Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience. Suggestions for authors - For those who write rape, torture, snuff, and execution a question. Why do we have so many stories about nazi atrocities while there are almost no stories about the behavior of the Red Army troops during the taking of Berlin? The rape of white nurses by the Japanese army has been done perhaps too many times but there is nothing about the rape of Nanking. In an effort to change this I offer the following oversight of that period. Both the Red Army and the Imperial Japanese Army maintained comfort troops. Groups of army whores that were to provide for the sexual pleasures of the men. The difference between them was the Red Army's women were mostly volunteers while the IAJ's were slaves picked from the conquered peoples under it's control. A large percentage of them never made it home. The establishment of a comfort unit was often left to the local commander and when the unit moved on many of the women and girls were simply killed. And I use the term girls because it seems the IJA felt anyone over the age of eight or ten was old enough to serve. While the Red Army was fairly well behaved when on its own territory things changed when the invasion of Germany started. There was a semi- official message sent to the troops that it was payback time. Many if not most German women and teenaged girls were abused if not raped. A large number of men were taken as forced laborers [slaves] and many of them were worked to death. The IJA was never well behaved possibility because it never fought on its own territory. There was a feeling that the Japanese were the sons of heaven and that everyone else was there to serve them. This coupled with a command that seldom required civilized behavior resulted in a modern day recreation of a barbarian horde that raped and sacked wherever it went. The rape of Nanking was perhaps the most outlandish example of savage behavior by an army in modern times. Tens of thousands were killed even though there was no combat. Instead the killings were the result of an extended period of rape, torture, and bloodlust. There were contests held to determine who could cut off the most heads in a certain time or with a single blow. People were tied to posts and used for bayonet practice. Gang rapes were common and often ended with the death of the victim. And the victims were any age from infant to aged. As a final touch the members of the IJA photographed a lot of this activity and the camera shops that developed the film smuggled copies out so we have a record of the savagery. You have seen some of these pics posted on various sites without realizing what they were. The Japanese also used captured peoples as test subjects for biological and chemical warfare testing and to train surgeons without the use of drugs or chloroform. It is only been in the last few years has this activity come to light and I'm sure we still have not heard the full story. The Japanese nation still denies the clear historical record on its wartime behavior but there is much there to inspire authors. Thus ends the history lesson. I hope that a few authors will start to mine this mother lode of ideas and that we will see a group of fresh stories as a result.