Forgotten History: Nanking

In late November of 1937 the Japanese troops in China turned their attention onto the city of Nanking. Nanking was the newly established capital of the People's Republic of China, but Japan wanted it for their own. For weeks bombs were dropped on the city in an attempt to weaken it. The attempt was successful. Nanking fell to the Japanese forces on the thirteenth of December 1937. This was the day that the real nightmare started for the citizens of the city.

The Japanese forces did not stop waging war on the city just because it had fallen. In fact, it was not until they had breached the walls that the true horrors began. On December thirteenth the 66th Battalion of the Japanese army received the following command: “All prisoners of war are to be executed. Method of execution: divide the prisoners into groups of a dozen. Shoot to kill separately. Our intentions are absolutely not to be detected by the prisoners.” By the time they were done conservative estimates suggest that between 260,000 and 350,000 people were murdered, tens of thousands of whom were young military men. Just as ghastly, estimates suggest that between 20,000 and 80,000 women were raped.

The death tolls alone are an astonishing number. There is every likelihood that these ‘conservative’ estimates are too low. Yet, even though a horrifying number of people were killed, most people in the world do not know anything about it. It seems significant to note that the amount of people killed in Nanking equates to more than WWII casualties for the countries of Great Britain (61,000), France (108,000), and Belgium (101,000) combined. These are horrifying numbers in themselves, yet pale in comparison to Nanking. The people of Nanking were also different because of the fact that most of them were unsuspecting citizens, not military officials.

It is important not to forget the people that suffered during this period of time, but forget we have. The world knows little about what happened in China during World War II. When we think of the Second World War we remember the Holocaust. Although both events were horrific, the world helped to hide Nanking. The victims were silenced and the evidence discredited.