The 1937–1938 Nanjing Atrocities 9811396558, 9789811396557, 9789811396564

Table of contents :
Preface......Page 5
Contents......Page 8
Self-portrait of the Author......Page 13
About the Author......Page 14
Abbreviations......Page 15
Maps......Page 17
Chapter 1: Japanese Military Expansion......Page 26
2.1 Japanese Military Presence in Shanghai......Page 40
2.2 Hongqiao Airdrome Incident Led to Hostilities in Shanghai......Page 41
2.3 Outbreak of Urban Hostilities, August 13–22......Page 42
2.4 Japanese Landing Operations and Chinese Counter Landing Attempts, August 23–September 11......Page 44
2.5 Battles Between Panjing and Yangjing Rivers, September 12–30......Page 47
2.6 Battles Between Wenzaobang and Zoumatang Creek, October 1–26......Page 48
2.7 Fall of Shanghai......Page 49
2.8 Three Routes Toward Nanjing......Page 50
2.9 Japanese Atrocities in the Lower Yangtze Valley......Page 51
2.10 Battles at Nanjing......Page 58
2.11 The Fall of Nanjing......Page 62
Chapter 3: Brutality Following the Fall of Nanjing: Large-Scale Massacres......Page 69
3.1 Massacres at Straw Shoe Gorge......Page 73
3.2 Massacres at Swallow Cliff......Page 79
3.3 Massacres at Torpedo Base and Pagoda Bridge......Page 81
3.4 Massacres at Coal Dock......Page 83
3.5 Massacres at Zhongshan Wharf......Page 86
3.6 Massacres at Xiaguan......Page 90
3.7 Massacres at the Sancha River Area......Page 93
3.8 Massacres at the Shangxin Riverfront......Page 97
3.9 Jiangdong Gate and Shuixi Gate Massacres......Page 100
3.10 Massacres at Hanzhong Gate and Hanxi Gate......Page 102
4.1 Massacres at Qingliang Hill and Gulin Temple......Page 110
4.2 Killings in Sanpailou and Northwestern Section of the City......Page 113
4.3 Massacres at Shanxi Road and Dafang Lane......Page 116
4.4 Massacres at Drum Tower and Yinyangying......Page 120
4.5 Massacres at Wutai Hill and Shanghai Road......Page 124
4.6 Massacres in the Eastern Suburbs......Page 128
4.7 Massacres in the Southern Suburbs......Page 133
4.8 Killings in the Southern Section of the City Inside the City Walls......Page 137
4.9 Killings in the Western and Southwestern Sections of the City......Page 139
4.10 Massacres and Killings in the Eastern Section Within the City Walls......Page 142
4.11 Mass Murder and Killings in the Central Section of the City......Page 144
4.12 Mass Executions and Killings in City’s Northern Section......Page 146
5.1 Rampant Violation Against Women......Page 157
5.2 Wholesale Looting......Page 167
5.3 Widespread Burning......Page 173
6.1 A Historical Review......Page 182
6.2 Cases Recorded by Different Parties in Different Periods in History......Page 191
6.3.1 Testimonies by Survivors......Page 203
6.3.2 Testimonies About Murdered Parents......Page 205
6.3.3 Testimonies About Murdered Spouses......Page 206
6.3.4 Testimonies About Sons and Daughters Who Were Killed......Page 208
6.3.5 Testimonies About Other Relatives Murdered......Page 209
6.3.6 Testimonies About Witnessing Killings......Page 211
6.3.7 Testimonies by Rape Victims......Page 213
6.3.8 Testimonies About Mothers and Wives Raped......Page 214
6.3.9 Testimonies About Daughters and Daughters-in-Law Raped......Page 215
6.3.10 Testimonies About Other Relatives Raped......Page 216
6.3.11 Testimonies About Witnessing Rapes......Page 217
Chapter 7: Japanese Soldiers’ Accounts......Page 225
7.1 Iwane Matsui (松井石根)......Page 227
7.2 Mamoru Iinuma (飯沼守)......Page 229
7.3 Toshimichi Uemura (上村利道)......Page 231
7.4.1 Senji Yamada (山田栴二)......Page 232
7.4.2 Seigo Miyamoto (宫本省吾)......Page 233
7.4.3 Takaharu Endo (遠藤高明)......Page 234
7.4.4 Eishirou Kondo (近藤榮四郎)......Page 235
7.4.5 Fukuharu Meguro (目黑福治)......Page 236
7.5.1 Kesago Nakajima (中島今朝吾)......Page 237
7.5.2 Touichi Sasaki (佐々木到一)......Page 239
7.5.3 Rokusuke Masuda (增田六助)......Page 240
7.5.4 Atau Kitayama (北山舆)......Page 241
7.5.5 Shouta Makihara (牧原信夫)......Page 242
7.5.7 Teruyoshi Funahashi (舟橋照吉)......Page 244
7.6.1 Kazuo Isa (伊佐一男)......Page 245
7.6.2 Sou Mizutani (水谷莊)......Page 246
7.6.3 Matachi Ike (井家又一)......Page 247
7.6.4 Takeshi Yamamoto (山本武)......Page 248
7.7.2 Kitsuhiko Maeda (前田吉彦)......Page 249
7.7.4 Morikazu Takashiro (高城守一)......Page 250
7.7.5 Yoshio Akaboshi (赤星義雄)......Page 251
7.8.2 Kazuo Sone (曾根一夫)......Page 252
7.9.1 Kouzou Tatokoro (田所耕三)......Page 254
7.9.2 Kenrou Kajitani (梶谷健郎)......Page 255
7.9.3 Masaharu Iwazaki (岩崎昌治)......Page 256
7.9.4 Motokatsu Sasaki (佐々木元勝)......Page 257
7.9.5 Junji Ite (井手純二)......Page 260
7.9.6 Masatake Okumiya (奥宮正武)......Page 261
8.1 The International Committee for Nanjing Safety Zone......Page 266
8.2 The Western Nationals in the Fallen City......Page 273
8.2.1 John Heinrich Detlev Rabe (1882–1950)......Page 275
8.2.2 Christian Jakob Kröger (1903–1993)......Page 278
8.2.3 Eduard Sperling......Page 280
8.2.4 Miner Searle Bates (1897–1978)......Page 281
8.2.5 Grace Louise Bauer (1896–1976)......Page 284
8.2.6 George Ashmore Fitch (1883–1979)......Page 286
8.2.7 Ernest Herman Forster (1896–1971)......Page 289
8.2.8 John Gillespie Magee (1884–1953)......Page 290
8.2.9 James Henry McCallum (1893–1984)......Page 292
8.2.10 Wilson Plumer Mills (1883–1959)......Page 294
8.2.11 Charles Henry Riggs (1892–1953)......Page 296
8.2.12 Lewis Strong Casey Smythe (1901–1978)......Page 297
8.2.13 Hubert Lafayette Sone (1892–1970)......Page 299
8.2.14 Clifford Sharp Trimmer (1891–1974)......Page 301
8.2.15 Minnie Vautrin (1886–1941)......Page 302
8.2.16 Robert Ory Wilson (1906–1967)......Page 303
9.1 English Media Coverage......Page 309
9.2 Chinese Media Coverage......Page 325
9.3 Japanese Media Coverage......Page 335
10.1 The American Embassy and Diplomatic Record......Page 349
10.2 The British Embassy and Diplomatic Dispatches and Reports......Page 361
10.3 The German Embassy and Diplomatic Documents......Page 367
11.1 Japanese Troops......Page 383
11.2 Charity Organizations......Page 388
11.2.1 The Red Swastika Society......Page 389
11.2.2 Chongshan Tang or the Benevolence Society......Page 402
11.2.3 The Red Cross Society......Page 408
11.2.4 Other Charity Organizations......Page 419
11.3 Local Governments......Page 420
11.4 Groups, Individuals, and Victims’ Family Members and Relatives......Page 423
12.1 Nanjing Military Tribunal......Page 430
12.1.1 Hisao Tani on Trial......Page 432
12.1.2 Gunkichi Tanaka, Toshiaki Mukai and Tsuyoshi Noda on Trial......Page 438
12.2 The International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo......Page 441
12.2.1 Testimonies by the Prosecution Witnesses......Page 443
12.2.2 Testimonies by the Defense Witnesses......Page 458
12.2.3 Summation of the Prosecution......Page 467
12.2.4 Summation of the Defense......Page 470
12.2.5 Judgment......Page 474
13.1 A Reversal of Course by the Americans......Page 480
13.2 Writings and Research on the Nanjing Massacre in China and Japan from the 1950s to the Early 1970s......Page 483
13.3 The Start of Controversies......Page 493
13.4 The Turning Point......Page 507
13.5 The Rise of Japanese Revisionists......Page 509
13.6 Searching for Japanese Soldiers’ Wartime Diaries......Page 519
13.7 Research on the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Writers and Scholars......Page 521
13.8 Chinese Academic Research on the Nanjing Massacre......Page 525
14.1 Original News Coverage of the “100-Man Killing Contest”......Page 545
14.2 Memoirs Recounting the 100-Man Killing Contest......Page 553
14.3.1 Plaintiffs’ Litigation Requests (訴訟の要請)......Page 561
14.3.2 Defendants’ Arguments (被告の主張)......Page 565
14.3.3 Court Decision......Page 571
Chinese Language Sources......Page 580
English Language Sources......Page 582
German Language Sources......Page 584
Japanese Language Sources......Page 585
Index......Page 588

Citation preview

Suping Lu

The 1937 – 1938 Nanjing Atrocities

The 1937 – 1938 Nanjing Atrocities

Suping Lu

The 1937 – 1938 Nanjing Atrocities

Suping Lu University of Nebraska-Lincoln Lincoln, NE, USA

ISBN 978-981-13-9655-7    ISBN 978-981-13-9656-4 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9656-4 © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

Preface

I started my research on the Nanjing Massacre in January 1997. Over the past 20 years, I travelled extensively in Asia, Europe, and within the United States to search for original and archival source material at the Library of Congress and the National Archives in Washington, DC; the National Archives II at College Park, MD; Yale Divinity School Library; Yenching and Houghton Libraries at Harvard; the National Library of China in Beijing; the Second Historical Archives of China in Nanjing; the Disciples of Christ Historical Society in Nashville, TN; the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia; Union Theological Seminary’s Burke Library at Columbia University; the British Library and the Public Record Office in London; the National Archives of Scotland in Edinburg; les Archives Nationale de France and Service Historique de la Défense in Paris; and Politisches Archiv, Auswärtiges Amt, and Bundesarchiv in Berlin. In addition, I obtained a large number of publications through interlibrary loan system, including Japanese language newspapers and Japanese soldiers’ wartime diaries. My research journey uncovered an enormous amount of valuable source material. They Were in Nanjing: The Nanjing Massacre Witnessed by American and British Nationals was published in 2004. However, only a small fraction of the sources was used in drafting the aforementioned book, so I decided to share the material with fellow researchers and scholars. I spent several years selecting, compiling, editing, and annotating the material for three volumes and eventually published Terror in Minnie Vautrin’s Nanjing: Diaries and Correspondence, 1937-38 (2008), A Mission Under Duress: The Nanjing Massacre and Post-Massacre Social Conditions Documented by American Diplomats (2010), and A Dark Page in History: The Nanjing Massacre and Post-Massacre Social Conditions Recorded in British Diplomatic Dispatches, Admiralty Documents, and U.S.  Intelligence Reports (2012). Up to this point, however, the research focuses only on the accounts and records left behind by American and British journalists and diplomats and American missionaries. As my research continues and generates more primary sources, especially those of Chinese, German, and Japanese origins, a comprehensive research project v

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Preface

based on the American, British, Chinese, German, and Japanese source material has emerged. The 1937–1938 Nanjing Atrocities examines such issues as the major events of the Nanjing Massacre, the testimonies provided by Chinese survivors and witnesses in different historical periods; the media coverage in Chinese, English, and Japanese in 1937/1938; the eyewitness accounts by the American and German nationals in Nanjing during the massacre period; the dispatches sent by American, British, and German diplomats in 1938; the descriptive accounts in Japanese soldiers’ wartime diaries; the activities of burying victim bodies initiated by Japanese troops, charity organizations, family members, and others; the postwar military tribunals; the controversies over the Nanjing Massacre; and “the 100-man killing contest” and the related debates and lawsuits. Chinese survivors and witnesses provided testimonies in the 1930s, the 1940s, the early 1950s, and the mid-1980s. A comparative study is performed for the consistency, reliability, and accuracy of the testimonies offered by the same survivors or witnesses in different historical periods or the testimonies by different parties in different periods about the same case. Japanese soldiers’ diaries from the collections published by both left and right circles of Japanese scholars are selected to provide the perspectives of those who participated in mass executing prisoners of war and civilians. Controversy surrounding the Nanjing Massacre was initiated by writers and scholars in Japan in the 1970s and has continued and evolved since then. However, the key controversial issues have remained consistent, namely, the population of Nanjing in relation to the victim toll, the massacre victim number, and the reliability of the burial record. These three major arguments originate in the summation submitted by the Japanese defense on February 18, 1948, to the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. However, they were denied by the tribunal’s judgment delivered by the tribunal president William Flood Webb on November 11, 1948. In the early 1980s, these issues were picked up by Japanese right-wing revisionist researchers. Since the textbook revision issue arose, Chinese scholars have become increasingly active. Herein, the history and evolvement of the controversies are analytically traced, while the writings by the left and right circles of Japanese researchers and the research done by Chinese and Japanese scholars are discussed and analyzed in a balanced manner. The 100-man killing contest is another topic that has incited controversies. When the killing contest was first reported in Japan in 1937, Americans and Chinese responded that it was the killing of prisoners of war and civilians. They never considered the two sublieutenant war heroes. This viewpoint has remained unchanged, especially, for the Chinese. The controversies over the killing contest are largely among the Japanese and debated in Japan. The original Japanese media coverage of the killing contest and the memoirs of the reporters and those involved are faithfully introduced, while the debates in the 1970s and the lawsuits between 2003 and 2006 are impartially presented.

Preface

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Meanwhile, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Research Council whose research grant made the publication of this book possible. I would also like to extend my gratitude to my daughter, Diana Lu, who worked tirelessly in an editing effort to improve the manuscript, and Brian O’Grady, who interlibrary loaned numerous items for this project. Lincoln, NE, USA  Suping Lu June 2019

Contents

1 Japanese Military Expansion������������������������������������������������������������������    1 2 Road to Nanjing ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   15 2.1 Japanese Military Presence in Shanghai ����������������������������������������   15 2.2 Hongqiao Airdrome Incident Led to Hostilities in Shanghai����������   16 2.3 Outbreak of Urban Hostilities, August 13–22��������������������������������   17 2.4 Japanese Landing Operations and Chinese Counter Landing Attempts, August 23–September 11������������������������������������������������   19 2.5 Battles Between Panjing and Yangjing Rivers, September 12–30����������������������������������������������������������������������������   22 2.6 Battles Between Wenzaobang and Zoumatang Creek, October 1–26����������������������������������������������������������������������������������   23 2.7 Fall of Shanghai������������������������������������������������������������������������������   24 2.8 Three Routes Toward Nanjing��������������������������������������������������������   25 2.9 Japanese Atrocities in the Lower Yangtze Valley����������������������������   26 2.10 Battles at Nanjing����������������������������������������������������������������������������   33 2.11 The Fall of Nanjing������������������������������������������������������������������������   37 3 Brutality Following the Fall of Nanjing: Large-Scale Massacres��������   45 3.1 Massacres at Straw Shoe Gorge������������������������������������������������������   49 3.2 Massacres at Swallow Cliff������������������������������������������������������������   55 3.3 Massacres at Torpedo Base and Pagoda Bridge������������������������������   57 3.4 Massacres at Coal Dock������������������������������������������������������������������   59 3.5 Massacres at Zhongshan Wharf������������������������������������������������������   62 3.6 Massacres at Xiaguan����������������������������������������������������������������������   66 3.7 Massacres at the Sancha River Area ����������������������������������������������   69 3.8 Massacres at the Shangxin Riverfront��������������������������������������������   73 3.9 Jiangdong Gate and Shuixi Gate Massacres ����������������������������������   76 3.10 Massacres at Hanzhong Gate and Hanxi Gate��������������������������������   78

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4 Small-Scale Mass Executions and Individual Killings ������������������������   87 4.1 Massacres at Qingliang Hill and Gulin Temple������������������������������   87 4.2 Killings in Sanpailou and Northwestern Section of the City����������   90 4.3 Massacres at Shanxi Road and Dafang Lane����������������������������������   93 4.4 Massacres at Drum Tower and Yinyangying����������������������������������   97 4.5 Massacres at Wutai Hill and Shanghai Road����������������������������������  101 4.6 Massacres in the Eastern Suburbs ��������������������������������������������������  105 4.7 Massacres in the Southern Suburbs������������������������������������������������  110 4.8 Killings in the Southern Section of the City Inside the City Walls����������������������������������������������������������������������������������  114 4.9 Killings in the Western and Southwestern Sections of the City����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  116 4.10 Massacres and Killings in the Eastern Section Within the City Walls����������������������������������������������������������������������  119 4.11 Mass Murder and Killings in the Central Section of the City ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  121 4.12 Mass Executions and Killings in City’s Northern Section��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  123 5 Raping, Looting, and Burning����������������������������������������������������������������  135 5.1 Rampant Violation Against Women������������������������������������������������  135 5.2 Wholesale Looting��������������������������������������������������������������������������  145 5.3 Widespread Burning������������������������������������������������������������������������  151 6 Testimonies by Chinese Survivors and Witnesses ��������������������������������  161 6.1 A Historical Review������������������������������������������������������������������������  161 6.2 Cases Recorded by Different Parties in Different Periods in History����������������������������������������������������������������������������  170 6.3 Testimonies of the Japanese Atrocities ������������������������������������������  182 6.3.1 Testimonies by Survivors��������������������������������������������������  182 6.3.2 Testimonies About Murdered Parents ������������������������������  184 6.3.3 Testimonies About Murdered Spouses������������������������������  185 6.3.4 Testimonies About Sons and Daughters Who Were Killed ����������������������������������������������������������������������  187 6.3.5 Testimonies About Other Relatives Murdered������������������  188 6.3.6 Testimonies About Witnessing Killings����������������������������  190 6.3.7 Testimonies by Rape Victims��������������������������������������������  192 6.3.8 Testimonies About Mothers and Wives Raped������������������  193 6.3.9 Testimonies About Daughters and Daughters-in-Law Raped��������������������������������������������������������������������������������  194 6.3.10 Testimonies About Other Relatives Raped������������������������  195 6.3.11 Testimonies About Witnessing Rapes ������������������������������  196

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7 Japanese Soldiers’ Accounts ������������������������������������������������������������������  205 7.1 Iwane Matsui (松井石根) ��������������������������������������������������������������  207 7.2 Mamoru Iinuma (飯沼守) ��������������������������������������������������������������  209 7.3 Toshimichi Uemura (上村利道) ����������������������������������������������������  211 7.4 The Yamada Detachment, the 13th Division ����������������������������������  212 7.4.1 Senji Yamada (山田栴二) ������������������������������������������������  212 7.4.2 Seigo Miyamoto (宫本省吾)��������������������������������������������  213 7.4.3 Takaharu Endo (遠藤高明)����������������������������������������������  214 7.4.4 Eishirou Kondo (近藤榮四郎)������������������������������������������  215 7.4.5 Fukuharu Meguro (目黑福治)������������������������������������������  216 7.5 The 16th Division����������������������������������������������������������������������������  217 7.5.1 Kesago Nakajima (中島今朝吾)��������������������������������������  217 7.5.2 Touichi Sasaki (佐々木到一)�������������������������������������������  219 7.5.3 Rokusuke Masuda (增田六助) ����������������������������������������  220 7.5.4 Atau Kitayama (北山舆)��������������������������������������������������  221 7.5.5 Shouta Makihara (牧原信夫)��������������������������������������������  222 7.5.6 Takeo Higashi (東武夫)����������������������������������������������������  224 7.5.7 Teruyoshi Funahashi (舟橋照吉)��������������������������������������  224 7.6 The 9th Division������������������������������������������������������������������������������  225 7.6.1 Kazuo Isa (伊佐一男) ������������������������������������������������������  225 7.6.2 Sou Mizutani (水谷莊) ����������������������������������������������������  226 7.6.3 Matachi Ike (井家又一)����������������������������������������������������  227 7.6.4 Takeshi Yamamoto (山本武)��������������������������������������������  228 7.7 The 6th Division������������������������������������������������������������������������������  229 7.7.1 Mamoru Orita (折田護)����������������������������������������������������  229 7.7.2 Kitsuhiko Maeda (前田吉彦) ������������������������������������������  229 7.7.3 Tsuzuki Fukumoto (福元続)��������������������������������������������  230 7.7.4 Morikazu Takashiro (高城守一)��������������������������������������  230 7.7.5 Yoshio Akaboshi (赤星義雄)��������������������������������������������  231 7.8 The 3rd Division�����������������������������������������������������������������������������  232 7.8.1 Zennai Asano (浅野善内) ������������������������������������������������  232 7.8.2 Kazuo Sone (曾根一夫)����������������������������������������������������  232 7.9 Other Troops�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������  234 7.9.1 Kouzou Tatokoro (田所耕三) ������������������������������������������  234 7.9.2 Kenrou Kajitani (梶谷健郎) ��������������������������������������������  235 7.9.3 Masaharu Iwazaki (岩崎昌治)������������������������������������������  236 7.9.4 Motokatsu Sasaki (佐々木元勝)��������������������������������������  237 7.9.5 Junji Ite (井手純二)����������������������������������������������������������  240 7.9.6 Masatake Okumiya (奥宮正武)����������������������������������������  241

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8 International Committee for Nanjing Safety Zone and Westerners in Nanjing����������������������������������������������������������������������  247 8.1 The International Committee for Nanjing Safety Zone������������������  247 8.2 The Western Nationals in the Fallen City ��������������������������������������  254 8.2.1 John Heinrich Detlev Rabe (1882–1950)��������������������������  256 8.2.2 Christian Jakob Kröger (1903–1993)��������������������������������  259 8.2.3 Eduard Sperling����������������������������������������������������������������  261 8.2.4 Miner Searle Bates (1897–1978)��������������������������������������  262 8.2.5 Grace Louise Bauer (1896–1976) ������������������������������������  265 8.2.6 George Ashmore Fitch (1883–1979)��������������������������������  267 8.2.7 Ernest Herman Forster (1896–1971)��������������������������������  270 8.2.8 John Gillespie Magee (1884–1953)����������������������������������  271 8.2.9 James Henry McCallum (1893–1984)������������������������������  273 8.2.10 Wilson Plumer Mills (1883–1959)������������������������������������  275 8.2.11 Charles Henry Riggs (1892–1953)�����������������������������������  277 8.2.12 Lewis Strong Casey Smythe (1901–1978)������������������������  278 8.2.13 Hubert Lafayette Sone (1892–1970)��������������������������������  280 8.2.14 Clifford Sharp Trimmer (1891–1974) ������������������������������  282 8.2.15 Minnie Vautrin (1886–1941) ��������������������������������������������  283 8.2.16 Robert Ory Wilson (1906–1967)��������������������������������������  284 9 Media Coverage in English, Chinese and Japanese������������������������������  291 9.1 English Media Coverage ����������������������������������������������������������������  291 9.2 Chinese Media Coverage����������������������������������������������������������������  307 9.3 Japanese Media Coverage ��������������������������������������������������������������  317 10 American, British, and German Diplomatic Documents ��������������������  331 10.1 The American Embassy and Diplomatic Record����������������������������  331 10.2 The British Embassy and Diplomatic Dispatches and Reports�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  343 10.3 The German Embassy and Diplomatic Documents������������������������  349 11 Disposing of Victim Bodies����������������������������������������������������������������������  365 11.1 Japanese Troops������������������������������������������������������������������������������  365 11.2 Charity Organizations ��������������������������������������������������������������������  370 11.2.1 The Red Swastika Society������������������������������������������������  371 11.2.2 Chongshan Tang or the Benevolence Society ������������������  384 11.2.3 The Red Cross Society������������������������������������������������������  390 11.2.4 Other Charity Organizations ��������������������������������������������  401 11.3 Local Governments ������������������������������������������������������������������������  402 11.4 Groups, Individuals, and Victims’ Family Members and Relatives ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������  405 12 Post-War Military Tribunals������������������������������������������������������������������  413 12.1 Nanjing Military Tribunal ��������������������������������������������������������������  413 12.1.1 Hisao Tani on Trial������������������������������������������������������������  415

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12.1.2 Gunkichi Tanaka, Toshiaki Mukai and Tsuyoshi Noda on Trial��������������������������������������������������������������������  421 12.2 The International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  424 12.2.1 Testimonies by the Prosecution Witnesses������������������������  426 12.2.2 Testimonies by the Defense Witnesses�����������������������������  441 12.2.3 Summation of the Prosecution������������������������������������������  450 12.2.4 Summation of the Defense������������������������������������������������  453 12.2.5 Judgment ��������������������������������������������������������������������������  457 13 Controversies over the Nanjing Massacre ��������������������������������������������  463 13.1 A Reversal of Course by the Americans ����������������������������������������  463 13.2 Writings and Research on the Nanjing Massacre in China and Japan from the 1950s to the Early 1970s ��������������������������������  466 13.3 The Start of Controversies��������������������������������������������������������������  476 13.4 The Turning Point ��������������������������������������������������������������������������  490 13.5 The Rise of Japanese Revisionists��������������������������������������������������  492 13.6 Searching for Japanese Soldiers’ Wartime Diaries ������������������������  502 13.7 Research on the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Writers and Scholars������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  504 13.8 Chinese Academic Research on the Nanjing Massacre������������������  508 14 The 100-Man Killing Contest and Controversies����������������������������������  529 14.1 Original News Coverage of the “100-Man Killing Contest”����������  529 14.2 Memoirs Recounting the 100-Man Killing Contest������������������������  537 14.3 The 100-Man Killing Contest Law Suits, 2003–2006��������������������  545 14.3.1 Plaintiffs’ Litigation Requests (訴訟の要請) ������������������  545 14.3.2 Defendants’ Arguments (被告の主張) ����������������������������  549 14.3.3 Court Decision������������������������������������������������������������������  555 Bibliography ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  565 Index������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  573

Self-portrait of the Author

xv

About the Author

Suping Lu  is a professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is the author of They Were in Nanjing: The Nanjing Massacre Witnessed by American and British Nationals (2004), and editor of Terror in Minnie Vautrin’s Nanjing: Diaries and Correspondence, 1937-38 (2008), A Mission under Duress: The Nanjing Massacre and Post-Massacre Social Conditions Documented by American Diplomats (2010), and A Dark Page in History: The Nanjing Massacre and Post-Massacre Social Conditions Recorded in British Diplomatic Dispatches, Admiralty Documents, and U.S. Naval Intelligence Reports (2012 & 2019).

xvii

Abbreviations

中国第二历史档案馆, 南京市档案馆 (Second Historical Archives of China & Nanjing Municipal Archives). 1937. 12. 13-­侵华日军南京大 屠杀档案 (Archival Documents Relating to the Horrible Massacre Committed by the Japanese Troops in Nanjing in December 1937), Nanjing: 江苏古籍出版社 (Jiangsu Archives Press), 1997. CTS 朱成山 (Zhu, Chengshan). 侵华日军南京大屠杀幸存者证言集 (A Collection of Testimonies by the Survivors of the Nanjing Massacre Committed by the Japanese Troops Invading China), Nanjing: 南京大学 出版社 (Nanjing University Press), 1994. DCHSL Disciples of Christ Historical Society Library, Nashville, TN. KCT 「百人斬り訴訟」裁判記録集 (The Trial Record of “the 100-Man Killing Contest Lawsuits”), Tokyo: 展転社 (Tendensha), 2007. NBSM 南京戦史資料集 (The Nanjing Battle History Related Source Materials), 南京戦史編輯委員會編篡 (edited by Nanjing Battle History Editing Committee), Tokyo: 偕行社 (Kaikosha), 1989. NBSM2 南京戦史編輯委員會 (The Nanjing Battle History Editing Committee). 南京戦史資料集 II (Nanjing Battle History Related Source Materials, II), Tokyo: 偕行社 (Kaikosha), 1993. NCSM 松岡環 (Matsuoka, Tamaki). 南京戦: 閉ざされた記憶を尋ねて (The Nanjing Campaign: In search of the Sealed Memories), Tokyo: 社会評 論社 (Shakai Hyoronsha), 2002. NDB 南京保卫战 (The Nanjing Defense Battle), Beijing: 中国文史出版社 (China Culture and History Publishing Press), 1987. NIKD 井口和起 (Kazuki, Iguchi), 木阪順一郎 (Junichiro Kisaka),下里正樹 (Masaki Shimozato). 南京事件: 京都師団関係資料集 (The Nanjing Incident: Kyoto Division Related Source Materials), Tokyo: 青木書店 (Aoki Bookstore), 1989. NMIA 小野賢二 (Kenji Ono), 藤原彰 (Akira Fujiwara), 本多勝一 (Katsuichi Honda). 南京大虐殺を記錄した皇軍兵士たち:第十三師団山田支 隊兵士の陣中日記 (The Nanjing Massacre Recorded by the Imperial Army Soldiers: The Field Diaries by the Soldiers of the Yamada ADN

xix

xx

NMV5

NM24 SCA

SMN

YDSL

Abbreviations

Detachment, the 13th Division), Tokyo: 大月書店 (Ƭtsuki Bookstore), 1996. 孙宅巍编 (Sun, Zhaiwei). 南京大屠杀史料集: 5 遇难者的尸体掩埋 (A Collection of Source Materials on the Nanjing Massacre: Vol. 5 Burying Victim Bodies), Nanjing: 江苏人民出版社 (Jiangsu People’s Publishing House), 2005. 胡菊蓉 (Hu, Jurong). 南京大屠杀史料集: 24 南京审判 (A Collection of Source Materials on the Nanjing Massacre: Vol. 24 Nanjing Trial), Nanjing: 江苏人民出版社 (Jiangsu People’s Publishing House), 2006. 中央档案馆,中国第二历史档案馆,吉林社会科学院 (Central Archives, Second Historical Archives of China, Jilin Academy of Social Sciences). 日本帝国主义侵华档案资料选编: 南京大屠杀 (Selected Collection of Archival Source Materials of Japanese Imperialists Invading China: The Nanjing Massacre), Beijing: 中华书局 (China Press), 1995. 侵华日军南京大屠杀史料编委会,南京图书馆编辑 (Committee on the Source Materials of the Nanjing Massacre Committed by the Japanese Troops Invading China and Nanjing Municipal Library). 1937. 12. 13-侵华日军南京大屠杀史料 (Source Materials Relating to the Horrible Massacre Committed by the Japanese Troops in Nanjing in December 1937), Nanjing: 江苏古籍出版社 (Jiangsu Archives Press), 1985. Special Collection, Yale Divinity School Library, New Haven, CT.

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Chapter 1

Japanese Military Expansion

The 1868 Meiji Restoration (明治维新) led to a profound reform process aimed to build up Japan’s national power and achieve military and economic equality with Western powers. The following decades witnessed tremendous political, social, economic, and military changes in Japan. However, as an island nation, Japan lacked the natural resources it badly needed for industrialization. The modernization transformation, to a large extent, encouraged military expansion, which was intended to expand Japan’s boundaries for natural resources, wealth, and more territories for further development. As Japan advanced steadily along a path of military expansion, neighboring countries inevitably fell victim to Japanese military conquest. In May 1874, Japan launched a military expedition to China’s Taiwan. Japanese soldiers slaughtered Taiwan’s aborigines as punishment for their roles in the murder of shipwrecked fishermen from the Liuqiu Islands (琉球群島), or the Ryukyu Islands,1 an independent kingdom that was also one of China’s tributary states. This incident, known as the Taiwan Expedition in Japan and the Mudan Incident in China led to the agreement the Japanese and the Chinese governments reached in October 1874 in Beijing. It stipulated that China would pay 100,000 taels as “consolation money to the families of the distressed (or shipwrecked) people who were injured,” and would pay Japan 400,000 taels of silver in exchange for Japan’s withdrawal of troops from Taiwan.2 Japan, however, seized the expedition as an opportunity to lay claim to the Liuqiu Kingdom. Consequently, the kingdom was annexed into Japan in March 1879, despite repeated protests from China. The Liuqiu King, Sho Tai (尚 泰, 1843–1901, in reign 1848–79), was deposed and escorted to Tokyo. Thus, the Liuqiu Kingdom was turned into Japan’s Okinawa ken (沖縄県).3 The Japanese had long coveted Korea. As early as 1875, Japan dispatched ships to reconnoiter Korea’s coast and harbors, seeking opportunities to provoke incidents with the Koreans. The Japan Herald reported in June 1875: The Japanese Government has dispatched two vessels to Corea to reconnoitre, and to acquire information about its coast and harbours. The vessels are to proceed up the river to the capital. Should the Coreans adopt the same hostile policy as that adopted towards the © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 S. Lu, The 1937 – 1938 Nanjing Atrocities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9656-4_1

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1  Japanese Military Expansion Americans, the chances are that the vessels may be fired on, in which case something serious may arise out of the affair. … and the action taken by the Japanese Government would seem to indicate that they either intend to bring affairs to a crisis, or that they expect that the knowledge they seek to gain of the vulnerability of the Corean peninsular will be of use, should hostilities be declared between the two countries.4

Such an opportunity came in September 1875, when the Japanese warship Unyokuwan, or Unyō (雲楊), was fired upon by the Koreans while navigating in the Bay of Koba off Kanghua Island (江華島). In response, Unyokuwan fired at Korean forts, then landed and attacked the Korean positions, killing 30 Korean soldiers, capturing 12 soldiers along with cannon and muskets, and setting fire to houses. The Japanese immediately dispatched more warships and troops, threatening war against Korea.5 On February 27, 1876, Korea was forced to sign the Treaty of Kanghwa (江 華島條約) with Japan. The treaty stipulated that Korea was to be an independent country with its long-standing tributary relationship to China abolished; Korea would open Pusan and two other ports for trade; the Japanese legation and consulates were to be established in Seoul and the other ports; and extra-territory rights were granted to the Japanese consulate officials, who were authorized to try all Japanese living in Korea.6 The Treaty of Kanghwa marked the beginning of the competitive struggles between China and Japan for control over Korea for the following two decades.7 As a result of the treaty, the Japanese not only penetrated deeply into Korean political infrastructure, including the military, but also played a dominant role in Korea. Years of Japanese subjugation led to a military uprising in Korea. Dissatisfied with the social reality and Japanese-style military training, rebellious Korean soldiers in Seoul attacked and set fire to the Japanese legation in July 1882, killing Japanese military instructors and Korean officials, and forcing their way into the royal palace.8 The 1882 uprising was a protest against Japanese dominance over Korea, the influx of Japanese people and goods after the Treaty of Kanghwa, and the introduction of Japanese-style social and military reforms. China, however, saw the rebellion as an opportunity to intervene and reassert its former suzerain-tributary relationship with Korea. The Chinese Government dispatched 5000 soldiers under Yuan Shikai (袁世凯)’s command to help the Korean Government terminate the uprising, as well as abolish all Japanese-style reforms.9 Chinese influence grew as a result of the military intervention. Although the 1882 rebellion set back Japan’s influence in Korea tremendously, the Japanese continued their struggle for control over Korea. In December 1884, Japanese troops stationed in Seoul supported a Korean coup d’état that, while killing six ministers, succeeded in seizing the royal palace, establishing a new government, and proclaiming a reform platform. Shortly after, the Chinese army launched a successful counterattack that forced Japanese troops to retreat and reinstated a pro-Chinese government.10 To combat Japan’s deteriorated position in Korea, the Japanese proposed that both Chinese and Japanese troops withdraw from Korea.11 The Li Hongzhang-­ Hirobumi Ito Convention (李鴻章-伊藤博文恊定), also known as the Treaty of Tianjin (天津條約), which was signed on April 18, 1885, stated that both China and

1  Japanese Military Expansion

3

Japan would withdraw troops within 4 months, and in case of grave disturbance, neither would send troops without informing the other, and after the matter was settled both should withdraw their troops.12 May 1894 witnessed another incident, the Tonghak Rebellion (東學黨起義), in Korea. The Tonghak Society was a religious organization engaged in political activities, particularly against excessive taxation, government corruption, and foreign encroachment. The 1893 famine and the heavy taxes imposed on the people of southern Korea triggered the rebellion, which spread quickly and gained popular support. Unable to quell the uprising, the Korean Government requested Chinese military assistance. China informed Japan that it would send troops to Korea, but Japan rushed in troops as well, under the pretext of protecting Japanese subjects and properties in Korea. Within weeks, the number of Japanese troops surged from 1000 to 15,000. According to the terms of the 1885 Li-Ito Treaty, after the rebellion was suppressed, both the Chinese and Japanese troops were to withdraw. The Chinese proposed a simultaneous withdrawal. Japan, however, while showing no sign of withdrawal, attempted to establish military control over Korea. On July 22, 1894, Japanese troops entered Seoul and attacked the royal palace. The king, queen and other royal family members were abducted as prisoners to the Japanese Legation. While China responded by sending more troops, the Japanese navy attacked Chinese warships and sank the British steamer Gaosheng (高陞號) off the Korean coast on July 25, which had 1220 Chinese troops on board. Japan declared war on July 31, 1894; China followed suit on August 1. After fierce fighting, the Japanese captured Pyongyang (平壤) from the Chinese on September 16, won the battle in the Yellow Sea the following day, seized China’s Lushun Port (旅順港) on the tip of the Liaodong Peninsula (遼東半島) on November 21, and demolished the Chinese fleet at Weihaiwei (威海衞) on February 12, 1895.13 The outcome of the First Sino-Japanese War was the Treaty of Shimonoseki (馬 關條約), signed on April 17, 1895, which stipulated China’s recognition of Korea’s independence, cession of Taiwan, the Penghu Islands (澎湖列島), and the Liaodong Peninsula to Japan, and payment of 200 million taels war indemnity to Japan.14 Barely one week after the Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed, Russia, France and Germany jointly forced Japan to return the Liaodong Peninsula to China. In 1896, Russia obtained the rights to mines, railroads and police forces in Northeast China, also known as Manchuria, and forced China to lease Lushun Port and Dalian (大連) to the Russians in 1898. (pp. 549–550 & 565–567) Russian influence expanded in Korea. The Japanese exclusive right in the Korean Peninsula was challenged and infringed by the Russians. Since the 1840 Opium War, repeated foreign invasions, a succession of treaties the Qing Government was forced to sign with foreign powers, and Christian influence aroused spontaneous grassroots animosity among peasants, particularly in North China, toward the increasing presence of Westerners and missionaries.15 The peasants formed a martial art organization known as the Boxers. They attacked and killed foreigners, missionaries, and Chinese Christians. The movement culminated in the 1900 Boxer Rebellion, in which the Boxers besieged foreign diplomatic compounds in Beijing and killed diplomats.

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In response, Germany, Britain, France, Russia, Japan, United States, Italy and Austria-Hungary formed the international forces known as the Eight-Nation Alliance Expedition Forces (八國聨軍), which invaded Tianjin (天津) and Beijing in the summer of 1900 to suppress the Boxer Rebellion. On September 7, 1901, China was forced to sign the treaty commonly known as the Boxer Protocol. China was forced to pay an exorbitant indemnity of 450 million taels of silver and allow foreign powers the right to station troops along a number of locations between Shanhaiguan (山海關), Tianjin and Beijing.16 Thus, Japan began to station troops around Beijing. However, the Japanese stationed troops at locations beyond the areas designated in the Boxer Protocol, and the number of troops continued to increase in the decades thereafter. Meanwhile, after the Boxer Rebellion, Russian troops, instead of withdrawing, were transferred and stationed in Northeast China despite protests from other powers.17 As a result, Russia not only consolidated its foothold in Northeast China, but also strengthened its ties with Korea. Russia was thus considered by Japan as an obstacle to its expansion to and dominance in Korea and Northeast China. To defer Russian advances, while forming an Anglo-Japanese alliance in 1902, Japan applied a huge Chinese war indemnity to its army and navy buildup. The diplomatic impasse over the Japanese and Russian interests in Korea and Northeast China convinced Japan that only military actions would drive the Russians out of the region. In February 1904, Japanese destroyers attacked the Russian fleet at Lushun Port. Meanwhile, the Japanese army landed in Korea, defeated the Russians at the Yalu River (鴨綠江), and crossed the river into China in May. The Japanese won almost all land and naval battles of the Russo-­Japanese War. After fierce fighting and heavy casualties, Lushun Port fell to the Japanese on January 2, 1905, and the Russian Baltic fleet was destroyed in the Tsushima Strait (對馬海峡) in May. Eventually, the decisive battle was waged near Shenyang (沈陽) from February to March 1905 to finalize the Japanese victory. The Russo-Japanese Treaty was signed at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on September 5, 1905. According to the treaty, Japanese primacy in Korea was recognized, and Russia was to surrender to Japan its rights in the southern part of China’s Northeast, including the Liaodong Peninsula and the southern half of Sakhalin Island (庫頁島).18 No sooner was the war concluded than Japan accelerated its process of annexing Korea. Under Japanese pressure, Korea abrogated all agreements and treaties with Russia in May 1905. Under the First Japanese-Korean Convention, signed on August 23, 1905, Korea would appoint Japanese-recommended advisors in the Ministries of Finance and Foreign Affairs. Several months later, the Second Japanese-Korean Convention, which was reached on November 19, 1905, stipulated that Korea’s foreign affairs were to be directed and supervised by the Japanese Foreign Office in Tokyo, and a Resident General representing the Japanese Government was instated in Seoul to control foreign affairs.19 Ito Hirobumi was appointed the first Resident General in February 1906. His power, however, went well beyond foreign affairs. Though Korea had indeed become a colony of Japan, the Japanese were not fully satisfied. The Korean king was forced to abdicate, and the army was disbanded in

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July 1907. The Resident General controlled internal affairs, codifying laws, appointing high officials, and performing other important administrative duties. The administration of justice and law enforcement, including police and prisons, were placed under Japanese control in July 1909. Eventually, the August 1910 treaty finalized the annexing process: Japan had completely subjugated Korea.20 When World War I broke out in 1914, the Western powers became fully occupied in Europe. Japan, taking advantage of the opportunity to advance its interest in China, as well as avenging Germany’s role in forcing Japan to withdraw from Liaodong Peninsula after the First Sino-Japanese War, issued an ultimatum to the German Government on August 15, 1914, ordering Germany, without condition or compensation, to surrender its leased territory of China’s Jiaodong Peninsula (胶東 半島) within a month. With no response from the Germans, Japan declared war on August 23 and captured the German garrison in Qingdao (青島) on November 7.21 On January 18, 1915, the Japanese secretly presented the Chinese Government with a list of 21 demands for more rights and privileges in China. The items in Group V would erode China’s rights as an independent country and reduce China to the status of a Japanese ward. Some of the terms concerned the extension of leases and concessions that would soon expire, or legalize the Japanese position of newly captured Jiaodong Peninsula. Other terms demanded that the Chinese Central Government hire Japanese advisors in political, financial and military affairs and require China to buy munitions from Japan. The new privileges included Japanese rights to construct railways, own property and reside as farmers and businessmen in the interior regions of the southern part of Northeast China and eastern Inner Mongolia. (pp. 768–770) On May 7, 1915, Japan issued a 48-hour ultimatum and coerced China to accept a set of demands somewhat revised from the original ones. Consequently, Japan gained extensive privileges and concessions in Northeast China and confirmation of its gains in Shandong from Germany, as well as making China promise not to allow any other powers to lay hands on the coast of Fujian, the province opposite Taiwan, that Japan annexed from China in 1895. Meanwhile, the 21 Demands invited bitter opposition from the Chinese populous, including anti-­Japanese demonstrations and a vigorous boycott of Japanese goods in cities all over China.22 At the Paris Peace Conference immediately after World War I in 1919, it was decided that the German-leased territory of Jiaozhou Bay (胶州灣), Qingdao city, the Qingdao-Ji’nan railroad (胶濟鐵路), and mines in Shandong were to be transferred to Japan rather than returned to China, as the Chinese delegates had urged. The news reached Beijing and triggered a vigorous patriotic upsurge known as the May Fourth Movement of 1919. Consequently, the Chinese representatives refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919. The German lease issue remained unresolved until the Shandong Treaty was signed on February 4, 1922 at the Washington Conference. The treaty required that, within 6 months from the date the treaty was signed, Japan should return to China the territory at Jiaozhou Bay, and Japanese troops should withdraw as soon as possible from the railroad lines and the leased territory. China was to pay Japan for all the improvements it made to the German holdings after 1915.23

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Although the Japanese were forced to withdraw, they were not to forget Shandong easily. Five years later, in May 1927, when the Northern Expedition Forces approached Shandong, Japanese Prime Minister Giichi Tanaka (田中義一) dispatched an expeditionary force of 2000 to Shandong, ostensibly to protect Japanese residents and properties there. The true intention was to prevent the Chinese troops from advancing to Northeast China, where Japan had major economic interests. The Northern Expedition was temporarily disrupted. When the Nationalist troops moved northward again in April 1928, the Tanaka Government sent a larger force of 25,000 to Shandong, occupying not only the railway lines, but also the city of Ji’nan (濟南). Meanwhile, more Japanese troops were dispatched to Shandong from North China and Japan proper. On May 3, 1928 in Ji’nan, a detachment of Japanese troops was sent to the Bureau of Foreign Affairs. Cai Gongshi (蔡公時), concurrently a member of the Political Committee and Special Commissioner of Foreign Affairs in Shandong, was bound and dragged out of his office. Cai was mutilated and, along with members of his staff, shot by Japanese soldiers. The Japanese also provoked fierce clashes with the Chinese troops, resulting in heavy civilian casualties. The turmoil and massacre, known as the “Ji’nan Incident (濟南慘案),” continued for over a week, with hundreds of military personnel and civilians slaughtered.24 Japanese occupation of Shandong did not end until spring of 1929, when a Sino-­ Japanese agreement was reached. The Japanese dispatched troops to Shandong when Zhang Zuolin (張作霖), a warlord who was then in control of the Beijing Government, failed to resist the advances of the Northern Expedition, allowing the Nationalist troops to reach Northeast China. The Japanese had significant economic and strategic interest in this region, which they were to defend at all cost. Over the years, Zhang Zuolin, who built up and consolidated his power in Northeast China, obtained Japanese support to extend his power beyond Northeast China to North China and even to the southeast coastal areas. In return, Zhang was expected to cooperate with the Japanese or offer concessions to Japanese demands. The mutual exchange deal was more or less maintained until 1925, when the tension between the awakening Chinese nationalism and Japanese imperialism ensnared Zhang. He began to concede less and less, and consequently adopted a program in sharp opposition to Japan’s plan.25 Zhang’s unsatisfactory performance in both policymaking and battlefield greatly disappointed the Japanese, who preferred that Zhang and his troops retreat to Northeast China to cope with the mounting disturbances there. Zhang was forced to leave Beijing for his Northeast headquarters, Shenyang. Officers of the Japanese Guandong Army (関東軍) plotted to assassinate Zhang with the intention of creating crisis upon his death. They hoped it would lead to the Japanese military takeover of Northeast China as a result. Zhang’s train was bombed at Huanggutun (皇姑屯), a suburb of Shenyang at 5:30 a.m., June 4, 1928. He died hours later. (p. 248). Zhang Zuolin’s death was kept secret and not announced until June 21, 1928. Meanwhile, Young Marshal Zhang Xueliang (張學良), Zhang’s son and heir, rushed to Shenyang from Beijing. This allowed Young Marshal time to deal with the crisis and bring the situation under control. The assassination of his father,

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which made Japan his primary enemy, precipitated Zhang Xueliang to declare his allegiance to the Nanjing National Government in October 1928. In return, the Nanjing Government appointed Zhang Xueliang a state councilor and Vice Commander-in-­Chief of the Chinese military forces, as well as the Commander-inChief of the Northeast military forces. His declaration of loyalty to the National Government accomplished the unification of China, and the Warlord Period was brought to an end. The Guandong Army’s bomb plot failed to achieve its goal for the time being.26 This by no means deterred the Japanese from coveting Northeast China. On the night of September 18, 1931, the Guandong Army blew up a section of railroad tracks at Liutiaohu (柳條湖) about 7 kilometers north of Shenyang, but alleged that Chinese troops were responsible. Under this pretext, Japanese forces, advancing beyond the railway zone, launched a sudden attack at the Chinese garrison at Beidaying (北大營) north of Shenyang and captured Shenyang the next morning. Almost simultaneously, Japanese troops stationed near Changchun (長春) attacked and occupied Changchun at 4 a.m., September 19.27 They captured Jilin (吉林), the capital of Jilin Province, two days later. Zhang Xueliang offered only moderate resistance. The Japanese were determined to drive Zhang Xueliang out of Northeast China. Zhang’s Nationalist position and allegiance to Nanjing was an unforgivable affront to the Japanese.28 Japanese reinforcement arrived on September 21 from Korea. Within a week, the Japanese captured both Liaoning and Jilin provinces. After fierce fighting, Japanese forces took Qiqiha’er (齊齊哈爾), the capital of Heilongjiang (黑 龍江) Province, on November 19 and marched into Ha’erbin (哈爾滨) on February 5, 1932, completing the conquest of the whole Northeast China after Zhang Xueliang withdrew his troops by January. The incident known as the “September 18 Incident” served as the turning point for Sino-Japanese relations. While the Japanese army was eradicating the remnants of “anti-Japanese elements” in Northeast China, incidents occurred in the Shanghai area. On January 18, 1932, five Japanese Buddhist monks were assaulted by a group of Chinese loafers near the San Yu Towel Factory (三友實業社毛巾厰) close to the International Settlement in Shanghai. Two days later, a Japanese mob set fire to the towel factory and clashed with the Chinese and International Settlement police, killing one Japanese and one Settlement constable. The Japanese Consul-General Urumatsu Murai (村井倉松) demanded an apology from the Chinese authorities and tight control over the anti-Japanese movement, while the Japanese naval commander threatened action against the newspaper Minguo Ribao (民國日報) for its “anti-­ Japanese reports.” On January 22, Shanghai mayor Wu Tiecheng (吴鐵城) demanded an apology from the Japanese for their role in the towel factory riot. The Japanese started naval concentration in the Shanghai area the next day. On January 27, the Japanese Consul-General delivered an ultimatum to the Chinese mayor, giving him 24 hours (until 6 p.m. January 28) to comply unconditionally with his five demands. Mayor Wu agreed unconditionally to the Japanese demands on January 28, 1932. Murai was satisfied and promised no action would be taken, but marines under Admiral Koichi Shiozawa (塩沢幸一) started to attack Zhabei (閘北), a

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d­ istrict in Shanghai, shortly before midnight,29 thus, starting the war known as the “January 28 Shanghai Incident,” or the “First Sino-Japanese Shanghai War.” Japanese attacks encountered strong resistance from the Chinese 19th Route Army. In retaliation, Japanese aircraft bombed Shanghai, reducing large sections of the city to rubble and incurring heavy civilian casualties. In early February, Tokyo dispatched the 24th Brigade and the 9th Division to Shanghai, while the Chinese rushed in the 87th and 88th Divisions. Widespread and fierce fighting around the Shanghai area went on throughout February. On March 1, Japanese reinforcement, the 11th and 14th Divisions, landed at Liuhe (瀏河), threatening the Chinese positions from the rear. The Chinese troops were forced to withdraw. Meanwhile, terror reigned in Shanghai streets. Japanese marines recklessly mowed down Chinese pedestrians with machine guns on the streets, and numerous civilians were slaughtered with bayonet. (pp. 60–64) Possession of anything that could possibly be construed as anti-Japanese was sufficient for harsh punishment. A revolver in a house, even if accompanied by a municipal license, might be sufficient excuse for immediate execution. The least resistance would have a man instantly bayoneted or shot.30 Due to the intervention of the League of Nations, a ceasefire went into effect on March 3. On May 5, 1932, both sides signed a truce agreement that, while putting an end to the Shanghai crisis, created a demilitarization zone around the International Settlement, ended anti-Japanese activities and withdrew Japanese army troops. According to the truce, however, after the Japanese withdrew troops into the International Settlement, the Chinese could only station police forces in Shanghai’s urban districts.31 While fighting was going on in Shanghai, the Japanese Guandong Army established a puppet regime in Northeast China. Immediately after the “September 18 Incident,” the Japanese considered creating an “independent” state of Manzhouguo (满洲國) in Northeast China headed by the dethroned Qing emperor Pu Yi (溥儀). Japanese agents abducted Pu Yi from Tianjin to Yingkou (營口), Liaoning Province, on November 10, 1931. Once the Japanese brought Northeast China completely under its control, the Administrative Committee for Northeast China was established. The committee passed a resolution on February 19, 1932 to set up a republic in Northeast China and declare independence from China. Pu Yi was sworn in on March 9, 1932 as the Chief Executive of Manzhouguo in Changchun, which was chosen as the capital and renamed Xinjing (新京).32 Northeast China was thus completely transformed into a Japanese colony under direct control of the Guandong Army. Immediately after the establishment of Manzhouguo, the Japanese looked westward at what was then Rehe Province (熱河), intending to expand the newly founded colony state. In April 1932, the 8th Division was transferred from its home base at Hirosaki (弘前), Japan, to Manzhouguo under secret orders to prepare for operations in Rehe. The 6th Division was dispatched to Manzhouguo in December to participate in the same operation. On January 27, 1933, General Nobuyoshi Muto (武藤信義), the commander of the Guandong Army, issued the order to launch the Rehe operations to strike a fatal blow to the anti-Manzhouguo and anti-Japanese

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elements, though the operations were not carried out until February 21. Chengde (承德), the capital of Rehe Province, fell to the Japanese on March 4, 1933. At the same time, the Chinese army continued to launch fierce counterattacks, which resulted in heavy Japanese casualties.33 Confronted by Chinese counterattacks, the Guandong Army attempted to cut Chinese supply lines by initiating operations inside the Great Wall. The combats for getting through the Great Wall passes proved to be extremely challenging. The Chinese offered strong and effective resistance and counter-offensives at Xifengkou (喜峰口), Gubeikou (古北口), and Lengkou (冷口) along the Great Wall. After repeated attacks, the Japanese captured Xifengkou on April 12, crossed the Luan River (灤河) on May 12, and occupied a large area consisting of 22 counties in eastern Hebei Province, posing a direct threat to the Beijing-Tianjin region. Negotiations were held on May 30–31 at Tanggu (塘沽), with the “Tanggu Truce (塘沽協定)” as a result. (pp. 32, 43, & 55) The “Tanggu Truce,” signed on May 31, forced the Chinese to recognize not only the establishment of Manzhouguo, but also Japanese occupation of Rehe Province. It allowed Manzhouguo to extend its southwestern boundary right next to the Great Wall. In addition, a demilitarized zone was established south of the Great Wall. The Tanggu Truce allowed the Japanese to gain a firm foothold in northeastern Hebei Province. (p. 59). The new boundaries and the demilitarized zone remained stable for less than two years. The Guandong Army continued to seek opportunities to resume its southward expansion. On May 2, 1935, two pro-Japanese newspaper publishers, Hu Enpu (胡 恩溥) of Guoquanbao (國權報) and Bei Yuhuan (白逾桓) of Zhenbao (振報), were assassinated in separate parts of the Japanese Settlement in Tianjin. Though there was evidence that the Japanese army was involved in the assassination plots, the Japanese maneuvered aggressively to take advantage of these cases to further expand their influence in Hebei Province. The Japanese army stationed in Tianjin delivered to General He Yingqin (何應欽), the Chairman of Beiping Branch Military Council, a list of demands including strict control over anti-Japanese organizations, withdrawal from the Beiping-Tianjin region of local Guomindang (國民黨) and anti-Japanese organizations, such as the Blue Shirt Society (蓝衣社) and the Green Gang (青帮), the 3rd Regiment of Military Police, the Political Training Corps of the Military Council, and the 51st Army, in addition to the dismissal of their leaders. When the Chinese displayed signs of reluctance, the Japanese threatened military actions. On July 9, 1935, He Yingqing, after seeking approval from Nanjing, eventually agreed to all the demands. The so-called He Yinging-Yoshijiro Umezu Agreement (何應欽-梅津美治郎協定 or 何梅協定), was actually a series of exchanges between Tianjin Japanese army chief of staff, Sakai Takashi (酒井隆), and General He. The terms, which were confirmed by He’s note, enabled the Japanese to drive the Chinese Central Government Army, local forces, and all anti-­ Japanese organizations out of Hebei Province, and remove all anti-Japanese officials from important provincial positions. (pp. 102–114). The Japanese took advantage of another incident, the “Zhangbei Incident (張北 事變),” to remove Chinese forces from Chaha’er Province (察哈爾). On May 31, 1935, four Guandong Army officers traveled to Zhangjiakou (張家口), the capital

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of Chaha’er Province. The group did not have the permit required by the Chinese authorities in Chaha’er and were detained by the 29th Army when they reached Zhangbei on June 5. General Song Zheyuan (宋哲元), commander of the 29th Army and governor of Chaha’er Province at the time, released the Japanese officers with a warning that appropriate permit should be obtained in the future. The detention incident was a routine case, but the Guandong Army was eager to seize any opportunity to further expand in North China. On June 18, the Guandong Army produced a guideline for negotiations with General Song Zheyuan. It included provisions demanding withdrawal of Song’s troops and other anti-Japanese organizations, such as the Northeast Military Police, the Blue Shirt Society and Guomindang, from Chaha’er Province.34 The Nanjing government took a conciliatory move by removing General Song from his post and appointing General Qin Dechun (秦德纯) as the deputy commander of the 29th Army and acting governor of Chaha’er. Despite this, Kenji Doihara (土肥原賢二), Japanese negotiator, pressed General Qin and local official Wang Kemin (王克敏) for further concessions. On June 27, 1935, Qin delivered a formal acceptance of Dorihara’s demands upon Nanjing’s approval, the so-called Qin-Dorihara Agreement (秦土協定). By expelling Song Zheyuan’s forces and the Guomindang affiliates from Chaha’er Province, the Guandong Army established another foothold in North China and proceeded to the final stage of creating an “autonomous government” in North China. (pp. 183–184). Encouraged by the He-Umezu and Qin-Dorihara agreements, the Japanese attempted to expand their influence further in North China. Dorihara traveled to Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi (山西), Chaha’er, and Inner-Mongolia to contact Chinese local officials with the intention of establishing an autonomous government. Dorihara’s plan worked with limited success. On November 25, 1935, Yin Rugeng (殷汝耕), the administrative commissioner of East Hebei, declared the founding of the East Hebei Anti-Communist Autonomous Council (冀東防共自治委員會). This was later renamed the East Hebei Anti-Communist Autonomous Government on December 25. Dorihara’s efforts also resulted in the creation of the Hebei-­ Chaha’er Political Council (冀察政務委員會) on December 18, although its establishment was authorized by Nanjing. (pp. 192–196) Thus, Hebei Province enjoyed a special status: it was alienated from the Nanjing Central Government if not independent of it. The Guandong Army promoted the Mongolian independence movement in Suiyuan Province as well. With Japanese military assistance, in February 1936, Prince Demchukdongrob (德穆楚克棟鲁普), or Prince De (德王), proclaimed the independence of Inner Mongolia at Beilingmiao (百靈庙). In April, Prince De formed a military government at Huade (化德縣), Chaha’er, which was inaugurated as the Inner Mongolian government in June 1936.35 A large portion of North China was then under direct or indirect control of the Japanese. A series of aggressive Japanese expansions, in particular, the North China Autonomous Movement, however, aroused strong anti-Japanese sentiments among the Chinese populace. Mounting antagonism between Japanese militarism, which attempted to conquer China, and Chinese patriotic sentiments, which were determined to drive the

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Japanese out of Chinese soil, culminated in the Lugou Bridge (Marco Polo Bridge) Incident (廬溝橋事變) on July 7, 1937, the prelude to the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). Article IX of the 1901 Boxer Protocol stipulates: The Chinese Government has recognized that the Powers, by the protocol annexed to the letter of the 16th January, 1901, have the right to occupy certain points to be determined by agreement between them, in order to maintain free communications between the capital and the sea. The points occupied by the Powers are – Huangtsun [黄村], Langfong [廊坊], Yangtsun [楊村], Tientsin [天津], Ch’ênliangch’eng [軍糧城], Tangku, Lutai [蘆台], Tangshan [唐 山], Lanchow [灤州], Changli [昌黎], Chin-wangtao [秦皇島], Shanhaikuan.36

In April 1901, even before the Boxer Protocol was signed, Japan established the China Station Forces (清國驻屯軍, renamed中國驻屯軍 in 1912), ostensibly to protect Japanese subjects and transportation lines, with its 2600-strong troops stationing in Beijing, Tianjin, Tanggu, Qinhuangdao and Shanhaiguan. In the following decades, with continuous Japanese encroachment and military expansion into North China, the number of Japanese troops, as well as stationary locations, dramatically increased. In 1933, after the Japanese took Rehe Province and broke through the Chinese defense line along the Great Wall, the Japanese stationed troops at yet more locations, such as Beidaihe (北戴河), Funing (撫寧), Qianan (遷安), Lulong (廬龍), Changli, Miyun (密雲), Jixian (薊縣) and Tangshan. In November 1935, the Japanese sent troops to the Fengtai (豐台) railway station in Beijing’s southwestern suburbs, a location outside of the areas designated in the Boxer Protocol. By July 1936, the Japanese set up military headquarters at Fengtai. In September the same year, the Japanese succeeded in squeezing the Chinese 29th Army’s troops out of Fengtai, while Japanese troops numbered over 2000 at Fengtai alone. The Japanese troops stationed at Fengtai often went to the areas close to Lugou Bridge for training sessions and military exercises. On the night of July 7, 1937, a Japanese infantry company from Fengtai was conducting a maneuver north of Lugou Bridge outside of Wanping (宛平), a county seat about 8 miles southwest of Beijing. They claimed to hear several shots fired at about 10:40 p.m. A quick roll call revealed a soldier, Kikujirou Shimura (志村菊次郎), was missing. The Japanese, assuming that the Chinese army stationed in Wanping abducted Shimura, demanded an immediate search of Wanping city for the missing soldier. General Qin Dechun, then mayor of Beijing and deputy commander of the 29th Army, refused the search demand, but agreed to a bilateral investigation. When the investigating personnel arrived at Wanping around 4:40 a.m. on July 8, the city was surrounded by Japanese troops who had rushed there overnight from Fengtai. Soon after the investigators entered the city walls, the Japanese started attacking and shelling the city, even though the missing Shimura, who lost his way for about 20 min, had been found. In response, the Chinese fought back.37 After several rounds of investigation and negotiation, an oral agreement was reached in Beijing late July 8 between Qin Dechun and Colonel Takuro Matsui (松

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井久太郎), Special Service Agency Head in Beijing. The agreement called for (a) an immediate cease-fire; (b) withdrawal of the Japanese troops to Fengtai and withdrawal of the Chinese troops to the west bank of the Yongding River (永定河, west of Lugou Bridge); and (c) replacing regular Chinese garrison forces in Wanping with Peace Preservation Corps. However, fighting resumed hours later. On July 9, Japanese Army General Staff in Tokyo issued four demands: (a) withdrawal of Chinese troops from the vicinity of Lugou Bridge and from the left bank of the Yongding River; (b) guarantee against any recurrence of the incident in the future; (c) punishment of those responsible for the incident; and (d) a Chinese apology for the incident. Negotiations and fighting went on concurrently for weeks.38 Meanwhile, the Japanese dispatched reinforcement of one division and two brigades from Korea and Northeast China to the Beijing-Tianjin area. On July 25, Japanese reinforce troops attacked and captured Langfang, a strategic railway station between Beijing and Tianjin. Beijing fell on July 29, and Tianjin was occupied on July 30. The Beijing-Tianjin area was thus brought under Japanese control. (pp. 258–261). From 1879 to July 1937, Japan more than tripled its territory through a succession of military conquests. The Liuqiu Kingdom, the southern part of Russia’s Sakhalin Island, the entire Korean Peninsula, and China’s Taiwan, Northeast China and a large portion of North China were controlled by the Japanese. The outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, which was triggered by the Lugou Bridge Incident, marked a new stage of Japanese military expansion: subjugation of the entire China. The Japanese militarists were to continue with their conquests.

Notes 1. “China,” The Time (London), July 14, 1874, p. 4, “The Japanese Expedition to Formosa,” The Time, July 31, 1874, p.  4, and “Formosa,” North-China Herald and Supreme Court & Consular Gazette, June 6, 1874, p. 504. 2. “The Chino-Japan Convention,” North-China Herald and Supreme Court & Consular Gazette, December 10, 1874, pp. 570–571. 3. “The Loochoo Islands,” North-China Daily News, April 4, 1879, p.  311; “The Loochoo Islands,” North-China Daily News, April 18, p. 355, “Loochoo,” North-­China Daily News, May 16, 1879, p.  451, and George H.  Kerr, Okinawa: The History of an Island People, Rutland, VT.: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1958, pp. 381–383. 4. “Corea,” North-China Herald and Supreme Court & Consular Gazette, June 5, 1875, p. 553. 5. “Japan and Corea,” North-China Herald and Supreme Court & Consular Gazette, October 28, 1875, p. 429. 6. “Corea,” North-China Herald and Supreme Court & Consular Gazette, March 23, 1876, p. 266, and Takashi Hatada, A History of Korea, translated & edited by Warren W. Smith, Jr. and Benjamin H. Hazard, Santa Barbara, CA.: ABC-CLIO, Inc., 1969, p. 92. 7. Takashi Hatada, A History of Korea, p. 93. 8. “Corea,” North-China Herald and Supreme Court & Consular Gazette, August 18, 1882, pp. 176–178 and “The Outbreak in Corea,” The Time, September 30, 1882, p. 4. 9. Takashi Hatada, A History of Korea, pp. 94–95.

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13

10. “The Corean Outbreak,” The Time, December 22, 1884, p. 5, “The Corean Outbreak,” The Time, January 8, 1885, p. 5, and Takashi Hatada, A History of Korea, pp. 95–96. 11. “China and Japan,” North-China Herald and Supreme Court & Consular Gazette, March 25, 1885, pp. 342–343, and Takashi Hatada, A History of Korea, p. 96. 12. Harley F. MacNair, Modern Chinese History: Selected Readings, New York: Paragon Book Reprint Co., 1967, pp. 514–515. 13. Jerome Chen, Yuan Shih-kai, 1859–1916; Brutus Assumes the Purple, Stanford, CA.: Stanford University Press, 1961, pp. 41–44. 14. Harley F. MacNair, Modern Chinese History: Selected Readings, pp. 546–547. 15. William J.  Duiker, Cultures in Collision: The Boxer Rebellion, San Rafael, CA.: Presidio Press, 1978, p. xvii. 16. Harley F. MacNair, Modern Chinese History: Selected Readings, p. 622. 17. Ian Nish, “An Overview of Relations between China and Japan, 1895–1945,” in Christopher Howe ed. China and Japan: history, trends, and prospe, New York: Oxford University Press, 1996, p. 24. 18. Harley F. MacNair, Modern Chinese History: Selected Readings, pp. 659–662. 19. Takashi Hatada, A History of Korea, p. 108, and Harley F. MacNair, Modern Chinese History: Selected Readings, pp. 671–672. 20. Takashi Hatada, A History of Korea, pp. 108–109. 21. Harley F. MacNair, Modern Chinese History: Selected Readings, p. 758. 22. Ian Nish, “An Overview of Relations between China and Japan,” pp. 29–30. 23. Harley F. MacNair, Modern Chinese History: Selected Readings, pp. 844–845 & 860–861, and Ian Nish, “An Overview of Relations between China and Japan,” pp. 31–33. 24. “濟南日軍慘無人道 (Cruel Japanese Troops in Ji’nan),” 申報 (Shenbao), May 5, 1928, p. 4, “蔡公時殉難始末記 (Record of Cai Gongshi’s Death),” Shenbao, May 9, 1928, p. 10, “Fight at Tsinan-Fu is Over; Both Sides Charge Atrocities,” NYT, May 6, 1928, pp. 1 & 18, Henry F.  Misselwitz, “Nanking Appeals to League to Urge Japan to Quit China,” NYT, May 12, 1928, pp. 1 & 4, and Hallet Abend, “Twenty Waves of Chinese Mowed down by Japanese in Fight Atop Tsinan Wall,” NYT, May 13, 1928, p. 1. 25. Gavan McCormack, Chang Tso-lin in Northeast China, 1911–1928, Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1977, p. 254. 26. Ian Nish, “An Overview of Relations between China and Japan, 1895–1945,” p. 36. 27. “日軍大舉侵略東省 (Japanese Forces Launched Large-scale Invasion into the Northeast Provinces),” Shenbao, September 20, 1931, pp. 3–4. 28. Hallett Abend, My Life in China, 1926–1941, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1943, p. 150. 29. Sargent Key ed., Eighty-Eight Years of Commercial Progress Ruined: Shanghai Shelled and Bombed, A Collection of editorials and reports written by impartial foreign observers on the local war situation for leading American and British papers including “The Shanghai Evening Post & Mercury”, “The China Press”, “North China Daily News”, etc., Shanghai: [n.p.], 1932, pp. 10–11. 30. George A.  Fitch, My Eighty Years in China, Taipei: Mei Ya Publications, 1967, pp. 412–413. 31. “Full Text of Peace Agreement,” North-China Daily News, May 6, 1932, p. 19. 32. Pu Yi, Last Manchu: The Autobiography of Henry Pu Yi, Last Emperor of China, New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1967, pp. 162–179. 33. Toshihiko Shimada (嵨田俊彦), “Designs on North China, 1933–1937,” in James W. Morley ed. Japan’s Road to the Pacific War: The China Quagmire, Japanese Expansion on the Asian Continent, 1933–1941, New York: Columbia University Press, 1983, pp. 11, 18–25. 34. B. Winston Kahn, “Dorihara Kenji and the North China Autonomy Movement, 1935–1936,” in Alvin D. Cox and Hillary Conroy ed. China and Japan: Search for Balance Since World War 1, Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-Clio, Inc., 1978, pp. 182–183. 35. Toshihiko Shimada, “Designs on North China, 1933–1937,” p. 218.

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36. Harley F. MacNair, Modern Chinese History: Selected Readings, p. 622. 37. 李雲漢 (Li Yunhan), 盧溝橋事變 (The Lugou Bridge Incident), Taipei: 東大圖書公司 (Dongda Book Inc. Ltd.), 1987, pp. 293 & 308, and Ikuhiko Hata (秦郁彦), “The Marco Polo Bridge Incident, 1937” in Japan’s Road to the Pacific War: The China Quagmire, Japanese Expansion on the Asian Continent, 1933–1941, pp. 247–248. 38. Ikuhiko Hata, “The Marco Polo Bridge Incident, 1937,” pp. 249–250.

Chapter 2

Road to Nanjing

2.1  Japanese Military Presence in Shanghai The Japanese deployed warships and marines in the Shanghai area as early as 1894, when the First Sino-Japanese War broke out. 20 marines from the Japanese gunboat, Oshima (大島號), were dispatched ashore in 1897 to protect the Japanese Consulate General at Shanghai when a riot occurred. This was the beginning of the Japanese deployment of ground troops in Shanghai. In 1900 the Japanese organized a 120-member semi-military Volunteer Force (義勇隊) to protect Japanese subjects during the Boxer Rebellion. Five years later in 1905, marines from the Japanese cruiser, Tsushima (対馬號), landed to set up the Garrison Police Headquarters (守 備警察本部). Meanwhile, Japanese warships at Shanghai were officially organized into the South China Local Garrison Flotilla (南清地方警備艦隊), which was renamed the Third Fleet in 1909.1 Until 1927, the Japanese had dispatched warships to Shanghai only when an incident or crisis arose and sent marines ashore to deal with the situation. The warships, along with marines, would return to Japan when the crises were over. In 1927, however, when the Chinese Nationalist Northern Expeditionary Forces reached Shanghai, several Japanese cruisers, the 18th Destroyer Flotilla, and the United Marines (聨合陸戦隊), which consisted of the Special Marines (特别陸戦 隊) and the Warship Marines (艦艇陸戦隊), arrived, and the number of marines gradually increased to 4300. They joined American, British and French troops to protect the foreign settlements. After hostilities ended in September, the majority of marines returned to Japan, but several hundred of them stayed as Shanghai Marines (上海陸戦隊), a long-term stationary ground force, with its headquarters established in 1929 at North Sichuan Road (北四川路). Occasionally, Shanghai Marines were involved in the missions elsewhere in China. In 1928, 200 marines took part in the Shandong operations.2 After the “September 18 Incident” in 1931, foreign powers deployed ground troops to Shanghai to jointly protect their concessions in the city. Japanese troops, © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 S. Lu, The 1937 – 1938 Nanjing Atrocities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9656-4_2

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consisting of 1800 marines, were responsible for the northern and eastern parts of the International Settlement (公共租界), as well as the area west of North Sichuan Road. Several months later, during the First Sino-Japanese Shanghai War in 1932, the Japanese assembled a large naval concentration of 28 Third Fleet warships at Shanghai. From then on the Third Fleet’s flagship, cruiser Izumo (出雲號), had anchored in the Huangpu River (黄浦江) and would stay there for years. The Japanese ground forces that took part in combat operations in 1932 were marines, the 24th Infantry Brigade, the 9th, 11th and 14th Infantry Divisions. The army forces returned to Japan when combat actions were over. In October 1932, the Shanghai Marines were renamed the Shanghai Navy Special Marines (上海海軍特 别陸戦隊). With over 2000 troops mainly stationing in the Hongkou (虹口) area, they built a widespread system of strongholds and blockhouses there, with its headquarters at North Sichuan Road as its center. Soon after the first shot was fired on July 7, 1937, at Lugou Bridge near Beijing and the Sino-Japanese hostilities broke out in North China, tensions quickly built up in the Shanghai area. On July 24, a Japanese sailor, Sadao Miyasaki (宮崎貞夫), was found missing. As the Japanese alleged that he had been kidnapped in a Chinese plot, it was feared that the incident would escalate. The crisis, however, was averted, when the missing sailor showed up in Jingjiang (靖江), a town about 120 miles west of Shanghai on the northern bank of the Yangtze. He simply deserted. There was no plot involved.3 Meanwhile, both the Chinese and Japanese were making preparations for possible military actions. On August 9, 1937, 2000 Japanese marines arrived from Hankou (漢口) to join the several thousand marines already stationed in Shanghai.4 A fleet of Japanese warships concentrated in the Huangpu River, with more cruisers, destroyers and gunboats on their way to Shanghai. The Chinese were busy digging trenches and erecting fortifications and sandbag barricades around the Japanese section in the city. The well-trained and equipped 87th and 88th Divisions, stationed in the Suzhou (蘇州) and Wuxi (無錫) areas, were ready to be transported to Shanghai at a moment’s notice. Under the circumstances, any incident would trigger explosive consequences.

2.2  H  ongqiao Airdrome Incident Led to Hostilities in Shanghai Such an incident occurred around 5:30 p.m. on August 9, 1937, at the Hongqiao Airdrome in a Shanghai suburb. According to Chinese sources, Japanese First Class Seaman Yozo Saito (斋藤要藏) was driving a motor car with Navy Sub-lieutenant Isao Ohyama (大山勇夫), attempting to make a forced entry into the Hongqiao Airdrome. When the Chinese guards at the entrance tried to stop the speeding car, the two took out their pistols and opened fire. Instead of returning fire, the Chinese guards hid themselves, as they received orders not to open fire if the Japanese came

2.3 Outbreak of Urban Hostilities, August 13–22

17

to provoke disturbances. However, several members of the Chinese Peace Preservation Corps, who were guarding the streets leading to the airdrome, heard the shots and rushed to the scene. They met the Japanese car as it was leaving the airdrome. The Japanese again opened fire, killing one of the corps members, Shi Jingzhe (時景哲). In defense, the Chinese returned fire, killing Ohyama instantly. Saito, who was wounded, took to his heels, but collapsed and died of his wounds before he could run very far.5 The Japanese disputed the Chinese version, claiming that the motor vehicle Ohyama and Saito were driving along the road by the airdrome was suddenly surrounded by members of Chinese Peace Preservation Corps, who fired upon the vehicle with machine-guns and rifles, killing both of them,6 though the Japanese version failed to mention Shi Jingzhe’s death. Immediately after the incident, the Chinese and Japanese agreed to conduct a joint investigation, work together to seek a diplomatic solution, and not to aggravate the situation. However, on August 11, while the investigation was underway, the Japanese hardened their stance. The Japanese naval authorities made four demands to the Chinese for settlement of the incident: (1) Arrest and punishment of those responsible for the slaying; (2) Compensation of an unspecified amount and official apologies; (3) Withdrawal of the Peace Preservation Corps from the immediate vicinity of Shanghai; and (4) Removal of the Chinese defenses in the city’s environs. The Chinese rejected the demands.7 Japanese demands were presented simultaneously with the arrival of 20 more Japanese warships, including cruisers, destroyers, and gunboats, which unloaded ammunitions, supplies, as well as several thousand marines. 32 Japanese warships were now concentrated in the Huangpu River, with another aircraft carrier and more warships at anchor off Wusong (吴淞).8 Meanwhile, the Chinese 87th and 88th Divisions were rushed into Shanghai early morning on August 12 by trains and trucks. They immediately took positions in Wusong, Zhabei, and Jiangwan (江灣), which bordered the Japanese section of the International Settlement. The Chinese initially planned a sudden attack before daybreak on August 13, with the intention of driving the Japanese out of Shanghai, but just before the attack was launched, Nanjing Headquarters telephoned an order to Zhang Zhizhong (張治中), commander of the Chinese forces at the Shanghai front, to suspend the attack.9

2.3  Outbreak of Urban Hostilities, August 13–22 War broke out anyway on August 13, 1937. Alleging that Chinese snipers fired at isolated Japanese patrols along Baoshan Road (寳山路), the Japanese marines, stationed in the Japanese Elementary School on North Sichuan Road, made small-­ scale attacks on Chinese positions and clashed with Chinese troops at three points around 9:15  a.m. They intended to cross the Wusong Railway tracks to reach Baoshan Road where the Chinese held positions, but they were repelled by the

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Chinese. These skirmishes lasted but 20 min. Fighting resumed at noon and in the afternoon in the same region in Zhabei, with machine-gun and trench mortar shots heard for hours. By 4 p.m., Japanese warships were shelling Chinese positions and buildings, while Chinese artilleries returned fire. The fighting gradually subsided toward nightfall and ceased at 9 p.m.10 August 14, 1937, however, witnessed massive and intense Chinese attacks. At daybreak, the Chinese 88th Division pushed forward at the west flank. They aimed to attack the Japanese western stronghold at the Japanese Marine Headquarters, at such positions as the May 30th Incident Martyrs Tomb (五卅公墓), Japanese Crematorium, Bazi Bridge (八字橋), Chizhi University (持誌大學), Patriotic Girls School (愛國女校), East Guangdong Middle School (粤東中學), Shanghai Law School, as well as those near the North Railway Station at Hengbang Road (横濱 路), Baoshan Road, and Qiujiang Road (虬江路). Meanwhile, at the east flank the 87th Division moved along Jungong Road (軍工路), Huang Xing Road (黄興路), and Qimei Road (其美路) to attack the Japanese positions at University of Shanghai (滬江大學), Kung Dah Cotton Spinning & Weaving Co. Ltd. (公大紗厰), which was the Japanese eastern stronghold, the Japanese Naval Exercise Ground, and the Japanese Naval Club. Chinese troops were engaged in street fighting with Japanese marines, and at several points, positions changed hands more than once. At 10 a.m., Chinese bombers started bombing the Japanese positions in Hongkou, Yangshupu (楊樹浦), and warships in the Huangpu River, but with limited success. In return, Japanese warships and planes shelled and bombed Chinese positions. In the afternoon, Chinese troops launched assaults and captured several Japanese positions. Intense fighting continued all day.11 The Chinese Air Force participated in the afternoon operations as well. Shortly after 5 p.m., however, because one of the bombers’ bomb racks was damaged by Japanese anti-aircraft fire, the plane dropped two bombs in a crowded downtown area, killing hundreds and injuring over a thousand.12 Partially due to the accidental bombing that resulted in heavy civilian casualties, the Chinese suspended major attacks on August 15 and 16 to prepare for their next operations. Small-scale fighting continued, as a response to Japanese counterattacks, mainly around the Japanese Marine Headquarters in the west and Kung Dah Cotton Spinning & Weaving Co. in the east. Meanwhile, Chinese reinforcement reached the Shanghai front: the 98th Division arrived on August 15 from Wuhan (武漢) to take positions that night at the eastern front to reinforce the 87th Division; the 36th Division came on August 17 from Xi’an (西安); and other newly arrived Chinese troops took positions in Shanghai’s suburbs. The 56th Division was deployed along the Taichang-Liuhe (太倉-瀏河) line by the Yangtze River in the north; the 2nd Brigade was stationed at Nanxiang (南翔); while the 55th, 57th and 62nd Divisions, as well as the 45th Brigade, reached Pudong (浦東), the southern suburbs of Shanghai, and the areas north of Hangzhou Bay. On August 18 and 19, Japanese reinforcement of four marine battalions arrived in Shanghai from Lushun (旅順), China, and Sasebo (佐世保), Japan.

2.4 Japanese Landing Operations and Chinese Counter Landing Attempts, August…

19

The Chinese resumed attacks on the morning of August 17. Despite heavy casualties, the 87th and 88th Divisions engaged in fierce fighting at their previous positions from dawn to dusk, though with limited success. The 88th Division’s 264th Brigade suffered tremendous casualties in attempts to capture the Japanese positions at the Japanese Cemetery, Bazi Bridge, Shanghai Law School and Hongkou Park and fight back Japanese counterattacks. Meanwhile, the 87th Division’s 259th Brigade succeeded in capturing the Japanese Naval Club and the Naval Exercise Ground.13 On August 19, with the 36th and 98th Divisions’ participation, the Chinese launched another round of assaults. Along the front between Urga Road (歐嘉路) and Dalny Road (大連路), the 98th, 36th, and 87th Divisions made a southward thrust, hoping to capture the Japanese stronghold at Wayside Wharf (匯山碼頭) to sever the Japanese line in the middle, separating its west flank from its east. By 10 p.m. a detachment headed by two armored vehicles reached Wayside Wharf by the Huangpu River. The Japanese positions were heavily fortified, equipped with better weaponry, and supported by efficient naval artillery coverage. The Japanese were thus able to repel repeated Chinese assaults. Facing Japanese counterattacks from three directions while their armored vehicles were destroyed, the Chinese found it impossible to secure the newly acquired positions for long. In the following days, the Chinese repeated the assaults and were able to reach Wayside Wharf, but due to lack of efficient weaponry and sufficient artillery coverage, they could not capture the Japanese stronghold or secure the positions they had paid heavy casualties to gain (pp. 23–24). During the first stage of the Shanghai campaign, the Chinese were largely on the offensive until August 23, when the Japanese reinforcement, the 3rd and 11th Divisions, succeeded in landing in the early morning along the Yangtze coast north of Shanghai, and the Chinese were forced to rush troops northward to establish new defense lines. Consequently, the focus of the war shifted to rural areas, with the Chinese on the defensive.

2.4  J apanese Landing Operations and Chinese Counter Landing Attempts, August 23–September 11 After hostilities broke out in Shanghai, the Japanese Supreme Command issued an order on August 15 to organize the Shanghai Expeditionary Army, consisting of the 3rd and 11th Divisions, and the 6th Independent Air Squadron, with Iwane Matsui (松井石根) as its commander in chief.14 The 3rd Division set out from Nagoya (名古屋)‘s Atsuta Port (热田港) on August 18 and 19, and the 11th Division left Tadotsu (多度津) on August 20 and 21 for the assembly position at sea near the Shengsi Islands (嵊泗群島), about 120 kilometers southeast of Shanghai, to prepare for landing operations north of Shanghai (pp. 12–13).

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Meanwhile, more Chinese reinforcement continued to arrive in Shanghai. The Instructional Corps reached Shanghai from Nanjing on August 21; the 11th Division arrived from Wuhan on August 22; while the 67th, 61st, 6th, 1st, 14th, 58th, and 78th Divisions arrived in late August and early September. At about 5  a.m. on August 23, the Japanese 11th Division began landing at Chuanshakou (川沙口), near the Yangtze mouth north of Shanghai. After wiping out a small number of Chinese troops deployed there by the 56th Division, the Japanese troops headed for Shidongkou (石洞口), the Shizilin Fort (獅子林砲台), Baoshan (寳山), Liuhe, and Luodian (羅店). By the afternoon, they had captured Chuanshazhen (川沙鎮), the Shizilin Fort, Baoshan, and the strategically important town, Luodian. The Japanese securely controlled the beachhead positions, and follow-­up troops landed continuously. They intended to advance further south to capture Nanxiang, so as to sever the Nanjing-Shanghai Railway line to isolate Chinese troops in Shanghai.15 In response, the 133rd Brigade of the Chinese 11th Division was dispatched to repel the Japanese advance, and after fierce street fighting, the Chinese were able to recapture Luodian before the Japanese secured footing in the town that evening. On August 24, the 98th Division’s 294th Brigade rushed northward and managed to drive the Japanese out of Baoshan. Meanwhile, the 98th Division’s 292nd Brigade arrived to regain the Shizilin Fort on August 28 (p. 34). While the Japanese 11th Division was about to carry out the landing operation, the 3rd Division were shipped into the Huanpu River and began landing at about 3 a.m. on August 23, at Wenzaobang (蕰藻浜) and Zhanghuabang (張華浜), south of the Wenzaobang River, across the river from Wusongzhen (吴淞鎮). The Chinese deployed an armed police regiment in the area. Apparently, the police force could hardly resist the well-trained Japanese infantry troops. The Chinese 11th Division’s 131st Brigade and a regiment of the Instructional Corps rushed to their rescue later that morning and afternoon respectively. During the forenoon landing operations, over a dozen Japanese bombers and more than ten warships bombarded Chinese positions to provide coverage for Japanese troops. The Chinese soldiers put up a persistent resistance, but the enormous casualties inflicted by bombardments greatly reduced their ability to fight back. Additional Chinese reinforcement from the 36th and 87th Divisions reached the front the following day, and the newly arrived 61st Division joined the fighting on August 26. However, Japanese troops were better trained and better equipped, and supported by heavy bombing and shelling from air and warships, all that the Chinese defenders could do was to encircle the Japanese within the area around Zhanghuabang, but were unable to push the Japanese back to their ships.16 The Japanese 3rd Division started bombing Wusongzhen on August 23, but did not conduct landing operations at that town until the following morning. The unit of Peace Preservation Corps responsible for the defense of the town was unable to resist the Japanese advance. By 5 p.m., the majority part of Wusongzhen was under Japanese control, and the town would have been completely captured by the Japanese if a regiment from the 98th Division did not launch a counterattack to push the Japanese out of the town back to their ships. However, the Chinese did not hold

2.4 Japanese Landing Operations and Chinese Counter Landing Attempts, August…

21

Wusongzhen for long. Three days later on August 27, the Japanese 3rd Division, after securing their standing in the Zhanghuabang and Wenzaobang area, crossed the bridge on the Wenzaobang River that connected Wusongzhen and Wenzaobang, attempting to recapture Wusongzhen. The Chinese defenders, strengthened by a regiment from the 61st Division, were able to resist the Japanese attacks until August 31 when the Japanese, supported by 30 airplanes and over a dozen warships, launched another landing operation. The Chinese sent in new reinforcement from the 6th Division on September 1, intending to recover the town. After several days’ fierce fighting, with heavy casualties inflicted by Japanese artillery shelling and aerial bombing, the 6th Division’s mission proved unsuccessful.17 After securing their landing positions at Chuanshakou, Shidongkou, Wenzaobang, Zhanghuabang, and Wusongzhen, the Japanese advanced further inland, intending to capture Luodian, Yuepu (月浦), and Baoshan. To repulse Japanese advances, the Chinese 11th and 67th Divisions launched counterattacks on August 25. Intense fighting occurred around Luodian, with both sides fighting desperately to gain control village by village, street by street, and even house by house. Luodian fell to the Japanese on August 28, 6  days after the Chinese regained it from the enemy (pp. 35–36). Because of Luodian’s vital strategic position, the Chinese command dispatched units from the 98th and 14th Divisions to reinforce the 11th and 67th Divisions, attempting to recapture the town. However, the Chinese attempts failed twice, largely due to lack of artillery support. With strong aerial, naval, and artillery coverage and support, the Japanese launched assaults during the day to capture new positions, while the Chinese counterattacked after nightfall to regain the positions they had lost during the day (p. 38). From September 1 to 5, more Chinese reinforcement, the 51st, 56th, and 58th Divisions, arrived to join the Luodian campaign, but up to September 10, the town remained in Japanese hands, though the Chinese showed no sign of giving up.18 While fighting went on around Luodian, the Japanese 11th Division made an attempt to land forces at the Shizilin Fort on August 31. The aerial, naval, and artillery bombardment destroyed the defense put up by the Chinese 98th Division, and enabled the Japanese to recapture the fort on September 1. However, the Japanese encountered persistent resistance when they attempted to fight their way towards Baoshan. Bitter battles were fought for each village on the route. On September 5, the Japanese troops from Shizilin and Wusongzhen reached Baoshan, which was defended by the 3rd Battalion under the 583rd Regiment of the Chinese 98th Division. After encircling the small city, the Japanese blocked all four city gates with armored vehicles and used sulphur to burn the city. Fierce street fight ensued, and consequently, except one soldier who succeeded in climbing over the city wall to escape, every member of the Chinese battalion was killed in defending their positions. Baoshan fell on September 6.19 The Amaya Detachment (天谷支隊), which was the 10th Infantry Brigade of the Japanese 11th Division, landed on September 3 at Wusong, to reinforce the Japanese troops already there to strike at their next target, Yuepu. Meanwhile, the Chinese 98th Division was strengthened by the units of the newly arrived 1st and

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14th Divisions. On September 9, the Japanese started attacking Chinese positions in the surrounding villages. The tough and persistent resistance on the part of the Chinese led to waves of fighting so intense and bitter that many villages changed hands several times. Again, the Japanese aerial and naval bombardment, as well as artillery shelling, had their way. Both Yuepu and Yanghang (楊行) were captured by the Japanese on September 11.20

2.5  B  attles Between Panjing and Yangjing Rivers, September 12–30 The tough Chinese resistance inflicted heavy Japanese casualties and bogged down their progress tremendously. It became apparent that without further reinforcement, the Japanese would find it difficult to break through the Chinese defense lines. Consequently, the Japanese Supreme Command agreed to send more troops to the Shanghai front: the newly organized Shigeto Detachment (重藤支隊), which was about one brigade-strong and dispatched from Taiwan, landed at Chuanshakou on September 14; the 101st Division arrived at Wusong on September 22; the 9th Division got to Zhanghuabang on September 27; and the 13th Division reached Wusong on October 1. Meanwhile, more Chinese troops were continuously dispatched to the Shanghai front; from September 12 to 20, the 8th, 9th, 13th, 15th, 16th, 32nd, 44th, 59th, 60th, 77th, 90th, 159th and 160th Divisions arrived. (pp. 197–202 & 204–205). Immediately after the fall of Yuepu and Yanghang, the Chinese retreated westward early on September 12 to take positions along the Panjing River (潘涇) north of the Wenzaobang River. In the afternoon, September 12, the Japanese launched westward assaults. The 11th Division on the north intending to clear the Chinese positions between the Panjing River, the Dijing River (荻涇), and the Yangjing River (楊涇), while the 3rd Division on the south attempted to break through the Chinese lines at Panjing and Dijing to capture Gujiazhen (顧家鎮) and Liuhang (劉 行) (pp. 211–212). The Chinese 15th, 32nd, 77th and 57th Divisions fought ferociously, with the 59th, 90th, 159th and 160th Divisions reinforcing them. The Chinese defenders held the line along the Panjing River until September 22, when the Japanese 101st Division arrived to join the battles. Heavy casualties and severe bombardment forced the Chinese defenders to retreat to the line along the Dijing River on September 26 (p. 212). The following days witnessed fierce fighting in an area 30 kilometers (north to south) by 10 kilometers (west to east) between the Dijing and Yangjing Rivers. The Japanese, further strengthened by the arrival of the 9th Division on September 27, launched several rounds of attack. The 11th Division fought around Shixianggongmiao (施相公廟) west of Luodian, the 3rd Division attacked Liuhang, and the 9th Division pushed toward Gujiazhen. The Chinese, though

2.6 Battles Between Wenzaobang and Zoumatang Creek, October 1–26

23

further reinforced by the 8th, 9th, 16th Divisions, and other troops, were unable to hold their line along the Dijing River and Gujiazhen, and Liuhang fell in the evening, September 30. After desperate and repeated fighting, the Chinese defenders retreated further to the line west of the Yangjing River (pp. 212–214).

2.6  B  attles Between Wenzaobang and Zoumatang Creek, October 1–26 After they cleared the Chinese troops from the area between the Panjing and Yangjing Rivers, the Japanese were ready to make a southward thrust across the Wenzaobang River. They aimed to capture Dachang (大場), so as to block the westward retreating passage of the Chinese troops in the Miaohang (廟行), Jiangwan, and Zhabei areas. To stop Japanese advances, the Chinese 8th, 13th, 16th, 57th, 61st, and 87th Divisions took positions along both banks of the Wenzaobang River. On October 2, the Japanese 9th Division launched assaults at the Chinese positions along the river’s northern bank between Chenjiahang (陳家行) and Tangqiaozhan (唐橋站). For a time, they managed to break through the Chinese line at a few points and cross the river. The Chinese, however, resisted desperately and pushed the Japanese back to the northern bank. The southward thrusts and northward counterattacks repeated several times in the following days, and both sides suffered tremendous casualties. On October 6, strengthened by the 3rd Division, the Japanese succeeded in crossing the Wenzaobang River, and engaged in bloody combat operations to expand southward and establish beachhead positions, enabling follow-up troops to cross the river. However, due to tough Chinese resistance, both sides were bogged down in fierce fighting at the villages along the southern bank of the river until October 18 (pp. 224–228). While the Japanese were consolidating their positions south of the Wenzaobang River and fighting their way southward, the Chinese launched a massive eastward counterattack on October 21. The newly arrived 171st, 173rd, 174th, and 176th Divisions attacked from the positions around Chenjiahang, Tanjiatou (談家頭), and Beihouzhai (北侯宅); units from the 77th, 159th, and 160th Divisions attacked from the positions between Guangfu (廣福) and Chenjiahang; and troops from the 98th, 44th, 60th, 31st, 56th, and 58th Divisions launched assaults from Feijiazhai (費家 宅) and Guangfu. Meanwhile, the 18th, 33rd, and 153rd Divisions, which had just reached the front, were deployed north of the Zoumatang Creek (走馬塘) to establish a new defense line (pp. 234–241). The Chinese counterattacks, which lasted 3 days, succeeded in delaying Japanese advances and inflicting heavy Japanese casualties. However, the Chinese suffered much greater casualties and could not stop the Japanese. The Japanese 3rd and 9th Divisions continued to attack Chinese positions west of Dachang, the 11th Division fought its way toward the east side of Dachang, and the 101st Division pushed toward Miaohang and Jiangwan.21

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Dachang, the strategically important town, fell to the Japanese on October 26. The loss of Dachang constituted an immediate threat to the Chinese 87th, 36th, and 88th Divisions, who were holding positions at Miaohang, Jiangwan, and Zhabei respectively. The three divisions were forced to make a hasty evacuation to the areas south of the Suzhou Creek (蘇州河). (ibid).

2.7  Fall of Shanghai Except for one of the 88th Division’s battalions, the 1st Battalion of its 524th Regiment, which remained in Zhabei north of the Suzhou Creek until October 31, all the Chinese forces had moved south to form a new defense line along the Suzhou Creek. While the Chinese were in the process of a massive southward evacuation, the Japanese made a swift advance at Chinese heel and captured Zhenru (真如) on October 28.22 Between October 29, and November 3, the Japanese started another round of southward combat operations. The Chinese continued to put up a persistent resistance in spite of heavy casualties. After bitter fighting village by village, house by house, they broke the Chinese line at several points to cross the creek and established positions south of the creek (pp. 317–319). At this juncture, the Japanese dispatched the 10th Army, consisting of the 6th, 18th and 114th Divisions, as well as the Kunisaki Detachment (国崎支隊), which was the ninth Infantry Brigade. The 6th and 18th Divisions, and the Kunisaki Detachment landed on November 5 along the coast around Jinshanwei (金山衞) north of Hangzhou Bay without encountering significant resistance. Five days later, on November 10, the 114th Division made a successful landing at Quangongting (全公亭), west of Jinshanwei. The newly landed forces made a swift northward advance, and, after a few days, facing little Chinese resistance, captured most of the areas of Jinshan (金山), Fengxian (奉賢), Nanhui (南匯), and Songjiang (松江). By November 8, the Japanese 6th Division had pushed toward Qingpu (青浦), posing a severe threat to the rear of the Chinese positions south of the Suzhou Creek. The Chinese had no choice but to abandon these positions and make a hasty westward overhaul. On November 12, the Chinese lost their last standing in Shanghai, Nanshi (南市), also known as Nantao to the Westerners. Thus, except for the French Concession and International Settlement, Shanghai was brought under Japanese control, and hostilities in Shanghai proper came to an end (pp. 353–363). The unexpected Japanese landings and swift advances left the Chinese little time to organize and establish effective defense lines west of Shanghai. The newly arrived Japanese 16th Division’s landing in the north at Beimaokou (白茆口) on November 13, further aborted Chinese plans of making an orderly evacuation or organizing resistance as they were making a massive westward retreat.23 The hasty retreat of 600,000 troops, lack of coherent organization, poor communication, as well as swift Japanese chase at their heel, led to a chaotic, and even

2.8 Three Routes Toward Nanjing

25

disastrous westward flight for the Chinese. Consequently, they failed to put up effective or significant resistance in the area west of Shanghai.24

2.8  Three Routes Toward Nanjing The Japanese, however, took full advantage of the situation and wasted no time chasing the defeated Chinese troops and advancing westward to the Chinese capital, Nanjing, along three routes. The northern flank, consisting of the 11th, 13th, and 16th Divisions, first conquered the areas north of the Nanjing-Shanghai Railway line, with some of the units travelling along the railway line after reaching Wuxi or Changzhou (常州). The 11th Division’s Amaya Detachment, along with the 13th Division, attacked and captured Zhenjiang (鎮江), where both the Amaya Detachment and the main body of the 13th Division crossed the Yangtze River to its northern bank. The Amaya Detachment moved northward to attack Yangzhou (揚 州), while the main body of the 13th Division advanced westward along the river bank. Meanwhile, the 13th Division’s Yamada Detachment (山田支隊), which was the 103rd Brigade, remained south of the Yangtze, traveling along the river bank to launch assaults at Nanjing’s northern side. After landing at Baimaokou, the 16th Division attacked Changshu (常熟), Wuxi, and Changzhou, travelled along the Nanjing-Shanghai Railway line to Danyang (丹陽), and then advanced through Jurong (句容) and Tangshan (湯山) to attack the Chinese positions at Purple Mountain and its surrounding area, as well as Nanjing’s eastern and northern gates. The 3rd and 9th Divisions formed the central flank, which fought their way along the Nanjing-Shanghai Railway line before reaching Changzhou. This flank was to attack and capture Jintan (金壇), Jurong, and Chunhua (淳化) on its way to reach Nanjing’s southeastern gates. The southern flank consisted of the 6th, 18th, and 114th Divisions, and the Kunisaki Detachment. The 114th Division travelled through Jiaxing (嘉興), Hu-zhou (湖州), Changxing (長興), Yixing (宜興), Liyang (溧陽), and Lishui (溧 水) before attacking Nanjing’s southern side. The 6th Division was to advance along the same path as the 18th Division and the Kunisaki Detachment, through Jiaxing, Huzhou and Guangde (廣德), then through Langxi (郎溪) and Lishui to launch assaults at Nanjing’s southern and southwestern gates. The Kunisaki Detachment was to travel westward from Langxi to capture Gaochun (高淳) before crossing the Yangtze River at Taiping (太平) to move eastward, with the intention of capturing Pukou (浦口), a railway hub on the Yangtze’s northern bank across the river from Nanjing, to block the Nanjing defenders’ northward evacuation passage. The 18th Division was ordered to fight its way through Guangde, Xuancheng (宣城) to attack and occupy Wuhu (蕪湖), to prevent the Nanjing defenders from escaping westward.

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2.9  Japanese Atrocities in the Lower Yangtze Valley Japanese soldiers committed atrocities soon after they landed at Chuanshakou on August 23. It was recorded that, around the Chuanshakou area, within the first 100 days after Japanese occupation, 2244 civilians were slaughtered, 10,948 houses burned down, and hundreds of women raped.25 According to survivor Gu Qingzhen (顧慶禎), when the Japanese landed, all but 14 of the residents in his village, Hanjiazhai (韩家宅), fled. Those who stayed, included his parents and himself. He was 13 at the time. Upon entering the village, Japanese soldiers killed all the remaining villagers except Gu, who was severely wounded but survived because he was covered underneath his parents’ bodies.26 Jiang Luzan (蒋輅贊) was 8 when Japanese troops reached his village, Jiangjiazhai (蒋家宅). He and his two sisters hid in a rice field and survived, while his paternal grandparents, parents and other villagers were killed at different hiding places. On Lunar Calendar August 4, 1937, Japanese soldiers came to our village Jiangjaizhai, killing people and burning houses. Altogether they killed 33 people, and of the 8 members of my family, 5 were killed. My father Jiang Yueheng (蒋月恒, 37) and Uncle Jiang Yuewen (蒋月文, 31) hid in a rice field, but they were found by Japanese troops and were killed. Grandama Jiang Mashi (蒋馬氏, 61) was shot dead in a ditch at the village, Tangnanzhai (塘南宅). Grandpa Jiang Hongming (蒋洪明, 62) and my mother Zhang Xiaomei (張小妹, 36) went in hiding in piles of firewood when Japanese soldiers entered the village. After they were discovered, my mother was bayoneted to death, and a Japanese soldier cut open her belly, laying out her bowels and fetus on the ground (the fetus in her womb should be counted as the 6th family member who was killed); my grandfather was shot in the back. He managed to get back to the village, but fell down in the Reed and Chestnut Garden (蘆 栗園) and died there.27

In most cases, young people fled upon the arrival of the Japanese, while old folks stayed behind to look after their homes and crops. A high percentage of those who were killed by the Japanese were elderly. Chen Delu (陳德禄) indicated in his testimony that his paternal grandfather, aged 71, and a woman in his village, Shugouzhai (墅溝宅), aged 63, as well as his maternal grandmother, aged 59, at another village, Zhoujiazhai (周家宅), were burned to death.28 Three villagers testified that in their village, Xujiage (徐家閣), 36 people were killed. Ten of these victims were civilians the Japanese had rounded up elsewhere, so their names remain unknown. The remaining 26 were fellow villagers, whose names, ages, and genders were listed; 11 were male and 15 were female; the oldest was 74 and the youngest was only 3; 20 of the 26 were over 50 years old: Wan Henan (万和南), female, 61; Xu Dongshan (徐東山), male, 60; Xu Dongsheng (徐東 生), male, 62; Xu Chenshi (徐陳氏), female, 70; Xu Zhangshi (徐張氏), female, 60; Xu Shenshi (徐瀋氏), female, 59; Grandma Chun (春婆婆), female, 55; Xu Yuquan (徐玉泉), male, 74; Xu Shenshi (徐瀋氏), female, 69; A Xianglin (阿相林), male, 52; Xu Xintang (徐新堂), male, 60; Xu Yushi (徐俞氏), female, 59; Xu Xingsheng (徐杏生), male, 20; Xu Wanshi (徐萬氏), female, 61; Min Xinlian (閔信連), male, 43; Shi Atang (施阿堂), male,

2.9 Japanese Atrocities in the Lower Yangtze Valley

27

65; Shi Zhoushi (施周氏), female, 62; Xu Asan (徐阿三), male, 64; Xu Jiangshi (徐江氏), female, 71; Xu Xiaomei (徐小妹), female, 59; Shen Desheng (瀋德生), male, 26; Yan Shenshi (嚴沈氏), female, 70; Shen Jinbo (瀋金波), male, 19; Grandma Xu (徐婆婆), female, 70; Xu Wanshi (徐萬氏), female, 50; and Xu Xiaodi (徐小弟), male, 3.29

If the Japanese intended to eliminate young males of conscript age to minimize potential Chinese resistance, it is senseless to slaughter males in their 60s and 70s, and a large number of elderly women. It clearly indicates that the Japanese attempted to round up and indiscriminately kill everyone or anyone they could find in the villages and areas they had marched through. Similar atrocities occurred in many towns and villages in such areas as Baoshan, Yanghang, Yuepu, Luodian, Gujiazhen, Dachang, Miaohang, and Pengpu (彭浦).30 Wan Arong (萬阿榮) was barely 9 when Japanese troops reached his village, Dongwanzhi (東萬宅), west of Baoshan Town. On Lunar Calendar August 3 that year, Japanese troops entered the village from the east. Unable to run away, we had no choice but to hide inside our house. I saw with my own eyes Japanese soldiers shoot my mother and a younger sister dead underneath the table in the sitting room. The following day, Lunar Calendar August 4, at about 10 a.m., Japanese soldiers rushed into the village once again. They drove the pigs out of the pigsty, and did a house-to-house search to round up all the villagers, male and female, old and young, who hid themselves at home, into the pigsty. Shortly after, they drove all the adults into the bamboo groves east of the village. At the time I was just a kid. Together with my baby sister and other children who were still confined inside the pigsty, I was too scared to utter a sound. That day Japanese soldiers burned down all the houses in the village. We did not dare to step out of the pigsty until the Japanese left the following day, only to find out that all the houses were burned down and all the adults who had been driven into the bamboo groves by the Japanese were killed, their bodies lying around in the bamboo groves, including my father Wan Ada (萬阿大), grandfather Wan Yunsheng (萬雲生), uncle Wan Adu (萬阿篤), uncle Wan Quansheng (萬全生), as well as cousins, an aunt and her husband. (p. 387)

Three farmers, Wu Xuesheng (吴雪生), Wu Yongxing (吴永興) and Wu Yongqing (吴永清), from the village, Wujiazhai (吴家宅), recounted what had happened to their village and their families on a summer morning in 1937: On the morning of Lunar Calendar August 8, 1937, Japanese soldiers were burning houses in the village east of us, with huge flames and thick smoke in the sky. The villagers had to run for life. Later, Japanese soldiers arrived at our village. I saw with my own eyes a Japanese soldier force a woman from a nearby village who came back to her parents’ home to give them her money, and when she refused she was shot dead by a well. Over a dozen of us, who did not run away, were rounded up and confined by the Japanese in Liu Hongsheng (劉洪生)’s house at the village, Liulaozhai (劉老宅). With our life uncertain and an ill fate ahead, we urgently looked for a way to run away. Four of us, Wu Yongxing and his mother, and Wu Taosheng (吴桃生) and his wife, took the opportunity to escape when Japanese soldiers went back at midnight of August 15. Those who did not run away, including Wu Yongxing’s grandparents, father, brother and sister-in-law, altogether 5 people of three generations were killed by the Japanese. Newly married sister-in-law was forced into a cotton field behind the house where she was chopped in half from between her legs. All 7 members of Wu Yongqing’s uncle’s family were killed, while Wu Xuesheng’s father was killed at the creek named Jiadonggou (家東溝). (p. 162)

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Japanese soldiers raped women before killing them. Zhao Yushu (趙玉樹), aged 18 in 1937, testified: my mother whose name was Zhou Anan (周阿囡), 51 at the time, was shot dead on Lunar Calendar July 30. My grandmother named Zhao Lushi (趙陸氏) was crushed to death by the crumbled house after being burned by Japanese soldiers. … The most cruel thing the Japanese did was toward two young girls. One of them was named Wu Zhimei (吴之妹), about 20 at the time. She was raped by Japanese soldiers who rammed a bottle into her vagina, killing her. The other one was named Wu Along (吴阿龍), 19 then, who was shot dead after she was raped by the Japanese. (p. 394)

Yao Chunxi (姚春熙), a resident of the village, Shijiayan (石家堰), testified that he witnessed Japanese soldiers force a female refugee and a local villager to have sex in public: I also saw with my own eyes what happened to the wife of a scholar named Qian Zhi (錢之) who lived in Yuepu Town. She had fled to our village for refuge. She was seized by Japanese soldiers who grabbed her in public and ordered a local man to rape her. When the man refused, a Japanese soldier slapped his face several times. But the man still refused to comply. Then the Japanese soldiers forcibly stripped Qian Zhi’s wife naked before they stripped the man naked, forcing them to have sex. Meanwhile, the Japanese soldiers amused themselves at the scene. (p. 396)

The behaviors of the 10th Army were equally atrocious. After they landed at Jinshanwei, the Japanese troops slaughtered prisoners of war, killed villagers indiscriminately, raped women and burned houses. Ashihei Hino (火野葦平) participated in the Hangzhou Bay landing operation as a noncommissioned officer. He recorded in his writing a massacre in which all the prisoners of war detained by his unit were slaughtered: I woke up on account of the cold and stepped outside. There was no sign of the prisoners who had previously been tied together with electrical wire. When I asked a nearby soldier what had happened to them, he said, “We killed them all.” I saw that the bodies of the Chinese soldiers had been thrown into a trench. The trench was narrow, so they lay on top of one another, some of them half submerged in muddy water. Had they really killed thirty-six people? I was at once sad, furious and nauseated. I was about to turn away in my dejection when I noticed something strange: the bodies were moving. I looked closely and saw a blood-streaked, half-dead Chinese soldier moving around among the bottom layer of corpses. Perhaps he had heard my footsteps; in any case, he laboriously pulled himself up with every bit of strength and looked straight at me. His agonized expression horrified me. With a pleading look, he pointed first at me and then at his own chest. There wasn’t the least doubt in my mind that he wanted me to kill him, so I didn’t hesitate. I set my sight on the dying Chinese soldier and pulled the trigger. He stopped moving.31

From November 5 to 9, within 5 days of the Japanese landing at Jinshanwei north of Hangzhou Bay, 2933 civilians were killed, 26,418 houses burn down, and 389 women violated by Japanese soldiers in the surrounding villages.32 In 1983, Japanese journalist Katsuichi Honda (本多勝一) visited Jinshanwei, where he interviewed massacre survivors and recorded atrocity cases: Pei Yinbao was a woman living in Yangjia village. Her son Qi Zugen was bayoneted, and her three-year-old granddaughter’s head was split down the middle, after which Pei’s

2.9 Japanese Atrocities in the Lower Yangtze Valley

29

breasts were cut off and she was then stabbed. Her son’s wife survived only because she happened to be at her parents’ house, so three out of four family members were killed. In Jianguo village, Li Quanbao was shot to death as she stepped outside carrying her seven-month-old daughter, and she fell into a rice paddy. The baby was found sucking at her mother’s breast. She was brought up by her older sister and is still alive. Qi Jinyu, a peasant from Xiangyang village, hid in his house with six people who had fled from neighboring houses, but Japanese soldiers found them and bayoneted them all. Five died instantly, but two survived with serious injuries. Three men from Xiangyang, Zhu Jiahe, Shen Yougen, and Cheng Amei, hid in a rice paddy, but they were found and taken to the home of Hu Asi. The Japanese soldiers stripped them naked, cut off their arms and legs, hung them from a loom, and set the house on fire, burning it to the ground.33

American diplomats in Shanghai recorded similar cases in the region. Clarence Edward Gauss, the U.S. Consul General at Shanghai, in a diplomatic dispatch to the Secretary of State Cordell Hull, reported Japanese behaviors in the Shanghai area: With reference to Pootung few if any foreigners have penetrated in the hinterland and no reports have been received from foreign sources regarding the behavior of Japanese troops in that area. Chinese reports some of which are undoubtedly creditable indicate that there has been some killing of Chinese civilians, raping of women, and looting and burning of private property. With reference to Nantao, American doctors and missionaries report a number of cases of rape, the shooting of approximately eighty Chinese civilians, and the burning and looting of much Chinese private property shortly after the Japanese occupied the area. Conditions in Nantao are slowly improving but cases of rape are still reported from time to time.34

After Shanghai fell, as Japanese troops fought their way westward, they committed atrocities in the cities, towns and villages throughout the Yangtze valley. Immediately after Suzhou was captured on November 19, Japanese soldiers were witnessed on November 20 to round up and execute 60 farmers in a small suburban village named Meixiang (梅巷).35 From November 21 to December 11, several American missionaries made trips to Suzhou almost every day from Guangfu, where they established a camp to shelter refugees from Suzhou. The killing was so rampant that they “had to drive carefully to avoid running over bodies of the dead lining the roads and scattered over the fields,” and the “dead bodies we saw on the streets in Soochow on our first visit there after Japanese occupation, lay there for 10 days or more.”36 American Consul General Gauss reported in his dispatch that Japanese troops indulged in an appalling orgy of raping and looting. One report states that “In our visits to the different mission compounds of Soochow, it was necessary for us to pass through the most important business and residential sections of the city. Every shop, bank, and residence that came under our review had been broken into and uniformed Japanese soldiers were seen going in and coming out of theses buildings, coming out loaded down with bales of silk, eiderdown quilts, pillows, clothing et cetera. That this looting was not something done for the sole benefit of the individual soldiers who were doing the work but for the benefit of the Japanese army and with the knowledge and consent of the officers is proved by the fact that we saw some of this loot being loaded on army trucks. We saw one big truck standing in front of the military headquarters loaded to the top with fine blackwood Chinese furniture. All this robbing by Japanese in Soochow was terrible but the worst remains to be told – the violation of Chinese women of all classes by the Nippon marauders. The number of victims was great.”37

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Wuxi is a city about 20 miles west of Suzhou on the Nanjing-Shanghai Railway line. On November 22, Japanese troops reached the Wuxi suburbs. The following account describes what happened in a Wuxi suburban village that day: The hundred or more [Japanese] soldiers herded the thirty-eight people to that area and surrounded them. There were two young women in the group, one seventeen and unmarried, and the other pregnant. Both were taken off to separate houses and raped by one “devil” after another, an ordeal that left them too weak to stand. Having raped the two women, the soldiers turned to arson and mass murder. Some soldiers dragged the two women back to the garden, while others took on the job of setting fire to all the houses. …. The soldiers rammed a broom into the vagina of the younger woman and then stabbed her with a bayonet. They cut open the belly of the pregnant woman and gouged out the fetus. Three men, unable to bear the sight of the flames consuming their homes, desperately broke through the ring of soldiers and headed off in the direction of the houses. They encountered some other soldiers who were determined not to let them through and forced them into one of the furiously burning houses. Seconds after the soldiers had locked the door from the outside, the roof collapsed in flames on top of the men. A two-year-old boy was bawling loudly in reaction to the noise and confusion. A soldier grabbed him from his mother’s arms and threw him into the flames. They then bayoneted the hysterically sobbing mother and threw her into the creek. The remaining thirty-one people were made to kneel facing the creek. The soldiers stabbed them from behind with their bayonets, twisting the blades to disembowel them, and threw them into the water.38

However, the most notorious atrocity Japanese soldiers committed in the Wuxi area is the Xuxiang (許巷) Massacre. According to Katsuichi Honda’s interview record, at about 4 p.m., on November 24, the Japanese entered Xuxiang, a small settlement surrounded by waterways and about two miles northeast of Wuxi. Japanese soldiers broke into residences, killing people indiscriminately. Within 2 h, 222 inhabitants, both male and female, were shot or stabbed to death. The victims’ ages ranged from nursing infants to 80-year-olds. Following the massacre, Japanese soldiers set torches to buildings and crops, destroying 93 houses and 150 mu (about 10 hectares) of rice crops (pp. 68 & 73). Wuxi was completely under Japanese control on November 25. As soon as they marched into the city gates, Japanese soldiers marauded along the streets or made house-to-house searches, wantonly killing civilians and raping women. Zhang Xiyuan was 24  years old in 1937. He described to Honda how his 60-year-old mother had been raped in her home and his 62-year-old father had been stabbed and shot to death by Japanese soldiers in the street: On the day that the Japanese army invaded the city, some Japanese soldiers broke into the Zhang family’s three-story house. Zhang’s mother, thinking she was safe on account of her age, was caught off guard when the soldiers came after her. After they had trapped her on the third floor, they stripped her naked, raped her, and then molested her further with a stick. … When Zhang’s father went out into the street, some Japanese soldiers showed up, and he tried to run back into the Commodities Office, but the soldiers caught up with him right by the door. He was stabbed through the head and then shot. By the time his wife came to the door to see what was happening, he was already dead. The bayonet marks from when he was stabbed in the head could be seen on a post, 15 centimeters thick. (p. 76)

2.9 Japanese Atrocities in the Lower Yangtze Valley

31

It was reported that buildings, whether they were Chinese residences or American church mission properties, were broken into and ransacked alike. American-owned St. Andrew’s Hospital, as well as properties of the American Church Mission, the Southern Baptist Mission, and the Southern Methodist Mission were thoroughly looted.39 The burning in Wuxi was widespread and horrendous. A North-China Daily News correspondent reported the conditions after he made a trip to Wuxi: On entering the city the same destruction is to be noted. It is estimated that at least half the buildings in Wusih have been burned. This includes all of the shopping district from the centre of the city to the north gate on out to the long iron bridge which spans the Grand Canal, on the road to Weishan. The long street which runs parallel with the Grand Canal, south of the city, for a distance of a mile has been burned on both sides. This city, which was once a great manufacturing centre and grain depot, lies prostrate.40

Killing, raping, burning, and looting turned Wuxi into a horrible ghost town while “the smell of burning and the stench of rotting bodies hovered the air in the city, and there were a lot of bodies floating in the canal, too. Old bodies would come floating to the surface, and new ones would get thrown in. We kept seeing them until February of the next year.”41 On November 29, the Japanese captured Changzhou, the next major city after Wuxi on their way to Nanjing. Immediately after they entered the city, Japanese soldiers discovered a large group of civilians seeking refuge in a large air-raid shelter. They were instantly mowed down with machine guns. (p.  86) The streets of Changzhou were littered with bodies. About a month after the city fell to the Japanese, burial squads buried about 4000 bodies, in addition to those disposed of by relatives and others. (p. 85) A Japanese army medical doctor, Hosaka Akira (保 坂晃), revealed what had happened in Changzhou in his diary: At 10:00 on 29 November 1937 we left to clean out the enemy in Chang Chou and at noon we entered the town. An order was received to kill the residents and eighty (80) of them, men and women of all ages, were shot to death [at dusk]. I hope this will be the last time I’ll ever witness such a scene. The people were all gathered in one place. They were all praying, crying, and begging for help. I just couldn’t bear watching such a pitiful spectacle. Soon the heavy machine guns opened fire and the sight of those people screaming and falling to the ground is one I could not face even if I had had the heart of a monster. War is truly terrible. [Allied Translator and Interpreter Section translation.]42

What Hosaka recorded in his diaries finds echo in another Japanese soldier’s account. Nobuo Makihara, a 22-year-old private first class at the time, who served in the 3rd Platoon of the Machine Gun Company of the 20th Infantry Regiment, 16th Division, wrote on November 29, 1937, at Changzhou, which is also known as Wujin (武進): Depart from the village at 9:00 a.m. Various units compete to enter the town. The tank unit also starts. In contrast with yesterday, there are no traces of the enemy at all. Enter the town magnificently, passing an impressive temple (even though there are many temples in China)… Because Wu Jin is an anti-Japanese stronghold, we carry out “mopping up” [sōtō] operations in the entire town, killing all men and women without distinction. The enemy is nowhere to be seen, either because they have lost the will to fight after their defense line at

32

2  Road to Nanjing Wu Xi was breached or they are holding strong positions further ahead. So far I haven’t seen a town so impressive as this one… (p. x)

An 18-year-old man was captured by the Japanese in Changzhou after its fall and forced to go with Japanese soldiers as a coolie to carry their baggage. His experience of travelling with Japanese soldiers enabled him to observe their behaviors at close range. At about the same time the young man was captured, the Japanese detained another man in his forties. Japanese soldiers searched him for anything valuable before tossing him into the river and shooting him dead when he bobbed to the surface. In another instance, the soldiers kidnapped a young woman. They immediately took her to a small pier along the riverbank, where the soldiers tried to strip off her clothes. She put up a determined resistance, but the soldiers eventually succeeded in stripping her naked as their comrades eating lunch nearby looked on, cheering and applauding. She tried to cover herself with a handkerchief, and while resisting the soldiers’ attempts to pull it out of her hands, she fell into the river. The soldiers aimed at her head and shot her.43

About 40 miles west of Changzhou stood Zhenjiang, the provincial capital city of Jiangsu Province in the 1930s, and the last major city before Nanjing. It was practically a defenseless city when Japanese troops attacked it on December 8. The Japanese entered the city through the south gate, continuing their spree of killing, burning, raping, and looting. The areas that witnessed the worst mass murder were Sanshiliubiao (三十六標) outside the city’s east gate, Huangshan (黄山), and Qilidian (七里甸). Other mass killings included the mowing down of 300 refugees with machine guns in a huge dugout east of Baogaishan (寳盖山). Based on investigations and data collection carried out in 1951, the number of civilians killed was estimated to be about 10,000 (p.117). Zhang Yibo (張懌伯) was a well-educated and well-to-do businessman, who remained in the fallen city for more than 2 months to take care of his business. In early 1938, he compiled and printed a pamphlet entitled The Fall of Zhenjiang (鎮 江淪陷記), in which he kept dozens of atrocity cases largely taking place in his neighborhood or happening to those around him. The following is his record of murder case No. 6: Several Japanese soldiers broke into a residence and motioned the father and a son who were at home at the moment to take off their sweaters and hand them over. They took off one layer, but they demanded the second one. It was a very chilly wintry day. The son begged them to spare his father the second sweater for his old age. One of the soldiers, who would not allow it, shot the son, instantly killing him.44

The most notorious atrocity case, however, was the “100-man killing contest” between two Japanese sub-lieutenants, Toshiaki Mukai (向井敏明) and Tsuyoshi Noda (野田毅), who competed with one another to see, from Changzhou to Nanjing, who would be the first to kill 100 people. The popular Japanese newspaper, The Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun (東京日日新聞), ran a series of four reports on November 30, December 4, December 6, and December 13, 1937, to provide a consecutive and detailed media coverage of the contest. According to the fourth report, Mukai killed 106 and Noda killed 105 when they reached Purple Mountain.45

2.10 Battles at Nanjing

33

2.10  Battles at Nanjing The war conditions, constant Japanese air raids, the westward evacuation of Chinese troops, rapid Japanese advances, and, in particular, reports about atrocities caused extensive panic among the civilian population dwelling in the Lower Yangtze area, creating waves of massive refugee exodus from the cities and surrounding regions. Millions of civilians were on the move westward into countryside, mountainous regions, and even interior cities and towns in Central and West China.46 Train-loads of refugees passed through Nanjing, where they either boarded boats to move up the Yangtze westward, or continued by train northward. Many of them sought refuge in Nanjing as well. On the day Suzhou fell, November 19, 1937, the Chinese Government announced that its national capital would be relocated from Nanjing to Chongqing in West China. When government agencies were on the move, Nanjing residents of different walks of life found it advisable to evacuate the city. The movement started with wealthy families who, more often than not, employed every truck and car available to them and made the journey up river to Hankou or beyond. The middle class followed, evacuating to wherever their means enabled them. Finally, poor families’ boxes, rolls of bedding, and family members were seen loaded on rickshaws, going into the country nearby.47 Consequently, before the Japanese arrived, a large number of the residents left Nanjing, with only the destitute class, who had no means to evacuate, remaining. When the Chinese military forces retreated westward, many troops evacuated along the route east of Taihu Lake, via Yixing, Changxing, and Guangde, into the mountainous areas in southern Anhui Province. The Instructional Corps, which was based in Nanjing, returned directly from Shanghai, while the 36th Division arrived in Nanjing on November 22. Other troops that evacuated from the Shanghai front to participate in the Nanjing defense were the 51st, 58th, 87th, 88th, 154th, 159th, and 160th Divisions. The 41st and 48th Divisions were deployed to Nanjing directly from Hubei Province, and arrived on December 4 and 7 respectively. The 156th Division reached Suzhou on November 17 from Wuhan, but this division did not see combat actions until they were transferred to Wuxi on November 23, where they provided coverage for other troops’ retreat from Shanghai. The 156th Division joined the Nanjing defense on December 7. The 103rd Division was deployed at Liuhe in early September to prevent possible Japanese landings along the Yangtze coast there. After Dachang fell on October 26, the division was dispatched to defend the Jiangyin Fort (江陰要塞), where they fought a bitter and ferocious battle. After the Jiangyin Fort was captured by the Japanese on December 2, the division evacuated to Zhenjiang and rushed to Nanjing on December 10. The 112th Division was deployed in October at Jingjiang on the northern bank of the Yangtze across the river from the Jiangyin Fort. When Shanghai was about to fall, two regiments of the division crossed the Yangtze to take part in the defense of Jiangyin and the fort, and eventually evacuated to Nanjing together with the 103rd Division. In addition, the Nanjing-based Gendarmerie Brigade participated in the Nanjing defense. Except

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for the 41st and 48th Divisions, and the Gendarmerie Brigade, all aforementioned troops had been through tough combat and suffered heavy casualties. They came in haste, without sufficient rest or replenishment of soldiers. Some of the Chinese military leaders were against defending Nanjing. They argued that Nanjing’s geographical location was unfavorable to secure a successful defense. In addition, with heavy casualties and the chaotic evacuation from Shanghai, troops were low in both combat capacity and morale. Others suggested that, if Nanjing was to be defended at all, it should be defended only symbolically, with 12–18 regiments for a short period of time before evacuation. In spite of the objection, Chiang Kai-shek was determined to defend Nanjing, citing that Nanjing was the national capital, and the Father of the Republic of China, Sun Yat-sen (孫中 山), was interred there. On November 20, he appointed General Tang Shengzhi (唐 生智), the only top official who volunteered to take the defense job, as the Nanjing Garrison Commander. The appointment was not made known to the public until November 24.48 The defense deployment plan was revised several times as more troops arrived and became available. By December 4, the Japanese were about 10  miles from Jurong, an important strategic town 25 miles east of Nanjing. The 154th Division was deployed at Dongchang (東昌) with the 156th Division in the region southwest of Zhenjiang. The 159th and 160th Divisions held the defense line from Funiu Hill (伏牛山) to Chunhua, sending vanguard units to Jurong. The 51st and 58th Divisions took positions along the line from Chuanhua to Niushou Hill (牛首山), with some of the units stationing at Hushu (湖熟) and Molingguan (秣陵關). The main body of the 88th Division took positions at Yuhua Terrace (雨花台) south of Zhonghua Gate (中華門), with one of its brigades at Jiangning Town (江寧鎮) southwest of the city. The newly arrived 41st Division was deployed northeast of the city at Qixia Hill (棲霞山) and Longtan (龍潭), while the 36th Division went to the north of the city, guarding at Mufu Mountain (幕府山), Hongshan (红山), and the Xiaguan (下 關) area. The Instructional Corps’ main positions were at Purple Mountain. Some of its troops also took positions at the Wulong Hill Fort (烏龍龙山砲台) in the north until December 7 when the 48th Division replaced them. The 87th Division was deployed south of the Instructional Corps’ positions from Xiaolingwei (孝陵衞) down to the Wuhu-Nanjing Railway line outside Guanghua Gate (光華門). The Gendarmerie Brigade was stationed inside the city walls, guarding the west side of the city at Qingliang Hill (清凉山).49 With victor’s momentum, the Japanese advanced and attacked from the north, east, southeast, and south. Their superiority in aerial bombing, armored vehicles, and artillery shelling dominated in battles. In comparison, the Chinese defense lost most of its stubborn persistence and combat capability. In addition to exhaustion and poor equipment, most of the troops suffered enormous casualties at Shanghai, and were replenished only with new recruits, who lacked combat experience. Consequently, the Chinese were forced to retreat repeatedly. On December 7, The Japanese reached Tangshan, about 15 miles east of Nanjing, and broke through the Chinese first defense line. The159th and 160th Divisions,

2.10 Battles at Nanjing

35

later reinforced by the 154th and 156th Divisions, fought desperately and resisted the Japanese advance at the second defense line (p. 19). Early morning on December 7, before the Japanese got too close to Nanjing, Chiang Kai-shek and his wife left for Jiujiang (九江) by air, leaving Nanjing to Tang Shengzhi and his troops. By December 8, the Japanese reached Qixia Hill in the northeast, Chunhua in the southeast, Molingguan in the south, and Jiangning in the southwest. (ibid) In the east at Tangshan, fierce fighting went on all day. The Japanese broke through the Chinese defense at Tangshan and reached Qilin Gate (麒麟門), one of Nanjing’s outer city gates. Frank Tillman Durdin, a New York Times correspondent who stayed in Nanjing to cover the Nanjing battle, described the fighting in the area on December 8: Trapped and surrounded by Japanese troops at the summit of a cone-shaped peak along the Tangshan Road twelve miles from Nanking, 300 Chinese soldiers were annihilated almost to a man during a dramatic engagement lasting throughout yesterday. The Japanese set a ring of fire around the peak. The fire, feeding on trees and grass, gradually crept nearer and nearer to the top, forcing the Chinese upward until, huddled together, they were mercilessly machine-gunned to death. From a point of vantage two miles away, this correspondent watched the final stages of this unique war episode with a survivor of the doomed contingent who earlier in the day had fought his way with a few others down the hill through the cordon of Japanese.50

After the battle at Tangshan, the 154th, 156th, 159th, and 160th Divisions, who had suffered heavy casualties, retreated into the Nanjing city walls. On December 9, the situation spiraled down at almost every front. Sixty to seventy Japanese planes bombarded the Chinese positions in and out of the city walls to provide coverage for their infantry to launch assaults. At Chunhua, the 87th Division was to replace the badly battered 51st Division. However, after the latter evacuated and before the former securely settled in the positions, the Japanese attacked and broke the Chinese defense. They followed the retreating Chinese troops to Gaoqiao Gate (高橋門), one of Nanjing’s outer city gates in the southeast, where they quickly established an artillery position to shell Guanghua Gate. Retreating in haste, the Chinese did not have time to destroy Qiqiaoweng Bridge (七橋瓮) and Zhonghe Bridge (中和橋), which enabled a dozen Japanese tanks and 2000 soldiers to reach the area right outside Guanghua Gate. When the artillery shelling breached the city walls, over a hundred Japanese soldiers climbed into the city, though they were wiped out immediately. Soon the 87th Division troops rushed back to coordinate a counterattack with the 51st Division to push the Japanese further away from Guanghua Gate.51 The 51st Division was then transferred to guard the area outside Shuixi Gate (水西門) and the positions at the gate.52 In the south, the 88th Division’s retreat, which was earlier than anticipated, not only exposed the 58th Division’s flank to the advancing Japanese, but also affected morale and wavered fighting determination. By the end of the day, the 58th Division was forced to give up their positions around Niushou Hill to retreat northward and regroup outside Shuixi Gate. This allowed the Japanese to push forward near Yuhua Terrace.53

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In the northeast, the 41st Division fought desperately at Qixia Hill. The positions changed hands three times, but finally, after suffering heavy casualties, the division abandoned Qixia Hill and retreated to the positions held by the 48th Division at Heshang Bridge (和尚橋).54 In the east, the Japanese shelled and attacked the Chinese positions at Purple Mountain while their artillery shelled incendiary bombs, which burned the surrounding trees and forced the Chinese to abandon the positions at Tiger Cave (老虎 洞) and retreat to the Second Peak.55 Meanwhile, the Japanese launched assaults at the Chinese positions around Xiaolingwei outside Zhongshan Gate (中山門), and their artillery directly shelled Zhongshan Gate and surrounding walls.56 The Japanese were at Nanjing’s gates. On December 9, General Iwane Matsui, the Japanese Commander in Chief, issued an ultimatum to the Nanjing Garrison Commander, Tang Shengzhi, demanding an unconditional surrender by noon of December 10: Japanese forces exceeding in number 1,000,000, having occupied the entire area south of the Yangtze River, have now completely surrounded the city of Nanking. The anticipated hostilities bid no good to any one, but harm alone. Nanking is the ancient capital, it has until lately been the seat of the Chinese Government, and it abounds in historic remains and spots of beauty, such as the Hsiao Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty and the Chungshan Mausoleum. Indeed, the city is a keystone of Oriental civilization. Though harsh and relentless to those who resist, the Japanese troops are kind and generous to the non-combatants and to Chinese troops who entertain no enmity to Japan. The Japanese Army is earnestly desirous of protecting Oriental culture. If your forces desire to continue hostilities, Nanking cannot but witness the horrors of war, with the attendant destruction of age-old cultural relics and the nullification of the constructive efforts of the past generations. Therefore, I, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese forces in Central China, advise you to surrender Nanking without resistance and take the steps explained below. (Signed) General Iwane Matsui, Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese expeditionary force. Your answer to this advice must be received by our outposts on the Kuyung highway, forming the continuation of the Chungshan Highway, by noon of December 10. Should you send a responsible person as your representative, I am prepared to send my representative to the designated spot to negotiate on the procedure of surrendering the city of Nanking. If no answer is received by the appointed time, our forces will be compelled to launch an attack upon the city of Nanking.57

By noon of December 10, with no response from the Chinese, around 2 p.m., Japanese troops launched fierce attacks at Yuhua Terrace, Tongji Gate (通濟門), Guanghua Gate, and the Second Peak of Purple Mountain. Japanese aerial bom-­ bing and artillery shelling went on continuously. The fiercest fighting took place at Guanghua Gate, where Japanese troops breached the city walls twice. The 156th Division was dispatched to reinforce the Instructional Corps in the defense of Tongji and Guanghua Gates, with the 159th Division standing by at the Ming Palace Airport for further reinforcement if needed. After a desperate and bitter struggle, the Chinese defenders repelled or killed all the Japanese attackers inside the city walls.

2.11 The Fall of Nanjing

37

However, under fierce assaults and bombardment, the 88th Division lost three positions at Yuhua Terrace.58 In the east, after capturing Tiger Cave, the Japanese launched attacks at the Chinese positions at Purple Mountain’s Second Peak. Fierce fighting went on for hours, inflicting heavy casualties on both sides, but the Instructional Corps troops managed to hold their positions. The Japanese bombarded and assaulted other positions held by the Instructional Corps at Xiaolingwei and Xishan (西山),59 and attacked and captured the Engineering Corps Academy outside the southeast corner of the city walls.60 After the 103rd and 112th Divisions retreated from Zhenjiang to Nanjing, the 103rd Division immediately joined the defense at Zhongshan Gate.61 Because they failed to break into Guaghua Gate on December 11, the Japanese concentrated their forces at Nanjing’s major south gate, Zhonghua Gate. Japanese aerial bombardment at the Chinese positions at Yuhua Terrace was so frequent and fierce that the 88th Division’s defenders were unable to hold their positions. When some of the troops fled into the city for shelter, about 300 Japanese soldiers followed them into Zhonghua Gate before it could be closed. Bloody and intense street fighting ensued. The Chinese defenders inside Zhonghua Gate endeavored to do their utmost to annihilate all the invaders. However, aerial bombardment continued at Yuhua Terrace and, after some of the positions were destroyed, Japanese troops rushed to capture them. The 88th Division, suffering enormous casualties, could manage but a few major positions outside Zhonghua Gate, while the 51st, 58th and 156th Divisions guarded the gate and the walls surrounding it.62 In the north, the Japanese captured Yinkong Hill (银孔山) and Yangfang Hill (楊 坊山), cutting off communication between the headquarters and the 41st and 48th Divisions. (ibid). In the east, the Japanese initiated a fierce onslaught at Purple Mountain and the Chinese positions around Xiaolingwei east of Zhongshan Gate. Fighting went on throughout the day, and both sides sustained heavy casualties. Because the Instructional Corps had stationed in the Xiaolingwei barracks and conducted training in the area for 4 years, soldiers were familiar with the surrounding geographical terrains, and were able to take advantage of this to resist Japanese attacks. By the end of the day, the Chinese still held the Second Peak.63 In the southwest, after capturing Dashengguan (大勝關) on December 8, the Japanese crossed the river to Jiangxin Island (江心洲), an island in the Yangtze, on December 11, attempting to launch assaults at the positions held by the 51st and 58th Divisions at the Shangxin Riverfront (上新河) area.64

2.11  The Fall of Nanjing At noon on December 11, Gu Zhutong (顧祝同) telephoned the Nanjing Garrison Commander Tang Shengzhi to relate an order from Chiang Kai-shek that the troops at Nanjing could evacuate should the situation allow.65 At 2 a.m. on December 12,

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Tang Shengzhi summoned his aides and staff members to his residence to break the news and asked his chief of staff and staff members to draft the evacuation order.66 December 12, however, witnessed the most shocking and disheartening bombardments. From early dawn, Japanese planes and artilleries bombed and shelled incessantly at the gates, city walls and buildings nearby, breaching city walls at several points, and causing buildings to collapse. Meanwhile, over 30 Japanese planes hovered above, dropping either bombs or leaflets urging commanding generals to surrender. By noon, all the Chinese positions at Yuhua Terrace were captured by the Japanese. So was the Second Peak of Purple Mountain. The city walls near Shuixi Gate in the southwest, and Zhongshan Gate in the east were breached, as well. In the north, the 41st and 48th Divisions were further pushed toward the positions at Wulong Hill by the Yangtze River. Towards 2  p.m., Zhonghua Gate was broken, and Japanese soldiers swamped into the gate only to meet tough and persistent resistance. Zhonghua Gate was a fortress-like structure with four or five gates inside, and once inside the gate fortress, the Japanese left two to three hundred corpses while going through each of the first and second gates. Meanwhile, the 154th Division was dispatched to Zhonghua Gate to fight against the invaders, and fierce street fighting ensued.67 Around 3 p.m., panic set in. Some of the 87th and 88th Divisions’ troops abandoned their positions to go northward along Zhongshan Road toward Yijiang Gate (挹江門), attempting to evacuate by crossing the Yangtze. They reached as far as the Ministry of Communications, where they were turned back by the 36th Division troops, who were ordered to guard the gate and keep troops from passing through and crossing the river. As the afternoon advanced into dusk, when the news that the Japanese were inside the city through Zhonghua, Guanghua, and Shuixi Gates circulated among the soldiers, chaotic panic quickly spread.68 While fighting went on at Nanjing, the Japanese 18th Division had captured Wuhu on December 10; the 13th Division reached Luhe (六合), north of the Yangtze, on December 11; and the Kunisaki Detachment crossed the Yangtze at Taiping on December 11, pushing toward Pukou, intending to block the Chinese northward evacuation passage. It was a critical moment. Tang Shengzhi summoned army and division commanding officers for a meeting at his residence around 5 p.m., briefly informing them of the evacuation order before his chief of staff distributed the following printout: The Capital Garrison Commander Combat Order Special Order No. 1, Issued by the Garrison Headquarters at the Ministry of Communications, Nanjing, 3 p.m., December 12, 1937. 1. The situation is such as known to you officers. 2. It is decided that the capital defense troops will break though enemy lines tonight to evacuate to the Zhejiang-Anhui bordering area. The Seventh Combat Zone troops, currently stationed along Anji (安吉), Bodian (柏垫), which is northeast of Ningguo (寧國), Sunjiabu (孫家埠), southeast of Xuancheng, and Yangliupu (楊柳鋪), southwest of Xuancheng,

2.11 The Fall of Nanjing

39

would pin down the enemy and are ready to help and accommodate the troops evacuating from Nanjing. In ­addition, the 76th Division is at Wuhu, and the 6th Division at Shiweizhen (石硊鎮) south of Wuhu, currently in combat operations against the enemy. 3. Tonight evacuation’s start time, the regions through which troops are to travel, and the areas for regrouping are designated in the attached lists. 4. The fort cannons and those artillery pieces, along with the ammunitions, which are difficulty to transport, should be destroyed completely, so as not to be used by the enemy. 5. In addition to the communication units attached to troops that should travel with those troops, the communication corps, in coordination with local communication agencies, should totally destroy the fixedly installed or heavy communication equipments, and communication network in and out of the city. 6. After breakthrough, troops should avoid highways, and, if possible, send troops to destroy important highway bridges, to hinder enemy’s movement. 7. All the troops, officers and soldiers, should bring roasted rice and salt enough for 4 days’ consumption. 8. We are now at the Garrison Headquarters, and will be at Puzhen (浦鎮). (Attached please find two lists.) Garrison Commander: Tang Shengzhi (p. 26)

The attached lists stipulated the evacuation routes for each army, division, and other units: except for the Garrison Headquarters, the Gendarmerie Brigade, and the 36th Division, who would evacuate by crossing the Yangtze to Pukou, all the other troops would break through the enemy lines via Chunhua, Lishui, Langxi, and Ningguo into southern Anhui (p. 27). When the meeting was over, the chaotic situation spiraled out of control. Reuter correspondent Leslie C. Smith described what he had witnessed: Sunday evening saw the first signs of the Chinese collapse, when a whole division began streaming towards the River Gate. They were fired on and stopped, and later it was learned that a general retreat had been ordered for 9 o’clock. The movement towards the gate leading to the Hsiakwan river-front, the only way of escape, was orderly at first, but it soon became clear that the Chinese defence of the southern gates had broken down, and that the Japanese were making their way northward through the city. The noise reached its climax in the early evening, by which time the southernmost part of the city was burning furiously. The retreat became a rout, the Chinese troops casting away their arms in panic when they found little or no transport to get them across the river. Many frantically re-entered the city and some burst into the safety zone.69

While some Chinese regiments continued to hold up the Japanese in desperate street fighting, many soldiers, in the haste and chaotic retreat, panicked. They threw away their weapons, shed their uniforms and donned civilian garments. Before long, Zhongshan Road became a long avenue of filth and discarded uniforms, rifles, pistols, machine guns, fieldpieces, knives, and knapsacks.70 It was too late for an orderly evacuation to be carried out. Consequently, some of the commanding officers returned to their troops to pass on the evacuation order, while others simply managed to cross the river on their own without informing their subordinates, leaving their disorganized soldiers to rush to Yijiang Gate only to be stopped and fired on. Those who managed to get through the gate or used ropes or puttees to make an

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improvised device to climb over the city walls to get to the riverfront, found that there were no crafts available to carry them across the river. The 154th, 156th, 159th, and 160th Divisions, as well as one brigade of the Instructional Corps, were the only troops that followed the order to break through the Japanese lines to evacuate to southern Anhui. The 41st and 48th Divisions, because they were in control of boats, were able to cross the Yangtze, though they did not follow the order. The 36th Division, after assuring that Garrison Commander Tang Shengzhi and his headquarters safely evacuated around 9 p.m. on a steamship, followed the order to cross the river. However, when half of the division safely arrived on the northern shore, and the boats were dispatched back for the rest of the troops, the riverfronts were crowded with thousands upon thousands of soldiers and civilian refugees who, vying with one another for boats to escape, seized their boats. About 3000 of 36th Division’s troops were left on the southern bank, many of whom were later slaughtered.71 A huge number of frustrated, panic-stricken, and disorganized troops, mostly from the 51st, 58th, 87th, 88th, 103rd, 112th Divisions, and the Instructional Corps, along with many refugees, concentrated at Xiaguan, the Sancha River (三叉河), Swallow Cliff (燕子磯) riverfronts, attempting helplessly to cross the Yangtze. Many of them managed to make improvised rafts with whatever materials available that could remain afloat on the water. Many succeeded to escape in this manner, while many others either drowned or were machine-gunned by Japanese aircrafts hovering overhead, bombing or shooting at anything floating on the river. Meanwhile, on December 12, Japanese planes bombed and sank the American gunboat USS Panay and several American merchant vessels about 28 miles upriver from Nanjing. By early morning on December 13, the 36th Regiment of the Japanese 9th Division entered Guanghua Gate, while the 3rd Division captured Tonji Gate and Wuding Gate (武定門). The Japanese 16th Division broke into Zhongshan and Taiping Gates (太平門), and captured Heping Gate (和平門) and Zhongyang Gate (中央門) on their way toward the Xiaguan waterfront. They reached Xiaguan around 2 p.m. At about 3 a.m. on December 13 the 6th Division captured Zhonghua and Shuixi Gates and, while they fought their way northward in the region west of the city walls, the 6th Division occupied Shangxin Riverfront Town, as well as Hanzhong Gate (漢中門) and Hanxi Gate (漢西門). They got to the Xiaguan waterfront around 3 p.m. Meanwhile, the Yamada Detachment of the 13th Division captured the Wulong Hill Fort and the Mufu Mountain Fort (幕府山砲台) north of Nanjing, and pushed southward toward Xiaguan. By 2  p.m. the 11th Naval Detachment reached the Nanjing waters to block the Yangtze at the Xiaguan waterfront, and at around 4 p.m. the Kunisaki Detachment captured Pukou on the northern bank of the Yangtze. Thus, Nanjing fell to the Japanese.

