The documentary The Rape of Nanking tells the tale of an atrocity in Chinese and Japanese relations. The documentary starts in the summer of 1937 with the Japanese military continuing its aggravations against China in their long-running expansionist war against the large nation. Their attempts to conquer China in 3 months to prove their superiority was halted in Shanghai when they encountered the tenacious Chinese defense who went toe-to-toe with the Japanese troops. This wrecked their timeline and when the city finally fell the Japanese troops were itching for revenge. The Japanese would prove to enact their vicious revenge and punish the Chinese defiance at the capital city, Nanking. Dr. Takemitsu Ogawa, a medical doctor in the Imperial Japanese …show more content…
Army at Nanking during this time recalled the highest commander of the army making The Three Alls Policy, “to kill all, burn all, and plunder all” because of the fear of retaliation on the part of the people they attempted to conquer. The commanding chief of the Imperial army in the region was General Matsui Iwane who fell ill and was bedridden for a few weeks during the Japanese occupation of Nanking. In his place as Commander during this time was Prince Asaka Yasuhiko, the uncle through marriage of Emperor Hirohito. Under Prince Asaka’s command, an order of kill all captives order would be given. Whether Prince Asaka delivered the order is unknown because a high ranking military intelligence officer would later state that he forged the order on his own initiative. Regardless of who gave the order, Prince Asaka gave no order to stop the ensueing carnage. In Nanking, the civilian population shrunk through mass refugee exodus from 1 million to 500,000 which included about 20 foreign missionaries who would establish the Nanking Safety Zone, an area centered around the U.S. embassy that included 25 refugee camps. The zone would be approximately the size of central park in New York. The Chinese Nationalist Leader Chiang Kai-Shek knew after the fall of Shanghai that the capital city of Nanking wouldn’t be far behind and in an attempt to preserve the elite army for future battles, most of the army was withdrawn. The defense of Nanking would be left in the hands of General Tiang Shengzhi with around 90,000 soldiers who were largely untrained and extremely discouraged at having to fight the fanatical Japanese Imperial Army. On December 9th, the Japanese troops unsuccessfully demanded the defending Chinese army to surrender and then promptly issued a massive attack on the city. By December 12th, the Chinese troops decided to retreat before being trapped by Japanese naval fleets in an attempt to cross the Yangtze River and the city of Nanking fell to the Japanese on December 13th. The 50,000 Japanese troop’s first concern was to eliminate any threat from the 90,000 surrendered Chinese soldiers.
They were looked on in contempt as surrendering was the worst act of cowardice in the Japanese code of military honor at the time. The Chinese soldiers permitted themselves to be transported by trucks to a remote area on the outskirts of Nanking where the savagery against the Chinese soldiers and people began. The assembly of the Chinese POWs created the perfect environment where Japanese soldiers were encouraged to inflict maximum pain and suffering on the POWs in an effort to harden the soldiers and to remove any hesitation to kill. Bayonet practice on the prisoners became common practice and was used as an instructional tool, this often meant that a dozen wounds would be needed to bring death on the suffering POWs. Some prisoners would be burned alive or gunned down to fill trenches to drive their tanks on. Two Japanese lieutenants were famously reported to have held a competition to see who could first cut off 100 Chinese heads using only a …show more content…
sword. Japanese soldiers killed whoever they could.
