Robert O. Wilson

Dr. Robert Wilson was an American physician, born in Nanking, China in 1906, the son of Methodist missionaries.  Wilson graduated from Princeton University and received his M.D. from  Harvard  Medical School in 1929.  He was appointed to the staff of  the University of Nanking Hospital in 1935, arriving in 1936.  Along with Minnie Vautrin and John Rabe, he was instrumental in establishing the Nanking  Safety  Zone. 

During the Nanking  Massacre,  Dr. Wilson was the only surgeon remaining in the city.  Wilson’s diary/letters to his family describe the incredibly heavy load of medical work carried out by him with the help of his colleague Dr. C. S. Trimmer and a  few nurses, one of whom was the 67 years old American, Iva Hynds.  Not until April 1938 did Wilson and his staff get some relief.  In early June, 1938, Wilson was able to leave Nanking for a furlough in Shanghai. Dr. Wilson testified at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE) about the atrocities he had witnessed during the Nanking Massacre. (Yale, 2016)

Video on Dr. Robert Wilson's life and reading of letters, portrayed by Woody Harrelson

Retrieved from: The Nanking (2007), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfkk-GtM_sI