In the course of their invasion of the country, the Japanese army used germ warfare, releasing typhoid and the bubonic plague in front of them as they marched. By the time they had completed their conquest with the capture of the capital city of Nanking, they had killed between thirteen and sixteen million Chinese soldiers and civilians as they pushed westward.
In order to avoid biting off more than they could chew at the time, they avoided any direct confrontations with the British at the time, and bypassed the island of Hong Kong and the city of Singapore, sweeping across the mainland instead. In spite of being outnumbered nearly three to one in terms of soldiers, the only real resistance they ended up facing was during the last push in the summer of 1937 when the Chinese army held out against them for four months at Shanghai. When that city finally fell, an army of 50,000 set out to take Nanking.
Nanking in the twenties had been a city whose population had only numbered roughly 200,000, but refugees retreating before the invaders swelled that number into the millions. Before attempting to lay siege to the city, the Japanese carried out extensive bombing raids to weaken morale and crush the spirit of resistance. They must have been highly successful, because in spite of a defending army that vastly outnumbered them, they took the city in only four days. That's when the true carnage began.
After disposing of 90,000 prisoners of war (there was a 'no prisoner' edict issued by the Japanese high command in an attempt to dehumanize their soldiers in preparation for what they envisioned being a protracted war of conquest) they set to work on the civilian population. For nine a nine week period – December 1937 to February 1938 - they proceeded to rape any woman they could get their hands on between the ages of eight and seventy, and kill any male who was of military age.
But in the midst of an example of how low humanity can fall, something extraordinary took place that spoke to the potential of the human spirit for greatness. While the majority of foreign nationals had fled when the bombings had begun, a group of twenty American and European men and women remained behind. In the heart of Nanking they cordoned off a two and a half-mile square zone with Red Cross flags and declared it an international safety zone.
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