Japanese soldiers stormed China and brutally murdered hundreds of thousands of people, including both soldiers and civilians in Nanking. Around 50,000 women were sexually assaulted, and kids were murdered as if they were not human beings. Once a capital of China, Nanking was left in ruins and the people were left in distraught. The reason why this happened was foolish and unnecessary. Following the bloodshed from the battle in Shanghai (Sino-Japanese war) the Japanese were passionate in wanting to gain more power so without thinking, they decided to attack the citizens in Nanking. The rape of Nanking, a holocaust in disguise, was one of the most devastating brutal attacks on Chinese citizens by the Japanese which resulted in thousands of deaths …show more content…
Not only were families were massacred but children were slaughtered, ‘"They dragged my mom out from under the table and immediately stabbed my sister to death. They just killed her like that," she said, with a sharp wave of her arm,’ (Xia Shuqin). The Japanese soldiers turned their attention to the women and an animalistic hunt ensued. Pregnant women had their stomachs slit open, and the soldiers would throw around the fetus as if it was a ball. In addition, if the soldiers didn’t rape the women in their homes they would drag the women out into the street and heartlessly murder them. The soldiers would profusely gang rape multiple women at one time. Others were used for live shooting and also decapitated, while more drastic mutilations were performed such as burning, nailing to trees, and hanging tungs. The Japanese would execute civilians on the streets and stack the bodies into piles and left them to rot. A man who witnessed the attacks wrote a letter to his family which stated, “The slaughter of civilians is appalling. I could go on for pages telling of cases or rape and brutality almost beyond belief. Two bayoneted cases are the only survivors of seven street cleaners who were sitting in their headquarters when Japanese soldiers came in without warning or reason and killed five of their number and wounded the two that found their way to the hospital. (Robert Wilson, letter to his …show more content…
Following the bloodshed of World War 2 the Americans moved almost immediately into a defensive political positions against the Soviets to block the spread of Communism. The Americans formed an alliance with the Japanese after dropping the atomic bombs in Hiroshima, and continued to keep troops in Japan to keep an eye on the Communist and Soviets. This provoked the Americans to overlook the atrocities committed by their new formed alliance with Japan during the war. Nevertheless, the Communists(Chinese) most notably, the ruler, thought they needed to keep their trading routes with Japan and chose to overlook the atrocities of the Japanese military in the name of economic prosperity. These two events that took place during this time combined to cause “The Unknown Holocaust” to be overlooked in the aftermath of WWII and the Cold War. The fights going on in World War II took away from the horrific attacks in China and was one of the main reasons why it is not widely known across America and even places such as Japan and