Nanjing Massacre

The Nanjing Massacre or the Rape of Nanjing was the mass murder of Chinese civilians by the Imperial Japanese Army in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, immediately after the Battle of Nanking and retreat of the National Revolutionary Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The massacre took place over a period of six weeks beginning on December 13, 1937. Estimates of the death toll vary from a low of 40,000 to a high of over 300,000, and estimates of rapes range from 20,000 to over 80,000. Most scholars support the validity of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, which estimated that at least 200,000 were killed. Other crimes included torture, looting, and arson. The massacre is considered one of the worst wartime atrocities in history. In addition to civilians, numerous POWs and men who looked of military-age were indiscriminately slaughtered.