Editing Nanjing Massacre (section)

=== Japanese war crimes in urban areas ===
As early as November, Japanese forces had been committing atrocities  against urban regions and cities. [[Jiading]] was shelled by Japanese forces, then 8,000 of its civilian residents murdered. Half of [[Taicang]] was razed to the ground, and then half the salt and grain stores looted.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Harmsen |first=Peter |title=Nanjing 1937: Battle for a Doomed City |date=2015 |publisher=Casemate |page=58}}</ref>

On December 8, the Japanese Shanghai Expeditionary Army captured the city of [[Zhenjiang]] between Shanghai and Nanjing. They then set Zhenjiang on fire and executed anyone attempting to douse the flames. Zhenjiang burned for ten days. The Japanese also burned wounded Chinese soldiers alive and raped women and children. According to a city resident who survived the blaze, the city was burned as a deliberate attempt to destroy civilian property.<ref name=":10" />

According to one Japanese journalist embedded with Imperial forces at the time:<ref>[[Joseph Cumming|Cummins, Joseph]]. 2009. ''The World's Bloodiest History''. p. 149.</ref><blockquote>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.</blockquote>In his novel ''Ikiteiru Heitai'' ('Living Soldiers'), [[Tatsuzō Ishikawa]] vividly describes how the 16th Division of the [[Shanghai Expeditionary Force]] committed atrocities on the march between Shanghai and Nanjing. The novel itself was based on interviews that Ishikawa conducted with troops in Nanjing in January 1938.<ref>[[Katsuichi Honda|Honda, Katsuichi]], and [[Frank Gibney]]. "The Nanjing massacre: a Japanese journalist confronts Japan's national shame." pp. 39–41.</ref>