



Battle of Nanjing and the Rape of Nanjing

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseJapanese troops marched for Nanjing, the capital of China, almost immediately after capturing the city of Shanghai on the coast. Along the way, the exhausted Chinese troops failed to hold positions east of Nanjing. The town of Kunshan in Jiangsu Province was lost in two days, the Wufu defensive line had collapsed by 19 Nov, and the Xicheng Line was overrun on 26 Nov. Among the Chinese leadership, two sides existed regarding the defense of Nanjing. General Li Zongren thought deploying troops to Nanjing would be a waste of resources; he proposed declaring Nanjing an open city, meanwhile the troops should be tasked to destroy anything that could be used by the Japanese after Nanjing became captured. General Bai Chongxi and advisor General Alexander von Falkenhausen of the German Army voiced support for Li's plan. Chiang Kaishek, however, overruled his officers, citing that a lack of effort to defend the political capital would have severe consequences to the morale of the troops and China's international prestige; "I am personally in favor of defending Nanking to the death", said Chiang, placing former rival General Tang Shengzhi in charge of the city's 100,000-strong defense. Tang, who knew well that most of his troops were untrained recent conscripts, was not confident in his newfound responsibilities, but he put on a strong public face. In a press conference on 27 Nov, he enthusiastically announced that his men would stand the ground against any Japanese attack, but urged the westerners in the city to depart. Meanwhile, he also ordered all buildings and wooded areas to be cleared about a mile from the perimeter of the city, to eliminate any cover for the Japanese troops; this would prove to be a controversial order as it increased the number of refugees crowding the city, and the charred walls of hastily burned homes offered as much protection for the Japanese as intact ones. Behind the scenes, however, Tang sought alternative means to save the city, including a busy week working through the westerns in Nanjing to both persuade Chiang to allow him to declare Nanjing an open city and negotiate a truce with the Japanese; both efforts would fail.

ww2dbaseOn 1 Dec, the Chinese government left the city, setting up the temporary capital at Chongqing several days later; Chiang and his family did not leave Nanjing until 7 Dec. As the troops prepared the defenses, the civilian side of government was left to the international committee headed by German businessman John Rabe. As the Chinese government left, the troops continued to destroy buildings and infrastructure within the city just as they had done outside the city walls days earlier; in total, this scorched earth policy caused between US$20,000,000 to US$30,000,000 worth of damage during the period between the fall of Shanghai and the start of the Battle of Nanjing. After the government officials departed, the civilians began fleeing the city en masse, creating mass panic. Tang controversially closed off all routes to the civilian to stem the panic, going as far as burning the boats on the Yangtze River to prevent further unauthorized evacuations.

ww2dbaseBattle of Nanjing

10-13 Dec 1937

ww2dbaseWhen the Japanese troops arrived at the outskirts of Nanjing in early Dec, Tang realized that his defenses, untrained and demoralized to the point that many were simply abandoning their posts, had no chance of winning. Chiang maintained that Tang, previously enthusiastic but now realizing the impossibility of winning, should continue to stage the defense. On 7 Dec, the Japanese Army announced internally that soldiers who commit "illegal acts" and "dishonor the Japanese Army" during the conquest of Nanjing would be severely punished. Early on 9 Dec, the Japanese Army arrived at the Nanjing's city wall, and demanded surrender within the following 24 hours. No Chinese envoy appeared, and at 1300 hours, General Iwane Matsui and Lieutenant General Prince Asaka (Yasuhiko) concluded that the Chinese were not interested in negotiating, and gave the order for attack.

ww2dbaseThe Japanese 36th Infantry Regiment of the 9th Division attacked the heavily-defended Guanghua Gate at 1400 hours, which was manned by some of the few experienced troops at Nanjing. During the course of the afternoon, the Chinese troops at Guanghua Gate increased to 1,000. Concrete pill boxes, tankettes, and the usage of fire inflicted large numbers of casualties among the Japanese, but greater firepower eventually overwhelmed the Chinese. By nightfall, Japanese mountain guns had destroyed part of the gate, and the Japanese troops poured in and drove out the last of the defenders. Knowing that morale had been low to begin with, Tang gathered his divisional commanders at his headquarters, and the group unanimously decided that winning was impossible. Tang refused to be the sole blame for losing the battle, thus he had everyone sign the document from Chiang noting that retreat was only permitted when absolutely necessary. On 12 Dec, Tang decided to extract himself later that day, Yijiang Gate in the north was the only gate still in Chinese control; he left the city without officially announcing the surrender of the city, and the uncertainly soon led to the retreating completely breaking down. Many men found their commanding officers disappearing, and began to flee in all directions in panic. As organization broke down, so did discipline; American journalists Frank Tillman Durdin of the New York Times and Archibald Steele of the Chicago Daily News reported witnessing Chinese troops looting shops, while others threw away their uniforms and weapons in an attempt to disappear into the civilian population. The retreat became even further disrupted when the troops of the Chinese 36th Division at Yijiang Gate, still holding on to orders to block any retreat (Tang never revoke his previous order before he fled the city), confronted the units attempting to pass through the gate. Thousands of Chinese troops crowded inside the Yijiang Gate, and it was not before long that many began to force their way through, and the 36th Division troops opened fire on those they considered deserters. Some began to push in even greater panic, and many were trampled to death.

