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400,000 People Killed in Nanjing Massacre: Expert
An article written by Sun Zhaiwei, research fellow from Jiangsu Academy of Social Sciences, revealed for the first time that Japanese troops, during their seven months' Nanjing occupation in 1937, also killed more than 100,000 unarmed civilians in the suburbs of the city. Therefore the total number of Chinese people killed by Japanese soldiers during Nanjing Massacre had reached 400,000.
Entitled "On the Preparation, Implementation and Extension of Nanjing Massacre", the article points out that the vast Nanjing area, which extends southwards to Hangzhou Bay, northwards to the Lanzhou-Lianyungang railway line, and westwards to the Tianjin-Pukou railway line, and eastwards to the Grand Canal, is the only way for Japanese troops to enter Nanjing City and further enlarge their occupation. Japanese officer Matui Iwane drew up "Essentials for Attacking and Occupying Nanjing" by himself on December 7, 1937, ordering infantrymen to carry out "mopping-up" operations. What's more, a series of confidential documents were also issued in early December, giving order to kill all captives.
As a result, piles of corpses could be seen wherever Japanese invaders went. The first right-route Japanese troops had successively occupied Changshu, Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, Danyang, Jintan and Zhenjiang, killing 6,774 people in Suzhou alone and setting fire that burnt for three days and nights in the city. While the middle- and right-route Japanese troops advanced to Nanjing via Jiaxing, Huzhou, Changxing and other cities in northern Zhejiang Province. Its first unit of the sixth regiment stormed and captured Pingwang Town in Wujiang County on November 14, shooting down 400 civilians who found it too late to run away.
Statistics indicate that Japanese aggressors had already killed 45,400 civilians and unarmed soldiers before they entered Nanjing City. During the massacre period from December 1937 to February 1938, Japanese forces killed 40,800 civilians in counties near Nanjing, namely Jiangning, Jurong, Lishui, and Liuhe counties. During the period of occupation extension, they also killed 16,500 people along the Hangzhou Bay, southern Anhui, the Tianjin-Pukou railway line and northern Suzhou.
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