Editing Second Sino-Japanese War (section)

===Battle of Nanjing and massacre===
{{Main|Nanjing Massacre}}
[[File:Photo 07 (The "Shame" Album).jpg|thumb|upright|A Chinese POW about to be beheaded by a Japanese officer with a ''[[shin gunto]]'']]
In November 1937, the Japanese concentrated 220,000 soldiers and began a campaign against Nanjing.<ref name=":022"/>{{Rp|page=29}} Building on the hard-won victory in Shanghai, the IJA advanced on and [[Battle of Nanjing|captured the KMT capital city]] of Nanjing (December 1937) and [[Battle of Xinkou|Northern Shanxi]] (September{{snd}}November 1937).

Japanese forces inflicted heavy casualties on the Chinese soldiers defending the city, killing approximately 50,000 of them including 17 Chinese generals.<ref name=":022"/>{{Rp|page=29}} Upon the capture of Nanjing, Japanese committed massive war atrocities including mass murder and rape of Chinese civilians after 13 December 1937, which has been referred to as the [[Nanjing Massacre]]. Over the next several weeks, Japanese troops perpetrated numerous mass executions and tens of thousands of rapes. The army looted and burned the surrounding towns and the city, destroying more than a third of the buildings.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia| url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Nanjing-Massacre |title=Nanjing Massacre |date=13 December 2022 |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref>

The number of Chinese killed in the massacre has been subject to much debate, with estimates ranging from 100,000 to more than 300,000.<ref name="highest death toll estimate">Daqing Yang, "A Sino-Japanese Controversy: The Nanjing Atrocity As History", ''Sino-Japanese Studies'', November 1990, 16.</ref> The numbers agreed upon by most scholars are provided by the [[International Military Tribunal for the Far East]], which estimate at least 200,000 murders and 20,000 rapes.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Askew |first=David |date=2002 |title="The Nanjing Incident: Recent Research and Trends" |url=http://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/articles/Askew.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180405031715/http://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/articles/Askew.html |access-date=2024-05-20|archive-date=5 April 2018}}</ref>

The Japanese atrocities in Nanjing, especially following the Chinese defense of Shanghai, increased international goodwill for the Chinese people and the Chinese government.<ref name="Crean"/>{{rp|72}}

The Nationalist government re-established itself in Chongqing, which became the wartime seat of government until 1945.<ref name=":022"/>{{Rp|page=32}}