Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
internationally recognized as China's capital and the seat of Chiang
Kai-shek's government. Chiang abandoned the city to the Japanese
but did not surrender to them; he and his government relocated far
up the Yangtze to the city of Chongqing (Chungking) in mountainous
Sichuan province, where they remained for the duration of World War
II. Frustrated that their capture of Nanjing did not result in China's
official surrender, the Japanese invaders brutally murdered more
than 300,000 innocent and unarmed civilians in the city. The Rape of
Nanking, as it became known in the West, shocked the world and led
to deep shame in Japan at the end of the war when the Japanese public
learned about it. The Rape of Nanking, a historical reality still denied
by right-wing extremists in Japan, remains today a source of consider-
able anti-Japanese feeling in China, in part because of the Japanese
government's continual refusal to apologize for it officially. A recent
topic written by Iris Chang, The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holo-
caust of World War II (1997), contains graphic descriptions of Japanese
atrocities in Nanjing, including murder, torture, and widespread rape.
Many booksellers in Japan today are afraid to display or sell the
topic for fear of violent and destructive reprisals by ultraconservative
Japanese groups.
By 1944 the Japanese controlled roughly the eastern half of China,
but they never succeeded in conquering the entire country. Chongqing
and Yan'an, the wartime capitals of the Chinese Nationalists and Com-
munists, respectively, remained beyond their reach throughout the
war, although Japanese aircraft bombed the cities whenever they
could. Japanese power in China had begun evaporating by late 1944
and early 1945 as troops were pulled out of China for the anticipated
defense of the Japanese home islands against advancing American
forces.