2.11 The Fall of Nanjing

41

Notes 1. 许杰 (Xu Jie), “虹口日本人居住区述论 (A review on the Japanese settlement in Hongkou),” in 上海研究论丛 (Studies on Shanghai), Vol. 10, Shanghai: 上海科学院出版社 (Shanghai Social Science Academy Press), 1995, p. 285. 2. “第三节 日本等外国驻军 (Section Three, Japanese and other foreign station forces),” in 虹口区志 (The Annals of Hongkou District) ed. by上海市地方志办公室 (Office of Shanghai Local Annals), at the website: http://www.shtong.gov.cn/node2/node4/node2249/node4418/ node20217/node23228/node62919/userobject1ai9654.html. 3. “‘Kidnapped’ Japanese Turns up a Deserter,” NYT, July 29, 1937, p. 3, and “靖江八圩港尋 獲宮崎 (Miyasaki discovered at Jingjiang’s Bawei Port), Shenbao, July 29, 1937, p. 14. 4. “空氣突趨緊張 大隊日艦集滬 (The Atmosphere Suddenly Turns Tense, A Large Fleet of Japanese Warships Concentrate at Shanghai),” Shenbao, August 12, 1937, p. 9. 5. “Three Killed in Affray near Aerodrome,” North-China Daily News, August 10, 1937, pp. 9 & 14, and “日軍官武裝直沖我飛機場 (Armed Japanese Officers Rush into the Aero drome),” Shenbao, August 10, 1937, p. 9. 6. “Three Killed in Affray near Aerodrome,” North-China Daily News, p. 9. 7. “32 Tokyo Warships Mass at Shanghai,” NYT, August 12, 1937, pp. 1 & 10. 8. “Japan’s Landing Party Reinforced,” North-China Daily News, August 12, 1937, p. 9 and “32 Tokyo Warships Mass at Shanghai,” NYT, August 12, 1937, p. 1. 9. 张治中 (Zhang Zhizhong), “揭开八一三淞沪抗战的战幕 (Opening Stage of the August 13 Shanghai Campaign),” in 八一三淞沪抗战 一三原国民党将领抗日战争亲历记 (August 13 Shanghai Campaign: Anti-Japanese War Experiences of Former Nationalist Generals), Beijing: 中国文史出版社 (China Culture and History Publishing House), 1987, p. 20. 10. “First Clash in Shanghai,” NYT, August 13, 1937, p. 1, “Shanghai Battle Goes on Unabated,” NYT, August 14, 1937, pp. 1 & 2, and “滬日兵昨晨首先挑衅 我軍抗戰敵受重創 (Japanese Soldiers in Shanghai Provoked Yesterday Morning, Our Troops Fought back and Caused Enemy Severe Casualties),” Shenbao, August 14, 1937, p. 2. 11. “閘北浦東我軍前線進攻 (Our Troops Attack in Zhabei and Pudong),” Shenbao,” Aug. 15, 1937, p. 1, “Chinese Air Bombs Kill 600 in Shanghai,” NYT, Aug. 15, 1937, pp. 1 & 28, and Zhang Zhizhong, “Opening Stage of the Aug. 13 Shanghai Campaign,” p. 21. 12. “Chinese Air Bombs Kill 600 in Shanghai,” NYT, August 15, 1937, p. 1. 13. Zhang Zhizhong, “Opening Stage of the August 13 Shanghai Campaign,” pp. 22–23. 14. 防衛庁防衛研修所戦史室 (War History Section, Defense Research Institute, Japanese Defense Ministry), 支那事変陸軍作戦 (The Army Combat Operations during the China Incident), Vol. 1, Tokyo: 朝雲新聞社 (Asagumo Shinbunsha), 1975. Cited from its Chinese version, 中国事变陆军作战史 Part 2 of Volume 1, translated by 齐福霖 (Qi Fulin) & 宋绍 柏 (Song Shaobo), Beijing: 中华书局 (China Press), 1981, pp. 6–7. 15. 蔣緯國 (Jiang Weiguo), editor-in-chief, 國民革命戰史, 第三部, 抗日禦侮, 第五卷 (The History of the Nationalist Revolutionary Wars, Part 3, Resistance against Japanese Invasion, V. 5), Taipei: 黎明文化事業公司 (Limin Cultural Enterprise Co. Ltd.), 1978, p. 33. 16. “Japanese Land Troops off Woosung,” North-China Daily News, Aug. 24, 1937, p. 5 and 余 子道 (Yu Zidao), 张云 (Zhang Yun), 八一三淞沪抗战 (August 13 Shanghai Campaign), Shanghai: 上海人民出版社 (Shanghai People’s Publishing House), 2000, pp. 145–146. 17. Jiang Weiguo, The History of Nationalist Revolutionary Wars, Part 3, V. 5, pp. 31–32. 18. Yu Zidao & Zhang Yun, August 13 Shanghai Campaign, p. 155. 19. Jiang Weiguo, The History of Nationalist Revolutionary Wars, Part 3, V. 5, pp. 37–38, and Yu Zidao & Zhang Yun, August 13 Shanghai Campaign, pp. 159–161. 20. Yu Zidao & Zhang Yun, August 13 Shanghai Campaign, pp. 161–163.

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21. 吴相湘 (Wu Xiangxiang), 第二次中日戰争史, 上册 (The Second Sino-Japanese War, Vol. 1), Taipei: 綜合月刊社 (Scooper Monthly), 1973, p. 390. 22. Yu Zidao & Zhang Yun, August 13 Shanghai Campaign, pp. 307–308 & 316. 23. Ibid., pp. 379–380 and 何應欽 (He Yingqin), 八年抗戰之經過 (The Eight-year War against the Japanese), Taipei: 文海出版社 (Wenhai Publishing House), 1972, pp. 18–19. 24. Yu Zidao & Zhang Yun, August 13 Shanghai Campaign, pp. 380–383. 25. 任晓初 (Ren Xiaochu), 金兆其 (Jin Zhaoqi), “罗泾血案调查记 (Investigation of Luojing Atrocities),” in 罗泾祭: 侵华日军暴行实录 (Luojing Memorial: The Record of Japanese Atrocities), Shanghai: 宝山区政协学习文史委员会 (Study, Culture and History Section of Baoshan District Political Consultation Committee), 1997, p. 196, and Katsuichi Honda (本 多勝一), The Nanjing Massacre: A Japanese Journalist Confronting Japan’s National Shame, Armonk, New York: E. Sharpe, 1999, p. 31. 26. 顾庆祯证言 (Testimony by Gu Qingzhen) in Luojing Memorial, pp. 14–15 & 48. 27. 蒋辂赞证言 (Testimony by Jiang Luzan) in Luojing Memorial, p. 35. 28. 陈德禄证言 (Testimony by Chen Delu) in Luojing Memorial, p. 38. 29. 徐世禄、高兰芳、沈凤英证言 (Testimony by Xu Shilu, Gao Lanfang and Shen Feng-ying) in Luojing Memorial, pp. 19–20. 30. 泣血吴淞口: 侵华日军在上海宝山地区的暴行 (Tears and Blood at Wusong Kou: Japanese Atrocities in Shanghai Baoshan Region), Shanghai: 上海社会科学院出版社 (Shanghai Social Science Academy Press), 2000, pp. 22–261. 31. Katsuichi Honda, The Nanjing Massacre, p. 11. 32. Tears and Blood at Wusong Kou, pp. 844–849. 33. Katsuichi Honda, The Nanjing Massacre, pp. 23–24. 34. Clarence Edward Gauss, No. 135 Telegram, 3  p.m., January 25, 1938, No. 793.94/12207, RG59, Microfilm set 976, roll 49, National Archives II, College Park, MD. 35. Katsuichi Honda, The Nanjing Massacre, pp. 43–45. 36. “Soochow Nightmare,” China Weekly Review Supplement, March 19, 1938, p. 24. 37. C. E. Gauss, Telegram No. 135, 3 p.m., January 25, 1938. 38. Katsuichi Honda, The Nanjing Massacre, pp. 63–65. 39. “Wusih American Property Looted,” China Weekly Review Supplement, March 19, 1938, p. 23. 40. “Shanghai to Wusih and Return,” 793.94/13095, Microfilm set 976, roll 54, National Archives II. 41. Katsuichi Honda, The Nanjing Massacre, p. 80. 42. Daqing Yang, “About the Cover: Diary of a Japanese Army Medical Doctor, 1937,” in Researching Japanese War Crimes Records: Introductory Essays, edited by Edward Drea et  al., Washington, D.C.: Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group, 2006, p. ix. 43. Katsuichi Honda, The Nanjing Massacre, p. 94. 44. 張懌伯 (Zhang Yibo), 鎮江淪陷記 (The Fall of Zhenjiang), originally printed in Xinghua (興化), Jiangsu (江蘇) Province, in 1938, Beijing: 人民出版社 (People’s Publishing House), 1999, p. 25. 45. “百人斬り〝超記録〟向井 106–105 野田/両少尉さらに延長戦 (The 100-Man Killing Contest Exceeds Goal, Mukai 106, Noda 105, Two Sub-Lieutenants Extend Contest),” 東京 日日新聞 (Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun), December 13, 1937, p. 11. 46. “Millions Flee in Panic,” NYT, November 17, 1937, p. 4. 47. Minnie Vautrin, “A Review of the First Month,” p. 3, F2875, Box 145, RG11, YDSL. 48. 刘斐 (Liu Fei), “抗战初期的南京保卫战 (The Nanjing Defense Battle during the Early Stage of the War against Japan), in NDB, pp. 8–10. 49. 谭道平 (Tan Daoping), “南京卫戍战 (The Nanjing Defense Battle),” in NDB, pp. 15–19. 50. F. Tillman Durdin, “300 Chinese Slain on a Peak Ringed by Fires Set by Foe,” NYT, December 9, 1937, pp. 1 & 5. 51. Tan Daoping, “The Battle of Defending Nanjing,” pp. 22–23.

2.11 The Fall of Nanjing

43

52. 王耀武 (Wang Yaowu), “第七十四军参加南京保卫战经过 (The Participation of the 74th Army in the Nanjing Defense Battle),” in NDB, p.144. 53. Tan Daoping, “The Battle of Defending Nanjing,” p. 23. 54. “Appendix I, Major Events of the Nanjing Defence Battle,” in NDB, p 326. 55. 周振强 (Zhou Zhenqiang), “教导总队在南京保卫战中 (The Instructional Corps in the Nanjing Defense Battle),” in NDB, p.168, and 刘庸诚 (Liu Yongcheng), “南京抗战纪要 (Summary Record of the Nanjing Battle),” in NDB, p. 181. 56. 陈颐鼎 (Chen Yiding), “八十七师在南京保卫战中 (The 87th Division in the Nanjing Defense Battle), in NDB, p. 154. 57. “Gen. Matsui Gives Ultimatum to Nanking,” North-China Herald, Dec. 15, 1937, p. 411. 58. Tan Daoping, “The Battle of Defending Nanjing,” pp. 23–24, and “Appendix I, Major Events of the Nanjing Defense Battle,” in NDB, p 326. 59. Zhou Zhenqiang, “The Instructional Corps in the Nanjing Defense Battle,” p.168. 60. Liu Yongcheng, “Summary Record of the Nanjing Battle,” p. 183. 61. “Appendix I, Major Events of the Nanjing Defense Battle,” in NDB, pp. 326–327 and 万式炯 (Wan Shijiong), “第一〇三师江阴抗战及撤退概述 (The Summary of the 103rd Division’s Combat Operations at Jiangyin and Evacuation), in NDB, p. 86. 62. Tan Daoping, “The Battle of Defending Nanjing,” p. 24. 63. 李西开 (Li Xikai), “紫金山战斗 (Fighting at Purple Mountain), in NDB, p. 173. 64. “Appendix I, Major Events of the Nanjing Defense Battle,” in NDB, p. 327. 65. 唐生智 (Tang Shengzhi), 卫戍南京经过 (The Defense of Nanjing), in NDB, p. 4. 66. Tan Daoping, “The Battle of Defending Nanjing,” p. 26. 67. Ibid., p. 25 & 卢畏三 (Lu Weisan), “第八十八师扼守雨花台中华门片断 (Glimpses of the 88th Division‘s Defense Battles at Yuhua Terrace and Zhonghua Gate),in NDB, p. 165. 68. Tan Daoping, “The Battle of Defending Nanjing,” p. 25. 69. “Terror in Nanking,” The Times (London), December 18, 1937, p. 12. 70. F. T. Durdin, “Butchery Marked Capture of Nanking,” NYT, Dec 18, 1937, pp. 1 & 10. 71. 宋希廉 (Song Xilian), “南京守城战 (The Battle to Defend Nanjing),” in NDB, p. 239.

Chapter 3

Brutality Following the Fall of Nanjing: Large-Scale Massacres

Japanese troops committed atrocities in and around Nanjing the moment they arrived. Five American and British correspondents, who remained inside the city walls to cover the siege battles and expected fall of the city, provided timely eyewitness accounts of Japanese atrocious behaviors in their news wires, thus breaking the news of the Nanjing Massacre to the outside world, placing the infamous carnage under the global spotlight, and shocking the world with its magnitude and brutality. Archibald Trojan Steele of The Chicago Daily News sent out the first dispatch, which appeared on the front page of The Chicago Daily News on December 15, 1937. Steele reported that the capture of Nanjing was “followed by a reign of terror by the conquering army that cost thousands of lives, many of them innocent ones. … It was like killing sheep. How many troops were trapped and killed it is difficult to estimate, but it may be anywhere between 5,000 and 20,000.”1 Japanese soldiers searched “the city with a fine-tooth comb for soldiers and ‘plain-clothes men,’” and hundreds were “plucked from refugee camps and executed. Condemned men were herded in groups of two or three hundred to convenient places of execution, where they were killed with rifles and machine guns.”2 Frank Tillman Durdin, The New York Times correspondent, compared Japanese atrocities at Nanjing to the worst episodes in human history: “In taking over Nanking the Japanese indulged in slaughters, looting and raping exceeding in barbarity any atrocities committed up to that time in the course of the Sino-Japanese hostilities. The unrestrained cruelties of the Japanese are to be compared only with the vandalism in the Dark Ages in Europe or the brutalities of medieval Asiatic conquerors.”3 In another report, Durdin told the readers: The killing of civilians was widespread. Foreigners who travelled widely through the city Wednesday found civilian dead on every street. Some of the victims were aged men, women and children.4

According to Arthur von Briesen Menken of Paramount Newsreel, “All Chinese males found with any signs of having served in the army were herded together and © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 S. Lu, The 1937 – 1938 Nanjing Atrocities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9656-4_3

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executed.”5 Leslie C.  Smith of Reuters observed that “Young men who might have been soldiers and many police constables were assembled in groups for execution, as was proved by the bodies afterwards seen lying in piles. The streets were littered with bodies, including those of harmless old men.”6 Charles Yates McDaniel of the Associated Press reported what he had encountered when he “walked through streets filled with dead Chinese. Some Japanese’s sense of humor – decapitated head balanced on a barricade with a biscuit in the mouth, another with a long Chinese pipe,” and the horrible image of Nanjing was burned into his mind: “My last remembrance of Nanking: Dead Chinese, dead Chinese, dead Chinese.”7 American and British correspondents were not the only journalists present in Nanjing. Four Japanese reporters from The Asahi Shimbun (朝日新聞), Kazuo Adachi (足立和夫), Yoshio Moriyama (守山義雄), Masatake Imai (今井正剛), and Seigo Nakamura (中村正吾), recorded the mass executions that took place in an open space by Asahi’s Nanjing branch office.8 Imai and Nakamura also went to the Xiaguan riverfront to witness a gruesome massacre scene: We noticed that the surface of the wharf had become a dark, tangled mountain of bodies. Anywhere from fifty to a hundred human shapes wandered in a daze among the corpses, dragging them laboriously out and throwing them into the river. Groans, flowing blood, twitching arms and legs. And yet, the scene was as silent as a mime’s show. We could see the opposite bank faintly. On the wharf something was glimmering dully, like mud in the moonlight. It was blood. Eventually, the job was finished. The coolies were made to line up along the riverbank, and then we heard the rattling of machine gun fire. Throwing their heads back, tumbling backward, looking almost as if they were dancing, the group fell into the water. It was all over. More machine-gun shots raked the river’s surface from a steamboat that was moored slightly downstream. Lines of spray rose and fell. “There were about twenty thousand of them,” one officer said.9

Shigeharu Matsumoto (松本重治), Japanese news agency Domei (同盟社)’s Shanghai branch director, interviewed several of his fellow journalists who entered the fallen Nanjing with Japanese troops. Matsumoto wrote in his memoir Shanghai Times (上海時代) in 1975: Recently in search of reference material, I learned the conditions at the time described by my former colleagues Masayoshi Arai (新井正義), Yuji Maeda (前田雄二) and Mikizo Fukazawa (深澤干藏) who, as journalists embedded in the troops, covered news in the captured Nanjing for a few days. Fukazawa, in particular, kept diaries the whole time he was with the troops. I read his diaries, which have high reference value. From December 16 to December 17, the three first saw many burned bodies, some estimated about 2,000 and others two to three thousand, along the riverbank from Xiaguan to Straw Shoe Gorge (草鞋 峡). They were probably mowed down by machine guns before being poured with gasoline

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and burned. In addition, there were probably thousands of bodies thrown into the Yangtze from the riverfront. In the compound of the former Ministry of War, young officers let the new recruits kill Chinese prisoners of war with bayonets for “new recruit training,” as they put it. Then, the bodies were thrown into the dugouts. Maeda witnessed 12 or 13 men killed in this manner. It made him sick, and he started to throw up before he left. Again, on the campus of the Military Academy, he witnessed executing prisoners of war with pistols. He saw two men killed and could not bear to go on watching.10

One of the above-mentioned journalists, Yuji Maeda, gave detailed accounts of the mass executions he had witnessed at different locations in his war time memoir, In the Currents of the War(戦争の流れの中に): The following day (December 16), Arai and photographer Haraikawa (袚川) went to the Military Academy together, where I met with them at the “execution ground.” Prisoners were kept in a corner of the campus. A noncommissioned officer took them one by one to the academy’s exercise ground and marched them further toward the dugout trench ahead. Then soldiers who had already lined up there waiting bayoneted them through. With a miserable scream, the prisoners fell into the dugout trench, while from above the trench the soldiers bayoneted them to death. Execution in this manner was carried on at the same time in three different locations. When the prisoners were pushed and marched forward, some of them defied and resisted, and some shouted, but most of them, who appeared to lose their thinking capability, walked toward the trench of death. When I asked an officer on the side, he said it was “new recruit training.” Bloody bodies piled up in the trench. I then stared at one face after another of those prisoners who were to be executed. Their faces were all pale and expressionless. These men also had parents, brothers and sisters; now they were not treated as human beings, but as objects to be disposed of. The faces of those soldiers who, by turn, bayoneted them, were pale as well. The sound of bayoneting was mixed with painful screaming, which was a scene extremely miserable and wretched. …. In the afternoon, while stepping out of the branch office, I heard gunshots. I took correspondent Tarou Okamura (中村太郎) to search for the origin of the gunshots. It was at the side of a pond behind the Bank of Communications (交通銀行), where “an execution” was in progress as well. Those who carried out the execution were soldiers holding rifles and pistols; they made prisoners stand at the edge of the pond and shot them from behind. Those who had been pushed into the pond but were still breathing were shot again from the shore. Compared with what was going on in the morning, the execution here was a little bit less cruel. The execution in the morning was indeed miserably wretched. … The next morning, I and two or three fellows went out in a car. All the corpses at Yijiang Gate had been cleared out, and we no longer had the fear of going through the gate of hell. We went through Xiaguan. Truly as Fukazawa said, along the road by the Yangtze riverside, there was a large number of Chinese soldiers’ bodies, piled up like a succession of hills. It looked like everywhere had been burned with gasoline, and the corpses were burnt. “It appears that they were killed with machine guns,” Haraikawa said.

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3  Brutality Following the Fall of Nanjing: Large-Scale Massacres “Even so, there are too many bodies!” There were more than one thousand corpses, probably as many as two thousand. The number of bodies equaled that of a troop. We were speechless. How could this have happened, we really could not understand.11

What the journalists had witnessed and described was but the early stage of the massacre. In the process of capturing Nanjing, the Japanese rounded up a large number of Chinese soldiers in and around the city, in particular along the Yangtze River, where tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers and refugees attempted in vain to escape to safety by crossing the Yangtze. Meanwhile, quite a few Chinese soldiers surrendered to the Japanese. Many others, who were traped inside the city walls, discarded equipment, weapons and uniforms, changed into civilian clothes, and mixed into the local civilian population, mostly in the international safety zone established by the Westerners in Nanjing. During the days immediately after the city’s fall, the Japanese rounded up thousands upon thousands of prisoners of war and civilians suspected to be former soldiers. They roped or bound the captives and drove them to a nearby spot to mass execute them by machine-gun, decapitation, or bayonet.12 Meanwhile, in the city, the Japanese conducted systematic house-to-house searches to comb the civilian population for Chinese soldiers. They rounded up male civilians of conscript age. Each individual was inspected for a cap mark on the head, knapsack and rifle butt marks on the shoulders, and calluses on the palms to identify former soldiers. Those who were discovered to bear any of the marks were executed promptly. As a result, a large number of men whose occupations were carpenters, farmers, rickshaw pullers, sailors, and other laborers were detained and marched off to execution grounds. Xu Chuanyin (許傳音), vice chairman of Nanjing’s Red Swastika Society in December 1937 who stayed in the city to organize refugee relief work, testified that as Japanese troops advanced into the city they shot civilians on sight. To be killed it was only necessary for a Chinese civilian to be on the street. The soldiers then began systematic search of the dwellings, took what food and other articles they found, and took whatever men they found of military age, charged them with having been soldiers, and marched them off or shot them on the spot. I am reliably informed that most of those who were marched off were later shot or burned in mass slaughter. They demanded the right to search the safety zone and carried off many of the men found there – in one batch I witnessed about 1,500 being marched off. They were killed by machine gun fire, according to the information received by me, and their corpses thrown into a pond from which they were later recovered and buried by the Swastika Society.13

In a report on the conditions in Nanjing, Christian Kröger, a German businessman associated with Carlowitz & Company gave an account of what had happened inside the city walls: On 14 December, with the city under total occupation, an immediate and rigorous search of the city and especially of the refugee camps began. These searches of the camps were totally

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arbitrary, and over the course of a few days, although not a single shot was fired by the civilian population and no military courts had been set up, approximately 5,000 people were shot, usually on the riverbank, so that there was no need for burial. That number is probably too low an estimate. Even today, when every person has to be registered, this senseless “selection” continues, even if it is still applied only in individual cases.14

Most of the large-scale mass executions took place outside the city walls along the Yangtze River at such locations as Straw Shoe Gorge (草鞋峡), Swallow Cliff (燕子磯), Torpedo Base (魚雷營), Coal Dock (煤炭港), Zhongshan Wharf (中山碼 頭), Xiaguan, the Sancha River (三叉河) area, Jiangdong Gate (江東門), the Shangxin Riverfront (上新河) area, and Hanzhong Gate (漢中門). Miraculously, due to the large number of people executed at the same time, there were survivors in most of the mass executions who lived to tell their horrible experiences. John Gillespie Magee of American Mission Church, who stayed inside the city to offer assistance to the Chinese refugees during the massacre period, recorded a survivor’s story for his atrocity movie footage: This man, Liu, Kwang-wei, an Inquirer in the Chinese Episcopal Church at Ssu Shou Ts’un, the model village at Hsiakwan, came into the Refugee Zone with fellow-Christians before the occupation of the city by the Japanese. On Dec. 16, he was carried off by Japanese soldiers with thirteen others of this Christian group. They were joined to another group of 1,000 men (according to his estimate), taken to the river bank at Hsiakwan, arranged in orderly lines near the Japanese wharf and mowed down with machine-guns. It was dusk but there was no chance to escape, as the river was behind them and they were surrounded on three sides by machine guns. This man was in the back immediately next to the water. When the lines of men began to fall he fell with them although uninjured. He dropped into shallow water and covered himself with the corpses of those about him. There he stayed for three hours, and was so cold when he came out that he could hardly walk. But he was able to make his way to a deserted hut where he found some bedding. Here he took off his wet clothing and wrapped himself in the bedding, staying there for three days without food. He finally became so hungry that he left the hut to find something to eat, putting on his clothing which was still damp. He went to the China Import and Export Lumber Company, a British concern in which he had been employed, but found nobody there. Just then he met three Japanese soldiers who struck him with their fists, led him off to Paohsing Street[,] Hsiakwan[,] where they made him cook for them. After several days he was released, being given a note signed with the seal of two of the Japanese soldiers. This enabled him to get through the city gate and back to his family in the Refugee Zone.15

3.1  Massacres at Straw Shoe Gorge Straw Shoe Gorge is a long, narrow river beach north of Mufu Mountain (幕府山) about 4 miles in length, roughly between Torpedo Base and Swallow Cliff. Here the Yangtze River, which becomes a narrow and rapid torrent flanked by Bagua Island (八卦洲) and Mufu Mountain, is shaped like a shoe, thus the name, Straw Shoe Gorge. To the local people, the specific part of Straw Shoe Gorge near Shangyuan Gate (上元門), where several massacres took place, is also known as “Big Hollow (大窝子 or 大洼子)” or “Dawanzi (大湾子),” which is approximately 2 miles north of the Nanjing city walls.

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On December 13, 1937, a large number of Chinese soldiers and civilian refugees gathered along the Yangtze River near Xiaguan, attempting to cross the river to safety. Japanese troops reached the riverfront in the afternoon, rounded up tens of thousands of people there, and drove them to Straw Shoe Gorge to have them slaughtered. Shi Ming (石明), a soldier of the Chinese 36th Division, who survived the massacre, testified: On December 12 the same year, after receiving the evacuation order, we went to the area near Zhongshan Wharf, waiting to be shipped across the river. At the moment, with our officers having disappeared for a while, we threw our weapons into the Yangtze. There was mass confusion among the troops, with tens of thousands of people crowded along the riverside. We waited there the whole day, but were unable to cross the river. In the afternoon, Japanese soldiers reached the riverfront, taking prisoner the tens of thousands of us there, among whom there were quite a few civilian refugees. December 13 is the day I can never forget as long as I live, for the Japanese troops drove us like a crowd of pigs to the Straw Shoe Gorge area. They first mowed people down with machine guns, and then bayoneted the bodies. They also threw grenades into the crowd. A machine gun bullet made an opening of about ten centimeters long in my head, though it did not hurt my brain. I fainted and fell into a pile of corpses. Later, Japanese soldiers bayoneted me in the cheek, left shoulder and left forearm. I climbed out of the corpse pile at night, hearing the moaning of those who were not yet dead.16

The Japanese captured another large crowd of thousands of Chinese soldiers on December 13, rounding them up to a location at the foot of Mufu Mountain, where the captives were kept in makeshift barracks, previously used by the Chinese Instructional Corps as field training barracks. A few days later, the Japanese took about 20,000 to Straw Shoe Gorge to mow them down with machine guns, followed by bayoneting and burning bodies with gasoline. Tang Guangpu (唐光譜), a soldier of the Chinese Instructional Corps, survived this mass execution to tell his experience. He and his fellow soldier Tang Hecheng (唐鹤程) were detained by the Japanese at Swallow Cliff: Later, both of us, along with this large crowd of people, were driven to the makeshift barracks at Mufu Mountain, which had been used by the Guomingdang (國民黨) Instructional Corps as field training barracks. There were about seven or eight rows of the makeshift barracks, all of which were bamboo structured mud-walled sheds, filled with prisoners. We were kept there with no food at all, and did not have drinking water until the third day. The enemy shot people dead with the slightest excuses. Up to the fifth day, we were extremely hungry and weak. … On the sixth morning, before dawn, the enemy drove us into the yard, tying us together by the arm with cloth strips. By the time everyone was tied up, it was after 2 o’clock in the afternoon. Then with bayonets, the enemy forced this huge crowd into columns, walking toward Tiger Hill (老虎山). By that time, because of hunger, we had no energy left. The enemy, guarding us on both sides, bayoneted those who walked at a slower pace. After walking about 10 li, it was getting dark, and the enemy made us turn toward Shangyuan Gate, and drove us to an opening not far from the river beach. With no food for six days and nights, and after a long walk, as soon as we stopped walking, all of us fell to sit on the ground, extremely exhausted, and could hardly get up. At that time, that place was filled with countless people.

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In spite of that, the desire to live made us aware that the enemy would massacre us. We untied each other with our teeth, ready to run for our lives. But before we could completely untie ourselves, the searchlights around us turned on. The sudden lighting out of pitch darkness made us dizzy. Shortly, several machine guns on the two ships in the river and machine guns on the upland on the three sides started shooting fiercely into the crowd at the same time. The massacre started! As soon as the shooting started, I and Tang Hecheng quickly lay to the ground. … People fell down one after another, and we were kept at the bottom by the corpses. Their blood soaked our clothes. We held our breath and did not dare to move. 20 minutes passed before the shooting stopped. With fear I touched Tang Hecheng, pulled him and whispered, “Are you all right, are you hurt?” He said, “No, how about you?” He barely finished talking when the machine guns fired again. I was scared and kept crouched and motionless amid the pile of corpses. By the time the second round of shooting stopped, I became nervous when I found Tang Hecheng motionless. I shook him hard, but he did not move. I did not find out that he got shot until I touched his head. Blood gushed out from his head. I was so scared that I withdrew into the corpse pile.17

Meanwhile, he realized that Japanese soldiers were moving around to bayonet those who were wounded and groaned. They came to the area where Tang was and stabbed him in the lower side, though the cut was shallow, since he was lying underneath several dead bodies. At this moment, however, he felt pain in his right shoulder. He was shot during the first round of machine gun shooting. Once the groaning could no longer be heard, the Japanese withdrew to the edge of the pile of bodies, and the searchlights from the ships were turned off. The area was now dark, and it seemed to Tang that the ships had left. The soldiers were still in a commotion out on the edges, however, and Tang could smell gasoline fumes coming from that direction. Yet it was not until flames leapt up all around him that he realized what the gasoline was for. The smoke was thick, and he found it hard to breathe. Realizing that he would be burned to death if he stayed where he was, he began crawling forward, but the pile of bodies in front of him was too high to get over, so he started crawling backward toward the river. The soldiers had not yet left, and they were stabbing any survivors who tried to escape the flames. In order not to be discovered, he crawled among and over the bodies that lay on the ground all the way to the riverbank until he reached the water’s edge. Finally, having escaped the smoke and flames, he lay motionless with his legs up on the bodies and his head only a few centimeters from the water, almost in a handstand position. … Reeds were growing along the riverbank, and using them as a cover, Tang slipped into the water. It was when the water hit his bayonet wound that he first felt pain there. He walked downstream in water that was anywhere from knee-deep to waist-deep for several hundred meters, but his hunger and pain made this too difficult, so he climbed out of the water at a reedy spot along the riverbank. He stumbled 4 or 5 li along the riverbank until he found a brick kiln and went inside to hide. He intended just to doze for a while, but he was completely exhausted and fell into a deep sleep.18

Eventually, the next morning, Tang Guangpu met an old farmer who rescued him by covering him with rice straw in his small boat to Bagua Island. His friend Tang Hecheng did not survive the massacre. The mass executions in the area can also be verified by records kept by Japanese soldiers who took part in the mass executions. Japanese journalist Katsuichi Honda once interviewed a former Japanese soldier of the 13th Division. Because some of

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the former soldiers who previously came forward with witness accounts of the massacres were harassed and threatened by the right-wing persons and former fellow soldiers, Honda gave this individual a pseudonym, Saburo Tanaka. He served in the 2nd Company, the 16th Battalion, the 65th Regiment of the Yamada (山田) Brigade. His unit advanced from Shanghai toward Nanjing along the Yangtze River without encountering significant resistance. When his unit reached the area north of Nanjing near Mufu Mountain, a large number of Chinese soldiers surrendered. Each company worked feverishly to confiscate the Chinese soldiers’ weapons. The prisoners were allowed to keep one blanket, aside from the clothes they were wearing. Then they were collected in the large buildings with mud walls and thatched roofs that the Chinese army used as barracks. As Tanaka recalls, these were located on the south side of a hill on Mufu Mountain; that is to say, they were on the opposite side of the mountain from the Yangtze. His sketches from that period also agree with that memory. The prisoners’ lives after they were detained were miserable. All they had to eat was a single small bowl of rice per day. Since no water was supplied, Tanaka saw prisoners drinking urine out of the drainage ditches that surrounded the barracks. The orders to “finish off” the prisoners came on December 17, the day of the triumphal entry into Nanjing. In the morning, the prisoners were told, “We’re transferring your detention camp to Changzhou (Chuanzhong Island),” but it took an entire battalion to get them ready for the move. With such a large-scaled transfer, nothing could happen very quickly, and by the time all the prisoners had had their hands tied and everyone was ready to leave, it was afternoon. The long snaking procession of four columns first headed west and made a detour around the side of the mountain that faced the river. Then they walked 4, 5, or no more than 6 kilometers. During that time, Tanaka saw two men dash out of the crowd of prisoners and threw themselves into the water, either because they had sensed what was coming or because they could no longer bear their thirst. As soon as they came to the surface, they were shot, and after seeing their heads torn open and their blood staining the water, no other prisoners tried to flee. … The crowd of prisoners was assembled on the banks of the Yangtze, on a flood plain dotted with willow trees. Chuanzhong Island could be seen across the channel, along with two small boats. About three or four hours after the head of the procession had arrived at the riverbank, the prisoners began to notice the incongruity of their situation. They couldn’t see any boats suitable for ferrying such a large quantity of prisoners over to Chuanzhong Island, and the day was drawing to a close without any sign of preparations to transport them. On the contrary, the oval-shaped mass of prisoners was surrounded on three sides, every side except the one facing the water, by a semicircle of Japanese soldiers and machine guns aimed inward. Tanaka was located near the extreme eastern end of the line of Japanese troops. As it was beginning to grow dark, a second lieutenant on the opposite end of the line was killed by rebellious prisoners. The warning came down the line: “He was killed with his own sword. Be careful.” Tanaka guesses that even though the prisoners had their hands tied behind their backs, they were not linked together, so it would have been possible for prisoners to undo one another’s bonds with their teeth. Realizing the danger, some of them must have desperately attempted a last-ditch resistance, but the others in the crowd, who still had their hands tied, would have been unable to join them.

3.1 Massacres at Straw Shoe Gorge It was soon after this that the order to fire was given. The semicircle of heavy and light machine guns and rifles began spraying the crowd of prisoners with concentrated fire. Between the roar of all those guns firing at once and the death cries rising up from among the mass of prisoners, the scene along the riverbank was hellish. Tanaka kept firing his rifle, but in the midst of it all, he saw a sight that he can never forget: a giant “human pillar,” created as the prisoners, who had nowhere to flee, scrambled up and over one another during their last struggles. Tanaka dose not really know the real reason why this happened, but his guess is that the prisoners, with bullets pouring in at them horizontally from three sides, were of course unable to hide underground, so they instinctively tried to escape the shooting by climbing higher – even with their hands tied – over the bodies of those who were already dead. The “human pillar” grew and grew until it toppled over, and then the process started over, to be repeated three times during the shooting. The mass shooting continued for an hour, or at least until no one was left standing. By this time, it was almost completely dark. Yet, there were undoubtedly some men still alive amid all that, some who were merely wounded and others who had fallen over and played dead. No one could be left alive. If anyone escaped, the wholesale massacre would become known to the outside world, causing an international incident. That is why Tanaka’s battalion spent the whole night finishing off all the prisoners. Since the prisoners were piled up several men deep, taking all the piles apart and checking each body individually would be too much trouble, so they decided to set fires. The prisoners were all wearing winter clothing padded with cotton, and once that caught fire, it would not be easy to extinguish, and furthermore, the flames would provide light to work by. And of course, if a man was playing dead, he would certainly move if his clothes started burning. The soldiers set fires at scattered spots among the piles of bodies. If they watched carefully, they could see supposed corpses reacting to the heat and reaching out to smother the approaching flames. Anyone who moved was immediately stabbed to death with a bayonet. Poking through the pile of bodies, the soldiers moved among the scattered, lapping flames, delivering final blows with their bayonets. Their boots and gaiters grew sticky with the blood and body fluids of their victims. Their cries of “The more enemy we kill, the sooner we’ll win,” “This is revenge for all our comrades from Shanghai on,” and “This is a farewell gift to the surviving families” provided an indication of the mood they were in. There was no room for doubt. There was nothing in the backs of their minds as they stabbed the survivors except “Now our comrades will be able to rest in peace” and “We don’t want to leave anyone who can run away and prove what happened.” This, too, was part of the war strategy, and above all, they were acting in obedience to the order from the command headquarters in Nanjing: “All prisoners are to be swiftly dispatched.”… Another unit was called in to help with disposing of the dead. If they simply shoved the stabbed or bullet-riddled bodies into the river, they might still be recognizable, so in order to erase their identity, they burned them, using drums of gasoline. However, they did not have enough fuel to reduce such a huge number of bodies to ashes, as happens during a cremation. Instead, they were left with a pile of charred corpses. Dumping all those bodies into the Yangtze was still a major task, and they were unable to complete it before the evening of the 18th. Making crooks from willow branches, they dragged the heavy bodies into the river, but it was noon of the 19th before they finished. “I can state with absolute certainty that no one escaped the scene of that massacre alive,” Tanaka says. “Judging from what happened before and after, it would have been impossible. (pp. 241–245)

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Several other Japanese soldiers of the 65th Infantry Regiment or the 19th Artillery Regiment, both under the 13th Division, namely Seigo Miyamoto (宫本省吾), Takaharu Endo (遠藤高明), Eishirou Kondo (近藤榮四郎), and Fukuharu Meguro (目黑福治), recorded in their private diaries that they had participated in mass executing the prisoners or disposing of the victims’ bodies at this location from December 16 to 19, 1937. In addition to the survivors’ accounts and the Japanese soldier’s record, the massacres at Straw Shoe Gorge were witnessed by local farmers. Shi Ronglu (史榮禄) and his elder brother Shi Rongming (史榮铭), both local farmers residing in the area, witnessed Japanese troops slaughtering a large number of people there. The statement made by Shi Ronglu goes as follows: When Japan invaded Nanjing, I escaped to the north of the Yangtze for refuge. But later, as we ran out of rice, I crossed the river to get rice. After I crossed the river, however, Japanese soldiers blockaded the Yangtze. Unable to get back to the north of the river, I had to hide in my house. One day in December, I witnessed Japanese soldiers rounding up a huge number of “Central Government Troops (中央軍)” and civilians from Badou Hill (笆斗山) downriver up to Big Hollow (大窝子) at the foot of Tiger Hill. The 200 Mu (亩) river beach was covered with disarmed “Central Government Troops” and innocent civilians who were standing there. Then, Japanese soldiers untied the puttees of those “Central Government Troops” who were on the edge of the crowd, and had the puttees connected to keep them from running away. After that, they raised a Japanese flag as the signal to start cross-­mowing the disarmed “Central Government Troops” and innocent civilians to death with three machine-guns. Japanese soldiers stabbed with bayonets those who were not dead yet. The next day, Japanese soldiers continued to drive Chinese to the Big Hollow, and ordered them to carry the bodies of those who had been killed the previous day and throw them into the Yangtze. Then, they shot and killed these Chinese. The massacres continued for three days in this manner. The number of the “Central Government Troops” and innocent civilians slaughtered was about 20,000.19

A Chinese army officer, Niu Xianming (鈕先銘), the commander of an engineering battalion who had recently returned from France, unable to cross the Yangtze either, disguised himself as a Buddhist monk and hid in a temple known as Yongqing Temple (永清寺), about 1 km south of Straw Shoe Gorge. He indicated in his autobiography, Return to the Secular Life (還俗記), published in 1973 in Taiwan, that one evening around mid-December 1937, he heard noisy treading steps of a large army of people marching past the temple. About an hour or two later fierce and continuous machine-gun shooting was audible. It was roughly 10 days after that evening that people in the temple learned that approximately 20,000 Chinese soldiers were mowed down by machine-guns. A monk ventured to that spot and saw huge piles of dead bodies strewn all over the river beach. However, Niu did not personally glimpse the horrible scene of the execution ground until more than a month later. One day around noon, a group of soldiers appeared, bringing with them some Chinese men wearing the armband of the Red Swastika Society. They came into the temple hall and designated a couple of us to join with them, demanding that we dispose of the bodies of the massacre victims. … The distance between R[Y]ongqing Temple and Dawanzi [大灣子] was about a kilometer. …

3.2 Massacres at Swallow Cliff

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When we were about halfway to Dawanzi, we were assailed by the odor of rotting bodies. The Japanese soldiers and the Chinese with them had come equipped with masks, but Ertong and I didn’t even have handkerchiefs. It was already the coldest part of the year, and the air was very dry, so the corpses lying around in the neighborhood of our temple were in what amounted to a natural refrigerator, and they did not decompose. However, the bodies lying around here at Dawanzi were different. Some of them were partly submerged in the water, and the ones on the sandbar were also washed over by the tides, so they had decomposed. … As we approached Dawanzi, it wasn’t just the stench that was disconcerting. It was the amazing sight of a mountain of corpses piled up in one section of the grounds, their heads facing every which way. Since they were still partly covered by the remnants of their uniforms, I couldn’t quite see the condition of their flesh, but looking at their faces, I could see that their noses were gone and that they had started to rot down to the bone in the area of the nose and mouth. I couldn’t imagine the actual massacre! No matter how many machine guns you used, you couldn’t kill twenty thousand men at once in such a small area. They must have divided them into several groups. I wondered why we hadn’t heard their cries. Perhaps they had been drowned out by the machine guns and had not reached me where I was, inside the temple. That day, all the Red Swastika Society did was carry out a preliminary survey and investigate methods of burying the bodies. The actual clean-up began afterward and took place a little bit at a time over the course of a month.20

There were other eyewitnesses who happened to travel through that area in the spring of 1938 and saw a large number of dead bodies there. Xia Wanshun (夏萬 順)’s home was in Xiaguan, but he was hired as a farmhand on Bagua Island when the Japanese attacked and captured Nanjing. Due to dangerous war conditions, he did not return to Nanjing until the spring of 1938. He stated that on his way home, “from Big Hollow to Pagoda Bridge, a distance about 5 or 6 li, there were dead bodies all the way along, strewn about everywhere to the extent that I could not avoid them but had to walk through them.”21 Cui Jingui (崔金貴) indicated, “While I travelled as a peddler in the Xiaguan area, the largest number of corpses I saw was at Straw Shoe Gorge, and many dead bodies had been washed up to the sand beach.”22

3.2  Massacres at Swallow Cliff Swallow Cliff, situated on the Yangtze’s southern bank about 5 miles north of the Nanjing city walls, is a rocky cliff surrounded by the Yangtze River on the northeast, north and northwest. It is connected with the river bank only on the south. Protruding into the river, the cliff, only 36 m above the sea level, is so named because it resembles a swallow flying over the Yangtze. The river beach at the foot of the cliff had traditionally served as a ferry for crossing the Yangtze since 300 A.D. There was but a short distance for a ferry boat to cross the river to Bagua Island.

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Right before Nanjing fell to the Japanese, a great number of refugees gathered there, hoping to cross the river to safety on the northern bank. On December 12 and 13, 1937, thousands of Chinese soldiers joined them. The lack of vessels, however, made the crossing impossible. Many people ventured to make makeshift rafts with whatever materials available that might remain afloat. Some succeeded, but many failed. On December 13, upon reaching the area, Japanese troops rounded up Chinese soldiers and civilian refugees and executed them on the river beach. Guo Guoqiang (郭國强), a soldier of the Chinese 88th Division, fled to the Swallow Cliff area and witnessed a mass execution there. In December 1937, I, together with 200 to 300 Central Government Troops who were in civilian clothes, fled to Santai Cave (三台洞) near Swallow Cliff. We witnessed Japanese troops conduct a mass execution on the river beach at Swallow Cliff. At the time, the Japanese troops fired machine guns for one day and one night, killing about 20,000 disarmed Central Government Troops. We hid ourselves inside Santai Cave, but were later discovered by Japanese soldiers. We lied that we were farmers quarrying stones in the hill, and backed it up by showing them the quarrying tools. Thus, our lives were spared. I later found an opportunity to flee to Xiaba Village (下垻村) on Baqua Island, and have lived there ever since.23

A local farmer, Ge Shikun (葛仕坤), who lived in a Swallow Cliff area village known as Xujia Village (許家村), witnessed another relatively small-scale mass execution on a hill near his native village. My name is Ge Shikun and I am 74 this year [1984]. Before Japanese troops got to Nanjing, my whole family had moved from Xujia Village at Swallow Cliff to the north of the Yangtze, but I often made trips back to Xujia Village. I remember that one day in December 1937, I witnessed Japanese soldiers tying up more than 400 Central Government Troops on Yueliang Hill (月亮山) at Xujia Village. The Japanese made them kneel down, and then machine gunned them all to death. At that time, all the way from Wulong Hill (烏龍山) to Xujia Village, there were dead bodies strewn all over, and passersby had to step over the dead bodies. Our village mayor Zhou Mingxu (周明旭) took people there to dig pits along the road and have the bodies buried right there.24

Another local resident, Zhang Jingzhi (張静芝), described what had happened near her house and what she had witnessed in her childhood: In 1937, I was 7 years old, and my family lived in Dushishi Village (渡師石村) near Santai Cave in the Swallow Cliff area. On December 13, Japanese troops captured Nanjing. Near my house there were quite a few Guomingdang soldiers and civilians managing to cross the river from there to safety. Oftentimes at night, civilians’ crying for help from the riverbank could be heard. I saw with my own eyes the Japanese lining civilians up in two columns, and mowing them down with machine guns.25

Minnie Vautrin, an American missionary educator associated with Ginling College who stayed in Nanjing throughout the massacre period, recorded in her February 15, 1938 diary entry: “This morning a report came to me that the Swastika Society estimated about 30,000 killed around Hsia Gwan, and this afternoon I heard another report that ‘tens of thousands’ were trapped at ‘Swallow Cliff’ – Yen Dz Gi  – there were no boats to get them across the river.”26 Many of the corpses

3.3 Massacres at Torpedo Base and Pagoda Bridge

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remained unburied until the spring of 1938. On April 22, 1938, a visitor told Vautrin that “there are still many, many unburied bodies along the river bank in a horrible condition, and many, many corpses floating down the river,” and most “of the corpses still had their hands wired behind their backs.”27 Zhang Liancai (張連才), who happened to travel through that area early 1938, stated that “On Lunar Calendar January 13, 1938, I travelled from Swallow Cliff to Zhongshan Gate, and all the way along, I saw several thousand dead bodies. All of them were Chinese slaughtered by Japanese troops, with many corpses in the plant nursery.”28 Shen Wenjun (沈文君) lived in the Pagoda Bridge area in Xiaguan. She recalled that After entering Nanjing, Japanese soldiers took my father away to carry dead bodies in Coal Dock in Xiaguan and Straw Shoe Gorge. He did it for over a month, and he said the corpses piled from Straw Shoe Gorge all the way to Swalow Cliff. At first, they carried corpses by their hands, but later the corpses could no longer be held, so they used hooks to drag them instead.29

3.3  Massacres at Torpedo Base and Pagoda Bridge Torpedo Base was a Chinese naval base with docking facilities by the Yangtze in Xiaguan. Situated at the foot of Tiger Hill downstream from Coal Dock, it was established in 1937 and was the home base of a torpedo squadron. Since then, it had been known as Torpedo Base to locals. At present, it is within the boundaries of Jinling Shipping Yard (金陵造船厰). Pagoda Bridge is between Torpedo Base to its east and the International Import and Export Company or Heji Company (和記公司), a British concern, to its west. Built in 1875 over the Jinchuan River (金川河), a small tributary of the Yangtze, near its mouth to the Yangtze, the bridge was originally named Fuchen Bridge (伏沉橋). Later a pagoda was built near the bridge on the west bank of the Jinchuan River. Thus, the bridge was renamed accordingly. After rounding up disarmed Chinese soldiers and young civilians of conscript age since December 13, 1937, Japanese troops drove a large number of their captives to the Torpedo Base ground by the river on December 15, then machine gunned them. Yin Youyu (殷有餘), who served as a cook at the Wulong Fort and was taken prisoner by the Japanese around the Shangyuan Gate area along with 300 Chinese soldiers, was one of the nine persons who survived the massacre at Torpedo Base on December 15. On October 19, 1946, he appeared in court as prosecution’s witness for the trial against Hisao Tani (谷壽夫) in Nanjing. He stated in a cross-­ examination session that about 9000 people, including his father Yin Hengyu (殷恒 裕), were massacred: Q: What did they do toward you after you were taken to the Torpedo Base? A: Japanese soldiers mowed people down with four machine guns. Only nine people survived, and I was one of the survivors.

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3  Brutality Following the Fall of Nanjing: Large-Scale Massacres Q: Were you wounded at the time? A: Because I was at the bottom of a pile of dead bodies, I was not wounded. Q: After that, how did you manage to escape from there? A: After 10 p.m. that night, the devil soldiers left. A Squad leader from the 36th Division whose family name was Chen (陳), who also survived, untied me and we ran away together. At the time, the other seven survivors who escaped from there all got many wounds.30

On January 8, 1946, Xiaguan Police Department, in a letter to the Prosecution Section of the Nanjing Local Court, indicated that, according to the owner of the Pagoda Bridge Bathhouse (寳塔橋浴室) Chen Hansen (陳漢 森) and the mayor of Jingu Township (金固鄉) Liang Sicheng (梁思誠), the Japanese atrocities in Xiaguan they had witnessed occurred as follows: Torpedo Base – Here, those who got killed by machine gunning and whose bodies were buried amount to 2508.31

2508 is probably the number of corpses collected and buried by the local folks and organizations. According to the Nanjing Red Swastika Society’s burial record, on February 19, 1938, the society’s burial squad found 524 male bodies by Torpedo Base and buried them on that spot because the bodies had been decomposed. On February 21, 1938, the squad found 5000 male bodies in the Torpedo Base docking area and buried them there. The following day, February 22, the squad collected another 300 male bodies in the Torpedo Base docking area, and buried them where they had been found.32 The Nanjing Red Cross Society also documented their burial activities in the Torpedo Base area. From March 18 to 20, 1938, the Red Cross Society’s First Burial Squad collected and buried 320 bodies in 3 days.33 Many people were taken by the Japanese to Pagoda Bridge and killed. He Shoujiang (何守江), living on the east side of the bridge in 1937, remembered that there were four to five thousand refugees in that neighborhood who were unable to flee to safety when the Japanese captured Nanjing. The second day after they arrived at Xiaguan, Japanese soldiers took more than 700 Chinese, continuously drove them to the bridge and forced them to jump off the bridge. The bridge is very high, so those who jumped first fell to their death. Those who jumped later did not die. The Japanese soldiers shot them with machine guns and nobody survived.34

The Japanese also rounded up people from other parts of the city, marched them to the bridge area to mass execute them. Zhang Chenshi (張陳氏) testified, I am the wife of the deceased. When Nanjing was taken, because we were unable to get out, we sought shelter in the refugee zone. Unfortunately, on December 14, under the excuse of searching for Nationalist soldiers, the Japanese troops took away my husband along with a large number of young people, marched them to Pagoda Bridge and shot them to death with machine guns, which was too horrible to watch.35

Another woman, Huang Zhangshi (黄張氏), told how she survived a massacre by the bridge:

3.4 Massacres at Coal Dock

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In 1937, my family lived at the foot of the city walls by Pagoda Bridge in Xiaguan. Before Japanese soldiers entered the city, folks around our village dug an underground cave at Songjiageng (宋家埂). After the Japanese soldiers entered the city, altogether 40 of us hid inside the cave. Shortly after we got inside it, a group of Japanese soldiers discovered the cave and shouted to order us to come out. I got out first, knelt down for mercy, and then quickly ran away. Before I could get very far, I heard gun shots, and those who did not get out were all mowed to death by the Japanese troops. Later on my way to run away, I was detained by the Japanese soldiers again, and, along with others taken, I was marched to Pagoda Bridge to be shot. On the way, I saw that the bodies of those, who were shot to death with machine guns by the Japanese soldiers, strewn all over the places. When we were marched to the riverside at Pagoda Bridge in front of the front gate of Heji Company (present-­day Xiaguan Meat Processing Complex). There were about a thousand people rounded up there. The Japanese soldiers had already set up machine guns and were shooting at the crowd. Instantly we all fell down. I was underneath dead bodies, but I was not wounded. When the Japanese soldiers left, I climbed out of the pile of corpses and ran away to hide in an acquaintance’s house, and thus, I survived.36

Pagoda Bridge was one of the major massacre sites, and a large number of people were executed there. Zhang Shirong (張士榮), a soldier of the Chinese 58th Division, who was captured and forced to be a laborer for the Japanese, was escorted by the Japanese soldiers to Heji Company to get some stepping boards used on boats one day around the end of December 1937. He saw two to three thousand Chinese soldiers and civilians killed by the Japanese troops on the riverbank at Pagoda Bridge.37 In early 1938, when Lai Liqing (賴立清) travelled over the bridge, he saw that the river underneath the bridge was covered with floating bodies of those who were shot to death.38

3.4  Massacres at Coal Dock Coal Dock, situated by the Yangtze bank about 500–600  m west of Pagoda Bridge and Heji Company, was established around 1875 as a docking facility specializing in loading and unloading coal, for which it obtained its name. When Nanjing was under siege, the dock suspended its normal operations. After the Japanese reached the riverfront, they turned it into one of their mass execution grounds. Upon learning that the Japanese were coming, a large crowd of refugees, as well as Chinese soldiers who discarded weapons and changed into civilian clothes, went into the International Import and Export Company, or Heji Company, a British concern, to seek refuge, thinking that the Union Jack might protect them. On December 14, 1937, around 200 Japanese soldiers came to this British company, searching and checking on those who were seeking shelter there, and eventually they picked about 2800 out of the refugees. The Japanese drove these people to Coal Dock to be kept inside a large warehouse there, and mass executed them the following day. Chen Degui (陳德貴), a 20-year-old refugee in the group, survived the massacre at Coal Dock to tell the fate of those people:

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3  Brutality Following the Fall of Nanjing: Large-Scale Massacres On December 12, 1937, I went to Heji Company in Xiaguan for refuge. On December 13, Japanese troops reached Xiaguan and found our group of refugees there. The next morning, about 200 Japanese soldiers came and picked over 2,800 young people out of the several thousand refugees. The Japanese soldiers ordered people to line up in four columns, made people hand over watches, silver coins and other valuables, and body searched people. In the afternoon, they marched us from Heji Company to Coal Dock and shut us inside a warehouse. The third morning, the Japanese soldiers opened the warehouse gate, and said: “Now, go to work at a construction site. Go out in a group of 10.” Ten people near the gate were pushed out, and soon a burst of shooting was heard. Shortly, the gate was opened again. Another ten people were shoveled out, followed by another burst of shooting. I realized that those who went out were shot to death. When the Japanese soldiers made the third group out, I went out. It was about 8 a.m. and once out, I saw Japanese soldiers lining up on both sides, holding bayonets, while other Japanese soldiers behind escorted us. When we got to the Yangtze riverbank, I saw over 30 Japanese soldiers on the river dyke behind the warehouse, holding up rifles, and I realized that they would start the massacre. I stood in the water, and the moment the Japanese soldiers raised rifles to shoot, I jumped into the river, swimming underwater to the opposite side to hide myself inside a train carriage which had been toppled into the river. I witnessed with my own eyes that one group of ten after another were executed by the Japanese soldiers. This went on from morning till dusk. At dusk, there were still six to seven hundred who had not yet been executed. The Japanese soldiers then drove them all together in one batch to the riverbank to mow them down with machine guns. After dark when the Japanese soldiers left, I sneaked back to the riverbank and climbed up.39

Among those who had been taken out of the International Import and Export Company and shot at Coal Dock, were more than 40 Nanjing Electric Power Plant employees. George Ashmore Fitch, an American YMCA secretary in Nanjing, recorded this episode in his December 22, 1937 diary entry: Mr. Wu, engineer in the power plant located in Hsiakwan, brought us the amazing news that 43 of the 54 employees who had so heroically kept the plant going to the very last day and had finally been obliged to seek refuge in the International Export Company, a British factory on the river front, had been taken out and shot on the grounds that the power company was a government concern – which it was not. Japanese officials have been at my office daily trying to get hold of these very men so they could start the turbines and have electricity. It was small comfort to be able to tell them that their own military had murdered most of them.40

On October 25, 1945, Lu Fazeng (陸法曾), engineer-in-chief and acting manager of Nanjing Electric Power Plant, made an affidavit with a full report concerning his murdered employees at Coal Dock. Deputy Engineer Xu Shiying (徐士英) led 51 employees staying on to keep the power plant running until the Japanese entered the city on December13, 1937. All 51 employees went to the British company Heji for refuge, according to a previously agreed arrangement. Upon reaching Xiaguan, Japanese troops checked on the refugees at Heji. Those employees passed the check safely. However, the Japanese soldiers, being tipped off, returned to have a second round check, therefore, the second round check was conducted extremely strictly. Except those who had identity papers to prove they were Heji employees, all the rest were rounded up and were confined at the riverbank downstream from Coal Dock. There were about 3,000 people in confinement there; of the 51 power plant employees, except two individuals who, separated

3.4 Massacres at Coal Dock

61

from the group on the way, did not arrive at Heji, all were held there. While in confinement, Deputy Engineer Xu Shiying was recommended by a friend in Heji to help the enemy troops make an automobile ignition key, so he was spared. In addition, Zhao Arong (趙阿 榮), a blacksmith, because he used to work in an enemy textile mill in Shanghai and could speak some enemy language, had a conversation with enemy soldiers and was set free to cook for the enemy troops. At the request of Zhao Arong, who needed assistants, two more workers were released. While the two released workers attempted to rescue their fellow workers, all the people held at the riverbank were killed. They were first shot at by machine guns, and then, some victims were driven into a thatched house nearby. Firewood covered with gasoline was placed around the house before it was set on fire. Thus, some of the victims were burned to death. Two carpenters of the power plant were shot at but remained alive. After the enemy soldiers left, they returned to Heji, and survived. Of the two individuals who went astray while retreating from the power plant, one took refuge at a friend’s home and remained alive, but the other one, while walking downstream by himself, encountered enemy soldiers at the riverbank by Tiger Hill and was shot dead. Therefore, of all the 51 power plant employees, except 6 workers and one deputy engineer, the remaining 44, Xu Jiangsheng (許江生) and others, died.41

The Japanese also rounded up people in other parts of the city and marched them to Coal Dock to be executed. On October 9, 1945, Tang Youcai (湯有才) stated in a petition to the Nanjing Municipal Government that his son Tang Liangjiang (湯良 江), 25, a post office employee, was taken from his post office on December 14, 1937 by the Japanese in a truck to Coal Dock, where his son and numerous Chinese soldiers and civilians were machine gunned.42 In 1937, Pan Kaiming (潘開明) was a 20 year-old manual laborer working as a barber during the day and pulling a rickshaw at night. Before the Japanese entered Nanjing, he, along with his younger brother, moved with his aunt to a residence near Drum Tower (鼓樓) within the refuge zone. On the second day after Japanese troops entered the city, they broke into my house, and without any explanation took me away to the Overseas Chinese Guest House (華僑招待 所), where I was kept for one day. After 2 p.m. on the third day, they tied me up with ropes and marched me, along with over 300 others to Coal Dock. … Close to 4 p.m., upon arriving at Coal Dock, they gathered us together and mowed us down with machine guns. When they started shooting, with golden sparks appearing before my eyes, I suddenly fainted. I was then kept under the corpses piling up on top of me, and I did not come to until 9 or 10 o’clock in the evening.43

He then discovered that several others also survived the shooting. Those survivors helped untie him, and he was able to make it back home to his aunt and brother. Liu Xiquan (劉喜權), a local resident living at 493 Dongjia Lane (東家巷) near Pagoda Bridge, recalled what he had seen around Coal Dock where his father had been killed: I remember it was a morning at the end of January or the beginning of February 1938, at about 10 a.m., extremely cold with light snow falling. My grandma, Liu Yaoshi (劉姚氏), and I heard the firing of machine guns outside. After the machine guns stopped shooting, grandma took me outside to look for my father. A few days earlier my father Liu Chengkun (劉城坤) had been taken away by Japanese soldiers. Grandma and I could not find him, though we looked everywhere. At Coal Dock, Xiaguan, I saw with my own eyes there were dead bodies strewn everywhere around the dock and the ground was covered with blood. On that day, from about a little after 10 a.m. to afternoon, I saw a lot of people with the

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3  Brutality Following the Fall of Nanjing: Large-Scale Massacres Swastika Society armbands collecting corpses; four individuals carried one body into a big pit that had been dug by the Swastika Society folks, who were burying bodies. After my father was taken away by the Japanese soldiers, he was killed by them at Coal Dock area in Nanjing Xiaguan. The killing was witnessed by my uncle who, after escaping back home, told grandma about it, and I was there, hearing the terrible news.44

It is estimated that more than 3000 were slaughtered around Coal Dock.

3.5  Massacres at Zhongshan Wharf Zhongshan Wharf, the major passenger wharf and ferry facility in Nanjing, was situated more than a mile upstream from Coal Dock at the western end of North Zhongshan Road. The establishment of docking facilities in the waterfront area can date back to over 1700  years ago during the East Jin Dynasty (東晋, 317– 420 AD). However, the ferry facilities at the Zhongshan Wharf site were not constructed until 1910, when the Tianjin-Pukou railway (津浦鐵路) was completed, and a railway ferry service across the Yangtze was needed to connect the TianjinPukou railway and the Nanjing-Shanghai railway. Sun Zhongshan (孫中山), the father of the Republic of China, who was better known as Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙), died in Beijing on March 12, 1925 with the wish to be buried on a slope of Purple Mountain (紫金山) in Nanjing. To facilitate his state funeral, a new wharf was constructed and completed on August 8, 1928. His hearse arrived at the wharf by ferry on May 28, 1929, and travelled through Nanjing city to his mausoleum at Purple Mountain in the city’s eastern suburbs. The wharf, the streets, and the eastern city gate that the hearse passed through were thus renamed Zhongshan Wharf, North Zhongshan Road, Zhongshan Road, East Zhongshan Road, and Zhongshan Gate, though the wharf was not officially renamed until March 15, 1936. However, after Nanjing fell, the Japanese turned Zhongshan Wharf and its vicinity into another mass execution ground. In December 1937, both Liang Tinfang (梁廷芳), 36, and Bai Zengrong (白增 榮), 26, served in the Chinese Army in the Ministry of War’s Third Collecting and Accommodating Post (收容所), which was positioned inside Zhonghua Gate in the southern part of Nanjing. Liang was the stretcher-team leader while Bai was head nurse. On October 7, 1946, they presented testimony to the Defense Ministry Military Tribunal in which they gave a detailed account of their experiences as survivors of a massacre at Zhongshan Wharf. When Japanese troops were about to enter the city, both helped transfer more than 50 wounded Chinese soldiers to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where a Red Cross hospital was established by American missionaries. The two men, along with three other fellow workers, then changed into civilian clothes and hid themselves in a residence at 5 Drum Tower Fifth Lane (鼓樓五條巷) inside the refugee zone. On December 16, shortly before noon, 7 or 8 armed Japanese soldiers unexpectedly came to the residence, and motioned the 5 people there to get out and follow them.

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They were driven to a big open space behind the Overseas Chinese Guest House, where they saw several hundred people already sitting there, and they were made to sit beside the crowd. Continuously, Japanese soldiers drove civilians here from different directions, and when the big open space was full, people were sent to the two big empty yards opposite us until they were filled and could no longer hold any more people. The Japanese soldiers then took some of the people away to a place unknown to us. From the time we arrived, around noon, to sunset, about 5 o’clock, the number of people rounded up there, except for those taken away, was over 5,000, estimated by the area occupied by the people there. It was getting dark when the Japanese soldiers ordered people to line up in four columns, and marched us to the direction of Xiaguan. It was after 6 o’clock when we reached Xiaguan, and we were made to stay along the sidewalks at Zhongshan Wharf. Thinking that we would be ferried across the river to be laborers, we did not anticipate that they would commit such unprecedented, cruel massacre. Shortly two big trucks full of hemp ropes arrived. Then, another modern car came and someone who looked like a high-ranking officer got out. Instantly, several Japanese officers with swords approached him to salute. After listening to his orders, those with swords ordered soldiers to get hemp roles, spreading to both east and west directions. Meanwhile, in the middle of the street, a machine gun was placed every dozen of steps or so. Ten minutes later, rifle shooting was heard, and the massacre started around 7 p.m. The shootings were about 1,000 meters away from us. 5 shots were fired continuously on both east and west ends, and after the shootings stopped for 1 or 2 minutes, they resumed. But the machine guns were not used, probably because it was dark. Unable to see clearly, a thorough slaughter with machine guns might not be achieved. After the massacre continued for more than 3 hours, we could see at the east side a dozen Japanese soldiers tying people up to be shot by five other soldiers, an extremely cruel sight. (It was November 14 by the Lunar Calendar, and the moon was high, so we could see about one or two hundred yards away.) Zengrong said, “I would rather jump into the river to be drowned than to be slaughtered by them.” I agreed that since we would die anyway, we jumped into the river together, thinking we would be drowned to feed fish. But the water by the riverbank was shallow, only thigh-deep. After jumping into the water without getting drowned, we were reluctant to get to deeper water. The vicious Japanese soldiers, after seeing us jump into the river, would not let us off. They sprayed bullets into the river with machine guns, lest we survived to testify as witnesses now. While Tinfang was in the water, a bullet from the right hit him in the back of his right shoulder and came out the front, while Zengrong was not hurt.45

After the Japanese soldiers left, the two separately made it back to their residence at 5 Drum Tower Fifth Lane on December 23, though not without further dangerous adventures and hardship. Liu Yongxing (劉永興), a 24-year-old tailor who did not have any military connections, appears to have survived the same mass execution at Zhongshan Wharf as Liang Tinfang and Bai Zengrong. Liu’s family of 5 moved to the refugee zone on December 12, 1937. At about 3 p.m., December 16, Japanese soldiers broke into his residence at 14 Dafang Lane (大方巷), waving to him and his younger brother and motioning them to follow. Once out of the house, they were told by an interpreter that they were wanted to go to Zhongshan Wharf, helping with moving goods shipped from Tokyo. They discovered that at the same time, more than 30 folks in their neighborhood were made to come out. They were first taken to a big open space, which was full of people sitting there. At dusk, the Japanese soldiers asked them to line up in 6–8 columns, marching towards Zhongshan Wharf.

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3  Brutality Following the Fall of Nanjing: Large-Scale Massacres My younger brother and I walked at the head of the civilian section of the procession. I saw that the procession was led by a squad of Japanese soldiers with rifles, followed by 30 plus captured Chinese soldiers and policemen, behind whom were the civilians who had been rounded up. The procession was guarded on both sides by Japanese soldiers, and there were horses carrying more than 30 machine guns on the back. At the end of the procession were Japanese officers on horseback. All along the way, we saw dead bodies of men and women, mostly civilians, but some were those of the Central Government Troops. Upon reaching the riverbank at Zhongshan Wharf, Xiaguan, we found out that the Japanese troops had rounded up several thousand people. The Japanese soldiers made us sit on the riverbank, surrounded by machine guns. I felt it did not look good that they might carry out a massacre. I figured that I would rather jump into the river to commit suicide than to be shot by the Japanese soldiers. I then discussed with people beside us that we would jump together. The Japanese soldiers tied people up at the back before they started mowing them down with machine guns. At this moment, it was already dark, and the moon appeared. Many people were jumping into the river, and my younger brother and I followed to get into the river. The Japanese soldiers became so irritated that, besides continuing machine gunning, they threw grenades into the river. Some of the people who had jumped into the river were killed by the explosion and some were wounded all over their bodies by it, with wretched cries and wails sounding all over. After that commotion, I lost contact with my younger brother, who has never been seen since. I floated with the currents to the side of a war ship and then the waves pushed me to the river bank. I crouched over the dead bodies, too scared to move. All of a sudden, a bullet flew over my back, slashing my cotton padded robe. Fierce machine gunning made me deaf, from which I have not recovered to this day. After machine gunning, the Japanese soldiers poured gasoline over the bodies, setting fire to them, attempting to destroy corpses and eliminate evidence. At night, the Japanese soldiers were on guard by the riverbank, bayoneting floating bodies whenever they were spotted. I kept far away from the shore, and the bayonets could not get me, thus I survived. When it was almost dawn, I climbed ashore, and found less than 10 survived, all badly burned, too horrible to look at.46

Another civilian resident, Xu Jin (徐進), who described in his January 26, 1946 petition his survivor’s experiences close to Zhongshan Wharf, though it was a different mass execution from that experienced by Liu Yongxing. This is for reporting my experiences of surviving the Nanjing Massacre committed by the Japanese enemy: I stayed in an upstairs room at 3 Drum Tower Third Lane (鼓樓三條巷) in the refugee zone. On December 16, 1937, about 2 p.m., several armed Japanese soldiers broke into my house, ordering all the male residents out to line up in front of the house. Then they picked out the young people to make them form a big procession of youths, which consisted of young residents living at Drum Tower, Dafang Lane, Drum Tower Fifth Lane, Yihuali (挹華里), Drum Tower Fourth Lane (鼓樓四條巷), Juhuaicun (聚槐村), Drum Tower Third Lane and Hexingli (合興里), altogether more than 1,000 people. The procession was guarded by 20-plus armed Japanese soldiers, marching through Juhuaicun, Yunnan Road (云南路), Yinyangying (陰陽营), Ninghai Road (寧海 路), Shanxi Road (山西路), then along North Zhongshan Road, out of the city through Yijiang Gate, over Zhongshan Bridge (中山橋) to Zhongshan Wharf, and then turning right to continue along the road by the riverbank till the spot about 500 meters from Zhongshan Wharf. Suddenly came an order to halt. The 20-plus Japanese soldiers who

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guarded the procession had every countryman’s hands tied up behind our backs with previously prepared straw ropes. It was about 5 p.m., and at the head of the procession suddenly burst out a round of sad and wretched crying, which was followed by one round after another of fierce machine gun and rifle shooting. At the moment, the Japanese forced a group of four people at a time to jump into the river. … I was at the end of the procession, and by the time I was in the river, it was completely dark, with the water by the riverbank filled with bodies. I had to crouch over a pile of corpses when bullets hit my innocent countrymen like rain. I had no idea how long the shooting lasted, since I was so scared that I fainted, but I was aware in my mind that I wasn’t shot. I was not awakened until a burning bamboo hat (a bamboo hat left behind by a soldier was soaked in gasoline and lit) hit me, and then I hastened to hide myself among a pile of bodies. At that time I was completely submerged underwater, and the blowing cold wind cut into my bones when I suddenly heard several shots fired on the shore. Someone, who was not dead, ventured ashore and was shot dead by the Japanese enemy on guard. Then, I heard several individuals whispering not far from me, so I climbed over to untie their ropes. I learned that one was not shot at, another with the family name Dou (窦) who lived at 6 Juhuaicun was hit three times, and the other was hit once. None of the wounds were fatal, so they continued crouching among the corpses. It was not until before dawn the next (the 17th) morning when heavy fog hung over the river and the Japanese enemy on guard, seeing nothing had happened overnight, left to warm themselves over a bonfire, that we took the opportunity to get ashore. We crossed the road, went through an open space into a British house, and talked with the house caretaker, an old Chinese man, who let us stay there temporarily. The following day (the 18th), I and the other person, who was not shot, got into the city. Upon reaching Rehe Road (熱河路), we were detained by the Japanese enemy, who forced us to carry things to the Navy Department. Except for us two forced laborers, there were four others who all looked like farmers. Once we were in the Navy Department, the five others were all shot dead, and I was the only laborer left. About a week later, I was released after I pretended to be sick.47

Shang Deyi (尚德義), 23, a retail businessman in Nanjing in 1937, was another massacre survivor at the Zhongshan Wharf riverfront. After the war, he provided a written testimony for the International Military Tribunal for the Far East on April 7, 1946. His testimony goes as follows: I lived at No. 1 Hua-Sin-Hsiang, Shanghai Road (in the Refugees’ Zone) in 1937. At about 11 a.m., 16 December of that year, I was arrested by Japanese soldiers (presumably of the NAKASHIMA Unit). Arrested at the same time were my elder brother, Teh Jen, formerly secretary at Kiashang Airfield Station, my cousin Teh Kin, formerly in silk trade, and five other neighbors whose names were unknown to me. Each two of us were bound together by a rope fastening our hands, and sent to Shiakwan, on the bank of the Yangtze River. More than 1,000 male civilians were there and were all ordered to sit down, facing more than ten machine-guns about 40 or 50 yards in front of us. We sat there for more than an hour. At about 4 o’clock, a Japanese Army Officer came by motor car, and he ordered the Japanese soldiers to start machine-gunning us. We were ordered to stand up before they did the shooting. I slumped to the ground just before firing started, and immediately I was covered with corpses and fainted. After approximately 9 p.m., I climbed out from the piles of corpses and managed to escape and go back to my house.48

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3.6  Massacres at Xiaguan Xiaguan is Nanjing’s waterfront area northwest of the city outside the city walls. The term “Xiaguan” literarily means “the lower customs.” In 1368, an agency known at the time as Longjiang customs (龍江關) was established where Longjiang Bridge (龍江橋) and Xianyuxiang or Fresh Fish Lane (鲜魚巷) currently are, to levy taxes on goods and boats. In 1429, another customs was set up at the Shangxin riverfront which was about 5 miles upstream from Longjiang customs. During the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911), local people called the Shangxin riverfront customs (上 新河關) “the upper customs” or “Shangguan (上關)” and Longjiang customs “the lower customs” or “Xiaguan,” due to their relative locations. The area has thus obtained its current name Xiaguan. In the first couple weeks following the Japanese occupation of Nanjing, a number of massacres took place in the Xiaguan area. In fact, most large-scale massacres were committed here. However, in addition to the mass executions discussed in previous sections, Japanese troops conducted other smaller-scale massacres in Xiaguan. In 1937, Guo Xuegen (郭學根), 36, was a local resident whose family had lived by the riverbank at Shiliangzhu (石梁柱) since 1900. On December 15, 1937, he was taken by the Japanese who made him get grass to feed their horses. On that day, while escorted by the Japanese soldiers to go from Shiliangzhu to Zhongshan Wharf, he saw dead bodies strewn all along Shiliangzhu, Tangshan Road (唐山路), and Nantong Road (南通路) toward Zhongshan Wharf. On the morning of December 16, he was feeding horses at the electric power plant opposite Zhongshan Wharf. He saw six truckloads of captured Chinese soldiers and civilians arrive there.49 Japanese soldiers made these several hundred captured people line up in four columns along the river bank when, under the order of an officer, rifles and machine guns opened fire. Those countrymen at the edge of the river, after being shot at, fell into the river one after another, with some still struggling, shouting and crying. Then the Japanese soldiers threw grenades into the river, instantly making the water red with blood. Many corpses floated on the surface of the river. After the shooting stopped, the Japanese soldiers bayoneted the bodies of those who did not fall into the river. (p. 53)

Guo’s description is echoed by the accounts of several others. Zhang Shirong (張 世榮) stated in his testimony: At about 8 a.m., on December 18, 1937 when we were escorted by the Japanese troops to work at the No. 4 Dock, I witnessed five or six truckloads of Chinese who were tied up, with about 100 in each truck. Japanese soldiers made them line up in six columns by the river edge and shot them with machine guns and rifles before dumping their bodies into the river. On December 19, while working at the No. 4 Dock, again I saw five or six truckloads of Chinese arrive. The Japanese soldiers ordered them to stand on the dock and bayoneted them one by one before pushed them into the river. When those Chinese who had been pushed into the river surfaced, the Japanese soldiers shot at them. Horrible things like this continued for nearly half a month. I saw all this with my own eyes.50

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Shi Gengyun (施賡雲)’s family moved from Shanghai to Nanjing in September 1937  in order to escape the war, but the war followed the family closely. On December 15, while seeking safety in the refugee zone, his father, younger brother and himself were rounded up with others by the Japanese. They were sent in a truck to a riverbank in Xiaguan. His father and brother were killed in the mass execution, while he, after suffering from cold and hunger for 2 days, survived the massacre.51 In an affidavit, Dai Zhangshi (戴張氏) stated on December 11, 1945 that “On Lunar Calendar November 14, Minguo 26th Year, that is December 16, [1937], Japanese enemy came to Drum Tower Second Lane (鼓樓二條巷) in the refugee zone, forcibly taking my husband Dai Guangwei (戴光玮) away, sending him to Xiaguan in a truck and, without any reason, shooting him dead with machine guns.”52 Yin Nangang (殷南岡), a 49-year-old Red Swastika Society worker in 1937, travelled extensively in and around the city right after the Japanese troops entered Nanjing, collecting dead bodies and burying them. He stated in an affidavit signed on November 25, 1945, “I served the World Red Swastika Society in Minguo 26th Year, and on Lunar Calendar November 17, I travelled from Shanxi Road to Pagoda Bridge. At the river mouth at Longjiang Bridge, I witnessed that the Japanese enemy tied up and gathered the Chinese soldiers who had not been able to cross the river and local residents to the open space in the middle of the street. The Japanese first mowed them down with machine guns, then set fire on them, and continuously bayoneted those who were not yet dead.”53 In 1937, Hu Chunting (胡春庭) was 70 years old. In an affidavit dated December 1, 1945, he described what he had witnessed in a wheat field north of Nantong Road not far from the riverbank in Xiaguan: On Lunar Calendar November 16, Minguo 26th Year, I saw with my own eyes the Japanese soldiers march about 300 or more of our soldiers and refugees, gather them in the wheat fields north of Nantong Road, and shoot them dead with machine guns without any survivors, leaving dead bodies around in the wheat fields. I cooperated with strong-bodied refugees to dig pits and bury the bodies right there in the fields…54

Jiang Xinshun (姜鑫順), a 63-year-old Red Cross worker in 1937, was involved in collecting and burying corpses around the Xiaguan area. He testified in an affidavit that from December 15 to 18, 1937, in 4 days, they had collected over 500 bodies by the riverbank at Jiujiawei (九甲圩) in Xiaguan. Most of them were Chinese soldiers’ bodies and the bodies were carried to the south of Rendan Hill (仁丹山) and Jiangjiayuan (姜家園) to be buried.55 Bo Hongen (柏鴻恩) survived a relatively small-scale mass execution in Xiaguan. In 1937, he was a blue-collar laborer doing odd jobs around the Xiaguan docking facilities. After the Japanese reached Xiaguan, he, along with 150 others, was taken by the Japanese soldiers to a location opposite the Yangtze Hotel, a British concern. They were forcibly lined up, then machine gunned and bayoneted. Bo Hongen was hit by a bullet in his left ear. He fell and pretended to be dead, and consequently survived, though he permanently lost hearing in that ear.56 In 1937, Zhang Xiuying (張秀英), 24, was a Xiaguan resident, living at Baoshan Street (寳善街). She testified that:

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3  Brutality Following the Fall of Nanjing: Large-Scale Massacres One morning after Japanese soldiers entered Nanjing, I saw Japanese troops drive several hundred captured Chinese soldiers to a roadside under Zhongshan Bridge, force them to kneel down, and then mow them down with machine guns. Many of the captured soldiers screamed, but in the end all of them were shot dead. Later, some charity organization collected the victims’ bodies to an open space at Jiujiawei, Xiaguan, and dug pits to bury them.57

American missionary John G. Magee filmed quite a few atrocity cases, including survivors’ experiences. In his caption for Case 1, Film 10 footage, through a survivor’s accounts, he provided a vivid description of what had happened in the Xiaguan area: This picture shows the keeper of a small shop at 60 Hupeh Road, Nanking, named Ch’en Ching-ho, aged 42, standing with the 16-year old boy Liu with whom he had escaped from a firing squad on Dec. 14, 1937. (For the boy’s story, see Film 8, Case 3.) Ch’en went to the Safety Zone with his wife and 6 children on Dec. 11, and stayed at #7 Ninghai Road. He was taken from this house by Japanese soldiers on Dec. 14, at 4 p.m., and made to go with a party of 103 Chinese to Hsiakwan. He noticed several other groups of captives enroute. In his group were three Buddhist priests, seven or eight children, and some men over 60 years old. A group ahead of him had over 30 Nanking police, 6 men of the Postal Service in their green uniforms. Before turning into Jehol Road at Hsiakwan he noticed a group of over 300 Chinese near the Chung Shan Bridge with their arms tied behind them. His group was marched near to the International Export Company and then taken back to the Sze So Ts’un, a settlement for laboring classes, near the Shanghai-­ Nanking R. R. They were divided into two squads facing in different directions. The first person killed was a tall man quite near him, whose hands had been tied with his own girdle and who was then thrown down and beheaded with a big sword, one edge of which was a sharp blade and the other a saw-edge. When Ch’en saw this man killed, without being seen he slipped to the other squad, the members of which had already had their arms tied; and thus Ch’en escaped having his tied. He was standing a few rows behind the boy Liu. In the meantime the boy had been gnawing with his teeth at the knots on his wrists and was at last able to pull his hands free. While the men in front of them were being killed by revolver and rifle shots, one by one, these two succeeded in slipping into a small dug-out in the railway embankment. It was now 9 o’clock and a cloudy night, so the moon was not shining very brightly; otherwise they could not have escaped.58

Zhao Shifa (趙世發), a 25-year-old private of the Chinese 88th Division, narrowly escaped a massacre by the Yangtze riverside in Xiaguan. He and his comrades hid inside a thatched residence near Pagoda Bridge, and managed to change into civilian clothes when the Japanese arrived. On the morning of December 15, 1937 when people in the neighborhood were advised by the Red Swastika Society to come out to “greet” Japanese troops, seven or eight Japanese soldiers circulated among the crowd, picking up people in their twenties, and then lining up the 500 plus selected disarmed Chinese soldiers and civilians in four columns to march them toward the riverbank. Suspecting that the Japanese would kill them, Zhao seized an opportunity to slip into a back alley unnoticed, and ran further to hide in a run-down mud house about 30 meters from the procession and 400 meters from the riverbank. He could see the procession through the cracks in the mud wall. Five minutes after the end of the procession disappeared from sight, heavy machine guns started firing. The next morning, the Red Swastika recruited him as a member of its burial squad.59

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He found that the riverbank where the procession had gone was overflowing with corpses. On the shore of the downstream inlet lay the bodies of the approximately five hundred victims of the machine guns. The piles of bodies extended down to the water’s edge, and some of the bodies were already washed away. Putting together the scene before him with what he had heard of the machine guns, he surmised that a separate unit of Japanese soldiers must have been waiting there with their heavy machine guns ready and must have shot the first Chinese as soon as they arrived. He wondered whether the victims who had come along behind had been pursued with bayonets into the place where the people in front had fallen. There were air-raid shelters here and there near the site of the massacre, shelters that were actually dugouts built by local residents, and these, too, were full of corpses, both adults and children, but they had been killed with bayonets, not with machine guns. In some cases, boards or earth had been thrown on top of them. Zhao and the ten or more people who made up the temporary burial squad decided to dig a trench and bury all the bodies in it. The trench was about a meter wide and 1.5 meters deep, and it stretched for about 100 meters parallel to the river. Burying everyone took an entire day. The next day, too, Zhao and three others continued picking up scattered bodies in the vicinity of the massacre site and hauling them off to be buried. (pp. 178–179)

Judging from Zhao’s descriptions, the massacre he escaped seems to be different from any of the mass execution cases previously introduced in this section. It is another indication that immediately after the Japanese entry into the city the Japanese troops indulged themselves in mass killings, and the loss of life is tremendous in the Xiaguan region. Based on the burial statistics kept by several charity organizations, a memorial monument was erected near Yijiang Gate in memory of the several thousand victims who were killed in the vicinity of the gate. The inscription on the monument is quoted in part as follows: The vicinity of Yijiang Gate is one of the collective burial sites for our countrymen who were killed during the Nanjing Massacre committed by the Japanese troops invading China. From December 1937 to May 1938, Nanjing Chongshan Tang (Benevolence Society 崇善 堂), the Red Swastika Society and other organizations collected in six batches successively the remains of 5,100 victims and buried them under the foot of the city wall east of the gate and nearby Jiangjiayuan (姜家園) and Shiliuyuan (石榴園).60

3.7  Massacres at the Sancha River Area The Sancha River area, about 1.5 miles upstream from Zhongshan Wharf and south of Xiaguan, is where the Qinhuai River (秦淮河) and the Qingjiang River (清江河) join the Yangtze River. That is why the area was named “Sancha River” which literarily means “the three way river.” During the early Ming Dynasty, the Longjiang Royal Shipping Yard (龍江寳船厰) was situated in this area. Huge ocean voyage ships were built here for Zhenghe (鄭和), who made seven voyages to reach as far as the west coast of Africa from 1405 to 1433 A.D.

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After Nanjing fell and Japanese troops were approaching, a large number of Chinese soldiers came to the Sancha River area and its vicinity, either hoping to find vessels to cross the Yangtze to the north, or attempting to escape southwestward. When Japanese troops reached there on the morning of December 13, 1937, they rounded up thousands of Chinese soldiers and mass executed them. Luo Zhongyang (駱中洋), a native of Huizhou, Guangdong Province (廣東惠 州), joined the army in 1936 when he was 16, serving in the 931st Regiment, the 446th Brigade of the 156th Division. After war broke out in Shanghai in August 1937, his division was dispatched from Guangzhou to Shanghai, where they fought for over 2 months, before retreating westward in mid-November for the defense of Nanjing. His unit took a position at Qilin Gate east of Nanjing before withdrawing into the city on December 8. When the fall of Nanjing was imminent on the evening of December 12, he and his comrades managed to climb over the city walls at Xingzhong Gate (興中門), a northwestern gate, with the help of a fire truck’s hose to get to the Xiaguan waterfront. They walked along the river, trying to cross at different locations, including Pagoda Bridge and Swallow Cliff, but they could not get any vessels to carry them across the Yangtze. Every place was crowded with desperate soldiers and civilian refugees. They turned around to head south toward the Shangxin riverfront for an escape passage with no success either. They tried again, this time slightly inland at the Shuixi Gate area, and discovered about 1000 surrendered Chinese soldiers kneeling there, surrounded by Japanese soldiers. They hid themselves in a house nearby, keeping monitoring what would happen to the crowd until they felt it did not look like the Japanese would kill them, then Luo and his men surrendered themselves. Like others, they were made to kneel while more and more surrendering soldiers and other detainees were brought to join them, until the number reached seven or eight thousand.61 Finally, they were given the order to move. They moved forward, surrounded by Japanese soldiers, but without being tied up or otherwise restrained. After a walk between thirty and sixty minutes, they arrived at Sancha River, the name given to the part of the Qinhuai River that empties into the Yangtze. Because it was winter, there was not much water in the river, and although the Yangtze was 100 meters wide, the Sancha was less than half of that. Near the bank was a large vacant lot, with the river on one side and a row of mud brick houses on the other. As the prisoners assembled there, Luo could see a lot of Japanese soldiers and the flag of the Nakajima Unit. Another thousand men were brought in from somewhere else, bringing the total number of prisoners to over ten thousand.62

By this time, it was around 8 or 9 in the morning, December 13. A Japanese soldier asked the prisoners through an interpreter why they resisted the Imperial Army, and how they would like to be killed. Incendiary shells? Gasoline? Machine guns? Or bayonets? Yet, the Japanese appeared to have decided to kill them with bayonets. Using the gaiters that were part of the Nationalist Army’s uniform, they tied the prisoners’ hands behind their backs and linked them together “bead style” in groups of ten. Since there were not enough Japanese soldiers to handle such a large crowd, the Chinese prisoners were forced to tie one

3.7 Massacres at the Sancha River Area

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another. Shouts of Jiuming (Help!) along with sobbing and shouting could be heard. A few men tried to run away, but they were summarily shot. … The first ten men were brought forward and made to stand on the embankment, still linked together. Suddenly, a line of Japanese soldiers rushed forward and stabbed them in the back. Since the prisoners were tied together, they fell forward all at once, and the soldiers stabbed them again before throwing them into the water. However, the Japanese had realized that tying up ten thousand men would be too much of a chore, so only the first few groups were bound together, while the others were simply led closer and closer to the water’s edge. Ten groups of ten each, or 100 men, were brought forward at a time, lined up on the bank, and stabbed from behind in the vicinity of the heart by an equal number of Japanese soldiers. Then they tumbled forward into the water. Almost everyone in the crowd was sobbing or shouting, but Luo calmly observed his surroundings, wondering if there was not some way to escape. Since he was so close to the water’s edge, his turn would come up soon, so his first priority was to move backward, little by little. A few people at this stage had tried to run out of the vacant lot or climb up onto the roof of one of the houses, but they had all been shot. This was indeed an “assembly-line murder,” but it lasted a long time because of the huge number of people, and teams of Japanese soldiers took turns with the bayonets. During this time, Luo managed to slip back to the area near the row of mud-brick houses. Working together with two other Chinese who happened to be near him, he made a hole in the wall of one of the houses, not a difficult task with walls made of reeds covered with dried mud. After widening the hole enough to barely allow a person to pass through, they crawled in one at a time, with Luo bringing up the rear. The other former soldiers around them were so distraught and confused, as well as so closely packed together, that evidently none of them noticed. It was now two or three in the afternoon. (pp. 230–232)

Eventually, the massacre was over after dark, Luo managed to sneak out and, he obtained a refugee certificate from a Red Swastika Society worker to make it into the refugee zone. However, his danger was not over yet. Even in the Refugee Zone, young men who did not have refugee certificate were continually being taken away and killed. About two months after the fall of the city, Luo was stopped and examined near Zhongshan Bridge. This time, the Japanese did not give any credence of his refugee certificate, and they put him together with several hundred other people of dubious status. They set up a table in the square and made each person stand up on it as they asked the crowd, “Are there any family members or relatives of this person here? It was a kind of identification parade, and of course, Luo, who was from Guangdong Province, had no relatives in Nanjing. But when it was his turn to stand on the table, two men about sixty years old came forward. “He’s a member of our household,” they said. To have these two complete strangers speak up for him was like being rescued from hell by the Buddha. (pp. 235–236)

Unlike Luo Zhongyang, Xu Jiqing (徐吉慶) was a native Nanjing resident, 24, who lived on Shanxi Road in 1937. When Japanese troops entered Nanjing, his family joined more than 2000 others to seek safety in a “refugee camp,” which was the auditorium of the Overseas Chinese Guest House situated at where Dafang Lane meets North Zhongshan Road. One day in mid-December 1937, several Japanese

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officers and soldiers came, telling them through an interpreter, “Now the Imperial Army would send you back home with trucks!” They later used 20 trucks to take people away, with about 40 in each truck. It was learned later that they had been taken to the Sancha River, Xiaguan, to be shot. The following morning, the same group of Japanese returned to take the remaining people in the 20 trucks, each truck with a machine gun on top of it. Xu was in the 4th truck. They were driven into a big compound of the Central Bank at Xinjiekou (新街口). The Japanese asked if they would like to work for the Japanese troops; if they did, they could stay. If they were not willing to do so, they would be sent back to the refugee camp, and they would come to talk to them the next day. Consequently, nobody wanted to stay, they were returned back to the camp.63 The third morning around 7 a.m., they indeed returned again, taking over 1,000 of us, having people tied up with ropes, linking people into groups of six, and driving people into the trucks with machine guns still on top of them. The trucks went all the way to the Sancha River. I felt it did not look good, with machine guns all around. We stood lined up in six columns. I was standing in the rear column close to the river edge. As soon as machine guns fired, I fell down, actually without getting hit by a bullet. Up to midnight, the Japanese troops had not left yet. They bayonetted each body lest some people were still alive. I was at the bottom under the corpses, so the bayonet did not get me. At about 1 a.m., I heard Japanese soldiers say “All are dead!” After they had left, I slowly raised my head, and meanwhile three other heads rose form the corpse piles. We climbed out of the corpse piles, with blood covering our bodies all over. My nose was bleeding, probably because I was scared and nervous. We climbed to the river edge to wash the blood on us off, struggling to get out of there. (p. 413)

Gong Yukun (龚玉昆), who turned 17 in 1937 and worked as a gate keeper at the Yangtze Flour Factory which was situated at the Sancha River area, was able to witness the atrocities committed by Japanese troops there. He indicated that from the Sancha River to Shuixi Gate, there were dead bodies strewn all over. “On the third day after Japanese soldiers entered the city, I saw with my own eyes that the Japanese soldiers captured over 100 disarmed Chinese soldiers at the Sancha River, ordering them to line up to be bayoneted one by one. It was too horrible to look at.”64 Minnie Vautrin also mentioned in her diary the Sancha River massacres she heard from a friend. On February 16, 1938, she wrote, Mr. Y. G. Yan called between 5 and 6 today. Had heard that he was killed, but did not tell him so. He said he had heard that during the early days of occupation 10,000 were killed on San Chia-ho, 20–30 thousand at Yenzigi, and about 10 thousand at Hsia Gwan. He is sure that many husbands and sons will never return.65

Zhang Shirong indicated that on December 25, 1937 when, guarded by the Japanese soldiers, he was transporting lumber, passing through the area, he “saw from Hanzhong Gate to the Sancha River eight or nine thousand bodies strewn on both banks of the river. The corpses were not buried until after a huge pit was dug more than a month later.”66 In an affidavit signed on November 29, 1945, Bi Zhengqing (畢正清) stated that he had seen on the shore of the Sancha River “about four or five hundred corpses,”67 and he also had refugees organized to collect over 400 corpses from the Sancha River and empty houses nearby and bury

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them on December 26, 1937.68 In addition, both the Nanjing Red Cross and the Red Swastika Societies kept records of their burial activities in the Sancha River area, and from January 30 to April 19, 1938, a total of 1830 bodies were buried by the two charity organizations.69

3.8  Massacres at the Shangxin Riverfront About 8 miles upstream from Nanjing, the Yangtze is divided into two flows by an island known as Meizi Island (梅子洲) in the 1930s and now is called Jiangxin Island. One is the main navigation course and the other is a narrow waterway. The Shangxin Riverfront, about 3 miles upstream from the Sancha River and around 2.5  miles west of Shuixi Gate, is by that narrow waterway. In 1368, the Ming Dynasty was proclaimed to be established in its capital Nanjing. As a large amount of lumber was needed for construction, lumber merchants from the upriver provinces like Hubei and Anhui rafted lumber to this point. For the convenience of further transporting lumber into Nanjing, a canal of about 9 km was excavated from the riverside toward Jiangdong Gate. Later two more canals were dug downstream or north of it. The first canal, due to its relative upstream position, was called the Shangxin River, which literarily means “the upper new river.” The lumber business attracted a large number of merchants and businessmen, who helped develop this area into a good sized bustling town. It maintained its prosperity until the early twentieth century, when the railway network was developed to transport lumber more efficiently. At the last stage of Nanjing defense battles, the Chinese 51st and 58th Divisions held positions in the area from the riverside to Shuixi Gate and engaged in fierce fighting. The Japanese crossed the narrow waterway to capture the Shangxin River Town on December 11. When the Chinese defense collapsed in the afternoon of that day, with the Japanese troops pressing from the south, large numbers of Chinese soldiers who had not been able to retreat through Zhonghua Gate fled here from Yuhua Terrace. Because there were no boats available at Xiaguan to get people across the river and the Japanese troops also pushed from the north, another huge number of Chinese soldiers escaped to the Shangxin River region. Consequently, tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers were trapped here and slaughtered by the Japanese. Yang Qinzhou (杨勤州) was 14 in December 1937 when he witnessed over 1000 Chinese soldiers surrendered before they were shut in a big warehouse close to the narrow waterway: After lining them up, the Japanese soldiers conducted a body search, and bayoneted two people to death in the process. They confiscated all valuables and shot 8 more people dead after the body search. At this point, several more Japanese soldiers came, marching the defeated Chinese soldiers to the cotton field embankment and mowing them down with two machine guns. Finally, they spread dry firewood over the bodies, poured gasoline, and set fire to burn everyone, including those who were not yet dead.70

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Quite a few civilians were killed by Japanese soldiers. Hu Bingsen (胡炳森) filed an affidavit on December 12, 1945 stating that his grandfather Hu Chunhua (胡春華), a 62-year-old lumber merchant, was shot dead by a Japanese soldier on a street in the Shangxin River Town around 2 p.m., on December 13, 1937, after he refused to look for women for the Japanese.71 On the afternoon of December 11, 1937, Li Xuehong (李學洪), 32, was taken out of a fabric store by Japanese soldiers in the Shangxin River Town and shot by roadside along with four or five others.72 Chen Zhewen (陳哲文), in a petition dated February 11, 1946, described how his father was stabbed by the Japanese: When Nanjing was in chaos, my father Chen Zaorui (陳造瑞), now 51, took refuge in the Shangxin River Town outside Hanzhong Gate. In the winter of Minguo 26th Year, after they were forced by Japanese troops to transport rice, they were all bayoneted on the way back. Fortunately, my father’s wound was not fatal, and he came to, with a scar on his back as a proof. All the others, over a dozen countrymen, were dead with their bodies strewn by Shangxin River Street, too horrible to look at.73

Qin Jie (秦傑) was a 12-year-old schoolboy when he followed his family to take refuge in the Shangxin River Town in early December, 1937. With Nanjing’s fall imminent and the Japanese approaching, the family went to the Sancha River area, hoping to cross the river. Because there was a huge number of desperate refugees but no vessels available, the family took shelter in Fangsheng Temple (放生寺) for a day or two when the Japanese reached the Sancha River area. Upon learning that the refugees who had attempted to cross the Yangtze were all shot dead by the Japanese, the family followed the refugees on a return trip back to the Shangxin River Town. This time, it was a totally different sight from our journey coming here; dead bodies of those who had been killed by the Japanese troops were strewn everywhere along the way, and sometimes we had to step over the bodies. On our previous trip, because of exhaustion, we begged a family to allow us to stay in their house, but they refused. Now, the bodies of the whole family, old and young, were strewn all over their courtyard. All along the way, Japanese soldiers were holding their bayonets, threatening our group of refugees. If they saw able-bodied youths, they shot them dead at will. Or they picked them out of the refugee group to bayonet them to death. On the way, I saw bodies in kneeling position that had been burned black by the Japanese troops. Jiangdong Bridge (江東橋) had broken down with shallow water underneath. Dead bodies were placed on the river bed, with door boards covering the bodies, to form a road. We all walked on it to cross the river. On one side of the door boards, heads were visible, while on the other feet could be seen…. Back to the Shangxin River Town, we found that the four white-haired old men who stayed to look after their houses and the town had been killed, their bodies lying on the street. A Japanese soldier pointed his gun to my father’s head. He was not killed only because the refugees with us and my mother had begged desperately for mercy. In public, my female cousin-in-law, who had been with us on the journey, was dragged into a house and raped.74

When Nanjing fell, He Yufeng (何玉峰), then 12, was taking refuge in Sha-­ zhouwei (沙洲圩) across the river from the Shangxin River area. He “saw that the road of 5 to 6 kilometers from Shuixi Gate to the Shangxin riverfront was indeed

3.8 Massacres at the Shangxin Riverfront

75

covered with the bodies of those who had been murdered by Japanese troops,” and he “remembered that after ‘the Red Swastika Society’ had buried the bodies, along this road there was a mount containing corpses every 20 to 30 meters.”75 His description is echoed by an American missionary educator at Ginling College. On April 15, 1938, Vautrin visited the headquarters of the Red Swastika Society and was informed of their charitable burying efforts. She was aware that the loss of life in Xiaguan and the Shangxin River area was terrible.76 The terrible loss of life in the Shangxin River region can further be verified by the record kept by the Red Swastika Society concerning the number of corpses their burial squad had collected and buried in the area: Number of Corpses Buried at Black Bridge (黑橋) Shangxin River area Sun Temple (太陽宫) Shangxin River area Second Dyke (二埂) Shangxin River area Jiangdong Bridge (江東橋) Shangxin River area Cotton Dyke (棉花堤) Shangxin River area Central Prison (中央監獄) Shangxin River area Guanyin Temple (觀音庵) Shangxin River area Fenghuang Street (鳳凰街) Shangxin River area North River mouth (北河口) Shangxin River area Wufu Village (五福村) Shangxin River area Ganlu Temple (甘露寺) Shangxin River area Ganlu Temple Jia family mulberry field (賈家桑園), Shangxin River area Black Bridge Shangxin River area

Male 996

Female 2

Subtotal 998

Date Jan. 10, 1938

Corpses Found at Shangxin River area

457

457

Feb. 8

Around Sun Temple

850

850

Feb. 9

Same site of burial

1850

1850

Feb. 9

1860

1860

Feb. 9

Around Jiangdong Bridge Same site as burial

328

328

Feb. 14

Inside Central Prison

81

81

Feb. 15

Guanyin Temple

244

244

Feb. 16

West Fenghuang Street

380

380

Feb. 18

217

217

Feb. 21

83

83

March 15

Around North River mouth Radio Station at Wufu Village Same site as burial

354 700

354 700

March 23 April 16

Same site as burial Shangxin River area

57

57

May 20

Shangxin River bank77

From January 10 to May 20, 1938, the Red Swastika Society alone collected and buried 8457 corpses in the Shangxin River area, and Chong Shan (Benevolence) Society claimed to have collected and buried 18,429 bodies in the area from Shuixi Gate to the Shangxin riverfront.78 which makes the total number reach 26,886.

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3.9  Jiangdong Gate and Shuixi Gate Massacres Jiangdong Gate, east of the Shangxin River area and about 2  miles west of Nanjing’s southwestern gate, Shuixi Gate, was one of the gates along Nanjing’s outer city walls built in the early Ming Dynasty. Because the gate was located east of the Yangtze, it was named “Jiangdong Gate,” which literarily means “the gate east of the river,” though in the 1930s, the gate was no long in existence, only some ruins remained, and on its site there was a village known as Jiangdong Village. In 1930, the Nationalist Government had the Central Military Prison built there. Immediately after Japanese troops captured Nanjing in December 1937, they massacred a large number of disarmed Chinese soldiers and refugees in and around the prison, and the victims were buried in huge mass graves. In 1985, the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Museum was established on this site, with one of the mass graves exhumed and victims’ skeletons visible, as part of the museum’s exhibition. The Japanese kept a large number of captured Chinese soldiers in the military prison. On the afternoon of December 15, 1937, the Japanese massacred them outside the prison. Liu Xiurong (劉修榮) was a 16-year-old farmer living near the prison. Before daybreak on December 13, several Japanese soldiers broke into his residence, bayoneting into the bed he slept in, and his lower abdomen received two shallow cuts thanks to the thick comforter. When he cried out in pain, his elder brother rushed over to his rescue. The Japanese soldiers got hold of him to take him to the entrance of the house before bayoneting and shooting him dead. A couple of days later, I saw Japanese soldiers gather Chinese prisoners in an area about one kilometer long between the military prison (my house was nearby) and Dachating (大茶亭), before they bayoneted and machine gunned the prisoners. The massacre lasted the whole day with corpses piling up. Very few people survived the massacre. I also saw that the old Jiangdong Bridge had been bombed broken by Japanese planes and the Japanese troops piled the bodies of Chinese civilian victims along with wooden boards on top of them as a bridge to walk on.79

Liu’s testimony can be verified by the account of Qiu Ronggui (邱榮貴), a farmer of 23 at the time, who, along with a monk, was forced by the Japanese to skin two pigs they had looted and killed at a nearby village on December 15. Because the monk’s robe had large and loose sleeves that made it inconvenient for him to do the skinning job, a Japanese soldier shot him and threw him into a pond to be drowned. Qiu managed to skin both pigs by himself, then the Japanese made him carry the pigs to Jiangdong Gate. Upon arriving at the gate, I saw more than a thousand refugees, who were tied up, were taken out of the prison by the Japanese troops who lined them up from Jiangdong Bridge to Fenghuang Street (鳳凰 街), and there was a Japanese soldier holding rifle fixed with bayonet every few steps. Upon a command shouted by a Japanese officer, the Japanese soldiers bayoneted those innocent Chinese refugees madly, and instantly one thousand Chinese fell into pools of blood. Later they were taken to the river at Jiangdong Gate to pave a “bridge” made of dead bodies.80

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77

Liu Shihai (劉世海), 26, a private of the Chinese 87th Division in1937, survived a relatively small-scale massacre by the military prison at Jiangdong Gate. At the last stage of Nanjing defense battles, his unit held positions at Yuhua Terrace outside the city’s southern gate, Zhonghua Gate. Upon receiving the retreat orders, came the defense collapse, followed by chaotic fleeing, Liu followed the crowd toward Xiaguan, where no vessels were available for crossing the river. He then attempted to go southward through the Sancha River area toward Wuhu, since he was originally from Anhui Province.81 Liu joined with forty or fifty other people who were headed for Anhui Province. They walked along the Sancha River to Jiangdongmen, intending to go to Wuhu. All along the way, they saw a tremendous number of corpses, not only of soldiers, but also old people and children. At one point, they saw seven bodies, including two women, tied together with wire that pierced their collarbones, and one body had an unused bullet stuffed in each nostril. All of them appeared to have been bayonetted. When they reached Jiangdongmen, they met some Japanese soldiers in front of the minimum security prison. Liu and the rest of the released prisoners showed their white flags, as they had been instructed back at Xiaguan, and said, “We are soldiers who surrendered and were let go.” But these Japanese soldiers unceremoniously arrested everyone and immediately led them to a vegetable field just east of the prison. The prisoners were made to stand – not kneel – in a single line and were surrounded by fifty or sixty Japanese. Ten or more of these had swords, and the rest had bayonets. Liu does not remember hearing anything that sounded like a command, but suddenly the soldiers rushed in all at once, their swords and bayonets at the ready. The last thing Liu remembers is the terrifying sight of a Japanese soldier running toward him with his sword in both hands, raised to strike. It was dark when he came to. Two dead bodies lay heaped on top of him, … He had been cut on the back of the neck, but fortunately, not very deep, and the bleeding had nearly stopped. Deciding to leave the area while it was still dark, he walked about half a li until he found an air-raid shelter.82

Zhang Conggui (張從貴) was a farmer, 32  years old. One day in December 1937, he travelled with eight others, with whom he was not acquainted. When they reached Jiangdong Bridge, they encountered several armed Japanese soldiers who took them prisoner, and made them do odd chores. After dark, the Japanese soldiers forced them to kneel down before bayoneting them. On both sides there was a Japanese soldier standing on guard to prevent us from running away. Another nine Japanese soldiers holding rifles fixed with bayonets charged toward us. I was first bayoneted in the loin, but because it was extremely cold and I wore cotton padded clothes, the bayonet did not get to my flesh. I was bayoneted the second time in the neck, and blood gushed out instantly. Shortly, I fainted from bleeding and lost consciousness. The Japanese soldiers thought I was dead. Late at night, I came to, and under the moonlight, I could see the other eight people lying strewn on the ground, blood everywhere.83

11-year-old boy Sun Dianyan (孫殿炎), who lived on Fenghuang Street in 1937, witnessed random and rampant killings, piles of dead bodies, and the activities of burying the victims. Once he walked by the military prison, he “saw huge numbers

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of corpses,” and “the Red Swastika Society did not organize burial work until 20 days after the Japanese troops entered the city; they took corpses into a trench 200 meters long, one meter wide and 1.5 meters deep, opposite the military prison, and two brick latrine pits with layer upon layer of bodies piled. They are ‘the mass graves’ we talk about today.”84 Shuixi Gate, situated at the southwestern corner of the city, was one of the original thirteen city gates built in the early Ming Dynasty. It was the only gate people could also get into the city through a water channel, the Qinhuai River. During the last stage of Nanjing defense battles, fierce fighting took place around the gate; after Nanjing fell, the Japanese conducted mass executions around and outside the gate as well. Yang Suhua (楊素華) indicated that her elder brother, along with many others, had been taken by the Japanese troops to be executed outside Shuixi Gate in December 1937, because another person, Yang Changfu (楊常富), survived that massacre and came back to tell her.85 Wang Guizhen (王桂珍), a local woman 27 years old in 1937, stated, “I saw with my own eyes on the ground right in front of Shuixi Gate, there was a big pile of civilian corpses who had been killed by the Japanese troops.”86 Miao Xuebiao (苗學标) was another man who had survived the massacre. On December 14, 1937, the 31-year-old was taken by the Japanese to a location opposite Mochou Lake (莫愁湖) outside Shuixi Gate. I saw several hundred people detained there in the open space with several Japanese soldiers, who held rifles, guarding them. Later, more Japanese soldiers came to check the detainees on the head, shoulders, hands, and legs. After discussion among themselves, they divided the detainees into two groups standing on two sides. The process lasted until 4 p.m. when they accused the selected 300 strong people as Chinese soldiers, and machine gunned them to death. After the shooting, they asked people in my group to toss the bodies into a pond. In the process, we ran away one after another. I was captured the second time to be taken to Mochou Lake, and again I and others detained were sent especially to carry bodies and throw them into the pond. After carrying 30 to 40 bodies, I sneaked away under the cover of dark evening. I remember on my way home from outside Shuixi Gate to Shengzhou Road (昇州路), there were dead bodies strewn all the way along.87

3.10  Massacres at Hanzhong Gate and Hanxi Gate Situated about a mile north of Shuixi Gate is Hanxi Gate, which was built in the early Ming Dynasty as one of the original city gates, and part of this gate still stands. In 1933, a new gate was opened almost next to Hanxi Gate, about 200 meters north of it, to accommodate the city planning construction: a new thoroughfare known as Hanzhong Road (漢中路) was constructed from Xinjiekou to the new gate site. As a result, an opening in the city wall was necessary to extend the thoroughfare beyond the city walls, and the gate was named after the street, Hanzhong Gate. Ironically, the gate was opened because of the construction of the thoroughfare, and the gate

3.10 Massacres at Hanzhong Gate and Hanxi Gate

79

was torn down in 1958 because of the thoroughfare’s increasing traffic flow. Due to the close distance between the two gates, it is not unusual that even local people mix them up, though the location they refer to is unlikely to be mistaken. The area immediately outside the two gates was another major massacre site after the city fell to the Japanese. Several mass executions were conducted there. Because many of the victims and survivors were local residents, and the survivors and victims’ family members filed testimonies and petitions after the war, the massacres at this site are better documented. As early as February 27, 1938, a Nanjing resident, Shi Shaoqing (石少卿), filed a petition to Sun Shurong (孫叔榮), and Cheng Langbo (程朗波), Acting Chair and Vice Chair of the Nanjing Self-­ Government Committee, concerning the whereabouts of his younger brother Shi Xuepeng (石學彭), a police chief, who, together with over 50 policemen and more than 400 refugees, was taken from the refugee camp at the Judicial Yuan (司法院) on December 15, 1937.88 This group of refugees and policemen, later joined by others, were marched by the Japanese to Hanzhong Gate and executed there. Policeman Wu Changde (伍長德), 29 at the time, survived that massacre, revealing the fate of those people. At about 8 a.m. on December 15, 1937, dozens of Japanese soldiers came to the Judicial Building, herding out able-bodied men. Once out on the street, they saw more people driven out of other buildings. Consequently, the number of people there exceeded 2000. They were made to sit and the procession, guarded by Japanese soldiers, did not move until 11  a.m. When they reached Capital Theatre on Zhongshan Road, the procession halted and everybody was made to sit again. Soon several trucks full of Japanese soldiers pulled up. The soldiers piled out of the trucks and there were four heavy machine guns in the trucks. When they were on the move again those trucks led the procession.89 They arrived at Hanzhong Gate at about 1:00 p.m. The more than two thousand men were halted just inside the gate and made to sit. The machine guns were unloaded from the trucks – first the gun barrels, then the emplacements – and moved outside the gate. After twenty minutes or so, two of the Japanese at the front of the procession came around, each holding one end of a rope. They went into the crowd of Chinese and cut out a small group of about a hundred. Then the small group was led out through the gate, surrounded on all sides by Japanese soldiers. … When twenty more minutes had passed, they heard the deafening sound of all the machine guns firing at once. … Thus, successive groups of one or two hundred were cut out of the crowd with ropes and led outside the gates. Occasionally, someone collapsed from fear and could not move, but such men were bayoneted on the spot. When it came time for Wu’s group, it was five o’clock. One hundred of them were cut out of the crowd by the two soldiers with ropes and prodded from behind with bayonets as they moved forward. Some walked silently, some wept, others cried out. Enough men were left behind to form two or three more groups.

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3  Brutality Following the Fall of Nanjing: Large-Scale Massacres The soldiers with the ropes pulled them along and led them to the embankment along the moat. Four machine guns in two groups of two stood on the embankment, and Wu and the others were driven down the embankment between the guns. The instant he saw the bodies piled in front of him, Wu ran two or three steps and deliberately threw himself down in a flying leap forward. At almost that same moment, the guns began raking the area. … After the machine guns stopped firing, Wu heard rifle fire. He assumed that the soldiers were aiming at specific people. After the rifle fire stopped, Wu sensed that someone was walking around on top of the bodies. Lying face down, with his arms wrapped around his head, he could feel the pressure through the body that was on top of him. Just when he thought that whoever it was had passed by, he felt a sudden sharp pain in his back. A soldier walking around with a bayonet to finish off any survivors had stabbed the man on top, and the bayonet had passed all the way through that body to pierce Wu. … Soon afterward, Wu heard wood being tossed in his direction, and then he smelled gasoline. By the time he was able to form the thought, “I’ll be burned to death,” the fire had already been lit. The flames spread rapidly. As his clothes caught fire, he realized in a dazed way that he was on the cusp of life and death. He had a severe stab wound in his back, and he made a snap decision that it would be better to jump into the moat and die there than be burned to death. Tearing off his burning clothes, he scrambled frantically among the bodies and threw himself into the moat.90

Wu knew how to swim and climbed ashore under the cover of darkness. Thus, he survived the massacre to testify as prosecution’s witness in the court of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo in 1946. Tang Zhengyou (湯正有) seemed to have survived another massacre in the river outside Hanzhong Gate. In the winter of Minguo 26th Year, my family lived at 1 Drum Tower Third Lane. One day not long after the Japanese troops occupied Nanjing, a Japanese military truck came unexpectedly and then several Japanese soldiers jumped out of the truck, rounding up 30 to 40 able-bodied youths from the neighborhood, myself included. Once we got on the truck, it drove to the riverbank outside Hanzhong Gate. The Japanese soldiers forced us to get off and drove us into the middle of the river. It was winter, so there was not much water in the river. We saw dozens of Japanese soldiers standing on both banks holding rifles, and we were between these soldiers. There were at least four to five hundred Chinese countrymen standing in the river. Shortly, the moment a Japanese soldier blew a whistle, machine guns began firing. The terrible and bloody massacre started. The unarmed civilians fell into pools of blood, with screaming and moaning mixed with angry cursing. I fell down to the ground, stumbled by others in the crowd who fell. Fortunately I was not hit by the machine gun bullets. After the Japanese soldiers left, I moved my body, realizing I was still alive, though my body, red with victims’ blood, was covered with earth. I boosted my courage to climb out of the pile of dead countrymen’s bodies, looking around before quickly leaving the massacre site.91

Gao Xiuqin (高秀琴), a 17-year-old girl, lived with her father outside Hanzhong Gate in 1937. She recalled that one day she saw 8 or 9 truckloads of people were sent to Hanzhong Gate, and then she heard intense gun fire from about 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. After the shooting stopped, she followed others to the spot, and saw with her own eyes piles upon piles of dead bodies, too horrible to look at.92

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On December 26, 1937, over 300 people were picked up during the registration process at the University of Nanking, and some of these 300 were marched to Hanzhong Gate to be machine gunned. Miner Searle Bates, an American professor at the University of Nanking, interviewed two survivors of this massacre. They declared that the 200 to 300 men from the University were split up into various groups. They themselves were taken first to Wu T’ai Shan, then to the bank of the canal outside Han Hsi Men, where a machinegun was turned upon them. They fell, one of them wounded, among the dead men and smeared with their blood. … Thirty or more were taken to Han Chung Men and across the canal, where four or five in desperation broke from the column in the dusk or dark, taking advantage of protecting walls, and found a hiding-place. The man guessed by the moon that it was about one o’clock when he heard despairing cries not far to the north. At day-break he went a little in that direction and saw bodies in rows, bayoneted. Though in great fear, he managed to get past the gate safely and slip back to the Safety Zone. To the account of this man and his testimony must be added two items. A responsible worker in the Chinese Red Cross requested us to go outside of Han Chung Men to inspect a large number of bodies there. Mr. Kröger of the International Committee told me that he had observed these bodies himself, in the course of an early venture outside the gate, but that they could not be seen from the City Wall. The gate is now closed.93

The description provided by Christian Kröger, a German businessman in Nanjing, can be verified by Liang Yushan (梁玉山)’s testimony. On February 5, 1938, which was Lunar Calendar January 6, 1938, Liang, then 35, was on his way to the Texas Oil Corporation to see his cousin. When he went past Hanzhong Gate, came in sight were three big piles of corpses in the river under the Hanzhong Gate stone bridge. He estimated that the number of corpses was about 3000.94 Liang’s statement is echoed by what Minnie Vautrin recorded in her January 20, 1938 diary entry: Mr. Gxxx of Red Cross Society said that when he went out to get rice on January 17 he saw great heaps of bodies of men outside the Han Chung Road. The people in vicinity said they were brought there about December 26 and killed by machine guns. Probably the men who admitted at time of registration that they had been soldiers at one time and were promised work and pay if they confessed.95

Notes 1. A. T. Steele, “Japanese Troops Kill Thousands,” Chicago Daily News, Dec. 15, 1937, p. 1. 2. A. T. Steele, “Reporter Likens Slaughter of Panicky Nanking Chinese to Jackrabbit Drive in U. S.,” Chicago Daily News, February 4, 1938, p. 2. 3. F. Tillman Durdin, “Japanese Atrocities Marked Fall of Nanking After Chinese Command Fled,” NYT, January 9, 1938, p. 38. 4. F. Tillman Durdin, “Butchery Marked Capture of Nanking,” NYT, December 18, 1937, p. 1. 5. Arthur Menken, “Witness Tells Nanking Horror as Chinese Flee,” Chicago Daily Tribune, December 17, 1937, p. 4. 6. “Terror in Nanking,” The Times (London), December 18, 1937, p. 12. 7. C. Yates M’Daniel, “Nanking Horror Described in Diary of War Reporter,” Chicago Daily Tribune, December 18, 1937, p. 8. 8. Katsuichi Honda, The Nanjing Massacre, pp. 184–187.

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9. 今井正剛 (Masatake Imai), “南京城内の大量殺人 (The Mass Killings inside Nanjing),” 特 集文藝春秋 (Special Issue of Bungeishunju Magazine), December 1956, p.  159. Another version of the English translation can be found in Katsuichi Honda, The Nanjing Massacre, p. 188. 10. 松本重治 (Shigeharu Matsumoto), 上海時代 (下) (Shanghai Times, Vol. III), Tokyo: 中央公 論社 (Chuokoron Press), 1975, p. 251. 11. 前田雄二 (Yuji Maeda), 戦争の流れの中に (In the Currents of the War), Tokyo: 善本社 (Zenponsha), 1982, pp. 117–121. 12. Suping Lu, “Nanjing Massacre,” in Encyclopedia of Human Rights, Vol. IV, ed. by David P. Forsythe, London: Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 30. 13. Chuan-Ying Hsu, Written Testimony, June 6, 1946, Document No. 1734, Exhibit No. 205, Microfilm Set T918, Roll 12, Court Papers, Journal, Exhibits, and Judgments of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, RG238, National Archives II. 14. Christian Jakob Kröger, “A report by Christian Kröger, treasurer of the Zone Committee,” January 13, 1938, in Good Man of Nanking Diaries of John Rabe, ed. by Erwin Wickert, translated by John E. Woods, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998, p. 144. 15. John G. Magee, Case 3, Film 2, Folder 7, Box 263, RG8, Special Collection, YDSL. 16. “石明证言 (Testimony by Shi Ming),” 1992年4月7日刘相云根据其口述记录整理 (Re-corded by Liu Xiangyun on April 7, 1992, according to his oral account), in CTS, p. 22. 17. 唐光谱 (Tang Guangpu), “我所经历的日军南京大屠杀 (The Japanese Troops’ Nanjing Massacre I Experienced),” in NDB, pp. 288–289. 18. Katsuichi Honda, The Nanjing Massacre, p. 226. 19. “史荣禄证言 (Testimony by Shi Ronglu),” 刘虎、姜秀华调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Liu Hu and Jiang Xiuhua), in SMN, p. 408. 20. Katsuichi Honda, The Nanjing Massacre, pp. 247–248. 21. “夏万顺证言 (Testimony by Xia Wanshun),” 陈平稳据口述整理 (Recorded and edited by Chen Pingwen according to the oral account), in CTS, p. 350. 22. “崔金贵证言 (Testimony by Cui Jingui),” 战国利、杨正元调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Zhan Guoli and Yang Zhengyuan), in SMN, p. 474. 23. “郭国强证言 (Testimony by Guo Guoqiang),” 李春明、陶俊调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Li Chunming and Tao Jun), in SMN, p. 402. 24. “葛仕坤证言 (Testimony by Ge Shikun),” 陶俊、李春明调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Tao Jun and Li Chunming), in CTS, pp. 18–19. 25. “张静芝证言 (Testimony by Zhang Jingzhi),” 曹望鸿调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Cao Wanghong), in CTS, p. 300. 26. Minnie Vautrin, Diaries, February 15, 1938, Minnie Vautrin Papers, DCHSL. 27. Minnie Vautrin, Diaries, April 22, 1938, Minnie Vautrin Papers, DCHSL. 28. “张连才证言 (Testimony by Zhang liancai),” 金登林、杨云、夏龙生调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Jin Denglin, Yang Yun and Xia Longsheng), in CTS, p. 123. 29. “沈文君证言 (Testimony by Shen Wenjun),” 陈平稳据口述整理 (Recorded and edited by Chen Pingwen according to the oral account), in CTS, p. 351. 30. “查讯证人殷有余笔录 (Cross-examining Witness Yin Youyu Transcript),” October 19, 1946, in SCA, pp. 634–636. 31. “下关警察局调查日军在鱼雷营集体屠杀军民致首都地方法院检察处公函 (An Official Letter Xianguan Police Department sent to the Prosecution Section of the Capital Local Court concerning the soldiers and civilians massacred by Japanese troops at the Torpedo Barracks),” January 8, 1946, in ADN, p. 141. 32. “世界红卍字会南京分会救济队掩埋组掩埋尸体具数统计表 (Burial Statistics, Relief Team’s Burial Squad, World Red Swastika Society Nanjing Branch),” in ADN, p. 457. 33. “中国红十字会南京分会掩埋队第一队按月统计表 (Monthly Statistics of the First Burial Squad, China Red Cross Society Nanjing Branch),” in ADN, 1997, p. 467. 34. “何守江证言 (Testimony by He Shoujiang),” 李文奎、刘雯等调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Li Wenkui, Liu Wen and others), in SMN, pp. 411–412.

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35. 张陈氏 (Zhang Chenshi), “张陈氏陈述其夫张家志在宝塔桥被日军枪杀的结文 (Affidavit by Zhang Chenshi stating that her husband Zhang Jiazhi was shot dead by Japanese troops at Pagoda Bridge),” in ADN, p. 139. 36. “黄张氏证言 (Testimony by Huang Zhangshi),” 陈平稳据口述整理 (Recorded and edited by Chen Pingwen according to the oral account), in CTS, p. 51. 37. “张士荣证言 (Testimony by Zhang Shirong),” 段月萍据1986年11月来函整理 (Edited by Duan Yueping according to a letter sent in November 1986), in CTS, p. 55. 38. “赖立清证言 (Testimony by Lai Liqing),” 李帼义调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Li Guoyi), in CTS, p. 402. 39. “陈德贵证言 (Testimony by Chen Degui),” 李文奎、刘雯、冯中美调查记录 (Surveyed and recorded by Li Wenkui, Liu Wen and Feng Zhongmei), in SMN, pp. 405–406. 40. George A. Fitch, diaries, p. 16, Folder 202, Box 9, RG11, YDSL. 41. “陆法曾陈述日军集体屠杀首都电厂职工的结文 (An affidavit by Lu Fazeng stating that Capital Electric Power Plant employees were massacred by Japanese troops),” October 25, 1945, in ADN, p. 123. 42. 汤有才 (Tang Youcai), “汤有才为其子汤良江等在煤炭港被日军集体屠杀致南京市政府 呈文 (A petition by Tang Youcai to Nanjing Municipal Government concerning his son Tang Liangjiang and others who were massacred by Japanese troops at Coal Dock),” October 9, 1945, in ADN, p. 121. 43. “潘开明证言 (Testimony by Pan Kaiming),” 蒋琳调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Jiang Lin), in SMN, p. 407. 44. “刘喜权证言 (Testimony by Liu Xiquan),” 吴大兴、章步锦、朱玉静调查记录 (Surveyed and recorded by Wu Daxing, Zhang Bujin and Zhu Yujing), in CTS, pp. 25–26. 45. 梁廷芳 (Liang Tinfang), 白增荣 (Bai Zengrong), “日军进占南京时大屠杀之实际情形证 明书 (A testimony concerning the actual happenings of the massacre when Japanese troops occupied Nanjing),” October 7, 1946, in ADN, pp. 107–108. 46. “刘永兴证言 (Testimony by Liu Yongxing),” 陈小敏、汤云龙调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Chen Xiaomin and Tang Yunlong), in SMN, pp. 409–410. 47. 徐进 (Xu Jin), “徐进为日军在中山码头集体屠杀青年致蒋介石呈文 (A petition by Xu Jin to Chiang Kai-shek concerning Japanese troops mass executing young people at Zhongshan Wharf),” January 26, 1946, in SMN, pp. 104–105. 48. Shang Teh Yi, Written Testimony,“April 7, 1946, Document No. 1735, Exhibit No. 206, Microfilm Set T918, Roll 12, Court Papers, Journal, Exhibit, and Judgment of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, RG238, National Archives II. 49. “郭学根证言 (Testimony by Guo Xuegen),” 郭永柱调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Guo Yongzhu), in CTS, pp. 52–53. 50. “张士荣证言 (Testimony by Zhang Shirong),” in CTS, p. 55. 51. 施赓云 (Shi Gengyun), “施赓云为亲属被日军屠杀致国民政府委员钮永健呈文 (A petition by Shi Gengyun to Niu Yongjian, a member of the National Government, concerning his family members killed by Japanese troops),” February14, 1946, in ADN, p. 113. 52. 戴张氏 (Dai Zhangshi), “戴张氏陈述其夫戴光玮在下关被日军枪杀的结文 (An affidavit by Dai Zhangshi stating that his husband Dai Guangwei was shot dead by Japanese troops at Xiaguan),” December 11, 1945, in ADN, p. 111. 53. 殷南冈 (Yin Nangang), “殷南冈陈述日军在龙江桥江口集体屠杀军民的结文 (An affidavit by Yin Nangang stating Chinese soldiers and civilians were massacred by Japanese troops at the river mouth by Longjiang Bridge),” November 25, 1945, in ADN, pp. 142–143. 54. 胡春庭 (Hu Chuntin), “胡春庭陈述日军在下关南通路集体屠杀难民的结文 (An affidavit by Hu Chuntin stating that refugees were massacred by Japanese troops at Nantong Road, Xiaguan),” December 1, 1945, in ADN, p. 149. 55. 姜鑫顺 (Jiang Xinshun), “姜鑫顺陈述日军在下关九甲圩江边集体屠杀的结文 (An affidavit by Jiang Xinshun stating the massacre was committed by Japanese troops at Jiujiawei riverside, Xiaguan),” December 1, 1945, in ADN, p. 143. 56. “南京市临时参议会关于南京大屠杀调查的报告 (An investigation report by Nanjing Temporary Senate concerning the Nanjing Massacre),” 1946, in ADN, p. 581.

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57. “张秀英证言 (Testimony by Zhang Xiuying),” 陈平稳据口述整理 (Recorded and edited by Chen Pingwen according to the oral account), in CTS, p. 351. 58. John G. Magee, Case 1, Film 10, Folder 7, Box 263, RG8, YDSL. 59. Katsuichi Honda, The Nanjing Massacre, pp. 174–177. 60. 段月萍 (Duan Yueping), “侵华日军南京大屠杀遗址纪念碑 (The monuments at the sites of the Nanjing Massacre committed by the Japanese troops invading China),” 抗日战争研究 (Research on the War of Resisting Japan), Vol. 4, 1994, p. 93. 61. Katsuichi Honda, The Nanjing Massacre, pp. 227–229, and “骆中洋证言 (Testimony by Luo Zhongyang),” 段月萍据1987年骆中洋来信整理 (Edited by Duan Yueping according to the letter sent in 1987 by Luo Zhongyang), in CTS, pp. 37–38. 62. Katsuichi Honda, The Nanjing Massacre, p. 229. 63. “徐吉庆证言 (Testimony by Xu Jiqing),” 沈珍昌等调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Shen Zhenchang and others), in SMN, pp. 412–413. 64. “龚玉昆证言 (Testimony by Gong Yukun),” 李文奎、刘雯、冯中美调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Li Wenkui, Liu Wen and Feng Zhongmei), in SMN, p. 431. 65. Minnie Vautrin, Diaries, February 16, 1938, Minnie Vautrin Papers, DCHSL. 66. “张士荣证言 (Testimony by Zhang Shirong),” in CTS, p. 55. 67. 毕正清 (Bi Zhengqing), “毕正清陈述日军在放生寺附近集体屠杀的结文 (An affidavit by Bi Zhengqing stating the massacre committed by Japanese troops near Fangsheng Temple),” November 29, 1945, in ADN, p. 158. 68. 孙宅巍 (Sun Zhaiwei), 南京大屠杀 (The Nanjing Massacre), Beijing: 北京出版社 (Beijing Press), 1997, p. 432. 69. “世界红卍字会南京分会救济队掩埋组掩埋尸体具数统计表 (Burial Statistics, Relief Team’s Burial Squad, World Red Swastika Society Nanjing Branch),” p. 458, and “中国红十 字会南京分会掩埋队第一队按月统计表 (Monthly Statistics of the First Burial Squad, China Red Cross Society Nanjing Branch),” pp. 465–467, both in ADN. 70. “杨勤州证言 (Testimony by Yang Qinzhou),” 罗自成调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Luo Zicheng), in CTS, p. 17. 71. 胡炳森 (Hu Bingsen), “胡炳森陈述胡春华在上新河地区被日军枪杀的结文 (An affidavit by Hu Bingsen stating Hu Chunhua was shot dead by Japanese troops in the Shangxin Riverfront area),” December 6, 1945, in ADN, p. 131. 72. “李学洪被日军枪杀的调查表节录 (An excerpt of the investigation report concerning Li Xuehong who was shot dead by Japanese troops),” December 1, 1945, in ADN, p. 132. 73. 陈哲文 (Chen Zhewen), “陈哲文为日军在上新河集体屠杀致石美瑜呈文 (A petition by Chen Zhewen to Shi Meiyu concerning a massacre committed by Japanese troops in Shangxin River Town),” February 11, 1946, in ADN, p. 134. 74. “秦杰证言 (Testimony by Qin Jie),” 刘相云根据本人1993年10月来信整理 (Edited by Liu Xiangyun according to a letter sent by him in October 1993), in CTS, p. 296. 75. “何玉峰证言 (Testimony by He Yufeng),” 习守清、吴建野调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Xi Shouqing and Wu Jianye), in CTS, p. 17. 76. Minnie Vautrin, Diaries, April 15, 1938, Minnie Vautrin Papers, DCHSL. 77. The list is based on the data and information in “世界红卍字会南京分会救济队掩埋组掩 埋尸体具数统计表 (Burial Statistics, Relief Team’s Burying Squad, World Red Swastika Society Nanjing Branch),” in ADN, p. 456–459. 78. “南京市崇善堂掩埋工作一览表 (A chart of burial work by Nanjing Chongshan Tang)” in ADN, p. 447. 79. “刘修荣证言 (Testimony by Liu Xiurong),” 吴传铭、刘兴林、何炼生等调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Wu Chuanming, Liu Xinglin, He Liansheng and others), in SMN, p. 421. 80. “邱荣贵证言 (Testimony by Qiu Ronggui),” 滕桂珍、滕桂芝、钟金华、朱春香调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Teng Guizhen, Teng Guizhi, Zhong Jinhua and Zhu Chunxiang), in CTS, p. 15. 81. “刘世海证言 (Testimony by Liu Shihai),” 段月萍调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Duan Yueping), in SMN, pp. 401–402.

3.10 Massacres at Hanzhong Gate and Hanxi Gate

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82. Katsuichi Honda, The Nanjing Massacre, pp. 173–174. 83. “张从贵证言 (Testimony by Zhang Conggui),” 肖仲煌、尹长风调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Xiao Zhonghuang and Yin Changfeng), in CTS, pp. 10–11. 84. “孙殿炎证言 (Testimony by Sun Dianyan),” in CTS, p. 14. 85. “杨素华证言 (Testimony by Yang Suhua),” 黄志安、王培义调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Huang Zhi’an and Wang Peiyi), in CTS, pp. 265–266. 86. “王桂珍证言 (Testimony by Wang Guizhen),” 尚文兰、孙秀兰、夏龙生调查记录 (Surveyed and recorded by Shang Wenlan, Sun Xiulan and Xia Longsheng), in CTS, p. 278. 87. “苗学标证言 (Testimony by Miao Xuebiao),” 马中炎、马管良调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Ma Zhongyan and Ma Guanliang), in SMN, pp. 440–441. 88. 石少卿 (Shi Shaoqing), “石少卿为要求释放被日军虏去的家人致南京自治委员会呈文 (A petition by Shi Shaoqing to Nanjing Self-Government Committee concerning the release of his family member abducted by Japanese troops),” February 27, 1938, in ADN, p. 93. 89. Katsuichi Honda, The Nanjing Massacre, pp. 214–215, and “伍长德证言 (Testimony by Wu Changde),” 朱文英、汪道明调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Zhu Wenying and Wang Daoming), in SMN, pp. 399–400. 90. Katsuichi Honda, The Nanjing Massacre, pp. 215–217. 91. “汤正有证言 (Testimony by Tang Zhengyou),” 廖美庆调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Liao Meiqing), in SMN, pp. 400–401. 92. “高秀琴证言 (Testimony by Gao Xiuqin),” 陆家骅调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Lu Jiahua), in SMN, pp. 442–443. 93. M. S. Bates, “Note on Aftermath of Registration at the University,” in The War Conduct of the Japanese, ed. by Shuhsi Hsu, Shanghai: Kelly & Walsh, 1938, pp. 142–144. 94. “梁玉山证言 (Testimony by Liang Yushan),” 井升安、丁亚庆调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Jing Sheng’an and Ding Yaqing), in CTS, pp. 8–9. 95. Minnie Vautrin, Diaries, January 20, 1938, Minnie Vautrin Papers, DCHSL.

Chapter 4

Small-Scale Mass Executions and Individual Killings

The large-scale massacres mainly took place along the Yangtze River and outside the city. Relatively small-scale mass executions were carried out in many sections within the city walls, as well as in the eastern and southern suburbs. Japanese troops committed mass murders at such locations as Qingliang Hill (清凉山), Gulin Temple (古林寺), Sanpailou (三牌樓), Shanxi Road (山西路), Dafang Lane (大方 巷), Drum Tower (鼓樓), Yinyangying (陰陽營), Wutai Hill (五台山), Shanghai Road (上海路), and the Pude temple (普德寺) vicinity.

4.1  Massacres at Qingliang Hill and Gulin Temple About one kilometer north of Hanzhong Gate is a hilly area known as Qingliang Hill, where the first walled city in the area, the Stone City (石頭城), was built in 212  A.D.  Several hundred years later, a summer palace was constructed for the Southern Tang Dynasty (南唐) Emperor Li Yu (李煜, 961–975 in throne). The palace was later turned into a temple named Qingliang Temple (清凉寺). The hilly area was named after the temple. Massacres took place in this area soon after Nanjing fell to the Japanese. Wang Pengqing (王鵬清) was a 25-year-old blacksmith in 1937. His family moved into the refugee zone at 18 Guling Road (牯嶺路). About two weeks after the Japanese entered the city, in a morning, several Japanese soldiers came to conduct a house-to-house search, rounding up young able-bodied people to Ninghai Road (寧海路), checking them for calluses on the hands and cap marks on the head. Wang was taken around one or two o’clock in the afternoon.1 Japanese soldiers took me to Ninghai Road, where more than 200 people were detained, all of whom were civilians. The Japanese soldiers tied everyone’s wrists with ropes and linked four people together in a row. The Japanese soldiers guarded us on both sides as we were marched to Hujuguan (虎踞關) into a small valley by a pond. The Japanese soldiers set up machine guns on the hill above us, while dozens of Japanese soldiers surrounded us. It was © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 S. Lu, The 1937 – 1938 Nanjing Atrocities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9656-4_4

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4  Small-Scale Mass Executions and Individual Killings about 3 or 4 p.m. Upon a Japanese officer’s order, machine guns and rifles started firing at us, and a bullet grazed my head. It felt like being hit on the head with a stick. Blood instantly gushed and I fell down right away. After the shooting stopped, I vaguely heard feet kicking bodies. When I was kicked, I remained motionless, and soon I fainted. By the time I came to, it was deep in the night and the Japanese soldiers were long gone. With blood all over my body, I slowly climbed out of the pile of corpses. I made it back home by the roads we had come, which were completely deserted. (p. 415)

Jin Jiaren (金家仁) appeared to have survived the same massacre as Wang Pengqing. Jin Jiaren, a 24-year-old chef, lived near Ninghai Road at 1 Fuyingli (福 英里) at the time. He remembered that one day, the Japanese carried out an extensive search in his neighborhood, driving people into the street. As soon as they discovered calluses on his hands, the Japanese soldiers tied him up, declaring that he was a Chinese soldier. He and other detainees were taken to Qingliang Hill, where they were machined gunned. He was not killed and climbed out of the piles of dead bodies before someone untied him.2 In 1937, Chen Keting (陳克亭) was 23. He learned that his elder brother Chen Jianbo (陳健伯) had been taken by the Japanese to a big pond at Huaxingxiang (華興巷) in the Qingliang Hill area and was machine gunned there. He later went to that pond, and saw several hundred victims’ bodies by the pond. At the time, the Red Swastika Society was in the process of burying bodies, but he never found his brother’s body.3 He Wangshi (何王氏)’s family had farmed in the Qingliang Hill area for generations. She stated that there were dead bodies strewn all over the place, and she saw a corpse in her field in the spring of 1938.4 Her statement is supported by Minnie Vautrin’s description. On January 25, 1938, she had an excursion into a small valley, where a local couple took her to the pond with corpses strewn around. We found the pond. At its edge there were scores of black charred bodies and among them two empty kerosene or gasoline cans. The hands of the men were wired behind them. How many bodies there were, and whether or not they were machine gunned first, and then burned, I do not know, but I hope so. In a smaller pond to the west were perhaps 20–40 more charred bodies. The shoes I saw on several men looked like civilian shoes not soldiers. All through the hills are unburied bodies.5

On March 25, 1938, she returned to that pond with a gentleman whose name she chose not to reveal. At 11 a.m. Mr. Xxx came over for me to guide him to the valley where the terrible tragedy of December 26th occurred. We were fortunate in collecting some people of that neighborhood who were glad to go along with us. At the edge of the large pond 96 men had suffered a most terrible death, at the other perhaps 43 and about 4 in the farm house near by. The farmers have collected enough evidence to prove that kerosene and gasoline were poured on the bodies first, then it was ignited. Men who ran were mown down with machine guns. Four ran to the shelter of the house in their agony and the house burned. As we stood by the smaller pond we saw what looked to be the top of a head. By means of bamboo poles and a wooden hook the body of the man was slowly pushed to the bank. His clothes were those of a civilian. The agony these men must have endured! One escaped to the Christian Hospital but died of his burns in a few days – secured some pictures.6

4.1  Massacres at Qingliang Hill and Gulin Temple

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The west edge of Qingliang Hill is bounded by a range of rocky cliff over the Qinhui River. The rocky cliff, which looks like a devil’s face from the river, functions as a section of Nanjing’s city walls at that location, hence it has obtained the nickname “Devil-faced city wall (鬼脸城).” Zhou Guifang (周桂芳)’s family house had been burned down after the Japanese came, so they built a makeshift shed underneath the cliff by the river as their residence. Zhou testified that the Japanese killed many people there. One day, she had witnessed that Japanese soldiers took over a dozen Chinese refugees to the slope over the devil-faced city wall, where they were all shot dead.7 Her statement is corroborated by the burial record. On March 9, 1938, the Second Burial Squad of the Nanjing Red Cross Society collected and buried 86 corpses at the devil-faced city wall.8 Gulin Temple, originally built during the Southern Liang Dynasty (南梁, 502– 557 A.D.), was situated about one mile north of Qingliang Hill. Several relatively small-scale mass executions took place around the temple. A couple survivors, severely burned, managed to get to the University of Nanking Hospital, an American mission hospital, and lived long enough to tell their experiences and the fate of their groups murdered in cold blood. American missionary James Henry McCallum, the business manager of the hospital at the time, recorded that episode in his December 29, 1937 letter to his wife, Eva Anderson McCallum: Men who gave themselves up to the mercy of the Japanese when they were promised their lives would be spared, – a very few of them returned to the Safety Zone in a sad way. One of them declared they were used for bayonet practice and his body certainly looked it. Another group was taken out near Kuling Sz; one who somehow returned, lived long enough to tell the fate of that group. He claimed they threw gasoline over their heads, and then set fire to them. This man bore no other wounds but was burned so terribly around the neck and head that one could scarcely believe he was a human being. The same day another, whose body had been half burned over, came into the hospital. He had also been shot. It is altogether likely that the bunch of them had been machine-gunned, their bodies then piled together and then burned. We could not get the details, but he evidently crawled out and managed to get to the hospital for help. Both of these died.9

Matachi Ike (井家又一), a private first class of the Japanese 9th Division who participated in one of the Gulin Temple massacres, provided a detailed description of the massacre in his December 22, 1937 diary entry: At 5 p.m., when it was almost dark, I went to the battalion’s headquarters for assembly, and learned that we would kill the defeated soldiers. Went over to have a look, and saw 161 Chinese well behaved in the headquarters’ compound. They watched our movements without knowing that death was to befall them. Beating and scolding them along the way, we dragged the 160 plus people out of the foreigners’ neighborhood to the area near Gulin Temple, where a fortress with pillboxes was constructed. At sunset, one could distinguish only human figures moving. There were but a few residences. We shut them in a stand-alone house by a pond and took out a group of 5 at a time to bayonet them to death. Some screamed, some murmured, some cried, and some, knowing that death was imminent, lost their senses.

