HISTORY 12MS LESLIE

Nanking(also Nanjing)

During the Sino-Japanese War that preceded WWII. Anywhere between 100,000 – 300,000 died. Nanjing was the capital of Nationalist China from 1928-1937. General Matsui ordered the destruction of the city. The army burned and looted 1/3 of all buildings.

Rape of Nanking

Often labeled the ‘Forgotten Holocaust’Dec 1937-Jan 193820,000 – 80,000 women were raped by the Japanese imperial army.Infants and the elderly were rapedsoldiers would search door-to-door for young girlsmany women taken captive and gang raped. The women were often killed immediately after the rape, often through explicit mutilation or by stabbing a bayonet, long stick of bamboo, or other objects into the vagina.

Raped and Murdered Children

Doctors would report up to 1,000 cases of rape a night. It was common for Japanese soldiers to enter an area of refugees and kill, maim and rape until satisfied. If men intervened they would be shot

Pregnant women would often be raped, bayoneted in the stomach and then shot

Murder

Japanese Soldiers looked for plain clothes Chinese Soldiers hiding in the civilian population

Decided all men from 18-45 were disguised soldiers

Mass executions‘ten-thousand corpse ditch’ – along the

Yangtze River. Around 12,000 bodies found

The Japanese officers turned the act of murder into sport. They would set out to kill a certain number of Chinese

before the other. Young men would also be used for bayonet training. Their

limbs would be restrained or they would be tied to a post while the Japanese soldiers took turns plunging their bayonets into the victims' bodies

Turning killing into sport

Bayonet Practice

In all around 57,000 Chinese soldiers killed1940, Nanking made the capital for the

Japanese puppet government of ChinaAfter WWII, Matsui was tried and found

guilty of war crimes – put to death

Japan still denies the extent of the raping and massacres

First formal apology from Japanese government for war crimes was in 1995. A general apology, doesn’t acknowledge anything specific

End