The Nanjing Massacre was a very heinous act that was also unnecessary. The Japanese believed that they were superior and needed to take over China and their capital. Japan could have invaded and taken over China without killing their people so gruesomely. The most common genocide heard about is the Holocaust, but there have been several genocides through history that were just as bad. Genocides like this one should be researched more and recognized to help prevent future genocides. Through researching this genocide I learned about how violent and how badly Japan’s military treated people. It is shocking they killed 300,000 people for no reason but to take over a country. It is very good though that now Japan is demilitarized, not violent and is only helping the world with new technology and science. The quote, “nothing can excuse what the Japanese did to hundreds of thousands of helpless Chinese civilians in Nanking” (Chang), sums up how bad the Japanese were and that they are no excuses for all their executions.
The image above is a memorial to all the people killed in the Nanjing massacre. Memorials like these should be around where genocides took place in order to spread awareness about them (Nanjing Massacre Memorial).
