Thousands Of Citizens Were Raped And Murdered: The Brutality Of The Nanking Tragedy, On History Today, December 13, 1937

Scattered bodies of victims (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - After controlling Shanghai, Japan was not satisfied. Dai Nippon's troops continued to expand to colonize China. Until you arrive in Nanking or Nanjing. During that period, thousands of people, both military and civilian, were killed, tortured, and raped. This event, known as the Nanking Tragedy, began on December 13, 1937, and lasted about six weeks.

Citing History, between 20.000 and 80.000 Chinese women were sexually assaulted by the Imperial Japanese Army. In a door-to-door manner, the Japanese soldiers dragged out women, even small children. They carried out this heinous act in groups. Then, having finished with the victims, the Japanese soldiers immediately killed the victims.

Old women over the age of 70 as well as little girls under the age of 8 were dragged away to be raped. More than 20.000 women (some estimate 80.000) were gang-raped by Japanese soldiers, then stabbed to death with bayonets or shot so that they would never be able to testify.

Pregnant women did not go unnoticed by the Japanese troops. In some cases, they were raped, then the stomach was split open and the fetus removed. Sometimes, after storming into a house and meeting the whole family, Japanese soldiers forced fathers to rape their daughters, sons to rape their mothers, and brothers to rape sisters. While other family members were told to watch.

“Never before have I heard or read of such brutality,” wrote a missionary in Nanking, James M. McCallum, in the diary quoted by All Interesting. “Rape! Rape! Rape! We estimate at least 1.000 cases at night and many during the day.”

Iwane Matsui on entering Nanking (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Meanwhile, across the city of Nanking, Japanese troops carried out massacres by firing their rifles at crowds of panicked civilians, killing them indiscriminately. Many Chinese soldiers were hunted down and killed, then buried en masse.

Japanese troops also killed the shop owner, looted the shop, and then set the building on fire after locking people of all ages inside. They enjoy the immense suffering that occurs when people desperately try to save themselves from the blaze by climbing on roofs of houses or jumping down onto the streets. At least a third of the buildings in Nanking were burned down.

Cited The History Place, this heartbreaking event occurred until early February 1938. Young or old, male or female, anyone could be shot by Japanese soldiers for any reason. Corpses could be seen everywhere throughout the city. The streets of Nanking were red with blood. Those who were not killed were taken to the outskirts of the city and forced to dig their own graves.

The One Who Responsible

All the rape, murder, and looting by the Japanese troops were ordered by Matsui Iwane, the general commander of the Japanese Army for the Chinese Front. In 1940, Japan made Nanking the capital of the Chinese puppet government led by Wang Ching-wei.

Shortly after the end of World War II, Matsui and Tani Hisao, a lieutenant general who participated in acts of murder and rape, were found guilty of war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. They were hanged in Sugamo Prison on December 23, 1948.

But in Japan, he was treated like a hero. He, along with 13 other defendants, received a place of honor at Yasukuni Shrine.

The rapes and massacres also occurred because the officers and soldiers were given the understanding that, upon capturing Nanking, they were free to loot and kill as they pleased. This policy was supported by the Japanese-appointed commander of the expeditionary force, Prince Yasuhito Asaka, who issued a written order to "kill all captives." Prince Asaka is acquitted of charges because he has impunity.

The Nanking incident has been a very sensitive subject between Japan and China to this day. This incident also made China-Japan relations so complicated. The massacre is widely remembered in China as a symbol of the nation's shared suffering. The anniversary of the rape and massacre in Nanking is an important pillar of China's national identity.

*Read other information about TODAY's HISTORY or read other interesting articles from Putri Ainur Islam.

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