Battle of Nanking
Japan issues the orders formalising the assault on Nanjing
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Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗Tokyo's order to attack Nanjing arrived after Japanese soldiers were already racing toward it.
1 December 1937: Orders No. 7 and No. 8
On 1 December 1937 the orders formalising a full-scale assault on Nanjing, the Chinese capital, were issued. How much was decided that day is itself contested: a second chronology places the approval several days earlier, in late November, and treats 1 December as the day Hayao Tada, the Army General Staff's deputy chief of staff, delivered the already-approved order in Shanghai.
Army General Staff Order No. 7 converted the provisional Central China Area Army into a formal battle formation; Order No. 8 directed that army to assault Nanjing with naval support.
The operational plan had the Tenth Army beginning its next movement on 3 December and the Shanghai Expeditionary Army on 5 December, with units regrouping before a coordinated assault.
The armies were already past it
Frontline forces neither waited for the authorisation nor observed its staged timetable. The Tenth Army had taken Guangde on 30 November, and the Shanghai Expeditionary Army was already beyond its intended line.
They occupied Danyang on 2 December — five days ahead of the formal schedule — reached the city's defences, began the general assault on 10 December and captured Nanjing on 13 December.
On the Chinese side, 1 December was a day of unravelling rather than of orders. Chinese forces began withdrawing on the Jiangyin front; poor communications sent the 112th Division out prematurely and helped turn the 103rd Division's retreat toward Nanjing into a rout.
The historian Akira Fujiwara describes the advance as out of control from the start.
Which day the battle begins
1 December is secure as the date of Orders No. 7 and No. 8. What is disputed is whether an administrative and operational step — and one that may have ratified a decision already taken — should be called the beginning of the Battle of Nanjing.
Some military scholarship dates the actual attack on Nanjing to 8–13 December, while other chronologies use 9–13 December for the final battle at the city, or 10 December for the all-out assault.
The Nanjing Atrocity is sometimes given a broader 1 December starting boundary to cover crimes committed during the approach, but the mass violence inside the captured city followed its fall on 13 December.
Sources
Researched 23 Aug 2026 4 sources 2 audit passes, 1 issue open Date disputed
How this was checked
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Date disputed. Sources disagree about when this happened.
What the sources leave uncertain
- December 1 is secure as the date of Japanese Army General Staff Orders No. 7 and No. 8. What is disputed is whether that administrative and operational decision should be called the beginning of the Battle of Nanjing.
- Japanese units were already advancing and fighting toward Nanjing before December 1. Some military scholarship dates the actual attack on Nanjing to December 8–13, while other chronologies use December 9–13 for the final battle at the city or December 10 for the all-out assault.
- The Nanjing Atrocity is sometimes given a broader December 1 starting boundary to include crimes committed during the approach, but the mass violence inside the captured city followed its fall on December 13.