The Nanking Massacre

The Nanking Massacre The Rape of Nanking was a tragic time in Chinese history. This event will never be forgotten by the people in the once capital of China. An estimated 300,000 innocent people were killed in a matter of months. The Japanese have never apologized for the disturbing event and to this day the Japanese deny that the massacre ever took place. The Rape of Nanking will never be forgotten for this city has been scared with tragedy since this gruesome massacre. Is this Massacre actually Genocide, or is this just a result of poor command over Japanese soldiers?

I believe that this event is in fact genocide, and it was a terrible event in time. It was a tragic December day in the beautiful city of Nanking. Japanese soldiers were making their way into the unprepared city. All the residents fled to the safety, a small area where tourists and German soldiers could not be harmed by the Japanese (Genocide in China. ) Only a few citizens were able to flee to the safety zone, for there was only enough room for a few hundred people. The roads were empted, and everyone locked the selves in their homes.

The Japanese soldiers had surrounded the city, there was no way the refugees could escape the now taken city. Once the Japanese had surrounded the city, they began their violent rampage. The soldiers began to raid the banks, government offices, and the warehouses. Once all important buildings were taken, the soldiers started killing civilians. (Genocide in China. ) Once the citizens heard the gun fire, most ran out of their homes in an attempt to leave the city. There were two main roads which lead out of the city; the Japanese had set up areas throughout the streets to shoot the fleeing citizens. 0,000 people were killed the first day the Japanese intruded this capital city. Numerous war crimes were committed during the massacre. Some of the worst war crimes in history were committed during the raid on Nanking. A few days after the Japanese invaded Nanking they began to run amuck. The soldiers were out of line, and weren’t following the rules of battle. Japanese soldiers captured the surviving Nanking soldiers, and sent them to a large camp outside of the city limits. Case Study: The Nanjing Massacre) The Japanese soldiers soon were running out of food for the soldiers, so the thought there only option was to kill off the remaining Nanking soldiers. The Japanese soldiers would starve the war prisoners and when the Chinese were near death they would march them into fields. (Case Study: The Nanjing Massacre) On the way toward the fields the Japanese soldiers told the captives they would receive food and work. The Japanese lied to the soldiers, for when they reached the fields, the prisoners were killed in a line of machine gun fire.

Group by group the captives were lined up and shoot down into massive graves. If the enemy soldiers ran out of ammunition, they would burn the prisoners of war alive. So many practices of execution were performed it is hard to keep track of here are some less used forms of executing the prisoners. Chinese soldiers were used for bayonet practices, shooting practice, and were beheaded in the streets. Japanese soldiers would often have contests to see who could kill the most people. There are accounts of Japanese men killing as many as 150 men, women and children on their own.

The women citizens had it far worse than the men did. (Genocide) Women were often raped and killed. If a woman was to survive, she would often be made a sex slave for the Japanese soldiers. Females from the age of 9 to 80 were raped and killed. (Case Study: The Nanjing Massacre) The dead bodies of the women were thrown into the street, and were left there for days. Some many atrocities took place throughout the Nanking Massacre that’s it is hard to mention all of them. A total of 300,000 Chinese soldiers, and civilians were killed in the Nanking Massacre.

This might seem like a small number compared to other massacres, but when you look closer at it, it becomes even more tragic. The city of Nanking wasn’t even captured for a year. The survivors tell such terrible stories, of the horror that was swept across the thriving town of Nanking, China. For the remaining survivors this event will never leave their memory. This brings up the question, why did the Japanese do this? This terrible massacre is one that was not as widely broadcasted. This is due to the fact that the Japanese Government had denied this event ever took place.

The Japanese people believe that the Chinese people are unclean. The Japanese think this because they think the Chinese people don’t keep themselves clean. The Japanese felt that the Chinese are dirty people who pollute the environment and destroy the fertile land. The Japanese also believed that it was their destiny to obtain the land of China. So why is this massacre considered Genocide? This massacre is considered genocide for many reasons. Japanese people had killing contests, in order to kill as many Chinese civilians as possible. Two Roads of Blood) In order to kill more Chinese civilians, the Japanese soldiers would have competitions to see who could kill the most civilians. They had no respect for any of the Chinese people, as if they treated the Chinese as pests they needed to kill. This method wasn’t working for the extermination, so the Japanese soldiers began sending men to work camps, where they would work the men almost to death, then march them to killing fields. This is a clear example of genocide. The final example of genocide is the fact that they took no prisoners. Genocide) If a Chinese soldier decided to surrender the Japanese soldier would kill the man on the spot. Through all this gruesome events, this massacre is considered to be genocide by people around the world. The Nanking massacre was a terrible event in history. Through years of hatred toward China the Japanese committed this terrible genocide. Through killing contests’, killing fields, and not giving prisoners this event is technically considered genocide. The Japanese wanted to exterminate the Chinese people in order to take land, which the Japanese thought was rightfully theirs. This event will never be forgotten.