Dates & causes
The Asian-Pacific War lasted from 1931-1945 and was fought by Japan and Thailand on one side, and the United States, Great Britain, Australia, and other allied states (Li, Peter). In this 14 year war, the brutal Japanese military murdered over 50 million in China, Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, and Indonesia. Of these 50 million, 30 million of those killed were Chinese. The Japanese viewed China as a colony and wished to take over China in an effort similar to that of the American dream of manifest destiny. The Japanese went about achieving this much differently in an absolutely horrid manner, however.
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The "Rape of Nanking," refers to a period lasting from December 13, 1937 and to February 1938 (Li, Peter). In this seven-week period, over 300,000 Chinese were slaughtered and it is estimated that over 80,000 Chinese women were raped (Li, Peter). The extreme amount of horrifying rapes are why this period is referred to as the "Rape of Nanking," obviously. Japanese soldiers went through Nanking, the then capital city of China, and burned, looted, murdered, and raped everywhere they went. Wherever they marched, destruction followed. To put it into perspective, 300,000 deaths and 80,000 rapes over seven weeks is about 6,122 murders per day and 1632 rapes per day.
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After the war, the Japanese faced little to no consequences for their war crimes. The Japanese emperor, Emperor Hirohito, remained in power until his death in 1989. The Japanese post-war denied any wrong doing and acted like everything they did was perfectly okay. They viewed their actions as an attempt to expand their land and power, and therefore refused to acknowledge any wrong doing. Many of those in power stayed in power and received no punishment. They simply went back to work afterwards and regarded what happened as a lie (Li, Peter).
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