1937, China. Confident Japanese troops raise their rifles into the air somewhere near the Chinese capital of Nanjing, 1937. | Location: near Nanjing, China. Image by © CORBIS
CHINA – JANUARY 01: Chinese Puppet Government Set Up By Japan In Nankin. Photographed At Pekin On January 1938. Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images
CHINA – JANUARY 04: Mounted Japanese Troops Passing Under The Chungshan Gate While Entering Nanking, China, On January 4, 1938. Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images
An official Japanese picture of a captured Chinese soldier, Nanking, China, December 1937. With or without uniforms, thousands of Chinese soldiers at Nanking were brutally executed. Photo by Underwood Archives/Getty Images
A Japanese bugle symbolically sounds the victory ceasefire from his position on top of Purple Mountain during the Second Sino-Japanese occupation in Nanking, China, in Jan. 1938. AP Photo
05 Jan 1938, Tokyo, Japan. Japanese Schoolboys Celebrating Fall of Nanking. Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS
The Second Sino-Japanese War occurred as a full blown war between the years of 1937 and 1945. While China was in a civil dispute between the nationalists and communists, Japan entered and a war was started. Before the massacre, Nanking only had around 250,000 residents. However, due to Japanese/Chinese fighting since 1931, the Chinese government moved the capital from Peking to Nanking. This raised the population well over a million people; many of them were refugees. Imgur
Japanese forces storm a barricade during the fighting in Nanking. ABC
Sources For Further Reading:
History Channel – Nanking Massacre
Encyclopedia Britannica – Second Sino-Japanese War
Medium – The Tragic Story of the Rape of Nanjing
BBC News – Nanjing Massacre: Denmark Honors Hero Who Rescued Chinese
Medium – The Nanking Massacre: 80,000 Gang-Rapes and Millions Were Killed
The Japan Times – Japan Complains After China Says 300,000 Died in Nanking Massacre
Facing History – “I Will Never Forget”: Voices of Survivors
BBC News – Japan Hotelier’s Nanjing Massacre Denial Angers China
CNN – Fury Over Japanese Politician’s Nanjing Massacre Denial
The Washington Post – A Short History of Japan’s War Apologies
All That’s Interesting – “The Forgotten Holocaust”: 27 Tragic Photos From The Rape Of Nanking
