Dark days

The Nanking Massacre, also known as 'the Rape of Nanking', is considered one of the worst examples of systematic slaughter of civilians during the second world war

The killings started in Nanjing (then known as Nanking) after the city fell to the imperial Japanese army on December 13, 1937

Over the next six weeks, the number of Chinese civilians killed has been estimated as high as 300,000

The International Military Tribunal for the Far East stated that the number of women raped ranged up to 80,000

By the end of the war, the city's population eventually restabilised at about two-thirds of the prewar population, or 700,000

SOURCES: SCMP ARCHIVES, GENDERCIDE.ORG