Rape Of Nanking Research Paper

The Rape of Nanking refers to the atrocities committed by the soldiers of the imperial Japanese army against the citizens of the Chinese city of Nanking, the massacre took place between six weeks from December 13th, 1937 and January 1938 and the resulted in the slaughter of anywhere from 50 to 300 thousand Chinese citizens. The rape of Nanking is commonly considered one of the most heinous acts of war time slaughter, it forever will mold the reputation of the Imperial Japanese Army and their blatant disregard for the rights of the enemy combatants. The Japanese army had been expecting easy fighting in their march across china, when they were met with heavier resistance which slowed their progress, this angered them and spurred them on to be

“The Japanese had even bragged they would conquer all of China in just three months. The stubborn resistance by the Chinese troops upset that timetable, with the battle dragging on through the summer into late fall. This infuriated the Japanese and whetted their appetite for the revenge that was to follow at Nanking.4” The Japanese army channeled the anger from the delays suffered in the battle of Shanghai and managed to gain control over Nanking within a matter of days. The atrocities that would follow would have been impossible without the dehumanizing aspect of war on those involved in the

The Japanese were a culture of maximum obedience and extreme self-discipline. Children at a young age were also drilled with ill beliefs towards the Chinese. The school systems as well as the type of military that was taught and displayed set the tone for what was yet to come. The schools ran a very tight ship and became very competitive. This taught children from a young age to fight for what you want and not to stop until it is achieved, no matter what method needed to be used. Japan treated their armies brutally with the goal to make them even tougher and to have the ability to withstand anything. They needed their fighters to be extremely tough, vicious, and to hold nothing back. The laws at this time allowed for the military to act and control in this type of manner. The culture and the motto of the Japanese was centered around the belief that “The strength of the military is representative of the strength of the nation.1” The shaping of the youth as well as how powerful their militant government was profoundly impacted and contributed to the events in