The Death Of Nanking,1937 Poem by Ross DixPeek

The Death of Nanking,1937

By
Ross Dix-Peek


Was the year nineteen-thirty-one
When came the might of Nippon
Across the great Manchurian plain
A vast sanguine stain

The tumultuous years did wear on
And still sang the machine-gun
The Emperor’s armies unrelenting
And then, the fall of “Nanjing”

Twas then did open the Gates of Hell
As sanity did bade a woeful farewell,
An immense and merciless flood
Of fire, brimstone and red blood

Hirohito’s soldiers upon the masses did fall
A most heinous massacre of the people, almost all
So Many innocents by Nippon’s sword did die
While on high the heavens did plaintive beseech, “Why? , Oh Why? ”

Not content, the soldiers of the “Rising Sun” did then the virgins defile
Atrocity upon atrocity committed, most vile
And the great Yangtze River did bright crimson glow
As the vast silent legion of the dead upon its waters did flow

And although the Emperor’s hordes now be gone
And the great city of Nanking again peace has known
Still oft can be heard the terrible cries of those days long-ago
A sad lamentable threnody of great anguish and sorrow!

(In memory of the more than 200,000 Chinese people massacred in Nanking by the Japanese in December 1937 and January 1938)