Research for Nanjing massacre?

Question

I'm researching the Nanjing massacre and I want to find more primary sources. However, many links for it is outdated. Does anybody know a specific website that has valuable primary sources?

Answer 1

It's going to be TOUGH finding primary sources for this event, especially since John Rabe was the most vocal and the Japanese denied it for so long.

Here's the wikipedia link that has many other links included in it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_of_nanking#External_links

1. http://www.cnd.org/njmassacre/
2. http://museums.cnd.org/njmassacre/njm-tran/
3. (has some great books that you could look up) http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/133p/133p04papers/JChapelNanjing046.htm
4. http://www.geocities.com/nankingatrocities/
5. http://nhs.needham.k12.ma.us/cur/Baker_00/03/baker-bk-aw-gc-03-p7/rape-of-nanking.htm

Here are some books, since if you're writing a report you'll need some information from books, not just off the web.
Abend, Hallett. "Japanese at Nanking." The New York Times. 7 Dec. 1937: Pages 1 and 13.

This New York Times article is a primary source, and is considered so because it was written a day after the U.S. got word of the Japanese entering Nanking.



Chang, Iris. The Rape of Nanking. New York, NY: BasicBooks, A Subsidiary of Perseus Books, L.L.C. 1997.

Iris Chang grew up hearing stories of the Rape of Nanking from her parents who hadn't experienced it first hand, but knew many horrible stories that they told Iris so that the Rape of Nanking wouldn't be forgotten. After years of attending World War conferences, and reading the diaries of military officers and people who experienced it first hand, she wrote a complete story of the deadly massacre. This book discusses how the Japanese got to Nanking, what their motive was, what actually happened in Nanking, and the aftermath.



Chang, Parris H. "Nanjing." World Book Online Americas Edition. http://www.aolsvc/worldbook.aol.com/ar?/na/ar/co/ar380750.htm.

Accessed 7 Nov. 2002.

This is a collection of data about the background of Nanking. It discusses city information, current economical status, and some historical facts including the Nanking Massacre.



"China Incident, 1931-41." The Rand McNally Encyclopedia of World War II. 1977 ed. Bison Books.

This is a description of the second Sino-Japanese War, giving more detail about negotiations and the strategies used, rather than information on Nanking itself. It explained what strategy China used to get the Japanese to leave, and how the Japanese were trying to control China.



Coded Cable from Foreign Minister Koki Hirota sent to Washington from Tokyo. 17 Jan. 1938. U.S. National Archives, Declassified on September 9, 1994. Message found in The Rape of Nanking: An undeniable history in photographs. Young, Shi, and Yin James. Chicago: Innovative Publishing Group. 1997.

This is a primary source because it is a message sent verbally from Tokyo to the Japanese Embassy in Washington from a minister who feels what his country is doing is wrong. He also states, interestingly, that the "better type of Japanese civilians" do feel the shame of their crime.



The Collected Wartime Messages of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek 1937-1945. New York: The John Day Company, 1946.

Although this book focuses solely on the speeches made by Chiang Kai-Shek when China was at war, it is valuable because it does have speeches concerning the Japanese attacks on Nanking and also is an effective source in obtaining information on the relations between China and Japan.



Cook, Theodore F. Jr. "Nanking Massacre." World Book Online Americas Edition. http://www.aolsvc.worldbook.aol.com/ar?/na/ar/co/ar725373.htm.

Accessed 7 Nov. 2002.

This online encyclopedia entry gives an overview of the significant Nanking Massacre topics including death toll, Japanese troops, and effects of the war.



"Disaster at Nanking Spells End of Chinese Republic." Newsweek. 20 Dec. 1937: 9-10.

The magazine article provides an accurate account of how the Chinese Republic is overthrown by the Japanese army. It also gives crucial background information on the relations between nations in Asia at the time. In this issue of Newsweek dated a week after the attacks, the periodical also includes pictures of the Japan army celebrating their victory.



Dorn, Frank. The Sino Japanese War. 1937-41 From Marco Polo Bridge to Pearl Harbor. NY: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1974.

This book describes why they think the Japanese snapped on the Chinese, what they did to the people, and why they thought that they could get away with it.



Durdin, F. Tillman. "300 Chinese Slain on a Peak Ringed by Fires Set by Foe." The New York Times. 9 Dec. 1937: 1, 5.

This article was on the front page of one of the world's most famous newspapers four days before the official end of Chinese rule in Nanking. It is a long, yet precise report on the slaying of 300 Chinese as Japanese troops were taking over Nanking. It is a helpful source in trying to get a sense of how major newspapers wrote about the topic at the time.



Japan: An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Japan: Kodansha Ltd., 1993 p. 1433

This book explains in great detail how the Sino- Japanese War started. It describes the operations Japanese used to take Shanghai. It shows the different areas that the Japanese troops controlled.



"July 1937." "December 1937." The World Almanac Book of World War II. 1981 ed. Bison Books.

This states that Japan was looking for peace, Japan offered a treaty, very harsh, but still rejected. It talked in present tense which makes it seem more interesting.



Katsuichi, Honda. The Nanjing Massacre: A Japanese Journalist Confronts Japan's National Shame. New York: The Pacific Basin Institute, 1999.

