1938 Idemitsu / Koyama Map of Nanjing, China

A scarce, highly detailed c. 1938 city plan of Nanjing, China, produced by Idemitsu Mamoru soon after the city's capture by Japanese forces in the Second Sino-Japanese War (World War II). This map was issued in the immediate aftermath of the Rape of Nanjing.

A Closer Look

The city of Nanjing and its surroundings are covered in detail, with elevation, waterways (including hundreds of small lakes and canals), the city walls, street names, public institutions, temples, schools, rail lines, and other features noted according to a legend at bottom-right. Government offices and schools are shaded red, most of them marked 'former' (舊) to drive home the change of regimes brought about by Japan's occupation of the city. An inset at top-right displays the wider Jiangnan region to the east and south of Nanjing, including the cities of Shanghai, Zhenjiang, Wuhu, Hangzhou, Suzhou, and Ningbo, and marking out road, rail, and air links between them. The Yangzi River runs along the top of the map, while the Xuanwu Lake (玄武湖) and Purple Mountain (紫金山), highly valued for their association with China's historical dynasties, sit at right.

Purple Mountain houses not only the mausoleum of the first Ming Emperor (明孝陵), but the mausoleum of Sun Yat-sen (孫中山先生陵墓), considered the father of the Chinese republic and a posthumous political football in the struggle between Japan and China. Sun's mausoleum had been completed by Chiang Kai-Shek's government in 1929 as a way to boost its own legitimacy, but Sun had lived in Japan for several years and was more pro-Japanese than posthumous hagiographies would care to admit, making him and his mausoleum an easy symbol to appropriate in support of the Japanese occupation and the collaborationist Reformed Nanjing Government that was established after the city's capture.

Background and Battle for Nanjing

Nanjing became the capital city of China in 1927-28, following the partial reunification of the country by Chiang Kai-Shek's forces in the Northern Expedition. In the decade that followed, despite weak authority, civil war, a Communist insurgency, and an incremental Japanese invasion of northern China, the Nanjing Government and the Guomindang were able to build something like a modern, functioning bureaucratic state, particularly in the Lower Yangzi Delta around Nanjing and Shanghai. These efforts were upended by the start of a full-scale war with Japan in July 1937. Chiang decided to throw the bulk of his forces into a battle for Shanghai, which proved unsuccessful after several months of fighting. Severely weakened by the fighting in Shanghai and with many units in disarray, Chiang hastily arranged a symbolic but futile defense of Nanjing while planning a retreat to Chongqing, deep in the Chinese interior.

The Nanjing Massacre and Its Aftermath

Facing demoralized and disorganized Chinese troops, the Japanese were able to take Nanjing in less than two weeks in early December 1937. During the battle and soon afterward, Chinese troops and civilians alike were shown no mercy, and it was assumed that Chinese men of fighting age were deserting Chinese soldiers or partisans waiting to attack Japanese troops. In the weeks after main combat operations ended, Japanese troops massacred tens of thousands of Chinese prisoners of war and civilians and raped thousands of women in one of the most notorious war crimes of World War II (1939 -1945). Xiaguan (下關), along the Yangtze River at top-left, was the site of some of the largest massacres. In the months that followed, a collaborationist Reform Government was established, and Japanese propagandists poured into Nanjing to tell the home front about the 'great' victory.

Publication History and Census

This map was made by Idemitsu Mamoru (出光衛, Chinese pronunciation Chu Guangwei), printed by Koyama Kichizō (小山吉三) of Nihon Meisho Zuesha, and published by Shiseidō (至誠堂) in Shanghai. It is listed among the holdings of Harvard University, the National Library of Australia, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the National Diet Library, the Nichibunken (International Research Center for Japanese Studies), and Bukkyo University.