They would shoot randomly into crowds killing those standing and running. If you had calloused hands they would judge you as a soldier and kill you. The soldiers travelled from house to house looking for hidden soldiers but it would quickly turn into a search for females whether young, old, pregnant, or adolescent. The women would be rounded up and transported to barracks where they would be tied up and raped until they bled to death. The Japanese did not discriminate in this manner. They would rape elderly women and children as young or younger than 8. Young girls would be sliced open in order to be raped and pregnant women would be ganged raped before having the fetus in their belly ripped out. This behavior was encouraged as long they disposed of the evidence. More than 20,000 women were raped in Nanking with some believing it could be as high as 80,000. When General Matsui was healthy enough to return to commanding the troops, he was sincerely shocked at the atrocities that took place at Nanking. His attempts to regain control were often mocked behind his back but he placed strict orders that would eventually lead to a decline in the horrendous actions that had taken
place. The creation of the International Safety Zone or the Nanking Safety Zone would be ray of hope in the city of Nanking. It was created by the remaining foreign missionaries in the last weeks before the Chinese government left Nanking and the Japanese occupied the city. The troops would mostly respect the zone and it would house up to 300,000 civilians, protecting them from Japanese aggression. The Japanese would kill 300,000 to 400,000 of the 600,000 to 700,000 people left in Nanking at the beginning of the occupation. If you didn’t make it to the zone then you most likely were killed by the Japanese. Many Japanese officials have gone on record calling the massacre of Nanking a fabrication despite many of the accounts coming from the journals of the few foreign missionaries who stayed in the city, from the diaries of Japanese soldiers appalled at what was happening and the documentation in photos and videos supplied by American missionary John Magee. Magee would smuggle the collection of films he made of the massacre in Nanking out to Shanghai in an attempt for it to be viewed by Hitler and have the atrocities stopped
During World War II American soldiers who were caught by the Japanese were sent to camps where they were kept under harsh conditions. These men were called the prisoners of war, also known as the POWs. The Japanese who were captured by the American lived a simple life. They were the Japanese internees of World War II. The POWs had more of a harsh time during World War II than the internees. While the internees did physically stay in the camps longer, the POWs had it worse mentally.
In 1942, groups of people were taken from all of the camps and sent to work on the Burma-Thailand Railway. In 1864 the Geneva Convention was formed internationally. The Convention laid down rules concerning the treatment and protection of prisoners during wartime. The Japanese did not follow this Convention as they continuously mistreated many prisoners, including Australian troops/soldiers and civilian prisoners. The Japanese saw the prisoners in camps as people who surrendered, therefore they were considered weak and cowardly because of a belief that the Japanese held that soldiers should die out respect for their emperor and country, known as the Bushido Code.
Thousands of individuals, including women and children, were murdered, stores and other properties were plundered and burned, and countless of women were raped . The Japanese government regarded sex as a way to keep the soldiers obedient and focused so rape was a device used to maintain good, Japanese warriors . Not only did human experimentation occur in German concentration camps, but also in Japanese prison camps. The 731 Unit conducted experiments dealing with plague, cholera, typhoid, frostbite, and gas gangrene . American prisoners of war were treated especially cruel during these human experiments. In one incident, an individual had his skull sliced open while Dr. Fukujiro placed a surgical knife inside of his skull cavity
The Rape of Nanking uses Nanjing Massacre as the core and analyzes the holocaust from the national perspective of China, Japan and Western countries; it also analyzes this piece of history that has been distorted for half of the century. The book is divided into two parts; the author starts the first part by explaining the Japanese bushido spirit and how it was forced to open the country to others, from the Meiji Restoration to enhancing the troops; from tasting the sweetens of external expansion to the depression of international exclusion; from the earthquake disaster to the economic crisis and then expanded its military and the reasons to invade China; it explains how the Japanese soldiers were divided into three groups and invaded Nanjing and when they got there how did they killed the Chinese soldiers and citizens and raped the Chinese ladies and she also mentions the matter of comfort women to bring in the issue and analyzes the motivation for the massacre. Nanking was in great chaos at that time and even the infants could not escape from the disaster. Chang also analyzes the Chinese tragic massacre scene by showing how the...
Do you believe in equality? Regardless of gender, age, education, religion, etc. all people should be treated the same. However, not everyone is. This literature review shows that. My literature review is on the Gender Matters set of essays. The first essay is The Startling Plight of China’s Leftover Women by Christina Larsen. This essay is about the unmarried, educated women in China and why they are still unmarried. The second essay is The Invisible Migrant Man: Questioning Gender Privileges by Chloe Lewis. This piece is about the struggles and issues that married male migrants face and have faced. The last is Body-Building In Afghanistan by Oliver Broudy. It is about the men who are unemployed in Afghanistan who spend their time working out. My literature review is written in the following order: Larsen’s essay, Broudy’s
The poem of A Story by Li-Young Lee analyzes the coming of age of a son through the eyes and emotions of a father. On the surface, it seems like a simple situation of a father telling the son a story to entertain him. But it is upon closer inspection and deep analysis that reveals the true meaning of the poem that the poet is trying to convey to the reader.
