On this day, 13 December 1937, the Nanjing massacre began when Imperial Japanese troops captured the city which was then the capital of China and began six weeks of murder, looting and rape which left 40-300,000 people dead. (Content note: this post contains graphic descriptions of violence and sexual violence)
Japanese media at the time covered a contest between two army officers to see who could be the first to kill 100 people with a sword. After they surpassed the figure, they began another contest to see who could kill 150.
Tens of thousands of civilians and surrendered soldiers were machine-gunned and thrown in the Yangtze River, blown up with landmines, or burned or buried alive. In addition to murders, around 20,000 people – children and adult and elderly women – were raped by Japanese soldiers: many of them were gang raped, and assaulted by being penetrated with bayonets, bamboo or other foreign objects.
Despite the fact that the atrocities were widely reported by Chinese victims, foreign eyewitnesses, Japanese participants and even Japanese generals and other officials, as well as being filmed and extensively photographed, many Japanese politicians and ultra-nationalists today try to deny that the massacre even took place.
After hearing of the massacre, dockworkers in Australia refused to load pig iron onto ships delivering materials to Japan. https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1291520331033114/?type=3
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