In December 1937, the Imperial Japanese Army breached the walls of Nanjing, and the months that followed became one of the most brutal wartime atrocities of the 20th century. This episode traces the causal chain that produced the massacre, from the grinding Battle of Shanghai and General Iwane Matsui's unauthorized march on the capital to Prince Asaka's order to kill all captives, and examines how a structured military abandoned all discipline against civilians and prisoners of war.

We also tell the parallel story of the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone, where 15 Western expatriates led by John Rabe, a German businessman and Nazi Party member, used little more than flags, passports, and bluffing to shelter over 200,000 people. Finally, we look at the post-war tribunal that executed Matsui but never tried Asaka, the wildly ...