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4  Small-Scale Mass Executions and Individual Killings The final destiny of the defeated soldiers was to be killed by Japanese troops. With iron wire, we tied their wrists up and had their necks hooked, and dragged them along while beating them with sticks. Among them, there were courageous soldiers who sang songs while striding along. Some pretended to have been bayoneted dead, some jumped into the water, struggling in bubbles, and still some soldiers, in order to escape for life, held the roof beams tight to hide themselves and refused to come down no matter how they were called upon. Then we poured gasoline over the house and set it on fire. Two or three fiery figures were bayoneted dead as soon as they ran out of the house. In darkness, we shouted at the top of our lungs while bayoneting dead those who had attempted to escape, or shot them with rifles. Instantly, this place was turned into hell on earth. With that over, we poured gasoline over the bodies and set them on fire, killing anyone who moved in the flames. The house behind was burning in flames, with the tiles on the roof falling down and sparks spreading all over.10

Minnie Vautrin also recorded in her December 23, 1937 diary entry a mass execution south of Ginling Temple, which was about half a mile north of Gulin Temple: “Our neighbor Swen from Hu Gi Gwan, who is living at East Court, said that last night from sixty to a hundred men, mostly young, were taken in trucks to the little valley south of the Ginling Temple, shot by machine gun fire, later put into a house and the whole set on fire.”11 Liu Jinxiang (劉金祥), a 16-year-old boy in 1937, narrowly escaped another mass murder nearby Gulin Temple. After Japanese troops captured the city, his family of 6 moved into the refugee zone, taking residence at Donghuashi (東瓜市) near Shanghai Road. A few days later in the morning, several Japanese soldiers came to his house to tie him and his brother up with ropes, taking them, along with 30–40 other people detained, to the bamboo groves on a slope by Gulin Temple. Then, a dozen Japanese soldiers came to beat them with rifle butts before checking their hands and feet one by one. After that, the soldiers divided them into two groups: one group of 20 to be on the top of the slope and the other group of 15 or 16 at the end of the slope. The Japanese then untied the end slope group and drove them further down the slope. A few minutes later, the explosion of grenades was heard. The 15 or 16 men were thus murdered, which scared Liu Jinxiang and his brother to death.12

4.2  K  illings in Sanpailou and Northwestern Section of the City Sanpailou, literarily means three memorial arches, is an area situated about 2 miles north of Gulin Temple, north of North Zhongshan Road, where the street meets Fujian Road (福建路). The area is so named because there had once been three memorial arches (pailou 牌樓) there. Even though there was a street named Sanpailou, which runs parallel to North Zhongshan Road between Fujian Road and Mofan Road (模範馬路), to local residents, it usually refers to the area around there. According to survivors’ testimonies, massacres took place in this area and its vicinity.

4.2  Killings in Sanpailou and Northwestern Section of the City

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Tang Shunshan (唐順山) was a shoemaker at Dayuanshun Leather Shoe Store (達源順皮鞋店) in the southern section of Nanjing. When the city was under siege, he sought refuge at a friend’s home at Sanpailou in the northern part of the city. One day after the Japanese entered the city, Tang ventured out to find out what was going on. In the street, he saw a procession of surrendered Chinese soldiers marched by the Japanese toward the direction of Xiaguan. At this moment, another group of Chinese guarded by Japanese soldiers came toward his direction. He and another man hid themselves in a garbage can. That man was so frightened that he trembled all over, making a sound which attracted the attention of the approaching Japanese soldiers. A Japanese soldier came over to pull him out by his long hair and cut his head off with a sword. Tang was shocked. Meanwhile, the Japanese soldier made gestures and shouted to him in Japanese. An interpreter came to tell him to join the Chinese group. This group, which included a few women, was escorted by 6 Japanese soldiers and 2 Chinese collaborators onto the grounds of a military clothing factory about 500 m away, where a pit had been dug with one or two hundred corpses already in the pit when they arrived. The group then was divided into four sub-groups and made to stand in three rows on each side of the pit before the Japanese started beheading them.13 Four of the soldiers went around slicing off the heads of the people in their assigned group while the other four, including the collaborators, picked up the severed heads and lined them up. In other words, the four teams were having a head cutting contest. The three rows of victims were made to kneel facing away from the pit. Tang was at the end of the last row of his group, the row closest to the pit. The soldier began cutting heads on the east end of the front row. Some of the people were crying and screaming, while others were too frightened to move. As each head was cut off, blood spurted up and the body fell over. The heads were lined up in back…. The eighth person was a man on the west end of the second row, or directly in front of Tang. The minute his head was cut off, his body fell backwards, knocking Tang into the pit like a domino. He has vague memories of his head being covered by the clothing of headless bodies, but he lost consciousness at that point. He now thinks that he must have passed out from sheer terror. When he came to, he was in an air-raid shelter, being tended by a friend. This friend had been watching the entire horrific scene from inside a house on the grounds of the clothing factory, and he explained that after the massacre was over, the Japanese had thrown the bodies into the pit, all the while walking around and bayoneting any bodies they thought were showing some signs of life. While unconscious, Tang was stabbed in five places – his back, his left arm, two places in his left leg, and in his left thigh – but he did not feel a thing. After the Japanese had left, the friend went to take a look. It was at that point that Tang moved slightly. He was covered with blood when he was dragged out of the pit, and his friend did not recognize him until he had washed the blood off.14

On December 19, 1937, George A. Fitch filed a report concerning an American diplomat’s residence, in which a Chinese employee had been murdered by the Japanese soldiers who broke into the residence to loot. This report was included in the documents of Nanjing Safety Zone as Case 66:

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4  Small-Scale Mass Executions and Individual Killings Yesterday it was reported to me that the residence of Mr. Douglas Jenkins, Jr. Third Secretary of Embassy of the U.S.A. had been looted and one of the servants on the place killed. Today at noon I inspected the place, which is at 29 Ma Tai Chieh, and found it as stated. The house was in utter confusion, and the corpse of the servant was in one of the servant’s rooms. The other servants had fled, so there is no one on the place now. Dec. 19. (Fitch)15

In fact, inside the Jenkins’ residence, more than one person had been killed. Minnie Vautrin visited that residence on December 21, 1937, and later the wife of one of the slain servants came to her for help concerning getting financial assistance from the American Embassy. Vautrin gave a detailed account in her March 13, 1939 diary entry: Also Jenkins’ coolie’s wife came to see me today to ask me to intercede in her behalf at the American Embassy. Her husband was a coolie for nine years for various members of the Embassy staff. Before the Japanese came into Nanking he, and two other servants, decided they would remain in Jenkins’ house and look after his things. They felt sure they would be safe – the house was protected by an American flag and special posters and they themselves had special arm bands. On the 14th of December, 1937, the day after the Japanese entered the head servant asked the coolie and gardener to go to the Embassy to find out conditions. They went, stayed all night, and about 8 the next morning went back to Jenkins’ house for they felt they should get back to the head man then. Of course they would be safe with their arm bands. They evidently just got inside the Jenkins’ gate when they were killed. Later the head man, Hu, dragged their bodies to a dugout and hid them in there. The same day, but later, the coolie’s father-in-law also in the Jenkins’ property in order to be safe, was killed and his mother-in-law was bayoneted and the head servant Hu was killed. I saw the latter, …16

In 1945, several people filed petitions or affidavits concerning their family members murdered by the Japanese around the Sanpailou area. Gu Quanxin (顧全鑫) stated in a petition filed on November 8, 1945 that at 3  p.m. on December 14, 1937, several Japanese soldiers broke into the residence in which his family took refuge at 4 Beixiucun (北秀村) near Shanghai Road. They first did some looting and then took his younger brother Gu Quankuei (顧全奎), then age 38, away to a roadside at Sanpailou and shot him.17 Yan Jinshi (嚴金 氏) testified in an affidavit filed on December 16, 1945 that her husband Yan Zhengbiao (嚴正標) had been shot dead at Xieqiao Street (斜橋街) near Sanpailou on December 20, 1937. All the property, including furniture, had been looted.18 Yan Jinshi (閻金氏) filed an affidavit on April 20, 1946, concerning her husband Yan Zhenbiao (閻振標), age 61, who was bayoneted to death by a Japanese soldier in front of 2 Sanpailou Street around 9 a.m. on December 14, 1937. In the survey form, she stated: He was home looking after the house when an enemy soldier asked him to get out, then bayoneted him through twice, in the chest and between the side ribs. He fell to the street. When the body was placed inside a coffin, enemy soldiers took the body out, insisting it be exposed, and I dared not do anything about it. I did not have his body coffined for burial at a charity grave site until seven or eight days later, when the enemy’s bluster somehow abated.19

4.3  Massacres at Shanxi Road and Dafang Lane

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Xu Jishun (徐吉順) and his family moved into the refugee camp at Dafang Lane before the Japanese entered the city. On December 13, 1937, he and his two brothers were forced to come out to “welcome” Japanese troops on the street. Japanese soldiers did not seem to need their welcome. Instead, they needed the three brothers to be laborers for them by carrying communication wire. When they got to Sanpailou, a Chinese youth in a student uniform came in sight, and a Japanese soldier shot him dead without delay; at Sajiawan (薩家灣), they saw two or three hundred Chinese in white shirts tied up, kneeling by roadside. They learned the following day that those people had been shot dead.20 American missionary Wilson Plumer Mills asked Mao Delin (毛德林), a University of Nanking staff member, to make an inspection round on the various church facilities around the city. From December 15 to 18, 1937, he made the inspection in a car. He recalled that when he passed through the Sanpailou area, he saw piles of dead bodies in a ditch opposite the Ministry of Railroad. The pavements on both sides of the road were strewn with corpses as well. Some of the dead were soldiers, some were civilians aged 50 or older, but there were also youths and adolescents both male and female.21

4.3  Massacres at Shanxi Road and Dafang Lane About one mile southeast from Sanpailou is Shanxi Road, which, built in 1931, runs about 460 m long from northeast to southwest connecting Ninghai Road and North Zhongshan Road. Japanese troops carried out relatively small-scale massacres around this area. Chen Fubao (陳福寳) survived a mass execution by a pond at West Bridge (西 橋) not far from Shanxi Road. When the Japanese came to Nanjing, Chen Fubao was 18 and took shelter in the refugee zone. On December 13, 1937, five Japanese soldiers came to pick out 39 people, including him, and marched them to a pond at West Bridge, where they were checked one by one. Consequently, except one other person and himself, all 37 people were killed. The Japanese then forced him and the other person to throw their bodies into the pond.22 Zhao Xinglong (趙興隆) was 17 in December 1937 when his family took refuge in a residence on Ninghai Road close to Shanxi Road. Japanese troops came to his neighborhood to search for Chinese soldiers and able-bodied youths. Over 30 people, himself included, were corralled to the Shanxi Road square, where they were lined up, asking family members to claim them. However, only three were claimed, and he was one of them. The rest of the 30 plus persons were marched to West Bridge to be machine gunned. He went to that spot later and found dead bodies strewn all over, too horrific to look at.23 What Chen Fubao and Zhao Xinglong described can be supported by other eyewitness accounts. On the evening of December 14, 1937, Wu Liancheng (吴連城) happened to be there and found hundreds of dead Chinese in the ponds at West Bridge.

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4  Small-Scale Mass Executions and Individual Killings According to what a survivor told me, Japanese soldiers drove the Chinese into the river and bayoneted those who refused to get into the water. After they were driven into the water, the Japanese soldiers shot them with machine guns around the pond. Thus, several hundred people were killed in the water, turning the water red with blood.24

Yuan Congrong (袁從榮) offered similar testimony, and he indicated, “On Lunar Calendar November 19, Minguo 26th Year, I saw at West Bridge by Jiangsu Road (江 蘇路), which back then was a grave ground, one of the ponds was filled with dead bodies who had been killed by Japanese troops, and there were corpses strewn all over.”25 In December 1937, Chen Jinhe (陳金和)’s family of four moved from Xiaguan into Shanxi Road Elementary School for refuge. One day, a squad of Japanese soldiers broke into the school, driving all the five to six hundred refugees there to the playing ground and dividing them into a male group and a female group. Her elder brother was suspected as a Chinese soldier, but her mother claimed him to have him released. However, those youths who had nobody to claim them were rounded up as Chinese soldiers and sent away in six or seven trucks to the woods behind Shanxi Road near a nunnery, where they were machine gunned and bayoneted. The following day, when she went to wash vegetables, she saw dead bodies strewn everywhere in the above-mentioned woods.26 Gao Lanying (高蘭英) was 22 when her family moved into the refugee zone at Guangdong Xincun (廣東新村) near Shanghai Road when the Japanese launched attacks at Nanjing. After they entered the city, Japanese soldiers often came to her neighborhood, detaining people. At noon on December 26, 1937, her husband Gu Tongxiang (谷同祥) was taken away at the doorway of their residence, though he returned 2  h later. Around 2  p.m. the same day, her younger brother-in-law Gu Tongsen (谷同森) was marched away by 4 Japanese soldiers. At dusk, many people were machine gunned at the edge of a pond inside a big vegetable garden near Shanxi Road. In March 1938, after her father-in-law Gu Tingyuan (谷亭元) learned that quite a few decomposed bodies had been dragged out from that vegetable garden’s pond, she and her husband accompanied her father-in-law to go there, hoping to claim the body of her young-er brother-in-law, but they did not find his body.27 German businessman Christian Kröger and Austrian citizen Rupert Hatz witnessed an execution in a pond close to Shanxi Road. Their report was included as Case 185 in the documents of the International Committee for Nanjing Safety Zone: On the morning of Jan. 9th, Mr. Kröger and Hatz saw a Japanese officer and soldier executing a poor man in civilian clothes in a pond inside the Safety Zone on Shansi Road, just east of the Sino-British Boxer Indemnity Building. The man was standing in the pond up to his waist in water on which the ice was broken and was wobbling around when Mr. Kröger and Hatz arrived. The officer gave an order and the soldier lay down behind a sandbag and fired a rifle at the man and hit him in one shoulder. He fired again and missed the man. The third shot killed him. (Kröger, Hatz)28

On January 13, 1938, a German eyewitness reported, “Until 26 December the corpses of 30 chained and shot coolies lay on the streets at the Communications Ministry. About 50 corpses lie in a pond not far from the Shansi Lou, in a temple lie 20, and on 13 January 1938, 20 corpses were still lying around at the end of the Kiangsu Lou.”29

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Dafang Lane, about 600 m in length, runs from west to east, with its west end joining Jiangsu Road, only about 150 m away from Shanxi Road, with its east end meeting Yunna Road (雲南路) and North Zhonshan Road. At its eastern tip sat the Overseas Chinese Guest House, in which a refugee camp was established, sheltering thousands of refugees. In 1937, there were large open spaces and several big ponds around the Dafang Lane area. According to the testimonies, petitions and affidavits filed by various people, mass executions were carried out by Japanese troops in the area. Cheng Jinhai (程金海), then 37, was a survivor of one of the massacres there. In 1984 he gave his testimony: I was one of the survivors of the Nanjing Massacre committed by Japanese troops. At the time, I lived at 11 Langya Road (琅玡路). One day in Lunar Calendar November 1937, I and two neighbors went out on the street to see what was going on, but accidently we were spotted by Japanese soldiers who checked on the three of us. They thought I looked like a soldier and immediately tied my hands behind my back with ropes, and take me to the refugee camp at Dafang Lane. The other two were set free. From 9 a.m., all those who had been detained were sent here, and by 4 p.m., there were several hundred detainees. Since 9 a.m. when I was detained, my hands had been tied behind my back, and I had to urinate and shit inside my pants. After 4 p.m., the Japanese soldiers mowed us down with machine guns. Because I was at the back and the bodies of those killed in front of me toppled over me, I was not hit by any bullets. After the machine gun shooting stopped, I heard them shoot those who were not yet dead with rifles. I lay there motionless, so the Japanese soldiers assumed I was dead. After the Japanese soldiers left, I climbed up and did not walk far before I encountered my neighbor named Huang (黄), who helped untie my ropes. I went back home and thus survived.30

Another person, Li Qihong (李其宏), also 37 in 1937, narrowly escaped a massacre at Dafang Lane. When the Japanese came into the city, he took shelter in a refugee camp at Hankou Road (漢口路). One day around 9 a.m., Japanese soldiers came to line people up in 10 columns, and march them to Big Bell Pavilion (大锺 亭) near Drum Tower. Gathered there were about 700 people, on whom Japanese soldiers checked one by one. After the examination, Li, along with 12 others, was released, while the rest were driven to the open area by Land God Temple (土地廟) at Dafang Lane, where they were massacred.31 On October 14, 1945, Xu Jialu (徐嘉禄) filed a petition to the Nanjing Municipal Government concerning his son Xu Jingsen (徐静森) who, together with hundreds of others, had been killed in the Dafang Lane area. On the morning of December 16, 1937, four Japanese soldiers broke into the residence at 4 Drum Tower Fifth Lane, searching and rounding up over a dozen young people, including his son. The Japanese checked on these young people one by one outside the house before marching them away. Xu Jialu followed the party and found out that they were driven to an open ground at Dafang Lane. By dusk, they had gathered there ­thousands of youths, of whom four to five hundred were picked out and machine gunned by a pond nearby, and the rest were marched away.32 Xu’s description is borne out by others’ testimony. Wang Sushi (王蘇氏) and Xu Qi (徐琦) indicated in their statement that at the same residence, 4 Drum Tower Fifth Lane, four people they knew, namely, Shi Yan (石岩), 39, Chen Zaowei (陳肇

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委), 31, Hu Ruiqing (胡瑞卿), 30, and Wang Kecun (王克村), 23, were taken away and sent to the open ground at Dafang Lane and never returned.33 On March 29, 1946, Yu Zhongduo (俞仲鐸) and Yu Zhushi (俞朱氏) filed a petition concerning their 17-year-old son Yu Shungui (俞順貴), who had been taken by the Japanese to Dafang Lane. The Yu family took shelter at a refugee center at Yunnan Road, and on the morning of December 16, Japanese soldiers broke into the residence and took away their son to an open area at Dafang Lane, where there gathered thousands of young people, some of whom were machine gunned there. They never heard about their son.34 In an affidavit filed on January 8, 1946, Xie Baojin (謝寳金) stated that, at about 2 p.m. on December 16, 1937, two Japanese soldiers unexpectedly broke into his house at 12 Fuzuo Road (傅佐路), taking away Xie Laifu (謝来福), who was home reading, and Li Xiaoer (李小二), who was sleeping. At 4  p.m. the same day, he saw Japanese soldiers march away 5 civilians who were tied up and linked together before he heard several shots. Until 6 p.m. he saw more than 200 people shot dead in a pond. At the time, he did not have the courage to take a closer look. Over 40 days later, he returned to that pond. The 200 plus corpses were so bloated and heavily decomposed that they were unrecognizable. The two persons never returned.35 Deng Mingxia (鄧明霞) and Liu Fengying (劉鳳英) gave similar testimonies in 1984. Deng Mingxia stated that on December 27, 1937, several hundred young males were shot by a pond at Dafang Lane, the pond water turning red with blood. Her 35-year-old husband Deng Ronggui (鄧榮貴) was one of the victims.36 Liu Fengying’s two elder brothers, Liu Guangrong (劉光榮), 21, and Liu Guanghua (劉 光華), 19, were taken by the Japanese to Dafang Lane. It was learned later that all the people detained had been shot by the three big ponds there. In the spring of 1938, when charity organizations were burying the bodies, her grandma took her to the three ponds, but the bodies were unrecognizable.37 On December 17, 1937, American missionary John G. Magee reported a murder case at Dafang Lane: “Dec. 17th. This afternoon at about 4 p.m. three or four Japanese soldiers shot a civilian near our house at Ta Fang Hsiang where four foreigners, Rev. E.  H. Forster, Mr. Podshivoloff, Mr. Zial, and I live. (Magee)”38 Magee’s fellow missionary Ernest Herman Forster, who shared the same residence with him, wrote in a letter to his family dated January 28, 1938: From a pond at the end of the street where we are living, the corpses of more than 100 men were fished out the day before yesterday, having been in the water since Dec. 16 when they were shot and thrown in by the J. soldiers on the accusation of having been C. soldiers. Many of them were taken out of houses just around us, and we know they were not soldiers. But the thirst for blood and vengeance was too strong and they were sacrificed. In many cases they were bread-winners for their families who are now destitute.39

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4.4  Massacres at Drum Tower and Yinyangying In ancient times, there were no time-keeping devices among the populace. Almost every Chinese city had in its center a drum tower, in which drums were kept and beaten every Shichen (時辰), which was the Chinese time unit equivalent to 2 h, to inform the residents of the time. Originally built in 1382 in the early Ming Dynasty, Drum Tower in Nanjing is situated roughly 1 mile southeast from Shanxi Road, and serves as the center of the northern section of the city. In 1937, Zhongyang Road (中央路) from the north, North Zhongshan Road from the northwest, Zhongshan Road from the south, Drum Tower First Lane (鼓樓一條巷) from the west and Baotai Street (保泰街) from the east all meet at the foot of Drum Tower. During the massacre period, small-scale mass executions took place in the area around Drum Tower, in particular, west and south of it. Hao Liming (郝立明) was 24 when his family went into the refugee camp at the University of Nanking. A few days later, more than 20 Japanese soldiers came to take refugees out, line them up, and march them to the Drum Tower area to the spot opposite what is now Stomatological Hospital. A Japanese soldier with long beard checked refugees one by one for calluses on the hands and cap marks on the heads. If someone did have them, he would be suspected as a Central Government Troops’ soldier and kept there. My elder brother Hao Mingyou (郝明友) and younger brother Hao Likang (郝立康) were suspected and kept there. Planning to wait for my brothers to go home together, I hid aside to wait. After a while, a Japanese soldier walked towards me, and I was so scared that I ran back home. My old father Hao Zijie (郝 子傑) had problems with his eyesight. Seeing that I came home alone, he asked, “How are your elder and younger brothers? Why don’t they come back?” I then told him what had happened during the day, but in the evening machine gun firing sounded from that direction. Two days later, my father missed his sons so much that he asked me to return to that place for them. I saw that dead bodies filled the pond and were strewn around on the ground. In order to cover their evil crimes, the Japanese soldiers spread lime over the bodies and made them unrecognizable. Thus, I did not find my elder and younger brothers, and they never came back. This time the Japanese soldiers drove out over one thousand refugees, of whom only 20 to 30 came back alive.40

Zhao Changrong (趙長榮) was 23 in December 1937 when his family sought refuge in the refugee zone at Yinyangying. On the morning of December 15, he was detained by Japanese soldiers at the residence. Also detained at the same time were his younger brother-in-law, 20, a mason named Yang (楊) in his forties who worked for his father, as well as another person taken elsewhere. From morning to 3 p.m., altogether 208 people were in custody, when a Japanese officer and an interpreter came to have a body count. The Japanese gathered them by the roadside of Drum Tower Fourth Lane.41

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4  Small-Scale Mass Executions and Individual Killings The Japanese officer asked through an interpreter: “Are you soldiers?” Everybody then answered: “No, we are not soldiers.” He asked again: “Do you know where to find hay for feeding horses? Where to find white sugar and brown sugar? Where is the home of Nanjing’s Jiang Luzi (蒋驢子)?” At the time, two trucks parked by the roadside, and when more than 20 people indicated that they knew, they were sent away in trucks right away. I had no idea as to their fate. As to the 181 people left behind, those whose family members claimed as their sons and husbands were released to go back. My brother-in-law was claimed back by my mother-in-law. Untill 5 p.m. I was standing in the first row when my 5-year-old son Zhao Zhiguo (趙治國), who knew how he got there, approached me to have his arms around me, and I held him up in my arms. The officer came over, asking: “Your child?” I said, “Yes.” Then he let me go. After that, the remaining 180 people were marched to the riverside near Drum Tower Third Lane. They were pushed into the river before they were machine gunned to death, with Yang, the mason, my neighbor Zhang Hongsheng (张洪生) and his son, and my former classmate Zhang Shiqing (張世清) among them. (ibid.)

Jiang Fengsheng (江鳳生) moved into the University of Nanking Middle School for refuge. When the Japanese came to conduct registration they rounded up young people, and asked the family members to claim them. Those who had nobody to claim them were put into six trucks and were taken to a big pond at Drum Tower Third Lane, where they were mowed down with machine guns.42 Ma Suzhen (馬素珍)’s mother and her six siblings moved to stay at Yinyangying in December 1937. One day at noon, Japanese soldiers came to take her eldest brother away and never returned. Her mother had tried repeatedly to inquire about and went around to look for him. When she accompanied her mother on a search trip at Drum Tower Third Lane, they saw dead bodies strewn everywhere there, still tied and linked with one another with wire, piled up, but they did not find her brother’s body.43 Included in the documents of the International Committee for Nanjing Safety Zone as Case 1 is a murder case, in which 6 street sweepers were killed in the Drum Tower area: Six street sweepers of the second division of the Sanitary Commission of the Safety Zone were killed in the house they occupied at Kuleo and one seriously injured with a bayonet by Japanese soldiers on December 15th. No apparent reason whatever. These men were our employees. The soldiers entered the house. (Later, a seventh is at University Hospital with bayonet wound in neck.)44

Both Zhang Wangshi (張汪氏) and Lu Liushi (吕劉氏) filed affidavits in 1946 concerning their family members murdered near a pond at Drum Tower Fourth Lane. Zhang stated that her son, Zhang Deliang (張德亮), was taken by the Japanese at 10 a.m. on December 16, 1937 from the Judicial Training Center (司法訓練所) on North Zhongshan Road, where she and her son were taking refuge. She begged for mercy, but the Japanese beat her with a wooden stick, taking him away anyway. Her nephew Zhang Decai (張德才), who had also been detained, returned to tell that her son and others were mass murdered by a pond at Drum Tower Fourth Lane.45 Lu’s description is similar to that of Zhang’s. Her husband Lu Falin (吕發林) and son Lu Qiyun (吕啓雲) were taken away at the same time from the same location. It was also Zhang Decai who told her that they were mass executed at the same location as Zhang Wangshi’s son.46

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When Nanjing was under siege, Sun Jiashi (孫賈氏)’s family moved into the refuge zone, staying at 8 Drum Tower Third Lane. On the morning of December 13, 1937, Japanese soldiers broke into her residence, beating her father of 78 to death because he failed to produce young girls. Around 11 a.m. that day, she witnessed about 270 Chinese, tied up with ropes, machine gunned on Yunnan Road. She lost five family members, namely, husband, elder brother-in-law, nephew, and younger sister’s two brothers-in-law, to one massacre.47 Bian Lifen (汴立芬) was a 9-year-old girl in December 1937 when her family took shelter in the refugee camp on Hankou Road. She remembered “Once while walking past Zhang Family Vegetable Garden (張家菜園), we saw at the entrance of the lane many dead bodies, with blood still gushing out of some of them, and the ground covered with blood. Japanese troops slaughtered Chinese people even easier than killing chickens and ducks.” She also recalled, “At a pond near the University of Nanking, Japanese soldiers tied the hands of suspected male youths with ropes, then made them kneel down around the pond before machine gunning them. Those who knelt there then fell into the pond, with its water turning red with blood.”48 Mao Delin indicated that there were two mass graves on the University of Nanking campus: one was west of the observatory, 10 m long and 3 m wide, covered with a layer of 2 m high yellow earth; and the other was south of Drum Tower First Lane and was at the east end of what would later become the university’s carpentry workshop, a pit with a diameter of 5 m, covered with a layer of 3 m earth.49 When Qiu Jinfu (邱金夫) was taking refuge at Jinyin Street (金银街), he helped bury a refugee housemate who had been shot by the Japanese in their house. They turned a wooden box into a coffin and went to bury him on the slope north of the house, where he found other 18 dead bodies lying strewn.50 Li Wenguo (李文國) also indicated in his testimony that Drum Tower Third Lane and Fourth Lane were lined with dead bodies.51 Yu Yangjinhua (余楊金華), 20  in 1937, testified, “About four weeks after Japanese troops entered the city, I saw with my own eyes in the lanes on both sides of the Drum Tower Hospital an American directing Chinese workers to carry more than a hundred bodies of the Chinese, who had been killed by the Japanese troops, into dug-outs to be buried.”52 Her testimony can be verified by a letter written by James H. McCallum, who was the business manager of the University of Nanking Hospital, popularly known to the locals as the Drum Tower Hospital. In his January 7, 1938 letter, McCallum told his friends: Permits to bury have not been obtainable. I have buried more than 38 in hospital dugouts and gathered a few off the streets nearby, most of them soldiers, and buried them without permits. The loss of life has been appalling. Men, women, children of all ages and on slightest or no apparent cause have been shot or bayoneted. We have seen them marched off by the hundreds and later machine guns and other evidence announced their fate to us. Many of course were former Chinese soldiers who changed to civilian clothing but a large percentage were not and could have been proved as to occupation and relationship. But military ways are impossible to deal with and when individual soldiers are to be accusers, judge and executioner there is little to be done. We only hear about it afterward and get the story from survivors.53

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In 1937, Yinyangying was a street which ran about 700 m south of and parallel to Dafang Lane between Ninghai Road and Shanghai Road. It connected Beiping Road (北平路) on the west and Drum Tower First Lane on the east. In the early 1950s, Yinyangying and Drum Tower First Lane were widened and, together with Beiping Road, turned into one thoroughfare, West Beijing Road. The former Yinyangying is the central part of what is now West Beijing Road. Immediately after the Japanese captured the city, small-scale massacres took place by the ponds in the Yinyangying region. On November 11, 1945, Yu Mingong (於敏恭) filed a petition stating his nephew, Yu Minde (於明德), had been shot dead with many others at Yinyangying. In the fall of 1937, Japanese planes bombed Nanjing. A bomb was dropped in the residential area of Dashamao Lane (大紗帽巷) and exploded at the house next door to the Yu family residence. The family then moved to take shelter at Yinyangying. On December 14, 1937, Japanese soldiers accused Yu Minde, then 18, of being a Chinese soldier and shot him by a pond south of Yinyangying along with hundreds others.54 Zhou Fengying (周鳳英), a married woman of 23, and her family of 10 took refuge at Drum Tower Second Lane in December 1937. On December 16, 5 of her family members: her uncle-in-law Zhou Bifu (周必富), 51, eldest brother-in-law Zhou Yongchun (周永春), 36, second brother-in-law Zhou Yongshou (周永壽), 33, third brother-in-law Zhou Yongcai (周永財), 30, and fourth brother-in-law Zhou Yonglin (周永林), 27, were massacred as suspected Chinese soldiers.55 It was the third day after Japanese troops entered the city to commit massacres, and it was Lunar Calendar November 14. A little after 8 a.m., seven or eight Japanese soldiers drove out more than one hundred refugees from our compound, confined them by surrounding them with iron wire, and checked on them one by one. If they found people with cap marks, calluses on hands and shoulders, these people would be pulled out as Central Government soldiers to stand on the other side. The men-folk in my household grew vegetables at Zhimaying (止馬營). Because the brother and uncle-in-law often held rakes with their hands and carried loads on their shoulders, they of course had thick calluses. The Japanese soldiers made five of my family members, uncle-in-law Zhou Bifu, my brothers-in-law Yongchun, Yongshou, Yongcai and Yonlin stand out, accusing them of being Central Government soldiers who “deserved to be killed.” Towards sunset, the seven or eight Japanese soldiers marched the 100 plus people they had pulled out to a pond at Yinyangying and machine gunned them down. (ibid)

It was horrifically sad for her mother-in-law Zhou Hongshi (周洪氏) to lose four sons and a brother-in-law in one day, and she was so horrified that she hid her youngest son Zhou Yongqi (周永其) and two grandchildren inside the ceiling and sent her daughter-in-law to Ginling College, the refugee camp for women. (p. 64) Fa Fenggao (法風高)’s elder brother Fa Fengqi (法風起), 26, was shot dead because he had calluses on his hands. In December 1937, Fa Fenggao, only 10 years old, went with his elder sister and brother to seek safety in the refugee zone at Qingdao Road (青岛路). One day, Japanese soldiers broke into their refugee camp, dividing refugees into male, female, old people and young child groups, before gathering able-bodied youths together, and taking away those who had cap marks on their heads and calluses on their hands. His brother was a horse

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cart driver with calluses on his hands. Thus, he and over 200 youths were tied up and marched to a spot near Yinyangying, where they were shot dead.56 Huang Biru (黄碧如) was 25 when she and her family took shelter in the refugee zone at Mogan Road (莫干路) in December 1937. One day at around 9 or 10 a.m., she witnessed near the entrance of Yinyangying Street one to two hundred Chinese youths, tied up and linked with ropes, lined up in several columns before Japanese soldiers mowed them down with machine guns. Later, people from the Red Cross Society buried them near Drum Tower Second Lane. Her uncle, who was in his thirties, was killed in that Yinyangying street massacre, because he, the owner of a noodle and dumpling store, had calluses on his hands and shaved his head bald. He was taken by the Japanese who accused him of being a Chinese soldier.57 Ge Xiuhua (葛秀華)’s family moved into the Yinyangying refugee camp, taking shelter at 5 West Bridge. It was around 8–9 a.m. when Japanese soldiers came to 5 West Bridge to conduct a search. Five guns were discovered during the search, and the Japanese soldiers immediately detained the residents of the house, most of them young people. Her second elder brother Ge Changrong (葛長榮), 25, was among the detained.58 Altogether the Japanese soldiers took away more than 300 people, driving them to the edge of the ponds near Second Lane, West Bridge and Yinyangying. I was then 18, already married, living in my old mother-in-law’s house at 58 Ninghai Road. They hid me in the attic, where I could see the outside, but from outside one could not see what was inside. About 3 to 4 p.m. that day, a cloudy day, I saw with my own eyes Japanese soldiers set up the machine guns, mowing down the 300 plus people they had detained, killing all of them. The Japanese soldiers then threw the bodies into the pond, turning the pond water red with blood. In this massacre, the seven cousins of the Wang (汪) family, who used to live at Shigu Road (石鼓路), were all killed. So were the three sons of my parents’ neighbor Zhao Daxian (趙大線). (p. 67)

Ma Quanzhong (馬全忠), 30 at the time, lived at Jinyin Street (金银街) near Yinyangying. Around December 30, 1937, from the window on the second floor of his house, he saw Japanese soldiers drive about a dozen Chinese, linked together with ropes, up the hill behind his residence. Japanese soldiers bayoneted the 10 plus people to death, and walked away.59 Wang Yan (王琰) was only 16 when he participated in burying the victims’ bodies. He reported, “One day, we got to Yinyangying, where we saw the ponds north of the road were almost full of dead bodies. The burial squad members dragged the bodies with hooks to the high slope south of the road, and buried several hundred bodies in one pit.”60

4.5  Massacres at Wutai Hill and Shanghai Road Wutai Hill, situated about one mile east from Qingliang Hill and 1.5 miles southwest from Drum Tower, is a hilly area with a Buddhist temple on its east edge, Yongqing Temple (永慶寺), whose origin can be traced back to 500  A.D.  The

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temple served as the headquarters of the Wutai Hill refugee camp. In the early twentieth century, American residents in Nanjing established an American school, Hillcrest School, at Wutai Hill, and the school was renamed Wutai Elementary School in 1933. During the massacre period, the school also sheltered refugees. Like many other locations in the city, Japanese troops conducted mass executions and random killings at Wutai Hill and its vicinity. A number of people provided testimony and eyewitness accounts about the murder cases. Lin Xiuzhen (林秀珍) was 9 when she moved with her parents into the refugee camp at the University of Nanking in December 1937. One day not long after Japanese troops entered the city, 20 to 30 Japanese soldiers unexpectedly showed up at the refugee camp, driving several hundred refugees into the yard. Male youths were pulled out, tied up with ropes, lined up in three columns, and then a batch of 40–50 people at a time were marched to Wutai Hill. Altogether, more than one hundred young people were taken away to Wutai Hill, where they were machine gunned. When she saw Japanese soldiers tie refugees up, she trembled all over with fear.61 M. Searle Bates provided more detailed information about what had happened on the University of Nanking campus on December 26, 1937: Registration was begun in the main compound, occupied mainly by women. To the relatively small number of men there, the military authorities added more than 2,000 from the new Library. Out of the total of about 3,000 men massed together on the tennis courts below Swazey Hall, between 200 and 300 stepped out in answer to a half-hour of haranguing to this effect: “All who have been soldiers or who have performed compulsory labor (fu juh) pass to the rear. Your lives will be spared, and you will be given work if you thus voluntarily come forth. If you do not, and upon inspection you are discovered, you will be shot.” Short speeches were repeated many times over by Chinese under the instructions of Japanese officers. They were Chinese who wished to save as many of their people as possible from the fate that others had met as former soldiers or as men accused wrongfully of being former soldiers. The speeches were clearly and thoroughly heard by Mr. H. L. Sone, Mr. Charles H. Riggs, and myself, as well as by many Chinese members of the University staff.62

Consequently, around five o’clock in the afternoon, the 200 or 300 men were taken away in two groups by Japanese soldiers. One group was marched to Hanzhong Gate, and the other was taken to Wutai Hill. Bates interviewed two massacre survivors on January 3, 1938. The one who survived the Wutai Hill massacre “estimated that of his group 80 were killed and 40 to 50 escaped; one of them, wounded by a bayonet thrust, was in the Library, and could be brought to report the same facts.” (p. 143). John G Magee filmed another survivor of the Wutai Hill massacre at the University of Nanking Hospital, where the wounded survivor was undergoing treatment. The following is Magee’s caption for the footage: This man was one of a group of 200 who had stepped forth from a body of 4,000 men when they were being registered with the Japanese authorities after the capture of Nanking, as they had been promised immunity from death if they acknowledged that they had been in the army. Many others were picked up at the same time by the Japanese, even though they had not been soldiers, until there were between 300–500 men in the group. They were marched to a house near Wu Tai Shan where they were divided into groups of ten, their

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wrists being bound behind their backs with wire, and then led off to execution. He heard they were taken outside the west water gate. Before this man’s turn to be led off came, he was able to hide inside the building with three others under a great pile of mats, but they were discovered when one man coughed. They were then dragged outside, stood up with a group of about twenty, and bayoneted. He fainted after the first few thrusts, but later recovered consciousness and was able to roll and crawl to the building of the American School, where a Chinese freed his wrists of the wire and where he took refuge in a drain. He was finally able to reach the Mission hospital, where it was found he had nine bayonet wounds as well as the cuts on his wrists from the wire. He will recover.63

Zhu Zhoushi (朱周氏)’s testimony, to some extent, supports the above descriptions by Lin, Bates and Magee. When the Japanese came, she and her husband Zhu Cairong (朱才榮), 28 at the time, brought two daughters with them to seek refuge at a refugee camp at Siweitou (四衞頭), not far from Shanxi Road. It was on the third day after the Japanese entered the city that Japanese soldiers came to the refugee camp to round up young people. Her husband was a rickshaw puller and also shaved his head bald. The Japanese accused him of being a Chinese soldier and took him away. After learning that quite a few young people had been killed by Japanese soldiers with machine guns by a pond near Wutai Hill, she went to that pond to look for her husband. In the pond, she saw many young people’s bodies, some with their hands still tied up. She did not find her husband, and he never came back.64 In addition to mass executions, several eyewitnesses claimed that individual killings had taken place right in front of them around the Wutai Hill area. Worried about her home, Jin Hongshou (金宏壽)’s mother left the refugee camp to check on the house. She did not return to the camp for a long time. Jin wondered what had happened, and someone told him that his mother had been killed by the Japanese in a dugout at Wutai Hill. He went to the dugout and found a lot of people had been killed there, and he had to step over the corpses before he could find his mother’s body.65 Li Shouyi (李守義) and several others hid in an air-raid shelter at Wutai Hill in December 1937. One day, three Chinese soldiers in uniform ran past there. Before long, several Japanese soldiers in pursuit arrived at the shelter. Since they did not catch up with the Chinese soldiers, they simply took three youths out of the shelter and bayoneted them. All of them died that night.66 Su Guizhen (蘇桂珍), an 18-year-­ old girl, took shelter at the Wutai Hill refugee camp. About the third or fourth day after the Japanese came into the city, while collecting firewood by a pond, she saw two horse cart drivers washing rice on the stepping board over the pond. Two Japanese soldiers passed by and shot the two dead, leaving the bodies lying on the stepping board, their heads and feet dipping into the water. She witnessed another instance by a small pond at Wutai Hill, when a Chinese in his thirties was bayoneted in the chest by a Japanese soldier. He fell down instantly and died right there.67 Wu Xieshi (吴謝氏) and her husband took their three children with them to seek refuge in the Wutai Hill refugee camp when the Japanese came, and every day she went uphill to get food from the camp’s rice kitchen. It was close to the end of December 1937, on an extremely cold day, when I went out and ran into two old women: one with bound feet, and the other in her fifties. We went together to get soft rice, and no sooner did we get uphill than we came face to face with two Japanese soldiers. One soldier held a shiny bay-onet, and the other shouldered a spade. Once they

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saw us, one soldier bayoneted the old woman at the front to death, while the other soldier shoveled her off the slope with the spade. Then, the other old woman was bayoneted and again shoveled off, her blood covering the ground and spilling onto my clothes. At that point, I was frightened to death, but while the two soldiers leaned over to check if the old women had died or not, I mustered courage to sneak away behind the soldiers. I did not walk far before I fainted down to the ground. Later, I was saved thanks to other refugees.68

During an inspection round in the city by car in December 1937, Mao Delin saw a 2-meter high pile of dead bodies by a house at Wutai Hill.69 Shen Xien (沈锡恩), who joined a Muslin burial squad in early 1938, testified that at Wutai Hill he and his teammates buried bodies they had collected nearby.70 The area across Guangzhou Road (廣州路) north of Wutai Hill was not as densely populated in 1937 as it is at present, and there were ponds and woods on both sides of Shanghai Road. The two compounds of the American Embassy were situated in the area. After Japanese troops took the city, they carried out small-scale massacres here, as evidenced by the eyewitness accounts, including those of an American diplomat. Wang Jinlong (王錦龍) was an 18-year-old young man when his family took shelter at Yinyangying, within the refugee zone. One morning toward the end of December 1937, as he walked alone toward Shanghai Road, he saw Japanese soldiers tie up more than 40 people with ropes. He was so frightened at the sight that he hid himself, and in about 10 min, he heard a wave of gun shots. The 40 plus people were thus killed by machine guns.71 On the third day after the Japanese entered the city, four Japanese soldiers with rifles, swords and ropes broke into 6 Huaxin Lane (華新巷), in which Ma Hongyou (馬鴻有)’s family took refuge. They first pulled Ma Hongyou, then 16, out and told him to stand outside the gate. However, when they went back inside the house, he took the opportunity to run away and hide in a public latrine, where he saw the soldiers take his eldest brother Ma Hongyuan (馬鴻元), 23, and second elder brother Ma Hongbao (馬鴻寳), 20, out of the house, and have them tied up before taking them away. Immediately after they were gone, he ran back home to inform his father. Around 1 p.m., machine guns fired in the distance. After the shooting stopped, he and his father immediately went to the hilly area close to Shanghai Road, where they saw hundreds of bodies lying all around, but they did not find the two brothers, who never came back.72 Like Ma Hongyou, Wang Daming (王大銘) also lost a brother to Japanese brutality. At about 8 a.m. on December 14, 1937, Japanese soldiers came to the house in which Wang’s family were taking refuge on Shanghai Road. They accused his younger brother of being a Chinese soldier and took him away. In the evening, December 15, Japanese soldiers mowed down the people they had detained with machine guns near Shanghai Road.73 Wang Daming’s testimony is echoed in Zhang Defa (張德發)’s statement that, when he walked along Shanghai Road on his way back home from the refugee zone for rice, he saw dead bodies strewn about.74 Zhu Chuanan (朱傳安), 19 in 1937, was an apprentice to a blacksmith. In mid-­ December 1937, he saw his master’s three sons, another apprentice, and a neighbor rounded up by Japanese soldiers. Around 5 p.m. the same day, the five people were

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shot by the Japanese near Shanghai Road and their bodies dumped into a pond. The two ponds there contained about 200 bodies.75 Wang Ruiping (王瑞屏)’s husband Wu Bixin (伍必鑫) also claimed that when he passed by the ponds at Dongguashi (東瓜市) near Shanghai Road, he “saw many corpses emerged in the water, the pond water turning red with blood.”76 Their statements can be supported, to some extent, by descriptions in an American diplomatic report discovered in the State Department archives at the National Archives II, College Park, MD. In 1937, the American Embassy was situated at 82 Shanghai Road. On January 6, 1938, three American diplomats returned to the city to reopen the embassy. In a report to the Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, on January 25, 1938, James Espy, a vice consul, wrote: We were informed by Japanese themselves on the day of our arrival at Nanking that many bodies had to be cleaned up the day before. However bodies are still to be seen in houses, in ponds and along the sides of by-streets. … A small pond nearby the Embassy was dragged the other day for corpses. It disgorged some twenty or thirty bodies of Chinese dressed in civilian clothing.77

4.6  Massacres in the Eastern Suburbs When Japanese troops advanced to launch attacks toward Nanjing, they mainly came from the south, aiming at Zhonghua Gate, Tongji Gate and Guanghua Gate, and from the northeast and east to attack the Chinese positions at Purple Mountain, Zhongshan Gate and Taiping Gate, as well as the areas north of the city. The Japanese Yamada Detachment, consisting mainly of the 103rd Brigade of the 13th Division, headed by Major General Senji Yamada (山田栴二), attacked Qixia Hill on December 8, 1937 from the northeast route. Once they passed through the Qixia Hill area, they advanced toward Swallow Cliff, Yaohua Gate (堯化門) and eventually captured Mufu Mountain and Wulong Hill. The 16th Division reached Tangshan on December 7, from the east. They engaged in fierce fighting here, and then moved toward Qinlin Gate, Maqun (馬群), and Xianhe Gate (仙鶴門) before facing more intensive resistance at Purple Mountain to reach Zhongshan Gate and Taiping Gate. As evidenced by the testimonies provided by local residents and farmers, Japanese troops committed atrocities and slaughtered mainly able-bodied male civilians and soldiers alike along the path they had travelled through and in the areas they occupied. Despite Japanese opposition to foreigners stepping out of the city gates, German businessman Christian Kröger made a trip to Qixia Hill about 11 miles northeast of Nanjing on December 28, 1937, and kept a written record of what he had witnessed on his journey: My first trip to Hsi Sha Shan on 28 December came as a shock. We were strictly forbidden to leave the city, but since I needed food, I went in my car anyway. The retreating Chinese army had already burned down villages and farms. The Japanese troops, however, were not to be outdone, and continued to set fire to things on a grand scale, indiscriminately shooting farmers, women, and children out in the fields, all under the motto: “Find the evil Chinese

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soldiers!” In the fields and beside the highway lay a lot of dead water buffalo, horses, and mules, already badly eaten by dogs, crows, and magpies. By day the farmers flee to the mountains with their few possessions, and only the old women and men remain behind. Even their lives are in danger: For an hour’s drive I did not see a single live human being, not even in the larger villages. Everything has been burned down or is dead or flees the moment a car comes into view. At Thousand Buddha Mountain a large refugee camp had formed with over 10,000 people, all farmers from the vicinity. The Japanese soldiery doesn’t let that stop them, either. Even here they randomly select young boys to be shot, rape the girls, and drunken Japanese soldiers make a sport of using bayonets to skewer or slash whomever they take a dislike to, especially where there is no medical help to be had.78

American missionary John G. Magee made a similar trip to Qixia Hill in mid-­ February 1938, and a local “representative said that in a square of between 10 and 20 li each way he calculated that from 700 to 800 of the civilian population had been killed. This estimate seemed to be agreed to by the others. Let us call this, then, 5 miles square or 25 square miles. They said the cases of rape of women between 30 and 40 years old were too numerous to give an estimate while cases were known of girls about ten years old being raped.”79 The testimonies provided by local survivors and eyewitnesses give more detailed and concrete descriptions of individual cases. Zhang Wushi (張吴氏), a 34-year-old woman living in a village named Baotaijie (保太街) in the Qixia Hill area, was detained by Japanese troops to feed horses for them. In mid-December 1937, she saw Japanese troops take prisoner of 16 Chinese soldiers, whom they shot dead. She later returned to her native village only to find that Japanese troops had arrived for a mopping-up operation. She managed to hide herself elsewhere. When she returned to the village after the Japanese left, she saw dead bodies strewn all over the village, and about 100 people killed.80 When the Japanese came in the winter of 1937, Li Debiao (李德標), a boy of 15, moved with his father to the refugee camp at Qixia Temple (棲霞寺). One day, when he was outside the temple, he saw Japanese soldiers march a group of 27 able-­ bodied young males. He later learned that these people were discovered to have cap marks on their heads and calluses on their hands, for which they were accused of being Chinese soldiers and marched to the Yangtze riverside, where they were mowed down with machine guns.81 Xu Zhoushi (徐周氏), a 31-year-old farmer of Gangxia Village (崗下村) in the Qixia Hill region, told of her worst life experience, in which she lost her husband Wang Lishun (王立順) to Japanese atrocities. Her husband was a cobbler working in Nanjing, but when the Japanese were approaching, he returned home to his wife. On December 16, 1937, Japanese troops came to their native village for mopping up. As soon as they learned the Japanese were coming, villagers attempted to flee and hide outside the village. Xu and her husband had already fled out of the village, but because her husband’s two orphaned young cousins, aged 10 and 4, the couple were looking after could not run fast, they were turned back by the Japanese.82 By the time we returned to the entrance of the village, machine guns were set up on the ground, with 70 or 80 people kneeling down in the fields. We were escorted into this group

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of people. The Japanese soldiers holding rifles or waving swords, while shouting, ripping people’s shirts, and removing their caps in an effort to search for Central Government Troops. They slid the blunt edge of a Katana sword along the back of my neck, making me tremble with fear. Then, they pulled Lishun out of the crowd for examination. Lishun was a cobbler, sewing and stitching shoes all day long, and of course he had calluses on his hands. In addition, he looked like a “pale-faced young scholar,” tall and strong-built, therefore, the Japanese suspected him. No matter how hard I begged for mercy, the Japanese took no notice of me. Instead, they took my husband along with more than 20 other youths away and mowed them down in front of Chenjiayao Village (陳家窑村). At the time Lishun was only 32. How young he was! In the evening I had his body carried back on a bamboo bed. What a horribly sad sight: he was covered with blood with his arm pit shot through, two sword cuts on the arm and three fingers cut off. (ibid.)

Chen Guoxing (陳國興)’s testimony verifies Xu Zhoushi’s statement. According to him, in December 1937, Japanese troops passed by his village, Chenjiayao Village, with a large number of people they had detained. The Japanese then set up machine guns in front of the village, where they mowed down these detainees. The relatives of the victims from nearby villages quietly recovered the bodies, but after quite a few days there were still more than 30 bodies remaining with no one to claim them. Chen then joined three others in a charitable effort to bury those bodies. A large tract of land was covered with the bodies, all of whom were 20-to-30-year-old able-bodied youths with blood stains everywhere. They dug a big pit, tied their feet with ropes to drag them into the pit before placing them layer by layer in order, and covered the pit with a big mount.83 Tangshan Town, about 9  miles southeast of Qixia Hill and 15  miles east of Nanjing, is an important strategic point for either defending or attacking Nanjing. Thus, fierce fighting took place here, and massacres ensued around the area as well. According to an affidavit filed by Peng Wensong (彭問松) on May 15, 1946, from December 1937 to February 1938, more than 230 Tangshan residents were killed by the Japanese.84 Massacres also took place in the nearby villages. Xuxiang Village (許巷村)”, a village of about 200 households situated next to the highway near Tangshan, was Chen Guangxiu (陳光秀)’s birth place. Japanese troops fought along the highway to attack Nanjing, and on December 10, 1937, several Japanese soldiers collecting telephone wire along the highways ran into Chen Guangxiu’s father, Chen Zhisong (陳智松), who was on his way to the threshing ground to carry home some hay to feed oxen. The Japanese shot him dead on the spot. On December 16, a large number of Japanese troops appeared in the village, rounding up about 100 young people, mostly from the west end of the village, including Chen Guangxiu’s 16-year-old younger brother Chen Guangdong (陳光東).85 These approximately one hundred youths were led away to a 0.8 mu (50-square-meter) rice paddy belonging to the Chen family a little way down the road. … Because the paddy was so small, parts of the rows angled around the corner of the dirt ridge in an L shape. The youths were made to kneel in two rows facing each other. The soldiers

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surrounded them and all at once began killing them with bayonets. Some of the youths were not killed instantly and were stabbed several times as they cried for help. Only one young man came through this mass murder completely unharmed, a coal-mine worker named Cui Yicai [崔義財]. The soldiers just happened not to stab him, but he fell over along with the others and played dead as the blood of the other victims splashed over him, and no one noticed. Two other young men, Liu Qingzhi [劉應誌] and Shi Xian [時先], received wounds that missed all their vital organs, and they were later treated and saved. Of the approximately one hundred youths, only these three survived.86

Apparently, mass murder was committed wherever Japanese troops went, even in remote rural areas. Gao Ping (高平) was a woman of 25 in 1937 living in a village near Qinglong Mountain (青龍山), about 11 miles east of Nanjing. She testified that after Japanese troops came to her village, she saw them drive more than 30 villagers into a rice mill, where they were all killed.87 Shao Hanzhen (邵翰珍) lived in Qingma Village (青馬村) near Maqun, about 4  miles east of Nanjing. When Japanese troops passed through her village, they detained and shot anyone they happened to run into, and her father Shao Jinqing (邵锦晴), grandpa Shao Caichao (邵 才潮) and maternal uncle Ren Fahe (任和發) were all shot dead by the Japanese.88 On December 31, 1945, Mao Jiashi (毛賈氏) filed a petition with the mayor of Nanjing, Ma Chaojun (馬超俊), concerning her son Mao Hanqing (毛漢卿), who was killed by the Japanese. Her son opened a coal store called Maosen Coal and Coal Products Store (毛森字號煤炭窑貨店) at Xianhe Gate, about 6 miles northeast of Nanjing. Before the Japanese came, his son and several others hid themselves in a hill about 3 miles away from Xianhe Gate. At around 3 p.m. on December 16, 1937, he and five others were killed in their hiding place and thrown into a pond by the Japanese.89 Lu Yuhua (陸玉華)’s family of 8 lived in the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Park area 3 miles east of Nanjing. With the approach of the Japanese, the family members dispersed to seek refuge elsewhere, leaving her father of 62, Lu Songlin (陸松林), behind to look after their home. Japanese troops on their way to Nanjing travelled past their house and saw the old man by the door. They took this harmless man away and shot him.90 Like Lu Yuhua’s father, Ge Jinyin (葛金银)’s parents who were in their sixties, Ge Buguang (葛步廣) and Ge Shenshi (葛沈氏), stayed behind to look after their house in Bancang Village (板倉村) which was in the same region as Lu’s home. Japanese soldiers, while making the old father deliver cooking utensils, shot him dead because he could not walk fast enough. His mother was also shot in the yard of her own home.91 Yi Yazu (易亜祖) testified in an affidavit filed on December 2, 1945 that he had witnessed Yi Wushi (易吴氏), together with 50 others, shot dead on December 13, 1937, in Taiping Town (太平鄉), Xiaoling District (孝陵區).92 According to the diaries left behind by Japanese soldiers, the Japanese mass executed a large number of Chinese soldiers they had captured in many locations in the region. In his December 13, 1937 diary, Kesago Nakajima (中島今朝吾), the commander of the Japanese 16th Division, wrote, Afterwards I learned that Sasaki (佐佐木)’s troops alone had disposed of around 15,000 people, and the company commander who guarded Taiping Gate had disposed of 1,300

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people. There were about seven or eight thousand gathered near Xianhe Gate. In addition, more came continuously to surrender. To dispose of the above-mentioned seven to eight thousand people requires a huge ditch, which is difficult to find. Plan to divide them into groups of one to two hundred, and take them to a proper place to dispose of them.93

Atau Kitayama (北山舆), 32, was a soldier in the 3rd Machine Gun Squad of the 20th Infantry Regiment under the 16th Division. He recorded in his December 14, 1937 diary that the Machine Gun Squad went to Purple Mountain for a mopping up operation. “They disarmed about 800 remnant troops and killed all of the remnant enemies.”94 Shiro Azuma (東史郎), a private first class in the 3rd Company, the 20th Regiment of the 16th Division, indicated in his diary that about 7000 surrendered Chinese soldiers had been executed in the Qilin Gate area. His unit entered Nanjing around 11 a.m. on December 14, 1937, but they were ordered back to the Qilin Gate area late that day to take in a large number of surrendered Chinese soldiers. After dark, he saw about 7000 disarmed Chinese soldiers sit in the fields. That night, the captives were led to Xiaqilin Village (下麒麟村), where they were kept overnight.95 The following morning, we got the order to go to Maqun Town, guarding over there. When we kept guard in Maqun Town, we learned that the captives had been distributed to different companies, with two or three hundred to each company, who had them executed, respectively. It is said that the sole medical officer among them was ordered to be kept alive because he knew where the Chinese troops had hidden their food supplies. We did not understand why they had so many captives killed. But I feel it is too inhumane and too cruel. It is difficult for me to understand it, and I feel it is something that should not be done. The lives of 7,000 people were instantly erased from the earth, which is an irrefutable fact. (pp. 304–305)

Takeichirou Ueba (上羽武一郎), 22, a medic in the Japanese 16th Division, described in his December 21, 1937 diary that when they were on their way to visit the battle fields at Sun Yant-sen Mausoleum, “I saw about 500 bodies of those who had been shot dead, and the corpses were piled up in a wretched condition at the entrance of Taiping Gate.”96 Lin Xiuzhen (林秀珍) was 9 years old in the spring of 1938. She testified in 1984 that, after her family returned home at Yushilang Street (御史廊) from the refugee zone, she followed the adults out of Taiping Gate. I saw on both east and west sides of the gate on the downward slopes, there were people holding small flags of the Red Swastika Society to get the bodies of the Chinese, who had been murdered by Japanese troops, piled up like a big mount of flax bags with a thick layer of dirt on top of them. From a distance, they looked like two small houses made of dirt. Each pile was over 20 cubic meters, and on top of each was attached a wooden board about 5 feet long and 4 to 5 inches wide with characters written in black ink. I don’t remember what was written on the boards, though I do remember that scene very clearly. It was indeed tragic!97

Lin Xiuzhen’s testimony is verified by the Red Swastika Society’s burial record that on March 27, 1938, the society buried 500 bodies under the foot of the city wall

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outside Taiping Gate. Due to the decomposed condition of the bodies, they were buried where they had been found.98 In a memorandum to the German Embassy in Hankou concerning the situation in Nanjing dated February 17, 1938, German diplomat Paul Scharffenberg indicated that two days earlier on February 15: we were given permission to drive out to the area of the SunYat-sen mausoleum, and we got as far as the swimming pool. The lovely willows along the road near the pagoda have all been chopped down and almost all the villas have been burned. We could not walk in the area because there were still too many corpses, blackened and partially eaten by dogs.99

On April 2, 1938, Minnie Vautrin recorded in her diary, “Dr. Rosen reports that there are still many unburied bodies of Chinese soldiers out in the National Park. He hopes that some group of Chinese will become interested in burying them.”100 However, on May 11, 1938, while picking roses at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Park, Minnie Vautrin wrote in that day’s diary, “We could tell by the odors at places along the road that there were unburied bodies – probably Chinese soldiers in the thickets not far away. There were markers where Japanese soldiers had fallen.”101 As late as December 1938, local villagers reported to the municipal government that in the area outside Zhongshan Gate, there were more than 3000 unburied bodies at Linggu Temple (靈谷寺), Maqun, the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Park, and Mao Hill (茆山). Consequently, burial squads were dispatched, and it took 40 days and cost 909 dollars to collect the remains and bury more than 3000 bodies in a mass grave in an open space east of Linggu Temple. The mayor of Nanjing, Gao Guanwu (高冠 吾), wrote an epitaph for the tomb’s memorial tablet in January 1939, and the municipal government also held a memorial service in May 1939.102

4.7  Massacres in the Southern Suburbs The Japanese 6th, 114th, 3rd and 9th Divisions attacked Nanjing from the southwest, south and southeast directions. On December 8, 1937, part of the 6th Division reached Molingguan, 13  miles south of Nanjing, and in the following days, this troop pushed forward through Niushou Hill (牛首山), Tiexin Bridge (鐵心橋) and Yuhua Terrace toward Zhonghua Gate. The other part of the 6th Division turned westward several miles south of Molinguan to attack Jiangning Town (江寧鎮). This unit continued their advance by way of Banqiao Town (板橋鎮), Xishan Bridge (西善橋) and Shazhouwei (沙洲圩) toward the area outside of Shuixi Gate. Meanwhile, at Chunhua Town (淳化鎮), which is about 20  miles southeast of Nanjing, the 114th Division turned toward Dongshan Town (東山鎮), Chalukou (岔 路口), Yuhua Terrace to reach the area outside Zhonghua Gate and Tonji Gate. From Chunhua Town, the 3rd and 9th Divisions fought along Shangfang Town, Gaoqiao Gate (高橋門), and the military airfield toward Guanghua Gate. As elsewhere, their advancing paths were marked with atrocious behaviors toward disarmed Chinese soldiers and civilians.

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In 1945, Song Jinzhang (宋錦章) filed a report about the Japanese atrocities he had witnessed in Molingguan Town when Japanese troops first arrived there. He saw six members of a family named Zhang murdered. Japanese soldiers forced a group of 8 or 9 elderly men and women to carry loads for them, but these folks were too old to accomplish the task. The Japanese soldiers, taking it as a refusal to do the job, bayoneted them all. He also witnessed 9 Chinese prisoners of war executed. “At noon the following day, the Chinese soldiers were taken to an open space north of the town, and each was given a spade to dig a pit as his own grave. After the digging was done, they were made to kneel in front of the pits, while the Japanese soldiers, who stood waiting behind them, fired shots when the officer raised his sword, killing all the Chinese soldiers.”103 Also living in Molingguan at the time was Xie Changrong (謝長榮)’s family of 4. Japanese soldiers shot his father dead and wounded his younger brother. In addition, he witnessed three neighbors bayoneted to death by the Japanese.104 Jiangning Town is about 14 miles southwest of Nanjing. Jiang Xingchun (蒋行 春), a 20-year-old tailor in 1937, moved from Nanjing back to his native village, Hanjia Village (韓家村), near Jiangning Town, as war was getting closer to the city. When Japanese troops arrived, they burned houses in the village and he had to move once again to a place in the hill two miles away from his village. Two days later, upon the news that the Japanese had slaughtered more than 400 people in Jiangning, he ventured a trip to the town, where he saw a pond filled with corpses. He was so frightened that he did not dare to live there anymore, and moved to stay with his elder brother in his home outside Zhonghua Gate.105 Huangfu Zesheng (皇甫澤生) was a 26-year-old Chinese soldier. After the Chinese defense collapsed, he followed others to Xiaguan waterfront, only to find there was no vessel available to get them across the river. Then, with hundreds of other soldiers, he headed southward to the Shangxing riverfront area, where they were captured by the Japanese and marched to a valley outside Banqiao Town, about 8.5  miles southwest of Nanjing. The Japanese soldiers mowed them down with machine guns, then bayoneted those who were still alive. Huangfu, under a pile of bodies, managed to stay motionless, and survived. Over an hour later, when it became quiet, he climbed out. He survived unharmed, but the hundreds of others were killed.106 Like Huangfu Zesheng, Zhang Zhengye (張正業) was a survivor of another massacre, though his survival experience is quite different from Huangfu’s. 22-year-old Zhang Zhengye was a soldier of the Chinese Instructional Corps. On December 12, 1937, he also followed the crowd to the riverfront with no hope of escape to the north of the river. Early the following morning, he went southward and reached a village not far from the highway from Nanjing to Dangtu (當塗) at around 2 p.m., where he was detained by Japanese troops and escorted to a house by the road. As he was made to wait in front of the house, more detainees were taken there. By sunset the number of detainees reached 131, with 60–70 Japanese soldiers guarding them. After conducting a body search for money and other articles, the Japanese forced them into the house and kept the gate shut. When it was pitch dark, about 7 p.m., the Japanese took detainees out, several at a time. The moment the detainees

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were taken out, several Japanese soldiers came over to have them tied with ropes, and then they were taken away. No gun shots were fired afterwards, which made the inmates realize that they were bayonetted. This was repeated several times until 70 or 80 people were murdered. The remaining inmates started throwing bricks and attempting to break out, with no success. Meanwhile, the Japanese started machine gunning and throwing burning hay bundles into the house. Zhang, squatting in a corner, was not hurt. Smoke was choking everyone, so one inmate broke the window with a chair and jumped out. Another inmate followed. Under cover of darkness and amidst the commotion in which the Japanese fired shots at the two runaways while chasing after them, Zhang succeeded in jumping out of the window without drawing too much attention. Thus, he survived to tell his story.107 Before the Japanese arrived, Hu Xiulan (胡秀兰) and her husband Li Fucheng (李福成) moved from Nanjing back to her native village Tiexin Bridge, about 4 miles south of the city walls of Nanjing. As soon as the Japanese arrived, they searched the village for young people. Her husband, 24 at the time, was taken by the Japanese soldiers along with 12 others. The Japanese forced them to dig a pit before making them kneel down, machine gunning them, and bayoneting everyone to finish the job. A bullet grazed her husband’s nose and he fell into the pit, while 12 bodies toppled over him. He remained alive in spite of three bayonet wounds, and managed to crawl home.108 Sun Chengying (孫成英) was a 16-year-old girl from Wangjiawa Village (王家 凹村) close to Tiexin Bridge. She and her family went to hide in a nearby hill when Japanese troops were approaching. After the Japanese left, they came down the hill back to the village only to find fellow villager Wang Gen (王根) killed in front of his doorway, covered with blood. He was in his sixties, and died of fatal bayonet wounds. Another woman, Wang Mao (王茂), in her forties, died with two bayonet wounds in her abdomen and a bullet hole in her head. Lying beside her was her 2-year-old daughter, also killed.109 Similar stories were told along the villages and towns as Japanese troops passed through. In 1937, Fu Zuojin (傅左金) lived in a village near Xishan Bridge, which is a town 6  miles southwest of Nanjing. After hearing from the villagers that Japanese troops were coming, together with others, he took his wife and mother to hide in a nearby hill. The Japanese burned down houses in his village, including his and several neighbors’ homes. That night they went to stay with his wife’s parents in another village, but Japanese troops followed them there in the afternoon the following day. His father-in-law gave him 30 dollars and urged them to run away, but his parents-in-law would stay put only to meet their tragic end: the Japanese cut off the head of his father-in-law and wounded his mother-in-law, who died a few years afterwards. He witnessed several hundred civilians mowed down with machine guns in an open space in the town.110 On December 9, 1937, Japanese troops reached the areas outside Nanjing’s southern gates. These areas were densely populated. Even though a large number of residents had evacuated into the city and the refugee zone, there were still a good percentage of residents, in particular, elderly people who, from previous experience, assumed that war would not harm them. But this time, they were wrong. Due to the

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fierce battles, a large number of residents and widespread atrocities, the loss of human life was enormous. With dead bodies all over the place, it was truly a wretched sight. Liu Songsong (劉松松), 31, was a rickshaw puller, and on December 15, 1937, he was made a forced laborer, pulling ammunitions for the Japanese troops from Zhonghua Gate to Molingguan, 13  miles away. Along the way he saw countless dead bodies strewn along the road, and sometimes, his rickshaw had to roll over the bodies. Among the dead, he saw an old man in his eighties who had been bayoneted to death.111 Several months later in March 1938, Sheng Wenzhi (盛文治) travelled through the same area, though in the opposite direction, from the country to Nanjing. While passing through such places as Majiadian (馬家店), Dadingfang (大定坊), and Tiexin Bridge, he saw hundreds of human bodies and horse remains along the roadsides. In particular, between Tiexin Bridge and Shizigang (石子崗), there were a large number of corpses. Many of the bodies, eaten by eagles and dogs, were fragmented and blackened due to decomposition. An unbearable stench permeated in the air.112 Because many local civilians were slaughtered in these areas, quite a few residents filed petitions or affidavits or offered testimonies concerning the tragic deaths of their family members and neighbors at the hands of invading Japanese troops. Sun Yucai (孫育才) was a 9-year-old boy, and his family lived at Xiyang Lane (西 羊巷) in the Yuhua Terrace area. On December 12, 1937, when Japanese troops reached the neighborhood, residents tried their best to hide themselves. Inside a horse barn nearby, there was an underground cave in which 27 people, including his parents, sister, brother and himself, hid. At about 5 p.m. that day, Japanese soldiers discovered the cave’s entrance, and when they smoked out the hiding residents, they bayoneted them one by one, including young children, as they emerged from the cave. A total of 22 people were killed.113 Yang Chunlin (楊椿林) filed a petition in May 1946 concerning his mother and elder brother, who were killed by Japanese soldiers. On December 12, 1937, over a dozen Japanese soldiers came to his home at 107 Yuhua Road (雨花路), forcing his mother, Yang Heshi (楊何氏), and brother, Yang Chunhuai (楊椿懷), to cook a meal for them. After the meal, they shot his mother and brother dead, and wounded his sister-in-law with bayonet.114 On July 28, 1946, Li Xiongshi (李熊氏) stated in a survey report that on December 13, 1937, 5 Japanese soldiers came to her residence at 11 Saozhou Lane (掃帚巷), tied up her husband Li Kaifa (李開發) and 4 others who took refuge at the residence before taking them to Yuhua Terrace, where the 5 were shot.115 Yue Songshou (岳松壽) was 30 when the Japanese came and detained his grandfather at Hujuguan (虎踞關). They forced him to carry comforters for them. The family did not know his whereabouts for some time until an acquaintance came to inform the family that he had seen the body of his grandfather outside Zhonghua Gate and asked them to go there to verify. Unfortunately, it was indeed his grandfather, his face still bleeding. The family buried the body.116 In the area, there were several Buddhist temples, all of which were broken into and searched. The people inside, including monks and nuns, were all shot dead.

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Changsheng Temple (長生寺) was situated at Fangjia Lane (方家巷) outside Zhonghua Gate. On December 12, 1937, Japanese soldiers broke into the temple, took out 19 monks and shot them along with an unknown number of local civilians. The eyewitness was a monk from the temple named Hailong (海隆). He hid inside the Earth Bodhisattva shrine and survived.117 At the approach of Japanese troops, more than 30 local residents took refuge in the basement of the Longhua Temple (龍華寺) which was at 1 Sifangcheng (四方 城), outside Tongji Gate. On December 13, 1937, Japanese soldiers came and massacred the civilians and monks, including head monk Xinci (心慈).118 On December 8, 1945, Rui Fangyuan (芮芳緣), Zhang Hongru (張鴻儒) and Yang Guangcai (楊廣才) filed an affidavit concerning their efforts to collect and bury dead bodies in the area outside Zhonghua Gate. Having seen so many bodies strewn in such a wretched condition, Rui Fangyuan contacted the Red Swastika Society early 1938 about burying victims’ bodies there. The person in charge of the Red Swastika Society introduced him to the charity section of the First District Government, and from them he obtained the Red Swastika flags and emblems etc. Then, more than 30 caring persons who recently returned from the places in which they took refuge were mobilized to organize a volunteer burial squad to start the burial work on the sixth of the month. It took more than 40 days’ hard work to collect over 5,000 bodies in the area, from the outer city walls outside the southern gate to the Flower Goddess Temple (花神廟) area. In addition, on the second and third floors of the dormitory inside the arsenal, more than 2,000 bodies of Chinese soldiers were collected and buried under Yuhua Terrace, Wangjiang Rock (望江磯) and Flower Goddess Temple respectively. This testimony was corroborated when piles of skeletons were excavated at these sites.119

4.8  K  illings in the Southern Section of the City Inside the City Walls On the morning of December 13, 1937, Japanese troops entered Nanjing through Zhonghua, Shuixi, Tongji and Guanghua Gates. Once inside the city walls, on the streets of the densely populated southern section, the Japanese soldier immediately conducted mopping-up operations, searching for able-bodied young males. But in the process of mopping up, they shot anyone they happened to encounter, whoever they were, men, or women, old or young. Because a large number of residents moved into the refugee zone, leaving elderly family members, male or female, behind to look after their homes, many elderly people, some in their eighties, were murdered, as evidenced by testimonies provided by a variety of people. Shi Xuehui (史學慧) was 17 and her family lived at 10 Xinfuyuan (信府苑) inside Zhonghua Gate when her father of 63, Shi Erxiao (史爾孝) was shot by the Japanese on December 13, 1937. That day, a large number of Japanese soldiers, presumably searching for Chinese soldiers, conducted house-to-house searches in the South City. At the time, her mother, two sisters and herself went different ways to seek refuge elsewhere, leaving her father no option but to stay home to take care of the house. “When Japanese soldiers got to my house, as soon as they stepped in

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they shot my father, who fell instantly in a pool of blood, though he was not dead yet, but seriously wounded. However, with nobody to attend him, neither any medical treatment available, he died on the third day.”120 In the winter of 1937, Fu Yongcheng (傅永成) just turned 10. His family, with no means to move, stayed put in their residence on Changle Street (長樂 街). He recalled: I saw a peddler, who was selling dumplings on the street, shot dead by Japanese soldiers. Upon hearing the gunshots, my father got me home, closed the gate and had it bolted, but the Japanese soldiers had the gate smashed open, dragged my father Fu Shouqi (傅壽琪) out to the street and shot him dead. The Japanese soldiers took out another man named Zha (查) in our compound and cut open his head with a sword. Zha’s mother, seeing that her son had been killed, struggled with them regardless of the danger to her own life, but she, too, was kicked to death. The Japanese soldiers also took me out and pulled down my pants. Seeing that I was a boy, they spared me terrible treatment. On our Changle Street, altogether more than 20 people got killed, …121

One day in the winter of 1937, a group of armed Japanese soldiers came to 24 Yudai Lane (玉带巷), the home of Zhao Kezhen (趙克珍), who was then 10 years old. Her mother, though trembling with fear, managed to welcome them with a bowl of tea, but her welcome met with a bayonet. She was bayoneted in the chest, and died instantly in a pool of blood. They then broke open the next door neighbor’s door, from which a white-bearded old man stepped forward. Before he had time to utter a word, he was bayoneted, falling to the ground with a painful scream. Hearing the scream, his son hastened out to check what had happened. He was shot dead the moment he showed his face. Thus, in a short time, the Japanese soldiers threw five families along Yudai Lane into bloodbath, killing 13 people.122 On July 18, 1946, a survey report was filed concerning the massacre of Buddhist monks at Zhengjue Temple (正覺寺), which was situated at 444 Wuding Gate Street (武定門大街). When Japanese soldiers arrived at the temple on December 13, 1937, there were 15 monks in the temple. The monks were taken to an open area inside the temple compound, where they were shot dead with rifles or bayoneted. Also massacred with the monks were more than 30 people, their names unknown, who came to take refuge in the temple.123 Liu Kanglin (劉康林) presented a petition to the Nanjing Municipal Government on December 24, 1945 concerning his parents, younger brother and sister, all of whom had been killed in their home by the Japanese. When Japanese troops came to Nanjing, Liu Kanglin was not home. He served as a fireman in the police station. His family, too poor to move elsewhere for refuge, stayed in their house at 21 Shiguanyin Slum (石觀音棚户). On December 13, 1937, Japanese soldiers broke into their house, killing his father Liu Jiaxing (劉家興), 54, mother Liu Weishi (劉 魏氏), 46, younger brother Liu Kangyu (劉康餘), 12, and Younger sister Liu Xiaoming (劉小明), only 5.124 The bloody murder Chen Jun (陳俊)’s family suffered is even more tragic than that of Liu Kanglin’s. In an affidavit filed on December 19, 1945, Chen Jun retold her grandmother’s words before her death concerning the family members who had been murdered on their way to the refugee zone. His grandmother Chen

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Shenshi (陳沈氏), with serious bayonet wounds in her waist and thigh still bleeding, told him the following: On the morning of December 13, [1937], coming from home at 6 Small Dangjia Lane (小 黨家巷) on the way to the refugee zone, I led four people, the second son Chen Xingbei (陳星北), the second daughter-in-law Chen Wangshi (陳王氏), grandson Shunsheng (順 生), and granddaughter Wanru (婉如) to Lao Wangfu Road (老王府路), where we encountered 12 Japanese soldiers. Four of the soldiers took Chen Xingbei away, two of the soldiers dragged Chen Shenshi to the ground, while another soldier, because grandson Shunsheng was crying and screaming, bayoneted him in the throat, killing him. Granddaughter Wanru was crying her heart out. The soldiers kicked her before smothering her to death with clothes. The rest of the soldiers surrounded the second daughter-in-law Chen Wangshi, attempting to rape her; they ripped her undergarment, but she resisted and the soldiers angrily bayoneted her violently, tearing out her bowels. As a cruel punishment for resisting rape, she was killed. When they were leaving, the soldiers bayoneted me in the waist and thigh. Now I come to seek medical treatment, but I am afraid I may die of severe wounds at any moment.125

As late as March 10, 1938, murders were still being committed by Japanese soldiers in broad daylight. American missionary W. P. Mills filed a murder case taking place in the Menxi (門西) area inside Zhonghua Gate: March 10th, about 8 p.m. five Japanese soldiers wearing blue and yellow uniforms came to the Ts’ai house in Men-si. While two soldiers kept watch outside, the other three entered the house asking for money. The whole family fell down on their knees begging for mercy. The three soldiers placed a wooden ladder in front of the room door. With a rope they tied the two hands of the husband to the ladder and left him hanging there. They began to search the family and took away: one five-dollar note, one ten-sen Japanese coin, three Chinese double dimes, one paper money and coppers; after turning over wardrobes and trunks, they took away a fur robe, one woman’s winter clothes, one photograph. On leaving, they stabbed Ts’ai’s thigh six times, two on each shoulder, and at last they shot him through his head and killed him instantly. They also stabbed several times the head of Ts’ai Li Shih who was on her knees, and stabbed Wang’s thigh twice. After this they went away. (Mills)126

4.9  K  illings in the Western and Southwestern Sections of the City The situation in the western and southwestern sections was similar to that of the southern part of the city. The Japanese troops entered the city through Shuixi Gate almost at the same time as those who got in through Zhonghua Gate. Judging from the large quantity of petitions, affidavits, and reports concerning murder cases filed, atrocities were extremely rampant in this part of the city. When Japanese troops fought their way into the city, Zhu Hongbao (諸鴻寳) was 15 and his family lived at 99 Cangxiang Lane (倉巷). On December 13, 1937, Japanese troops were mopping up along the streets and lanes. Several soldiers abruptly broke into Zhu’s residence while he was sitting in the room, holding his 3-year-old younger brother in his arms. They walked toward him, and without any words, one of the soldiers raised his sword, slashing him 7–8 times on his head. His

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cotton padded hat was cut to pieces and blood gushed out of his wounds. He instantly fainted, falling into a pool of blood. He eventually survived, but suffered quite a few scars on his head, as well as brain damage with a poor memory as the sequelae.127 Xie Dazhen (謝大珍) was only 9 in 1937, and her family of 5 consisted of herself, her father, mother, younger brother and sister. Her father was blind. One day, she was in bed with her sister while her father sat on the bed holding her younger brother in his arms. When several armed Japanese soldiers walked toward her house on Paifang Street (牌坊街), she quickly snuck out the back door to look for her uncle. The soldiers broke into the house and then ransacked the trunks in the house. In the process they found a photo of her aunt’s niece. The soldiers, pointing at the photo, forced her father to get a girl for them. But how could he manage to do that? They instantly bayoneted the brother dead in his father’s arms. Her mother and sister standing beside him were also killed. Her father was bayoneted, but he survived. Due to the bayonet wound, as well as the tragic death of his family members, her father died a few years later, leaving her orphaned.128 The terrible experience Liu Dengxue (劉登學) had is as tragic and shocking as Xie Dazhen’s. Around 9 a.m., on December 13, 1937, Liu Dengxue, then 25, walked from his home with his friend Li Chengdong (李成東). When they reached 7 Sanmaogong (三茅宫), they witnessed an old woman bayoneted to death by a Japanese soldier. Having spotted them, the soldier came to check on them. After discovering that Li Chengdong was wearing a grey cloth vest, the soldier accused him of being a Chinese soldier and bayoneted him three times, instantly killing him, right before Liu’s eyes. Though the soldier did not find anything suspicious about Liu and let him go, he was frightened to death. The horror was doubled when he learned that his elder brother had been beaten to death by the Japanese at Fucheng Bridge (富城橋) a month later in January 1938.129 On December 14, 1945, Shen Hashi (沈哈氏) filed a petition concerning her son, who had been bayoneted to death. Her residence was at 54 Qijiawan (七家灣) and, because the family did not have the means to evacuate, they moved to the refugee zone. On December 13, 1937, her son Shen Guangrong (沈光榮), 27, made a trip back from the refugee zone to check on their house, but on the way at Cangxiang Lane, he ran into several Japanese soldiers, who bayoneted him dead on the spot. His mother, having anticipated his return all day, was worried and made the same trip the following day to look for him. Sadly enough, she found his body at Cangxiang Lane.130 In 1937, Zuo Runde (左潤德) was 17 and lived at Wangfu Lane (王府巷), a slum neighborhood crowded with over 300 poor households. One day in December 1937, a bunch of Japanese soldiers came to his neighborhood, detaining 7 or 8 people, including Zuo. The Japanese forced the detainees to take off their cotton padded garments before taking them to a compound the local residents called Flour Mill (磨坊) and making them kneel down in a line. By the time the Japanese soldiers started bayoneting people, Zuo realized he had to take action. He touched his neighbor, who was next to him, with his elbow and both stood up abruptly. A soldier came after them, attempting to stab them with his bayonet. When the bayonet pierced his skin, he grabbed the handle of the bayonet, causing the soldier to lose balance and

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fall to the ground. Zuo took the opportunity to dash toward the gate as a shot ­narrowly missed him. By the time the second shot was fired, Zuo was already out in the lane. The soldiers came out after him, but Zuo knew the neighborhood well and was able to throw them off the trail. However, that was not the only atrocity Zuo encountered that day. In the evening of the same day, Japanese soldiers set fire to the neighborhood clinic, and the flames were soon in full swing. When people came out, attempting to extinguish the fire, a large group of Japanese soldiers ambushed them, bayoneting them dead before throwing their bodies into the flames. Some were thrown into the flames and burned alive. Altogether, more than 20 people from Wangfu Lane were burned to death.131 Also living in Zuo’s neighborhood at the time was Sun Qingyou (孫慶有), then 24, who gave a fuller account of the ambush incident. In 1984, he recalled what had happened that evening: About a week after Japanese soldiers entered the city, one evening at around 8 or 9 o’clock at Fengfu Road (豐富路) Clinic (Its original site was what is Jianye Hospital (建邺醫院)), which was right next to Wangfu Lane, Japanese soldiers made a fire to warm themselves before burning the clinic down. The flames, gaining strength and growing stronger, would soon spread to our slum neighborhood of thatched sheds, which frightened us tremendously. At the moment, the Japanese soldiers pretended to ask us to put out the fire, but in fact they wanted to kill people. When we saw the Japanese soldiers come, we dispersed into hiding. There were people who just came back from the refugee zone to check on their houses, and many of them were taken and killed. Many people who tried to put out the fire were thrown into the flames by the Japanese soldiers and burned alive. The Japanese soldiers got hold of my neighbors Xu Baoding (徐保定) and Han Tiancheng (韓天成), asking them to call people to put out the fire. They were forced to comply and got two more people to go with them. Consequently, the two who called people and the two who answered their call never returned alive. That evening, those I witnessed to be killed by the Japanese soldiers were the old couple named Fan (範), who were beaten to death with bricks; Wang Yue (王月)’s mother and blind younger brother, who were bayoneted to death; Wang Guanfa (王冠發)’s parents-in-law had been tied up with ropes before being thrown into the flames and burned to death; Bo Laowu (柏老五) and Tie Guibao (鐵貴寳)’s uncle-in-law, as well as the fellow who sold porridge on Fengfu Road, were either shot dead or slashed to death with swords..132

Lu Hongcai (陸宏才) provided testimony about another similar arson case, in which his father was killed. At the approach of Japanese troops, his father Lu Changgui (陸長貴), 54, sent him and his mother to seek refuge north of the Yangtze River, but his father, unwilling to leave home, stayed to look after the house. After coming into the city, Japanese soldiers set fire to their next door neighbor’s house. When the soldiers left, his father and other neighbors came out, attempting to put out the flames, but at this moment, the Japanese soldiers unexpectedly turned back. Other neighbors quickly ran away at the sight of the soldiers, while his father, with poor eyesight and hearing, did not notice until the soldiers were right in front of him. As a result, he was bayoneted 26 times, though he did not die right away. The neighbors carried him home and tended to him until his wife and son returned home more than a month later. He died of bayonet wounds a few days after their return.133

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Atrocity cases continued for weeks, and on January 12, 1938, the following incident was recorded as Case 188 in the documents of the International Committee of Nanjing Safety Zone: This morning two men (Ma and Ying) who have been registered returned to the home of Ma at Hansimen to see about Ma’s blind mother whom a neighbor said Japanese soldier had killed. They found the body of Ma’s mother. On the way back the two men met Japanese soldiers who demanded their clothes, then stabbed them and carried the two bodies into a dugout. One of them came to and crawled out. People saw him and gave him clothes. Then he walked back to the Sericulture Building. Two friends carried him on a bed to our Headquarters. Mr. Fitch sent them to the University Hospital. (Reported by the wounded man to Mr. Wu)134

4.10  M  assacres and Killings in the Eastern Section Within the City Walls Japanese troops entered Nanjing’s major eastern gate, Zhongshan Gate, in the early morning on December 13, 1937. No sooner had they entered the city than they started killing local residents. Zhao Kuiyuan (趙奎元) was 21 and lived at Biaoying (標營) in the eastern part of the city. Before the arrival of the Japanese, he went to the refugee zone for safety. By the end of January 1938, a man from his neighborhood named Fang Enshou (方恩壽) asked him, along with several old men to bury victims’ bodies in their neighborhood. In 1984, Zhao recalled what he had learned about those victims who met their tragic end. On December 13, 1937, around 2 a.m., Japanese troops broke through the city walls near Lifu Street (李府街). Once inside the city, Japanese soldiers went door-­ to-­door, slaughtering residents in their homes. Those local residents who were killed included Chu Chunxiang (储春香), Jin Yichun (金宜春), Li Buchao (李步超), Liu Sunshi (劉孫氏) and Chu Liushi (儲劉氏) at 1 Lifu Street, Sun Zaishan (孫在善) and Sun Lixue (孫立學) at 2 Lifu Street. At 2 Lifu Street, Sun Xushi (孫徐氏) was raped and killed. Fang Jinshan (方金山) of 13 Lifu Street, Su Yinhai (蘇银海) of 4 Huilong Bridge (迴龍橋), and Liu Tingzhi (劉庭芝) of Biaoying were killed as well. Zhao and others buried these victims. In addition, strewn on top of the city wall were 9 bodies whose identities were unknown to them. They buried those bodies as well.135 Sun Baoqing (孫寳慶) was the son of one of the above victims, Sun Zaishan. He testified in an affidavit filed on December 3, 1945, “On Lunar Calendar November 11, Minguo 26th Year, when the violent Japanese enemy soldiers of the Nakajima (中島) Troops entered the city, they killed my father Sun Zaishan (who was 56) with a sword right in front of our house at Lifu Street.”136 Zhu Maohong (诸茂洪) spoke of a similar incident, in which 6 of his family members were killed. Also on December 13, 1937, Japanese troops breached the city walls and entered the city by his house at 41 Houbiaoying (後標營), killing people indiscriminately. His maternal grandparents, paternal grandmother, his

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father, uncle, and eldest brother were all killed. His paternal grandmother’s head was cut off, and his brother was used as a shooting target.137 Xue Shijin (薛世金) was 24 in December 1937 when he made a trip from the refugee zone back to his home at Wuxueyuan (武學園) to see his mother and wife, who stayed home. However, shortly after he got home they heard the shouting of Japanese soldiers. They quickly dispersed to different hiding places. Xue Shijin hid himself in a corner inside a small backyard house, while his mother and wife got inside an underground cave by the door in the front yard. Japanese soldiers got into the front yard and in the process of searching around, they discovered the cave. After removing the odds and bits covering the cave entrance, the Japanese forced them out. As soon as his mother emerged from the cave even before she could be on her feet, a Japanese soldier cut her head off with a sword, the head tumbling far away. Seeing this, his wife trembled with fear as she crawled up, and she too was slashed by a sword in the neck, fainting in a pool of blood. The Japanese had left when she came to. Xue then sent her to the University of Nanking Hospital, where she died about 10 days later.138 The killing was so rampant that dead bodies could be seen by the roads. Hu Zhangshi (胡張氏) claimed that when she was on her way home from the refugee zone, she saw over a dozen bodies in a ditch at the end of Xiaoying Street (小營). By the time she got to her home by Taiping Gate, the house was completely burned down.139 Shinju Sato (佐藤振寿) was a photography correspondent of The Tokyo Nichinichi Shinbum who took a snapshot of two Japanese sub-lieutenants, Toshiaki Mukai and Tsuyoshi Noda, engaged in the “100-man killing contest.” He wrote a wartime memoir, “Following the Troops on Foot (從軍とは步くこと),” which was published in a Japanese right-wing collection, The Nanjing Battle History Related Source Materials, Vol. II (南京戦史資料集 II), in 1993. In the memoir, Sato recalled in detail the massacre he witnessed on December 14, 1937 inside the 88th Division’s barracks compound near the Officers’ Moral Endeavor Association: When the night was over, it was the morning of December 14. … At this moment, a correspondent ran over to tell me that something seemed to have happened at the Officers Moral Endeavor Association. Although unaware of what had happened, I took my camera with me as we went there to find out. At our destination, there was a big gate with guards on both sides. I took a photo of its complete view. Once inside the gate, I saw a military barracks building, and in front of the building was a square, in which over 100 people sat. With their hands bound behind their backs, they appeared to be captured wounded soldiers. In front of them, two big pits about five square meters in area and three meters deep had been dug. In front of the right pit, a Japanese soldier held a Chinese rifle. he made a Chinese soldier kneel down by the pit while he placed the rifle muzzle to the back of the Chinese soldier’s

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head and pulled the trigger. As the rifle fired, the Chinese soldier fell forward, like an acrobatic performance, down to the bottom of the pit, becoming a corpse. In front of the left pit, a Japanese soldier, with his upper body naked, held a rifle fixed with the bayonet, calling out, “next,” while he pulled up a sitting captive. He ordered the captive to walk toward the pit, shouted “ya!” and suddenly thrust the bayonet into the back of the Chinese soldier, who instantly fell into the pit. Occasionally, a Chinese soldier, while walking toward the pit, would suddenly turn around to run in a desperate attempt to escape. Having noticed that things had gone wrong, the Japanese soldier would quickly shot him dead. The distance from where the shot was fired to where I was, was less than a meter, and the bullet flew by my ear. That was indeed a instance of extreme danger.140

On November 28, 1945, Li Keming (李克明) filed an affidavit concerning a triple murder case. On the afternoon of December 15, 1937 three armed Japanese soldiers came to a house at 44 Houzaimen Street (後宰門), looking for girls. When they saw a woman named Ja Wangshi (賈王氏) holding her young daughter in her arms, they shot both mother and daughter dead. Jia Buling (賈步齡) attempted to go to their rescue, and he, too, was shot dead.141 Also at Houzaimen Street, 3 or 5 Japanese soldiers came on December 16, 1937 searching for girls. They forced a man named Gao Hecheng (高和成) to lead them to girls. When they were unable to find girls, they shot Gao dead in front of 15 Houzaimen Street.142 As late as March 17, 1938, American professor at Nanking Theological Seminary, Hubert Lafayette Sone, reported a similar murder, Case 466, that took place at Houzaimen Street: March 17th, at 10 p.m. six Japanese soldiers went into the house of a 40-year old farmer named Kao who lived at Hou Tsaimen. They demanded that he get some women for them. He replied he didn’t have any women and could not find any women. So they jabbed him many times in the body and in the neck and cut his head with their bayonets. He ran, but by the time he reached the door of the house, he fell down bleeding very profusely. He died without being able to get up again. The soldiers saw they had killed him so they left quickly. (Sone)143

4.11  M  ass Murder and Killings in the Central Section of the City As Japanese troops advanced northward in the city, a large number of murder cases took place in the central part of Nanjing as well. According to the testimonies provided in different time periods, many murder cases were recorded. In an affidavit filed on November 27, 1945, Du Changfu (杜長復) testified that he and Xie Deyuan (謝德源) stayed in the residence at 5 Mingwalang Street (明瓦廊) and did not move into the refugee zone mainly because they had to look after the goods stored in the

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house by a business. On the afternoon of December 13, 1937, three Japanese soldiers, armed with rifles, broke into the house. Without a word, they shot and killed Xie Deyuan, who lived in the front section of the house. Du lived in the back section and escaped through the back door.144 A few houses away at 11 Mingwalang Street lived Sun Qichen (孫啓琛)’s family. In testimony Sun provided in 1984, he stated that his father Sun Ruifeng (孫瑞 沣) was bayoneted to death by the Japanese in front of 7 Mingwalang Street. At the same time, their neighbor, Xie Deyuan, the victim in Du Changfu’s affidavit, was killed as well.145 Another witness, Li Wenguo (李文國), who lived at 14 Mingwalang Street, indicated that when he went back home from the refugee zone around December 22, 1937, he saw three dead bodies in front of his house.146 Cai Shunshou (蔡順壽) also stated that, while travelling through Mingwalang Street, he saw dead bodies in front of the rice store and the noodle shop.147 Jin Mingliang (金明亮) was 28 in 1937, working as a pastry chef at Wuquyuan Teahouse (武曲園茶館) on Hongwu Road (洪武路). His mother Jin Mashi (金馬 氏) stated in a petition she presented to the Nanjing Municipal Government on November 6, 1945 that in the evening on December 13, 1937, Jin Mingliang was shot dead by the Japanese soldiers inside the teahouse. His mother had him buried at Wutai Hill.148 Wang Yongyuan (王永源), 27, moved to live in the Doucai Bridge (豆菜橋) refugee center when Nanjing fell. He heard gunshots at night on December 13, 1937, and the following day he saw 8 dead bodies at the end of the lane. He only walked a short distance before he found another body, an old man killed by the roadside.149 Ma Jingwen (馬静雯), a 17-year-old girl, also sought refuge at the Doucai Bridge refugee center, though she had to hide herself in the attic of a building when Japanese soldiers were marauding the streets. One day, she noticed that a single male living downstairs was taken away by the Japanese, and he never returned. The following day, she saw through the transom window in the attic that Japanese soldiers took three or four hundred people to the riverbank at Doucai Bridge, making them line up facing the river, while behind them were 30 to 40 Japanese soldiers who mowed them down with three machine guns. Thus, these people were killed, with the river water there turned red with blood.150 On November 26, 1945, Jiang Shiming (蒋士明) filed an affidavit stating that on December 15, 1937, he saw with his own eyes that Ding Xuewen (丁學文), the owner of the fireworks store at 121 Guyilang Street (估衣廊), while getting stuffs inside his store, was shot dead in the store by a Japanese soldier who happened to pass there.151 On December 30, 1937, American doctor Robert Ory Wilson at the University of Nanking Hospital reported another murder case, which took place at Guyilang Street as Case 163 in the documents of the International Committee of Nanjing Safety Zone: Dec. 30th, morning, 4 men were going along Ku I Lan and Japanese soldiers opened fire on them. One was killed outright and a second wounded so seriously that the doctor does not expect him to live. He is now in University Hospital. (Wilson)152

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4.12  M  ass Executions and Killings in City’s Northern Section Han Baoru (韓寳如) was 33 and lived at 15 Xijiadatang (西家大塘) when the Japanese came to Nanjing, and he witnessed six men and women shot dead by the Japanese in front of his house on December 14, 1937. On the following day, December 15, he saw four people killed on Tianshan Road (天山路). About mid-­ December, Japanese troops were quartered at 43 Tianshan Road, and his neighbor Ni Deqiu (倪德秋) was so curious that he ventured there to have a look. He was shot dead by the Japanese right on the spot. The people present there, extremely shocked, started screaming, which prompted Japanese soldiers to shoot into the screaming crowd, killing three of his neighbors: Wang Dama (王大媽), Shi Xiaozhi (施校支) and Shi Xiaobin (施校賓). Han Baoru witnessed the whole process through his house window.153 Dai Xiuying (戴秀英), a 27-year-old-woman, moved into the refugee zone with her family. A couple of days after the Japanese entered the city, 20 or 30 armed Japanese soldiers came to the refugee center, ordering all the refugees to gather in an open space before separating them into male and female groups. They checked the people in the male group one by one. If anyone who had cap mark on the head and calluses on the hands, he would be considered as a Chinese soldier. Altogether two truckloads of people were taken away to be shot near Xuanwu Gate (玄武門). Later, people found their bodies inside Xijiadatang (西家大塘).154 The statement by Dai Xiuhua was supported by the descriptions found in a Japanese soldier’s diaries. Rokusuke Masuda (增田六助), a soldier of the Japanese 16th Division, indicated in his December 14, 1937 diary entry, “The 4th Company alone picked up more than 500 people. They were all shot dead by Xuanwu Gate.”155 In 1937, Zhu Lushi (朱陸氏) lived on the Huanzhou Island (環洲) in Xuanwu Lake (玄武湖), making a living by boating and ferrying in the lake. She testified that by mid-December 1937, one day when she was ferrying, she saw that about 150 Chinese were sent in three red-cab trucks to a pre-dug pit there to be buried alive. In the process, when some attempted to climb out of the pit, the Japanese ran them over with trucks.156 The same incident was also witnessed by Xia Guiying (夏桂英), a 16-year-old girl, whose family also made a living by ferrying in Xuanwu Lake. She stated that “By mid-December 1937, about the 16th or the 17th, Japanese soldiers used red-cab trucks to send a large number of people to Xuanwu Lake to have them buried alive” and she also indicated that “I saw with my own eyes that Japanese soldiers killed groups of Chinese with machine guns at Zhongyang Gate.”157 Wei Tinkun (魏廷坤) reported a mass murder, in which 30 to 40 people, including his parents, were killed. He was 24 when his parents, at the approach of Japanese troops, hastily took him from their residence at 18 Toutiao Lane (頭條巷) to hide in the basement of an uncompleted building at Chengxian Street (成賢街), where 30–40 people were already hiding.158 However, when one guy, who was in the business of selling fried dry bean curd, peeped around at the entrance, he was spotted by Japanese soldiers who shot him dead instantly.

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This way the Japanese soldiers discovered the entrance, and forced the people inside to get out at bayonet point. At this point, having suddenly found an unfinished chimney, I crawled into it to hide myself. Shortly afterwards, I heard a round of gun shots. Thus, my parents, along with 30 or 40 others, were murdered by the Japanese. (ibid.)

Wang Yuhua (王玉華)’s family of 8 lived at the Heping Gate area. When the Japanese came, the family hid themselves inside their house. Early morning on December 13, 1937, Japanese soldiers broke into their house, ordering everyone there to unbutton their clothes for a search. Her father was a little bit slow in unbuttoning, and a soldier instantly bayoneted him to death.159 Filed by Charles Henry Riggs in the documents of the International Committee of Nanjing Safety Zone is another murder, Case 161, which took place in the Heping Gate area as well: A man who works for a German next door to Kiangnan Kung Sze, Hopingmen, was bayoneted to death yesterday, Dec. 29th by Japanese soldiers who demanded young women at his house. There were only old women there, so the soldiers said that they would take them. This man objected. Consequently, he was killed. (Riggs)160

On April 7, 1946, Xia Zhangshi (夏張氏) filed an affidavit concerning her husband Xia Changxiang (夏長祥). As Japanese troops advanced toward Nanjing, her husband took her and the whole family to the refugee center at Shanghai Road. On December 17, 1937, her husband and one of their neighbors Jia Guangnian (賈廣 年) ventured a journey home, but they ran into several Japanese soldiers at Caoqiao (草橋) in the northern part of the city. The soldiers detained her husband, accused him of being a Chinese soldier, and shot him dead on the spot. This was witnessed by Jia Guangnian.161 On February 9, 1938, the International Committee of Nanjing Safety Zone recorded in minute detail a murder case in which three men and one woman were killed at Baiziting (百子亭). It was filed as Case 425, to be included in the book, Documents of Nanking Safety Zone: Monday morning, February 7, it was reported to us that four people, three men and one woman, had been killed on February 6 about 5 p.m. by Japanese soldiers back of Pei Tze Ting [Baiziting, 百子亭]. Just before noon a neighbor of the deceased came to our office and confirmed the story. About 4:30 p.m. the same day a Chinese girl came to our office for help because she said the woman that had been killed was her own mother. Her mother had gone home a few days before to start their home again and had taken all their money with her. She hoped to find the money on her mother’s body. Mr. Rabe and Mr. Mills went with her to the scene immediately and found the four bodies located thus with fresh pools of blood: Number one is the old man who was shot first; number two is the woman who brought aid; number 3 and 4 are the men who came to get the wounded man; the oblong object is the door.

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The story was that the old man was carrying two chairs along the path by the wire fence and a Japanese soldier stopped him and shot him on the spot. The woman, who was walking with him, noticed that he was only wounded and not dead, so she went and got two men to come with a door to take the wounded man away. When the three of them arrived at the spot, the soldier shot all three of them. It was too late that night to do anything more, so Mr. Rabe and Mr. Mills went home and decided to report to the Self-Government Committee the next morning. The following morning, Tuesday, February 8, the Self-Government Committee told us that they had learned of the case and their police had reported the matter to the T’eh Wu Chi Kwan (Special Service Corps). Consequently, we decided to go out again to see what had been done. Doctor Rosen of the German Embassy happened to be in our office at the time and said he would be glad to go along. Dr. Rosen, Mr. Rabe, Mr. Sperling and Mr. Smythe went to investigate and found the bodies had been moved to a nearby knoll for burial by the Red Swastika Society that morning. But the blood was still on the ground and on the door. Both the door and the chairs were still at the scene of the killing. The scene of the killing is near a pond surrounded by garden patches, two of which were freshly dug up for spring planting. It is about 200 yards from the nearest road and still farther from any place where soldiers were quartered. At the time these men were at the scene, soldiers were passing on the road but no soldiers were found near the scene or in the matshed houses of the farmers on the hill back of the scene. The one man left in the area told us there were many people who had returned to their homes and were out working their garden patches on the day of the killing. But the event frightened them all away. These four men saw all four bodies on the knoll partly wrapped in straw matting. The old man had gray hair, the woman had blood on her hands. The one man at the scene told us that the old man had been carrying the two chairs from a nearby matshed. February 9, 1938.162

The killings were so rampant in the northern section of the city that many places and neighborhoods were littered with dead bodies. Shen Xien (沈錫恩), who was involved in burying victims’ bodies, recalled that “under the foot of the Jiuhua Hill (九華山) there were piles of bodies that remained unburied. It was still shocking to think of that sight and mention those places.”163 Wu Jinshan (武金山) was detained on December 17 or 18, 1937 by the Japanese soldiers who forced him to carry firewood to burn dead bodies. After the job was done he was released, and when he walked through the Jinxiang River (進香河) area, he saw quite a few dead people.164 On December 18, 1937, Wang Youlin (王又林) was taken by the Japanese inside the refugee zone to carry their loot. “From Luxiying Street (蘆蓆營) to Dingjia Bridge (丁家橋), I saw Japanese soldiers conduct a house-to-house search, loot everything they lay their eyes on, and burn the civilians’ houses after they had looted the contents. I saw with my own eyes that there were 20 or 30 dead bodies lying on the road.”165

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Notes 1. “王鹏清证言 (Testimony by Wang Pengqing),” 秦景峰、曹义富、段苏宁调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Qin Jingfeng, Cao Yifu and Duan Suning), in SMN, pp. 414–415. 2. “金家仁证言 (Testimony by Jin Jiaren),” 沈兆琴、阎家林调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Shen Zhaoqin and Yan Jialin), in SMN, pp. 462–463. 3. “陈克亭证言 (Testimony by Chen Keting),” 廖萍、王昌林、贾仕英、达碧霞调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Liao Ping, Wang Changlin, Jia Shiying and Da Bixia), in CTS, p. 263. 4. “何王氏证言 (Testimony by He Wangshi),” 唐青云调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Tang Qingyun), in CTS, p. 232. 5. Minnie Vautrin, Diaries, January 26, 1938, Minnie Vautrin Papers, DCHSL. 6. Minnie Vautrin, Diaries, March 25, 1938, Minnie Vautrin Papers, DCHSL. 7. “周桂芳证言 (Testimony by Zhou Guifang),” 张连英、林金洲、夏龙生调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Zhang Lianying, Lin Jinzhou & Xia Longsheng), in CTS, pp. 362–363. 8. “中国红十字会南京分会掩埋队第二队按月统计表 (Monthly Statistics of the Second Burial Squad, China Red Cross Society Nanjing Branch),” in ADN, p. 473. 9. James H. McCallum, December 29, 1937, diary letter to wife Eva, Correspondence of James Henry & Eva Anderson McCallum, DCHSL. 10. 井家又一 (Matachi Ike), “井家又一日记 (Diary of Matachi Ike),” in NBSM, p. 479. 11. Minnie Vautrin, Diaries, December 23, 1937, Minnie Vautrin Papers, DCHSL. 12. “刘金祥证言 (Testimony by Liu Jinxiang),” 王瑞屏、魏福仲调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Wang Ruiping and Wei Fuzhong), in CTS, p. 69. 13. “唐顺山证言 (Testimony by Tang Shunshan),” 许亚洲调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Xu Yazhou), in CTS, pp. 71–72, and Honda Katsuichi, The Nanjing Massacre, pp. 161–164. 14. Katsuichi Honda, The Nanjing Massacre, pp. 164–165. 15. Case 66, January 9, 1938, in Documents of Nanking Safety Zone, ed. by Shuhsi Hsu, Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh, Limited, 1939, p. 37. 16. Minnie Vautrin, Diaries, March 13, 1939, Folder 2876, Box 145, RG11, YDSL. 17. 顾全鑫 (Gu Quanxin), “顾全鑫为其弟被日军杀死致南京市政府呈文 (A petition by Gu Quanxin to Nanjing Municipal Government concerning his younger brother who was killed by Japanese troops),” November 8, 1945, in ADN, p. 204. 18. 严金氏 (Yan Jinshi), “严金氏陈述其夫严正标被日军枪杀的结文 (An affidavit by Yan Jinshi stating his husband Yan Zhengbiao was shot dead by Japanese troops),” December 16, 1945, in ADN, p. 242. 19. 阎金氏 (Yan Jinshi), “敌人罪行调查表中关于阎振标尸体由亲属自行收埋的记录 (A record about Yan Zhenbiao’s body was buried by his family members in the Enemy Crimes Investigation Form),” April 20, 1946, in NMV5, pp. 226–227. 20. “徐吉顺证言 (Testimony by Xu Jishun),” 孙安衫、刘静雯、宛仲秀调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Sun Anshan, Liu Jingwen and Wan Zhongxiu), in CTS, p. 116. 21. “毛德林证言 (Testimony by Mao Delin),” 高兴祖调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Gao Xingzu), in CTS, p. 321. 22. “陈福宝陈述日军在城内屠杀市民记录 (A record by Chen Fubao stating Japanese troops massacred civilian residents inside the city),” February 8, 1947, in ADN, p. 289. 23. “赵兴隆证言 (Testimony by Zhao Xinglong),” 王瑞屏、魏福仲调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Wang Ruiping and Wei Fuzhong), in CTS, pp. 121–122.

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24. “吴连城证言 (Testimony by Wu Liancheng),” 陈家荣调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Chen Jiarong), in CTS, p. 58. 25. “袁从荣证言 (Testimony by Yuan Congrong),” 谢秀瑾调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Xie Xiujin), in CTS, p. 433. 26. “陈金和证言 (Testimony by Chen Jinhe),” 陈平稳据口述整理 (Recorded and edited by Chen Pingwen according to the oral account), in CTS, pp. 74–75. 27. “高兰英证言 (Testimony by Gao Lanying),” 刘君调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Liu Jun), in CTS, p. 254. 28. Case 36, January 9, 1938, in Documents of Nanking Safety Zone, p. 31. 29. “Report of a German eyewitness concerning the happenings in Nanking from 8 December 1937 to 13 January 1938,” Appendix to report No. 113 of the German Embassy in Hankou of 10 February 1938, Document No. 4039, Exhibit No. 329, p.7, Microfilm Set T918, Roll 12, Court Papers, Journal, Exhibits, and Judgments of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, RG238, National Archives II. 30. “程金海证言 (Testimony by Cheng Jinhai),” 王天柱、黄广斌、达式宏等调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Wang Tianzhu, Huang Guangbin, Da Shihong and others), in SMN, pp. 413–414. 31. “李其宏证言 (Testimony by Li Qihong),” 刘君调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Liu Jun), in CTS, p. 59. 32. 徐嘉禄 (Xu Jialu), “徐嘉禄为日军在大方巷广场屠杀事致南京市政府呈文 (A petition by Xu Jialu to Nanjing Municipal Government concerning the massacre committed by Japanese troops at Dafang Lane square),” October 14, 1945, in ADN, p. 117. 33. “石岩等在大方巷池塘被日军集体屠杀的调查表节录 (An excerpt of the form of investigating Shi Yan and others who were massacred by Japanese troops by a pond at Dafang Lane),” December 5, 1945, in ADN, pp. 144–145. 34. 俞仲铎 (Yu Zhongduo), 俞朱氏 (Yu Zhushi), “俞仲铎 Zhushi)uo) Japanese troops (A petition by Yu Zhongduo & Yu Zhushi to capital local court concerning their son killed in a massacre at Dafang Lane),” March 29, 1946, in ADN, p. 119. 35. 谢宝金 (Xie Baojin), “谢宝金陈述谢来福等在大方巷塘边被日军集体屠杀的结文”(An affidavit by Xie Baojin stating Xie Laifu and others massacred by Japanese troops by a pond at Dafang Lane),” January 8, 1946, in ADN, pp. 145–146. 36. “邓明霞证言 (Testimony by Deng Mingxia),” 殷红英、曹义富、陈小敏调查记录 (Surveyed and recorded by Yin Hongying, Cao Yifu and Chen Xiaomin), in SMN, p. 414. 37. “刘凤英证言 (Testimony by Liu Fengying),” 许亚洲调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Xu Yazhou), in CTS, pp. 73–74. 38. Case 185, January 9, 1938, in Documents of Nanking Safety Zone, p. 78. 39. Ernest H. Forster, A letter to family, January 28, 1938, F6, Box 263, RG8, YDSL. 40. “郝立明证言 (Testimony by Hao Liming),” 季云秀、赵玉珂、高方简调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Ji Yunxiu, Zhao Yuke and Gao Fangjian), in CTS, p. 60. 41. “赵长荣证言 (Testimony by Zhao Changrong),” 秦景泽、丁亚庆调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Qin Jingze and Ding Yaqing), in CTS, p.144. 42. “江凤生证言 (Testimony by Jiang Fengsheng),” 江河洲调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Jiang Hezhou), in CTS, p. 401. 43. “马素珍证言 (Testimony by Ma Suzhen),” 唐俊英、吴义梅调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Tang Junying and Wu Yimei), in CTS, p. 260. 44. Case 1, Documents of Nanking Safety Zone, Sub-enclosure to Enclosure 1, p.1, of “The Conditions at Nanking, January 1938,” January 25, 1938, (Department of State File No. 793.94/12674), Microfilm Set M976, Roll 51, RG59, National Archives II.

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45. 张汪氏 (Zhang Wangshi), “张汪氏陈述其子张德亮等被日军集体枪杀的结文 (An affidavit by Zhang Wangshi stating her son Zhang Deliang and others massacred by Japanese troops),” April 1946, in ADN, pp. 146–147. 46. 吕刘氏 (Lu Liushi), “吕刘氏陈述其夫吕发林等被日军集体枪杀的结文 (An affidavit by Lu Liushi stating her husband Lu Falin and others massacred by Japanese troops),” April 1946, in ADN, p. 147. 47. “孙贾氏证言 (Testimony by Sun Jiashi),” 廖美庆调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Liao Meiqing), in CTS, p. 230. 48. “汴立芬证言 (Testimony by Bian Lifen),” in CTS, pp. 335–336. 49. “毛德林证言 (Testimony by Mao Delin),” 高兴祖调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Gao Xingzu), in CTS, p. 321. 50. “邱金夫证言 (Testimony by Qiu Jinfu),” in CTS, p. 142. 51. “李文国证言 (Testimony by Li Wenguo),” 段月萍、刘柏云调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Duan Yueping and Liu Boyun), in CTS, p. 310. 52. “余杨金华证言 (Testimony by Yu Yangjinhua),” 秦景泽、陈玉莲调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Qin Jingze and Chen Yulian), in CTS, p. 67. 53. James H. McCallum, A letter to friends, January 7, 1938, Correspondence of James Henry & Eva Anderson McCallum, DCHSL. 54. 於敏恭 (Yu Mingong), “於敏恭为其侄於明德等被日军枪杀致南京市政府呈文 (A petition by Yu Mingong to Nanjing Municipal Government concerning his nephew Yu Mingde and others shot dead by Japanese troops),” November 11, 1945, in ADN, pp. 152–153. 55. “周风英证言 (Testimony by Zhou Fengying),” 马管良、陈裕民调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Ma Guanliang and Chen Yumin), in CTS, p. 63. 56. “法风高证言 (Testimony by Fa Fenggao),” 蒋琳调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Jiang Lin), in CTS, p. 267. 57. “黄碧如证言 (Testimony by Huang Biru),” 陈平稳据口述整理 (Recorded and edited by Chen Pingwen according to the oral account), in CTS, p. 74. 58. “葛秀华证言 (Testimony by Ge Xiuhua),” 秦景泽、陈玉莲调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Qin Jingze and Chen Yulian), in CTS, pp. 66–67. 59. “马全忠证言 (Testimony by Ma Quanzhong),” 郭立言调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Guo Liyan), in CTS, pp. 336–337. 60. “王琰证言 (Testimony by Wang Yan),” in CTS, p. 299. 61. “林秀珍证言 (Testimony by Lin Xiuzhen),” 刘铭慧调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Liu Minghui), in CTS, p. 70. 62. M. S. Bates, “Note on Aftermath of Registration at the University,” in The War Conduct of the Japanese, pp. 139–140. 63. John G. Magee, “Introduction to the films,” Case 6, Film 4, F7, Box 263, RG8, YDSL. 64. “朱周氏证言 (Testimony by Zhu Zhoushi),” 刘铭慧调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Liu Minghui), in CTS, pp. 228–229. 65. “金宏寿证言 (Testimony by Jin Hongshou),” 金长贵、马管良调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Jin Changgui and Ma Guanliang), in CTS, p. 173. 66. “李守义证言 (Testimony by Li Shouyi),” 毛文蕙、郑倩萍调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Mao Wenhui and Zheng Qianping), in CTS, p. 202. 67. “苏桂珍证言 (Testimony by Su Guizhen),” 张志龙调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Zhang Zhilong), in CTS, p. 327. 68. “吴谢氏证言 (Testimony by Wu Xieshi),” 潘秀明、张志、敖祖祯调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Pan Xiuming, Zhang Zhi and Ao Zuzhen), in CTS, p. 336. 69. “毛德林证言 (Testimony by Mao Delin),” 高兴祖调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Gao Xingzu), in CTS, p. 321.

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70. “沈锡恩证言 (Testimony by Shen Xien),” 井升安、刘兴林调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Jing Shengan and Liu Xinglin), in SMN, p. 475. 71. “王锦龙证言 (Testimony by Wang Jinlong),” 姚彦花调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Yao Yanhua), in CTS, p. 68. 72. “马鸿有证言 (Testimony by Ma Hongyou),” 井升安、丁亚庆调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Jing Shengan and Ding Yaqing), in CTS, p. 275. 73. “王大铭证言 (Testimony by Wang Daming),” 曹义富、陈小敏调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Cao Yifu and Chen Xiaomin), in CTS, p. 283. 74. “张德发证言 (Testimony by Zhang Defa),” 陈裕民、马管良调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Chen Yumin and Ma Guanliang), in CTS, p. 285. 75. “朱传安证言 (Testimony by Zhu Chuan’an),” 吴大兴、章步锦调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Wu Daxing and Zhang Bujin), in CTS, pp. 310–311. 76. “王瑞屏证言 (Testimony by Wang Ruiping),” 魏福仲调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Wei Fuzhong), in CTS, p. 393. 77. James Espy, “The Conditions at Nanking, January 1938,” January 25, 1938, p. 9. 78. Christian Jakob Kröger, “A report by Christian Kröger, treasurer of the Zone Committee,” January 13, 1938, in Good Man of Nanking, pp. 144–145. 79. John G. Magee, “Report of a Trip to Tsih Hsia Shan by John G. Magee,” February 16–17, 1938, Box 102, RG10, YDSL. 80. “张吴氏证言 (Testimony by Zhang Wushi),” 贺家宝、沈珍昌调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by He Jiabao and Shen Zhenchang), in CTS, p. 418. 81. “李德标证言 (Testimony by Li Debiao),” 周士发调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Zhou Shifa), in CTS, pp. 300–301. 82. “徐周氏证言 (Testimony by Xu Zhoushi),” 李家坤调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Li Jiakun), in SMN, p. 458. 83. “陈国兴证言 (Testimony by Chen Guoxing),” 李家坤调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Li Jiakun), in CTS, p. 430. 84. 彭问松 (Peng Wensong), “彭问松关于日军在汤山屠杀暴行的陈述书 (A statement by Peng Wensong concerning Japanese massacre at Tangshan),” May 15, 1946, in ADN, pp. 269–270. 85. “陈光秀证言 (Testimony by Chen Guangxiu),” 郭立言调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Guo Liyan), in SMN, p. 446. 86. Katsuichi Honda, The Nanjing Massacre, pp. 202–203. 87. “高平证言 (Testimony by Gao Ping),” 陈家荣调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Chen Jiarong), in CTS, p. 388. 88. “邵翰珍证言 (Testimony by Shao Hanzhen),” 杨大福、孙守荣调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Yang Dafu and Sun Shourong), in CTS, p. 79. 89. 毛贾氏 (Mao Jiashi), “毛贾氏为其子被日军杀害致南京市市长呈文 (A petition by Mao Jiashi to the mayor of Nanjing concerning his son who was killed by Japanese troops),” December 31, 1945, in ADN, p. 129. 90. “陆玉华证言 (Testimony by Lu Yuhua),” 曹义富、陈小敏、吕郎坤调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Cao Yifu, Chen Xiaomin and Lu Langkun), in CTS, p. 78. 91. “葛金银证言 (Testimony by Ge Jinyin),” 邓泽民、张兆富调查记录 (Surveyed & record-ed by Deng Zemin and Zhang Zhaofu), in SMN, p. 450. 92. 易亚祖 (Yi Yazu), “易亚祖陈述易吴氏等被日军集体枪杀的结文 (An affidavit by Yi Yazu stating Yi Wushi and others were shot dead by Japanese troops),” December 2, 1945, in ADN, p. 138. 93. 中島今朝吾 (Kesago Nakajima), “中島今朝吾日記 (Diary of Kesago Nakajima),” in NBSM, p. 326.

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94. 北山舆 (Atau Kitayama), “北山日記 (Diary of Kitayama),” in NIKD, p. 71. 95. 東史郎 (Shiro Azuma), “東日記 (Diary of Azuma),” in NIKD, pp. 303–304. 96. 上羽武一郎 (Takeichiro Ueba), “上羽武一郎陣中日记 (Field Diary of Takeichiro Ueba),” in NIKD, p. 31. 97. “林秀珍证言 (Testimony by Lin Xiuzhen),” 刘铭慧调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Liu Minghui), in CTS, p. 70. 98. “世界红卍字会南京分会救济队掩埋组掩埋尸体具数统计表 (Burial Statistics, Relief Team’s Burial Squad, the World Red Swastika Society Nanjing Branch),” in ADN, p. 458. 99. Paul Scharffenberg, “A memorandum of Chancellor Scharffenberg for the German Embassy in Hankow,” February 17, 1938, in Good Man of Nanking, p. 198. 100. Minnie Vautrin, Diaries, April 2, 1938, Minnie Vautrin Papers, DCHSL. 101. Minnie Vautrin, Diaries, May 11, 1938, Minnie Vautrin Papers, DCHSL. 102. “日伪南京特别市政府卫生局六月份事业报告书节录 (An excerpt of June report of the Japanese sponsored puppet Nanjing Special Municipal Government Bureau of Health),” June 1939, and “日伪南京市督办高冠吾书写的《无主孤魂碑》碑文 (Epitaph of the Unknown Souls Tablet by Gao Guanwu, the Japanese sponsored puppet Nanjing mayor),” January 1939, both in ADN, pp. 127–128. 103. 宋锦章京 (Song Jinzhang), “宋锦章陈述日军在秣陵镇烧杀情况的报告告 (A report by Song Jinzhang stating the burning and killing committed by Japanese troops at Moling Township),” 1945, in ADN, p. 137. 104. “谢长荣证言 (Testimony by Xie Changrong),” 项如常、万惠华、夏龙生调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Xiang Ruchang, Wan Huihua & Xia Longsheng), in CTS, pp. 183–184. 105. “蒋行春证言 (Testimony by Jiang Xingchun),” 申全英、章厚之调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Shen Quanying and Zhang Houzhi), in CTS, p. 412. 106. “皇甫泽生证言 (Testimony by Huangfu Zesheng), 段月萍据皇甫泽生1987年来信整理 (Edited by Duan Yueping according to Huangfu’s letter sent in 1987), in CTS, pp. 84–85. 107. “张正业证言 (Testimony by Zhang Zhengye),” 张道远1987年调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Zhang Daoyuan in 1987), in CTS, pp. 80–82. 108. “胡秀兰证言 (Testimony by Hu Xiulan),” 王有堂、巫光民、刘镇西调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Wang Youtang, Wu Guangmin and Liu Zhenxi), in CTS, pp. 79–80. 109. “孙成英证言 (Testimony by Sun Chengying),” in CTS, p. 85. 110. “傅左金证言 (Testimony by Fu Zuojin),” 郑兴仁、刘芳调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Zheng Xingren and Liu Fang), in CTS, pp. 244–245. 111. “刘松松证言 (Testimony by Liu Songsong),” 沈崇峰、王佩如调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Shen Chongfeng and Wang Peiru), in CTS, p. 153. 112. 盛文治 (Sheng Wenzhi), “市民盛文治请求派员掩埋乡野尸骨致伪南京市自治委员会救 济组呈文 (A petition by Sheng Wenzhi to the charity section of the puppet Nanjing Self-Government Committee requesting that workers be dispatched to bury bodies in the coun-try),” March 4, 1938, Nanjing Municipal Archives, doc. No. 1002/5/437, cited in NMV5, pp. 301–302. 113. “孙育才证言 (Testimony by Sun Yucai),” 殷冬梅、于凤林调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Yin Dongmei and Yu Fenglin), in SMN, p. 464. 114. 杨椿林 (Yang Chunlin), “杨椿林为其母杨何氏等被枪杀致养虎巷警察所呈文 (A petition by Yang Chunlin to the police station at Yanghu Lane concerning his mother Yang Heshi and others who were shot dead by Japanese troops),” 1946, in ADN, pp. 271–272. 115. “李开发等在雨花台被日军集体枪杀的调查表节录 (A survey form excerpt concerning Li Kaifa and others who were shot to death by Japanese troops at Yuhua Terrace),” July 28, 1946, in ADN, p. 126.

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131

116. “岳松寿证言 (Testimony by Yue Songshou),” 徐诚、吴义梅调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Xu Cheng and Wu Yimei), in CTS, p. 239. 117. “日军在长生寺集体杀害市民的调查表节录 (A survey form excerpt concerning the civilians massacred by Japanese troops at Changsheng Temple),” July 20, 1946, in ADN, pp. 158–159. 118. “日军在龙华寺集体屠杀的调查表节录 (A survey form excerpt concerning the massacre committed by Japanese troops at Longhua Temple),” July 27, 1946, in ADN, p. 160. 119. 芮芳缘 (Rui Fangyuan), 张鸿儒 (Zhang Hongru), 杨广才 (Yang Guangcai), “芮芳缘、张 鸿儒、杨广才陈述日军在中华门、花神庙一带集体屠杀市民的结文 (An affidavit by Rui Fangyuan, Zhang Hongru & Yang Guangcai stating residents were massacred by Japanese troops at Zhonghua Gate and Flower God Temple),” December 8, 1945, in ADN, p. 125. 120. “史学慧证言 (Testimony by Shi Xuehui),” 林佩秋、陈声华调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Lin Peiqiu and Chen Shenghua), in CTS, p. 185. 121. “傅永成证言 (Testimony by Fu Yongcheng),” 王天柱、达式宏调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Wang Tianzhu and Da Shihong), in CTS, p. 170. 122. “赵克珍证言 (Testimony by Zhao Kezhen),” 蒯世钢调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Kuai Shigang), in CTS, pp. 180–181. 123. “日军在正觉寺集体屠杀的调查表节录 (A survey form excerpt concerning the massacre committed by Japanese troops at Zhengjue Temple),” July 18, 1946, in ADN, p. 163. 124. 刘康林. (Liu Kanglin), “刘康林为其父刘家兴等被日军杀死致南京市政府呈文 (A petition by Liu Kanglin to Nanjing Municipal Government concerning his father Liu Jiaxing and others killed by Japanese troops),” December 24, 1945, in ADN, p. 248. 125. 陈俊 (Chen Jun), “陈俊陈述其祖母陈沈氏等被日军杀害的结文 (An affidavit by Chen Jun stating his grandmother Chen Shenshi and others were killed by Japanese troops),” December 19, 1945, in ADN, pp. 243–244. 126. Case 463, Documents of Nanking Safety Zone, Diplomatic Posts, China, Volume 2172 (Nanking 1938, Volume XIII), RG84, National Archives II. 127. “诸鸿宝证言 (Testimony by Zhu Hongbao),” 汤云龙、刘兴林调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Tang Yunlong and Liu Xinglin), in CTS, pp. 126–127. 128. “谢大珍证言 (Testimony by Xie Dazhen),” 汤云龙、刘兴林调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Tang Yunlong and Liu Xinglin), in CTS, pp. 186–187. 129. “刘登学证言 (Testimony by Liu Dengxue),” 周秀英、刘月娥调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Zhou Xiuying and Liu Yue’e), in CTS, p. 119. 130. 沈哈氏 (Shen Hashi), “沈哈氏为其子沈光荣被日军刺死致南京市政府呈文 (A petition by Shen Hashi to Nanjing Municipal Government concerning his son Shen Guangrong who was bayoneted dead by Japanese troops),” December 14, 1945, in ADN, pp. 238–239. 131. “左润德证言 (Testimony by Zuo Runde),” 杨素玉、马云鹏调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Yang Suyu and Ma Yunpeng), in CTS, pp. 408–409, and Katsuichi Honda, The Nanjing Massacre, pp. 196–200. 132. “孙庆有证言 (Testimony by Sun Qingyou),” 杨素玉、马云鹏调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Yang Suyu and Ma Yunpeng), in CTS, p. 409. 133. “陆宏才证言 (Testimony by Lu Hongcai),” 吴兴海、戴必玉调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Wu Xinghai and Dai Biyu), in CTS, p. 179. 134. Case 188, January 12, 1938, in Documents of Nanking Safety Zone, pp. 80–81. 135. “赵奎元证言 (Testimony by Zhao Kuiyuan),” 王培义调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Wang Peiyi), in CTS, p. 434. 136. 孙宝庆 (Sun Baoqing), “孙宝庆陈述其父孙在善被日军刀杀的结文 (An affidavit by Sun Baoqing stating his father Sun Zaishan was killed with sword by Japanese troops),” December 3, 1945, in ADN, p. 231.

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137. “诸茂洪证言 (Testimony by Zhu Maohong),” 战国利调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Zhan Guoli), in CTS, p. 193. 138. “薛世金证言 (Testimony by Xue Shijin),” 高秀兰、王文清、叶云调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Gao Xiulan, Wang Wenqing and Ye Yun), in CTS, pp. 157–158. 139. “胡张氏证言 (Testimony by Hu Zhangshi),” 吴玉燕、吴建野调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Wu Yuyan and Wu Jianye), in CTS, p. 414. 140. 佐藤振寿 (Shinju Sato), “從軍とは步くこと (Following the Troops on Foot)” in NBSM2, pp. 609–611. 141. 李克明 (Li Keming), “李克明陈述贾王氏等被日军枪杀的结文 (An affidavit by Li Keming stating Jia Wangshi and others were shot dead by Japanese troops),” November 28, 1945, in ADN, p. 223. 142. 高和祥 (Gao Hexiang), “高和祥陈述高和成被日军枪杀的结文 (An affidavit by Gao Hexiang stating Gao Hecheng was shot dead by Japanese troops),” November 28, 1945, in ADN, pp. 222–223. 143. Case 466, Documents of Nanking Safety Zone, Diplomatic Posts, China, Volume 2172 (Nanking 1938, Volume XIII), RG84, the National Archives II. 144. 杜长复 (Du Changfu), “杜长复陈述谢德源被日军枪杀的结文 (An affidavit by Du Changfu stating Xie Deyuan was shot dead by Japanese troops),” Nov. 28, 1945, in ADN, p. 219. 145. “孙启琛证言 (Testimony by Sun Qichen),” in CTS, p. 180. 146. “李文国证言 (Testimony by Li Wenguo),” 段月萍、刘柏云调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Duan Yueping and Liu Boyun), in CTS, p. 310. 147. “蔡顺寿证言 (Testimony by Cai Shunshou),” 申全英、章厚之调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Shen Quanying and Zhang Houzhi), in CTS, pp. 384–385. 148. 金马氏 (Jin Mashi), “金马氏为其子金明亮被日军枪杀致南京市政府呈文 (A petition by Jin Mashi to Nanjing Municipal Government concerning his son Jin Mingliang shot dead by Japanese troops),” November 6, 1945, in ADN, pp. 203–204. 149. “王永源证言 (Testimony by Wang Yongyuan),” 黄德林调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Huang Delin), in CTS, p. 133. 150. “马静雯证言 (Testimony by Ma Jingwen),” 郭舜英、骆金浦调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Guo Shunying and Luo Jinpu), in CTS, p. 304. 151. 蒋士明 (Jiang Shiming), “蒋士明陈述丁学文被日军击毙的结文 (An affidavit by Jiang Shiming stating Ding Xuewen shot dead by Japanese troops),” November 26, 1945, in ADN, p. 215. 152. Case 163, Documents of Nanking Safety Zone, Sub-enclosure to Enclosure 1-g, p. 3, of “The Conditions at Nanking, January 1938,” January 25, 1938. 153. “韩宝如证言 (Testimony by Han Baoru),” 贺家宝调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by He Jiabao), in CTS, p. 61. 154. “戴秀英证言 (Testimony by Dai Xiuying),” 井升安、丁亚庆调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Jing Sheng’an and Ding Yaqing), in CTS, p. 61. 155. 增田六助 (Rokusuke Masuda), “增田六助日记 (Rokusuke Masuda Diary),” in NIKD, p. 7. 156. “朱陆氏证言 (Testimony by Zhu Lushi),” 贺家宝调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by He Jiabao), in CTS, pp. 329–330. 157. “夏桂英证言 (Testimony by Xia Guiying),” 贺家宝调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by He Jiabao), in CTS, p. 330. 158. “魏廷坤证言 (Testimony by Wei Tinkun),” 熊国华调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Xiong Guohua), in CTS, p. 160. 159. “王玉华证言 (Testimony by Wang Yuhua),” 李帼义调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Li Guoyi), in CTS, p. 368.

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160. Case 161, Documents of Nanking Safety Zone, Sub-enclosure to Enclosure 1-g, p. 3, of “The Conditions at Nanking, January 1938,” January 25, 1938. 161. 夏张氏 (Xia Zhangshi), “夏张氏陈述其夫夏长祥被日军枪杀的结文 (An affidavit by Xia Zhangshi stating her husband Xia Changxiang was shot dead by Japanese troops),” April 7, 1946, in ADN, p. 261. 162. Case 425, February 9, 1938, in Documents of Nanking Safety Zone, pp. 161–162. 163. “沈锡恩证言 (Testimony by Shen Xien),” 井升安、刘兴林调查记录 (Surveyed and recorded by Jing Sheng’an and Liu Xinglin), in SMN, p. 475. 164. “武金山证言 (Testimony by Wu Jinshan),” 尚秀华、严绍英调查记录 (Surveyed and recorded by Shang Xiuhua and Yan Shaoying), in CTS, p. 171. 165. “王又林证言 (Testimony by Wang Youlin),” 陈家荣调查记录 (Surveyed and recorded by Chen Jiarong), in CTS, p. 397.

Chapter 5

Raping, Looting, and Burning

5.1  Rampant Violation Against Women Aside from mass executions and wanton killings, violation of women was rampant. American Vice Consul James Espy, who arrived in Nanjing on January 6, 1938, reported in a diplomatic document dated January 25, 1938, that Japanese “soldiers are reported to have sought out the native women wherever they could be found to violate them. … During the early part of the Japanese occupation over a thousand such cases a night are believed by the foreigners here to have occurred and one American counted thirty such cases in one night in one piece of American property.”1 Young girls as tender as 11 years old and elderly women in their sixties or older fell victim to Japanese soldiers’ uncontrolled lust. In some cases, women were killed after being raped. Family members were murdered while attempting to protect victims from assaults. The judgment of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East gives a concise summary in that regard: There were many cases of rape. Death was frequent penalty for the slightest resistance on the part of a victim or the members of her family who sought to protect her. Even girls of tender years and old women were raped in large numbers throughout the city, and many cases of abnormal and sadistic behavior in connection with these rapings occurred. Many women were killed after the act and their bodies mutilated. Approximately 20,000 cases of rape occurred within the city during the first month of the occupation.2

Lewis Strong Casey Smythe, an American professor of sociology at the University of Nanking who lived through the horrible reign of terror, estimated that at the peak of disorder, there must have been over 1,000 women raped every night and on those two days, probably as many by day, in the Safety Zone! Any young women and a few old women were susceptible if caught. Pastors wives, univ. instructor’s [sic] wives, any one with no distinction of person, only that the prettier ones were preferred. The highest record is that one woman was raped by 17 soldiers in order at the Seminary! In America people used to mention “rape” in a whisper. It is our daily bread here almost! Stories pore [sic] in so rapidly and so hard to keep up with, that I began taking them down in short-hand at the © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 S. Lu, The 1937 – 1938 Nanjing Atrocities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9656-4_5

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table. If I waited till I could persuade people to write them out, they were too old for the Embassy, which wanted reports on the daily situation.3

W. P. Mills, an American missionary in Nanjing, described the suffering, horror, and agony of the women in the city: “your hearts would have been wrung as were ours had you seen some of the early morning crowds of women fleeing from one place to some other where they thought they would be a little safer than they had been from the terror that was theirs the night before. Literally thousands of cases of rape have occurred. Women have knelt to us begging us to help them.”4 German businessman John Rabe, who had been living and working in China since 1908 and served as the chair of the International Committee for Nanjing Safety Zone during 1937–38 winter, described the terrible situation in his December 17, 1937 diary entry: In one of the houses in the narrow street behind my garden wall, a woman was raped, and then wounded in the neck with a bayonet. I manage to get an ambulance so we can take her to Kulou Hospital. There are about 200 refugees in the garden now. They fall to their knees when you walk by, even though in all this misery we barely know up from down ourselves. One of the Americans put it this way: “The Safety Zone has turned into a public house for the Japanese soldiers.” That’s very close to the truth. Last night up to 1,000 women and girls are said to have been raped, about 100 girls at Ginling Girls College alone. You hear of nothing but rape. If husbands or brothers intervene, they’re shot. What you hear and see on all sides is the brutality and bestiality of the Japanese soldiery.5

Inserted in Rabe’s December 18, 1937, diary is a petition note sent to the International Committee for Nanjing Safety Zone by a group of Chinese refugees in a compound at 83–85 Guangzhou Road. This is one of the earliest condition descriptions about Japanese atrocities by Chinese refugees: To International Committee of the Nanking Safety Zone, Nanking There are about 540 refugees crowded in Nos. 83 and 85 on Canton Road. Since 13th inst. up to 17th those houses have been searched and robbed many many times a day by Japanese soldiers in groups of three to five. Today the soldiers are looting the places mentioned above continually and all the jewelries, money, watches, clothes of any sort are taken away. At present women of younger ages are forced to go with the soldiers every night who send motor trucks to take them and release them the next morning. More than 30 women and girls have been raped. The women and children are crying all night. Conditions inside the compound are worse than we can describe. Please give us help. Yours truly All the Refugees Nanking, December 18, 1937 (p. 81)

John G. Magee recorded the following rape cases with a 16 mm movie camera. To illustrate the footage, he provided a written caption:

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Mrs. Ch’ü is about 47, her mother 77, and her little daughter 10 years of age. For many years they have lived on a secluded street not far from the South Gate of Nanking. She had been a widow for 9 years, her husband having worked in the Government Mint and, at the time of his death, having left her with a sum of money sufficient to support the family. The inheritance had been invested in the coal business. The Japanese soldiers first went to her home on the morning of December 13 and in the course of about twenty visits during the day took all her money from her. On the 14th and 15th they again went from 10–20 times each day, taking 13 golden ornaments and most of the contents of twelve trunks or boxes. During these three days Mrs. Ch’ü was raped 12–13 times, mostly in a fierce and brutal manner. On the afternoon of the 15th, fires having been started in the South City, she started to flee to the northern part of the city with her old mother and small daughter and their bedding. Not far from their home the old mother became separated, and in her grief Mrs. Ch’ü and her small daughter jumped into a well by the side of the road to end their sorrows. Fortunately the well was shallow. They remained in the well from 5–8 o’clock when they were discovered by a passing vendor who insisted on helping them out. She refused to be rescued at first but finally consented, and with her daughter spent the night in the home of this poor man who rescued them. They reached the refugee camp at Ginling College on the morning of the 16th. Meanwhile the old mother trudged wearily on in a northerly direction and finally sat down on a bench in front of a little shop. A Japanese soldier came out and calling her ‘Lao Kuniang’ (Old Girl) insisted that she move on. She thought he was taking pity on her and inviting her in to rest; but instead of treating her kindly he raped her. He was drunk and vomited all over her. The next evening another soldier raped her, and on the third day after starting from home she reached the refugee camp at Ginling and was reunited with her daughter and grand-daughter. This old lady had been a widow since the age of 32, her husband having been an official. For two nights she slept by the side of the road, and after reaching the refugee camp was unable to walk.6

George A. Fitch, a YMCA secretary in Nanjing, recorded numerous rape cases. In the December 17, 1937 diary entry, he indicated that a “rough estimate would be at least a thousand women raped last night and during the day. One poor woman was raped thirty-seven times. Another had her five-month-old infant deliberately smothered by the brute to stop its crying while he raped her. Resistance means the bayonet.”7 On December 18, he reported that two women, one of whom was a cousin of a YMCA secretary, were raped in the house of Charles H. Riggs, a fellow American on the University of Nanking faculty, when Riggs was having dinner with Fitch and other Americans.8 Rape took place again in Riggs’ house on December 22. “In the evening I walked home with Riggs after dinner – a woman of 54 had been raped in his house just before our arrival.”9 On 1937 Christmas Day Fitch wrote, “Seven soldiers spent the night and the night before in the Bible Teachers Training School and raped the women; a girl of 12 was raped by three soldiers almost next door to us, and another of 13, before we could send relief.”10 He recorded on December 27 that a “car with an officer and two soldiers came to the University last night, raped three women in the premises and took away one with them. The BTTS was entered many times, people were robbed and 20 women were raped.”11 In a letter dated April 2, 1938, Rev. Magee indicated that: I took another little girl of fifteen years old to the hospital who told me her story. Her older brother, brother’s wife, older sister and father and mother were all killed with the bayonet

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before her face and then she was carried off to some barracks where there were some 200 to 300 soldiers. She was kept in a room and her clothes taken away and there raped a number of times daily for about a month and a half when she took sick and they were afraid to use her. She told me that there were a number of other girls held there in the same way as herself. I have talked to an old lady of 76 who was raped twice. Her daughter, a widow was raped between 18 and 19 times, she is not sure which. This is the oldest case I personally know about but a Bible woman told me of a woman of 81 with whom she was living and who was told to open her clothes. She said she was too old and the man shot her dead. I have taken carload after carload of women in our Mission Ford to the hospital to be treated after rape, the youngest being a girl of ten or eleven years.12

M. S. Bates, another American professor on the University of Nanjing faculty, listed a series of rape cases in a letter to his wife that he had “full details of over 20 cases of rape per day,” including one “woman of 72 from Middle School was raped last night” and two “girls from the University were killed the first night of return to their home, when they refused soldiers’ demands. And so on for a long series every day! There are not a few hideous cases of sadism, but it’s mostly plain animal lust and violence.”13 Having seen so many rape cases, Ernest Herman Forster, who was an American missionary associated with the American Church Mission, told his family that “Cases of rape are daily occurrences, and the treatment given some of the women who were carried off by the soldiers is too terrible to tell.”14 A young woman was raped by a J. soldier who forced an empty beer bottle into her and then shot her. The other case was seen by a member of the British Embassy staff. A woman was raped and a golf stick rammed into her. She was found dead in that condition. It hardly seems possible that such human devils were in existence. But instance after instance can be mentioned.15

The International Committee of Nanjing Safety Zone filed 470 atrocity cases from December 16, 1937, to March 21, 1938. Out of the 470 cases, at least 215 cases concern rape, attempted rape or abduction of women and girls in addition to numerous other cases that document Japanese soldiers harassing people and demanding them to find girls for them. The cases filed by the International Committee, however, mainly limited to the incidents which took place inside the Safety Zone, or the refugees in the zone who ventured to go out of the zone and were mistreated by the Japanese, or cases coming to the University Hospital for treatment, or cases reporting to the International Committee. As several Westerners indicated, the majority of the atrocity cases remained unreported and, thus, unknown to the International Committee. Case 5 in the Safety Zone documents recounts the violation of women in the city, after which a large number of women fled into Ginling College, an American Christian school, which eventually sheltered over ten thousand women and children: 5. On the night of December 14, there were many cases of Japanese soldiers entering Chinese houses and raping women or taking them away. This created a panic in the area and hundreds of women moved into the Ginling College campus yesterday. Consequently, three American men spent the night at Ginling College last night to protect the 3,000 women and children in the compound.16

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Fitch filed Case 69, which gives a description of the repeated rapes at one residence within the Safety Zone from December 17 to 19, 1937: 69. Meng Chai Te, Chief Sanitary Inspector of our 8th Section, had the house at 59 Peiping Road where he is living entered six times yesterday and seven times today by Japanese soldiers. On the 17th two girls were raped there and again today two more were raped, one of them so brutally that she may die. Another girl was taken away from the place today. The refugees living in this house have been robbed of most of their money, watches and other small articles. This case was personally investigated by Mr. Hatz and myself. (Fitch)17

Case 126 shows the painstaking effort the Japanese soldiers had taken to play tricks in order to rape a woman: 126. (Also filed by Red Swastika Society) On 21st inst. at 11 o’clock P.M. three Japanese soldiers bringing along with pistols and bayonets came to the Swastika Society at 2 Ninghai Road by climbing over the back wall, beating Mr. Gwoh Yuen-seng, a Japanese interpreter and also taking his wife to the servants’ room raping 3 times. The Swastika Clinic Superintendent, Mr. Kong Chin-hsien’s legs were injured. The Swastika servants and 11 orphans were forced to be quiet in an isolated room. Afterwards, 3 other Japanese soldiers pushed in through the front door, inquiring about whether there were any Japanese soldiers in the house. The servants answered that there were 3 Japanese soldiers who were raping in the house. These 3 soldiers immediately searched for the raping soldiers, but the raping soldiers had already gone away by climbing over the back wall. In view that nothing was found, the 3 searching soldiers went away through the front door. But, just after a few moments, there came 3 other Japanese soldiers from the back wall again, getting to Mr. Gwoh’s room and talking with Mr. Gwoh about a few minutes, and these soldiers contributed 3 dollars to the Swastika Society for helping their work. Then, Mr. Gwoh told them about the raping matter just happened in his house. Hearing of this, these soldiers requested to have a look for his wife’s room. When these soldiers were conducted to the room where raping had taken place, they also demanded beautiful girls to sleep with them. Mr. Gwoh answered that there was no girl. But these soldiers took out their bayonets and searched all around the house. Thus, they found Mr. Gwoh’s daughter-in-law and took her into a room and raped her there. Finishing their raping, they went away shouting. (Reported by the Red Swastika Society.)18

Robert O. Wilson, the only surgeon in Nanjing during the massacre period, operated on a victim of Japanese cruelty. He filed as Case 178 this rape and murder incident, which involves 6 women: 178. Jan. 3, 1938. A woman who was taken with five others from No. 6 Chien Ying Hsiang on December 30 ostensibly for washing clothes for Japanese officers, came to the University Hospital. They were taken by Japanese soldiers to a place in the west central portion of the city where from the activity she judged there was a Japanese military hospital. The women washed clothes during the day and were raped throughout the night. The older ones being raped from 10 to 20 times; the younger and good looking ones as many as 40 times a night. On January 2, two soldiers took our patient with them to a deserted school house and struck her ten times with a bayonet knife: four times on the back of the neck severing the muscles down to the vertebral column; once on the wrist, once on the face, and four times on the back. She will probably recover but will have a stiff neck. The soldier left her for dead. She was found by another Japanese soldier, who saw her condition and took her to some friends, who brought her to the Hospital. (Wilson)19

Case 181 indicates how Nanjing residents, in particular young women, lived through the atrocity period day and night in fear. Even inside the Safety Zone their houses could be broken into at any moment and young girls were raped at gunpoint:

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181. On January 8, four Japanese soldiers who came knocking at night raped three women. When the latter were slow to comply, they shot with pistol. These three women aged 21, 25, 29 are of the Yuan family at No. 45 Kao Kyia Chiu Kwan.20

On January 25, 1937, a refugee camp manager filed a tally record to indicate the rape cases which took place in his camp within a week from January 13 to 20, 1938: 204. Jan. 25, report from Wei Ching Li Refugee Camp where there are 1,300 refugees: “Herewith attached please find a list of girls who have been raped, and a piece of leather ribbon (belt) left behind by the Japanese soldiers: Women’s Age 16 37 27

Time

Remarks

Jan. 13th, 2 P. M. 13th, 2 P. M. l3th, 9 P. M.

