One of the most brutal chapters in modern history, the Nanking Massacre, also called the Rape of Nanking, was a mass execution of hundreds of thousands of unarmed Chinese civilians by invading Japanese soldiers in December 1937 and January 1938. No one knows for certain how many people were murdered in the mass killings, but most estimates place the number at 300,000, with another 80,000 people raped and tortured, including women and children. On December 13, 1937, the Japanese royal army swept into the eastern Chinese city of Nanking (today called Nanjing), which was then the capital of China. In the weeks that followed, the Japanese soldiers went on an orgy of violence. The atrocities were documented on film by the Japanese themselves as well as by helpless foreigners in the city at the time of the seizure. Surviving photos show unimaginable cruelties. It is believed that Japan's military had been trained to carry out the killings and atrocities in order to make an example of Nanking to other Chinese people, thereby facilitating Japan's intended occupation.