WebThe death toll is estimated to be 40,000 to 300,000; the mass graves and the destruction of the city have made a precise count "impossible," according to the University of Southern A former editor of FPs Shadow Government page, Kahl will join editor in chief Ravi Agrawal for an in-depth conversation about the countrys defense and foreign-policy priorities. In an East Asia increasingly interconnected by economics, politics, and culture, Japans subtle shift may well ease tensions enough that, in the end, the numbers will become a matter of scholarly discussion rather than the political and cultural flashpoint they have been for decades. the White House prioritize managing various risks? At the other end, it has been treated as a predictably bloody wartime effort to assert control over a captured city. The document bore the personal stamps of leaders from the Japanese high command and contained orders for the immediate construction of ""facilities of sexual comfort'' to stop troops from raping women in regions they controlled in China. [42] He argued that Chinese soldiers who had thrown away their uniforms were legally executed because the laws of war at the time did not apply to them, though this line of reasoning is hotly disputed by other historians. WebA true-story account of a German businessman who saved more than 200,000 Chinese during the Nanjing massacre in 1937-38. Explore the benefits included in your subscription. [40], By contrast, Ikuhiko Hata also examined the Japanese Army's documents and tallied up a total of 30,000 Chinese POWs massacred out of a total Chinese force of 100,000. WebAftermath of the Massacre There are no official numbers for the death toll in the Nanking Massacre, though estimates range from 200,000 to 300,000 people. Over the years, Others were simply left to rot in the sun. Japanese soldiers escort a captured Chinese fighter during the fall of Nanking. The Japanese Army was moving through China at the outset of their invasion, massacring and looting with strict orders to "kill all captives." [43], By contrast Yoshiaki Itakura adopted an even stricter standard than Hata, advocating that only Chinese soldiers captured in uniform and then killed be included as massacre victims. In July 1937 war broke out in northern China between China and Japan, and by August the fighting had spread to the city of Shanghai. Method of execution: divide the prisoners into groups of a dozen. And if you liked this post, be sure to check out these popular posts: Many Westerners know full well about the horrors that have happened on their side of the world throughout history. WebTo this day, the Nanjing Massacre is a source of anger between the Chinese and Japanese people. Thousands of Chinese soldiers and civilians mark the 70th anniversary of the Nanking Massacre at the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders in Nanjing in 2007. Chinese prisoners being used as live target practice for Japanese soldiers trying out their bayonets. Our intentions are absolutely not to be detected by the prisoners.''. And few acts of barbarity committed in Asia during the war were as terrible as the Nanking Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanking. WebJapanese troops enter Nanking on July 4, 1937. [59] Initially, this figure was generally accepted as including both massacre victims and Chinese soldiers killed in combat, though during the 1980s it came to be interpreted as including only massacre victims.
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Alongside all of the catastrophes that plagued Europe during World War II, the atrocities committed in Asia were every bit as disturbing even if many people in the West hardly ever learn about them in school. One of the oldest cities of China, it was prized for its delicate silk embroidery, palaces, and temples. [26][36] For instance, Tokushi Kasahara claims that Nanjing's population in 1937 included 400,000 to 500,000 civilians and 150,000 soldiers,[37] whereas David Askew believes it was 200,000 to 250,000 civilians and 73,790 to 81,500 soldiers. [4] Although the Japanese succeeded in surrounding Nanking and defeating the Chinese garrison stationed there by December 13, few of the Chinese soldiers within the city formally surrendered. Just seconds before, Noda had scoffed at his victims for letting him kill them, saying, "The Chinese soldiers were so stupid." Kasahara generally concludes that the death toll must have been well over 100,000, and possibly around 200,000. As those who are related to the prewar military, we simply apologize deeply to the people of China. Chinese victims being buried alive during the Rape of Nanking. Stay updated on the topics you care about with email alerts. I was truly a devil.''. Soon after the end of the war, Matsui and his ne to Beijing on climate-related issues? He also added, "Afterward, I was often asked whether it was a big deal, and I said it was no big deal.". Then, read about other appalling Japanese war crimes that were committed during that period. Instead, they often made these women and children suffer in the worst ways possible. Some victims of the Nanking Massacre were thrown into mass, unmarked graves. editor of the Journal of Asian Studies; WebFocusing on weighing up arguments denying Nanjing Massacre, this book considers the Japanese Illusion school of thought which contests the truth of the Nanjing Massacre claims, including the death toll and the scale of the violence. "[53], Apart from geographical scope, some historians including Kasahara deny that the massacre ended in early February and instead put the end date at March 28, though such a long time range is disputed by other historians. [9], The Nanjing Massacre was reported internationally within a week of occurring[10] and the first estimate of the full death toll was published on January 24, 1938, in the New China Daily.
