Introduction
The Nanjing Massacre is also known as “The Rape of Nanking,” happened on 7th July 1937, in the ancient city of Nanking (Nanjing) in China (Timothy 673). The cruelty of the treatment met on men and women of Chinese origin by the invading forces can never be forgotten. Through mob defilement and torture, many of them were killed and multitudes of others cruelly wounded and shocked. The Japanese army swept into the ancient city of Nanjing and within six weeks, looted, burned the city and even murdered more than 300,000 Chinese civilians (Timothy 674). Even so, the Japanese government refutes the account of this cruelty-one of the evilest in world record. In the initial aggressive phase of the war from July 1937 through February 1939, the Japanese armies established control over all of North China and the most important, parts of East China including the City of Shanghai, along with all the major cities in the Chang (Yangtze) River Valley region and along China’s long coastline (Yang 840).
Debate
There was a debate advanced by historians who began confronting Japanese editing of school textbooks regarding the episode. This debate ignited a rise in the refutation and revisionist lobby group in Japan. The Japanese consider the “Rape of Nanking” a hoax, and a malicious lie being used in an “information war” against Japan for the world to discredit the Japanese army and its proud history, despite eyewitness testimony from journalists, and even Japanese soldiers confirming the atrocities, while China and European countries see it as barbaric murder (Iris 79).
The Rape of Nanking argument is based on three perspectives: that of the Japanese soldiers who performed it, that of the Chinese civilians who endured it and finally, a group of Europeans and Americans who refused to abandon the city and were able to create a safety zone that saved almost 300,000 Chinese (Yang 851). As a fact, the Japanese military committed atrocities after the fall of Nanking, killing a large number of Chinese during the Battle of Nanjing. Nevertheless, the exact details of the war crimes are a source of controversy among the Japanese, the Chinese, and also the American historians to this day.
Effect of the conflict on Sino-Japanese relationship
This conflict affected Sino-Japanese relations, and still remains a controversial issue in both countries, that an unbiased description has yet to be established. However, most would perhaps agree on the following: The Nanjing Incident refers to the killing and raping of large numbers of Chinese over a relatively short period of time by the Japanese military after the city of Nanjing was captured on 13 December 1937, and for Sino-Japanese relations, the Nanjing Incident is a pillar in the construction of the modern Chinese national identity (Timothy 679).
The Nanjing Incident is vital for the study of Sino-Japanese relations and forms one of the main historical issues on which Japan and China disagree and continues to poison Chinese opinion of Japan. It is also forms the basis for crucial perceptive of contemporary Japanese home politics and also a touchy topic in both home and international political scenes in the two countries. Despite all the attention in Nanjing, however, the events that unfolded in the unfortunate incident are a mystery. In conclusion, this issue still remains controversial and many argue that it could have been a catalyst for the Second World War.
Work Cited
Iris Chang, The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II (Penguin Books, 1997). [Hege Library Course Reserve]
Timothy Brook, The Tokyo Judgment and the Rape of Nanking, The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 60, No. 3 (2001), pp. 673-700.
Yang Daqing, Convergence or Divergence? Recent Historical Writings on the Rape of Nanjing, American Historical Review (1999), pp. 842-863.