Nanjing Massacre
The Nanjing Massacre was a prolonged episode of mass killing, rape, and looting carried out by Imperial Japanese troops after they captured the Chinese capital, Nanjing, in December 1937. It remains one of the most notorious atrocities of the Second World War in Asia, and it continues to shape relations between China and Japan today.
The massacre grew out of the full-scale war that began in July 1937, when fighting near Beijing escalated into a wider conflict. Japanese forces landed at Shanghai in August and fought a bloody three-month battle against Chinese defenders, suffering heavier losses than they had expected. Troops then advanced rapidly up the Yangtze River toward Nanjing, the seat of Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government. Discipline appears to have eroded during this march, with supply problems, anger over casualties, and contempt for Chinese civilians and soldiers all contributing. The Nationalist government withdrew to the interior, and Nanjing's defense collapsed in the second week of December.
After the city fell, Japanese troops killed large numbers of captured Chinese soldiers, many of whom had surrendered or discarded their uniforms, as well as civilians. Mass shootings took place along the riverbank and outside the city walls, and widespread rape and arson struck the city over the following weeks, commonly described as lasting about six weeks. A group of foreign residents, including the German businessman John Rabe and American missionaries, established the Nanjing Safety Zone, which sheltered many thousands of civilians. Their diaries, letters, and photographs, along with film footage, became crucial evidence of what occurred.
The death toll is disputed. The International Military Tribunal for the Far East, held in Tokyo after the war, cited figures above 200,000, and a separate Nanjing tribunal gave a number exceeding 300,000. China officially states 300,000. Some Japanese and Western historians offer lower estimates, often ranging from tens of thousands to around 200,000, depending on how the city's boundaries, the time frame, and military victims are defined. Scholars broadly agree that the atrocities were real and on a vast scale, with tens of thousands of rapes also widely cited.
Japan's wartime commander of the Central China Area Army, Matsui Iwane, was convicted and executed after the Tokyo trials, as was Tani Hisao, who was tried in Nanjing. In the decades since, the massacre has remained a source of tension. Japanese officials have acknowledged wrongdoing at various times, yet a small number of nationalists have denied or minimized it, and textbook disputes have repeatedly strained diplomacy. In China, it is commemorated with a national memorial day on December 13 and a memorial hall in Nanjing.