Planned Release Date: 2026

About This Game

The Rape of Nanking: The Diaries of John Rabe is a text-based interactive game set against the backdrop of the Nanking Massacre, based on the humanitarian deeds and original diary entries of John Rabe. Blending historical narrative with strategic decision-making elements, the game places you in the shoes of German businessman John Rabe inside the desperate confines of the Nanking Safety Zone. Every day brings historical emergencies and heavy moral dilemmas; your choices will manifest as blood-stained words upon the pages of your diary. Under the dual test of extreme resource scarcity and human morality, your pen will directly decide the survival of tens of thousands of Chinese refugees. Through this deeply immersive interactive medium, the game aims to allow the younger generation to re-examine this heavy chapter of history from a first-hand perspective.

First, it is important to clarify that this is a completely text-based interactive reading "serious game." All text in the game is strictly based on the original entries of The Rabe Diaries and historical records. The randomness and expansion of plot choices are rooted either in the unmapped blanks of history or in reasonable fiction based on clear records and historical contexts.

Next, a brief note regarding the adjustments made to our Steam store page content. Before deploying the current version, we developed a management-themed demo focused on running the Safety Zone, drawing inspiration from 60 Seconds! (combining initial supply runs with resource management choices). While that gameplay style offered more traditional entertainment value, its randomized and fragmented narrative made it difficult to present this history in a complete and clear manner. This contradicted our original intent: "to help more people understand this history in detail." Consequently, we chose to start from scratch and return to a pure text-interactive format, which offers far superior historical accuracy and narrative completeness.

Admittedly, this may not be a "fun" game in the conventional sense, However, we believe this is a meaningful endeavor.

AI Generated Content Disclosure

The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this:

The sole background image in the game is AI-generated.

Mature Content Description

The developers describe the content like this:

📌 Mature Content & Historical Disclaimer

This game is a serious historical narrative text-based game, entirely adapted from the authentic diaries of John Rabe during the Nanjing Massacre from December 1937 to February 1938. In order to faithfully represent the historical reality of war, the game contains the following mature and sensitive content that players should be aware of:

1. Extreme Violence & Atrocities
Specific content: The game text provides detailed accounts of historical mass killings, public executions, gunshot and bayonet wounds, as well as the tragic conditions of refugees and the remains of the deceased.
Presentation: The game presents these elements purely through objective written narration, supplemented by a very limited number of solemn static historical background images. The game contains absolutely no 3D gore effects, dismemberment animations, or any form of entertaining violence.

2. Sexual Assault & Non-consensual Sex
Specific content: Strictly following historical records, the game text addresses war crimes committed by the occupying forces against civilians, including rape, forced sexual acts, abduction of women, and the establishment of military brothels.
Supplemental historical facts – Minor victims: Historical sources clearly document that the age range of victims of Japanese military sexual violence was extremely broad, from girls as young as 9 to elderly women over 70. According to Rabe’s diary, reports of the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone, and testimonies of international witnesses, over 20,000 incidents of sexual violence occurred in and near the Safety Zone alone, with minors constituting a considerable proportion. These facts are derived from authoritative historical sources and form an inescapable part of the narrative background of this game.
Player role and mechanics: Players can never assume, perpetrate, encourage, or directly view these sexual atrocities in the game. The game contains absolutely no erotic, interactive, or sensory-stimulating content, and in particular, it does not include any explicit sexual descriptions or visual depictions of minors. All relevant depictions are based solely on historical records.

3. Additional Notes and Creative Intent
No entertainment content: The game does not contain any drug abuse, alcohol consumption, or self-harm elements.
Core creative intent: This work aims to objectively present the true history of the Nanking Safety Zone through Rabe’s perspective and to honor the spirit of humanitarianism. All sensitive elements are integral to the historical narrative and are by no means intended for sensory stimulation or sensationalist exploitation.