Essential Questions for Students

Factual Questions

Who were the victims of the Nanking Massacre?
What types of brutalities were committed against the victims?
How were the Chinese POWs and civilians suspected of being disarmed soldiers treated and why?
In what ways did the Imperial Japanese Army violate international laws and standards on the treatment of prisoners of war in Nanking?
What was the Nanking Safety Zone and by whom was it established?
What actions did the rescuers take to protest the crimes committed by the Japanese forces?
Was justice served to those responsible for the Nanking Massacre?
What was the Treaty of Peace with Japan and in which year was it signed? What did Japan agree to in signing that Treaty about its responsibility for the war crimes committed during the Asia-Pacific War?
What forms have the Japanese denials of the Nanking Massacre taken since the end of the war? What have been the domestic and international responses to those denials?
How are the denials affecting societies locally, regionally and globally?

Who should be held accountable for the Nanking Massacre? The soldiers? The commanding officers? The Imperial Japanese government? Japanese Emperor Hirohito?
Should Japan be excused for its treatment of prisoners of war because it did not ratify the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War?
How do you think that the denials affect the survivors? Japanese society? The global community?
Is whitewashing an atrocity such as the Nanking Massacre (whether in numbers, scope or severity) a form of denial?
Does the international community—especially those nations that were responsible for the International Tribunal for the Far East (1946-48) and those countries that signed the 1951Treaty of Peace with Japan—have a responsibility to counter and put a stop to denials of the Nanking Massacre?
What should justice for the survivors of the Nanking Massacre include?
Why is it important for us today that past atrocities such as the Nanking Massacre are reconciled?