Nanking, then the capital city of the Republic of China, is often called “Nanking Castle.”
As the name suggests, Nanking was surrounded by 12 to 20m-high stone/brick walls whose total length was 34km. Ingress and egress between inside and outside of the Nanking was limited to 9 large gates and several smaller gates.
By December 9, 1937, when surrender ultimatum letters were distributed from over the sky of the city by a Japanese fighter plane, the Nanking Castle was completely surrounded by rapidly approaching Japanese Army. Then General Matsui ordered the halt of advance of all infantry regiments in order to wait for the response of the defending Chinese KMT Army. The deadline of the surrender ultimatum was 12:00 noon sharp on December 10. (See below the attack formation of each infantry regiment.)
Since no errand appeared by the pre-set deadline, all-out attack began at 13:00, December 10.
| @ Yi-jang Gate （ゆう江門） | A Ho-ping Gate （和平門） | B Tai-ping Gate （太平門） |
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| C Chun-shan Gate （中山門） | D Guan-hua Gate （光華門） | E Wu-ding Gate （武定門） |
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| F Chun-hua Gate （中華門） | G Shui-hsi Gate （水西門） | H Han-chung Gate （漢中門） |
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Japanese Army trying to occupy the Chun-shan Gate
Left:Troops shout "Banzai" on top of the Gate after successfully occupied the Gate. Right: Engineering Corp.troops removing sand bags from inside the Gate. |
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There is no motive of mass-slaughtering
The Japanese Army had no motive of mass-slaughtering. They had to win hearts and minds of the ordinary Chinese people. All they wanted was the surrender of the city and possibly the capture of Chiang Kai-shek and several commanders of the KMT forces, who unreasonably broke the peace in August and attacked the Japanese Marines stationed in Shanghai.
Artillery shells vs. infantry shoulder-weapons
Should you want to kill all vipers and alligators inside a cage, what will you do? Probably, you will spray gasoline from the top of the cage and put fire, or shoot or use flame throwers from outside the cage. Surely, you will not go inside the cage and kill them one-by-one exposing your life to danger.
In the same manner, if the Japanese Army wanted to kill all inhabitants inside the Castle as the PRC claims today, the Japanese Army would have used artillery shells or aerial bombardment. However, writers such as Iris Chang and PRC leaders claim that the Japanese generals, from division commanders down to captains of company or platoon units, ordered their soldiers to go inside the cage to kill all inhabitants there by using infantry rifles or other shoulder-held small arms. Their assertions are sheer absurdity from the military viewpoint from the very beginning of their allegation.
Nanking Massacre must be recurring nightmare of the Chinese History incarnated in propaganda
The history of China is imbued with enormous scale of cruelty, barbaric and sadistic behaviors of commanders and soldiers, and horrific mass-slaughter beyond human imagination.
For example, the Chinese word of “屠城” means to “kill all inside the castle.” There is no such word in the Japanese language. “抜城” meaning “fall or surrender of a castle" was often the objective of a warlord, but slaughtering all inside was a totally different concept. The author is well versed in the history of Japan and can assert that mass-slaughter of all people inside a castle was rarely (if not none) an objective in the long history of Japan. In China, however, I am overwhelmed by so many cases of mass-slaughtering.
- The First Nanking Massacre in recorded history occurred in 549 during the Rebellion of Earl Kei （侯景の乱）. After the siege that lasted for three months, the population of Kengyo （建業）, the name of Nanking used at that time, which was “well over 100,000 was almost decimated” as the book titled “Tzu-chi Tung Chen （資治通鑑）” says about the rebellion.
- The Second Nanking Massacre occurred during the last stage of Taiping Rebellion of 1850-64, when Qing Dynasty Army led by Tseng Kuo-fan （曾国藩）, armed with modern muskets and field guns entered the city of Tenkyo （天京）the name of Nanking used by Taiping Rebellion. Tseng Kuo-fan’s war report submitted to the Qing Dynasty Emperor describes how his army had systematically slaughtered the city inhabitants “entirely like cutting grass in a lawn.”
- The Third Nanking Massacre occurred in 1913, during the process of Xinhai Revolution （辛亥革命）when the army of Yuan Shi-kai （袁世凱） entered Nanking. In order to intimidate the people who wish to side with Sun Yat-sen’s Revolutionary Army, the Qing Dynasty Army slaughtered and raped people at will for one month.
- The Forth Nanking Massacre occurred in 1945, when PRC Army entered Nanking and butchered bourgeoisie. Not much is known about this massacre.
Chiang Kai-sek’s KMT Army also committed mass-slaughter during the process of Northern Expedition, when his Army butchered “communist sympathizers” in the Shanghai Coup detat of 1927 (4.12 Coup detat). The estimated death toll is 8,000.
Therefore, the author believes the so-called “Nanking Massacre” is the recurring nightmare of the Chinese history incarnated in the war-time propaganda, or commonly accepted theory mass-murdering/rapes must have taken place after the fall of a city, or manipulation to shift the blame of their own crimes upon the Japanese Army or their combination.