37 13 48 36

19th, 8 P. M. 20th, P. M. same day same night

2 soldiers raped the girl by turn. 1 soldier raped the woman. 1 soldier took this woman out and released her next day. 1 soldier raped the woman. 1 soldier raped the girl. The same soldier raped this woman. The same soldier raped this woman. This soldier has raped 3 women from the afternoon to the next morning. He left the camp at 5 o’clock the next morning and also left behind one leather ribbon (belt).”

Signed and chopped by Li Hsiu Ting, Camp manager. (Note this camp is just west of Kuleo.)21

Bates filed Case 223, in which two girls had been bayoneted to death when they resisted rape by the Japanese soldiers after they left the refugee camp to venture back home outside the Safety Zone: 223. February 1. This morning at 6:30 a group of women gathered a second time to greet Dr. Bates when he left the University. They told him they could not go home. Among other cases one woman who feared that she would lose her bedding when the camp was sealed, took her two daughters home yesterday, to Hsi Hwa Men. Last evening Japanese soldiers came and demanded to have a chance to rape the girls. The two girls objected and the soldiers bayoneted them to death. The woman says there is no use going home. If they are going to be killed at home they might just as well be killed at the camp by soldiers attempting to drive them out on February 4. (Bates)22

On February 1, 1938, Magee reported a rape, Case 227, in which he and Forster intervened and chased the two Japanese soldiers away from the victim in a house in their neighborhood: 227. February 1. This afternoon about 2:30 a child came running to our house to tell Mr. Forster and myself that soldiers were after women in a house near us next to Overseas Building. We ran there and were admitted by a Chinese family. They pointed to a bedroom

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door which was locked but when no response was made to our knocking we smashed the door and found two Japanese soldiers in the room. One was reclining on the bed and the other sitting by the bed. The girl was on the bed between them and the wall. One soldier immediately jumped for his belt and pistol and went out through a hole in the wall. But the other one had his trousers down and was so drunk he could not get away quickly and moreover left his belt so his pants would not stay up. We had to help him out through the hole in the wall. Out on the road he wanted to shake hands. Mr. Forster ran ahead to find a military police while I walked behind the soldier. We delivered him to the two sentries at the opening of Shanghai Road where it joins Chung Shan Lu. We were told that the girl was raped before we got there. (Magee)23

Also taking place on February 1, 1938, Case 382 records the abnormal and sadistic behavior of Japanese soldiers who took amusement in humiliating and insulting people in an act considered immoral and sickening in a normal and civilized culture: “382. February 1, Wu Chang-seng returned to his home at Kwang Hwa Men (outside) and after arriving seven Japanese soldiers there brought an old woman and order[ed] them to make sexual connection together. The Japanese soldiers laughed by the side.”24 Dr. Wilson treated a woman with serious bayonet wounds on her face on February 5, 1938. The woman was bayoneted when she resisted a rape attempt by a Japanese soldier that morning: Case 426 Tsao Tsen Shih lives at No. 56 Hansimen. On the forenoon of the 5th of February one Japanese soldier came into her house and attempted to rape her. But others in the house called a Military Police. The soldier came again at 5 p.m. and used a bayonet to wound her face. She was sent to the University Hospital to have her wound dressed. Dr. Wilson, who is attending the case, says that the wounds on her face are very serious and since the woman was semi-conscious he feared the skull had been fractured. February 5, 193825

The International Committee for Nanjing Safety Zone also documented rape cases in the suburbs. Document Number 60 in the volume, Documents of Nanking Safety Zone, is a memorandum of the atrocity cases that took place at Qixia Temple (棲霞寺) in an eastern suburb of Nanjing, about 12 miles from the city. It records atrocity cases from January 4 to 20, 1938, including rape cases: January 8 and 9. A total of six women raped by Japanese soldiers. As always in the temple, they searched out the young ones and forced them to submit at the point of a bayonet. January 11. Another four women raped, drunk soldiers running around the temple, shooting with rifles at anything, wounding many and damaging buildings. January 13. Many soldiers arrived, searching for foodstuff and confiscating a considerable amount. Before leaving they raped a mother and her daughter. January 15. Many Japanese soldiers arrived, round[ed] up all the young women, chose out 10, and raped them in a room at the temple. Later the same day a very drunken Japanese soldier came, went into one room demanding wine and women. Wine he was given, but no girls. Enraged he started to shoot wildly, killing two young boys, then left. On his way back

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to his station he went into a house on the road and killed a 70 year old farmer woman, and stole a donkey, also set fire to a house.26

After the war, an extensive survey was conducted in Nanjing from 1945 to 1947, with the purpose of investigating Japanese war crimes in preparation for military tribunal trials both in Nanjing and Tokyo. As it was the first opportunity for the residents to file atrocity cases without fear of retaliation from the Japanese, a large number of people filed cases of various atrocities, including rape. However, due to the fact that rape was considered an indignity for the family, in many of the rape cases filed the victims had been killed; whereas if the rape victims were still alive, the families tended to refrain from filing. Smythe indicated that in February 1938, when rape cases were rampant, families did not hesitate to admit or protest that their women had been raped; but by March when Smythe was conducting survey investigations, the families tended to hush up the fact, even though many of the families were willing to list rape as one of the damages they had suffered in the survey forms.27 In spite of this issue, the rape cases filed in late 1945 and early 1946 provide shocking details. On October 10, 1945, 57-year-old Xu Hongshi (徐洪氏) filed a petition that herself and her sister-in-law had been raped and family members had been murdered by Japanese soldiers: On Lunar Calendar November 14, [1937], I and my sister-in-law named Wang were both raped by the Japanese enemy and Wang was raped to death on the spot. Seeing that his wife had been gang raped to death by several Japanese soldiers, my brother Youqing (幼 卿), age 30, became extremely outraged, and as he was shouting and scolding, he was shot and killed instantly. Meanwhile, his 4-year-old son Yunbao (雲保) was bayoneted to death.28

Tao Tangshi (陶湯氏) was 18 and lived at 5 Renhouli Lane (仁厚里) in the southern part of the city when Japanese soldiers came to her house on December 13, 1937, gang raping her and killing her. At the same time, four of her family members were murdered. Her neighbor Ke Rongfu (柯榮福) filed this case on August 2, 1946: The victim was a neighbor living close to my house. When the Japanese enemy came into the city, she accompanied her husband Tao Zhongtao (陶忠濤) to stay home, looking after the house. On that day, the Japanese soldiers, who came to search their residence, gang raped her. Then they shot her with rifles before bayoneting her in the abdomen and burning her to death, which was most tragically wretched. Altogether, four people in that household were shot dead by the Japanese enemy, and the only person who survived is her mother-in-­ law Tang Nieshi (湯聶氏), who at present has no dependable income, and went to make a living near Molingguan (秣陵關).29

Thirty nine years later in 1984, another extensive investigation was conducted in Nanjing to interview the massacre survivors and witnesses as an effort partially in preparation for the establishment of the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Museum. That survey found more than 1700 survivors and witnesses still alive by that time who resided within the boundaries of the Nanjing Municipality. A massive army of investigators were dispatched to talk with each of the survivors and witnesses. The written records of the interviews were archived as testimonies.

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A limited number of these testimonies were published in 1987  in Source Materials Relating to the Horrible Massacre Committed by the Japanese Troops in Nanjing in December 1937 (1937. 12. 13-侵华日军南京大屠杀史料). Subsequently in 1994, 642 of these testimonies were edited and compiled into a collection under the title, A Collection of Testimonies by the Survivors of the Nanjing Massacre Committed by the Japanese Troops Invading China (侵华日军 南京大屠杀幸存者证言集). Out of the 642 testimonies, 72 focus on rape cases, though many other testimonies, whose focal points are mass executions or individual killings, also involve rape and attempted rape cases. 1984 was 47 years after the Nanjing Massacre. With the youngest survivors and witnesses in their late fifties, they were more willing to talk openly that they themselves were rape victims or their family members had been raped by the Japanese, even though the dignity factor remained more or less an issue. When the collection was published, the rape victims’ family names appeared in print but their given names were omitted to avoid unnecessary embarrassment. Ma Xx (马XX) was a 14-year-old Muslim girl in 1937 when she was gang raped by several Japanese soldiers. In 1984, at the age of 61, she gave a detailed testimony about her abduction and rape at bayonet point: In 1937, I was only 14, and lived in the Mosque at Caoqiao Lane (草橋). On December 13, the day Japanese troops captured Nanjing, I saw 5 or 6 Japanese soldiers bayonet a man to death, which frightened me so much that I ran back home to hide myself. Before long, I heard knocking at the door, and my father opened the door. Several Japanese soldiers came in, asking my father for Huaguniang [young girls, 花姑娘]. Feeling that it did not sound good, I ran to the riverside to hide inside a dugout. Having heard my running away, the Japanese soldiers followed me to the dugout, throwing bricks into it. I had no choice but to get out. They took me to 8 Small Mosque Lane (小禮拜寺巷), forcing me to take off all my clothes at the point of bayonets. Thus I was gang raped by several Japanese soldiers. After I had been taken away, my mother went out to look for me. However, instead of finding me, she ran into a Japanese soldier at the Mosque, who raped her.30

The woman named Zhang (張) was 19 and took refuge in the Safety Zone when Japanese troops entered the city. She testified about her terrible ordeal at the hands of Japanese soldiers: Around 1 p.m. on December 18, 1937, several Japanese soldiers broke into the refugee zone, abducting me, my sister-in-law Ye Xx (葉XX), who is deceased, and another girl, about 15 or 16, whose name was unknown to us, to an empty house near Drum Tower. Two Japanese soldiers took each of us, forcing us respectively to take off clothes at the point of bayonets before gang raping us. I was so frightened that I was trembling all over. Over an hour later, the Japanese soldiers were laughing heartily and talking among themselves as they walked away. All we could do was weep and run into Ginling College to hide ourselves.31

Zhang Yuanhua (張遠華), 20 in 1937, told about the tragic death of one of her aunts after she was raped by Japanese soldiers: In 1937, my aunt Zhang Dushi (張杜氏) was in her sixties and lived at 6 Tangfangqiao Street (糖坊橋). On the third day after Japanese troops entered the city, my aunt was raped and killed by Japanese soldiers in her own room, with her underwear and pants all taken off. Meanwhile, my cousin Zhang Yuanshui (張遠税), age 18 and half mute, was

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killed by the room’s door. Their bodies were collected by the Red Cross Society and buried at Xiaofen Bridge (小粉橋). Later we had coffins made for them and reburied them on a slope outside Taiping Gate.32

Wang Xiue (王秀娥) was 7 years old in the winter of 1937. She witnessed the most unbelievably humiliating behavior on the part of Japanese soldiery: My eldest sister-in-law just gave birth to a little girl, and one day a Japanese soldier came, attempting to rape my sister-in-law. Everybody in the house begged for mercy, telling him that she had just given birth to a child. The soldier, however, did not believe it, asking her to take off her pants to let him have a look. Since that day on, our whole family got so scared that we all moved into the refugee zone.33

Shi Huizhi (史慧芝), a 21-year-old young woman in 1937, indicated in her testimony that one of her aunts, Qiao Liushi (喬劉氏), who was in her forties, moved to take shelter in the refugee zone, where she was abducted by Japanese soldiers and raped overnight. After she returned the following morning, she wept all day, and by the evening of that day she committed suicide by hanging herself.34 Upon the arrival of the Japanese, Li Xiuqing (李秀清), 22 then, followed her family to move into the refugee zone, taking residence in the neighborhood of the American Embassy. In her testimony, she told of the dilemma her neighbor faced when his young wife resisted rape and was threaten by death: One day, I was cooking when dozens of Japanese soldiers came unexpectedly. All of a sudden, having found that my neighbor was a young couple, they swarmed after them like crazy. The woman, in order not to be violated, endeavored to struggle against the soldiers, while her husband was begging most earnestly for mercy. But what use would begging be in front of a group of relentless killers? In despair, the husband said in a loud voice to his wife in the room, “Let it be. Let them, it is more important to keep yourself alive.” Thus, the young woman was gang raped by the Japanese soldiers.35

However, the outcome of another rape case, in which two couples were involved, is much more tragic. Jin Xiuying (金秀英) was a 14-year-old girl, and on December 13, 1937, when Japanese troops invaded Nanjing, her family stayed in a refugee camp in the Xinjiekou area: Living with my family were two couples. One man’s name is Chen Tianyou (陳天有), and the other man is called Huang Tongqiao (黄同橋). The following day, together with an old woman, both couples went out to search for food, but upon reaching Ninghai Road, the five ran into three Japanese soldiers who attempted to rape the two wives. Chen Tianyou, while attempting to protect his wife, was shot dead on the spot. Meanwhile, when Huang Tongqiao took his wife to run away, he was bayoneted by a Japanese soldier before falling into the river by the road. He was shot to death by Japanese soldiers while attempting to climb ashore. Then the Japanese soldiers took the two wives to a house, where Chen and Huang’s wives were raped.36

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5.2  Wholesale Looting In addition to wanton killings and rampant raping, Japanese soldiers indulged themselves in looting as well. They snatched away anything they could lay their hands on, and robbed houses, buildings, and compounds of objects of values, be they as small as coppers, silver coins, and small-sized valuables that could be pocketed away, or as big as furniture, pianos, cars or large quantities of commodities from stores and warehouses. There was not a store that remained undamaged, and many stores were thoroughly plundered by Japanese soldiers with trucks.37 Christian Kröger, a German businessman who stayed in the city through the reign of terror, gave a comprehensive and detailed description that best summarizes the widespread looting and robbery committed by Japanese soldiers in Nanjing since December 14, 1937: From 14 December on, the situation deteriorated rapidly. Battle-weary Japanese troops, who had been inadequately supplied during their advance, were let loose on the city and behaved in ways no one had thought possible, especially in their treatment of the poorest and most innocent Chinese. They took rice from the refugees, the poorest of the poor, took whatever supplies they could find, warm wool blankets, clothes, watches, bracelets, in short anything that appeared to be of value. Anyone who hesitated to hand something over was immediately slashed with a bayonet, and many people were subjected to such rough treatment for no reason at all. The victims numbered in the thousands, and these brutish soldiers kept coming back to the Zone, its houses packed with refugees, and each time would take what their predecessors had disdained. Our only defense for protecting our own property and servants was to strike a vigorous pose and point to the German flag, often while being threatened by Japanese officers and soldiers. Once, while I was negotiating with Japanese officers, my car was stolen from the garage, even though both front tires had been removed. Under the threat of bayonets, servants were forced to open doors and hand over everything. Evidently vehicles of any sort were of special interest, because cars and bicycles were in great demand and stolen everywhere. Where there was no vehicle to be had, the servants or the refugees in a house were forced to carry the looted goods, and you often saw a soldier with weapon in hand driving four coolies before him loaded down with his booty. Children’s wagons were used, wheelbarrows, asses, mules, in short, anything that could be found. This organized robbery lasted for over two weeks, and even now no house is safe from some group on a “commandeering” expedition. When valuables began to run out, carpets, doors, and window frames were next, if only to be burned as fuel. The army had even brought its own safe-crackers, although many a safe was opened simply with a few shots or a hand grenade. When an individual soldier didn’t suffice, units in trucks would appear and under the command of an officer empty a house of anything worth taking and then set it afire. By now, the entire South City has been looted and torched in this fashion.38

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In Nanjing, there was not a house or building that was not entered, ransacked, and looted by the Japanese. Espy described the conditions in Nanjing concerning looting: Whether the compound, house, shop or building be that of a foreign mission or that of a foreign or Chinese national, all have been entered without discrimination and to a greater or less degree ransacked and looted. The American, British, German and French Embassies are known to have been entered and articles taken therefrom. It has also been reported that the same thing has occurred to the Italian Embassy. The Russian Embassy on January 1st was mysteriously gutted by fire. Without exception, every piece of American property inspected by us or reported upon by the American residents has been entered by Japanese soldiers, frequently time and time again. This has occurred even to the residences in which the Americans are still living. These American residents and the other members of the International Committee have been and up to the time of this report still are constantly driving Japanese soldiers out of foreign properties who have entered in search of loot or women.39

On December 24, 1937, Mills wrote a letter to the Japanese Embassy in Nanjing, protesting that Japanese soldiers repeatedly broke into the American Embassy compounds, looting whatever struck their fancy, be it a small object like a flashlight or a few dollars, or, as big as trucks and cars: Permit me to report to you the following incidents which have recently taken place at the American Embassy. On December 23rd at 2:30 p.m. three Japanese soldiers came to the west compound of the Embassy and stated that they wanted to borrow cars. Mr. Wu, one of the clerks at the Embassy, explained to them that the cars were all out of order, and that in any case, requests for the use of cars should be made through the Japanese Embassy, rather than by the military direct. These soldiers then went away without giving further trouble. However on the same day, between 6:30 and 9:30 p.m., small groups of seven or eight armed Japanese soldiers came to the Embassy at least four times. On at least one of these occasions the soldiers were actually accompanied by an officer. The soldiers took away altogether three motor cars. These cars were the property of Mr. C.  W. Aldridge (License No. 5033), Mr. Menken (License No. 1255) and Mr. Hansen (License No. 218). The cars were pushed out of the Embassy compound by the soldiers and then towed away by a motor truck which they had brought with them. Four or five bicycles, two oil lamps, and some flash lights, were also taken off by the soldiers. Furthermore, on one of the four occasions mentioned above, the soldiers under command of their officer, searched practically every one who was sleeping in the main office building of the Embassy and robbed them of their money and certain personal effects. A watch and gold ring was [sic] taken from Mr. Teng of the Embassy staff, and a watch and six or seven dollars from Mr. Wu, another member of the staff. Fifty-eight dollars was [sic] also taken from members of Mr. Teng’s family and one hundred and eighty-five dollars from the families of other employees. Soldiers further compelled some of the servants to open certain locked doors, and in at least one case (a door inside of the office used by Mr. Paxton) a soldier thrust his bayonet into the door, leaving a mark which can be plainly seen. Finally two soldiers attempted to violate two women on the compound, going so far as to try to remove clothing from one and to carry away another to a more distant part of the grounds. Fortunately, however, the other soldiers in the party prevented these men from accomplishing their purpose.

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The above incidents took place on the evening of yesterday, December 23rd. This morning December 24th at about eight o’clock three Japanese soldiers again entered the west compound of the Embassy and took away a motor car (License No. 5001) which Mr. Teng of the Embassy staff had borrowed from a friend. At the same time another group of five soldiers also entered the east compound of the Embassy, and took away one motor car and one truck, both belonging to the China Import and Export Lumber Company. The soldiers also took away at this time from Policeman Kao Hsin-yuan, who was stationed in the gatehouse of the east compound of the Embassy, a bag of flour, a bag of rice, a flashlight, and $11.80 in cash. Again at about nine o’clock this morning, the garage on the west compound of the Embassy was once more forcibly broken into, and a car belonging to Mr. Lafoon, an American ­member of the Embassy staff, was taken away. This car was, however, returned about an hour later by the Japanese gendarmerie. The above incidents were reported verbally this morning, first to Mr. Fukuda and then afterwards to Mr. Tanaka, who himself later visited the Embassy to investigate the matter. Mr. Tanaka’s assurances that guards will be posted today at both of the compounds, so as to prevent further violations of the Embassy, are greatly appreciated.40

Similar looting had occurred at the British Embassy as well. On February 24, 1938, British Consul at Nanjing, Ernest William Jeffery, cabled a dispatch to the British Embassy at Shanghai, reporting the result of the negotiation with his Japanese counterpart in terms of compensation and payment for the losses and damage suffered by the British Embassy in Nanjing at the hands of Japanese troops. Jeffery indicated, “I have received a reply from Japanese C. G. [Consul-General] to letter dated January 24th sent to him by Mr. Prideaux-Brune requesting payment for lost cars. Japanese C. G. has arranged for $7,500 to be paid to you through Japanese C.  G. Shanghai as compensation for cars belonging to Messrs. Ritchie, Graham, Prideaux-Brune and Military Attaché and taken from British Embassy. He said that Japanese were anxious to settle claims connected with the Embassy violation early and without investigation.”41 On October 12, 1938, British Consul-General at Shanghai, Herbert Phillips, forwarded to the British Ambassador a preliminary list of looting cases in which British subjects have reported losses suffered in the Nanjing Consular district, and the list contains losses directly attributable to the Japanese forces: 1. The China Import and Export Lumber Company, Limited, report that stocks of lumber were looted from their yards at Nanking between December 15th 1937 and January 31st 1938. They estimate their losses at Shanghai $91,877.47. 2. The China Import and Export Lumber Company, Limited, report the disappearance of a Cheverolet motor car belonging to the company after the 11th December 1937 from the junction of the San Char Ho and the Yangtsze River. They estimate their damage at Shanghai $2,800.00. 3. Dr. Lall conducted an eye clinic at 344, Chien Kong Road, Nanking. Between November 1937 and March 1938 he lost the contents in the capture of Nanking or thereafter. His loss is $1,860.00.

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4. The Union Brewery Limited report that installations and equipment belonging to them were in use in the North Hotel at Nanking and these were totally destroyed when the North Hotel was destroyed by Japanese Forces in December 1937. This company state their losses to be $1,545.11. 5. Mr. R. J. Holmes reports that his belongings stored in the office of the National Motors Limited, 188, North Chung Shan Road, were looted by Japanese soldiers on or about December 18th, 1937. It is claimed that the Japanese soldiers took three military trucks to the premises and removed the property in question. He states his loss to be £390.0.0 sterling. 6. Indo-China Steam Navigation Company, Limited, report that their steam launch Loeta was commandeered by Japanese troops on December 12th, 1937, at a point below Wuhu. This vessel has not been returned to the Company who state their loss to be £712.10.0 sterling.42

In 1938, several British subjects filed property losses and damage claims with the British Embassy, requesting compensation from the Japanese Government for their losses suffered in Nanjing as a result of Japanese looting. William Henry Donald, a British subject holding Passport No. 2/1934, filed his claim on March 2, 1938, which includes an itemized list: 1 Auburn motor car; convertible; eight cylinder; present value Ch.$ 2500– (replacement value Ch.$6000). This car was left in the Compound of the British Embassy, Nanking, on December 8, 1937 1 Frigidaire, new, value Ch.$ 500 1 Dining-room table, 1 sideboard, 10 chairs, made by Modern Home, Shanghai, new, value Ch.$ 500 1 Large couch, made by Simms, Tientsin, value 2 Standard reading lamps, Italian wrought iron, value 2 Chromium standard lamps, value 2 Porcelain table lamps 1 Teakwood table 1 Peking blackwood bench 3 Blackwood tables, (carved) @ Ch.$45, $30, and $25 8 Pieces blackwood furniture (2 chairs, 4 stools, 2 bookcases) 1 Korean blackwood cabinet 5 Rugs, value 1 Arm chair, made by Modern Home 3 Sofas, value 2 Desks, teak and redwood 2 Office chairs 2 Stoves Total

2500

500 500 Ch.$ 200 60 40 10 20 60 100 75 60 150 120 150 55 30 64 Ch.$ 4694

The furniture described above was removed from the bungalow at Square City, Ling Yuan, to the Finance Ministry, inside Nanking City on December 8, 1937, and was, according to reports, stolen or destroyed by fire by Japanese soldiers. A quantity of other household effects which I am unable to detail has also been destroyed at Nanking.43

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Meanwhile, quite a few American citizens filed property loss and damage compensation claims. Richard Freeman Brady, an American doctor at the University of Nanjing Hospital, filed an affidavit at the American Embassy at Nanjing for the purpose of claiming property losses and damage claims amounting to $1917.85 from the Japanese. Between December 14 and December 31, 1937, my house at 19 Hankow Road (upstairs) was visited at least four times by Japanese soldiers, who stole and damaged my personal property as summarized below. My temporary residence at 11 B Shuang Lung Hsiang was also visited at least six times between December 14 and 31, 1937, by Japanese soldiers, who stole my personal property also summarized below. … The following is a classified list of properties; all removed by soldiers either from garage and house at 11 B Shuang Lung Hsiang or from locked room at 19 Hankow Road. The last two items only from the latter address. Chinese Currency $1627.50

Ford Motor Car Tudor V 8, 1935 Standard Model 48 Engine No. 1333983 Electric Clock Electric Iron Groceries, Canned Goods Rugs, two 2⅓ by 3¼ feet Axminster Bicycle, one girl’s Clothing, one man’s suit Photograph Albums, three Indoor Baseball and Bat, new Gasoline, 15 gallons Motor Oil, one gallon Alcohol, 3 quarts Victrola Records, about twenty, average cost $ 3.50 Victrola Reproducing Unit Total

35.00 10.50 37.10 21.00 10.50 24.50 35.00 7.50 16.50 3.85 1.40 70.00 17.50 $1917.8544

However, Japanese looting and robbery were suffered most by the Chinese residents in Nanjing, and to date, their property losses and damage have never been compensated. Out of 470 atrocity cases filed by the International Committee for Nanjing Safety Zone, about 130 cases concern looting and robbery. These cases reported to the committee constitute only a very small fraction of the lootings committed by Japanese soldiers. The majority remained unreported and undocumented. On December 18, 1937, Fitch reported a looting case, which was filed by the International Committee as Case 54, that at about “5 p.m., about 10 soldiers entered and took all the bedding and other belongings of 100 refugees and sanitary staff, including our chief of staff, Mr. Ma Sen.”45 The following day, Fitch filed Case 67 concerning his chauffeur, who had been robbed repeatedly. “Lee

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Wen Yuen, my chauffeur, living at 16 Lo Chia Lu (A German residence displaying the German flag and seals) together with his family of eight, was robbed by Japanese soldiers at 8:30 this morning of absolutely everything he possessed: seven boxes of clothing, two baskets of household things, six quilts, three mosquito nets, rice bowls and dishes, and $50  in cash. The family is now destitute without even bed-covers.”46 The Chinese doorkeeper, Chang Ping-yao, reported on December 20, 1937: Japanese soldiers came several times to Texaco Co. at 209 Chungshan Road and took away bedding, shoes, carpets, and some other furniture and broke a safe and many window glasses. Downstairs Japanese soldiers took away three motor cars from the Ginling Motor Car Co. At the Sanitation Engineering Co., a safe was broken into, a clock and some other things taken.47

Case 87, also filed on December 20, records that one residence at 47 Yin-­ yangying had been looted 7 times in one day, and Lots of good things were taken away. Searching everybody in the family. Yesterday came back again and took $3.00 away and looked for women. Fortunately none of them was spoiled. From now on no one dares stay at home any longer. (Chen Shih-yu, Y.M.C.A. Sec.)48

Case 143 gives a vivid description of the events on December 22, 1937, after four Japanese soldiers came looting the refugee camp at Hankou Road Primary School: Dec. 22. Four Japanese soldiers with bayonets came asking for cigarettes. Immediately refugees collected money to buy seven tins of cigarettes for them. The refugees also returned the $5.00 which the same soldiers gave them the day before. This was all done because the soldiers threatened to set fire to the house. Later 3 Japanese soldiers with rifles asked for wine and the refugees bought two big pitchers of wine for them and four refugees went to carry it for them. Three Japanese soldiers took 3 bicycles and 3 refugees pushed them for them. One came back. Four Japanese soldiers took one rickshaw away. Other soldiers visited the camp but no disturbance. (Hankow Road Primary School Refugee Camp.)49

Apparently, Japanese troops were in great demand of vehicles of any sort either for transportation or simply to possess. As shown by Case 152, Japanese soldiers looted all the fire engines, as well as the wheels: 152. December 25, several Japanese soldiers took away the wheels of two large type fire pump engines at 3:00 p.m. The Safety Zone Fire Department had four fire engines (cars) and 12 pumps. But in the last ten days nearly all have been taken by the Japanese soldiers. The pumps we have now are either destroyed or without wheels. Only one pump is usable. (Y. H. Yung, Head of Police Dept.)50

Magee filed Case 334 on January 29, 1938, concerning a member of his church group, who was stopped on the street and robbed of what little money he had on his body: “Mr. Lu who is one of the Sheng Kun Hwei inquirers and lives in the Kwangtung Hsin Tsun on Ta Fang Hsiang, where some of our Christians

5.3  Widespread Burning

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are living, was stopped at Lion Bridge between San Pai Lou and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by a soldier who searched him and took 10 dimes from him, and all the money the soldier could find. His friend was searched and had 40 cents taken by the same man.”51 However, it was as unsafe at home as on the road. Case 337, taking place on January 29 through February 1, 1938, indicates the vulnerability and insecurity of residents, whoever they were or wherever they were. Japanese soldiers would rob the destitute: 337. January 29, Mr. Yao returned to Chang Fu Yuan, his home, in the afternoon. Some Japanese soldiers robbed two cases of matches from them that day. On the 30th some Japanese went there and stripped off the clothes from all members of his family, including an 80 year old woman, to find if they had money. But they had none. At the same time Mr. Zee of the next door was robbed of $3.50. On February 1 there came three Japanese soldiers searching in the same way. They intend to return to the camp.52

However, worse than looting and robbery was evicting people from their own houses. On February 28, 1938, Sun Changke (孫長科) wrote a petition letter to the Nanjing Self-Government Committee appealing for help when a Japanese man showed up at their doorway, attempting to drive the family out of the house they had been residing in for decades: For years, I, Sun Changke, have lived at 260 Taiping Road. Since the hostilities started last year, I moved into the refugee zone. Recently, following the order, I moved back home to return to our normal life. However, on February 9, a Japanese man made an unexpected call at my residence, stating that we were not allowed to live there, and should move out. We were not allowed to take furniture and other domestic devices and articles with us. I stated to him that I was the owner and had lived in the house for dozens of years, and that we, once out of the house, would have nowhere to live. He took no notice of my words, and instead ordered us to move out instantly, to which I did not dare to say anything further. I kept on thinking, once we were driven out, where could we live? How would we make a living? Even though I have searched hard in my mind, I can find no solution. So I appeal to your committee to have mercy to help and provide relief assistance for us.53

5.3  Widespread Burning If the wanton killings, rampant raping and wholesale looting increasingly intensified the reign of terror over Nanjing, widespread burning caused the most visible physical damage and destruction to China’s former capital. Burning was rampant and ravaged every corner of the city. In some cases, the Japanese military used trucks to empty shops and stores in the business districts of their commodities, then set the stores on fire to conceal their looting. According to Espy, But the worst that the real property of Nanking has suffered is the destruction by fire. At the time of writing this report fires can still be seen in a few places in the city. In the

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“safety zone” no fires have occurred. Nevertheless, except for this zone, burning through arson or otherwise has been committed at random throughout the city. On many streets there are found houses and buildings that are burnt down, intermittently among others that were not burnt at all. A street will have one, two or more buildings with only charred walls standing while the rest of the buildings along it have not been touched by fire. The southern end of the city has suffered the worst of the ravages by fire. An inspection of that part of Nanking where the business and commercial section of the city is located showed block after block of burnt out buildings and houses. Many blocks are left with only a dozen or less buildings still standing. Instead of the nearly complete destruction by fire of the entire section of the city such as occurred to Chapei in Shanghai it could be seen that usually just the buildings facing onto the main streets were destroyed while the structures behind had mainly not been burnt. Some argument has been forth coming from the Japanese authorities here that much of the burning of Nanking within the walls was done by the retreating Chinese or by Chinese plain clothes soldiers after the fall of the city. Some perhaps may have been done by the Chinese, but every reason is given to believe that it was infinitesimal in comparison with what was brought about deliberately or through negligence by the Japanese troops after they had taken Nanking and after the fighting here had ceased. Either the buildings were deliberately set on fire after they had been entered and looted or through carelessness small fires were left burning in the buildings which set the buildings ablaze or the buildings caught fire from nearby burning structures. No attempt is known to have been made to extinguish the flames of any building on fire.54

In his December 21, 1937 diary entry, Rabe described the Japanese burning activities, with flames and sparks spreading all over and threatening his neighborhood: There can no longer be any doubt that the Japanese are burning the city, presumably to erase all traces of their looting and thievery. Yesterday evening the city was on fire in six different places. I was awakened at 2:30 a.m. by the sound of walls collapsing and roofs crashing. There was now a very great danger that the fire would spread to the last row of houses between Chung Shan Lu and my own house, but thank God it didn’t come to that. Only flying and drifting sparks presented a threat to the straw roofs of my refugee camp in the garden and to the supply of gasoline stored there, which absolutely has to be moved.55

According to the Western residents in Nanjing, there were few isolated fires within the city before December 13, 1937. They documented the conditions based on the observations on their inspection tours: 1. Conditions when Japanese took over the city, December 13, 1937. On Friday night, December 10, there was a fire opposite the State Theatre south of Sing Kai K’ou. A number of members of our Committee went down at 10:00 p.m. to investigate and found that it was a lumber yard and the City Fire Department was on the job and had both kept the fire from spreading to surrounding buildings and by that time brought the fire under control.

5.3  Widespread Burning

153

On Saturday night, December 11, there were a few fires in South City where Japanese shells were landing. The same was true on Sunday night, December 12. That night Ku Cheng-­ lun’s house north of Shansi Road and the new Ministry of Communications building burned. These were the only important buildings for which there is any evidence that the Chinese may have burned themselves and that is not conclusive. There may have been a few small buildings burned near the southern gates. On Tuesday morning some members of our Committee were trying to establish contact with Japanese authorities and others were investigating the condition of German and American property in southern sections of the city. We were surprised to find how few buildings had been burned, or destroyed by shell fire. On Taiping Road the only serious burned out building was one that had burned during the summer. On Chung Shan Tung Lu the Sin Hua Trust Co. building had been burned. But no large sections within the city had burned at all.56

However, when they made another inspection tour on December 20, 1937, a week after Japanese troops occupied the city, what they observed was appalling and widespread burning: 2. Conditions on the night of December 20, 1937. Members of the Committee investigated the fire in the Zone on the night of December 19. One house at 16 Ping Tsang Hsiang had been set on fire by Japanese soldiers. Mr. Sperling with a fire officer of the Fire Brigade of the Safety Zone went to the fire, but our pumps and fire equipment had been taken away several days before by Japanese soldiers. During the day the buildings on the corner of Chung Shan Lu and Pao Tai Chieh had been burned out. And in the evening there were observed a number of fires in the direction of Kuo Fu Lu. On the afternoon of December 20, between 5 and 6 p.m., Mr. Fitch and Dr. Smythe went down Pao Tai Chieh and around south to Taiping Road on which they proceeded south of Peh Hsia Lu to where the streets were crowded from curb to curb with Japanese Army trucks and autos loading out goods. Down as far as Peh Hsia Lu, beginning from the creek just south of Kiukiang Road, they found groups of 15 or 20 Japanese soldiers, apparently under lower officers, on both sides of the streets watching burning buildings, or clearing goods out of stores, and in other shops soldiers were seen building bonfires on the floors. They then went over to Chung Hwa Lu and there found the same work in progress and the northern half of the Y.M.C.A. building in flames. Quite evidently this was set from the inside because there was no fire in any other buildings right around the Y.M.C.A. building. Japanese sentries paid no attention to them. Later in the evening of the 20th, about 9:00 p.m., Mr. Kroeger and Mr. Hatz drove down Chung Cheng Lu to Peh Hsia Lu, then east to Chung Hwa Lu but were prevented from proceeding southward by a Japanese sentry. The Y.M.C.A. building was about burned down. They then proceeded to Taiping Road where they turned north and found about 10 fires in progress on both sides of the road. Other buildings were already in ashes. They turned west on Chung Shan Tung Lu but observed a big fire about the corner of Tung Hai Lu and Kuo Fu Lu. When they came to the corner of Chung Shan Lu and Kiukiang Road they observed a big fire on the north side of Kiukiang Road. There a military patrol prevented their proceeding eastward. There were many soldiers about but none tried to stop the fire. Rather they were carrying away goods. (pp. 51–52)

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On December 21, 1937, fourteen of the Western residents in Nanjing called on the Japanese Embassy to present a letter signed by all 22 Westerners in the city protesting the widespread burning and continued disorder in the city: We come to petition in the name of humanity that the following steps be taken for the welfare of the 200,000 civilians in Nanking: 1. That the burning of large sections of the city be stopped and what remains of the city be spared from either reckless or systematic burning. 2. That the disorderly conduct of Japanese troops in the city, which has caused so much suffering to the civilian population for one week, be immediately stopped. 3. In view of the fact that the looting and burning have brought the business life of the city to a standstill and consequently reduced the whole civilian population to one vast refugee camp, and in view of the fact that the International Committee has reserve food supplies to feed these 200,000 people one week only, we most earnestly beg you to take immediate steps to restore normal conditions of civilian life in order that the food and fuel supply of the city may be replenished. (pp. 51–52)

This petition letter, however, did not convince the Japanese military authorities to implement effective measures to stop the burning. Fitch reported on January 11, 1938, that “last night I drove past four new fires that had just been started and saw soldiers within a shop just starting a fifth. There has not been a day since December 19 that fires have not been started by the Japanese soldiers.”57 A week later, on January 8, 1938, Wilson in his letter to his wife described his observation of burning in the city: The fires continue every day to the sum of ten or more. Last night coming home from the hospital for supper I didn’t see one and that was the first night I could say that for three weeks. However, the record was kept up as when I went back to sleep at the hospital there were several fires going.58

Smythe indicated that in the month following Japanese occupation, Japanese soldiers “burned over three-fourths of the stores in town (all the large ones, only some small ones remaining), and all of them were completely looted. Now they are hauling all the loot and wrecked cars etc., out on the railway to Japan.”59 James H. McCallum estimated the destruction of the city caused by burning that from “the hospital to Chung Chen and Peh Hsia Rds. about 30 per cent; about half on Peh Hsia Rd; on Chung Hwa Rd. to Chein Kang Rd. about 80 per cent – beyond there, less and not a great deal burned out in the extreme southern part,” while “from S. Kulou towards the east wall about 20 or 30 per cent concentrated in certain areas.”60 Hubert L. Sone, an American professor at the Nanking Theological Seminary, gave a concise summary of burning activities in a letter to his colleague on January 16, 1938: The homes of many people have been burned, and shops and stores are still burning. Every day and night fires can be seen in the city. Nearly all of Taiping and Chung Hwa Roads have been burned. The Chiang Tang Chieh Church and the Y. M. C. A. have been burned to the

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ground. So the people cannot all go home even when they might be able to. Many of the villages outside the city have been burned. Shunhwachen has been burned, we hear, but not the Rural Church Training Center.61

After the war in 1945 and 1946, a considerable number of residents filed affidavits or petitions concerning their houses and businesses which, along with furniture, domestic articles, and commodities contained, had been burned by Japanese troops. The burning resulted in tremendous losses to these residents. In an affidavit filed on November 29, 1945, Liu Wenqing (劉文清) stated that his family had run Tong Hengchun Pharmacy Store (童恒春藥店) at 196 Changle Road (長樂路) for more than 60 years. On December 17, 1937, Japanese soldiers set fire indiscriminately, flames spreading to his pharmacy and burning down all 14 rooms, 8 wing-rooms, one attic and balcony. Also destroyed in the fire were various medicines, ginsengs, implements, devices, furniture, and the luggage of the staff members. In short, he lost everything in the fire.62 On November 29, 1945, Sheng Shifu (盛實甫) filed an affidavit about his residence and shop, which had been destroyed in the fire started by Japanese troops: “My residence and shop at 210 Changle Road, including furniture, property and goods, were all burned by the Japanese enemy. The two rooms upstairs and downstairs in the residence building, along with an extension shed, the whole set of furniture upstairs, and all the property and goods in the shop downstairs, such as 80 dozen rubber shoes in male and female adult sizes, as well as children’s sizes, six dozen of a variety of towels, more than 100 pounds of different varieties of yarn, more than 100 dozen pairs of men and women’s socks, more than 100 ounces of silk sewing thread, more than six dozen pans in large, medium and small sizes, more than 100 dozen spools of sewing machine thread, more than 100 dozen toothbrushes, and other commodities like cigarettes, general merchandise, and daily articles, were all destroyed in the fire.”63 Zi Tao (梓濤) lived at 2 Caodu Lane (曹都巷) near Daxianglu Street (大香爐) in the southwestern part of the city. Around 2 p.m. on December 17, 1937, Japanese soldiers set fire to his houses, burning down altogether 13 rooms and two wing-­ rooms in a bungalow and a two-story building, along with all the furniture they contained. Eventually, only one bungalow remained unburned.64 Cheng Fengming (程鳳鳴) had a big residential compound at 475 Jiankang Road (健康路). The compound contained 5 units. Altogether 31 rooms of various sizes, along with furniture, trunks and other devices and articles were all burned down on December 19, 1937, leaving only rubble and ruins on the site as proof.65 Yan Haichao (嚴海潮) and Mao Shunlong (毛順隆) lived at 68 Tangfangqiao Street (糖坊橋), running a horse carriage factory and hardware business. On December 16, Minguo 26th Year, the enemy Nakajima Troops (中島部隊) set fire and burned down 10 rooms in the residence building and the factory, along with the machines, tools, devices and clothes contained therein. Everything was lost, and the ruins are still visible at present. Meanwhile, two or three days later, our apprentice Wang Jintang (王金堂),

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age 22 at the time, originally from Dinghai, Zhejiang Province (浙江定海), was taken away and shot dead, with his body so far unaccounted for.66

On January 8, 1946, Chen Yaonan (陳耀南) filed a petition to the Nanjing Municipal Government concerning his residence at 6 Dadangjia Lane (大黨家巷), which had been burned down. The residence consisted of 3 units: the first unit was a 3-room bungalow, the second had three big halls, while the third was a two-story building with 6 rooms and two wing-rooms on both floors. All the houses, together with paintings and calligraphies by well-known figures, furniture and various clothes, were burned. His aunt Shen Shi (沈氏), younger brother Changgeng (長 庚), younger sister-in-law Wang Shi (王氏), 5-year-old girl and 6-month-old boy were burned to death in the residence. In addition, he attached a list of the destroyed valuables and other items amounting to about 110,000 Chinese dollars based on previous estimates, which would have been worth much more in 1945.67 In testimony provided in 1984, Li Jian (李健), age 24 in 1937, spoke about his family’s total loss caused by the fire started by Japanese troops. She was from a Muslim family, and her parents opened a restaurant named Wangcheng-xuan (望成 軒) on Dangjia Lane (黨家巷) in the southern part of the city, selling dumplings and beef noodles. The restaurant, a two-story building, was spacious, with 6 rooms on both floors. Her parents’ residence, situated on Zhanyuan Road (瞻園路) not far from the restaurant, had 10 rooms. Li Jian was married, but she lived at her parent’s home most of the time. The family consisted of her parents, two elder brothers and their wives, a younger sister and an uncle. With the approach of Japanese troops, however, the whole family, except her uncle, fled to seek refuge in the country, leaving the uncle to look after the restaurant and houses. My uncle, named Ma Huaide (馬懷德), was nearly 60 years old at the time. On the day of December 15, Japanese soldiers broke into Wangchengxuan, smashing all the furniture to build a fire to warm themselves before they set fire downstairs. Instantly the flames rose, spreading rapidly. My uncle was in the restaurant. Having seen the building on fire, he ran out, but before he could cover a short distance, he was shot dead by Japanese soldiers. The ravaging flames spread from Dangjia Lane to East Pailou Street (東牌樓), engulfing half of Zhanyuan Road, and the houses of more than 10 households were totally burned down. My family’s restaurant and residence were burned with nothing left.68

Notes 1. James Espy, “The Conditions at Nanking, January 1938,” January 25, 1938, p. 9. 2. R. John Pritchard and Sonia Magbanua Zaide, The Tokyo War Crimes Trial, Vol. XX Judgment and Annexes, New York: Garland Publishing Inc., 1981, pp. 49,605–49,606. 3. L. S. C. Smythe, A letter to his wife Margaret, Dec. 21, 1937, Box 103, RG8, YDSL. 4. W. P. Mills, A letter to his wife Nina, January 10, 1938, Box 141, RG8, YDSL. 5. John Rabe, Good Man of Nanking: Diaries of John Rabe, p. 77.

5.3  Widespread Burning 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27.

28.

29. 30. 31.

32. 33. 34. 35.

157

John G. Magee, Case 5, Film 7, Folder 7, Box 263, RG8, YDSL. George A. Fitch, Diaries, December 17, 1937, Folder 202, Box 9, RG11, YDSL. George A. Fitch, Diaries, December 18, 1937, Folder 202, Box 9, RG11, YDSL. George A. Fitch, Diaries, December 22, 1937, Folder 202, Box 9, RG11, YDSL. George A. Fitch, Diaries, 1937 Christmas Day, Folder 202, Box 9, RG11, YDSL. George A. Fitch, Diaries, December 27, 1937, Folder 202, Box 9, RG11, YDSL. John G. Magee, a letter to Rev. J. C. McKim, April 2, 1938, F62, B4, RG10, YDSL. M. S. Bates, A letter to his wife Lilliath, Feb. 3, 1938, F8, Box 1, RG10, YDSL. Ernest H. Forster, A letter to his wife Clarissa, Jan. 28, 1938, F5, B263, RG8, YDSL. Ernest H. Forster, A letter to his wife Clarissa, Jan. 24, 1938, F5, B263, RG8, YDSL. Case 5, December 14, 1937, in Documents of Nanking Safety Zone, p. 10. Case 69, December 19, 1937, in Documents of Nanking Safety Zone, p. 38. Case 126, December 21, 1937, Sub-enclosure to Enclosure 1-e, p. 2, of “The Conditions at Nanking, January 1938.” Case 178, January 3, 1938, in Documents of Nanking Safety Zone, p. 65. Case 181, January 8, 1938, in Documents of Nanking Safety Zone, p. 77. Case 204, January 25, 1938, Diplomatic Posts, China, Volume 2171 (Nanking 1938, Volume XII), RG84, National Archives II. Case 223, February 1, 1938, in Documents of Nanking Safety Zone, pp. 122–123. Case 227, February 1, 1938, in Documents of Nanking Safety Zone, pp. 123–124. Case 382, February 1, 1938, in Documents of Nanking Safety Zone, p. 148. Case 426, February 5, 1938, in Documents of Nanking Safety Zone, p. 151. “Memorandum by Tsitsashan Temple,” January 25, 1938, in Documents of Nanking Safety Zone, pp. 135–136. Lewis S. C. Smythe, “What Happened in Nanking or the Situation in occupied Territory in China,” a speech on Aug. 13, 1938 to the Chinese patriotic meeting at Baguio, the Philippines, and the written document was attached to his letter to Alexander Paul dated Aug. 27, 1938, Correspondence of Lewis S. C. and Margaret Garrett Smythe, DCHSL. 徐洪氏 (Xu Hongshi), “徐洪氏为家中四口遭日军残害事致何应钦呈文 (A petition by Xu Hongshi to He Yingqin concerning her four family members who had been raped and murdered by Japanese troops),” October 10, 1945, in ADN, p. 354. “陶汤氏被日军强奸后杀害的调查表节录 (A survey form excerpt concerning Tao Tangshi who was raped and killed by Japanese troops),” Aug. 2, 1946, in ADN, pp. 371–372. “马XX证言 (Testimony by Ma Xx),” 蒋宝霞、戴广梅调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Jiang Baoxia and Dai Guangmei), in SMN, p. 479–480. “张氏证言 (Testimony by Zhang Shi),” 刘淑芳、唐春英、陈秀华、梅嘉福调查记录 (Surveyed and recorded by Liu Shufang, Tang Chunying, Chen Xiuhua and Mei Jiafu), in CTS, pp. 358–359. “张远华证言 (Testimony by Zhang Yuanhua),” 朱久英、顾洪华、汪道明调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Zhu Jiuying, Gu Honghua & Wang Daoming), in CTS, pp. 370–371. “王秀娥证言 (Testimony by Wang Xiu’e),” 申全英、章厚之调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Shen Quanying and Zhang Houzhi), in CTS, p. 305. “史慧芝证言 (Testimony by Shi Huizhi),” 井升安、丁亚庆调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Jing Sheng’an and Ding Yaqing), in CTS, p. 281. “李秀清证言 (Testimony by Li Xiuqing),” 廖美庆调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Liao Meiqing), in CTS, pp. 368–369.

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36. “金秀英证言 (Testimony by Jin Xiuying),” 陈家荣调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Chen Jiarong), in CTS, p. 367. 37. M. S. Bates, A letter to his wife Lilliath, Jan. 9, 1938, Folder 8, Box 1, RG10, YDSL. 38. Christian Jakob Kröger, “A report by Christian Kröger, treasurer of the Zone Committee,” January 13, 1938, in Good Man of Nanking, pp. 143–144. 39. James Espy, “The Conditions at Nanking, January 1938,” January 25, 1938, p. 10. 40. W. P. Mills, A letter to the Japanese Embassy in Nanjing, December 24, 1937, Enclosure No. 15-F to “Conditions of American Property and Interests in Nanking,” February 28, 1938, No. 393.115/233, Box 1821, RG59, National Archives II. 41. E. W. Jeffery, Telegram No. 58, 11:45 a.m., February 24, 1938, FO233/270, Foreign Office, Political Departments, Public Record Office, London. 42. Herbert Phillips, “Claims Arising out of Sino-Japanese Hostilities: Cases in Nanking Consular district,” Document No. 421, October 12, 1938, FO233/272, Foreign Office, Political Departments, Public Record Office. 43. W. H. Donald, “A letter to the British Consul-General at Hankou,” March 2, 1938, Enclosure in E. W. Jeffery’s dispatch No. 6 to H.M. Ambassador, April 27, 1938, FO2 Foreign Office, Political Departments, 33/271, Public Record Office. 44. Enclosure No. 1 to “Sino-Japanese Hostilities, 1937–1938. American Losses Resulting From, Dr. R. F. Brady, Claim of,” Document No. 9, July 7, 1938, Diplomatic Posts, China, Vol. 2164 (Nanking 1938, Vol. V), RG 84, National Archives II. 45. Case 54, December 18, 1937, in Documents of Nanking Safety Zone, p. 33. 46. Case 67, December 19, 1937, in Documents of Nanking Safety Zone, p. 37. 47. Case 85, December 20, 1937, in Documents of Nanking Safety Zone, p. 42. 48. Case 87, December 20, 1937, Sub-enclosure to Enclosure 1-c, p. 4, of “The Conditions at Nanking, January 1938.” 49. Case 143, December 22, 1937, Sub-enclosure to Enclosure 1-f, p. 2, of “The Conditions at Nanking, January 1938.” 50. Case 152, December 25, 1937, in Documents of Nanking Safety Zone, pp. 55–56. 51. Case 334, January 29, 1938, in Documents of Nanking Safety Zone, p. 142. 52. Case 337, January 29, 1938, in Documents of Nanking Safety Zone, p. 143. 53. “孙长科为房屋被日人强占致日伪南京自治委员会呈文 (A petition by Sun Changke to Japanese sponsored puppet Nanjing Self-Government Committee concerning his house which was forcefully occupied by the Japanese),” Feb. 28, 1938, in ADN, pp. 437–438. 54. James Espy, “The Conditions at Nanking, January 1938,” January 25, 1938, pp. 12–14. 55. John Rabe, Good Man of Nanking: Diaries of John Rabe, p. 84. 56. “Findings Regarding Burning of Nanking City, December 21st, 1937,” in Documents of Nanking Safety Zone, pp. 50–51. 57. George A. Fitch, Diaries, January 11, 1938, Folder 202, Box 9, RG11, YDSL. 58. Robert O. Wilson, Diary letter to his wife, Jan. 8, 1938, F3875, B229, RG11, YDSL. 59. Lewis S. C. Smythe, A letter to friends, March 8, 1938, F64, B4, RG10, YDSL. 60. James H. McCallum, A letter to his wife Eva, January 1, 1938, Correspondence of James Henry & Eva Anderson McCallum, DCHSL. 61. Hubert L.  Sone, “A letter to P.  F. Price,” January 16, 1938, Missionary Files: Methodist Church, 1912–1949, Nanking Theological Seminary, Roll No. 85, Scholarly Resources Inc., Wilmington, DE. 62. 刘文清 (Liu Wenqing), “刘文清陈述童恒春药店被日军焚毁的结文 (An affidavit by Liu Wenqing stating Tong Ever Spring Pharmacy Store was burned by Japanese troops),” November 29, 1945, in ADN, p. 400.

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63. 盛实甫 (Sheng shifu), “盛实甫陈述房屋被日军焚毁的结文 (An affidavit by Sheng Shifu stating his house was burned by Japanese troops),” Nov. 29, 1945, in ADN, pp. 400–401. 64. 梓涛 (Zi Tao), “梓涛陈述房屋被日军焚毁的结文 (An affidavit by Zi Tao stating his house was burned down by Japanese troops),” December 5, 1945, in ADN, p. 404. 65. “程凤鸣房屋被日军焚毁的调查表节录 (A survey form excerpt concerning Cheng Fengming’s houses burned down by Japanese troops),” December 19, 1945, in ADN, p. 411. 66. “严海潮、毛顺隆房屋被日军焚毁的调查表节录 (A survey form excerpt concerning Yan Haichao and Mao Shunlong’s houses burned down by Japanese troops),” December 28, 1945, in ADN, pp. 411–412. 67. 陈耀南 (Chen Yaonan), “陈耀南为房屋被日军焚毁家人被烧死致南京市政府呈文 (A petition by Chen Yaonan to Nanjing Municipal Government concerning his houses burned down and family members burned to death by Japanese troops),” January 8, 1946, in ADN, pp. 414–415. 68. “李健证言 (Testimony by Li Jian),” 申全英、章厚之调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Shen Quanying and Zhang Houzhi), in SMN, p. 484.

Chapter 6

Testimonies by Chinese Survivors and Witnesses

6.1  A Historical Review As soon as Japanese troops committed atrocities in Nanjing, some of the atrocity survivors and eyewitnesses provided testimonies to give first-hand accounts. The earliest testimonies were made known to posterity through the American missionaries and German businessmen who chose to stay in the besieged city and organized the International Committee for Nanjing Safety Zone to provide shelter and food for the refugees. Many of the Chinese testimonies were collected as atrocity cases in the documents of the International Committee; while some were retold by the American missionaries and German businessmen in their diaries, personal letters, reports and other documents. A small fraction of the American missionaries’ original accounts were published in 1938 through Harold John Timperley’s What War Means: Japanese Terror in China, and Shu-hsi Hsu’s The War Conduct of the Japanese. Documents of the Nanking Safety Zone, edited by Shuhsi Hsu, appeared in print in Shanghai in 1939. This publication contains 399 of the 470 cases the International Committee had filed. The missing 71 cases, which Shuhsi Hsu failed to obtain in 1939, were included in the third chapter of Suping Lu’s They Were in Nanjing: The Nanjing Massacre Witnessed by American and British Nationals, which was published in 2004 in Hong Kong. From February 1938 to March 1940, several dozens of Nanjing residents filed housing petitions or applications for entering social relief facilities with the Japanese sponsored puppet Nanjing Self-Government Committee, or its successor, the Nanjing Municipal Government. Most of these residents were widows or widowers whose families’ bread winners had been killed in the 1937/38 winter. They had no source of income, or their houses had been burned or occupied by the Japanese and they had nowhere to live. These petitions and applications, now kept at the Nanjing Municipal Archives, state clearly the circumstances under which the family members had been killed, or houses burned or occupied. As a result, these petitions and applications, which had been carefully investi© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 S. Lu, The 1937 – 1938 Nanjing Atrocities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9656-4_6

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gated by the authorities at the time, serve, to some extent, as testimonies, though their primary purposes do not focus on the atrocities. On June 12, 1938, Zhang Gaoshi (張高氏) presented a petition to the Social Section of the Nanjing Municipal Government with the intent of getting admitted to Puyu Tang (普育堂), a relief facility. I am Zhang Gaoshi, 42 years old. Last year when Japanese troops came into the city, my husband stayed home at Shangmatou Street (上碼頭) outside the South Gate, looking after the house. While checking him, the Japanese soldiers accused him of being a Central Government soldier and shot him dead on the spot, leaving me and two young children (the elder named Zhang Xiaozhen (張小珍), 10, and the younger named Zhang Xiaoer (張小 二), 6) behind. We previously stayed in the refugee zone and were able to survive on relief. Since the refugee zone has dissolved, we can only stay temporarily with a relative at 9 Xiheyan (西河沿) near Shangmatou Street, and the three of us have no source of income. I have no other choice but to plead your favor of admitting us into Puyu Tang. I would be extremely grateful to hear from you.1

Qi Wushi (戚吴氏) was a 72-year-old widow whose livelihood, for years, had solely depended on her son until December 1937, when he was bayoneted to death by the Japanese, and she could do nothing but beg around to keep herself alive. In August 1938 she filed a petition to the mayor of Nanjing, pleading to be admitted into the municipal relief facility to keep her from dying of hunger: I lost my husband over 20 years ago, with nothing inherited and few relatives and friends. For years my livelihood had been dependent on my son Qi Xianchen (戚賢臣), who made a living as a servant, to lead a poor but self-maintained life. Last winter when the hostilities first started, I followed my son and many others into the refugee zone for safety. However, when Japanese troops entered the city, they accused my son of being a stray Central Government soldier and bayoneted him to death, and my house was burned down as well. Since then, I have been left alone with nobody to depend on, and no place to live. I made several suicide attempts, but each time I was saved by neighbors who comforted me with kind words. So I stopped committing suicide. But my daily livelihood depends on begging for food; even though I beg around earnestly, there is no guarantee that I can fill my stomach, and staying in a deserted temple can hardly keep me from rain and storms. With autumn and winter around the corner, it is even more difficult to live on. Not too long ago, I learned that municipal relief facility would accept elderly widows, and I applied twice, but so far I have received no approval yet. With no other choice available, I send your excellency this letter, pleading you to transfer the letter and assure my admission so as to save me from dying of hunger. For the rest of my life, I will always remain grateful for your great virtue which knows no bound.2

Both Wu Cuishi (吴崔氏)’s husband and son had been shot dead by Japanese soldiers, leaving her, 40 years old, with three young daughters, nobody to depend on, no food to eat, and no place to live since their house had been burned down. On January 18, 1939, she sent a petition to the Health Bureau of the Nanjing Municipal Government, hoping to be admitted into a refugee center to be provided for: We used to live at No. 1930 slum hut in Sisuo Village (四所村), but it was burned down in November 1937. We then temporarily stayed in the Big Temple (大廟) in Xiaguan. My husband Wu Jingzhong (吴敬中) and son Wu Tongzhi (吴同志) were both taken by Japanese soldiers on January 1, 1938, into the school at Sisuo Village, where they were shot dead, and their bodies were tossed by the roadside. I was unable to collect the bodies for burial. At present I take three girls, who are all very young in age, to stay temporarily with

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a friend. With nobody to depend on, no food to eat, suffering from hunger and cold, the family of four are dying. Therefore, I present the petition to your bureau, pleading that your bureau be merciful, and that I and the girls be admitted into the refugee center so as to save four humble lives. We will be deeply grateful, keep your kindness in our hearts, and try to repay it.3

Hong Daquan (洪大全) was a 65-year-old widower living at 13 Shuangtang Garden (雙塘園) in the southwestern part of the city. He filed a petition on March 29, 1940, with the Nanjing Municipal Government, pleading to be admitted into the municipal relief facility: My wife Li Shi (李氏) passed away years ago, leaving me only a son, aged 21. The year before last when hostilities took place, Japanese troops slaughtered the residents of the city, shooting my son dead, and wounding me in the waist by hitting me with a rifle butt, which makes me unable to walk. I have made a living as a peddler all my life, and now I am unemployed, running out of my capital. I am so destitute that I have nowhere to be. I would like to go begging but I cannot walk; I would like to die but there is no place to have me buried. Every day, I do not cook, but I do not die of hunger thanks to my neighbors who provide me with food. There is no end of it, and there are no relatives to rely on. Because after the hostilities, the philanthropists fled for refuge and have not yet returned, there is no charitable relief available. In despair, I present the petition to your office, pleading your kind excellency to have the relief facility admit me. I would never forget your kindness even when my bones disappear.4

Almost immediately after the war, starting from September 1945, an extensive survey effort was launched to investigate Japanese war crimes during the war years, in particular, the Nanjing Massacre period, in preparation for the military tribunals to try Japanese war criminals. The 1940s investigation survey has remained the largest ever taken concerning the Nanjing Massacre. Back then it had been less than 8  years since the reign of terror, and the atrocities remained vivid in residents’ memories. Thousands upon thousands of residents in the city who survived the massacre days were well alive. Thousands of people participated either by filling out survey forms, presenting petition letters, or filing affidavits. The information collected through the survey, which was used by the prosecutors in the military tribunal trials in Nanjing and the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo, provide detailed and individually identifiable descriptions of specific atrocities committed in Nanjing. These testimonies collected through the 1940s survey, which are extensively quoted in Chaps. 3, 4, and 5 in this volume, are significant in facilitating a thorough understanding of the Japanese atrocities committed in Nanjing. Along with the eyewitness testimonies recorded in the late 1930s, the 1940s testimonies not only provided an enormous amount of evidence for the military tribunals in the trial processes and reaching verdicts and judgments, but also laid the foundation and for research on the Nanjing Massacre with a large quantity of primary source materials which, in turn, helped formulate the collective knowledge and memory of the event, as well as the mainstream consensus about the Nanjing Massacre worldwide and, in particular, in China. However, because the survey was mainly conducted within the Nanjing Municipality, it largely concerned the civilians and the atrocities committed toward

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the residents of Nanjing. Whereas, in large-scale massacres, mainly military personnel were slaughtered. There must have been many more massacre survivors than we know of today. These military survivors, more often than not, were not from Nanjing and had few local connections. Once they survived the massacres, they most likely returned to their military units and continued fighting, and some of them may have been killed in later battles, or they might have gone back to their native places and returned to civilian life. In any case, they were no longer in Nanjing to participate in the investigation survey. In spite of this, the survey forms, petition letters and affidavits, which are chiefly kept in the Second National Archives of China in Nanjing, are one of the most valuable primary sources available concerning the Nanjing Massacre and Japanese atrocities. Except for a few cases concerning large-scale massacres and mass executions, the majority of the hundreds of cases recorded concern small-scale killings and individual killings, which were rampant and widespread in every corner of the city, as well as rape, burning and looting activities. On September 22, 1945, Pan Chunchao (潘春潮) filed a petition to the mayor of Nanjing concerning his younger brother, who had been shot dead by Japanese soldiers while he was walking along a street: Since the Japanese captured Shanghai, attacking toward Nanjing, wave after wave of residents in the city moved into the refugee zone for refuge. After entering the city, the enemy committed killing, burning, raping and looting, and there was no crime that they did not commit. On Lunar Calendar November 12, Minguo 26th Year, my younger brother Pan Chunting (潘春庭), while walking past Inner Bridge (内橋), was shot dead by the enemy (Nakajima Troops), and his body was not found until more than a month later. I am a peddler by trade, and the fact that the Japanese enemy shot my brother Pan Chunting dead for no reason whatsoever fills me with the utmost hatred. This fact can be corroberated by the neighbors. Thereupon, I present the petition to your excellency and plead with you to have it forwarded to the Central Government, so as to urge the enemy to compensate for the loss of life as solatium for the bereaved families, which is indeed in the public interest.5

Yin Wangshi (尹王氏), a 56-year-old woman who lost two sons to Japanese atrocities, presented a petition letter to the Nanjing Municipal Government on October 30, 1945. In 1937, she lived at 5 Renhouli (仁厚里) in the southern part of the city. In the petition, she stated, At 7 a.m. on Lunar Calendar November 11, Minguo 26th Year, Japanese soldiers entered the city. My eldest son, named Yin Guangyi (尹廣義), was 24, and my second son, Yin Guangren (尹廣仁), was 22. At 8 a.m. Japanese soldiers took the two brothers out of the house and shot them dead by the house gate. In addition, they took away my grandnephew Yin Bawuzi (尹八五子), age 8, and up to now, we have not heard whether he is alive or dead. I have suffered for 8 years, with no son to depend on, and there has been no end of my daily suffering from hunger and cold. I present this petition, pleading to have the enemy compensate, and have relief.6

Shao Yongzhen (邵永真) was 40 when he filed an affidavit on November 12, 1945 concerning his elderly father, who had been killed with a sword by a Japanese soldier in 1937: When the Japanese enemy entered the city of Nanjing on Lunar Calendar November 11, Minguo 26th Year, we stayed in the refugee zone, leaving my elderly father home to look

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after the house. On December 16, Japanese troops came to station in the place (the former Military Police Academy) opposite to our house, conducting house-to-house searches. My father was home when Japanese soldiers came into the residence. He stepped out of the house, coming face to face with a Japanese soldier who, with a sword in hand while searching around, instantly cut his head off with only a piece of skin connecting the head and the neck, killing him on the spot. The above statement of his being killed is the truth, and I am willing to be severely penalized if the statement is false.7

Li Xiuhua (李秀華)’s grandfather and uncle met similar fate to that of Shao Yongzhen’s father. She filed an affidavit on November 27, 1945, to recount the horrible deaths suffered by her grandfather and uncle: Nanjing fell on December 13, 1937, and when the enemy Nakajima Troops entered the city at 9 a.m., they came to knock at the door of my residence at 22 Yudai Lane. My grandfather Li Fuyi (李福義) and uncle Li Xuecai (李學才) were too timid to open the door, which angered the enemy who instantly fired shots into the house. Grandfather was so frightened that he went to open the door. Coming into the house, the enemy took grandfather Li Fuyi out of the residence (into Yudai Lane). After about 10 minutes, he fell in a pool of blood and was killed, having been bayoneted more than a dozen times, which was too horrible to look at. At the same time, another enemy came in. He saw my uncle Li Xuecai sitting by the door and bayoneted uncle in the chest. Wounded, uncle ran out of the house. The soldier chased him into the backyard, where there was no outlet. Uncle was shot in the throat, falling to his death.8

Yin Wangshi (殷王氏) and her husband Yin Decai (殷德才) lived at 113 Zhanyuan Road (瞻園路) when the latter, age 51, was shot dead on his way to put out a fire in the neighborhood. Yin Wangshi gave the following testimony in survey form on July 27, 1946: On Lunar Calendar November 12, Minguo 26th Year, Japanese troops just captured the capital city, which was suddenly beset by war. They were slaughtering and setting fires here and there around the city, and when my husband saw East Pailou Street (东牌楼) in flames, he considered it his obligation to put out the fire. But no sooner did he get out of the house than Japanese soldiers shot him, instantly killing him, which was horrific beyond description.9

Wang Youfa (王有發) and Ke Rongfu (柯榮福)’s parents stayed behind at 17 Shiguanyin Lane (石觀音), looking after the house. When Japanese troops entered Nanjing on December 13, 1937, Wang and others hid themselves inside the dugout in front of 17 Shiguanyin Lane. Japanese soldiers took Wang out of the dugout, tied him with wire and shot him and others to death. Ke Rongfu provided the above information in survey form on August 1, 1946.10 After the Communist victory in China in 1949, the geopolitics of the Far East dramatically changed. So did the Americans’ attitude toward China and Japan, especially after the outbreak of the Korean War. Former enemy Japan was needed as indispensable military and logistic base, while former ally China assumed the role of the enemy. Amidst the Korean War, the negotiation of the peace treaty with Japan was going on. The negotiation, which was initiated by the United States and the United Kingdom and involved the major countries that had been at war with Japan, excluded China from its process. On December 4, 1950, China’s premier and foreign minister Zhou Enlai (周恩来) issued a statement that the People’s

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Republic of China, as the sole legitimate government of China, should be included in the negotiation process and invited to the San Francisco Peace Conference; that while China supported the Japanese development of industries for peace purposes, it objected to the American occupation authority in Japan fostering a Japanese military industrial complex to serve the purpose of aggressive wars in Taiwan and Korea.11 It was against this background that an effort was launched in Nanjing in February 1951 to encourage Nanjing residents to share with the public their suffering from Japanese atrocities in an effort to condemn the American attempt to re-arm Japan. From February 22, to March 3, 1951, Xinhua Daily (新華日報), a provincial newspaper in Nanjing, published a series of 9 stories provided by atrocity survivors and witnesses. All but one of the stories recount experiences during the Nanjing Massacre period. In spite of the international political complications, the stories themselves focus on atrocity experiences except for a few sentences, most likely added by editors, that attempt to draw connections with the American role in Japan. Several of the publications, primarily with grassroots characteristics, do offer valuable testimonies. When Japanese troops attacked and captured Nanjing, Zheng Zongli (鄭宗禮) and his family took shelter at the Wutai Hill refugee center. On December 14, 1937, when he left the center to go home for foodstuff, he was taken by Japanese soldiers, who bayoneted him 18 times. In 1951, he gave a detailed account of his experience as an atrocity survivor: For the rest of my life, I will never forget December 14, the day I survived. Having nothing to eat in the refugee center, I went home for some rice. Halfway, I ran into two Japanese devils who were abducting a woman in her twenties. When they saw me, they forced me to go with the woman at rifle-point. I had no choice but to go with the devils, and as we walked behind the Great Hall of National Congress (present-day Great Hall of the People), I pondered that after raping the woman, they would surely kill her, and I would also be killed. It was getting dark, and we reached a turn in a lane, where I doubled back and ran as fast as I could. The two devils chased after me, but after running for some distance, they could not catch up with me, and gave up. Fearing that I might encounter devils on the main streets, I decided to go back by small lanes. It happened that I again ran into several other devils in a lane. They took me into a big foreign-style house with its entrance guarded by two sentries. There I saw the devil who had caught me earlier. He talked to his officer before taking me to the original location, severely slapping me and tying me up with ropes. The two devils forcibly took me to an open space, bayoneting me from behind in the chest, back, and arms 18 times. Blood was gushing out, turning my shirt red. I fainted and fell down, but the two devils kicked me hard, pulled my ear and shook me a few times lest I was not dead, which made me come to, but I did not dare move. The two devils, seeing that I was motionless, assumed that I was dead and walked away laughing.12

In 1937, Zhang Zhengan (張正安) was 8, and his family ran a store, selling various sorts of paper. When the Japanese came in December, his family of 8 moved into the refugee zone, leaving his grandfather behind to take care of the paper store. His and over 30 other families took refuge in a big compound, and whenever Japanese soldiers showed up in the neighborhood, someone would ring a warning bell and the compound gate would be closed to keep the people inside safe. At noon on December 29, his 5-year-old brother Zhang Shunan (張順安) took his 2-year-old

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little sister Zhang Xiaoxia (張小霞) to enjoy warm sunshine outside the compound gate when, all of a sudden, the bell rang and the gate closed. His parents worried restlessly, but for the safety of 30 plus families, they refrained from having the gate opened to take the children inside. Shortly after, they heard two shots fired followed by a burst of crying. After the Japanese soldiers left, they opened the gate only to find that his brother and sister had been shot dead.13 Not long after that, my family of 6 moved back home, but by that time the store was a ruin of rubbles. Uncle Liu, who was the watchman for the beef noodle shop opposite to us, told us, “More than two weeks after you left, one very cold day, four Japanese soldiers came. Seeing that yours was a paper store and paper could easily build a fire, they attempted to make a fire to warm themselves. The old Gentleman (namely, my grandfather) begged them for mercy, when one of the devils kicked him down before thrusting the bayonet into him, thus, killing him. Your store was set afire to keep them warm…” My grandfather, younger brother and sister thus died, and the paper store my father had worked so hard to build up became material for robbers to warm themselves, and was burned down. (ibid.)

From the early 1950s to 1976, China underwent a long succession of political campaigns and movements. From December 1950 to October 1951, the Suppressing Counter-Revolutionaries Movement (鎮压反革命運動) was carried out to cleanse society of those who held offices in the former regime and military. Land Reform (土地改革) was conducted from June 1950 to December 1951 to redistribute land from the rich to the poor in the countryside. In the cities, from December 1951 to October 1952 the Anti-Three Behaviors Movement (三反運 動) among the public servants advocated anti-embezzlement (反貪污), anti-waste (反浪費), and anti-­bureaucracy (反官僚主義), while, among the private sectors and entrepreneurs, the Anti-Five Behaviors Movement (五反運動) was carried out to fight against such behaviors as bribery (反行賄), tax-evasion (反偷税漏 税), stealing public property (反盗窃國家財產), doing shoddy work and using inferior material (反偷工减料), and stealing state economic intelligence information (反盗窃國家經濟情報). In the countryside, private land ownership and manpower were organized into cooperatives (合作化運動) from the end of 1952 to December 1956. Immediately after that from early 1956, in the cities private enterprises were undergoing what was called Socialist Reform Transformation (社會主義改造) in terms of ownership, and almost every private enterprise became the joint-state-private ownership (公私合營). Chiefly in the urban areas, from April 1957 to 1958, the Anti-Rightists Movement (反右運動) profoundly shook up Chinese society mainly among the intellectuals. In the countryside then starting from July 1958 the cooperatives were further organized into people’s communes (人民公社), in which all the land belonged to the state. From 1959 to 1961 and in some places extending to 1962, because of mismanagement mixed with natural disasters, crops failed with widespread famine taking place. With the economy barely recovered, another pervasive political campaign known as the Socialist Education Movement (社會主義教育運動) was under way

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from 1963 to 1966, first in the countryside to conduct the Four Cleans Movement (四清運動): to clean the labor credit recording system (清工分), clean account bookkeeping (清帳目), clean warehouses (清倉庫), and clean properties (清財物), and later in the cities to clean people’s thoughts (清思想), clean politics (清政治), clean organizations (清組織), and clean economic activities (清經濟). Finally from 1966 to 1976, the Great Cultural Revolution (文化大革命) ravaged China nationwide to bring the country to the verge of economic collapse. For about 30  years, China’s cultural ethos was fully occupied by nothing but political campaigns. The Chinese had neither the time nor energy to pay attention to the Nanjing Massacre, which, in turn, not only disappeared from public life, but also had difficulty attracting academic research interest. In addition, all the military personnel slaughtered during the Nanjing Massacre were Nationalist Army soldiers, so the communist leaders showed little interest in it. The Nanjing Massacre and related issues did not resurface until the early 1980s, ironically with help, in part, from the Japanese. Mao Zedong’s death on September 9, 1976 and the arrest of the Gang of Four on October 6, the same year marked the end of the Cultural Revolution. With Deng Xiaoping’s return to power in September 1977, China underwent tremendous transformations. Apart from the major political and economic changes, Deng Xiaoping preferred to acknowledge the Nationalist troops’ contributions and sacrifices during the Anti-Japanese War, which were discredited or ignored by the Communist regime under Mao. With the change in policies, former Nationalist generals were allowed to publish wartime memoirs, articles and books commemorating the battles they had fought against the Japanese. Memorial monuments were repaired or re-erected, and movies were made to glorify the battles fought by the Nationalist troops. In June 1982, the Japanese Ministry of Education endorsed the revision of history textbooks to downplay Japan’s aggressive military past, war crimes and atrocities, including those committed at Nanjing. The newly revised textbooks replaced the word “invasion” with “advance” to describe the Japanese troops’ attacks in China in the 1930s and in Southeast Asia and the Pacific in the 1940s. The textbooks suggest that the Nanjing Massacre might have been provoked because Japanese soldiers were angered by the losses they suffered at the hands of Chinese troops who had put up resistance. The governments of China, South and North Korea lodged protests over the revisions that “sweep aside facts crucial to accurate historical interpretation.”14 In response to the Japanese textbook revisions, newspapers in Nanjing, Xinhua Daily and Nanjing Daily published several testimonies by the Nanjing Massacre survivors and eyewitnesses from August 6 to 16, 1982, the first batch of its kind since 1951. Li Boqian (李伯潜), age 66 in 1982, revealed what Japanese soldiers had done to his parents during the massacre days to The Nanjing Daily, which, in turn, published his story on August 8, 1982: My family have lived at 18 Chuanban Lane (船板巷) for generations. On December 12, 1937, Japanese troops attacked and brought the city of Nanjing under their control. At 10 a.m. on December 13, 1937, a Japanese soldier kicked open my residence’s gate for no

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apparent reason, taking my father of 60 to the road crossing at New Bridge Street (新橋), where a machine gun was placed in front of my father and other neighbors. The Japanese soldiers, eyes red with blood, sent out fierce sparks, searching around, and they would not set the residents free until they made sure that there were no soldiers among them. After my father was taken away, my mother hurried to the gate. As soon as she stuck her head out to see what was going on, she was discovered by a Japanese soldier, who forced her at the point of bayonet to take him to search for Chinese soldiers. Even though she was an old woman with bound feet, my mother understood well the patriotic principles. She refused him abruptly. The utterly heartless Japanese enemy fired a shot into my mother’s stomach and walked away. After they were released, father and our neighbor Old Uncle Zhang walked back from New Bridge Street. The two chatted on the way that they narrowly got their lives back. However, two days later Old Uncle Zhang was taken away by Japanese soldiers to Daqiaoshi Street (笪橋市), where he was murdered. Upon entering the house, father saw mother lying on the ground in a pool of blood with her intestines coming out, though she remained conscious. No sooner did father have time to carry her to bed than he was taken away once again by a Japanese soldier. When he returned for the second time, mother had died. Both sad and angry, father, with tears in his eyes, wrapped her body up in cloth and placed it on the bed. Because the Japanese enemy had been killing, raping, burning and looting in the city every day, the neighbors either went away for refuge or were killed. There was nobody around to help out, and mother’s body was not buried until more than 40 days later. After such an ordeal and terrible irritation, father finally broke down mentally, suffered a stroke and became bed-ridden.15

Li Fucheng (李福成) was a 69-year-old retired worker in 1982. Before retirement he worked at the canteen of the Nanjing Steel Works. In December 1937, he survived a small-scale mass execution in the hill not far from his village several miles south of Zhonghua Gate, the main southern gate of Nanjing. His experience was printed by Xinhua Daily on August 16, 1982: One day in December 1937, nine Japanese devils came into Hanfu Village (韓復村) outside Zhonghua Gate, the village I was living in then. At the time all the villagers had fled to hide in Hanfu Hill (韓復山). Failing to find anyone in the village, the Japanese enemy went up the hill to search and consequently found 200 men in the ravine. From the able-bodied youths, the Japanese enemy picked out 13, including me, 24 years old at the time. 9 devils forced us at the point of bayonets to dig a big pit before firing shots at us 13 people. A bullet flew in front of me, piercing the tip of my nose. Terribly frightened, I fell into the pit. Immediately the bodies of other people shot dead toppled over me. Facing down, I could breathe through my mouth, but I felt a terrible pain in my left leg and could not move it. One of the victims, who had asthma, was shot in the abdomen and fell into the pit. He was not dead, but he continuously breathed heavily. Hearing the breathing sound from the pit, the devils bayoneted the bodies many times, and my back was bayoneted in several places. Assuming that we had all been killed, the Japanese devils went back to the city. I and the guy with asthma did not climb out of the pile of bodies until midnight. I went into hiding in the hill while the asthma patient returned home holding in his intestines with his hands. Before he died he told other villagers that Li Fucheng was still alive up in the hill. My family members and other villagers, taking advantage of the darkness at night, went to carry me home from the hill. Because of the bleeding wounds and two days without food, I was dying, but family members cleaned the dirt from my nose and dressed the wounds with herb medicine, and thus I survived.16

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Japanese journalist Katsuichi Honda travelled around in China in the early 1970s to cover the atrocities committed by Japanese troops in the 1930s. The trip resulted in the book-length publication, Travels in China (中国の旅),17 in 1972. One section of the book focuses on the Nanjing Massacre. Inspired by the 1982 textbook revision controversies, Honda returned to China in 1984 with the intent of conducting extensive interviews with the survivors of Japanese atrocities in different locations from Shanghai to Nanjing along the route the invading Japanese troops had fought through in 1937. In Nanjing, he was assisted by the local officials in making arrangements to meet with the massacre survivors. Meanwhile, the same officials were also busy preparing for the establishment of the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Museum, which was eventually built and opened to public in 1985. It is possible that the local officials in Nanjing were inspired by what Honda was doing, or it was by sheer coincidence that an effort was made to conduct an extensive survey investigation within the Nanjing Municipality. Altogether 1756 Japanese atrocities survivors and witnesses were found still alive. Survey teams were dispatched to interview each and every survivor or witness from March to August 1984. Out of 1756 interviewed, 176 were massacre or killing survivors, 544 victims’ relatives, 44 were rape victims, 26 individuals’ residences had been burned, and 948 were witnesses of such atrocities as killing, raping, burning and looting.18 The notes from the interviews were further edited and documented, while 105 of the documented survey interviews were selected and included in Source Materials Relating to the Horrible Massacre Committed by the Japanese Troops in Nanjing in December 1937 (1937. 12. 13-侵 华日军南京大屠杀史料), which was published in 1987. A few years later in 1994, a collection was published under the title, A Collection of Testimonies by the Survivors of the Nanjing Massacre Committed by the Japanese Troops Invading China (侵华日军南京大屠杀幸存者证言集), which contains 642 testimonies. The majority resulted from the 1984 survey investigation, with a few interviews conducted or received through mail between 1984 and 1993. In 1984, 47 years after the event, the youngest eyewitnesses were in their late fifties, and the majority were in their sixties and seventies, so the 1984 survey proves to be a remarkable oral history project to archive that important piece of history, in time to save and document otherwise what might be lost. Since then, more than 30 years have gone by, and the number of survivors and witnesses has greatly dwindled. This collection of testimonies has proved itself an invaluable source material for research on the Nanjing Massacre.

6.2  C  ases Recorded by Different Parties in Different Periods in History During the five decades following the Nanjing Massacre, a large number of atrocity survivors and witnesses at different points in history and under different circumstances came up with testimonies. One phenomenon worth scholarly attention is

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that a number of atrocity cases were recorded and described in different testimonies by different independent parties at different historical periods. In most cases the descriptions are chiefly consistent and prove to be reliable and creditable evidence. The most bloody and horrible rape and murder case, in which 11 persons were killed in the residential compound at 5 Xinlukou Lane (新路口) in the southern section of the city, was recorded and testified several times during these five decades. The 11 people who had been savagely murdered by Japanese soldiers belonged to two families living in the same compound: the Xia (夏) family and the Muslim family named Ha (哈). The four members of the Ha family, father Ha Guodong (哈國 棟), mother Ha Mashi (哈馬氏), elder daughter Ha Cunzi (哈存子) and younger daughter Ha Zhaozi (哈招子), were all murdered, while seven out of the nine members of the Xia family, maternal grandparents, Nie Zuocheng (聶佐成) and Nie Zhoushi (聶周氏), both in their seventies, father Xia Tingen (夏庭恩), in his early forties, mother Xia Nieshi (夏聶氏), in her late thirties, eldest daughter Xia Shufang (夏淑芳), 16, second daughter Xia Shulan (夏淑兰), 14, and youngest daughter Xia Shufen (夏淑芬), less than one year old, were killed. Mother and two of the elder daughters from the Xia family were gang raped before being killed. Two of the Xia daughters survived: Xia Shuqin (夏淑琴), age 8, was bayoneted in the back and side, and Xia Shuyun (夏淑芸), aged 4, escaped unharmed, though she was frightened out of her wits, and was mentally ill for the rest of her life. American missionary John G. Magee was the first to report this case. He went to that residence, saw the bodies, and filmed the crime scene with his 16 mm camera. In a letter dated January 30, 1938, he wrote to his wife: This past week I saw the most terrible sight and heard the most awful story, the truth of which there can be no doubt in its main features as I got it direct from the neighbors and from a little eight year old girl who was in the house when these things happened. Japanese soldiers came to a house in the south eastern part of the city when they first entered the city. They killed all the people in the house, thirteen in all, except two children aged eight and three or four respectively, the eight year old with whom I checked the story of her uncle and an old woman neighbor. This little girl was bayoneted in the back and side but was not killed. The dead included an old man 76 and old woman 74, a mother and three daughters, aged 16, 14 and 1. Both girls were raped about three times each and then they were all killed in the most horrible fashion, although the younger was only stabbed with a bayonet and not treated like the other two in an unspeakable way. I have heard of four such horrible cases happening in Nanking, the secretary of the German Embassy telling of one woman having had a golf stick rammed into her body. He said, “It is the Japanese technique.” I took a picture of the dead bodies, the mother lying with her one year old child. The little girl said one of the landlord’s children, aged one (not the one mentioned as with her mother) had his head split in two by a Japanese sword. The eight year old girl after being wounded crawled to the body of her mother in another room and stayed there with her little sister for fourteen days living on puffed rice and the rice crust left in the cooking pan the Chinese call “Goba” and water from the well. Everybody had fled from this area to the safety zone established by the foreigners, but they were rescued by an old women neighbor when she came back fourteen days later. Japanese soldiers kept coming in and then the children hid under some old sheets.19

American diplomat Vice Consul James Espy indicated in his report to the Department of State dated January 25, 1938, “We have been informed by an

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American citizen that a house containing fourteen Chinese in the south city was entered by Japanese soldiers. He said he saw the bodies of eleven persons, the women amongst whom were said to have been raped before being killed.”20 German businessman John Rabe also briefly recorded the case in his January 29, 1938 diary entry: “John Magee found two girls, aged eight and four, whose entire family of eleven had been murdered in the most gruesome fashion. The two girls remained in a room with the body of their mother for 14 days until they were rescued by a neighbor. The older one had fed herself and her sister from small stores of rice that were still in the house.”21

A few weeks later, Magee made an atrocity film and had George A. Fitch smuggle the movie out when the latter left Nanjing for Shanghai on February 20, 1938. Magee provided a written caption for the footage of this case: On December 13, about thirty soldiers came to a Chinese house at #5 Hsing Lu Kao in the southeastern part of Nanking, and demanded entrance. The door was opened by the landlord, Mohammedan named Ha. They killed him immediately with a revolver and also Mr. Hsia, who knelt before them after Ha’s death, begging them not to kill anyone else. Mrs. Ha asked them why they had killed her husband and they shot her dead. Mrs. Hsia was dragged out from under a table in the guest hall where she had tried to hide with her one-year old baby. After being stripped and raped by one or more men, she was bayoneted in the chest, and then had a bottle thrust into her vagina, the baby being killed with a bayonet. Some soldiers then went to the next room where were Mrs. Hsia’s parents, aged 76 and 74, and her two daughters aged 16 and 14. They were about to rape the girls when the grandmother tried to protect them. The soldiers killed her with a revolver. The grandfather grasped the body of his wife and was killed. The two girls were then stripped, the older being raped by 2–3 men, and the younger by 3. The older girl was stabbed afterwards and a cane was rammed into her vagina. The younger girl was bayoneted also but was spared the horrible treatment that had been meted out to her sister and her mother. The soldiers then bayoneted another sister of between 7–8, who was also in the room. The last murders in the house were of Ha’s two children, aged 4 and 2 years respectively. The older was bayoneted and the younger split down through the head with a sword. After being wounded the 8-year old girl crawled to the next room where lay the body of her mother. Here she staid [stayed] for 14 days with her 4-year old sister who had escaped unharmed. The two children lived on puffed rice and the rice crusts that form in the pan when the rice is cooked. It was from the older of these children that the photographer was able to get part of the story, and verify and correct certain details told him by a neighbor and a relative. The child said the soldiers came every day taking things from the house; but the two children were not discovered as they hid under some old sheets.22

Less than eight years later, on November 2, 1945, the grandmother of the Muslim Ha family, Ha Mashi (哈馬氏) who was in her early eighties, filed a petition with the Nanjing Municipal Government concerning the murder by Japanese soldiers of the four members of her son’s family and the members of the neighbor’s family. My family has lived for generations at 5 Xinlukou, which is our own property and keeps us self-reliant. During the revolution my husband passed away, but I remained in widowhood to raise the fatherless children, got them married, and I had grandsons and granddaughters around, enough to comfort me in my old age. Unfortunately, the July 7 Incident broke out, war started in Shanghai, and the situation became urgent for the capital city. My son Guodong, because his wife Mashi was pregnant and would be due any moment, did not go to the refugee zone. When the Japanese broke into the city by Yuhua Gate (雨花門), under

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the excuse of searching for Chinese soldiers, the Japanese enemy broke into my house, accused my son of being a Chinese soldier, and looted valuables. Seeing that most of the people in the house were women, their bestial desire got the upper hand. They beat up my son Guodong, breaking his limbs. Then they asked my daughter-in-law Mashi for jewelry such as bracelets, necklaces, rings and headpieces amounting to dozens of ounces of gold, and further attempted to rape her. The daughter-in-law Mashi was scared and started crying, which irritated them. They first split granddaughter Cunzi (age 5) head down, then bayoneted the younger granddaughter Zhaozi through her abdomen, bayoneted daughter-­in-­law Mashi dead, and shot my wounded son Guodong to death, resulting in the death of altogether five people, including the fetus inside the daughter-in-law. No suffering was more tragically wretched than that of the family of Mrs. Nie (聶), who shared the residence with us. The whole family of nine members, male, female, old and young, were murdered at the same time. The enemy tied the limbs of their second daughter on a rectangular table, gang raping her indulgently, while the girl kept on cursing angrily. After they finished raping, the enemy bayoneted her in the throat and in the abdomen. Even that did not satisfy their bestiality. They then found a “double-sister brand (雙妹牌)” perfume bottle and stuck it into her vagina, to amuse themselves. The cruel behaviors made my hair stand on end with anger and broke my heart as well.23

Though Ha Mashi’s petition is inaccurate about the number of Xia family members murdered, the basic information is consistent with the accounts from other sources. Thirty nine years after Ha Mashi filed the petition, the Xia family girl Xia Shuqin who, at the age of 8, was bayoneted in the back and side but nonetheless survived the massacre in 1937, met with the Japanese journalist Katsuichi Honda in Nanjing in 1984, when she was 55. Honda got the story from Xia Shuqin through an interpreter. After Japanese got into their compound, they shot Mr. Ha and Xia’s father, both of whom went to answer the vigorous ponding at the gate. Horrified, Xia ran into the innermost of the family’s rooms, and she and all her sisters, except the baby, crawled into a bed and covered themselves with a quilt and the mosquito net that the family typically kept hanging from the ceiling even during the winter. Soon, they were aware of a large mob of soldiers rushing into the house – in her excitement, Xia had forgotten to shut the door. They heard the sound of boots tramping on the floor and a murmur of voices, and then, almost at the same time, gunshots. Being under the quilt, they could not see what was happening, but their grandfather, who was near the door, was being killed. Just after that, the quilt was torn away from them with the tip of a soldier’s bayonet. The large room was packed with Japanese soldiers. Xia’s grandmother stood in front of the bed, trying to protect the four girls huddled there, but someone shot her with a pistol, and whitish bits of her brains flew through the air. Then the soldiers grabbed the two older sisters to take them away. Terrified, Xia Shuqin began screaming, and at that instant, she was stabbed with a bayonet and lost consciousness, so she did not see what happened after that. She did not realize it at the time, but she had been stabbed in three places: the left shoulder, the left side, and the back. She does not know how long she was unconscious, but she became aware of her fouryear-­old sister, who lay uninjured but crying, under the quilt, which was waddled up against the wall. When the Japanese had ripped the quilt and mosquito net off the bed, they had evidently thrown them on top of her. At this point, there was no sign of the Japanese, and all

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6  Testimonies by Chinese Survivors and Witnesses was strangely quiet, but the room was filled with an eerie light. Their thirteen-year-old sister lay dead at the other end of the bed, naked below the waist, her legs trailing on the floor. In front of the bed, was their grandmother’s body. Just inside the door was their grandfather’s body. Against the opposite wall was a desk, and their fifteen-year-old sister lay dead on top of it, also naked from the waist down and with her legs trailing on the floor. Xia could not tell whether her sisters had been stabbed or shot to death. There was no sign of their mother or the baby. … The bodies of their mother and baby sister were right in front of the shelter. Their mother lay stretched out, her trousers pulled off, and the baby lay at her side. The two little girls crawled into the straw in the shelter, covered themselves with a quilt that they had brought from the house to protect themselves from the cold, and there they stayed for nearly two weeks.24

Meanwhile, also in 1984, Xia Shuqin offered a brief testimony to the survey workers. She stated, When Japanese troops invaded China, there were two families living in our residential compound, one was a Muslim family of four and mine of nine, 13 people in all. Within a short period of over ten minutes, Japanese soldiers shot dead 11 people from our two families, four members of the neighbor family and seven from mine (grandpa, grandma, father, mother, eldest sister, second elder sister and little younger sister). Only a younger sister, age 3, and I, 7 at the time, survived. I was stabbed twice in the back and once in the left arm, with scars remaining up to now.25

Except for some discrepancies in the ages of the people involved, the number of people murdered, and the details as to how the victims had been murdered for the fact that people could only guess with common sense and reasoning from the crime scene, and different persons came up with somewhat different interpretations, the information provided from different sources are basically consistent in outlining the major framework of the murder and rape case. Upon entering the city, Japanese soldiers came to conduct a search at Xiaozai Nunnery (消災庵), at 38 Xiaoxin Bridge Street (小心橋), in the southeastern part of the city. They drove the nuns there into a dugout behind the nunnery, before they shot dead two of the nuns and wounded two others. One of the wounded nuns, Hui Ding (慧定) in her early thirties, was rescued by a neighbor and eventually brought to the University of Nanking Hospital on January 1, 1938, where Dr. Robert O. Wilson treated her. Dr. Wilson wrote to his wife that day: A nun was brought in this afternoon with a compound fracture of the femur of two weeks’ duration. She had been in a dugout with three others when the Japanese had entered the city. They came to the dugout and one soldier opened fire from each end of the dugout. The other three were killed. Her wound is badly infected and her prognosis grave.26

John G. Magee visited the hospital at the time and had a conversation with the nun. Later he retold Hui Ding’s case in his letter to his wife dated January 5, 1938: I also talked to a Buddhist nun, who lives back of a temple in the south city. When the soldiers came there they killed about 25 people in the immediate environs of this house according to a tailor who brought the nun to the hospital. She told me they killed the “mother superior” aged 65 and a little apprentice nun aged ten (Chinese). An old nun of seventy was crushed under the weight of bodies on top of her (presumably in the city where this nun took ref-

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uge.) She herself was shot in the hip and her little apprentice, aged twelve (Chinese) was bayoneted in the back. They got into a pit where they stayed five days without food or drink, feigning death and lying among a number of dead bodies. Then the nun heard a soldier say in Chinese “How pitiable!” and she opened her eyes and looked at him, asking him to save her. He pulled her out and got some Chinese to carry her to an army dressing station where she was tended to and was brought to the hospital some days later. When I heard about the little apprentice who had been stabbed in the back Mr. McCallum went down in the hospital ambulance and brought the child as there was no one to look after her. Dr. Wilson says he doubts if the nun will recover but if she does she will never use that leg. The child’s wound is not very bad. It turned out that she had to stay several weeks and is now in our house.27

Later, Magee filmed Hui Ding and her apprentice as Cases 2 and 3 for the fourth part of his atrocity movie, which is accompanied by the following caption: The case of a Buddhist nun and a little apprentice nun between 8–9 years old. This child was bayoneted in the back, although she ran a fever for weeks after the incident. The adult nun has a compound fracture of the left hip, caused by a bullet wound, from which an extensive infection developed. If she recovers, which is questionable, a very specialized operation will be necessary to enable her to walk. She and some other nuns occupied a building behind a temple in the southern part of the city. When the Japanese entered the city they killed a great many people in this neighborhood. The tailor who brought her to the hospital, estimated that there were about 25 dead there. Among the dead was the ‘Mother Superior’ of this nunnery, 65 years of age, and a little apprentice nun of between 6–7. They wounded the nun and the little apprentice shown in this picture. They took refuge in a pit where they staid [stayed] for 5–6 days without food or drink. There were many corpses in this pit, and an old nun of about 68 years of age was either crushed or smothered to death by the weight of the bodies. After 5 days the wounded nun heard a soldier say in Chinese ‘What a pity!’ She thereupon opened her eyes and begged the man to save her life. He dragged her out of the pit, and got some Chinese to carry her to an army dressing station, where an army doctor attended to her. Eventually she was brought to the Mission hospital by a neighbor.28

After the war, on July 8, 1946, Hui Ding at the age of 40, as the head nun of Xiaozai Nunnery, presented a petition to the Nanjing Municipal Government, giving account of the killings committed by Japanese soldiers at her nunnery: Enemy entered the city on Lunar Calendar November 10, Minguo 26th Year. At 2 p.m. the following day, eight Japanese officers and soldiers, all armed with rifles, came to the nunnery to search. Because of the language barrier, without any words spoken, they drove us four nuns, including master and apprentices, into the dugout outside the back door of the nunnery. They first fired shots and then stabbed us with bayonets. My master Tai Zhen ( 太真), age 65, was shot in the chest, and was killed instantly. My elder apprentice Deng Yuan (登元), age 10, was shot in the waist and bayoneted in the head; the second apprentice Deng Gao (登高) was shot three times in the head and stabbed with a bayonet three times in the face. Both apprentices died after the enemy left. Also in the dugout, apart from the four of us, master and apprentices, there were five others, and altogether nine people were killed inside it. I was the only one who survived, but I was shot in the abdomen and leg. Unable to walk, I stayed in the dugout for over ten days. Later when it quieted down, and my wounds worsened, I was moved to Gulou Hospital for treatment. I did not get healed until after three operations, but my leg is permanantly disabled, and I walk with difficulty.29

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Both Magee and McCallum indicated in their personal letters that the little apprentice nun had been wounded, but the wound was not life threatening. When McCallum took the ambulance down to get her, he found that “her wound had healed; all she needed was food, a bath, and comfortable surroundings.”30 It is not known why in 1946 Hui Ding said that there had been four nuns, instead of five, in the dugout, and that she was the only one survived. But apart from this and another number miscalculation such as nine people in the dugout and nine got killed, and yet she survived, the major and important elements of the incident described by different parties remain consistent. On December 19, 1937, Dr. Robert O. Wilson reported in a letter to his wife that a young girl of 19 was brought to the hospital with multiple stab wounds: Today at Hillcrest the flags were taken down and a woman raped and then bayoneted in the basement. A pool of blood was on the floor when Mills took a consular policeman from the Japanese Embassy there this evening. The woman apparently is still alive and has been taken to the hospital where Trim will see her as he is on call tonight. I will see her in the morning.31

Dr. Wilson gave more details on December 21, 1937: Day before yesterday at Hillcrest a young girl of nineteen who was six-and-a-half months pregnant was foolish enough to resist rape by two Japanese soldiers. She received eighteen cuts about the face, several on the legs and a deep gash of the abdomen. This morning at the hospital I could not hear the fetal heart and she will probably have an abortion. (Next morning: She aborted last night at midnight. Technically a miscarriage.)32

He mentioned this woman again on December 30, as she helped to breastfeed the baby of another rape victim: The little seventeen-year-old girl who was raped at seven thirty one evening before starting her labor pains at nine, has now developed a rip-roaring case of acute gonorrhea. She runs a temperature of 105 part of the time and the outlook is not too bright. We are giving her baby temporarily to the girl who lost hers prematurely when she was stuck in the abdomen with a bayonet in the basement of Hillcrest. She has plenty of milk.33

Dr. Wilson filed this woman’s case, which was forwarded to the Japanese Embassy on December 22, 1937, as Case 115 of the Safety Zone documents: 115. Dec. 19th, afternoon, a 19-year old girl at Hillcrest American School who was 6 ½ months pregnant had one Japanese soldier try to rape her and she resisted him so he started to cut her with a knife (or bayonet). She has 19 wounds on the chest several on the legs and a deep knife wound in the abdomen. The foetal [fetal] heart cannot be heard. The case is at the University Hospital. (Wilson)34

In early January 1938, John G. Magee met with this woman in the hospital and filmed her as Case 4 of the second part of his atrocity movie. He provided a caption for the footage: This nineteen year old woman was a refugee at the American School in the Refugee Zone. She was six and one-half month pregnant with her first child. She resisted rape and was therefore stabbed many times by a Japanese soldier. She has nineteen cuts on her face, eight on her legs, and a cut two inches deep in her abdomen. This caused a miscarriage the day after her entrance into the University Hospital. She recovered from her wounds.35

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In 1946, this woman appeared as prosecution’s witness in the military tribunal for Japanese war crimes in Nanjing, and her name is Li Xiuying (李秀英). Her husband’s name is Lu Haoran (陸浩然), so she also added his family name before hers to become Lu Li Xiuying (陸李秀英) when she chose to do so. She was cross examined in court on October 19, 1946: Q: Name, age and place of origin? A: Lu Li Xiuying, 28, from Nanjing, living at 16 Songyinli (松蔭里) in Liji Lane (利濟巷). Q: What is your occupation? A: No occupation. Q: Do you know when the Japanese entered the city of Nanjing? A: December 12 to 13, Minguo 26th Year. Q: Do you know which Japanese troop came at the time? A: I learned it was Nakajima Troops (中島部隊). Q: Where were you at the time? A: I was taking refuge in the American Primary School at Shanghai Road. Q: Were you harmed? At what time? A: Yes, I was harmed, on the morning of December 19. Q: Where? A: Right in the school. Q: How were you harmed? A: There were about 6 or 7 young women and 4 or 5 old men taking refuge with me there at the time. On the morning of December 19, three Japanese soldiers came to the campus, attempting to rape young women. I resisted desperately and was stabbed by the three Japanese soldiers with bayonets in the face, legs and abdomen, altogether 33 times. At the time, I was 6 months pregnant. The blood trickled out to a pool on the floor, and I lost consciousness. Assuming I was dead, the Japanese left. Later, my father took me to Gulou Hospital, where Dr. Wilson treated me. I was hospitalized for over 40 days. Meanwhile, Rev. McCallum had moving pictures taken, and the pictures have been sent to the international tribunal. At present, I have pain all over my body and can barely walk whenever it rains. Q: You were pregnant with a child, did you have a miscarriage? A: Yes, I had a miscarriage on the third day after I was wounded.36

On November 4, 1946, the national newspaper Dagong Daily (大公報) ran an article, reporting three Nanjing Massacre survivors. Li Xiuying was one of the three. The article reports that she did not leave her native town. When a group of emperor’s warriors found her, they attempted to rape her in broad daylight, only to meet with unexpectedly strong resistance. The rape attempt failed, and Li Xiuying, stabbed 33 times with bayonets by the Imperial Army soldiers, was near death and carried by foreign doctors into Gulou Hospital for treatment.37 Li Xiuying was interviewed by a journalist again in February 1951. The article entitled “Courageous and Tenacious Li Xiuying (勇敢頑强的李秀英)” was published by Xinhua Daily on February 23, 1951. It reports that on the morning of December 19, 6 Japanese soldiers rushed into the school’s basement, driving over 10 women out at the point of bayonets, including Li; but when a Japanese soldier came to grab her, she bumped her head toward the corner of the wall. Blood gushed out, and she fainted to the ground. Seeing her faint, the Japanese soldier kicked her

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aside and went to take another woman away. Later, other refugees carried her from the yard back into the house. At the moment, three other Japanese soldiers came. Li could not stand it anymore. She mustered all her strength, jumped up to grab the soldier’s sword, which was by his side. She struck it hard toward the soldier, but her hand was held by the soldier, and the other two soldiers stabbed her violently with bayonets in the face, body, legs and last in the abdomen, making her scream while falling in a pool of blood.38 As many of the atrocity survivors, Li Xiuying was interviewed in 1984, and offered her testimony, in which she stated that before the Japanese got to Nanjing, her husband had left to seek refuge north of the Yangtze River, while she herself, due to her advanced pregnancy, chose to stay behind with her father, taking shelter in the basement at Wutai Hill Primary School, which was also known as American School. At 9 a.m. on December 19, six Japanese soldiers came into the basement, taking me and over ten other young women. I would rather die than raped. I was so worried that I had no way out that I hit my head against the wall. My head was bleeding and I fainted down to the ground. When I came to the Japanese soldiers had left. Later I felt that doing this was useless. Since childhood I had learnt a bit of martial arts from my father and could fight against them. At noon that day, again came three Japanese soldiers who drove the men out before taking two women to another room, attempting to rape them. At the moment, one soldier came to unbutton me. I saw he had a sword by his side, and it suddenly occurred to me to grab his sword. I took this opportunity to hold the sword hilt, struggling with the soldier. Seeing this, the Japanese soldier was greatly shocked, and began fighting with me for the hilt. Unable to use the sword, I used my teeth instead to bite him steadfast, making him shout with pain. The two Japanese soldiers in the next room, hearing the shouting, ran over to this soldier’s rescue. There was no way that I could deal with three of them, but I held the hilt fast and struggled with this soldier, tumbling around on the floor, while the other two Japanese soldiers stabbed me wildly with bayonets in the face and legs quite a few times. Finally, one Japanese soldier bayoneted me in the abdomen, which made me lose consciousness instantly, and I was aware of nothing after that. After the Japanese soldiers left, my father was extremely saddened to see me dead. He asked several neighbors to dig a pit by Wutai Hill and took down a door board as a stretcher to carry me out for burial. When they carried me outdoors, stimulated by the cold wind, I came to, giving out a groan. Father heard it, and, realizing that I was still alive, had me carried home in a hurry, and managed to take me to Gulou Hospital for emergency medical treatment. I had a miscarriage the following day. After being examined by the doctors, I had more than 30 stabs, with my lips and eyelids cut open. I did not recover until after 7 months’ medical treatment.39

Due to the fact that most of the information about this case came either from Dr. Wilson who had treated her or Li Xiuying herself, the descriptions in various testimonies and reports are pretty consistent, though some have more details than others. On February 23, 1938, several atrocity cases were brought to the University of Nanking Hospital. Civilians were shot at while they were at a flour shop on Mochou Road (莫愁路), where residents gathered to buy flour. Dr. Wilson filed this incident, in which several people had been shot and one woman had been killed, as Case 457 of the Safety Zone documents:

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457. Feb. 24th. Yesterday a young man was a part of a large crowd at Hwang Li Hsiang near Moh Tsou Lu that were buying flour from a shop. The Japanese guard on duty told the crowd to disperse. When they did not disperse fast enough a shot was fired into the crowd killing one woman 40-year old, wounding another woman in the leg and severely wounding this boy in the foot. (Wilson)40

More than 46 years later in 1984, Guo Sunrong (郭蓀榮), a retired worker of 72, recalled that he was in that crowd at Mochou Road at the time, hoping in vain to buy flour, and what was worse is that he almost got killed: In order to survive, sometimes we had to go to buy the flour the Japanese had plundered (at the location near the Mochou Road Church). At the time I was 26, strong and sturdy, and wanted to buy the flour sooner. Who would have thought these evil Japanese soldiers would go so far as to shoot into the crowd, who were there attempting to buy flour, killing several persons, and I was almost killed as well.41

Apparently, Guo, having seen several people who had been shot at and fallen down in pools of blood, assumed they had been shot dead, though in fact one woman got killed and several others had been seriously wounded. It turned out, however, that this was not the only murder case during the flour buying adventure in Nanjing. Rev. McCallum wrote a letter to his wife Eva on March 1, 1938. In the letter, he described a killing taking place the previous day, in which a woman was bayoneted to death when she attempted to buy flour on Zhujiang Road (珠江路): On Kuikiang Road yesterday the Japanese opened a little shop and were selling flour. They had only about 70 sacks it seems and as the word spread around more and more people gathered to buy – until about 2,000 were on hand. The J. soon were sold out and bothered by the crowds who hung around. They were told to “beat it” but the word did not get out fast enough and the soldiers decided to force them away. One woman was killed outright, one woman died five minutes after arriving at our hospital and this one that came in today is in a sad way. So we are not entirely free from this senseless and useless cruelty.42

Dr. Wilson, who had treated this woman when she was brought into the hospital, recorded and filed the incident as Case 459 of the Safety Zone documents on both February 28 and March 1, 1938, offering more details: 459. Feb. 28th, during the morning a woman by the name of Fang who had been staying at the War College was on Chukiang road with some members of her family. A Japanese soldier told the girl to get out of the way and stuck her through the back with a bayonet. The bayonet went clear through and protruded through the front. She died in the clinic about 5 minutes after entering the hospital. (Wilson) March 1st: The Japanese opened a store to sell flour on Chukiang Road beyond the railway track. They started to sell flour with only some ten bags. A crowd of about 2,000 people gathered to buy the flour which was quickly sold out. The Japanese ordered the rest of the crowd to disperse. In enforcing their order they hit one girl over the head, killed one outright, thrust one through the back so the bayonet came out the front so she died soon after arriving at the hospital, and severely wounded a fourth. This last had a bayonet wound in the buttock about 8 inches deep and received a kick in the lower abdomen which caused a severe bruise on the abdominal wall and a rupture of the small intestine necessitating an operation (by Dr. Brady) and leaving the woman with a very serious condition from which we hope she will recover. (Wilson)43

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In 1984, Zhang Liancai (張連才) testified that when he was at Zhujiang Road in February 1938 at the age of 17: “On Lunar Calendar January 16 [1938], when my master and I went to Zhujiang Road to buy flour, I saw a Japanese soldier bayonet a woman in the abdomen, as she was standing in the line to buy flour. The woman fell to the ground instantly.”44 1938’s Chinese New Year’s Day was January 31, 1938, and the 16th day of Lunar Calendar January should be February 15, 1938. Either Zhang’s memory of the date is inaccurate, or, he saw another bayoneting incident at the flour store on Zhujiang Road. Zhang Fengzhen (張凤珍) testified in 1984 that her husband Chen Guangcai (陳 廣才) worked as a chef for an Englishman named Ritchie at the post office at Sajiawan. When Japanese troops were approaching Nanjing, Chen Guangcai sent his wife and children out of the city for refuge, but he stayed on to cook for the British. After the Japanese came, Japanese soldiers took Chen, with more than 20 others detained by the Japanese elsewhere, to a concave area at Xiao Street (晓街), where they were machine gunned. Another postal worker, Li Hongxiang (李宏祥), had been detained with Chen. Because Li looked like a foreigner, he was set free, and it was this worker who told Zhang Fengzhen about her husband’s death.45 Zhang Fengzhen’s testimony can be verified in part by a British diplomatic document found in London’s Public Record Office, a letter sent by William Walter Ritchie to the British consul at Nanjing, Ernest William Jeffery. More than 46 years earlier on March 18, 1938, Ritchie stated, The premises were left in charge of my Houseboy Chen Kwang-tsai (陳光彩), Coolie Li Chi-yuan (李齊元) and Gatekeeper Li Hwei-yuan (李會元). No damage was done or abstraction made, prior to 19th December, 1937, when the premises were forcibly occupied by over 100 Japanese soldiers, who affixed a notice bearing the characters “井上部隊第三 中隊” to the front gate. My servants had been taken away by Japanese soldiers on 13th December, 1937, but the Coolie and Gatekeeper were subsequently released; the Houseboy, Chen, has not since been heard of, and is said to have been shot.46

William Walter Ritchie, a British subject, was the Postal Commissioner for the Postal District of Jiangsu Province. According to Ritchie’s letter, Chen Guangcai was his houseboy, working at Ritchie’s residence at 3 Nanzushian (南祖師庵) in the northwestern part of the city close to the British Embassy, rather than working in the post office. However, it was absolutely possible that Chen might also run errands or do odd jobs for the post office. Probably Zhang Fengzhen failed to remember her husband’s name accurately which is highly possible because she was 91 in 1984, or the note taker did not write down the name correctly. Her husband’s name in Chinese character should be陳光彩, rather than陳廣才, but these are pronounced the same. In 1947, Li Xinshan (李锌山), whose residence was at 263 Taiping Road, provided the following information for the survey form to testify that his neighbors, two Zhu brothers, had been murdered by Japanese soldiers on December 17, 1937: Two brothers Zhu Zaixin (朱在鑫) and Zhu Zaixiang (朱在祥) stayed in the Linyuanpen Bathhouse (臨園盆浴室) at 268 Taiping Road. On December 17, 1937, Japanese soldiers came to knock at the gate of the bathhouse. The two brothers went

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to answer the call, but as soon as they opened the gate, the Japanese soldiers bayoneted them in the abdomen. They fell down, losing consciousness. Their family members, who had moved into the refugee zone for safety, came back to visit them in the evening only to find them both dead on the ground.47 Yang Yilan (楊義蘭), age 21  in 1937, who was Zhu Zaixin’s daughter-inlaw, provided testimony in 1984 concerning the murder of her father-in-law and his brother: When Japanese troops bombed Nanjing, my husband and I went to the countryside in Luhe County (六合縣) for refuge. Meanwhile, my father-in-law Zhu Zaixing (朱再興) managed the Linyuan Bathhouse (林園浴室) and at the time Japanese troops invaded Nanjing, he stayed behind to look after the bathhouse. On the morning of the second day after Japanese troops entered the city, Japanese soldiers came to knock at the gate of the bathhouse. My father-in-law went to the gate, but as soon as he opened the gate, without uttering a word, a Japanese soldier bayoneted him in the chest, killing him on the spot. My uncle-in-law Zhu Zaixiang (朱再祥), noticing that his elder brother went to open the gate and had not returned yet, with a washing basin in his hands, went to the gate to have a look. Once he saw the Japanese soldiers, he turned around, running back, but he was caught by a Japanese soldier, who bayoneted him in the back, killing him. Also stabbed to death with bayonets were three workers who served in the bathhouse. It was extremely wretched because uncle-in-law left behind three young kids from 5 to 7.48

Even though there are variations in the date, name, and minute details, the core facts about the murder of the two brothers in the bathhouse described in the two testimonies 37 years apart remains consistent. In a letter to his wife dated February 13, 1938, Dr. Robert O. Wilson told of a terrible atrocity he had heard from one of his patients in the hospital: Two weeks ago six Japanese soldiers entered the town of Liulangchiao some miles southwest of our town. They proceeded with their usual system of rape and looting. Some of the men in the town organized some resistance and killed three of the soldiers, the other three getting away. The three soon returned, with several hundred who quickly threw a cordon around the town. A town of 500 inhabitants, it had only about 300 at the time. These 300 were all tied together in groups of six to eight and thrown in the icy river. They then leveled the town so that there wasn’t a wall standing. The story was told me by a man who had gone from Nanking to Tanyangchen, a village just beyond Liulangchiao. He talked with the few terrified inhabitants of the surrounding territory and saw the ruins.49

Shi Shenghua (施 华) was a 74-year-old resident in Nanjing in 1984, but in December 1937 she lived in the town of Liulangqiao (六郎橋), or Liulangchiao as Wilson spelt it, in Jiangning County (江寧縣). She indicated in a brief testimony in 1984: “One person named Siwanzi (四碗子) killed a Japanese soldier who was raping a woman. As a result, Japanese troops came to kill all the people and burn all the houses in several villages around the area.”50 Apparently, Wilson and Shi talked about the same incident at the same location, even though Shi’s description is brief and sketchy, without giving the definite dates of the two related incidents.

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6.3  Testimonies of the Japanese Atrocities With unusual magnitude and cruelty, the Japanese atrocities cast enormous and lasting impact upon the residents in and around Nanjing. The widespread and rampant atrocities resulted in a huge number of victims, further affecting an exponential number of family members, relatives, friends, acquaintances and even the strangers who happened to be in a position able to witness the atrocities unfolding. A high percentage of Nanjing’s population could claim to be atrocity survivors, or have suffered from or witnessed atrocities, many of whom, from December 1937 on, in a span of about 50 years, offered testimonies about various forms of atrocities. An even larger number of residents heard directly and indirectly in their lifetime about the atrocity cases committed in their neighborhood or right next door to their residences. However, with the passage of time, those generations of the Nanjing residents who unfortunately lived through the massacre period in 1937/38 winter, have gradually left us, fading into history. Therefore, their atrocity testimonies are especially valuable for scholars and researchers to examine that human carnage at close range and from a grassroots and ordinary residents’ point of view. Due to the large number of testimonies, only a few examples are quoted for each of the categories.

6.3.1  Testimonies by Survivors In 1984, Zhu Xisheng (朱錫生) told survey workers that in December 1937, before Japanese troops reached Nanjing, he, at the age of 22, moved with his father into the refugee camp which back then was known as Fuyin Hall (福音堂), a Christian church, and at present is the campus of No. 19 Middle School. One afternoon a few days later, at nearly 4 o’clock, Japanese soldiers came to round people up. I pretended to be sick, lying in bed, covered with a comforter, while handing over the certificate issued by the refugee camp. The Japanese soldier tore it up without even looking at it. At the time, they detained three people, myself included, and I did not know the other two. After detaining us, the Japanese soldiers took the three of us to a riverside. The moment we reached the riverside, the other two were hacked to death with swords. The Japanese soldiers were to hack me when I begged them, saying that I had an old man in his eighties at home depending on me for support… Lest they could not understand me, I gestured with my hands to show that the old man had a long beard. As I spoke, suddenly came three more Japanese soldiers, and before I could have a good look at them, one of them struck me with a sword at the back of my neck, causing me to fall to the ground instantly. Still conscious, I bit hard at the collar of the shabby overcoat I was wearing to hold my breath in order to fain being hacked to death. A few minutes later, a Japanese soldier kicked me. I remained motionless, playing dead while hearing them say, “Dead!” before they walked away. It was about 5 o’clock at dusk, and getting dark. The pain was unbearable and my clothes were covered with sticky blood. Thinking that it was dark and the Japanese soldiers had left, I’d better hurry up and run away! Thus, I endured the pain and returned to the refugee camp.51

Sha Guanchao (沙官朝) was a 77-year-old man when he offered his testimony in 1984 about his narrow escape from death. Married with two children, he was a

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rickshaw puller at the age of 30  in 1937. By the time Japanese troops occupied Nanjing, his family had already moved from their residence at Dongguanzha Street (東關閘) in the southern part of the city to 13 Shenjia Lane (沈家巷) in the refugee zone. A few days later, when we ran out of the food we had brought with us, at 3 p.m. that day I asked six of my neighbors (One was the son of coppersmith named Li (李), one named Han (韓), one named Rong (榮), a neighbor from across the street named Fan (範), all around the same age) to go back home together for food. When we reached Nima Lane (泥馬巷) near Pigeon Bridge (鴿子橋), we ran into 4 or 5 Japanese soldiers who, seeing us young and able-bodied, bayoneted us. Instantly, my 6 companions were bayoneted to death by three Japanese soldiers. I was scared to death and started running, but I was caught by two Japanese soldiers, and one Japanese soldier stabbed me with a bayonet in the abdomen. Because I wore heavy clothes and made a dodge, the bayonet thrust into me at my left abdomen and came out from the right. Right after that, a Japanese soldier bayoneted me in the waist; the soldier who stood behind me stabbed me from behind, hitting my bone. I grit my teeth to pull the bayonet out right away and threw it away. I endured the pain and ran away as quickly as I could, with blood trickling all along the way. Seeing this, the Japanese soldiers ran after me. Because I was a rickshaw puller who could run fast and was familiar with the streets and lanes, they could not catch up with me even if they tried desperately. They fired shots at me, and one bullet hit my arm. Finally feeling satisfied, they walked away, laughing. Witnessing six neighbors on the ground, all bayoneted dead by the Japanese soldiers, and myself wounded by being stabbed several times and shot at, I was full of hatred and worries, and kept running wildly along quiet streets through Muliaoshi Street (木料市) and Small Wangfuyuan Street (小王府園) area until I got back to the refugee zone. After I was back in the refugee zone, the pain from the wounds became more than I could endure. My wife was extremely worried to see that, and took me to Gulou Hospital, where the doctor checked on me and had me hospitalized for treatment. I stayed in hospital 11 days in bed No. 267.52

On November 26, 1945, Yang Wenfu (楊文復) filed an affidavit about his surviving experience in December 1937, when he was a 30-year-old tea house waiter. As the Japanese approached to the city, he moved into the refugee zone for safety. One morning, a squad of Japanese soldiers made an extensive search in the refugee zone for youths, and I was detained. One Japanese officer asked me for women, cigarettes, wine etc., but because of the language barrier, I did not understand him. As a result, he bayoneted me twice: once under the armpit, and the other in the chest. I instantly passed out. Fortunately, the Red Swastika Society treated me and saved my life. I was bedridden and did not recover for three months.53

On one afternoon in December 1937, about 200 Japanese soldiers came to Meijia Village (梅架村) south of Nanjing, which was the native village of Mei Fukang (梅 福康), age 16 at the time. The Japanese drove all the villagers out, and kept the young women confined in one house and men in another at night. At midnight, while the Japanese soldiers were asleep, the young women managed to run away. The following morning the Japanese soldiers were so outraged to find the women were gone that they beat the men severely. They also threw grenades into a pond to kill fish with explosions and forced Mei and others into the freezing water to retrieve the fish.54

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After the Japanese soldiers had enjoyed the fish, they drove my grandmother, father, second elder brother, niece, three cousins and me, 8 people, plus 4 neighbors in the village, 12 in all, to a small dirt mount, asking us to line up around the mount, facing outward before they linked us one with another by tying up our hands with cloth strips. Once they tied us up the Japanese soldiers cruelly threw grenades into our human circle. When the grenade explosions were over, they ran fiendishly over, lest we were not dead yet, to bayonet every one of us several times. My poor little niece could not endure the sharp pain from bayoneting that she screamed out. She was immediately choked to death with the hands by a Japanese soldier. I was injured by grenade explosions behind the ear, in the jaw and tongue, and by bayonet twice in the chest and once in the buttock. Out of 12 victims, 10 died. Only I and another neighbor survived; seven of my eight family members were killed by explosions. Assuming we were all dead, the Japanese soldiers burned down all the houses. My elder brother was taken away by Japanese soldiers to a neighboring village to cook for them. After seeing fire in his native village, he ran back to find me still alive. He hid me in a nearby hill and moved me in every 2 or 3 days. I was not out of danger until more than 20 days later. For 2 to 3 years, I could not move my tongue properly and could not speak clearly. (pp. 435–436)

6.3.2  Testimonies About Murdered Parents Before the hostilities started, Ma Zhongshan (馬忠山)’s family lived at 98 Yuhua Road (雨花路). His father, eldest brother and third elder brother were Muslim ahungs. He ran a small grocery store. About a month before the Japanese arrived, his mother took four of his sisters, two brothers and himself to a relative’s home in the countryside of Jiangning County, leaving his father, an uncle, and third elder brother behind to look after the house.55 On December 14, my father and others were home when a woman, a widow who was the owner of the Toufu store next door, suddenly came in, looking flustered, and said several Japanese soldiers attempted to rape her. Having learned about it, my father took her to the back door and helped her run away. Immediately after that, through the front door came several Japanese soldiers, who demanded in a threatening manner to search for the woman who had just run away. Without any further words, they started searching everywhere. Naturally, they did not find her. The angry soldiers, believing that my father and others helped the woman escape, vented their anger upon them and killed people like my father, uncle and brother who were unarmed and innocent civilians. They bayoneted them to death and burned down the house. Also burned down were more than ten homes next to ours. (pp. 443–444)

In 1937, Ma Mingfu (馬明福) was only 7, and his family lived near Zhonghua Gate with his father running a salted duck store. His family consisted of six members: father, 38, mother, 30, elder sister, 9, younger sister 4, younger brother, just one year old, and himself. Before the arrival of the Japanese, the whole family went to his maternal grandmother’s village south of Nanjing at Shazhouwei (沙洲 圩) for refuge.56 When Japanese soldiers came the following afternoon, the 70 to 80 villagers fled to a low-­ lying area, about 500 meters from the village to hide. Once in the village, the Japanese soldiers set fire to the houses, so that the villagers did not dare to go back home at night.

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Instead, they dug an underground cave in the middle of the low-lying area that night, and covered the cave with tree branches. Around 10 a.m. the third day, the Japanese soldiers found out that the villagers were hiding in the low-lying area. They surrounded the area, firing shots. At the time there were over 50 people hiding in the low-lying area. My grandma and two uncles hid in a small thatched house. As soon as the firing sounded, my grandpa, worried about the safety of grandma, took the risk and ran toward the small house. The Japanese saw him, shot him, and he fell to the ground. Mother saw grandpa had been shot dead. Without putting down my little brother in her arms, she ran over to hold grandpa. Meanwhile, my 4-year-old younger sister ran after mother. A Japanese soldier shot mother in the chest, killing her instantly. Mother’s blood splashed onto my younger sister. She screamed out, “I am shot!” Before she finished her words, a bullet hit her in the abdomen, and her intestines splattered out. My father ran over to grab my younger brother, who was still alive, from mother’s arms. By that time, half of the 50 refugees who hid in the low-­ lying area had been shot dead. Seven members of my family and grandpa’s family were killed on the spot. (pp. 445–446)

Yang Baoyan (楊寶炎) filed an affidavit on December 13, 1945 concerning his father who was shot dead by Japanese soldiers outside his own residence: My father Yang Yujiu (楊餘九), male, was 51 years old. Nanjing fell on December 12, Minguo 26th Year. The second day after the Japanese enemy entered the city, namely the 13th of the month, Yang Yujiu lived at 85 Changle Road (長樂路) which was then called Sanfang Lane (三坊巷), looking after the house. He was forced by the Japanese to carry things, but he did not comply. The Japanese then shot him dead in front of the residence gate by the roadside of Sanfang Lane. His body was collected and buried by a burial squad.57

In the winter of 1937, Zhang Hongfang (張红芳), age 12, was with her family taking refuge at Shenjuren Lane (沈举人巷) inside the refugee zone. She testified in 1984 that her father was shot dead by Japanese soldiers: My father, because of his old age, stayed home at 5 Miejie Street (蔑街), looking after the house. While conducting house-to-house searches, Japanese soldiers came to my house, knocking at the door. My father was afraid and did not open the door soon enough. No sooner did he get the door open than he was shot dead in the doorway of his own residence by the Japanese soldiers. Also murdered at the same time was our neighbor at 6 Miejie Street, an old man named Fu (傅). Another neighbor named Chen (陳) was raped then was shot dead. We did not receive the news until about a month after father’s death, when we went back home, and found him lying face down in the doorway.58

6.3.3  Testimonies About Murdered Spouses In the summer of 1938, Yang Mashi (楊馬氏), a 58-year-old widow, filed a petition pleading to be admitted into the municipal relief facility. Her husband and elder son were both killed in December 1937, and she had no source of income. The Social Service Section of the Japanese sponsored puppet Nanjing Municipal Government dispatched a social worker, Zhu Shouzhi (朱壽之), to investigate and verify her case. After the investigation, Zhu reported on August 5, 1938:

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Dispatched to investigate Yang Mashi’s application for admission into the relief facility, I went to 4 Jianzi Lane (剪子巷) in the Mendong (門東) area. I found that the widow Yang Mashi was 58 years old, and her husband and elder son were in fact shot dead by Japanese soldiers in the refugee zone during the incident last year. She was left with her second son Xiaotuanzi (小團子), age 16, without a source of income, truly in an extremely pitiable state. Thereupon, approval should be granted for her admission into the relief facility in order to save their lives.59

Li Baoru (李寶如), age 56, lived at 22 Chuanban Lane (船板巷) in December 1937 when his wife was shot dead by Japanese soldiers. On November 26, 1945, he filed an affidavit concerning her death: On the morning of Lunar Calendar November 11, Minguo 26th Year, several Japanese soldiers (whose names are unknown) passed by my home at 22 Chuanban Lane, breaking into my house and forcibly taking me out to search for Chinese soldiers. At the time, my wife Li Wushi (李吴氏) closely followed me, while I refused to reveal the various locations where Chinese soldiers were staying. At this point, the enemy revealed their savage nature and went so far as to shoot my wife in the abdomen, killing her.60

On December 5, 1945, Fang Xueren (方學仁), age 68, filed an affidavit concerning his wife who had been shot dead by Japanese soldiers: “In Lunar Calendar November, Minguo 26th Year, when the Japanese enemy entered the city, the victim, my wife Fang Shishi (方施氏), went from the refugee zone to our home at 21 Dashiqiao Street (大石橋) to have a look around the house. At the moment, a unit of Nakajima Troops were passing by, and she was shot dead by Japanese soldiers.”61 When Japanese troops captured Nanjing on December 13, 1937, Zhou Liangshi (周梁氏)‘s large family stayed put because they were too poor to evacuate. On December 27, 1945, she filed an affidavit concerning her husband, who had been shot dead by Japanese soldiers: On December 14, the streets were full of enemy soldiers. They came to my residence, accusing my husband Zhou Baoyin (周寶銀) of being a Central Government soldier, and, without any word of explanation, shot him dead. His body lay there for a month, too ­tragically wretched to look at. Later, neighbors raised money to buy a coffin to have him buried.62

Like many women in Nanjing in 1937, Zhou Yushi (周俞氏), 27, witnessed her husband being shot dead right in front of their house. She offered her testimony of that terrible event in 1984: When the Japanese invaded Nanjing in Lunar Calendar November 1937, our family did not move, and our residence was at Shanpuying Street (扇普營) outside Tongji Gate. One day, five Japanese soldiers broke into our house in a threatening manner. One of the Japanese soldiers snatched away our son of 3 from my husband’s arms and gave him to me before he pushed my husband Zhou Junxiang (周俊祥) out of the house and fired a shot into his ear, killing him. After killing him, they did not even allow family members to bury him, saying that they would be back in a few days to see if the body was still there. If it was not, they would kill the family members.63

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6.3.4  Testimonies About Sons and Daughters Who Were Killed In 1984, Liu Qingying (劉慶英), a 92-year-old woman and retired worker, stated in her written testimony that during the massacre days, she lost both her husband and son to Japanese atrocities on the same day: Originally, my family had four members: husband Han Laoliu (韓老六), son Han Xiaobin (韓小斌), daughter-in-law, and myself. In one day, Japanese soldiers killed the two men, my husband and son. My son was then 20 years old, hiding in a room with the two sons of our landlord, Boss Zhang (張老板). Japanese soldiers found them in a house search. The landlord’s eldest son Zhang Laoda (張老大) had his foot bandaged in gauze due to an ulcer on his foot; the second son Zhang Laoer (張老二) had served in the military and had calluses on his hands; because my son was hiding with them, the Japanese soldiers insisted that all three of them were soldiers and killed them on the spot. The Zhang brothers were beheaded and died in front of the house gate; my son was bayoneted to death, 9 times total: four times on each side of his abdomen and once in the arm. Finally, the Japanese soldiers tied flax ropes to the wound in his arm, and dragged him to the front gate, and he thus died. My husband Han Laouliu was held by the Japanese soldiers, but when he saw the horrible state in which his son was killed, he was so heart-broken that he struggled to move toward his son, which irritated the Japanese soldiers. They picked him up and threw him into the well, then dropped big stones into the well. Thus he was killed by drowning and stoning in the well. He was only 45. I lost two loved ones within one day, which has kept me grieving all my life. As long as I am alive, I will never forget this.64

Ding Lishi (丁李氏) lived at 44 Madao Street (馬道街) when Japanese troops entered Nanjing in the winter of 1937. Her eldest daughter Ding Zhenqing (丁振清) was shot dead when she resisted rape. In 1946, Ding Lishi revealed the details about her daughter’s murder by Japanese soldiers in their residence: In the winter of Minguo 26th Year, Japanese troops broke into the city of Nanjing, marauding around. We were too poor to move into the refugee zone for safety, so we stayed at home with the neighbor named Gao (高), who shared the residential compound with us. On Lunar Calendar November 12, five or six Japanese soldiers suddenly came into our residence. They saw my eldest daughter, 24 at the time, and attempted to rape her. My daughter was determined not to comply, covering her breasts with her hands, and resisted so vigorously that the Japanese soldiers tore apart her clothes. They were unable to satisfy their lust, and out of anger, they shot her dead.65

Chen Xiang (陳湘) was a scholar by profession. On November 5, 1945, Chen, age 75 at the time, presented a petition to the Nanjing Municipal Government regarding his son, who had been shot dead by Japanese soldiers: We originally resided at 2 Chenjia Paifang Street (陳家牌坊), and on Lunar Calendar November 6, Minguo 26th Year, following the orders issued by the military and police to avoid danger, I took my wife, son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter to seek refuge at 47 Huaqiao Road (華僑路) inside the refugee zone. To our surprise, after the Japanese enemy entered the city on Lunar Calendar November 13, they took my son Mingshan (明 善, by now he would be 39) and shot him dead. In turmoil, we did not dare collect and bury his body, which was later carried away for burial by the Red Swastika Society. Because of his death, his mother also passed away. Isn’t it tragically miserable to see this? I am close to 80, and miserable, for I have nobody to depend on. I used to rely totally on my son Mingshan for support. Right now, my widowed daughter-in-law, together with

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my granddaughter, stay at her parents’ home, making a living by sewing for others, also miserable beyond words.66

On May 23, 1946, the 73-year-old woman Wang Wanshi (王萬氏) filed an affidavit, regarding her son and daughter-in-law, who had both been shot dead by three Japanese soldiers: On Lunar Calendar November 13, Minguo 26th Year, My son Wang Zongfu (王宗福) and daughter-in-law Wang Jinshi (王金氏) were shot dead by three soldiers of the Japanese Nakajima troops, who came into the city by Yuhua Gate. They broke into my thatched house at the entrance of Zhuanlong Lane (轉龍巷) and opened fire. It was too tragic to look at. Their bodies were later buried by the Red Swastika Society. They were murdered by the Japanese enemy. This is a fact.67

In December 1945, Xu Tingnian (徐庭年), age 59, presented a petition to the Nanjing Municipal Government regarding his elder son Xu Yurong (徐玉榮), who had been bayoneted to death by Japanese soldiers in their residence at 19 Taipingyuan Street (太平苑) in the Menxi (門西) area: I had two sons: the elder named Yurong, age 23 then, was in the southern delicacies business, and the younger was 5 years old. Early in Lunar Calendar November, Minguo 26th Year, the military and police issued orders to evacuate, but we could not afford to move. On Lunar Calendar November 11, when the Japanese enemy entered the city, they bayoneted my elder son Yurong to death. I was beside him, begging for mercy. I was also bayoneted in the neck, and I fainted to the ground. Luckily, my wound was not fatal.68

In 1984, Jin Wenshi (金温氏) was 98  years old, from a Muslim family, and recounted in her testimony how her eldest son was killed in December 1937: When Japanese troops entered the city, my family lived in the Dafang Lane refugee camp. My eldest son, named Jin Deyuan (金德元), age 25 that year, was taken by Japanese soldiers in Lunar Calendar November 1937, and was murdered by a pond in the refugee zone. At the time, there were altogether 99 killed in that incident, including women. I am 98 this year (1984), but whenever I recall the miserable past, I still feel extremely heart-broken.69

6.3.5  Testimonies About Other Relatives Murdered Zheng Zhoushi (郑周氏) was 89 when she was interviewed in 1984. By the time Japanese troops came into the city, her family lived at Shimenkan Street (石門 坎), but her father-in-law had moved into the Overseas Chinese Guest House refugee camp. One day, father-in-law, concerned about us, came back to have a look. When he reached the location opposite East Wensi Lane (東文思巷) near West Bafutang Street (西八府塘), next to what is now the Tea Furnace, he was held by Japanese soldiers, who first searched him, slapped him across the face, and then said, “Death, death.” A Japanese officer unsheathed his sword to stab father-in-law in the neck, chest and abdomen. He instantly fell to a pool of blood on the street. By the time I went over to find his body, dogs had chewed up part of it. My father-in-law was 81 years old that year. It was too cruel that Japanese troops killed such an old man.

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The same day, one of my nephews, who did not have enough to eat in the refugee zone, came back home. I had cooked food ready, waiting for him to come back to eat. It was also at West Bafutang Street that he was hacked to death by Japanese soldiers. Later, I took my 12-year-old son to the refugee zone, and when we walked by the thatched house behind Hu Family Garden (胡家花園) at East Wensi Lane, Japanese soldiers spotted us. These robbers, without a word, bayoneted my son in the neck. He screamed as he fell to the ground. When I reached for him, he was already dead.70

When Gao Wenhui (高文惠) was interviewed in 1984, she was a 59-year-old retiree. She told the survey workers that 47 years earlier, her maternal grandmother was shot dead at home: My maternal grandma was killed when Japanese troops entered the city. In the winter of 1937, my maternal grandma, named Cao (曹), was in her sixties and lived at 39 Tangfanglang Street (糖坊廊). One day, several Japanese soldiers suddenly broke into her house. Once inside the house, they saw her, and beat her up with rifle butts, then one soldier fired a shot at her, killing her.71

Li Wenying (李文英) was a 12-year-old girl in December 1937, when her 16-year-old brother was shot dead by a Japanese soldier for attempting to protect their mother from being raped. Li Wenying recalled in 1984: When Japanese troops invaded to capture Nanjing, my family lived at 12 Guanyin Nunnery Street (觀音庵). My elder brother, (nicknamed Little Dog 小狗子), was 16. He had been an apprentice in some other person’s house, but he came home for refuge. The day he arrived home, a group of Japanese soldiers broke into my house. When they saw my mother, they attempted to rape her. My elder brother courageously stepped forward, trying to prevent the Japanese soldier from raping. The Japanese soldier pushed him to the ground before firing a shot at him. He screamed in pain. He was still alive, but seriously wounded. With no medical treatment available, he groaned for two days in bed before he died with hatred in his heart. The following day, my mother and I went to the refugee zone for safety.72

In December 1937, Wu Caiyun (武采雲) was 19 and married when her mother-­ in-­law was murdered by a Japanese soldier. She stated in her 1984 testimony, when she was 66 years old: My old mother-in-law lived at 11 East Wuxueyuan Street (東武學園), and upon the arrival of Japanese troops, she stayed in the refugee camp as well. However, because she had friction with the neighbors there, she was constantly involved in quarrels and fights. Out of anger, she moved back to her home at East Wuxueyuan Street, hiding in an underground cave. When Japanese soldiers got into the city to conduct house-to-house searches, they pulled my old mother-in-law out of the cave, and hacked her to death with a sword.73

Before the arrival of the Japanese, Wu Zhengxi (伍正禧)’s Muslim family lived at 15 Zhou Biyou Lane (周必由巷), but moved to take residence at 62 Huaxin Lane opposite Ginling College inside the refugee zone when conditions became dangerous. In 1984, when he was 63, he stated in a testimony that he had lost many family members to Japanese atrocities: At noon of the second day after Japanese troops entered the city, three Japanese soldiers came. As soon as they got into the house, they shouted, “Are you Chinese soldiers?” Then they ordered the young people in the house to go outside. Among them were my second elder brother Wu Zhengbao (伍正保), eldest cousin Yunguan (雲官), third elder cousin Sanyun (三雲), a distant uncle called Old Wang (老王) and a neighbor’s son nicknamed

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Xiaoliuzi (小六子). There were quite a few young people already detained by the roadside. After they were taken away by Japanese soldiers, these people were mowed to death with machine guns. We heard the gun shots, but did not know the location, and did not dare go out to look. The following day, another Japanese soldier broke into the house, asking my grandma for young girls. When grandma did not give an answer, he used the backside of his bayonet to hit grandma’s arm. Later, the soldier asked my grandpa, (named Wu Dirong (伍 迪榮) who was in his sixties at the time). Grandpa was blind and at the time was lying in bed. He could not understand the Japanese soldier, who then bayoneted him three times in the chest and thigh, instantly killing him. The Japanese soldier still would not give up. Suddenly, he saw a distant aunt related to my aunt’s family in a back room, who was 30 years old. She did not have time to hide and thus was discovered by the Japanese soldier, who ran to the back room and raped her.74

On November 2, 1945, Ma Minglong (馬明龍), also a Muslim, presented a petition letter to the Nanjing Municipal Government, regarding his cousin who had been shot dead by Japanese soldiers. His father, Ma Hengfu (馬恒福), who was in his eighties, had run Ma Zhengxing Beef Cuisine Restaurant (馬正興牛肉飯菜館) at 45 Wangfuyuan Street (王府園) for many years. When the Japanese bombed the city, his mother took his younger brother, two sisters-in-law, a younger sister, and nephews and nieces, altogether over 20 family members to move into the refugee zone, leaving his old father and a cousin to take care of the house at home.75 Japanese soldiers entered the city on Lunar Calendar November 11, Minguo 26th Year. Around noon that day, my father and cousin Wu Shiming (武士銘) were at home, looking after the house. A Japanese soldier bayoneted my father in the neck, causing him to bleed a lot, but he managed to run away by back streets to the refugee zone. The Japanese enemy took Wu Shiming with them as a coolie, but at the time, Shiming was sick, and he was taken to the back door of Yongshunxiang Cigarette Store (永順祥香煙店) near Inner Bridge, where he was shot dead. (ibid.)

