The Pacific War
The Rape of Nanking
The Rape of Nanking is referring to the six-week period of the capture of Nanking in December 7th, 1937. During this horrific period, the soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army had killed hundreds of thousands of civilians and raped more than 50,000 women. In 1931, Japan started their invasion of Manchuria because the Kuomintang and the communists were battling against each other in the Chinese Civil War. This made the Japanese able to quickly conquer major cities in Northwest China. In 1937, the Kuomintang and the communists agreed to fight together to stop Japan from invading more cities, but the Chinese army were too poorly constructed. They were inadequately equipped and trained; some regiments were equipped with few grenades and a sword to defend themselves from the Japanese tanks. However, the Japanese were militarily superior because of their technology. This allowed the Japanese to annihilate the people of Nanking.
America became angry because Japanese were killing many civilians and there was no one willing to stop them. America was an isolationist country, so they did not want to be involved in World War 2 militarily, but they were willing to economically be involved by placing an oil embargo. America was justified for doing this because of the Japanese violation of the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928. This pact was a multinational treaty that had prohibited the use of war. For example, if one country, even if they are not part of the treaty, goes to war, we are responsible to stop them. The rape of Nanking lead America to war because it convinced Americans to stop Japan from invading countries, or they would be next.
Nanking bodies
