On this day, 84 years ago, on December 13, 1937 (November 11, 1937 in the lunar calendar), the Nanjing Massacre: a pain that cannot be forgotten – let us remember the national pain. On December 13, 1937, the Japanese invading forces occupied Nanjing. Under the command of Matsui Ishigen, commander of the Central China Dispatch Army, and Gu Shoufu, commander of the Sixth Division, a bloody massacre of Chinese soldiers and the people of Nanjing was carried out for 6 weeks. According to reports, the Japanese army massacred 28 cases in Nanjing, including more than 190,000 people who were collectively shot and buried alive; in 858 cases of scattered massacres, more than 150,000 bodies were buried alone. In six weeks, the Japanese army slaughtered more than 300,000 Nanjing citizens and Chinese officers and soldiers who laid down their weapons. The Japanese army Shōsa Ota Shou, who had participated in the destruction of corpses on the banks of the Yangtze River, confessed that after he and Anda Shosa disposed of more than 100,000 corpses at the Xiaguan Wharf in Nanjing, of which about 30,000 were buried and burned, and the rest were thrown into the Yangtze River. This world-shattering atrocity was widely condemned by world public opinion. In its resolution to try Japanese war criminals in 1946, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East stated that "Japanese soldiers came to insult the city like a group of indulged barbarians" and "committed murder, rape, robbery, and arson." After trial by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, Matsui Ishigen was sentenced to death by hanging. Gu Shoufu was extradited to the Chinese government and sentenced to death in 1947. This is a heinous crime committed by Japanese imperialism in the war of aggression against China.
December 13, 1937. Nanjing, the "city without resistance" sank into the sea of blood.
On the morning of the 13th, the Japanese Army's Gu Shoufu Division first entered Nanjing from the Zhonghua Gate, and the blood washed the refugee areas gathered on Zhongshan North Road and Central Road, thus opening the curtain on a terrible massacre. The next day, the other three divisions entered the northern and southern urban areas of Nanjing and carried out a large-scale massacre. Nanjing, the historic capital, fell into the darkest days in history.
On the 13th, about 100,000 refugees and disarmed Chinese soldiers were forced by the Japanese army to the beach by the Yanziji River, dozens of machine guns were fired wildly, and in a short time, the corpses covered the river, the water did not flow, and at least 50,000 people were killed. On the 14th, the Japanese army collectively slaughtered more than 7,000 refugees and unarmed military and police outside the Hanxi Gate, and on the banks of the river, the corpses were strewn across the river, and the blood flowed into a river and converged into the river. On the night of the 15th, more than 900 nanjing soldiers and civilians who were captured by the Japanese army were escorted to the riverside of the torpedo camp outside the Shangyuan Gate and were massacred en masse, except for 9 people who luckily escaped, all the rest were killed. On the 16th, the Japanese army slaughtered tens of thousands of our innocent compatriots in the area of Shimonoseki Coal Port and Gulou Four Alleys. On the 17th, the Japanese army slaughtered more than 3,000 of our compatriots at the Shangyuan Gate of Xiaguan and killed 400 to 500 people at the Three Forks River. On the 18th, the Japanese army slaughtered 57,000 Chinese men, women, and children in the Xiaguan Caoshoe Gorge, "first with machine gun fire, then with bayonets, and finally poured kerosene, set fire to the fire, and threw all the bones into the river." Before and after this, the Japanese army also killed 28,730 Chinese captured soldiers and refugees in the Shangxin River area. Corpses were everywhere, people were stained with blood, and Nanjing became a bloody hell on earth.
Jiro Suzuki, a reporter from Japan's Tokyo Ilbo Shimbun, wrote: "I entered the city with the Japanese army that captured Nanjing, stayed in the city for four days, and witnessed countless atrocities committed by the Japanese army." "On December 13, an extremely terrible and tragic massacre was seen on the city wall near the Zhongshan Gate. The captives lined up on the twenty-five-meter-wide wall, and many Japanese soldiers, armed with bayonet-mounted rifles, roared in unison and stabbed at the prisoners' front chests or abdomen. One by one, they were stabbed out of the city. Only to see the splashing blood rain spraying into the air, the eerie atmosphere made people sweat and hair stand upright, and I stood there, stunned and overwhelmed. But some of the captives had a sneering smile on their faces, and some of them laughed casually, waiting for death."
Masatsuyoshi Imai, a military reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, said: "On the night of December 15, on the road in front of the Asahi Shimbun office in Dafang Lane, I saw thousands of people crowded with heads and endless Chinese being driven to the Shimonoseki slaughterhouse. On the banks of the Yangtze River, where the sky was dimly bright, a mountain of black and dull corpses was piled up, and in the mountain of corpses there were squirming figures, and there were always fifty or even more than a hundred people, who were forced by the Japanese bayonet to turn around and drag the corpses and throw them into the river. After the operation was completed, the coolies were arranged on the bank of the Yangtze River. Yikes! Yikes! A burst of machine gunfire, only to see the back facing the sky, turning over, jumping in the air, all falling into the river, being swept away by the waves." According to a Japanese officer who was working there, "About 20,000 people were killed here Chinese."
Nanjing ChongshanTang organized the "Chongzi Burial Team" in the refugee area, with 4 detachments under it, starting from this month, from the South Zhonghua Gate and the Tongji Gate, the west from the Shuixi Gate, the east from the Zhongshan Gate, and the city from the south of the city through the Drum Tower to the east of the Rujiang Gate, a total of 112266 corpses were collected.
The Nanjing Branch of the World Red Cross began burying corpses on December 22, burying 129 bodies in Qingliangshan on the first day and 650 bodies in Wangjiangji and other places outside the Zhonghua Gate. On December 28, 6468 bodies were buried in Pude Monastery outside the Zhonghua Gate, which gradually increased to 9721. Their work was not completed until the summer of the following year, and by the end of October, they summarized the figures, and buried a total of 43,071 male and female bodies.
The Red Cross Society of China buried more than 22,300 bodies.
In addition, the Japanese also disposed of a large number of corpses. According to The Japanese headquarters of the Nanjing Berth Field, Shōsa Ota Shouo, the command "disposed" of 100,000 corpses in the Shimonoseki area, using only 30 boats, 10 trucks, and 800 soldiers responsible for carrying the bodies.
According to incomplete statistics, the Japanese army killed more than 300,000 Chinese in the Nanjing Massacre! This is an unprecedented record of atrocities in human history.
The Japanese invading forces held a ceremony to enter the city
A sign celebrating the fall of Nanjing appeared in Tokyo, Japan
Japanese monks are participating in military training
A Nanjing citizen was bitten to death by a wolf dog
The body burial team picked up the body of a toddler killed by an exterminated Japanese soldier
The Japanese invading forces treated the living as rakes
Under the evil smile of the executioner, the Chinese civilians who were about to be killed were making their final prayers
Humiliated Nanjing women
The body of a woman who was raped and killed
I can no longer hear my parents' calls