6.3.6  Testimonies About Witnessing Killings During the massacre days, in particular, the registration period toward the end of December 1937, Japanese soldiers screened young people of conscript age to search for Chinese soldiers. A large number of people were thus picked up and marched to execution grounds. In December 1937, Yang Pinxian (楊品賢), age 23, was an apprentice in an antique store, and moved with his family into a refugee camp near Shanghai Road. He was highly observant when he went through the registration. He indicated in his 1984 testimony that the refugees had to go through five hurdles. Japanese soldiers identified an individual as a Chinese soldier if any of the following was discovered: (1) if the person had his head shaved bald; (2) if he had calluses on the hands; (3) if he had calluses on the shoulders; (4) if he had cap mark on the head; and (5) if he wore a military issued pullover sweat shirt. Yang witnessed three truckloads of youths picked up in his refugee camp as a result of the screening process, and were sent away to be executed. Many civilian laborers were slaughtered in this manner. A young man, who shared the same residential compound with Yang, had been picked up and trucked away to the riverside outside of Hanxi Gate. He fell

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to the ground seconds before the machine gunning started. He climbed out of the pile of bodies, unscathed, and sneaked back.76 Wu Guozhen (吴國珍) was a 27-year-old woman in December 1937 when she moved into a refugee camp at Small Jianyin Lane (小鐧銀巷). In 1984, in an interview with the survey workers, she gave an eyewitness account about a murder taking place 47 years earlier: It was about December 20 or so. I witnessed three Japanese soldiers detain two middle-aged Chinese men. The Japanese soldiers picked up from the ground police uniforms and caps, which had been discarded by the Nationalist police, and made the two men put them on. They raised their thumbs, saying, “Very good! Very good!” Then they pushed the two men into a dugout, and bayoneted them to death. Afterward, the Japanese soldiers walked away, laughing.77

Jin Jiahong (金家洪) was 71 when he filed an affidavit on November 25, 1945 testifying that he had witnessed Japanese cavalrymen bayonet his neighbors the day Japanese troops captured Nanjing on December 13, 1937. At about 11 a.m.: several cavalrymen passed by 41 Qianzhang Lane (千章巷) near Hongtu Bridge (紅土橋). They dismounted, broke into the residence, and bayoneted Ma Yushan (馬玉山) and his son Ma Yongsheng (馬永生) several times. Both died from the wounds on the spot. His wife Ma Wushi (馬伍氏) was also stabbed in the chest, though her wound healed two years later. All this was witnessed by me, and I survived because of my old age.78

Chen Jinkun (陳金坤), who lived at 37 Taiping Bridge Street (太平橋), heard gun shots at about 1 p.m. on December 13, 1937. He then opened the door to check and found that his neighbor had been shot dead at 25 Taiping Bridge Street. Chen filed an affidavit on November 26, 1945: Liu Shoujin (劉壽金) ran Yongan Boiling Water & Tea House (永安水爐茶社) at 25 Taiping Bridge Street in the Menxi area. Because his parents were old and not easy to move around, they were unable to move into the safety zone for refuge. Liu had been extremely filial, unwilling to leave his parents behind, so that he could take care of them himself. Therefore, he did not leave. I heard the gun shot around 1 p.m. that day. Soon after, I opened the gate to see what had happened, and learned that Liu Shoujin had been shot dead by enemy soldiers, lying by the water furnace. This was verified by my eyewitness, and what I testify is the truth.79

On December 7, 1945, Liu Meishi (劉梅氏), a 64-year-old woman, filed an affidavit in which she stated, I testify that at noon on Lunar Calendar November 13, Minguo 26th Year, Jiang Qibing (蔣 啟炳) and I left the Elderly Nursing Home at Jianzi Lane (剪子巷) to go home for a visit. When we walked by 65 Bianying Lane (邊營), we ran into three Japanese soldiers who, without any word of explanation, shot Jiang Qibing dead. I witnessed this with my own eyes, and what I testify is the truth.80

Before the Japanese arrived in Nanjing, Xie Jinwen (謝金文)’s family left the city for Hanshan County (含山縣) in Anhui Province for refuge. However, he stayed behind because his left foot was injured in a recent accident. In addition, he made a living by raising bean sprouts, so there were houses, along with over 100 wooden buckets and six big jars he needed to look after. He had no choice but to stay behind

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in the city. During his stay, he witnessed four people in his neighborhood killed by Japanese soldiers in January and February of 1938: 1. Liu Xiaosanzi (劉小三子) was in his forties when he was killed. He raised bean sprouts as a profession. One day he went to the former Chinese Government owned warehouse, on the site of present-day Nanjing Cutting Tool Factory (南京刀具廠) and The Second Internal Combustion Engine Fittings factory (内燃機配件二廠). At the time, the warehouse gate was unlocked and unguarded. When Liu stepped out of the warehouse gate, a Japanese soldier discovered him and fired a shot at him, but he was still alive. The second shot killed him. 2. A Japanese soldier set fire to the thatched houses belonging to Guo Sanzhaizi (郭三債子). Barely did the Japanese soldier leave than Guo got water with a wooden bucket to put out the fire. The Japanese solder turned around and saw Guo was putting out the fire, and quickly pushed Guo down. He took out his bayonet, first bayoneted him in the face and then stabbed him wildly in the body several times, killing him by the well. After killing Guo, the Japanese soldier threw his body into the well. 3. Wang Tufu (王圖福) made a living as a rickshaw puller. He was in his fifties when he was murdered. One day he was near the Saozhou Lane (掃帚巷) and Wei Sanhe Bamboo Store (衛三和竹行) area, shouldering a load of clothes he had picked up, followed by his wife and several kids. Japanese soldiers randomly killed people when they ran into them. While seeing Wang carry a load and walk in front of them, a Japanese soldier raised his rifle and shot Wang dead. Instantly, his wife and kids surrounded his body wailing, which was too tragically wretched to look at.81

6.3.7  Testimonies by Rape Victims In December 1937, Yang Xx (楊xx) was 21 and had been married for 2 years. She had given birth to a child 6 months earlier. In 1984, 47 years later, she revealed in her testimony that she was gang raped by Japanese soldiers: On Lunar Calendar November 13, I went outside to wash vegetables and rinse rice. Three Japanese soldiers spotted me and gang raped me. My husband Ma Xx (馬XX) saw this and attempted to stop them, so a Japanese soldier shot him dead.82

Zhang Wenying (張文英) was 22 in December 1937 when her husband was bayoneted and seriously wounded by Japanese soldiers, but when she went to see her husband, she exposed herself to danger. In her 1984 testimony, she recounted her experience of being raped: In Lunar Calendar November 1937, after I learned that my husband Dong Liangyu (董良 餘) had been stabbed by Japanese soldiers three times, I went to see him the following day. But I was spotted by Japanese soldiers who ran after me firing shots. One bullet passed over my shoulder without hitting me. I was unable to overrun the Japanese soldiers, and they eventually caught up with me. Five Japanese soldiers came and gang raped me. I passed out by the time they left.83

At the approach of Japanese troops, Chen Erguniang (陳二姑娘), 18 at the time, went with her uncle’s family at Xujiawan Village (許家灣村) to seek refuge in the Shazhouwei area several miles southwest of Nanjing. On December 13, 1937, she

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was repeatedly raped by Japanese soldiers. On July 24, 1946, when she was 27, she and her father Chen Jingyuan (陳景源) offered a testimony for the survey form: “The victim was raped by the Japanese enemy several times, and after that she was continuously attacked and raped by the Japanese enemy. When her uncle Chen Jingfu (陳景福) begged the enemy soldiers for mercy and spared her, he was shot dead on the spot.”84 Chen Erguniang also appeared as prosecution’s witness in the court of Nanjing Military Tribunal to testify on February 6, 1947. Liu Chenshi (劉陳氏) was 33  in 1937 and lived at 11 South Saihong Bridge Village (赛虹橋南村), outside Zhonghua Gate. On December 20, 1937, she was raped by Japanese soldiers at her residence. On July 25, 1946, at the age of 41, she testified in the survey form “I was raped by a Japanese enemy once that day, and later I was raped another time. When my husband Liu Dexue (劉德學) saw me taken by the Japanese enemy to be raped, the enemy threatened him with a rifle, which frightened him extremely and caused his death.”85 Before the arrival of the Japanese, Shen Fan (沈帆)’s family of 6 lived at 22 Tiger Bridge Street (老虎橋) near Sipailou (四牌樓). After Japanese troops entered the city, the family moved to seek refuge at the University of Nanking. When she was interviewed in 1984 at the age of 75, she told the survey workers about a rape attempt she had experienced toward the end of December 1937: A few days later when I reached the gate of 13 Tiger Bridge Street, I ran into a Japanese soldier who dragged me into the stable at 13 Tiger Bridge Street. It was winter and I wore cotton-padded garments. He forced me to take off my pants. The baby in my arms was scared and crying. Amidst this commotion, the old woman named Gao (高 who is deceased now) of 13 Tiger Bridge Street came out. Without fear for her own life, she said to the Japanese soldier: “She has a child, no longer a young girl.” Alarmed by this person’s arrival, the Japanese soldier fled.86

6.3.8  Testimonies About Mothers and Wives Raped Li Yuansen (李元森)’s wife was raped by three Japanese soldiers. When his young son saw his mother raped, he ran out of the house shouting for help. A Japanese soldier shot him dead on the spot. Li filed a petition on January 1, 1946, to the Nanjing Municipal Government: My wife Li Panshi (李潘氏) is 42 at present. When the hostilities arrived, Japanese troops, armed with rifles and swords, entered the city. At around 5 p.m. one day in Minguo 26th Year, three Japanese soldiers came to my house and raped my wife. At this moment, my son Wenbin (文彬), seeing his mother raped by the Japanese enemy, went out, shouting for help. A Japanese enemy without hesitation fired a shot, killing my son. He was my only son, still tender in age, and it was pitifully sorrowful that he was killed this way.87

Cheng Guodong (程國棟), age 46, presented a petition to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek on December 23, 1945 concerning his mother Cheng Zhangshi (程張氏), who had been raped and killed by Japanese soldiers:

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My mother Cheng Zhangshi, 58 at her death, a native of Anhui Province, lived at 2 Hongmiao (洪廟), near Sanpailou. In the winter of Minguo 26th Year, after the arrival of the hostilities and Japanese troops entered the city, Japanese soldiers, indulging in inhumane actions, gang raped my mother before they put a stick into her vagina, through her abdomen, killing her. Meanwhile, with nobody to get a coffin and bury her at the time, her neighbors managed to bury her the following year. It was too tragically miserable to bear.88

Chen Shixing (陳士興) lived at 1 Yuhuatai Street on December 14, 1937 when Japanese soldiers came to the residence, attempting to rape his mother Chen Wangshi (陳王氏), age 45 at the time. When his mother resisted, the Japanese soldier hacked his mother violently in the head, killing her. On July 25, 1946, Chen Shixing provided testimony concerning his mother’s death in the survey form.89 In 1937, Huang Changshun (黃長順) was 21 and married, and the couple lived at 5 Nanxiucun (南秀村) in the refugee zone when Japanese troops entered the city. He told the survey workers during an interview, “One day after Lunar Calendar November 20, my wife Chen Xx (陳XX) and many other women were raped by Japanese soldiers in a shabby house south of Nanxiucun.”90 Wang Rugui (王如貴) was 10 years old in 1937. When he was interviewed in 1984 at the age of 57, he recalled an incident that was forever seared into his brain: Who does not have parents? Who does not have children? When the parents were insulted and humiliated by Japanese soldiers, the children could do nothing to protect their parents. The misery and pain were beyond words. My mother was taken by Japanese soldiers who stripped her naked and attached two small bells to her nipples. They drove her into a mill house to turn the millstone, and would not let her go home until after she finished milling. I will forever keep that humiliation in my heart.91

6.3.9  Testimonies About Daughters and Daughters-in-Law Raped In 1946, Liu Lishi (劉李氏) was 55 years old and had lived at 21-1 North Saihong Bridge Village (赛虹橋北村) outside Zhonghua Gate since before the war started. On July 26, 1946, she provided her testimony for the survey form regarding her daughter Liu Baoqin (劉寶琴), 21 at the time, who was raped by two Japanese soldiers on December 17, 1937 at the location opposite 8 South Saihong Bridge Village (赛虹橋南村). Later she was raped several times by Japanese soldiers.92 Jia Shengshi (賈盛氏)’s residence was also in Liu Lish’s neighborhood at 14 North Saihong Bridge Village. On February 26, 1946, while filling out the survey form, she testified that her daughter-in-law Jia Pengshi (賈彭氏), age 29 then, was raped by Japanese soldiers on December 13, 1937 and several times later: The rape victim is my daughter-in-law, who was raped in Cangwei (倉圩). She returned to this residence on Lunar Calendar November 15 that year, but the Japanese enemy raped her again several times here. Her husband Jai Changyuan (賈長源) was taken away by the Japanese enemy and so far there has been no news about whether he is alive or dead, so she is remarried to somebody else.93

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On November 30, 1945, Lu Guobin (陸國宾) filed an affidavit testifying that his daughter Lu Heying (陸荷英) was raped by Japanese soldiers then bayoneted to death.94 Wang Zhangshi (王張氏) was 50 and lived at 6 Jianjiaoying (尖角營) when she filed an affidavit on December 4, 1945. She testified: “I saw with my own eyes that the enemy burned down my house, raped my daughter-in-law, and when her mother attempted to protect her, she was stabbed and wounded.”95 Both Xu Chenshi (徐陳氏)‘s son and daughter were killed by Japanese soldiers. On June 28, 1946, she filed an affidavit, stating: My son Xu Debao (徐德寳) was shot dead in Minguo 26th Year when enemy Nakajima Troops invaded into Nanjing. At the same time, my daughter Xu Xiuying (徐秀英) was gang raped to death by enemy soldiers. I plead for revenge. The above statement is the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.96

6.3.10  Testimonies About Other Relatives Raped In 1937, Zhu Fengyi (朱鳳義) was a 22-year-old woman, and her family lived at 40 Tangfangqiao Street (糖坊橋). When the Japanese entered the city, her family and other relatives moved into the refugee zone, taking up residence at 12 Drum Tower Second Lane for refuge. In 1984 when she was interviewed, she recalled the terrible episode that took place 47 years earlier: At midnight on the third day after Japanese troops entered the city, several Japanese soldiers came and abducted my two elder sisters-in-law and my younger sister (named Zhu Xx, only 17 years old at the time). We could not stop them. They were not released back until about two hours later. They cried their hearts out over each other’s shoulders after they were home. One of the elder sisters-in-law said they had been raped. At that time, my younger sister could hardly walk, and was bedridden for a few days. A few days later, the Japanese soldiers returned for my elder sisters-in-law. I knelt down, begging for mercy, and meanwhile, I served tea, and handed out cigarettes, trying to buy time. The Japanese soldiers did not leave until they heard the bugle call.97

When Japanese troops were indulging themselves in committing atrocities in the city, Wang Guizhen (王桂珍)’s family moved to the Yinyangying refugee camp. During daytime, they went inside Ginling College, which was managed by Miss Vautrin. One day at dusk, her third paternal aunt, who had been married for only 23 days, returned to the residence. Three Japanese soldiers broke into the house, abducting her, and she was raped and murdered. Her body has never been found.98 Changwei Village (長圩村) in the Shazhouwei area southwest of Nanjing was Zhu Guiru (朱桂如)’s native village. In December 1937, the Japanese came and burned all the houses down in the village, so the villagers had to build makeshift huts to huddle in. She gave her testimony in 1984 about what happened to her elder sister:

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One morning, Japanese soldiers came again, rounded up all the villagers, and ordered everyone to kneel down at riflepoint. From among the crowd, they pulled out my elder sister Zhu Xx (17 at the time) and my elder sister-in-law, and took them into a hut not far away. My elder sister-in-law was then pregnant. Shortly after they were in the hut, the Japanese soldiers released her. My elder sister was so scared in the hut by herself that she screamed. A Japanese soldier fired two shots into the ground to frighten her into silence. Later, after the Japanese soldiers were gone, we ran into the hut and saw my elder sister covered with blood. The Japanese soldier stabbed her by the breast. According to my elder sister’s words afterwards, the Japanese soldiers attempted to rape her, and when she resisted, the soldier fired shots to frighten her, but she still did not comply. The Japanese soldier then bayoneted her.99

Before the arrival of Japanese troops, Zhang Yulan (張玉蘭)’s family lived at 12 Dahuangcheng Lane (大隍城巷). However, when conditions in the city became dire, the family moved into the refugee zone and stayed at 1 Ningxia Road (寧夏 路), leaving her father-in-law, who was in his sixties, to look after the house. Zhang told what had happened afterwards to the survey worker when she was interviewed in 1984 at the age of 64: On an afternoon in mid-December, my old father-in-law came to deliver some stuff to us at Ningxia Road, but when he got to Hankou Road (漢口路), he was machine gunned to death by Japanese soldiers. A few days later, my husband’s younger sister Cao Xx (曹xx), who was only 16 at the time, was gang raped one afternoon by the Japanese soldiers who broke into the residence at 1 Ningxia Road. Altogether eight women were raped. The above was all witnessed by me.100

In December 1945, Sun Baoqing (孫寶慶) was 24 years old when he filed an affidavit. He testified that on December 19, 1937, a group of Japanese soldiers swamped into his home and gang raped his elder sister-in-law Sun Chenshi (孫陳 氏), who, age 31, died that night as the result of the rape.101

6.3.11  Testimonies About Witnessing Rapes Tang Zhensheng (湯振聲) was a 13-year-old boy in 1937, and when he was interviewed in 1984 at the age of 60, he well remembered what happened in his residential compound: On December 17, 1937, two Japanese soldiers with Japanese military swords broke into our residence at 5 Fude Lane (傅德巷). One of the Japanese soldiers held his sword to keep watch over the people in the compound, and the other one forced Guerma (顧二媽) from this compound into a room to rape her. After raping, the first one came out to keep watch over us, and the second one went in to rape. A couple days later, Guerma’s eldest daughter, whom I called Big Sister, was raped in the refugee zone by the Japanese soldiers who had sneaked in by climbing over the wall at night.102

When Japanese troops invaded Nanjing on December 13, 1937, Guan Xuecai (管 學才), age 28, lived at 29 Guanyin Nunnery Street. He did not go to the safety zone, but stayed home to look after the house.

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On the second day after Japanese troops entered the city, around 7 o’clock in the evening, a squad of Japanese soldiers came into Guanyin Nunnery Street. My neighbor Xiaogouzi (小 狗子), 14 years old, was shot dead by a Japanese soldier, when he came out to stop the soldier who went to his home, attempting to rape his mother (age 44). At the moment, I was close by at the location opposite his house door, only a few steps away. Because the Japanese soldiers were extremely relentless, I did not have the courage to go to his rescue. I witnessed these Japanese atrocities with my own eyes.103

Apparently, Guan Xuecai’s statement echoes Li Wenying’s testimony (page 189 of this volume) concerning Xiaogouzi, who was killed for attempting to protect his mother from being raped, though there is discrepancy about his age. In January 1938, Qian Chuanxing (錢傳興), age 18, was doing some chores in front of his house, which was in Baodou Village (保鬥莊) south of Pukou on the northern bank of the Yangtze River. He saw two Japanese soldiers desperately chasing his friend Chen Banjin (陳板金)’s younger sister and her cousin. Because the women were too far away, and it was unlikely they could catch up, the vicious Japanese soldier raised his rifle to fire a shot and killed Chen Banjin’s sister. Her cousin was so scared that she collapsed to the ground. The two Japanese soldiers caught up with her and raped her on the spot. … In April the same year, Japanese soldiers stripped naked an old woman in her sixties from Xiaowang Village (小王莊) on Jiufu Island (九伏洲), which now is Wang Village Production Team, Daxin Unit (大新大隊王莊生產隊), and ordered the old woman’s nephew to have sex with her. When the nephew refused, a Japanese soldier beat him up and told him if he refused again, they would kill both of them. With no way out, the old woman persuaded the nephew to do it.104

In December 1937, Shen Aiyun (沈愛雲)’s family did not go anywhere for the reason that there were too many people in the family and they were too poor to move. They stayed home in Jiangyan Village (江沿村) outside Xinmin Gate (新 民門). One day in Lunar Calendar December 1937, two Japanese soldiers knocked at their door. When my father-in-law went to open the door, the Japanese soldier shot him dead. My husband Du Zhiqiang (杜志强) ran to his father’s rescue, but he, too, was shot dead by Japanese soldiers, his intestines spilling out. It was indeed a tragic sight! There were two persons in our neighbor’s family: mother and daughter. The daughter was about 12 years old. When the Japanese soldiers came to tell the girl to take off her pants to rape her, the mother went to protect the daughter. As a result, both mother and daughter were shot dead. All these events were witnessed by me.105

Shen Yingmu (沈應木) was a 20-year-old young man in December 1937, and lived in Jiangxin Island west of Nanjing. In his 1984 testimony, he spoke of an episode he witnessed unfolding in front of him: By the end of December 1937, Nanjing was under Japanese occupation. One afternoon, our neighbor, who was an old grandpa, and I went into the city. On our way back, we saw a Japanese guard who had detained a woman to violate. When we got to where they were, the Japanese soldier ordered, at riflepoint, the neighbor grandpa and the woman to undress and forced the two to have sex. When the grandpa refused, the soldier beat them up with his rifle butt. They then ran desperately away, which made the soldier laugh merrily.106

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On December 2, 1945, Yang Zhushi (楊朱氏), 54, filed an affidavit testifying: Lunar Calendar November 12, Minguo 26th Year, the Japanese enemy came into Nanjing, and on the 16th, they committed killing, burning, raping and looting along Hubei Road (湖 北路). At the time, the youngest daughter Chen Daidi (陳代弟) of Fenglai Store (鳳來棧) at 28 Hubei Road was abducted by two Japanese enemy officers and one soldier to rape. This action was witnessed by me and it is the truth. The above is the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.107

Notes 1. 张高氏 (Zhang Gaoshi), “张高氏为其夫被日军枪杀致日伪南京市政府社会处呈文彌 (A petition by Zhang Gaoshi to the Social Service Section of the Japanese sponsored puppet Nanjing Municipal Government concerning her husband shot dead by Japanese troops),” June 12, 1938, in AND, pp. 170–171. 2. 戚吴氏 (Qi Wushi), “戚吴氏为其子被日军杀死致日伪督办南京市政公署呈文 (A petition by Qi Wushi to the Japanese sponsored puppet Nanjing mayor office concerning her son killed by Japanese troops),” August, 1938, in ADN, p. 176. 3. 吴崔氏 (Wu Cuishi), “吴崔氏为其夫吴敬中等被日军枪杀致日伪南京市卫生局呈文 (A petition by Wu Cuishi to the Health Bureau of the Japanese sponsored puppet Nanjing Municipal Government concerning her husband Wu Jingzhong and others shot dead by Japanese troops),” January 18, 1939, in AND, p. 180. 4. 洪大全 (Hong Daquan), “洪大全为其子等被日军枪杀致日伪南京特别市政府呈文 (A petition by Hong Daquan to the Japanese sponsored puppet Nanjing Special Municipal Government concerning his son and others shot dead by Japanese troops),” Mar. 29, 1940, in ADN, pp. 186–187. 5. 潘春潮 (Pan Chunchao), “潘春潮为其弟潘春庭被日军枪杀致南京市政府呈文 (A petition by Pan Chunchao to Nanjing Municipal Government concerning his younger brother shot dead by Japanese troops),” September 22, 1945, in ADN, p. 188. 6. 尹王氏 (Yin Wangshi), “尹王氏为其子尹广义等被日军枪杀致南京市政府呈文 (A petition by Yin Wangshi to Nanjing Municipal Government concerning his son Yin Guangyi and others shot dead by Japanese troops),” October 30, 1945, in ADN), p. 197. 7. 邵永真 (Shao Yongzhen), “邵永真陈述其父被日军砍杀的结文 (An affidavit by Shao Yongzhen stating his father was hacked dead by Japanese troops),” November 12, 1945, in AND, pp. 205–206. 8. 李秀华 (Li Xiuhua), “李秀华陈述其祖父等被日军刺死的结文 (An affidavit by Li Xiuhua stating his grandfather and others bayoneted dead by Japanese troops),” November 27, 1945, in ADN, pp. 219–220. 9. “殷德才被日军枪杀的调查表节录c(A survey form excerpt concerning Yin Decai shot dead by Japanese troops),” July 27, 1946, in ADN, p. 281. 10. “王有发被日军集体枪杀的调查表节录 (A survey form excerpt concerning Wang Youcai and others shot dead by Japanese troops),” August 1, 1946, in ADN, p. 156. 11. “關於對日和約問題周恩來外長發表聲明 (Foreign Minister Zhou Enlai issued statement concerning the Peace Treaty with Japan),” 人民日報 (People’s Daily), Dec. 5, 1950, p.1. 12. 鄭宗禮 (Zheng Zongli), “不能再讓日本鬼來刺我十八刀 (I will not allow Japanese devils to bayonet me 18 times again),” 新華日報 (Xinhua Daily), February 22, 1951, p. 1. 13. 張正安 (Zhang Zhengan), “永遠忘不了的仇恨 (The hatred that can never be forgotten),” Xinhua Daily, February 25, 1951, p. 1.

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14. Tracy Dahlby, “Japan’s Text Revise WWII; ‘Invasion’ Becomes “Advance;’ Asians Become Irate,” Washington Post, July 27, 1982, p. A1. 15. “血海深仇永不忘—六十六岁老人李伯潜自述 (A huge debt in blood can never be forgotten: The account by 66-year-old man Li Boqian),” 南京日报 (Nanjing Daily), August 8, 1982, cited from SCA, pp. 923–924. 16. “死里逃生者南钢食堂退休工人李福成的控诉 (A denouncement by survivor Li Fucheng, a retired worker from the canteen of the Nanjing Steel Works),” Nanjing Daily, August 16, 1982, cited from SCA, pp. 926–927. 17. 本多勝一 (Katsuichi Honda), 中国の旅 (Travels in China), Tōkyō: 朝日新聞社 (Asahi Shinbunsha), 1972. 18. SCA, p. 902. 19. John G. Magee, “A letter to his wife,” January 30, 1938, F2, Box 263, RG 8, YDSL. 20. James Espy, “The Conditions at Nanking, January 1938,” January 25, 1938, p. 9. 21. John Rabe, Good Man of Nanking, p. 163. 22. John G. Magee, Case 9, Film 4, Folder 7, Box 263, RG 8, YDSL. 23. 哈马氏 (Ha Mashi), “哈马氏为其子哈国栋等被日军屠杀致南京市政府呈文 (A petition by Ha Mashi to Nanjing Municipal Government concerning his son Ha Guodong and others slaughtered by Japanese troops),” November 2, 1945, in ADN, pp. 200–201. 24. Katsuichi Honda, The Nanjing Massacre, pp. 154–158. 25. “王芝如、夏淑琴证言 (Testimony by Wang Zhiru, Xia Shuqin),” 孙宝珍、龙顺河等调查 记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Sun Baozhen, Long Shunhe & others), in SMN, pp. 432–433. 26. Robert O. Wilson, Diary letter to his wife, Jan. 1, 1938, F3875, B229, RG 11, YDSL. 27. John G. Magee, “A letter to his wife,” January 5, 1938, F2, Box 263, RG 8, YDSL. 28. John G. Magee, Cases 2 and 3, Film 4, Folder 7, Box 263, RG 8, YDSL. 29. 慧定 (Hui Ding), “尼姑慧定为日军杀害其师徒等致南京市政府呈文 (A petition by Nun Hui Ding to Nanjing Municipal Government concerning her master, apprentices and others murdered by Japanese troops),” July 8, 1946, in ADN, p. 161. 30. James H. McCallum, A letter to his wife Eva, January 1, 1938, Correspondence of James Henry & Eva Anderson McCallum, DCHSL. 31. Robert O. Wilson, letter to his wife, Dec. 19, 1937, F3875, B229, RG 11, YDSL. 32. Robert O. Wilson, letter to his wife, Dec. 21, 1937, F3875, B229, RG 11, YDSL. 33. Robert O. Wilson, letter to his wife, Dec. 30, 1937, F3875, B229, RG 11, YDSL. 34. Case 115, Dec. 19, 1937, enclosure No. 1-e, to “Conditions at Nanking, Jan. 1938.” 35. John G. Magee, Case 4, Film 2, Folder 7, Box 263, RG 8, YDSL. 36. “查讯被害人李秀英笔录 (Court record of questioning victim Li Xiuying)” October 19, 1946, in SCA, pp. 632–633. 37. “被侮辱与被损害的——记南京大屠杀时的三位死里逃生者 (The humiliated and injured: The stories of the three Nanjing Massacre survivors)” 大公报 (Dagong Daily), November 4, 1946, cited from SCA, p. 561. 38. 肖燦 (Xiao Can), “勇敢頑强的李秀英 (Courageous and Tenacious Li Xiuying),” Xinhua Daily, February 23, 1951, p. 1. 39. “李秀英证言 (Testimony by Li Xiuying),” 段月萍、陈立志调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Duan Yueping and Chen Lizhi), in SMN, p. 481. 40. Case 457, Feb. 24, 1938, in “Notes on the Present Situation, March 1, 1938,” Diplomatic Posts, China, Vol. 2172 (Nanking 1938, Vol. XIII), RG 84, National Archives II.

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41. “郭荪荣证言 (Testimony by Guo Sunrong),” 廖美庆调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Liao Meiqing), in CTS, p. 135. 42. James H.  McCallum, A letter to his wife Eva, March 1, 1938, Correspondence of James Henry & Eva Anderson McCallum, DCHSL. 43. Case 459, February 28 and March 1, 1938, in “Notes on the Present Situation, March 1, 1938,” National Archives II. 44. “张连才证言 (Testimony by Zhang liancai),” 金登林、杨云、夏龙生调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Jin Denglin, Yang Yun and Xia Longsheng), in CTS, p. 123. 45. “张凤珍证言 (Testimony by Zhang Fengzhen),” 陈平稳据口述整理 (Recorded and edited by Chen Pingwen according to the oral account), in CTS, pp. 236–237. 46. W. W. Ritchie, A letter to HBM Consul, Nanking, March 18, 1938, in “Sino Japanese hostilities: damage suffered by W.  W. Ritchie and H.  H. Molland,” FO233/271, Consulates & Legation, China: Miscellaneous Papers and Reports, 1727–1951, PRO, London. 47. “朱在鑫、朱在祥兄弟被日军刺死的调查表节录 (An excerpt of the investigation report concerning Zhu Zaixin and Zhu Zaixiang brothers bayoneted to death by Japanese troops),” 1947, in ADN, p. 290. 48. “杨义兰证言 (Testimony by Yang Yilan),” 刘君调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Liu Jun), in CTS, pp. 282–283. 49. Robert O. Wilson, letter to his wife, Feb. 13, 1938, in Documents on the Rape of Nanking, ed. by Timothy Brook, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999, p. 252. 50. “施 华证言 (Testimony by Shi Shenghua),” in CTS, pp. 345–346. 51. “朱锡生证言 (Testimony by Zhu Xisheng),” (Testimony b (Surveyed & recorded by Liu Yuyin, Yang Zhengyuan and others), in SMN, pp. 418–419. 52. “沙官朝证言 (Testimony by Sha Guanchao), 战国利、杨正元调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Zhan Guoli and Yang Zhengyuan), in SMN, p. 420. 53. 杨文复 (Yang Wenfu), “杨文复陈述被日军刺伤的结文 (An affidavit by Yang Wenfu stating he was bayoneted by Japanese troops),” Nov. 26, 1945, in ADN, pp. 216–217. 54. “梅福康证言 (Testimony by Mei Fukang),” 秦金文调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Qin Jinwen), in SMN, p. 435. 55. “马忠山证言 (Testimony by Ma Zhongshan),” 蒋宝霞、刘维玉调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Jiang Baoxia and Liu Weiyu), in SMN, p. 443. 56. “马明福证言 (Testimony by Ma Mingfu),” in SMN, p. 445. 57. 杨宝炎 (Yang Baoyan), “杨宝炎陈述杨余九被日军枪杀的结文 (An affidavit by Yang Baoyan stating Yang Yujiu was shot dead by Japanese troops),” Dec. 13, 1945, in ADN, p. 238. 58. “张红芳证言 (Testimony by Zhang Hongfang),” 王天柱调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Wang Tianzhu), in CTS, p. 169. 59. 朱寿之 (Zhu Shouzhi), “朱寿之为杨马氏之夫与子被日军枪杀致日伪南京市社会处呈 文 (A report by Zhu Shouzhi to the Social Service Section of the Japanese sponsored Nanjing Municipal Government concerning her husband and son shot dead by Japanese troops),” August 5, 1938, in ADN, p. 175. 60. 李宝如 (Li Baoru), “李宝如陈述其妻李吴氏被日军枪杀的结文 (An affidavit by Li Baoru stating his wife Li Wushi was shot dead by Japanese troops),” Nov. 26, 1945, in ADN, pp. 213–214. 61. 方学仁 (Fang Xueren), “方学仁陈述方施氏被日军枪杀的结文 (An affidavit by Fang Xueren stating Fang Shishi was shot dead by Japanese troops),” December 5, 1945, in ADN, p. 233. 62. 周梁氏 (Zhou Liangshi), “周梁氏陈述其夫周宝银被日军枪杀的结文 (An affidavit by Zhou Liangshi stating that her husband Zhou Baoyin shot dead by Japanese troops),” December 27, 1945, in ADN, p. 249.

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63. “周俞氏证言 (Testimony by Zhou Yushi),” 刘庆跃、汪文等记录 (Recorded by Liu Qingyue, Jiang Wen and others), in CTS, pp. 235–236. 64. “刘庆英证言 (Testimony by Liu Qingying),” in SMN, pp. 456–457. 65. 陈剑如 (Chen Jianru), “社会局调查丁李氏之长女抗拒日军强奸被杀一事致南京市政府 呈文 (A report to Nanjing Municipal Government concerning Bureau of Social Service’s investigation about Ding Lishi’s eldest daughter who was killed by Japanese troops when she resisted rape),” February 9, 1946, in ADN, p. 360. 66. 陈湘 (Chen Xiang), “陈湘为其子陈明善被日军枪杀致南京市政府呈文 (A petition by Chen Xiang to Nanjing Municipal Government concerning his son Chen Mingshan shot dead by Japanese troops),” November 6, 1945, in ADN, pp. 202–203. 67. 王万氏 (Wang Wanshi), “市民王万氏关于亲属尸体由红卍字会收埋的结文亲 (An affidavit by Wang Wanshi concerning her family members’ bodies buried by the Red Swastika Society),” May 23, 1946, in NMV5, p. 126. 68. 徐庭年 (Xu Tingnian), “徐庭年为其子徐玉荣被日军刺死致南京市政府呈文 (A petition by Xu Tingnian to Nanjing Municipal Government concerning his son Xu Yurong bayo-neted to death by Japanese troops),” December 1945, in ADN, p. 254. 69. “金温氏证言 (Testimony by Jin Wenshi),” 李红珠、马瑞芳、杨凤珍、郑兰芳调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Li Hongzhu, Ma Ruifang, Yang Fengzhen & Zheng Lanfang), in CTS, p. 238. 70. “郑周氏证言 (Testimony by Zheng Zhoushi),” 周顺华、曹慧芳调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Zhou Shunhua and Cao Huifang), in SMN, p. 463. 71. “高文惠证言 (Testimony by Gao Wenhui),” 梁美龙、路文茹调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Liang Meilong and Lu Wenru), in CTS, p. 241. 72. “李文英证言 (Testimony by Li Wenying),” 陈如华、王秀珍调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Chen Ruhua and Wang Xiuzhen), in CTS, p. 257. 73. “武采云证言 (Testimony by Wu Caiyun),” 刘创伟调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Liu Chuangwei), in CTS, p. 242. 74. “伍正禧证言 (Testimony by Wu Zhengxi),秦景泽、陈玉莲调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Qin Jingze and Chen Yulian), in CTS, pp. 240–241. 75. 马明龙 (Ma Minglong), “马明龙为其表弟武士铭被日军枪杀致南京市政府呈文 (A peti-tion by Ma Minglong to Nanjing Municipal Government concerning his cousin Wu Shiming shot dead by Japanese troops),” November 21,945, in ADN, p. 199. 76. “杨品贤证言 (Testimony by Yang Pinxian),” 吴义梅、何炼生调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Wu Yimei and He Liansheng), in SMN, pp. 467–468. 77. “吴国珍证言 (Testimony by Wu Guozhen),金桂珍、张连生调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Jin Guizhen and Zhang Liansheng), in CTS, pp. 303–304. 78. 金家洪 (Jin Jiahong), “金家洪陈述马玉山等被日军刺杀的结文 (An affidavit by Jin Jiahong stating Ma Yushan and others were bayoneted to death by Japanese troops),” November 25, 1945, in ADN, pp. 212–213. 79. 陈金坤 (Chen Jinkun), “陈金坤、刘陈氏陈述刘寿金被日军刺杀的结文 (An affidavit by Chen Jinkun and Liu Chenshi stating Liu Shoujin was shot dead by Japanese troops),” November 26, 1945, in ADN, p. 213. 80. 刘梅氏 (Liu Meishi), “刘梅氏陈述蒋启炳被日军枪杀的结文 (An affidavit by Liu Meishi stating Jiang Qibing was shot dead by Japanese troops),” Dec. 7, 1945, in ADN, p. 235. 81. “谢金文证言 (Testimony by Xie Jinwen),” 肖中煌调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Xiao Zhonghuang), in CTS, pp. 301–302. 82. “杨 xx证言 (Testimony by Yang Xx),” 梁素荣、盛桂兰、马秀英调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Liang Surong, Sheng Guilan and Ma Xiuying), in CTS, pp. 355–356.

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83. “张 xx证言 (Testimony by Zhang Xx),” 耿玉峰、高静萍调查记录 (Surveyed & record-ed by Geng Yufeng and Gao Jingping), in CTS, pp. 354–355 & 359. 84. “陈二姑娘被日军强奸的调查表节录 (A survey form excerpt concerning Chen Erguniang who was raped by Japanese soldiers),” July 24, 1946, in ADN, pp. 363–364. 85. “刘陈氏被日军奸污的调查表节录 (A survey form excerpt concerning Liu Chenshi who was raped by Japanese soldiers),” July 25, 1946, in ADN, p. 366. 86. “沈帆证言 (Testimony by Shen Fan),” 潘秀明、张亮、敖祖祯调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Pan Xiuming, Zhang Liang and Ao Zuzhen), in CTS, pp. 373–374. 87. 李元森 (Li Yuansen), “李元森为其妻遭日军强奸致南京市政府呈文 (A petition by Li Yuansen to Nanjing Municipal Government concerning his wife who was raped by Japanese soldiers),” January 1, 1946, in ADN, p. 358. 88. 程国栋 (Cheng Guodong), “程国栋为其母遭日军轮奸一事致蒋介石呈文 (A petition by Cheng Guodong to Chiang Kai-shek concerning her mother who was gang raped by Japanese soldiers),” December 23, 1945, in ADN, p. 357. 89. “陈王氏被日军行奸未遂被砍死的调查表节录 (A survey form excerpt concerning Chen Wangshi who was hacked dead by Japanese soldiers during a rape attempt),” July 25, 1946, in ADN, p. 364. 90. “黄长顺证言 (Testimony by Huang Changshun),” 王金荣、吴红兴调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Wang Jinrong and Wu Hongxing), in CTS, pp. 371–372. 91. “王如贵证言 (Testimony by Wang Rugui),” 廖美庆调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Liao Meiqing), in SMN, p. 431. 92. “刘宝琴被日军强奸的调查表节录 (A survey form excerpt concerning Liu Baoqin who was raped by Japanese soldiers),” July 26, 1946, in ADN, pp. 369–370. 93. “贾彭氏被日军数次奸污的调查表节录 (A survey form excerpt concerning Jia Pengshi who was repeatedly raped by Japanese soldiers),” Feb. 26, 1946, in ADN, p. 361. 94. 陆国宾 (Lu Guobin), “陆国宾陈述其女陆荷英被日军强奸后杀害的结文 (An affidavit by Lu Guobin stating his daughter Lu Heying was raped before she was murdered by Japanese soldiers),” November 30, 1945, in ADN, p. 355. 95. 王张氏 (Wang Zhangshi), “王张氏陈述其媳被日军强奸的结文 (An affidavit by Wang Zhangshi stating her daughter-in-law was raped by Japanese soldiers),” December 4, 1945, in ADN, pp. 356–357. 96. 徐陈氏 (Xu Chenshi), “徐陈氏陈述其女徐秀英被日军轮奸致死的结文 (An affidavit by Xu Chenshi stating her daughter Xu Xiuying was gang raped to death by Japanese soldiers),” June 28, 1946, in ADN, p. 363. 97. “朱凤义证言 (Testimony by Zhu Fengyi),” 朱明英、顾洪华、汪道明调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Zhu Mingying, Gu Honghua and Wang Daoming), in CTS, pp. 369–370. 98. “王桂珍证言 (Testimony by Wang Guizhen),” 金桂珍、张连生调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Jin Guizhen and Zhang Liansheng), in CTS, p. 387. 99. “朱桂如证言 (Testimony by Zhu Quiru),” 席季宁、管月琴、夏龙生调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Xi Jining, Guan Yueqin and Xia Longsheng), in CTS, p. 362. 100. “张玉兰证言 (Testimony by Zhang Yulan),” 姚彦花调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Yao Yanhua), in CTS, p. 372. 101. 孙宝庆 (Sun Baoqing), “孙宝庆陈述其嫂孙陈氏被日军轮奸致死的结文 (An affidavit by Sun baoqing stating his elder sister-in-law Sun Chenshi was gang raped to death by Japanese soldiers),” December 1945, in ADN, p. 358. 102. “汤振声证言 (Testimony by Tang Zhensheng),” 申全英、章厚之调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Shen Quanying and Zhang Houzhi), in CTS, p. 361. 103. “管学才证言 (Testimony by Guan Xuecai),” 林佩秋、陈声华调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Lin Peiqiu and Chen Shenghua), in CTS, p. 305.

6.3  Testimonies of the Japanese Atrocities

203

104. “钱传兴证言 (Testimony by Qian Cuanxing),” 王志云调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Wang Zhiyun), in CTS, p. 379. 105. “沈爱云证言 (Testimony by Shen Aiyun),” 李帼义调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Li Guoyi), in CTS, pp. 229–230. 106. “沈应木证言 (Testimony by Shen Yingmu),” in CTS, p. 377. 107. 杨朱氏 (Yang Zhushi), “杨朱氏陈述陈代弟被日军强奸的结文 (An affidavit by Yang Zhushi stating Chen Daidi was raped by Japanese soldiers),” December 2, 1945, in ADN, p. 355.

Chapter 7

Japanese Soldiers’ Accounts

After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, the Japanese military authorities issued strict orders and rules to their troops that accounts and photos revealing atrocities were not allowed for public dissemination.1 Kazuo Sone (曾根一夫), a Japanese soldier who participated in the Nanjing battles, wrote in his book The Nanjing Massacre and War (南京虐殺と戦争): In order not to let the citizens know the troops’ bad behaviors, news censorship intensified and a strict blockade was implemented to prevent the soldiers on the battlefields from leaking information. After the Nanjing battles, veterans returning to Japan were given gag orders. I returned in the fall of Showa 15th year as well. Upon leaving the troop unit, we were admonished, “When you return home, with the mobilization order removed, you become local civilians. You should be proud of your honor of having served as soldiers, however, you should absolutely not leak out anything that may tarnish the image of the Imperial Army.” This is a fancy way of saying it, but simply put it: “When you leave the military and return home, you are not permitted whatsoever to speak of the bad things you committed on the battlefields.2

Apparently, the gag orders had worked effectively until the end of the war and beyond for the majority of the former soldiers. During wartime, many of the Japanese soldiers kept private diaries and other records, which contain descriptions of the atrocities committed by Japanese troops. It is fair to assume that the majority of such private records will remain concealed indefinitely for various reasons. However, quite a few of the soldiers’ diaries and memoirs gradually made their way to the press in the post-war years. More were published in the 1980s and 1990s, thanks to several Japanese scholars and journalists who made efforts to search, collect and publish them. Some of the diaries and memoirs appeared in print individually, while many others, including those that had been previously published individually, were published in collections: Motokatsu Sasaki (佐々木元勝)’s The Banner of the Field Post Office (1941 & 1973), Testimonial Record of Combat Operations for Three Alls: From the Nanjing Massacre to the Collapse of Manzhouguo, by Kōhei Moriyama (森山康平, 1975), The Yangtze River is crying: The Record of Kumamoto © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 S. Lu, The 1937 – 1938 Nanjing Atrocities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9656-4_7

205

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6th Division’s Combats on the Continent, by the Anti-­War Publishing Committee of the Creative Writing Association’s Youth Department (1980), My Personal Record of the Nanjing Massacre and The Continuation of My Personal Record of the Nanjing Massacre by Kazuo Sone (both 1984), The Nanjing Battle History Related Source Materials I & II, by Nanjing Battle History Editing Committee (1989 & 1993), The Nanjing Incident: Kyoto Division Related Source Materials, by Iguchi Kazuki (井口 和起), Junichiro Kisaka (木阪順一郎), and Masaki Shimozato (下里正樹, 1989). The Nanjing Massacre Recorded by the Imperial Army Soldiers: The Field Diaries by the Soldiers of the Yamada Detachment, the 13th Division, by Kenji Ono (小野賢 二), Akira Fujiwara (藤原彰), and Katsuichi Honda (1996), and Tamaki Matsuoka (松岡環)‘s In Search of the Sealed Memories about the Nanjing Campaign: The Testimonies of 102 Former Soldiers, (2002). These published diaries and memoirs vary in coverage, but most of them record their authors’ battlefield experiences from the landing at Shanghai or Hangzhou Bay to Nanjing’s fall and beyond. They provide not only the opportunity to examine the massacres and killings from the Japanese soldiers’ point of view, but also detailed and accurate information as to which troops were responsible for the massacres and killings at each specific area. On December 13, 1937, the Yamada Detachment (山田支隊), or the 103rd Brigade of the 13th Division, reached Mufu Mountain by way of Longtan, Qixia Hill and Swallow Cliff along the Yangtze River. They were mainly responsible for the mass executions and killings at Qixia Hill, Swallow Cliff, and Straw Shoe Gorge. This detachment mainly stationed outside the city and left for Pukou on December 20, 1937 to join the other troops of the 13th Division. The 6th Division fought from the south and southwest, and its 45th Regiment reached Xiaguan to join the 16th Division on December 13, 1937, while other regiments entered Zhonghua and Shuixi Gates. This division was responsible for the massacres and rampant killings at the Shangxin riverfront, Jiangdong Gate, Shuixi Gate, the Sancha River area, the southwestern suburbs, the southwestern section and Qingliang Hill area inside the city, as well as some killings in Xiaguan. The 6th Division left Nanjing between December 20 and 22, 1937, and was transferred to Wuhu. The 114th Division attacked the city from the south and, after entering Zhonghua Gate, engaged in mopping up operations in the southern part of the city. The division participated in mass executions and killings in the southern suburbs and the southern section inside the city walls. The 114th Division left Nanjing around December 20, 1937, and was transferred to Huzhou to prepare for operations to attack Hangzhou. The 3rd Division attacked the city from the southeast and entered Wuding Gate and Tongji Gate. This division was responsible for the killings in the southeastern suburbs and the southeastern section inside the city. The 9th Division broke into Guanghua Gate late December 12, 1937, and engaged in the mopping up operations in the eastern and central sections in the city, as well as inside the Safety Zone. This division participated in mass executions in the southeastern suburbs, southeastern and eastern sections inside the city walls, as

7.1 Iwane Matsui (松井石根)

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well as killings in the Shanxi Road and Drum Tower areas. The 9th Division left Nanjing between December 24 and 26, 1937 to station along the cities and towns on the Nanjing-Shanghai Railroad line. The 16th Division reached Nanjing from the east and captured Zhongshan and Taiping Gates on the east and occupied all the northern city gates, including Heping Gate. At 10  a.m. on December 13, 1937, the Sasaki Brigade first reached the Xiaguan riverfront and occupied the Xiguan area by 3:00 p.m. This division engaged in mass executions and killings in the eastern suburbs, Tangshan, Xianhe Gate, Maqun, the Purple Mountain area, the areas outside Zhongshan and Taiping Gates, the Xiaguan area, the eastern, central and northern sections in the city, as well as the Safety Zone. The 16th Division remained as the Nanjing garrison forces with the division commander, Lieutenant General Kesago Nakajima (中島今朝吾), appointed as the Nanjing Garrison Commander. That is why Nanjing residents considered the Japanese occupation troops as the Nakajima Troops (中島部队) after the Japanese captured Nanjing, for by the time the residents were aware of the occupation troops’ identity through the public announcements, all the other divisions had been transferred out of the city. When Nanjing residents filed petitions or affidavits concerning war crimes in mid-1940s, they attributed the atrocities to the Nakajima Troops. This division departed for North China on January 21, 1938, when the Nanjing Garrison was handed over to the 11th Division’s 10th Brigade. The brigade commander, Major General Shojikiro Amaya (天谷直次郎), succeeded to be the Garrison Commander. Written by both the officers in commanding positions and frontline soldiers, these diaries and memoirs are valuable primary source material in that they provide the atrocity participants’ accounts of mass executions, individual killings, rapes, disposal of corpses, and other atrocities.

7.1  Iwane Matsui (松井石根) General Iwane Matsui (1878–1948) was the commander in chief of the Central China Forces, commanding both the Shanghai Expeditionary Army and the 10th Army to attack and capture Nanjing. He was indicted and tried for the atrocities committed by Japanese troops in Nanjing by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. Consequently, he was sentenced to death and hanged in Tokyo on December 23, 1948. During an interrogation session on March 8, 1946, Iwane Matsui claimed, “All my records were burned including this diary but I have a few notes made from memory since which I think will be useful if I come to trial. My house was destroyed in one of the bombing raids.”3 His statement, however, proves to be false. In 1985, Masaaki Tanaka (田中正明) edited and published Field Diary of General Iwane Matsui (松井石根大将の陣中日誌)4 in Tokyo. Though the Tokyo newspaper The Asahi Shinbum (朝日新闻) published articles on November 24 and 25, 1985 accusing Tanaka of tampering with Matsui’s diary in more than 900

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places to cover up the atrocities,5 Matsui’s published dairy still reveals trace of evidence. He wrote on December 18, 1937: This morning I met with the chiefs of staff of the divisions. The chief of staff of the army gave everyone detailed instructions, and everybody joined in the discussion. In particular, I lectured them on the following three points: 1. Tightening up discipline and order among the soldiers. 2. Eliminating any thoughts or feelings of disdain toward the Chinese. 3. Grasping the essentials of international relations.6

On December 20, he indicated, “For a while, there had been looting and raping by our officers and soldiers, and these were, in reality, more or less unavoidable situations.” On December 21, he set out at 10, a.m. to “inspect the area around Yijiang Gate and Xiaguan. The area was still in a shambles, with dead bodies strewn in disarray everywhere, and it would take a lot of time to clean it up.” (p.  145) On December 26, he recorded: I learned that looting and raping had occurred again around Nanjing and Hangzhou. Therefore, I specially dispatch out my assistants to resolve these matters, and asked the assistants that they must take strong measures against these behaviors and discipline those who were responsible. I acknowledge that these abominable phenomena must be stopped immediately, and severely demanded both armies to reach that goal. (p.148)

AS atrocity reports came continuously, he dispatched his staff officer on December 29 to Nanjing to take emergency measures: There occurred again incidents in which our soldiers had looted cars from several countries’ embassies in Nanjing, and the troops’ folly and rude behaviors shocked me. It is extremely regrettable that the imperial army’s reputation was ruined by this sort of incidents. Hence, I immediately dispatched Staff Officer Nagayama (中山) to Nanjing, and ordered him that, while taking emergency measures to handle the aftermath, he should punish not only those who were directly involved, but also those who were in charge. Special attention should be paid to those concerning the Shanghai Expeditionary Army, because the army was under the command of his Highness, and it concerned the benevolence of his Highness. Therefore, I plan to deal with it severely. (p. 149)

Iwane Matsui went to Nanjing for the last time on February 6, 1938. He wrote in his diary that day, On one hand, the loosened order and discipline of the troops had not yet been completely restored, and on the other hand, the commanders of various ranks tolerated the disordered behaviors in consideration of soldiers’ feelings. … His Highness also said that the main cause of the order and discipline problems in the troops is the 16th Division’s commander and his subordinates. Their behaviors are unspeakably terrible and bad. It is exactly the same as what I observed before. (p. 168)

The current edited version of Matsui’s diary offers no direct description of the massacres or killings in the Nanjing area. However, when he recorded the battles in the Shanghai area, Matsui indicated in his September 6, 1937 diary entry, “In this battle there were altogether 500 enemy soldiers who surrendered, but later on, when it was discovered that they had resistant intent, they were all shot dead.” (p. 31) Judging from the contents of other commanding officers’ diaries, it was impossible that the information concerning Nanjing did not reach Iwane Matsui. There is reason to believe that it

7.2 Mamoru Iinuma (飯沼守)

209

is possible such sentences concerning the wanton killings in the Nanjing area were edited out. The continuous atrocities and lawless situation in Nanjing were alleged to be the main reason that Iwane Matsui was removed from the commander-in-chief position on February 10, 1938. He bid farewell to his headquarters on February 16 and admonished again that “strictly demanding the troops to observe order and discipline is of utmost importance.” (p. 176) On February 19, he handed over the command to the new commander in chief, General Shunroke Hata (畑俊六, 1879–1962). He emphasized the issue to his successor, “in order to keep the order and discipline of the troops, an effort should be made to keep the troops stationed together, and reduce the opportunities for troops to have direct contact with the local population.” (p. 178). General Hata verified in his diary that Iwane Matsui was removed from command due to the lack of order and discipline among his troops, who were responsible for the atrocities. On January 29, 1938, Hata wrote: With this phase of the China campaign coming to a close, the order and discipline among the China Expeditionary Force troops are deteriorating, and it seems that there occurred quite a few looting and raping cases, which are the most taboo behaviors in the troops. Under the circumstances, the reserve soldiers should be recalled home and replaced by the regular troops on active service. In addition, General Matsui at Shanghai should be replaced by an officer on active service. It is necessary that the army and division commanders be replaced in turn by active duty officers.7

Iwane Matsui retired from active duty in 1935 and remained as a reserve officer when he was called to command the Shanghai Expeditionary Army in August 1937. That is why Shunroke Hata considered him a reserve officer rather than someone on active duty. Hata was dubious of the order and discipline standard of reserve officers and soldiers.

7.2  Mamoru Iinuma (飯沼守) Major General Mamoru Iinuma (1888–1946) was the chief of staff of the Shanghai Expeditionary Army, which consisted of the 3rd, 9th, 11th, 13th, 16th, and 101st Divisions, and the Shigeto Detachment (重藤支隊). The published Mamoru Iinuma diary covers the period from August 15, 1937 to March 15, 1938. On December 14, 1937, he wrote: While passing through the area near Qilin Gate, the Tank Battalion commanded the communication corps soldiers and others to mop up the 500 enemy soldiers they had encountered while the enemy was retreating to the south. I learned that it was discovered from an airplane that two groups of over 1,000 captives being marched from the area east of Nanjing toward the Xiaguan direction. …… It was reported that at around 3 p.m., a company of the Sasagi Detachment (佐々木支 隊) had taken about 20,000 prisoners northeast of Nanjing. According to another report, it was seen clearly from an airplane that a line of captives 8 kilometers long in four columns were being marched toward the north of Nanjing.8

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He mentioned on December 15, “I learned that the Yamada Detachment had taken prisoner 15,000 or 16,000 near Shangyuan Gate in the east,9 and it is estimated that the number of captives will increase. Thus, they should be taken over by the 16th Division.”10 He reported atrocities on December 19: “Military police reported on the 18th that the buildings inside the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Park have been burned, and the burning still continues now. It was also reported that the troops led by officers forced their way into the refugee zone to rape (which has not yet been verified). There are some other similar incidents, such as looting trucks from the American and British embassies and consulates. Meanwhile, there are still others who want to loot, and the orders concerning the matters that demand attention are not carried out.” (p. 220). Iinuma recorded the mass executions in his December 21 diary entry: It was reported that the Yamada Detachment of the Ogisu Troops (荻洲部隊), with bayonets, disposed of ten and several thousand prisoners in batches, and it was because, within these few days, large numbers of people had been marched to the same location, leading to turmoil among the prisoners. Consequently, our troops mowed them down with machine guns, causing several of our officers and soldiers to be killed. A good number of the prisoners took the opportunity to run away. (p. 222)

He revealed in his January 26, 1938 diary entry the information in connection to the “Allison Incident,” in which American Consul John M.  Allison and Charles Henry Riggs, an American professor at the University of Nanjing, were attacked and slapped by a Japanese soldier on January 26, 1938 while they were investigating a rape case. This evening, Major Hongo (本鄉) reported. Around 11 p.m. on January 24, Japanese soldiers went to the Agricultural Implement Store run by Americans, threatened people at bayonet-point, took away two women to rape, and did not release them until about two hours later. According to the victims’ statement, they went to the house in which the rape was alleged to have taken place to identify the assailants, and because it was the living quarters of the Company Commander Amano (天野) and over a dozen soldiers, while they entered the house for investigation, two Americans wanted to enter. Amano ordered the soldiers armed with weapons to get assembled, attack and drive the Americans out. Upon learning the information, Staff Officer Hongo immediately went to the spot, but it was very difficult to get into the Company Commander’s room. There were three or four Chinese women in the next room, and when he forced himself into Amano’s room, he appeared to have slept with a woman, as a woman was getting out of the bed. He then questioned the Company Commander who said that he took advantage of the power in his hands to continuously bring in women, he paid, for the soldiers to rape. Hence, it was decided to call in the military police head, Lieutenant Colonel Oyama (小山), and the commanders of the 2nd Battalion and the 33rd Regiment. I ordered them to postpone the setting out time of the following morning for that company. The battalion commander will continue with the interrogation, with the military police responsible for verifying the facts. (p. 242)

7.3 Toshimichi Uemura (上村利道)

211

7.3  Toshimichi Uemura (上村利道) Colonel Toshimichi Uemura (1889–1947) was the deputy chief of staff of the Shanghai Expeditionary Army. The field diary he kept, in many respects, complements what Mamoru Iinuma recorded. He wrote on December 16, 1937, “It is reported that there are 40,000 prisoners of war around Nanjing. Learned that the order and discipline of some of the troops inside the city are not so good, which is truly regrettable.”11 On December 25 he wrote, I inspected Xiaguan and the area around Lion Hill. Although the streets in the city have basically been cleared out, in areas far away from the main roads, there are still hideous corpses strewn in disarray. I did not realize that the troops could be so indifferent toward them. (p. 278)

On the following day, he stated, “The reports from different directions indicate that an investigation is going on concerning the 9 motor vehicles looted by Japanese troops from the British Embassy, the 6 motor vehicles from the American Embassy and one car looted from a gentleman who was a member of Nanjing Self-Government Committee.” (p. 279) He reported on December 28, It seems that the bad behaviors of the troops are increasing day by day. Asked the Second Section to call officers from different troops to report the issue. I have asked the chief of staff to take strict preventive measures – decision is made to implement the measures at 10 a.m. on the 30th. … Examined and discussed the plan suggested by the Second Section about establishing the Nanjing Comfort Women Agency. (p. 280)

On January 21, 1938, Uemura indicated: Because the American Consul cabled the Ambassador in Tokyo, saying “the diplomats are incapable, and the military is unwilling to control,” the deputy general chief of staff required an investigation to find the truth about the troops’ order and discipline problems of looting and abducting women. I have learned that because of Staff Officer Hongo’s presentations, the consul expressed regret. Upon receiving reports from the military police, I learned that two captains and two interpreters from the 16th Division Headquarters have violated order and discipline. They are all pathetic and good-for-nothing jerks. Need to tighten up order and discipline. (p. 292)

Uemura’s account of the “Allison Incident,” is similar to that of Iinuma’s. On January 26, he wrote, Upon accidentally discovering the disorderly behaviors of Lieutenant Amano, who is from the 8th Company of the 33rd Regiment, Staff Officer Hongo instantly called in the Battalion Commander Honno (本夜), who was scheduled to set out early next morning, and ordered him to investigate the matter. Meanwhile, those in the Amano troop involved are forbidden to set out, while the military police are ordered to investigate the matter. It is truly regrettable. Because the incident concerns the higher authorities, Staff Officer Hongo had no choice but to express regret to the American Consul. (p. 294)

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7.4  The Yamada Detachment, the 13th Division 7.4.1  Senji Yamada (山田栴二) Major General Senji Yamada (1887–1977) was the commander of the 103rd Brigade, the 13th Division, which was also known as the Yamada Detachment. In capturing the northern suburbs of Nanjing, his troops took prisoner a huge number of Chinese soldiers. According to his diary, he received orders to mass execute all the disarmed Chinese soldiers, who had surrendered to his troops. The following are the excepts of his diary from December 14, 1937, when his troops captured the Mufu Mountain Fort, to December 20, when he led his troops to leave Nanjing for Jiangpu (江浦) north of the Yangtze. December 14. Clear. Being concerned that other divisions may capture the fort before us, we set out at 4:30 a.m. for the Mufu Mountain Fort. At daybreak, no sooner did we reach the area near the fort than we saw countless surrendered enemy soldiers, which is difficult to deal with. The vanguards captured Mufu Mountain at 8 a.m. The new-style residences with modern facilities and villages in the suburbs were burned down by the enemy. It is difficult to handle the captives. We happened to find a school outside Shangyuan Gate, and are keeping them in it. There are 14,777 captives. There are so many captives, and it is difficult to decide whether to kill them or keep them alive. Tonight, stay in the three houses outside Shangyuan Gate. December 15. Clear. Dispatched Cavalry Sub-Lieutenant Honma (本間) to Nanjing for the issue concerning how to deal with the captives and other matters. The order says to have all the captives killed. All the troops are greatly troubled due to the lack of food. December 16. Clear. Dispatched Lieutenant Colonel Aida (相田) to the Army Headquarters to discuss the issue of handling the captives and other matters. Guarding the captives has become the most important task of the Tayama (田山) Battalion. In addition to the weapons at the fort, we captured 5,000 rifles, a large number of heavy and light machine guns and other weapons. December 17. Clear. Great city entering ceremony. Went by car to visit Nanjing city, the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum and other places. The Military Academy is much more magnificent than Japan’s Military Academy. The city entering ceremony was held at 1: 30 p.m. Came back at 3. Major Watanabe (渡辺) of the Sendai (仙台) Military Training School has been appointed the division’s adjutant, and he came to visit our brigade on his way to assume his position. December 18. Clear. The troops endeavored to dispose of the captives. I was at the river bank to inspect their handling. December 19. Clear. Because of dealing with the captives, the setting out time has been postponed. In the morning, all the troops went out, making an effort to deal with the captives. The army and division sent us supplies, and we have rice from Japan. (Had diarrhea.) December 20. Clear.

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I wonder why the 13th Division likes to stay in the countryside, or to assist in attacks. On the 16th, the main force crossed the river from Zhenjiang and reached Yangzhou. In order to catch up with the main force, the Yamada Troops decided to cross the river at Xiaguan. Although we were scheduled to set out at 9 a.m., we did not start until 10 o’clock to transfer to Pukou. Met with the commander of the Kunizaki Detachment before I went to Jiangpu Town (江浦鎮), staying in a rice shop.12

7.4.2  Seigo Miyamoto (宫本省吾) Seigo Miyamoto was an infantry sub-lieutenant from the Fourth Company, the 65th Regiment of the 13th Division. He kept a detailed day-to-day journal. He recorded on December 13 and 14, 1937: December 13. We were ordered to start out at 7 p.m. yesterday to attack the Wulong Hill Fort. On the way, we had little rest, and early this morning at 5, we continued the advance. At 10 a.m., we accompanied the officers to scout and gather intelligence about the enemy and advanced towards Wulong Hill, and with a cavalry squad, we shot dead the remnant enemy soldiers we encountered on the way. At one point, we had to lie down because of the enemy’s bullets shrieking by. We searched around up to the area near Wulong Hill. Except for a small number of remnant enemy soldiers at the outer positions, we did not find any other people; then we returned. By the time we got back, the main force of the troop had already advanced. It took us a lot of trouble to catch up with the main force. We attacked Wulong Hill at dusk. There were not many enemies at the positions, but we took prisoner quite a few remnant enemy soldiers and killed some of them. At 10 p.m., we camped in the open. December 14. Early morning at 5, we set out to mop up remnant enemy soldiers. We did not launch any attacks, for the enemy no longer had the will to fight. They simply came over to surrender. Without firing a shot, we disarmed several thousand people. At dusk, we marched the captives to one of Nanjing’s barracks, and unexpectedly, there were over ten thousand already there. Guarding measures were instantly taken. Our company placed guards at eight locations assuming the guarding task. Out of hunger, some of the captives ate the vegetables by the roadside, while others, without food for two or three days, asked for water to drink, which was very miserable. However, on the battlefield, certain extreme measures had to be taken. At night, medical squad marched over more than 200 captives. There were over 200 soldiers assuming guarding duties, and the company commander also participated. Because we are all well trained, checking on people entering and leaving is carried out in an orderly manner, which is very interesting. Among the persons we had contact with were majors and staff officers. We had explained through interpreters to all the Chinese captives: “The Japanese troops will not harm you, but if you run away or start a riot, you will be killed on the spot.” Therefore, it was largely calm. However, due to the lack of water and food, they appeared extremely agitated.13

On December 15, Miyamoto indicated, “At dusk, we started distributing some food to the captives. We are almost running out of food supplies for our own soldiers; it is not easy to provide food for the captives at all.” (p. 134) The mass executions took place in the following days. Miyamoto kept a relatively detailed account:

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7  Japanese Soldiers’ Accounts December 16. The guarding task becomes increasingly heavy. At 10 a.m., the Second Company replaced us to keep guard, and finally we could be at ease. However, when we were having lunch a fire broke out, which resulted in great turmoil. Consequently, one third of the barracks were burned down. At 3 p.m., the battalion decided to take an extreme measure and shot 3,000 captives by the riverside. This was a scene which could only be seen on a battlefield. December 17. Light snow. The troops held the city entering ceremony. Most of our troop participated in executing the captives. I started out at 8: 30 a.m., marching toward Nanjing. Participated in the grand Nanjing city entering ceremony, witnessing this solemn and historic sight. Came back at dusk and immediately participated in executing the captives. Because we have already executed more than 20,000 people, soldiers kept killing to the point that they were so infuriated that they even harmed their comrades, killing and wounding several. In my company, one was killed and two wounded. December 18. Cloudy. Because of what has happened in recent days, I did not sleep until daybreak. It seemed that soon after I got up it was lunchtime. In the afternoon, we began to clear away the enemy corpses, but we still had not completed by dusk. The troop decided to continue tomorrow. So we returned. The cold wind chilled our bones. December 19. Continued yesterday’s work, we started from morning to clear away the dead bodies and did not finish until 4 p.m. At dusk, we disposed of the captives’ clothes, causing another fire. It was extinguished in time, though it almost burned down our camping quarters. We were scheduled to cross the river tomorrow, so the soldiers have made preparations until very late. (ibid)

7.4.3  Takaharu Endo (遠藤高明) Takaharu Endo was an infantry sub-lieutenant from the Eighth Company, the 65th Regiment, the 13th Division. Endo’s diary is as detailed as Miyamoto’s, offering similar but unique information and perspectives about the major events. December 14. Clear. We set out early morning at 5 to attack the Mufu Mountain Fort about 4 kilometers north of Nanjing. The moon had set down behind the hill, and it was pitch dark. It was extremely difficult to walk. At a location 2 kilometers from Fenyu Village (分于村), we ran into a landmine buried by the enemy. Takarakeiji Shinkai (新開寶慶) of the First Squad was seriously wounded and died an hour later. Near Taiping Hill (太平山), we came across several hundred captives, as well as repeating pistols and Chinese officers’ horses. All of them had been captured by the First Battalion. We got the horses over and mounted on them to continue the march; we reached Mufu Mountain at noon. The enemy had no will to fight at all, and we took prisoner 450 enemy soldiers and a large quantity of weapons. At dusk, we arranged to stay at Shangyuanli Village (上元里). Because there are not enough residences, one platoon stay in one house. At twilight, we took over 400 more prisoners. December 15. Clear. Got up at 7 a.m. At 9 a.m., the X Platoon was ordered to mop up remnant enemy soldiers on the riverbank east of Mufu Mountain. We took 306 prisoners, and learned there were close to ten thousand more waiting to be detained. At 9 p.m., I came on duty as an officer. I

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was awakened by shootings at 1 a.m. Received the report that the sentry of the Eighth Company, while shooting at the enemy, wounded the regiment headquarters’ messenger. We immediately conducted an investigation, drafted a report, and did not return to sleep until 3 a.m. December 16. Clear. I got up according to schedule, and at 9: 30 a.m. went to visit the fort for an hour. At 12: 30 p.m., because the captive detention center was on fire, we were ordered to set out, and came back at 3 p.m. At the detention center, I met with journalist Yokota (横田) of The Asahi Shinbum and asked him about the general situation. The total number of captives is 17,025. At dusk, according to the order from the army, we took one third of the captives to the riverbank, and the First Battalion engaged in the task of shooting them dead. Just as the order issued indicates, even if only providing two meals a day, it would take 100 bags of (food) to feed the captives. Our soldiers rely on requisition and commandeering for food supplies, it is impossible to provide food. The army headquarters must take proper measures to deal with the situation. December 17. Clear. At 7 a.m. 9 soldiers were dispatched to keep guard on top of Mufu Mountain. In order to take part in the Nanjing city entering ceremony, our regiment sent troops to participate as representatives of the 13th Division. At 8 a.m., ten soldiers from the platoon and I set out and entered the city through Heping Gate. We were reviewed by His Excellency Army Commander Matsui on the National Government Boulevard in front of the Central Military Academy. On the way, I saw that the field post office had made a special ceremonial postmark for mails, so I went and mailed postcards to X and Mr. Seki (關). I returned to the dormitory at 5:30 p.m. It is 12 kilometers from the dormitory to where the ceremony was held, and I am exhausted. In the evening, in order to execute over 10,000 captives, we sent 5 soldiers … December 18. Early morning at 1 o’clock, because the executions of the captives were not thorough and some captives were still alive, the higher authorities ordered us to go out and participate in cleaning up. The troop hurried to that spot. The cold wind was blowing, and at 3 a.m., there came a snowstorm, with the cold that chilled our bones. In silence, everybody somberly awaited daybreak. At 8:30 a.m., the cleaning-up work was over. The wind died down and it was getting better. The soldiers on guard on Mufu Mountain came back. Six people went to visit Nanjing. I slept for an hour in the morning. An apple was distributed to me, and I have not tasted an apple for a long time. At noon, the fourth batch of nine replenishing soldiers joined the platoon. From 2 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., in order to clear away over 10,000 dead bodies, 25 platoon soldiers went out to do the job. December 19. Clear. At 8 a.m., 15 soldiers went out to continue with clearing the dead bodies. Because the regiment will cross the river to the opposite shore, the higher authorities ordered us to carry some material there. Thus, at 1 p.m., I went to contact the Docking and Shipping Headquarters at Zhongshan Wharf, a journey of 6 kilometers. …14

7.4.4  Eishirou Kondo (近藤榮四郎) Eishirou Kondo was a squad leader (伍長) of the Eighth Company, the 19th Artillery Regiment of the 13th Division. On December 14, 1937, he gave a detailed account of his march toward Nanjing: I got up early morning at 4 o’clock, got the saddle ready, and started out immediately. It was dark and cold all the way. While marching on, at about 8 a.m., we came across a bunch of

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7  Japanese Soldiers’ Accounts enemy troops who had surrendered. Out of curiosity, I kept my eyes wide open to watch them being disarmed. It was truly the sorrow of the defeated. Several more batches came to surrender, 3,000 in all. It was quite interesting to shoot at the enemy soldiers who were crossing the river by boat. Nanjing was in view, the city walls visible. It was pleasing to look down from horse back at the crowds of captives, among whom there were women. We camped on a pasture at Nanjing.15

He participated in executing the disarmed Chinese soldiers on December 16: In the evening, a fire broke out at the detention camp containing 20,000 captives. We went to replace the company who kept guard there. Eventually, today one third of the 20,000, namely, 7,000 people were taken to the Yangtze riverside to be executed. During the executions, we kept guard. After that, the rest of the captives were all executed. We bayoneted those who had not been shot dead. The moon was round, hanging over the hills. Under the white moonlight, the dying were uttering painful moans. There is nothing more horrifically bloodcurdling than this. It was a sight that can only be seen on a battlefield. I will never forget it for the rest of my life. We came back at 9:30. (p. 326)

7.4.5  Fukuharu Meguro (目黑福治) Fukuharu Meguro was a squad leader (伍長) of the Third Battalion, the 19th Artillery Regiment of the 13th Division. His diary accounts reveal detailed and specific information about his journey through the Yangtze Valley to Nanjing, including Japanese looting activities and the number of civilians and disarmed soldiers he killed. On November 21, 1937, after they made breakfast from a pig and chickens they had looted, his unit travelled all day in the cold, arriving somewhere near Jiangyin (江陰). “At 5 p.m., we reached an unknown village, and killed five young people in the village, including a woman who had lost her husband.”16 On November 25, they looted another pig for supper, and got hold of an ox as well. (p. 370) On November 27, At about 7 p.m., we discovered three remnant enemy soldiers. One of them escaped, and two were captured. I bayoneted one of them to death. Up to today, I have killed 6 Chinese soldiers in all. (ibid)

On the following day, soon after getting up at 6 a.m., they found and killed 5 Chinese soldiers. He wrote on December 5, “While going out in the afternoon to commandeer, we burned down the houses of 17 Chinese households and killed the local people. Lamentable citizens of the defeated country.” (p. 372) On December 9, “Along the march, I saw over a dozen Central Government captives beheaded.” (ibid) He also kept a concise account of the executions of thousands of disarmed Chinese soldiers after they reached Nanjing: December 13. Clear. Got up at 3 a.m. and set out at 4 to attack Nanjing’s Mufu Mountain Fort. Along the way, there were captured enemy soldiers gathered here and there, and it was said that they amounted to about 13,000, ranging from boys of 12 or 13 to men in their fifties, and there

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were two women among them. Enemy soldiers continuously came to surrender, and the number of prisoners captured by different troops was about 100,000. Saw the city walls of Nanjing at 5 p.m., and our troop camped outside the city. … . December 16. Clear. Rest. Went into the city to commandeer. Everywhere, traces of looting by Chinese and Japanese soldiers can be seen. At 4 p.m., the Yamada Detachment shot about 7,000 enemy soldiers they had captured. On the Yangtze riverside, dead bodies instantly piled up into a hill. It was truly too horrible to look at. December 17. Clear. Outside Nanjing. Started out at 9 a.m. from our camp site to participate in the historic and grand ceremony of the commander entering Nanjing city. At 5 p.m., went for the task of executing 13,000 enemy captives. Within two days, the Yamada Detachment shot dead close to 20,000 people. It appears that all the troops have shot their captives. December 18. Clear. Early morning at 3 o’clock, the wind started blowing while it rained, and upon getting up in the morning, I saw that the hills were covered with snow, the first snow of the year. I heard there gathered troops of about 10 divisions outside Nanjing city. Rest. At 5 p.m., shot dead about 13,000 captives. December 19. Clear. It was apparently a day for rest, but we got up at 6 a.m. We were ordered to throw into the Yangtze River the corpses of ten and several thousand enemies we had shot yesterday, and we were doing this job until 1 p.m. In the afternoon, we made preparations for setting out. I stood guard at our troop headquarters. (pp. 373-374)

7.5  The 16th Division 7.5.1  Kesago Nakajima (中島今朝吾) Lieutenant General Kesago Nakajima (1882–1945) was the commander of the 16th Division. He kept a detailed day to day diary, including a lengthy entry on December 13, 1937 that offers a lot of information. He indicated that he originally planned for his troops to enter the city ahead of the 9th Division, and when that did not happen, he felt that he lost face. He decided not to enter the city through Zhongshan Gate, which is the main eastern gate. His troops later entered Taiping Gate, a smaller northeastern gate. He ordered Sasaki (佐々木)’s 30th Brigade to circumvent the city outside the northern city walls along Xuanwu Lake, capturing the northern gates enroute and reaching the Xiaguan waterfront ahead of other divisions to prevent the Chinese from escaping across the river. Meanwhile, he ordered Kusaba (草場)’s 19th Brigade to enter Taiping Gate, mopping up through the urban sections toward the direction of Xiaguan.17 He recorded that day, “at noon today, Swordsman Takayama (高山劒士) came for a visit. It happened that there were 7 captives, so I ordered him to try his sword on the captives. I also ordered him to try my sword, and remarkably, he cut two heads off.” (p. 324). The most important information he revealed is that they adopted the policy of not keeping the surrendered Chinese soldiers, but executing them all:

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7  Japanese Soldiers’ Accounts Basically, we do not carry out the policy of keeping captives, but instead have decided to adopt the policy of total annihilation. Because they are groups numbering 1,000, 5,000 or 10,000 people, we cannot even disarm them in a timely manner. However, they have totally lost the will to fight, and simply walked over in groups, so they are now harmless to our troops. Harmless as they are, should a riot break out, it would be difficult to handle. For that purpose, we sent additional troops who ride in trucks to monitor and direct. … I learned afterwards that Sasaki’s troops alone disposed of around 15,000 people, and the company commander who guarded at Taiping Gate disposed of 1,300 people. There were about seven or eight thousand gathered near Xianhe Gate. In addition, more came continuously to surrender. To dispose of the above-mentioned seven or eight thousand people, we need a huge ditch, but this is difficult to find. We decided in advance to break them into small teams of 100 or 200 people before leading them to suitable locations to dispose of them. (p. 326)

He gave detailed descriptions of his troops, including their looting behaviors, in his December 19 diary entry. Considering he was the division commander, his statement and comments on his own soldiers and officers are surprisingly candid and objective. Ironically, his comments bare strong resemblance to the accounts by the American missionaries at the same time not only in factual description, but also in tone: In addition, the Japanese troops engage in looting, paying absolutely no attention to whether the areas are under other troops’ jurisdiction or not. They forcibly broke into the residences in the areas, looting everything away. In one word, those who are thicker-skinned and more shameless gain more advantages. The best example is: The National Government office building we are occupying was entered and looted on the 13th by the soldiers of the 16th Division. Early morning on the 14th, after scouting around, the Administrative Department made plans for allocating living quarters and hung the sign “The Division Headquarters.” But when we came to view the different rooms, every corner of each room, from the President’s office to every other rooms, along with trunks and cabinets, had been thoroughly ransacked and looted. All the objects, whether they are antique displays or something else, have been taken away, as long as they are considered to have some value. After entering the city on the 15th, I collected the remaining objects and put them into a cabinet and sealed with a paper strip on it, but it did not work. On the third day, I came in to find that the objects inside were gone without a trace. It looks like the only place to keep things is a safe; keeping anything anywhere else is useless. Japanese people are extremely curious. Once they learn it is “The National Government,” they make a special trip here to have a look. It is ok if they just come to have a look, or to supervise those soldiers who would otherwise steal anything they set their eyes on, but the thieves are the decent gentleman-like officers, which is astounding. (p. 332)

To restore electricity and running water in the city proved to be no easy task. As the Nanjing Garrison Commander, on December 31, 1937, Nakajima described his dilemma, which was most likely created by his own troops in this regard: “Until the morning of the 13th, there were electric lights and running water in Nanjing. However, since the troops entered the city to mop up, the engineers and workers were disposed of, and there is no one to run the machines. Though the military has been considering ways to find solutions, as of now there are no skilled persons, and right now I have no idea when the problem will be solved.” (pp. 341–342).

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7.5.2  Touichi Sasaki (佐々木到一) Touichi Sasaki (1886–1955), major general, was the commander of the 30th Brigade, the 16th Division. After arriving at the outskirts of Nanjing, his 30th Brigade fought its way along the route north of Purple Mountain from Xianhe Gate toward Yaohua Gate, and continued to attack toward the direction of Xiaguan. His troops captured all the northern city gates, and the armed vehicle unit of the brigade reached the Xiaguan waterfront at 10 a.m. on December 13, 1937. By 3:00 p.m., the whole Xiaguan area was under their control. He revealed many details in his December 13, 1937 diary entry: As I mentioned previously, at about 10 a.m., our detachment’s light armed vehicles first attacked into Xiaguan, completely blocking the enemy’s retreating route. In addition, our infantry troops occupied all the city gates on the northern side of the city and had them completely blockaded, thus trapping the enemy troops like a turtle in a jar. Part of the 6th Division troops, who rushed from the south, reached the riverfront, while the navy’s 11th Fleet moved upstream to shoot at the enemy boats coming downstream, and the fleet reached Xiaguan at 2 p.m. the Kunizaki Detachment got to Pukou on the opposite side of the river at 4 p.m. The other troops who launched attacks at the city walls all broke into the city, conducting mopping up operations continuously. This campaign played out encirclement and annihilation warfare in full. Today, within the fighting zone of my detachment, the corpses left behind by the enemy amount to ten and several thousand. In addition, combined with the number of soldiers shot dead by armed vehicles on the river and those captured by different troops, our detachment alone wiped out over twenty thousand enemy troops. With the mopping up operation coming to a close at 2 p.m., our safety is guaranteed behind our back. Then, the troops gathered together while they advanced toward Heping Gate. There were captives coming continuously to surrender, and they numbered as many as several thousand. The emotionally charged soldiers, completely disregarding the advice of their superior officers, killed the captives one by one. Recalling the blood shed by many of their fellow soldiers and the last ten days’ hardship, even I want to say, “kill them all,” not to mention the soldiers. At present, we have run out of white rice for a while. Although we can find some in the city, it is not possible for our troops to carry with us food supplies for captives. We climbed up to the top of Heping Gate, shouting three times, “Long live Marshall.”18

The mopping up operations resumed on December 14: At present, I am in complete control of the two regiments conducting mopping up operations in and out of the city. The troops have searched out the remnants of the defeated troops, who had hidden everywhere. But they have either abandoned or hidden their weapons. Large groups of 500 to 1,000 captives were continuously being taken. Although they did not look scared, every one of them was exhausted, perhaps because they had nothing to eat. … Although they are remnants of the defeated troops, some of them are still hiding either in the villages or hills to engage in sniping warfare. Therefore, those who continue to resist and refuse to comply are relentlessly killed at once. The shooting continued all day. The big moat outside Taiping Gate is filled with dead bodies. … The formerly busy business section of Xiaguan was burned to ashes, and the road along the riverbank is littered with hundreds of abandoned motor vehicles, while hundreds of dead bodies have been pushed by the water into the river. (pp. 379-380)

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On December 16, he wrote, “We were ordered to mop up the area north of Purple Mountain. The result was not great, but the two regiments searched out several hundred defeated soldiers and shot them dead.” (p. 380). Meanwhile, Sasaki revealed that he was the person responsible for organizing and carrying out many of the mopping up operations inside the city, leading to the executions and killings of thousands upon thousands of Nanjing residents described in the testimonies by Chinese survivors and eyewitnesses: December 26. I was appointed chair of the Pacification Committee. The mopping up operations inside the city are mainly to eliminate the defeated soldiers who have mixed with the ordinary residents, and crush the schemes of the outlaw elements. On the other hand, I have tightened up the order and discipline of our troops to appease the populous and quickly restore order and peace. Through strict and severe control and supervision, I performed the job of maintaining the security. It basically took 20 days to achieve the expected goal. … January 5. Stopped the checking and questioning routines. As of today, in the city about 2,000 defeated soldiers have been cleared out, and they are kept in the former Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In addition, we took in the Chinese wounded soldiers as captives from the foreign missionaries. In the outskirts of the city, the remnants of the defeated troops who kept up unlawful actions have gradually been arrested, and in Xiaguan, those who were executed amount to several thousand. In the campaign to capture Nanjing, the enemy lost about 70,000 troops, and up to the day the city fell, the number of defenders is estimated to be 100,000. (pp. 380-382)

7.5.3  Rokusuke Masuda (增田六助) In 1937, Rokusuke Masuda served as private first class in the 20th Regiment, 19th Brigade of the 16th Division. He kept a day-to-day account diary, which, for the most part, is sketchy. However, he also wrote “A Note by Masuda (增田手記),” which offers a detailed description about his participation in a mopping up operation in the Safety Zone on December 14, 1937: The next day, the 14th, we went to mop up in the Safety Zone established by the International Committee. Tens of thousands of soldiers had vowed to put up resistance until yesterday, but when they were surrounded on all sides, none of them was able to escape, and consequently, all of them fled into the Safety Zone. Today, even if we have to push aside the grass, we must have them searched out to avenge our fellow soldiers who were killed in action. We were divided into small squads, respectively conducting house-to-house search. We questioned all the male adults of each household. The liaison of the Second Platoon, the Squad Leader Maebara (前原伍長); and others discovered that in a big building at XX, several hundred remnant soldiers were in the process of getting out of their uniforms and changing into civilian clothes. We rushed into the building, and the able-bodied remnant soldiers came into our view. By their side, rifles, pistols, blue-dragon swords and other weapons were piled up like a hill. Some of them had already taken off their uniforms, and others were wearing civilian clothes. Still others wore uniform pants but civilian jackets, which did not

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seem to fit for the season and appeared malapropos. With only one glance, we understood what was going on. We took them out from the corners, stripped them naked to check on the things they carried then used the electric wire that had fallen down to tie them up. … There were at least about 300 Chinese soldiers, too many for us, and it would be difficult for us to handle. Before long, we asked the Chinese man with the International Committee armband: “You, are there any Chinese soldiers?” He pointed to the big house on the opposite side and replied: “There are many.” We went into the house to have a look, and all the people inside were refugees, out of whom we picked about 1,000 who looked suspicious, and gathered them into a room, selecting 300 or so confirmed soldiers from them to tie up. … . At twilight, nearly 600 remnant soldiers were marched to a location near Xuanwu Gate, where all of them were shot dead.19

7.5.4  Atau Kitayama (北山舆) Atau Kitayama was a soldier in the Third Machine Gun Company, the 20th Regiment, the 19th Brigade of the 16th Division. He kept a detailed daily journal from the time he joined the army in August 1937. His troops landed at Tanggu (塘沽) on September 15 and fought in North China for nearly two months before they were shipped to land west of Shanghai. He gave a vivid account in his September 20 diary entry of his experience in a North China village: There were fires everywhere in the village, and traces of battles that had just been fought were still fresh. There was thick smoke coming from the village on the opposite side. At the entrance of the village were graves of those who had been killed in action. Placed on top of the graves were green grass reaped by someone. The wailing and crying of women and children were extremely sorrowful. Some of the Chinese dead bodies missed arms while others did not have heads, lying in disarray. … The officer gave the order to kill all the Chinese. I heard that the 12th Company were executing 20 Chinese by shooting at the river bank. Everyone was full of zest to go and watch. It is truly shameful. There are very cruel behaviors among the Japanese troops, that is, to kill those who no longer resist. But isn’t killing what the Japanese Bushido is and what the soldiers have on their minds? …20

On December 13, 1937, he recorded an episode immediately after they entered Nanjing in which he and his fellow soldiers captured a young boy and made him suffer a cruel death: We captured a good-looking, rosy-cheeked adolescent, who was wearing a jacket signed by the Association of Resisting Japan and Saving China (抗日救國聨合會). In order to defend his native country, he must have been through a lot of hardships. Everyone wanted to use a cruel method to end his life. I did not have the heart to see such misery, suggesting that we simply shoot him dead, but people around me disagreed. They said their follow soldiers had suffered extremely miserable deaths, and simply killing him would not satisfy them. Their idea was not unreasonable. But wasn’t that too emotional? The Japanese troops are just forces, but at the same time must be civilized forces. It’s the same result to have a person killed. Isn’t beheading a person swiftly without pain what the Bushido requires?

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The adolescent showed no resistance, but gestured with his throat, as if saying, “Come! Toward here!” Our soldiers gathered to end that Chinese adolescent’s life in a terribly cruel way. It is a disgrace to Japanese soldiers. (p. 71)

The Machine Gun Company participated in a mopping up operation in the Purple Mountain area the following day, and he wrote on December 14: They came back after midnight from the mopping up operations. They disarmed about 800 remnant enemy soldiers and shot them all dead. The enemy captives had not thought that they would be killed. It was said that there were quite a few university students among them. If they had been kept alive, some of them would probably have made great contributions to the world’s cultural development. It is a great pity! Their noble lives were thus eliminated without hesitation. I personally feel the cruelty of the war. (ibid)

Kitayama kept an account of his looting activities in his December 16 diary: The Safety Zone operated by the International Committee was designated. We entered the zone and found that it sheltered a large number of refugees. On our way back, we saw a shop named Beiyang Food and Drink Store (北洋飲料店). We went in and saw heaps of soft drinks. I picked a bottle to have a look and realized it was something unusually delicious. We at once commandeered a rickshaw nearby, and ordered a Chinese to pull back a rickshaw load of the drinks. In addition, we took back a lot of beds, furniture, wine, white sugar, solid candies, and gramophones etc. We had the stove on, drank beer and soft drinks, and talked heartily until midnight. (p. 72)

On December 27, he and his fellow soldiers went out to the area outside of Hanzhong Gate with the intention of looting vegetables and a buffalo. As a result, he had another opportunity to face the aftermath of the massacres: We went out of Hanzhong Gate to commandeer vegetables and a buffalo. At the place where we had been, there were heaps of dead bodies, amounting to over 500. They were slaughtered together. The majority of them were soldiers, but some of the bodies wore civilian clothes. Most of them were mass executed captives. The Chinese soldiers’ bodies piled up along the roadsides. (p. 74)

7.5.5  Shouta Makihara (牧原信夫) Like Atau Kitayama, Shouta Makihara was a private first class in the 20th Regiment, the 16th Division, and kept a detailed day-by-day account journal. He was highly observant, paid attention to the details of the various incidents, and turned those detailed observation into written record. On September 20, 1937, when the troops were in North China, he wrote that that evening, they reached a village named Zhongzhaofu Town (中趙扶鎮). Fierce fighting had recently taken place, parts of the village littered with human bodies and horse corpses. He wrote, “We killed the old and able-bodied men who, in the middle of cooking supper in the village, were unable to run away, 17 in all.”21 On November 18 after they landed at the southern bank of the Yangtze west of Shanghai, near Changshu (常熟), he recorded an incident that happened right in front of him: “A private first class from a certain company wanted an old man to

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carry his baggage, but when the old man was unwilling to do so, he kicked the old man down to the ground on the bridge and shot him dead with a rifle. It happened right before my eyes, and I truly felt piteous for the old man.” (p. 127) On November 22, at noon, while waiting by a destroyed bridge to be ferried across the river he saw, “Bodies of 5 or 6 Chinese soldiers lay near the bridge; some of them had been burned, and others’ necks were severed. I learned that they were killed by the artillery unit officers who wanted to try their swords.” (p. 130). On November 28, before reaching Henglin Town (横林镇), they received the order to mop up in the villages in the area and shoot anyone who attempted to run away. After fires were set to 12 or 13 houses in the village, the whole village was instantly engulfed in flames, and became a mass of fire. There were two or three old people inside, very piteous, but it was an order. I could do nothing about it. Then we continued to burn three other villages, in addition to shooting 5 or 6 villagers dead. (p. 135)

On the following day, November 29, Makihara’s unit shelled and attacked Wujin. At about 9 a.m., they entered the city. He recorded that day, “Because Wujin is the base of resisting and repelling the Japanese, mopping up operations were carried out in the whole town to shoot all of the residents whether they were male, female, old, or young. … After 3 a.m., the 12th Company rounded up 5 or 6 Chinese men and killed them with grenades, but one of the fellows who fell into a ditch did not die for quite a while.” (ibid). After capturing Nanjing, his unit participated in mopping up operations near Maqun in the eastern suburbs on the morning of December 14: We did not know until after we arrived that the enemy was but a rifle company, only 310 strong, and they had been disarmed, waiting to be disposed of. We hurried over at once to shoot them all dead before we came back to our camping site. (pp. 148-149)

At 2:00 p.m., the troops went out for mopping up again, which lasted until nightfall. Makihara indicated that about 1800 Chinese soldiers had been captured. He revealed another incident more horrible and cruel than any previously: Today there was a miserable scene in which 150 or 160 enemy captives were kept inside a huge garage, on which gasoline was poured before fire was set to burn them alive. Judging from their postures after they died, to the last moment, they exerted their utmost strength to get to the gate to save their lives. Up to this point, it does not matter how many dead bodies I have seen, I have become numb toward them. (p. 149)

On December 22, he ran into the Japanese newspaper Manichi Shinbum (每日新 聞)’s Nanjing correspondent Mr. Shimura (志村), who told him that his residence had been looted clean by Japanese soldiers: This individual’s residence is very beautiful, but he said that before the 18th there had been nothing left there. For two or three days; when he was absent from the residence, everything, from bath basin to comforter, were looted away. So, at this moment he was in the process of looking for a comforter. We laughed and said: soldiers cannot fight in battles if they do not get into the residents’ houses to commandeer something suitable. (pp. 153)

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7.5.6  Takeo Higashi (東武夫) Takeo Higashi was a soldier in the 11th Company, the 38th Regiment, the 30th Brigade of the 16th Division. He kept a concise journal to record his daily activities and events taking place around him. On December 14, 1937, he wrote: We set out at 7:00 a.m., marching gradually toward Nanjing’s Taiping Gate. It was uneventful all the way. We took prisoner 20 remnant soldiers and bayoneted them to death.22

On December 15, 1937, when he and his fellow soldiers expected to enter Nanj-­ ing for some sightseeing, they were ordered to station and guard in the Xianhe Gate area in the eastern suburbs. Everyone was disappointed, for they had to go back to where they had fought fiercely three days earlier. There were countless dead bodies of the enemy soldiers with a terrible stench. The following day, December 16, they worked extremely hard to dispose of the dead bodies. (p. 394). Eventually, they were transferred into Nanjing on December 24. He recorded on January 4, 1938: At 8:30 a.m., we lined up to go to Xiaguan outside of the city walls to clear out the battlefield, that is, to dispose of enemy’s dead bodies. The riverside of the Yangtze was strewn with dead bodies everywhere, which was shocking. We used steamboats to carry the dead bodies to be thrown into the middle of the river. We alone disposed of 2,000 or so bodies. After 4 p.m., the clearing job was over. We returned to our dorms. (p. 396)

7.5.7  Teruyoshi Funahashi (舟橋照吉) Teruyoshi Funahashi served in the 9th Regiment, the 16th Division. He kept diaries during his war years in China, and by the time he left China, he had accumulated three volumes, but two of the volumes were confiscated upon returning to Japan. In order to avoid any potential threat, he burned the remaining volume in 1989. He later rewrote some of his diary entries from memory and published them in Additional Source Materials of the History of the Nanjing Campaign (南京戦史補 充資料). Some of his diary entries provide detailed descriptions of the mass executions he had witnessed: December 18 Received an order in the morning to assemble with light packs, and we lined up and set out from Taiping Gate with the mission of mopping up remnant enemy soldiers and commandeering rice. We started out from the bottom of Purple Mountain to reach an area near Maqun, where we exchanged fire with a few remnant enemies. But in 20 to 30 minutes, they surrendered, their hands up. They wore a wide variety of clothes, their ages ranging from 16 to 50. The prisoners were taken to villages, where they were ordered to get rice. Then the prisoners carried the rice they had taken and followed us. Again we ran into remnant soldiers and exchanged fire four to five times. The remnant enemies usually surrendered after fighting for about half an hour.

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Before we knew it, our company took prisoner two to three hundred people. When we passed by villages, they were ordered to get rice, two to three Gou [合, 1合 ≈ 150 grams] of rice each. Perhaps every company did the same. Near dusk, it was decided to go back to our camping site. By the time we reached the area near Xuanwu Lake, the company commander ordered us to get ready and, because of the shortage in food supplies, shoot the prisoners before returning. Once we reached the lakeside, we gathered the prisoners, grabbed the rice from them, and ordered them to line up before heavy machine guns started firing. I was ordered to guard over and prevent them from running away. When things like human flesh and internal organs splashed all over, I hurried to step back, staring at that sight. They were all shot dead within half an hour. Then, we were ordered to throw the bodies into Xuanwu Lake. We dragged them by both hands or legs to toss them into the lake, and because the bodies were heavy, it took two of us to drag and throw each body. … December 24 … Once through the damaged city gate, I could see the Yangtze River in front of me. Not knowing where the military service station was at the dock area, I simply pulled the cart ahead. Upon getting near the dock area, I smelled a disgusting stench, which seemed to come from rotting corpses. In the open ground, four or five Chinese corpses were lying in disarray. Getting close to have a look, the source of the stench became apparent. Upon reaching a location by the dock, I saw countless dead bodies floating in the Yangtze. The bodies, which were immersed in the water, and starting to rot, were covered with the river shrimps which could also be found in the Kamo River (鴨川河) in Kyoto. My body couldn’t help trembling all over, with goose bumps covering my arms. Because it was too disgusting, I spat. There were prisoners in a small boat fastened by the riverside. Some had their hands tied up behind their backs with the iron wire used to tie up horse hay, while others had their arms tied up in front. There were 30 to 40 people in one boat guarded by two Japanese soldiers to keep them from running away. The engineer corps’ small vessel came to pull that boat away from the riverside with a cable. Two soldiers drove that small vessel and stopped 200 to 300 meters from the bank. The soldiers in the small boat poked the prisoners into the river like they were dumping garbage. After that, the boats were driven back to the riverside. This took 30 to 40 minutes. In the middle of the Yangtze, two or three whirlpools rolled over; the prisoners, who were all tied up and linked together, would soon drown. … As trucks drove by, I stepped to the road side. The trucks soon stopped, again with prisoners, whose hands were tied up behind their backs, coming off. Two Japanese soldiers were behind them, while another soldier led the way at the front. The prisoners were pushed into the Yangtze before they were shot. It looked like there were over 30 people in each of the trucks.23

7.6  The 9th Division 7.6.1  Kazuo Isa (伊佐一男) Kazuo Isa (1891–1985), infantry colonel, was the commander of the 7th Regiment, the 6th Brigade of the 9th Division. The 9th Division participated in the Nanjing battles to attack and capture Guanghua Gate at the southeastern corner of the city. After the city fell, Isa’s regiment conducted mopping up operations toward city’s north central sections, including the Safety Zone. Although Isa’s diary is largely sketchy, it provides information regarding the regiment’s movement,

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activities, including mass killing inside the Safety Zone, and its departure from Nanjing on December 26, 1937. He recorded on December 13, 1937 that he camped at Dongchang Street (東厰 街) and started mopping up in the city. December 14. Since early morning, we have been mopping up. Within our designated area, there is a refugee zone. The number of people taking refuge there is estimated to be around 100,000. December 15. Since early morning, we have been conducting mopping up operations in our designated area. At 9:30 a.m., the brigade commander and I inspected the region under our jurisdiction. …. December 16. I moved to stay in a civilian residence at Chibi Road (赤壁路). After repeated mopping up operations for three days, we have severely dealt with about 6,500 people.24

7.6.2  Sou Mizutani (水谷莊) Sou Mizutani was a private first class in the 1st Company, the 7th Regiment of the 9th Division. He kept a detailed day-to-day journal, in which his daily activities and observations were carefully recorded. He indicated after entering Nanjing on December 13, 1937, We continued to go to the urban section for mopping up operations. As Nanjing is a metropolis, the so-called urban section is but a small section of the city. We rounded up quite a few young people, checked on them from different aspects, kept 21 of them who looked like soldiers, and set the rest free.25

On December 14, he wrote: Following yesterday’s work, we continued mopping up the remnant enemies in the city, and almost all those who have been searched out were young males. After careful checks, some of those we had detained had their shoes worn broken, some had calluses on their faces, some maintained upright posture, and some were sharp-eyed. Together with yesterday’s 21 persons, they were shot dead. (ibid)

Mizutani and his unit found their living quarters inside the Safety Zone on December 15. The following day, December 16, In the afternoon, the company went to mop up inside the refugee zone. Sentries with bayonets ready were placed at the street crossings to block traffic, while different companies went on mopping up in their allocated areas. Almost all the conspicuous young people had been searched out, and they were all rounded up in one area encircled by ropes, like children playing role train. They were surrounded by soldiers holding rifles fixed with bayonets. Every company captured several hundred people. Although the number captured by the First Company was pathetically small, they brought one hundred and several dozens of people. Many family members, who appeared to be mothers and wives, followed them, crying to beg for their release. Those who were confirmed residents were immediately released, while 36 were shot dead. All of them cried desperately to beg for life. We could do nothing about it. It is

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i­ mpossible to distinguish between resident and soldier, and we have no choice but to follow orders. Undoubtedly, some poor people wrongly killed. Because the Army Commander, General Matsui, issued the order to mop up thoroughly all the anti-Japanese elements and the remnants of the defeated troops, the mopping up is most severe. (p. 502)

On December 19, Mizutani recorded his platoon commander’s admonishing lecture, from which it is clear that Japanese troops were out of control. All of us assembled to listen to the platoon commander Komura (小村)‘s instructions: “Everybody did a good job. We should treasure the glory that our reputation of successfully attacking Nanjing will go down in history, and not do anything that may damage that reputation. I hope you will remember this, and think carefully before you act. “If you think of your loved ones in your hometowns more often, you would not do anything unlawful. Never forget that your individual behaviors could damage the prestige of the whole army. “I ask that you strictly control yourselves, especially concerning such shameless behaviors as setting fire and raping. The residents resent these behaviors most, and consequently, they would adversely affect our placation work later and become a huge barrier to implementing the occupation policies. “It is a different story for the married people, but bachelors should not fail to control themselves. If you cannot bear it, feel free to come to discuss it with me at any time, and I will surely find a solution for you.” (p. 503)

7.6.3  Matachi Ike (井家又一) Matachi Ike was a private first class in the Second Company, the 7th Regiment of the 9th Division. He kept a detailed account of his daily activities, observation of the surroundings he had been in, and his own feelings in his diary. His unit went to mop up in the Safety Zone from 6: 00 to 8: 00 p.m. on December 13, 1937, and he had been to Zhongshan Road and Shanghai Road. He noticed that there were quite a few wounded Chinese soldiers in the Red Cross Hospital in the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. At 8:30 a.m. the following day, they resumed mopping up operations in the Safety Zone, which lasted until 4  p.m., with more than 600 people rounded up. On December 15, the mopping up operations continued, and he recorded that they had bayoneted over 40 enemy soldiers to death.26 On December 16, he wrote that his unit continued with mopping up operations: At 10 a.m. went out for mopping up remnant enemies, and captured an anti-craft gun. In the afternoon, went out again and rounded up 335 young fellows. Picked out those who looked like remnant soldiers from the refugees. Some of them probably are really soldiers’ relatives. … The 335 remnant soldiers were marched to the Yangtze riverside, where they were all shot dead by other soldiers. Under the bright moonlight of Lunar Calendar November 14, what made these people take the path to their death? They were probably the victims of the proclaimed majestic causes. The Japanese Army Headquarters ordered us to kill all the young people to prevent them from becoming anti-Japanese forces again. (p. 476)

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On December 22, he participated in a massacre near Gulin Temple west of the Safety Zone, “we dragged the 160 plus people out of the foreigners’ neighborhood to the area near Gulin Temple, …… We shut them in a stand-alone house by a pond, and took out a group of 5 at a time to bayonet them to death. … The final destiny of the defeated soldiers was to be killed by Japanese troops.” (p. 479).

7.6.4  Takeshi Yamamoto (山本武) Takeshi Yamamoto was a squad leader, private first class, in the 36th Regiment, the 9th Division. On November 13, 1938, he recorded an episode in which the Japanese beheaded a Chinese soldier near Huangdu Town (黄渡鎮) west of Shanghai: At Huangdu Town we took a boat to the opposite riverbank to advance toward Kunshan (昆 山). While the officers and soldiers were waiting at the riverbank, we heard that they would try their swords on the captured Chinese soldiers who were then brought to the riverbank. It was not known whether it was the battalion commander or (the 6th Company) commander who issued the order to designate Sub-Lieutenant Kanaumoto (協本) of the 6th Company to do it. In front of the crowd, he unsheathed his sword and took in a breath before striking down his sword. The head, severed from the body, flew forward, while the body fell down backward. Everybody clapped for his skillfulness.27

On December 11, his unit had already reached the suburbs of Nanjing. At noon that day, he and fellow soldiers captured 8 Chinese soldiers in the basement of a house. After some discussion, they decided to kill them. Yamamoto and another soldier bayoneted them to death, (p. 97) though he was perfectly aware that international law prohibits killing prisoners of war: The educated soldiers all know that there is the related international law of treating prisoners of war, and even if they are enemies, killing captured Chinese soldiers is not allowed. But the fact is that we do not have enough food, and even if we took them to headquarters, the result is that they would be used for trying swords, or killed by those who want to have some war experiences to remember. (ibid)

He wrote on December 12: In the afternoon, the soldiers of the 6th Company captured 30 enemy soldiers near the airport, took them to the field in front of them and killed them all before they dug a pit to have them buried. I feel it is extremely cruel, but our company, in a mopping up operation over the airport, also captured 26 enemy soldiers. We distributed them to the troops in the rear, such as artillery and supplies units to deal with. I feel they must have been used for trying swords. (p 98)

Yamamoto also recorded the massacres committed by the 6th Division at the Yangtze riverside on December 19: In addition, I learned this morning that during the battles to attack Nanjing, the 6th Division (Kumamoto 熊本), which had landed at Hangzhou Bay, in order to keep the enemy troops from evacuating to Pukou on the opposite riverbank and the Wuhu direction, they either used machine guns to mow down, artillery pieces to shell, or tanks and armored vehicles to massacre thousands upon thousands of soldiers in Xiaguan. Even those who held up white flags

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were killed. The army commander General Matsui considered it “behaviors that unbecoming of the Imperial Army,” reprimanded them, and ordered them to immediately dispose of the dead bodies. Every day, the 6th Division was burning dead bodies, or using boats to throw bodies into the middle of the Yangtze, which was truly wretched. (p. 103)

7.7  The 6th Division 7.7.1  Mamoru Orita (折田護) Mamoru Orita, a sub-lieutenant, was the commander of the Artillery Platoon of the 2nd Battalion, the 23rd Regiment of the 6th Division. His platoon entered Nanjing around 10: 30 a.m. on December 13, 1937. He indicated in his diary that his troops were mopping up inside the city while moving toward Qingliang Hill, and reached the hill about 3 p.m. The temple buildings were assigned to the platoon as their living quarters that night.28 Orita recorded in his December 16 diary a mass execution outside Hanzhong Gate: “It is reported that today over 1,000 prisoners of war were captured. All of them will be shot or beheaded outside Hanzhong Gate, which is a shock to me. The prisoners hid themselves in the basement.” (p. 448). On December 17, his battalion held a feast for the company and platoon commanders at 6 p.m. Over the feast, the battalion commander called their attention that two soldiers from the Machine Gun Company had raped two Chinese women in the city. The case was under investigation. He warned that they should pay close attention to prevent the reoccurrence of such things. (ibid).

7.7.2  Kitsuhiko Maeda (前田吉彦) Kitsuhiko Maeda was a sub-lieutenant and a platoon commander in the 7th Company of the 45th Regiment, the 6th Division. He kept a lengthy and detailed diary account every day. On December 10, 1937, his platoon marched from Tiexin Bridge (鐵心橋) toward Xishanqiao Town (西善橋). At 4  p.m. the Brigade Commander Mitsuru Ushijima (牛島滿) ordered them to move from Xishanqiao Town to Shangxin Riverfront Town and continue to Xiaguan, with the purpose of cutting off the enemy’s retreating passage. His platoon reached the point south of Shangxin Riverfront Town on December 11, and attacked northward through the area between Shangxin Riverfront Town and Shuixi Gate. They reached Jiangdong Gate on December 13.29 His platoon entered the city through Shuixi Gate on the morning of December 15. In that day’s diary, he recorded an episode he had heard that, at Shuixi Gate, over a hundred captured Chinese soldiers were killed on December 14. In order to cover up the massacre, the soldiers involved in the killing were ordered to bury the bodies

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as soon as possible. They had to work overnight and did not have the bodies buried until early morning of December 15. (pp. 463–464). On December 19, he witnessed a fire started by Japanese soldiers in a Western-­ style building: On my way back, when I passed the street crossing southward toward the Qinhuai River, black smoke suddenly and unexpectedly came out of a three-story Western-style building by the street, with flames continuously from the downstairs. When I came this morning, there was no fire anywhere. This fire was started with permission by the commandeering squad. They acted without any consideration for the Imperial Army, and if one of the 1,000 Japanese soldiers does anything against the law, the reputation of the entire Imperial Army is tarnished, isn’t it? (p. 468)

7.7.3  Tsuzuki Fukumoto (福元続) Tsuzuki Fukumoto was a private first class in the 11th Company, the 45th Regiment of the 6th Division. He kept a day-to-day journal which records his participation in the battle to attack Shangxin Riverfront Town on December 13, 1937. He camped inside the Chinese military prison near Jiangdong Gate. He went out to commandeer, or loot, every day from December 14 to 16. On December 17, he cleaned streets and disposed of Chinese soldiers’ bodies.30 On December 20 he Rested in the morning. In the afternoon, we went to Shangxin Riverfront Town to clear out and count enemy’s dead bodies. The whole platoon went. As to the body count, there were 2,377 bodies. I heard that there are still many more bodies in the river. (p. 386)

7.7.4  Morikazu Takashiro (高城守一) Morikazu Takashiro was a platoon commander in the 6th Supplies Regiment, the 6th Division. He entered Nanjing from the south through Zhonghua Gate. On December 14, 1937, his platoon went to get food and fuel at Xiaguan. This trip enabled him to witness countless dead bodies by the Yangtze riverbank: In the Yangtze torrent, floated countless bodies that looked like civilians, moving slowly with the river currents. In addition, whenever the waves reached the shoreline, the dead bodies, like floating wood, were pushed over by waves; on the riverbank, piles upon piles of corpses were endless in view. These bodies appeared to be those of the refugees from Nanjing, and there seemed to be several thousand or tens of thousands, huge in number. The civilians fleeing Nanjing, whether they were men, women, or children, were all mowed down indiscriminately with machine guns and rifles.

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The conditions of the dead bodies showed vividly that there had been a massacre. Along the road, dead bodies piled up for miles. After the Japanese troops executed them, they poured gasoline over the bodies that piled up layer upon layer before setting fire to the ­bodies. Having been burned, the bodies were charred beyond recognition. It was not possible to tell whether they were bodies of civilians or those of Chinese soldiers, whether they were males or females. It could be certain that among the burned bodies, there were a large number of children’s bodies. The majority of them were surely civilians. I had never seen such a miserable sight. Having witnessed the massacre site, I think that the Japanese troops have committed unforgivable crimes. When we went to the army service station’s warehouse at Xiaguan, loading and unloading food provisions were ongoing. The enemy soldiers, who had been captured during the Nanjing campaign, were then working as coolies. I saw at least two or three hundred of them. Some of them appeared to be extremely exhausted, tumbling along while carrying heavy loads of goods. Some, because of exhaustion, fell down one after another. Those who fell down and were unable to get up were relentlessly shot before being tossed into the Yangtze. Their bodies were swallowed by the dirty currents and disappeared instantly. Other coolies, perhaps aware that they would meet the same fate, were silently carrying their loads. Though I did not stay in Xiaguan long, during that period of time, I witnessed about 10 coolies shot dead.31

7.7.5  Yoshio Akaboshi (赤星義雄) As a private in the 13th Regiment, the 6th Division, Yoshio Akaboshi participated in the Nanjing compaign. He entered the city through Zhonghua Gate on December 13, 1937, and travelled through the city to reach Lion Hill the following day. In the memoir published in 1979, he described his observations at the Yangtze riverside. What he had witnessed is similar to Takashiro’s account: The riverside of the Yangtze was like any other ordinary wharf, where boats departed and arrived. But, while I was standing there to watch the currents in the Yangtze, what appeared before my eyes was an incredible sight. Floating on the surface of the river, which was 2,000 meters wide, oh no, it was probably wider than that, were countless dead bodies. Looking around, I could see nothing but dead bodies. On the shore, as well as in the river, they were not soldiers’ bodies, but those of civilians. Adults, children, males and females were floating slowly like rafts on the river. Looking upstream, the dead bodies that piled up like hills continued to come. I felt that the dead bodies that would come were endless. At least there were more than 50,000 bodies, and almost all of them were civilians. The Yangtze River indeed became “a river of dead bodies.”32

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7.8  The 3rd Division 7.8.1  Zennai Asano (浅野善内) Zennai Asano was a master sergeant accountant (主計曹長) in the 3rd Division’s Management Department. He entered Nanjing through Tongji Gate on December 14, 1937. In his memoir My War Experiences (私の戦歷), which he self-published in 1993, he described what he had observed at Taiping Gate on December 15: I walked aimlessly through the square toward the city wall. On the right side I could see the watch tower on top of Taiping Gate. As I was about to walk along the river dyke, which was overgrown with grass, to obtain a distant view of the Yangtze River and Xuanwu Lake, I encountered a strong odor of rotting corpses from somewhere unknown. I looked around only to find endless city walls. I continued to walk to the top where I could see the area outside the city walls. I was astounded at the tragic sight in front of my eyes in the dry ditch. The dead bodies of Chinese soldiers, who were bound together with ropes like withered lotus flowers and leaves, filled the whole ditch. The strong stench rose along the city wall toward my nose and mouth. The sight and stench were so unbearable that I quickly walked down from the top of the city wall.33

Asano also indicated that he had learned a large number of defeated soldiers had been mowed down with machine guns and their bodies had been washed away by the river waves. “I assumed that it was perhaps because our troops had never dealt with captives of such magnitude. Considering the food supplies and the management of detaining the captives, our troops had no other choice but to dispose of them within the framework of mopping up operations.” (p. 127).

7.8.2  Kazuo Sone (曾根一夫) Kazuo Sone landed at Wusong on September 1, 1937, participated in the Shanghai campaign, fought his way through the lower Yangtze Valley, and entered Nanjing on December 14. He published a number of books concerning his war experiences, his analysis about the war and thoughts about the Japanese atrocities, including his personal experience of beheading a surrendered Chinese soldier and a villager, raping women, and looting and burning houses in a village. Even though he did not indicate specifically in which division he had served, he mentioned in My Personal Record of the Nanjing Massacre(私記南京虐殺) that “I set out on August 26, Showa 12th Year, and landed at the railway loading bridge in Wusong on September 1. It was not long after the Shanghai campaign started, with the first tier troops shipped by destroyers to conduct forceful landing operations at Wusong docks on August 23 before establishing beachhead, while I belonged to the second tier

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troops.”34 On August 23, 1937, Japanese 11th Division landed at Shizilin (獅子林), while the 3rd Division conducted landing operations inside the Huangpu River at the Wusong area. In addition, the 11th Division crossed the Yangtze at Zhenjiang to attack Yangzhou around December 11, and did not take part in the battles around Nanjing. Apparently, Sone was a soldier serving in the 3rd Division. In his book, The Continuation of My Personal Record of the Nanjing Massacre (続私記南京虐殺), Sone recalled what he had seen upon arrival in Nanjing: It was the 14th, the second day after Nanjing was captured, when we entered the street outside the city of Nanjing. Walking through the street we could see piles of dead bodies strewn about along the roadsides and in a square. If all of them were Chinese soldiers’ bodies, that would be the inevitable result of combat, and there would be nothing to talk about. However, a large percentage were civilians’ bodies. The majority were old men, women, and children, who were slow in moving around. Among them there were mothers holding babies, and children not yet 10. It appeared that the soldiers who moved quickly had fled, and only the slow-moving civilians were left behind to be victims. When we reached the city gate, the troops who attacked into the city the day before were still stationing there. The soldiers, who had not yet recovered from the excitement of the previous night, said: “Yesterday when we got here those civilians, not knowing where to run away, were running all over, and we bayoneted them to death one by one, regardless whether they were men, women, or they were old, young! This is called following up a victory with hot pursuit to kill all the Chinese, leaving no one alive!”35

Two or three days after Nanjing fell, Sone witnessed a massacre at close range. It was by the Yangtze River, where a large number of Chinese were mowed down with machine guns: We went to Xiaguan to get our food supplies, and on our way back, after learning that they were mass executing captives, we went to have a look, but the execution was over. Because I was not familiar with the roads around, and I had been there only once, I could not be absolutely certain of the location of the massacre site. Yet I do remember roughly that it was an open area by the Yangtze some distance downstream from Xiaguan. The opening was an elevated ground with the dirty water of the Yangtze flowing by it. It was at that opening that each group of around 100 people were taken out before they were machine gunned. I did not actually witness the shooting, but I saw the ground red with the blood of thousands of people, and saw the dead bodies floating in the river. There were so many bodies that the Yangtze River seemed to become narrower. It was not difficult to imagine what had happened during that event. I learned from someone who had been there from the beginning that the Chinese who had been taken to the opening were made to stand there with the Yangtze behind them before machine guns started mowing in front of them. In less than three minutes, more than 100 people fell down. After all of them fell down, another group was driven over, and they were made to move the bodies away and throw them into the river before they were killed. The process was repeated over and over again, and within half of a day, perhaps ten thousand people were killed. (pp. 64-65)

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7.9  Other Troops 7.9.1  Kouzou Tatokoro (田所耕三) Kouzou Tatokoro was a private second class in a heavy machine gun company of the 114th Division. On December 13, 1937, his company entered Nanjing from the south. Years later when he was interviewed in 1971 at the age of 53, he told of his combat experiences and the atrocities in which he had taken part: We conducted operations to mop up remnant enemies in the city. After capturing officers and military academy graduates, we tied them to willow trees, while training the first-year soldiers how to shoot and bayonet and they followed the example to kill. The officers and sergeants beheaded captives who squatted in front of a pit. As a second-year soldier, I was only allowed to use bayonet. … We had been killing in this manner both in and out of the city for perhaps ten days in a row, but of course we did it according to orders. When I was in Xiaguan, we used the wire from the wire entanglements to tie up 10 captives together and formed them into a 井shape before pouring gasoline on them and setting them afire. We called it “tying up sand bags.” We felt it was simply like killing pigs, and since we got involved in such actions, killing people had become no big deal, a matter of repeated occurrence! …… Because these were orders, we did not give it much thought. … In order to punish captives, we hurt them by cutting off their ears and noses, stabbing violently into captives mouths with swords, or cutting open underneath captives’ eyes like the sticky white stuff as long as five inches woud come out, which reminded me of dead fish’s eyes. If we did not do these, it was no fun at all. It was the first game we played since the landing. Officers? They pretended not to know. Women were the most harmed victims, and all of them were raped, old and young. We rode motor vehicles run by burning charcoal from Xiaguan to villages, abducting women back to distribute them to soldiers, with each woman for 15 or 20 soldiers.36

Takotoro also recounted an episode in which a Japanese soldier was killed for raping a Chinese woman: There was a soldier from Niigata (新潟) who went into the city alone. He had been away for quite a while without coming back. We all went to search for him. We rounded up all the men there, asking them to reveal his where-abouts. We pulled one man out and hacked him to death on the spot. Then, they confessed. The soldier’s body was found in a dug-out which was used for storing apples. Someone killed him from behind with a trident pick when he took a woman into the dug-out. There was no soldier who did not rape. Most women were killed after being raped. A woman ran away the moment she was turned loose, and a shot was fired from behind to kill her. Because if we did not kill them, they would bring us troubles. If it was known to the military police, we would be court-martialed. So, the women were killed even if we were not willing to do so. (p. 45)

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7.9.2  Kenrou Kajitani (梶谷健郎) Kenrou Kajitani was a sergeant serving in the Second Docking and Ship ping Headquarters (第二碇泊司令部). He kept a concise day-by-day journal to record his daily activities. On December 14, 1937, his unit entered Nanjing in the afternoon, and participated in mopping up operations with navy troops by the riverside the following day. He indicated in his December 15 diary entry, “In both morning and afternoon, together with the navy, we mopped up remnant soldiers nearby, shooting dead over a dozen and wounding quite a few. Eventually, the remnant soldiers were rounded up to one place.”37 He also recorded the mass executions at Xiaguan: December 16. Clear. Early morning at about 2 a.m., I heard intense machine gun firing, executing about 2,000 remnant soldiers. It took place at Xiaguan by the Yangtze River. In the morning, I went with the unit commander and major to inspect the area inside the harbor. At the second loading bridge, we discovered 7 remnant soldiers and shot them dead. One of them looked like a 15-year-old child. There are countless dead bodies, a spectacle beyond words. … December 17. Clear. Early this morning, I saw with my own eyes that they started at 1 a.m. to execute 2,000 remnant soldiers. It lasted about one hour. Under the clear moonlight, such hell on the earth is truly horrifying. About 10 people escaped. (ibid.)

Kajitani spent the following days participating in cleaning the harbor area and the docking facilities. On December 22, he noticed that the streets in Xiaguan were cleared by the Japanese soldiers, who threw the enemy bodies into the Yangtze. He himself was in charge of disposing of over a thousand bodies in Xiaguan. (pp. 436–437). In a memoir article Kajitani published in 1981, he described, in detail, what he had witnessed concerning the mass executions along the Yangtze riverside at about 2 a.m. on December 16, 1937: Shortly after arrival in the capital Nanjing, around 2 a.m., on December 15,38 Showa 12th Year, we heard, in our temporary dorm room, intense shooting, which seemed to come from heavy machine guns. I and my roommate, Squad Leader Yonezou Karube (輕部米三伍長), feeling that at this time it could not be an enemy attack, held our pistols above the shoulder, and hurried toward the Yangtze harbor. We ran quite a long distance, about 1,000 meters. It was a cloudless cold night with the moon shining, and under the moonlight even the shadows of the grass were visible. With a good and spacious view, human faces were visibly distinct even more than 50 meters away. The moonlight was surprisingly bright as daylight, which can no longer be seen in Japan at present. Before long, we realized what the shooting was, and were astounded at the shocking sight. It was the execution of enemy captives who were forced to line up in four

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columns, and though their feet were free, their hands were tied up. The columns extended backward along the meandering road. On both sides of the columns, there was a guarding sentry about every 4 or 5 meters, holding bayonets, and if anyone spoke a little or bent over, he would be relentlessly beaten with a rifle. They were forced to move forward half a step or one step at a time. Next, I will talk about the method of execution. Two machine guns were used for the task, and at the time, being the low water season, there was a mortar-­ shaped bottom of about 40 to 50 meters in distance between the river water and the shore. They were driven to the water edge before two heavy machine guns, about 5 meters apart, fired shots slightly downward. Facing imminent death, almost all of them either felt in despair that there was no way out of it, or attempted to find a way to manage a narrow survival by running down the slope. I saw 80% of them became the victims of the heavy machine guns, while the rest desperately untied the ropes, before dashing into the river regardless of the cutting cold. But the heavy machine guns did not go on to shoot at them because they were not free to do so. Those who had jumped into the river did not surface from the water until after they had swum for a long distance, swimming in rapid currents downstream. Because the moon was extremely shiny, it could be seen clearly. As I thought their luck was not too bad, a warmth filled my heart. The number of corpses at the riverside gradually increased, a sight, which I will never forget until the end of my life, for it left me an extremely deep impression, as if it had happened yesterday, and I did not feel it took place 44 years ago. Because I was a soldier, I was mentally prepared to die, and tried very hard to remain calm, but I was still completely stunned at the sight.39

7.9.3  Masaharu Iwazaki (岩崎昌治) Masaharu Iwazaki (1912–1938), born on June 27, 1912 in Kanagawa (神奈川県), was a private first class in the Independent Engineering Regiment of the Shanghai Expeditionary Army. He was killed in combat on June 9, 1938 near Zhengyangguan (正陽關), Anhui Province. Unlike many others who kept regular diaries, Iwazaki wrote letters to family members and friends frequently. In a letter to his family on December 17, 1937, he described in detail his combat experiences and mass executions of Chinese soldiers. He indicated in particular that they attempted to execute every single one of the Chinese captives: Engineering troops occupied the Xiaguan Railway Station before dawn on December 14. During that time, at the Yangtze riverside, our engineering troops shot dead about 800 remnant defeated soldiers. We did not even know whether we were killing people or placing bamboo for floating in the river. Today (at 2: 30 p.m. the 17th) I patrolled and checked around the nearby area all morning, and rested in the afternoon. After killing Chinese soldiers on land, we kept the bodies piled up at one location before pouring gasoline to burn them. In an area probably as big as the square of Aikawa (相川) Elementary School, the bodies of the Chinese piled up in two or three layers. Today, the Nanjing city entering ceremony was held, but I was not able to attend (Only one officer and 12 soldiers from each company attended.). Therefore, we gathered about 2,000 Chinese captured last night together, and killed them all before dawn today. There about 5,000 dead bodies strewn in disarray along the Yangtze riverbank alone. …… From time to time, there came continuous “peng, peng” sound, which was the sound of executing the remnant defeated soldiers who had not yet been eliminated. The unusual stench from

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burning dead bodies reached us by the wind now and then. … As I wrote many times in the letter previously, we would never leave anyone alive. Why? Even if only one is kept alive, what will happen? The Japanese troops on the battlefields are not like those who appear on the review ceremony. Because their subordinates and comrades were harmed or killed, they have gone completely mad and would shout “Kill him” once they see any Chinese, and kill them.40

7.9.4  Motokatsu Sasaki (佐々木元勝) Born on April 1, 1904, Motokatsu Sasaki (1904–1985) graduated from the Law School of Tokyo Imperial University in 1927, and entered the Ministry of Postal Service the same year. In August 1937, he enlisted to be an officer of the military postal service for the Shanghai Expeditionary Army. He kept detailed diaries, and in 1941, he published his war experiences in China under the title, The Banner of the Field Post Office (野戰郵便旗), based on his daily notes. The Banner of the Field Post Office was revised and supplemented with more information before it was republished in 1973 under the same title. On December 16, 1937, he reached Qilin Gate in the eastern suburbs of Nanjing where he observed, There are quite a few people, who, in bluish clothes, look like coolies squatting in the Experimental Institute’s square at the right side of the highway in front of Qinlin Gate. They are 4,000 disarmed Chinese soldiers. On both sides of the road, there are many Chinese soldiers as well. It is frightening that they stare with their eyes wide open. …… At Maqun Town where ammunitions are stored, an operation is in progress to mop up 200 defeated remnant Chinese soldiers. … Sitting in the fast moving truck, I see two newly setup grave markers at the location where ammunitions are stored. The new grave markers are made specially in memory of the poor female anti-Japanese heroines. “The grave of the female Chinese soldier” is written in ink on the markers.41

Shortly, the truck entered the city through Zhongshan Gate. He observed: “Different from Shanghai, Nanjing had no trolleys, and it was quiet in the streets. At a street corner, the remaining fire was still burning, and the fire became redder as twilight was befalling.” (p. 240) In the 1973 edition, a statement, “It was learned that at this point there were about 42,000 prisoners of war in and outside the city,”42 is inserted between the above two sentences. Then Sasaki’s description further reveals what he had seen in the city: On the thoroughfare, there were but a few blocks between the Ministry of War (軍政部) and the Ministry of Navy. However, it reminded one that it had been through the hell. Perhaps, it had been cleared up with few corpses remaining, but there were rifles, helmets, clothes in a mess. One couldn’t help guessing that ten to twenty thousand Chinese soldiers had been mowed down right here. It also appeared that it was the site where Chinese soldiers took off uniforms and changed into civilian clothes. The sun was brilliantly red, about to set down. The remains of the burnt trucks scattered around, and one couldn’t help thinking that at Yijiang Gate, which had been fortified with lumber and sand bags, fierce and intense fighting took place.

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Exiting through Yijiang Gate, we drove toward the Chinese post office, which was situated near the Railway Station by the Yangtze River. The traces that indicated countless Chinese soldiers had been slaughtered remained on the riverbank, while destroyers anchored in the river. The Xiaguan area outside the city walls, just as Shanghai’s Zhabei, was burnt down in a shambles. In front of the Chinese post office building, which resembled a big bank, there was a Chinese soldier’s body lying on his back in the burning fire. It appeared to be an officer who, with a strong and solid facial bone structure, stared with his eyes wide open. In the remains of the burnt out rubbles of broken bricks, there was the body of a ­middle-aged-to-­elderly man who had just been slain, with blood coming out of his mouth and nose and a bundle beside him.43

Sasaki also saw a procession of large numbers of disarmed Chinese soldiers and civilians marched by Japanese soldiers in the street. A large number of coolies, who were marched by the soldiers armed with bayonets, lined up one after another and walked in the street as the day was fading into darkness. They were all captured soldiers. Sitting in the truck, I asked a soldier who was marching them. The soldier replied that they were all Chinese soldiers who had changed into civilian clothes, but every single one of them had been captured. …… The pale moon hung in the sky. It was a historic night for the large number of captives! … That night at the wharf near Xiaguan post office, intense gunshots of mopping up remnant soldiers could be heard. In a mournful and impressive atmosphere, the destroyers in the river turned on their lights, mowing down with machine guns the remnant soldiers who attempted to escape by floating down the dirty river currents. (pp. 241-242)

On December 17, Sasaki and others went by truck to the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, where he witnessed the beheading of a Chinese soldier. When we started climbing up the steps of the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, a squad of soldiers, who had left to “commandeer” gasoline tanks, returned. One of them carried a new Azure Dragon Sword (青龍刀). I was surprised that a remnant soldier, with hands tied up behind his back, was pulled by a thick rope. It appeared that the gasoline tanks were supposed to be in an attached building by the steps leading to the mausoleum. The remnant soldier was captured while he appeared staggering in the pine woods or somewhere else. He was tall but skinny, staring with his eyes wide open, which resembled a fighting cock. He appeared to be wounded. Maybe he was hungry or exhausted. When he walked from the lawn by the steps toward the road, he fell down. He fell several times, with his chest hitting the ground, which was an extremely piteous sight. It was uncomfortable to be led away by others. My heart was intensely touched by the sorrow and sadness of a subjugated country. (pp. 243-244)

In the 1973 edition, in front of the last sentence, the author inserted, “On the dry grass ground in the pine woods in front of the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, a white light was seen to flash before that young remnant soldier’s neck was severed.” (p. 220). On the way back from the mausoleum, “in front of Zhongshan Gate, we ran into a large number of disarmed Chinese soldiers.” (p. 244) In the 1973 edition this sentence is followed by a phrase “maybe 7,200 in number.” (1973, p. 220). Sasaki was keenly observant about what was happening around him. That evening he noticed in the post office a boy of 13, who had been abducted by Japanese soldiers and brought there.

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Being from a Buddhist temple in Jurong (句容), the boy knew quite a few Chinese characters, and coolies admired him for that. His mother was killed. He was so miserably sorrowful upon leaving Jurong that he wailed bitterly and heartily. At night, big fires continued at some locations far away, as well as nearby. (1941, p. 245)

On December 18, on an errand in a suburb of Nanjing, Sasaki lost his way and found himself passing by a shabby and dirty house, “There were five or six dead bodies on the ground, and an old white-haired and chubby woman was also lying there. She bore resemblance to my mother, which sent an unpleasant sensation through my heart.” (pp. 245–246). The most horrible image he described is the massacre site on the Yangtze riverside in Xiaguan. The Chinese post office at Xiaguan, Nanjing, was a magnificently grand building. On the riverside, the remains of the remnant soldiers, who had been mopped up, piled up layer upon layer, which was an extremely sad and tragic sight. In addition, I did not know how many bodies had been swallowed and carried away by the dirty currents of the Yangtze River. When a big earthquake at Kanto (関東) took place, I saw at home many dead bodies pile up along the riverbank, but that was no comparison to the sight before my eyes at present. The bullets and bayonets that deprived people of their lives had been inflicted upon them. There were half naked bodies and some had been burnt. Near the corpses were big wine barrels wrapped up in straw matting, piling up as if to celebrate victory. Sentries stood upon the wine barrels to be on guard. It offered a striking contrast between the victorious country and the defeated one, which was a most impressive sight. (p. 247)

Kaiko(偕行), a monthly magazine published by the eponymous association of retired military personnel, printed Motokatsu Sasaki’s December 16 and 17, 1937 diary entries in its December 1984 issue: December 16, clear and breezy … At sunset, we rode in a truck heading for the post office near the parking lot by the Yangtze riverbank, which was in a shambles like Shanghai’s Zhabei. At the Yangtze riverside, there were traces of evidence that countless Chinese soldiers had been slaughtered, and destroyers were in the river. Lying in front of the new post office was the corpse of a Chinese soldier (officer) wearing a cap, whose legs and stomach were still in flames. Among the rubble was the dead body of a middle-aged man who had just been slain, lying on the ground with blood coming from the mouth and nose… After fighting with remnant enemy soldiers, five soldiers at Maqun ammunition storage facility tied up 200 people after disarming them and at around 1 p.m., bayoneted them to death one by one … At dusk, when I passed by that place, the 200 people had been buried, with a grave marker erected. It is said that there are 42,000 POWs in Nanjing. On our way back from the Yangtze riverbank, from time to time, we saw long lines of them, marched by Japanese soldiers. There were three large groups of coolies (POWs), and from the truck window, I asked the soldier who escorted them. The soldier replied that they would all be killed. Even though these people disguised themselves in civilian clothes and sought refuge, we have rounded up all of them. Many of them wore Japanese sun emblem armbands, and some looked like 15 or 16-year-old waiters. With the pale moon hanging in the sky, it is truly a historical tragedy for the groups of POWs who will have only one night to live. The army drivers, who have been to the post office at the wharf, came back very late. They said that 2,000 POWs had been executed at the wharf. With hands tied up, they were driven into the river before they were shot dead. Those who attempted to run away were

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mowed down with machine guns. Three or four of them were driven at a time, when they were wantonly bayoneted or slashed with swords. The army drivers also killed 15 of them. ——Bayoneting a Female POW to death at Maqun—— It was witnessed by Mr. Kitsukawa (吉川). At first they briefly exchanged fire with seven of our soldiers, and then a person (female) came down, holding a white flag. Dejected and downcast, she was sent to the ammunition storage. Neither agitated or weeping, she remained composed. While checking on her clothes, because of her long hair, they discovered her as a “female.” Soldiers stripped her completely naked, and took photos of her. They found her lovely in the process, so they let her wear an overcoat. When they were executed, all of them were bayoneted from behind, and they did not die until being bayoneted twice. Among the POWs, there was a Korean who was wailing. Three of the POWs jumped into a pond and they were shot dead. December 17, clear … Passing through the road in front of the field post office, we reached the Yangtze riverside, facing the biggest human tragedy. Last night, more than 2,000 POWs were executed. They were tied up and kept together in an open area on the other side of the road. Four of them were driven at a time to the riverbank, which is paved with stone plates, before they were shot by Japanese soldiers who fired fiercely and intensely at them with Chinese rifles. Those who ran away were mowed down with machine guns. Destroyers in the river kept the area lighted. Mass executions were carried out at two locations. It seemed that the area near the road was spread with petroleum and burned tar-black. As far as my eyesight could reach, there was blood flowing and corpses strewn in disarray. Among the piles of corpses lying in disorder, was one man staring at us with his eyes wide open. Soldiers from the military service depot fired at him from the fence by the road. The first shot hit him, but did not kill him; the second shot hit the water and he opened his eyes, looking at this side, as if he was cursing us. Then, another shot, he stretched both his arms in pain to meet his death. Is anti-Japan a curse at Japan? … As the sun was setting down, in front of Zhongshan Gate, we ran into another large group of Chinese soldiers who had been disarmed and they indeed looked like an army of beggars, though none of them appeared piteous. The officer in charge standing by the truck said that they were figuring out a way to kill the 7,200 people of this group. They thought of getting them on board boats and then disposing of them, but there were no boats. They are temporarily detained in the police station, to have them starved to death.44

7.9.5  Junji Ite (井手純二) In 1937, Junji Ite was a sergeant, serving as a cook in the Eighth Flight Team of Japanese Army Aviation Force. He did not arrive in Nanjing until December 29, 1937, staying at Dajiaochang Airdrome (大校場機場) outside Guanghua Gate. Every day, he went to Xiaguan in a truck to get food supplies, which enabled him to witness massacres by the Yangtze riverside. Immediately after Kazuo Sone published in June 1984 My Personal Record of the Nanjing Massacre, Ite wrote Sone a lengthy letter, sharing with Sone his account of the mass executions he personally witnessed: From the end of December, Showa 12th Year, to the first few days of January the following year, I witnessed “massacres” at least five times at a dock’s landing stage in Xiaguan. I saw with my own eyes piles upon piles of dead bodies under the dock’s landing stage and bodies

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floating in the river. In addition, I took many photos. If you need, I can send you a few for your reference.45

Based on the content of this letter, Ite published a memoir article under the title, “The Nanjing Tragedy I Witnessed (私が目撃した南京の惨劇),” in the 1984 supplement issue of History and Figures (歷史と人物). In this memoir, he provided detailed descriptions of the mass executions he had witnessed at Xiaguan: North Zhongshan Road in the northern part of Nanjing went from Yijiang Gate toward the area east of the Yangtze River, which included the Xiaguan Railway Station. From the station, a railway branch line and an iron bridge extended to the Yangtze riverside. A freight train at Pukou on the opposite bank could move onto a transport ship, and there was a sunken area at the Yangtze riverbank, where, if prisoners were executed, they would fall into the river. Though some of them would be washed away by the river currents, more corpses, however, would stay, piling up at the riverside. At the time, my duty was to cook for my unit, and every day I went once or twice in a truck to the food provisions station to get food and other supplies. I could freely get in and out of barracks. Even though there is no definite record, from the time after December 29 to around January 5, the following year, I went to the site at least three or four times. … I call this iron bridge “the landing stage of blood.” About 20 Chinese prisoners were brought in a vehicle resembling a truck from a detention center to stand in front of the bridge at the riverside. I saw that they carried bundles and wore thick cotton-padded clothes. I assumed that perhaps Japanese soldiers deceived them by telling them that they were brought there to be released. I watched from a distance, but I did not see anyone in uniform though they were males in their twenties and thirties, with their heads shaven bald. I thought they might be plain-clothed soldiers. At the location about 200 meters from the riverbank, making a turn along the road, one could see on the river beach, between the river and the bank, the bodies of those who had been executed piled up endlessly. The prisoners who had been driven to stagger along seemed to find out what the Japanese soldiers intended to do. They wanted to run away, but at a place like this they had nowhere to go. … Executions with Swords and Machine-guns The executions were about to start. Some used Japanese swords, and others waved Type 95 army swords usually used by non-commissioned officers, while the prisoners were sitting there motionlessly. Japanese soldiers hacked them one by one before kicking their bodies into the water. But because the Type 95 army sword was a new type sword which was simply-made, the swords were not sharp enough to kill. Several soldiers with better skills could sever heads off to the ground with one strike, but most of the soldiers struggled to cut the heads off with two or three strikes. Maybe it was too troublesome to take more than one strike, some of the prisoners were struck once and were kicked into the river when they were half dead.46

7.9.6  Masatake Okumiya (奥宮正武) Masatake Okumiya (1909–2007) was a bomber pilot serving on the 13th Flight Team in the Japanese Navy’s 2nd Joint Flight Corps (聨合航空隊). During the Nanjing campaign, he took part in a series of air-raid operations to bomb Pukou Railway Station on December 6, 1937, Guanghua Gate on December 10, Ming Palace Airport on December 11, and Zhongshan Gate on December 12. Also on

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December 12, he joined 23 other bombers to bomb and sink the USS Panay and Standard Vacuum Oil Company’s tankers. He was involved in attacking and bombing British gunboats and a merchant ship convoy as well. On December 17, he participated in the Nanjing city entering ceremony in the air, but he did not fly to Dajiaochang Airdrome until December 24. Beginning on December 25, he spent a week searching for the remains of bomber crew members who had been shot down in and around Nanjing by the Chinese. It was during this search mission that he witnessed two massacre sites. On December 25, he conducted searches in the eastern section of Nanjing: After searching there for a while, I went out of the city through Xuanwu Gate, where there was a spacious Xuanwu Lake. Over there I witnessed a miserable sight too horrible to look at. The lakeside was covered with Chinese bodies, while at the lake space close to the shoreline, there were countless floating bodies as well. I wanted to ask someone what had happened, but I could see nobody around. This showed that recently something unusual had happened in Nanjing (Note: The record indicates that on the 13th, some troops executed defeated soldiers, but from what I saw, it seemed to be more than that).47

Then his searches led him to the Xiaguan area, where he encountered another mass execution in progress: At the most downstream part of the docking facilities, one could see a stretch of smooth cliff walls along the Yangtze, and there was a cluster of makeshift storage facilities that were actually enclosed open grounds. Into these grounds came trucks one after another, and there were about 30 Chinese in each of the trucks. I felt it incredible, and in order to verify what was happening, I greeted an army guard and went in. Perhaps because I wore a navy uniform with sword and pistol, and also because I got out of a navy car, nobody attempted to stop me. There was no one from media agencies either. Once inside the square, I saw over a dozen Chinese whose hands were tied behind their backs. Several meters apart, they were dragged out along the riverbank one by one, and after they were killed with swords or bayoneted, they were thrown into the Yangtze. In the area close to the shoreline, because the water was very deep and the flow speed was discernable by the naked eye, the corpses were floating downstream. However, there were those who had not yet died, and they struggled to the shallow water area very close to the shore. As a result, the river close to the shoreline became blood water. Those who had not been killed were shot again. The succession of executions were conducted like an assembly line in an orderly manner. Nobody was there to give orders, from which it could be discerned that it was doubtlessly that it was done according to an army officer’s instructions. … That day, I stayed there for quite a while, and witnessed a series of executions. After ascertaining there were altogether 10 trucks coming into the storage area, I left that site. (pp. 34-35)

Okumiya went to Xiaguan again on December 27, and “saw uncovered trucks with Chinese in them arrive continuously from the city and disappear into the storage area.” (p. 37).

