Walter Bauer 10 April 2012 Dr.

Rakoczy His 2312 The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II by Iris Chang From 1937-1938, Japanese military forces would embark on a massive scale of genocide in Nanking, China. Beginning December 13, 1937, and lasting for another six weeks, tens of thousands of women, children, and men would perish under the Japanese. About 42,000 perished inside the former Nationalist capital while another 100,000 perished in the surrounding region. Chang holds on to a higher estimate of 300,000 Chinese killed from the Tokyo War Crimes records. In addition, the soldiers would rape an estimated 20,000 The Japanese would inflict $836 million to public property and $136 million (1939 U.S. dollars) in private property damages to the city. Chang chronicles this incredible story through three different perspectives: the Japanese soldiers, the Chinese victims who witnessed the atrocities, and several heroes of European and American nationality. Even with these different perspectives, it still is hard to imagine by any stretch of the imagination the sheer enormity of such an event. Chang chronicles the Japanese, beginning in the late 19th century up to the period when the atrocities are committed. The Meiji Restoration in 1868 would lead to Japan industrializing. This industrialization and copying effect (Where the Japanese would send their youth to the West and get an education. Then they would go back to Japan and help further their industrial revolution) would allow Japan to be one of the top five economies in the world by 1911. Before the Meiji Restoration, between 40,000-50,000 Japanese died a year due to subsistence farming. To the Japanese, this seemed normal since they were isolated from the world. Japan would enter treaties with the West, including the Nine Powers Treaty, the Washington System (respecting Chinas right of independence), and several Bilateral Treaties. However, after the Smoot-Harley Tariffs enacted by the U.S., (where Japan had specialized in electronics for the U.S. but was then unable to feasibly sell them without paying a high tax to the U.S. This created a panic as to how to support itself), and witnessing the Western encroachment towards China (and seeing the West divide the spoils in the Middle East with the Ottoman Mandates, they feared the Western powers such as the Dutch, Spanish, Britain, etc. could just as easily go into China and divide the spoils), Japan decided to invade Manchuria (Northeast China in 1931) to act as a buffer against further Western expansion. This was also a way for Japan to further expand its trade with a independent country that was not from the West. From 1931 until their surrender to the Allies on September 2, 1945, Japan conducted heinous operations against the Chinese. Several theories explain the mass genocide in Nanking. Nanking certainly was not the only city that experienced such incredulous casualties. The Japanese would conduct massacres at Singapore (Sook Ching Massacre) and had already been raping and killing Chinese in Shanghai. The Japanese saw themselves as racially superior to the Chinese. This ideology acted as a carte blanche for their genocide and rape. Japan had a Manifest Destiny equivalent that the U.S. held in further expansion for resources and subjugation. Japanese soldiers may have been on a vendetta against the Chinese in honor of those who had perished in the fighting. For instance, in the first six months of fighting, the Japanese had already sustained 70,000 casualties. The Japanese military culture, a vestige of the earlier samurai traditions of blind faith and unquestionable obedience led the military holding into believing that the Emperor was a quasi-

divine figure and that the commanding officers were always right. Japans initial foray into China was driven by a jingoistic political faction bent on doing whatever was necessary for the good of Japan. The harsh treatment of superior officers to their subordinates (based on a strict policy of hierarchy) may have built up unresolved anger and bitterness to the lesser Chinese they were subjugating. By the time Japan was at the gates of Nanking in early December, the Chinese army was too exhausted to continue fighting. The Battle of Shanghai had proven the lack of training and limited resources the Nationalist army had. Tang Shenzhi, the commanding officer left to defend Nanking, ordered 100,000 troops to fight to the death. The troops set up blockades at the ports and roads as well as burning boats and villages to prevent mass evacuation from the civilians. The Japanese, under General Matsui Iwane would come from three different positions on the ground, with the 16th Division attacking from the east, the 10A and 6th from the west, and the 9th in between. Meanwhile, Nanking would experience heavy artillery fire and its first aerial bombing in history. By nightfall on December 13, 1937 Nanking would fall. The Nationalist army attempted to flee, while thousands of others dressed up as plainclothesmen. Civilians were in chaos as the 6th and 116th Divisions were the first to march inside the city. Survivor stories like Tangs showcase in a microcosm the personal horror of genocide and its implicit after effects. Tang decided to venture out the streets against the advice of his fellow companions. Immediately he was rounded up and marched out to a large trench with tens of other Chinese. The Japanese decapitated the row in front of Tang. By a stroke of luck, Tang was able to feign death by falling into the hole with the deceased. He would endure five bayonet wounds by Japanese soldiers ensuring that all the Chinese had been killed. His friends would find him and bring him back to safety. The epitome of Japanese torture included an advertisement placed in a newspaper that detailed a bayonet contest between two 2nd Lieutenants. Live burials, mutilation death by fire, ice, bayonets (decapitations), firing squads, and dogs-the macabre was as unlimited as the sick imagination of the conquerors. Changs counterfactual to the impending genocide and rape is the possibility of Chang Kia-shek pulling out the 100,000 troops and demoralizing the Japanese forces via guerilla tactics. From the third perspective, Chang focuses on John Rabe (a Nazi who benefitted with the alliance between the Nazis and Japanese via the Anti-Comintern Pact), Robert Wilson (the only surgeon remaining), and Wilhelmina Vautrin (head of the Education Department at Ginling Womens Arts and Science College. Each of these individuals kept records during the period and provided instrumental support in saving lives and stopping potential rapes against the Chinese. John Rabe was able to be untouched by virtue of his position in the Nazi Party and the Japanese alliance with the Nazis. He stopped numerous attempts by the Japanese to rape the Chinese as well as save lives with the establishment of the Nanking Safety Zone. Rabe was the head of the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone. This Committee became the de facto government around the time the Japanese invaded the city. Rabe was able to convince the Japanese military to not occupy the 3.4 square mile that constituted the Safety Zone. About 25 refugee camps were established around the U.S. Embassy. 50% of the remaining population (about 200,000-300,000 people) occupied this area and some estimates attribute the Safety Zone in saving 25,000-50,000 lives. Dr. Wilson witnessed three out of four hospitals be attacked and destroyed by the Japanese. He likened the rapes and massacre to Dantes Inferno. He and nineteen others would work tirelessly in saving as many lives as they could at the University of Nanking Hospital. Working for free and rarely taking any breaks, he would be remembered fondly by the survivors.

