2015 China

31 March, Nanjing to Zhengzhou
Datong Hotel 146CNY

The ongoing debate and controversy about whether the “Rape of Nanjing” occurred at all, and if so how many victims there were, does nothing to lessen the impact of the displays, photographs, skeletons and testimonies housed in the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall.

Wikipedia: “The Nanking Massacre or Nanjing Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanking or Rape of Nanjing, was an episode during the Second Sino-Japanese War of mass murder and mass rape by Japanese troops against the residents of Nanjing (then spelled Nanking), the capital of the Republic of China. The massacre occurred over six weeks starting December 13, 1937, the day that the Japanese captured Nanjing. During this period, soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army murdered an estimated 40,000 to over 300,000 Chinese civilians and disarmed combatants, and perpetrated widespread rape and looting. Several key perpetrators were tried and found guilty at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and the Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal, and were executed...

Since most Japanese military records on the killings were kept secret or destroyed shortly after the surrender of Japan in 1945, historians have not been able to accurately estimate the death toll of the massacre. The International Military Tribunal for the Far East estimated in 1948 that over 200,000 Chinese were killed in the incident. China's official estimate is more than 300,000 dead based on the evaluation of the Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal in 1947. The death toll has been actively contested among scholars since the 1980s...

After losing the Battle of Shanghai, Chiang Kai-shek knew that the fall of Nanjing was a matter of time. He and his staff realized that they could not risk the annihilation of their elite troops in a symbolic but hopeless defense of the capital. To preserve the army for future battles, most of it was withdrawn...  a press release to foreign reporters ... announced the city would not surrender and would fight to the death ... The defense force blocked roads, destroyed boats, and burnt nearby villages, preventing widespread evacuation...

Eyewitness accounts of Westerners and Chinese present at Nanking in the weeks after the fall of the city say that over the course of six weeks following the fall of Nanking, Japanese troops engaged in rape, murder, theft, arson, and other war crimes. Some of these accounts came from foreigners who opted to stay behind in order to protect Chinese civilians from harm, including the diaries of John Rabe and American Minnie Vautrin...”

To accommodate our sobering morning visit to the Memorial Hall (it being closed yesterday) we had had to opt for the slow afternoon train instead of catching the high-speed morning train to Zhengzhou. Nine hours all told. The train was full, with several passengers having booked “standing room” tickets. Again we were the only westerners on board, and objects of interest to those around us. For example, if we bought a snack and I noted the price in my budget booklet, three or four passengers stood up to peer in interest over my shoulder and then discuss my actions with others seated nearby. We are, of course, just as curious about the Chinese as they are about us. We were particularly bemused by the fact that several people boarded carrying 20 litre plastic paint drums containing a thermos of hot water and enough food for a day or two.