Miner Searle Bates is one of the more prominent figures of the Nanjing Massacre. During his time as a history professor at Ginling College, Bates was involved in numerous missionaries committee, one being the Nanking International Relief Committee. This relief committee had supervised the Nanking Safety Zone, a demilitarized zone that had been a safe space for refugees, including Chinese residents and officials, during the Second-Sino Japanese War, especially during the Nanjing Massacre. Bates along with many other faculty members of Ginling College were consistently documenting their experiences in Nanking throughout the massacre to call attention to the abuse and violence that was disguised by Japanese officials. In this page, you will find a detailed letter written by Bates that had highlighted the gruesome experiences he witnessed, and as you hover over the texts you can find additional context/background information, as well as analysis of secondary sources from Japanese officials or anecdotes from real-life victims of the Nanjing Massacre.

Photograph provided by Yale Divinity Library