Exploring Causes of Atrocities in Japan's Occupation of China from 1931-1937

Abstract

There is an incredible amount of literature and analysis of the events that transpired in Nanjing during Japanese occupation. In the following essay, I will attempt to add a fresh angle by imposing a framework for understanding the different types of violence that the Chinese suffered through. I will start with a broad overview of Japanese imperial racism and its propulsion of Japan into the Asian continent. This will take me to the Japanese occupation of Manchuria from 1931 to mid-1937 - a relatively tame period of rule - and then into the Sino- Japanese War, which saw exponentially high levels of cruelty in comparison. In essence, my analysis boils down the violence of Japanese occupation to 1937 as either macro-violence (large-scale killings and massacres) or micro-violence (small-scale killing and rape). I propose that while macro-violence was the primary method of subjugating the Chinese, it provided a platform for the proliferation of micro-violence could occur. An often-forgotten front of World War II is the Sino-Japanese War. Some of the most horrific crimes in mankind's history took place during Japan's invasion of China; examples include burning crowds alive and the spearing of babies thrown into the air. The pinnacle of this cruelty is the Nanjing Massacre - a six-week period in which hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians and POWs were believed to have been murdered.