Battles & Wars › Between the wars › Second Sino-Japanese War
Nanjing Massacre
December 1937 – January 1938· Event· Asia & Pacific
Well documentedSolid records, physical evidence or scientific consensus.
After capturing China's capital in December 1937, Japanese troops killed large numbers of prisoners and civilians over several weeks.
See it on the Battles & Wars map →What happened
Japanese forces took Nanjing (Nanking), then China's Nationalist capital, on December 13, 1937. Over about six weeks, soldiers executed surrendered troops and men suspected of being soldiers, killed civilians and committed widespread rape and looting. A small group of Westerners, led by German businessman John Rabe, ran a Safety Zone that sheltered roughly 200,000 to 250,000 people. The postwar Tokyo tribunal estimated over 200,000 dead; China's official figure is 300,000.
Why it matters
It became the defining atrocity of Japan's war in China and remains a central, painful issue in China–Japan relations today.
How we know
Diaries of John Rabe and other Western residents, photographs and film, Japanese soldiers' diaries, burial records, and testimony at the Tokyo and Nanjing war-crimes trials.
Still debated
The death toll is fiercely disputed, from tens of thousands to over 300,000. A fringe in Japan denies the massacre; mainstream historians in Japan and elsewhere accept it.
Connections (2)
▸Nanjing Massacre was an atrocity committed early in Second Sino-Japanese WarWell documented
The connection
After heavy losses taking Shanghai, Japanese armies raced to Nanjing, the Nationalist capital, expecting its fall to force China's surrender. Instead the massacre hardened Chinese resistance and drew international condemnation. Chiang moved the government inland, and the war went on for nearly eight more years.
When and how
Nanjing, December 1937 to January 1938, by troops of Japan's Central China Area Army under General Matsui Iwane.
How we know
Western residents' diaries, Japanese soldiers' records and the postwar Tokyo and Nanjing tribunals; Matsui was convicted and executed in 1948.
Debates and open questions
Why discipline collapsed so completely, and whether killings were ordered or merely tolerated, is still studied; the death toll remains disputed.
▸Nanjing Massacre was judged at war-crimes trials after World War IIWell documented
The connection
After World War II, the Allied International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo and a Chinese tribunal in Nanjing tried Japanese commanders for the massacre. General Iwane Matsui was hanged in 1948 for failing to stop it, and the Nanjing tribunal had General Hisao Tani executed in 1947.
When and how
Tokyo, 1946–48 (International Military Tribunal for the Far East), and Nanjing, 1946–47 (Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal).
How we know
Trial transcripts and judgments survive, including evidence from Western residents who stayed in the city, such as John Rabe's reports, and from Chinese survivors.
Debates and open questions
The death toll remains disputed: the Tokyo tribunal estimated over 200,000, China officially cites 300,000, and some Japanese scholars give much lower figures.