The Nanjing Massacre / Rape of Nanking

[Xiaoshan_Sailor]

The Nanjing Massacre or the Rape of Nanjing was the mass murder of Chinese civilians in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, immediately after the Battle of Nanking in the Second Sino-Japanese War, by the Imperial Japanese Army. Beginning on December 13, 1937, the massacre lasted six weeks. Estimates of between 20,000-80,000 girls and women were raped and deaths range upwards of 350,000.

https://www.history.com/topics/asian-hi ... g-massacre

For those interested in learning more, read Iris Chang's excellent history, The Rape of Nanking.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rape_ ... ing_(book)

Also the diaries of John Rabe, the German businessman who saved thousands of Chinese women & children by sheltering them on the grounds of his home from the marauding Japanese. Chinese consider him on the same level of Oskar Schindler for his heroic & selfness action. I have visited Rabe's house years ago during a visit to Nanjing & recommend to anyone who has the opportunity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Good_Man_of_Nanking
https://www.siemens.com/global/en/compa ... -rabe.html
https://repository.brynmawr.edu/cgi/vie ... erman_pubs

[Estnische]

Yes, in comparison to the focus on German atrocities of the Second World War, the Japanese seem to go by almost un-noticed.

Using the Chinese for live bayonet practice...

[Herr Dr. Professor]

"Yes, in comparison to the focus on German atrocities of the Second World War, the Japanese seem to go by almost un-noticed." Yes, Estnische, here in the US we still tend to attend more to events in the west, attending less to those, both historical and contemporary, in Asia and Africa. In WWII, my father knew parts of Asia. Today, perhaps, were there more equal attention here, I would be even more horrified.

[jarndice]

Part of the Acadamy's teaching of the "History of War" was the true beginning of WW2,
The root cause of the 2nd European War is generally believed to be the signing of the Versailles Treaty of 1919 which imposed such strict economic conditions upon Germany that another war was inevitable but the actual physical start of WW2 was thought to have started when the USA embargoed oil and scrap metal exports to Japan after the Imperial Japanese Army invaded Manchuko/Manchuria in 1936/37 for the raw materials needed by the Japanese economy this when linked to Italys brutal invasion of Ethiopia and the Spanish Civil War all at the same time brought all the Axis powers together making WW2 inevitable and with both France and Britains empires having many Far Eastern nations in their thrall all the major players were primed and ready to meet in combat.

[Mithras]

The Chinese argue that the war actually began during the Marco Polo Bridge incident. The Versailles argument, meanwhile, is essentially an invalid one; the Treaty of Locarno addressed most of the economic issues - the Ango-German Naval Agreement significantly addressed some of the major military issues.

The root cause of the war in the West, quite simply, is that Hitler wanted a war and the Allies waited too long to draw a firm line. We can talk about territorial issues, bad treaties, etc: but the truth is that the country that had the greatest per capita land loss (Hungary) had no interest in a general war and had appealed, many times, for peaceful redress.

Each time that Hitler brandished the sword -prior- to Munich he had either been told to back off (the Stresa Front) or simply ignored. Munich changed all of that, and considerably altered the OKW timetable.

It is -very- important to clarify this. The Versailles argument was used to justify the war, and is presently being used by revanchists (none of whom have posted here.) Was it a factor? Certainly, but it’s mostly hot air, like the Southern “State’s Rights” argument, Mussolini’s assertion that the Ethiopians had “committed atrocities” at Adowa, or Putin/Stalin arguing that “traditionally Russian land” was “stolen” by Ukraine/Finland.

[Mithras]

As for Nanking, shamefully Japan still refuses to formally apologize for the affair. Many “historians” even push the lie that ‘the atrocities were committed by Chinese KMT troops in stolen Japanese uniforms.”