre began in which around 300,000 people died and 20,000 women were raped. The Japanese leaders had different methods of killing that were instructed to the soldiers. However, the prisoners of this “City of Blood” soon found their liberation and their justice was served. The Japanese saw China as the place to spread their imperial and expansionist objectives. A rough estimate of 300,000 Chinese men and women died in the six weeks after December 13, 1937 (Jones). Around 20,000 women from ages 8 to 70 were raped by Japanese soldiers (Scarred). The Japanese leaders of these tragedies included Emperor Hirohito, who gave several military orders such as taking over China; Prince Asaka, who developed brutal ways to kill captives; General Yanagawa Heisuke, who received the orders and enforced them; and lastly, General Nakajima Kesago, who inaugurated the killings in Nanking by beheading two prisoners of war to test his sword (Jones). The motives of these people were to kill soldiers that were seen as a threat by any means necessary (Chang). “Many were shot down like the hunting of rabbits in the streets” (Scarred). The soldiers smiled when they... ... middle of paper ... ... going to have revenge against the Japanese. However, China was too busy forgiving Japan and forming a treaty which never became signed professionally. No apology was made from Japan (The Rape). Nanking suffered a severe tragedy in six weeks that its memories fail to erase. The tragedy consisting of rape, murder, and looting will never disappear from the city or its inhabitants. Thanks to John Rabe and several others, thousands of Chinese were able to survive. The history of the massacre was slowly dying, but because of books and museums, the history lives onward. The Japanese have not repaired Nanjing or educated their own country about their own mistakes. The Japanese still refuse to believe that the massacre even occurred even though there are pictures of the event and vital proof. The Japanese have surely left a blood stain in the history of this world.
In 1937, Japan started a war against China, in search of more resources to expand its empire. In 1941, during World War II, Japan attacked America which is when the Allies (Australia, Britain etc.) then declared war on Japan. Before long the Japanese started extending their territory closer and closer to Australia and started taking surrendering troops into concentration camps where they were starved, diseased and beaten. When they were captured, one survivor reports that they were told
Prior to this event, America was still divided over whether or not to participate. Even as the Rape of Nanking, one of the most infamous war crimes committed by the Japanese, became known to the public, Americans were reluctant to intervene in foreign affairs (Document D). After the United States placed an oil embargo on Japan for invading Manchuria, the desperate Japanese shocked the nation by bombing Pearl Harbor on the “day that will live in infamy” on December 7, 1941. This was the final act that instigated the American entrance into the war on December 8, 1941. Although previous incidents could be considered negligible, the bombing of Pearl Harbor directly affected the Americans and created a full consensus to intervene in the war. However, this decision was seemed inevitable; America was already so economically and politically influential in the world stage that America would have to get involved in this global crisis sooner or later (Document C). The great economic and political influence America had, accompanied by the growing financial support to Allies hinted towards support for the more democratic countries, but after the aggressive Japanese attack, America was finally unified and internationally proclaimed its decision to abandon isolationism for full
middle of paper ... ... In the genocide, children and infants were not lucky; they did not let one single target escape and even held a competition of the person who kills 100 people first will win the game. The Japanese keep denying their actions and refuse to give an official apology to all the offenders. Their officials go to shrines to pay homage to their so-called heroes, ignoring how these “heroes” have deeply injured the Chinese.
The Jews were ordered to get off and onto waiting trucks. There everyone was ordered to get out. They were forced to dig huge trenches. Without passion or haste, they shot their prisoners, who were forced to approach the trench one by one and off their necks. Infants were tossed into the air and used as targets for the machine guns (Wiesel 10).
The Rape of Nanking started on December 13, 1937. This was the day the Japanese invaded Nanking (now Nanjing), which was then the capital of Nationalist China (Cook). The Japanese Army faced little resistance as the Chinese Nationalist leader, Chiang Kai-shek, evacuated his troops before the invaders advanced. After seven weeks of Japanese atrocities, the killings ended in early 1938 (The Rape of Nanking). Japanese soldiers finally left Nanking in early February when they needed to continue the attack on China.
