The Forgotten Chinese Holocaust Essays - Imperial Japanese Army

The Forgotten Chinese Holocaust Can you imagine your body being an object for experimentation while you're still alive? That's one of the things the Japanese did to the Chinese during the forgotten holocaust, the Chinese holocaust. Among the universal disputes between many countries, Japanese aggression on the Chinese was one of the worst events in history to ever take place. The Japanese also destroyed many cities of China. Specifically, they destroyed the city of NanJing by conducting mass bombings and remorseless killings. Other examples of Japanese horrific actions against the Chinese happened in a place called Unit 731. During the 1920's, NanJing only had a population of 250,000. However, during the 1930's, the city was highly populated with over one million residents. This increase was a result of the Japanese occupation and countless refugees fleeing to the city from Manchuria and other Chinese areas to the east of NanJing. The city of NanJing was a safe city for the Chinese until Japanese forces advanced towards it from Shanghai on November 11th, 1937. The Japanese planes bombed the wealthy and more populated areas of the city. The most devastating bombing occurred on September 25th, 1937. Its targets were focused upon hospitals with a red cross on the roof, refugee camps, power plants, water works, and radio stations. About 500 bombs were dropped from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and as a result, there were over 600 civilian casualties. ? On November 25th, Japanese forces attacked NanJing from three different directions. The Chinese city soon fell to the Japanese Imperial Army. As the Japanese entered the city, a massacre began which lasted six weeks. During that time, the Chinese were not simply murdered, but were humiliated, and tortured. The Japanese used unthinkable methods of murder. They chased the Chinese into the Yangtze River with machine guns, drowning them. They poured gasoline on people, shot them, and watched them flicker up. The Japanese cut the eyeballs out of men and then burned them while they were still alive.2 Some Chinese had their hearts cut out. Even babies were skewered and tossed into boiling water. The Japanese soldiers showed to be heartless when they made games out of these atrocities and used the victims as toys. Japanese generals organized contests of who could kill the most Chinese. Whoever killed to most would be the winner. Sometimes the number of bodies reached as high as five hundred in a single contest.3 News reporters came and observed the barbaric competitions and the victors were praised back in Japan. Their generals encouraged the Japanese soldiers to rape whenever they please, and so they did. After which they killed off the women. The victims has their stomachs cut open or their breasts chopped off. ?Comfort women? were kept as sex slaves to serve the Japanese soldiers throughout the day. The Massacre of NanJing was therefore also known as the ?Rape of NanJing.? The Japanese army finally left NanJing when the United States bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the six weeks of horror, NanJing was left in ruins. Nothing was left except the dead bodies that emitted an unbearable smell for miles around. The Japanese started a secret ?research program? during and after World War II. The program was set up to develop weapons of biological warfare, including plague, anthrax, cholera, and a dozen other pathogens.4 Even after the Geneva Protocol was signed by 145 countries, including Japan, to ban all gas and biological weapons. By ?field testing,? Chinese cities were invaded by plague bombs dropped by the Japanese to see if they could start plague outbreaks?they did. The Japanese planes dropped plague-infected fleas over Ningbo in eastern China and over Changde in north central China. No accounts were found regarding how many died of this. The plague caused high fever, vomiting of blood, shivering, respiratory failure, and body pains that resulted in a dark purple body color. Three out of every 4 who contracted this disease died.5 The Japanese hoped to use the soon to be developed weapons on the United States. They proposed using balloon bombs to carry disease to America and they had a plan in the summer of 1945 to use kamikaze pilots to dump plague infected fleas on San