[1] Ikuhiko Hata considers the number of 300,000 to be a "symbolic figure" representative of China's wartime suffering and not a figure to be taken literally. At dusk, the soldiers divided POWs into four columns and opened fire. "[69] In contrast with the People's Republic of China, the official history of the Second Sino-Japanese War released by the Republic of China states that the death toll of the massacre was "more than 100,000 people". [112][170] The range of the death toll estimated by Japanese historians is from tens of thousands to 200,000. In 2005, John Rabe's former residence in Nanjing was renovated and now accommodates the ". Despite this, many Chinese people still have a strong sense of mistrust due to the memory of the atrocity and failure of reconciliation measures. The women and children are crying all nights. The death sentence imposed on Hirota, a six-to-five decision by the eleven judges, shocked the general public and prompted a petition on his behalf, which soon gathered over 300,000 signatures but did not succeed in commuting the Minister's sentence. Ono Kenji, "Massacre Near Mufushan," in The Nanking Atrocity, 193738: Complicating the Picture, ed. '"[55], For about three weeks since December 13, 1937,[1] the Imperial Japanese Army entered the Nanking Safety Zone to search for former Chinese soldiers hidden among refugees. It remains, however, the Japanese soldiers swarmed over the city in thousands and committed untold depredations and atrocities. Prosecution's Witnesses. In case of resistance or anything that seems like disapproval, there is a bayonet stab or a bullet. People are hysterical Women are being carried off every morning, afternoon and evening. Since the late-1960s when the first academic works on the Nanking Massacre were produced, estimating the approximate death toll of the massacre has been a major topic of scholarly debate. Dr. Robert O. Wilson, a surgeon and a member of the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone, took the witness stand first. Physical evidences are almost everywhere to the killing of men, women and children, of the breaking into and looting of property and of the burning and destruction of houses and buildings. Prosecution's Witnesses. Two Japanese soldiers have climbed over the garden wall and are about to break into our house. According to American historian Edward J. Drea: While the Germans, beginning in 1943, did engage in substantial efforts to obliterate evidence of such crimes as mass murder, and they destroyed a great deal of potentially incriminating records in 1945, a great deal survived, in part because not each one of the multiple copies had been burned. The slaughter of civilians is appalling. China on Monday marked the 84th anniversary of the Nanking Massacre, in which hundreds of thousands of civilians and disarmed soldiers were killed by Japanese troops in and around the former Chinese capital. Although the death toll exceeds the immediate number of deaths from the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (140,000 and 70,000 respectively, by the end of 1945) and even the total civilian . Wakabayashi, Bob Tadashi "The Nanking 100-Man Killing Contest Debate: War Guilt Amid Fabricated Illusions, 197175", Yang, Daqing. [67], Soon after the fall of the city, Japanese troops made a thorough search for Chinese soldiers and summarily arrested thousands of young Chinese men. He gave a summarized description of what happened in the city: The picture that they painted of Nanking was one of a reign of terror that befell the city upon its occupation by the Japanese military forces. [42] For instance, after routing the Chinese in Nanking, Japanese soldiers fired upon and killed a large number of Chinese soldiers who were attempting to escape the battlefield by swimming across the Yangtze River. Masahiro Yamamoto, Nanking: Anatomy of an Atrocity (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2000), 112. According to Xinhua News Agency, it is the most complete record to date. [107] Other sources, including Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanjing, also conclude that the death toll reached 300,000. Both officers supposedly surpassed their goal during the heat of battle, making it impossible to determine which officer had actually won the contest. [41], Since then Kasahara has proposed a definition between these two. It would be all right if we only raped them. The Battle of Nanking ended on December 13, when the divisions of the Japanese Army entered the walled city of Nanjing. Tang Junshan, survivor and witness to one of the Japanese army's systematic mass killings, testified:[64]. You hear nothing but rape. [61] The following day, on December 10, Rabe got his answer from the Generalissimo. In our South Hill House Japanese broke the panel of the storeroom and took out some old fruit juice and a few other things. In China today most estimates of the Nanking Massacre range from 200,000 to 400,000, with no notable historian going below 100,000. Hui volunteers and imams buried over a hundred of their dead following Muslim