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Rape of Nanking

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Rape of Nanking
Michael Hickson
Mr. Eynon
English 10
5/8/2013
The Rape of Nanking
300,000 people were brutally raped and murdered in Nanking China, and still to this day people don’t believe that it ever happened. The Rape of Nanking is known as the forgotten Holocaust of World War II but is one of the single worst atrocities to happen during WWII in all of Europe and Asia. No ones life was spared in these horrific 6 weeks yet the Rape of Nanking is still unknown to most people.
In 1937 the Japanese military marched into China and began what is known today as the Rape of Nanking. The Rape of Nanking went on for 6 weeks; the Japanese raped and brutally murdered any Chinese civilians they came across. Old woman over the age of 70 and young children at the age of 6 and younger were captured and sexually abused by Japanese soldiers. Many women were gang raped and after stabbed or shot so they couldn’t say anything against them. Some Japanese would force fathers to rape daughters, sons to rape mothers, or brothers to rape sisters while the rest of their family watched. Pregnant women were not spared, they would rape them and cut open their stomachs and pull the fetus of their baby out. Some people were used as target practice. They would even use babies as target practice by throwing an infant in the air and shooting it. By the end of the second day the Yangtze River was known as the “River of Blood” because of the horrid amounts of bloodshed. Many people were lined up and shot with machine guns or used at bayonet practice; some were soaked in gasoline then burned alive. Their fate all depended on if they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Japanese murdered about 300,000 people in just those 6 weeks. Iris Chang, the author of The Rape of Nanking, refers to it as “The forgotten Holocaust of World War II.” Although it is one of the worst atrocities, it is widely unknown outside of China.
Japan had a desire to be a strong imperialistic power, and was motivated to


Cited: * Bonner, Bill. "Daily Reckoning." Daily Reckoning. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2013. * Chang, Iris. The Rape of Nanking. New York, NY: BasicBooks, A Subsidiary of Perseus Books, L.L.C * Chen, David W. "At the Rape of Nanking: A Nazi Who Saved Lives." The New York Times. The New York Times, 12 Dec. 1996. Web. 10 Apr. 2 * "The History Place - Genocide in the 20th Century: Rape of Nanking 1937-38." The History Place - Genocide in the 20th Century: Rape of Nanking 1937-38. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 May 2013. * Jones, Adam. "Gendercide Watch: The Nanjing Massacre." Gendercide Watch: The Nanjing Massacre. N.p., 2002. Web. 08 May 2013. * "The Rape of Nanking, 1937." The Rape of Nanking, 1937. N.p., 2009. Web. 08 May 2013.
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