¶ Allegation
At a battle in Nanking in China (Dec 1937 to Jan/Feb 1938) Japan vs Han Chinese Chiang Kai-shek (KMT: Kuomintang Republic of China) on 2nd Sino-Japanese war, Westerners in Nanking, mostly American journalists and pastors, accused Japanese soldiers for raping and killing civilians. Japanese and Westerners mentioned 40K death including soldiers from the trusted Red Swastika burial team who collected bodies to clean up the city after the battle. Oddly after Japan lost WW2, a new list of burial records by other groups appeared and submitted at Tokyo trial by Republic Of China, claiming the sum of all death tolls soaring up to 200K (matched to Hiroshima/Nagasaki atomic bomb victims, 210K) (See Burial Record).
¶ Conclusion
There was no such massacre of Chinese civilians by the Japanese. No such photos proving that the Japanese killed civilians (See Nanking fake photos). None of the Westerners saw Japanese soldiers killing civilians in person (See Did they actually see?) They only saw the dead bodies or the injured not knowing who did it, or they saw Japanese killing soldiers, whom they thought were civilians. Meanwhile, it was Chiang kai-shek who ordered to execute Chinese people as traitors since even several months before the battle in Nanking, and escaped irresponsibly without giving any proper order. Because of that, the night before Japanese entered Nanking , when a sub leader Tang escaped as well, the remained Chinese soldiers went to a huge panic and ended up with killing each other by other Chinese troopers who were ordered to shoot antone trying to escape, referred to as “a terrible holocaust “ by Fitch and thousands of them tried to escape and drowned at Yangtze river, including civilians. The other Chinese soldiers escaped into safety zone in a city stached their weapons and wore civilian clothings. Japanese military saw it as a threat and mopped up them which Westerners thought civilians were killed.
It is also noteworthy to observe what happened later. Six months after Nanking battle, Chiang ordered to bomb a river to halt Japanese troops causing Yellow River Flood killing up to a million of Chinese people whIle Japanese military worked hard to save them. Yet, western medias never condemned Chiang‘s inhumane act. Two years later, in 1940 Wang Jingei anti-communist new Chinese government was established in Nanking, and Chonqin government Chiang kai-shek called it a puppet of Japanese in his letter to Franklin Roosevelt who financially and Militarily supported Chiang. In 1941, Franklin Roosevelt sent the ultimatum as a condition of releasing the embargo against Japan, by demanding Japan to support only Choqing government (Japanese enemy, Chiang kai-shek) , not Nanking gov(Wang Jingwei), forcing Japan no choice but attack the US, Pearl Harbor.
Quick Summary
I made 4 flashcard-like summaries as a simple takeaway.
Go to the details describing above.
¶ Anti-Japanese people always skip the massacre and holocaust made by Chinese prior to Japanese entry of Nanking on 13th.
Have you heard people say denying Nanking massacre is like denying holocaust? They don’t know Nanking, guess what?? There was description saying “a terrible holocaust” in Nanking, but right BEFORE Japanese entered.
Massacre in Nanking has already began since September 1937 (the battle started on December) by Chinese military KMT, not Japanese, who executed 2000 Chinese civilians for a suspicion of traitors.
On 9th Dec 1937, KMT top leader, Chiang Kai-shek and his wife Soong Mei-ling fled away with US pilot airplane leaving Chinese commander, Tang alone. Japanese leader Matsui sent a message to surrender to spare Chinese soldiers‘s lives and to protect the ancient building in Nanking. Yet Chinese KMT refused and decided to fight till the last drop of a blood absorbed in the land.
On 12th Dec evening, right before the battle, Tang escaped from Nanking, which put the KMT soldiers into a huge panic and they tried to escape as well out of a walled city heading to a north gate, but there was “a terrible holocaust” as Fitch’s note says, the other Chinese soldiers who were ordered to kill those trying to escape shot Chinese soldiers including civilians. Furthermore at north bay at Yangtze River thousands of Chinese soldiers tried to cross and drowned BEFORE Japanese reached on 13th morning. This is all because of the irresponsible Chinese leaders who refused Japanese peaceful proposal and escaped without giving the remained soldiers a proper order.