ritual. The Flowers of War by Geling Yan, translated by Nicky Harman. Prince Asaka, as part of the Imperial Family, was granted immunity and never tried. "[150][151], On February 24, 2012, Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara denied the Nanjing massacre. One thousand disarmed Chinese soldiers, whom the International Committee hoped to save, were taken from them and by this time are probably shot or bayoneted. . Their stories and those of the German residents tell of the city having fallen into the hands of the Japanese as captured prey, not merely taken in the course of organized warfare but seized by an invading army whose members seemed to have set upon the prize to commit unlimited depredations and violence. [153], On February 3, 2014, Naoki Hyakuta, a member of the board of governors of Japan's public broadcasting company, NHK, was quoted as saying the massacre never occurred. Following the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese Imperial Army marched from Shanghai to the Chinese capital city of Nanking, and though a large number of Chinese POWs and civilians were slaughtered by the Japanese following their entrance into Nanking on . Dublin Core. [66], The Hui people, a minority Chinese group, the majority of them Muslim, suffered as well during the massacre. After a while we would say something like, "It's my day to take a bath," and we took turns raping them. In a diary entry from Minnie Vautrin on December 15, 1937, she wrote about her experiences in the Safety Zone: The Japanese have looted widely yesterday and today, have destroyed schools, have killed citizens, and raped women. The victims were blown up with landmines, then doused with petrol and set on fire. ", Harold Timperley, a journalist in China during the Japanese invasion, reported that at least 300,000 Chinese civilians were killed in Nanjing and elsewhere, and tried to send a telegram but was censored by the Japanese military in Shanghai. Following the end of World War II, some circles of civil society in Japan reflected on the extent of the massacre and the participation of ordinary soldiers. When I think of the feelings and sentiments of many of my Chinese friends who have fled from Nanjing and of the future of the two countries, I cannot but feel depressed. [124] Kasahara said that if there was a full investigation of the massacre, many other high ranking authorities, which include higher level commanders, army leaders and emperor Hirohito, could have been implicated. Didi Tang, Beijing. Few numbers have caused such scholarly debate as the death toll estimates of the Nanking Massacre. Until 1982, mentioning of the massacre was suppressed in China because ideologically the communists would rather promote the "martyrs of class struggles" than wartime victims, especially when there were no communist heroes or any communists at all in Nanjing when the massacre happened. [34], With the relocation of the capital of China and the reports of Japanese brutality, most of the civilian population fled Nanjing out of fear. Again, one . Improved in 24 Hours. Nanjing Death Toll Graph. He further argued that he had directed his army division commanders to discipline their troops for criminal acts, and was not responsible for their failure to carry out his directives. [84], In late January 1938, the Japanese army forced all refugees in the Safety Zone to return home, immediately claiming to have "restored order". [47][48], The International Military Tribunal for the Far East stated that the massacre took place in the parts of Nanking captured on December 13, 1937, and after and lasted until early February 1938. [21][66] Within China scholars focus on defending the official figures and in the past the government has imposed censorship on historians who have suggested alternative numbers. The soldier thought he might as well rape her before killing her, so he pulled her out of the group to a spot about ten meters away. However, death toll estimates vary widely with some ranging as low as 40,000 . The younger girl was bayoneted also but was spared the horrible treatment that had been meted out to her sister and mother. The older girl was stabbed afterwards and a cane was rammed in her vagina. Each girl was raped six or seven times daily reported December 18th. Recent Historical Writings on the Rape of Nanjing", "Le massacre de Nankin et les mcanismes de sa ngation par la classe politique dirigeante", U.S. Archives Reveal War Massacre of 500,000 Chinese by Japanese Army, https://en.unesco.org/sites/default/files/china_nanjing_en.pdf, "Japanese statement protesting UNESCO registration of Nanjing Massacre docs backfires", Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II, "The Nanjing Massacre: Primary Source Records and Secondary InterpretationsA Textual Critique of Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi's Review", "Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan", "Biography of Lieutenant-General Moritake Tanabe - () - ( ) (1889 1949), Japan", "More names on Nanjing Massacre memorial wall", "Religious Assembly