In the six weeks during which the Japanese perpetrated the Nanking Massacre starting on December 13, 1937, an estimated 20,000 to 80,000 Chinese women were brutally raped and sexually assaulted by the invading soldiers, according to the book The Rape Of Nanking. Many historians including Kasahara view incidents like these where the Japanese fired upon retreating troops to be atrocities, whereas Hata sees them as extensions of combat and not massacres. WebThe massacre occurred over a six-week period starting on December 13, 1937, the day the Japanese captured Nanking. [21][31][34] According to Smythe's survey, as many as 12,000 civilians were killed within the city of Nanjing plus another 26,870 in the rural counties outside Nanjing. Consider the example of Suchow, a city on the east bank of the Tai Hu Lake. This district encompassed not only the city of Nanjing proper, occupied by the Japanese from December 13, but also the six rural counties surrounding it, namely Jiangning, Lishui, Jurong, Jiangpu, Luhe, and Gaochun. Japanese veterans remember raiding tiny farm communities, where they clubbed or bayoneted everyone in sight. [71] In The Cambridge History of China, historian Lloyd Eastman asserted that the death toll was "at least 42,000",[72] whereas military officer Frank Dorn wrote in his book The Sino-Japanese War, 1937-41 that the death toll was "over 200,000 civilians". WebThe total death toll of the Nanjing Massacre is a highly contentious subject in Chinese and Japanese historiography. After this look at the Rape of Nanking, learn about the horrors of Japan's Unit 731, which conducted disturbing experiments on live Chinese subjects during the Second Sino-Japanese War. WebNanjing by the Numbers A new report on the 1937-1938 massacre doesn't settle the contested issue of how many people died -- but it points to a much more significant new
[21][66] Within China scholars focus on defending the official figures and in the past the government has imposed censorship on historians who have suggested alternative numbers. The Japanese high command made plans to create a giant underground system of military prostitution--one that would draw into its web hundreds of thousands of women across Asia. This photo was captured just as a Japanese soldier's sword sliced through the neck of a Chinese prisoner. But while most newspaper accounts have focused on the remaining points of disagreement including the still-disputed death toll theyve tended to miss the larger significance of the report: that historians appointed by both countries did, for the first time, agree that the Japanese army committed atrocities during the war and that Japans illegal acts of aggression were the main cause of hostilities. The custodian of the curtain of silence was politics. The broad details of the rape are, except among the Japanese, not in dispute. And as many as 17 million Chinese casualties weren't soldiers. So, all in all, the report has much to recommend it. Meanwhile, Kyiv has received a major infusion of military aid from the West in the last three months. WebNakamura Akira shi no Nanking Jiken Ichiman Nin Gyakusatsu Setsu wo Hihan Suru [Critique of The Death Toll of Ten Thousand in the Nanjing Incident by Mr. Akira The strategy for mass butchery involved several steps: promising the Chinese fair treatment in return for an end to resistance, coaxing them into surrendering themselves to their Japanese conquerors, dividing them into groups of one to two hundred men, and then luring them to different areas near Nanking to be killed. The officer suggested I take the head home as a souvenir. WebThe Historiography of the Nanjing Massacre is the representation of the events of the Nanjing Massacre as history, in various languages and cultural contexts, in the years since these events took place.This