Six Weeks of Terror
As the Japanese marched on Nanking, hundreds of thousands of residents poured from the city, seeking to escape the coming hurricane of blood and fear. People filled boats to the point of capsizing, drowned trying to swim across the Yangtze River, and were trampled trying to fit through the city's gates. Some clung to the tops of overstuffed trains, others dug holes in the countryside and hid for months; but as terrible as these options may seem, they were nothing compared to the fate that awaited those who chose to stay behind. Living in a hole and nearly starving to death was the least of many possible dooms.