The International Committee for Nanking Safety Zone
Encyclopedia
The International Committee was established in order to protect and reinstate the Nanking Safety Zone
. Many Westerners were living in the city at that time, conducting trade or on missionary trips. Following the departing Chinese government, most foreigners also decided to leave the city. As the Japanese army began to approach Nanking, most of them fled the city. A small number of Western businessmen, journalists and missionaries, however, chose to remain behind. The missionaries were primarily Americans from the Episcopal, Disciples of Christ, Presbyterian, and Methodist churches.
The Westerners who remained behind established the Nanking Safety Zone which was composed of a score of refugee camps that occupied an area of about 3.4 square miles (8.6 square kilometers). The Safety Zone was bordered by roads on all four sides, and had an area of approximately 3.86 km², with 25 refugee camps centred around the US Embassy. This is approximately the same size as Central Park
in New York.
To coordinate their efforts, the Westerners formed a committee, called the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone. German businessman John Rabe
was elected as its leader, partly because of his status as a member of the Nazi party and the existence of the German-Japanese bilateral Anti-Comintern Pact
.
Rabe and other refugees from foreign countries tried to protect the civilians from getting killed by the Japan
ese. The Japanese didn't recognize the Safety Zone, and hundreds of men and women were raped and killed. Due to Rabe's efforts some 250,000 people were protected during Nanking Massacre
.
which was composed of a score of refugee camps that occupied an area of about 3.4 square miles (8.6 square kilometers). The Safety Zone was bordered by roads on all four sides, and had an area of approximately 3.86 km², with 25 refugee camps centred around the US Embassy. This is approximately the same size as Central Park
in New York.
Whenever Japanese soldiers entered the Zone, they were closely shadowed by one of the Westerners. The Westerners repeatedly refused to comply with demands made of them by Japanese Army soldiers, placing themselves between Japanese soldiers and Chinese civilians.
Committee members frequently contacted Consul-General Okazaki Katsuo, Second Secretary (later Acting Consul-General) Fukui Kiyoshi and Attaché Fukuda Tokuyasu to deal with the anarchic situation.
was one of the leaders of the Committee and worked to secure the safety of the population of Nanking
. This task was dangerous and his life was put at risk on many occasions, most notably when he was shoved down a flight of stairs by Japanese military police
after inquiring about the fate of a student who had been abducted by Japanese soldiers.
To enhance his influence in dealing with the Japanese, the directors of the University of Nanking appointed him Vice President of the University on January 13, 1938. Only two days after the fall of Nanking, Bates lodged his first protest against Japanese atrocities with the Japanese Embassy.
According to the testimony of Bates before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East
, he visited the Japanese embassy daily for the next three weeks. He testified that the Japanese authorities appeared to him to be "honestly trying to do what little they could in a bad situation". However, as Bates testified, the embassy officials were themselves terrified by the military and could do nothing except forward these communications through Shanghai to Tokyo.
The most famous of the reports submitted by Bates was his January 10, 1938 letter of protest, a copy of which reached free China.
Bates was a major moving spirit behind H. J. Timperley's book, Japanese Terror in China (New York, June 1938).
and Minnie Vautrin
, Robert O. Wilson
was instrumental in the establishment of the Nanjing Safety Zone. He was the sole surgeon responsible for treating the victims of the ongoing atrocities. The selfless work of Dr. Wilson and his associates saved the lives of countless civilians and POWs who would have otherwise perished at the hands of the aggressors.
These letters are quoted in H.J. Timperley’s book “What war means: Japanese terror in China: ” (Compiled and edited by H.J.Timperley / Victor Gollancz, July 1938).
, John Magee and George A. Fitch
, the head of the YMCA at Nanking, actively wrote of the chaotic conditions created by the Japanese troops, mimeographed or retyped their stories over and over and sent them to their friends, government officials, and Christian organizations so as to let the world, especially the American public, know what was going on in the terrorized city.
They hoped that the U. S. government would intervene, or at least apply the Neutrality Act of 1937 to the "China Incident," which would have made it illegal for any American business to sell war materials to Japan.
For example, a letter of Miner S. Bates to the American Consul in January 1938 explained how the Safety Zone had been "tenaciously maintained" and needed help "amid dishonor by soldiers, murdering, wounding, wholesale raping, resulting in violent terror."
In the United States, the Committee on the Far East of the Foreign Missions Conference received scores of letters from missionaries in Nanking. After weeks of consideration, they decided to release the letters in February 1938 despite the possible adverse effect on the Christian movement in Japan, which led to the eventual publication of their letters in some magazines such as Reader's Digest
in mid-1938.
