Introduction
WWII started on different days for different people. For Africans, 1935 when Mussolini invaded. For Europeans, Sept 1939 when Hitler invaded Poland. For Americans, Dec 1941 when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. For Asians, 1931 when Japan occupied Manchuria.
260K noncombatants died at the hands of Japanese soldiers in late 1937 and early 1938 – the killing was concentrated into a few weeks. The deaths were cruel too, e.g., bayonet practice, decapitation contests, disembowelment, live burials, being fed to dogs. Even Nazis in Nanking were horrified.
That hundreds of thousands would have their lives extinguished, die at the whim of others, and the next day their deaths would be meaningless. Even more, the bringers of death would also degrade the victims and force them to expire in maximum pain and humiliation.
Unlike Germany coming to terms with their atrocities in WWII, Japan has had a collective amnesia about Nanking, with prominent leaders refuting that the massacre ever happened.
Read Yabu no naka (In a Grove) .
The Path to Nanking
Isolationism of Japan made it lag technologically. Commander Perry’s display of American strength forced Japan into opening its borders, but also humiliated a proud people.
The Meiji government overthrew the West-tolerant Shogun in 1868, under a banner of ultra-nationalism. Japan won the first Sino-Japanese war, but Russia, France, and Germany forced Japan to surrender the prized Liaodong Peninsula.
Japan boomed from the 1900s to 1920s, buoyed by trade. The Great Depression cast a big shadow. China was boycotting Japanese goods in protest of unfair Versailles terms. Japan didn’t have enough trade surplus to import food for its people. Ultra-nationalists preached Japan’s manifest destiny to expand territory and save her people.
Samurai culture revered dying in your lord’s service as the greatest honor. The Meiji indoctrinated and emphasized a sense of value of the individual being a small cog in the larger scheme of things. Samurai culture and conforming to authority was being preached to the populace at large.
The second Sino-Japanese war started in July 1937 when Japan invaded Shanghai, expecting to conquer all of mainland China in 3 months. To their dismay, Shanghai didn’t fall until November. Nanking was next in the conquest.
The Race To Nanking
The Imperial Army plundered and razed communities on the road to Nanking. Suchou (currently Suzhou) went from 350K inhabitants to 500.
General Matsui stipulated moral commandments for the invasion of Nanking, given the attention of the world. However, Matsui fell ill. Prince Asaka’s HQ commanded the army to kill all captives, despite Nanking’s readiness to surrender.
Greatly outnumbered, the Japanese resulted to deception in order to kill captives. The Chinese thought they were surrendering. The Japanese found the concept of surrender unthinkable. Disposing corpses was a logistical problem, e.g., hard to locate ditch-digging zones, insufficient fuel to burn bodies; many bodies were dumped in the Yangzte River.
With Chinese soldiers decimated, the Japanese moved into Nanking to systematically kill civilians. For example, Chinese captives were lined up along the river; the first row was beheaded and the second row forced to dump the bodies into the river before they being beheaded too. That being too slow, the Japanese moved to machine gun setups.
While raping captives was officially outlawed, many soldiers believed raping virgins made them more powerful in battle. They were encouraged to kill the rape victims afterwards to eliminate evidence.
On recovery, General Matsui learned of and was dismayed by the army’s conduct: “I personally feel sorry for the tragedies to the people, but the army must continue until China repents. Matsui even confided to the New York Times. Still, the raping and killing went on.
The Japanese government set up military brothels to reduce raping of captives. The “comfort women” were trafficked from Japanese colonies. Many of them didn’t speak up for a long time because their cultures upheld female purity above all, e.g., Korean Confucianism.
The Japanese soldier was hardened for the task of murdering Chinese combatants and non-combatants alike. To die for the Emperor was the greatest glory; to be caught alive was the greatest shame. Loyalty is heavier than a mountain, and our life is lighter than a feather. If a soldier’s life was not important, an enemy’s life became inevitably much less important.
There was gamification in the Japanese media, e.g., the Dec 7th issue of the Japan Advertiser: Sub-Lieutenants in Race to Fell 100 Chinese Running Close Contest.
References
- The Rape of Nanking. Chapter 0. Introduction. Iris Chang. Nov 21, 1997.
- The Rape of Nanking. Chapter 1. The Path to Nanking. Iris Chang. Nov 21, 1997.
- The Rape of Nanking. Chapter 2. Six Weeks of Terror: The Race to Nanking. Iris Chang. Nov 21, 1997.
Kenyan schools taught 1939 as the start of WWII.