To emphasize this point, it's enlightening to read the synopsis of atrocities in the wake of the Boxer Rebellion circa 1902, (from the Wiki)
Boxer Rebellion - Wikipedia
"
From contemporary Western observers, German, Russian, and Japanese troops received the greatest criticism for their ruthlessness and willingness to wantonly execute Chinese of all ages and backgrounds, sometimes burning and killing entire village populations.
[119] The German force arrived too late to take part in the fighting, but undertook punitive expeditions to villages in the countryside. Kaiser Wilhelm II on July 27 during departure ceremonies for the German relief force included an impromptu, but intemperate reference to the
Hun invaders of continental Europe which would later be resurrected by British propaganda to mock Germany during the First World War and Second World War:
"
Should you encounter the enemy, he will be defeated! No quarter will be given! Prisoners will not be taken! Whoever falls into your hands is forfeited. Just as a thousand years ago the Huns under their King Attila made a name for themselves, one that even today makes them seem mighty in history and legend, may the name German be affirmed by you in such a way in China that no Chinese will ever again dare to look cross-eyed at a German.
[120] "
One newspaper called the aftermath of the siege a "carnival of ancient loot", and others called it "an orgy of looting" by soldiers, civilians and missionaries. These characterisations called to mind the
sacking of the Summer Palace in 1860.
[121] Each nationality accused the others of being the worst looters.
An American diplomat, Herbert G. Squiers, filled several railroad cars with loot and artifacts. The British Legation held loot auctions every afternoon and proclaimed, "
Looting on the part of British troops was carried out in the most orderly manner." However, one British officer noted, "It is one of the unwritten
laws of war that a city which does not surrender at the last and is taken by storm is looted." For the rest of 1900–1901, the British held loot auctions everyday except Sunday in front of the main-gate to the British Legation. Many foreigners, including
Sir Claude Maxwell MacDonald and Lady Ethel MacDonald and
George Ernest Morrison of
The Times, were active bidders among the crowd. Many of these looted items ended up in Europe.
[122] The Catholic
Beitang or North Cathedral was a "salesroom for stolen property."
[123] The American commander General
Adna Chaffee banned looting by American soldiers, but the ban was ineffectual.
[124]
Some but by no means all Western missionaries took an active part in calling for retribution. To provide restitution to missionaries and Chinese Christian families whose property had been destroyed,
William Ament, a missionary of American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, guided American troops through villages to punish those he suspected of being Boxers and confiscate their property. When
Mark Twain read of this expedition, he wrote a scathing essay,
"To the Person Sitting in Darkness", that attacked the "Reverend bandits of the American Board," especially targeting Ament, one of the most respected missionaries in China.
[125] The controversy was front-page news during much of 1901. Ament's counterpart on the distaff side was doughty British missionary Georgina Smith who presided over a neighborhood in Beijing as judge and jury.
[126]
While
one historical account reported that Japanese troops were astonished by other Alliance troops raping civilians,
[127] others noted that Japanese troops were 'looting and burning without mercy', and that Chinese 'women and girls by hundreds have committed suicide to escape a worse fate at the hands of Russian and Japanese brutes.'
[128] Roger Keyes, who commanded the British destroyer
Fame and accompanied the Gaselee Expedition, noted that the Japanese had brought their own "regimental wives" (prostitutes) to the front to keep their soldiers from raping Chinese civilians.
[129]
The Daily Telegraph journalist E. J. Dillon stated that he witnessed the mutilated corpses of Chinese women who were raped and killed by the Alliance troops. The French commander dismissed the rapes, attributing them to "gallantry of the French soldier." A foreign journalist, George Lynch, said "there are things that I must not write, and that may not be printed in England, which would seem to show that this Western civilization of ours is merely a veneer over savagery."
[122]
"
I have to admit, cynical as I am, I was a little shocked to read that
missionaries were deeply involved in looting, reprisals, and rapes. I guess I'm naive. But it does put the rape of Nanking in some context. It's not just Japanese troops who went nuts in China, China suffered a great deal at the hands of foreigners, and while we may have forgotten most of these stories, or filtered them to point up the sins of our enemies,
the Chinese have not. They remember it all too well.