The goal of this web page is to educate readers about the events that occurred in Nanking, China, between 1937 and 1945. This page was initiated as the result of a project for the class Sociology 127: Bargaining, Power, and Influence at Stanford University, taught by Professor Karen Cook. The aim of this site is to examine Nanking's occupation by the Japanese from a sociological perspective and answer the following question: How is it that a group of human beings, even soldiers, could commit such a mass of atrocities under the guise of war? The response that we propose is that there were sociological, cultural, and psychological driving forces that pushed the Japanese troops to commit such crimes against humanity. It is not enough to simply write off the events occurring before, during, and after the massacre at Nanking as mere brutality and insanity.
We have tried our best to present as objective a view of the events at Nanking as possible, as our objective is not to push the reader to favor one side or the other. Instead, it is our hope that this page may help to educate people as to why it is that even normal people like you or I could fall into the trap of immoral behavior. It is our responsibility as citizens of humanity to safeguard against the recurrence of events as atrocious as those that occurred at Nanking. With educational resources like this one and others people can remain aware of the potentials for disaster that can be avoided. We hope that this site can serve as a valuable resource to you and please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or comments.
Warning: This web site contains some material
that is graphic in nature. It is meant for a mature
viewing audience.