Nanking ~ Nanjing ~ 南京

So much has been written on the Nanking Massacre, one of the most infamous events in world history, that there is little need to further the discussion here. Those interested in this subject should look on the numerous sites that relate to the massacre, which took place from December 1937 to February 1938.  The author G.H. Thomas would get to know Nanking only after the war, when he lived there from 1945-47. The following information, however, is not based on his experience there but on modern Internet sources and magazine articles of the period.
NOTE: None of the information on this Web page is included in the book "An American in China."
	Sinking of the USS Panay  A full 20-minute film on this important event, a precede to Pearl Harbor, can by seen at this link. Norman Alley, a Universal News cameraman, was able to capture the last hours of the Panay while being evacuated along with other journalists from the city before the Japanese onslaught.
NANKING, an official selection at the Sundance Film Festival, 2007  Directed by Bill Guttentag, Dan Sturman Click here for link. Woody Harrelson and Mariel Hemingway read letters and diaries from contemporaries of the horrific events. Released in China in July, opening in the U.S. in December
UNIVERSITY OF NANKING, ca. 1920s The institution was founded in 1888 by the Methodist Church. In 1952 it merged with the National Nanking University (founded in 1902) in 1952. It is now referred to as Nanjing University or Nanjing Daxue, or Nanda, for short. The Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies here is jointly administered by Nanjing University and the Johns Hopkins University. Pearl Buck taught English Literature here in the 1920s. The campus became the core of the International Safety Zone that was set up to shelter refugees during the Rape of Nanking. The University Hospital was reportedly the only facility available for treatment during this period. Interesting note: After the fall of Nanking in 1937-38 the institution moved some 900 miles west to Chengtu. Chiang Kai-shek became a Methodist in 1929 to please the Methodist father of Soong May-ling, known as Madame Chiang Kai-shek after she married Chiang in 1927.
The horrific fate suffered by Nanking at the hands of the Japanese has so overwhelmed the history of this city that it is hard to visualize it before the Japanese occupation. The images that the Westerner retains from a study of history and from television documentaries are generally marked by slaughter, terror and destruction. Yet by contemporary accounts it was (and still is) a pleasant and progressive metropolis, rich with historical landmarks, not the least of which are its 600-year-old surrounding wall and the impressive Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, built in 1925. Sun Yat-sen proclaimed Nanking the capital in 1912 but this proved impractical and so the seat of government remained in Peking. In 1928, however, Chiang Kai-shek made it the capital again and so it remained until 1937 (at which time it was transferred to Chungking in the interior.) In the ten years under Nationalist reign, it made impressive strides in modernization, developing an electric-light system and a clean-water-distribution network, among other improvements. It could confidently bear the title of capital, which had been taken from haughty Peking, at the time unceremoniously dubbed Peiping, meaning Northern Peace, although rarely ever called that. Nanking was also the capital after the war, from 1945 up to the Communist takeover in 1949.
70th Anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre Schoolchildren held candles to observe the 70th anniversary of what is known in the west as the Rape of Nanking, when according to local accounts, some 300,000 Chinese were killed. Read the article in The New York Times               Photo: Han Yuqing/World Picture Network
The Ministry of Communications Building Built in 1935 by a Russian architect in the then popular Chinese Palatial style, this structure was intended to impress and it certainly succeeded. Today, many of the Republican Era buildings in Nanjing that were designed by top architects of the time are now under the protection of a plan drafted by the Nanjing Urban Planning Institute. However, this is not one of them. In a terrible twist of fate, the building, the most ornate in the city, was set ablaze on Dec. 12, 1937, by Nationalists soldiers, determined to leave no important edifice standing for the Japanese. A reporter for the Chicago Daily Tribune, wrote in his journal on that day. "Because the building was used as a powder magazine, the big bursts and fires continued like hell was set free, and the panic of the crowd got worse." Photograph by Alfred T. Palmer, from The National Geographic.
Meiling Villa 美龄宫 Built in 1931 in the Nanking area as a retreat for Chiang Kai-shek and his wife, Soong May-ling. Again, in the Palatial style, which combined Western and Chinese elements.
Hollywood in Nanking Norma Shearer (visible on poster at left) stars in "Romeo and Juliet" at a movie theater in early 1937. This photograph is by the journalist Julius Eigner from The National Geographic.
Old photograph of Nanking showing the Ming wall and a lake.
USS LUZON AT NANKING, Sept. 1937 Taken shortly before the Japanese occupation, this photograph of Nanking reveals a shoreline not unlike that of Chungking at the time. The gunboat was in the city to take the U.S. ambassador, Nelson T. Johnson, and his staff to Hankow. In the summer of 1938, the gunboat was then called upon to take him and the embassy to Chungking when Hankow too was about to fall in Japanese hands. G.H. Thomas photographed the Luzon when it arrived in Chungking with Johnson on Aug. 10, 1938.
Nelson T. Johnson US. amabassador to China from 1929-1941. In 1933 he made the cover of Time.
The Porcelain Pagoda 南京陶塔 It is impossible to write about Nanking without mentioning the Porcelain Pagoda, at one time considered one of the seven wonders of the world. The remarkable edifice, constructed in the 15th century AD, was built with white porcelain bricks that were said to reflect the sun's rays during the day. At night numerous lamps were hung from the building, one of the tallest in China, to illuminate it. The pagoda was mostly destroyed in the 19th century by the fanatic Taipings. It is said, however, to be under reconstruction today. The pagoda was immortalized in the West in a poem by Longfellow.  It is THE THE
The Sacred Way at the Ming Xioling Mausoleum The first emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) was buried here but the mausoleum was ransacked by Taiping rebels in the late 19th century. Each of the six different animals guarding the path to the tomb has a symbolic meaning.
A cover for a packet of Nanking postcards issued under the Japanese occupation, generally for the soldiers. A startling fact of the Nanking Massacre is that it is completely denied by many in Japan. At the end of the war, the U.S., eager to mend ties with the conquered nation and quickly settle the issue of war crimes, did not address the issue. In Nanking one night the diplomatic corps was giving a dinner for U. S. Ambassador to China Nelson T. Johnson to celebrate his 30th year of diplomatic service. Shortly after midnight the bantering, toasting diners heard the sudden scream of sirens. They knew they were about to be raided from the air, but decided to stick it out. Through the moonlit sky roared a squad of Japanese bombers, plunked incendiary bombs on the capital's poorer districts. Three times they returned, until the more congested quarters of the city were in flames. One hundred and fifty coolies, trapped in squalid mud huts, were burned alive. - Time, Sept. 6, 1937