The International Committee for the nanking safety zone
The International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone was comprised of many people from different countries who wished to establish a neutral zone to keep the surviving citizens of Nanking safe from the Japanese invaders.
This is a list of the members of the committee, their nationality and/or occupation, and their personal organizations:
This is a list of the members of the committee, their nationality and/or occupation, and their personal organizations:
Name |
Nationality/Occupation |
organization |
Miner Searle Bates |
American; Professor |
University of Nanking |
J.M. Hansen |
Danish; Businessman |
Texas Oil Co. |
J. Lean |
American; Businessman |
Asiatic Petroleum Co. |
Iver Mackay |
British; Businessman |
Butterfield and Swire |
John Magee |
American; Missionary |
American Church Mission |
Rev. W. Plumer Mills |
American; Missionary |
American Church Mission |
P.H. Munro-Faure |
British; Businessman |
Asiatic Petroleum Co. |
J.V. Pickering |
American; Businessman |
Standard-Vacuum Co. |
John Rabe |
German; Businessman |
Siemens Co. |
Charles Riggs |
American; Professor |
University of Nanking |
G. Schultze-Pantin |
German; Businessman |
Shingming Trading Co. |
P.R. Shields |
British; Businessman |
International Export Co. |
Lewis S.C. Smythe |
American; Professor |
University of Nanking |
Eduard Sperling |
German; Businessman |
Shanghai Insurance Co. |
Dr. C.S. Trimmer |
American; Doctor |
Nanking University Hospital |
Dr. George Ashmore Fitch |
American |
YMCA |
All of these people put in their best efforts to try and make sue that the Japanese could not get a hold of the individuals who were inside the safety zone, although they were not able to save every person who entered the zone, they collectively protected around 250,000 Chinese men, women, and children. John Rabe was the leader of the zone and witnessed Japanese soldiers climbing the zone walls and attacking the women in broad daylight in front of other men, women, and children alike, he would hear nothing but stories of the mass rape that swept the city, and how if brothers, husbands, fathers, or anyone tried to intervene outside the safety zone walls, they were shot or killed in some other gruesome manner. He kept a diary and wrote many entries in the atrocities he witnessed and heard, just to make sure they had been accounted for and documented in some way. He would also write to the second secretary to the embassy of Japan, urging him to do something about the onslaught of horrors, but with little avail.