In December 1937, the Japanese army entered Nanjing waving the Rising Sun flag at the city gates. Numerous Japanese soldiers at Nanjing's Zhonghua Gate stared at the scattered corpses of the many Chinese who had been massacred.

    Japanese troops waved the Rising Sun flag at the gates of Nanjing as they entered the city. Numerous Japanese soldiers at Nanjing's Zhonghua Gate stared at the scattered corpses of massacred Chinese people. The three characters “Zhonghua Gate” were left by the Chinese garrison troops, while the four characters “Swear to avenge the nation's humiliation” were inscribed on the gate's walls.

  The Kwantung Army was promoted from the Shanghai Expeditionary Army to the Central China Expeditionary Army. Pursuing the Chinese forces, it prepared to advance on Nanjing. When the Expeditionary Army strongly advocated occupying Nanjing, the order to occupy Nanjing was finally issued on December 1. On November 20, the Imperial General Headquarters was established, marking the full-scale escalation of the Incident into war. However, the Imperial General Headquarters severed ties with the Japanese government and began acting increasingly arbitrarily. 

   The Kwantung Army entered Nanjing on December 10 and finally occupied it on December 13. The Japanese army committed a massacre in Nanjing. Defenseless civilians were captured, humiliated without reason, and slaughtered. In Nanjing alone, up to 50,000 women and children were killed. It is estimated that up to 300,000 non-combatants were killed in the fighting between Shanghai and Nanjing. In addition, looting of civilian homes was rampant, with Japanese soldiers transporting stolen goods using looted automobiles and carts. The Chinese people's resolve to resist grew ever stronger. The Nationalist Government, refusing to yield and defying Japanese expectations, relocated its capital to Hankou and strengthened its policy of resistance.