This book contains a wealth of information on accounts of specific incidents of the Rape of Nanking. It has many primary source readings, from newspapers, diaries, etc. collected by Honda Katsuichi, a Japanese journalist.



Rabe, John. The Good Man of Nanking the Diaries of John Rabe. NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998.

John Rabe was a German businessman who set up an "International Safety Zone" which protected those who weren't Chinese. It is said that Rabe is the reason why thousands of people lived.



"The Rape of Nanking." MicroPaedia Brittanica. 2002 ed.



"Scarred by history: The Rape of Nanking." BBC News Online. December 13, 1997: BBC News, World, Scarred by history: The Rape of Nanking. News.bbc.co.uk/1/low/world/39166.stm. 11/14/02.

This source describes the numbers of casualties, the background behind the Japanese, and contains some quotes from people who were near the killings.



" Sino-Japanese Wars." Encarta Encyclopedia 2000. CD-ROM. Microsoft Corporation, 1999.

This source describes the second Sino-Japanese war, and the first war, the Undeclared War, and how they led to World War II.



"Sino-Japanese War." Encyclopedia Americana. Volume 29. Pages 373-374. 1999 ed

Though most encyclopedias don't talk in detail of the Rape of Nanking, this Encyclopedia had two pages about the Sino-Japanese War which partially explains what led to the Nanking Massacre and what the Japanese had as a motive.



Special Cable to The New York Times. " Nanking Occupied, Japanese Report." The New York Times. December 14, 1937: Front page, 18.

This has information from both the Japanese and the Chinese. At times, the two sources contradict each other, which makes it a bit confusing, but for the most part, it has quality information.



Young, Peter. The World Almanac of World War II. Prentice Hall, 2000.



Young, Shi and Yin, James. The Rape of Nanking: An undeniable history in photographs. Chicago: Innovative Publishing Group. 1997.

Shi Young and James Yin shared the common interest of their Chinese history and so they assembled this powerful book full of real photographs from the Rape of Nanking. Both men grew up in different parts of China, and, like Iris Chang, did not want the Massacre that killed so many of their ancestors to be forgotten. This book discusses the fall of Nanking, the methods of killing, the assaults of women, the horrific death toll, and much more thorough detailed writings, and pictures that were sadly once reality.

Answer 2

Nanking Massacre Primary Sources

Answer 3

Hey Whitearmo,

The Nanking massacre, commonly known as "The Rape of Nanking", is an infamous war crime committed by the Japanese military carried out by Japanese troops in and around Nanjing (also known in English as Nanking), China, after it fell to the Imperial Japanese Army on December 13, 1937. The duration of the massacre is not clearly defined, although the period of carnage lasted well into the next six weeks, until early February 1938.

During the occupation of Nanjing, the Japanese army committed numerous atrocities, such as rape, looting, arson and the execution of prisoners of war and civilians. Although the executions began under the pretext of eliminating Chinese soldiers disguised as civilians, a large number of innocent men were wrongfully identified as enemy combatants and killed, or simply killed in any event as the massacre gathered momentum. A large number of women and children were also killed, as rape and murder became more widespread.

The extent of the atrocities is hotly debated between China and Japan, with numbers[1] ranging from some Japanese claims of several hundred,[2] to the Chinese claim of a non-combatant death toll of 300,000. A number of Japanese researchers consider 100,000 – 200,000 be an approximate value.[3] Other nations usually believe the death toll to be between 150,000 – 300,000.[4] This number was first promulgated in January of 1938 by Harold Timperly, a journalist in China during the Japanese invasion, based on reports from contemporary eyewitnesses. Many other sources, including Iris Chang's commercially-successful The Rape of Nanking, also promote 300,000 as the death toll.

Answer 4

Try looking for things under the name the Rape of Nanking 1937. That's how it is known in history.

Read Iris Chang's "Rape of Nanking" considered the best book on the subject today. and for the Japanese side try
The Alleged "Nanking Massacre": Japan's rebuttal to China's forged claims by Tadao Takemoto and Yasuo Ohara

Those two sourses would be where I would start.

Answer 5

1. WWW Memorial Hall of the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre
(1937-1938): http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/NanjingMassacre/NM.html (scroll down for links to mainly photographic evidence - haven't gone through many of them yet)

2. Testimony of Japanese historian Ienaga Saburo, who fought his government's denial of the Massacre (links): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ienaga_Saburo (scroll to botoom for links)

3. "Museum Recalls Hero of 'The Rape of Nanjing'" - Story about a new (Nov. 2006) museum about the Nanjing Massacre opening in China - maybe a source of leads for you to follow?: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6415407

4. Interesting discussion with unsourced (but traceable) quotations, "Nanjing Falls to Japanese...": http://www.transpacificradio.com/2006/12/12/nanjing/

Answer 6

Read the book "The Rape of Nanking" by Iris Chang. It gives many personal accounts by not only Chinese, but Germans living in Nanking at the time. It also has pictures (extremely graphic I warn you) and maps. I use this book in teaching about this human rights violation in Global Studies.

Answer 7

Valuable "primary sources"? What about perusing through a few books on the topic, like The Rape of Nanking:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rape_of_Nanking_(book)

Answer 8

http://www.centurychina.com/wiihist/njmassac/

Answer 9

try wikipedia, they wont always have good info, but their refrences can be good.

Answer 10

You should try answers.com.