Nanjing Massacre - Term Paper Example

?Nanjing Massacre Introduction Japanese Air Force has been attacking Shanghai for two months since the middle of August and during that time also raided Nanjing 65 times. Then In December 1937, Japan attacked the capital of China at that time Nanjing. From December 13, and over the next six weeks Nanjing was under occupation of Japanese military forces. During that time the army looted, burned and plundered surrounding towns as well as the city itself. Over 300 000 civilians and unarmed soldiers were slaughtered, tortured, and raped. This unprecedented catastrophe called Nanjing Massacre, or the Rape of Nanking, was a living hell for its victims and until present time it a symbol of Japanese militarism in World War II. Western nations for some time were not acknowledging Nanjing’s tragedy. There were several political factors that have contributed to it. The Japanese government downplayed the degree of its militaristic advances during World War II immediately after the war, while both Chinese govern­ments purposefully neglected the incident as they focused on establish­ing their political and economic strength, which required a sound relationship with Japan. The U.S. government valued Japan's position as a strategic ally during the Cold War more than the need for justice. Such political complications led each country to circumvent the issues of Nanking. (Li, Fei-Fei, xxiii) HISTORIC BACKGROUND After the incident on the railroad in the city of Mukden in September 1931, Japan, blaming Chinese nationalists for that explosion, began the invasion of Manchuria, China. Since that time several major battles between Japanese military forces Chinese army were raged, such as battle in Shanghai (1932), Great Wall (1933). To solve the situation, some agreements were settled between China and Japan which somewhat defused the situation near Manchuria. At that time China was engulfed into the Civil War and therefore was not able to considerably oppose Japanese invasion. An important incident happened in China in December of 1936, known as Xi'an Incident, when former warlord of Manchuria was suddenly arrested and kidnapped. This incident led the Nationalists and the Communists to form an united front against Japan in 1937. It is then that an all out defense against Japanese military started, at least formally. China had the largest army in the world at the time, but most of the Chinese army was not trained and poorly equipped, with some troops armed mainly with swords and hand grenades. Only few corps had anti-tank weaponry. 7 July 1937 a battle between Republic of China's National Revolutionary Army and the Imperial Japanese Army happened. This battle is often signify the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Shortly after that Japan extensively invaded mainland China and captured major Chinese cities. Some Chinese still remember Marco Polo Bridge Incident and Mukden as days of national humiliation. Japanese military forces had planned to conquer China in just three months, but in August of 1937 it faced strong resistance and had many casualties in the Battle of Shanghai, a very bloody hand-to-hand combat. Some historians believe that this situation contributed to the psychological conditions of the Japanese soldiers to later be so grueling cruel in Nanjing. The Japanese had captured Shanghai only by mid-November with the help of fleet and Air Force. The casualties were so heavy that General Staff Headquarters in Tokyo decided not to expand the war. By that time the morale of the troops were very low. As the Japanese army grew closer to Nanjing, Chinese civilians fled the city. Chinese military themselves were destroying anything in the city that might be of value to the Japanese army – many buildings in the city, forest and entire villages around Nanjing were burnt to the ground. NANJING MASSACRE On December 7, the Japanese army came close to the city walls of Nanjing. They dropped leaflets into the city, requesting the surrender of Nanjing within 24 hours and promising mercy to innocent civilians. Otherwise they were threatening to level the city down. Japanese did not receive and answer for this proclamation. Then General Matsui commanded to take Nanjing by force. Nanjing was under heavy attack for the next several days, then Chinese troops retreated and fled. The chaos followed and on December 13 the Japanese entered the walled city of Nanjing. There was no military resistance to meet them. It is not possible to document here the full extent of the horrors experienced by China at the hands of the Japanese. The six weeks of continuous burning, killing, raping and looting that followed the taking of Nanjing created a gigantic psychological wound. The people were filled with unspeakable fear. (Li, 124) The Japanese were infuriated by the strength of Chinese resistance, and when They entered Nanjing, the first things Japanese troops did is killing thousands of Chinese soldiers who had surrendered to them. Then, the Japanese transported another 20 000 of the young people in trucks outside the city walls and killed them in a massive slaughter. From then on the Japanese officers were encouraging their troops and participated themselves in