THERE I WAS - NANKING

Authors note- this is the first of a planned series similar to the true series. Each one will be based on historical happenings as seen by a viewer that can go anywhere and watch whatever interests him. They are perhaps somewhat different that my other work in that I attempt to open parts of history that have been largely closed till lately. This stuff happened. It is not fiction even if my characters are.  
The rape of Nanking was perhaps one of the worse behaviors by an organized army in modern history. Nothing was forbidden to the victorious troops except for perhaps civilized behavior. Proof that it was   condoned at the highest level is the fact that those non native peoples [ missionaries, businessmen, reporters, and the like] were left strictly alone. The solders even used white owned drug stores to develop the pictures they took of the horrors. 

    We knew the troops would be here soon. With the defenders having thrown down their arms and run for their lives there was nothing to stop the jap army. Within a few hours we were treated to an ad hoc parade of military might as the victors took control. Within a couple of days the city was securely under control and all resistance crushed. Then something happened. I do not know if orders were given or if the men were told that anything was allowed or what really happened but for some reason all control seemed to evaporate.  At first I thought it was just the usual bad actors any army has but then it was clear that something very different was going on. 
    It started with rapes and other sexual assaults but quickly became more that that. After the first few most of the victims were killed. We heard this was because without a victim testifying  the army would not prosecute. Weather or not this was true I never found out but killing the victim was standard throughout the city.  The first rape I witnessed was a mother daughter pair. They were stripped and tied into office chairs with their arms tied around the back and their legs tied to the chair arms. This left them in a position where they could be taken in either hole by any man that knelt in front of them. The situation got worse when one enterprising man discovered that he could straddle the chair and receive oral sex at the same time a buddy was raping the woman. From then on both of them were being used by two at once most of the time. After a few hours the girl died from her treatment. The mother lasted a while longer but in the end she was killed by blows from a rifle butt to her head. They were just left there. 
    It soon became clear that there were some rules in force. No white people were bothered unless they did something clearly out of line. Since I ran a camera shop I was quite busy. It seemed that every one of these sons of heaven had a camera and all of them wanted their trophy photos developed. Needless to say I saw things that still bother me. As I traveled throughout the city I saw that rape was the least of the crimes being committed.  Down by the river I watched as men tossed babies into the air and tried to catch them on their bayonet points. Officers had their own version of the game. They would try to cut the small bodies in half with their swords. Chinese men and boys were forced to rape their mothers, daughters, and sisters  for the pleasure of watching soldiers. When they could no longer perform they were castrated and killed. Women were being forced to beg for children’s lives and  after being used in payment for those lives watching them be killed anyway. Any female between the ages of birth and death was apt to be raped and sodomized. 
    Men faired little better. They were either killed out of hand or worked to death as slaves. Many died from being used for bayonet practice. I saw officers betting on how many men they could decapitate within some time limit or as part of a race between two or more officers to see who could kill the most. I began to see more woman’s bodies with sticks or other objects stuck into the holes between their legs as well as signs of extensive torture. Simple rape and killing was not enough any longer.  
    The sight of naked women alive and dead no longer attracted any comment. We  grew used to seeing  men tied to poles with many bayonet wounds in their bodies. Babies with their heads smashed against curbs became just part of the city life. There were always unattached heads rolling about in the gutters.  The sounds of rape and death, screams and cries for mercy, and the sudden end of one voice failed to register. It was a terrible time. A time and place filled with actions that I thought had been lost in the dim passages of history. Alas I was wrong. The Japanese high command had allowed those dark times to resurface and we had to learn to cope with them and survive. My soul is forever stained.
    I witnessed the rape and killing of one young girl that still stands out in my mind among all the horrors I saw. I don’t know if it was the numbers or what but I never forgot it. She was perhaps twelve or so. She had been out looking for food by the bag she carried. Caught by a large group of soldiers she was pushed and slapped around for a while as an even larger number of men gathered. Finally she fell and was unable to get up fast enough and the rapes started. A line formed at her legs and soon went around the corner. After a large number of men had used her there was a puddle of semen on the ground between her legs. One man turned her over so he could sodomize her and from then on she was used in both wholes. It sounds weird but for some reason I felt compelled to keep track of the numbers involved. I counted one hundred and seventeen men having their way with her and of those about forty sodomized her with some men doing both. At last all the men were satisfied and she was left lying in the street. I thought she must be dead but I was wrong. One or two of the men involved noticed it too and decided to do something about. They forced some kind of grenade into her cunt and fired the timer. Five seconds later fire burst from her crotch as the incendiary bomb exploded inside her. She was still able to scream and she did so in such a manner as I had never heard before. It took at least four of five minutes before the flames stilled her and she screamed the whole time. Awful just awful
    After a while the whole city stank of rotting bodies and the river was full of floating ones. I always thought the whole thing ended because of the lack of victims and the satiation of the troops. There had to be several hundred thousand people killed. Most one at a time after the fighting was over. Bloodlust run amuck and uncontrolled. I find myself reliving the horrors in my dreams and I pray that someday those responsible  will be brought to justice so the murdered babies can find peace. 

Second author’s note- Even today most of the Japanese people do not know about the Nanking rape and  government has refused to make any apologies or offer any explanation. To the best of my knowledge those responsible were never brought to justice.