. These included Robert Wilson, Miner Searle Bates and John Magee. George A. Fitch, Lewis Smythe and James McCallum filed affidavits with their diaries and letters.
As a result of this anti-American propaganda, a detailed study carried out by the researchers at the University of Nanking in 1962 went so far as to assert that Westerners had assisted the Japanese in executing Chinese in Nanking. The study harshly criticized those foreigners for not having made any effort to prevent the ongoing atrocities.
This erroneous perception of the International Committee was eventually corrected in the 1980s as more historical documents became accessible and more thorough studies were published. Today many of the missionaries' private diaries and letters that meticulously documented the scale and character of the Nanking Massacre are archived at the Yale Divinity School
Library.
Nanking Safety Zone
The Nanking Safety Zone was a demilitarized zone for Chinese civilians set up on the eve of the Japanese breakthrough in the Battle of Nanking...
. Many Westerners were living in the city at that time, conducting trade or on missionary trips. Following the departing Chinese government, most foreigners also decided to leave the city. As the Japanese army began to approach Nanking, most of them fled the city. A small number of Western businessmen, journalists and missionaries, however, chose to remain behind. The missionaries were primarily Americans from the Episcopal, Disciples of Christ, Presbyterian, and Methodist churches.
The Westerners who remained behind established the Nanking Safety Zone which was composed of a score of refugee camps that occupied an area of about 3.4 square miles (8.6 square kilometers). The Safety Zone was bordered by roads on all four sides, and had an area of approximately 3.86 km², with 25 refugee camps centred around the US Embassy. This is approximately the same size as Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
in New York.
To coordinate their efforts, the Westerners formed a committee, called the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone. German businessman John Rabe
John Rabe
John Rabe was a German businessman who is best known for his efforts to stop the atrocities of the Japanese army during the Nanking Occupation and his work to protect and help the Chinese civilians during the event...
was elected as its leader, partly because of his status as a member of the Nazi party and the existence of the German-Japanese bilateral Anti-Comintern Pact
Anti-Comintern Pact
The Anti-Comintern Pact was an Anti-Communist pact concluded between Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan on November 25, 1936 and was directed against the Communist International ....
.
Rabe and other refugees from foreign countries tried to protect the civilians from getting killed by the Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese. The Japanese didn't recognize the Safety Zone, and hundreds of men and women were raped and killed. Due to Rabe's efforts some 250,000 people were protected during Nanking Massacre
Nanking Massacre
The Nanking Massacre or Nanjing Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanking, was a mass murder, genocide and war rape that occurred during the six-week period following the Japanese capture of the city of Nanjing , the former capital of the Republic of China, on December 13, 1937 during the Second...
.
Members
Timperley and Hsu each provide the following list of members of the Committee:| Name | Nationality / Occupation | Organization |
|---|---|---|
| Miner Searle Bates Miner Searle Bates Miner Searle Bates was educated at numerous, prestigious institutions such as the University of Oxford, Yale University, and Hiram College... |
American professor | University of Nanking |
| George Ashmore Fitch George Ashmore Fitch George Ashmore Fitch was an American Protestant missionary in China, the Young Men's Christian Association, Nanking Safety Zone International Committee Administrative Director, and the grandfather of politician George B. Fitch.... |
American missionary | Nanking YMCA |
| Ernest Forster | American missionary | St. Paul Church |
| J.M. Hansen | Danish businessman | Texas Oil Co. |
| J. Lean | American businessman | Asiatic Petroleum Co. |
| Iver Mackay | British businessman | Butterfield and Swire |
| John Magee | American missionary | American Church Mission |
| Rev. W. Plumer Mills | American missionary | American Church Mission |
| James McCallum | American missionary | Drum Tower Hospital (Nanking University Hospital) |
| P. H. Munro-Faure | British businessman | Asiatic Petroleum Co. |
| J.V. Pickering | American businessman | Standard-Vacuum Co. |
| John Rabe John Rabe John Rabe was a German businessman who is best known for his efforts to stop the atrocities of the Japanese army during the Nanking Occupation and his work to protect and help the Chinese civilians during the event... |
German businessman | Siemens Co. Siemens AG Siemens AG is a German multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Munich, Germany. It is the largest Europe-based electronics and electrical engineering company.... |
| Charles Riggs | American professor | University of Nanking University of Nanking The University of Nanking was a private university in Nanjing, China. The University of Nanking was founded in 1888 and sponsored by American churches... |
| P.R. Shields | British businessman | International Export Co. |
| G. Schultze-Pantin | German businessman | Shingming Trading Co. |
| Lewis S. C. Smythe | American professor | University of Nanking University of Nanking The University of Nanking was a private university in Nanjing, China. The University of Nanking was founded in 1888 and sponsored by American churches... |
| Eduard Sperling | German businessman | Shanghai Insurance Co. |
| Minnie Vautrin Minnie Vautrin Wilhelmina Vautrin was an American missionary renowned for saving the lives of many women at the Ginling Girls College in Nanjing, China, during the Nanking Massacre.- Biography :... |
American missionary | Ginling Girls' College Ginling College Ginling College was a Christian university founded in 1913 in Nanjing, China... |
| Robert O. Wilson Robert O. Wilson Robert O. Wilson, MD was an American physician born to Protestant missionaries Wilbur F. Wilson and Mary Rowley Wilson. Wilson attended Princeton University and subsequently obtained his medical training at Harvard Medical School, graduating in 1929. He returned to Nanjing in 1936, where he... |
American doctor | Drum Tower Hospital (Nanking University Hospital) |
Establishment of the Nanking Safety Zone
The members of the Committee established the Nanking Safety ZoneNanking Safety Zone
The Nanking Safety Zone was a demilitarized zone for Chinese civilians set up on the eve of the Japanese breakthrough in the Battle of Nanking...