historiography is disparate and sometimes contested, owing to conflicting currents of Chinese and Japanese nationalist sentiment and national interest, In one estimate the Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal put the death toll at more than 300,000, though the Tribunal also recorded other estimates including one of 430,000. Because of their limited manpower, the Japanese relied heavily on deception. Hata takes Smythe's figure of 12,000 civilians killed, but notes that perhaps only 8,000 were confirmed massacre victims. [12][23][24], The first historian to make an academic estimate of the death toll of the Nanjing Massacre was Tomio Hora in his 1967 book Kindai Senshi no Nazo ("Riddles of Modern War History"), who argued in favor of 200,000. The gentle and hospitable demeanor of the doctor belies the horror of his past, making it almost impossible for one to imagine that he had once been a ruthless murderer. [42] For instance, after routing the Chinese in Nanjing, Japanese soldiers fired upon and killed a large number of Chinese soldiers who were attempting to escape the battlefield by swimming across the Yangtze River. [21], Then in 1997 Kasahara formulated a definition between the two. John Kerry is U.S. President Joe Bidens special envoy for climate. [18][33] Though Ikuhiko Hata has also used Japanese military records to calculate the death toll of the massacre, he does not account for exaggeration as Itakura did. They looted nearly every building that they could find, stealing from the poor and the rich alike. "She said she was too old. Two of them raked a cross-fire at the lined-up prisoners. The interview serves as a preview to FPs 2023 Climate Summit on April 26.. Kozo Takokoro was blunt about this. Then, when Japanese soldiers and officials were tried and executed for war crimes just after World War II, a court found that at least 200,000 had perished during the Nanking Massacre.
LIU JIN/AFP via Getty ImagesThousands of Chinese soldiers and civilians mark the 70th anniversary of the Nanking Massacre at the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders in Nanjing in 2007. ""Those women would start to flee once we let them go. "Never I have heard or read such brutality," one American missionary in Nanking, James M. McCallum, wrote in his diary. [56], In the early 1970s, Japanese historian Hora's estimate of 200,000 massacre victims was challenged for the first time by the journalist Akira Suzuki, who suggested that "several tens of thousands" had been killed. It is terrible that I could turn into an animal and do these things. Soldiers were even known to wear amulets made from the pubic hair of such victims, believing that they possessed magical powers against injury. [2] In reviewing this survey, Askew concluded that all of its "centrists" were effectively deniers of the atrocity except for Hara. "[69] In contrast with the People's Republic of China, the official history of the Second Sino-Japanese War released by the Republic of China states that the death toll of the massacre was "more than 100,000 people". Its canals and ancient bridges had earned the city its Western nickname as ""the Venice of China.''
The invasion, according to the China Weekly Review, caused the population of the city to drop from 350,000 to less than 500. Jeffrey Such killing wasn't just an act of senseless barbarity, either these men were following orders. Tune in for a wide-ranging discussion on Russia and Ukraines military options; the respective roles of Europe, the United States, and China; and more. A 16-year-old girl who had been gang-raped and infected with a venereal disease by Japanese soldiers during the Nanking Massacre. On December 13, 1937, the Japanese 66th Battalion received the following command: ""All prisoners of war are to be executed.
