The Rape Of Nanking Essay

“The Rape of Nanking did not penetrate the world consciousness in the same manner as the Holocaust or Hiroshima because the victims themselves had remained silent” (Chang). Many people remember World War II as the mass killing of many Jewish people by Hitler in Europe, but in fact, that was not the only terrible incident to happen during WWII. Nanking, a city in China’s capital had been overtaken by the Japanese Imperial Army who marched into the city of Nanking and proceeded to murder 300,000 civilians and soldiers in the city which was about half the population of the city at the time. In only six weeks, during December 1937 through February 1938, “this would become known as the Rape of Nanking represented as the single worst atrocity during the the Second World War

A group of about 20 Europeans and Americans remained in the city. This extraordinary group of heroes, composed of missionaries, doctors and businessmen. These people took it upon themselves to save the lives of thousands and establish an International Safety Zone. This Safety Zone was located in the center of the city, was about 2.5 square miles and was completely off limits to the Japanese. This group of 20 also risked their lives a plethora of times to interfere and try to prevent executions of men and rape of women and young girls. These Western people worked night and day to aid Chinese citizens, they later became known as the “unsung heroes of Nanking”. A total of about 300,000 people took refuge in the Safety Zone, many people who remained outside the zone eventually perished. These heroes who established the Safety Zone wrote their impressions of the daily life in Nankin one describing Nanking as "hell on earth” and other wrote about the soldiers who said, "I did not imagine that such cruel people existed in the modern world"