Question: During which war did the Japanese troops commit mass murder and rape against civilians that is recorded in The Good Man of Nanking: The Diaries of John Rabe?

Context articles: John Rabe Communication Centre
John Rabe (film)
The Good Man of Nanking
John Rabe House
Nanking Massacre
Battle of Manila (1945)
Nanking (2007 film)
Nanking Safety Zone
Shūdō Higashinakano
Dragon Seed (novel)

The John Rabe Communication Centre is a small information centre and museum in Heidelberg, which was founded by Thomas Rabe with the ambition of the documentation of the life of John Rabe.
 With the help of the diaries of John Rabe it should set a base for the communication of international understanding, particularly between China and Japan.
John Rabe (released in the United Kingdom as City of War: The Story of John Rabe) is a 2009 German-Chinese-French biopictorial film directed by Florian Gallenberger and starring Ulrich Tukur, Daniel Brühl and Steve Buscemi.
The Good Man of Nanking: The Diaries of John Rabe is a collection of the personal journals of John Rabe, a German businessman who lived in Nanjing at the time of the Nanking Massacre in 1937–1938.
 The book contains the diaries that Rabe kept during the Nanking Massacre, writing from his personal experience and observation of the events that took place.
 It also excerpts Rabe's experience in immediate post-war Berlin, then occupied by Soviet troops.
 Rabe's diaries were made known and quoted by author Iris Chang during the research for her book, "The Rape of Nanking"; they were subsequently translated from German to English by John E. Woods and published in the United States in 1998.
The John Rabe House (拉贝故居), located at Xiaofenqiao No. 1 (小粉桥1号) in Nanjing, China, was where John Rabe stayed during the Nanking Massacre and protected more than 600 Chinese refugees in this house, and within its garden, from Japanese persecution.
 Today it accommodates the “John Rabe and International Safety Zone Memorial Hall” and the “John Rabe Research and Exchange Centre for Peace and Reconciliation.”
The Nanking Massacre was an episode of mass murder and mass rape committed by Japanese troops against the residents of Nanjing ("Nanking"), then the capital of the Republic of China, during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
 The massacre is also known as the Rape of Nanking or, using Pinyin romanization, the Nanjing Massacre or Rape of Nanjing.
The Battle of Manila (February 3, 1945 – March 3, 1945) was a major battle of the Philippine campaign of 1944-45, during the Second World War.
 It was fought by American and Filipino forces against Japanese troops in Manila, the capital city of the Philippines.
 The month-long battle, which resulted in the death of over 100,000 civilians and the complete devastation of the city, was the scene of the worst urban fighting in the Pacific theater.
 Japanese forces committed mass murder against Filipino civilians during the battle.
 Along with massive loss of life, the battle also destroyed architectural and cultural heritage dating back to the city's foundation.
 The battle ended the almost three years of Japanese military occupation in the Philippines (1942–1945).
 The city's capture was marked as General Douglas MacArthur's key to victory in the campaign of reconquest.
Nanking () is a 2007 film about the 1937 Nanking Massacre committed by the Japanese army in the former capital city Nanjing, China.
 It was inspired by Iris Chang's "The Rape of Nanking", which discussed the persecution and murder of the Chinese by the Imperial Japanese Army in the then-capital of Nanjing during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
 The film draws on letters and diaries from the era as well as archive footage and interviews with surviving victims and perpetrators of the massacre.
 Contemporary actors play the roles of the Western missionaries, professors, and businessmen who formed the Nanking Safety Zone to protect the city's civilians from Japanese forces.
 Particular attention is paid to Nazi Party member John Rabe, a German businessman who organized the Nanking Safety Zone, Robert O. Wilson, a surgeon who remained in Nanking to care for legions of victims, and Minnie Vautrin, a missionary educator who rendered aid to thousands of Nanking's women.
The Nanking Safety Zone (; Japanese: 南京安全区 "Nankin Anzenku", 南京安全地帯, "Nankin Anzenchitai") was a demilitarized zone for Chinese civilians set up on the eve of the Japanese breakthrough in the Battle of Nanking (December 13, 1937).
 Following the example of Jesuit Father Robert Jacquinot de Besange in Shanghai, the foreigners in Nanking created the Nanking Safety Zone, managed by the "International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone" led by German businessman and Nazi party member, John Rabe.
 The zone and the activities of the International Committee were responsible for saving the lives of many thousands of Chinese civilians during the Nanking Massacre.
Shūdō Higashinakano (東中野 修道 , Higashinakano Shūdō , born October 19, 1947) is a Japanese historian.
 He is a professor of intellectual history at Asia University who maintains that the 1937 Nanking Massacre ("The Rape of Nanking") committed by Japanese troops during the Second Sino-Japanese War is a hoax.
Dragon Seed is a novel by Pearl S. Buck first published in 1942.
 It describes the lives of Chinese peasants in a village outside Nanjing, China immediately prior to and during the Japanese invasion in 1937.
 Some characters seek protection in the city while others become collaborators.
 This story focuses less on the details of the attack and more on the characters’ reactions to the events in Nanking.
 The Nanking Massacre (commonly called the Rape of Nanking) involved months of horrific violence by the Imperial Japanese Army as they conquered the city; the novel takes place during these events.
 Buck opines in the novel that Japanese troops passing through China feel no responsibility for their conduct as they won’t be present to be confronted after the violence is over.