[34], In reference to the greatly divergent ways in which various scholars have delineated the massacre, Askew has affirmed that the debate on the death toll "is meaningless if two completely different definitions are being used". Join in-depth conversations and interact with foreign-policy experts with. We sent out coal trucks from Hsiakwan to the city streets and villages to seize a lot of women. To this day, denials of the atrocities persist despite countless firsthand witnesses from France, the United States, Germany, and Japan. WebIn China the figure of 300,000, the death toll reckoned at the Nanking War Crimes Tribunal, is the official estimate engraved on the stone wall at the entrance of the Qin-Hua Rijun The Japanese Empire sought to conquer much of East Asia and the Pacific and fought with almost unimaginable brutality to make that happen. ""They gang-raped women from the ages of twelve to eighty and then killed them when they could no longer satisfy sexual requirements. They sometimes went door-to-door, dragging out women and children and gang-raping them. [12] Consequently, Askew estimates that the true number of corpses buried in and around Nanjing was 17,500,[21] whereas military historian Masahiro Yamamoto puts the number at 43,000. In 1984, for instance, the Japanese Army Veterans Association conducted interviews with Japanese veterans present during the Nanking Massacre in an effort to refute reports of Japanese atrocities. Explore the benefits of your FP subscription. However, death toll estimates vary widely, with some as low as 40,000. N. Wasserstrom is a professor of history at the University of California, Irvine; [38][39], In his final analysis, Tokushi Kasahara looks at documents and diaries recorded by soldiers of the Japanese Army and concludes that at least 80,000 Chinese soldiers and POWs, or possibly over 100,000, were massacred by the Japanese, which was most of the estimated total force of 150,000 soldiers. A seemingly endless field of dead bodies, lying on the ground after the Rape of Nanking.
For example, Edgar Snow stated in his 1941 book, The Battle for Asia, that 42,000 were massacred in Nanjing and 300,000 in total between Nanjing and Shanghai, figures which were apparently based on these estimates. One night in July several shots were fired at members of a Japanese regiment, garrisoned by treaty in the Chinese city of Tientsin, and a Japanese soldier failed to appear during roll call after the maneuvers. But in 1991 Yoshiaki Yoshimi unearthed from the Japanese Defense Agency's archives a document entitled ""Regarding the Recruitment of Women for Military Brothels.'' To use the word comfort in regard to either the women or the ""houses'' in which they lived is ludicrous, for it conjures up spa images of beautiful geisha girls strumming lutes, washing men, and giving them shiatsu massages. The car just had to drive over these dead bodies." Japanese leaders General Iwane Matsui (foreground) and Prince Asaka ride into Nanking shortly after its capture. [19] The same month a representative of the Nationalist Government of China claimed that the Japanese had killed 20,000 civilians during the Nanjing Massacre. Then, once they'd finished with their victims, they often murdered them. But Europe is winning the bet.
Nanjing Massacre - 1937 The total death toll of the Nanjing Massacre is a highly contentious subject in
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U.S. President Joe Bidens special envoy for climate but notes that perhaps only 8,000 were confirmed Massacre victims with combat... Japanese captured Nanking little guilt about this possessed magical powers against injury to eighty and then killed them they... To surviving veterans, many of the atrocities persist despite countless firsthand witnesses from France, victims... Within just the last three months then killed them when they could longer! Sliced through the neck of a German businessman who saved more than 300,000. who the! Had officially outlawed the Rape of Nanking its capture officer proposed a definition the. Casualties were n't soldiers them raked a cross-fire at the other hand, they set up guns. Japanese conquest of Nanking from this that nanking massacre death toll over 200,000 are not credible the breakdown in exchanges... Treated as a predictably bloody wartime effort to assert control over a captured.. 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[ 63 ] [ 64 ] Bob Wakabayashi concludes from this that estimates over 200,000 are credible! Hsiakwan to the city streets and villages to seize a lot of women `` `` those would! China. '', unmarked graves webduring the Nanjing Massacre, the United States, Germany and! Our intentions are absolutely not to be bound, the victims were unarmed, people...Patients can watch videotapes of his trial in Nanking and a full confession of his crimes. How is it strengthening U.S. deterrence capabilities in traditional military areas while also racing to develop capacity in emerging technologies such as cyber and artificial intelligence?
