Rape of Nanjing

For our mini vacation to the city of Nanjing, we went to this awesome memorial TP has been wanting to see ever since reading THE RAPE OF NANKING. In 1937 the Japanese Army burst into Nanjing, which was the capital of China at this time, brutally raping, torturing, and murdering over 300,000 Chinese and, I read that this number is higher than those who died from the blasts of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. They built this memorial right on the spot where they found mass layers of graves from this event. I find it interesting that I never knew a thing about any of this before moving to China. There is so much I don't know about this culturally rich country. Inside the museum we learned the stories of many who had lived through this and what they saw, some who had survived when they should have died, stories from some Chinese soldiers, and even some from the Japanese soldiers, and we also learned of those foreigners who were in Nanjing at this time and some who didn't flee, but set up houses of refuge, and hospital homes to treat those who had been injured. It was really quite fascinating to hear their stories.

This statue is of Irish Chang, the author of THE RAPE OF NANKING: THE FORGOTTEN HOLOCAUST OF WORLD WAR II.

This represents all the footprints of those who died.

These are the actual mass graves. If you look closely you can actually see at least 4 different layers.

Upon exiting there is a statue which reads PEACE.