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Notes 1. 山  中恒 (Hisashi Yamanaka), 新聞は戦争を美化せよ! 戦時国家情報機構史 (Media Beautifies War! The History of the State Intelligence Agencies during the War), Tokyo: 小学 馆 (Shōgakkan), 2001, p. 225. 2. 曾根一夫 (Kazuo Sone), 南京虐殺と戦争 (The Nanjing Massacre and War), Tokyo: 泰流 社 (Tairyūsha), 1988, p. 106. 3. R. John Pritchard and Sonia Magbanua Zaide, The Tokyo War Crimes Trial, Vol. 2, Transcripts of the Tribunal, p. 3465. 4. 松井石根 (Iwane Matsui), 松井石根大将の陣中日誌 (Field Diary of General Iwane Matsui), ed. by 田中正明 (Masaaki Tanaka), Tokyo: 芙蓉書房 (Fuyo Shubo), 1985. 5. “『南京虐殺』史料に改ざん 今春出版の『松井大将の陣中日誌』 (Tampering with “Nanjing Massacre” historical material, Matsui General’s Field Diary published this spring), 朝日新聞 (Asahi Shinbum), November 24, 1985, p. 3, and “「南京虐殺」ひたすら隠す (Just hide “Nanjing massacre”),” November 25, 1985, p.  3. The author of the articles is Yoshiaki Itakura (板倉由明), who also published “Strangely tampering General Iwane Matsui’s Field Diary (松井石根大将『陣中日記』改竄の怪)” in the winter 1985 issue of the journal History and Figures(歷史と人物), pp. 318–331. 6. 松井石根 (Iwane Matsui), 松井石根大将戦陣日記 (Field Diary of General Iwane Ma-tsui), in NBSM2, p. 143. 7. 畑俊六 (Shunroke Hata), “陸軍大将畑俊六日誌 (Diary of Army General Shunroke Ha-ta),” in NBSM, p. 52. 8. 飯沼守 (Mamoru Iinuma), “飯沼守日記 (Diary of M. Iinuma),” in NBSM, pp. 214–215. 9. It should be “in the north,” for Shangyuan Gate (上元門) is one of Nanjing’s northern outer city wall gates. 10. 飯沼守 (Mamoru Iinuma), “飯沼守日記 (Diary of Mamoru Iinuma),” in NBSM, p. 216. 11. 上村利道 (Toshimichi Uemura), “上村利道日記 (Diary of Toshimichi Uemura),” in NBSM, p. 272. 12. 山田栴二 (Senji Yamada), “山田栴二日記 (Diary of Senji Yamada),” in NBSM2, pp. 331–333. 13. 宫本省吾 (Seigo Miyamoto), “宫本省吾陣中日記 (Field Diary of Seigo Miyamoto),” in NMIA, p. 133. 14. 遠藤高明 (Takaharu Endo), “遠藤高明陣中日記 (Field Diary of Takaharu Endo),” in NMIA, pp. 219–220. 15. 近藤榮四郎 (Eishirou Kondo), “近藤榮四郎出征日誌 (Expedition Diary of Eishirou Kondo),” in NMIA, p. 325. 16. 目黑福治 (Fukuharu Meguro), “目黑福治陣中日記 (Field Diary of Fukuharu Meguro),” in NMIA, p. 369. 17. 中島今朝吾 (Kesago Nakajima), “中島今朝吾日記 (Diary of Kesago Nakajima),” in The Nanjing Battle History Related Source Materials, pp. 323–325. 18. 佐佐木到一 (Touichi Sasaki), “佐佐木到一少将私記 (Personal Diary of Major General Touichi Sasaki),” in NBSM, pp. 377–378. 19. 增田六助 (Rokusuke Masuda), “增田手記 (A Note by Masuda),” in NIKD, pp. 322–323. 20. 北山舆 (Atau Kitayama), “北山日記 (Diary of Kitayama),” in NIKD, p. 48. 21. 牧原信夫 (Shouta Makihara), “牧原日記 (Diary of Makihara),” in NIKD, p. 93. 22. 東武夫 (Takeo Higashi), 東武夫陣中日記 (Field Diary of Takeo Higashi), 私家版 (Pri-vate edition), 2002, cited from 南京大屠杀: 32日本军方文件与官兵日记 (The Nanjing Massacre: Vol. 32 Japanese Military Documents and Diaries by Japanese Officers and

244

23.

24. 25. 26. 27.

28. 29. 30. 31.

32. 33. 34. 35. 36.

37. 38. 39.

40.

41.

7  Japanese Soldiers’ Accounts Soldiers), 王卫星编 (ed. by Wang Weixing), Nanjing: 江苏人民出版社 (Jiangsu Peoples’ Publishing Press), 2007, p. 393. 舟橋照吉 (Teruyoshi Funahashi), “舟橋照吉戦地日記 (Field Diary by Teruyoshi Funehashi),” 南京戦史補充資料 (Additional Source Materials of the History of the Nanjing Campaign), cited from 南京大屠杀: 60日军官兵日记与回忆 (The Nanjing Massacre: Vol. 60 Diaries and Memoirs by Japanese Officers and Soldiers), 王卫星编 (ed. by Wang Weixing), Nanjing: Jiangsu Peoples’ Publishing House, 2010, pp. 377–379. 伊佐一男 (Kazuo Isa), “伊佐一男日記 (Diary of Kazuo Isa),” in NBSM, p. 440. 水谷莊 (Sou Mizutani), “水谷莊日記 (Diary of Sou Mizutani),” in NBSM, p. 501. 井家又一 (Matachi Ike), “井家又一日記 (Diary of Matachi Ike),” in NBSM, p. 475. 山本武 (Takeshi Yamamoto), 一兵士の従軍記錄: づりおく、わたしの鯖江三十六聯隊 (A Soldier’s Military Service Record: Segments of Memory: My Sabae 36th Regiment), 福井: 新福井 (Fukui: New Fukui), 1985, p. 79. 折田護 (Maroru Orita), “折田護日記 (Diary of Mamoru Orita),” in NBSM, p. 447. 前田吉彦 (Kitsuhiko Maeda), “前田吉彦少尉日記 (Diary of Sub-Lieutenant Kitsuhiko Maeda),” in NBSM, pp. 453–462. 福元続 (Tsuzuki Fukumoto), “福元続日記 (Diary of Tsuzuki Fukumoto),” in NBSM2, pp. 385–386. 高城守一 (Morikazu Takashiro), “銃劍は相手を選ばず (The bayonet that recognizes no one), 揚子江が哭いている: 熊本第六師団大陸出兵の記錄 (The Yangtze River is Crying: Record of Kumamoto 6th Division’s Combats on the Continent), 創價學會靑年部反戦出版 委員會編 (ed. by the Anti-War Publishing Committee of the Creative Writing Association’s Youth Department), Tokyo: 第三文明社, (Dsisan Bunmeisha), 1980, pp. 95–96. 赤星義雄 (Yoshio Akaboshi), “揚子江を埋めた屍 (The Yangtze River filled with corpses),” in The Yangtze River is Crying, pp. 29–30. 浅野善内 (Zennai Asano), 私の戦歷 (My War Experiences), 私家版 (Private edition), 1993, cited from The Nanjing Massacre: Vol. 60, pp. 126–127. 曾根一夫 (Kazuo Sone), 私記南京虐殺 (My Personal Record of the Nanjing Massacre), Tokyo: 彩流社 (Sairyūsha), 1984, pp. 31–32. 曾根一夫 (Kazuo Sone), 続私記南京虐殺 (The Continuation of My Personal Record of the Nanjing Massacre), Tokyo: 彩流社 (Sairyūsha), 1984, p. 63. “最前線大異常あり: 虐殺で对立する南京攻略戦の士兵たち (Extremely Abnormal at the Upmost Front: Antagonism due to the massacre among the soldiers who participated in the Nanjing battles),” アサ匕芸能 (Asahi Geino), January 28, 1971, pp. 44–45. 梶谷健郎 (Kenrou Kajitani), “梶谷健郎日記 (Diaries of Kenrou Kajitani),” in NBSM2, p. 435. It should be the 16th, according to his diary. 梶谷健郎 (Kenrou Kajitani), “参加南京攻略战 (Participating the Nanjing Campaign),” in 骑兵第四联队史 (The History of the Fourth Calvary Regiment), cited from 南京大屠杀: 10日军官兵与记者回忆 (The Nanjing Massacre: Vol. 10 Memoirs by Japanese Officers, Soldiers and Journalists), 王卫星编 (ed. by Wang Weixing), Nanjing: Jiangsu Peoples’ Publishing Press, 2005, pp. 106–107. 岩崎稔 (Minoru Iwazaki), 或る戦いの軌跡:岩崎昌治陣中書簡より (Trajectory of Figh ting: Field Letters by Masaharu Iwazaki), Tokyo: 近代文芸社 (Kindai Bungeisha), 1995, pp. 74–76. 佐々木元勝 (Motokatsu Sasaki), 野戰郵便旗 (The Banner of the Field Post Office), To-kyo: 日本講演通信社 (Japan Speech and Communication Society), 1941, pp. 239–240.

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42. 佐々木元勝 (Motokatsu Sasaki), 野戰郵便旗, 上 (The Banner of the Field Post Office, Vol. I), Tokyo: 現代史資料センター出版会 (Modern History Source Material Center Publishing Society), 1973, p. 216. 43. Motokatsu Sasaki, The Banner of the Field Post Office, 1941, pp. 240–241. 44. 佐々木元勝 (Motokatsu Sasaki), “佐々木元勝氏の野戦郵便長日記 (Diary of the Field Post Office Master Motokatsu Sasaki), 偕行 (Kaiko), December 1984, pp. 10–11. 45. Kazuo Sone, The Continuation of My Personal Record of the Nanjing Massacre, p. 76. 46. 井手純二 (Junji Ite), “私が目撃した南京の惨劇 (The Nanjing Tragedy I witnessed),” 歷史 と人物 (History and Figures), 昭和59年增刊 (Supplement Issue, 1984), pp. 273–274. 47. 奥宮正武 (Masatake Okumiya), 私の見た南京事件 (The Nanjing Incident I witnessed), Tokyo: PHP 研究所 (PHP Research Institute), 1997, pp. 33–34.

Chapter 8

International Committee for Nanjing Safety Zone and Westerners in Nanjing

8.1  The International Committee for Nanjing Safety Zone The outbreak of war in Shanghai in August 1937 generated 800,000 refugees from the war zone in the following months. French priest Robert Emile Jacquinot de Besange established a neutral safety zone in Nantao to shelter those who had fled from their war afflicted homes. After the fall of Shanghai, the Japanese moved westward swiftly in chase of the battered Chinese troops. While the Japanese arrival at Nanjing was expected, the idea of establishing a similar safety zone was conceived in Nanjing on November 16, 1937,1 hoping to shelter civilians when the war reached Nanjing. A tentative international committee was formed the next day and efforts were made to obtain approval from American, British and German ambassadors. The International Committee for Nanjing Safety Zone was formally founded on November 22, 1937 with German businessman John Rabe elected as its chairman.2 Altogether 15 Westerners comprised the committee, though Paul Hector Munro-­ Faure, Philip Robert Shields, Johannes Morch Hansen, G. Shultze-Pantin, Ivor E. L. Mackay, James Vance Pickering and D.  J. Lean withdrew from Nanjing by their respective companies in early December 1937, and were not able to obtain permission to return to the city until June 1938: Membership list Name 1. Mr. John H. D. Rabe, Chairman 2. Dr. Lewis S. C. Smythe, Secretary 3. Mr. P. H. Munro-Faure 4. Rev. John Magee 5. Mr. P. R. Shields 6. Mr. J. M. Hansen 7. Mr. G. Schultze-Pantin 8. Mr. Ivor Mackay

Nationality German American British American British Danish German British

Organization Siemens Co. University of Nanking Asiatic Petroleum Co. American Church Mission International Export Co. Texas Oil Co. Shingming Trading Co. Butterfield and Swire

(continued)

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9. Mr. J. V. Pickering 10. Mr. Eduard Sperling 11. Dr. M. S. Bates 12. Rev. W. P. Mills 13. Mr. J. Lean 14. Dr. C. S. Trimmer 15. Mr. Charles Riggs

American German American American British American American

Standard-Vacuum Oil Co. Shanghai Insurance Office University of Nanking Northern Presbyterian Mission Asiatic Petroleum Co. University Hospital University of Nanking3

The International Committee selected the “part of the city lying roughly west of Chung Shan Road between Han Chung Road and Shansi Road, and east of Sikang Road and a line from the southern end of that road to the intersection of Han Chung Road and Shanghai Road,”4 as the site of the Safety Zone with 5 Ninghai Road as its headquarters. The zone was about one-eighth of the area within the city walls and one of the reasons for choosing this area “was the comparative wealth of institutional buildings under foreign ownership.”5 During the years of its existence, the committee’s officers were as follows: Chairman:    John H. D. Rabe    W. P. Mills6   M. S. Bates Secretary:    Lewis S. C. Smythe   Ernest H. Forster   James F. Kearney Treasurer:   Christian Kroeger7    Lewis S. C. Smythe   James H. McCallum    Albert N. Steward Administrative Director:   George A. Fitch8   Hubert L. Sone

November, 1937 to February, 1938 February, 1938 to May, 1939 From May, 1939 November, 1937 to July, 1938 July, 1938 to April, 1939 From May, 1939 December, 1937 to February, 1938 July, 1938 to April, 1939 From May, 1939 February, to July, 1938 December, 1937 to February, 1938 From February, 19389

Three commissions, Food, Housing and Sanitation, were organized to carry out the refugee work under the direction of Han Xianglin (韓湘琳), Xu Chuanyin (許傳音), and Shen Yushu (沈玉書) respectively. Later, Rehabilitation Commission was added, with Liu Huaide (劉懷德), whose English name is Walter Lowe, as its chairman; while Tang Zhongmo (湯忠謨) took charge of the secretarial and translation work of the General Office and Wang Chengdian (王 承典), or Jimmy Wang, and later Chen Wenshu (陳文書) managed the Business Office.10

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As soon as the safety zone was planned, the Chinese authorities readily embraced the idea, supporting the plan with money and food supplies: Twenty thousand bags of rice and ten thousand bags of flour were assigned to us, and $80,000 in cash was given us. Of the rice, owing to difficulties of transportation, only 9,067 bags were finally brought into our godown (the University of Nanking Chapel) before outbreak of hostilities around the city. None of the flour allocated to us by the City Government was secured though one thousand bags were obtained from the Ta Tung Flour Mill. The city also gave us 350 bags of salt. (ibid)

Meanwhile a telegram was sent to the Japanese ambassador in Shanghai to seek approval from the Japanese authorities: An international committee composed of nationals of Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States, desires to suggest to the Chinese and Japanese authorities the establishment of a Safety Zone for Civilian Refugees in the unfortunate event of hostilities at or near Nanking. The International Committee will undertake to secure from the Chinese authorities specific guarantees that the proposed “Safety Zone” will be made free and kept free from military establishments and offices, including those of communications; from the presence of armed men other than civilian police with pistols; and from the passage of soldiers or military officers in any capacity. The International Committee would inspect and observe the Safety Zone to see that these undertakings are satisfactorily carried out. … The International Committee earnestly hopes that the Japanese authorities may find it possible for humanitarian reasons to respect the civilian character of this Safety Zone. The Committee believes that merciful foresight on behalf of civilians will bring honor to the responsible authorities on both sides. In order that the necessary negotiations with the Chinese authorities may be completed in the shortest possible time, and also in order that adequate preparations may be made for the care of refugees, the Committee would respectfully request a prompt reply from the Japanese authorities to this proposal.11

After a long delay, on December 5, 1937 the committee received a telegram from the Japanese Ambassador through Clarence Edward Gauss, the American Consul General at Shanghai: 1. In view of the fact that the suggested area is located within the well fortified rampart of Nanking and is fairly extensive and that there exist within its perimeter no natural vantage grounds or artificial structures by means of which communication can effectively be cut off whenever necessity arises, it is considered necessary that sufficient powers material or otherwise have to be vested in the hands of the supporters of the Safety Plan Zone in order to check effectively the entry of Chinese armed troops which may in the event of hostilities breaking out nearby try to take shelter within the zone or utilize it for military purposes. 2. It must also be pointed out that in and around the said area there exist Chinese military establishments and that there are places in and around the said area that can hardly be considered to be left unused by the Chinese troops in case fighting will break out in Nanking in future. 3. Taking the foregoing into consideration the Japanese authorities entertain apprehension that even though the Chinese authorities had accepted the proposal under review sufficient guarantee could hardly be obtained in the event of ­fighting occurring in the city of Nanking for entirely preventing Chinese troops from entering into the zone or utilizing it for military purposes.

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4. Under these circumstances the Japanese authorities while fully appreciating the lofty motive of the sponsors of the proposal in question are not in a position to give an undertaking that the said area will not be either bombed or bombarded. 5. It may be taken for granted however that the Japanese forces have no intention whatever to attack such places as are not utilized by Chinese troops for military purposes or such areas where the Chinese troops have not established their military works and establishments and where there are no Chinese troops stationed.12

Although the telegram could hardly be considered an acknowledgment, the committee felt it sufficient to go ahead with the safety zone plan. On December 8, after painstaking effort and a lot of organizing work, the International Committee issued an open letter to the residents of Nanjing, announcing the readiness of the safety zone for the civilians of the city. In addition to referencing the safety zone in Shanghai and providing the details of the Nanjing safety zone boudaries, the open letter informs the residents: In order to make the above-mentioned area a safety zone for the civilian population, the Garrison Commander has promised that all the soldiers and military equipment would be moved out as soon as possible, and that the zone would be kept free of military personnel. The Japanese on one hand said they “are not in a position to give an undertaking that the said area will not be either bombed or bombarded.” But on the other hand, they stated that “the Japanese forces have no intention whatever to attack such places as are not utilized by Chinese troops for military purposes or such areas where the Chinese troops have not established their military works and establishments and where there are no Chinese troops stationed.” Based on the promises made by both the Chinese and Japanese, we hope to seek true safety for the civilians in the designated area. However, during the time of war, it is impossible to guarantee anyone absolute safety. Nobody should consider that he was assured safety once inside the zone. We believe that if both the Chinese and Japanese keep their promises, the people inside the zone are surely safer than those elsewhere. Residents, please move in!13

When hostilities reached Nanjing a few days later, civilian residents started rushing into the safety zone. The Nanjing safety zone was originally planned to be a temporary haven to shelter civilians from the shelling and bombardment during the siege and street fighting. After Japanese troops entered the city and committed atrocities toward disarmed Chinese soldiers and civilian residents, more refugees were driven into the safety zone by the horrible situation, and eventually over 90% of the city’s population crowded into it, with 25 refugee camps sheltering over 70,000 refugees, while thousands upon thousands more moving into the public buildings and private houses within the safety zone. “Very nearly 250,000 people were packed into the Safety Zone,” and during the months of the safety zone’s existence, there was “no electricity, no public water supply, no mechanism of any kind for sewage disposal, no telephone, no friendly or adequate police that could be called upon.”14 Though the safety zone provided relative safety than the areas outside it, atrocities were rampant within, Japanese soldiers rounded up able-bodied males of conscript age and marched them to the execution grounds, abducted and raped women,

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looted at will inside the zone. The International Committee, in addition to providing shelter and food for the large number of refugees, played a significant and historic role in recording and filing violation cases with the Japanese and American embassies, leaving behind a collection of safety zone documents that recorded numerous murder, rape and robbery cases, some of which were used as prosecution’s evidence against Japanese war criminals at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. From December 16, 1937 to March 21, 1938, the International Committee filed 470 violation cases committed by Japanese soldiers. After American diplomatic representatives returned to Nanjing on January 6, 1938, the safety zone documents were smuggled out to Shanghai through diplomatic channels. Harold John Timperley, Manchester Guardian’s correspondent, secured some of the documents and included 127 cases selected from Cases 1 to 444 in Appendices A, B, and C, of his book, What War Means: Japanese Terror in China, which appeared in print in London in July 1938. A year later, Shuhsi Hsu (徐淑希), a political science professor from Yenching University, published Documents of the Nanking Safety Zone, which contains, along with other letters, reports and documents, 398 cases from Cases 1 to 444 that had been filed up to February 1938. As Hsu indicated in the preface that all the documents included in his book “are not all that the Nanking Safety Zone possesses, but only all that the Council of International Affairs is fortunate enough to secure.”15 Cases 114–136 with cover letter, cases 137–143, cases 155–164 with cover letter, and cases 204–209 are missing from Hsu’s book. Cases 445–470, which were filed in March 1938, are not included in Documents of the Nanking Safety Zone either. The 72 missing cases were retrieved from the National Archives II at College Park, Maryland, by Suping Lu, who included them in his book, They Were in Nanjing: The Nanjing Massacre Witnessed by American and British Nationals,16 published in 2004. The cases recorded and filed by the International Committee prove to be a valuable primary source in terms of keeping a record of detailed and specific murder, rape and robbery cases, which, along with many other International Committee reports and letters, are one of the important original source materials of the Nanjing Massacre. Case 139 was filed by Robert O. Wilson, concerning one of the atrocity victims he had treated at the University Hospital: 139. On Dec. 13 a little girl about 11 years old with her father and mother were standing at the entrance to a dugout watching the Japanese soldiers march by. One of the soldiers bayoneted the father, shot the mother and slashed the girl’s arm with a bayonet, giving her a bad compound fracture of the elbow. It was a week before she could get to the hospital. No brothers or sisters. (Wilson)17

W. P. Mills reported Case 160 which concerns the abduction of a girl: 160. Dec. 27. 11:00 a.m. Mr. Mills was called from the University to No. 7 Hankow Road (a University House) and found a Japanese soldier with a cocked revolver. Mills told a

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servant to go to the University to get a military police officer who was there helping with registration. The soldier objected and told Mills to leave. Mills looked back and saw the soldier lead the girl off, accompanied with some Chinese with Japanese detachment armbands. At the University Mills found a military police officer who went right to the house and met a truck load of military police at the corner of Hankow Road. Some Chinese had copied down the writing on one armband of one of the Chinese with the soldier. So they went to Nan Yang Hotel where the military police officer found the department to which the soldier belonged. The explanation was the head wanted a siao ya to18 and already had secured a more suitable one when the soldier got back with the girl. This girl was too old! (In her 20’s.) Head said the girl had been sent back. Mills objected that this was a poor way to get servant girls. When they got back to the house the girl had not returned. Went to the office again and they said they had other business so Mills came back and found the girl had returned. (Mills) Dec. 28. 9:00 a.m. In connection with this incident it is a pleasure to report that both the Military Police and the Headquarters of the Division concerned have made every effort to straighten the matter out. They have expressed the regrets of the military authorities for the incident both to the Chinese concerned and to Mr. Mills. This incident may thus be regarded as satisfactory and promptly settled. (Mills)19

Case 205, filed by Ernest H. Forster, reports a murder case in which a young girl was senselessly killed: 205. On January 25, 1938 at about four o’clock in the afternoon, a Chinese girl named Loh, who, with her mother and brother, was living in one of the Refugee Centers in the Refugee Zone, was shot through the head and killed by a Japanese soldier. The girl was fourteen years old. The incident occurred in a field near the Kuling Ssu, a noted temple on the border of the Refugee Zone. The girl, accompanied by her brother, was gathering vegetables in the field when a Japanese soldier appeared. He made overtures to seize the girl who took fright and ran away. Thereupon the soldier fired at her and shot her through the head, the bullet entering the back of the skull and leaving through the forehead. Signed Ernest H. Forster.20

Case 445 concerns one of the women who had been raped by Japanese soldiers when they ventured to leave the safety zone for home in February 1938: 445. Kuo Yuan Shih went home to Lo Chia Hsiang on Feb. 3rd. By the side of a well she met two Japanese soldiers. She had a blind old woman with her and a little daughter on her arms. These soldiers brought all three of them to a room and raped her. They returned to the refugee camp. On the 6th of February she went home again and at the well met two Japanese soldiers who attempted to rape her but let her off because she begged them not to. She returned to camp again.21

Case 461 was also filed by Dr. Wilson about another victim he had treated at the University Hospital in March 1938: 461. March 4th, a farmer aged 54 at Molinkwan was asked by Japanese soldiers on February 13th for some cows, donkeys and girls. The neighbors all ran away. The soldiers tied the farmer and spread him out three feet from the ground. Then they built a fire under him and burned him badly around the lower abdomen, genitalia, and chest and singed the hair of his face and head. One soldier protested because of his age and put out the fire, tearing off the farmer’s burning clothes. The soldiers went away and after an hour his family returned and released him. (Wilson)22

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The repeated protests and petitions, along with long lists of violation cases filed by the International Committee, had little effect on improving conditions in the city. They only made the committee unpopular with Japanese military authorities, who attempted to disrupt the committee’s efforts to shelter, feed and protect the refugees in the zone. The Japanese threatened to close the committee’s rice shops, transferred the distribution of food supplies to the Japanese sponsored Self-Government Committee, and turned down the committee’s requests for permission to truck in rice and flour and purchase and ship green beans from Shanghai.23 Consequently, the committee was forced to shift its focus from semi-administrative functions to pure relief work and changed its name to Nanking International Relief Committee on February 18, 1938.24 In managing and maintaining the safety zone and refugee camps, in addition to providing lodging, food, coal and protection against Japanese atrocities, the International Committee undertook many other tasks, such as taking care of public sanitation, distributing milk powder and cod oil to young children, giving immunization shots, and providing basic medical care to refugees. The committee helped the destitute refugees with cash relief funds, and offered Bible study classes, survival skill classes and homecraft courses, in addition to opening elementary, middle and high schools. The committee collected data and filed petitions for those women whose husbands, sons and other male family members had been marched away by Japanese troops and never returned, as well as sponsored surveys concerning the war damages to the population, buildings and economic conditions in and around Nanjing. In the spring of 1938, with the conditions in the city improved and refugees able to return to their homes, the refugee camps gradually dissolved and closed. Of the 25 camps administered by the International Committee, six were closed in February or early March, and 13 more were closed in March and April. Only six camps remained open through May, and all the camps were closed by May 31, 1938,25 though about 800 young girls stayed on the Ginling College campus. Some had nowhere to go, and others feared of their safety if they returned to their homes. With the closure of all the refugee camps, the safety zone ceased to exist. However, the need for relief continued long after. With its headquarters moved from 5 Ninghai Road to 4 Tianjin Road on the campus of the University of Nanking, the Nanking International Relief Committee carried on its relief work until July 1939. According to the Report of the Nanking International Relief Committee, November 1937 to April 30, 1938, the membership of the International Committee since June 1938 was as follows: W. P. Mills M. S. Bates Charles H. Riggs26 Eduard Sperling D. J. Lean27

American American American German British

Northern Presbyterian Mission University of Nanking University of Nanking Shanghai Insurance Company Asiatic Petroleum Company

(continued)

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P. R. Shields C. S. Trimmer J. V. Pickering John G. Magee28 Hubert L. Sone Ernest H. Forster29 James H. McCallum30 F. C. Gale James F. Kearney C. Y. Hsu31 S. Yasumura32 Albert N. Steward33

British American American American American American American American American Chinese Japanese American

International Export Company University Hospital Standard Vacuum Oil Company American Church Mission Nanking Theological Seminary American Church Mission United Christian Missionary Society Methodist Mission Society of Jesus University Hospital Japan Baptist Church University of Nanking34

8.2  The Western Nationals in the Fallen City Soon after Shanghai fell, Japanese troops captured Suzhou on November 19, and the Chinese Government announced on November 20, 1937, its decision to move the national capital from Nanjing to Chongqing in West China. Immediately after the announcement, the government agencies and wealthy classes of the residents were on the move to evacuate westward. Meanwhile, foreign governments strongly urged their nationals to evacuate before hostilities reached Nanjing. By the time the Japanese launched the final assault on December 10, all the foreign diplomats and most of the foreign residents had evacuated. However, a group of 27 Western nationals chose to stay in the besieged city. Their names, nationalities, affiliations and the duration of their stay in Nanjing between December 13, 1937 and mid-March 1938 are listed as follows: Name

Nationality

Affiliation

1. Frank Tillman Durdin 2. Charles Yates McDaniel 3. Arthur von Briesen Menken 4. Archibald Trojan Steele 5. Leslie C. Smith 6. John Heinrich Detlev Rabe 7. Christian Jakob Kröger 8. Eduard Sperling 9. Auguste Zautig

American American

New York Times Associated Press

Dates in Nanjing Dec. 13–15 Dec. 13–16

American

Paramount Newsreel

Dec. 13–15

American

Chicago Daily News

Dec. 13–15

British German

The Reuters Siemens Company

Dec. 13–15 Dec.13–Feb. 23

German

Carlowitz & Company

Dec.13–Jan. 23

German German

Shanghai Insurance Co. Kiesseling & Bader Co.

Dec. 13– Dec.13–Feb. 28

(continued)

8.2  The Western Nationals in the Fallen City 10. Richard Hempel 11. Rupert R. Hatz 12. Nicolai Podshivoloff

255

German Austrian White Russian White Russian American American

North Hotel Nanjing Safety Zone Sandgren’s Electric Shop Nanjing Safety Zone

Dec. 13– Dec.13–Feb. 28 Dec. 13–

University of Nanjing University of Nanjing

Dec. 13– Dec. 13–

American American American

University of Nanjing Univ. of Nanjing Hospital Univ. of Nanjing Hospital

Dec. 13– Dec. 13– Dec. 13–

American American American American

Univ. of Nanjing Hospital Univ. of Nanjing Hospital Ginling College Y. M. C. A.

23. John Gillespie Magee 24. James Henry McCallum 25. Wilson Plumer Mills

American

American Church Mission

Dec. 13– Dec. 13 – Dec. 13– Dec. 13– Jan. 29, Feb.12–20 Dec. 13–

American

26. Hubert Lafayette Sone 27. Ernest Herman Forster

American

United Christian Missionary Society Northern Presbyterian Mission Nanjing Theological Seminary American Church Mission

13. A. Zial 14. Miner Searle Bates 15. Lewis Strong Casey Smythe 16. Charles Henry Riggs 17. Robert Ory Wilson 18. Clifford Sharp Trimmer 19. Iva M. Hynds 20. Grace Louise Bauer 21. Minnie Vautrin 22. George Ashmore Fitch

American

American

Dec. 13–

Dec. 13– Dec. 13– Dec. 13– Dec. 13–

After covering the battles, siege, and expected fall of Nanjing, the five American and British correspondents unexpectedly witnessed the initial stage of Japanese atrocities. However, they were soon allowed to leave Nanjing for Shanghai. Steele, Durdin, and Menken left on December 15 by USS Oahu, and Smith departed on the same day by HMS Ladybird, while McDaniel went to Shanghai the following day by Japanese destroyer Tsuga (栂). While aboard USS Oahu, Steele succeeded in convincing the radio operator to cable a massacre story back to the Chicago Daily News, which instantly published his dispatch on December 15, 1937, the very first eyewitness account concerning the Nanjing Massacre, and thus broke the news about the Japanese atrocities at Nanjing to the world. The other four journalists cabled massacre stories to their newspapers in the United States and Great Britain immediately after they arrived in Shanghai. After the departure of the journalists, the remaining 22 Western nationals lived through the massacre period in Nanjing. They risked their lives to stay in the city not only for carrying on their duties at the hospital or safeguarding their institutions’ property at universities, businesses, and churches, but also because of their

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association with the International Committee for Nanjing Safety Zone in various degrees and capacities, and taking an active role in establishing, organizing, and maintaining the safety zone and refugee camps. Amidst the reign of terror, many of them worked hard and persistently for the welfare of the refugees and managed to protect the refugees against Japanese atrocities. The majority of them left behind written material of various kinds, recording what they had witnessed, experienced, and learned about that period which burned into their memories for the rest of their lives. Some of the writings are associated with their work on the International Committee of Nanjing Safety Zone, such as, official letters, reports, and documents, but a substantial amount of the writings are private diaries and personal letters to family members, friends and the institutions in their home countries. These day-to-day accounts reveal the details of the situation they found themselves in and provide an opportunity for the readers and researchers of future generations not only to get acquainted with the Nanjing Massacre, but also enable them to examine the carnage at close range from the perspectives of neutral countries’ nationals.

8.2.1  John Heinrich Detlev Rabe (1882–1950) Born on November 23, 1882, in Hamburg, Germany, John Heinrich Detlev Rabe was compelled to leave school and become a business apprentice at an early age when his father, a ship captain, passed away. A few years later, he went to Africa, working for an English firm in Lourenco Marques, Mozambique, where he gained fluency in English. In 1908, he went to China at the age of 25, working for a Hamburg firm in Beijing and Shanghai. In 1911, he joined the Siemens China Corporation as a representative in its Beijing branch. From 1908 to 1938, he had lived and worked in China for about 30 years; he was married in Shanghai in 1909 to his childhood sweetheart from Hamburg and all of their children were born in China. In November 1931, he was transferred to Siemens Nanjing Office as the company’s senior representative in China, selling telephones, turbines and other electrical equipment, and stayed on the post when war broke out in 1937. He was not only actively involved in the preparation and establishment of the Safety Zone, but also played a leading role as the chairman of the International Committee for the Nanjing Safety Zone and, in particular, after the city fell to the Japanese, provided food, shelter and protection for thousands of Chinese refugees during the massacre period.35 As the chairman of the International Committee of Nanjing Safety Zone, John Rabe wrote quite a few reports and letters. In a letter dated December 17, 1937 to Kiyoshi Fukui (福井淳), Acting Consul-General in Nanjing, he stated:

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In other words, on the 13th when your troops entered the city, we had nearly all the civilian population gathered in a Zone in which there had been very little destruction by stray shells and no looting by Chinese soldiers even when in full retreat. The stage was all set for you to take over that area peacefully and let the normal life therein continue undisturbed until the rest of the city could be put in order. Then the full normal life of the city could go forward. All 27 Westerners in the city at that time and our Chinese population were totally surprised by the reign of robbery, rapine[sic] and killing initiated by your soldiers on the 14th. All that we are asking in our protests is that you restore order among your troops and get the normal life of the city going as soon as possible. In the latter process we are glad to cooperate in any way we can. But even last night between 8 and 9 p.m. when five Western members of our staff and Committee toured the Zone to observe conditions, we did not find a single Japanese patrol either in the Zone or at the entrances! Yesterday’s threats and marching off of our police had driven all our police from the streets. All we saw were groups of two and three Japanese soldiers wandering about the streets of the Zone and now, as I write, reports are pouring in from all parts of the Zone about the depredations of robbery and rape committed by these wandering, uncontrolled soldiers.36

The following day, December 18, 1937, Rabe wrote another lengthy letter to Fukui to protest and make demands. The letter was read in its entirety in the court of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East as the prosecution’s evidence on August 29, 1946. In this letter he emphasized the fact that a large number of police had been marched off and shot: Yesterday we called your attention to the fact that 50 uniformed police had been taken from the Ministry of Justice, and that 46 “volunteer police” had also been marched off. We now must add that 40 of our uniformed police stationed at the Supreme Court were also taken. The only stated charge against them was made at the Ministry of Justice where the Japanese officer said they had taken in soldiers after the place had been searched once, and, therefore, they were to be shot. As pointed out in the accompanying “Memorandum on the Incident at the Ministry of Justice,” Western members of our Committee take full responsibility for having put some civilian men and women in there because they had been driven out of other places by Japanese soldiers.37

Rabe also drafted a report on January 14, 1938, which was dispatched by the German Ambassador to China, Oskar Paul Trautmann, to the German Foreign Office in Berlin under the title, “Condition in Nanking after the capture by the Japanese.” After the war, this diplomatic dispatch was also read in the tribunal court as the prosecution’s evidence. In it Rabe gave a detailed description of the conditions in Nanjing: Our real hardship, however, began only after the bombardment, i.e., after the capture of the city by the Japanese. The Japanese military authorities apparently lost authority over their troops, who for weeks plundered the city after its capture, violated about 20,000 women and girls, slayed thousands of innocent civilians (among them 43 workers of the power plant) in a brutal manner (mass murder by machine gun fire was among the humanitarian methods of execution) and did not shy away from also entering into foreign homes. Of 60 German homes, about 40 were more or less robbed and four were completely burned down. Approximately one third of the city has been destroyed through fire by the Japanese. Cases of arson still occur. There is no store in the city which was not broken in or plundered. Corpses of shot and murdered people still lie around in the city, where burial was not permitted to us. (We do not know why) The corpse of a Chinese soldier, shackled to a bamboo

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bed lies about 50 meters from my house since December 13th. Various ponds in the zone contain up to fifty corpses of Chinese who had been shot, which we are not allowed to bury. (pp. 4,593–4,594)

In addition to writing reports, official letters and documents, Rabe kept personal diary38 as well, providing detailed day-to-day accounts of the events during the massacre period. In the December 14, 1937 diary entry, he wrote: The Japanese march through the city in groups of ten to twenty soldiers and loot the shops. If I had not seen it with my own eyes I would not have believed it. They smash open windows and doors and take whatever they like. Allegedly because they’re short of rations. I watched with my own eyes as they looted the café of our German baker Herr Kiessling. Hempel’s hotel was broken into as well, as was almost every shop on Chung Shang and Taiping Road. Some Japanese soldiers dragged their booty away in crates, others requisitioned rickshas to transport their stolen goods to safety.39

In his December 16 entry, he revealed what had happened to people close to him and those who sought refuge in his garden: Our former school porter is in Kulou Hospital; he’s been shot. He had been conscripted to do labor, was given a paper attesting to the work done, and on his way home was shot in the back for no reason at all. His old certificate of employment, issued by the German embassy, lies before me drenched with blood. As I write this, the fists of Japanese soldiers are hammering at the back gate to the garden. Since my boys don’t open up, heads appear along the top of the wall. When I suddenly show up with my flashlight, they beat a hasty retreat. We open the main gate and walk after them a little distance until they vanish in dark narrow streets, where assorted bodies have been lying in the gutter for three days now. Makes you shudder in revulsion. All the women and children, their eyes big with terror, are sitting on the grass in the garden, pressed closely together, in part to keep warm, in part to give each other courage. Their one hope is that I, the “foreign devil,” will drive these evil spirits away. (pp. 76–77)

The December 22 entry gives vivid and horrible descriptions of the conditions in the city: In the meantime the official arson continues. I am constantly worried that the fires destroying buildings near the Shanghai Com-Sav Bank will spread across to the west side of the main street, which is part of the Zone. If that were to happen my house would also be in danger. While cleaning up the Zone, we find many bodies in the ponds, civilians who have been shot (30 in just one pond), most of them with their hands bound, some with stones tied to their necks. … I promised the Japanese to help them look for employees of the electricity works and told them to look, among other places, in Hsiakwan, where 54 electricity plant workers were housed. We now learn that about three or four days ago, 43 of them were tied up and led down to the riverbank and machine-gunned, ostensibly because they were the employees of an enterprise managed by the Chinese government. News of the execution was brought to me by one of the condemned workers, who fell unwounded into the river beneath the bodies of two of the victims and so was able to save himself. (pp. 86–87)

Recalled by his company to return to Germany, Rabe left Nanjing for Shanghai on February 23, 1938. After his arrival in Berlin in mid-April, he gave a series of

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public speeches, highlighting the Japanese atrocities at Nanjing and showed the atrocity movie filmed by American missionary John G. Magee. On June 8, 1938, he sent a letter to Adolf Hitler, along with a copy of his speech, with the intention of informing Hitler of what had happened after Japanese troops captured Nanjing and the sufferings of its residents: My Führer: The majority of my friends in China are of the opinion that you have not been provided a detailed report about the actual events in Nanking. In sending you the enclosed copy of a lecture I have given, which however is not intended for the broader public, I am fulfilling a promise made to my friends in China that I would inform you about the sufferings of the Chinese populace. My mission will have been fulfilled if you would be kind enough to let me know that the enclosed copy of my lecture was presented to you. I have since been notified that I am to abstain from delivering other lectures of this sort or to show any pictures dealing with the subject. I shall obey this order, since it is not my intention to work against German policy and German government offices. Let me assure you of my allegiance and honest devotion. John Rabe (p. 212)

A few days after the letter was mailed, Rabe was arrested by Gestapo briefly for interrogation, while his diaries and movie were confiscated. Although he got his diaries back when he was released, the movie was never returned to him. In addition, he was banned from giving public speeches and publishing books. After the war was over, Rabe was first detained by the Russians and then arrested by the British before he went through a lengthy denazification process. When he found himself a free person again, he was compelled to live in a shabby one-room apartment and went hungry constantly. In early 1947, when the Chinese learned of his whereabouts and that he lived in poverty, the citizens of Nanjing raised money, with which they purchased food to send to Rabe continuously until the Communists came to power in April 1949. Meanwhile, Shen Yi (沈怡), Nanjing’s mayor at the time, extended him an invitation, offering to take care of him in his old age if he was willing to resettle in Nanjing.40 Rabe died of stroke in Berlin on January 5, 1950.

8.2.2  Christian Jakob Kröger (1903–1993) Born on February 5, 1903 in Ottensen near Hamburg, Christian Jakob Kröger was dispatched to China by Carlowitz & Co. (禮和洋行) in 1928 to work as an engineer mainly in the company’s Taiyuan (太原) branch. Carlowitz & Co., established by German merchant Richard von Carlowitz in 1846 in Guangzhou, China, moved its headquarters to Shanghai in 1877, though its Nanjing branch was not opened until in 1930. At the time, the company mainly managed the import trade from Germany of heavy machinery, precision machinery, railway and mining equipment, weaponry and ammunitions.

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During one of his visits to Nanjing on business, Kröger met and fell in love with a German girl, Erika Busse. He requested to be transferred to Nanjing in 1936. When hostilities reached Nanjing, Kröger stayed behind in the city to take care of his company’s buildings and equipments, but he spent more time and energy working for the International Committee and the Safety Zone. As the treasurer of the committee, he assisted John Rabe and worked aggressively for the welfare and protection of the refugees. He wrote detailed reports about the conditions in Nanjing. In January 1938, he drafted a report, “Nanjing’s Fateful Days, December 12, 1937 – January 13, 1938,” summarizing the conditions in Nanjing since Japanese occupation. The report, submitted to the German Foreign Office by diplomats and remained unpublished until the late 1990s, provides substantial details: On 14 December, with the city under total occupation, an immediate and rigorous search of the city and especially of the refugee camps began. These searches of the camps were totally arbitrary, and over the course of a few days, although not a single shot was fired by the civilian population and no military courts had been set up, approximately 5,000 people were shot, usually on the riverbank, so that there was no need for burial. That number is probably too low an estimate. Even today, when every person has to be registered, this senseless “selection” continues, even if it is still applied only in individual cases. On a trip to Hsiakwan on 16 December, I literally drove over bodies in the vicinity of the Navy Office, where rows of executed men lay tied together. It took until 29 December to remove the bodies from the city. Day after day, you had to drive past the dead, who appeared even in my dreams. Three bodies and a dead horse lay outside our house. We were forbidden to clear them away ourselves; I was finally able to arrange only for the horse to be buried, which was still lying there on 9 January.41

It appeared that Kröger redrafted and expanded this report later, at which point the first person was changed to the third person, and the title became “Report of a German eye witness concerning the happenings in Nanking from 8 December 1937 to 13 January 1938.” The report was sent to Berlin by German Ambassador Trautmann from Hankou on February 16, 1938. The majority of the report was read in the court of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East on August 30, 1946 as prosecution’s evidence. This report contains much more and detailed information than the previous one: The picture of the city has changed completely under Japanese rule. No day goes by without new cases of arson. It is now the turn of the Taiping Lou, the Chung Shan Tung Lou, Go Fu Lou, KioKian Lou. The entire southern part of the city and Fudse Miave42 are completely burned and plundered down. Expressed in percentages, one could say that 30 to 40 per cent of the city has been burned down. The many discarded uniforms gave the Japanese the welcome occasion for the contention that many Chinese soldiers are staying in the refugee zone. Again and again they combed through the refugee camps but did not really give themselves the trouble of looking for the supposed soldiers, instead at first carried off at random all youths, without option and then all those who for some reason had come to their attention. Although no shot was ever fired on the Japanese by the Chinese in the city, the Japanese shot dead at least 5,000 men, mostly at the river, so that one could forgo the burial. Among the people who were shot were harmless workers of the city administration, electrical undertaking, and the water works. Unti1 26 December the corpses of 30 chained and shot coolies lay on the streets at the Communications Ministry. About 50 corpses lie in a pond

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not far from the Shansi Lou, in a temple lie 20, and on 13 January 1938 20 corpses were still lying around at the end of the Kiangsu Lou. Another sad chapter is the maltreatment and violating of many girls and women. Unnecessary barbarities and mutilation, even on small children, are not uncommon.43

In addition, Kröger in early January 1938, right after the American diplomats returned to Nanjing, reported the conditions in the city to German diplomat Martin Fischer in Shanghai. On January 11, 1938, he reported in detail the conditions of German houses and property in and around the city he had personally inspected. Most of the houses had been broken into and looted, and some had been damaged and even burned down. Kröger was the first Western resident in Nanjing who was permitted to leave after Japanese occupation. For the reason that he would soon get married, he applied permission to leave. On January 23, 1938, he took the military train in an open railway carriage, the only transportation available, to travel with Japanese soldiers in chilly January weather. After he arrived in Shanghai, he wrote to Rabe, informing the latter of his observation on his journey: As far as Changchow (Wuchin),44 it’s a devastated and crazy landscape, then all at once things get better, farmers are out in their fields and are already plowing. Apparently mopping-­up operations have been completed that far. But there’s definitely been the same sort of looting everywhere; because during the whole trip soldiers would board with their heavy bundles, and officers even had soldiers carrying their booty for them.45

While in Shanghai, Kröger gave public speeches about the conditions in Nanjing and the atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers in the city. He married Erika Busse on March 8, 1938 in Hong Kong, and returned to German in January 1939. In 1986, he retyped his personal massacre eyewitness report, Nankings Schicksalstage (Nanjing’s Fateful Days”), and sent it to Chinese Ambassador to West Germany, Guo Fengmin (郭豐民), to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre. He passed away on March 21, 1993 in Hamburg.

8.2.3  Eduard Sperling Eduard Sperling was a German national but was an employee of Shanghai Insurance Company, a Dutch concern. He was already in his sixties when he worked as the inspector general of the Safety Zone in charge of its police force, inspecting one place after another in attempts to protect refugees under the reign of terror. In many cases, he chased away the Japanese soldiers who either attempted or were in the process of raping women and girls. Around January 22, 1938, Sperling drafted a report originally to Georg Rosen, the top German diplomat in Nanjing, and the report was forwarded by the German Embassy at Hankou as an enclosure in its No. 102 report to Berlin on February 12, 1938. In the report, he stated:

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The undersigned, along with other gentlemen, remained in Nanking at his own peril during this time of war and at the founding of the International Committee was named inspector general for the Nanking Safety Zone. As such and in the course of my tours of inspection, I observed many things with my own eyes, the good as well as the bad, but more of the latter. … Two hundred thousand refugees, among them many, many women with small babes at their quivering, nursing breasts, driven from house and home, saving no more than their bare lives, sought safety and protection there. … In well over 80 cases, I was called by Chinese civilians to drive off Japanese soldiers who had forced their way into houses inside the Safety Zone and were violating women and young girls in the most dreadful manner. I did so without any serious difficulties. On New Year’s Day, several Japanese soldiers were making themselves especially comfortable. The mother of a pretty young girl called upon me and pleaded on her knees amid tears that I help her. I drove with her to a house in the vicinity of Hankow Road. Upon entering the house, I saw the following: A Japanese soldier lay fully unclothed atop a pretty young girl who was weeping terribly. I yelled at the fellow in dreadful tones and in every conceivable language, wishing him “Happy New Year,” and in no time he hastened on his way, trousers in hand.46

As late as March 22, 1938, more than four months after the Japanese brought Nanjing under their control, Sperling reported to Rosen a rape/murder case: he was informed that a Japanese soldier had broken into a residence, raping a young girl, but he was caught by a military police, who drove the soldier out of the house. However, the soldier returned in the evening, shooting dead four of the family members in cold blood. The case was verified by Dr. Bates.47

8.2.4  Miner Searle Bates (1897–1978) Altogether, there were 14 Americans who lived through the massacre days within the city walls. Of the 14, except that Iva M.  Hynds’ material has not yet been discovered, the other 13 all left behind written records in one form or another. They wrote a substantial number of letters to family members and friends, personal diaries, reports, and other documents, which, among other things, provide detailed descriptions of Japanese atrocities at close range both in distance and time. Born on May 28, 1897, in Newark, Ohio, Miner Searle Bates graduated from Hiram College in Ohio in 1916, when he was named a Rhodes Scholar to study history at Oxford University. After getting a M.A. in history in 1920, he went to China to be a history professor at the University of Nanking. He married Lilliath Gertrude Robbins in 1923, and made Nanjing their home until 1950. In the fall of 1937 at the approach of Japanese troops, the university decided to relocate to Chengdu in West China and appointed Bates chair of the university’s emergency committee to remain behind to take care of the campus buildings, property and equipment. Meanwhile, he was actively involved in planning, organizing

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and establishing the International Committee and the Safety Zone, and served on the International Committee throughout its existence. As soon as Japanese troops captured Nanjing and committed atrocities, Bates drafted an article on December 15, 1937, to condemn the brutal behaviors. The article was brought to Shanghai by The Chicago Daily News correspondent A. T. Steele who passed it on to both American and British diplomats there, and it was further transmitted back to Washington, D.C. and London. In the article Bates expressed his astonishment at the atrocities he had witnessed unfolding: At Nanking the Japanese army has lost much of its reputation and has thrown away a remarkable opportunity to gain the respect of the Chinese inhabitants and of foreign opinion. The disgraceful collapse of Chinese authority and the break-up of the Chinese armies in this region left vast numbers of persons ready to respond to the order and organization of which Japan boasts. Many local people freely expressed their relief when the entry of Japanese troops apparently brought to an end the strains of war conditions and the immediate perils of bombardment. At least they were rid of their fears of disorderly Chinese troops, who indeed passed out without doing severe damage to most parts of the city. But in two days the whole outlook has been ruined by frequent murder, wholesale and semiregular looting, and uncontrolled disturbances of private homes including offenses against the security of women. Foreigners who have traveled over the city report many civilian bodies lying in the streets. In the central portion of Nanking they counted yesterday as about one to the city block. A considerable percentage of the dead civilians were the victims of shooting or bayoneting in the afternoon and evening of the thirteenth, which was the time of Japanese entry into the city. Any person who ran in fear or excitement, and any one who was caught in the streets or alleys after dusk by roving patrols was likely to be killed on the spot. Most of this severity was beyond even theoretical excuse. It proceeds in the safety zone as well as elsewhere, and many cases are plainly witnessed by foreigners and by reputable Chinese. Some bayonet wounds were barbarously cruel. Squads of men picked out by Japanese troops as former Chinese soldiers have been tied together and shot. These soldiers had discarded their arms, and in some cases their military clothing. Thus far we have found no trace of prisoners in Japanese hands other than such squads actually or apparently on the way to execution, save for men picked up anywhere to serve as temporary carriers of loot and equipment. From one building in the refugee zone, four hundred men were selected by the local police under compulsion from Japanese soldiers, and were marched off tied in batches of fifty between lines of riflemen and machine-­gunners. The explanation given to observers left no doubt as to their fate. … There are reported many cases of rape and insult to women, which we have not yet had time to investigate. But cases like the following are sufficient to show the situation. From a house close to one of our foreign friends, four girls were yesterday abducted by soldiers. Foreigners saw in the quarters of a newly arrived officer, in a part of the city practically deserted by ordinary people, eight young women.48

From December 16 to 31, 1937, Bates filed protests daily, sometimes twice a day, with the Japanese Embassy, concerning atrocity cases which took place either on the university campus or in premises belonging to the university. In the December 16 protest letter, he stated: I beg leave to approach you informally about problems of order and general welfare upon the property of the University next door to your Embassy buildings. We have all heard the

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official statements of Japanese officers that the Imperial Army does not wish to harm the ordinary civilians, and we hope there will be no difficulties in the way of return to peaceful life under whatever government is satisfactory to your authorities. But at this moment the suffering and terror among the people are very great. The following cases are from our college properties close to yours, and many others have occurred in our Hospital and Middle School and Rural Leaders’ Training School nearby.49

He protested on December 18: Misery and terror continue everywhere because of the rape, the violence, and robbery of the soldiers. More than 17,000 poor persons, many of them women and children, are now in our buildings hoping for safety. They are still crowding in, because conditions elsewhere are worse than here. Yet I must give you the record of the past twenty-four hours in this relatively good position. (1) University Middle School, Kan Ho Yen.31 One frightened child killed by a bayonet; another critically wounded and about to die. Eight women raped. Several of our own staff, who are trying to feed and care for these wretched people, were struck by soldiers for no reason whatever. Soldiers climb over the walls many times day and night. Many persons could not sleep for three days, and there is hysterical fear. If this fear and despair results in resistance against the attack of soldiers upon women, there will be disastrous slaughter for which your authorities will be responsible. American flag scornfully torn down by soldiers.50

After American diplomats returned to Nanjing on January 6, 1938, to re-open the American Embassy, Bates started filing atrocity reports with the American diplomats and continued well into the spring of 1938. Meanwhile, Bates was able to send letters out to family and friends through diplomatic channels. On January 10, 1938, he wrote his friends: More than 10,000 unarmed persons have been killed in cold blood. Most of my trusted friends would put the figure much higher. There were Chinese soldiers who threw down their arms or surrendered after being trapped; and civilians recklessly shot and bayoneted, often without even the pretext that they were soldiers, including not a few women and children. Able German colleagues put the cases of rape at 20,000. I should say not less than 8,000, and it might be anywhere above that. On University property alone, including some of our staff families and the houses of Americans now occupied by Americans, I have details of more than l00 cases and assurance of some 300. You can scarcely imagine the anguish and terror. Girls as low as 11 and women as old as 53 have been raped on University property alone. On the Seminary compound 17 soldiers raped one woman successively in broad daylight. In fact, about one-third of the cases are in the daytime.51

In the spring of 1938, Bates assisted Lewis Smythe in surveying war damage in the city and surrounding areas. Later he conducted surveys of his own and the results are: Crop Investigation in the Nanking: Area and Sundry Economic Data and The Nanking Population, Employment, Earnings and Expenditures: A Survey. The former was published in October 1938 by Mercury Press in Shanghai, and the latter by the Nanking International Relief Committee in winter-spring 1939. After the war, he testified as prosecution’s witness for both military tribunals at Nanjing and Tokyo. After he left China in 1950, Bates taught at the Union Theological Seminary from 1950 till his retirement in 1965. He passed away on October 28, 1978, in

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New Jersey. Bates left behind a substantial amount of written record of various forms concerning the Nanjing Massacre and its aftermath. Although some of his writings have appeared in print in Harold John Timperley’s What War Means (1938), Hsü Shuhsi’s Documents of the Safety Zone (1939), Zhang Kaiyuan’s Eyewitness to Massacre, (2000), and Suping Lu’s A Mission under Duress: The Nanjing Massacre and Post-Massacre Social Conditions Documented by American Diplomats (2010), a large number of his writings remain unpublished. His materials are mainly housed at Yale Divinity School Library, New Haven, CT, Disciples of Christ Historical Society Library at Nashville, TN, The National Archives II, College Park, MD, and Union Theological Seminary’s Burke Library at Columbia University, New York.

8.2.5  Grace Louise Bauer (1896–1976) Grace Louise Bauer, born on January 20, 1896, in Baltimore, MD, graduated from Western High School and attended Baltimore Business College before receiving technical training at the Howard A. Kelly Hospital of Baltimore, where she served for 3 years as a technician in the pathology lab. She went to China in the fall of 1919 to direct the lab at the University of Nanking Hospital, do lab work and train medical lab technicians. Although she was under appointment by the Board of Founders of the University of Nanking, she was associated with the United Christian Missionary Society (Disciples of Christ). In addition to her hospital duties, she was heavily involved in the work of the Drum Tower Christian Church as its treasurer and school teacher. During the massacre period, she kept her post in the hospital, keeping wandering Japanese soldiers off the hospital compound and taking care of the refugees who came for shelter. Throughout her years in Nanjing, she wrote letters to her parents and other family members almost on a weekly basis, and she also kept a diary. In her 8-page long letter to her family on January 22, 1938 she indicated that, although she had mailed four letters to her mother, letting her family know that she was alive and well, this was the first letter with details of the conditions in the city and hoped that it would get through without being censored. In vivid description, she revealed the reign of terror from her perspective: To say I was alive and well was indeed something, for we have gone through hell here in Nanking. The fact is we are still in it. Things are better now, but I am not at all sure that we have hit bottom. If I could only feel that we really had, I might have a little more hope for the future. … Monday all day wounded came to our door. Trim, all day and Bob part of the time stood at a back gate of the hospital a[and] dressed their wounds. Those who could walk or had someone to help them got on their way as soon as possible. That night there were still six lying at the gate. I tell you it was dreadful to leave them there and still we dared not take any military in. The next morning four were gone, but two were dead. Whether they died or were helped along will never be known. Very likely a bullet, because the Japanese entered the city on Monday.

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Monday night was another horrible night for us in the hospital. There had been much firing all day. Added to that the Japanese soldiers had shot and bayoneted anyone whom they so felt inclined to do. Again we were busy late into the night caring for the injured. Again there were not beds enough, and many had to be tucked away on benches. In fact there were not enough benches some had to lie on the floor. I gave out over forty comforts myself that night to the wounded who were lying in our dispensary. Some of them had to stay there for several days until they got, or rather we got an auxiliary hospital opened in a University dormitory. … Thursday, Dec. 16th, reports began to reach us of the violation of women. The International Committee had 100 authentic reports to make of rapping[sic] within the Refugee Zone on American property. How many cases outside of that nobody will ever know. There must to[be] tens of thousands of cases. And the said[sad] part of the thing is that it is continuing. Now our American property is being respected more, but we are constantly getting cases in the hospital that have been rapped[sic]. No[t] one time, but many times. They started to burn the city soon after they came in and are continuing to burn. Every day there are big fires. I suppose a half if not two-thirds of the city have been burned. It just breaks one’s heart to go through the business section. It is just all destroyed. All the progress of ten years seems to have been wiped out. Sometimes I get very low, out most of the time I take heart and go on. … Sunday Dec. 19th, the Japanese put up signs on the property announcing that it was American property and was to be respected. I do not know that it did any good, but at least we could point to it. On Monday afternoon, I was called suddenly to the back of the hospital. There were two soldiers up on the second floor of our Refugee house. I just went weak, for I knew there were young girls up there. There were two stairways up to the second floor. I tried to decide quick as to which one would get me to the men first. Fate guided me to the right one. They had not seen me until I met them at the head of the steps. It was funny to see them. They turned like two naughty boys and made for the gate just as fast as they could. I could not keep up with them. They almost ran. When I got to the gate there were three more about ready to come in. I pointed to the sign and the American flag and they went on. As these conditions went on food became increasingly difficult to get. We had laid in a lot of supplies but they were all eaten up. A man came and told us that if we would go for it he had some greens to sell. He had 500 pounds all ready to load on the truck, when we got there, but the soldiers got there ahead of us and took it away. We had to wait while they pulled some more. Brought the ambulance back full of greens. I sat in the truck and guarded it, while the men went for the vegetables. The soldiers came several times, but they were not troublesome. When the vegetables were all on the old man climbed on. I heard him say more to himself than to anybody else, “These Americans are good to us. What woud we have done if Dr. Macklin had never come to Nanking?” At noon of the same day two men were brought in terribly burned. They were two of a hundred to a hundred and forty, who had been herded into an enclosure, sprayed with gasoline and set on fire. Their condition was just indescribable. One died before morning and the other within a few days. The rest of the bunch were all burned to death. Can you think of anything so horrible? When these awful reports reached us of the horrible things that were done between here and Shanghai, I said it can’t be true. Men cannot be so wicked. It is propaganda. That is true in every war. Now I am wondering if the people who told us that propaganda in the world war was false were not themselves propagandist and lying to the world. War is indeed hell and brings with it unthinkable evil.

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For all the proclamations on the houses, very few have faired as well as we. The Chinese have been completely looted. They are lucky to get off with their lives. Practically all of the foreign property has been entered. They have carried off anything they wanted. The Christian mission has lost five pianos. Three from the girls’ school and two from South Gate. They just took things away from the Girls’ school in a truck. Maybe you heard that over the radio. I understand it was broad cast from London. The report went to Washington from the Embassy in Nanking. Two buildings have been burned at the South Gate Church. One of the big Methodist churches has been entirely destroyed. Each foreigner in the city was given an arm band by the Japanese Embassy. It has our name and nationality. It hurts my feelings to wear it, but I do.52

Bauer continued working in Nanjing until U.S.-Japan relations became tense, and she left China in October 1941, barely two months before the Pearl Harbor bombing. After she returned home, she secured a job as a lab technician at the University Hospital in Baltimore in the summer of 1942. After the war, she contemplated returning to Nanjing, but her mother’s poor health prevented her from going back. Bauer passed away on July 29, 1976, in her hometown Baltimore. Her diary and more than 500 letters are kept in her family’s private collection, and in 2007 her family donated a copy of her diary to Gulou, or Drum Tower, Hospital, formerly the University of Nanking Hospital, where Grace Bauer worked for 22 years.

8.2.6  George Ashmore Fitch (1883–1979) George Ashmore Fitch was born in Suzhou, China, to an American missionary family on January 23, 1883. He grew up in China and received his education there until he went to the United States for college. He graduated from Wooster College in Ohio in 1906 before continuing his education at the Union Theological Seminary in New York. Upon graduation from the seminary in 1909, he returned to China to serve as a secretary for the YMCA in Shanghai. He was transferred to the Nanjing YMCA in 1936. Fitch played an active role in planning and organizing the Safety Zone and served as the zone’s administrative director, a position which kept him busy for months in managing the zone, inspecting around, supplying rice, fuel and staff for rice kitchens to feed the thousands of refugees sheltered in the zone, as well as chasing away Japanese soldiers from looting and raping, and taking victims to the hospital. He wrote letters regularly to stay in touch with family members and friends. Due to the fact that there was no postal service for months and he could not mail letters

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out, what he wrote from December 10, 1937 to January 11, 1938 appear like a series of diaries. These diary letters, which were widely circulated after they were smuggled out, provide detailed and vivid descriptions of the sudden change of their lives in the city, the suffering of the residents, Japanese atrocities, and the city under the reign of terror: On Tuesday the 14th the Japanese were pouring into the city  – tanks, artillery, infantry, trucks. The reign of terror commenced, and it was to increase in severity and horror with each of the succeeding ten days. … At our staff conference that evening word came that soldiers were taking all 1,300 men in one of our camps near headquarters to shoot them. We knew that there were a number of ex-soldiers among them, but Rabe had been promised by an officer that very afternoon that their lives would be spared. It was now all too obvious what they were going to do. The men were lined up and roped together in groups of about a hundred by soldiers with bayonets fixed; those who had hats had them roughly torn off and thrown on the ground – and by the light of our headlights we watched them marched away to their doom. … Friday, December 17. Robbery, murder, rape continue unabated. A rough estimate would be at least a thousand women raped last night and during the day. One poor woman was raped thirty-seven times. Another had her five months infant deliberately smothered by the brute to stop its crying while he raped her. Resistance means the bayonet. The hospital is rapidly filling up with the victims of Japanese cruelty and barbarity. … Sunday, December 19. A day of complete anarchy. Several big fires raging today, started by the soldiers, and more are promised. … Some houses are entered from five to ten times in one day and the poor people looted and robbed and the women raped. Several were killed in cold blood, for no apparent reason whatever. Six out of seven of our sanitation squad in one district were slaughtered; the seventh escaped, wounded, to tell the tale. … December 22. Firing squad at work very near us at 5 a.m. today. Counted over a hundred shots. …… Went with Sperling to see fifty corpses in some ponds a quarter of a mile east of headquarters. All obviously civilians, hands bound behind backs, one with the top half of his head cut completely off. … December 23. … Callouses on hands are proof that the man was a soldier, a sure death warrant. Ricksha coolies, carpenters and other laborers are frequently taken. At noon a man was led to headquarters with head burned cinder black – eyes and ears gone, nose partly, a ghastly sight. I took him to the hospital in my car where he died a few hours later. His story was that he was one of a gang of some hundred who had been tied together, then gasoline thrown over them and set afire. He happened to be on the outer edge so got the gas only over his head. Later another similar case was brought to the hospital with more extensive burns. He died also. It seems probable that they were first machine-gunned but not all killed. The first man had no wounds but the second did. Still later I saw a third, similar head-and-arm burns, lying at the corner of the road to my house, opposite the Drum Tower. Evidently he had managed to struggle that far before dying. Incredible brutality!53

When he was able to get mail out by U.S. and British gunboats, he wrote to his family on January 15, 1938, to reveal his frustration and hoped that every thing happening there was but a bad dream:

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What to write about? If you have that long screed which I asked Mr. Wilbur to have copied and sent you you have me pretty well up to date. It was a pretty sorry tale and I hesitated very much about sending it out, even to you. What good can it do? It wasn’t written exactly with that in mind, of course – I just felt I had to get it out of my system. It all seems like a horrid nightmare, even today, and I keep half hoping I’ll wake up and find it has just been a dream. It seems so incredible that such things could happen in this day – and right here in our lovely Nanking. However, the worst is now over, and we are certainly grateful for that. Yet even today, more than a month since the Japanese occupied the city, there are all sorts of unpleasant things happening and every day we have to enter our protests at the Embassy.54

Fitch was the first American allowed to leave Nanjing after it fell to the Japanese. He left for Shanghai by HMS Bee on January 29 and returned by USS Oahu on February 12, 1938. During his stay in Shanghai, he gave talks and had interviews concerning the conditions in Nanjing, but he also accomplished an important task: purchasing 100 tons of green beans to be shipped to Nanjing’s Safety Zone, though the Japanese military authorities did not allow the shipment to be unloaded at Nanjing until February 26, 1938. Soon after he returned, Fitch made another arrangement to leave. On February 20, he took another trip to Shanghai on a Japanese military train and succeeded in smuggling out eight reels of atrocity case movie film that Magee had shot. In early March, on his way to the United States, Fitch stayed briefly in Guangzhou, where he was invited by the governor to give a speech about his experiences in Nanjing. On March 16, 1938, South China Morning Post, an English newspaper published in Hong Kong, ran an article based on his speech under the title, “The Rape of Nanking: American Eyewitness Tells of Debauchery by Invaders.” With the term “Rape of Nanking” used for the first time, the article gave a summary of the grisly horrors of the Nanjing Massacre: On December 14, a Japanese colonel came to the neutral zone office and demanded that he be informed of the identity and present disposition of 6,000 disarmed Chinese soldiers, quartered – according to his information – in the neutral zone. Information was refused. Thereupon, Japanese search parties discovered a pile of Chinese military uniforms in one of the zone camps near headquarters. Thirteen hundred men located nearest the pile were rounded up for shooting. Zone headquarters protested, and was assured that the men were merely required for labouring work for the Japanese Army. The protest was carried to the Japanese Embassy, and its bearers, returning towards dark, found the thirteen hundred prisoners roped together. They were carrying no hats, no bedding, and none of their possessions; it was plain what was intended for them. They were marched off, not one of them making a murmur, and executed down at the river front. On the fourth day of occupation another thousand men were taken out from the neutral zone camps for execution. Among them were fifty city police from the four hundred and fifty police that the city had previously assigned to the zone. Strong protests were again lodged, but it was apparent that the Japanese Embassy itself was powerless with the Japanese Military. Any Chinese with short hair, with callouses on his hands from pulling a boat or ricksha, or with other marks of toil, had in these marks of identification his own death warrant.55

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After his arrival in the U.S., Fitch took an extensive tour around the country, giving talks and showing atrocity movie in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Columbus, OH, Washington, D.C. and New York City, advocating awareness of the Nanjing Massacre among Americans. He returned to China in early 1939, working for the YMCA in Chongqing before taking the position of deputy director of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration in Henan Province. In 1946, he went to Tokyo as the prosecution’s witness for the trial of Japanese war criminals, but due to his busy schedules, he couldn’t stay there long. Consequently, he made a written affidavit for the prosecution. He left China in 1947 to serve the YMCA in Korea, and passed away on January 21, 1979 in Pomona, CA. Even though Fitch’s diary letters were printed a number of times, including in his autobiography My Eighty Years in China, many of his massacre period correspondence remains unpublished in his family archives, which are kept at Harvard University’s Yenching Library. Yale Divinity School Library also houses some of his files.

8.2.7  Ernest Herman Forster (1896–1971) Born on November 1, 1896 in Philadelphia, Ernest Herman Forster graduated from Princeton University in 1917. He went to China in 1920 to be a teacher at Mahan School in Yangzhou, a city on the northern bank of the Yangtze about 50 miles east of Nanjing. In November 1937, barely a month before the city fell, he was transferred to Nanjing, doing missionary and relief work associated with the American Mission Church, an Episcopal denomination. When Japanese troops drew near Nanjing, Forster sent his wife, Clarissa Lucretia Townsend Forster, away while he stayed on to help John Magee with relocating the Episcopal church group from Xiaguan into the Safety Zone inside the city walls. Together with Magee and two Russians, Nicolai Podshivoloff and A. Zial, Forster helped to safeguard the group against atrocities after the Japanese captured the city. Meanwhile, he was heavily involved in organizing the International Red Cross Committee, establishing Red Cross hospitals caring for wounded Chinese soldiers. During the massacre period, like other Americans, Forster wrote diary letters he could not mail out at the time. On December 19, 1937 in a letter to his wife, he wrote about the terrible conditions he found himself in: On the 15th and 16th they searched for soldiers and took off men in droves regardless of whether they had even shouldered guns or not. They murdered most of them in cold blood. We heard that they took a group of two to three hundred to a pond, shot them one by one and let them fall into the water. Another big group was forced into a mat shed, surrounded with machine guns and burned alive. Fourteen men from Mr. Chen’s congregation at the Model Village were carried off several days ago and have not yet returned. Among them was Mr. Chen’s oldest boy about 16 years. He had not yet returned either. Then the soldiers have been looting and raping to their hearts’ content. John and I usually spend the day taking women and wounded civilians to the hospital and in guarding the two residences where

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most of our Christians and many others, particularly girls, are taking refuge. Our presence there helps to keep soldiers out. We also sleep there.56

In a letter dated January 26, Forster described a murder case in which a 14-year old girl was shot by a Japanese soldier. It took place near their residence the previous afternoon, and he himself investigated the case. The girl, her mother and brother came from Wuxi, a city about 150 miles west of Shanghai, and “are living in one of the refugee centers. The girl and her brother had gone to a nearby field for some turnips when a J. soldier appeared. He tried to capture the girl, but she became frightened and ran away, whereupon the soldier fired his gun and shot her through the head, killing her almost immediately.”57 Two days later, he told his family that over 100 bodies were dragged out of a pond nearby, a common scene found in the testimonies of Chinese eyewitnesses: From a pond at the end of the street where we are living, the corpses of more than 100 men were fished out the day before yesterday, having been in the water since Dec. 16 when they were shot and thrown in by the J. soldiers on the accusation of having been C. soldiers. Many of them were taken out of houses just around us, and we know they were not soldiers. But the thirst for blood and vengeance was too strong and they were sacrificed. In many cases they were bread-winners for their families who are now destitute.58

Except for taking furlough from June 1939 to May 1940, Forster continued to work in Nanjing until the Pearl Harbor Bombing when he and other Americans were detained and kept under house arrest by the Japanese. He was repatriated back to the United States in 1943, though he managed to return to China as soon as the war was over. Forster left China in 1951 and passed away on December 18, 1971  in New Haven, CT. He left behind a large number of letters, reports and other documents. His archival material can be found at Yale Divinity School Library. Because Forster had filed reports with the U.S Embassy at Nanjing and his brother-in-law Irving Upson Townsend transmitted Forster’s letters to the Department of State in 1938, some of his materials are kept at the National Archives II as well. In addition, Forster and Magee’s personnel files are kept at the Episcopal National Historical Archives at Austin, TX. However, their materials are not yet accessible due to the archives’ rule that the missionaries’ files are not made available to the public until 75 years after their death.

8.2.8  John Gillespie Magee (1884–1953) John Gillespie Magee was born on October 10, 1884 in Pittsburgh. He graduated from Yale in 1906 and obtained his Bachelor of Divinity in 1911 from the Episcopal Theological Seminary in Cambridge, MA. He went to Nanjing in 1912, where he worked as an Episcopal minister associated with the American Church Mission until 1940. When Japanese troops were about to enter the city, in addition to serving on the International Committee for Nanking Safety Zone, he established and chaired

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the International Red Cross Committee of Nanking and the Red Cross hospital to provide protection for the wounded Chinese soldiers. He worked vigorously with Forster and two White Russians to guard the residences where Episcopal church group and other refugees sought shelter and protection. From time to time, he visited hospitals and refugee camps. He also made a trip to the refugee camp at Qixia Hill, about 15 miles east of Nanjing, in February 1938. The most significant and unique contribution Magee made during the massacre period were the atrocity movies shot with a 16-mm movie camera inside the University of Nanking Hospital. In order to help the audience understand his movie, Magee drafted captions for all the footage. The following is the caption for Case 10, Film 3: Yu, Hai-t’ang, an employee of the Telephone Office in Hsiakwan, was among four thousand men refugees living at the University of Nanking. On Dec. 26, Japanese officers came there to effect registration, a requirement for all grown Chinese in the city. The officer told them that if any of them acknowledged that they had been soldiers their lives would be spared but they would be given work; that if they did not acknowledge it and were found out they would be killed. They were given 20 minutes to think it over. About 200 men then stepped forward. They were marched off, and on the street many more men were picked up, whom the Japanese claimed were soldiers. Yu was one of these taken on the street. He said they led him with a few hundred others to the hills near Ginling College and there the J. soldiers started bayonet practice on them. After being bayoneted in six places, 2 in the chest, 2 in the abdomen, and 2 in the legs, he fainted. When he came to, the Japanese had left and somebody helped him to get to the Mission Hospital. The picture was taken while Dr. Wilson was operating, at which time there did not seem to be much hope of the man’s recovery; but he did recover.59

He wrote numerous letters to his wife, Faith Emmeline Backhouse Magee, who was with their children in Pittsburgh at the time. On December 15, 1937, he wrote about organizing a Red Cross hospital for wounded Chinese soldiers: Yesterday turned out to be a most unpleasant day – that is putting it mildly. On Sunday afternoon when the Chinese soldiers began to retreat I went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs where I found many wounded soldiers but no medical officers or nurses. Later Ernest and I went to the Ministry of War at San Pai Lou where we found many more wounded soldiers and about ten or twenty army nurses and doctors but none of them were doing anything at all but planning to leave. I told them that the International Red Cross Committee would take them over if they would stay and work for the wounded soldiers there. We had organized the day before with a number of people who had been interested in helping the wounded – Germans, British (Munro-Faure who, however, like all the British had been ordered out of Nanking and was living on a boat in the river), Chinese, young Cola, our Russian friend, but mostly Americans. I was made chairman and Ernest secretary of our Committee.60

On December 19, he described the horror in the city: The horror of the last week is beyond anything I have ever experienced. I never dreamed that the Japanese soldiers were such savages. It has been a week of murder and rape, worse, I imagine, than has happened for a very long time unless the massacre of the Armenians by the Turks was comparable. They not only killed every prisoner they could find but also a vast number of ordinary citizens of all ages. Many of them were shot down like the hunting of rabbits in the streets. There are dead bodies all over the city from the south city to Hsiakwan. Just day before yesterday we saw a poor wretch killed very near the house where we are living. So many of the Chinese are timid and when challenged foolishly start to run. This is what happened to that man. The actual killing we did not see

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as it took place just around the corner of a bamboo fence from where we could see. Cola went there later and said the man had been shot twice in the head. These two Jap. soldiers were no more concerned than if they had been killing a rat and never stopped smoking their cigarettes and talking and laughing. J. L. Ch’en’s oldest boy, Ch’en Chang, 16 years (Chinese count) was carried off with a great body of possibly 500 from right around where we live two days ago and I think there is very little chance that he is alive. In this group were also 11 other Ssu So Ts’uen Christians. We have been able to get no trace of them since, although I gave the names of our people to the newly arrived Consul-General Tanaka yesterday.61

Magee left for the United States for furlough in June 1938 and resumed his missionary post in Nanjing from May 1939 until 1940, when he left China for good. He served as a minister at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington D. C. and acted as one of the officiating ministers at President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s funeral. After the war, Magee made a trip to Tokyo and appeared in the court of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East as the prosecution’s witness on August 15 and 16, 1946, testifying about Japanese atrocities in Nanjing. Magee passed away on September 9, 1953, in his hometown, Pittsburgh. He also left behind a lot of written records, which can be found at Yale Divinity School Library and the Episcopal National Historical Archives in Austin, TX.

8.2.9  James Henry McCallum (1893–1984) Born on November 19, 1893, in Olympia, Washington, James Henry McCallum graduated from the University of Oregon in 1917. After he received his Bachelor of Divinity from Yale Divinity School in 1921, he went to China with his newly-wed wife, Eva Anderson McCallum, in the fall the same year to be a pastor at the South Gate Church, one of the Disciples of Christ churches in Nanjing, and remained in that capacity until 1951. McCallum was scheduled to be on furlough in the winter of 1937. However, when Japanese troops were advancing toward Nanjing, many people left for West China. Consequently the University of Nanking Hospital was in dire need of a business manager. At this point, instead of going on much-needed furlough, he stayed in the city to fill the hospital’s vacancy. He worked diligently to secure fuel, rice, vegetables, foodstuff, equipment and other materials the hospital needed, in addition to helping with organizing the Safety Zone. During the massacre days, he wrote diary letters to his wife Eva, who was with their children in Shanghai. Those written between December 19, 1937 and January 15, 1938 were widely circulated and excerpts of them were read as prosecution’s evidence in the court of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo on August 29, 1946. On December 19, McCallum wrote: It is a horrible story to try to relate; I know not where to begin nor to end. Never have I heard or read of such brutality. Rape! Rape! Rape! We estimate at least 1,000 cases a night and many by day. In case of resistance or anything that seems like disapproval there is a bayonet stab or a bullet. We could write up hundreds of cases a day; people are hysterical; they get

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down on their knees and “Kotow” any time we foreigners appear; they beg for aid. Those who are suspected of being soldiers as well as others, have been led outside the city and shot down by hundreds – yes, thousands. Three times has the staff of our hospital been robbed of fountain pens, watches and money. Even the poor refugees in certain centers have been robbed again and again until the last cent, almost the last garment and last piece of bedding only remains and these may go ere long. Women are being carried off every morning, afternoon and evening. The whole Japanese army seems to be free to go and come anywhere it pleases and to do what it pleases. American flags have frequently been torn down from Ginling and the University and Hillcrest school. At the seminary, B.T.T.S.  University, Ginling, University Middle School, Sericulture buildings, Library and scores of other places, there are cases of rape, robbery, shooting and bayoneting every night.62

On December 29, he gave descriptions of specific atrocity cases as some of the victims made their way to the hospital: But far worse is what has been happening to the people. They have been in terror and no wonder. Many of them have nothing left now but a single garment around their shoulders. Helpless and unarmed, they have been at the mercy of the soldiers, who have been permitted to roam about at will wherever they pleased. There is no discipline whatever and many of them are drunk. By day they go into the buildings in our Safety Zone centers, looking for desirable women, then at night they return to get them. If they have been hidden away, the responsible men are bayoneted on the spot. Girls of 11 and 12 and women of fifty have not escaped. Resistance is fatal. The worst cases come to the hospital. A woman six months pregnant, who resisted, came to us with 16 knife wounds in her face and body, one piercing the abdomen. She lost her baby but her life will be spared. Men who gave themselves up to the mercy of the Japanese when they were promised their lives would be spared, – a very few of them returned to the Safety Zone in a sad way. One of them declared they were used for bayonet practice and his body certainly looked it.63

In a letter dated February 16, 1938, he told his wife of the tremendous loss of life: They are burying dead bodies, using one of our ambulances. About 1,500 bodies were buried outside Hansimen, the bunch of men we tried to save, without success. Two other bunches, one of 10,000 beyond the HoChi in Hsiakuan and another of 20,000 a little further down the river, all soldiers who must have been trapped when they tried to get out of Nanking.64

He himself “buried more than 38 in hospital dugouts and gathered a few off the streets nearby, most of them soldiers, and buried them without permits.”65 On January 27, 1938, however, McCallum himself became a victim of Japanese brutality when he asked two Japanese cavalrymen, who had made a forcible entry into the University Hospital, to leave. At this time one of them with riding boots and spurs became somewhat rough with me, taking me by the arm and in turn pulling and shoving me along with him perhaps a hundred feet. At this point he took out his bayonet and made a pass in the direction of my abdomen but I stood my ground. He then placed the point of the bayonet against my neck and then gave it a slight push forward. I jerked my head backward and received only a slight prick which barely broke through the skin.66

McCallum continued to work at his hospital post until July 1939, when he left for the U.S. for a year-long furlough. He returned to Nanjing in the fall of 1940, but after the Pearl Harbor Bombing, he was detained under house arrest until August 1942, when he was repatriated. As soon as the war was over, he returned to his mis-

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sionary post in Nanjing in 1945 and presented his affidavit, along with massacre period diary letters to the International Military Tribunal for the Far East during the trials of Japanese war criminals. McCallum left China in 1951 and passed away on April 20, 1984 in Pico Rivera, CA.  He left behind a huge amount of written record concerning the Nanjing Massacre. Although Yale Divinity School Library and the Library of Congress have some of his correspondence, his archival materials are mainly kept at the Disciples of Christ Historical Society Library, Nashville, TN.

8.2.10  Wilson Plumer Mills (1883–1959) Wilson Plumer Mills, born on December 1, 1883  in Winnsboro, South Carolina, graduated from Davidson College, North Carolina, in 1903. When he obtained his M.A. from the University of South Carolina in 1907, he was named a Rhodes Scholar and went to study at Christ Church College, Oxford University, to get a B.A. in theology in 1910. After he earned another degree, Bachelor of Divinity, from Columbia Theological Seminary, South Carolina, in 1912, he sailed for China in the fall of the same year. He served the YMCA initially in Nanjing, then in other locations, such as Tokyo, where he worked primarily with Chinese students, Beijing, Hankou, and Shanghai until 1932 when he stared doing missionary work for the Northern Presbyterian Mission in Nanjing. In 1937, at the approach of Japanese troops, he played a pivotal role in initiating and organizing the International Committee and the Safety Zone, and served as the committee’s vice chairman until February 23, 1938, when John Rabe departed. Mills assumed the responsibilities of the chairmanship, but let Rabe retain the title of committee’s chairman. In addition to drafting committee documents, reports and protest letters, he wrote letters regularly to his wife Harriet Cornelia Seyle Mills, informing her of the conditions in Nanjing. On January 9, 1938 after they could send out mail through the American Embassy, he wrote: Up to this time I have had no opportunity to write to you when I felt it would be safe to do so. The Japanese Embassy has offered a time or two to take out letters for us, but we knew they were censoring everything, so one could write almost nothing that one wanted to write. Put briefly, the situation is this. Before the fall of Nanking the Chinese troops behaved very well, at least inside the city. They looted some outside and perhaps a little inside in certain sections, but relatively very little. Foreign property was well respected by them. But since the Japanese came in it has been hell. I think all of us feel that is the only word to describe what took place during the first ten days or two weeks of Japanese occupation. Cold blooded murder of soldiers taken after the capture of the city, and of many innocent civilians alleged to be soldiers, the shooting also of many without even that excuse, the raping of women on a widespread scale, and the wholesale robbing of the people combined with the deliberate destruction of large sections of the city, there is no other word for it all than the one I used.67

A month later on February 9, he gave more details about the conditions in Nanjing since Japanese troops brought the city under control:

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After dark on the night of the 13th, it was not safe for any Chinese to be on the streets, though as might have been expected among so many thousands of people, some had to be on the streets for one reason or another. Mr. Gee and Mr. Ku of the University had a narrow escape that evening. They were going just from the University to the Illicks’ house where they were staying – you know what a short distance that is – when they were accosted by a sentry. They would very likely have been killed then and there, because the sentry seemed very suspicious of them, had it not been for the sudden and unexpected appearance of Charlie Riggs, who chanced to be going back past the University to Pin Tsang Hsiang. Even so, when Charlie tried to explain who the men were, the sentry did not want to let the men go, partly I think because he did not understand fully what Charlie was saying. Finally however, when Riggs gave up the attempt to explain that the men were members of the University, and said in response to a query from the sentry that the men were his “servants” they were allowed to proceed. It took the next two days to make us realize fully what we were up against with the Japanese. After the 13th the soldiers were turned loose, and what happened between then and January 1st the world now knows fairly well. All of us are agreed that the weeks of air raids and the actual fighting around the city, were as nothing from the standpoint of physical and mental strain as compared with the first two weeks of Japanese occupation. During that time we really felt that we were contending with the powers of evil. To plead for the lives of men, as Mr. Rabe, Lewis, and I did on one memorable afternoon, to see them released, to receive the smiles and thanks of the men, only to come back two hours later to find not only the thirty or forty men who had been tied up, but that whole camp of several hundred, being taken away – the memory of it will forever remain with one. We could do nothing to avert the tragedy. Fresh orders had been received and the men were led out to their death. I came home one day during those weeks to lunch only to find the group solemn and sober as Charlie was telling with tears in his eyes how the men had been taken from one of the camps that very morning. He had tried to do what he could and had only been slapped for his pains. The worst of this war is not the burned buildings and ruined homes, bad as that is, it is the men who will never come back again and the women who to their dying day will carry in their hearts and in their bodies the pain and injury of unbridled lust. I scarcely know which is sadder, men led away to death or the pains of women fleeing from the terror.68

Mills reported on February 22 a murder case which took place close to where he and other Americans were living: Only last night a case of murder by soldiers was reported very near us here. I wrote you previously about seeing myself the bodies of an old gray-haired man, a woman and two other men lying where they were shot some three weeks ago. Even if the old man had stolen two chairs, which I do not think is proven, it does not justify the killing of four people. Again, just two or three days ago, I saw a man and young boy shot by soldiers. Fortunately neither wound was serious, but the incident shows how insecure life still is in this city at the hands of the Japanese. Robbery was one of the principle causes if not the sole cause of the last incident I have mentioned. A desire for “hua guniang” (pretty girls) may also have been a contributory factor. Further just this morning after more than two months of protests, people were forcibly taken from the University Middle School for work, and some windows broken, and I believe doors smashed also, in the process. So while the return of the Embassies has helped to bring about better conditions, we are still a long way off from the peace we used to enjoy.69

Mills stayed in Nanjing until September 1942 and was placed in the detention camp in Pudong, Shanghai, in February 1943, though he was repatriated back to the U.S. a few months later in September 1943. He returned to China in 1944, working in Chongqing and Shanghai.

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Mills eventually left China in 1949 and passed away in New  York City on February 26, 1959. He left behind a considerable amount of written record as well. In addition to the letters he wrote to his wife, he filed numerous protests with the Japanese and American Embassies. The majority of his archival materials are kept at Yale Divinity School Library, some can be found at the National Archives II in the diplomatic reports and documents, while his personnel files are in the Presbyterian Historical Society at Philadelphia, PA.

8.2.11  Charles Henry Riggs (1892–1953) Charles Henry Riggs was born on February 6, 1892  in Aintab, Turkey, to an American missionary family and graduated from Ohio State University in 1914. He and his newly-wed wife Grace Edna Frederick Riggs went to China in 1916, and after a year of Chinese language study at the University of Nanking, the couple went to work in Shaowu (邵武), a mountainous area in Fujian Province, in 1917, with Riggs in charge of the newly established Agricultural Experiment Station. During their furlough back to the United States, he obtained a Bachelor of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in 1931 and a M.S. in agricultural engineering from Cornell University in 1932. He returned to China to join the University of Nanking faculty in the fall of 1932. When Japanese troops were pushing toward Nanjing, he sent his wife and children back to her hometown in Scotia, New York, while he himself stayed on to serve on the International Committee and help organize and manage the Safety Zone. He was heavily involved in allocating housing to refugees and trucking rice and coal to refugee centers. He also wrote letters to his family, though not as frequently as several other Americans. On January 15, 1938 he wrote: Then on the 13th in came the Jap troops and hell broke loose. To begin with they murdered all the prisoners they took, tying them in bunches of 5 and 6 and pistoling or bayoneting them. Then they rounded up all they thought had been solders, which of course included many ordinary people and shot them by the thousand. Then they turned to loot and rape, even to stealing a few dines or a bit of food from the poorest who had nothing else. And they kept it up, not for just the 3 days of old Chinese history, but they are still at it in places. The descriptions you read of the Spanish pirate and his sacking of cities is tame compared to what these Nanking people have suffered. Thousands of women raped each night and many murdered during or after; children bayoneted for crying because parent was robbed, murdered or raped, etc. etc. The damage they did smashing doors and throwing things around in their search for the more valuable and smaller things that they could carry off, far exceeded the value of what they took. Houses everywhere look as if a tornado had swept through them.70

Riggs himself was attacked by Japanese soldiers several times. The worst incident occurred on January 25, 1938, when he accompanied American diplomat, John

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M.  Allison, to investigate a rape case. He and Allison were both slapped by a Japanese soldier, and his shirt collar was torn and bottoms pulled off: the same soldier that had come out of the gate rushed up shouting at us in language I did not understand, and pushed Mr. Allison backwards. When I saw this, I stopped back with Mr. Allison. The soldier again took Mr. Allison’s arm and pushed him but Mr. Allison had his back up to the gate and could not move farther. Then the soldier slapped Mr. Allison hard, and immediately slapped me right in the presence of the gendarmes. … Two gendarmes were standing in front of me and a soldier in front of them, with whom they were arguing one of the consular police told the soldiers “These are Americans,” and this seemed to anger him, when suddenly the soldier forced them apart and lunged between them to grasp the neck of my shirt and coat lapel which he pulled very vigorously so as to tear my shirt and pull off several buttons. The gendarmes again grasped him by the arms and made him release me.71

Riggs continued to work in Nanjing until February 1939, when he took his furlough, but he returned to China only three months later, working in West China. He left China in 1951 and died of heart attack on March 13 1953, in New York City. He left behind only a limited number of written records, mainly kept at Houghton Library, a manuscript library at Harvard University.

8.2.12  Lewis Strong Casey Smythe (1901–1978) Born in Washington, D. C. on January 31, 1901, Lewis Strong Casey Smythe graduated from Drake University, Des Moines, IA, in 1923 before continuing his education at the University of Chicago. In 1924, he married his college sweetheart, Margaret Garrett who, born in Nanjing to American missionary parents, was working on her medical degree at Rush Medical College in Chicago. After getting his Ph.D. in sociology from Chicago in 1928, Smythe, together with his wife, went to China in the fall of the same year to be professor of sociology at the University of Nanking, a position he held until 1951. When Japanese troops fought their way toward Nanjing, his wife and daughters were at Guling (牯嶺), a mountain resort in Jiangxi Province. Smythe remained in the city to organize the Safety Zone. As the secretary of the International Committee, he worked closely with John Rabe. During the worst weeks of the reign of terror, he and Rabe took turns filing protests to the Japanese Embassy. Consequently, he authored quite a few protest letters, committee reports and documents. Meanwhile, like other Americans in the city, Smythe wrote regular and frequent diary letters to his wife and daughters. On December 13, 1937, he told them that on December 13, 1937, Near the Seminary we found a number of dead civilians, about 20, whom we later learned had been killed by the Japanese because they ran. That was the terrible tale that day, any one who ran was shot, and either killed or wounded….. At headquarters we found a mob of men outside that Sperling and others had been disarming. The place was becoming an arsenal! They were marched into the Police headquarters near us. About 1,300 in all, and some still in soldiers clothes. (Written Dec. 22, ’37) We argued the Japanese would not shoot dis-

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armed men. That disarmed soldier problem was our most serious one for the first three days, but it was soon solved, because the Japanese shot all of them – at least we will not believe otherwise until more of them turn up again. They marched out all of them finally and finished them. We all put up a terrific fight – in words only – to save those 1,300 Wednesday afternoon, and the officer promised to leave them till the next day if we would divide them up then. So we went to staff conference quite relieved. In half an hour we were called that they had come back for them. Sure enough there they were with 200 soldiers and were roping them up. We, Rabe and I, sped to Fukuda, or anyone, and got him. He politely assured us they would not shoot them, but not firmly enough for us to believe it. Riggs and Kroger stayed to watch, but the soldiers drove them away. We got back in time to see the last of them march out to their fate.72

On December 21, 1937, he reported the rape cases, which were rampant in the city: At the peak of the disorder Saturday and Sunday we estimated there must have been over 1,000 women raped every night and on those two days, probably as many by day, in the Safety Zone! Any young women and a few old women were susceptible if caught. Pastors wives, univ. instructor’s [sic] wives, any one with no distinction of person, only that the prettier ones were preferred. The highest record is that one woman was raped by 17 soldiers in order at the Seminary! In America people used to mention “rape” in a whisper. It is our daily bread here almost! Stories pore [poured] in so rapidly and so hard to keep up with, that I began taking them down in short-hand at the table. If I waited till I could persuade people to write them out, they were too old for the Embassy, which wanted reports on the daily situation. So now I take them in shorthand whever [wherever] I am.73

Two days later on December 23, Smythe reported that about 200 people had been taken out of the University of Nanking’s Rural Leasers Training School and shot by Japanese troops: The J. took 200 men out of the camp at the RLTS and shot them. Some of them were probably soldiers, but people there say over half of them were civilians. We were in hopes the fury of the Japanese Army had been vented and we would have no more shooting. One man came back to tell the tale. He was wounded and partly burned. We have not been able to clear up whether that was the same as another report or not. But another man came in today with his face all burned and probably his eyes burned out. His report was that 140 of them had been bunched together and then gasoline thrown on them and then set on fire! Horrible! Whether they are the same group or not we do not know. The group that were shot were reported to have been covered with gasoline and the bodies burned. The man that escaped was down underneath and later got away.74

The most prominent and unique contribution Smythe had made to the Nanjing Massacre literature was that he designed and led an extensive survey about the war damage to human life, buildings and the economy in Nanjing and the surrounding areas. The result of the survey is War Damage in the Nanking Area, December 1937 to March 1938, in which Smythe indicated: A careful estimate from the burials in the city and in areas adjacent to the wall, indicates 12,000 civilians killed by violence. The tens of thousands of un-armed or disarmed soldiers are not considered in these lists. Among the 13,530 applicant families investigated during March by the Committee’s Rehabilitation Commission, there were reported men taken away equivalent to almost 20 per cent of all males of 16–50 years of age. That would mean for the whole city population 10,860. There may well be an element of exaggeration in the statements of applicants for relief; but the majority of the difference between this figure and

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the 4,200 of the survey report is probably due to the inclusion of cases of detention or forced labor which the men are known to have survived.75

Smythe left Nanjing in July 1938 to join the main body of the University of Nanking, which had moved to Chengdu in West China, where he stayed until June 1944, when he went back to the U.S. for his furlough. He returned to Nanjing in 1946 and presented his written testimony to the military tribunals both in Nanjing and Tokyo. Smythe left China in early 1951 and passed away in Rosemead, CA, on June 4, 1978. He left behind a large number of written records concerning the massacre period in Nanjing. Apart from those kept in Yale Divinity School Library and the National Archives II, his personnel files, along with a substantial number of his letters, reports, documents and other materials, can be located in the Disciples of Christ Historical Society Library, Nashville, TN.

8.2.13  Hubert Lafayette Sone (1892–1970) Hubert Lafayette Sone was born on June 7, 1892  in Denton, Texas. He attended Clarendon College in Texas before he enrolled at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, from which he graduated in 1917. He married Katie Helen Jackson in 1919, and the couple sailed for China in April 1920. After two years’ Chinese language learning at Suzhou, he took up a position as the superintendent at the Institutional Church in Huzhou (湖州), Zhejiang Province, in 1922, and remained at the position until 1933, when he joined the Nanking Theological Seminary faculty to teach the Old Testament. Before Nanjing was air-raided in the summer of 1937, Sone sent his wife and children to Moganshan (莫干山), a mountain resort in Zhejiang Province, where the family had previously built a villa. He stayed to take care of the property of Nanking Theological Seminary. Meanwhile, he was actively involved in organizing and managing the International Committee in the capacity of the Associate Food Commissioner. After George Fitch left in February 1938, he succeeded as the administrative director of the Safety Zone. During the massacre period, he filed protests with both the Japanese and American Embassies, and wrote letters to colleagues and friends concerning the Japanese atrocities the city had suffered. On January 11, 1938, he wrote a long letter to his friend, A. W. Wasson, in Nashville, TN: There is hardly a house in Nanking that has not been looted from top to bottom, not one time only, but many times – often many times each day, by the Japanese soldiers. Everything they wanted they took out. Everything was turned topsy-turvey. In many cases the stuff has been piled in the streets and burned, and in many cases the houses have been burned also. Foreigners property has also been looted, the American flags torn down in many cases, and completely disregarded in nearly every case. Not a single one of our seminary houses escaped – everyone has been looted and rifled time and again, and many things taken away. But the houses themselves are not greatly damaged, except for broken glass in doors and

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windows, smashed locks, and doors, etc. But all kinds of food stuffs, bedding, warm clothing, towels, toilet articles, cameras, valuables, bicycles, cars, vehicles of every kind, horses, cows, pigs, chickens, etc., have been taken wherever they have been found  – no matter whose property they were. … The destruction has been terrible and unbelievable. Ever since the Japanese entry into the city, they have been systematically burning many sections of it, chiefly the business districts. Nearly all the business houses on Taiping Road, Chung Hwa Road, and many other of the principle business streets have been burned. The YMCA and Chinag Tang Chieh Methodist Church have been burned. Many of the big shops were first systemically looted, had their goods carried off by big trucks, and then burned out.76

He told another friend that Japanese troops did not bother to take prisoners of war in Nanjing. They simply lined them up and shot them. No prisoners of war were taken here. All soldiers or those thought to be soldiers, were lined up, tied, and machine-gunned, or bayoneted. I saw several bunches being taken out in little groups, and being shot one at a time and toppled over into a dugout, and the next one just behind him stepped up and shot in his turn. I have seen scores and scores of bodies in recent days dragged out of ponds by burial societies to be buried. Many of them had their hands tied with wire, and had been burned beyond recognition. I have seen several hundred marched off at one time not to return.77

Sone himself was attacked by Japanese soldiers when they came to forcibly occupy the seminary’s property. On December 24, 1937, he filed a protest with the Japanese Embassy: I wish to report that on yesterday afternoon, December 23rd, about 5:00 o’clock, two Japanese soldiers entered the premises of No. 2 Shanghai Road, took down the American flag and hoisted a banner stating that this house is to be the residence of the Investigating Committee. This house at No. 2 Shanghai Road is American property. It is the residence of Prof. R. A. Felton of the Nanking Theological Seminary, and also has stored in it the household and personal effects of Prof. C.  S. Smith, and Prof. Edward James, both of our Seminary. The proclamation placed on the front gate by the Japanese Embassy was removed just a few minutes before I found these soldiers taking down the American flag. The American Embassy proclamation was still displayed in a prominent place. One of the soldiers was obviously drunk. They insisted that they wanted to borrow the place for ten days, which I declined to grant. They then became very angry and rough with me, shouting and striking me on the shoulder, and finally by force took hold of me and dragged me across the yard and out into the middle of Shanghai Road. It was only after I agreed to sign a statement allowing them to borrow the house for two weeks that they would release me. After signing this statement, they released me, and allowed us to raise again the American flag. But they put their banner on the front gate and said they would return today at 9:00 o’clock and occupy the house. They ordered the Chinese refugees who are living in the house at present to move out completely.78

Sone served in Nanjing until the summer of 1941 when he was scheduled for furlough in the U.S. He was not able to return to his teaching position at Nanking Theological Seminary until after the war was over. He left China for good in April 1951 and passed away in Forth Worth, TX, on September 6, 1970. His archival materials are mainly kept in General Commission on Archives and History of the

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United Methodist Church in Madison, NJ, though some of his written materials are found at the National Archives II.

8.2.14  Clifford Sharp Trimmer (1891–1974) Clifford Sharp Trimmer, born on February 5, 1891 in Middle Valley, New Jersey, graduated from Lafayette College in Pennsylvania in 1913. After he obtained his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School in 1918 and took his residency trainings, he went to China, together with his wife Ruth Barkman Trimmer, in 1922 to be a physician at University of Nanking Hospital and worked there until 1950. Trimmer’s wife and children went to Guling in the summer of 1937, but he stayed on through the airraids, the siege and fall of the city and the ensuing reign of terror. He served on the International Committee, though he mainly took care of the sick and wounded inside the hospital. Trimmer wrote letters to his wife reporting what he had experienced in the city. In a letter dated March 10, 1938, Trimmer told her that there were too many Japanese soldiers with nothing to do but roam the streets getting drunk: Things are quieter here now out even yet we have some disquieting things. Yesterday a Jap soldier came to a man’s house and demanded entrance and when the man went out of the back door he stabbed him in the side. This Chinese did not seem very badly hurt but his pulse was fast even today and there is danger that he may have been stabbed in the intestine. If so it is a serious matter for him.79

On March 11, he wrote a report concerning damage to the Methodist Mission property: One piano was lost. The servants said the Japs came a few days after the Japs entered the city (they came in on Dec. 13) and took it to a home used by the Japs nearby I could not identify it, so was unable to trace it. Doors were smashed, some crockery, everything had been upset, and scattered topsy turvy, but probably not such a great amount lost. Some 15–50 iron beds had been taken away. … Not very many houses escaped. Many of the German houses were also looted as well as the American houses.80

Trimmer continued to work in the University Hospital until the Pearl Harbor Bombing when he was sent to an interment center in Shanghai, where he stayed until his repatriation in early 1943. He returned to his hospital in Nanjing in the fall of 1946 and did not leave China until November 1950. He passed away on January 8, 1974 in Montclair, NJ. His files can be found in General Commission on Archives and History of the United Methodist Church in Madison, NJ, but the family letters are still kept in his family’s private collection.

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8.2.15  Minnie Vautrin (1886–1941) Minnie Vautrin was born in Secor, Illinois, a typical Midwest rural settlement, on September 27, 1886. She graduated from Illinois State Normal University, a teacher training institution, in 1907. And taught mathematics at a rural high school for 3 years. She returned to school to work on her bachelor’s degree at the University of Illinois. Immediately after she obtained her degree in 1912, she went to China to be a missionary educator. After one year’s Chinese language training at the University of Nanking, in 1913 she took up her position both as principal and teacher in a girls’ school, Coe Memorial Girls School (三育女校) in Hefei (合肥), Anhui Province, a position she held until 1918 when she returned to the U.S. for furlough. She was invited by Ginling College to join its faculty in 1919. When Japanese troops were pushing toward Nanjing in 1937, she chose to stay on campus, taking care of the buildings, furniture, equipment and books, as well as reorganizing the campus into a refugee camp to shelter women and children. During the worst massacre days, her campus accommodated over 10,000 people, and thus she did a great service for the poor women refugees. In those days, early each morning, she would stand by the front gate for hours, checking in large crowds of women who had horrible experiences the previous night: we began to realize the terrible danger to women if they remained in their own homes, for soldiers were wild in their search for young girls, and so we flung our gates open and in they streamed. For the next few days as conditions for them grew worse and worse, they streamed in from daylight on. Never shall I forget the faces of the young girls as they streamed in – most of them parting from their fathers or husbands at the gate. They had disguised themselves in every possible way – many had cut their hair, most of them had blackened their faces, many were wearing men or boy’s clothes or those of old women. Mr. Wang, Mr. Hsia, Mary and I spent our days at the gate trying to keep idlers out and let the women come in. At our peak load we must have had ten thousand on the campus.81

Maintaining a big refugee camp kept her extremely busy and exhausted her each day. Despite that, Vautrin managed to faithfully record the daily happenings and events. On December 21, 1937, she wrote that she accompanied a man to search for his father, who had reportedly been killed by Japanese soldiers: At 1:30 I went with Mr. Atcheson’s cook in Embassy car over to street west of us. He had heard that his old father of 75 was killed and was anxious to see. We found the old man lying in middle of the road. They took his body over to the bamboo grove and there covered it with matting. The old man had refused to go to Embassy for protection saying he was sure nothing would harm him.82

In her February 25, 1938 diary entry, she indicated that she had witnessed the Red Swastika Society workers burying unclaimed bodies: As I was going to the meeting this afternoon I passed the Anhwei burial ground. There I saw men belonging to the Swastika Society still busy burying unclaimed bodies, wrapped in matting and placed or dragged into the trenches. The odor was so bad that the men now have to wear masks. Most of these bodies go back to the first days of occupation.83

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Nearly two months later, on April 15, 1938, she obtained the Red Swastika Society’s burial activity data, which is in agreement with the burial statistics submitted to the military tribunals in 1946: “From the time they were able to encoffin bodies, i.e. about the middle of January to April 14, their society had buried 1,793 bodies found in the city, and of this number about 80% were civilians. Outside the city during this time they have buried 39,589 men, women, and children and about 2½% of this number were civilians. These figures do not include Hsia Gwan and Shan Sin Ho which we know were terrible in the loss of life.”84 Vautrin herself fell victim to Japanese brutality as well. On December 17, 1937, Japanese soldiers broke into Ginling campus, ostensibly searching for Chinese soldiers. Their true intention was to search for young women for abduction and violation. Vautrin was slapped by a Japanese soldier when the latter attempted to break open the door to one of the buildings: As we finished eating supper, the boy from Central Building came and said there were many soldiers on campus going to dormitories. I found two in front of Central Building pulling on door and insisting on its being opened. I said I had no key. One said – “Soldiers here. Enemy of Japan.” I said – “No Chinese soldiers.” Mr. Li, who was with me, said the same. He then slapped me on the face and slapped Mr. Li very severely, and insisted on opening of door. I pointed to side door and took them in. They went through both downstairs and up presumably looking for Chinese soldiers. When we came out two more soldiers came leading three of our servants, whom they had bound. They said “Chinese soldiers,” but I said, “No soldier. Coolie, gardener,” – for that is what they were. They took them to the front and I accompanied them. When I got to the front gate I found a large group of Chinese kneeling there beside the road – Mr. F. Chen, Mr. Hsia and a number of our servants. The sergeant of the group was there, and some of his men, and soon we were joined by Mrs. Tsen and Mary Twinem, also being escorted by soldiers. They asked who was master of the institution, and I said I was. Then they made me identify each person.85

Vautrin managed the refugee camp and other programs on Ginling campus until late spring 1940 when she suffered a mental break down and was sent back to the U.S. for medical treatment. She committed suicide on May 14, 1941 in Indianapolis, IN.  She left behind a huge number of valuable source materials, the majority of which are kept in the Ginling College Archives inside the Yale Divinity School Library, while her personnel files, Ginling College photos, her correspondences and other archival materials can be located at the Disciples of Christ Historical Society in Nashville, TN.

8.2.16  Robert Ory Wilson (1906–1967) Robert Ory Wilson was born in Nanjing on October 5, 1906 to Wilbur Fisk and Mary Luther Rowley Wilson, his father being an American English professor at the University of Nanking. He grew up in Nanjing and went to the American school there until 1922, when he went to the United States to attend Princeton High School in New Jersey. He graduated from Princeton University in 1927 and got his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1933, after which he did residency training at St.

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Luke’s Hospital in New York City, where he met his future wife Marjorie Elizabeth Jost. Immediately after they got married on December 17, 1935, the couple sailed for China, and he became a surgeon at the University of Nanking Hospital in January 1936. In the summer of 1937, Wilson sent his wife and newly born baby Elizabeth back to the United States while he held his post at the hospital. With most of the hospital staff departing for safety in interior areas, Wilson was the only surgeon remaining in the city, and he was extremely busy when victims of Japanese atrocity cases started streaming into the hospital: Yesterday I wrote that I had eleven operations. Today I had ten operations in addition to seeing the patients on the ward. I got up early and made ward rounds on one ward before coming home to breakfast. After breakfast I spent the morning seeing the other wards and then started operating after lunch. The first case was a policeman who had had a bomb injury to his forearm shattering the radius and severing about three-fourths of the muscles. He had had a tourniquet on for about seven hours and any attempt to stop the hemorrhage would have completely shut off the remainder of the circulation to the hand. There was nothing to do but an amputation. The next case was a poor fellow who had a large piece of metal enter his cheek and break off a portion of the lower jaw. The metal was extracted as well as several teeth imbedded in the broken off portion of the jaw. Then came a series of cases under the fluoroscope with Trim’s assistance. One fellow had a piece of shrapnel in his parotid gland, it having severed his facial nerve. Another had a bullet in his side. It had entered his epigastrium and gone straight through his stomach. He vomited a large quantity of blood and then felt better. His condition is excellent and I don’t believe I will have to do a laparotomy on him at all. I got the bullet out of the side without difficulty. Another case had his foot blown off four days ago. He was very toxic and I did an open flap amputation of his lower leg. Another case was that of a barber bayoneted by Japanese soldiers. The bayonet had cut the back of his neck severing all the muscles right down to the spinal canal, through the interspinous ligaments. He was in shock and will probably die. He is the only survivor of the eight in the shop, the rest having all been killed. The slaughter of civilians is appalling. I could go on for pages telling of cases of rape and brutality almost beyond belief. Two bayoneted cases are the only survivors of seven street cleaners who were sitting in their headquarters when Japanese soldiers came in and without warning or reason killed five or six of their number and wounded the two that found their way to the hospital. I wonder when it will stop and we will be able to catch up with ourselves again.86

On December 18, 1937, Wilson wrote his wife about a patient who had survived one of the mass executions: One man I treated today had three bullet holes. He is the sole survivor of a group of eighty including an eleven year old boy who were led out of two buildings within the so-called Safety Zone and taken into the hills west of Tibet Road and there slaughtered. He came to after they had left and found the other seventy-nine dead about him. His three bullet wounds are not serious. To do the Japanese justice there were in the eighty a few ex-soldiers.87

1937 Christmas Eve brought him more horrors: One man who just got in today says he was a stretcher bearer and was one of four thousand marched to the banks of the Yangtze and machine-gunned. He has a bullet wound

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through his shoulder and dares not talk above a whisper and then only after carefully peering about to see if he is going to be overheard. One of the two burned wretches died this morning but the other is still hanging on for a while. Searle Bates went over this afternoon to the place described as the scene of the burning and found the charred bodies of the poor devils. And now they tell us that there are twenty thousand soldiers still in the Zone (where they get their figures no one knows), and that they are going to hunt them out and shoot them all. That will mean every able-bodied male between the ages of 18 and 50 that is now in the city. How can they ever look anybody in the face again? Sindberg was back in the city today with some more horror tales. He says that the big trenches that the Chinese built for tank traps along the way were filled with the bodies of dead and wounded soldiers and when there weren’t enough bodies to fill the trench so that the tanks could pass they shot the people living around there indiscriminately to fill up the trenches. He borrowed a camera to go back and take some pictures to bear out his statement.88

During the bloody massacre period, Wilson wrote his wife letters every day, though he could not mail them out at the time. With the scientific precision of a surgeon, his descriptions are detailed and precise. Wilson worked at the University Hospital until 1940, when he took his furlough in the U.S. In June 1946, he traveled to Tokyo to testify as the prosecution’s witness in the court of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. He passed away on November 16, 1967 in Arcadia, CA. Many of the massacre period letters he left behind are kept at Yale Divinity School Library and Hoover Institution at Stanford University. However, more of his written records still remain in his family’s private collection.

Notes 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

7. 8.

W. P. Mills, A letter to his wife Nina, March 18, 1938, Box 141, RG 8, YDSL. John Rabe, Good Man of Nanking, pp. 25 and 27. Enclosure No. 6 to “The Conditions at Nanking, January 1938,” January 25, 1938. Nanking International Relief Committee, “Report of Activities, November 22, 1937–April 15, 1938,” p. 1, Box 103, RG8, YDSL. Report of the Nanking International Relief Committee, November 1937 to April 30, 1938, p. 6, Folder 868, Box 102, RG10, YDSL. Wilson Plumer Mills was elected Vice-Chairman shortly before Rabe’s withdrawal in February 1938, and for a time thereafter he was considered the Acting Chairman, with Rabe retaining his original title. However, in practice Mills was Chairman and soon was recognized as such. D. J. Lean was Vice Chairman from May to June 1939. Chrstian Jakob Kröger was not a member of the International Committee, but served in various capacities at the request of the Chairman, Rabe. George A. Fitch was not a member of the International Committee either. He served as the Safety Zone’s director, who could refer problems of policy to the Committee, and receive its backing or instructions in matters of difficulty. However, the International Committee as a whole was a working body throughout the bad months of 1937–38, and several of its members had continually given much time to detailed tasks.

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9. Report of the Nanking International Relief Committee, p. 54. 10. Nanking International Relief Committee, “Report of Activities, November 22, 1937–April 15, 1938,” p. 1, Box 103, RG8, YDSL. 11. John Rabe, Good Man of Nanking, p. 28. 12. C. E. Gauss, No. 1087 Telegram, 6 p.m., Dec. 4, 1937, F862, B102, RG 10, YDSL. 13. 南京難民區國際委員會 (The International Committee for Nanjing Safety Zone), 告南京市 民書 (An Open Letter to Nanjing Residents), Dec. 8, 1937, F2, B263, RG8, YDSL. 14. Report of the Nanking International Relief Committee, pp. 6–7. 15. Shuhsi Hsu, Documents of the Nanking Safety Zone, p. vii. 16. Suping Lu, They Were in Nanjing. The referred cases are in Chapter Three. 17. Enclosure No. 1-f to “Conditions at Nanking, January 1938,” January 25, 1938. 18. The transliteration of the phrase, 小丫头, meaning “a little girl,” or “a young maid.” 19. Enclosure No. 1-g to “Conditions at Nanking, January 1938,” January 25, 1938. 20. Diplomatic Posts, China, Vol. 2171 (Nanking 1938, Vol. XII), RG84, NA II. 21. Diplomatic Posts, China, Vol. 2172 (Nanking 1938, Vol. XIII), RG84, NA II. 22. Enclosure to W.  Reginald Wheeler’s letter to S.  K. Hornback, May 28, 1938, No. 793. 94/13177, Microfilm Set M976, Roll 54, RG 59, National Archives II. 23. Lewis S. C. Smythe, A letter to John M. Allison, January 10, 1938, Enclosure No. 8–10 to “Conditions at Nanking, January 1938,” and John Rabe, A letter to Allison of American Embassy, Prideaux-Brune of British Embassy and Rosen of German Embassy, January 19, 1938, Enclosure No. 8–11 to “Conditions at Nanking, January 1938.” 24. The International Committee for Nanking Safety Zone, “Relief Situation in Nanking,” February 14, 1938, p. 13, Folder 866, Box 102, RG10, YDSL. 25. Report of the Nanking International Relief Committee, p. 11. 26. Charles H. Riggs withdrew from Nanjing for furlough and transfer February 1939. 27. D. J. Lean withdrew from Nanjing for furlough June 1939. 28. John G. Magee returned from furlough May 1939. 29. Ernest H. Forster withdrew from Nanjing for furlough June 1939. 30. James H. McCallum withdrew from Nanjing for furlough July 1939. 31. C. Y. Hsu was elected December 1938. 32. S. Yasumura was elected December 1938, but he withdrew from Nanjing Feb. 1939. 33. Albert N. Steward was elected April 1939. 34. Report of the Nanking International Relief Committee, pp. 53–54. June 1938 is only a representative date for the changes concerning Smythe, Lean, Shields, and Pickering. 35. Erwin Wickert, Forword, Good Man of Nanking, pp. vii–viii. 36. John H. D. Rabe, a letter to Kiyoshi Fukui, December 17, 1937, in Documents of Nanking Safety Zone, pp. 14–15. 37. R. John Pritchard and Sonia Magbanua Zaide, The Tokyo War Crimes Trial, Vol.2, Transcripts of the Tribunal, pp. 4521–4522. 38. The German version of his diaries was first published in Stuttgart, Germany, by Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt in 1997 under the title, Der gute Deutsche von Nanking, ed. by Erwin Wickert, and its English version, Good Man of Nanking: The Diaries of John Rabe, was published in New York by Alfred A. Knopf in 1998. 39. John Rabe, Good Man of Nanking: Diaries of John Rabe, p. 67. 40. “京市長查訪一德人下落 (Nanjing Mayor in search of a German),” Shenbao, Feb. 8, 1947, p. 2, and “艾拉培在大屠殺時救助我難民有功 (During the massacre period, John Rabe rendered great service in saving and helping our refugees),” Central Daily, Feb. 6, 1947, p. 4.

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41. “From a Report by Christian Kröger, Treasurer of the Zone Committee (Excerpt), Nanking, January 13, 1938,” in Good Man of Nanking: Diaries of John Rabe, p. 144. The report is kept at Bundesarchiv (Federal Archives), Berlin with the document number, BA-NS10/88/ pp. 16–19. The original title of the report is “Nankings Schicksalelage, 12. Dezember 1937– 13. Januar 1938.” Its English and German versions are published in excerpt, while Japanese and Chinese versions are in its entirety. The Japanese version is in 資料:ドイツ外交官の見 た南京事件 (Source Material: Nanjing Incident Witnessed by German Diplomats), ed. by 笠 原十九司 (Tokushi Kasahara) and 吉田裕 (Yutaka Yoshida), and translated by 石田勇治 (Yūji Ishida), Tokyo: 大月書店 (Ōtsuki Book-store), 2001, pp. 50–58. The Chinese version is in 南京大屠杀史料集: 6 外国媒体报道与德国使馆报告 (A Collection of Source Materials on the Nanjing Massacre: Vol. 6 Foreign Media Coverage & Reports of the German Embassy), 张生编 (ed. by Zhang Sheng), Nanjing: 江苏人民出版社 (Jiangsu People’s Publishing House), 2005, pp. 316–322. 42. It should be Futse Miao (Fuzi Miao in Pinyin), or Confucius Temple (夫子廟). 43. Pritchard and Zaide, The Tokyo War Crimes Trial, Vol.2, Transcripts of the Tribunal, pp. 4601–4602. The complete document is assigned Document No. 4039, Exhibit No. 329, in Microfilm Set T918, Roll 12, Court Papers, Journal, Exhibits, and Judgments of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, RG238, National Archives II. 44. Changzhou (常州), also known as Wujin (武進) in history, is a city on the Nanjing-Shanghai railway line, about 100 miles east of Nanjing. 45. “A letter from Christian Kröger, Shanghai, to John Rabe,” January 28, 1938, in Good Man of Nanking, p. 176. 46. “Eduard Sperling’s Report,” January 28, 1938, in Good Man of Nanking, pp. 150–152. 47. Eduard Sperling, A letter to Georg Rosen, March 22, 1938, Auswärtige Amt Doc No. 2718/2404/38, Bundesarchiv Doc. No. BA-R9208/2215/ p. 226, Peking II, Politisches Archiv, Auswärtiges Amt, Berlin. 48. It is one of the two enclosures to the No. 80 dispatch Robert George Howe, chargé d’affaires of the British Embassy at Shanghai, sent to the British Foreign Office on January 15, 1938, File 641, FO 371/22144, Public Record Office, London. 49. Enclosure No. 1-A to “Conditions of American Property and Interests in Nanking.” 50. Enclosure No. 1-D to “Conditions of American Property and Interests in Nanking,” February 28, 1938. 51. M. S. Bates, A letter to his friends, January 10, 1938, Box 103, RG8, YDSL. 52. Grace L. Bauer, A letter to family, January 22, 1938, pp. 1–6, her family collection. 53. George A.  Fitch, My Eighty Years in China, Taipei: Mei Ya Publications, Inc., 1967, pp. 436–446. 54. George A.  Fitch, A letter to family, January 15, 1938, Box 52, Fitch Family Archives, Yenching Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. 55. “The Rape of Nanking: American Eyewitness Tells of Debauchery by Invaders; Unarmed Chinese Butchered,” South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), March 16, 1938, p. 17. 56. An enclosure to Maxwell M. Hamilton’s letter to Irving U. Townsend, February 25, 1938, 793.94/12556, Microfilm Set M976, Roll 51, RG 59, National Archives II. 57. Ernest H. Forster, A letter to his wife Clarissa, Jan. 26, 1938, F5, B263, RG 8, YDSL. 58. Ernest H. Forster, A letter to his family, January 28, 1938, F6, Box 263, RG 8, YDSL. 59. John G, Magee, Case 10, Film 10, Folder 7, Box 263, RG8, YDSL. 60. John G. Magee, A letter to his wife Faith, Dec. 15, 1937, F2, B263, RG8, YDSL. 61. John G. Magee, A letter to his wife Faith, Dec. 19, 1937, F2, B263, RG8, YDSL. 62. James H. McCallum, A letter to his wife Eva, December 19, 1937, Correspondence of James Henry & Eva Anderson McCallum, DCHSL.

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63. James H. McCallum, A letter to his wife Eva, December 29, 1937, Correspondence of James Henry & Eva Anderson McCallum, DCHSL. 64. James H. McCallum, A letter to his wife Eva, February 16, 1938, Correspondence of James Henry & Eva Anderson McCallum, DCHSL. 65. James H. McCallum, A letter to friends, January 7, 1938, Correspondence of James Henry & Eva Anderson McCallum, DCHSL. 66. James H. McCallum, A letter to John M. Allison, January 27, 1938, Enclosure No. 1-Y to “Conditions of American Property and Interests in Nanking.” 67. W, P. Mills, A letter to his wife Nina, January 9, 1938, Box 141, RG8, YDSL. 68. W, P. Mills, A letter to his wife Nina, February 9, 1938, Box 141, RG8, YDSL. 69. W, P. Mills, A letter to his wife Nina, February 22, 1938, Box 141, RG8, YDSL. 70. Charles Riggs, A letter to family, January 15, 1938, Folder 17, Charles Henry Riggs Individual Biographical Folder, Box 59 ABC 77.1 from the American Board of Commission for Foreign Mission Archives, by permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University, and the Wilder Church Ministries. 71. Incident Involving Mr. Allison and Mr. Riggs, January 26th, 1938, Enclosure No. 1 to the report “Assault by Japanese Soldier on American Embassy Official and American citizen,” pp. 5–6, 123 Allison, John M./193, Box 355, RG 59, National Archives II. 72. Lewis S. C. Smythe, A letter to family, December 13, 1937, Box 103, RG8, YDSL. 73. Lewis S. C. Smythe, A letter to family, December 21, 1937, Box 103, RG8, YDSL. 74. Lewis S. C. Smythe, A letter to family, December 23, 1937, Box 103, RG8, YDSL. 75. Footnote 1 on page 8 of the book, War Damage in the Nanking Area, December 1937 to March 1938: Urban and Rural Surveys, Nanjing: The Nanking International Relief Committee, June, 1938. 76. Hubert L. Sone, A letter to A. W. Wasson, January 11, 1938, Missionary Files: Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Missionary Correspondence, 1897–1940, Roll 11, Scholarly Resources Inc., Wilmington, DE. 77. Hubert L. Sone, A letter to Rev. Marshall T. Steele, March 14, 1938, p. 5, Missionary Files: Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Missionary Correspondence, 1897–1940, Roll 11, Scholarly Resources Inc., Wilmington, DE. 78. Enclosure No. 5-A to “Conditions of American Property and Interests in Nanking.” 79. Clifford. S. Trimmer, A letter to his wife Ruth and children, March 10, 1938, p. 2, Trimmer family’s collection. 80. Clifford. S. Trimmer, “Methodist Mission property report,” March 11 and 21, 1938, pp. 1 & 3, Trimmer family collection. 81. Minnie Vautrin, “A Review of the First Month,” p. 7, F2875, Box 145, RG11, YDSL. 82. Minnie Vautrin, December 21, 1937 Diary, Minnie Vautrin Papers, DCHSL. 83. Minnie Vautrin, February 25, 1938 Diary, Minnie Vautrin Papers, DCHSL. 84. Minnie Vautrin, April 15, 1938 Diary, Minnie Vautrin Papers, DCHSL. 85. Minnie Vautrin, December 17, 1937 Diary, Minnie Vautrin Papers, DCHSL. 86. R. O. Wilson, A letter to wife Marjorie, Dec.15, 1937, F3875, B229, RG11, YDSL. 87. R. O. Wilson, A letter to wife Marjorie, Dec. 18, 1937, F3875, B229, RG11, YDSL. 88. R. O. Wilson, A letter to Marjorie, Christmas Eve, 1937, F3875, B229, RG11, YDSL.

Chapter 9

Media Coverage in English, Chinese and Japanese

9.1  English Media Coverage As soon as Japanese troops committed atrocities in Nanjing, English media provided front-page coverage about what happened in the city. Five American and British correspondents, Archibald Trojan Steele of The Chicago Daily News, Frank Tillman Durdin of The New York Times, Charles Yates McDaniel of the Associated Press, Arthur von Briesen Menken of the Paramount Newsreel, and Leslie C. Smith of Reuters, remained inside the walled city and witnessed the initial stage of the massacre. Around 4:15 p.m. on December 15, 1937, USS Oahu and HMS Ladybird, having rushed to the USS Panay bombing and sinking site a day earlier for rescue, arrived at Nanjing. The five journalists obtained permissions to leave Nanjing. Steele, Durdin, and Menken boarded USS Oahu, and Smith got on HMS Ladybird, while McDaniel departed for Shanghai one day later on the Japanese gunboat Tsuga. USS Oahu and HMS Ladybird did not sail for Shanghai until 7 a.m. on December 16. Shortly after boarded Oahu, when the gunboat was still anchored in the Nanjing waters, Steele succeeded in persuading the navy radio operator to cable out a news dispatch to his newspaper, The Chicago Daily News. Because of the time difference, and Nanjing was 14 h ahead of Chicago, Steele’s story was able to make the front page of The Chicago Daily News early morning on December 15, 1937. This story, entitled “Japanese Troops Kill Thousands: ‘Four Days of Hell’ in Captured City Told by Eyewitness; Bodies Piled Five Feet High in Streets,” was the first news coverage that revealed Japanese atrocities at Nanjing. Steele wrote: I have just boarded the gunboat Oahu with the first group of foreigners to leave the capital since the attack began. The last thing we saw as we left the city was a band of 300 Chinese being methodically executed before the wall near the waterfront, where already corpses were piled knee deep. It was a characteristic picture of the mad Nanking scene of the last few days.

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 S. Lu, The 1937 – 1938 Nanjing Atrocities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9656-4_9

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The story of Nanking’s fall is a story of indescribable panic and confusion among the entrapped Chinese defenders, followed by a reign of terror by the conquering army that cost thousands of lives, many of them innocent ones.1

Then, Steele continued with more of his eyewitness accounts, The Japanese could have completed the occupation of the remainder of the city almost without firing a shot, by offering mercy to the trapped Chinese soldiers, most of whom had discarded their arms and would surrender. However, they chose the course of systematic extermination. Bodies Piled Five Feet High It was like killing sheep. How many troops were trapped and killed it is difficult to estimate, but it may be anywhere between 5,000 and 20,000. With the overland routes cut off, the Chinese swarmed to the river through the Hsiakwan gate, which became quickly choked. Emerging via this gate today I found it necessary to drive my car over heaps of bodies five feet high, over which hundreds of Japanese trucks and guns had already passed. Streets throughout the city were littered with the bodies of civilians and abandoned Chinese equipment and uniforms. Many troops who were unable to obtain boats across the river leaped into the river to almost certain death. Raid U. S. Envoy’s Residence Japanese looting made the Chinese looting, which had preceded it, look like a Sunday school picnic. They invaded foreign properties, among them the residence of the American ambassador, Nelson T. Johnson. In the American-operated University Hospital they relieved the nurses of watches and money. They stole at least two American-owned cars, ripping off the flags. They even invaded the camps of refugees, stripping many poor of the few dollars they owned. This account is based on the observations of myself and other foreigners remaining in Nanking throughout the siege. (ibid)

Two days later on December 17, Steele published another article in The Chicago Daily News, “War’s Death Drama Pictured by Reporter: Panay Victims Under Japanese Fire for Full Half Hour; Butchery and Looting Reign in Nanking,” for which the newspaper’s editor indicated that, “A. T. Steele, The Chicago Daily News correspondent who, at the risk of his life, endured hardship and horror to be able to tell American readers the tragic story of the siege and sack of China’s capital by the Japanese, has reached Shanghai alive and well – thanks to an American gunboat. These cables tell what Steele saw himself and learned from eyewitnesses during the fateful hours when the Japanese were entering Nanking and attempting to drive foreign vessels out of China waters.”2 In the article, Steele wrote, “I saw a scene of butchery outside that gate where the corpses of at least 1,000 soldiers lie in every conceivable posture of death, amid a confusion of fallen telephone and power lines and charred ruins – apparently trapped by the closing of the gates.”3 Then he added, These things, too, I saw: A frightened soldier crawling under a German flag; hundreds of wounded crawling and limping through the streets, beseeching every passer-by for assistance; Japanese soldiers impressing coolies and donkeys into service to carry their loot; Japanese machine gunners moving through the streets in the moonlight, killing anyone who ran and some who did not; Japanese systematically searching houses and seizing many plainclothes suspects, scores of these bound men being shot one by one while their condemned fellows sat stolidly by, awaiting their turn.

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Helpless Civilians Stabbed I saw the Japanese beating and jabbing helpless civilians, and in the hospitals I saw many civilians suffering from bayonet wounds. I saw the dead scattered along every street including some old men who could not possibly have harmed anyone; also mounds of the bodies of executed men. I saw a grisly mess at the north gate, where what once had been 200 men was a smoldering mass of flesh and bones. (pp. 1 & 3)

The following day on December 18, in the article entitled “Tells Heroism of Yankees in Nanking,” Steele provided the following account: Patrols of Japanese soldiers moved through the streets, searched houses and arrested droves of people as suspected plainclothes soldiers. Few of them ever came back but those who did said their companions had been slaughtered without even a summary trial. I witnessed one of these execution parties and I have seen the grim results of others. What is more difficult, I have had to listen to the wailing and sobbing of women pleading for the return of sons and husbands they will never see again.4

Steele went on to publish two more Nanjing eyewitness articles. In “Panic of Chinese in capture of Nanking, scenes of horror and brutality are revealed,” which appeared in The Chicago Daily News on February 3, 1938, he observed: The Chinese army – what was left of it – had become a frightened and disorganized mob and would have surrendered willingly if given any assurance of mercy. But the Japanese were bent on butchery. They were not to be content until they had slaughtered every soldier or official they could lay hands on. Those who surrendered got no mercy. They were marched off to the execution ground with the rest. There was no court-martial, no trial. As might be expected, hundreds of innocent civilians were arrested and massacred during the course of this reign of terror.5

In his fifth article, which was published the following day under the title “Reporter likens slaughter of panicky Nanking Chinese to jackrabbit drive in U. S.,” he wrote: As the Japanese moved slowly through the streets with machine guns and rifles shooting any who ran or acted suspiciously, the defeated and dispirited troops milled into the so-­ called safety zone, which was one of the last districts to be mopped up. In the streets there was pandemonium.…… The Japanese searched the city with a fine-tooth comb for soldiers and “plain-clothes men.” Hundreds were plucked from refugee camps and executed. Condemned men were herded in groups of two or three hundred to convenient places of execution, where they were killed with rifles and machine guns. In one case a tank was brought up to dispatch a group of several hundred captured men. I witnessed one mass execution. The band of several hundred condemned men came marching down the street bearing a large Japanese flag. They were accompanied by two or three Japanese soldiers, who herded them into a vacant lot. There they were brutally shot dead in small groups. One Japanese soldier stood over the growing pile of corpses with a rifle pouring bullets into any of the bodies which showed movement. This may be war to the Japanese, but it looked like murder to me.6

The other correspondent who managed to cable out a news dispatch from USS Oahu was Menken, who sent out a cable on December 16, 1937 to the Associated Press, and it was first printed by The Boston Globe on December 16, 1937, “The once-proud capital of ancient China was strewn today with the blood-splotched corpses of its soldier defenders and civilians killed in the bombing, shelling and

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fierce fighting to which the city was subjected.”7 A more detailed version was published in The Chicago Daily Tribune on December 17, which is quoted in part as follows: Scattered through the city were hundreds of uniforms discarded by fleeing Chinese soldiers who tried to escape death at the hands of the Japanese by substituting civilian garb.……To make sure that the watchman at the American embassy was not executed for having arms McDaniel took away his pistol and made him stay inside. This probably saved his life. All Chinese males found with any signs of having served in the army were herded together and executed.8

The other three journalists, however, managed to send their news dispatches back to their respective agencies from Shanghai as soon as they arrived there on December 17. McDaniel’s story appeared in diary form first in The Seattle Daily Times on December 17.9 Meanwhile, McDaniel also published an article, “Nanking Hopes Japanese Will Mitigate Harshness,” in The Springfield Republican on December 18, in which he indicated that the “tragic aftermath of the fall of Nanking was witnessed by this correspondent, who reached Shanghai yesterday on a Japanese destroyer. I saw four days marked by Japanese looting and wholesale executions of Chinese.”10 Even though Durdin was unable to get his news report published in The New York Times until December 18, his dispatches offered more detailed descriptions and in-­ depth analysis. His first report, “Butchery marked capture of Nanking: All captives slain; civilians also killed as the Japanese spread terror in Nanking,” was written while he was aboard USS Oahu. Apart from providing accounts about Japanese atrocities as his fellow journalists did, Durdin went beyond just giving a brief description. He started the report with the general conditions under the reign of terror: Wholesale looting, the violation of women, the murder of civilians, the eviction of Chinese from their homes, mass executions of war prisoners and the impressing of able-bodied men turned Nanking into a city of terror. Many Civilians Slain The killing of civilians was widespread. Foreigners who traveled widely through the city Wednesday found civilian dead on every street. Some of the victims were aged men, women and children. Policemen and firemen were special objects of attack. Many victims were bayoneted and some of the wounds were barbarously cruel. Any person who ran because of fear or excitement was likely to be killed on the spot as was any one caught by roving patrols in streets or alleys after dusk. Many slayings were witnessed by foreigners. The Japanese looting amounted almost to plundering of the entire city. Nearly every building was entered by Japanese soldiers, often under the eyes of their officers, and the men took whatever they wanted. The Japanese soldiers often impressed Chinese to carry their loot.11

Durdin went on with more information about the wanton killings and mass executions he had observed: Many Chinese men reported to foreigners the abduction and rape of wives and daughters. These Chinese appealed for aid, which the foreigners usually were powerless to give.

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The mass executions of war prisoners added to the horrors the Japanese brought to Nanking. After killing the Chinese soldiers who threw down their arms and surrendered, the Japanese combed the city for men in civilian garb who were suspected of being former soldiers. In one building in the refugee zone 400 men were seized. They were marched off, tied in batches of fifty, between lines of riflemen and machine gunners, to the execution ground. Just before boarding the ship for Shanghai the writer watched the execution of 200 men on the Bund. The killings took ten minutes. The men were lined against a wall and shot. Then a number of Japanese, armed with pistols, trod nonchalantly around the crumpled bodies, pumping bullets into any that were still kicking. (p. 10)

Durdin then provided a thought-provoking comment, “By despoiling the city and population the Japanese have driven deeper into the Chinese a repressed hatred that will smolder through years as forms of the anti-Japanism that Tokyo professes to be fighting to eradicate from China.” (ibid) Then, he continued with more details of the atrocities committed by Japanese troops: Thousands of prisoners were executed by the Japanese. Most of the Chinese soldiers who had been interned in the safety zone were shot en masse. The city was combed in a systematic house-to-house search for men having knapsack marks on their shoulders or other signs of having been soldiers. They were herded together and executed. Many were killed where they were found, including men innocent of any army connection and many wounded soldiers and civilians. I witnessed three mass executions of prisoners within a few hours Wednesday. In one slaughter a tank gun was turned on a group of more than 100 soldiers at a bomb shelter near the Ministry of Communications. A favorite method of execution was to herd groups of a dozen men at entrances of dugouts and to shoot them so the bodies toppled inside. Dirt then was shoveled in and the men buried. ...... Civilian casualties also were heavy, amounting to thousands. The only hospital open was the American-managed University Hospital and its facilities were inadequate for even a fraction of those hurt. Nanking’s streets were littered with dead. Sometimes bodies had to be moved before automobiles could pass. The capture of Hsiakwan Gate by the Japanese was accompanied by the mass killing of the defenders, who were piled up among the sandbags, forming a mound six feet high. Late Wednesday the Japanese had not removed the dead, and two days of heavy military traffic had been passing through, grinding over the remains of men, dogs and horses. The Japanese appear to want the horrors to remain as long as possible, to impress on the Chinese the terrible results of resisting Japan. ..... Nanking today is housing a terrorized population who, under alien domination, live in fear of death, torture and robbery. The graveyard of tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers may also be the graveyard of all Chinese hopes of resisting conquest by Japan. (ibid)

On December 19, another article by Durdin appeared in The New  York Times under the title, “Foreigners’ role in Nanking praised,” in which he described the significant roles the small group of Westerners played in organizing the International Committee, Safety Zone, Red Cross Committee and Red Cross Hospital, as well as keeping the University Hospital, a mission hospital, open to provide shelter, food and medical assistance for thousands of refugees in the city. With their “lives often jeopardized by the shelling and bombing and by unruly soldiers” while playing “unique roles of great humanitarian and political importance,” almost “miraculously the foreigners survived the siege without injury to any one save minor cuts.”12

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The bloody scenes and the reign of terror in Nanjing seemed to keep on haunting him, and what he had already written and published about the atrocities did not appear to provide enough and adequate coverage and analysis of the tragic carnage that once unfolded before his eyes. He kept on writing about what he had witnessed and that he would like to offer more detailed and in-depth analysis of the war and massacre. On December 22, he sent by air-mail an extensive and lengthy report to New York from Shanghai, but the report did not make it to The New York Times until January 9, 1938. In this full-page article in the newspaper, the author used a large proportion of it for analysing the Nanjing battle and the siege in terms of military strategies, but he did provide further, detailed descriptions of the atrocities committed by Japanese troops: In taking over Nanking the Japanese indulged in slaughters, looting and rapine[sic] exceeding in barbarity any atrocities committed up to that time in the course of the Sino-Japanese hostilities. The unrestrained cruelties of the Japanese are to be compared only with the vandalism in the Dark Ages in Europe or the brutalities of medieval Asiatic conquerors. The helpless Chinese troops, disarmed for the most part and ready to surrender, were systematically rounded up and executed. Thousands who had turned themselves over to the Safety Zone Committee and been placed in refugee centers were methodically weeded out and marched away, their hands tied behind them, to execution grounds outside the city gates. Small bands who had sought refuge in dugouts were routed out and shot or stabbed at the entrances to the bomb shelters. Their bodies were then shoved into the dugouts and buried. Tank guns were sometimes turned on groups of bound soldiers. Most generally the executions were by shooting with pistols. Every able-bodied male in Nanking was suspected by the Japanese of being a soldier. An attempt was made by inspecting shoulders for knapsack and rifle butt marks to single out the soldiers from the innocent males, but in many cases, of course, men innocent of any military connection were put in the executed squads. In other cases, too, former soldiers were passed over and escaped. The Japanese themselves announced that during the first three days of cleaning up Nanking 15,000 Chinese soldiers were rounded up. At the time, it was contended that 25,000 more were still hiding out in the city. These figures give an accurate indication of the number of Chinese troops trapped within the Nanking walls. Probably the Japanese figure of 25,000 is exaggerated, but it is likely that about 20,000 Chinese soldiers fell victim to Japanese executioners. Civilians of both sexes and all ages were also shot by the Japanese. Firemen and policemen were frequent victims of the Japanese. Any person who, through excitement or fear, ran at the approach of the Japanese soldiers was in danger of being shot down. Tours of the city by foreigners during the period when the Japanese were consolidating their control of the city revealed daily fresh civilian dead. Often old men were to be seen face downward on the pavements, apparently shot in the back at the whim of some Japanese soldier.13

Durdin also contributed several paragraphs to the descriptions of the wholesale looting and rape cases committed by Japanese soldiers: Wholesale looting was one of the major crimes of the Japanese occupation. Once a district was in their full control, Japanese soldiers received free rein to loot all houses therein. Food seemed to be the first demand, but all articles of value were taken at will, particularly things easily carried. Occupants of homes were robbed and any who resisted were shot. Foreign Properties Looted

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Refugee camps were entered and in many cases the few dollars of unfortunate refugees were taken. Houses that were barricaded were broken into. Foreign properties were not immune. Japanese soldiers entered faculty houses of the American mission Ginling College and took what they pleased. The American mission University Hospital was searched and belongings of nurses taken from the dormitory. Foreign flags were torn from buildings and at least three motor cars were taken from foreigners. The home of the United States Ambassador, Nelson T. Johnson, was entered, but the five intruding Japanese soldiers were made to leave before they had obtained any loot except a flashlight. Chinese women were freely molested by Japanese soldiers, and American missionaries personally know of cases where many were taken from refugee camps and violated. (ibid)

Durdin felt that the account of Nanjing’s fall and the reign of terror thereafter would not be complete without reference to the safety zone and the role played by Westerners who remained in the besieged city: Not an unqualified success, the Nanking safety zone was nevertheless instrumental in saving thousands of civilian lives. It was the aim of its foreign promoters to obtain its complete demilitarization and have its neutrality respected throughout the seize. Full demilitarization was never attained and during the last days of the battle for Nanking Chinese soldiers streamed through the area. When the Japanese entered the city they also entered the zone freely. However, the Japanese never subjected the zone to concentrated shelling or air bombardment, and as a result civilians who took refuge there were comparatively safe. It is estimated that 100,000 had sought sanctuary in the zone, which occupied an area of three or four square miles in the western district of the city. The head of the safety zone committee was John H. D. Rabe, a white-haired German respected by every one who knew him in Nanking. The director was George Fitch of Soochow, a China-born American who did an admirably competent job in a time of great danger and stress, a job that involved all the responsibilities that would be demanded in directing a small American city during a period of flood or other catastrophe. The secretary of the committee was Dr. Lewis S.C. Smythe, Professor of Sociology at the University of Nanking, a man of much force and initiative. Prominent particularly in the negotiations for establishing the zone was Dr. M. Searle Bates, Professor of History at the university. Dr. Bates was in the forefront, too, of efforts to obtain an armistice at Nanking, during which it was planned to have Chinese troops withdraw and Japanese occupy the city peacefully. (ibid)

The only British journalist in the group, Reuter’s correspondent Smith, cabled out news wires back to his news agency immediately after he came ashore in Shanghai as well. His first report, though published anonymously, appeared in The Times in London on December 18, On Monday morning the Japanese were still gradually moving northward, meeting with no resistance, and a systematic mopping-up had already begun. The foreigners thought that all trouble was over, though groups of Chinese soldiers were still wandering about. Those coming to the safety zone were told to lay down their arms, and thousands discarded their arms and uniforms, which made a huge pile in front of the blazing Ministry of Communications. The huge crowds of Chinese and the handful of foreigners hoped that the arrival of the Japanese would end the confusion, but when the invaders began their intensive mopping-up operations, that hope was dashed. The Chinese fled in terror, and the horror of the scene was accentuated by the wounded who were crawling around imploring aid. That night the Japanese opened the Chungshan Gate and made a triumphal entry, in which, owning to the dearth of transport, they used oxen, donkeys, wheelbarrows, and even

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broken down carriages. Later they began working into the safety zone, and anyone caught out of doors without good reason was promptly shot. On Tuesday the Japanese began a systematic searching out of anyone even remotely connected with the Chinese Army. They took suspects from the refugee camps and trapped many soldiers wandering in the streets. Soldiers who would willingly have surrendered were shot down as an example. NURSES ROBBED No mercy was shown. The hopes of the populace gave place to fear and a reign of terror followed. Japanese searched houses and began a wholesale looting of property along the main streets, breaking into shops and taking watches, clocks, silverware, and everything portable, and impressing coolies to carry their loot. They visited the American University Hospital and robbed the nurses of their wrist watches, fountain pens, flashlights, ransacked the buildings and property, and took the motor-cars, ripping the American flags off them. Foreign houses were invaded and a couple of German shops looted. Any sympathy shown by foreigners towards the disarmed Chinese soldiers merely served to incense the Japanese. Young men who might have been soldiers and many police constables were assembled in groups for execution, as was proved by the bodies afterwards seen lying in piles. The streets were littered with bodies, including those of harmless old men, but it is a fact that the bodies of no women were seen. At the Hsiakwan gate leading to the river the bodies of men and horses made a frightful mass 4 ft. deep, over which cars and lorries were passing in and out of the gate.14

Another of his reports appeared on December 19  in The Peking Chronicle, an English newspaper published by the British in Beijing. The article begins with a brief introduction: “An awe-inspiring spectacle, terrible in its futility, was seen from the roof of the Italian Embassy on the afternoon of December 12th when the Chinese defense of Nanking collapsed, says Reuter’s correspondent, Mr. Leslie Smith, who returned to Shanghai in the British warship Ladybird after covering the siege of Nanking.”15 This newspaper was published in the city already under Japanese rule, so the article focuses more on the description of Chinese troops’ chaotic retreat and Nanjing’s fall than the atrocities, which might have been edited out by the newspaper’s editor. However, the article still reveals some information regarding massacres: Hundreds of Chinese troops were trapped within the city walls which they began to scale with ladders and ropes and even used their clothing tied together in ropes. Escaping thus far the survivors began boarding rafts and boats on which to cross the river but they became overcrowded. In the words of a Chinese eye-witness, “Hundreds perhaps thousands were drowned.” Meanwhile a valiant rearguard action was fought in an attempt to stem the Japanese advance. Heavy machine-gunning continued through the night, reaching its climax about midnight when many defenders were wiped out outside the city walls, where eye-witnesses later saw a thousand Chinese bodies. (p. 18)

When the American and British journalists departed for Shanghai, they helped smuggle out some eyewitness accounts written by the Americans who were still in Nanjing. One of the articles, written by M.  S. Bates on December 15, 1937 was made available to other Western journalists in Shanghai. Apparently, Hallett Abend, a New York Times correspondent stationed in Shanghai, obtained a copy and quoted it extensively in his report published by The New York Times on December 24, 1937: “The disgraceful collapse of Chinese authority in this region had left vast numbers of persons ready to respond to the order and organization of which Japan boasts. The whole

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o­ utlook has been ruined by frequent murders, wholesale looting and the uncontrolled disturbance of private homes, including revolting offenses against the security of women.” Civilians Bayoneted That writer added that great numbers of dead civilians were victims of shooting and bayoneting, many of the cases being plainly witnessed by foreigners and reputable Chinese. Squads of Chinese who had discarded their arms and uniforms were tied together and executed, one report adds. “Thus far there is no trace of Chinese prisoners in Japanese hands other than squads actually or apparently on the way to be executed,” a letter said. Many Chinese impressed into service as carriers of loot taken away by Japanese were said later to have been shot. An American missionary continued: “Great amounts of food were first taken, but everything else useful or valuable later had its turn. Tens of thousands of private homes, large and small, Chinese and foreign, have been impartially plundered and scores of refugee camps entered and money and valuables as well as slight possessions removed during the mass searches. “Members of the staff of the University of Nanking Hospital were stripped of their cash and watches while nurses in the dormitory were subjected to the plundering hordes.” National Flags Torn Down The same American writes that motor cars and other property owned by foreigners were widely seized after the tearing down of national flags. It was indicated that abduction of girls and women by Japanese officers and soldiers was prevalent. That report ends with the comment: “Under these conditions the terror is indescribable, and lectures by suave Japanese officers that their ‘sole purpose is to make war against an oppressive Chinese Government for the sake of the Chinese people’ leave an impression that nauseates. There must be responsible Japanese statesmen, military and civilian, who for their national interests will promptly and adequately remedy the harm these days have done to Japanese standing in China. “There are individual cases of Japanese soldiers and officers who conduct themselves like gentlemen worthy of their profession and worthy of their empire, but the total has been a sad blow.”16

Another copy of Bates’ article was obtained by The North-China Daily News, a newspaper published by the British in Shanghai. On Christmas Day 1937, this newspaper ran a report entitled, “Rape, looting follow taking of the capital: Bitter two days on entry of Japanese; hundreds massacred; foreign property not safe from plundering,” which directly quotes major paragraphs of Bates’ article with minimal revision: In the main streets, the petty looting of the Chinese soldiers, mostly of food shops and of unprotected windows, was turned into systematic destruction of shop-front after shop-front under the eyes of officers of rank. Japanese soldiers required private carriers to help them struggle along under great loads. Food was apparently in first demand, but everything else useful or valuable had its turn. Thousands upon thousands of private houses all through the city, occupied and unoccupied, large and small, Chinese and foreign, have been impartially plundered. Peculiarly disgraceful cases of robbery by soldiers included the follows: scores of refugees in camps and shelters had money and valuables removed from their slight possessions during mass searches; the staff of a hospital were stripped of cash and watches from their persons, and of other possessions from the nurses’ dormitory (their building are foreign, and like a number of others that were plundered, were flying foreign flags and carrying official proclamations from their respective Embassies); the seizure of motor cars and other property after tearing down the flags upon them.17

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The initial English news coverage of the atrocities in Nanjing can be roughly divided into two categories. The first category includes the reports written by five American and British correspondents and those written with the missionary accounts brought out by the five journalists. The second category refers to the news reports based on the various eyewitness records written by American missionaries in Nanjing that were smuggled out through diplomatic channels after January 6, 1938, the day when American diplomats returned to Nanjing. The atrocities witnessed and reported by the five journalists occurred in the initial stage of the massacre. After their departure for Shanghai, there were more large-­ scale mass executions outside the city, while small-scale and individual killings, raping, looting and burning continued unabated. With no communication available, the remaining 22 Westerners were literally cut off from the rest of the world. They remained in isolation until the three American diplomats returned, and enabled them to send out mail through diplomatic channels. After the first batch of missionary eyewitness accounts were smuggled out to Shanghai, The North-China Daily News published on January 21, 1938, an editorial, “A great change,” which indicates, To the astonishment of most people it is now learned that these outrages have been continued, and that ever since the occupation of Nanking until within the last few days, abduction of women, rape and looting have been carried on with an industry which would have done justice to a more praise-worthy cause. Chinese have been stabbed with bayonets, or reckless shot. It is estimated that more than 10,000 people have been killed, some not even guilty of the trivial offence of having the hardihood to fight for their country. How many women have been raped it is impossible to ascertain but the estimates vary from as low as 8,000 to as high as 20,000. Girls of as tender an age as eleven years, women as old as fifty-three have been the forced victims of military lust. Refugees have been robbed of their scanty supply of money, their clothing, bedding and food, and all this was still going on as late as less than a week ago. In the initial stages insufficiency of military police rendered control of the disorderly soldiery impossible. More of such police have been appointed, but as late as a week ago, soldiers were still breaking into houses day and night, indulging in rape and abduction.18

The editorial also points out with a warning that “the evidence that this is the case is overwhelming and the fact that innocent, harmless Chinese civilians are being subjected to such hideous treatment is becoming plainer and plainer to the whole world. This story, despite the fact that Nanking is practically cut off from the rest of the world, will one day be known in all its horror. Much of it the world already knows: the rest will make sorry reading for generations to come, and in all earnestness it is suggested that the time has come when a determined effort should be made by the authorities responsible for the conduct of these men to put a stop to such outrageous behavior.” (ibid) A few days later, the same newspaper published an article written by Lewis Smythe concerning the relief work in the Nanjing Safety Zone. The article discusses such issues as the refugee population in the zone, the acquisition of food supplies, distribution of rice and flour to refugees, and rehabilitation efforts to the widows whose bread winners had been killed by the Japanese. As to the rehabilitation issue,

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the article provides the information the International Committee had collected up to that point, Another rehabilitation problem is the widows and orphans. In the first part of the survey on this question at Ginling College, 420 women were found whose men folk on whom they were dependent for support had been killed by the Japanese. Many civilian men in the city met that fate because they were suspected of being “plainclothes soldiers.” Some were marched off in registration even though their women folk and family guaranteed them.19

Meanwhile, Hallet Abend reported on January 24 that the “summary of conditions in China’s former capital which is arriving at Shanghai from missionaries and welfare workers who risked their lives to administer refugee camps during the siege, and other reports from consular and other foreign officials now residing in Nanking, can scarcely all be malicious, yet all these reports agree and all contain eye witness accounts of the horrible brutality and unrestrained license of the Japanese forces presently in Nanking.” Japanese soldiers, Abend wrote, “were out of hand, and daily criminally assaulting hundreds of women and very young girls,” and “as late as January 20 the reign of lawlessness and bestiality was still continuing unchecked……”.20 The next detailed atrocity report based on American missionary accounts, however, did not appear in print until January 28, 1938, when The Daily Telegraph and Morning Post in London published a news wire the newspapers special correspondent in Hong Kong wrote. This report begins with a brief introduction: “From reports and letters sent by professors at the University of Nanking and by American missionaries to the Japanese Embassy and to the missionary headquarters, I am now able to reveal for the first time the full extent of the atrocities carried out by Japanese soldiers at Nanking and Hangchow.”21 Then the article went on with one atrocity case after another: These reports describe wholesale executions, rape and looting. One missionary estimates the number of Chinese slaughtered at Nanking as 20,000, while thousands of women, including young girls, have, it is stated, been outraged. The writers do not wish their names to be revealed, but I have seen all the documents. There can be no doubt of their complete authenticity. Repeated complaints are made that the Japanese authorities have done nothing to curb the troops. Unspeakable crimes, it is declared, have been committed in full view of the Japanese Embassy staff. BOY’S SEVEN WOUNDS One missionary writing from Nanking on Jan. 11, says that, while walking with the Japanese Consul General, he saw bodies in every street. This was four weeks after the occupation of the city on Dec. 13. The letter declares: “A little boy died in hospital here this morning from seven bayonet wounds in the stomach. I saw a woman yesterday in hospital who had been raped 20 times, after which the soldiers had tried to cut off her head with a bayonet, but had inflicted only a bad throat wound.” ...... MISSIONARIES THREATENED Other witnesses describe similar atrocities on a vast scale. In several cases husbands were bayoneted or shot, while attempting to defend their wives. Missionaries recount how they themselves have been threatened with revolvers when attempting to interfere.

