Nanjing, December, 1937

Thousands tethered like cattle, herded like sheep

into the mountains, the suburbs, the city squares,

into the gullies and waterfront,

to be skewered like pigs, mounted from behind like goats,

castrated, pummelled senseless, clubbed to death,

to be buried alive in ditches dug by themselves,

buried to their waists, their guts ripped out by dogs,

to be run over by tanks, drowned in the river without pity,

dowsed with acid, sprayed with gasoline and then set on fire,

locked in their homes which were then set on fire,

to be propped up for bayonet drills,

hung by their tongues nailed to wooden boards,

to be mutilated, their faces pierced with needles,

ears hacked off, their eyes gouged out,

slivers of skin carved off, strip by thin strip,

penises cleaved off to be dried and consumed,

to be assembled together to be machine gunned

or to be blown up by hand grenades,

or one by one to be shot in the back by the side of a road,

to be stabbed, disemboweled, dismembered,

to be shoved into icy ponds, their frozen corpses

like floating logs used for target practice,

row upon row to be forced to kneel upon the shore

and then decapitated by swords thrust into necks,

severing flesh, crushing bone, their heads flying off,

torsos spurting twin fountains of blood,

crumpling into the mud, only to be dumped into the river

by the next row of men ready to take their places.

And then it was the women's turn.

Based on details taken from Iris Chang, The Rape of Nanking.