The killing of civilians was widespread. When the Japanese troops first entered the city on the 13th, the streets were crowded with more than 100,000 refugees or injured Chinese soldiers. The Japanese relentlessly fired at these people. The next morning, tanks and artilleries entered the city and the killing continued. Dead bodies covered the major streets of the city. The streets became "streets of blood" as a result of the two-day annihilation. Nearly every building was entered by Japanese soldiers, often under the eyes of their officers, and took whatever they wanted. The Japanese soldiers often impressed Chinese to carry their loot.... including jewelry, coins, domesticated animals, food, clothes, antiques, and even inexpensive items such as cigarettes, eggs, fountain pens, and buttons.

The mass executions of war prisoners which took place several times an hour added to the horrors the Japanese brought to Nanjing. Prisoners were used for bayonet practice. After killing the Chinese soldiers who threw down their arms and surrendered, the Japanese combed the city for men in civilian garb who were suspected of being former soldiers. Men having knapsack marks on their shoulders or other signs of having been soldiers were murdered by thousands. In one building in the refugee zone 400 men were seized. They were marched off, tied in batches of fifty, between lines of riflemen and machine gunners, to the execution ground. In another slaughter a tank gun was turned on a group of more than 100 soldiers at a bomb shelter near the Ministry of Communications.

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