In 1986 Ikuhiko Hata became the first historian to call this definition into question. Japanese schoolgirls, in front of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, Japan, wave their flags to celebrate the Japanese conquest of Nanking. In the end, China lost as many as 20 million lives (the second most of any country involved in the war), according to the National World War II Museum. Some news stories note that there was also a split, for example, on whether the Marco Polo Bridge incident of 1937, a famous battle between Chinas National Revolutionary Army and the Imperial Japanese Army, was triggered by an "accident"; the Japanese version insisted this had been the case, while the Chinese one left open the possibility that Japan had conspired to bring that conflict about, as China has long claimed. Want to read more on this topic or region? Meanwhile, Kyiv has received a major infusion of military aid from the West in the last three months. It would be too much to hope that any joint report over the causes and events of the Pacific War would reach accord on every issue. Currently, the most reliable and widely agreed upon figures place the massacre victims within Nanjing City Walls to be around 40,000, mostly massacred in the first five days from December 13, 1937; while the total victims massacred as of the end of March 1938 in both Nanjing and its surrounding six rural counties far exceed 100,000 but fall short of 200,000. When the Japanese troops smashed through Nanking's walls in the early predawn hours of December 13, they entered a city in which they were vastly outnumbered. By the time Japanese troops entered Nanking, an order to eliminate all Chinese captives had been not only committed to paper but distributed to lower-echelon officers. Ultimately, he was convicted and executed for his part in the massacre after the war ended.
And based on a clear definition of the responsibility there can be an answer to the 'moral' question."[91]. Rape! ", What's more, this admission wasn't an apology. Surviving Japanese veterans claim that the army had officially outlawed the rape of enemy women. ""After raping, we would also kill them,'' he recalled. Hakudo Nagatomi spoke candidly about his emotions in the fallen capital: ""I remember being driven in a truck along a path that had been cleared through piles of thousands and thousands of slaughtered bodies.
Teachers also instilled in boys hatred and contempt for the Chinese people, preparing them psychologically for a future invasion of the Chinese mainland. "The notion that you can't find fair jurors in Manhattan is ludicrous," said former U.S. attorney Chuck Rosenberg in response to fears Trump may face a biased jury. [1], Japanese military records are a valuable source for estimating the number of Chinese POWs massacred by Japanese soldiers, but the number of civilians massacred is more difficult to determine. By luring, purchasing, or kidnapping between eighty thousand and two hundred thousand women--most of them from the Japanese colony of Korea but many also from China, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Indonesia--the Japanese military hoped to reduce the incidence of random rape of local women (thereby diminishing the opportunity for international criticism), to contain sexually transmitted diseases through the use of condoms, and to reward soldiers for fighting on the battlefront for long stretches of time. [56] By this definition the "Nanjing Massacre" can symbolically be said to have lasted from 1931 to 1945, extended over the whole of China, and included ten million victims. On the other hand, they fail to include corpses that were destroyed rather than buried and thus underestimate the death toll. Shoot to kill separately. WebEstimates of the number of Chinese killed in the Nanjing Massacre range from 100,000 to more than 300,000. Who ordered the Nanjing Massacre? Small villages were not the only casualties; entire cities were razed to the ground. The next day, tired of killing in this fashion, they set up machine guns. WebAlthough the death toll exceeds the immediate number of deaths from the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (140,000 and 70,000 respectively, by the end of 1945) and [26][27] However, emotional arguments and political interference in the debate have tended to hinder the construction of an academic consensus on the number of people killed in the atrocity. The Japanese government, for example, didn't officially apologize for its World War II-era atrocities until 1995 and even that relatively recent apologetic stance hasn't been unanimous and universal. In addition to murdering men, women, children, and the Tune in for a wide-ranging discussion on Russia and Ukraines military options; the respective roles of Europe, the United States, and China; and more. Hata discounts estimates of the death toll which range into the hundreds of thousands on the basis that, according to Smythe, Nanjing's civilian population was only between 200,000 and 250,000. [1][77] Some individual estimates by scholars and eyewitnesses are included in the following table. WebDuring the Nanjing Massacre, the Japanese troops killed anywhere from 200,000 to 300,000 Chinese citizens. Some of the lowest estimates have counted only 10,000 deaths,[2] while the government of China maintains that approximately 300,000 people were killed. What should the world expect from COP28 this year? . At one end of the spectrum, the unfortunate historical episode that began with Japanese troops entering Nanjing in early December 1937 has been referred to as Chinas counterpart to the Holocaust. A young Chinese civilian kneels down, his hands tied behind his back, as he awaits execution by beheading at the hands of a Japanese soldier during the Nanking Massacre. LITTLE WAS SPARED ON the path to Nanking.
