Hell on Earth
When Nanking fell, people appeared in the middle of the most brutal and merciless violence. That was “complete anarchy”, where the strongest one had to survive and the weakest one was fated to die. “Thousands of disarmed soldiers and hundreds of innocent civilians” were shot “or used for bayonets practice”. A thousand of women were “crying hysterically and begging you to save them from the beasts”. Thos poor people were made to watch, how their flag was “taken down and insulted”. This image gives an impression of horror and a bitter feeling of injustice.
Raping
To be a woman and live in times of wars means to be a target. The massacre of Nanking took lives of many women, but even more were left emotionally and physically destroyed. Vautrin described “weary women, frightened girls, trudging with children and bedding and small packages”. Many of them “cut their hair” because of a feeling of overwhelming shame”. Vautrin saw an endless stream of “wild-eyed women” of all ages, for the Japanese soldiers had no limits. Vautrin heard stories of “Japanese raping girls as young as twelve and woman as elderly as sixty, or raping pregnant women at bayonet point”. This image gives an impression of helplessness of the civilian people.
Orgy of violence
The Japanese soldiers treated the prisoners of the war and the civilians in the cruelest way possible. There was “death by ice”, when “thousands of victims were intentionally frozen to death”. There was “death by dogs”, when victims were buried to their waist and they were ripped by “German shepherds”. There was one more form of amusement which involved “dousing victims with fuel, shooting them, and watching them explode into flame”. This image gives an impression of cruelty and genuine barbarism.
