The Root & Branch Petition

Nanking in 1937 is one of those moments when history forces us to look at the world without any comforting illusions. A capital city stood in the path of a modern army that believed its victory was inevitable and that its anger was justified. The result was a collapse that left civilians and soldiers trapped together inside a city that could not protect them. When the Japanese army entered Nanking, the violence that followed revealed how quickly human restraint can evaporate once leaders remove the rules that hold it in place. The stories that survive come from diaries, film reels, and the few people who stayed behind to shield as many lives as they could. Today we revisit Nanking not to reopen old wounds, but to understand how they were made. History does not offer comfort here. It offers clarity, and sometimes clarity is the only way forward.