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After Nanking fall on 13th Dec in 1937, the order of City was restored. The terror of regime by Chiang Kai-shek was gone, and a new autonomous government was set up.
The collection of authentic photos of Nanking after the order was restored.
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Yet, there are many Chinese KMT soldiers who flooded into Safety Zone other than escaping to north, where they are not supposed to enter, and stashed their weapons pretending to be civilians while committing crimes (See KMT crimes).
Japanese military decided a mopping operation for the concern of the safety of the city where KMT still attacked Japanese troops by air raid on 2rd, 16th on Jan 1938 (See Soviet involvement).
Yet, Americans sided with Chiang Kai-shek took it as a massacre and spread anti-Japanese propaganda to the world and even worse, they helped Chinese KMT soldiers hide in Safety Zone, which is the completely unneutral act.
¶ How Americans made up Nanking Massacre twice.
First Nanking propaganda (1937 Dec - 1938)
Since a battle at Shanghai, American journalists had been on the side of Han Chinese Chiang Kai-shek and his wife, Soong Mei-ling. They spread anti-Japanese propaganda in a direct manner such as newspapers or journals with their names on them. Especially at Nanking battle, Steel, McDaniel, and Durdin reported biased stories against Japan, which were observed by Japanese military. The trend of US bias media even went further on June (6 month after Nanking battle) when Chiang bombed Yellow river to cause a flood to attack Japanese troops, causing up to a million of Chinese civilian's death , NY times said Japanese did it citing Chinese source and no single condemnation against Chiang for his inhumane act and posted his wife's posts while Japanese military was straggling with rescuing Chinese people (See Yellow River Flood and Spanish newspaper’s criticism).
The world first report about Nanking massacre is the Chicago newspaper written by Steel, and it is already anti-Japanese propaganda with misleading the title Japanese atrocity yet describing the 5 feet height pile of dead bodies which was made on 12th Dec night right BEFORE Japanese entered a walled city.
While journalists spread propaganda in a direct or explicit manner, American pastors such as Fitch, Bates, his subordinate Smyth, and his senior Milles did in a more indirect or elaborate way as anonymously writing articles on newspapers and books. They also used other nationalities such as German John Rabe, Australian Timperley, without getting themselves involved explicitly. They were also close to Chiang and Soong. Their relation had been there in Nanking as early as 1931 where Chiang had become Christian and protected Christianity for a political reason while other Chinese leaders did not (See Milles‘s paper).
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https://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/Nanking/Images/NMP0097.pdf
Second Nanking Propaganda Tokyo Trial (1945-)
After WW2, there were two war winner trials related to Nanking. At Far Eastern Military Tribunal run by the US, the death count significantly soared up to 200K to 300K (matched to Hiroshima/Nagasaki atomic bomb victims, 210K) with the "non original" burial record submitted to the court by Republic Of China (See Burial Record). Japanese leader at Nanking battle, Iwane Matstui (松井 石根), who has nothing to do with Pacific War(a battle against the US), was brought to the court, sentenced to death, and executed by the US.
Next at Nanking Military Tribune run by Republic of China, other Japanese such as Hisao Tani(谷 寿夫), Tsuyoshi Noda(野田 毅), and Toshiaki Mukai(向井 敏明) were sentenced to death and were executed.
Of course, neither of these war winner courts accused US President Truman for atomic bombs killing 200K people or Chiang kai-shek for Yellow River Flood killing up to 1 million people.
Japanese soldiers indeed killed many captured KMT Chinese soldiers but these Chinese soldiers refused Japanese ultimatum to surrender and have executed/killed civilians/soldiers before/during/after the battle. Especially those Chinese soldiers who escaped into Safety Zone , took off their uniform and stashed their weapons are not qualified as POW.
But above all, the root of problem of Nanking battle is due to the fact that Chinese top leaders, Chiang Kai-shek and Tang who told their soldiers to fight till a last man, trapped their soldiers within a walled city and ordered barrier troops to shoot those escaping, yet cowardly escaped themselves. This brought a chaos at a battle and failed to end it with a minimum casualty.
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