This dispute should not obscure the fact that a very large number died as the out-of-control Imperial Army exacted revenge on a population that had stood in the way of its advance. The anarchy in Nanjing showed very clearly that there was a crippling division between the rhetoric (and possibly the intentions) of the Japanese civilians in the city and the behavior of the military. Over and over again, Japanese Embassy officials and senior officers declared that they would calm the situation down. But in the streets the rape and murder went on. Japan was at the time a very hierarchical society.
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