THE INVASION OF NANKING AND TURKISH PRESS (1937-1938)

As the middle of the 20th century approached, during the time the world got tense with the imperialist discourses, Japan started an invasion movement by moving towards China in July 1937. The silence of Western countries and the inability of the League of Nations to take a deterrent decision about this attempt caused Japan to spread over China and to commit violent incidents that were gradually became even more violent. Beijing, Shanghai and then Nanking, which was the capital of China of that time were occupied by Japan. During the invasion of Nanking, many civilians were tortured and raped by the Japanese armies, and this event went down in history as the Nanking Massacre. The Turkish press, along with the world, closely followed the events in the Far East since the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War and made evaluations about the issue. Considering this invasion movement as a step before Soviet Russia, which is the main target of Japan, the Turkish press predicted that it would bring a world war providing that Europe and America intervened. The Turkish press, which detailed the Japanese army's entrance through the Nanking gates and the fall of the city, is of the opinion that the occupation movements will not end after the fall of the capital. While the military dimension of the occupation and its impact on international relations was widely covered in the Turkish press, the situation of the people living in the city was rarely mentioned. In this study, the reflections of the events from the beginning of the Sino-Japanese war to the occupation of Nanking and the civilian deaths during the occupation on the selected newspapers in the Turkish press will be followed and evaluated.