| by Sheng Hongshi The historical motive of the Nanjing Massacre by the Japanese invasion of China

December 13 is national memorial day for the victims of the Nanjing Massacre. In the Nanjing Massacre, a large number of civilians and prisoners of war were killed by the Japanese army, and countless families were torn apart, while exposing the crimes of the Nanjing Massacre, people can't help but ask, what is the historical motive of the Nanjing Massacre of the Japanese army invading China?

This is a very complex issue

On December 5, 1937, the invading Japanese army launched a campaign to attack Nanjing, and after occupying Nanjing on December 13, it carried out a massacre that was rare in history and shocked China and foreign countries. In more than 40 consecutive days, the massacre of more than 300,000 Chinese soldiers and civilians, while carrying out crazy robbery, burning, and adultery, became one of the most brutal war atrocities in World War II.

After confirming the historical facts of the Nanjing Massacre of the Japanese forces invading China, people often ask: What was the historical motive of the Nanjing Massacre of the Japanese army invading China? This is an old problem, but it is also a very complex problem.

Some Japanese scholars say that the atrocities in Nanjing were committed by Korean soldiers in the Japanese army at that time, which is obviously inconsistent with historical facts. The main forces of the Japanese army that attacked Nanjing were the 3rd Division (Nagoya Division), the 11th Division (Zentsuji Division), the 9th Division (Kanazawa Division), the 13th Division (Sendai Division), the 16th Division (Kyoto Division), the 6th Division (Kumamoto Division), the 18th Division (Kurume Division), and the 114th Division (Utsunomiya Division), which had distinct local Characteristics of Japan, and there is no historical data to show that there are formed Korean soldiers in these Japanese units. Some Japanese scholars also say that the atrocities in Nanjing were committed by peasant soldiers who had just joined the Japanese army, which was also untenable. The Nanjing Massacre of the Japanese Army was by no means an individual act of a small number of Officers and Men of the Japanese Army, but an organized and premeditated collective action.

The author believes that the Nanjing Massacre of the Japanese army invading China is the continuation and development of the policy of armed conquest and terror deterrence carried out by the Japanese militarist authorities in the course of aggression and expansion against China for many years since the Meiji Restoration, and is the highest peak of this fascist policy; at the same time, it is also a turning point in the bankruptcy and failure of this policy. It has both a strong barbaric color of the medieval army slaughtering the city, and a distinct crazy characteristic of Japanese militarism.

Japan hopes that "Kosho" will repeat itself

In the many wars of aggression waged by Japan against China in modern times, the supreme Authorities of Japan have always been superstitious and have gone all out to carry out the use of military conquest and terror deterrence in war as a means to force the Chinese military and people and the Chinese government to fear and submit, to achieve the purpose of forced peace by war, but in fact to force the surrender by war, and to realize and satisfy Japan's various rights and interests demands on China.

As early as 1894, japan relied on its rapidly increasing army and naval strength to launch a deliberate war of aggression against China, forcing the Qing government to submit and signing the "Maguan Treaty" with Japan, which was unprecedentedly humiliating and humiliating. This was the first successful success achieved by the Japanese authorities in pursuing China's aggressive policy of conquest by force and terror deterrence of war. Since then, with the further enhancement of Japan's national strength and military strength, Japan's aggressive policy toward China has also escalated one after another.

However, the Japanese authorities' plans to invade China and their aggressive actions met with unprecedented resistance and resistance in China in the 1930s. The anti-Japanese salvation movement of the Chinese people was at an all-time high; the Chinese Government always refused to recognize the pseudo-"Manchukuo" and refused to agree to the "specialization of North China." This made the Japanese authorities restless, and the Japanese hardliners, who occupied the mainstream position, advocated promptly launching a war against China and coercing the Nationalist Government in Nanjing into submission by force.

On June 9, 1937, Hideki Tojo, who was chief of staff of the Kwantung Army, suggested to the highest Japanese authorities: "The Nanjing government should be dealt a blow first... The best policy". On June 4, 1937, Fumimaro Konoe of Japan formed a cabinet. This is a cabinet dominated by hardliners in China. On July 7, 1937, after the Japanese army provoked the Lugou Bridge Incident in Beiping, the hardliners in the Japanese authorities immediately demanded that they take the opportunity to send heavy troops to China, defeat the Chinese army in World War I, and quickly force the Chinese government to surrender. Japanese Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe said arrogantly: "To beat the Chinese people to the knee and surrender is to destroy their will to fight." Akira Muto, chief of the third section of the Japanese General Staff Headquarters, regarded the occurrence of the Lugou Bridge Incident as a "fortunate event" and the beginning of the military conquest of China, saying: "A pleasant thing has happened!" "End the war with one blow." When discussing the increase in troops to north China, Nagatsu Sasuke, head of the China Section of the Japanese General Staff Headquarters, said: "As soon as the ship reaches the surface of the Dagu Sea, there is no need to land, and China will raise its hand and surrender." ”

Japan's top authorities have an almost arrogant superstition about their military might, and they simply cannot see the major changes that have taken place in China at this time: national unity and unity with the Kuomintang-Communist cooperation as the core. Japan's highest authorities hope and are very confident that the scene and outcome of the Sino-Japanese War will be repeated in China in 1937.

