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Article: The rape of Nanjing.
- Article from:
- Contemporary Review
- Article date:
- September 1, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 Contemporary Review Company Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The Japanese army captured the city of Nanjing, then the capital of the Chinese Republic, on 13 December 1937. From then until early February, there was systematic killing of citizens and surrendered soldiers and widespread rape of women. Large parts of the city -- one of the oldest and largest in China -- were destroyed. The incident has come to be known as the `Rape of Nanjing'.
Estimates of those killed range from 155,000 to 320,000. Between 20,000 and 30,000 women were raped. The events in Nanjing over this seven-week period constituted the largest single atrocity of the twentieth century. They deserve record not only because of the scale of the killing and ...