The Rape of Nanking

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Recommended: History

Nikolina Jovanovic
Global Lit Accel
Dudek
April 4, 2014
Rape of Nanking
In late 1937, the Japanese army brutally murdered and assaulted civilians in Nanking, China over a period of six weeks. This event in history was one of the most horrendous and also an event that is rarely talked about or taught in school. This part of history was known as the Second Sino- Japanese war.
The Japanese had a contempt for the Chinese people, thinking that they were the lowest race on the planet. China had a benefit by being a larger country and because of that Japan always had something to fear. This war was triggered by many aspects, but one important one was the fact that China had tried to invade the islands of J apan but was never successful. This gave another reason for Japan to want to have a war and prove to China that they are superior to them.
By the 1940’s, Japan was considered more powerful than China. They feel as if they were more superior than China because they conquered where China had not. China and Kuomintang were having a war, but then later Japan took home the victory.
"Surviving Japanese veterans claim that the army had officially outlawed the rape of enemy women," states Iris Chang. But "the military policy forbidding rape only encouraged soldiers to kill their victims afterwards." This was one of many ways that women, children, and men were being massacred. Women were terrorized throughout the city and raped brutally. Children were not exempt from these horrible acts. Japanese soldiers saw any Chinese as an animal and to them, it wouldn’t be like killing a human because they were subhuman to them. Pregnant woman were attacked just as harshly, if not even more brutally than others. Soldiers were stab their belly and ...

... middle of paper ...

... “Japanese troops attacked women, raping and killing them on the street in the middle of the day, including young girls of nine years of age, elderly women of 76 years of age, and also pregnant women.” (student source) Pregnant women weren’t exempt from such awful actions. They took spears and stabbed the pregnant women in their bellies while cutting it open and took the unborn fetuses out of their mothers.
I watched the movie Rape of Nanking and I was saddened to see what the people of China had to go through. Articles are very informative but watching it with your very eyes gives you different perspective on the problem. In the film It showed all of the brutal ways they would kill men and women and also ways they raped women of all ages. While watching it forces you to feel the way they’re feeling at the moment. Almost as if you are there, which is terrifying.

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