1886-1941 USA

Minnie Vautrin was born in Secor, Illinois on September 27, 1886. She graduated from the Department of Education at University of Illinois with high honours in 1912. She was commissioned by the United Christ Missionary Society as a missionary to , and moved to Nanking in 1912. She became chair of the education department at Ginling College when it was founded in 1916, the first university granting bachelor’s degrees to female students in China. Vautrin devoted her adult life to the education of Chinese women at Ginling College in Nanking and to helping the poor. When most of the faculty left in December 1937, afraid of the invading Japanese forces, Vautrin became acting Dean of Ginling and took charge of the campus for the duration of the Japanese siege and the massacre. There were many teachers, students and thousands of people who could not leave, and she voluntarily stayed for four and a half months. During the massacre, Vautrin turned the College into a sanctuary for 10,000 women and worked tirelessly to help establish the .

Her diary, like that of the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone Chair ’s, is a primary source of information on the Japanese atrocities in Nanking. She kept a 526-page diary covering the period from 1937 to 1941. About one-fourth of her diary documents the period of the Nanking Massacre from December 1937 to March 1938. Weary and stressed from the emotional strain of the massacre, she had a nervous breakdown in May 1940 and had to return to the United States for medical treatment. On May 14, 1941 Minnie Vautrin ended her own life.

(Worksheet for Rescuers and Global Citizenship in the Nanking Massacre, prepared by BC ALPHA www.alpha-canada.org)

Excerpts from Minnie Vautrin’s Diary

Wednesday, December 15th, 1937

This must be Wednesday, December 15. It is so difficult to keep track of the days – there is no rhythm in the weeks any more.

From 8:30 this morning until 6 this evening, excepting for the noon meal, I have stood at the front gate while the refugees poured in. There is terror in the face of many of the women – last night was a terrible night in the city and many young women were taken from their homes by the Japanese soldiers […]

At 7 o’clock I took a group of men and women refugees over to the University [of Nanking]. We do not take men, although we have filled the faculty dining room in Central Building with old men. One woman in the group said she was the only survivor of four in her family.

The Japanese have looted widely yesterday and today, have destroyed schools, have killed citizens, and raped women. One thousand disarmed Chinese soldiers, whom the International Committee hoped to save, were taken from them and by this time are probably shot or bayoneted. In our South Hill House Japanese broke the panel of the storeroom and took out some old fruit juice and a few other things. (Open door policy!) […]

Friday, December 17th, 1937

Went to gate at 7:30 to get message to Mr. Sone who slept down in house with F. Chen. Red Cross kitchen must have coal and rice. A stream of weary wild-eyed women were coming in. Said their night had been one of horror; that again and again their homes had been visited by soldiers. (Twelve-year-old girls up to sixty-year-old women raped. Husbands forced to leave bedroom and pregnant wife at point of bayonet. If only the thoughtful people of Japan knew facts of these days of horror.) Wish someone were here who had time to write the sad story of each person—especially that of the younger girls who had blackened their faces and cut their hair. The gateman said they had been coming in since daylight at 6:30.

The morning spent either at gate or running from South Hill to one of the dormitories or front gate, wherever a group of Japanese was reported to be. One or two such trips were made both during breakfast and dinner today. No meal for days without a servant coming [to say,] "Miss Vautrin, three soldiers now in science building or [...]

Source: The Undaunted Women of Nanking – The Wartime Diaries of Minnie Vautrin and Tsen Shui-Fang, edited and translated by Hua-Ling Hu and Zhang Lian-Hong, Southern Illinois University Press, 2010.

(Worksheet for Rescuers and Global Citizenship in the Nanking Massacre, prepared by BC ALPHA www.alpha-canada.org)