The Rape Of Nanning Analysis

By any metric, the atrocities performed against other human beings in World War II surpass previous wars on a grand scale. Allied or Axis, no side in particular had the monopoly on causing wanton death and destruction during this period of strife. The firebombing of Dresden and the targeting of civilians in the Holocaust and bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki just prove further that there was a meager worth placed on human life. The Allies, the protagonists of World War II, were also ones to meet Axis violence and cruelty with a version of fighting much similar their foe’s. Total war was the practice that made both World Wars unique from all wars prior to that point as battles were no longer fought between armies but between entire countries. …show more content…
The Rape of Nanking was concealed by the best efforts of the Japanese government during the time by intentionally spreading false estimations of the amount of people killed. In addition to the disinformation spread, The Japanese were also unwelcoming to foreign journalists who could have potentially exposed Japan’s actions to the rest of the world. Japanese propaganda praising sport killing and cultural annihilation were curtailed as soon as international eyes were watching Japan. After Japanese defeat, an insignificant amount of Japanese officers were actually sentenced to death by the military tribunal while most were freed without a second thought. In the following years, mostly all of the history textbooks published fail to cover Japanese involvement in China. The desire to not be inflammatory and to maintain political association with Japan can be blamed directly for the myopic outlook on the Rape of