Massacre of Nankin

The massacre of Nankin is an event of the second Sino-Japanese war during which the Japanese troops devoted to atrocities against the civil population of the Chinese city of Nankin.

This massacre, which began on December 13rd 1937, lasted six weeks and made between 150.000 and 300.000 Chinese victims, according to the sources, as a majority of the civilians. It took place under the eyes of many Westerners, of which the German John Rabe, the reverend John Maggee, George Fitch, Robert Wilson (only remained surgeon with Nankin during the massacre), and the missionary Minnie Vautrin whose memories personnel were published.

Invasion of China

In 1931, the Japanese imperial army invades the Mandchourie, a Chinese province , following an attack against a way of Railroad pertaining to a Japanese company. This attack, most probably carried out by the Japanese themselves to justify the invasion, marked the beginning of the Conquête of Mandchourie by Japan. In 1932, Hirohito approved the nomination of a puppet government, with at his head the last emperor of the Dynastie Qing, Puyi, in this Chinese, famous province Manzhouguo.

In 1937, following the Incident of the bridge Marco Polo, Hirohito gave its agreement to the invasion of the remainder of the Chinese territory, which led to the Sino-Japanese Guerre (1937-1945). Consequently, the Japanese army was seen opposing a strong resistance, in particular during the Bataille of Shanghai which was particularly bloody.

Certain historians put forth the assumption that the violence of the combat with Shanghai was partly responsible for the " conditioning psychologique" Japanese soldiers so that they make the atrocities with Nankin later. One of the most probable explanations remains however the influence of the imperial propaganda which described the foreigners and especially the other populations of yellow race like " beings inférieurs" facts to be dominated, even of the cattle ( kichiku ).

During the driving way of Shanghai to Nankin, the Nichi Nichi Shimbun paid besides, in serial being spread out from November 29th to December 13rd, a contest implying two officers of the army showa who had bet to know which of them would be the first to decapitate 100 Chinese with his saber.

Massacre

The December 8th, whereas the capital Nankin was besieged, Tchang Kaï-chek and his wife evacuated the city with part of the troops. The 11, the Chinese soldiers remained on the spot accepted in their turn the order to give up the capital.

The December 13rd the Japanese, strong army of approximately: 50000 men, penetrated in the city, made captive the Chinese soldiers still present and divided them into small groups. The massacre began then and the Chinese of all ages, as well civil as military, were killed with the bayonet and the saber while the women were violated and broken. Testimonys of Europeans still present describe summary executions of civilians, acts of torture even of vivisection, rapes collective women and children, and this, without the least attempt at " resumption in main" Japanese command…

Nankin had an international zone where resided of many Westerners. The latter were the witnesses of the massacre until December 15th, date where the majority of them were forced to evacuate the city except for a group of 22 people, of which the director of the zone, the German and member of the Nazi party John Rabe, which wrote a detailed newspaper of the events and tried as well as possible to protect the civilians from its means. Once the city under control, the prince Asaka and the general Iwane Matsui, commanders of the imperial forces, could penetrate there in large pump.

Judgment of the crimes

The international military Tribunal for the Far East (TMIEO) established that during this same period, 20 000 Viol S were perpetrated and estimated that there was approximately 200 000 people killed by the Japanese, estimates based on the documents held by two charitable associations which had taken care of the gathering and the burial of the corpses, the red Svastika and You ung-shan She, like on testimonys of the survivors. The court of Nankin as for him evaluated with 300 000 the number of victims. In 1954, whereas it awaited its judgment for war crimes, major Ohta Hisao of the armed ex imperial Japanese woman, submitted to the authorities a report where it detailed the various methods used by the Japanese army to get rid of the corpses of the civilians and assassinated Chinese soldiers with Nankin:

Thus according to him in Hsiakwan, they had in particular piled up the bodies by groups of fifty before throwing them in Yang-Tse. Elsewhere, of the thousands of corpses were charged on trucks, to be burned or buried in uninhabited zones. Ohta estimated that 150.000 corpses had disappeared from the surface of the ground between the 15 and on December 18th, 1937…

While adding this number with that with the statistics of burials, the Chinese historian Sun Zhaiwei arrived then at the incredible figure of 370.000 dead , twice as much as joined together Hiroshima and Nagasaki. According to the Chinese historian Liu Fang-Chu, 430.000 people would have been assassinated there in a little more than one month.

The general Iwane Matsui, military official of the troops having taken Nankin was condemned to died at the time of the Lawsuit of Tōkyō not to have prevented the massacre. Because of a pact concluded in 1945 between the emperor Hirohito and the general Mac Arthur, the prince Asaka, uncle of the emperor and officer having ordered the massacre of the civilians, was not shown in front of the court. In a made deposition on May 1st 1946 with the international investigators, it denied the existence of a massacre and declared not to have never received from complaint as for the control of its troops .

Revisionism

Today in Japan, certain people, whose politicians of high ranking, deny the existence of the massacre publicly or blame the number of killed people and her importance in the History. This discussion is associated with Révisionnisme.

In April 2005, the publication in Japan of school handbooks minimizing the importance of the massacre of Nankin (reduced to a footnote), causes violent demonstrations anti-Japanese women in China and South Korea.

In November 2006 began the year of the culture of China in Japan in sign of the reconciliation between the two countries. The joint committee of 20 historians finished the first phase of its work in December 2006 to Beijing, without however not being tackled specific subjects as the massacre of Nankin.

The same month, the new Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzō Abe, tried to put an end to the quarrels by recognizing that its country had made atrocities lasting the Second world war and to reconcile itself with its neighbor. It fed however itself thereafter this controversy with its remarks on the Femmes of comfort.

Reference

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