Held to Mourn Nanjing Massacre Victims", "China holds first Nanjing Massacre memorial day", "The Nanking Massacre: Fact Versus Fiction", "A (very) short history of Japan's war apologies", "Nagoya mayor won't budge on Nanjing remark", "Japan ruling MPs call Nanjing massacre fabrication", "Subcommittee on Nanjing Issues Press Conference (YouTube)", "Japanese Official Denies Nanjing Massacre", Nagoya mayor won't budge on Nanjing remark, "Tokyo governor backs Nanjing massacre denial", "The Nanking 100-man killing contest debate", "Governor of Japan broadcaster NHK denies Nanjing massacre", "The Nanking Massacre, Justice and Reconciliation: A Chinese Perspective", "In Japan, denial over Nanjing still holds sway after 70 years", "Book review. That same afternoon, two small Japanese Navy fleets arrived on both sides of the Yangtze River. Friday December 17 2021, 10.25am, The Times. A Japanese hotelier's denial of a 1937 massacre by Japanese troops in the Chinese city of Nanjing has prompted Chinese social media calls for a boycott of travel to Japan, threatening tourist . [9], On December 12, under heavy artillery fire and aerial bombardment, General Tang Sheng-chi ordered his men to retreat. [citation needed], This nationalist view does not, however, represent a widely shared understanding of what happened at Nanjing, as illustrated by Japanese textbooks' rather different treatment of the atrocity. The Rape of Nanjing, or the Nanjing Massacre, was the 1937 sacking of Nanjing by invading Japanese forces during the Second Sino-Japanese War. There was also virtually no public commemoration until after 1982. Prince Yasuhiko Asaka told a war correspondent later that he was in a very perilous position when his headquarters was ambushed by Chinese forces that were in the midst of fleeing from Nanjing east of the city. However, they feared that speaking out openly "would be detrimental to their careers. People from mainland China saw themselves as the victims. 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. John Rabe boarded the U.S. gunboat Panay on December 9 and sent two telegrams, one to Chiang Kai-shek by way of the American ambassador in Hankow, and one to the Japanese military authority in Shanghai. The war, still undeclared, had no clear-cut goal or purpose. [33][note 3]. [34], In reference to the greatly divergent ways in which various scholars have delineated the massacre, Askew has affirmed that the debate on the death toll "is meaningless if two completely different definitions are being used". To the invading army, the Rape of Nanking was sometimes even a game. Asaka denied the existence of any massacre and claimed never to have received complaints about the conduct of his troops.[119]. At first we used some kinky words like Pikankan. [29][31], The third type of source is Japanese military records, which recorded the number of POWs the Japanese Army executed. On December 5, Prince Yasuhiko Asaka was installed as Japanese commander in the campaign. He and his staff realized that they could not risk the annihilation of their elite troops in a symbolic but hopeless defense of the capital. Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi (New York: Berghahn Books, 2008), 382384. The speed of the army's advance was likely due to commanders allowing looting and rape along the way. [12][63][64] Bob Wakabayashi concludes from this that estimates over 200,000 are not credible. The second telegram was sent through Shanghai to Japanese military leaders, advocating for a three-day ceasefire so that the Chinese could withdraw from the city. A lesser debate rests on who among the dead to be included as "massacre victims". [147], On June 19, 2007, a group of around 100 Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmakers again denounced the Nanjing Massacre as a fabrication, arguing that there was no evidence to prove the allegations of mass killings by Japanese soldiers. The Japanese army leadership assigned sections of the safety zone to some units to separate alleged plain-clothed soldiers from the civilians. [56], In the early 1970s, Japanese historian Hora's estimate of 200,000 massacre victims was challenged for the first time by the journalist Akira Suzuki, who suggested that "several tens of thousands" had been killed. In regard to the number of victims of this Nanjing Massacre the Tokyo (War Crime) Trials later found it in excess of 200,000, and prosecuted Japan's responsibility severely", reads one Japanese textbook. Two days later, in his report to The New York Times, Durdin stated that the alleys and streets were filled with the dead, amongst them women and children. In 1995, Daniel Kwan held a photo exhibit in Los Angeles titled, "The Forgotten Holocaust". [21], Then in 1997 Kasahara formulated a definition between the two. Fifteen of the remaining 22 foreigners formed a committee, called the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone in the western quarter of the city. Into four columns and opened fire battle, making it impossible to which... 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