During the Nanjing Massacre of the Sino-Japanese War, the bodies of children massacred by Japanese forces from December 13, 1937, to March 28, 1938, lay scattered throughout Nanjing City.

   The Nanjing Massacre during the Sino-Japanese War saw the bodies of children and women slaughtered by Japanese forces from December 13, 1937, to March 28, 1938, scattered throughout Nanjing City. Immediately following the Battle of Nanjing, Japanese soldiers committed acts against the Chinese citizens of Nanjing that violated the laws of war, including the execution of prisoners of war, the killing of civilians, looting, arson, and rape. These atrocities persisted from the Japanese Army's march into the Nanjing area starting December 13th of the Nanjing Campaign until March 28th of the following year. 

   Upon entering Nanjing, the Japanese forces carried out the horrific Nanjing Massacre during their sweep of the city, considered the largest massacre in modern history. According to witnesses of the events, “20,000 men, women, and children were killed,” and Nanjing was said to have become a city of blood for four weeks. Almost all women, regardless of age, suffered barbaric violence, and every single home was looted. “Publicized worldwide as the Japanese Army's rampage in Nanjing,” the Japanese Army's honor was utterly destroyed. Fearing the truth would leak out, the Japanese Army imposed strict censorship on all news sources. However, some foreigners remained behind, and the facts could not be concealed. It was precisely the atrocities in Nanjing that ultimately led China to wage total war. 

     Despite the sheer scale of the victims raising doubts that defy common sense, the facts were established at the authoritative Tokyo Trials. Photographs purported as evidence of the Nanjing Massacre, showing rows of Chinese victims' corpses, force Japanese people to confront anew the horrors of war and the magnitude of the crimes their own people committed. At the Tokyo Trials, General Matsui Iwane, commander-in-chief of the Nanking campaign, was sentenced to death solely for his responsibility in the Nanking Incident. At the Nanking Military Tribunal, which tried Class B and C war criminals, those involved were also executed. In China, the existence of the massacre is accepted as an unshakable fact.