Spanish Civil War and the Rape of Nanjing

The Attack on Guernica during the Spanish Civil War and the Rape of Nanjing were two acts of aggression that share many similarities. These events were similar because the attacks were directed towards defenseless civilians and the purpose of the attacks was to destroy the morale of the enemy. The bombing of Guernica was carried out by German and Italian planes with the encouragement from the Spanish Nationalists. Additionally, the attack was timed to begin at 4:30 pm so people would be out and enjoying the afternoon, unaware that they would be under fire. The first bomb was dropped into the middle of a plaza and the town was rained with bullets and explosives for more than three hours. From this unexpected assault, 1,600 people who were uninvolved with the war lost their lives. Equally unexpected and horrible was the Rape of Nanjing by the Japanese soldiers. In the fall of 1937, Japan targeted China’s capital and used fighter planes to bomb the residential downtown areas. Nanjing was a city of 100,000 civilians and was unable to defend itself because many of the men and soldiers were away fighting. In the course of three weeks, a third of the city’s population was killed by the Japanese, and mostly for sport. Games were created to see which Japanese soldier could kill the most Chinese citizens. Women were raped by the tens of thousands and then killed without mercy. There was no human compassion in the actions committed against the Chinese during this time, just as there was no consideration for the innocent citizens of Guernica when the fighter planes descended from the skies and shot bullets into the streets. These civilians had no means of defending themselves against such a destructive and unprovoked attack. Furthermore, a new military theory emerged during the Spanish Civil War and declared that no one was innocent and that everyone was a target. The Spanish Nationalists applied this theory when Francisco Franco gave the Germans and Italians permission to bomb Guernica. This theory is again applied during the Rape of Nanjing when planes bombed downtown Nanjing. The innocent civilians in these two cities were considered the targets and suffered the most from this war theory. Additionally these events proved that people’s spirits could be crushed under the fear of aerial attacks. Planes streaking across the sky provided the people a constant terror that an attack will ensue and hope for survival grows slimmer with each bomb dropped. People no longer wish to fight if they are constantly in fear that their homes and families will be destroyed by bombs. These two events were extremely effective in destroying the morale of the enemy by targeting the innocents and hitting them close to home instead of facing the enemy on the frontlines. Although Guernica and Nanjing are in two different countries, the atrocities committed against the two cities were similar in destruction and produced similar results.