ww2dbaseAt 1327 hours on 12 Dec, American gunboat USS Panay and three tankers were in the Yangtze River, upstream from Nanjing. Though Panay flied American flags, they came under attack by three B4Y Type 96 bombers and nine A4N Type 95 fighters. Panay sank at 1554 hours with three deaths. The gunboat was the first American ship lost in WW2. The Panay Incident caused some tension between Japanese-American relations, though officially it was settled on 24 Dec 1937 when the Japanese government apologized and paid over US$2,000,000 for what was said to be the result of a mis-identification.

ww2dbaseAt 0300 hours on 12 Dec, Tang met with his staff officers and ordered a small group of troops to evacuate across the Yangtze River while the remainder was to conduct a break out attack on the Japanese lines in the south. By the time he met with his officers again at 1700 hours, however, dire situations changed his mind, and he increased the size of the river evacuation to include 5 divisions worth of men. At 1800 hours, the evacuation was in full swing, but in utter chaos. Thousands of troops and even more refugees crowded the routes to the docks, with the movement slowed even further by abandoned military equipment and civilian carts. Hundreds, if not more, were trampled to death, while accidental fires consumed many others. Tang, having been ordered to leave the city by Chiang, made it to the docks in a staff car at 2100 hours and boarded a small coal-powered launch, safely reaching the opposite shore.

ww2dbaseIn the morning of 13 Dec, men of the Japanese 6th and 114th Divisions entered the city, followed by the men of the 9th (via Guanghua Gate) and 16th (via Zhongshan and Taiping Gates) Divisions; these four divisions numbered about 50,000 men. That afternoon, two small Japanese river flotillas arrived at Nanjing's ports. By nightfall, the Japanese had declared the battle a victory.

ww2dbaseThe Rape of Nanjing

13 Dec 1937-31 Jan 1938

ww2dbaseAfter the Japanese sacked Nanjing, the conquering troops engaged in a six-week long orgy of violence. Depending on various sources, somewhere between 50,000 to over 300,000 Chinese, mostly civilians and prisoners of war, were killed. Those who had bullets ripping through their bodies as they ran away could have been said the lucky ones, as many other victims suffered worse fates. Deaths resulted from bayoneting, burning, crushing by tanks, burying, and decapitation were common. Even worse were those who bled to death by after being nailed to telephone poles or doors, castrated, delimbed, or disemboweled. And then there were the over 20,000 cases of rapes, victims of which crime ranged from girls under 10 years of age to over 80 years of age; many of those who were raped, itself a grotesque crime, were further tortured by the Japanese troops by impalement of their vaginas with everything from beer bottles to bayonets. Few but not unseen atrocities were committed by the most sadistic, who tore out fetuses from pregnant women with bayonets and forced sons to rape their mothers. In 1938, a 16-millimeter film made by Episcopal missionary John Magee was smuggled out of China and eventually made its way to the United States. It was shown anonymously to certain US Congressmen, US Army, and Red Cross members. The original films were found in the 1990s after being lost for more than fifty years, documenting aftermath of the atrocity. Over time, many Japanese veterans of the war stepped forth and admitted to the atrocities that took place, confirming the widespread violence.

ww2dbaseJournalist Edgar Snow provided the following eyewitness account:

Thousands of men were led out of the [Nanjing International Safety] Zone, ostensibly for labour battalions, and lined up and machine-gunned. Sometimes groups were used for bayonet exercises. When the victors grew bored with such mild sport they tied their victims, poured kerosene over their heads, and cremated them alive. Others were taken out to empty trenches, and told to simulate Chinese soldiers. Japanese officers then led their men in assaults to capture these 'enemy positions' and bayoneted the unarmed defenders.

ww2dbaseProperty damage to the city of Nanjing was also extensive. Unlike the many other cities that were devastated during WW2, which were largely damaged by either aerial bombing or by fierce fighting, only about 1% to 2% of the damage done at Nanjing were caused by military actions. Almost all of the damage were done during after Chinese troops had departed, and most of the damage were caused by systematic torching of entire neighborhoods by Japanese troops.

ww2dbaseMany of the women who survived the rapes would commit suicide. Months later, many infant babies, drowned or choked to death, were found around the city; speculations held that they were children conceived by the raped women.

ww2dbaseThere were some who claim that the atrocities were not as widespread as reported by the Chinese and the westerners. There were eyewitnesses from Nanjing's International Safety Zone who said that the atrocities were isolated (even Rabe estimated only 50,000 to 60,000 deaths), while interviews with Japanese junior officers and soldiers present at Nanjing during these months sometimes resulted in testimonies that either noted the city of nearly deserted thus the death toll could not have been as high or claimed that the conduct of the Japanese troops in general were honorable. While the true death toll could never be verified, it would still be likely that, in the span of a few weeks, the number of Chinese deaths rivaled the number of Japanese killed by the two atomic blasts near the end of the war.

ww2dbaseSources:

Iris Chang, The Rape of Nanking

The Japan Times

Wikipedia

WWW Memorial Hall of the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre



Last Major Update: Apr 2009

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