Japanese troops entered the Chinese city of Nanjing on December 12, 1937, and by January 13, 1938, the water problem had become so severe that water was cut off and people could not even wash their clothes. The swamps were contaminated by the dead bodies of Nanjing residents being thrown into them.

 　The massacre broke out after the Japanese military entered the Chinese city of Nanjing from December 12, 1937. Nanking was subsequently devastated, and as of January 13, 1938, water problems became serious. The water was cut off and it was impossible to do laundry. The swamps, or marshes, were contaminated by the dead bodies of Nanjing people being thrown into them, and the situation in Nanjing on January 13, 1938 was such that telephones, telegraphs, mail, buses, cabs, and power cars all ceased to function. The water supply was stopped, and electricity was only available inside the embassy, and only on the ground floor. The British Embassy is still without electricity. 

　Traffic in Nanjing is paralyzed because the Chinese have burned the outside of the city walls and most of the city has been burned to the ground by the Japanese military. No one lives there now. About 200,000 refugees are being housed in the safety zone, a former residential area. Huddled together in houses and garden sheds, the people of Nanjing live out their days. Some 600 refugees are housed in some of the larger areas, and they are not allowed to leave. The Japanese military ordered that the protection of the refugees be taken over by a newly established self-governing committee, and that the rice sales office be closed. 

　The streets outside the Nanjing Safety Zone were deserted and the abandoned houses looked desolate. Chinese women suffered so badly that they could not even see. Food shortages have reached their limits. People in the safe zone have already resorted to horse and dog meat. The safety zone, unauthorized by the Japanese military, was organized by Chairman Rabe and became the last refuge for Chinese non-combatants. The Japanese military units had lost control. The way man wages war would probably not have made much difference if the positions of the Japanese and Chinese had been reversed, especially if there were people to instigate it. In the occupied areas, both in the city of Nanjing and in the countryside, crops were rotting in the fields. It was forbidden to go near the fields in the city of Nanjing, because in the countryside the inhabitants had either fled or been killed. Vegetables, potatoes, turnips, and everything else have all gone bad, and hunger is widespread.