The Rape of Nanking

The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II by Iris Chang, Basic Books, 1997. 

Killing Civilians

America killed many innocent civilians by nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. But the Japanese killed even more, in Nanking, in 1937. Estimates of the death toll from the Rape of Nanking range from 260 thousand to 350 thousand. 

War

Japan took control of Korea away from China in 1895 in the First Sino-Japanese War. The Japanese invaded Manchuria (northern China) in 1931. In 1937, Nanking was the capital of Nationalist China. At the time, China was in the middle of a civil war between the Kuomintang (Nationalists), lead by General Chiang Kai-shek, and the Communists, lead by Mao Zedong. Nanking fell December 13, 1937 to 50,000 Japanese soldiers.  

Murder

Japanese soldiers executed fifty-seven thousand soldiers and civilians near Mufu Mountain. Japanese soldiers buried many Chinese people alive, sometimes leaving their heads above ground so that they could be run over by tanks.. Some Chinese prisoners were buried to their waist, then German shepherds ripped them apart.. Japanese soldiers gouged out the eyes and hacked off the noses and ears of a hundred men before setting them aflame.. There were killing competitions, where the soldiers kept score with severed heads.

Rape

Somewhere between 20,000 - 80,000 Chinese women were raped by Japanese soldiers. Many of the women who became pregnant as a result of rape either killed the baby or themselves. The Japanese soldiers raped all ages, including old women and young girls. Prior to raping young girls, many Japanese men used knives to enlarge their vaginas. The soldiers sometimes played with fetuses they had ripped out of the wombs of pregnant women. Sometimes the Japanese soldiers forced fathers to rape their daughters and sons to rape their mothers. Many women residents of Nanking were forced to work as prostitutes in Japanese army brothels. 

Havens

Many women and children hid out in Ginling Women’s Arts and Science College and the University of Nanking Hospital, both inside the Nanking International Safety Zone. The zone was set up by the German official John Rabe to protect civilians. Wilhelmina (Minnie) Vautrin, dean of Ginging Women’s Arts and Science College, did much to protect her women. 

Biological Warfare Unit

In April 1939, on East Zhongsan Street in Nanking, the Japanese created biological warfare Unit Ei 1644,  to conduct medical experiments on Chinese prisoners, whom they called zaimoku (lumber). Japanese scientists experimented on their prisoners with acetone, arsenate, cyanide, and snake venoms. Afterwards, they put their dead bodies in the incinerator. 

Nanking War Crimes Trial

At the Nanking War Crimes Trial (August 1946 - February 1947), Lieutenants Noda Takeshi and Mukai Toshiaki were tried, convicted and executed for the killing contest, where they had each killed more than 150 people. Lieutenant General Tani Hisao of the Japanese Army was sentenced to death on March. 10, 1947 for violating Hague Convention, and was executed by firing squad on April 26, 1947.

Tokyo War Crimes Trial

The Tokyo War Crimes Trial was officially called the International Military Tribunal of the Far East (IMTFE). It started May 3, 1946 and lasted 2 1/2 years. After the war, the United States needed the Japanese as an ally to fight Communism, so the U.S. was soft on prosecuting Japanese war crimes. Prominent defendants: General Matsui Iwane, death by hanging at Sugamo Prison in December, 1948, Prince Yasuhiko Asaka, protected from punishment by virtue of being a member of the Japanese imperial family. The terms of surrender exonerated the Japanese imperial family. Perpetrators who died before they could be tried included Lieutenant General Kesago Nakajima, died of natural causes in October, 1945. Lieutenant General Heisuke Yanagawa, died of natural causes in January, 1945

Saburo Ienaga

Japanese historian Saburo Ienaga fought against his own government to bring the Rape of Nanking to the attention of the Japanese people, who were ignorant, due to the whitewashing of World War II history taught to Japanese school children.