Rape of Guangzhou

The Rape of Guangzhou was one of the most infamous war crimes committed during GS6. It was committed by the Imperial Japanese Army under the command of Conquerus following the Battle of Guangzhou.

Background
Throughout 1938, Japan made repeated attempts to navally invade Southern China. Among these attempts were three naval invasions of Guangzhou. The first invasion was a failure, but led to heavy Chinese casualties. The second attempt was a partial success with Shenzhen captured. The capture of Shenzhen meant that Britain could not supply China through Hong Kong. This was also the first time that poison gas was used by Japan. The third attempt however was a success. An increase in numbers and extensive use of poison gas led to a Japanese victory. However, annoyed by how much the Chinese had resisted, Conq let out his anger by ordering a massacre of the residents of Guangzhou.

The Incident
BREAKING NEWS

Date: 13th of July 1938

Type: Military

Guangzhou Massacre

After the Japanese capture of Guangzhou, the true barbarity of their military and their wars have been revealed to the world. During and after when the city was captured, the civilian populace was terrorized by Japanese gassings and bombardments. As bombs, shells, and grenades, many of which were filled with mustard gas, rained down upon the city, destroying homes, businesses, and important cultural and strategic locations within the city, and forcing anybody who survived the destruction of the buildings to inhale the gas. Something which Japanese officers would repeat every day for some duration without authorization. When the bombardment would end and the gas was still lingering, Japanese soldiers when through the city, terrorizing the populace directly. Many went on killing sprees, murdering family after family. Some went about executing every military-age male they could possibly find, while others went about raping the female populace on masse, with mothers forced to watch as their daughters, who were in some cases were as young as 2 or 3, raped, tortured, and murdered by several Japanese soldiers each before having the same occur to them, with some reports indicating almost every female in the city had been raped. Some officers had made sport of it, making daily bets as to who could kill the most children or collect the most of a certain body part or organs, such as hands and kidneys, during which they would cut off and out parts from random civilians themselves, attempting to keep them alive through it before leaving them to bleed out. Bodies had been left out in the street, most of them almost unrecognizable so much damage had been done. The Japanese soldiers went about stealing all of the populace's food supply they could find, and razed it alongside their fields, with the resulting starvation leading to some survivors turning to the cannibalization of said bodies. Civilian deaths are untold.

Aftermath
Following the incident, there was mass condemnation of Japan from most non Axis nations. The first nation to condemn Japan was Cuba. This was followed by Iraq, France, the US and China. Conq was accused of massacring civilians en masse and using poison has against them. He rebutted the accusations by explaining that the Chinese had used human shields and that Chinese soldiers were dressed up as civilians. Furthermore, he claimed that the poison gas was in fact tear gas which had been dyed yellow so that civilians would be able to see it and evacuate. Several nations inquired as to whether the red cross and foreign correspondents would be allowed into Guangzhou to verify the Japanese claims. Conq explained that this would not be possible as the Guangzhou area was an active warzone and so any foreigners entering the area would be put in harms way. He then reassured the foreigners that no war crimes had been committed by telling them that the Kenpeitai had investigated the claims and found no evidence of war crimes.

Overall, the Rape of Guangzhou is remembered as the worst war crime in GS6. It diminished what little had remained of Japan's international reputation following COVID 38 and along with other war crimes perpetrated by Conq, would lead to the US sanctioning him.