In
1937, during the Japanese invasion of China, Japanese
soldiers slaughtered many thousands of Chinese civilians
in the city of Nanjing. The massacre began with prisoners
or suspected soldiers, then extended to those unambiguously
civilian, including women, children, and old men. According
to evidence presented at the Tokyo War Crimes Trials,
Japanese soldiers raped at least 20,000 Chinese women,
many of whom were murdered afterwards.
Iris Chang, the author of the acclaimed The
Rape of Nanking, puts the death toll at 300,000.
Japanese historian Hata Ikuhito puts the figure at 40,000.
The truth is probably somewhere in between. The local
war crimes trials held in Nanjing immediately after
the war estimated that 190,000 were killed. The extent
of the massacre is still disputed. For photographs see
The Nanjing Massacre
exhibit.
Links
Nanjing
Massacre Database China News Digest
60th
Anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre Princeton University
Accounts
From Survivors of the Nanjing Massacre Simon Wiesenthal
Center - Audio and Video of testimony
Nanjing
Massacre Photograph Page - some photographs are
gruesome
Review
of Rape of Nanjing by Iris Chang by the Japan Echo -
a Japanese viewpoint
Excerpts
From Japanese Textbooks on the Nanjing Massacre
printed by Japanese Echo
Atrocities
of Japan a paper on the Nanjing Massacre |
