Hypocrisy
Tang claimed that the army was obliged to «defend every inch of the front line”. If anyone would not follow this order, he would be severely punished. That order meant that soldiers should be ready to sacrifice their lives in order to protect Nanking and stop the Japanese army. The irony was that “Tang negotiated for a truce”. It seemed that he was “eager to do anything to avoid a showdown in the city”.
In the right mind
Before the Japanese army entered the city, almost an entire city had taken a flight. “Anyone with half a brain was determined to get out while he still could”. However, that was a bitter irony. People, who couldn’t flee, were not brainless, they simply had neither money, no strengths to do it. They were the elderly, children, women, the poorest parts of the society and ill people.
Perks of capitulation
The leaflets, which were thrown around by the Japanese, stated that “the best way to protect innocent civilians and cultural relicts in the city” was to capitulate. The irony was that as soon as the city capitulated, the Japanese army started one of the most terrible massacres in the history of the world. Not only cultural relicts were mercilessly destroyed, but hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians were tortured and killed.
