Throughout history, there have been many war crimes committed throughout various different
conflicts. The Second World War saw scores of massacre, execution and killing of innocent
people and many historian’s debate when the conflict actually began. Some consider
it to have started earlier than the Nazi invasion of Poland, as the Japanese Army were seeking
to conquer large amounts of territory in Asia and in particular in China. The Japanese became
infamous for their war crimes and horrific killing and treatment of people throughout
the Second World War, and two men even held a contest as to see who the first to kill
100 people with a sword was. But in one Chinese city, the Japanese committed horrendous war
crimes as they took the city, and the massacre of Nanking was one of the worst war crimes
of the Second World War. Join us today as we look at this, remember to support our channel
please make sure to subscribe.
In August 1937, the Japanese Army invaded and tried to take Shanghai, but during the
battle they faced heavy urban hand to hand fighting, and also suffered heavy losses and
casualties. Initially the decision was taken not to expand the war because of the casualty
rate in the Japanese Army, then the order was given to capture Nanking, the then capital
of the Republic of China. After the Chinese lost Shanghai, it was likely that Nanking
would fall, and to preserve the Chinese army most of it was withdrawn. It was planned for
the Chinese to fight a war of attrition, and it was announced that the city would fight
to the death and never surrender. The Chinese government left for relocation as did the
president, and Nanking was left in the hands of an International Committee led by a German
John Rabe. He asked the Japanese military leaders for a ceasefire so that the Chinese
could leave the city. The ceasefire was rejected, and this left the city to fall to the Japanese.
Some Chinese soldiers were still hiding inside of a Safety Zone and this became a target
for the Japanese.
The massacres and war crimes associated with the city of Nanking are believed to have happened
over 6 weeks in December 1937, but they occurred after and before this too. As the Japanese
army advanced towards the city, they conducted horrific crimes. On the march to the city,
they beheaded, executed, assaulted and stole from many settlements and people. One of the
most horrific stories to emerge on the march towards the city was the story of two Japanese
officers who had a race as to see who could kill 100 people using a sword the first. The
Japanese media reported on this contest as if it was a sporting event like a football
match, with the score reported over a number of days, but the two men involved were going
through settlements executing civilians in barbaric ways.
They were not facing the enemies in hand to hand combat, but massacring defenceless people.
Around the city, many buildings and houses were set on fire, and military barracks, homes
which cost the city in today’s money around 100 million dollars. The westerner’s living
in the city fled, and only 27 foreigners remained, five were journalists who remained. Prince
Asaka, the Uncle of Emperor Hirohito was assigned to Nanking, and it’s alleged that he issued
an order to kill all captives, and with this sanctioned the massacre of the people in the
city. During the Battle of Nanking, the Japanese forces arrived at the gates on the 9th December,
and two days later dropped leaflets in the city urging the city to surrender in 24 hours
and if not there would be no mercy.
The Japanese waited for an answer for the surrender and nothing was received, and with
this General Iwane Matsui issued the army to take Nanking by force. The Japanese assaulted
the walls of the city from different directions, and the city was battered by heavy artillery
fire and attacks from the air. Some Chinese soldiers tried to blend in with the enemy,
but some were shot by the Chinese as they tried to flee. The 6th and the 116th Divisions
of the Japanese Army entered the city first on the 13th December, and they then went after
the retreating Chinese army units. The final phase of the battle was the slaughter of Chinese
soldiers by the Japanese. They executed around 4000 Chinese soldiers disguised in plain clothes
as civilians during this time. But from the moments that they entered the city, the assault
on Nanking turned violent and quickly into a horrific scene of war crimes.
Assaults of women, murder, arson, looting and other atrocities were committed. Around
20,000 women were assaulted during the occupation, and the Japanese soldiers went door to door
looking for girls, and many were killed immediately after their horrific ordeal. A Reverend later
wrote, ‘I know not where to end. Never I have heard or read such brutality. We estimate
at least 1,000 cases a night and many by day. 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. The whole Japanese army seems
to be free to go and come as it pleases, and to do whatever it pleases.’
Some conservative estimates place the number of people slaughtered by the Japanese army
around 100,000, but the general consensus is that 200,000 people were killed in the
massacre. A surgeon, Robert O Wilson wrote to his family documenting the atrocities saying,
‘The slaughter of civilians is appalling. I could go on for pages telling of cases of
rape and brutality almost beyond belief. Two bayoneted corpses are the only survivors of
seven street cleaners who were sitting in their headquarters when Japanese soldiers
came in without warning or reason and killed five of their number and wounded the two that
found their way to the hospital. Let me recount some instances occurring in the last two days.
