Figure 1.--Here are some of the 15,000 Chinese soldiers that syrrendered to the Japanese soldiers that surrendered to the Japanese in Nanking. The Japsnese refused to recognized then as POWs. There are nonknowsn survivors. They were divided into small groups abd over the next two months mirdered in many horific ways.

The Nationalists had evacuate Nanking, but there were still many soldiers in the city that had noy yet left. The Japanese upon entering Nanking began bergan murdering Nationalist soldiers. This was the practice throughout the War. At the end of the 7-year war in 1945, tyhe Japanese dus bit hve aby Chuinese POWs to turn ovr. Thy had nujrdered them all. The Japanese military command specifically ordered the execution of Chinese POWs. As many of the poorly led and disorganized soliders had discarded their uniforms, the Japanese often simply rounded up men of military age. Company commanders were ordered to meet to discuss the best way of doing this. One suggestion was to offer the POWs fair treatment and to then divide them in to "groups of 50". An Imperial Army officer advised that once they consented to having their arms bound "the rest was easy". [Chang] Killing methods varied. Officers used their swords to cut off heads. Enlisted men used bayonets, often on men tied up in batches. In fact one officer explained that this was a good training device to harden soldiers. This officer wrote after using his sword to sever a prisoners head, "I felt something change inside of me. I don't know how to describe it, but I gained strength somewhere in my gut." [Shogo] Photographs from Nanking shows rows of severed heads. [Yin and Young]

Sources

Chang, Iris. The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II (Basic Books: New York, 1997).

Tominaga Shogo. Imperial Japanese Army officer.

Yin, James and Shi Young. The Rape of Nanking (Innovative Publishing Group of Chicago, 1996), 328p

CIH -- WW II

Navigate the CIH World War II Section:
[Return to Main Rape of Nanking page]
[Return to Main Japanese mistreatment of Chinese civilan page]
[Return to Min Japanese mistreatment of occupied civilians page]
[Return to Main Japanese World War II mistreatment of civilian internees page]
[Return to Main Japanese World War II war crimes and attrocities page]
[Biographies] [Campaigns] [Children] [Countries] [Deciding factors] [Diplomacy] [Geo-political crisis] [Economics] [Home front] [Intelligence]
[Resistance] [Race] [Refugees] [Technology]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Images] [Links] [Registration] [Tools]
[Return to the Main World War II page]
[Return to Main war essay page]

Created: 10:23 PM 1/12/2022
Last updated: 10:23 PM 1/12/2022