The japanese dream was in vain

Since the Lugou Bridge Incident on July 7, 1937, Japan's policy of military conquest and terror deterrence against China has suffered repeated setbacks and failures. The Chinese people of all strata have set off an unprecedented and unprecedented struggle to resist Japan and save the people, which has ruined the Japanese authorities' dream of forcing the Chinese Government and the Chinese military and people to surrender to Japan.

First in the North China Battlefield. The Japanese authorities dispatched troops to form the "North China Front," and they believed that "once the commanders of the three divisions of Itagaki, Doihara, and Isoya came out, wouldn't they be able to solve the incident in one fell swoop?" However, the Japanese army soon suffered setbacks in the Battles of Baoding, Shijiazhuang and Nankou, and suffered heavy losses at Pingxingguan and Niangziguan. The Japanese army failed to eliminate the main force of the Chinese army, and still less did it make the Chinese government submit to it.

As a result, the supreme Japanese authorities gradually moved the main direction of operations to Shanghai. On August 13, 1937, the Battle of Songhu began.

However, the Japanese authorities, acting in both military and diplomatic terms, implemented a colonial policy of "forced by war" and "forced to surrender by war" against the Chinese government and the Chinese people, and quickly failed. The Japanese suffered heavy casualties in Shanghai, which lasted about three months and paid the price of more than 60,000 casualties, and occupied Shanghai on November 12. On November 5, when german Ambassador Todmann conveyed to Chiang Kai-shek in Nanjing the Japanese government's surrender conditions that China must accept, Chiang Kai-shek immediately "sternly refused them." On November 20, 1937, the Nationalist government announced that the capital would be moved to Chongqing on the same day. As the capital of China, although Nanjing knew that the enemy was strong and we were weak, and that the terrain of Nanjing was unfavorable to defense, the Nationalist government still decided to use part of its troops for short-term defense.

The tough attitude of the Nationalist government in Nanjing in refusing to surrender and insisting on resisting the war of resistance made the Japanese top authorities even more angry. More and more of them believe that in order to achieve a "forced surrender by war" more quickly, it is still not enough to capture Only Beiping, Tianjin, and Shanghai; it is necessary to capture Nanjing and carry out a harsh "punishment"," the massacre, in order to force the Chinese government and the Chinese to feel afraid and quickly and completely submit. As the famous American figure Bai Xiude analyzed, the Japanese top authorities "felt that the fall of the Chinese capital had ripped off the heart of China's War of Resistance, and felt that Chiang Kai-shek would be willing to make peace." ”

On December 9, Matsui Ishigen used warplanes to airdrop thousands of copies of the "Letter of Persuasion" to the city of Nanjing. The terrorist deterrent of naked burning and looting: "The Japanese army will shoot and kill those who resist,...... If your army continues to resist, Nanjing will not be spared from war, the essence of the thousand-year culture will be destroyed, and the ten years of painstaking management will be wiped out. But the Nanjing defenders dismissed it contemptuously. Matsui Ishigen "ordered two armies to attack the city of Nanjing in the afternoon" on the 10th. The Japanese fired fiercely, even violating public international law and gassing poison gas. The Chinese defenders fought "against steel" with their tired and broken divisions and flesh and blood. The sound of gunfire inside and outside Nanjing was deafening, the sound of killing was earth-shattering, the two sides were short-armed, and positions were repeatedly competed for.

On the evening of December 13, the Japanese completely occupied Nanjing. The military and people of Nanjing ignored the "Letter of Persuasion" and resolutely resisted, causing heavy casualties to the Japanese army. The Japanese authorities were ashamed and angry, and they carefully planned and carried out the massacre of the nanjing soldiers and civilians. According to Johann Raabe, the representative of Siemens in Nanjing, who chaired the International Committee for the Nanjing Security Zone, he met with Fukuda, a diplomat at the Japanese Embassy in Nanjing, on the second day of the Japanese invasion of Nanjing. Fukuda told them: "Japanese soldiers envisioned a 'tragic fate' for this city."

However, contrary to the expectations of the Japanese authorities, the Japanese army's armed occupation of Nanking and the frenzied massacre failed to frighten and submit to the Chinese military and people and the Chinese government. Japanese historian Akira Fujiwara pointed out: "During the occupation of Nanjing, the Japanese army set off a large-scale massacre. This atrocity of the Japanese army has further strengthened the anti-Japanese fighting spirit of the Chinese people. ”

History proves that the Japanese army's capture of Nanjing and the Nanjing Massacre were not only the highest peak of the policy of military conquest and terror deterrence carried out by the Japanese supreme authorities against China, but also the beginning of the failure of this policy.

Jing Shenghong (according to Unity Daily)

Source: Purple Cow News