The cause of Japan’s massive killing of innocent civilians in Nanking can be described in one word, Imperialism. Imperialism is a policy of extending a country’s power and influence through diplomacy or military force. Japan’s imperial dictator was looked at as a divine ruler, so what ever the dictator said or believed so did all the people. Long before the genocide of Nanking the seed of a superior race was planted into the heads of the Japanese people, at a very young age boys would begin military training that taught them to hold contempt for the Chinese. China had long been more advanced in all categories. Japan had always lived in Chinas shadow, so when the time came of the massacre the soldiers were more than prepared for the hell they would unleash.“The Nanjing Massacre (also
known as the Nanking Massacre) refers to the war crimes perpetrated by Japanese troops during their invasion and occupation of Nanjing, China, from December 1937 to February 1938. These crimes included the execution and murder of more than 200,000 defenseless and unarmed Chinese soldiers and civilians, the widespread rape and torture of reportedly about 20,000 women and girls, the dismembering of human bodies—both male and female—and the widespread slaughter of domestic and farm animals” (Kagan). The soldiers were trained to hate all the chinese people and there goal was to obliterate the race. With the soldiers ready the Japanese dictator found the right time to start his military campaign, the beginning of World War II, this was the perfect time for his uprising because the rest of the world was still feeling the after shock of the first World War. “The Second World War began in Asia. Japan's military dictators had long viewed China as the main outlet for their imperial and expansionist ambitions. Japanese forces invaded and occupied Manchuria in northeast China in 1931, setting up the puppet state of Manchukuo. After the manufactured "Marco Polo Bridge Incident" of July 1937, the Japanese launched a full scale invasion of China, capturing Shanghai on 12 November and the imperial capital, Nanjing, on 13 December. Numerous atrocities were committed en route to Nanjing, but they could not compare with the epic carnage and destruction the Japanese unleashed on the defenseless city after Chinese forces abandoned it to the enemy” (Jones). Countries did not want to get involved because they were not capable of fighting of the strong Japanese army. The imperialistic government of Japan was the cause of this genocide in Nanking.