Not to be an apologist for some of the things Japan did, but do you guys know that there is considerable debate within the scholarly community about the “Rape of Nanking”?  There are even questions about whether it ever happened or if so, what was the scale of it.  The biggest issue is that no trace of several supposed mass graves has ever been found and the main account is that of a Christian missionary.  There is no doubt that Nanking was sacked, but the 200-300,000 dead figure is the subject of considerable controversy.  I got interested in the subject a few years ago in my Historiography class.  We had a “lively” debate about it that the professor had to end up moderating when I refused to simply condemn the Japanese as murderous fiends that deserved much worse than they eventually got.One of the biggest problems is that the debate has been politicized.