The Nanjing Massacre

15 Points Per Correct Answer - No time limit  

1. What are the approximate dates of the Nanjing Massacre? December 1936 - March 1937 September - October, 1937 November 1941 - January 1942 December 1937 - February 1938

2. In the months preceding the conquest of Nanjing, Japanese Emperor Hirohito officially abrogated international conventions for the treatment of captives - to the extent that Japanese staff officers were advised to stop using the term “prisoners of war”. True False

3. Which of the following was NOT a commander of the Japanese forces in the Nanjing campaign? Prince Asaka Yasuhiko General Iwane Matsui Lieutenant General Kesago Nakajima Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto

4. Which of these is the most widely accepted number of those murdered in the Nanjing Massacre? 3,000,000 20,000 1,000,000 300,000

5. Despite the popular naming of “The Rape of Nanking”, sexual crimes were almost unknown in the Nanjing massacre. True False

6. A major pretext for the killings in Nanjing was the Japanese claim that many Chinese combatants had disguised themselves as civilians and were acting as insurgents. What evidence is there that belies these claims? Many of the men killed were already tied and bound, and as such were obviously not killed while fighting All of these Japanese newspaper reports of the time include stories of uniformed POWs marched in columns to the Yangtze River and executed The dead included many women and children

7. Which of these crimes was NOT widely reported during the Nanjing Massacre? Corpse mutilation Grave desecration Theft Arson

8. What finally quelled the depredations at Nanjing? Declaration of war by the United States Emperor Hirohito’s tour of the city There was no definitive end - the massacre gradually trailed off Diversion of troops back to the siege of Shanghai

9. One attempt to mitigate the depredations of the Nanjing events came from foreign national John Rabe, who organized an “International Committee” that established the “Nanking Safety Zone” containing several foreign-owned properties and diplomatic missions, with the United States Embassy roughly in the center. Though Japanese troops did intermittently enter the Safety Zone, Rabe and the Committee are generally credited with saving lives in the tens of thousands. What organization was Rabe a member of that gained him some cachet with the Japanese military? The Red Cross The Nazi Party The Freemasons The US Republican National Committee

10. The Nanjing Massacre is widely acknowledged in Japan as a memory of profound regret, and is memorialized there much as the Holocaust is in Germany. True False