The Red August of Beijing is regarded as the origin of Red Terror in the Chinese Cultural Revolution, instigating Red Guards' movement in multiple cities including Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing and Xiamen, where local political leaders, intellectuals, teachers and members of the Five Black Categories were persecuted and even killed by the Red Guards. There has been comparison between the date "18 August 1966", which was the crucial moment of the Red August, with the "Kristallnacht," which was the prelude of Nazi Germany's Holocaust. In addition, the Red August along with the subsequent massacres across China during the Cultural Revolution has been compared to the Nanjing Massacre conducted by the Japanese military during the Second Sino-Japanese War.