All orders were given "in the name of the Emperor", and so the leaders could never be questioned. Japanese soldiers tried as war criminals were genuinely shocked to have this defense set aside. Simply the fact that they would also attempt to kill themselves for the Emperor too. Either and Explotation of the Bushido code or the Japanese just saught revenge on the white race, due to race relations maybe because the Japanese were looked upon as yellow people from Asia like the Chinese and not capable to fight a 'western country'.
of the rape of a 14 year old girl by twenty GIs ... in front of the
On March 16, 1968, in the Quang Ngai region of Vietnam, specifically My Lai, the United States military was involved in an appalling slaughter of approximately 500 Vietnamese civilians. There are numerous arguments as to why this incident even had the capacity to occur. Although some of the arguments seem valid, can one really make excuses for the slaughter of innocent people? The company that was responsible for the My Lai incident was the Charlie Company, and throughout the company, there were many different accounts of what happened that reprehensible day. Therefore, there are a few contradictions about what had occurred, such as what the commanding officers' exact instructions for the soldiers were.
“For the first few months the POWs at Changi were allowed to do as they wished with little interference from the Japanese. There was just enough food and medicine provided and, to begin with, the Japanese seemed indifferent to what the POW’s did at Changi. Concerts were organised, quizzes, sporting events etc. The camp was organised into battalions, regiments etc and meticulous military discipline was maintained. In Easter 1942 the attitude of the Japanese had changed. They organised work parties to repair the damaged docks in Singapore and food and medicine became scarce. More pointedly, the Japanese made it clear that they had not signed the Geneva Convention and that they ran the camp as they saw fit.For this reason, 40,000 men from the surrender of Singapore were marched to the northern tip of the island where they were imprisoned at a military base called Selarang, which was near the village of Changi. The British civilian population of Singapore was imprisoned in Changi jail itself, one mile away from Selarang. Eventually, any reference to the area was simply made to Changi.”(1).”The appalling suffering of these POWs was witnessed by British and Commonwealth prisoners held in separate compounds. At Stalag VIIIB alone, in Lamsdorf, eastern Germany, over 40,000 Russians perished. In total, three million Russian POWs died in German
Because of the desperation felt by the Japanese forces leading up to the battle and American forces making steady advances toward Japan, the Japanese forces felt the battle could not be won. They were ordered to by time for Japan to build its defenses around the homeland. Japanese were not only dying for their county but taking their own lives as ... ... middle of paper ... ... 6 wounded.
In July 1937, the second Sino-Japanese War broke out. A small incident was soon made into a full scale war by the Kwantung army which acted rather independently from a more moderate government. The Japanese forces succeeded in occupying almost the whole coast of China and committed severe war atrocities on the Chinese population, especially during the fall of the capital Nanking. However, the Chinese government never surrendered completely, and the war continued on a lower scale until 1945.
The differences between the Nanking massacre and the Holocaust was that as the Nanking massacre occurred a time when an episode of mass murder and mass rape was committed by the Japanese troops against the residents of the capital of the Republic of China during World War II. These people of the Nanking massacre remained silent this being one of the main reasons in which why these horrors of the massacre remain virtually unknown to the people outside of Asia and did not penetrate the world in the same manner the Jewish Holocaust did. Unlike the Nanking massacre, the Holocaust had a lot of affect throughout the world. Yet decades later we are still learning about it.
The Japanese were fearless and willing to fight until every soldier was dead.... ... middle of paper ... ... One blessing of the event is the massive fires, which prevented epidemics by acting as a disinfectant (Wikipedia).
John Rabe displayed self-sacrifice and compassion by remaining in Nanking, China to protect the Chinese civilians who were brutally attacked by the Japanese soldiers. In 1937, the Japanese soldiers invaded the city of Nanking, resulting in thousands of people being massacred and raped. Despite the horrendous event that was taking place, John Rabe, a German citizen, chose to stay in Nanking to support the civilians when he could have easily returned back to Germany. Because the Japanese soldiers would violate the young chinese ladies, Rabe would threaten the soldiers with only a swastika band, while the Japanese had bayonets which could instantly end his life (Chang). Through this brave act, Rabe demonstrated how he deeply valued others’ survival
...the Chinese people wanted – though, this could have been to keep her own position. Even if that is the case, she could have done what they did not want and keep her position using more violence than she actually used.