21T
he morning of December 12, 1937, dawned cold in China’s new capital, Nanking.
Chinese soldiers, weak and demoralized, watched as soldiers of Imperial Japan
maneuvered heavy guns into position for an assault on the city. The Japa nese
attacked from three directions, supported by heavy artillery and aerial bombardment.
Some Chinese troops dropped their weapons and ran, others stripped off their uni-
forms and tried to blend in as civilians, while still others resolved to fight on, beyond
the city.
The next day, Japan’s army entered Nanking; all hell broke loose. Chinese soldiers
who raised their hands and knelt in surrender were simply executed. Many more were
bayonetted or beheaded. Women and girls as young as six or seven w ere raped. Thou-
sands were raped and gang raped each day, and usually murdered afterward. The
rapes, murders, executions, torture, and humiliation of thousands of human beings
were witnessed by an international community of journalists, missionaries, and busi-
nesspeople who maintained del e ga tions in China’s capital. Their letters of complaint
to Japa nese authorities went unanswered. By January 1938, about one month after
the carnage had begun, the Japa nese Army had purportedly murdered a staggering
300,000 noncombatants.The hisTorical conTexT
of con Temporary
inTernaTional
relaTions
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