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Those suffered most from the barbarity were women. They were not only raped by the Japanese, they were often brutally killed by the Japanese after the rape. "Sometimes (Japanese) cut off their breasts to reveal their white ribs; sometimes Japanese pierce through their lower body with bayonets, let them cry in pain! Sometimes they sticks wooden sticks, reed pipe or carrots into their lower body and stir, until they are dead, Japanese soldiers clap their hands and loudly laugh alongside" (Ref. The Record of the Brutal Acts of the Japanese Invaders, Political Department, KMT Military Commission, Published July 1938).
A Chinese who were taken by the Japanese to serve as a cook told the following
story after he escaped:
"On December 16th, I went to the streets, smoke and fire flames had not yet been extinguished. The number of the dead bodies of my countrymen was terrifyingly large, especially there were many corpses of women... Eight of ten of them had their abdomens being cut open, intestines squeezed out. There were several mothers laid died together with their fetuses covered by blood... the breasts of these female bodies were either cut off or bayoneted into a mixture of flesh and blood ..."
(Ref. "Blood debt--- Eye witness of the brutal acts of the enemy in the Capital", DaGong paper, Feb. 7th, 1938 )
Another Chinese who buried bodies in the suburbs told the following:
"The bodies in the villages, piled up in tens or hundreds, laid in ditches, ponds, fields or among haystacks. The horror of the scenes is hard to describe. Especially women..., their faces were dark, teeth fell, cheeks broken, blood in their mouth, their breasts had been cut off, chest and abdomen had been pierced through, intestines dragged on the ground, lower abdomens had been kicked at, their bodies had been bayoneted randomly."
(Ref. "Photographic history of the atrocities of the Japanese army", DaHua Publishing House, 1946 edition. )
During the period of the NanJing massacre, inside and outside the city, many female bodies laid like this: in a house close to the city wall at the XinZhong gate, laid the body of woman in her sixties, her lower body bloated; on north YangPi street, a girl laid dead, with her abdomen being cut open and intestines dragged out, two eyes wide open, blood in the mouth. In GuYiDian street, a girl of age twelve laid dead, her under-ware was torn, her eyes closed and mouth open. These facts tell us: these women not only died under the butcher' knifes of the Japanese, they had been humiliated before they died.
The crime of rape that the Japanese committed were extremely savage, just like their brutal murders. The Japanese officers never restrained these brutal acts, they even encourage them, to satisfy their soldiers animal desire. As a consequence, Japanese invaders raped wherever they went. In ShangHai, SuZhu, WuXi, HangZhou... Japanese invaders did the same. The fate of the women in NanJing were particularly miserable.
After the fall of NanJing, Japanese invaders searched everywhere in NanJing in groups, whenever they found women, they gang raped them. "The Japanese brutal acts witnessed by foreigners" by Tian BoLie recorded the reports of the atrocities in NanJing, most of them were rape. Just take a few, and one can see the crimes of the Japanese army:
"December 14th, noon, Japanese soldiers broke into a house in JianYin street, they kidnaped four girls, raped them for two hours.
December 14th, night, Japanese soldiers broke into the homes of Chinese residents, humiliated women, or took them away...
In the night of December 15th, a large group of Japanese soldiers broke into the dorm of Jingling University, raped over thirty women, several women were gang raped by more than six Japanese.
In the night of December 15th, many Japanese soldiers broke into the resident homes in ShanTiao street, humiliated many women.
December 16th, Japanese soldiers kidnaped seven girls from Infantry University, aged from sixteen to twenty-one. Five of them were later released. According to the report of 18th, they were raped over six times a day.
In the dusk of December 18th, about four hundred and fifty women fled to our office, requesting protection. Many of them were raped by Japanese...
(See. "The Japanese brutal acts witnessed by foreigners", p189--199, quoting the report from NanJing International Committee. )
Here, we only listed a few cases in the first couple of days after the fall
of NanJing. In fact, "Rape...continued in large scale during six weeks
after the fall of NanJing" (See. "Judgment of International Military
Tribunal for the Far East " p458 ). These crimes were not only the acts
of the Japanese soldiers, but also the acts of the Japanese low and high
ranking officers... The principal criminal of the NanJing massacre
himself, raped Din Lan and other two women
near ZhongHua gate, raped Liu YuQing and other three women at SaiHongQiao,
raped over ten women at other places.
(See. "Suit against the principal criminal of NanJing massacre", HePing
Daily, December 31th, 1946).
Japanese invaders not only raped to satisfy their animal desire... These animals often gang rape women and then kill them and mutilate their bodies. Many women were gang raped by several, tens of Japanese, the results were usually the death of the victims. The bodies of this kind of victims were everywhere. ...
....
During the Massacre, among the rape victims, there were wives of professors, nuns, workers, teachers, students, etc,etc. Even more shocking is the following report:
"At the end of February, a refugee family of fourteen people were all murdered by Japanese. The youngest daughter was only fourteen, she died on two square tables, upper body dressed, lower body totally stripped of clothing, blood was all over the tables, her lower body was bayoneted twice. An elder daughter died in the bed, in the same way as the younger one. The mother died at the table, with a one year old baby in her arms. The baby was also cut by knife, intestines flew out of the body, too horrible to look at. Members of the International Committee went to investigate, and took photos, and sent the photos to members of US citizenship and the Jap embassy..."
" Young girls were usually not mature,..., the Japanese then tear open their lower body and gang rape them."
(Ref. "The Atrocities of Japanese Invaders", Du ChengXiang, Time Publisher, p55, 1939 edition )
...
Even pregnant women were not spared. "At
7:30 PM of December 19th, two Japanese soldiers gang raped a seventeen year
old woman who has been pregnant for 9 months, led to the abortion of the
fetus, the woman became insane. (Ref. "Judgment of the
International Military Tribunal for the Far East" p 451) Outside HongWu
gate, Japanese soldiers raped a pregnant woman in a farmer home, and then
cut open the abdomen of the woman and took out the fetus. In another case,
Japanese soldiers wanted to rape a pregnant woman, her mother-in- law struggled
to stop them, the Japanese were brutal than anything, they kicked the old
lady, and cut the pregnant woman with knife, a fetus of several month flew
out of the body, in a moment two lives ended like this.
(Ref. XinHua Daily, Feb 24th, 1951)
Many women were killed after being raped. One Japanese officer advised his
subordinates, "To avoid too many troubles,...kill them after
that" (Ref. "A Photographic history of the atrocities of the
Japanese army ") Many female victims could never tell their stories.
But there was one woman escaped from such death. She originally lived at
No 6, JianYin Street. She and several women were taken away by the Japanese,
they washed clothes during the day, and were gang raped during the night.
The elder ones were raped ten to twenty times a night, the younger and prettier
ones, even more. On January 1st, two Japanese took her to an abandoned school,
bayoneted her ten times, four times on the back of her neck, one wound in
her arm, one on her face, four on her back, the Japanese thought she was
dead and left. She was later found by passing-bys and sent to hospital, and
finally survived. Some rape victims, though not killed, contracted sexual
transmitted diseases, suffered all their lives.