![Global study-abroad news hero: a famous landmark of Global with national flag or map symbolism — The Nanjing Massacre[c] or the Rape of Nanjing (formerly romanized as Nanking[d]) was the mass rape and murder of Chinese civilians, noncomb](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcontent1.nexstudy.in%2Fnews-heroes%2F2026-07-23%2F9248983f72ed047ebdd3bf6c-c77cd5.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
The Nanjing Massacre[c] or the Rape of Nanjing (formerly romanized as Nanking[d]) was the mass rape and murder of Chinese civilians, noncombatants, and prisoners of war by the Imperial Japanese Army in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China. It took place immediately after the Battle of Nanjing and retreat of the National Revolutionary Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War.[7][8][9][10]
After the outbreak of the war in July 1937, the Japanese had pushed quickly through China after capturing Shanghai in November. As the Japanese marched on Nanjing, they committed violent atrocities in a terror campaign, including killing contests and massacres of entire villages.[11]
By early December, the Japanese Central China Area Army under the command of General Iwane Matsui reached the outskirts of the city. The Japanese had also planned to use mustard gas and incendiary bombs to annihilate the capital and its population should the fighting have grown too intense.[12]
Prince Yasuhiko Asaka was installed as temporary commander in the campaign, and he issued an order to "kill all captives" before the city's capture. Iwane and Asaka took no action to stop the massacre after it began.
The massacre began on December 13 after Japanese troops entered the city after days of intense fighting and continued to rampage through it unchecked. Japanese soldiers murdered civilians, including children, women, and the elderly. Japanese units also summarily executed thousands of captured Chinese soldiers in violation of the laws of war, as well as male civilians falsely accused of being soldiers. They raped women and girls, their ages ranging from infants to the elderly, and destroyed one third of the city with arson. Rape victims were often murdered afterward. In addition to civilians, Japanese units indiscriminately murdered tens of thousands of Chinese POWs and men who looked of military age.
Many scholars support the validity of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), which estimated that more than 200,000 people were killed,[4] while newer estimates adhere to a death toll between 100,000 and 200,000.[2] Other estimates of the death toll vary from a low of 40,000 (confined just to the city itself) to a high of over 340,000 (encompassing the entire Shanghai-Nanjing region), and estimates of rapes range from 4,000 to over 80,000 (with estimates around 20,000 being most common).[13] Other crimes included torture, looting, and arson. The massacre is
Sources:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanjing_Massacre
- Official site not on record