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One American missionary, writing on Dec. 19, says that Chinese were marched off and shot in droves. Some 300 were taken in one batch to a pond and shot as they stood in the icy water. This letter adds: “Another big batch was forced into a mat shed ringed by machine-guns. The shed was then set on fire, all inside being burnt to death.” (ibid)

George A. Fitch of the YMCA in Nanjing was the first of the 14 Americans to obtain permission to leave Nanjing. He departed on February 20, 1938 for Shanghai by a Japanese military train, succeeding in smuggling out 8 reels of movie film of atrocity cases shot by John Magee of the American Church Mission in Nanjing. After a brief stay in Shanghai, he arrived in Guangzhou, the capital city of Guangdong Province in South China, in early March. The governor welcomed him with a reception, at which Fitch gave a talk about the atrocities Nanjing had sustained. Even though no journalists were invited to the reception, his story leaked out and was published on March 16 by South China Morning Post, an English newspaper published in Hong Kong, under the title, “The Rape of Nanking: American eyewitness tells of debauchery by invaders; unarmed Chinese butchered.” It was the first time that the term “Rape of Nanking” was ever used for the massacres and atrocities committed by Japanese troops in that city. Without revealing Fitch’s identity, the report provides detailed descriptions of the atrocities: On December 14, a Japanese colonel came to the neutral zone office and demanded that he be informed of the identity and present disposition of 6,000 disarmed Chinese soldiers, quartered – according to his information – in the neutral zone. Information was refused. Thereupon, Japanese search parties discovered a pile of Chinese military uniforms in one of the zone camps near headquarters. Thirteen hundred men located nearest the pile were rounded up for shooting. Zone headquarters protested, and was assured that the men were merely required for labouring work for the Japanese Army. The protest was carried to the Japanese Embassy, and its bearers, returning towards dark, found the thirteen hundred prisoners roped together. They were carrying no hats, no bedding, and none of their possessions; it was plain what was intended for them. They were marched off, not one of them making a murmur, and executed down at the river front.22

Fitch reached San Francisco on March 9, 1938, and on March 17 flew to Washington D.C., where he met with officials from the Department of State to brief them on a first-hand account of the conditions in Nanjing under the Japanese occupation. He then toured across the country, giving speeches, along with a show of the films he had smuggled out, to audiences in different cities. His speech tour was followed closely by local media. When he was in Cleveland, OH to speak at Cleveland Heights Presbyterian Church, The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported on May 23, 1938, The destruction of Nanking was the blackest page in modern history, according to George Fitch, who was director of safety zone in Nanking from Dec 13 to Feb, 20 and an eyewitness of the destruction in the city by the Japanese. ...... The Japanese for two months kept up continuous looting, burning, robbing and murdering, Fitch said. “Chinese men by the thousands were taken out to be killed by machine guns or slaughtered for hand grenade practice,” he asserted. “The poorest of the poor were robbed of their last coins, deprived of their bedding and all that they could gather out of a city s­ ystematically

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destroyed by fire. There were hundreds of cases of bestiality inflicted upon Chinese women.”23

Partly because of his speech tour and partly because of the wide circulation of his Nanjing diaries, Fitch’s atrocity stories were repeatedly published, with variations both anonymously and nominally, in newspapers and magazines. On June 2, 1938, the magazine Ken published his account anonymously, but under the pretext that it was told to John Maloney. Under the title, “The Sack of Nanking,” it narrates the Nanjing conditions with a literary touch: Old men and old women, babes in arms and babes unborn were not spared. I saw 20,000 men, women, and children of all ages, thousands of civilians along with surrendered soldiers, done to death. The newly-paved streets of Nanking were splotched with blood for four weeks after Japanese troops broke through the ancient thick walls. These helpless thousands fell before blasts from batteries of machine guns, at the points of bayonets, under the heavy butts of rifles, from the explosion of hand grenades. More terrible still, roped bundles of live men were saturated with gasoline and ignited to satisfy the fiendish pleasure of 50,000 Nipponese soldiers filled with uncontrollable impulses to destroy everything before them.24

The Ken account was condensed and appeared in the July 1938 issue of The Reader’s Digest under the same title, “The Sack of Nanking.”25 On June 11, 1938, The San Francisco Chronicle printed another version of Fitch’s Nanjing experiences in its Sunday Supplement, This World, again under the title, “The Rape of Nanking,” and this time the author’s name, “George A. Fitch,” was attached to it for the first time, though it was “told to Pardee Lowe.” The newspaper’s editor provided a detailed introductory note for it: George A. Fitch was the minister who married Generalissimo and Mme. Chiang Kai-shek in Shanghai in 1929. An American missionary, son of a missionary, he has devoted his life to the Chinese people. In return, he is unanimously loved by them. Fitch’s bravery during the first battle of Shanghai in 1932 is a legend in China. He rescued something like a hundred families from the battle areas. For this and other services, the government had reason to be grateful to him, and when the Chinese leaders abandoned Nanking last year, they naturally approved his appointment as Director of the International Neutral Zone of the capital. News dispatches attest his bravery and efficiency in the task, some of whose responsibilities he describes in the article bellow. Fitch has kept silence up to now, although he permitted the use of his priceless photographic record of the fall of Nanking by Life, and told some of his experiences to a writer for Ken. This is the first time, however, that he has authorized the use of his name in connection with any of this material.26

In this article, which is indeed an abbreviated version of his Nanjing diaries, Fitch tells his stories in first person: When the main forces of the Japanese army poured into Nanking through the breach effected in the Chungshan gate on the morning of the 13th, there followed two months of robbery, looting, rape, and wholesale slaughter. ...... The other foreigners and I had to stand by utterly helpless and witness the people whom we lived among, knew and loved first ruthlessly beaten and then insanely destroyed by blood-crazed Japanese soldiers. For ten solid weeks we saw the poorest robbed of their last coin and bedding. Able-­ bodied men, whom we personally knew to be civilians, were dragged from the sanctuary of

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our safety zone and taken out by the thousands before our very eyes to be mowed down with machine and tank guns, hand grenades and even used for live bayonet practice. I heard the cries of tens of thousands of women kneeling and praying for help which we were helpless to give. First, than husbands and sons were torn from them and ruthlessly murdered. Then night after night squads of Japanese soldiers would invade the neutral zone and drag away hundreds of them, crying hysterically, to be subjected to unspeakable indignities. Theirs was a fate worse than death. ...... After each night of fitful rest I would waken at dawn to find an endless line of wailing violated women with drawn, haggard faces. They were trying to find a momentary refuge after another night of indescribable horror. We would march them with Red Cross flags to a place of shelter in our neutral zone only to have the Japanese daily violate our neutrality signs with impunity. Whatever we set out to save we found the Japanese army bent on destroying. One night, for example, we drove our car into the heart of the city to continue our rescue work, only to find the road blocked. Our automobile headlights spotted a line-up of 1,300 men, tied together, hats torn off, being marched off for wholesale execution....... We discovered, however, what grim fate had in store for these non-combatants. The Japanese had used bayonets and tank guns on this particular group and then gasoline had been poured upon them and ignited. We knew this because the wounded, left to die, somehow crawled their way back to our hospital. We found three of the poor fellows the next morning. All were seriously burned. Many must have been literally cooked alive, for the seared body of one of these we found at the corner next to my house showed no bullet nor bayonet wounds. (ibid)

Meanwhile, as the atrocity accounts by the American missionaries still trapped inside Nanjing continuously trickled out to Shanghai, English media around the globe kept publishing them. On March 19, 1938, The China Weekly Review, an English magazine published by Americans in Shanghai issued a supplement, which contains another eyewitness account of the Japanese atrocities in Nanjing, under the title, “Nanking – What Really Happened – and the Japanese ‘Paradise.’” This atrocity account is also accompanied by a brief news report by the Japanese to whitewash the conditions in Nanjing as a warm and nice “paradise.” The article points out, In the case of Nanking, however, the outbreak of looting and rape, as reported by neutral observers, surpassed any possibility of casual or isolated action, and reached such proportions as to reflect upon either the control of the officers or the sincerity of Japan feudal military philosophy, Bushido, to which Japanese spokesmen have pointed with pride. On the next page is published an article showing what the Japanese would like to have the world believe happened in Nanking, but the actual records of what occurred in the Chinese capital city in the days, and even weeks, which followed the capture of Nanking on December 13 show the exact reverse of this picture to be true. Immediately after the city was taken, the Japanese conducted mass executions of everyone who had, or was capable of, bearing arms, the executions being carried out with a brutality that defies description.27

Then, the writer quoted F. Tillman Durdin’s December 18, 1937 news dispatch before describing women’s fate at the hands of Japanese soldiers: But the brutality towards able-bodied men was not all. While Nanking was almost completely isolated from the rest of China, Japanese soldiers perpetrated horrors. The Japanese soldiers combed the former Chinese capital looking for money, loot and women. Many Chinese were maltreated because they had nothing to offer the Japanese

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when the soldiers came around. Women between 16 and 60 years of age could expect the worst if they were discovered. There is one case in Nanking where a group of Chinese saved their women only by hiding them under a huge pile of lumber. Every few days the entire lumber piles was removed, food and water passed in to the women, and the lumber carefully piled up again so that there would be no indication or trace of women. (ibid)

The article also quotes paragraphs from the protest letters M. S. Bates presented to the Japanese Embassy from December 16 to 27, 1937, though Bates’ name remained anonymous. On December 16, he wrote: In our ____ Compound more than thirty women were raped last night by soldiers who came repeatedly and in large numbers. I have investigated this matter thoroughly and am certain of the correctness of the statement. The situation all through this section of the city is pitifully indeed. We trust that you who have demonstrated your superiority in military power will also demonstrate superiority in mercy. Security of life and people is immediately needed by these many tens of thousands of peaceful citizens. (ibid)

On December 27, he protested with apparent disappointment, “Beginning more than a week ago we were promised by you that within a few days order would be restored by replacement of troops, resumption of regular discipline, increase of military police, and so forth. Yet shameful disorder continues, and we see no serious effort to stop it.” (p. 11) In contrast to the reign of terror described by the Americans, the Japanese attempted to present a picture in which refugees were comforted by the gentle soothing of the Japanese troops, according to a report from Sin Shun Pao (新 申報), a Japanese controlled Chinese-language newspaper published in Shanghai on January 8, 1938: “Fortunately the Imperial Army entered the city, put their bayonets into their sheaths and stretched forth merciful hands in order to examine and to heal, diffusing grace and favor to the excellent, true citizens. In the region west of the Japanese Embassy, many thousands of herded refugees cast off their former absurd attitude of opposing Japan, and clasped their hands in congratulation for receiving assurance of life.” (ibid) One month after the atrocity accounts appeared in The China Weekly Review in Shanghai, the popular magazine Time published a report of atrocity cases in its April 18, 1938 issue, revealing gruesome cases: Protestant and Jewish philanthropic groups with branches in China had by last week brought together in the U.S. fairly full eye witness and photographic data on the butchery and rape which reigned in Nanking for over a month after this capital of China fell. …… A typical and horrifying case history is that of a young Chinese girl brought in a basket litter on January 26 to the Mission hospital in Nanking. She said that her husband, a Chinese policeman, was seized by one of the Japanese execution squads on the same day that she was taken by Japanese soldiers from a hut in the Safety Zone to the South City. She was kept there for 38 days, she said, and attacked by Japanese soldiers from five to ten times each day. Upon examination by the Mission hospital, she was found to have contracted all three of the most common venereal diseases, a vaginal ulcer which finally ended her usefulness to the soldiers. ...... Robbery and looting also flourished in Nanking for many weeks. The number of Chinese executed, not killed in battle, totals by the most conservative Nanking estimates 20,000. Excerpt from a Nanking letter written at the worst period: “One [Chinese] boy of seventeen came in with the tale of about 10,000 Chinese men between the ages of 15 and 30 who were led out of the city on the 14th [of January]28 to the river bank near the ferry wharf. There the

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Japanese opened up on them with field guns, hand grenades and machine guns. Most of them were then pushed into the river, some were burned in huge piles, and three managed to escape. Of the 10,000 the boy figured there were about 6,000 ex-soldiers and 4,000 civilians. He has a bullet wound in the chest which is not serious.”29

After publishing the condensed version of Ken’s “Sack of Nanking” in July, The Reader’s Digest collected atrocity accounts and reports through its own channels, and printed the material, which consists of excerpts from letters written by Robert O. Wilson, M. S. Bates and George A. Fitch, for the reasons indicated in the magazine editor’s note: “The Sack of Nanking” was published in the July Reader’s Digest, a condensation from Ken. “It is unbelievable that credence could be given a thing which is so obviously rank propaganda and so reminiscent of the stuff fed the public during the late war,” wrote one subscriber. Similar comments were received from a number of readers. But the ghastly tale was true. At considerable pains, The Reader’s Digest has collected letters from the handful of Americans who stayed in Nanking during those awful days. The letters were written by a surgeon inured to bloody scenes and trained in scientific accuracy of statement, by missionaries and teachers reporting to their mission boards, by Y.M.C.A. workers. The material we have seen would fill an entire issue of this magazine, all of it corroborating the typical extracts which follow. (For obvious reasons, the names of the writers must be withheld.)30

Under the title, “We were in Nanking,” it first prints excerpts from Wilson’s letters to his wife Marjorie from December 18, 1937, to May 3, 1938. December 18 TODAY marks the sixth day of the modern Dante’s Inferno, written in huge letters with blood and rape. Murder by the wholesale and rape by the thousands of cases. There seems to be no stop to the ferocity and lust of the brutes……. They bayoneted one little boy, killing him, and I spent an hour and a half this morning patching up another little boy of eight who had five bayonet wounds including one that penetrated his stomach. I think he will live. One girl I have is a half-wit. She didn’t have any more sense than to claw at a Japanese soldier who was taking away her only bedding. Her reward was a bayonet thrust that cut half the muscles of one side of her neck. ..... Christmas Eve One man who just got in today says he was a stretcher-bearer, one of 4,000 men marched to the banks of the Yangtze and machine-gunned. S___ says that the big trenches built for tank traps were filled with the bodies of dead and wounded soldiers and when there weren’t enough bodies to fill them so the tanks could pass, the Japs shot the people living around there indiscriminately to fill up the trenches. He borrowed a camera to go back and take pictures to bear out his statement. ..... February 13 Six Japanese soldiers entered a town some miles southwest of here, and proceeded with their usual system of rape and looting. The men of the town organized some resistance, killed three of the soldiers. The other three escaped but soon returned with several hundred who quickly threw a cordon around the town. Three hundred inhabitants were all tied together in groups of six or eight and thrown into the icy river. The Japanese then leveled the town so that there was not a wall standing. February 27 It seems that the Japanese announced that they would sell some flour (seized as part of their booty) and about 200 people gathered to buy it. The Japs had about 100 bags which rapidly disappeared. Then they told the rest of the crowd to get out of the way, and emphasized their command with bayonet thrusts. One young woman was run through the back so

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that the point came out in front of the abdomen. She lived about five minutes after getting to the hospital. The second came in yesterday having a bayonet wound of the buttock and a tremendous bruise of the lower abdomen where a soldier had kicked her. The third case came in today – a bayonet wound which went through a loop of intestine making holes in two places. March 6 Two days ago, a man came into the hospital from Molingkwan. The town had been completely stripped of livestock and many of the inhabitants had fled to the hills. One old man had stayed with some of his family. They were visited daily and asked for girls and livestock. Early in February several soldiers, angered at his inability to produce that which he so obviously did not have, tied him up and strung him between poles about three feet off the ground. They built a fire under him. The flames burned all the skin off his lower abdomen and upper thighs and quite a bit of his chest and arms. One Japanese soldier took pity on him on account of his age and put out the fire, but did not release him. His family took him down after the soldiers had left; he had been tied up for about an hour. Eighteen days later he managed to get to the hospital. (pp. 41–43)

The article selects two letters by Bates, and one of them was written on January 10, 1938, to his friends: MORE than 10,000 unarmed persons have been killed in cold blood. Practically every building in the city, including the American, British and German Embassies, has been robbed repeatedly by soldiers. There is not a store in Nanking, save the International Committee’s rice shop and a military store. Most of the shops, after free-for-all pilfering, were systematically stripped by gangs of soldiers working with trucks, often under the observed direction of officers, and then burned deliberately. (p. 43)

One of Fitch’s letters is also quoted here: What I am about to relate I believe has no parallel in modern history. December 14th the Japanese poured into the city, conquerors of China’s capital and given free rein to do as they pleased. They burned, looted and killed at will. Vandalism and violence continue absolutely unchecked. Whole sections of the city were systematically burned. Soldiers seize anyone they suspect; callouses on hands are proof that the man is a Chinese soldier. Carpenters, coolies and other laborers are frequently taken. K___, who managed to slip out of the East Gate the other day, tells me that all the villages as far as he went, some 20 miles, are burned, and that not a living Chinese or farm animal is to be seen. (p. 44)

9.2  Chinese Media Coverage No Chinese journalists remained in the besieged city, and after the five American and British correspondents left for Shanghai, the Japanese military authorities forbade anyone to enter or leave Nanjing. With no means of communication available, nobody could send out information. Meanwhile, several Chinese soldiers and officers, who succeeded in escaping from Nanjing and made it to Xuzhou (徐州), were interviewed by the Central News Agency (中央社) journalists. On December 17, 1937, Dagong Daily (大公報) published in Hankou, Central China, a pretty brief and sketchy dispatch originated from Xuzhou: “After their entry into Nanjing, the enemy troops were engaged in extensive searches several days in succession, killing

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wantonly and burning down many buildings in and out of the city, and as of now, the burning is not yet over, with the ruins after the disasters appearing extremely wretched and miserable.”31 The following day, another Central News Agency news wire from Xuzhou appeared in West China Daily (華西日報) in Chengdu (成都), in which an officer talked about the bravery and sacrifice of the soldiers defending the Mufu Mountain Fort and the Wulong Hill Fort.32 Except for these sketchy pieces of information, there was no specific or detailed media coverage about the Japanese atrocities at Nanjing in either Chinese or English published in China proper for ten days since Nanjing’s fall on December 13, 1937. On December 22, however, Shanghai Evening Post and Mercury, an English newspaper published by Americans in Shanghai, printed an article summarizing the news dispatches that appeared in The New York Times. This article was immediately translated into Chinese and on December 23, the summary of the article’s content was published by Hankou Zhongxi Daily (漢口中西報), a newspaper published in Hankou: [Central New Agency Hong Kong cable, the 22nd] According to news from Shanghai and Hangzhou, the English edition of Shanghai Evening Post and Mercury published here indicates that when Japanese troops captured Nanjing, certain foreigners were on the spot and witnessed what was happening. Upon entering the city, Japanese troops let loose their soldiers to engage in organized looting, raping whomever they wanted, and then wantonly slaughtering a large number of people, with 50,000 killed within about four days. In addition, Japanese troops invaded into the Safety Zone, and, with the excuse that all the able-­ bodied males were Chinese soldiers, shot them all. As a result, at present dead bodies piled up like hills.33

In the following days, the Chinese version of this Evening Post and Mercury report was repeatedly printed, with different variations, by the newspapers in major cities across the country. On December 25, two reports, under the titles, “Foreigners’ information confirms the massacre committed by enemy in Nanjing” and “American newspaper reveals the atrocities committed by enemy troops,” appeared in Hankou’s Dagong Daily. In the former, except for mentioning that “after capturing Nanjing, enemy troops committed looting and raping, and did all manner of evil, and of our refugees, 50,000 males under 40 years of age were ruthlessly killed,” the report indicates that “the horrible massacre committed by enemy troops is shocking not only to Chinese troops and civilians, but also to foreign powers. …… It is also learned that massacre was committed in Nanjing Safety Zone as well.”34 The latter, however, is the translation of the Evening Post and Mercury December 22 report, which is based on the article published by Hallett Abend in The New York Times on December 20.35 On December 26, Dagong Daily published another brief report, which contains a few sentences translated from The North-China Daily News’ article of December 25, “Rape, looting follow taking of the capital”: From a house in the safety zone, 40 were taken for execution. There are widespread cases of rape, for instance, from a family next door to a Westerner, four young girls were taken by enemy soldiers. Foreigners saw eight young women in the quarters of a newly arrived officer.36

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The same newspaper ran a brief newswire originating from the Central News Agency on December 28 revealing that Japanese soldiers killed a large number of wounded Chinese soldiers, as well as doctors and nurses, and looted Gulou Hospital, an American mission hospital.37 After their arrival in Shanghai, some of the five American and British correspondents travelled further to Hankou via Hong Kong, where one of them was interviewed by a reporter of the Sunday Examiner, an English newspaper published in Hong Kong. The Chinese version of the interview report appeared in two installments on January 8 and 9, 1938, in Zhongyang Daily, or The Central Daily (中央日 報), then was published in Changsha, Hunan Province. Although the identity of the interviewee was kept anonymous as “a certain Westerner recently coming from Nanjing,” judging from the content of the interview report, this individual is likely F. Tillman Durdin of the New York Times. He told the reporter, After about 20,000 to 30,000 Japanese troops following the vanguards entered the city, the conditions in the city became increasingly chaotic, and the discipline of the Japanese troops was extremely poor like a victorious army of the Dark Age running amuck, while commanding officers turned their troops completely loose without any control. The first action these troops had taken after entering the city was to search for and kill Chinese soldiers. When the Chinese troops retreated from Nanjing, there remained wounded soldiers and those who, not soon enough to evacuate, hid in the “Safety Zone,” and those who were outside the city hiding in remote areas. They were already disarmed, but they were not spared. Once they were discovered, they were either shot or bayoneted to death by Japanese troops. After they killed those soldiers, Japanese troops buried their bodies in ditches. Among them, some were dead, but some were still alive; they were piled up one layer on top of the other like sand-bags buried in the pits. Apart from searching and killing Chinese soldiers, Japanese troops slaughtered noncombatant civilians, leaving dead bodies littered around and blood running …… A small number of Chinese troops, who had previously been disarmed and got permission from the International Relief Committee to seek temporary refuge in the safety zone, were eventually rounded up and all of them were shot by the Japanese troops who broke into the zone.38

The interview report also provides detailed descriptions of Japanese troops’ rampant looting behaviors. They robbed poor refugees of their last dollar and a few dozen cents, as well as the daily articles they carried with them. The looting did not happen to the Chinese alone. Foreigners were looted as well. The residence of American Ambassador Johnson was ransacked, and the houses of two American female missionaries, Bauer and Miss Hynds, were visited and looted by Japanese soldiers.39 However, the detailed indigenous Chinese eyewitness accounts did not make it to the newspapers until January 9, 1938, when Xijing Daily, or Western Capital Daily (西京日報), a newspaper published in Xi’an, ran an interview with a soldiers who had fought at Nanjing, was captured by the Japanese, but managed to escape, and made it home to Xi’an. In the interview report, which appeared in three installments on January 9, 10 and 17, the soldier named Chen Qinghua (陳慶華) recounted his Nanjing experiences. He served in the Instructional Corps, and his battalion was deployed at Fugui Hill (富貴山) near Taiping Gate. On December 13, when the retreat order arrived, he and many others first hid in a cave outside the city, but upon

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the approach of Japanese troops, he and four other comrades sneaked out of the cave to hide themselves among the grass on the hill until noon of the 14th. They then managed to change into civilian clothes, disguised as workers before they found themselves at the home of an old woman, a small shop owner, who fed them a full meal but declined to harbor them. They had no choice but to hide in a hill ravine, where they were discovered and detained by a Japanese search squad. They were repeatedly interrogated, but they maintained that they were workers and had nothing to do with the military. Consequently, each of them were issued a paper showing they were labor coolies of the Morozumi troop (两角部隊夫役), to be kept in captivity doing such chores as cleaning, maintaining stoves and fetching water.40 Chen did not see any massacre outside the walled city, but he claimed to witness Japanese soldiers violate women: That evening, we saw with our own eyes those wild dogs violate our female countrymen. We had no idea where they had searched and found the women, and we found it impossible to stand this extreme humiliation…… they even gang raped women who were over 40 years old. Afterward, they bayoneted them to death. (ibid)

On December 20, he followed the Morozumi troop to cross the Yangtze River to Puzhen (浦鎮) before the troops moved further northward the following day to Quanjiao (全椒), Anhui Province, where on December 25 he and two others managed to run away after they killed seven Japanese soldiers.41 Full of minute details, Chen Qinghua’s narrative appears to be an authentic personal experience. However, the part of killing seven Japanese soldiers is yet to be confirmed by other records written by someone from the Morozumi troop, which was also known as the 65th Infantry Regiment. On January 23, 1938, Dagong Daily briefly reported that at a press conference the previous day, the Japanese spokesman, while denouncing The North-China Daily News for publishing Nanjing atrocity reports, got into a heated debate with H. J. Timperley of The Manchester Guardian. Timperley argued that each of the atrocity reports had evidence to corroborate it, and further questioned the spokesman about Japanese authorities’ censorship over the dispatches cabled abroad by the foreign correspondents in Shanghai.42 The above issue was brought up again the following day in both Dagong Daily and the Saodang or The Mopping-up Daily (掃蕩報), though with more details, including the conditions in Nanjing, as reported by John Allison, the American consul in Nanjing, in his protest to the Japanese and in his No. 27 telegram dispatched on January 18. Its content was also reported by The New York Times on January 23. It states that from January 15 to 18 there had been 15 cases of irregular entry of American property by Japanese soldiers. In addition to American property damage and losses during these irregular entries, several Chinese women refugees residing at the premises concerned were forcibly taken away.43 Shenbao (申報) and Xinhua Daily (新華日報), both published in Hankou, reported on January 25, 1938 the “100-man killing contest” between Mukai and Noda. It is the Chinese translation of the report appearing on January 1  in the

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English weekly, The China Weekly Review, which, in turn, obtained information from the Japanese newspaper Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun (東京日日新聞).44 On January 31, Dagong Daily published the Chinese translation of two English reports. The first is the editorial of The North-China Daily News, “A great change,” published on January 25.45 The second is the detailed account about the “Allison Incident” issued by the U.S. Department of State.46 Dagong Daily published on February 7 “A bloody debt,” an account by an anonymous Chinese soldier who was a squad leader in the communications battalion, possibly the Instructional Corps. He was detained on December 13 when he was alone in a deserted shop in Nanjing. He speculated that he was not killed on the spot because he was already in civilian clothes, by himself in the store, rather than out in the street. In addition, the Japanese troop that detained him needed someone to fetch drinking water for them. On December 16, he witnessed the Japanese execute over one hundred Chinese soldiers and civilians they had rounded up at a school. The soldiers were bayoneted to death, while the civilians were each forced to dig a pit, then kneel by the pits so that their bodies fell into the pits after being shot. When the executions were finished, he participated in burying the bodies.47 As Chen Qinghua, this soldier also followed the Japanese troops to cross the Yangtze River on December 26 to Chuxian (滁縣), Anhui Province, where he managed to escape in early January 1938. (ibid) Christian Kröger of Carlowitz & Company was the first Westerner to leave Nanjing. He left for Shanghai by Japanese military train on January 23, 1938. While in Shanghai, he mailed his friend a letter he had written before his departure on January 21, informing the friend of the conditions of his residence in Nanjing, as well as the general conditions in the city, including Japanese atrocities. This friend in turn forwarded the letter to The Central Daily, which, with the permission of this friend, published the letter’s content on February 16, 1938. In the letter, Christian stated: Simply speaking, the terror started after Japanese troops entered the city when the authorized looting began and cruelty toward Nanjing civilians unfolded, which lasted as long as two weeks. Every residential neighborhood was thoroughly searched, and even though Chinese civilians never fired a shot at Japanese troops – speaking honestly before God – consequently 5,000 to 6,000 males in civilian clothes were ruthlessly shot to death at Xiaguan. They killed people upon entering doorways during the searching and looting, and they swiftly bayoneted people to death. The number of people killed in this manner amounted to several thousand. Some of them were killed in such a way that one could not bear to know. It was even more difficult to get the number of the women and girls who had been raped to death. All the residences were ransacked and looted thoroughly, and even those marked with other countries’ flags were not spared. H, K, S, E these four gentlemen’s houses were burned to ashes; 15 residences (The detailed list will be provided separately.) were seriously looted while 22 residences were slightly looted. 13 cars were taken, and it was remarkably fortunate, for the losses suffered by British and American friends were several times greater! Several servants loyal to their masters were cruelly murdered. Mr. XX’s servant was killed in the residence, and a small sum of solatium has been offered to his family.48

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Yuan Airui (袁靄瑞), a civilian clerk serving in the Instructional Corps, was trapped inside the city for more than a month. Shortly after he left Nanjing, he wrote his eyewitness account, which was published by Dagong Daily under the title, “Nanjing after its fall,” on February 20, 1938. Yuan wrote: This writer stayed inside the refugee zone at x Shanghai Road, and on December 15, three sloppily dressed drunken devils broke in, articulating something nobody understood. Seeing them coming, the residents managed to avoid them, but one man was caught before he was able to escape. He was hit and kicked for not being able to understand their words. The devils asked if there were any pretty girls. Extremely frightened, the man replied there were none, and he was instantly bayoneted several times by the devils. He fell down, gasping for breath in his dying moments. When the three devils stepped into the room, a girl of 12 years old happened to be there. She was caught and gang raped by the three, and while the girl was crying loudly for help, her parents stood by the door, seeing their girl molested and violated, but they did not dare to step up to stop them. In a makeshift hut nearby lived a mother and daughter who depended heavily on each other for survival. On the 17th, four devils ventured there, intending to abduct the girl. When the mother went up to stop them, the devils bayoneted her to death, and abducted the girl.49

The same day’s Dagong Daily ran another report about atrocities in Nanjing on page 3, and its continuation was printed the following day. It indicates that several refugees managed to get out of Nanjing on February 5, 1938. Against all odds, they reached Hankou, where they spoke to a reporter from the Central News Agency about what had happened in Nanjing since December 13, 1937: Meanwhile, troops were dispatched to different areas, conducting house-to-house searches for our armed troops. Whether involved in resistance or not, they were all shot to death, and from that day on, the slaughter and horror spread throughout the city. Then, the enemy claimed that the refugee zone had harbored armed troops. Disregarding international norms and openly violating the promise to the International Relief Committee, they broke into the refugee zone to conduct house-to-house searches. Anyone who resembled a serviceman was tied up and led away. For more than ten days, an average of a dozen truckloads full of non-combatants went out of the city each day, and a total of no less than ten thousand were cruelly massacred.50

The report gives a detailed account of the registration of residents in the city: At first, announcements were put up to inform the residents of the registration of regular residents. Violation would prevent people from residing in the refugee zone. As a result, every day tens of thousands of residents gathered at the exercise ground of the University of Nanking, Xinjiekou Square (新街口廣場), and Shanxi Road Square (山西路廣場). Each of these places became extremely crowded with people attempting to get registered. At that time, the enemy feigned benevolence, making a speech to the audience and claiming that anyone who was a former soldier, please step aside so as not to get mixed with residents in order to assign them jobs. Anyone who did not follow the practice would be shot. Consequently, out of each batch of 4,000 to 5,000 people, 400 to 500 were forced to step out of the resident crowds. I myself went for the registration and saw the enemy’s facial expressions, which appeared genuine. So the civilians were not panicked, but about 20 minutes after I left the registration area, suddenly machine gun firing was heard continuously and thus tens of thousands of poor residents met their end in such a vicious way. (ibid)

The report also indicates that rampant burning started by Japanese soldiers spread to such areas as “Zhonghua Gate, Confucius Temple (夫子廟), Zhonghua

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Road, Zhuque Road (朱雀路), Taiping Road, Zhongzheng Road (中正路), Guofu Road (國府路), Zhujiang Road (珠江路), as well as the Lingyuan Xincun (陵園新 村). All the tall buildings, stores and houses were set on fire, with broken and toppled walls all around, and scorched land stretching endlessly, which were too miserable to look at.” (ibid) Before the war reached Nanjing, a huge number of refugees fled the war-afflicted areas, many of them seeking refuge in Nanjing’s safety zone. Many of these refugees, who were originally from Shanghai, were trapped in Nanjing for months. After rounds of negotiation, about 1,200 refugees originally from Shanghai were registered before they were dispatched back to Shanghai by train on February 27, 1938. After 13  h’ journey, these refugees arrived in Shanghai, but they were not allowed to enter the International Settlement until the morning of the 28th. One of Shanghai’s newspapers, Wenhui Daily (文匯報), briefly reported their journey and arrival on March 2,51 and published one of the refugees’ accounts concerning their Nanjing experiences and journey on March 5. According to the accounts, on the third day after entering the refugee zone, “Japanese troops, under the excuse of searching for remnant Chinese soldiers, entered the zone, frantically rounding up refugees and strictly checking them …… If they found worn-out grey underwear or any ‘anti-Japan’ literature on you, you would be taken out to the street, and they would send you ‘home’ with a bullet. Many of us instantly met this fate.”52 From March 5 to 8, another Shanghai newspaper, The China Evening News (大晚報), published stories of these refugees in four installments under the title, “Escape from the black Zijin City,” describing similar Nanjing experiences and journeys.53 An eyewitness account appeared on March 5, 1938, in Xin Min Zu Zhou Kan, or New Ethnic Weekly (新民族週刊), a magazine published in Chongqing, West China. Under the title, “Nanjing in hell,” it is chiefly the translation of excerpts of M. S. Bates’ letters to the Japanese Embassy and to his friends from December 14, to January 11. The English versions of a few of Bates’ letter excerpts were published in London on January 28. On March, 19, 1938, The China Review Weekly printed in Shanghai a relatively more complete set of Bates’ letter excepts, but the Chongqing weekly published substantially more content than either of the two English versions. The Chongqing magazine might have obtained the source material from the church organization, National Christian Council, or from the American and British diplomats in possession of these missionaries’ eyewitness accounts, or from H. J. Timperley, who was in the process of compiling his book What War Means: Japanese Terror in China at the time. However, the Chongqing magazine publication was not made widely known until By-Weekly Digest (半月文摘), a Hankou-­ based publication, reprinted it on May 10, 1938.54 On March 9, 1938, Shenbao published another Japanese atrocity account, distributed by the Central News Agency, which is supposedly the content of a letter sent by a refugee on February 19, from Nanjing to Hong Kong by way of Shanghai. Xinhua Daily printed the same account in two installments on March 9 and 11. Concerning the massacres, the letter states:

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9  Media Coverage in English, Chinese and Japanese At Xiaguan, our troops who had not been able to evacuate and were murdered there, amount to about ten thousand …… Of the over 4,000 who had been rounded up at the Qilin Gate area, with no water or food, 400 to 500 died each day. At the Sancha River area, there are countless dead bodies submerged in the water. Inside the city, a large number of security forces, about 4,000 in number, together with the able-bodied civilians suspected of being soldiers were detained. The number of those detained each day must have been several thousand. They were all marched to Xiaguan, and they were forced to tie each other up before they were machine-gunned.55

On March 28, 1938, Dagong Daily published the Chinese translation of the detailed atrocity report that appeared in London’s The Daily Telegraph and Morning Post, on January 28, under the title, “Japan’s reign of terror in China.” Quoting paragraph after paragraph of eyewitness accounts recorded by American missionaries in Nanjing, this report provides first-hand and authentic descriptions of wholesale executions, rampant rape and widespread looting.56 Zhongshan Daily (中山日報), a newspaper published in Guangzhou, ran an article on April 1, 1938, “Tearful tales of Nanjing since its fall three months ago,” in which two refugees, Mr. Xiao (萧) and Mr. Wang (王), who had escaped from Nanjing on February 16 and March 10 respectively, talked about what they had witnessed and experienced in interviews with a correspondent: on December 13, 1937 at 11 a.m. a large number of enemy troops swamped the city. After occupying the government organizations, they spread out to conduct searches, wantonly slaughtering our civilians. Our armed troops, whether involved in resistance or not, were all killed, and to the 14th, assuming that there must be a lot of soldiers in the refugee zone, the enemy troops, disregarding international norms, rushed into the zone. Civilians with shaved heads or other resemblance to a soldier were tied up without exception. After the members of the International Committee intervened they were temporarily released, but at 11 p.m. when the committee members left, the enemy troops came back, indiscriminately tying up and sending truckloads of those who were around 30 years of age to the barracks of the 88th Division and the Ministry of War. At 2 a.m., they were marched out of Yijiang Gate. When they were marched to a location near the Ministry of the Navy, the civilians, taking advantage of their unwatchfulness, untied each other, attempting to run away once they were outside the city. But barely did they reach the riverside than the enemy’s machine guns started firing intensely. As a result, some fell into the river to drown, while most, after being shot dead, were pushed into the river by the enemy. This continued for as long as a week. Later, a certain fellow named Wang, who jumped into the river and crouched by the riverside until the following day, fled to Yanziji, where he was forced to carry ammunitions into the city. According to him, those who had been shot dead along the river, at Xiaguan alone, amounted to, at least, more than 30,000 ……57

A graduate from the Whamgpoa Military Academy and Army University, Liu Rouyuan (劉柔遠, 1905–89) was a major general with the Nanjing Garrison troops taking part in the Nanjing defense battles. The lack of ferry vessels made it impossible for him to cross the Yangtze River, and he was trapped in Nanjing for months. Fortunately, with the help of a Mr. Zuo (左), who was in the publication business, he was not only well protected but also able to obtain a pass as a vegetable farmer, which enabled him to leave Nanjing. He went on foot from Nanjing to Shanghai, then sailed for Hong Kong before he was able to return to Changsha, the capital of his native province. There, he was interviewed by The Central Daily, which

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p­ ublished his interview in three installments from April 1 to 3, 1938. His eyewitness account is not only detailed and extensive, but also reasonably accurate and insightfully analytical. He described the different stages of massacre and killings with analysis: During the period from December 13, enemy troops committed large-scale massacres. In the period from December 18 to early January, highly intensive, widespread and wanton slaughters took place. Since early January, there have been sporadic killings. In the first period, enemy troops led away hundreds of thousands civilians to open grounds to execute them, which were tragic scenes that could be seen everywhere. From early morning to dusk, who knows how many times massacres took place. During the second period, streets and lanes were littered with refugees’ bodies. It did not matter whether it was an able-bodied person, or one old and weak, as long as enemy soldiers saw him and considered him having any possibility of being a combatant, or having valuables to be looted, or any other circumstances which triggered their killing lust, they would raise their bayonets to end this individual’s life. In the third period, the enemy troops’ atrocious behaviors were somewhat abated, but cases of civilians murdered could still be heard. Altogether, the number of refugees slaughtered amounts to, at least, around 50,000. …… On December 13, while on my way to the refugee zone for shelter, I saw a large number of civilians who were tied up, over one thousand in number, some in suits, some wearing long gowns, hatless and bare-footed, and some young adolescents. The enemy spread them out before machine-gunning them from four directions……58

In the same analytical manner, Liu provided his observations and explanation about why and how the Japanese committed widespread burning in Nanjing: Except for the public organizations, in which enemy troops could be quartered, most of the prosperous business areas were burned down, and, in particular, the worst burning happened to Zhonghua Road and Taiping Road. Superficially, the enemy’s reason was to eradicate “anti-Japan activists,” but in fact burning was used to cover up their looting. They knew that Nanjing’s fine essence was in Taiping Road and Zhonghua Road. They also knew that not all the commodities there had been moved away. So they paid special visits to these two places. The second reason for burning was that they had a shortage of coal supply. During snowstorm and bitter cold days, they often burned doors, window frames, and panel boards to warm themselves against the cold weather. Sometimes, they broke into residences to build fires to warm themselves up, but afterward, they forgot about them and left, leaving the fires behind to spread extensively, which caused a lot of burning.59

Meanwhile, another refugee from Nanjing arrived in Hankou and was interviewed. His interview account was distributed by the Central News Agency, and on May 30, 1938, Xinhua Daily published the account under the title, “Countrymen in Nanjing cruelly ravaged by enemy: All wounded officers and soldiers slaughtered by enemy; almost all women, old and young, violated.” The account describes such atrocities as killing, raping, burning, and looting committed by Japanese soldiers in Nanjing.60 Other newspapers published in Hankou, such as Shenbao and The Mopping-up Daily, simultaneously ran this account, though under different titles. As time went on, more refugees managed to leave Nanjing, and more detailed and extensive accounts of their Nanjing experiences appeared in newspapers and magazines. One such report is supposedly the personal experience of a refugee named Tan (覃) interviewed by journalist Lin Na (林娜). Tan was trapped in Nanjing and unable to leave until May 22, 1938. This account entitled, “A bloody and ­tearful

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tale of Jinling” was published in the July 1938 issue of the magazine, Yu Zhou Feng, or Cosmos Wind (宇宙風). It describes atrocities committed by the Japanese in and around the city. With a dramatic flair, the descriptions lack accuracy. For instance, it indicates that Chinese plain-clothes squads dug up previously concealed weapons to launch an attack at the Ministry of Railways, but they were all eradicated the following day. This time, altogether 500 people were killed.61 It is not possible that an incident of substantial size involving over 500 people could have taken place without being substantiated by any other document or record. Another account was provided by Li Kehen (李克痕), who had been a clerk for a cultural organization in Nanjing before the war started. He and his family stayed at Banqiao (板橋), a small town about 5 miles southwest of Nanjing. He moved into the city in February, and did not leave until June 3, 1938. His account, “Trapped in the capital for five months,” was published by Dagong Daily in four installments from July 18 to 21, 1938. Because he did not enter the city until February, what he described about the atrocities committed in the city during December and January was largely based on what he had learned from other people.62 Guo Qi (郭歧, 1905–93) was a graduate in the fourth class of the Whampoa Military Academy. In 1937, he was a lieutenant colonel and commander of the logistic battalion in the Instructional Corps. After participating in the Nanjing defense battles, he was trapped inside the city, hid in the safety zone, and was unable to leave until March 11, 1938. The written record of his Nanjing experiences is a detailed, extensive, and informative account, published in 35 installments by Xijing Ping Bao, or Western Capital Ping Daily (西京平報), a Xi’an based newspaper, from August 1 to September 17, 1938. He mainly described his experiences as a survivor and his observations about the conditions, events, and Japanese atrocities around him inside Nanjing, but he also told the stories of others. One of his soldiers named Yan Xinyi (言心易) got lost at Xiaguan while attempting to cross the Yangtze River. When the Japanese got there, they fired wildly at people on the river beach with machine guns. This soldier was hit by a bullet in the back of his head, but the wound was not fatal. He fell instantly and feigned death by remaining motionless even when a Japanese soldier struck him hard with a helmet. He did not get up until after Japanese soldiers had left. Thus, he lived to tell Guo his story 2 weeks later.63 Guo had a conversation with a policeman who survived a massacre. He was one of approximately 2,000 people marched outside Shuixi Gate, where they were lined up and machined-gunned by Japanese soldiers. The policeman fell to the ground before any bullets hit him. After the execution, Japanese soldiers poured gasoline over the bodies and set them on fire. The policeman was at the bottom of the body pile. As soon as the Japanese soldiers took off after setting fire to the bodies, he climbed out. (ibid) The story bears close resemblance to that of Wu Changde. In 1947, during the Tani trials, Guo was called to Nanjing from his garrison in Xinjiang (新疆) to testify as the prosecution’s witness, and his account published in 1938 was used as prosecution’s evidence against Tani.

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9.3  Japanese Media Coverage It was reported that there were over 100 Japanese correspondents who entered Nanjing following the victorious Japanese troops. However, due to the strict censorship, or gag order, these journalists were apparently not supposed to report the atrocities committed by Japanese troops. They were there to cover the victory, gallantry and bravery of their troops, but while attempting to report Japanese victory and the enemy’s defeat, the journalists published news dispatches that, nevertheless, reveal some information suggesting mass killings. On December 14, 1937, The Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun published a news dispatch to Domai News Agency distributed on December 13 under the title, “Captured soldiers keep coming out: Enemy’s corpses pile up like hills,” which reports: In order not to be found by Imperial Army, the defeated remnant soldiers outside the city walls hid themselves in the hills nearby. However, they were discovered anyway and became prisoners of war, about 2,000  in number. In addition, those Chinese Central Government crack troops who had been defeated at the last defense line outside the walled city, succeeded in evading Imperial Army and hid deep in Purple Mountain. Our troops set fire all around the area, launching an attack of fire at the defeated remnant soldiers. About 500 Chinese soldiers were forced out by the smoke, while only 50 of our soldiers were waiting outside, capturing them one by one.64

The same report also indicates that about 3,000 Chinese soldiers were killed near Qilin Gate in an eastern suburb of Nanjing, thus confirming reports from other sources that several thousand soldiers were mass executed there: A few days ago, when Zhenjiang fell, it was estimated that about 20,000 Chinese troops fled from Zhenjiang to Nanjing. In the process of searching and finding routes for escape, their number gradually reduced to 3,000. Before dawn on the 13th, they appeared near Qilin Gate behind Ono (大野), Katagiri (片桐), Tasugawa (助川), and Noda (野田) Troops. Our troops easily wiped them out. Around that area the dead bodies of the defeated remnant soldiers piled up like hills. (ibid)

The Ono (大野), Katagiri (片桐), Tasugawa (助川), and Noda (野田) Troops refer to the four infantry regiments of the 16th Division, namely, the 20th Regiment under Colonel Yoshiaki Ono (大野宣明)’s command, the 9th Regiment with Colonel Gorou Katagiri (片桐護郎) as its commander, the 38th Regiment commanded by Colonel Seiji Tasugawa (助川静二), and Colonel Kengo Noda (野田謙 吾)’s 33rd Regiment. The chief of staff of the Shanghai Expeditionary Army, Major General Mamoru Iinuma recorded in his diary entry on December 14, 1937 that a large number of Chinese soldiers had been captured in that area.65 Motokatsu Sasaki, a Japanese military post service officer, also indicated in his wartime memoir, The Banner of the Field Post Office, that he witnessed 4,000 disarmed Chinese soldiers detained near Qilin Gate on December 16, 1937, and later were slaughtered.66 It is not known whether the group Sasaki had seen was the same captured Chinese soldiers described in The Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun report or another group. Whatever the case, a large

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number of disarmed Chinese soldiers either surrendered or were captured and mass executed in that area. On December 13, special correspondent Yokota (横田) reported that Japanese troops had brought Zhongshan Gate and Taiping Gate under their control: Thus, the battles over the eastern part of Nanjing basically came to an end. Meanwhile, Ono (大野) and Noda (野田) Troops were engaged in operations to mop up the stubborn enemies. They captured the Military Commission, which is situated close to the north side of East Zhongshan Road, Central Military Academy, Officers’ Moral Endeavour Association (勵志社), and other anti-Japan headquarters. …… Wakisaka (脇坂), Isa (伊佐), and Shimoeda (下枝) Troops, which have been mopping up from Guanghua Gate and Tongji Gate into the city, have completed operations in the Chinese streets from the area near the Ming Palace Airfield and the Aviation School to the Legislative Yuan and the Discipline Supervisory Yuan. …… Chiba (千葉), Yagasaki (矢ケ崎), Yamamoto (山本), and Yamada (山田) Troops which entered the city over the wall east of Zhonghua Gate, are conducting mopping-up operations in the area east of the South Gate Street (南門大街).67

Colonel Jirou Wakisaka (脇坂次郎) commanded the 36th Regiment, the 18th Brigade, while Colonel Kazuo Isa (伊佐一男) commanded the 7th Regiment, the 6th Brigade, both under the 9th Division. Colonel Kotarou Chiba (千葉小太郎) was the commander of the 102nd Regiment, the 127th Brigade, Colonel Setsuzou Yagasaki (矢ケ崎節三) commanded the 115th Regiment, the 128th Brigade, Lieutenant Colonel Shigenori Yamamoto (山本重悳) commanded the 150th Regiment, the 128th Brigade, and Lieutenant Colonel Tsuneta Yamada (山田常太) commanded the 66th Regiment, the 127th Brigade. All were the 114th Division’s regiments. According to testimonies by many Chinese survivors and witnesses, while a large number of residents moved into the Safety Zone before the Japanese entered the city, some families chose to stay in their homes. A lot of families sent their women and young family members to the safety zone, but elders stayed behind to look after buildings, belongings, and other properties. Many of those who chose to stay in their residences outside the Safety Zone were killed by Japanese soldiers. The descriptions of the mopping-up operations in these news dispatches coincide with the Chinese testimonies that their family members and elders were killed during the first few days after Japanese occupation, and that this wanton killing drove more residents into the Safety Zone. Apparently, during these mopping-up operations, Japanese soldiers broke into residences in their house-to-house searches, killing civilians, many of whom were elderly. However, a report appearing in The Tokyo Asahi Shimbun (東京朝日新聞) on December 15, 1937 paints a rosy but absolutely false picture: [Nanjing, 14th, sent by Domei News Agency] Because Nanjing is China’s capital, the Imperial Army occupying Nanjing paid special attention to maintaining public security and protecting buildings, and they even did so when they conducted mopping-up operations in the city on the 13th evening. From the morning of the 14th when the mopping-up operations ended, in addition to the National Government, the Executive Yuan, the Legislative Yuan, Ministry of Finance and big banks, sentries are posted at the Military Academy, Aviation School, and other military institutions, as well as various ancient relic sites, keeping people from entering these places. Meanwhile, squads of military police are patrolling various districts in the city to maintain order and security. Very quickly, order returned to the city. Suburban farmers take Zhonghua Road as the trading center as they used to, so from the

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evening of the 13th, residents gradually returned and in the morning of the 14th, the number of residents returning suddenly increased. Along the streets of Nanjing, the big stores’ doors and windows, which were once covered with wooden boards, are opened, and folks are ready to open up their businesses.68

Another news wire that appeared immediately after the above report in the same day’s newspaper, however, provides information relatively closer to reality concerning the situation at the time. It contains the announcement issued by Iwane Matsui on December 14 to Nanjing residents: Since being dispatched to take part in fighting, our army has won every battle we have fought, succeeding in wiping out the anti-Japanese forces in different locations. Now, order has been gradually restored in the areas behind the war zone. The present goal of Japanese troops’ combat operations is to mop up anti-Japanese troops, and ensure not only that ordinary civilians are not the target of our combat operations, but that we will guarantee civilians’ security and protect their livelihoods. Therefore, we ask residents to return home as soon as possible, give priority to your ancestors and home, trust our troops, and live peacefully and happily. However, if you hinder our troops’ operations and do harm to our troops, you will be severely punished by military law.69

A special dispatch cabled from Nanjing on December 15, 1937 appeared in the Nichinichi Shimbun the following day, providing information about what was truly happening in Nanjing: As of the 14th, after mopping-up operations inside the city, the defeated remnant soldiers have been completely eradicated. Before the final assaults were launched, our troops have completely encircled Nanjing, the enemy have no retreating routes whatsoever. Except for those who escaped before the final assaults, the rest of the enemy inside the city were thoroughly wiped out. At present, the number of dead enemy troops inside the city alone amounts to as many as 60,000 to 70,000. Combined with the number of enemy troops wiped out in battles outside the city, as well as the enemy troops wiped out in the river by our navy and aerial bombing, the enemy troops’ casualties are around one hundred and several dozen thousand.70

A Tokyo Asahi Simbun news report sent by special correspondents Hiramatsu (平松) and Fujimoto (藤本) on December 15 indicates: The operations of mopping up enemy soldiers continue on the 15th inside the city, and they are conducted successfully. …… As soon as they saw the defense line along the city walls was broken, enemy soldiers took off their uniforms, changed into civilian clothes, and disguised themselves as civilians. In the buildings and along the streets, there are discarded uniforms, bayonets, and weapons everywhere. …… It is estimated that there are 25,000 defeated remnant soldiers who changed into civilian clothes and hid inside the city. Therefore, our troops will make another effort to mop them up. On one hand they will screen for searching and capturing suspected remnant soldiers, but on the other hand, will provide protection for the elderly, children and women. Our troops provide special protection for foreign property and interests, and it can be seen that the Imperial Army observes strict discipline.71

The news wire shows that the mopping-up operations were well in progress on December 15, but from other sources, including American, British and German records, the part of providing “protection for the elderly, children and women” is not true, and foreign property and interests were not well-protected either.

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Breakdown of discipline and order among the Japanese troops was whitewashed in the news as “the Imperial Army observes strict discipline.” Meanwhile, another Tokyo Asahi Simbun news wire also sent on December 15 reveals the truth about the reign of terror: The Imperial Army troops who have captured the city of Nanjing assembled both in and outside the city, dispatching one unit of each troop to mop up the defeated remnant soldiers who are hidden, as well as clear up the areas inside the city. It is estimated that in the Nanjing campaign, our troops captured and eradicated no fewer than 60,000 enemies. [Shanghai, the 15th, sent by Domei News Agency] After our troops captured Nanjing, Ono (大野), Noda (野田), Tasugawa (助川), and Katagiri (片桐) Troops alone, who launched assaults from north of the right flank, captured or eradicated no fewer than 10,000 enemy soldiers both in and outside the city. It is estimated that the total number is, at least, 60,000 to 70,000, in addition to a large number of trophies captured.72

The Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun special correspondents Kanenko (金子) and Hikta (引田) reported from Nanjing on December 16, “It is learned that as of the 16th, in the city there are about 150,000 refugees, among whom around 15,000 are regular soldiers disguised as refugees. Therefore, since this morning, at the Capital Overseas Chinese Guesthouse (首都華僑招待所), which has been turned into a refugee center, as well as many other places, the process of distinguishing regular soldiers from residents has been ongoing, which is an unusually daunting workload.”73 The news confirms the claim that thousands were picked up at the Overseas Chinese Guesthouse and marched to Xiaguan for execution. The special correspondent Sato (佐藤) of The Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun cabled a wire on December 17, 1937, stating that “Yamada (山田), Yagasaki ( 矢ケ崎), Yamamoto (山本), and Chiba (千葉) Troops, soon after entering Nanjing, occupied Nanjing Municipal Government and other places, mopping up 5,000 remnant soldiers.”74 According to the announcement issued by the Japanese Shanghai Expeditionary Army on December 18, 1937, “During the Nanjng campaign, the enemy left behind 80,000 to 90,000 dead, and several thousand enemies were captured.”75 Japanese newspapers also covered events which concern the mass executions at the location known to locals as Straw Shoe Gorge, though the media coverage offers no direct accounts about the massacres themselves there. However, the information included in the news reports help to piece the puzzle together when Chinese survivors’ testimonies, Japanese soldiers’ diaries, and burial records are brought together for analysis. The Tokyo Asahi Shimbun special correspondent Yokota (横田) first briefly reported the event on December 15, 1937, The Morozumi Troops advanced along the Yangtze River from Zhenjiang to attack and capture the Wulong Hill Fort on the 13th, and occupy the Mufu Mountain Fort on the 14th. At that time, they ran into the enemy soldiers from the 18th Division, the 34th Division, the 88th Division, the Military Academy and the Instructional Corps, 14,777 in number, who hurried to flee like snowflakes. The enemies held white flags, and a small number of our troops took prisoner all the above-mentioned enemy soldiers.76

The following day, Yokuta provided substantially more details in an expanded version that covers the same event:

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[Nanjing, 16th, sent by special correspondent Yokota] At the hilly areas near the Wulong Hill Fort and the Mufu Mountain Fort, Morozumi Troop captured 14,777 enemy soldiers who had fled from Nanjing. Because the number of captives is unprecedentedly large, the troop who captured them have no idea what to do with them. In comparison with the number of captives, the number of our troops is extremely small and the situation is difficult to deal with. So they first asked them to discard their bayonets before marching them into the barracks nearby. Because the number of soldiers can form more than one division, 22 large barrack houses have been filled to capacity, which is an incredible sight. …… They are soldiers of Chiang Kei-shek’s directly controlled troops, the Instructional Corps, who wear the same uniforms. Providing food, however, proves to be the most difficult thing to do, for our troops have to search for food locally, and it is confusing to have this many more people to feed. First, it is impossible to find 15,000 bowls, and consequently, no food was provided for the first evening. The troops quickly gathered together the pack horses that have carried luggage to start searching for food. So far, there are ten known officers among the captives, and the most senior is staff officer of the Instructional Corps, Shen Boshi (沈博施). Through the introduction of the commander of the Tayama (田山) Troop, who is responsible for guarding the barracks, this correspondent was able to meet with Staff Officer Shen.77

According to the diaries kept by several Japanese officers and soldiers, these captives were mass executed by the 65th Infantry Regiment and the 19th Mountain Artillery Regiment from December 16 to 18, 1937.78 A brief news wire originating from Shanghai appeared in The Yomiuri Shimbun (讀賣新聞) on December 28, 1937, concerning the trophies the Japanese captured during the Nanjing campaign, including the casualty data of the Chinese troops. It reports that the enemy left behind 53,874 dead bodies.79 Two days later, on December 30, 1937, The Tokyo Asahi Shimbun published an announcement issued by the Japanese military authorities in Shanghai, detailing the casualties sustained by both sides during the Nanjing campaign: [Shanghai, A special cable sent on 29th] The Shanghai Expeditionary Army announced at 6 p.m.: from the moment of the attack on the major Nanjing defense line to the time of completely occupying the city of Nanjing, the casualties our troops inflicted upon the enemies have been partly publicized. Later, based on detailed investigations, the dead bodies left behind by the enemy are as many as 84,000, whereas the casualties our troops sustained amount to a total of around 4,800. The casualties of both the enemy and our troops are roughly listed as follows: 1. Our Side: 800 killed and 4,000 wounded; 2. Enemy Side: 84,000 dead bodies left behind and 10,500 captured.80

While it is not clear what investigations the Japanese military conducted to come up with the casualty data, it is difficult to verify the accuracy of the report. Though the casualty data issued during or immediately after battles might exaggerate enemy losses and minimize Japanese casualties, it is reasonable to assume that Japanese casualties reported here might not be too far from reality. The number of Japanese soldiers who had been killed in combat does not exceed 1,000. In combat, the number of casualties sustained by the two sides usually do not have such a huge disparity, even though the defeated side tends to suffer more casualties than the victors. In the case of Nanjing, Japanese troops were better trained and equipped than the Chinese, and the Chinese retreat was chaotic, so the Chinese troops suffered more

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casualties than the Japanese. However, even if the Chinese would have sustained ten times the casualties of Japanese troops in combat actions, though it is doubtful that the disparity is that high, it still does not explain the 100-fold disparity. It is hard to make a convincing argument that the Chinese dead toll is totally the result of combat actions. This report indicates that the large numbers of casualties are not the result of battles, but that of mass executions of the surrendered Chinese soldiers and detained civilians. Given the preponderance of evidence that mass executions took place, it is certain that the large number of casualties in this report are not only the result of battles. Although it is difficult to verify or distinguish whether the dead were victims of mass executions and other Japanese atrocities, or those killed in combat, those corpses whose hands were tied up behind their backs must not be soldiers killed in combat. On December 22, 1937, The Osaka Asahi Shimbun (大阪朝日新聞) ran a report sent by correspondent Yamamoto (山本) the previous day. It is an account about Japanese army doctors providing medical care for the Chinese wounded soldiers in the hospital located at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building: About 500 Chinese soldiers, who have been wounded by the bullets of our troops and dragged their wounded bodies around, are now staying in the temporary hospital located at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in city’s center. Since the 20th, many of our army doctors have carefully treated the enemy wounded soldiers. Due to repeated defeats, an increasing number of wounded Chinese soldiers were sent from the front to the rear. Many of the big buildings in the city have been used as field hospitals, while the grand building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the headquarters of anti-Japan foreign policies, is not spared either, and is used as a hospital. Beds are placed side by side on the second, third and fourth floors of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. When our troops reached the city gates on the 12th, most of the enemy army doctors fled themselves, leaving the wounded to be attended by a few city doctors. Having learned that there was a shortage in food supply, our army doctors, such as Komiyama (小宫山), Okada (岡田), Kamida (神田), and Tanabe (田辺), got to the hospital on the 20th. …… in the rooms there are moaning wounded soldiers, whose wounds, because of lack of medicine and malnourishment, are festering and wrapped in dirty bandages …… As treating our own soldiers, our army doctors kindly provide medical care for them one by one. They remained deceived by the so-called anti-Japanese propaganda until they were given new medicine and bandages; and now when they get to know the warm affection of our troops, all they want to do is to keep on expressing their gratitude.81

American missionary John Magee, who helped set up the hospital at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, indicated in his December 15, 1937 letter to his wife that he took truckloads of wounded Chinese soldier to the hospital on the morning of December 14, The next morning I took an ambulance full of wounded soldiers to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. When we had just succeeded in helping up the steps those who were able to walk (some had to be taken on stretchers) along came a squad of Japanese soldiers some of whom were like wild beasts. I was helping a poor fellow who was coming along most painfully but a soldier grabbed him from me and began to jerk his wounded arms terribly and tied his hands together and also the hands of another wounded man. Fortunately I found a Japanese medical officer who came about that time and pointed to the bloody clothes of these men. He spoke in German and I said in poor German that this was a hospital for wounded soldiers

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and he made the soldiers release them. A little while before a Japanese newspaper reporter told me in good English that some of the Japanese soldiers were very bad.82

In another letter dated January 11, 1938, Magee mentioned the situation at that hospital again, including this Japanese newspaper report, or a similar dispatch, about the hospital: I have heard from doctors and nurses in the International Red Cross Hospital for wounded soldiers at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that they have been protected, both men and women, although none of us foreigners have been allowed to enter since Dec 14th when I took three truck loads of wounded soldiers there.…… I think that it is probable that our efforts saved the lives of some hundreds of wounded men as well as many of the doctors and nurses there. The women have not been molested which is remarkable and shows that the Japanese army people can control their men when they want to. (Later a soldier did try to get into the women’s rooms but was frustrated by a ruse.) In the issue of the Japanese paper published in Shanghai it was said (I think on Dec. 17 although it might have been later) that the Chinese soldiers there were so grateful to the Japanese for their merciful care that when one soldier was asked whether he wanted to be a soldier again he replied, “If I should be a soldier again I must fight for the Japanese!” (Later we learned that a Chinese soldier had been killed – by bayonet, the favorite method – for losing his temper on having his rice spilled.) I think an exemplary treatment of these wounded is deliberately planned for propaganda purposes in order to offset the unspeakable cruelty that has been the general rule. The doctors and nurses there have not realized what terrible things were happening outside. The Japanese have sent some rice although most of this has been supplied by funds in our hands. We have a committee of about ten persons of various nationalities for the International Red Cross here, of which I am Chairman. We have not been able to do much actually, except to use funds that have been put in our hands but I think that our organization has been of very great use because of the protection that we have been able to give. Whatever the motives the Japanese have had for protecting these wounded soldiers and doctors, etc. I am glad that it has been actually done and thank God.83

As for the case in which a wounded Chinese soldier was bayoneted to death at that hospital, Magee filed a report on January 20, 1938 with the International Committee for Nanjing Safety Zone which documented it as Case No. 199: 199. January 20, Mr. Magee reports that the wounded Chinese soldiers in the Red Cross Hospital at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are only fed three bowls of rice per day. One man complained to a Japanese officer (or doctor?). The officer slapped him and then when the man further objected, he was taken out and bayoneted. (Magee)84

The bayoneting case notwithstanding, it appears that the majority of the wounded Chinese soldiers housed at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs hospital survived, at least, until January 20, 1938, largely because American missionaries were involved. In addition, the Japanese media provided detailed information about the establishment of the Nanjing Self-Government Committee, a Japanese-sponsored, temporary puppet governing body, as well as its members and their background information. The Yomiuri Shimbun published on December 24, 1937 a news wire cabled from Nanjing the previous day, which reports that the Nanjing Self-­ Government Committee was established on December 23. A meeting was held at 11 a.m. that day to discuss the organization and decide the membership of the committee, which consists of chairman: Tao Xisan (陶錫三); vice chairmen: Wang Chunsheng (王春生) and Cheng Langbo (程朗波); and members: Cheng Diaoyuan

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(程調元), Sun Shurong (孫叔榮), Hu Qifa (胡启閥), Luo Yimin (羅逸民), Zhao Weishu (趙威叔), Zhao Gongjin (趙公謹), Ma Xihou (馬錫侯), and Huang Yuexuan (黄月軒).85 Apparently, Japanese magazines also published reports and articles concerning the conditions at Nanjing. Due to weekly and monthly publication cycles, these magazine reports did not appear until early 1938. However, they provide extensive descriptions with more details, chiefly about the development on the battlefields, though some of the publications may include veiled allusions to atrocities. The well-known Bungeishunju Magazine (文藝春秋) published an account in its February 1938 issue, under the title, “Entering Nanjing with the troops,” by Kigen Nakakawa (中川紀元, 1892–1972), a well-known Japanese painter acting as a military journalist at the time, who recorded his experiences in diary format, accompanied by his artistic sketches. He wrote on December 10, 1937: “The residential houses in the Qilin Gate area have all been burned down. …… It is messy and chaotic everywhere, with urgent and pressing combat activities around; there are human night-soil and animal dung, as well as human corpses and animal remains all over the place.”86 On the afternoon of December 13, the author entered the city together with the vanguard detachment, and decided to stay in the beautiful building known as the Officers’ Moral Endeavour Association …… until yesterday this building was the facility for admitting wounded Chinese soldiers. From its basement and cellars, quite a few defeated remnant soldiers were captured. In addition, not a few soldiers, who looked like children, were tightly bound up before being marched away. December 14. Most of the defeated remnant soldiers have been mopped up, and Japanese soldiers are all over the place in the city. …… There are fires everywhere while deserted business streets are burning with a cracking sound. The women who failed to run away are trembling all over. Walking to the southern end of the central boulevard, I saw the area around the Qinhuai River in a shambles, with restaurants and gaily-painted pleasure boats reduced to ruins. There are but bearded Japanese soldiers all over there, while the rouge-powdered beauties and string music-accompanied songs are nowhere to be found.” (pp. 206–207)

Also travelling with the attacking Japanese troops alongside Kigen Nakakawa were several fellow journalists or writers, and Soichi Oya (大宅壮一, 1900–70), a well-known writer and social critic, was one of them. Originally, Oya was reporting in Hong Kong. He left Hong Kong for Shanghai on November 26, 1937, and arrived 3 days later. He then travelled with Japanese troops toward Nanjing. He published a lengthy report in the form of letters under the title “From Hong Kong to entering Nanjing” in the February 1938 issue of the monthly magazine Reconstruction (改 造). The second half of the report describes his experiences and observations during the period between Japanese troops reaching the eastern suburbs of Nanjing and shortly after the city fell. Oya told his readers what he had observed on December 13, 1937: Before daybreak on the 13th, we climbed up the Sun Yan-sen Mausoleum, which had just been captured. We saw that around the Sun Yat-sen statue, some discarded cooking utensils were scattered, and among them there was a bundle of half-completed knitwear. It was headwear about 70% finished.

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Then, after coming down from the Sun Yan-sen Mausoleum, when we were on our way to Zhongshan Gate, we found in the woods by the roadside a terrifying white flag soaked in blood. It was probably used to bandage up the wounded. After it was picked up, we saw the words, “The Orphanage for Girls of the Revolutionary Martyrs (女子遺族學校),” printed on the flag. It appeared that this terrifying flag had recently been soaked in blood, and it left me an intense impression. I felt that it should be kept as a valuable remembrance, and thus I brought it back to Japan. In addition, although I did not see with my own eyes, it was said that among the dead bodies left behind by the enemy, there were women in regular army uniforms. Though very few in number, there were some indeed. They were probably sent to their death with the heroism held in high esteem by the Chinese, but wherever we saw the articles they had left behind, as well as the air that once had enshrouded their bodies, we were still moved by a solemn and tragic sensation.87

Just as Kigen Nakakawa, Oya stayed in the Officers’ Moral Endeavour Association, though what he described is somehow different: It was about 4 o’clock when the city gates were broken and tanks rolled into the city. That evening we stayed in a room of the Officers’ Moral Endeavour Association near the city gate. It was the Chinese military’s club, somewhat similar to places like Kaikosha (偕行 社)88 in Japan. At dusk, when I ventured into the basement in search of a bed, three enemy remnant soldiers ran out from the basement, which scared us to death, but they were soon detained by our soldiers. (p. 250)

He also made comments about the refugees and the “safety zone” in the city: “Most of the Nanjing residents went elsewhere for refuge, and only those people of the destitute class, who had no place to go, crowded into the ‘refugee zone.’ No matter which city it is, the most piteous were the lower class poor people.” (p. 251) Bungeishunju Magazine’s correspondent Eiichi Kosaka (小坂英一) published in the February 1938 issue of Bungeishunju Magazine his report, “A personal account of the great Nanjing campaign,” which covers the events and conditions he had observed in and around Nanjing from December 5 to 13, 1937, when Nanjing was captured. In the last section of the report, “Nanjing falls,” he wrote: December 13, clear and warm. As usual, it was still chilly before daybreak, and everybody got up to warm themselves around the fire pan. Then I played smart by collecting a few blankets, which belonged to those who had been up, and continued to sleep. “Here comes the remnant enemies,” someone shouted, but I have no idea who did. I was instantly awakened. Around 8 a.m. In the room, there was nobody around the fire pan anymore. Only two or three people watched the hill behind. The soldiers nearby were walking toward the hill. It was said that two to three hundred remnant enemies appeared on the hill over there. “At such a stage, it appears the city has been captured,” I murmured to myself. It seemed to me that if there are remnant enemies roaming around, then Nanjing must have been captured by our troops. Let’s eat sooner. “Let’s go wherever we are able to.” I invited Kigen Nakakawa to go together.89

Heisuke Shugiyama (杉山平助), an Asahi Shimbun correspondent who visited Nanjing from December 23 to 31, 1937 published a long article, “Nanjing,” in the March 1938 issue of Reconstruction, describing his journey from Shanghai to Nanjing and what he had observed during his stay in Nanjing. He arrived around 5 p.m. at the Asahi Shimbun Nanjing branch office, which was crowded with over a

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dozen of his colleagues, and there was no running water or electricity available. He indicated that “Right now I cannot write down, in detail, what I have observed and heard during this period. I can only write about my thoughts to fill the gap in that respect.”90 Although, for obvious reasons, he preferred not to write what he had witnessed in Nanjing, he could not help revealing some aspects of the conditions at Nanjing: It was pitch dark outside. A lot of refugees living around there. In addition, there are dead bodies strewn everywhere. A group of us were engaged in heated arguments over the war and humanity. I too expressed my opinions. Since the war has already started, in order to win the war and ensure a victorious result, we can assert to any measures, at this junction of time, any moral bondage is meaningless and helpless. Strictly speaking, there is no distinction between combatants and non-combatants. …… Qingliang Hill, where Master Hongfa (弘法大師) used to meditate, is in the suburbs nearby. I attempt to take a walk outside by myself. Tens of thousands of Chinese refugees come and go. I find myself surrounded by them, walking by myself, and as I keep on walking I cannot escape from their encirclement, which truly frightens me. The more I feel frightened, the more I stoop my shoulders while walking. Perhaps it is some pressure from a large crowd of people. It is this crowd of weakly people that make me feel frightened. How can that be? Over there, quite a few dead Chinese bodies scattered around. What would this crowd think when they saw the bodies? I cannot discern from their facial expressions. This crowd will die of hunger or cold. I do not know where they could get food. …… The Chinese who are employed by the Japanese are the envy among the refugees, because no matter what, their food is guaranteed, and, in addition, they have wages and the safety of their life is secured. Thus, the folks who are employed by the Japanese enjoy a good status among the Chinese. The ahma responsible for cooking at the branch office is one of those folks. However, even under such circumstances, Chinese people do not forget to take advantage of their positions to advance their private interests. The staff members at the branch office suspect that she has stolen rice from the kitchen to sell, and at night she takes in people to stay in the storage room or garage without permission in addition to conveniently stealing money. Then Mr. Y with the rank of a sub-lieutenant, carrying a Japanese sword with him, engaged himself for a quick and unexpected check, and I followed to have a look. Upon walking into the garage, a faint snoring was heard. Hearing the words, “Someone is here,” I hurried forward and got a flashlight out to see a Chinese in his forties who looked like a worker, sleeping soundly, with a boy of about five in his arms, on the cement ground covered with rags. “Let them sleep,” I uttered the words while touching Mr. Y’s arm. We then sneaked out in case we might wake them up. Ah, how miserably painful. What happened to boy’s mother? I just heard others talk about an old Chinese woman holding his son’s dead body in her arms, crying for three days on succession in pouring rain. It was said that dead bodies were scattered around Mochou Lake. (pp. 321–323)

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Notes 1. A.  T. Steele, “Japanese troops kill thousands: ‘Four days of hell’ in captured city told by eyewitness; bodies piled five feet high in streets,” Chicago Daily News, Dec. 15, 1937, p. 1. 2. “Editor’s Note” for Steele’s article “War’s death drama pictured by reporter: Panay victims under Japanese fire for full half hour; butchery and looting reign in Nanking,” Chicago Daily News, December 17, 1937, p. 1. 3. A. T. Steele, “War’s death drama pictured by reporter: Panay victims under Japanese fire for full half hour; butchery and looting reign in Nanking,” CDN, Dec. 17, 1937, p. 1. 4. A. T. Steele, “Tells heroism of Yankees in Nanking,” CDN, Dec. 18, 1937, p. 1. 5. A.  T. Steele, “Panic of Chinese in capture of Nanking, scenes of horror and brutality are revealed,” Chicago Daily News, February 3, 1938, p. 2. 6. A. T. Steele, “Reporter likens slaughter of panicky Nanking Chinese to jackrabbit drive in U. S.,” Chicago Daily News, February 4, 1938, p. 2. 7. Arthur Menken, “Cameraman reveals carnage in Nanjing,” Boston Globe, Dec. 16, 1937, p. 16. 8. Arthur Menken, “Witness tells Nanking horror as Chinese flee,” Chicago Daily Tribune, December 17, 1937, p. 4. 9. C. Yates M’Daniel, “Newsman’s diary describes horrors in Nanking,” Seattle Daily Times, December 17, 1937, p. 12. 10. C.  Yates McDaniel, “Nanking hopes Japanese will mitigate harshness,” Springfield Daily Republican (Springfield, MA), December 18, 1937, p. 2. 11. F. Tillman Durdin, “Butchery marked capture of Nanking: All captives slain; civilians also killed as the Japanese spread terror in Nanking,” NYT, December 18, 1937, p. 1. 12. F. T. Durdin, “Foreigners’ role in Nanking praised,” NYT, Dec. 19, 1937, pp. 1 & 38. 13. F. T. Durdin, “Japanese atrocities marked fall of Nanking after Chinese command fled,” NYT, January 9, 1938, p. 38. 14. “Terror in Nanking: Looting and murder; the conquerors’ brutality,” The Times (London), December 18, 1937, p. 12. 15. “Fall of Nanking vividly retold by eye-witness,” Peking Chronicle, Dec. 19, 1937, p. 1. 16. Hallett Abend, “Japanese Colonel Is Not Disciplined,” NYT, December 24, 1937, p. 7. 17. “Rape, looting follow taking of the capital: Bitter two days on entry of Japanese; hundreds massacred; foreign property not safe from plundering,” North-China Daily News (Shanghai), December 25, 1937, p. 5. 18. “A great change,” The North-China Daily News, January 21, 1938, p. 4. 19. “Nanking Safety Zone still filled with refugees: Violence by Japanese prevent people returning to their homes; food restrictions,” North-China Daily News, Jan. 27, 1938, p. 5. 20. Hallet Abend, “Invaders despoil cringing Nanking,” The Oregonian (Portland, OR), January 25, 1938, p. 2. 21. “Japan’s reign of terror in China: First authentic description; Americans tell of atrocities; children killed; girls attacked,” Daily Telegraph and Morning Post (London), January 28, 1938, p. 15. 22. “The Rape of Nanking: American eyewitness tells of debauchery by invaders; unarmed Chinese butchered,” South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), March 16, 1938, p. 17. 23. “Eye-Witness Tells of Horror Seen in Fall of Nanking,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 23, 1938, p. 8. 24. “The Sack of Nanking,” Ken, Vol. 1 (June 2, 1938): 12–14. 25. “The Sack of Nanking,” Reader’s Digest, Vol. 33 (July 1938): 28–31.

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26. George A.  Fitch, “The Rape of Nanking,” This World, Sunday Supplement to The San Francisco Chronicle, June 11, 1938, p. 16. 27. “Nanking—What Really Happened—and the Japanese ‘Paradise,’” The China Weekly Review, Supplement (March 19, 1938): 10. 28. It should be “[of December].” There was no large-scale massacre in January 1938. 29. “Basket Cases,” Time, Vol. 31 (April 18, 1938): 22. 30. “We were in Nanking,” Reader’s Digest, Vol. 33 (October 1938): 41. 31. “南京敵軍焚掠 (Enemy troops burn and loot in Nanjing),” 大公報 (Dagong Daily), December 17, 1937, p. 3. 32. “某軍官談南京之戰 敵死亡數千以上 (An officer talks about the battles at Nanjing, over several thousand enemies dead),” 華西日報 (West China Daily), December 18, 1937, p. 2. 33. “南京五萬人被日軍屠殺 (Fifty thousand people slaughtered by Japanese troops in Nanjing), ” 漢口中西報 (Hankou Zhongxi Daily), December 23, 1937. 34. “外人方面消息証實敵在南京大屠戮 (Foreigners’ information confirms the massacre committed by the enemy in Nanjing),” Dagong Daily, December 25, 1937, p. 2. 35. “美報揭露敵軍暴行 (American newspaper reveals the atrocities committed by the enemy troops),” Dagong Daily, December 25, 1938, p. 2, and Hallett Abend, “Split in Japanese command,” NYT, December 20, 1937, pp. 1 & 16. 36. “京敵暴行又一証据 (Another evidence of the enemy atrocities in Nanjing),” Dagong Daily, December 26, 1937, p. 2. 37. “京敵暴行又一端 竟殺傷我傷兵醫士 美教會醫院遭劫掠 (Another case of the enemy atrocities in Nanjing, killing our wounded soldiers and doctors, and looting the American mission hospital),” Dagong Daily, December 28, 1937, p. 2. 38. “淪陷後之南京 (Nanjing after its fall),” Central Daily, January 8, 1938, p. 3. 39. “淪陷後之南京 (Nanjing after its fall),” Central Daily, January 9, 1938, p. 3. 40. 泯光 (Min Guang), “一位守衞南京的壮士 (A warrior who defended Nanjing),” 西京日報 (Xijing Daily), January 9, 1938, p. 3. 41. Min Guang, “A warrior who defended Nanjing,” Xijing Daily, Jan. 10 & 17, 1938, both on p. 3. 42. “恐怖中之南京 暴敵焚掠未已 (Nanjing under the reign of terror: Burning and looting by the violent enemy not over yet),” Dagong Daily, January 23, 1938, p. 2. 43. “敵軍在京暴行; 美提抗議 (Enemy troops’ atrocities in Nanjing: Americans lodge protests),” Dagong Daily, January 24, 1938, p. 2 and “南京已成黑暗地獄 (Nanjing turned into dark hell),” 掃蕩報 (The Mopping-up Daily), January 24, 1938, p. 3. 44. “紫金山下殺人竸賽 (Killing contest under Purple Mountain),” Shenbao, January 25, 1938, p. 2 and “南京紫金山殺人竸賽 (Killing contest at Nanjing Purple Mountain),” 新華日報 (Xinhua Daily), January 25, 1938, p. 2. 45. “南京敵軍之殘暴:軍隊素質發生變化 上海字林西報之評論 (Cruelty of the enemy troops in Nanjing: Quality of military changed; editorial of The North-China Daily News),” Dagong Daily, January 31, 1938, p. 3. 46. “美國務院公布愛理遜被毆經過 (The U.S. Department of State issues the complete account of Allison’s being attacked),” Dagong Daily, January 31, 1938, p. 3. 47. “一筆血債 (A bloody debt),” Dagong Daily, February 3, 1938, p. 2. 48. “劫後首都 (The capital after the carnage),” Central Daily, February 16, 1938, p. 3. 49. 袁靄瑞 (Yuan Airui), “陷落後的南京 (Nanjing after its fall),” Dagong Daily, February 20, 1938, p. 4. 50. “陷後南京慘象 (Horrible conditions at Nanjing after its fall),” Dagong Daily, February 20, 1938, p. 3.

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51. “南京難民一千餘名抵滬 (Over one thousand Nanjing refugees arrive in Shanghai),” 文匯 報 (Wenhui Daily), March 2, 1938, p. 3. 52. “從南京逃到上海 一個難民的口述 (Oral account of a refugee who flees from Nanjing to Shanghai),” Wenhui Daily, March 5, 1938, pp. 2 & 6. 53. 史蕪 (Shi Wu), “逃出黑色的紫金城 (Escape from the black Zijin City),” 大晚報 (The China Evening News), March 5 to 8, 1938, p. 3. 54. “地獄中的南京 (Nanjing in the hell),” 半月文摘 (By-Weekly Digest), Vol. 2, Issue 6 (May 10, 1938): 176–178. 55. “京敵窮兇極悪 (Enemy’s most violent and wicked behaviors in Nanjing),” Shenbao, March 9, 1938, p.  2 and “日寇在南京獸行 (Bestial behaviors of Japanese troops in Nanjing),” Xinhua Daily, March 9 & 11, 1938, p. 2 & 4. 56. “暴敵獸行世界彰聞 (Violent enemy’s bestial behaviors made known globally),” Dagong Daily, March 28, 1938, p. 3. 57. “淪陷已三月 揮淚話南京 (Talks in tears about Nanjing that has fallen three months),” 中山 日報 (Zhongshan Daily), April 1, 1938, p. 4. 58. “敵陷南京後之暴行:劉柔遠脫險抵湘談話 (Atrocities after enemy captures Nanjing: Liu Rouyuan talks upon arrival in Hunan after his escape),” Central Daily, April 2, 1938, p. 4. 59. “Atrocities after enemy captures Nanjing: Liu Rouyuan talks upon arrival in Hunan after his escape),” Central Daily, April 3, 1938, p. 4. 60. “南京同胞慘遭敵蹂躪: 受傷官兵盡遭屠殺; 老幼婦女幾全被姦 (Countrymen in Nanjing cruelly ravaged by the enemy: All the wounded officers and soldiers slaughtered; Almost all women, old and young, violated),” Xinhua Daily, May 30, 1938, p. 2. 61. 林娜 (Lin Na), “血淚話金陵 (A talk about Jinling with blood and tears),” 宇宙風 (Cosmos Wind), July 1938, p. 256. 62. 李克痕 (Li Kehen), “淪京五月記 (Trapped in the capital for five months),” Dagong Daily, July 18–21, 1938, p. 2 and 3. 63. 郭歧 (Guo Qi), “陷京血淚錄 (A record of blood and tears: An experience of being trapped in the capital), ” 西京平報 (Western Capital Ping Daily), August 3, 1938, p. 2. 64. “捕擄續出 敵の死體山を築く (Captured soldiers keep coming out: Enemy’s corpses pile up like hills),” 東京日日新聞 (Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun), December 14, 1937, p. 2. 65. 飯沼守 (Mamoru Iinuma), “Diary of Mamoru Iinuma,” in NBSM, pp. 214–215. 66. 佐々木元勝 (Motokatsu Sasaki), The Banner of the Field Post Office, 1941, p. 239. 67. “南京掌握の總决算 将士入城に心彈を 世紀の凱歌大繪卷想見 (In control of the general mopping-up operations in Nanjing: Officers and soldiers eager to enter the city; Imagi-ning the broad picture of the century’s victory),” Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun, 第二朝刊 (Second Morning Edition), December 14, 1937, p. 2. 68. “南京市内の秩序 早くも整然 避難民歸還 店を開く(Orders in Nanjing restored: The runaway refugees returned; Stores open for business),” 東京朝日新聞 (Tokyo Asahi Shim-bun), 夕刊 (Evening Edition), December 15, 1937, p. E1. 69. “南京に安民布告 (An Announcement to Reassure the Public in Nanjing), Tokyo Asahi Shimbun, 夕刊 (Evening Edition), December 15, 1937, p. E1. 70. “敵の屍六、七萬 (There are 60,000 to 70,000 enemy corpses),” Tokyo Nichinichi Shim-bun, 夕刊 (Evening Edition), December 16, 1937, p. H2. 71. “なほ潜伏二萬五千 敗殘兵狩り續く 外國權益を特别保護 (25,000 defeated remnant soldiers still hidden: Continue the search for remnant soldiers; Special protection for foreign property and interests),” Tokyo Asahi Shimbun, December 16, 1937, p. I2. 72. “南京一带掃蕩の戦果 敵六萬を捕虜·擊滅す 皇軍なほ清掃を續く(The results of the mopping-up operations at Nanjing: Capture and eradicate 60,000 enemy troops, Imperial Army continues with mopping-up),” Tokyo Asahi Shimbun, December 16, 1937, p.D1.

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73. “けふ歷史的南京入场式 盛典の本殿 國民政府を見る (Today’s historic Nanjing city entering ceremony: The great ceremony to be witnessed at the National Government main building),” Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun, December 17, 1937, p. H2. 74. “入城式參列部隊更に重任へ 溧水城に殘敵襲擊 (The troops that participated the city entering ceremony receive new task: Attack remnant enemy in Lishui),” Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun, December 18, 1937, p. H2. 75. “敵の遺棄死体八九萬 (Enemy left behind 80,000 to 90,000 bodies),” Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun, 夕刊 (Evening Edition), December 19, 1937, p. 1. 76. “江岸で一萬五千捕虜 軍官學校教導總隊等(15,000 enemy soldiers, including those from Military Academy and Instructional Corps, are captured by the riverside),” Tokyo Asahi Shimbun, December 16, 1937, p. I2. 77. “持余す捕虜大漁 廿二棟鮨詰め 食糧難が苦勞の種 (Unable to deal with a huge number of captives, 22 buildings were crowded, Baffled by the lack of food),” Tokyo Asahi Shimbun, December 17, 1937, p. H2. 78. 远藤高明 (Takaharu Endo), “远藤高明陣中日记 (Field Diary of Takaharu Endo),” in NMIA, pp.  219–220 and目黑福治 (Fukuharu Meguro), “目黑福治陣中日记 (Field Diary of Fukuharu Meguro),” in the same book, pp. 373–374. 79. “敵の遺棄死體五萬三千八百 (Enemy left behind 53,800 dead bodies),” 讀賣新聞 (Yomiuri Shimbun), 第二夕刊 (Second Evening Edition), December 28, 1937, p. 1. 80. “敵の死體八萬四千 我が戰死は八百名 南京攻略戰彼我の損害 (Enemy corpses amount to 84,000 and 800 of our troops were killed in combat: Casualties of the enemy side and our side of the Nanjing campaign),” Tokyo Asahi Shimbun, December 30, 1937, p. H2. 81. “日本軍醫の情に目覺めた敵傷兵—五百名へ投藥施療 (Enemy wounded soldiers are awakened by our army doctors’ affection—Providing 500 with medicine and medical care),” 大阪朝日新聞 (Osaka Asahi Shimbun), December 22, 1937, p. 2. 82. John G. Magee, A letter to his wife Faith, December 15, 1937, F2, B263, RG8, YDSL. 83. John G. Magee, A letter to his wife Faith, January 11, 1938, F2, B263, RG8, YDSL. 84. Hsü Shuhsi, Documents of the Nanking Safety Zone, Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh, Limited, 1939, pp. 94–95. 85. “南京に自治委員: 明朗政權近く成立式 (Nanjing Self-Government Committee established: A transparent regime will soon hold its opening ceremony),” 讀賣新聞 (Yomiuri Shimbun), December 24, 1937, p. 1. 86. 中川紀元 (Kigen Nakakawa), “南京從軍入城 (Entering Nanjing with the troops),” 文藝春 秋 (Bungeishunju Magazine), February 1938, p. 204. 87. 大宅壮一 (Soichi Oya), “香港から南京入城 (From Hong Kong to entering Nanjing),” 改造 (Reconstruction), February 1938, p. 241. 88. Kaikosha (偕行社) is an organization of retired military officers in Japan, but the Officers’ Moral Endeavour Association (勵志社) is for military officers in active service. 89. 小坂英一 (Eiichi Kosaka), “南京大攻略戰從軍私記 (A personal account of the great Nanjing campaign),” 文藝春秋 (Bungeishunju Magazine), February 1938, p. 217. 90. 衫山平助 (Heisuke Shugiyama), “南京 (Nanjing),” 改造 (Reconstruction), March 1938, p. 317.

Chapter 10

American, British, and German Diplomatic Documents

10.1  The American Embassy and Diplomatic Record A week after Shanghai fell, with Japanese troops moving swiftly westward toward Nanjing, the Chinese Government announced on November 20, 1937 that the national capital would move from Nanjing to Chongqing in West China. The move was immediately implemented. Some government agencies transferred directly to Chongqing, while others, including the Ministries of Communications, Finance, and Foreign Affairs, first relocated to Hankou in Central China. Foreign governments urged their citizens to evacuate Nanjing and advised their embassies to move with the Chinese Government. Embassies of the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and a few other countries followed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Hankou. American ambassador Nelson Trusler Johnson and the majority of embassy staff departed from Nanjing on USS Luzon on November 23. Meanwhile, the United States, Great Britain and Germany respectively kept a skeleton team of diplomats in Nanjing to maintain embassy business as long as possible. The American consular team comprised Second Secretary George Atcheson, Second Secretary John Hall Paxton, Assistant Military Attaché Frank Needham Roberts and Emile Peter Gassie, Jr., a code clerk. As the war drew closer to Nanjing, however, the remaining diplomats worked in their offices during the day, but stayed overnight on American and British gunboats or commercial vessels. Around December 8, Japanese troops reached the city gates. After repeatedly urging American nationals to board USS Panay and leaving coils of ropes for those who chose to stay to get over the city walls with in case they changed their mind, all the American diplomats boarded USS Panay and maintained a temporary office there. Late December 9, because of Japanese raids and bombings at the harbor area and Pukou, USS Panay moved upstream to the anchorage outside the Sancha River, surrounded by SS Mei Ping (美平), SS Mei An (美安), and SS Mei Hsia (美夏), American Standard-Vacuum Oil Company’s tankers that Panay was escorting. © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 S. Lu, The 1937 – 1938 Nanjing Atrocities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9656-4_10

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Around 2:45  p.m. on December 11, the Japanese dropped bombs again around Panay. Its captain, Lieutenant Commander James Joseph Hughes, ordered the gunboat to move at about 5 p.m. upstream to a location about 12 miles from Nanjing to get the ship and other tankers out of harm’s way. Around 8:15 a.m. on December 12, Japanese artillery started shelling about 400 yards starboard of Panay. The convoy immediately sailed further upriver until reaching a point in the Hexian (和縣) waters about 28 miles above Nanjing at 11:00 a.m., and the convoy anchored midstream one and half miles offshore. At about 1:30 p.m., three Japanese twin-engined planes flew overhead striking Panay with two bombs, and another bomb hitting Mei Ping. Immediately after the first attack, six single-engined planes came to drop bombs on Panay, with a total of twenty bombs dropped on the gunboat. Three persons on Panay eventually died of wounds in the ensuing days and dozens were wounded, including Lieutenant Commander Hughes. Paxton and Gassie of the American Embassy were seriously wounded. At 3:54 p.m. USS Panay sank into the Yangtze River.1 HMS Bee and USS Oahu rushed to the Panay sinking site on December 13 and 14, respectively, in search of the survivors. Consequently, the Panay survivors, including the American Embassy staff, after much ordeal, were rescued and sent to Shanghai by USS Oahu and HMS Ladybird on December 17, 1937. When USS Panay was under attack, Japanese troops launched final assaults at Nanjing. After the city fell to the Japanese on December 13 and atrocities were in full swing, American property and interests in the city were violated as well. The remaining 14 Americans, while busy with relief work, did what they could to protect American property and interests. However, their efforts proved to be feeble and inadequate against rifles and bayonets. The 14 Americans collectively signed two telegrams to appeal for the return of American diplomats to the city, but the Japanese refused to transmit the telegrams. Two weeks after Nanjing fell, the Department of State dispatched to Nanjing a consular group of three diplomats headed by John Moore Allison, who was proficient in Japanese, to reopen the U. S. Embassy. USS Oahu and SS Saucy departed from Shanghai on December 28, 1937 with three missions: landing American diplomats at Nanjing; conducting salvage operations on her sister gunboat USS Panay; and shipping medical supplies to Wuhu General Hospital. USS Oahu reached the Nanjing waters on December 31. Allison reported at 6 p.m. that day: Arrived at Nanking 2:30 p.m. today, waterfront a shambles and (?) rifle fire heard while small fires were visible at various points in city. In company with Captain of Oahu I called on commander of HMS Bee, who had just returned from his first interview with the Japanese military authorities which took place on a Japanese naval vessel. Informed by the British officer that no foreigners had been allowed to land at Nanking and that according to the representative of the Japanese military commander none would be allowed to land before January 5. Reason given is that “mopping up” operations are still in progress and that it is unsafe. British are making no attempt to land before January 6.2

The convoy then proceeded to the Panay sinking site for salvage. The diplomats on board oversaw the operation of recovering embassy code books and other

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p­ roperty from the safe on Panay. After they retrieved what they could from the sunken gunboat, USS Oahu left for Wuhu on the morning of January 5, 1938. At Wuhu, the diplomats inspected American property and the welfare of American nationals who remained there during the hostilities: I went ashore with staff and while Espy and McFadyen inspected American property elsewhere in company of Reverend L. R. Craighill, I interviewed Dr. R. E. Brown of the Wuhu General Hospital. According to Dr. Brown, during first week of occupation Japanese troops engaged in “ruthless treatment and slaughter of civilians and wanton looting and destruction” of private property in the city. Persons of foreigners have been respected but where property was left unguarded it has usually been pilfered. Japanese army, navy and Consular officials called on him separately to apologize for the tearing of an American flag from hospital junk on December 13th.3

Eventually, the American diplomats got permission to land at Nanjing. At 11:00  a.m., January 6, 1938, USS Oahu slowly approached Nanjing harbor and anchored by HMS Bee at the docking facilities of the International Import & Export Company, or Heji as known to locals, a British concern. Three American officials, Allison, James Espy, and Archibald Alexander McFadyen, Jr. stepped off the vessel and were met by Japanese naval and military representatives, as well as consular officials from the Japanese Embassy in the city. The top U. S. diplomat, Third Secretary John M. Allison, born on April 7, 1905 in Holton, Kansas, grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska, and was a graduate of the University of Nebraska. Upon graduation in June 1927, he went to Japan to teach English in middle schools and a naval academy, before he joined the General Motors Shanghai branch in June 1929 as a salesman. He started his diplomatic career as a clerk at the U.S.  Consulate-General at Shanghai in April 1930. He spent the following years working at the U.S. diplomatic posts at Kobe, Tokyo, Dalian and Jinan. When in Tokyo, he took a 2 year full-time program as a Japanese language officer attached to the U.S. Embassy at Tokyo to study Japanese language, culture and history. It was through this program that Allison gained his Japanese language proficiency. He was promoted to third secretary and transferred from Jinan to Nanjing in September 1937, when the Jinan consulate was ordered to close, though he made a trip back to Jinan in mid-November to take care of business. He arrived in Shanghai before Thanksgiving but was not able to make the trip to Nanjing until December 28. Allison left Nanjing on August 10, 1938 and was transferred to the U.S.  Consulate General at Osaka by the end of 1938. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 8, 1941, together with Ambassador Joseph Clark Grew and other fellow diplomats, he was detained by the Japanese for six months before being repatriated. From 1942 to 1945, he served at the London Embassy as second secretary and was promoted to first secretary in 1945. After the war, he was responsible for Far Eastern affairs in the Department of State in various capacities until he was named consul general at Singapore in 1950. He returned to the State Department in 1952 as Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs. He was an aide to Secretary of State John Foster Dulles while negotiating the peace treaty with Japan. Allison served as ambassador to Japan (1953–57), ambassador to Indonesia (1957–58), and ambassador to Czecho-

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slovakia (1958–60). He retired from the Foreign Service in 1960 and joined the University of Hawaii faculty. He passed away on October 28, 1978 in Honolulu. Upon arrival in Nanjing, Allison inspected city conditions, met with the American residents who had stayed and witnessed atrocities, and conducted preliminary investigations of the losses and damage to American property and interests. At 5:00 p.m., January 6, the day of their arrival, he reported: Arrived Nanking 11:00 a.m. and met by Japanese Consul, naval and military representatives who were very cooperative. Following is brief preliminary report concerning American lives and property here. All Americans in city are safe and well. There has been considerable looting of American property by Japanese soldiers though the situation has improved of late. Buildings have been but slightly damaged while contents left unguarded have generally been looted. American residents with whom I had lunch tell an appalling story of wanton killing of civilian Chinese and violation of women, some taking place in American property. Standard Oil and Texaco installations entered and stocks removed though amount taken still unknown. General conditions in city slowly returning to normal. Embassy has water but no electricity. Food supplies restricted somewhat. Japanese troops still imperfectly controlled but it is believed worst is over. Embassy buildings and all property in two compounds generally in good condition. Japanese have returned two of the automobiles taken and have offered to replace with new automobiles the six not returned. Embassy automobiles not returned belong to the Ambassador, Aldredge, Jenkins, and Lafoon. Embassy employees and servants here all safe with exception of Jenkins’ boy4 who was killed presumably while attempting to guard Jenkins’ house outside Embassy compound which was thoroughly looted.5

When the American diplomats arrived, murder cases still occurred from time to time, burning was a daily phenomenon; raping was still rampant; and looting and violation of American property and interests took place constantly. During the weeks following their arrival, Allison and his staff members worked diligently to conduct extensive interviews with the American and other Western residents, as well as did their own investigations. Based on the reports by the foreign residents and their investigations, Allison sent reports on a daily basis to the Secretary of State and other American posts in China and Japan. Sometimes he dispatched several reports in 1 day. He not only reported Japanese atrocities, but also lodged numerous protests. In his 4 p.m., January 18 dispatch, one of the four telegrams he cabled out that day, Allison indicated, “Between noon of January 15 and noon today there have been reported to this Embassy 15 cases of irregular entry of American property by Japanese soldiers. In addition to property of American citizens and organizations which was removed during these irregular entries, 10 Chinese women refugees residing at the properties concerned were forcibly taken away.”6 Concerning the Japanese atrocities, Allison further reported on January 22: In my January 6, 5 p.m. I reported that local American residents had told “an appalling story of wanton killing of civilian Chinese and violation of women, some taking place in American property” and in my 27, January 18, 4 p.m. further instances were given of the taking by force of women from American property. I have not deemed it advisable to send

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full details of such atrocities by telegraph but a detailed report is being prepared which will shortly be forwarded by safe means to Shanghai. It can be said, however, that such facts as reported in Tokyo’s telegram under reference have been fully authenticated here and that this office has on file written statements from responsible American citizens testifying to the absolutely barbarous action of Japanese troops, whose officers made no apparent effort to control them, after the occupation of Nanking.7

The “detailed report” Allison referenced here is “Conditions at Nanking,” drafted and compiled by Vice Consul James Espy, who worked diligently and efficiently in investigating general conditions, Japanese atrocities, as well as losses and damage to American property and interest, and filing reports. James Espy, born on March 23, 1908  in Cincinnati, Ohio, was a 1930 Yale graduate. He entered Foreign Service in 1935 in Mexico City. In April 1937, he was transferred to the U. S. Consulate General at Shanghai as a vice consul. He worked in Nanjing until June 6, 1938, when he was replaced by Third Secretary Charles Albert Cooper (1908–1960) and transferred to the Consulate General at Guangzhou. By the end of 1938, Espy was promoted to third secretary and assigned to the Embassy at Tokyo, the position he held until the Pearl Harbor bombing. Like many other American diplomats in Japan, he was detained by the Japanese for 6 months. Espy spent the following war years at several diplomatic posts mainly in the Middle East, including Istanbul, Alexandria, and Cairo. He was promoted to second secretary in Cairo in 1944. After the war, Espy worked at the Department of State as assistant chief of the Division of North and West Coast Affairs in 1947. He was first secretary with the U.S. Embassies at La Paz, Bolivia, and Vienna, Austria, and later served at several posts around world, including as consul at Salzburg, Austria, as counselor with the Colombo Embassy, Ceylon, and counselor with the Montevideo Embassy, Uruguay, before becoming career development officer at the Department of State in 1959. He retired in 1963, and passed away on January 27, 1976 in Washington D.C. “Conditions at Nanking,” is a detailed report of 135 pages with 30 enclosures and sub-enclosures included. It took Espy about 10 days to write and compile it. The report, part of which was read as prosecution’s evidence in the court of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East on August 29 and 30, 1946, pro-­ vides substantial records of the Japanese atrocities in the city. Espy related the information he had obtained through conversations with American residents: We were immediately called upon by the fourteen American residents who had remained in Nanking. Although they had been subjected to some unpleasant incidents none of them nor of the other fourteen foreigners8 still here was harmed and all were well. Their every thought seemed to center about what had occurred to Nanking and they related to us a series of most appalling stories of the horrors and atrocities that Nanking had been through since the entry of the Japanese armies. They felt that the worst had passed but advised that incidents were continuing to happen and that the situation in the city was still bad. The picture that they painted of Nanking was one of a reign of terror that befell the city upon its occupation by the Japanese military forces. Their stories and those of the German residents tell of the city having fallen into the hands of the Japanese as captured prey, not merely taken in the course of organized warfare but seized by an invading army

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whose members seemed to have set upon the prize to commit unlimited depredations and violence. Fuller data and our own observations have not brought out facts to discredit their information. The civilian Chinese population remaining in the city crowded the streets of the so-­called “safety zone” as refugees, many of whom are destitute. Physical evidences are almost everywhere of the killing of men, women and children, of the breaking into and looting of property and of the burning and destruction of houses and buildings.…… However, no sooner had the Japanese armies gotten into Nanking than instead of a restoration of order and an end made of the confusion that had come about, the reign of terror for the city really began. By the night of December 13th and the morning of December 14th acts of violence were already occurring. Detachments of Japanese soldiers were first of all sent out to round up and “mop up” Chinese soldiers left within the walls. Careful search was made throughout all the streets and buildings of the city. All ex-Chinese soldiers and persons suspected to have been such were systematically shot. Although no accurate records are obtainable, it is estimated that well over twenty thousand persons were executed in this manner. Little effort appears to have been made to discriminate between ex-soldiers and those who had never, in fact, served in the Chinese armies. If there was the slightest suspicion that a person had been a soldier such person was seemingly invariably taken away to be shot. The Japanese determination to “wipe out” all remnants of the Chinese Government forces was apparently unalterable.…… Besides the hunting down and execution of all former Chinese soldiers by detachments of Japanese military, small bands of two or three or more Japanese soldiers roamed at will the entire city. It was the killing, raping and looting of these soldiers that perpetrated the worst of the terrors on the city. Whether carte blanche was given to these soldiers to do anything they like or whether the Japanese armies got completely out of control after they entered the city has not been fully explained. We have been told that at least two orders were sent out by the Japanese high command to get the soldiers under control and that before the armies entered the city strict orders were issued that no property was to be burned. It remains, however, that the Japanese soldiers swarmed over the city in thousands and committed untold depredations and atrocities. It would seem according to stories told us by foreign witnesses that the soldiers were let loose like a barbarian horde to desecrate the city. Men, women and children were killed in uncounted numbers throughout the city. Stories are heard of civilians being shot or bayoneted for no apparent reason.9

Espy briefly described what they had seen in the city when they first arrived, We were informed by Japanese themselves on the day of our arrival at Nanking that many bodies had to be cleaned up the day before. However bodies are still to be seen in houses, in ponds and along the sides of by-streets. We have been informed by an American citizen that a house containing fourteen Chinese in the south city was entered by Japanese soldiers. He said he saw the bodies of eleven persons, the women amongst whom were said to have been raped before being killed. Two small children and one other alone survived. A small pond nearby the Embassy was dragged the other day for corpses. It disgorged some twenty or thirty bodies of Chinese dressed in civilian clothing. (p. 9)

He reported that the abduction and assault on women were rampant. According to foreign residents, Japanese “soldiers are reported to have sought out the native women wherever they could be found to violate them. Reference is made to the enclosures of this report for descriptions of such occurrences. During the early part of the Japanese occupation over a thousand such cases a night are believed by the

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foreigners here to have occurred and one American counted thirty such cases in one night in one piece of American property.” (Ibid.) In January 1938, the conditions had improved since the worst of the massacre days. However, after the U. S. officials returned, violation against women continued as a daily occurrence as Allison reported, “While conditions have improved, discipline has not yet been completely restored and we continue to receive from American residents a daily average of three or four reports of rape or attempted rape within the refuge zone. How many cases take place without commanding the attention of these Americans it is impossible to say.”10 Espy reported widespread looting as well. According to his description, as the killing and raping were going on, the city was culled over entirely by the marauding Japanese soldiers. Almost every house and building was broken into, ransacked and looted of whatever articles the Japanese soldiers chose to carry off with them. From information tendered by the International Committee and the American residents individually and from investigations made by this Embassy staff, it is believed that there is scarcely a single piece of property in Nanking that has escaped entry and looting by the Japanese military. Whether the compound, house, shop or building be that of a foreign mission or that of a foreign or Chinese national, all have been entered without discrimination and to a greater or less degree ransacked and looted. The American, British, German and French Embassies are known to have been entered and articles taken therefrom. It has also been reported that the same thing has occurred to the Italian Embassy. The Russian Embassy on January 1st was mysteriously gutted by fire. Without exception, every piece of American property inspected by us or reported upon by the American residents has been entered by Japanese soldiers, frequently time and time again. This has occurred even to the residences in which the Americans are still living. These American residents and the other members of the International Committee have been and up to the time of this report still are constantly driving Japanese soldiers out of foreign properties who have entered in search of loot or women. Every sort of thing that the soldiers could carry off was seemingly fair prey to their pillage. With specific reference to foreign houses, it would seem that automobiles, bicycles and liquor together with whatever small sized valuables that they could pocket were particularly sought. But any property, foreign or Chinese, was looted of whatever the trespassers desired. What remain of the stores, shops in the business section of the city show that they had all been pretty well emptied of their contents. In a number of instances there is evidence that where too much that was desired was found that could not be carried away by hand, truck had been brought up to cart it off. Foreign residents have reported that they saw on several occasions stocks being taken away in truck loads from stores and warehouses. The warehouse keeper of the Texas Corporation (China) Ltd. reported that the Japanese soldiers who removed some stocks of gasoline and oils from the warehouse used the company’s trucks which they had taken to effect the removal.11

However, it was burning of buildings in Nanjing and the destruction by fire that had caused the worst physical damage to the city. At the time of writing this report fires can still be seen in a few places in the city. In the “safety zone” no fires have occurred. Nevertheless, except for this zone, burning through arson or otherwise has been committed at random throughout the city. On many streets there are found houses and buildings that are burnt down, intermittently among others that were not burnt at all. A street will have one, two or more buildings with only charred walls standing while the rest of the buildings along it have not been touched by fire.

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The southern end of the city has suffered the worst of the ravages by fire. An inspection of that part of Nanking where the business and commercial section of the city is located showed block after block of burnt out buildings and houses. Many blocks are left with only a dozen or less buildings still standing. Instead of the nearly complete destruction by fire of the entire section of the city such as occurred to Chapei in Shanghai it could be seen that usually just the buildings facing onto the main streets were destroyed while the structures behind had mainly not been burnt. (pp. 12 - 13)

In an attempt to refute the Japanese allegation that it was the Chinese plain clothes soldiers who were responsible for the burning in the city, Espy stated: Some argument has been forth coming from the Japanese authorities here that much of the burning of Nanking within the walls was done by the retreating Chinese or by Chinese plain clothes soldiers after the fall of the city. Some perhaps may have been done by the Chinese, but every reason is given to believe that it was infinitesimal in comparison with what was brought about deliberately or through negligence by the Japanese troops after they had taken Nanking and after the fighting here had ceased. Either the buildings were deliberately set on fire after they had been entered and looted or through carelessness small fires were left burning in the buildings which set the buildings ablaze or the buildings caught fire from nearby burning structures. No attempt is known to have been made to extinguish the flames of any building on fire. (p. 13)

In this report, Espy also included 188 atrocity cases, which were available at the time the report was drafted. These cases, after being verified and filed by the International Committee for Nanking Safety Zone, were presented to the Japanese Embassy and later to the U.S. Embassy. In Nanjing, the primary concern of the American diplomats, however, was the violation against American property and interests, since there were many American institutions, such as the University of Nanking, Ginling College, Nanking Theological Seminary, the Bible Teachers Training School for Women (金陵女子神學院), several middle schools, many church organizations and buildings, and businesses and companies in the city. Allison and his staff members spent a lot of time and energy investigating and reporting the damage and losses inflicted by Japanese soldiers to American properties and interests. On February 28, 1938, Espy wrote and compiled another huge document, “Conditions of American Property and Interests in Nanking,” which, 165 pages in length, with 71 enclosures and sub-­ enclosures included, offers detailed accounts of Japanese violations against American properties and interests, and descriptions of Japanese atrocities. At the beginning of the report, Espy gave a concise introduction: There is contained in the report a brief general resume of what has happened to American property and information regarding the individual properties and interests obtained from American citizens who have remained here or from investigations made by members of the Embassy staff on behalf of absent owners. As enclosures there are transmitted the reports presented to the Embassy by American and other residents in Nanking giving detailed information of incidents that occurred in American owned premises and violations thereof. As was stated in the previous report, American property in Nanking suffered equally with all property here the depredations attending the fall of the city. Not one American owned premises has come to the attention of the Embassy which has not been to some

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extent violated, including the Embassy itself. The fact that there may have been American flags flying over the property or Embassy proclamations posted on the gates to the compounds or on the doors to the houses did not keep them from being entered and usually ransacked and pilfered. The fifty thousand odd Japanese troops that entered the city on December 13th swarmed over any and all property regardless of its nature or nationality and Japanese soldiers broke into American premises immediately after they captured the city and have continued to do so from time to time even up to February 23rd. …… Whether or not the properties were vacant or occupied did not seem to make any difference as to their being violated by the soldiers. Some American residences in the city remained unattended. Other had been left with caretakers to afford what protection they could to the houses and effects of the absent owners. The fourteen remaining American citizens resided in various houses and visited, often daily, other premises here. However, Japanese soldiers seem to have broken into all of the residences and compounds, even into those in which the Americans at the time were living.12

Espy continued to describe in detail the damages and violations to such ins-­ titutions as the University of Nanking, Ginling College, American Presbyterian Mission, United Christian Missionary Society, Nanking Theological Seminary, Methodist Episcopal Mission, American Church Mission, Christian Advent Mis-­ sion, Robert Dollar Lumber Company, Philco Sales Corporation, Singer Sewing Machine Company, Standard-Vacuum Oil Company, State Theatre, Texas Cor-­ poration, and the American Embassy compounds. Japanese soldiers broke into the American Embassy compounds to loot. The looted items could be as big as a truck, or as small as a flashlight. Allison reported that the last week of December 1937, Japanese soldiers broke into both Embassy compounds frequently: These soldiers took away from the Embassy premises seven motor cars and one truck which had been left in the compounds by members of the Embassy staff and other persons as well as bicycles belonging to members of the Chinese staff and a considerable amount of money and personal property belonging to Chinese staff members and servants who were living on the premises. They went through the Embassy offices and a door on the ground floor was slightly damaged by bayonet thrusts. In addition to the motor cars taken by soldiers, three motor cars belonging to the Ambassador,13 Counselor Peck and Second Secretary Atcheson were “borrowed” by the Japanese Embassy after consultation with Mr. George Fitch, an American missionary who remained in the city. These three cars were returned after the arrival of the Embassy staff together with 160 gallons of gasoline.14

Attached as No. 3 Enclosure to Allison’s report is an itemized list of all the losses and damage with dollar amount sustained inside the American Embassy compounds for compensation from the Japanese Government: Claims Settlement for Losses or Damages Suffered at American Embassy Nanking, December, 1937. United States currency Embassy personnel Clayson W. Aldridge Motor Car Us$550.00 (Second Secretary) (continued)

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10  American, British, and German Diplomatic Documents Claims Settlement for Losses or Damages Suffered at American Embassy Douglas Jenkins, Jr. Damage to house and 3300.00 (Third Secretary) Personal effects Motor Car 896.00 Sidney K. Lafoon Motor Car 350.00 (Embassy Clerk) Others J. M. Hansen Motor Car 1700.00 (Danish subject, Manager for Texas Total U.S. Co. China, ltd.) $ 6796.00 Chinese currency Embassy personnel T. C. Teng, Chinese citizen, Motor Car CN$ 2000.00 Embassy employee Bicycle 90.00 Hsu Yao-pu, Chinese writer Bicycle 70.00 Hwang Tai-Chien, Ambassador’s Bicycle 40.00 Chauffeur Ko Chang-fah, Messenger Bicycle 35.00 Kan Yuan-chou, Messenger Bicycle 30.00 Liang Fang-chung, Policeman Bicycle 30.00 Wang Yi-chow, Policeman Bicycle 25.00 Others C. Yates McDaniel, (American Motor Car CN$ 3500.00 citizen) Arthur v. B. Menken, (American Motor Car 750.00 citizen) China Import & Export G.M.C. Truck 3500.00 Lumber Co. (British firm) Damage or loss to embassy property Repairs to door in office and ceilings CN$ 30.00 in bedroom of residence of Counselor 4 Oil Lamps @ $2.00 8.00 1 Large Flashlight 10.00 Total Chinese $10,118.0015

Private residences of American citizens in Nanjing suffered break-ins and looting as well, though some residences suffered more than others, as proved by the property damage and loss claims filed through the U.S. Embassy at Nanjing by George A. Fitch, Robert Stanley Norman, Charles H. Riggs, M. S. Bates, Richard F. Brady, Ferrebee Catherine Bryan, and James H. McCallum. These well-­documented claims are kept in the National Archives II in the Department of State archives and the Nanjing Embassy archives. In addition to the formal claims filed by the above mentioned Americans, Espy recorded in his February report the property damage suffered by other American nationals, namely, Emmeline Arguello, Julius Augustus Barr, Thomas Joseph Broderick, Bryan Raymond Dyer, Betty Ling, Hazel M. Witney Liu, Charles Y. McDaniel, John Wesley Parsons and Frank Hayden Vines.

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According to American diplomatic archival documents, property losses and damage were not the only sufferings the American nationals sustained in Nanjing. Many of the American residents in the city were personally attacked, slapped, or threatened with bayonets or rifles by Japanese soldiers. Minnie Vautrin, Charles H. Riggs, Robert O. Wilson, Miner S. Bates, Iva M. Hynds, Hubert L. Sone and James H.  McCallum were among those who had either been slapped, struck, attacked, robbed, or pushed around and threatened with weapons. However, the most flagrant and infamous case is the “Allison Incident.” On January 25, 1938, Miner S.  Bates reported to Allison that one Chinese woman had been abducted the previous evening from the agricultural implement shop at the University of Nanking, an American institution, to a barrack where she had been gang raped for 2 h before she was released. Because Allison had lodged numerous protests against Japanese atrocities and violation of American property, Japanese diplomats accused Allison of listening only to American missionaries who were prejudiced in favor of the Chinese. Allison decided to personally investigate this rape case in coordination with Japanese consular police and gendarme. On January 27, 1938, Allison cabled the following dispatch, informing the secretary of state of the details about how he and Charles H. Riggs had been slapped by a Japanese soldier when they attempted to investigate the case: It was reported to me on the 25th at about eleven o’clock the previous evening armed Japanese soldiers had forced their way into the agricultural implements shop of Nanking University, an American institution, and after searching one of the Chinese on the premises had taken a woman, who returned after two hours and reported she had been raped three times. On the afternoon of January 25th, Mr. Riggs and Dr. M. S. Bates, an American professor, interviewed the woman who was able to identify the place to which she was taken. This proved to be a former residence of Catholic priests now occupied by Japanese soldiers. The matter was reported to the Japanese Embassy and on the afternoon of January 26th a consular policeman and gendarmes in civilian clothes came to investigate the matter and went to the place from which the woman was taken accompanied by Mr. Riggs and myself. After questioning the people there the Japanese took the woman and two Chinese to the building where the rape was alleged to have taken place. At that point a discussion was held as to whether or not Riggs and myself should accompany the woman into the building while she attempted to identify her assailants. Because of previous experience of the intimidation of Chinese who had accused Japanese of wrong-doing Riggs did not wish the woman to be left alone. The gendarmes said we had better not go in the building but did not definitely say we could not. One of them forcibly took the woman and walked with her through the open gate of the compound whereupon he was followed by Riggs. I followed and just inside the gate we stopped to discuss the matter. While doing so a Japanese soldier dashed up angrily and shouted in English “back, back” at the same time pushing me back towards the gate. I backed up slowly but before I had time to get out of the gate he slapped me across the face and then turned and did the same to Riggs. The gendarmes with us tried feebly to stop the soldier and one of them said in Japanese “these are Americans” or words to that effect. We were then outside the gate on the street. As soon as the soldier heard we were Americans he became livid with rage, repeated the word “Americans” and also attempted to attack Riggs who was nearest him. The gendarmes prevented him but he succeeded in tearing the collar and some buttons off Riggs shirt. In the meantime the officer in command of the unit appeared and shouted at

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us in an offensive manner. At no time did either Riggs or myself touch a Japanese soldier nor did we speak to any except the gendarmes with us. The Chinese men who had been brought along ran away during the fracas and I then insisted that the woman be brought with us to the Japanese Embassy where a full report was made to Mr. Fukui. Mr. Fukui’s attitude was that we should not have been in the soldier’s compound, even though at the time we were investigating the above mentioned irregular entry of American property by Japanese soldiers, and that the soldier had told us to leave and was therefore seemingly within his rights in slapping us. I told Mr. Fukui there could be no excuse for the slapping and that I would expect a call from the military to explain the matter. He would report at once to the military authorities.16

As late as June 15, 1938, it was not completely safe for an American to travel around in the streets in Nanjing. James Claude Thomson, professor of chemistry at the University of Nanking, was stopped, searched and slapped by a Japanese sentry in a public street, where he travelled in a rickshaw, though he had made no attempt to resist the sentry in any way. Immediately after he was slapped, Thomson rushed to the American Embassy to report the incident. Allison wasted no time in lodging a strong protest with the Japanese Embassy and making a report to Washington D.C. at 5 p.m. that very day: While riding in a rickshaw through a public street in Nanking just before noon today, Dr. J.  C. Thomson, an American citizen, and member of the faculty of the University of Nanking, was stopped by a Japanese sentry, questioned, searched and slapped across the face, though he had made no attempt to resist the sentry in any way. Dr. Thomson immediately reported the matter to the American Embassy after which I accompanied him to the Japanese Consulate General where I lodged a strong protest. In company with Vice Consul Kasuya and a Consular policeman we then returned to the spot where the incident had occurred but the offending sentry had been relieved by another soldier. However, the Japanese officials made notes of the location and promised to make an immediate investigation. I informed Mr. Kasuya that I would expect a report of the results of the investigation this afternoon and that I would hold up my report of the matter until this evening so that the Japanese report might be incorporated therein. Kasuya reported this afternoon that Japanese gendarmes had questioned the sentry, who admitted having searched Dr. Thomson, but denied categorically that he had slapped him. I informed Mr. Kasuya that this explanation was entirely unsatisfactory as when Dr. Thomson had come to the Embassy this morning he was still in a nervous condition as a result of his experience and his face bore a faint flush where he had been slapped. A further investigation was requested. I have made the following requests of the Japanese Consul General: (One) An apology should be made to Dr. Thomson by a military representative, (Two) the guilty soldier should be punished and the American Embassy informed of the punishment, and (Three) assurances should be given that the military authorities have taken adequate steps to prevent the recurrence of such incidents. The Japanese Consul General has been informed that if the above requests are promptly and satisfactorily carried out I shall recommend that the incident be considered closed and that no publicity be given to it, but I have made it clear that the final decision in this regard rests with the Department of State. It is therefore requested that information concerning this incident not be made public until tomorrow night at least when it is hoped to have a more favorable report from the Japanese authorities.17

10.2  The British Embassy and Diplomatic Dispatches and Reports

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10.2  T  he British Embassy and Diplomatic Dispatches and Reports The British legation in China suffered a serious blow at the early stage of the Sino-­ Japanese hostilities at Shanghai. Less than 2  weeks after the war started, British ambassador to China, Sir Hughe Montgomery Knatchbull-Hugessen, was on his way from Nanjing to Shanghai by automobile on August 26, 1937, when his car was machine-gunned by two Japanese airplanes at a spot about 65  miles west of Shanghai. The ambassador was severely wounded in the attack. Though the Japanese claimed that they mistook his motor vehicle for Chiang Kai-shek’s car, Anglo-­ Japanese diplomatic waggling abruptly ensued. To cope with the airraid incident and unexpected absence of the British ambassador, the British Foreign Office immediately dispatched the former counselor of the British Embassy in China, Roger George Howe, to Nanjing as chargé d’affaires.18 Howe arrived in Nanjing in early September to take charge of the British Embassy until March 1938, when Sir Archibald Clark Kerr came to assume ambassadorship. After the Chinese Government decided to evacuate from Nanjing on November 20, the British Embassy departed on November 23, following the Foreign Ministry to Hankou. However, as Howe indicated, if the British Embassy moved into interior China, when the Yangtze River was blockaded by booms, the embassy would be bottled up. Because Great Britain had consulates-general in both Chongqing and Hankou, they could maintain contacts with the Chinese Government, while the embassy should have easy communication with the outside world. Therefore, it seemed to Howe that Shanghai was the best location for the British Embassy.19 Howe and his staff reached Shanghai on December 9, 1937 to have the British Embassy established there, only about 2 weeks after the British Embassy was relocated to Hankou.20 As did the U.S. and German Embassies, the British appointed a small consular group to remain in Nanjing when the main body of the British Embassy evacuated. The consular group, headed by Consul H. I. Prideaux-Brune, comprised of Military Attaché William Alexander Lovat-Fraser, and staff members Serjeant Parsons and Walter Henry Williams. Humphrey Ingelram Prideaux-Brune, born on November 16, 1886, in Rowner, Hampshire, was educated at University College, Oxford University, and started his diplomatic career as a student interpreter in China in 1911. After serving at posts in Beijing, Shanghai, Ningbo (寧波), Tianjin (天津), Tangshan (唐山), Weihaiwei (威 海衞), Qingdao (青島), and Jinan, he was appointed Chinese secretary to H.M. Diplomatic Mission at Nanjing, with the local rank of first secretary in March 1935. On January 9, 1938, he led the British consular group back to Nanjing to reopen the British Embassy. He left Nanjing for Shanghai on January 29, 1938 and was appointed acting Chinese counselor at Shanghai in October 1938. He served as chargé d’affaires of the British Embassy in 1943  in Chongqing, before he was appointed Chinese relations officer in India the same year, and retired from the f­ oreign service in 1945. He passed away on December 12, 1979 in Lindfield, West Sussex, England.

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As the war drew closer to Nanjing, on the evening of December 8, 1937, Consul Prideaux-Brune ordered all the remaining British diplomats and British subjects to evacuate to the British gunboats and commercial vessels at their anchorage in Nanjing harbor. Prideaux-Brune, Lovat-Fraser, and Parsons quartered on HMS Scarab, while Williams, together with German diplomats, Dutch and Russian nationals, boarded Jardine Matheson & Company’s hulk Chinwo (慶和).21 British journalist Leslie C. Smith of Reuters stayed inside the city to cover the siege, the fall of the city and the initial stage of the Nanjing Massacre, before departing for Shanghai by HMS Ladybird on December 15, 1937. Because of bombing and shelling, in the evening of December 9, the British convoy, consisting of HMS Scarab, HMS Cricket, Asiatic Petroleum Company’s SS Tienkwang (滇光), Butterfield & Swires Company’s SS Wantung (萬通), Butterfield & Swire’s S.S. Whangpu (黄浦), hulk Chinwo, and other vessels, sailed about four and a half miles upstream from Nanjing to a safe anchorage off the Sancha River. At 2 p.m. on December 11, Japanese artillery shelling precipitated the convoy to move 10  miles further upriver for safety. On the day the USS Panay was bombed and sunk, early morning on December 12, HMS Ladybird was shelled by Japanese artillery fire and damaged at Wuhu, with one British sailor killed. HMS Bee was under fire in Wuhu harbor at the same time. At about 1:30, 2:30 and 4:00 p.m. on December 12, at a location about 12 miles upriver from Nanjing, the British convoy was attacked and bombed by Japanese planes three times, though, fortunately, there was no direct hit to any of the vessels. According to the memoir of one of the attacking Japanese pilots, Masatake Okumiya, because Okumiya discovered Union Jacks on the convoy, he ordered the planes behind him to stop bombing. Instead, they dropped the remaining bombs at the Chinese positions behind Guanghua Gate.22 Having learned that USS Panay had been sunk, HMS Bee rushed to the Panay sinking site on December 13 from Wuhu, and USS Oahu and HMS Ladybird arrived on December 14. After the Panay survivors had been rescued on board Oahu and Ladybird, the two gunboats sailed downriver and reached Shanghai on December 17, with Military Attaché Lovat-Fraser aboard HMS Ladybird. Consul Prideaux-­ Brune, however, along with German Consul Georg Rosen, remained on board HMS Bee, which moored at anchorage off Nanjing, with the hope that they would be allowed to reopen their embassies once the hostilities were over. However, on December 18, a Japanese consular representative informed the chief of staff of HMS Bee that “at present neither the British or German Consular representatives who are on board Bee could be permitted to land as the Naval and Army authorities had decided that at present no foreigners would be allowed in Nanking.”23 According to a dispatch sent by Rosen, from December 18 to 20, Prideaux-Brune and Rosen stayed on board HMS Bee,24 then made arrangements to go to Shanghai. HMS Bee departed from Nanjing on December 22, sailing upriver to Madang (馬壋) to welcome the new captain Harold Thomas Armstrong from HMS Cockchafer. HMS Bee returned to the Nanjing waters on December 27 and did not leave until January 29, 1938. During her station in Nanjing harbor, officers of Bee recorded their observations. On December 18, the chief of staff reported, “There is

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considerable tension and occasional shelling by the Chinese from the Pukow side. At the request of Admiral Kondo I have moved to a position 2½ miles above Nanking as he states that a military operation is taking place tonight.”25 Upon arrival in the Nanjing waters on December 27, Armstrong indicated “The situation on shore appeared quiet, but there were a number of large fires on both sides of the river.” He wrote on December 28 that Japanese. Military were still very busy clearing up the city of armed Chinese. Nanking and Pukow were quite quiet but fresh fires were seen started throughout the day. It appeared that the Japanese were wantonly destroying Chinese property.26

On January 6, he reported the arrival of U. S. diplomats, and his request to land and enter Nanjing with the Americans was flatly turned down: American Consul arrived Nanking in U.S.R.G. Oahu this morning in consequence of instructions to open American Embassy. He suggested that I should land with him as representative of British Consul. On arrival at Japanese Flagship we were met by Japanese Embassy official who told us that he had received orders from Shanghai to arrange for American Consul to enter city but as he had no orders about me I could not do so.27

Three days after the American officials landed, three British diplomats, H.  I. Prideaux-Brune, W. A. Lovat-Fraser, and Wing Commander J. S. Wasler, acting Air Attaché, in the company of three German colleagues, Georg F. Rosen, Paul Hans Hermann Scharffenberg, and Alfred Mathias Peter Hürter, returned by HMS Cricket early afternoon, January 9, though their arrival was not without a twist. With the excuse that the local Japanese authorities had not been informed by the military authorities in Shanghai of Wing Commander Wasler’s arrival, he was not allowed to land with the consul and military attaché. Consequently, he had to be accommodated aboard HMS Bee, and was not able to enter Nanjing until January 12, 1938. After their arrival, British diplomats investigated the conditions in the city and the atrocities committed by Japanese troops. On January 13, Prideaux-Brune cabled a dispatch to Shanghai, summarizing the situation he found himself in: Situation here is far more difficult and abnormal than we had anticipated. Atrocities committed during first two weeks after occupation of city were of a nature and on a scale which are almost incredible. Condition as regards military unruliness are slowly improving but isolated cases of murder and other barbarities continue. Within last three days houses occupied by Germans and Americans and flying respective national flags have been forcible entered by military and from one American house a Chinese was summarily removed without consulting U.S. Embassy. 2. City is entirely under military domination. Military are in a sinister mood and bitterly hostile towards us. They remonstrated privately with my German colleague for his eccentricity in arriving here in my company. Embassy officials are friendly and helpful so far as circumstances permit. Autonomous committee was organized by them and was accorded grudging recognition by military some time after its formal inauguration on January 1st. So far as I can learn it is still in process of finding its feet and it may be some time before it begins to function effectively. 3. Chinese mostly of poorer classes are congregated in safety zone. Estimated number about 200,000. Work accomplished by German and American members of Zone Committee transcends all praise. There can be no doubt their presence alone has secured comparative safety zone and many attacks on individuals were averted by their continued gallant inter-

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vention. There is a strong movement to get rid of them and of course only eventual solution is for Japanese to undertake care of remaining civilian population and civil administration in general so soon as proper arrangements can be made. 4. Military are firmly opposed to return of any foreigners except officials and it is obvious that in any case in circumstances above described it would be inadvisable and quite futile for any British subjects to return. Any revival of business activities must depend similarly on some measure of modification among Chinese (?) and it is impossible to say when that may come.28 Lovat-Fraser shared Prideaux-Brune’s assessment of the conditions in the city. He indicated in a telegram dated January 14, “Nanking is a dead city and possibility of trade for some time to come is negligible. Japanese military are in full control and their attitude to foreigners, particularly British, is definitely hostile. Military Attaché has been unable to gain any contact with Military.”29

Lovat-Fraser and Wasler, travelling extensively in the city, were actively involved in inspecting and investigating the conditions, including Japanese atrocities, which made Prideaux-Brune “anxious that Military and Air Attaché now on shore at Nanking should leave as they are only an irritant to the Japanese,” and unless “arrangements are made for them to go by car or air intend Aphis should take them down to Shanghai leaving Wuhu on 16th January.”30 The two attachés left Nanjing, only 1 week after they arrived, leaving Prideaux-Brune the lone British diplomat in town for a couple of weeks. As did his American counterpart Allison, Prideaux-Brune kept himself busy, cabling out dispatches on a daily basis. On January 21, he sent a message to British Rear Admiral, Yangtze, reporting the conditions in Nanjing up to that point: There has been no perceptible improvement in the local situation during the last week. City remains completely dead except as a centre of military activity. Troops are constantly coming and going and appear subject to no unified situation inside city. American Embassy has been much occupied during the past week by cases of soldiers forcing their way into American properties for purpose of abduction or looting. A strong protest has been made in Tokyo and I understand instructions have been sent for better protection to be afforded foreign properties. There have been no signs of any attempt to develop civil administration or to provide security for Chinese life and property. Half hearted attempts were made to persuade some of refugees in safety zone to return to their homes elsewhere in the city. Only a very few individuals risked experiment and they promptly met with disaster. Food situation in safety zone threatens to become acute in near future. Well intentioned efforts of foreign members of zone committee to co-operate in dealing with this problem only exasperated military. Latter say autonomous committee must deal with it and they will help with supplies but so far no effective action has been taken and it seems they have not yet begun to realize the serious problem. Military are still resolutely opposed to return of any foreigners to Nanking other than diplomatic officials. I think it would be useless to press them about this at present and in any case inadvisable for British subjects to come under present conditions.31

On January 22, after inspecting British properties, he reported to British chargé d’affaires Howe in Shanghai, concerning damage and losses to British property and interests: 1. International Export Company. Little damage has been done but inhabitants have been frightened and ill-treated. Abduction of girls from compound continues as in the rest

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of the city. Japanese Consul promised to try and have protection afforded and naval representative to try and have them supplied with food. Adjacent village is being protected by Japanese naval authorities who are supplying food apparently on a bileral scale to safety zone established by Chinese Red Swastika and containing 4,000 people. Japanese gendarmerie are to be quartered in the neighbourhood and this with Japanese naval help should improve local situation. 2. Other British properties. Damage is surprisingly small, Japanese having in most cases put up their own protection notices. Only one bad case of looting and destruction. 3. Seizure of British cars. A number of cars have disappeared. Japanese authorities have offered to replace these with equivalent machines but owners prefer financial compensation which is likely to be accorded.32

Prideaux-Brune left for Shanghai on HMS Bee on January 29, 1938. On the day of his departure, he reported to Howe: Military lawlessness continues due to lack of any centralized control. Major instances are rape. Ronins (civil hangers on of army, adventurers and bravoes) have appeared on scene and are likely to prove a source of further trouble. Problem of 250,000 Chinese civilian refugees is serious. Japanese have informed Zone Committee that refugees must be dispensed with before February 4th. Most of them have nowhere to go and no means of subsistence and any hasty action by Japanese authorities may lead to rioting and more atrocities. Japanese continue to resent violently any observation of their activities by foreigners. There is ill-feeling against United States and German Embassies. Situation in this respect is not rendered easier by ineptitude of Mr. Fukui in charge of Embassy Offices.33

Before Prideaux-Brune’s departure, two British diplomats, Consul Ernest William Jeffery and Clerk Walter Henry Williams, arrived in Nanjing by HMS Aphis on January 27, 1938, to take over the embassy business. Ernest William Jeffery was born in Aldenham, Watford, Hertfordshire in England, on November 20, 1903. He graduated from Exeter College, Oxford University in 1923 and started his diplomatic career as a student interpreter in China in 1926. He was promoted to vice consul in 1928, serving in Beijing, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Shanghai and Harbin (哈爾濱), before he was further promoted to be one of H.M. consuls in China in October 1935. Jeffery succeeded Prideaux-Brune as consul at Nanjing from February to November 1938, when he was transferred to be consul at Hankou, a position he held until April 1939. From April 1939 to February 1940, he worked at the British Consulate-General at Shanghai, then he was transferred in 1943 to Dakar (present-day capital of Bangladesh). He was British consul-general at Hankou in January 1949 and consul-general at Tianjin in 1950. Jeffery passed away on October 22, 1989  in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire. During his tour of duty in Nanjing, Jeffery regularly cabled telegrams to the British Embassy in Shanghai, reporting the events and conditions in the city. On February 6, he reported the speech made by the newly arrived Japanese garrison commander, Shojikiro Amaya (天谷直次郎), at a tea party, to which all the foreign diplomats were invited. On February 18, he summarized the situation there: Local military authorities still refuse to allow merchants to come to Nanking for the present on grounds that it is a military area and dangerous to navigation. Possibilities for trade appear to be nil and early recovery unlikely. People left in Nanking are extremely poor and

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cut off from surrounding country which has been devastated. Banks, business houses, importers and all agencies for conducting trade do not exist. Japanese authorities claim that there is sufficient food here at the moment but steady imports of rice, flour and vegetables will be necessary for relief of population. As Japanese profess a desire to rehabilitate the city there may be an opportunity for a British vessel to carry these commodities. Small quantities of kerosene, cloth, paper and building material might be saleable. Cargo would have to be consigned presumably to Nanking Self-Government Committee and consent of military authorities at Shanghai first obtained. Trade with other ports on river still dead.34

On May 3, 1938, he transmitted a lengthy report that presents a comprehensive picture of the conditions in Nanjing: There are no signs as yet of a return of the wealthier class of Chinese merchant and business man. The main reason for this seems to be the Japanese military control over the city and the large numbers of troops periodically passing through. The military have recently tightened rather than relaxed their control, the Bund wharves remain a prohibited military area, and the city gates are still closely guarded. Any Chinese passing through is liable to be stopped and he and his belongings searched. The Japanese consider the surrounding country far from safe. There are armed bandits quite close to Nanking and Chinese guerillas only slightly farther afield. The troops and war materials passing through Nanking recently have gone up the Tientsin-Pukow railway to the Shantung war front, whither also squadrons of large bombing airplanes have flown almost daily, returning after a few hours without apparently having suffered any losses. In this pervading military atmosphere even the Chinese are unlikely to find much confidence or many opportunities for trade and business. Economic activity will most probably spring from Sino-Japanese concerns, which are being planned and started. While the military have forbidden the return of British and other nationals Japanese civilians have come to Nanking in surprisingly large numbers, considering the desolate state of the town two  months ago. At the end of March, the Japanese Consulate-­General stated that there were over 800 Japanese residents, men and women, engaged in a wide variety of businesses, e.g. flour mill, commission agent, track transportation, building materials, department stores, insurance, printing, electrical supplies, photographic supplies, textiles, books and stationery, clocks, doctor, dentist, chemists, grocers, hotels and restaurants.35

In addition to reporting the situation in the city, Jeffery and Williams handled the property losses and damage claims filed by British subjects. Discovered in the British Foreign Office archives are the claims filed by William Henry Donald, Harold Hodge Molland, Norman Harry Price, S.  Sadhu Singh, Walter Henry Williams, and William Walter Ritchie. They filed their cases with Jeffery with such supporting documents as affidavits and lists of itemized lost or damaged items, with pound amount attached.36 In addition to the formal claims filed through the Nanjing Embassy, Herbert Phillips, the British consul general in Shanghai, also handled many cases of ­property damage and losses suffered by other British subjects and British businesses in the Nanjing consular district.37

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349

10.3  The German Embassy and Diplomatic Documents By the time fighting was winding down in the Shanghai area at the end of October, 1937, the Japanese realized that the Chinese, though beaten on the battlefield, would not ask for peace as Japan had hoped. They then expressed willingness to negotiate peace in China in an effort to show a gesture for the Brussels Nine-Power Conference that would meet in early November,38 as well as to gain more territories and interests without a long term war. The Japanese chose Germany as the mediating power. On November 2, Japanese foreign minister Koki Hirota (広田弘毅), during a meeting with German ambassador to Japan, Herbert von Dirksen, presented a seven-point peace proposal to him. The proposal, delivered to China on November 5 through German ambassador to China, Oskar Paul Trautmann, specified seven terms: 1. Inner Mongolia shall be autonomous. 2. The demilitarized zone in North China shall be extended; while the Chinese Central Government still retains administrative power over North China, it shall not appoint any anti-Japanese officials or leaders there. If during the interval of negotiation, there should arise a new regime in North China, it shall be allowed to remain, although up to the present Japan has no intention of establishing such a regime. 3. The demilitarized zone in Shanghai shall likewise be extended, and the administrative power shall remain the same as before the war. 4. The prohibition of anti-Japanese activities shall follow the principles discussed between Ambassador Kawagoe and Foreign Minister Chang Chun in 1936. 5. China shall take effective measures against Communism. 6. China shall revise custom duties in a favorable way. 7. China shall fully respect the interests of foreign powers in China.39

The Chinese Government, still hopeful that the Nine-Power Conference would put some restraints on Japan, did not respond to the proposal. On November 22, 1937, the main body of the German Embassy, headed by Ambassador Trautmann, moved with the Chinese Foreign Ministry to Hankou by a chartered British vessel, Kutwo. By late November, it was apparent that the Nine-­Power Conference failed to produce any restraining measures to stop Japan. While Japanese troops were advancing swiftly toward Nanjing, the Chinese Government felt it necessary to discuss the Japanese proposal. Trautmann was informed, and Ambassador Dirksen in Tokyo inquired whether the early November proposal was still on the table. Foreign Minister Hirota replied affirmatively. In Hankou, Trautmann called upon Kong Xiangxi (孔祥熙) on November 28, and discussed the issue with Foreign Minister Wang Chonghui (王 寵惠) the following day. On December 2, accompanied by Vice Foreign Minister Xu Mo (徐模), Trautmann travelled back to Nanjing on the Chinese customs’ cruiser Hai Hsing to meet with Chiang Kai-shek, who was still in Nanjing. Chiang summoned Bai Chongxi (白崇禧), Gu Zhutong (顧祝同), Tang Shengzhi (唐生智), and Xu Yongchang (徐永昌), the leading generals still in the city, to a meeting. Xu Mo briefed the generals and answered inquiries at the meeting, while the general opinions appeared to be favorable to peace. After the meeting, Chiang received Trautmann, who reiterated the seven-point terms. While consenting to treat the terms as the basis of negotiation with Germany as the media-

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tor, Chiang indicated that the administrative power over North China must be retained by China, and Japan must not consider the terms as ultimatum. (ibid). However, by the time the Chinese decision was transmitted to Tokyo through Berlin on December 7, Japanese troops had almost reached Nanjing city gates, and Hirota’s attitudes dramatically changed. A few days later, Nanjing fell to the Japanese. On December 22, Hirota informed Dirksen: At this time, when there has been a great change in the situation, it is not possible to make the conditions agreed on by the Chinese the basic conditions for a truce any longer. If the Chinese side will generally agree on the following terms, we shall be ready to go directly into negotiations. If the Chinese side should act contrary, we shall have to deal with the incident from a new standpoint, etc. Terms. 1. China shall abandon her pro-communist and anti-Japanese policies, and collaborate with both Japan and Manchukuo in an anti-communist policy. 2. Demilitarized areas shall be established in necessary regions, and special organs (widescale free government system) shall be set up in said areas. 3. A close economic treaty shall be concluded among the three nations, Japan, Manchukuo, and China. 4. China shall make necessary reparations to Japan. Then we demanded a reply by the end of the year, and also to dispatch a delegation either to Japan proper or to Shanghai for the purpose of truce negotiations based upon the above terms. Of course, we had a feeling that the reply may be prolonged until about the 10th of January. The details of the above basic terms our government had in preparation are as follows: Details. 1. China shall formally recognize the government of Manchukuo. 2. China shall abandon her anti-Japanese, and anti-Manchurian policies. 3. China shall establish special areas in North China and Inner Mongolia. …… …… …… 4. An anti-communist policy shall be established, and China shall cooperate with Japan and Manchukuo in the execution of the same policy. 5. Demilitarized areas shall be established in occupied territories of central China. China and Japan shall cooperate in the maintenance of peace and order in Shanghai and in its economic development. 6. Japan, Manchukuo, and China shall conclude necessary agreements on customs duties, trade, air defense, transportation, and communications in connection with the development of natural resources. 7. China shall pay indemnity to Japan. (There is opposition within our circles). 8. China shall recognize the stationing of Japanese troops for necessary terms in designated areas in North China, Inner Mongolia and Central China for the purpose of security. 9. Truce treaty shall not be negotiated until after the above agreement shall have been concluded.40

The Chinese government did not accept the terms. On January 16, the Japanese government issued a statement that Japan would end the attempt to negotiate with the National Government of China. Thus the mission known to historians as the Trautmann Mediation was brought to a close.

