Nationalism and the Nanjing Massacre

In both mainland China and in the international community, the Nanjing Massacre has evolved into a symbolic representation of Japanese cruelty, the culmination of atrocities in the Century of Humiliation and the Second Sino-Japanese War. In historiography, it has been used as a symbol of the barbarity and ruthlessness of the Japanese army. The focus of this thesis is the historiography of the Nanjing Massacre and how it as a symbol was used during the Jiang era in the Patriotic Education Campaign, becoming a contributing factor in the deteriorating of Sino-Japanese relations during that time