Nanjing Massacre

High school (ages 12+)
History & Culture

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/nanjing-massacre

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the location?Nanjing, China
2. What is the period of atrocities?December 13, 1937, to January 1938 (approximately six weeks)
3. What happened in Nanjing during the Nanjing Massacre?The Japanese army captured Nanjing on December 13, 1937, and for about six weeks they carried out many violent acts, including mass killings, rape, looting, and burning of the city.
4. Why did the Japanese army do those terrible things?The army had broken discipline, a cruel ideology, and a desire for revenge, so they used terror to try to break the spirit of the Chinese people and soldiers.

Second Sino-Japanese War: A large-scale conflict from 1937 to 1945, a major part of World War II in Asia.
Imperial Japanese Army: The land forces of the Empire of Japan, responsible for numerous wartime atrocities.
War Crimes Tribunal: A court established to prosecute individuals for war crimes.
Historical Revisionism: The reinterpretation of historical events, sometimes to deny or downplay established facts.