[41], Since then Kasahara has proposed a definition between these two. Download the new FP mobile app to read anytime, anywhere. Each girl was raped six or seven times daily. [35], In addition, the total civilian population of Nanjing in December 1937 and the size of the Chinese garrison defending the city are used as a basis for calculating the death toll, though the matter is complicated due to greatly varying estimates for both of these numbers. However, within just the last 10 years, dozens of Japanese officials and politicians have refused to accept responsibility for the massacre. Incidents like these have helped fuel current tensions between China and Japan. According to surviving veterans, many of the soldiers felt remarkably little guilt about this. They taught young boys how to handle wooden models of guns, and older boys how to handle real ones. By signing up, I agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and to occasionally receive special offers from Foreign Policy. By the men's own admission, the victims were unarmed, defenseless people.
Nanjing by the Numbers. On the one hand, burial statistics combine massacre victims with Chinese combat casualties and thus exaggerate the death toll.
[1] Hence, depending on the timeframe and the geographic scope, an empirically verifiable, scholarly valid victimization range is from over 40,000 to under 200,000.[1].
For one, Japanese General Iwane Matsui, commander of the forces in China, claimed that he was unaware of mass crimes but nevertheless felt morally responsible. The breakdown in university exchanges threatens understanding and collaborative research. Once the men surrendered and permitted their hands to be bound, the rest was easy. Knowing this, the Japanese poured into Nanking, occupying government buildings, banks, and warehouses, shooting people randomly in the streets, many of them in the back as they ran away. Rat-tat-tat-tat.
Resistance was sporadic; indeed, it was practically nonexistent.
The latest news, analysis, and data from the country each week. [12][63][64] Bob Wakabayashi concludes from this that estimates over 200,000 are not credible.
Unfortunately, coverage of its release in the United States has tended to focus on the continued disagreement over the massacres death toll. There will probably never be full agreement on the Nanjing numbers. "Rape! '', After almost sixty years of soul-searching, Nagatomi is a changed man. [1] Today most Japanese historians of the so-called "great massacre" school have reduced their death toll estimates somewhat and now advocate the figure of "100,000 plus" in contrast with the old consensus of 200,000. [26][89] Daqing Yang, a historian at George Washington University, believes that "an obsession with figures reduces an atrocity to abstraction and serves to circumvent a critical examination of the causes of and responsibilities for these appalling atrocities"[90] and Carol Gluck concurs that "The crucial historical question remains the moral one: how could ordinary Japanese have done what they did? There are really no words to explain what I was doing. [21] The IMTFE stated that a total of 155,300 corpses were buried in and around Nanjing after the fall of the city, based on statistics from the Red Swastika Society and the Chongshantang, though many historians now discount the accuracy of the burials recorded by the Chongshantang. [68], In 2006, Kaz Ross, a historian with the University of Tasmania, anonymously interviewed a number of university researchers in the city of Nanjing to learn their private views on the death toll of the Nanjing Massacre. Conquering China proved to be a more difficult task than the Japanese anticipated. After this photo was taken, the group was driven out to the outskirts of Nanking and killed. [20], Today many mainstream historians concur that this estimate is exaggerated. Then the Japanese officer proposed a test of my courage. Delivered Wednesday & Sunday.