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The massacre Japanese did outside the city and around the city was far more brutal, more refugees were murdered savagely. In the afternoon of 14th, Japanese suddenly opened the YiJiang gate. They open fire on the crowds of refugees with machines guns, grenade are thrown to the crowds. Tens of thousands of refugees fell in panic, fury and despair. Some of the refugees jumped into the river to die, to avoid being shot to death by the Japanese. The last remainders of the refugees were driven by the Japanese invaders into the river and drown. In a short period of time, tens of thousands of refugees were massacred.
On December 16th, Japanese invaders tied in groups the five thousand refugees that gathered in the Overseas Chinese Guest House ( now 21 N. ZhongShan Ave), moved them to XiaGuan by trucks to massacre, all the bodies were thrown into the river.
The bodies of massacre victims at XiaGuan.
The other places where Japanese massacre concentrated includes YanZiJi and GuanYin gate. Before the fall of NanJing, countless people who were unable to flee far, scattered in the suburbs. Large number of refugees (among them lot of wounded soldiers) also dispersed in the suburbs, most of them along the river. Refugees organized refugee villages. After the fall of NanJing, Japanese invaders searched villages, tied and arrested large number of refugees, total of 50,000. At first the Japanese invaders stopped their food and drinking supply, many died of cold and hunger. The rest of the refugees were driven to CaoXieXia and were massacred there.
The POWs confined at the MuFu mountain. There were about 10,000 POWs. They and other civilians were then driven to CaoXieXia and massacred, 57000 of them. See the map of NanJing
CaoXieXia was originally established as the headquarters of a KMT fortress.
It had torpedo barracks. Japanese invaders drove the refugees here in groups
to be killed. A government functionary had rather detailed record:
"One night, I slept in a big cave in a mountain, there were many refugees ... That night, I heard intense machine gun firing in the CaoXieXia direction, there were about twenty machine guns. We thought that was our army fighting back. Next day, before day break, came two people covered with blood... Told their story: after entering the city, Japanese captured POWs and old and young refugees including children and women, total about 57,000 people. Japanese invaders confined these people in the villages at the foot of MuFu mountain... In the evening of 16th, Japanese invaders tied up these people with wire or rope, drove them to CaoXieXia in four columns, and shoot them with machine guns... After that bodies heaped like mountains, the enemy then bayoneted the bodies. At the end they sprayed kerosene and set the bodies on fire. The two people escaped death by covering themselves with dead bodies. Feng (one of the two) was bayoneted in the right arm, the clothing on both were burnt. "(Reference: "The Hatred of NanJing people" March 10, 1950)
Around the YanZiJi area, there are many ancient temples and there is also a town. A mount sits close to the Yangtze river, from the top of which one can observe the river. "The sunset at YanZiJi" has been a famous scenery of NanJing since ancient times. Before the fall of NanJing, about one hundred thousand refugees gathered here with the intention to cross the river and flee to the North. However, due to the lack of boats, crossing was impossible. From the beginning of Japanese attack on NanJing, the water surface here had been commanded by Japanese war ships and aircrafts, and they started firing on refugees. The refugees began to disperse. But at the same time when Japanese entered NanJing, another group of Japanese rushed to YanZiJi. They drove the refugees to the beach, surrounded them, and shot them with machines guns. Bodies were everywhere, some float on the water, and the river was red; some heaped on the beach, and they were not taken care of until the early summer of the next year. The horrible smell spread several miles.
To the north of ZhenJiang and around LongXi and XianXia, Japanese invaders captured about thirty thousand dispersed Chinese soldiers and refugees, they tied them up and drove them to the valley in the forest farm of the Central University at GuanYinMen, first starved and froze them for a few days, and then set the forest on fire from all directions, all people inside were burnt to death.
