Preparing for Japanese Invasion
During the early years of World War II—after Japan invaded Manchuria in northern China and following a bloody victory in Shanghai—the Japanese turned their attention towards the capital city of Nanjing.
Fearful of losing his military forces in battle, China’s leader Chiang Kai-Shek ordered the removal of nearly all official Chinese troops from the city, leaving it defended by untrained auxiliary troops.
Chiang also ordered the city held at any cost, and forbade the official evacuation of its citizens. Many ignored this order and fled, but the rest were left to the mercy of the approaching enemy.
Did you know?
Once one of China's most prosperous cities, Nanjing took decades to recover from the devastation it experienced in the Nanjing Massacre. Abandoned as the national capital in 1949, it grew into a modern industrial city during the communist period and today is home to many of China's largest state-owned firms.
A small group of Western businessmen and missionaries, the International Committee for the Nanjing Safety Zone, attempted to set up a neutral area of the city that would provide refuge for Nanjing’s civilians. The safety zone, opened in November 1937, was roughly the size of New York’s Central Park and consisted of more than a dozen small refugee camps.
On December 1, the Chinese government abandoned Nanjing, leaving the hopelessly outnumbered International Committee in charge. All remaining citizens were ordered into the safety zone for their protection.
Japanese Troops Invade Nanjing
On December 13, the first troops of Japan’s Central China Front Army, commanded by General Matsui Iwane, entered the city.
Even before their arrival, word had begun spreading of the numerous atrocities they had committed on their way through China, including killing contests, arson and pillaging. Chinese soldiers were hunted down and killed by the thousands, and left in mass graves.
Many of the Japanese troops—hungry, undisciplined and exhausted by weeks of marching and brutal fighting in the battle for Shanghai—were seeking revenge for the comrades lost in that earlier battle.
Entire Chinese families were massacred, and even the elderly and infants were targeted for execution, while tens of thousands of women and children were sexually assaulted. Human corpses littered the streets for months after the attack. Determined to destroy the city, the Japanese looted and burned at least one-third of Nanjing's buildings.
The Rape of Nanjing
According to numerous eyewitness reports and later analyses, during the Rape of Nanjing between 20,000 and 80,000 women were brutally raped and tortured, including young girls and elderly women. Many of them—including victims of gang rapes—were mutilated and killed after being assaulted.
Though the Japanese initially agreed to respect the Nanjing Safety Zone, ultimately even these refugees were not safe from vicious attacks and killings. In January 1938, the Japanese declared that order had been restored in the city, and dismantled the safety zone—but killings continued into February.
A Japanese puppet government was installed, which would rule Nanjing until the end of World War II.
