Editing Battle of Nanking (section)

=== Japanese atrocities on the way to Nanjing ===
[[File:Danyangbattledec3.jpg|thumb|Japanese soldiers enter Danyang, 50 km (30 miles) east of Nanjing]]
General Matsui, along with the Army General Staff, had originally envisaged making a slow and steady march on Nanjing, but his subordinates had disobeyed and instead raced each other to the city.<ref name="fujiwara22">Akira Fujiwara, "The Nanking Atrocity: An Interpretive Overview," in ''The Nanking Atrocity, 1937–38: Complicating the Picture'', ed. Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi (New York: Berghahn Books, 2008), 33, 36.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Tokushi Kasahara |publisher=Iwanami Shoten |year=1997 |location=Tokyo |page=69 |language=ja |script-title=ja:南京事件}}</ref><ref>Masahiro Yamamoto, ''Nanking: Anatomy of an Atrocity'' (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2000), 57–58. For this information Yamamoto cites a wide variety of primary sources including the diaries of Japanese officers Iwane Matsui and [[Tōichi Sasaki]], and documents drawn up by the 10th Army.</ref> The capture of [[Guangde County|Guangde]] had occurred three days before it was even supposed to start its planned advance, and the SEA had captured [[Danyang, Jiangsu|Danyang]] on December 2 more than five days ahead of schedule.<ref name="fujiwara22" /> 
On average, the Japanese units were advancing on Nanjing at the breakneck pace of up to {{convert|40|km|mi|abbr=off|sp=us|spell=in}} per day.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Satoshi Hattori |year=2008 |script-title=ja:日中戦争における短期決戦方針の挫折 |location=Tokyo |publisher=Kinseisha |page=92 |script-journal=ja:日中戦争再論 |editor=Gunjishi Gakkai}}. Hattori cites official documents compiled by Japan's National Institute for Defense Studies.</ref> In order to achieve such speeds, the Japanese soldiers carried little with them except weaponry and ammunition.<ref name="supplies22">Masahiro Yamamoto, ''Nanking: Anatomy of an Atrocity'' (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2000), 52–54.</ref> Because they were marching well ahead of most of their supply lines, Japanese troops usually looted from Chinese civilians along the way, which was almost always accompanied by [[Japanese war crimes|extreme violence]].<ref name="supplies22" /> As a Japanese journalist in the 10th Army recorded, "The reason that the [10th Army] is advancing to Nanjing quite rapidly is due to the tacit consent among the officers and men that they could loot and rape as they wish."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cummins |first=Joseph |title=The World's Bloodiest History |date=2009 |pages=149}}</ref>
[[File:日本人拿人頭.jpg|thumb|Japanese soldier posing with a severed head]]
The Japanese advance on Nanjing was marked by a trail of arson, rape and murder. The 170 miles between Shanghai and Nanjing were left "a nightmarish zone of death and destruction."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Harmsen |first=Peter |title=Nanjing, 1937: Battle for a Doomed City |publisher=Casemate |year=2015 |isbn=978-1612002842 |pages=145}}</ref> Japanese planes strafed unarmed farmers and refugees "for fun".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Timberley |first=Harold |title=Japanese Terror in China |publisher=Books for Libraries Press |year=1969 |location=Freeport |pages=91}}</ref> Civilians were subjected to extreme violence and brutality in a foreshadowing of the [[Nanjing Massacre]]. For example, the Nanqiantou hamlet was set on fire, with many of its inhabitants locked within the burning houses. Two women, one of them pregnant, were raped repeatedly. Afterwards, the soldiers "cut open the belly of the pregnant woman and gouged out the fetus." A crying two-year-old boy was wrestled from his mother's arms and thrown into the flames, while the hysterically sobbing mother and remaining villagers were bayoneted, disemboweled, and thrown into a nearby creek.<ref>{{Cite book |first= |title=Honda |pages=63–65}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Harmsen |first=Peter |title=Nanjing 1937: Battle for a Doomed City |publisher=Casemate |year=2015 |isbn=978-1612002842 |pages=145}}</ref> Many Chinese civilians committed suicide, such as two girls who deliberately drowned themselves near [[Pinghu]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=Nishizawa |pages=670}}</ref>
[[File:Contest_To_Cut_Down_100_People.jpg|thumb|A Japanese newspaper reporting on the [[hundred man killing contest]]]]
Many cities and towns were subject to destruction and looting by the advancing Japanese, including but not limited to [[Suzhou, Jiangsu|Suzhou]], [[Taicang]] and [[Jiading, Shanghai|Jiading]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Harmsen |first=Peter |title=Nanjing 1937: Battle for a Doomed City |date=2015 |publisher=Casemate |pages=58}}</ref> When massacring villages, Japanese forces usually executed the men immediately, while the women and children were raped and tortured first before being murdered.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Harmsen |first=Peter |title=Shanghai 1937, Stalingrad on the Yangtze |date=2013 |publisher=Casemate |pages=252}}</ref> One atrocity of note was the [[Hundred man killing contest|killing contest]] between two Japanese officers, where both men held a competition to see who could behead 100 Chinese captives the first. The atrocity was conducted twice with the second round raising the goal to 150 captives, and was reported on by Japanese newspapers.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Yoshida |first=Takashi |title=The making of the "Rape of Nanking |date=2006 |pages=64}}</ref>

In a continuation of [[No quarter|their practices]] from Shanghai, the Japanese troops executed all Chinese soldiers they captured on their way to Nanjing. Prisoners of war were shot, beheaded, bayonetted and burned to death. In addition, since thousands of Chinese soldiers had dispersed into the countryside, the Japanese implemented "mopping-up operations" in the countryside to deny the Chinese shelter, where all buildings without any immediate value to the Japanese army were burned down, and their inhabitants slaughtered.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Harmsen |first=Peter |title=Nanjing 1937: Battle for a Doomed City |date=2015 |publisher=Casemate |pages=197–199}}</ref>