The looting of the Forbidden City is meaningless to Japan, but it has aroused the opposition of people all over the world.
The Forbidden City is the imperial palace of Qing Dynasty. The Japanese must take care of the flag of Manchukuo and maintain puppet rule.
At that time, the fall of Beiping City was basically peacefully taken over by the Japanese army, and there was no street fighting and cultural relics were not covered by artillery fire.
5. During the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression period, Japan's foreign slogan was "Glory of Great East Asia", and it did not destroy the Forbidden City, not because it was kind, but because it was in line with the long-term interests and goals of Japan's occupation of China.
Extended data:
At that time, the Japanese officer in charge of Beiping affairs was called Xiang Yueqing. He is a lieutenant general in the Japanese army. After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, he served as the garrison commander of China. Early in the morning, Xiang Yue heard that the most valuable thing in Peiping was the Palace Museum.
Because the emperors of Ming and Qing dynasties lived in it, and there were countless treasures of gold and silver. Maybe Xiang Yueqing had investigated it before the invasion.
Just as Ito ordered the army to ransack the Forbidden City, an order came and poured cold water on him. It turned out that this order came from the General Command of the Japanese invaders. The content of the order was to ask Ito to restrain his men and not to destroy anything in the Forbidden City.
The Lugouqiao Incident was the beginning of Japan's invasion of China. When it just occupied a new place, things naturally could not be done, which would cause great resistance from the people of China.
From 1937 to 1954, during the eight years of Japanese occupation of the Forbidden City, the Forbidden City was really untouched, and almost no substantial damage was caused to it. Otherwise, the crime of Japanese aggression against China will be added.
From February 1933, the first batch of cultural relics in the Forbidden City moved south, and after February 1949, cultural relics returned to the north one after another. In the past 20 years, they have traveled tens of thousands of kilometers and turned to Yusheng 10, and none of them was damaged. The feat of the ancestors of the Forbidden City created a miracle in the history of human cultural heritage protection.
References:
People's Network-South Migration Road of the Forbidden City Cultural Relics