which was composed of a score of refugee camps that occupied an area of about 3.4 square miles (8.6 square kilometers). The Safety Zone was bordered by roads on all four sides, and had an area of approximately 3.86 km², with 25 refugee camps centred around the US Embassy. This is approximately the same size as Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
in New York.
Activities
When Nanking fell, the Nanking Safety Zone housed over 250,000 refugees. The committee members of the Zone found ways to provide these refugees with the basic needs of food, shelter, and medical care.Whenever Japanese soldiers entered the Zone, they were closely shadowed by one of the Westerners. The Westerners repeatedly refused to comply with demands made of them by Japanese Army soldiers, placing themselves between Japanese soldiers and Chinese civilians.
Committee members frequently contacted Consul-General Okazaki Katsuo, Second Secretary (later Acting Consul-General) Fukui Kiyoshi and Attaché Fukuda Tokuyasu to deal with the anarchic situation.
Miner S. Bates
Miner Searle BatesMiner Searle Bates
Miner Searle Bates was educated at numerous, prestigious institutions such as the University of Oxford, Yale University, and Hiram College...
was one of the leaders of the Committee and worked to secure the safety of the population of Nanking
Nanjing
' is the capital of Jiangsu province in China and has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture, having been the capital of China on several occasions...
. This task was dangerous and his life was put at risk on many occasions, most notably when he was shoved down a flight of stairs by Japanese military police
Kempeitai
The was the military police arm of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1881 to 1945. It was not an English-style military police, but a French-style gendarmerie...
after inquiring about the fate of a student who had been abducted by Japanese soldiers.
To enhance his influence in dealing with the Japanese, the directors of the University of Nanking appointed him Vice President of the University on January 13, 1938. Only two days after the fall of Nanking, Bates lodged his first protest against Japanese atrocities with the Japanese Embassy.
According to the testimony of Bates before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East
International Military Tribunal for the Far East
The International Military Tribunal for the Far East , also known as the Tokyo Trials, the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, or simply the Tribunal, was convened on April 29, 1946, to try the leaders of the Empire of Japan for three types of crimes: "Class A" crimes were reserved for those who...
, he visited the Japanese embassy daily for the next three weeks. He testified that the Japanese authorities appeared to him to be "honestly trying to do what little they could in a bad situation". However, as Bates testified, the embassy officials were themselves terrified by the military and could do nothing except forward these communications through Shanghai to Tokyo.
The most famous of the reports submitted by Bates was his January 10, 1938 letter of protest, a copy of which reached free China.
Bates was a major moving spirit behind H. J. Timperley's book, Japanese Terror in China (New York, June 1938).
Robert O. Wilson
Along with John RabeJohn Rabe
John Rabe was a German businessman who is best known for his efforts to stop the atrocities of the Japanese army during the Nanking Occupation and his work to protect and help the Chinese civilians during the event...
and Minnie Vautrin
Minnie Vautrin
Wilhelmina Vautrin was an American missionary renowned for saving the lives of many women at the Ginling Girls College in Nanjing, China, during the Nanking Massacre.- Biography :...
, Robert O. Wilson
Robert O. Wilson
Robert O. Wilson, MD was an American physician born to Protestant missionaries Wilbur F. Wilson and Mary Rowley Wilson. Wilson attended Princeton University and subsequently obtained his medical training at Harvard Medical School, graduating in 1929. He returned to Nanjing in 1936, where he...
was instrumental in the establishment of the Nanjing Safety Zone. He was the sole surgeon responsible for treating the victims of the ongoing atrocities. The selfless work of Dr. Wilson and his associates saved the lives of countless civilians and POWs who would have otherwise perished at the hands of the aggressors.
