Some Key People
Some of the most important people who helped ensure the safety of as many Chinese citizens as possible were John Rabe, John Magee, Miner Searle Bates, Eduard Sperling, Lewis S.C. Smythe, along with Iris Chang who helped write the book "The Rape of Nanking" in hopes to spread the knowledge of the horrid events that took place in Nanking. Iris Chang would eventually go on to write more articles of the crimes committed by the Japanese, speaking out against the wrongs that Japan so intensely denies. All of the people mentioned had a hand in making sure that the atrocities would not be entirely forgotten, taking pictures, writing in journals, and just general documentation was how they were able to capture some of the horrors that were once running rampant through the cities streets. Excluding Ms. Chang, all of those men put their own lives on the line to try and save as many innocent people as they could, chasing the Japanese out of the safety zone, monitoring the people within the walls of the zone, and trying to reach the Japanese embassy for peace. These foreigners did more for the city of Nanking than the country's own leader Mao Zedong, who originally wanted to just abandon the city which was once the Capital of China, and just create a new Capital elsewhere in the country. Throughout all of the awful things that happened during the Sino-Japanese war, the rarely spoken of travesties at Nanking were definitely one of the worst encounters with the Japanese that the Chinese had endured. I'm sure if none of the members of the international committee of the safety zone in Nanking had not done what they had, we'd have even less evidence of the killing contests, mass rape, and destruction of all types of dwellings that stood in the Japanese's way.