Last night the house of one of the Chinese staff members of the university was broken
into and two of the women, his relatives, were raped. In the University Middle School
where there are 8,000 people the Japaneses came in ten times last night, over the wall,
stole food, clothing, and raped until they were satisfied.
They bayoneted one little boy of eight who had five bayonet wounds including one that
penetrated his stomach. The killing continued, and thousands of innocent people were killed.
The death toll on civilians is difficult to work out, as many bodies were burned and buried
in mass graves and dumped in the Yangtze River. Hospitals became overflowing with patients
and could not keep up. It was said, ‘We come across corpses every 100 to 200 yards.
The bodies of civilians that I examined had bullet holes in their backs. These people
had presumably been fleeing and were shot from behind. The Japanese march through the
city in groups of ten to twenty soldiers and loot the shops.... I watched with my own eyes
as they looted the café of our German baker Herr Kiessling. Hempel's hotel was broken
into as well, as [was] almost every shop on Chung Shang and Taiping Road.’
It was said also with regards to looting that, ‘In the first days of the occupation the
soldiers [...] took a great deal of bedding, cooking utensils and food from the refugees.
Practically every building in the city was entered many, many times by these roving gangs
of soldiers throughout the first six or seven weeks of the occupation". "There was no burning
until the Japanese troops had been in the city five or six days. Beginning, I believe,
on the 19th or 20th of December, burning was carried on regularly for six weeks.’ One
third of the city was destroyed by arson, and newly built government buildings were
destroyed also. Soldier’s stole from the rich and the poor. The Japanese also soon
after the city fell went after the Chinese looking for more soldiers, and also executed
thousands of young Chinese men.
Lots were taken to the banks of the Yangtze River, forced to walk in and then were machine
gunned to death. The Straw String Gorge Massacre occurred on the banks of the river on the
18th December. Japanese soldiers had tied the hands of POWS, and then divided them into
four columns and then opened fire on them. The majority of the bodies were thrown in
the river. The also massacred 1300 Chinese soldiers and civilians at Taiping Gate, and
many were blown up with landmines, and then set on fire with petrol before being finished
off with bayonets. The corpses around the city regularly were filed 6 feet high, and
the sound of machine gun fire was heard all over. The streets and the alleys were filled
with the dead, and there were also accounts of cannibalism.
The Japanese did not also respect the safety zone set up, and there were a number of cases
of Japanese soldiers committing further atrocities in that area. The cause of the Nanking massacre
was not clear, and it was said, ‘There is no obvious explanation for this grim event.
The Japanese soldiers who had expected was victory, instead had been fighting hard for
months, and had taken higher casualties than anticipated. They were bored, angry, frustrated
and tired. The Chinese women were undefended, their menfolk powerless or absent. Perhaps
all Chinese seemed marked out as victims.’ When General Matsui later heard of the atrocities
inside of the city, it’s said he was shocked by this. He allegedly told one of his assistants,
‘ now realize that we have unknowingly wrought a most grievous effect on this city.
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. I
am very lonely and can never get in a mood to rejoice about this victory.... I personally
feel sorry for the tragedies to the people, but the Army must continue unless China repents.
Now, in the winter, the season gives time to reflect. I offer my sympathy, with deep
emotion, to a million innocent people.’
As mentioned, it’s believed that the Nanking Massacre and the atrocities committed caused
the deaths of 200,000. After the surrender of Japan, the military officers in charge
oil the soldiers at Nanking were placed on trial. Prince Asaka was granted immunity as
a member of the imperial royal family, and a huge amount of evidence was heard regarding
the crimes of the city. General Matsui was convicted of his war crimes, as it was said
he did nothing to stop the horrors and that, ‘Organized and wholesale murder of male
civilians was conducted with the apparent sanction of the commanders on the pretext
that Chinese soldiers had removed their uniforms and were mingling with the population. Groups
of Chinese civilians were formed, bound with their hands behind their backs, and marched
outside the walls of the city where they were killed in groups by machine gun fire and with
bayonets.’
Along with 6 other Class A-War criminals, Matsui was sentenced to death and 18 others
were given prison sentences. Matsui was executed by hanging in Sugamo Prison at the age of
70. Hisano Tani was taken to the South Gate of Nanking, and then executed by a firing
squad. But these reprisals did little for the people who witnessed or suffered because
of the horror of Nanking. Today its considered one of the most evil and worst war crimes
of the Second World War, and of history.
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