Role in documenting the Nanking Massacre
Several eyewitness accounts of the Nanking Massacre were provided by members of the committee.Protests to the Japanese Consulate
The Committee sent 61 letters to the Japanese Consulate which report various incidents which occurred during the period starting Dec 13, 1937 to Feb 9, 1938.These letters are quoted in H.J. Timperley’s book “What war means: Japanese terror in China: ” (Compiled and edited by H.J.Timperley / Victor Gollancz, July 1938).
Other documents
Miner BatesMiner Searle Bates
Miner Searle Bates was educated at numerous, prestigious institutions such as the University of Oxford, Yale University, and Hiram College...
, John Magee and George A. Fitch
George Ashmore Fitch
George Ashmore Fitch was an American Protestant missionary in China, the Young Men's Christian Association, Nanking Safety Zone International Committee Administrative Director, and the grandfather of politician George B. Fitch....
, the head of the YMCA at Nanking, actively wrote of the chaotic conditions created by the Japanese troops, mimeographed or retyped their stories over and over and sent them to their friends, government officials, and Christian organizations so as to let the world, especially the American public, know what was going on in the terrorized city.
They hoped that the U. S. government would intervene, or at least apply the Neutrality Act of 1937 to the "China Incident," which would have made it illegal for any American business to sell war materials to Japan.
For example, a letter of Miner S. Bates to the American Consul in January 1938 explained how the Safety Zone had been "tenaciously maintained" and needed help "amid dishonor by soldiers, murdering, wounding, wholesale raping, resulting in violent terror."
In the United States, the Committee on the Far East of the Foreign Missions Conference received scores of letters from missionaries in Nanking. After weeks of consideration, they decided to release the letters in February 1938 despite the possible adverse effect on the Christian movement in Japan, which led to the eventual publication of their letters in some magazines such as Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest is a general interest family magazine, published ten times annually. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, its headquarters is now in New York City. It was founded in 1922, by DeWitt Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace...
in mid-1938.
Magee films
George Fitch succeeded in smuggling the films shot by John Magee out of China when he temporarily left the country in January 1938. That year he traveled throughout the United States, giving speeches about what he witnessed in Nanking along with the films that showed haunting images of Chinese victims.Testimony before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East
Several members of the Committee took the witness stand to testify about their experiences and observations during the Nanking MassacreNanking Massacre
The Nanking Massacre or Nanjing Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanking, was a mass murder, genocide and war rape that occurred during the six-week period following the Japanese capture of the city of Nanjing , the former capital of the Republic of China, on December 13, 1937 during the Second...
. These included Robert Wilson, Miner Searle Bates and John Magee. George A. Fitch, Lewis Smythe and James McCallum filed affidavits with their diaries and letters.
Historiography
During the Korean War (1950–53), the government of the People's Republic of China used records of the International Committee to portray its members as part of a propaganda campaign to arouse patriotic anti-American fervor. As part of this propaganda campaign, the Westerners who remained in Nanking were characterized as foreigners who sacrificed Chinese lives in order to protect their property, guided the Japanese troops into the city and collaborated with them to round up prisoners of war in the refugee camps.As a result of this anti-American propaganda, a detailed study carried out by the researchers at the University of Nanking in 1962 went so far as to assert that Westerners had assisted the Japanese in executing Chinese in Nanking. The study harshly criticized those foreigners for not having made any effort to prevent the ongoing atrocities.
This erroneous perception of the International Committee was eventually corrected in the 1980s as more historical documents became accessible and more thorough studies were published. Today many of the missionaries' private diaries and letters that meticulously documented the scale and character of the Nanking Massacre are archived at the Yale Divinity School
Yale Divinity School
Yale Divinity School is a professional school at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. preparing students for ordained or lay ministry, or for the academy...
Library.
Timeline
- 22 November 1937 – The International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone is organized by a group of foreigners to shelter Chinese refugees.
- 12 December 1937 – Chinese soldiers are ordered to withdraw from Nanking
- 13 December 1937 – Japanese troops capture Nanking
- 14 December 1937 – The International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone lodges the first protest letter against Japanese atrocities with the Japanese Embassy.
- 19 February 1938 – The last of the 69 protest letters against Japanese atrocities is sent by the Safety Zone Committee to the Japanese Embassy and announces the renaming of the committee as the Nanking International Relief Committee.
External links
- Nanking Nanking Massacre Project at Yale Divinity School Library.