Wilhelmina Vautrin also stood tall against the destruction and despair. Vautrin utilized Ginling College as a refugee camp. Although she initially favored the registration of women, she soon discovered that the Japanese were registering them as a screening process to determine who the prettiest were. In one month, the Japanese had registered 160,000 potential candidates for rape. Although these three heroes had little experience dealing with such atrocities, they fought on physically, emotionally, and mentally against the tide of terror and oppression. Risking their lives, they were remembered by the survivors and records as shining lights in a dark world. Chang transitions to the outside world and the response. George Fitch, an American journalist, was instrumental in smuggling out evidence of the Japanese perfidy. Photographs and film reels had been smuggled out of Nanking and were sent to the Nazi Party in Germany, while others were used in presentations in the U.S. A big propaganda campaign by the Japanese led to them showing tourists the better side of the city of Nanking. Foreign diplomats were invited in China where they were treated to Japanese treating the Chinese in a kind manner. Posters of Japanese soldiers aiding families were plastered all around Nanking, and planes regularly dropped leaflets displaying Japanese kindness to the citizens. What was even more amazing, apart from the Japanese propaganda, was the U.S. complicity in censorship. After cryptologists decoded RED in 1936, the U.S. learned about the Japanese deception. Nonetheless, the U.S. did not alert the rest of the world of such treachery. Ironically, the destruction of Nanking is not attributed to the initial four day siege. Nanking was still 99% intact. Once the Japanese Divisions entered the city, it would be destroyed mainly through arson. Fires would claim one-third of the city and three-fourths of the stores. Looting of precious artifacts that included artwork, rugs, pianos, gold, and silver treasures. Rampant stealing of food and money from the civilians led to starvations and further demoralization. Opium was the new currency, used as bribes for prostitution and labor. Soon, one-eight of the population would be addicted to the drug. Portions of the remaining population were subjected to medical research via Ei 1644. Exposure to poisons, lethal gases, and germs that included arsenate, cyanide, and acetone led to the murder of tens of Chinese per week. Changs took a rather scathing approach to the Tokyo War Crimes and the Nanking War Tribunal. Lieutenant General Hisoa Tani was the only officer prosecuted under the Nanking War Tribunal. He was executed in March 1947 after being found guilty of war crimes. At the Tokyo War Crimes, 28 Japanese military and political leaders were charged with Class A war crimes, while 5,7000 others were charged with Class B and C war crimes. 13 tribunals were also held in China, leading to 504 convictions and 149 deaths. Several other Japanese officers escaped punishment either through suicide or amnesty by the Japanese government. Political leaders were also granted immunity, including Prince Asaka and Emperor Hirohito. Part of letting notorious parties escape punishment was the U.S. fear of Russia and the rise of Communism in Asia. The Cold War was about to start, and the U.S. needed Japan as an ally. Countries like China (the Nationalists and Communists) and Korea (the impending Korean War) were busy fighting internal wars that consumed their time. Unlike post-WWII Germany, where the stable Allies surrounding Germany held the Nazis responsible at Nuremberg, the Japanese were able to escape such scrutiny in an unstable region in the Pacific. Overall, Chang does an excellent job covering such an incredible period in Chinese history. The three different perspectives look at the different players and the role they played in the culmination of the atrocities. Despite the macabre descriptions and despair, the fearlessness of some people (Rabe, Wilson, and Vautrin) is commendable and shows the might of a few in saving lives and fighting terror and oppression. The complicit censorship in the West along with

amnesty and immunity to several notorious villains showcases the damage done in attempting to reconcile Japans relationship with Southeast Asia. Probably the most terrifying discovery I made are that the Japanese killed 19 million people in Asia during WWII, roughly 7 million more than the Nazis; however, before reading this book I did not know anything about the Nanking Massacre. Further, the fact that Japan continues to deny the genocide and the fact that few people in the West know about it make Japans future rather disconcerting. The whole point of history is to avoid repeating mistakes in the past. The establishment of entities such as Tokyo War Crimes (or Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, for instance) is to bring forth the truth of genocide and injustice. Healing and reconciliation can better be repaired once truth and justice has been carried out. Because of shortsighted foreign policy by the U.S. and the misfortunes of the surrounding nations dealing with their own internal struggles, the Japanese have essentially been able to escape their darkest period in history. The question of whether that can be addressed by future generations or not is now up to Japan and her allies in the Pacific.