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China at the beginning of the 20th century was a happenin place [Chinese people celebrating]

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the Ching dynasty was overthrown in 1911 and replaced by the Republic of China in

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1912 well unfortunately the ROC couldn't keep it together and warlords throughout

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the country took big bites out of the ROCs Authority and don't forget the

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Japanese were there too you know stirring the pot by the 1930s the Kuomingtang

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or the party in charge of the ROC was fighting both the Warlord's and

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the Chinese Communist Party and the KMT also got to look forward to a fight with [Men fighting]

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the Japanese who had invaded Manchuria in 1931

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well that fight began in the summer 1937 when the Japanese invaded China proper

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and started the second sino-japanese war the Japanese began at Shanghai and had a

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surprisingly tough go of it for several weeks before they were able to move on [Japanese soldiers appear running]

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to the city of Nanjing which had been the capital of the ROC for about a

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decade and that was when things took a pretty horrifying turn from December

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1937 through January 1938 the Japanese army committed mass atrocities against

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the population of the city they raped, they murdered, they looted Nanjing and

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committed arson honestly we don't want to get into what happened too much [Japanese soldiers in a boat on the river]

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because well what the Japanese did will make you doubt your faith in humanity

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and if you do decide to delve deeper than what we just said well make sure

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you have a puppy to a hug nearby you'll need it and who the heck knows how many

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people died at Nanjing the estimates range from the tens of thousands to the [Death toll rises]

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hundreds of thousands well the rape of Nanjing was just the

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beginning of a nearly decade-long war that decimated the Chinese population

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and pretty much ruined the country for a long time the Japanese weren't the only

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ones doing the killing either Chiang kai-shek the fascism loving leader of

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the ROC was not above advocating policies that directly resulted in the [Chiang holding the edict of disagreement]

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deaths of his own people that's one of the reason his butt had to book it for

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Taiwan in 1949 like the Holocaust there are those who like to pretend that the

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rape of Nanjing didn't happen or that it was a military maneuver instead of a

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massacre as recently as 2004 Japanese officials have said that the

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atrocities committed in Nanjing never happened or didn't happen the way

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witnesses said they did but like the Holocaust the war crimes committed in

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Nanjing were a real thing photos don't lie and now if you'll excuse us we're

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gonna go a binge on chocolate watch the fluffiest romantic comedy we can find [People with chocolates and puppies]

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and detox from that whole lesson

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