looting Nanjing and slaughtering people. The Nanking Massacre was an atrocity on a huge scale. At least tens of thousands of Chinese civilians and soldiers were killed. Women of all ages raped and humiliated. There was a large amount of looting and destruction. Houses were burnt down to provide Japanese soldiers with a bit of warmth. Men were killed for fun. In sheer inventiveness, the cruelty of Japanese troops was on a par with the worst twentieth-century barbarities, of which, as we know, there have been many. (Li, Fei-Fei, 5) For six weeks, life for the Chinese in Nanjing became a living hell. Japanese soldiers were roaming the city, murdering, raping, looting, and burning. They were inventing worst and newest tortures and were trying it on the Chinese civilians, who, if stopped on the street, were used as targets in the cruel sport of killing. The fate of Chinese women of any age was even worse. During the first four weeks of occupation not less then twenty thousand Chinese women were raped, often in band rape, and, for the following weeks when the order was issued against rapes, many were mutilated and killed when the troops were finished with them. Faced with the unbelievable cruelty of the Japanese troops and constant threat of death, the refugees lost all sense of reason and logic. Very few resisted; they were mostly just passively waiting for inevitable death…In the face of evil, justice became cowardly, and the goodness of human nature in the face of terror took an ugly twist. (Li, 122) When the civilians were fleeing the city, 20 Westerners decided to stay even though they were advised to evacuate. Following experience of French Catholic Father Rao, they decided to establish an international rescue organization "The International Committee for Nanjing Safety Zone". The Zone to shelter the people who did not evacuate when the war started was located in the northwest part of Nanjing. Inside the zone were the embassies of the United States,Italy,Japan and the Netherlands as well as some Western church agencies.The refugee camps situated inside the zone accommodated as many as 250,000 people. AFTER THE WAR Until now there is now exact number of people slaughtered in Nanjing. The International Military Tribunal for the Far East accepted that at least 200,000 Chinese civilians and soldiers were slaughtered by the Japanese in the six weeks of Nanjing Rape. It is also believed that the death toll would be much higher had estimates of the number of Chinese murdered in mass slaughter pits and bodies dumped in the river were added. Scholars outside of Japan are accepting the number of people slaughtered in Nanjing reaching as high as 370,000 victims. However, Nanjing is not the only Chinese city that suffered such horrible fate at the hands of Japanese soldiers. During the course of war several millions of Chinese civilians and prisoners of war were murdered, as estimated by historians. There are many photographic and independent eyewitness evidence of what had happened in Nanjing. However, the Japanese government still fails to acknowledge the full story of atrocities that took place in Nanjing; neither Japanese schoolchildren being told the truth about tragic events of 1937. Situation has been slowly changing in recent years. Under the international pressure and local criticism of the censorship the Japanese government allowed brief and vague references in history textbooks to the account of Nanjing Massacre, however, it is much downplayed and not forthright. CONCLUSION The memory of the Nanjing Massacre became a stumbling block in relations between China and Japan. In time, Japan became China’s most trade important partner and the two countries took measures to normalize their relations. Since 1970th the culture exchanges and education trades as well as economical partnership developed greatly. Despite these economical benefits, many Chinese people still have a strong sense of mistrust toward Japan - a feeling that is grounded on the memories of the Sino-Japanese War crimes such as the Nanjing Massacre. There is a belief also that Japan is unwilling to admit to and apologize for the crimes and pain. For Chinese people, the Nanjing Massacre is an immediate symbol of outrages committed by Japanese troops during the War and of China’s victimization by imperialist aggression. As such, the Massacre is highly sensitive event to Chinese people, causing anger when doubted and contempt when misconstrued…Today, Chinese continue to view Japan’s actions as an unprovoked and unconscionable attempt to exterminate the Chinese spirit (Fogel, p.11) Works cited Fogel, Joshua A. The Nanjing Massacre in history and historiography University of California Press. 2000. Print. Li, Peter. “Japanese war crimes: the search for justice”. Transaction Publishers. 2003. Print. Li, Fei-Fei et al. “Nanking 1937: memory and healing”. M.E. Sharpe. 2002. Print. The memorial hall of the victims in Nanjing massacre by Japanese invaders. nj1937.org.2005. Web. 14 April 2011 history.cultural-china.com.cultural-china.com. 2011.Web.14 April 2011 The Nanjing Massacre - The Chinese Holocaust. scribd.com. Scribd Inc.2011. Web. 13 April 2011 nanking-massacre.com. 1937 Nanking Massacre. 2005. Web. 13 April 2011 Read More