Despite having the horrific Nanking Massacre occur 70 years ago, its history is barely buried like many of the dead were at the time. The Nanking Massacre (also known as the Rape of Nanking) occurred as a part of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War, which would then become part of World War II. This war involved the Republic of China defending against the invading Japanese forces. Unfortunately, China was weakened due to a civil war between the Communists and the Nationalists, so it was easily invaded. The Nanking Massacre shows the negative elements of Human Nature and should be taught in schools because it portrays the brutality of the Japanese in Asia.
Sheridan, Michael. “Black Museum of Japan’s war crimes.” The Sunday Times. The Sunday Times, 31 July 2005. Web. 31 July 2005.
The rape of Nanking occurred during World War II by the Japanese onto Chinese civilians. Nanking was a newly established capital in the Republic of China that was a part of the plan of attack for the Japanese to assert its power in Asia. While the Chinese had them outnumbered greatly, the Japanese utilized the power of deception in order to make their way into the city of Nanking. For example, the soldiers would promise the Chinese fair treatment if they were to stop resisting the invasion. This plan worked exceptionally well, as the captives believed what they were told and allowed the Japanese to tie them up. Very few actually resisted the attacks and simply hoped they would be treated better by the Japanese if they complied.
...ned to police because of fear of being harmed, so the exact number is hard to tell. Most GI’s did not care for the Japanese because they had won the war and thought everything around them were spoils of the war that they had every right to indulge in. Lots of numeric figures and testimonies of actual rapes are prevalent in this chapter. Tanaka in the final chapter talks about how during the occupation the Allied forces forced the Japanese to “voluntarily” setup services to adhere to their men. The Recreation and Amusement Association was created to provide sexual and recreational entertainment to the Allied forces occupying Japan. These services included not only comfort houses but beer halls, restaurants for officers, billiard clubs, and dance halls like cabaret. The Allied forces did not want to seem as bad guys by forcing Japan to do these things. So they used blackmail in order to get what they want. By mere suggestion, the Allied forces hinted that their stay would be shorter if the Japanese gave them what they wanted. It is ironic how setting up comfort houses ended up backfiring against the Japanese as their own citizens were now being exploited due to occupation by force.
In this paper I will explain what POWs went through and how it has changed between countries, and I will only scratch the surface. Taking prisoners of war has been a battle tactic for ages. Capturing an enemy troop can be done for many reasons. Mainly enemy soldiers are captured to be interrogated for unknown information on the enemy. There were usually common rules and procedures for taking a prisoner of war, whether they were followed or not was really up to the country.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have a Japanese soldier barge into your house, rape your mother and sister, and then kill your father, all while you’re being forced to watch? Hopefully not, but unfortunately at one point in our history, that has happened to hundreds of thousands of people of Nanking, China. This Rape of Nanking or Massacre of Nanking can sometimes be referred to as the “forgotten Holocaust of WWII” seeing as it took place close to the start of the Second World War and is not nearly talked about as much as the German Holocaust with the Jews. It all happened in December of 1937, when Nanking fell to the Japanese.
The Rape of Nanking, also known as the Nanking Massacre, was a six-week period when mass numbers of Chinese men and women were killed by the Japanese. Embarrassed by the lack of effort in the war with China in Shanghai, the Japanese looked for revenge and finally were able to win the battle. The Japanese moved toward the city of Nanjing, also known as Nanking, and invaded it for approximately six months. Even though the people of Nanjing outnumbered the 50,000 Japanese, they were not as masterful in warfare as their opponents. Chinese soldiers were forced to surrender to the Japanese and the massacre began in which around 300,000 people died and 20,000 women were raped.
This massacre lasted between the 1937 and 1938. Within this time, 300,000 Chinese citizens were viciously killed. This genocide is called Rape of Nanking because of raping the woman before killing them. Most likely this group was selected because the second world war happened in Asia. This was significant because a country was able to kill half the population of another.
A Japanese student was assigned to write an essay in English class and the topic was on the “Rape of Nanjing”. The student researched for about six months and discovered that there was huge controversy surrounding the topic because the Chinese say 300,000 were killed and many women were gang – raped while from Japanese sources they say the event never even happened. The Japanese sources claimed that the Chinese fabricated the whole incident up and that the photo evidence was made by the government as