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Zoe Tew
Ms. Kadlecek
12th History
13 March 2018
The Forgotten Holocaust
It can be assumed that whenever one hears the term “holocaust,” his/her thoughts turn
immediately to images of an antagonistic Hitler and millions of murdered Jews. However, the
definition of holocaust, destruction or slaughter on a mass scale, is much wider and applicable to
more scenarios than the infamous one previously mentioned. The Rape of Nanking should be
considered the “forgotten holocaust,” because its history has been avoided and because of the
extreme loss of life and ruin that occurred.
The Rape of Nanking began on December 13, 1937. As part of their conquest of China,
the Japanese had previously invaded Shanghai and were marching towards the “newly
established capital of the Republic of China” (Newsweek Staff 1). The Japanese wasted no time
and spared no Chinese life if they could help it. On the journey itself to Nanking, Japanese
soldiers had already begun their mass destruction, plundering farms and bayoneting all the
civilians that they could find on their way, taking women into sexual slavery, and burning
Chinese landmarks. Despite Nanking’s population being much greater than that of the Japanese
invading them, the Japanese capture of the city came much easier than anticipated. The Japanese
deceived the Chinese, through, “promising…fair treatment in return for an end to resistance,
coaxing them into surrendering themselves to their Japanese conquerors, dividing them into
groups…and luring them (away)…to be killed” (3). Nanking’s Chinese citizen did not put up a
fight; any resistance was “sporadic,” and Chinese soldiers even “turned themselves in” (3). Thus
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the slaughter carried on. The Japanese absolutely massacred the city; their shooting was random,
and only based on the circumstance that their victim was Chinese. Civilians were clubbed,
bayoneted, beheaded, burned, and shot. Women of all ages were ruthlessly raped; they took them
as captives for “sexual intercourse and abuse,” and eventually murdered them as well. The
reason behind Japan’s extreme aggression towards the Chinese is found in the upbringing of
Japanese boys. Not that it makes their destruction justifiable, but Japanese boys were taught from
a very young age that Japan’s destiny was to conquer Asia and eventually the world and that all
Chinese people were inferior and worthy of hatred. Militaristic values and the idea of war/death
were embedded in their minds at childhood. The Rape of Nanking, to them, was an absolutely
necessary duty.
As astonishing as it may seem, the Rape of Nanking is an “obscure incident” (2). The