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When the German Embassy evacuated to Hankou on November 22, 1937, a German consular group was instructed to remain in Nanjing. The consular group, consisting of Georg Rosen, Paul Scharffenberg, and Alfred Hürter, stayed in the city until December 8, when they moved to a British commercial vessel, the Jardine Matheson & Company’s hulk Chinwo, which, as part of the British shipping convoy, was at anchorage in Nanjing harbor. The German officials, quartering on a British vessel, inevitably shared the same fate, good or bad, with the British convoy. On December 12, when Japanese planes attacked the convoy, many bombs dropped within a few yards of the hulk, causing extensive superficial damage to the hulk. All the foreign passengers on the hulk, including the three German diplomats, were transferred to HMS Cricket. During the following days, they were switched first to British company Butterfield & Swire’s passenger steamship Whangpu, then to Asiatic Petroleum Company’s merchant vessel, Tienkwang, before they boarded HMS Bee on December 18. They stayed on Bee, which was anchored off Nanjing until December 20, when they took British Jardine Matheson Company’s passenger ship Suiwo (瑞和) to Shanghai, and arrived on December 21. Georg F. Rosen, born in Tehran, Persia (Iran), on September 14, 1895, was a son of former German Foreign Minister Friedrich Rosen. He studied at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar from 1913 to 1914 before he continued his education at University of Lisbonhad from 1914 to 1916. After he worked as a volunteer in a bank in Madrid, he enlisted in 1917 and fought in the First World War until Armistice Day. He entered diplomatic service in 1921, serving at posts in Copenhagen, New York and the Foreign Ministry in Berlin in the following decade. In September 1933, he started his diplomatic tenure in China as a secretary in the German Ligation in Beijing. From 1933 to 1936, he served as a secretary and consul in Beijing, Tianjin and Shenyang. He was transferred to Nanjing in November 1936. When Japanese troops advanced toward Nanjing, as German consul at Nanjing, he helped organize the Safety Zone to protect the civilian population. On January 9, 1938, he led his consular group members, Scharffenberg and Hürter, to arrive in Nanjing on HMS Cricket to re-open the German Embassy. He worked in Nanjing until June 1938, and left China on June 26, 1938. Due to his Jewish decent, he was forced to leave diplomatic service in 1938 after he returned to Germany. He lived in London and Oxford before he immigrated in 1940 to the United States, where he taught at a junior college in Cazenovia and Colgate University, both in New York State, from 1942 to 1949. He returned to West Germany in 1950 and served at the German Embassy in London and was ambassador in Montevideo, Uruguay, from 1956 to 1960. He retired from diplomatic service in 1960, and passed away on July 22, 1961, in Göggingen, West Germany. Immediately after his arrival in Shanghai, Rosen drafted a lengthy report and dispatched it to Berlin on December 24, informing the Foreign Office of the ordeals experienced by the German diplomats from December 8 to 21, 1937: their hasty evacuation to a British ship, Japanese shelling, bombing and airraids on the British convoy, and that the German diplomats had to change ships several times due to Japanese attacks. Eventually, around December 15:

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We returned to Cricket, on which we had waited until the arrival of the flagship Bee on the 18th. Bee took us to Nanjing, and first we got to Xiaguan harbor. We discovered that a Chinese artillery piece on a hill at the Yangtze’s northern bank kept shelling at the harbor. Rear Admiral Holt ordered the ship to move upriver slightly. As a result, we went back to approximately the original anchorage of the British convoy. There, the British admiral visited Japanese Rear Admiral Kondo, attempting to persuade him to allow the British officials on the ship, as well as us, to return to Nanjing. But the effort was turned down with the excuse that Chinese remnant troops were still active. The real reason was that the Japanese did not want us to see the lawless Japanese troops raping, burning, killing and looting civilians in Nanjing. Therefore, we and our British colleagues decided to join the second escorted convoy that passed there on the 20th. Led by a Japanese destroyer, the convoy successfully docked at Shanghai on the afternoon of the 21st. While passing by Xiaguan outside Nanjing, in addition to serious damages, we saw quite a few piles of dead bodies – all in civilian clothes.41

After the German consular group returned to Nanjing with British diplomats by HMS Cricket on January 9, the German officials traveled in and around the city to conduct investigations about the conditions and the losses and damage to German property and interests. Because of his extensive travel, Rosen had a serious altercation with the Japanese: On January 13th, according to Rosen, he had a serious altercation with Japanese Consul General and staff officer Major Hongo. He was motoring outside the city in the vicinity of Mausoleum42 when he was stopped by Japanese and ordered back on grounds that he was disobeying Japanese military instructions that foreigners should not leave the city and must always be accompanied by a gendarme. Hot words ensued on both sides, the Anti-­Communist pact was constantly invoked by both parties, and Japanese added fuel to the fire by wildly photographing and filming the now infuriated Rosen. There is no doubt in my opinion some of the arguments used by latter were a little thin. He demanded perfect liberty of movement and objected to having a gendarme in his car (city is by no means normal) on the grounds that Japanese Ambassador in Berlin is not so protected.43

Like his American and British counterparts, Rosen transmitted dispatches based on the interviews with the German residents in the city and their own investigations, to report the conditions and Japanese atrocities before and after their arrival. On January 15, he reported to the German Foreign Ministry their safe arrival and their initial impression of the conditions in the city: After a two-day journey on the British gunboat Cricket without incident, we once again reached our service point, and the Nanjing Office on the 9th of this month resumed its service, which had been interrupted for a month. My assumption, expressed in the attached preliminary report, that the Japanese delayed our return in order not to allow any official witnesses to the atrocities committed by them, has been confirmed. According to the statements of my German and American informants, once it became known that the foreign representatives intended to return to Nanking, feverish clearing-up work was initiated to remove corpses, which, appearing “like herrings” in some places, resulted from the senseless mass murders of civilians, women and children. In the course of weeks’ reign of terror, the Japanese have turned the business district of the city, the district around Taiping Road, and the whole area south of the so-called Potsdamer Platz, through massive plundering, into a heap of ruins from which only a few less damaged buildings stand out. The arson committed by the Japanese military continues

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to this day, more than a month after the Japanese occupation; so do the abduction and violation of women and girls. In this respect, the Japanese army here in Nanjing has set a monument of its own disgrace.44

Rosen then filled several paragraphs of his January 15 report with rape cases, some of which took place as recently as the day before: In the so-called safety zone alone, which was essentially saved from destruction by Rabe’s committee (see also preliminary report), there are hundreds of bestial rape cases irrevocably attested by the Germans, the Americans and their Chinese coworkers. The collection of the letters which the committee has sent to the Japanese authorities contains a large amount of truly shocking material. As soon as time permits, I shall forward copies with references to this report. Now, however, I would like to point out that the foreigners, including Mr. Rabe and Mr. Kröger, both Nazi Party administrators, as well as Mr. Sperling, have caught Japanese soldiers in flagrante at such violent crimes and have continued their courageous efforts to save the victims. In many cases, Chinese family members who attempted to resist the fiends were killed or wounded. Even in the office building of the German Embassy, ​​the office worker Chao was threatened with a rifle to hand over the women on the property. Since Chao, who previously lived in Dalian, could speak some Japanese, he was able to explain to the Japanese that this was the German Embassy and that there were no women here. The threat occurred even after Chao had told them that it was the German Embassy. The residence of the Ambassador was also broken into by many Japanese soldiers who demanded that the women there be handed over to them. In the American Mission Hospital, women have continuously been admitted as recently as yesterday. These women suffered serious injuries. They were first gang raped and then subjected to bayonet cuts and other injuries. One woman’s neck has been half cut off, and Dr. Wilson himself is amazed that she is still alive. A pregnant woman was bayoneted in the belly, killing her unborn child. Admitted into the hospital are many violated girls who are still in their childhood, and one of them had been raped about 20 times in succession. On the 12th of this month, my British colleagues, Consul Prideaux-Brune, Military Attaché Lieutenant Colonel Lovat-Fraser, and Air Attaché Wing Commander Walser, while visiting the residence of Mr. Parson of the British-­American Tobacco Company, found there the body of a Chinese woman, with an entire golf club rammed into her vagina. In the refugee camp at Ginling College, Japanese soldiers have broken in night after night. They either abducted women to rape or satisfied their criminal lust in front of other people, including their relatives. Cases have been witnessed in which accomplices forced the husbands and fathers of the victims to witness the desecration of their domestic honor. In various instances, officers were known to have been involved, as was indicated by Reverend Magee, who attempted to protect a group of Chinese Christians in the house of a German adviser. (pp. 2–3)

In the same report, Rosen indicated briefly the executions of prisoners of war as well. The murders were so rampant and arbitrary that it “is considered a self-evident matter of honor for the Japanese army to murder without further ado (and indeed there are thousands of such cases) every enemy soldier who is no longer fighting, as well as any man judged to be such by some unauthorized noncommissioned officer, whose decision cannot be appealed.” (p. 3). In his January 20 dispatch to the Foreign Office, Rosen provided more detailed information concerning the mass executions of disarmed Chinese soldiers: When we were on the British gunboat “Bee” outside Nanjing from December 18 to 20, Japanese Rear Admiral Kondo told British Admiral Holt that on a large Yangtze island downstream from Nanjing there were still 30,000 Chinese soldiers who would have to be “cleaned up.” This “cleaning up” or “mopping up,” as it is indicated in the statements of the

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Japanese, is murdering defenseless enemies, which is against the fundamental principles of human warfare. In addition to mass executions with machine-guns, other more individual killing methods were employed as well, such as pouring gasoline over victims before setting fire to them. Since a large number of Chinese soldiers, who had been disarmed, but in any case defenseless, had escaped into the safety zone, which could not be prevented by the few policemen, the Japanese conducted large-scale raids there, with every civilian male being suspected as a soldier and taken away. In general, they looked for military service singes such as a circular helmet mark on the head, pressure marks on the shoulder from carrying weapons or on the back by a knapsack, among others. Foreign witnesses attested that the Japanese also deceived a large number of Chinese soldiers out of the safety zone with the promise of doing them no harm and even giving them work, but they were later executed. No military trials or any kind of trials were ever observed anywhere, and indeed they were out of place in the practices that mocked all the rules of warfare and civilized human behaviors.45

Rosen also described the terrible situation of refugees when the Japanese authorities forced them to leave the Safety Zone. On February 1, 1938, he wrote to the Foreign Office in Berlin: If refugees do not dare to go back to other places in the city, it is because the Japanese are engaged in violent activities every day. For instance, a woman took two daughters back home, and the Japanese attempted to rape the daughters who, when resisted, were bayoneted to death by the Japanese. Thus, the mother asked to go back to the Safety Zone. A 24-year old girl, who seeks refuge at Mr. Rabe’s residence, went back to her uncle’s home for food, and she was raped there. Last Sunday, January 30, on his way to church, some Chinese begged Mr. Rabe to help them deal with a drunken soldier, who abducted a woman to an empty house near the Ministry of Justice, and raped her on top of a coffin. Mr. Rabe drove that soldier away. The Self-Government Committee asked a bath house to re-open. Japanese soldiers broke into the bath house, robbing staff members of their money, shooting one person dead and wounding two others. Almost all the members of a family of 13 people were killed, and the two surviving children were taken care of by a neighbor. Mr. Rabe took them from the neighbor. The two children stayed with their mother’s body for 14 days, having witnessed their mother violated and then cruelly killed.46

On February 7, Rosen reported about the tea party in honor of the newly arrived garrison commander General Amaya and his speech at the party. Amaya attempted to give an explanation of the atrocities committed by Japanese troops: The General first remarked that the Japanese army was well-known all over the world for its discipline. There were no violations of discipline in both the Russian-Japanese War and the Manchurian campaign. If these things occurred in China – and in any other army it would certainly have been worse! – then, it would be the Chinese that have been the cause. Chiang Kai-shek had appealed not only to the army, but also to the entire population to resist, and that the Japanese soldiers were very bitter because they could find no food or anything useful during their advance, so that they had lashed out at the civilian population. The advance to Nanjing had taken place so quickly that the food supplies could not keep up. (To a certain extent, this was contradictory to a later remark that the

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people of the supply columns had too much free time and therefore that the well-known lack of discipline started.) …… During the tea party that followed, I asked Japanese deputy consul-general Fukui when I could finally expect to visit Dr. Günther, a citizen of the Reich, in Jiangnan Cement Factory (江南水泥厰), about 20 kilometers outside the city. Mr. Fukui replied that, according to Major Hongo, there were 3,000 Chinese soldiers in the area, so it was too dangerous. I could not help asking if these 3,000 soldiers were dead or alive. Of course, it was another very poor excuse, because on that same day, Sindberg, a Dane who lives together with Dr. Günther out there, had come to the city unharmed as he has often done before!47

He then revealed that from January 28 to February 3, over 170 more violent crimes had been committed by Japanese soldiers: One can only deal with the future with worries when one considers that, from January 28 to February 3, the Japanese committed more than 170 violent cases, i.e. mostly rapes of women and robbery of even the smallest amount of money from the defenseless poor. While I was writing this down, Mr. Rabe told me yesterday that an old couple and two other civilians were killed by Japanese soldiers without any reason. Certainly the anger of the Japanese is understandable when up to now, their activities in this country were kept from the public, but the precise details are now brought to daylight, so that shattered the claim that Japan has brought light and order to a chaotic China and its population could not help receiving it with joy. Contrary to the fears of the foreigners, under the pressure of several air raids every day and up to the point when fighting took place in the city, the Chinese themselves showed exemplary discipline and respected foreign flags except for some small and insignificant instances, whereas, when Nanjing had long been a quiet place, the Japanese were killing, raping and looting everything, including German and other foreign property. (p. 5)

On February 10, Rosen drafted a report regarding transmitting a copy of the motion picture that American missionary John Magee had filmed of the atrocity cases committed by Japanese soldiers in Nanjing, and he hoped that the movie would be shown to Adolf Hitler: During the Japanese reign of terror in Nanjing, which still continues to a considerable extent, Reverend John Magee, a member of the American Episcopal Church Mission, who has been here for about a quarter of a century, has made film footage, which is an eloquent testimony about the atrocities committed by the Japanese. Mr. Magee has taken care of Chinese refugees in a German counselor’s house. I would like to require that strict confidence be exercised with his name. He is closer to things German than most of his colleagues are, for his late sister was married to an Austrian diplomat. Characteristic of him is his selfless intention and pure desire that he is not interested in gaining commercial benefits from his footage, and that he offers a copy of it to the embassy if we send the copying cost to the Kodak office in Shanghai, from which it can be shipped to the Foreign Office in a secure way. Enclosed is a description, in English, of individual footage sections. The description presents, as does the footage itself, such shocking documentary evidence that I would like to make a request that the footage, along with word-for-word translation of the description, be shown to the Führer and Reich Chancellor.48

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In the same dispatch, Rosen indicated that he had recently visited a crime scene with Rabe, at which four people were killed on February 7, 1938, by a Japanese soldier for no apparent reason: By the way, I have seen the crime scene and the four victims of one of the latest Japanese “heroic acts” of last Sunday. Here an old man, who carried two chairs, had been shot by a Japanese soldier. His sister, who had been hiding nearby when the Japanese got there, had two acquaintances who wanted to carry the injured person on a door, which had been made into be a stretcher with the aid of a bamboo rod and some cords. The Japanese shot all four: the injured, his sister and the two carriers. When Mr. Rabe (official administrator of the NSDAP) visited the site on Monday (February 7, 1938), the victims lay where they had fallen. The daughter of the old woman complained that the whole fortune of the old woman was no longer to be found in her shoes, the usual hiding-place, whereupon Mr. Rabe gave her $10 and consoled her. When I went with Mr. Rabe on Tuesday, I saw a trail of blood-­stain, and the stretcher, while the dead, wrapped with mats, were waiting for burial on a hill nearby. Also on Sunday, Mr. Rabe saw the Red Swastika Society fishing out of a pond 120 corpses of those who had first been shot with machine-guns, then burned, and when the burning was not fast enough, they had been thrown into the water. The hands of these victims of the heroic island folks were tied behind their backs with wire. (p. 2)

As late as March 1938, atrocity cases were reported to have been committed by Japanese soldiers. In a dispatch dated March 4, 1938, under the title “Conditions in Nanjing,” Rosen reported: There are continuous reports about shooting innocent civilians, raping women, often in the presence of their children and other relatives, as well as looting money and property. The Japanese used unarmed persons as live targets for bayonet practices, and it is common occurrence that the victims were sent to the American mission hospital. For instance, a woman was pierced through with bayonet from the back to the front, and she died five minutes after she was brought to the hospital.49

In the same dispatch, Rosen provided details of the Red Swastika Society’s efforts to bury the bodies of massacre victims: Slowly the Red Swastika Society is making efforts to bury a large number of dead bodies. Some of the corpses were dragged from ponds or recovered from dugouts (former air-raid shelters). For instance, from the dugouts along the main street close to the ambassador’s residence, many bodies were uncovered. In the suburban harbor Xiaguan, there are still 30,000 corpses of those who were mass executed during the reign of terror. Every day the Red Swastika Society bury 500 to 600 bodies. Taking a walk in the suburbs, one can see individual corpses in the fields and ditches. (pp. 1–2)

Paul Hans Hermann Scharffenberg, Chancellor of the German Embassy at Nanjing, drafted and sent out a large number of reports and memorandums after he returned. Scharffenberg was born on December 2, 1873, in Kobylnik near Posen, Prussia, which is in present-day west-central Poland. In 1888, he enrolled in a ­non-­commissioned officers’ preparatory school by Annaberg, and attended a number of non-commissioned officers’ preparatory schools at Weissenfels, Nanau and Wiesbaden in the following years. In 1894, he served as a sergeant in the Lehr infantry instruction battalion at Potsdam. He went to China as a sergeant in the

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expeditionary force to suppress the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, and remained in the occupation brigade until 1903, when he retired from military service and obtained a position as a consul secretary with the German Consulate in Tianjin, China. He was promoted to chancellor in 1913. In June 1916, he married Hilde Wedde, a German girl who came to China in 1911 to be a governess for some German families. German diplomats were expelled from China in April 1917 when China joined the Allied Forces in World War I. Scharffenberg served at the post at Bern, Switzerland, and then at the Foreign Ministry in Berlin until 1922, when he returned to Tianjin. He was transferred to the German Legation at Beijing in 1924 and went to Nanjing in 1935, when the legation was upgraded to embassy and relocated to Nanjing. Before the Japanese approached Nanjing, he sent his wife and children back to Germany. Except for a few weeks when he evacuated to Shanghai, he worked in Nanjing until the night of June 19, 1938, when he died of food poisoning following a farewell dinner with the Japanese consul general Yoshitaka Hanawa (花輪義敬). He was scheduled to retire and go back to Germany by the end of June. Ten days after learning his death, his sick wife passed away.50 A few days after he returned to Nanjing, Scharffenberg reported to the German Embassy at Hankou on January 13, concerning the situation in the city, including Japanese atrocities: the downtown area inside the city was largely burned out by the Japanese. Now nobody lives in those areas. The rest of the population  – about 200,000  – is confined inside the safety zone  – the former residential district. …… No one can leave the zone, which is guarded by sentries. The streets outside the zone are deserted, while the ruins present a dismal picture, with everything coming to a stop: no hotels, cinemas, pharmacies, shops, or markets. Nothing. The food is dangerously scarce, and in the safety zone people have started eating horse and dog meat. Hürter managed to get through once again yesterday, and got us a pig and some chickens through Dr. Günther at the Cement Factory in Qixia Hill (The British Embassy was given some meat as gratitude for taking us aboard their gunboat). …… Some of the larger buildings like the Ministry of Transportation and the new cinema with the market hall (Bazar) were burned down. So were the following German houses: Kiessling & Bader, Hotel Hempel, and Eckert and Schmelmg. The house of Rhodes is completely ruined, and the houses of Scharffenberg (damage of about $ 5,000.), Streccius, Blume, Boddien, Borchardt, Just, Senczek, Lindemann, Kunst, and Albers are heavily looted. This list is not yet complete, especially as the plundering still continues. Almost all other German houses are slightly plundered, and mostly are the property of the Chinese servants that have been looted. A Chinese guard was killed in the house of Scharffenberg, and a coolie was killed at the Boddien’s. So far, 14 of the commandeered cars have not been returned, and some of the cars have their parts taken away. Looting has occurred on the property of all nations, regardless of their flags. Looters have almost always broken in through back fences. For example, there are three large holes in the rear bamboo fence of the French Embassy by my house. This embassy is slightly plundered. ……

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The committee under John Rabe, including Americans, has done a fabulous job. They converted Waichiaopu51 into a hospital. It is no exaggeration to say that they have saved tens of thousands lives. The water question is also very serious, the pipeline does not work and laundry cannot be done, because all the ponds are contaminated, while all the ponds have dead bodies thrown into them. …… It is best to be silent about the behaviors of the Japanese since they arrived here, it reminds me too much of Genghis Khan: destroying everything! A lieutenant on the staff told me that during the Shanghai-Nanjing advancing march the supply columns never caught up with the troops, and it is understandable that they have rushed here like berserkers, and when a house was empty, it was immediately burned down. I am quite certain that they were promised like the Negroes in 1918: Everyone who makes it through gets a beautiful girl in Nanjing. So it has been extremely horrible for all the women who stayed here. It is hard to talk about the matter with the gentlemen who have experienced it, for they are always haunted by the horror of the bestiality.52

Scharffenber sent reports regularly to the German Embassy, updating the ambassador with detailed information concerning conditions in Nanjing. On January 20, he wrote, They are no longer shot like hares, but I am not sure that the conditions have improved. There is still a lot to be done. Recently, Sindberg, the Dane from the Cement Factory, whom I mentioned the other day, has transferred to the hospital a child, wounded by the Japanese as they were chasing and killing chickens with grenades in a village. The city government has also set up a brothel with girls from Futze Miao,53 which had been completed burned down, and now the deliberate violence hardly occurs in the zone. In the zone, looting seldom happens, and the zone is well guarded. Recently, Mr. Rabe has once again driven through the city and contrary to his previous expeditions, he had to admit that ¾ of the city has been burned down. Mr. Kröger of Carlowitz & Co. hopes that the Japanese will allow him to leave Nanjing by train.54

He complained in his January 28 report while revealing two cases: Girls should not be allowed to leave the zone: On December 25, a girl, aged 14, going out near the house of Stennes to fetch vegetables, was caught by the Japanese, and when she attempted to escape from them, she was killed by a shot in the head. On the 26th of this month, the old missionary McCallum, who heads a hospital, was wounded by a slight bayonet cut because he ordered two Japanese to leave the hospital. They got into the hospital from the rear. …… As before, we can’t take one step outside without the company of a gendarme. Like political criminals!”55

Three days later, Scharffenberg reported the dilemma the women had when the Japanese forced them to leave the refugees camps: If one of the missionaries or Rabe etc. comes into a camp, the younger women and girls would throw themselves down, knocking their heads in kowtow, and implore them to let them stay in the camp. The committee attempts to do this and would like the older women to leave first. But you do not know how this will end.56

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He observed that the Red Swastika Society started burying victim bodies, And the Red Swastika Society has been given permission to bury an enormous number of bodies still lying around. For instance, a few days ago they had fished out over 120 corpses, with their hands still tied with wire, from a single pond near Dr. Schröder’s house. Mr. Rabe was there and saw it for himself. By the way, I myself have seen several times Japanese soldiers take water in cooking utensils from these ponds: Bon appétit!  – But when the weather gets warm, I am afraid, the worst is to be expected.57

On February 15, 1938, the German diplomats were given permission to drive out of the city to the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, but they “could not walk in the area because there were still too many corpses, blackened and partially eaten by dogs.” He himself saw a “very dark future because of epidemics, the water supply, then the garbage, and finally there are still too many bodies lying about. The weather now changes considerably and when it is as warm as it is today, you can’t go out on the street for the stench of corpses.”58 On March 4, he obtained more information about the burial activities of the Red Swastika Society: They are now working diligently to remove bodies from the center of the city. Now the Red Swastika Society is granted permission to bury 30,000 bodies in Xiaguan. They bury 600 daily. The bodies are sprinkled with lime and wrapped in straw mats so that only the legs hang out, and then, they are driven down to be buried, also with lime, in mass graves inside the city. It is said that about 10,000 have been disposed of.59

There is a substantial number of Nanjing Massacre related dispatches, reports and documents transmitted back to Berlin by German diplomats in China. German diplomat Hans Bidder in Beiping (Beijing) transmitted a dispatch to the German Embassy in Hankou on December 30, 1937. The dispatch includes American missionary M. S. Bates’ writing of December 15, and American correspondent A. T. Steele’s report as enclosures. Steele wrote: There was a wild rush, then to get over the massive city walls. Clothing was stripped and knotted into ropes. Blankets were pieced together, ladders were hastily built. Fear-ridden soldiers tossed rifles and machine-guns from the parapets and swarmed down after them. But they found themselves in another cul-de-sac. And boats were gone, carrying those who had been fortunate enough to reach them first. There was no chance of escape by land, for the Japanese were pressing in on all sides. The river was the only way out. Hundreds, it is said, leaped into the Yangtze to their deaths. Others, more cool-headed, took time to build rafts and succeeded in making their way across the river. Still others went into hiding in the buildings along the waterfront and were later ferreted out and killed by the Japanese.60

On January 6, 1938, German ambassador Oscar P. Trautmann sent from Hankou the speech given in Hankou on January 1 by Reuters correspondent Leslie Smith, who had recently travelled to Hankou from Shanghai. Smith described the mass executions he witnessed in Nanjing: On December 15, the foreign correspondents got permission from the Japanese to leave Nanjing for Shanghai by boarding a Japanese gunboat. Later, however, there was an ­opportunity to have the same journey on a British gunboat. We were asked to meet at the pier. When the wait for departure lasted longer than expected, we took the time to go around for an investigative walk. We saw that in an open field the Japanese had tied up about a thousand Chinese, of whom small groups were led away to be shot. They were forced to kneel down before being shot in the back of the head. We observed about 100 such execu-

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tions when the Japanese officer in charge noticed us and asked us to leave at once. What happened to the rest of the Chinese, I cannot say.61

Rosen sent a dispatch, “Japanese atrocities in the surrounding area of Nanjing,” on February 26 to the German Embassies in Hankou and Tokyo as well as the Consulate-General in Shanghai, transmitting two petitions presented by farmers and refuge representatives to Karl Günther, a German, and Berhard Arp Sindberg, a Dane, who established a refugee center at Jiangnan Cement Factory to shelter about 10,000 local farmers and refugees. Four elderly farmers, Wang Yao-shan, 75, Mei Yo-san, 79, Wang Yün-kui, 63, and Hsia Ming-feng, 54, stated in their petition: Half a year has passed since the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese hostilities. Jiangsu Province has fallen into the hands of the Japanese. The people of Jiangning and Jurong counties have had the greatest misfortune. Cities and villages are almost deserted. Thatched houses are burnt down. In the brick houses, Japanese soldiers first collected boxes, parcels, furniture, farm tools, etc., and then set fire to houses, thus burning everything down. The whole country has been devastated. If the Japanese saw a young man in the village, they immediately shot him dead, assuming him a Central Government soldier. Old people were often killed as well, because they did not understand Japanese. Women and girls were raped, regardless of whether they were old or young, just to satisfy their carnal lust. Countless women have drowned themselves in the river or otherwise committed suicide. There was a little girl named Fang in the village Hsühsiangtsun. Because she was only 10 years old and not fully grown, Japanese soldiers killed her by cutting her vagina. There is another savage story: some Japanese soldiers ran into a family consisting of mother and son, who were running for refuge. The Japanese threatened the son with their sabers and forced him to perform indecent acts with his mother. When the son refused, he was killed by saber blows. The mother was violated by the Japanese, and committed suicide afterwards. The Japanese, armed with weapons, went into villages. If they met someone, they first asked for beautiful girls. As soon as someone answered “no,” he was killed. Everyone was searched in the street. Dollars and dimes were all taken away, but the Japanese did not take copper coins. Almost all of the oxen and donkeys were taken from farmers. Pigs, chickens and other pets were all killed.62

Refugee representatives of She Shan (攝山) area, in which Jangnan Cement Factory was situated, presented a similar petition, along with a list of atrocity victims and the women and girls who were raped by Japanese soldiers: Since August 1937, the areas from Shanghai to Nanking have gradually been occupied by Japanese troops. Up to now 6  months have passed. Apart from the fact that countless people had been shot dead, looted, and burned to death at the front by the Japanese, now on a daily base, they are burning, killing, looting, and raping women in our villages and markets, which, for 2 months, have been far away from the warfront. The Sino-Japanese war is supposed to be fought for the justice of the world, and for the interest of the two countries, not to commit looting, killing, and burning. In today’s world people are respected by every civilized country. In the areas far from the front, the people should be protected and comforted. Unexpectedly, 2  months after the battles were fought, the Japanese are still engaged in evil deeds everywhere. This is not only inhuman, but also against the justice of the world. Thanks to your kindness, our 10,000 lives are saved under your protection. What more could we ask for? But apart from great distress, it is difficult for refugees to survive in hunger and cold. We ask you to communicate the above-mentioned circumstances to the Embassy, and, in turn, the Embassy, on the grounds of human justice, reports the matter to the League of Nations in order to prevent the terrorist acts of Japan and to save the refugees from suffering. We would be very grateful if we could return to our homes in the near future and resume our farm work. A list of the individuals who were murdered by the Japanese is presented for review.

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Signed: Pi Teh-ho Chang I-hsin Kao Ta-piao Shih Kia-his More than 2,000 oxen have been slaughtered by the Japanese troops. From Lung Tan to Tai Ping Men, Nanking, about 50 Li, all the villages, several thousand houses belonging to about 2,000 families, are burnt down. From Tung Yang Chen to Chung Shan Men, Nanking, about 60 Li, all the villages, about 10, 000 families and 10,000 houses were burned to ashes.63

Notes 1. Harlan J.  Swanson, “The Panay Incident: Prelude to Pearl Harbor,” U.  S. Naval Institute Proceedings, December 1967, pp. 28–31. 2. John M.  Allison, Unnumbered Telegram, 6  p.m., December 31, 1937, 793.94/11921, Microfilm Set M976, Roll 48, RG59, National Archives II. 3. John M.  Allison, No. 4 Telegram, 4  p.m., January 5, 1938, 793.94/11974, Microfilm Set M976, Roll 48, RG59, National Archives II. 4. His Chinese servant. 5. John M. Allison, No. 7 Telegram, 5 p.m., January 6, 1938, 393.1115/2447, Box 1795, RG59, National Archives II. 6. John M. Allison, No. 27 Telegram, 4 p.m., January 18, 1938, 393.115/125, Box 1820, RG59, National Archives II. 7. John M.  Allison, No. 32 Telegram, noon, January 22, 1938, 793.94/12176, Microfilm Set M976, Roll 49, RG59, National Archives II. 8. Besides 14 Americans, there were 5 Germans, 1 Austrian, and 2 White Russians in Nanjing. Here it should be “other 8 foreigners.” 9. James Espy, “The Conditions at Nanking, January 1938,” pp. 1–9. 10. John M. Allison, No. 32 Telegram, noon, January 22, 1938. 11. James Espy, “The Conditions at Nanking, January 1938,” pp. 9–11. 12. James Espy, “Conditions of American Property and Interests in Nanking,” pp. 1–3. 13. American Ambassador Nelson Trusler Johnson (1887–1954). 14. John M. Allison, “Claims Settlement for Damages and Losses Suffered on American Embassy Premises,” March 21, 1938, Box 0815, RG59, National Archives II. 15. No. 3 Enclosure to the report, “Claims Settlement for Damages and Losses Suffered on American Embassy Premises,” March 21, 1938, Box 815, RG59, National Archives II. 16. John M. Allison, No. 40 Telegram, 2 p.m., January 27, 1938, 123 Allison, John M./161, Box 355, RG59, National Archives II. 17. John M. Allison, No. 117 Telegram, 5 p.m., June 15, 1938, 394.1123 Thomson, J. C./1, Box 1847, RG59, National Archives II. 18. “Airmen Fell Diplomat near Shanghai: Union Jack on Auto,” Washington Post, August 27, 1937, pp. 1 & 3 and “British Note Rebukes Japan,” Christian Science Monitor, August 30, 1937, p. 2. 19. “Americans Ready to Leave Nanking,” NYT, November 17, 1937, p. 5. 20. “Japs Push into 2 More Cities in Nanking Area,” Chicago Daily Tribune, December 10, 1937, p. 10.

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21. William Alexander Lovat-Fraser, “The Capture of Nanking,” January 3, 1938, p.  11, File 1751, FO371/22043, Foreign Office, Political Departments, General Correspondence 1906– 1966, Public Record Office, London. 22. 奥宮正武 (Masatake Okumiya), 私の見た南京事件 (The Nanjing Incident I witnessed), Tokyo: PHP 研究所 (PHP Research Institute), 1997, p. 23. 23. Chief of staff, HMS Bee, A telegram to Vice Admiral, Yangtze, December 18, 1937, ADM116/3881, Yangtze Records, Public Record Office, London. 24. Georg Rosen, A report to Foreign Ministry, January 20, 1938, in Good Man of Nanking, p. 145. 25. Chief of staff, HMS Bee, A telegram to Vice Admiral, Yangtze, December 18, 1937. 26. H. T. Armstrong, Report of Proceedings, December 31, 1937, ADM1/9558, Naval Station, Yangtze General Letters: Proceedings, 1937–38, Public Record Office. 27. Senior Officer, Nanking, A message to Rear Admiral, Yangtze, January 6, 1938, ADM 116/3882, Yangtze Records, Public Record Office. 28. Consul Nanking, No. 7 telegram to the British Embassy in Shanghai, 5:18 p.m. January 13, 1938, ADM116/3882, Yangtze Records, Public Record Office. 29. Consul Nanking, A telegram to the British Embassy in Shanghai, January 15, 1938, ADM116/3882, Yangtze Records, Public Record Office. 30. Senior Naval Officer, Nanking, A telegram to Rear Admiral, Yangtze, January 14, 1938, ADM116/3882, Yangtze Records, Public Record Office. 31. Consul at Nanking, A telegram to the British Embassy, January 21, 1938, ADM116/ 3882, Yangtze Records, Public Record Office. 32. R. G. Howe, No. 128 telegram, January 22, 1938, FO 371/22085, Public Record Office. 33. R.  G. Howe, No. 220 telegram to the Foreign Office, February 1, 1938, File 1371, FO 371/22146, Public Record Office. 34. Ernest William Jeffery, No. 54 telegram, February 18, 1938 in R. G. Howe’s No. 348 telegram, February 20, 1938, ADM 116/3941, Sino-Japanese Hostilities, Japanese Restrictions on Navigation on the Yangtze, 1937–39, Public Record Office. 35. E.  W. Jeffery, “Report on Conditions at Nanking dated May 3rd, 1938,” File 7116, FO371/22155, Public Record Office. 36. W.  W. Ritchie, Claim letter to E.  W. Jeffery, March 18, 1938, in E.  W. Jeffery’s letter to British Ambassador Sir Archibald Clark Kerr, May 16, 1938, FO233/271, PRO. 37. Herbert Phillips, “Claims Arising out of Sino-Japanese Hostilities: Cases in Nanking Consular district,” October 12, 1938, FO233/272, Public Record Office. 38. “Tokyo Peace Move Reported in Paris,” NYT, October 29, 1937, p. 2. 39. James T.  C. Liu, “German mediation in the Sino-Japanese War, 1937–38,” Far Eastern Quarterly, 8, No.2, (Feb. 1949): 160–161. 40. R. John Pritchard and Sonia Magbanua Zaide, The Tokyo War Crimes Trial, Vol. 2, Transcripts of the Tribunal, pp. 3619-3621. 41. Georg Rosen, “Odyssee der Dienststelle in Nanking (The Odyssey of Nanjing Office),” Dec. 24, 1937, p.  9, Auswärtige Amt (Foreign Office) Doc No. 2722/ 8432/37, Bundesarchiv (Federal Archives) Doc. No. BA-R9208/2208/ p.  257, Peking II, Politisches Archiv, Auswärtiges Amt (Foreign Office Political Archives), Berlin. 42. The Sun Yat-sen Memorial Mausoleum at the foot of Purple Mountain in the eastern suburbs of Nanjing, and the area was also known to Westerners as the National Park. 43. Consul Nanking, A telegram to the British Embassy in Shanghai, Jan. 15, 1938, ADM 116/3882, Yangtze Records, Public Record Office, London. 44. Georg Rosen, “Zustände in Nanking. Japanische Greuel (Conditions in Nanjing, Japanese Horror),” Jan. 15, 1938, pp.  1–2, Auswärtige Amt No. 2722/1001/38, Bundesarchiv No.

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BA-R9208/2208/ pp. 220–221, Peking II, Politisches Archiv, Auswärtiges Amt. 45. Georg Rosen, “Nanking Uebergang (Transition of Nanjing),” Jan. 20, 1938, pp.  2–3, Auswärtige Amt No. 2722/1011/38, Bundesarchiv No. BA-R9208/2208/ pp.  204–205, Peking II, Politisches Archiv, Auswärtiges Amt. 46. Georg Rosen, “Schwierigkeiten der autonomen Regierungskommission. Immer neue Ge-walttaten der Japaner (Difficulties of the Self-Government Committee. Always new Japanese violence),” Feb. 1, 1938, pp. 1–2, Auswärtige Amt No. 2722/1076/38, BA-R9208/ 2208/ pp. 190–191, Peking II, Politisches Archiv, Auswärtiges Amt. 47. Georg Rosen, “Empfang beim japanischen Garnison-kommandanten, Generalmajor Amaya. Erstaunliche Rede (Reception by the Japanese Garrison Commander, Major General Amaya. Amazing Speech),” Feb. 7, 1938, pp.  1–2, Auswärtige Amt No. 2722/1096 /38, BA-R9208/2208/ p. 166–167), Peking II, Politisches Archiv, Auswärtiges Amt. 48. Georg Rosen, “Filmdokument zu der Greueltaten japanischer Truppen in Nanking (Documentary Film of the Atrocities Committed by Japanese troops in Nanjing),” Feb. 10, 1938, pp.  1–2, Auswärtige Amt No. 2722/1113/38, Bundesarchiv No. BA-R9208/2208/ pp. 138–139, Peking II, Politisches Archiv, Auswärtiges Amt. 49. “Lage in Nanking (Conditions in Nanjing),” March 4, 1938, p.  1, Auswärtige Amt No. 2722/1896/38, BA-R9208/2208/ p. 107, Peking II, Politisches Archiv, Auswärtiges Amt. 50. Renate Scharffenberg, “Mein Vater Paul Scharffenberg: Ein Leben im diplomatischen Dienst in China (My Father Paul Scharffenberg: A life in diplomatic service in China),” StuDeOInfo, April 2008, p. 18. 51. “Waichiaopu” is the old transliteration of the Chinese characters, 外交部(Foreign Ministry). It refers to the Red Cross Hospital John Magee had established in the building of the Foreign Ministry. 52. Paul Scharffenberg, “Lage in Nanking am 13. Januar 1938 (Conditions in Nanjing, January 13, 1938), enclosure to Oskar Paul Trautmann’s No. 67 report, “Lage in Nanking Mitte Januar 1938 (Conditions in Nanjing, mid-January 1938),” Feb. 1, 1938, p. 2, Auswärtige Amt No. 2722/1612/38, BA-R9208/2190/ pp. 84–86, Peking II, Politisches Archiv, Auswärtiges Amt. 53. “Futze Miao” is the old transliteration for the Chinese characters, 夫子廟, which means “Confucius Temple.” It usually refers to the area around Confucius Temple. 54. Paul Scharffenberg, “Die Lage in Nanking am 20. Januar 1938 (The Conditions in Nanjing, January 20, 1938), enclosure to Trautmann’s No. 76 report, “Lage in Nanking im Januar 1938 (Conditions in Nanjing, Jan. 1938),” Feb. 7, 1938, pp. 1–3, Auswärtige Amt No. 2718/1715/38, R104842, Peking II, Politisches Archiv, Auswärtiges Amt. 55. Paul Scharffenberg, “Die Lage in Nanking am 28. Januar 1938 (The Conditions in Nanjing, Jan. 28, 1938), enclosure to Trautmann’s No. 95 report, “Lage in Nanking Ende Januar 1938 (Conditions in Nanjing, End January 1938),” Feb. 10, 1938, p.  2, Auswärtige Amt No. 2718/1811/38, R104842, Peking II, Politisches Archiv, Auswärtiges Amt. 56. Paul Scharffenberg, “Lage in Nanking am 3. Februar 1938 (Conditions in Nanjing, February 3, 1938), an enclosure to Trautmann’s No. 132 report, “Lage in Nanking in der ersten Halfte Februar 1938 (Conditions in Nanjing, the First Half of February 1938),” Feb. 23, 1938, p. 2, Auswärtige Amt No. 2718/2081/38, R104842, Peking II, Politisches Archiv, Auswärtiges Amt. 57. Paul Scharffenberg, “Die Lage in Nanking am 10. Februar 1938 (The Conditions in Nanjing, Feb. 10, 1938), an enclosure to Trautmann’s No. 132 report, “Lage in Nanking in der ersten Halfte Februar 1938 (Conditions in Nanjing, the First Half of February 1938),” Feb. 23, 1938, p. 3, Auswärtige Amt No. 2718/2081/38, R104842. 58. Paul Scharffenberg, “Zur Lage in Nanking am 17. Februar 1938 (Conditions in Nanjing, February 17, 1938), enclosure to Trautmann’s No. 148 report, “Lage in Nanking Mitte Februar 1938 (Conditions in Nanjing, Mid-February 1938),” February 28, 1938, pp.  1–2,

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59.

60.

61.

62.

63.

10  American, British, and German Diplomatic Documents Auswärtige Amt Doc No. 2718/2174/38, R104842, Peking II, Politisches Archiv, Auswärtiges Amt, Berlin. Paul Scharffenberg, “Zur Lage in Nanking am 4. März 1938 (Conditions in Nanjing, March 4, 1938), enclosure to Trautmann’s No. 216 report, “Lage in Nanking Anfang März 1938 (Conditions in Nanjing, Early March 1938),” March 22, 1938, p.  2, Auswärtige Amt No. 2718/ 2608/38, R104842, Peking II, Politisches Archiv, Auswärtiges Amt. “By Steele,” an enclosure to Hans Bidder’s dispatch to German Embassy at Hankou, “Blutbad unter der chinesischen Bevölkerung bei der Einnahme Nankings durch japanische Truppen, und in Nordchina (Bloodbath among the Chinese population when Japanese troops captured Nanjing, and in North China)” Dec. 30, 1937, pp. 2–5, Auswärtige Amt No. 2722/4573/37, BA-R9208/2190/ pp. 212–215, Peking II, Politisches Archiv, Auswärtiges Amt. “Auszug aus den Vortrag von Mr. Smith (Reuters) Über die kriegerischen Ereignisse in Nanking in der Zeit von 9. Bis 15. Dezember 1937 (Except of the Speech by Mr. Smith (Reuters) on the events during the Nanjing Battles from Dec. 9 to 15, 1937),” enclosure to Trautmann’s report “Einnahme von Nanking. Plünderung durch japanische Truppen (The Fall of Nanjing. Plundering by Japanese Troops),” Jan. 6, 1938, pp. 5–6, Auswärtige Amt No. 2722/1105/38, BA-R9208/2208/ pp.  182–183), Peking II, Politisches Archiv, Auswärtiges Amt. “Eingabe der Bauern Wang Yao-shan, 75 jahre alt, Mei Yo-san, 79 Jahre alt, Wang Yün-kui, 63 Jahre alt und Hsia Ming-feng, 54 Jahre alt, an die in der Kiangnan Zementfabrik bei Nanking weilenden deutschen und dänischen Herren vom 26. Januar 1938 (The petition presented on Jan. 26, 1938, by the farmers, Wang Yao-­shan, 75, Mei Yo-san, 79, Wang Yün-kui, 63 and Hsia Ming-feng, 54, to the German and Danish gentlemen at Kiangnan cement factory near Nanking),” in the enclosure to Rosen’s report “Japanische Greueltaten in der Umgegend von Nanking (Japanese Atrocities in the Surrounding Area of Nanking),” Feb. 26, 1938, pp.  1–2, Auswärtige Amt No. 2722/1811/38, BA-R9208/ 2208/ pp.  114–115, Peking II, Politisches Archiv, Auswärtiges Amt. “Eigabe der Vertreter der Flüchtlinge in dem Bezierk Shieh Shan Kiang Ning, Provinz Kiangsu an den deutschen Herrn Kun, dänischen Herrn Hsin und Herrn Ma (The petition presented by refugee representatives of She Shan District, Jiangning County, Jiangsu Province, to German Mr. Kun, Danish Mr. Hsin and Mr. Ma),” in the enclosure to Rosen’s report “Japanische Greueltaten in der Umgegend von Nanking. (Japanese Atrocities in the Surrounding Area of Nanking),” Feb. 26, 1938, Auswärtige Amt No. 2722/1811/38, BA-R9208/2208/ pp. 116–120, Peking II, Politisches Archiv, Auswärtiges Amt.

Chapter 11

Disposing of Victim Bodies

The mass executions and rampant killings left behind a huge number of corpses, which remained strewn about in and outside the city. Many of the bodies stayed in the open for an extended period of time, and could be seen along streets, in ponds, by rivers, in fields, around buildings, and at the foot of city walls. At the mass execution sites along the Yangtze River and in the suburbs, bodies piled up. For different reasons, disposing of the bodies was carried out by various parties at different times and different locations, due to the huge number and widespread locations. Japanese troops, charity organizations, local governments, individual groups, and family members all participated in burial activities.

11.1  Japanese Troops Apparently, Japanese troops had the urgency to have the bodies disposed immediately after the massacres to cover up the atrocities. According to the field diaries left by Japanese soldiers from different divisions, they were ordered not only to participate in mass executing the surrendered Chinese soldiers and civilians, but also in clearing out the massacre sites. Burning, burying and throwing bodies into the Yangtze River were the primary methods the Japanese troops adopted for disposing of the corpses. At the large-scale mass execution sites, in particular, by the Yangtze, Japanese soldiers were ordered to pour gasoline over the bodies and set them afire before throwing them into the river, or, either simply push the bodies into the river or use steamboats to carry the bodies to dump them into the middle of the Yangtze without having the bodies burned. Sometimes they had the corpses burned and left the charred remains on the riverside. Burying activities could be carried out immediately usually if only a small number of people were killed. In many instances, Japanese soldiers made the victims dig their own burial pits, and had them buried after they were executed with the bodies toppled into the pits. In other cases, the Japanese either found a ditch or a trench, or dug a pit to mass bury the victims. © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 S. Lu, The 1937 – 1938 Nanjing Atrocities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9656-4_11

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The Yamada Detachment of the Japanese 13th Division had rounded up and mass executed a large number of surrendered Chinese soldiers by the Yangtze riverside since the detachment reached the northern suburbs of Nanjing. Takashi Otera (大寺 隆), a private first class in the 7th Company, the 65th Regiment of the detachment, indicated in his December 18, 1937 diary entry that, up to the previous evening, altogether about 20,000 captives had been executed, and he learned that dead bodies had piled up like small hills at two locations by the Yangtze. That day, his unit was ordered to participate in executing the captives, though he himself did not go due to another duty he was assigned. At the time he wrote the diary, after 7 p.m., his fellow soldiers had not yet returned.1 The following day, December 19, he went with others to dispose of the dead bodies: We assembled at 7:30 a.m. to go to the Yangtze River bank to clear out bodies. I was taken aback when we got to that spot. Several hundred bodies were strewn about in disorder, and because they were doused with gasoline and burned, the bodies emitted a terrible stench. Today, all orderlies of the division took part in clearing out the corpses, and the job was not done until 2 p.m. (ibid)

Many soldiers of the Japanese 16th Division were ordered to dispose of the dead bodies in the Xiaguan area by the Yangtze as well. Takeo Higashi (東武夫), a soldier in the 11th Company, 38th Regiment of the 16th Division, indicated in his January 4, 1938 diary that they “used steamboats to carry the dead bodies to be thrown into the middle of the river. We alone disposed of 2,000 or so bodies.”2 Shiro Azuma (東史郎) of the 3rd Company, the 20th Regiment of the 16th Division described on January 23, 1938 what he had witnessed while the soldiers of the engineering corps were hard at work to get the corpses by the riverbank into the Yangtze. The riverside was covered with blackened and swollen bodies, and “the soldiers of the engineering corps in the boats worked strenuously to secure with long iron hooks the corpses, like rotten and stinking turnips, into their boats and then throw them into the river to be carried away by the river currents. The engineering corps soldiers struck the hooks into the already swollen bodies, with each soldier getting hold of one body and one boat pulling five bodies at a time.”3 Yoshio Kaminishi (上西義雄), a soldier in the 2nd Battalion, the 33rd Regiment of the 16th Division, indicated that he had witnessed the disposing of dead bodies at the Yangtze riverside: I witnessed the disposing of dead bodies. After mopping up, machine guns were used to mow then down, and it took about a week to 10 days to do it. We went out for operations every day. As to the disposing of dead bodies, our company first executed people, then let the Chinese clear them out; on the following day, another batch of people were executed before the clearing out was carried out, and it was done in this manner every day. The location of disposing of bodies was outside the Nanjing city walls at the wharf area along the Yangtze. By disposing of bodies, l mean simply throwing corpses into the river. Those who were responsible for throwing bodies were the Chinese themselves. They had a round emblem of blue and yellow, with its shape resembling the petals of the Chrysanthemum Emblem (菊花纹章), attached to their clothes on the chest. The Chinese with the emblem were responsible only for disposing of corpses. We usually had ordinary civilians do this job. They pulled bodies with their hands to throw them into the river, and the number of people was that of a squad, 12 to 13 persons, who followed the instructions of Japanese soldiers in disposing of corpses.4

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Kaminishi also described the instances in which the corpses were burned with gasoline, and Japanese soldiers used boats to drag dead bodies into the river: We indeed poured gasoline over the bodies to burn them. It was in a small river outside the Nanjing city walls, and we had Chinese civilians do the job. Gasoline was poured over the bodies lying there right before they were burned. We had burned bodies many times, too many to count. Around December 20, when we were engaged in mopping up operations, every day I saw other troops burn corpses. There were about 30 boats carrying bodies to the river, and I could see them every day for about two weeks. We disposed of bodies on the shore. Boats were employed by the engineering corps, who used steel boats, as well as wooden ones, to drag bodies. I saw many of the bodies tied up with ropes before they were dragged. We burned bodies because they started decomposing after about a week. The abdomen would swell and emit a horrible stench by that time. We did not wear masks, and simply had them burned. The bodies themselves had fat, and could burn fiercely. We did the job in squads as working units. We burned a great number of bodies. We first conducted mopping up operations to search people out, then executed them, and finally disposed of their bodies. We had Chinese throw bodies into the river, or pour gasoline over the bodies before burning them. It was the company commander who issued the “disposing of corpses” order. All the platoons had set out for operations. (pp. 230–231)

Another Japanese soldier, Kenzou Okamoto (岡本健三), was involved in mass executions inland at the Nanjing airport. In the early 1970s, he revealed his experiences in Nanjing. According to him, victims were rounded up and shot with machine guns. In order to cover up the fact that prisoners of war had been machine-gunned, the bodies were burned and their charred remains buried, so there would be no traces of evidence visible: I think Japanese troops burned the bodies of those Chinese who had been killed at the Nanjing Airport. The suspicious Chinese were rounded up by different troops before they were led to the airport. On ground overgrown with weeds, they were tightly bound with ropes so that they were unable to escape. They felt so baffled that they started making noise and talking incessantly. The machine guns on top of the hangar started firing at them. I think the shooting began after the “fire” order was given, and they subconsciously pulled the triggers. Because we were not mentally ready for the killing, we were expressionless. In combat when we were ordered to kill, if we did not kill our opponents, we would run the risk of being killed by them. On these occasions, however, one with normal human feelings would not shoot. Machinegun squad did the shooting. Our troop stood guard around there. When the shooting started, some people broke out to run away. Because there were machine guns everywhere, they would certainly be killed even if they ran. It was estimated at the time that four or five hundred were murdered. After the killing was done, Japanese soldiers set up pieces of rail track, put the bodies on top of them, placed firewood underneath, and poured gasoline over to burn them up. Although the burning started, things like internal organs, which were not easy to burn, always send out smoke. Japanese soldiers would stir them with sticks, and the corpse would fall into the hole beneath. Later Japanese soldiers removed the rail track pieces and buried all the ashes. It would not be good if anyone knew that the prisoners had been mowed down with machine guns, and probably because of this, the corpses were burned before they were buried. Mostly, the killing was done in the evening. After the killing was done at dusk, disposing of the bodies was carried on until the following morning. The job was not completed in one day alone. I, too, got involved in burning the corpses, working very late until the next morning. The victims were not only males, there were women and children, even children under 10 years old. It was absolutely massacre!5

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11  Disposing of Victim Bodies

Motokatsu Sasaki (佐々木元勝), a Japanese military post master, wrote in his diary on December 16, 1937 that after mass executing 500 surrendered Chinese soldiers near Qilin Gate in the eastern suburbs of Nanjing, 200 were buried by the Japanese: “After the fight with enemy remnant soldiers, five soldiers at Maqun ammunition storage facility tied up 500 people after disarming them and at around 1 p.m., bayoneted them to death one by one …… At dusk, when I passed by that place, 200 of them, had been buried, with a grave marker erected.”6 Kenrou Kajitani (梶谷健郎), a sergeant with the Second Docking and Shipping Headquarters (第二碇泊司令部), received order on December 25, 1937 to take charge of disposing of corpses along the harbor area in Xiaguan. He indicated in his December 26, 1937 diary entry, “In the afternoon, I directed 40 coolies to clear over one thousand corpses despite the terrible stench. It was indeed too horrible to look at, really a hell on earth.”7 In 1981, Kajitani published a memoir article, possibly with material from his wartime diaries, providing detailed accounts about his experiences in China, in particular, what he had witnessed and done in Nanjing in December 1937. In the section entitled, “The squad that disposes of corpses,” he wrote: On December 26, it was decided to clear a huge number of corpses, which piled up after executions in the harbor, since, up to then, the focus had been on preparing for setting up the headquarters and nothing was done to clear the corpses. It was on the previous day, the 25th, that the headquarters issued the following order: “Order Sergeant Kajitani to take 10 soldiers and 40 coolies to undertake the task of clearing the corpses at the harbor. Contact the Construction Department for the needed motor boats and tools, and make preparations rapidly. As far as the details are concerned, Adjutant will give instructions.” Thus, from early morning on the 26th, I started accepting the personnel needed, wearing an armband, “Clearing Corpse Squad Leader,” assigning two soldiers and a suitable number of coolies to each of the five motor boats (These motor boats were made of wood, some bigger than others, with diesel engines installed at the stern, and to start the engine, one needed to turn it clockwise by hand. We nicknamed them big dragon-fly.), and asking them, while operating the motor boats, to hold two-meter long poles, which were made in a hurry, with “L” shaped metal hooks attached to them, to continuously pull over the bodies, and then let them float to the surface of the river. Although it was winter, it had been over ten days after the executions, and the peculiar corpse stench was extremely pungent. Because of inconvenient transportation, progress was very slow. It seemed that the work was not completed until noon of the third day.8

The New York Times China correspondent, Frank Tillman Durdin, who had been in Nanjing until December 15, 1937, reported that after small-scale mass executions the victim bodies were buried in dug-outs: “A favorite method of execution was to herd groups of a dozen men at entrances of dugouts and to shoot them so the bodies toppled inside. Dirt was then shoveled in and the men buried.”9 In another dispatch published on January 9, 1938, he indicated: Small bands who had sought refuge in dugouts were routed out and shot or stabbed at the entrances to the bomb shelters. Their bodies were then shoved into the dugouts and buried. Tank guns were sometimes turned on groups of bound soldiers. Most generally the executions were by shooting with pistols.10

11.1  Japanese Troops

369

Gong Yukun (龚玉昆), a Chinese gate keeper at the Yangtze Flour Factory at the Sancha River area, witnessed the execution of 7 people. Before the execution, the Japanese made the victims dig their own graves: On December 29, 1937, I was driven by Japanese soldiers to be upstairs of the Youheng Flour Mill (有恒面粉厂). Being upstairs, I saw that Japanese soldiers had captured 7 Chinese soldiers and made each of them dig a pit. The Japanese soldiers shot dead 6 of them, who fell into the pits, and asked the 7th Chinese soldier to fill the six pits with dirt to be even with the ground. After that was done, the Japanese soldiers told him “to go.” This individual, the only survivor of the 7, stayed with us for a few days, and his name was Wang Youde (王有德), from Kaifeng, Henan Province (河南開封). Before long, he went back to his home town.11

Japanese soldiers were constantly involved in burying dead bodies. Motoharu Akiyama (秋山源治), who served in the 1st Battalion, the 33rd Regiment of the 16th Division, recalled: Upon entering the city, we saw many bodies of the Chinese who had been shot. At the time we paid little attention, but later the moat became smelly, so we dug pits to have the bodies buried. We had Chinese captives dig pits right outside a city gate, while the bodies had already been collected there and had piled up like a hill. The pits were at several locations, and the openings were as big as a double door, while the pits themselves were as large as two rooms. The bodies, which could not be contained in the pits, piled up into hills.12

According to the recollections of some of the Japanese soldiers who had been stationed inside Nanjing, as soon as they entered the city, they were involved in cleaning the streets and clearing out the bodies that were strewn about. Jirou Matsusaki (松崎二郎), a soldier in the 3rd Machine Gun Company, the 38th Regiment of the 16th Division, offered a detailed description: We were ordered to clear out, of course, dead bodies of the Chinese. In order to clear out bodies completely, we were cleaning inside the city, and did that job day after day. We put dead people in order and had the streets cleared up. Some of the bodies were in Chinese military uniform, some of them in ordinary civilian clothes, and some were women. Not only soldiers did the cleaning, those from the supplies troops also pulled carts over, placing bodies on the carts with their bare hands. We started doing this as soon as Nanjing’s fall. Iwane Matsui’s city entering ceremony was on the 17th, and therefore, we even had narrow lanes cleaned. We had to keep on clearing up. The number of dead bodies was surprisingly high. Before the city entering ceremony, infantry and engineering soldiers had been working continuously. I have no idea where the bodies were sent.13

If Matsusaki had no idea where the bodies were sent, Kazutarou Tokuda (德田一 太郎), who served in the 2nd Battalion, the 33rd Regiment of the 16th Division, knew all too well where they were taken, because his company, himself included, did the job of collecting and transporting bodies to Xiaguan regularly. Tokuda and his fellow soldiers were ordered to patrol and keep guard at the front gate of Ginling College around the clock on three shifts every day. Because there were a large ­number of dead bodies in the area nearby, they were soon ordered to collect the bodies and put them in horse drawn carts and military trucks to be transported to Xiaguan: All the members of our company did the disposal work. At Xiaguan, bodies piled up into hills. Maybe there were vehicles for transporting bodies, but since each company worked as

370

11  Disposing of Victim Bodies

a unit, I have no idea how other companies did the job. However, our company used horses and carts to transport them to Xiaguan. There were other troops there, but I was not clear which troops, and about 20 people were carrying bodies and throwing them into the river. Bodies were very heavy. We only piled up the bodies we had transported. There, I saw a huge number of corpses floating in the Yangtze River. Bodies were continuously thrown into the river, turning the river water into muddy flows full of corpses. Along the roads through which we transported bodies, there were a large number of corpses as well, so many that motor vehicles could not get through. It was simply a road of bodies, over which vehicles were driving, making the road squeaky and uneven. The bodies were unbelievably numerous. Every day, from Ginling College to Xiaguan, we made two trips transporting bodies, and did it by turns. Those who did it today would have the following day off. Two round trips took one whole day from morning till night.14

Apparently, Japanese soldiers were involved in disposing of dead bodies continuously for an extended period of time. In mid-January, the 11th Division was transferred to Nanjing to relieve the 16th Division. Masaichi Tanaka (田中政市), a sergeant in the 12th Regiment, the 10th Brigade of the 11th Division, recorded in his February 5 and 6, 1938 diary entries that he was at the Yijiang Gate area disposing of bodies. He mentioned that by that time, Chinese bodies there had largely been buried, and they mainly had Chinese do the job. The clearing up operation came to a close on February 6.15 From time to time, Japanese soldiers were ordered to dispose of victim bodies in and outside Nanjing in the days immediately after the city’s fall. Judging from the various descriptions by the soldiers involved, the number of bodies disposed of appears to be huge, in particular, the number of the bodies thrown into the Yangtze. Though Japanese soldiers’ involvement in disposing of corpses can be seen as organized activities, due to the sporadic and unsystematic nature, these widespread activities were carried out by different divisions and at various locations without centralized coordination. More important, the intent of disposing of the bodies, in many cases, was to cover up the atrocities and leave no traces. Hence, there was no written record, in any form, about the number of the bodies disposed of by the Japanese. Many of the bodies thrown into the river were later washed ashore nearby and were collected and buried by charity organizations. However, the majority of them must have been carried away by the river currents, or washed ashore downstream far away from Nanjing. Under the circumstances, even an estimate of the number of bodies remains a difficult task if not a mission impossible.

11.2  Charity Organizations Many of the charity organizations in Nanjing participated in collecting and burying victim bodies. The Red Swastika Society, the Benevolence Society, and the Red Cross Society were the three major charity organizations heavily involved in burying the dead and keeping record with itemized body counts. Each of the organizations started burying the dead in late December 1937 and continued until the summer of 1938.

11.2  Charity Organizations

371

11.2.1  The Red Swastika Society Closely associated with Daoism, the World Red Swastika Society (红卍字會) was an indigenous Chinese charity organization that functioned in many ways similar to the Red Cross Society. It was the philanthropic affiliation of the Daode Society (道 德會), which was soon renamed Daoyuan (道院), a syncretist Daoist group founded in 1916 in Jinan, Shandong Province. Originally established in Jinan in 1922, the Red Swastika Society moved its headquarters to Beijing in 1923 at 17 Shefansi Street (舍飯寺) near Xidan (西单). The society developed rapidly, with about 300 branches established throughout China within a few years. Overseas branches were established as well. Although the society stopped functioning in 1953 in Mainland China, at present it has headquarters in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Tokyo, Penang, Malaysia, and Toronto. Over the years, whenever there was a famine, an epidemic, or a war, the society offered relief assistance in a timely manner to feed refugees, provide medical assistance for the sick and wounded, and bury the dead. The World Red Swastika Society Nanjing Branch was established in 1923, and its headquarters was located at 24 Small Huowa Lane (小火瓦巷). Xiaguan also had a branch with its office at 55 Xiangtaili Lane (祥泰里). The chairman of the Nanjing branch had been Tao Baojin (陶保晋) since its founding in 1923, and Chen Guanlin (陳冠麟) succeeded him when the former became the chairman of the Nanjing Self-­ Government Committee on January 1, 1938. After war broke out in Shanghai, thousands upon thousands of people fled the war zone, and over a thousand refugees arrived in Nanjing daily. The Red Swastika Society dispatched relief teams to Xiaguan, establishing rice kitchens, taking in refugees at both the railway station and the wharf, providing food and temporary housing, and arranging transportation for them for a period of 2 months. Altogether, the society accepted and sent away a total of 155,690 refugees in 2 months. Since August 15, 1937, Japanese planes raided Nanjing, killing and wounding hundreds of people. The society responded actively after air raids to deliver the wounded to hospitals and bury the dead. The number of the wounded they sent to hospitals was 373; before the city’s fall the society buried 747 bodies, including 10 Japanese pilots. Later, the Japanese exhumed and cremated the pilots’ bodies to take their ashes back to Japan.16 As the war was getting closer to Nanjing, the Red Swastika Society opened a new office within the Safety Zone at 2 Ninghai Road on December 10, 1937. When refugees swamped the Safety Zone at the approach of Japanese troops, the society set up two rice kitchens, one at the University of Nanking and the other in Yongqing Temple (永慶寺) at Wutai Hill, feeding the refugees. The society opened two clinics as well, to provide medical care for the refugees. (p. 75) Meanwhile, the society distributed medicine, cotton comforters, cotton-padded clothes, shoes, bowls, and other materials to the needy. However, the most urgent and important work the Red Swastika Society undertook was burying the victims of mass executions and other killings.

372

11  Disposing of Victim Bodies

Since Nanjing fell on December 13, Minguo 26th Year, the bodies of those killed by the enemy Japanese were strewn around everywhere in and out of the city, emitting a strong stench, that not only harmed public health but was inhumane; after discussions with the Japanese for permission, as well as getting assistance from the society’s Shanghai branch, we expanded the burial squad, recruiting additional workers, and the workforce increased to as many as 600. They were assigned to different locations in both urban areas and suburbs, carrying out burial work daily. Because we ran out of the one thousand coffins in our possession, we switched to wrapping bodies with reed matting spread with lime powder for disinfection, and buried bodies in mass graves in separate locations, with a total of 70 graves burying 43,121 bodies. It took more than four months to complete the burial work. It was the biggest burial operation ever recorded in the World Red Swastika Society’s history. (ibid)

According to the World Red Swastika Society Southeastern Main Branch’s itemized expenditure account report of the Nanjing war relief work, dated May 1939, the society purchased two pieces of hilly land as charity burial grounds, donated 1260 coffins, used 47,259 pieces of reed matting, of which 11,174 had been donated by others and 36,085 had been purchased by the society, consumed 2305 dan (石, 1 dan = 110.10 pounds) of lime powder, of which 865 dan had been donated by others and 1440 dan had been purchased by the society, used 62,635 pieces of straw rope, spent 6670.5 cans of gasoline for trucking corpses, and paid about 7942 Chinese dollars to the burial squad workers.17 The burial squad functioned efficiently under the leadership of Ouyang Dulin (歐陽都麟). Kept in the Second National Historical Archives of China in Nanjing is a list of the Red Swastika Society’s burial squad members. Dated May 18, 1938, it lists the regular staff and workers, but not the temporary ones, who served on the squad at different points in time:18 Position 職别

Name 姓名

Squad leader 隊長 Ouyang Dulin 歐陽都麟 Director 主任隊員 Cui Jixuan 崔濟軒 Dai Shiguo 戴世國 Yang Guanpin 楊冠頻 Jin Guangang 靳冠岡 Xu Guanrui 徐冠瑞 Squad members Wang Daojun 隊員 王道君 Li Zhi 李植

Alternate name Age 别號 年齡 45 46 39 38 38 50 45

Native place Address 籍貫 住址 Henan 河南 Nanjing 南京 Nanjing 南京 Nanjing 南京 Nanjing 南京 Nanjing 南京 Nanjing 南京

Remarks 備考

(continued)

11.2  Charity Organizations Position 職别

Foreman 伕目 Deputy foreman 副伕目

Workers 伕役

Name 姓名 Ji Rongsheng 吉榮生 Zhu Zhupin 朱駐品 Gu Zhuqun 谷駐羣 Zeng Jibao 曾继宝 Dong Peijun 董培君 Wu Xiaoting 吴效庭 Ding Guowei 丁國威 Guan Kaifu 管開福 Zhang Xuexian 張學先 Zhang Shuyuan 張樹元 Cao Shimin 曹世民 Chang Hongcai 常鴻才 Wu Deshan 吴德山 Chi Pengnian 池彭年 Dou Guangfu 竇光富 Han Delong 韓德龍 Yan Dengyou 嚴登有 Gao Ruiyu 高瑞玉 Liang Jiapu 梁家普 Guo Tiezhu 郭鐵柱

373 Alternate name Age 别號 年齡 19 22 22 39 40 49 40 25 35 30 36 34 44 34 34 32 25 39a 28 17

Native place Address 籍貫 住址 Changzhou 常州 Changzhou 常州 Changzhou 常州 Tongshan 銅山 Xuzhou 徐州 Pixian 邳縣 Henan 河南 Jiangsu 江蘇 Pixian 邳縣 Pixian 邳縣 Pixian 邳縣 Suqian 宿遷 Shandong 山東 Nanjing 南京 Taixian 泰縣 Nanjing 南京 Huai’an 淮安 Shandong 山東 Nanjing 南京 Henan 河南

Remarks 備考

According to the testimony he made in 1984, his age was 80, and 1938 was 46 years earlier. So his age should be 34 in 1938

a

374

11  Disposing of Victim Bodies

Gao Ruiyu (高瑞玉) was one of the burial squad workers in the above list. He obtained a position with the Red Swastika Society mainly to do charity work before the hostilities began. In 1984 at the age of 80, he revealed his experience on the squad, burying the victim bodies in those unforgettable months: After Japanese troops entered the city, the streets were strewn with dead bodies, all of whom were murdered countrymen. The Red Swastika Society organized to collect and bury bodies. There were two squads: one was responsible for collecting bodies, the other burying them. I was the burial squad leader with 99 members in the squad. The main burial sites were at both sides of Yuhua Terrace (雨花台) and the Military Police Academy’s exercise ground; bodies were also buried under the city walls outside Hanzhong Gate and Zhongshan Gate. Every squad member wore a jacket or a vest with a 卍 sign printed on both the front and the back. Sometimes, there was not enough time to have the jackets or vests made, so some wore armbands as emblem sign instead. I wore a jacket with a 卍 on both its front and back. Some had a 卍 sign on the hat as well. (I had a photo taken at the time, but I could not find the photo later.) The 卍 was in red against a white background, while the jacket was in dark blue. The graves for burial were huge, and one grave could contain a thousand bodies covered with reed matting and dirt. My squad was involved in burying several thousand bodies. Some of the bodies buried were complete while others missed the head or legs. We used hooks to drag the bodies and throw them into the pits. The number of bodies buried each day varied. Sometimes with fewer bodies, we would have pits dug in advance. I was on the job for several months, until the fall of the following year.19

In 1984, another worker in the list, Guan Kaifu (管開福), at the age of 70, offered his testimony concerning his service on the squad: I was born in Nanjing, and in 1937 when Japanese troops invaded Nanjing, my family lived at Wusuocun (五所村) in Xiaguan. In Lunar Calendar November Minguo 26th Year, before Nanjing fell, my family moved to seek refuge at the Langya Road (琅玡路) Elementary School refugee center. At the time, I worked as a custodian and a worker for the World Red Swastika Society at 2 Ninghai Road. …… At the time there were dead bodies everywhere, at Zhongshan Wharf, Straw Shoe Gorge, and outside Hanzhong Gate and Taiping Gate. My job at the Red Swastika Society was to bury the bodies of the Chinese countrymen who had been killed by Japanese soldiers. We hauled one truckload after another, some to locations outside Zhonghua Gate, and others to Nanxiucun (南秀村, present-day observatory compound of Nanjing University) for burial. Once at Dafang Lane, from one pond alone, we collected more than 120 bodies. In the mass graves were buried thousands of bodies, with males buried in one pit and females in another. Some of them were mowed down with machine guns before they were burned with gasoline.20

Shi Huiyun (施惠雲), 20 years old in 1937, was another person who had served on the Red Swastika Society burial squad. He indicated that Director Cui Jixuan (崔 濟軒) recruited him to join the burial squad to collect bodies: By the end of 1937, my family went to the Wutai Hill refugee center, where I worked in the rice kitchen cooking rice gruel, for which I was paid 60 coppers daily. One day, Director Cui of the Red Swastika Society came to me, saying “You take 20 people to carry dead bodies, and I will pay you 40 cents a day.” After I collected 20 people, the group was named the Red Swastika Society First Squad. Director Cui asked me to be its leader. We started collecting bodies in March 1938 and worked until August. On the first day, we collected bodies in the area from Inner Bridge and South Gate Bridge (南門橋) to Shuixi Gate. At the time, there were bodies everywhere, and because we were short-handed, the squad expanded from 20 people to 160, who were divided into two squads, to collect bodies. Every day, we

375

11.2  Charity Organizations

were responsible for the areas of Mendong (門東), Menxi (門西) and Sanpailou. The highest number of bodies we collected in one day was over 800. At later dates, in particular, because some of them had been dead for a long time, and the weather was hot, the corpses had decomposed, and we had to use steel hooks to carry them. The bodies collected daily were trucked to Wangjiang Rock (望江磯), Hanxi Gate and the Xiaguan areas for burial. Of the bodies we hauled, the majority were young men and young women.21

The Red Swastika burial squads mainly collected and buried bodies in the areas outside Zhonghua Gate, Shuixi Gate, Yijiang Gate, north of the city walls, and occasionally at Taiping Gate. Inside the city, they basically covered the western and northern sections. They started burying the dead on December 22, 1937, and continued until October 1938. Within the city, they collected and buried 1793 bodies, 1759 men, 8 women and 26 children, while outside the city, 41,330 bodies were buried, 41,235 men, 75 women and 20 children. The burial squads kept a daily tally with such data as date, number of bodies, the location the bodies were collected, and the location of burial, though from June to October 1938, because the number of bodies buried was dramatically smaller than previous months, the data was recorded at the end of each month. The following is the statistical record of their burial activities:  he World Red Swastika Society Nanjing Branch Relief Team’s Burial Squad Statistical List T of the Buried Bodies22 Area 区别

Burial Location 掩埋地点

Number of Bodies 人 数 Man Women Children 男 女 小孩 Rear of Qingliang 129 Hill 清凉山後山 Univ. of Nanking Farm 金陵大學農場

Inside the City 城内 區

Total 合计

Date 日期

Remarks 备考

129

Dec. 22

Collected at Shoubingqiao 在收兵橋一带 收敛 Coll. from ponds, Xiqiao 在西橋塘内收 敛 Coll. at Hanzhong Road 在漢中路一带 收敛 Coll. at Longpanli Road

124

1

125

Jan. 26

Wutai Hill 五台山荒山

17

2

19

Feb. 2

Grave site, Qingliang Hill 清凉山坟地

49

49

Feb. 6

Xicang Hill, Hanjia Lane 韓家巷西倉山上

147

2

149

Feb. 7

在龍蟠里一带 收敛 Coll. from ponds, Xiqiao 在西橋塘内收 敛

(continued)

11  Disposing of Victim Bodies

376 Area 区别

Burial Location 掩埋地点

Wutai Hill 五台山荒山

Number of Bodies 人 数 Man Women Children 男 女 小孩 16 4

Hill at Gulin Temple 古林寺山上

107

2

Nanxiucun, Yinyangying 陰陽營南秀村

650

2

Hill behind Gulin Temple 古林寺後山 Same

154

29

20

1

Total 合计

Date 日期

Remarks 备考

20

Feb. 11

109

Feb. 14

672

Feb. 19

154

Feb. 20

30

Feb. 22

337

Feb. 27

Coll. at Shanghai Road 在上海路一带 收敛 Coll. at Gulin Temple Hill 在古林寺山上 收敛 Coll. at north city 在城北各處收 敛 Coll. at Longchi Temple 在龍池庵收敛 Coll. at north city 在城北各處收 敛 Same

同右

Outside The City 城外區

Nanxiucun, 337 Yinyangying 陰陽營南秀村 Subtotal 1759 總計 100 Wangjiang Rock outside Zhonghua Gate 中華門外望江磯 Gaonianbo Village outside Zhonghua Gate 中華門外高輦柏 村 Pude Temple outside Zhonghua Gate 中華門外普德寺

250

同右 8 9

11

26

1793 109

261

Dec. 22

Coll. in the city

在城内各處收 敛 Same Coll. in the city

同右 280

280

6468

6468

在城内各處收 敛 Same Same

同右 Dec. 28

同右

(continued)

11.2  Charity Organizations Area 区别

Burial Location 掩埋地点

Black Bridge, Shangxin River 上新河黑橋

377

Number of Bodies 人 数 Man Women Children 男 女 小孩 996 2

21

3

Total 合计

996[8]a Jan. 10

Wangjiang Rock out side Zhonghua Gate 中華門外望江磯

407

Erdaoganzi outside Shuixi Gate 水西門外二道杆 子 Sun Temple, Shangxin River

843

843

457

457

431

上新河太陽宫 Nansan Lane outside Shuixi Gate 水西門外南傘巷

124

Ergeng, Shangxin River 上新河二埂

850

850

Jiangdong Bridge, Shangxin River 上新河江東橋

1850

1850

Cotton Dyke, Shangxin River 上新河棉花堤

1860

1860

Guangdong Cemetery outside Hanxi Gate 漢西門外廣東公 墓

271

1

1

Date 日期

125

272

Jan. 25

Remarks 备考

Coll. at Shangxin River area 在上新河一带 收敛 Coll. in the city

在城内各處收 敛 Feb. Coll. by the river 7 outside Shuixi Gate 在水西門外 河 邊收敛 Feb. Coll. from the 8 river at Sun Temple 在太陽宫河下 收敛 Feb. Coll. outside 9 Shuixi Gate 在水西門外各 處收敛 Same Coll. there, for bodies decomposed 同右 因尸已爛就地 收敛 Same Coll. at Jiangdong Bridge 同右 在江東橋一带 收敛 Same Coll. there, for bodies decomposed 同右 因尸已爛就地 收敛 Feb. Coll. outside 11 Hanixi Gate 在漢西門外一 带收敛

(continued)

11  Disposing of Victim Bodies

378 Area 区别

Burial Location 掩埋地点

Dangwang Temple outside Shuixi Gate 水西門外大王廟 Duguli, Xiaguan

Number of Bodies 人 数 Man Women Children 男 女 小孩 34

Total 合计

34

1191

1191

82

82

328

328

81 Opening at Guanyin Temple, Shangxin River 上新河觀音庵空 場 244 Opening at Fenghuang Street, Shangxin River 上新河鳳凰街空 場 1123 Erdaoganzi outside Hanzhong Gate 漢中門外二 道杆子 380 Opening at north mouth of Shang xin River 上新河北河口空 場 480 Jiujia Dyke, Xiaguan 下關九家圩

81

下關渡固里 Cemetery, Central Stadium 中央體育場公墓 地 Central Prison, Shangxin River 上新河中央監獄

244

1123

380

480

Date 日期

Remarks 备考

Same Coll. from ponds outside Shuixi Gate 同右 在水西門外 塘 中收敛 Feb. Coll. there, for 12 bodies decomposed 因尸已爛就地 收敛 Feb. Coll. near 14 stadium 在體育場附近 收敛 Same Coll. in Central Prison 同右 在中央監獄内 收敛 Feb. Coll. inside 15 burning site there 在该處火場内 收敛 Feb. Coll. at Xijie 16 Street there 在该處西街收 敛 Feb. Coll. at riverside 18 there 在该處河邊收 敛 Same Coll. at north mouth of the river 同右 在北河口一带 收敛 Same Coll. by the riverside at Xiaguan 同右 在下關沿江邊 收敛

(continued)

11.2  Charity Organizations Area 区别

Burial Location 掩埋地点

By Torpedo Base, Xiaguan 下關魚雷營旁

379

Number of Bodies 人 数 Man Women Children 男 女 小孩 524

Total 合计

Date 日期

Remarks 备考

524

Feb. 19

197

Feb. 20

Coll. there, for bodies decomposed 因尸已爛就地 收敛 Coll. Torpedo Base dock

Opening at Strawshoe Dam, Xiaguan 下關草鞋閘空場

197

Same 同右 Torpedo Base dock, Xiaguan 下關魚雷營碼頭

226

226

Feb. 21

5000

5000

Same

同右

Shiliu Garden, Xiaguan 下關石榴園

147

147

Under Mufu Mountain 幕府山下

115

Wufu Village, Shangxin River 上新河五福村

217

Opening at Strawshoe Dam, Xiaguan 下關草鞋閘空場

151

Torpedo Base dock, Xiaguan 下關魚雷營碼頭

300

300

Pude Temple outside Zhonghua Gate 中華門外普德寺

106

106

Same 同右

115

Same 同右

217

Same

同右 151

Feb. 22

在魚雷營碼頭 收敛 Same 同右 Coll. there, for bodies decomposed 因尸已爛就地 收敛 Coll. by Mufu Mountain 在幕府山旁收 敛 Coll. behind Strawshoe Dam 在草鞋閘後收 敛 Coll. at Radio Station, Wufu Village 在五福村電台 等處收敛 Coll. Torpedo Base dock

在魚雷營碼頭 收敛 Same Coll. there, for bodies decomposed 同右 因尸已爛就地 收敛 Feb. Coll. in the city 23 在城内各處收 敛

(continued)

380 Area 区别

11  Disposing of Victim Bodies Burial Location 掩埋地点

Jiang Family Garden, Xiaguan 下關姜家園 Shiliu Garden, Xiaguan 下關石榴園

Number of Bodies 人 数 Man Women Children 男 女 小孩 85

Total 合计

Date 日期

85

Feb. 25

1902

1902

East Fort, Xiaguan 下關東砲台

194

194

Outside Shangyuan Gate Xiaguan 下關上元門外

591

591

87

87

1346

1346

Opening southwest of Sancha River 三叉河西南空場

998

998

By Yongqing Temple outside Heping Gate 和平門外永清寺 旁 Shiliu Garden, Xiaguan 下關石榴園

1409

1409

786

786

Riverside at Coal Dock, Xiaguan

1772

1772

Wangjiang Rock outside Zhonghua Gate 中華門外望江磯 Shiliu Garden, Xiaguan 下關石榴園

下關煤炭港江邊

Remarks 备考

Coll. in Xiaguan 在下關各處收 敛 Feb. Coll. by Mufu 26 Mountain 在幕府山旁收 敛 Same Coll. at Coal Dock 同右 在煤炭港碼頭 收敛 Feb. Coll. inside 27 Shangyuan Gate 在上元門内一 带收敛 Feb. Coll. at 28 north city 在城北各處收 敛 Mar. Coll. by Mufu 1 Mountain 在幕府山旁收 敛 Same Coll. at Sancha River 同右 在三叉河一带 收敛 Mar. Coll. at 2 Dawozi there 在该處大涡子 收敛 Mar. Coll. by Mufu 3 Mountain 在幕府山旁收 敛 Mar. Coll. there, for 6 bodies decomposed 因尸已爛就地 收敛

(continued)

11.2  Charity Organizations Area 区别

Burial Location 掩埋地点

By Dyke behind Navy Hospital, Xiaguan 下關海軍醫院後 堤邊 Behind Sancha River 三叉河后邊

381

Number of Bodies 人 数 Man Women Children 男 女 小孩 87

Total 合计

Date 日期

87

Mar. 14

29

29

83

83

100

100

799

799

500

500

354 Opening at Ganlu Temple, Shangxin River 上新河甘露寺空 場 133 West Hill at Andeli outside Zhonghua Gate 中華門外安德里 西山上 1177 Pude Temple outside Zhonghua Gate 中華門外普德寺 义地

354

Opening at Ganlu Temple, Shangxin River 上新河甘露寺空 場 Hilltop at Huayan Temple outside Zhonghua Gate 中華門外華嚴寺 山頂 Anli Hall, Pude Temple outside Zhonghua Gate 中華門外普德寺 安里堂 Under city walls outside Taiping Gate 太平門外城墙根

133

1177

Remarks 备考

Coll. there & Yihe Dock 在该處及怡和 碼頭收敛 Mar. Coll. right 15 there 在该處一带收 敛 Same Coll. right there 同右 在该處一带收 敛 Mar. Coll. at 19 Ande Gate 在安德門一带 收敛 Mar. Coll. 25 in the city 在城内各處收 敛 Mar. Coll. there 27 bodies decom posed 因尸已爛就地 收敛 Mar. Coll. 23 right there 在该處一带收 敛 Mar. Coll. near 24 Shangxin River 在上新河附近 收敛 Apr. Coll. in city’s 14 north & south sections 在城南北各處 收敛

(continued)

382 Area 区别

11  Disposing of Victim Bodies Burial Location 掩埋地点

Opening at Jia Family Mulberry Garden, Shangxin River 上新河賈家桑園 空地 Opening at Sancha River 三叉河空地

Number of Bodies 人 数 Man Women Children 男 女 小孩 700

Total 合计

Date 日期

Remarks 备考

700

Apr. 16

Coll. at Shangxin River

282

282

Apr. 19

Opening at Coal Dock, Xiaguan 下關煤炭港空地 Riverside at military depot, Xiaguan 下關兵站處江邊

385

385

Apr. 27

102

102

Apr. 29

Pude Temple outside Zhonghua Gate 中華門外普德寺

486

486

Apr. 30

Shiliu Garden, Xiaguan 下關石榴園

518

518

May 1

By the Dyke, Laojiangkou 老江口埂邊 Riverside, Xiaguan

94

94

May 15

65

65

May 18

57

57

May 20

216

216

May 26

下關江滩邊 Black Bridge, Shangxin River 上新河黑橋 On Hill at Pude Temple outside Zhonghua Gate 中華門外普德寺 山上

在上新河各處 收敛 Coll. at Sancha River mouth 在三叉河口一 带收敛 Coll. by Yangtze riverside 在江邊收敛 Coll. by the riverside at Xiaguan 在下關沿江邊 收敛 Coll. at arsenal & in the city 在兵工厰及城 内收敛 Coll. riverside at military depot 在兵站處江邊 收敛 Same 同右 Coll. from Yangtze near shore 在江邊水上收 敛 Coll. at riverside, Shangxin River 在上新河江邊 收敛 Coll. in the city

在城内各處收 敛

(continued)

11.2  Charity Organizations Area 区别

Burial Location 掩埋地点

Coal Dock, Xiaguan 下關煤炭港

Appendix 附記

383

Number of Bodies 人 数 Man Women Children 男 女 小孩 74

26 On Hill at Pude Temple outside Zhonghua Gate 中華門外普德寺 山上 Same 29 同右 Same 14 同右 31 Pude Temple outside Zhonghua Gate 中華門外普德寺 Same 42 同右 Subtotal 41,183b 總計 Total 總共 43,071d

5

1

4

Total 合计

Date 日期

Remarks 备考

74

May 31

26

Jun. 30

Coll. at riverside there 在该處江邊收 敛 Coll. in the city

35

Jul. 31

18

Aug. 31

8

9

48

Sept. 30

13

7

62

Oct. 30

75

20

41,278c

在城内各處收 敛 Same 同右 Same 同右 Same

同右 Same 同右

The number should be 998 There is a calculation error here. Adding all the numbers in this column, the total should be 41,235 c There is a calculation error here. Adding all the numbers in this column, the total should be 41,330 d There is a calculation error here. Adding all the numbers in different categories together, the general total should be 43,123 a

b

The authenticity and accuracy of the Red Swastika Society’s data can be corroborated by contemporaries’ records. Minnie Vautrin indicated in her April 15, 1938 diary that she visited the Red Swastika Society headquarters that day and learned that from “about the middle of January to April 14, their society had buried 1,793 bodies found in the city, and of this number about 80% were civilians; outside the city during this time they have buried 39,589 men, women, and children and about 2½% of this number were civilians.” 23 From February 28 to March 15, 1938, the Red Swastika Society Shanghai Headquarters dispatched a burial team, along with medical supplies, to Nanjing to render assistance in burial. “The Report on the trip to Nanjing for burial work,” which was written by Li Shiyuan (李世原) on March 18, 1938, and is now kept in the Shanghai Municipal Archives, describes their burial activities, which largely match Nanjing’s data.24

384

11  Disposing of Victim Bodies

11.2.2  Chongshan Tang or the Benevolence Society Chongshan Tang, or the Benevolence Society (崇善堂), a private charity organization, was originally established as the Bureau of Caring Widows (恤嫠局) in 1797 (嘉慶二年) by Jin Xiang (金襄), an academic official of the local government. The organization, destroyed during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (太平天國) period, was revitalized in 1865 (同治四年) and adopted its current name, Chongshan Tang. Its major charity activities included taking care of widows and infants, offering medical care and medicine, and distributing food and clothing, among other things. In May 1929, the society registered with the Bureau of Social Services of the Nanjing Municipal Government, and by 1937, its headquarters was situated at 32 Jinshajing Street (金沙井) in the southern part of the city, with Zhou Yiyu (周一漁) as its president. Unlike the Red Swastika Society, whose operation largely depended on donations, this society relied on its own revenue from the rent collected from those who leased the farming fields owned by the society. The society was in possession of 417 mu (亩, 15 mu = 1 hectare) farm land, 4 453 mu land and 19 premises in the city. As Japanese troops approached in December 1937, war conditions made it impossible for the society to remain and function at its original location. It thus moved into the Safety Zone and started distributing rice on December 11, 1937 and offering medical assistance on January 6, 1938.25 After Japanese troops entered the city, a large number of people were killed as a result of Japanese atrocities. The society organized the Chong Burial Team (崇字掩 埋隊) in coordination with the Red Swastika Society to bury victim bodies. The Red Swastika Society covered the western part of the city while Chongshan Tang was responsible for the eastern part. Zhou Yiyu served as the leader of the burial team, which had four squads under it. Each squad had one director, one member and 10 workers. As payment, each squad member received 8 ge (合, 10 ge = 1 liter) of rice daily and each worker 6 ge daily.26 The Nanjing Municipal Archives keeps a staff list of the Chong Burial Team: A List of Chongshan Tang Staff in the Refugee Zone27 Position 職務 President of Nanjing Chongshan Tang Leader of Chong Burial Team 南京市崇善堂堂長兼崇字 掩埋隊隊長 Director of Chong Burial Team First Squad 崇字掩埋 隊第一隊主任 Member of the First Squad 第一隊隊員

Name 姓名 Zhou Yitong (yu) 周一通(漁)

Meng Lantian 孟蓝田

Wang Guangde 王光德

(continued)

11.2  Charity Organizations Position 職務 Workers of the First Squad 第一隊伕役

385 Name 姓名 Shi Daniu 施大牛 Cheng Xiaoqiu 程小秋 Wu Shifu 伍士福 Jin Shuanglin 金雙林 Zhu Degui 朱得貴 Ma Dixian 馬迪先 Chen Laowu 陳老五 Wu Shilu 伍士禄 Wang Dabao 王大保 Lu Shihe 吕世和 Ruan Yueqiu 阮月秋

Director of Chong Burial Team Second Squad 崇字掩 埋隊第二隊主任 Member of the Second Ma Decai 馬德財 Squad 第二隊隊員 Workers of the Second Wang Laosi 王老四 Han Xinhan 韓心汗 Shi Xiaolong 石小龍 Squad 第二隊伕役 He Yigui 何亦貴 Zhang Jinbao 張金保 Ma Defu 馬得福 Ma Dexi 馬得喜 Jin Liufa 金六發 Xiong Changgeng 熊長庚 Cai Gui 蔡貴 Guo Quantao 郭全濤 Director of Chong Burial Team Third Squad 崇字掩 埋隊第三隊主任 Member of the Third Squad Zhang Baoshan 張寳善 第三隊隊員 Workers of the Third Squad Wu Dabao 伍大保 Wang Xiaoliu 王小六 Jin Youcai金有財 Zhu 第三隊伕役 Gui 朱貴 Chen Zaixi 陳在喜 Zhang Tiansheng 張天生 Ma Xiaowu 馬小五 Yu Fu 余福 Sun Laifu 孫來福 Ding Baogui丁保 貴 Cheng Zheren 程哲人 Director of Chong Burial Team Fourth Squad 崇字掩 埋隊第四隊主任 Member of the Fourth Xiao Sheng 萧 生 Squad 第四隊隊員 Workers of the Fourth Yu Shilu 余世禄 Jin Shifu 金士福 Wang Anzi 王安子 Tian Dafa Squad 第四隊伕役 田大發 Lei Fengchun 雷逢春 Li Youlu 李有禄 Zhang Gongyi 張 功義 Wu Gui 伍貴 Ma Shixian 馬士賢 Jin Sihan 金思漢

Apparently, in addition to the individuals in the above list, the Chong Burial Team hired temporary hands as well. Cui Jingui (崔金貴), 22 in 1937, is not listed as a worker, but he claimed to have worked briefly on Chingshan Tang Burial Team. Before the war, Cui was a horse carriage driver, but with the hostilities and Japanese troops’ arrival, he had no business whatsoever. Chongshan Tang was headquartered in his neighborhood. In a testimony he provided in 1984 he indicated that Chongshan Tang had been a charity organization since the Qing Dynasty, giving away cotton-­ padded garments and rice gruel in winter and tea in summer. After Japanese troops came, the society started to recruit people to bury the dead. Former coffin carriers and folks like Cui who were out of work came to join its burial squads to earn some income.

386

11  Disposing of Victim Bodies

When I started the job, it was warm, around March or April. The first day, we went to Jinhua Soy Sauce Factory (金華酱油厰) at Erdaogengzi Street (二道埂子) outside Shuixi Gate, dragging bodies out of the soy sauce containers. The bodies were those of Chinese who were thrown into the containers by the Japanese, and also bodies collected from elsewhere. Because it was getting warm, the stench of the bodies was unbearable. Only one day on the job, I wanted to quit. …… I did not go to work the second day, but it was not possible to do the peddler business I preferred doing, so several days later, I returned to the burial job, and was on the job for a week or so. While burying bodies, everyone was issued a vest with the characters, Chongshan Tang, written on the front and back, the ­characters in red against the black background. I remember there was an official seal as well, and the person walking at the head held a flag. Because it was a period of chaos, without them, Japanese soldiers would arbitrarily detain and kill us. The pits were dug nearby to bury the bodies, or the bodies were simply dragged to be thrown into the ditches that had already been there, then covered with dirt; many of the bodies buried were incomplete, and we used iron hooks. The site of that soy sauce factory is now the Second Medicine Factory. While burying bodies, the persons doing the burying did not count the number of the bodies. We were paid according to the number of days we were on the job, while Chongshan Tang sent someone with us to keep the body tally.28

In Cui Jingui’s testimony, he indicated that the first day on the job, he was burying decomposed bodies outside Shuixi Gate in warm weather, around March or April. His description matches the burial record of Chongshan Tang that, from April 9 to 23, 1938, the second squad of Chongshan Tang burial team collected and buried bodies in the locations outside Shuixi Gate to the Shangxin River area (See Nanjing Chongshan Tang Burial Work Sheet below). On February 6, 1938, Zhou Yiyu wrote a letter to the Nanjing Self-Go-vernment Committee, in which he indicated, “it has been over a month since the establishment of our society’s burial team, and we have been extremely busy with the work, though we lack motor vehicles. It is spring, and with the temperature rising, if the bodies are not buried quickly, the bodies strewn in the open will greatly affect public health.” He requested assistance from the committee in repairing and obtaining parts for the society’s motor vehicle used for trucking the bodies.29 Two days later, the Self-Government Committee responded, referring Zhou to Ding San Motor Vehicle Repair Shop (丁三汽車修理部) to have the job done.30 From December 26, 1937 to early April 1938, the Chong Burial Team mainly collected bodies in the western sections within the city walls, where they collected and buried 7549 bodies, of which 6742 were men, 522 were women and 285 were children; from early April 1938 to early May, they collected and buried bodies in the southern, southeastern and eastern suburbs, and they buried 104,718 bodies, of which 102,621 were men, 1569 were women and 528 were children. Their burial lists are found in both the Second Historical Archives of China and the Nanjing Municipal Archives. The latter has a little more detailed information than the former.

Urban Areas 城區

Area 區别

1938 Jan.

First Squad 第一隊 Second Squad 第二隊 Third Squad 第三隊 Fourth Squad 第四隊 First Squad 第一隊 Second Squad 第二隊

Mufu West Gate to Guyilang Street 沐府西門至估衣廊 East of Yijiang Gate 挹江門以東 South of Xinjiekou 新街口以南 East of Zhonghua Gate 中華門以東 Beimenqiao to Changjinglou 北門橋至唱經樓 Xingzhong Gate to Xiaodong Gate 興中門至小東門

Time Squad Location of Collection 時間 隊别 收尸處所 Year Month 年 月 1937 Dec. Chong Burial 崇字掩埋隊

Nanjing Chongshan Tang Burial Work Sheet31

城根

51

350

34

29

352

五台山 Under city walls

7

38

273

83

城根 Wutai Hill

城根 Hongtuqiao & Beiji Pavilion 紅土橋及北極閣 Under city walls

342

22

9

18

1

12

423

311

404

91

392

Body Number 尸數 Men Women Children Total 男 女 孩 合計 96 22 6 124

五台山 Under city walls

Wutai Hill

Location of Burial 掩埋地點

(continued)

Jan. 3 to Feb. 4 1月3日至2月4日

The total No. buried from Dec. 26 to 28 12月26日開始工 作至28日共收埋 如上數

Remark 備注

11.2  Charity Organizations 387

Area 區别

Mar.

第三隊 Fourth Squad 第四隊 First Squad 第一隊

Time Squad 時間 隊别 Year Month 年 月 Third Squad 第三隊 Fourth Squad 第四隊 Feb. First Squad 第一隊 Second Squad 第二隊 Third Squad East of Zhuqiao behind Guanyin Temple 觀音庵後竺橋東首 Under city walls 城根 Drum Tower & Fuqiao at Dao-zhong etc. 鼓樓及倒锺場浮橋等處 Tuchenggen & South City 土城根及南城 Santiao Lane, Dazhongqiao & Bottom of city walls 三條巷大中橋城根等處 Under city walls 城根 Under city walls & hill 城根及山脚

Laowangfu Str. To Luzheng Pailou 老王府至蘆政牌樓 Xiaoyingfu to Lianzi-ying

太平門至富貴山

花牌樓至洪武門 Changle Rd. to Banshan Garden 長樂路至半山園 Taiping Gate to Fugui Hill

鼓樓至大石橋 Yushilang Str. To Gaoqiaomen 御史廊至高橋門 Huapailou to Hongwu Gate

小膺府至蓮子營 Drum Tower to Dashiqiao

Location of Burial 掩埋地點

Location of Collection 收尸處所

610

22

36

24

529

878

28

13

31

587

354

432

16

28

15

7

8

25

548

942

568

622

375

488

Body Number 尸數 Men Women Children Total 男 女 孩 合計 284 46 4 334

Mar. 7 to Apr. 8 3月7日至4月8日

Feb. 5 to Mar. 6 2月5日至3月6日

Remark 備注

388 11  Disposing of Victim Bodies

33,601

24,839

同上 Same 同上 Same 同上

475

191

336

109,363 2091

18,429

Same

Total 總計

567

25,752

Nearby waste land & vegetable gardens 附近各荒地菜園

102,621 1569

522

6742

48

54

715

813

528

176

36

23

293

285

35

62

Apr. 7 to 20 4月7日至20日

Apr. 9 to May 1 4 月9日至5月1日

Apr. 9 to 23 4月9 日至23日

See Appendix One 見附件一 Apr. 9 to 18 4月9日至18日

Mar. 7 to Apr. 6 3 月7日至4月6日

Remark 備注

104.718 See Appendix Two 見附件二 112,267

25,490

33,828

18,788

26,612

7549

474

825

Body Number 尸數 Men Women Children Total 男 女 孩 合計 472 39 17 528

385

公園東邊及浮橋 Nearby waste land & vegetable gardens 附近各荒地菜園

城根 East of Park & Fuqiao

Under city walls

Location of Burial 掩埋地點

Arsenal & Yuhuatai outside Zhonghua Gate to Flower Temple 第一隊 中華門外兵工厰雨花台至 花神廟 Second Outside Shuixi Gate to Squad Shangxin River 第二隊 水西門外至上新河 Third Outside Zhongshan Gate to Squad Maqun 第三隊 中山門外至馬羣 Fourth Outside Tongji Gate to Squad Fangshan 第四隊 通濟門外至方山 Subtotal 共計

1938 Apr.

Suburban Areas 鄉區

First Squad

Time Squad Location of Collection 時間 隊别 收尸處所 Year Month 年 月 Second Dashugen to Lanjiazhuang Squad 第二隊 大樹根至蓝家莊 Third Shibanqiao to Shangshu Squad Street 第三隊 石板橋至尚書街 Fourth Searched the eastern part of Squad city 第四隊 清查城内東半邊 Subtotal 共計

Area 區别

11.2  Charity Organizations 389

390

11  Disposing of Victim Bodies

However, the Chongshan Tang burial data, not itemized with daily details as that of the Red Swastika Society, is apparently not a daily record, but a series of monthly reports. The accuracy and reliability of the Chongshan Tang burial data, in particular, the section concerning the burial activities and the number of bodies collected and buried in the suburban areas in April 1938, has been repeatedly challenged and suspected as post-war period reconstructed material, rather than original data recorded in 1937-1938.

11.2.3  The Red Cross Society The Red Cross Society was first established in China in Shanghai in 1904 with the intent of offering relief to the refugees in China’s Liaodong Peninsula ravaged by the Russo-Japanese War. However, the Red Cross Society of China was not acknowledged and accepted by the International Committee of the Red Cross until 1912, and did not join the International Federation of the Red Cross until 1919.The Red Cross Society Nanjing Branch was established in 1912 in Xiaguan, and in 1937, it was located inside Leshan Tang (樂善堂) on Suiyuan Road (綏遠路). Upon the approach of Japanese troops, the society, under the leadership of Guo Zizhang (郭 子章), director, and Lu Boheng (陸伯衡), secretary, opened an office inside the Safety Zone at 25 Ninghai Road, set up a rice kitchen at Ginling College, and opened a clinic in Xiaguan, providing food and medical assistance to refugees. After the massacre unfolded, with a huge number of disarmed Chinese soldiers and civilians slaughtered in Xiaguan, the society, in cooperation with local residents, began burying bodies on December 24, 1937. The society did not officially carry out the burial work independently until after the Japanese military authorities issued permission on January 4, 1938. The Red Cross Society burial squads mainly covered the Xiaguan area. In a document on refugee relief work dated July 14, 1938, the Red Cross Society Nanjing Branch reported, 1. Rice Kitchen This branch’s rice kitchen is set up inside Ginling College, offering rice gruel twice a day, from 8 to 10 in the morning and 3 to 5 in the afternoon. This rice kitchen is designated to provide food for the women and children refugees residing in the college, with the number of people who receive rice gruel increasing to a peak of over 8,000 daily. In 6 months’ time, a total of 864,020 received rice gruel, the cost of rice and coal is about 20,000 dollars, and the payment to staff and expenditure on all the other equipment are altogether 2,100 dollars. It is still in operation. 2. Burial Activities This branch’s burial squads have carried out burial activities since December 24, 1937, along the riverside in Xiaguan and at the locations near the area outside Heping Gate, and

11.2  Charity Organizations

391

within 6 months they have buried a total of 22,371 bodies of soldiers and civilians. Most of the bodies were buried directly in dirt pits that have been dug out, with only a few hundred of them buried in coffins. Right now along the riverside in Xiaguan, they continue to dredge up bodies floating over from upstream and bury them right away. The burial squad workers are refugees from this branch’s refugee center. They are provided with food and lodging, but receive no salaries, and, therefore, this branch only pays for food and miscellaneous fees of several hundred dollars.32

According to the Red Cross Society burial squads’ daily body count tallies, between December 24, 1937 and January 5, 1938, the First Burial Squad collected and buried 5704 bodies in the area outside Heping Gate with the assistance of local villagers, while the Second Squad collected and buried 3245 bodies in the Xiaguan area. On January 4, the Japanese gave permission for disposing of dead bodies, and from then on they started to keep a daily log sheet of the body count, which indicates the location where bodies were collected but gives no information about where they were buried. From January 6 to May 31, the First Squad buried a total of 6999 bodies, and during the same period, the Second Squad buried 6735 bodies. Although both squads concentrated on the Xiaguan area, from time to time, they expanded eastward to Maigao Bridge (邁皋橋), westward to Shuixi Gate, and to the south they reached as far as Drum Tower and the Xinjiekou area. Altogether, both squads collected and buried a total of 22,683 bodies. Kept in the Nanjing Municipal Archives are 10 statistical charts of the two burial squads’ daily activities: Red Cross Society of China Nanjing Branch: First Burial Squad Monthly Statistical Report33 Month 月份 January February March April May Total 總計

Number 掩埋人數 2131a 1728 2344 484 300 6987c

Others 其他 7 animals 26 horsesb

33 animals and horsesd

Note: Before Jan. 6, 1938, this squad had buried 5704 soldier and civilian bodies in cooperation with local villagers outside Heping Gate. Because the work was not done independently by this squad, that number is not included here a This number should be 2151 b This should be 25 horses c Both this number and statistical number should be 2151 d This should be 32 animals and horses

11  Disposing of Victim Bodies

392

Red Cross Society of China Nanjing Branch: First Burial Squad January Statistical Report (January 31, 1938)

Date 日期 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Total 總計

Location 發現地點 Baoshan Street 寳善街 Fire God Temple 火神廟 Meifu Street 美孚街 Ice factory, Baoshan Str.寳善街冰厰 Zhongshan Bridge 中山橋 Erban Bridge 二板橋 Yangtze dyke 揚子江大堤埂 Rehe Road 熱河路 Yijiang Gate 挹江門附近 Xingzhong Gate 興中門附近 Yongning Street 永寧街 Xiaguan Avenue 下關大馬路 Tianguangli Lane 天光里一带 Tianbao Road. 天保路附近 Shigu Road 石鼓路 Xiaguan Dashijie 下關大世界附近 Yijiang Gate walls 挹江門城根附近 Dengfu Lane 鄧府巷 Xingzhong Gate 興中門附近 Railway Bridge 鐵路橋 Longjiang Bridge 龍江橋 Huimin Bridge 惠民橋 Dawang Temple 大王廟一带 Railway Station 京滬火車站旁 Sancha River 三叉河附近 Rehe Road. 熱河路附近

Number 掩埋人數 47 38 53 48 103 97 65 94 129 78 83 86 57 66 57 114 151 73 42 173 94 79 47 35 163 79 2131b

Statistics 統計數 47 85 138 186 209a 306 371 465 594 672 785 871 928 994 1051 1165 1316 1389 1431 1604 1698 1777 1854 1889 2052 2131 2131

Remarks 備注

Note: This squad started working on December 24, 1937. After we obtained permission from the Japanese military on January 4, 1938, we began working officially and keeping statistics on the 5th a It should be 289, and all the numbers below this are inaccurate b Both this number and statistical number should be 2151

11.2  Charity Organizations

393

Red Cross Society of China Nanjing Branch: First Burial Squad February Statistical Report (February 28, 1938)

Date 日期 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Total 總計

Location 發現地點 Longjiang Bridge 龍江橋 City moat 護城河附近 Heping Gate 和平門 Sanshui Bridge 三水橋 Sisuo Village 四所村 Coal Dock 煤炭港 Sancha River 三叉河 Heping Gate Station 和平門車站 Yangtze riverside 揚子江邊 Rehe Road 熱河路 Sancha River Bridge 三叉河橋 Longjiang Bridge 龍江橋 Power Plant 電燈厰 Datong Flour Mill 大同麵厰旁 City moat 護城河 Railway Bridge 鐵路橋 Yangtze riverside 揚子江邊 Tianbao Road 天保路附近 Heping Gate 和平門 Hanxi Gate 漢西門 Heji, Xiaguan 下關和記 Yangtze riverside 揚子江邊 Longjiang Bridge 龍江橋 Huimin Bridge 惠民橋 Xinmin Gate 新民門附近 Longjiang Bridge 龍江橋等處 Longjiang Bridge 龍江橋等處 Datong Flour Mill 大同麵厰旁

This number should be 3879

a

Number 掩埋人數 38 210 161 165 145 91 43 105 68 39 33 69 31 59 37 54 31 29 45 64 32 21 27 7 22 36 27 39 1728

Statistics 統計數 2169 2379 2540 2705 2850 2941 2984 3089 3157 3196 3229 3298 3329 3388 3425 3472 3510 3539 3584 3648 3680 3701 3728 3735 3757 3793 3820 3859 3859a

Remarks 備注

3 horses

2 dogs

1 horse 1 mule

4 horses, 2 dogs & 1 mule

11  Disposing of Victim Bodies

394

 ed Cross Society of China Nanjing Branch: First Burial Squad March Statistical Report R (March 31, 1938)

Date 日期 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Total 總計 a

Location 發現地點 Railway Station 京沪车站附近 Sancha River 三叉河附近 Huimin Bridge 惠民橋等處 Liujiawan 瀏家灣等處 Yongning Street 永寧街附近 Shigu Road 石鼓路 Xiaguan riverside 下關江邊 Longjiang Bridge 龍江橋等處 North mouth, Sancha R. 三叉河北河口 North mouth, Sancha R. 三叉河北河口 Along riverside 江邊一带 Sisuo V. Xinmin Gate 四所村新民門一带 Sisuo V. Xinmin Gate 四所村新民門一带 At foot of Lion Hill 獅子山脚下 City moat 護城河一带 Diguan Temple 挹江門第觀廟等處 Pagoda Bridge 寳塔橋 Torpedo Base area 魚雷營一带 Torpedo Base area 魚雷營一带 Torpedo Base area 魚雷營一带 Shangyuan Gate 上元門等處 Shangyuan Gate 上元門等處 By Swallow Cliff 燕子磯旁 Guanyin Gate 觀音門 Badou Hill 笆斗山等處 Inside Guanyin Gate 觀音門内 Hubei Road 湖北路 Shangbu Street 商埠街 Zhejiang Xingyi Bank 浙江興業銀行附近 In Yijiang Gate 挹江門城門洞内 In Yijiang Gate 挹江門城門洞内

This number should be 6223 This should be 25 horses

b

Number 掩埋人數 40 45 35 59 57 54 56 39 67 72 87 93 107 75 80 115 61 133 98 89 70 104 57 73 94 39 52 50 25 167 151 2344

Statistics 統計數 3899 3944 3979 4038 4095 4149 4205 4244 4311 4383 4470 4563 4670 4745 4825 4940 5001 5134 5232 5321 5391 5495 5552 5625 5719 5758 5810 5860 5885 6052 6203 6203a

Remarks 備注 17 horses 1 horse

1 horse

3 horses

2 horses 1 horse 26 horsesb

11.2  Charity Organizations

395

 ed Cross Society of  China Nanjing Branch: First Burial Squad April Statistical Report R (April 30, 1938)

Number

Statistics

Remarks

᧙෻Ӫᮨ

㎡䀸ᮨ

‫⌘ۉ‬

Date ᰕᵏ

Location Ⲭ⨮ൠ唎

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Total 㑭䀸

Chaoyuelou ᵍᴸ⁃аᑖ City walls, moat ෾້ṩ䆧෾⋣аᑖ Jiangjia Garden ဌᇦൂаᑖ㦂㥹ѝ

10 21 18

6213 6234 6252

Floating corpses at riverside by Pagoda Bridge & Heji

83

6335

102 4 5 5

6437 6441 6446 6451

84 20 11 4

6535 6555 6566 6570

Under Railway Bridge 䩥䐟⁻л

2 14

6572 6586

Along riverside ⊏䚺аᑖ

54

6640

Coal Dock ➔⛝⑟ Ferry at East Fort ᶡ⹢ਠ䕚⑑ Longjiang Bridge 喽⊏⁻ Hill in Xingzhong Gate.㠸ѝ䮰޵⋯ኡ

15 9 3 20 484

6655 6664 6667 6687 6687a

ሣຄ⁻઼䁈⊏䚺аᑖ⎞ቨ Inside Yijiang Gate ᥩ⊏䮰޵࣐൏ Gaoloumen 儈⁃䮰 Dashan Vegitable Garden བྷኡ㨌ൂ Tianbao Road ཙ‫؍‬䐟аᑖ Rainy, no work ཙ䴘‫ڌ‬ᐕ In reeds by riverside ⊏የ㰶⍢޵

East Fort ᶡ⹢ਠ Zhideli Lane Ცᗧ䟼 Zushian Street ⾆ᑛᓥаᑖ Rainy, no work ཙ䴘‫ڌ‬ᐕ Drum Tower 啃⁃䱴䘁

aThis number should be 6707

396

11  Disposing of Victim Bodies

11.2  Charity Organizations

397

On June 1, 1938, China Red Cross Society Monthly (中國紅十字會月刊) published in Shanghai “The Red Cross Society of China, Nanjing Branch, First Squad April Statistical Report” in Issue 35. The published April statistical log sheet is identical to the one kept in the Nanjing Municipal Archives, except for a few slight variations in the “Location” column and the information contained in the “Remarks” column: “Right now, because there isn’t much work left, only this squad is working, and we are mostly burying the floating bodies while the Second Squad is now engaged in cleaning work.”34 This sentence is absent from the Archives copy. However, in spite of the minor discrepancy, the published copy of the April 1938 statistical log sheet, to a great extent, verifies not only the authenticity and accuracy of the burial records kept by the Red Cross Society Nanjing Branch Burial Squads, but also their burial activities. Red Cross Society of  China Nanjing Branch: First Burial Squad May Statistical Report (May 31, 1938)

Date 日期 1 2 4 7 10 11 13 15 18 20 21 24 25 27 29 30 31 Total 總計 a

Location 發現地點 Bodies floating from upstream to riverside 江邊上游淌來浮尸 Same 同上 Same 同上 Same 同上 Same 同上 Same 同上 Same 同上 Same 同上 Same 同上 Same 同上 Same 同上 Same 同上 Same 同上 Same 同上 Same 同上 Same 同上

Number 掩埋人數 17 12 20 12 18 15 17 28 35 12 25 18 12 30 5 11 13 300

Statistics 統計數 6704 6716 6736 6748 6766 6781 6798 6826 6861 6873 6898 6916 6928 6958 6963 6974 6987 6987a

Remarks 備注

This number should be 7007

Red Cross Society of  China Nanjing Branch: Second Burial Squad Monthly Statistical Report Month 月份 January February March Total 總計

Number 掩埋人數 2175 2924 1636 6357

Others 其他 10 animals 11 animals 3 animals 24 animals

Note: Before January 6, 1938, this squad had buried 3245 soldier and civilian bodies in the Xiaguan area. Because, at the time, the Japanese military had not issued permission yet, that number is not included here

11  Disposing of Victim Bodies

398

 ed Cross Society of  China Nanjing Branch: Second Burial Squad January Statistical R Report (January 31, 1938)

Date 日期 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Total 總計

Location 發現地點 Ministry of Navy 海軍部 Rehe Road 熱河路 Longtoufang 龍头房 Zhalan Gate 栅欄門 Ferry Dock 輪渡碼頭 Ferry Dock 輪渡碼頭 Ferry Dock 輪渡碼頭 Ferry Dock 輪渡碼頭 Ferry Dock 輪渡碼頭 Ferry Dock 輪渡碼頭 Ferry Dock 輪渡碼頭 Old river mouth 老江口 Sansuo Bridge 三所橋 Dongyue T. to rail 東岳廟至鐵路邊 Guandi Temple 關帝廟 Mao Family Garden 毛家園 Sunjiaao Village 孫家凹 Zhangjiaao Village 張家凹 Zhaojiaqiao Village 趙家橋 Songjiagang Village 宋家岡 Xinmin Gate 新民門 Riverbank at Ferry 輪渡江岸 Riverbank at Ferry 輪渡江岸 Coal Dock 煤炭港 Liyuanli Lane 利源里一带 Small Railway Station 小火車站旁

Number Statistics 掩埋人數 統計數 132 132 51 183 78 261 36 297 188 485 113 598 172 770 125 895 76 971 84 1055 109 1164 112 1276 54 1330 64 1394 62 1456 39 1495 29 1524 35 1559 31 1590 46 1636 57 1693 154 1847 47 1894 198 2092 46 2138 37 2175 2175 2175

Remarks 備注

4 horses

2 horses & 1 mule

2 horses

1 horse

9 horses & 1 mule

Note: This squad started working together with the First Squad on December 24, 1937. After we obtained permission from the Japanese military on January 4, 1938, we began working officially and keeping statistics

11.2  Charity Organizations

399

 ed Cross Society of China Nanjing Branch: Second Burial Squad February Statistical R Report (February 28, 1938)

Date 日期 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Total 總計

Number Location 發現地點 掩埋人數 Zhongshan Wharf 中山碼頭 204 Nanjing Garden 南京花園一带 186 Power Plant 電燈厰一带 91 Power Plant 電燈厰一带 144 Navy Wharf 海軍碼頭 118 Navy Wharf 海軍碼頭 120 Navy Wharf 海軍碼頭 73 Navy Wharf 海軍碼頭 82 Merchants Co. 招商局門前 94 Merchants Co. 招商局門前 57 Merchants Co. 招商局門前 103 Merchants Co. 招商局門前 129 Huachangli Lane 華昌里一带 161 Huachangli Lane 華昌里一带 68 Huachangli Lane 華昌里一带 83 East Fort 東砲台 176 East Fort 東砲台 97 East Fort 東砲台 102 Shiqiangli Lane 石墙里 126 Shiqiangli Lane 石墙里 74 Old Ferry 老摆渡 88 Zhuantang Village 篆塘村 68 Heji 和記等處 73 Wubai Village 五百村 47 Strawshoe Gorgee 草鞋峽 105 Strawshoe Gorgee 草鞋峽 86 Mufu Mountain 幕府山下 65 Mufu Mountain 幕府山下 104 2924

Statistics 統計數 2379 2565 2656 2800 2918 3038 3111 3193 3287 3344 3447 3576 3737 3805 3888 4064 4161 4263 4389 4463 4551 4619 4692 4739 4844 4930 4995 5099 5099

Remarks 備注 1 mule

5 horses

1 horse

2 dogs 1 horse

7 horses, 1 mule & 2 dogs

11  Disposing of Victim Bodies

400

 ed Cross Society of China Nanjing Branch: Second Burial Squad March Statistical Report R (March 31, 1938)

Date 日期 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Total 總計

Location 發現地點 Mufu mountain 幕府山 Rendan Hill 仁丹山 Shuiguan Bridge 水關橋 Jinchuan Gate 金川門一带 Jiang Family Garden 姜家園 Moat, Yijiang Gate 挹江門護城河 Fuxing Street 复興街附近 Erban Bridge 二板橋等處 Devi-faced Wall 鬼脸城 Yangong Temple 宴公廟 Hanxi Gate 漢西門 Hanxi Gate 漢西門一带 Shuixi Gate 水西門附近 Shuixi Gate 水西門附近 Yihe warehouse 怡和堆棧 Chengping Wharf 澄平碼頭 Chengping Wharf 澄平碼頭 Navy Stadium 海軍體育場 Yang Family Garden 揚家花園等處 Small East Gate 小東門 Taigu Hill 太古山一带 Jiaomenkou 校門口附近 Sajiawan 薩家灣等處 Sanpailou 三牌樓一带 Gaoloumen 高樓門一带 Gulin Temple 古林庵附近 Maigao Bridge 邁皋橋 Maigao Bridge 邁皋橋 Shoreline, Qili Island 七里洲沿岸 Shoreline, Qili Island 七里洲沿岸 Bagua Island 八卦洲等處

This number should be 6065

a

Number 掩埋人數 38 54 47 61 33 42 45 50 86 84 103 74 52 118 79 48 73 125 9 58 31 22 42 16 27 23 41 17 35 29 54 1638

Statistics 統計數 5137 5191 5238 5299 5332 5374 5419 5469 5555 5639 5742 5816 5868 5986 6064a 6113 6186 5311 6340 6398 6429 6451 6493 6509 6536 6559 6600 6617 6652 6681 6735 6735

Remarks 備注

1 horse

2 horses

2 horses 1 horse

3 horses

11.2  Charity Organizations

401

11.2.4  Other Charity Organizations Tongshan Tang (同善堂), or the Mutual Benevolence Society, established in 1875 by silk merchant Yu Shaozhang (于紹章) and others in the silk business, was a private charity organization headerquartered on Yuhua Road outside Zhonghua Gate. In 1937, the society’s president was Huang Yuexuan (黄月軒), and its major charity activities included burying dead infants and offering medicine. After Nanjing fell to the Japanese, the society organized a burial squad, with Liu Decai (劉德才) as the squad leader, to bury the dead in the southern part of the city. On January 25, 1947, during an investigation inquiry initiated by the Military Tribunal of War Crimes at Nanjing, Liu Decai made a statement concerning the burial activities carried out by the Tongshan Tang Burial Squad, and presented his burial squad armband, on which a red cross emblem was printed with the “Nanjing Yuhuatai Tongshan Tang Tuji (南京雨花台同善堂圖記)” seal stamped and characters “Leader Liu Decai of Nanjing City Tongshan Tang Burial Squad (南京市同善 堂掩埋組長組長劉德才)” written on it.35 However, Tongshan Tang did not keep an itemized log sheet of their burial activities. According to archival records kept in the Nanjing Municipal Archives, several other charity groups were involved, to some extent, in burying victim bodies in early 1938. The Burial Bureau (代葬局), located at Shimiaokou, Baotai Street (保泰街十 廟口), had its own burial squad and was heavily involved in burying victims. In 1946, several of its burial squad members were questioned about their burial activities by the Supreme Court at Nanjing.36 Shunanshan Tang (順安善堂) was a charity organization at Swallow Cliff Town (燕子磯鎮) in the northeastern suburbs of Nanjing. In a survey form dated December 17, 1940, this charity group indicated that it had been in existence for over 70 years, and “after the Nanjing Incident, for burying the bodies strewn in the wilderness along the river shoreline, we spent about 600 dollars, which were paid to the workers.”37 Mingde Charity Society (明德慈善堂), originally founded in Changsha, Hunan Province, in 1862, had a branch established in Nanjing in 1926. The society was located in Hongwu Xincun at Hongwu Road (洪武路洪武新村) when it filled out a survey form on December 26, 1940. In the form, its president, Chen Jiawei (陳家 偉), indicated that after he came back from the refugee zone, he hired over a dozen workers to bury bodies. He also repaired buildings, set up an elementary school, a clinic, a factory and a library. In the spring of 1938, they buried more than 700 bodies.38 None of the above three charity groups, however, kept detailed information or itemized statistics in any form about their burial activities.

402

11  Disposing of Victim Bodies

11.3  Local Governments The Nanjing Self-Government Committee, which served as a temporary municipal government under Japanese control, was inaugurated on January 1, 1938. The urban area within the city walls was divided into four districts: the First District covered the area east of Zhonghua Road, south of Baixia Road (白下路) and along the railway up to North Zhongshan Road toward Zhongshan Gate, with He Jizhi (何輯之) as its head; the Second District was west of Zhonghua Road and south of Hanzhong Road, with Deng Bangcai (鄧邦寀) as its head; the Third District covered the northern part of the city north of Guofu Road (國府路), east of Zhongshan Road and North Zhongshan Road up to Yijiang Gate, with Hu Yusun (胡雨蓀) as its head; and the Fourth District was the area north of Hanzhong Road, east of Zhongshan Road and southeast of North Zhongshan Road, with Fang Hao (方灝) as its head. Soon after, Xiaguan District was established and Liu Lianxiang (劉連祥) served as its head. In late March, three more districts were founded in the suburban areas: Shangxin River District, Swallow Cliff District and Xiaolingwei (孝陵衞) District, with Chen Liangzhi (陳良知), Gao Zitui (高梓推) and Chen Gongheng (陳公衡) as their respective leaders. Some of the district governments were involved, to varying degrees, in burying the dead. In a report dated February 1938, the First District “Dispatched workers to bury bodies along the streets, hoping to reduce epidemics (This month 1232 bodies were buried).”39 On January 28, 1938, the Second District indicated in its report, they “sent a letter to Chongshan Tang, asking them to bury 9 bodies inside this district.”40 On March 5, this district reported that they made another request to Chongshan Tang: “We found that at Pingshi Street (評事街) and other places, 18 bodies remain unburied, and we immediately prepared letters to notify Chongshan Tang about burying them, to respect humanity and to be careful about public health.”41 Found in the Nanjing Municipal Archives is a January-February daily work log sheet of the Third District, which indicates that they were concerned and heavily involved in dealing with the unburied bodies in the district: [January 30] Investigate whether there are dead bodies inside the houses resided by refugees. [February 1] Investigate whether there are dead bodies inside the houses resided by regular residents. [February 11] Ask Chongshan Tang to bury the bodies at 125 Hunan Road (湖南路). [February 12] Ask Chongshan Tang to bury the bodies in the ditch opposite the Dashiqiao Elementary School (大石橋小學). [February 14] Ask Chongshan Tang to bury the bodies in the Zhenyuan Bath House (珍 園浴室) at Zhujiang Road. [February 18] Request the Police Department to have workers bury three bodies at Baiziting (百子亭) and another place, and two floating bodies in the river at Taiping Bridge (太平橋). [February 20] Request the Police Department to have workers bury the bodies at Nancang Lane (南倉巷) and other places.

11.3  Local Governments

403

[February 24] Request the Police Department to bury the bodies at General Yang Lane (楊將軍巷) and other places. [February 26] Request the Police Department to bury the bodies in the dugout of the detention center at General Yang Lane. [February 28] 1. Request the Police Department to bury the bodies at Shangcheng Temple (上乘庵). 2. Request the Police Department to bury the bodies at Tangfangqiao Street (糖坊橋).42

On January 30, 1938, Xiaguan District head Liu Lianxiang submitted a report to the Self-Government Committee, stating that as early as December 15, 1937, local residents and refugees started burying dead bodies at both the Sancha River and Xiaguan areas. From mid-December to January, they buried a total of 3240 bodies: On the evening of December 13, Minguo 26th Year, Japanese troops arrived at the Sancha River area and fighting started. The shooting did not stop until midnight of the 14th. In early morning of the 15th, Zheng Baohe (鄭寳和) went from Fangsheng Temple (放生院), where he took refuge, to the wooden bridge and the riverside at the end of the street and saw about 700 dead bodies strewn about the street, which was completely deserted and every house quiet. The bodies of those who had been individually killed in combat were as many as two or three hundred. As he was trying to bury the bodies, he suddenly spotted Shen Guisen (沈 桂森) at the doorway. They immediately worked together to find a wooden door, with Zheng Baohe holding the victim’s head and Shen Guisen carrying the feet onto the door board to send them to the open ground one by one for burial. At around 2 p.m. Monk Xinjing (心静和尚) also came to help. At 3 p.m., a dozen Japanese soldiers came over, among whom was a person in civilian clothes who declared himself to be dispatched by the commander at Xiaguan to check on the situation. He looked around, but did not see any local residents. He then, unexpectedly, found these people here enthusiastic about public welfare and charity, which was praiseworthy. Before departure, he indicated that he would come again the next day, and asked them to work in Xiaguan. He introduced his family name as Yin (陰). The following day (that is the 16th) at 9 a.m., he arrived with over a dozen Japanese soldiers and asked them to hire workers to go together to do cleaning work in Xiaguan. They then returned to Fangsheng Temple, and together with Monk Xinjing and Wang Kedi (王科第), they took 84 refugees. Mr. Yin asked them to go to Xiaguan immediately to work. At the time, Shen Guisen and Monk Xinjing did not go with them because they would take care of the refugees. Upon arrival at Xiaguan, Mr. Yin designated Zheng Baohe and Wang Kedi as representatives. Half way there, they ran into Bi Zhengqing (畢正 清), who joined them as a representative, though he did not go there for work. Then they formed into groups, and Mr. Yin took them to meet with Mr. Minamide (南出) at the Headquarters of the Shipping and Docking (碇泊場司令部). The headquarters granted 84 good resident emblems (良民符號) to them, and they then worked in groups. From Zhongshan Wharf, while they did the cleaning along the riverside, they buried bodies. That day, they buried 30 to 40 bodies, and at 5 p.m., Mr. Minamide provided them with rice, salt, oil and vegetables before he ordered them back to their respective residences. The following day (the 17th), Bi Zhengqing came back to work as he did previously until the 25th. On the 26th, because there were over 400 bodies in the Shancha River and in various empty houses that needed to be buried, they did not go to Xiaguan. On the 27th, they led more than one hundred refugees, with Mr. Minamide granting them 20 additional emblems, and thus, they went to Xiaguan day after day, conscientiously working hard to do the cleaning job. …… This is the whole situation of the work, therefore, we submit the data of the 3,240 bodies we have buried to you for verification, which is for your convenience.43

On March 28, 1938, the Central China Provisional Government was established in Nanjing, and the government in turn decided to have Nanjing Duban (督办)

404

11  Disposing of Victim Bodies

Office, which functioned as the municipal government, established on April 24, 1938, to replace the Self-Government Committee. The first appointed Duban, or Mayor, was Ren Yuandao (任援道), who was succeeded in September 1938 by Gao Guanwu (高冠吾). Under the newly organized Department of Health, a 16-member burial squad worked continuously in 1938 and 1939 to bury the corpses unburied then, patching up mass graves that had previously been built in haste by charity groups, and rebury some of the corpses from those graves. According to a payroll list dated April 1939, the following 16 workers were on the burial squad: Yin Changhe (殷昌和), Dong Guangfu (董廣福), Yin Maohong (殷茂宏), Wu Zhizhang (吴志章), Yang Fenghe (楊鳳和), Wang Jiakui (王家魁), Liu Derong (劉德荣), Chen Haoqi (陳浩啓), Wang Shunting (王順廷), Guo Zhenqing (郭振清), Wang Kangfu (王康福), Zhang Yubiao (張玉标), Zhang Maofu (張茂福), Li Guozhu (李國柱), Chen Fuling (陳福 苓), and Yan Zilan (閻子蘭).44 On October 2, 1938, the Department of Health submitted a report about its work from May to September that year. The section concerning the activities of the burial squad is quoted as follows: Seven. Burial Squad: After the incident, there were dead bodies strewn everywhere in and outside the city. The Red Swastika Society, which concurrently was the former Self-­ Government Committee’s Relief Section, had endeavored to bury the dead, but in the desolate wilderness, dugouts and other places, many corpses remain unburied. Since the establishment of this department, the former burial squad of 16 members, led by our employee Xiao Caiyuan (萧財源), has worked actively, burying the corpses and coffins remaining under the city walls and by the roads. By June, the burial work was completed. However, the bodies previously buried had neither coffins nor reed matting, and, eroded by storms and rain, the graves collapsed. In addition, the evaporation under the hot summer sun, it is unavoidably harmful to public health. We specially assigned a member of the Investigation Section, Xia Yuanzhi (夏元芝), to carefully investigate a number of charity graves and other graves which require patching up inside the city. It is reported that there are 21 burial sites with a total of over 26,400 graves. …… The graves, which were patched up and spread with lime in May and June, amount to more than 1,470.45

In the spring of 1939, the burial squad was engaged in several burial projects in the eastern suburbs of the city, where they worked for about 40 days, searching, collecting and burying more than 3000 bodies that remained unburied up to then, and at the riverside of the Yangtze, reburying the exposed corpses from the mass graves built in 1938. Building the Unknown Souls Grave According to villagers’ reports: More than 3,000 corpses remained unburied at Lingu Temple, Maqun, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Park, and Mao Hill outside Zhongshan Gate, and the burial squad was dispatched to bury them. It took the squad 40 days to complete the burial work. The total cost is 909 dollars. An open ground east of Lingu Temple was chosen as the site to bury those corpses, with a huge round tomb built with blue bricks covered with cement, extremely solid and magnificent. Mayor Gao wrote an epitaph of the unknown souls on the stone tablet, which was erected in front of the tomb in memory. In addition, the mayor went there for memorial service on May 28. In preparation for burying the exposed bodies at Dawozi (大窝子), Straw Shoe Gorge: Again according to the reports by residents, on the riverside from Pagoda Bridge to Straw

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Shoe Gorge, there are countless graves, where the Red Swastika Society had buried bodies after the incident. After a year, washed by river tides and dug up by bad people, the bodies are totally exposed. We dispatched someone to investigate, and there are over 3,000 bodies; right now we are planning to copy the burial method at Lingu Temple, to collect the bodies to one location, dig a deep pit, build a huge mound, and erect a stone tablet. The work is now underway. According to another report, at Dawozi, there are more than 6,000 bodies and remains which require burying, and someone was dispatched there to investigate and make a plan.46

The burial squad’s job seemed endless. In June 1939, they reburied 88 exposed coffins and 23 exposed corpses, and buried 9 bodies and 54 children’s bodies, donating 9 big coffins and 2 small ones and patching up 81 graves.47 From June 13 to July 7, Xiao Caiyuan led 4 burial squad workers and 20 temporarily hired hands to live and work on the riverside at Straw Shoe Gorge for 24 days, moving and reburying 3757 corpses. They selected a higher location some distantance from the river to build a huge grave with a stone tablet erected in front of it in memory. In addition, they buried 12 adult male and female bodies and 37 children’s bodies.48

11.4  G  roups, Individuals, and Victims’ Family Members and Relatives After people in the Muslim community had been killed by the invading Japanese troops, Muslim residents organized a burial squad of their own, with the intent of providing proper burials according to Muslim ritual and customs. Shen Xi’en (沈錫 恩), age 29 in 1937, was from a Muslim family. He and his father were both ahungs, and the family took residence in the mosque at Ji’e Lane (鷄鵝巷). In February 1938, many relatives of the Muslim victims came to Shen and other ahungs, including his father Shen Decheng (沈德成), to help them with burying the dead. Thus, they made armbands to organize a Muslim burial squad. Shen Xi’en recalled that episode in 1984: The first body we collected to bury was Father Zhang (張爸), who was the caretaker of the Ji’e Lane Mosque. He was in his sixties, lying on his stomach when he died, and the body had begun decomposing due to prolonged exposure. According to the religious customs, the body had to be washed clean before burial. To wash a body, clothes had to be removed. Many bodies’ clothes were impossible to take off, and we had to use scissors to cut them open. The burial ceremonies were not followed as carefully as in regular times. At the time, those who were bold and had strong muscles collected bodies while I and several others who were weak in health conducted the burial ceremonies. The burial sites were mainly at the three locations: Hongtu Bridge (紅土橋, present-day Guangzhou Road), Dongguashi (東瓜市, present-day Nanjing Teachers University) and Wutai Hill. Most bodies were buried at Hongtu Bridge and Dongguashi. Bodies were also buried at Jiuhua Hill (九華山), usually at the locations near where the bodies were found. We had worked for three months, with people coming to ask us to collect bodies every day; some days there were fewer, like two or three bodies, and some days there were more like seven or eight bodies, but usually there were four or five bodies daily. Sometimes, we were too busy to handle them all, so we divided ourselves into two groups. At first, when

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we buried a body, we had it recorded, but later it was impossible to have each body recorded. In all, we buried no fewer than 400 bodies, all of whom were murdered Muslims from the neighborhood of the Ji’e Lane Mosque. Among the buried bodies, there were male and female, old and young; there was a mother and her son lying on the ground after being killed. The young boy was but 7 or 8 years old, facing his mother. They died a tragic death. In the city of Nanjing, the bodies strewn in disarray could be seen everywhere.49

A private group, sponsored and funded by two lumber merchants, Sheng Shizheng (盛世徵) and Chang Kaiyun (昌開運), collected and buried bodies around the Shangxin Riverfront area. On January 9, 1946, Sheng Shizheng and Chang Kaiyun presented a petition to the Nanjing Committee of Investigating Damage and Losses during the Anti-Japanese War (南京市抗戰損失調查委員會), stating that about 28,730 surrendered Chinese soldiers and civilians had been killed around the areas at Jiangdong Gate, Hanxi Gate, Fenghuang Street (鳳凰街), Radio Station, Water Plant, Royal Lumber Plant (皇木厰), the mouth of the Shangxin River, Tuoban Bridge (拖板橋), Putige (菩提閣), Caishikou (菜市口), Lotus Pond (荷花 池), Luosi Bridge (螺絲橋), the river beach, Shuangzha (雙閘) and Dongyue Temple (東岳廟). Having seen so many people killed, and their bodies strewn everywhere, the two lumber merchants decided to hire workers to collect and bury the dead bodies in the areas, and they paid 40 cents Chinese currency for each body buried. They claimed to have spent a total of more than 10,000 Chinese dollars,50 though they provided no further evidence, such as any written record or itemized statistical log sheet, to substantiate their claim. On December 8, 1945, residents Rui Fangyuan (芮芳缘), Zhang Hongru (張鴻 儒) and Yang Guangcai (楊廣才) filed an affidavit in which they stated that they had contacted the Red Swastika Society to obtain swastika emblems and flags before they organized local residents to collect and bury bodies outside Zhonghua Gate.51 After learning that their family members or relatives had been killed, residents tried their best to locate the bodies of their loved ones and bury them. Chen Xueli (陳學禮), a resident aged 60 in 1946, residing at 112-6 Mochou Road (莫愁路), filed an affidavit on April 11, 1946, concerning that he himself located and buried his 18-year-old son, who had been bayoneted to death by Japanese soldiers outside Hanzhong Gate on December 14, 1937: On December 14, Minguo 26th Year, my second son Chen Wenjiang (陳文江) sought refuge at fellow townsman Zhang Xuyou (張绪友)’s straw hut behind the American Embassy at Shanghai Road. Early morning that day, the soldiers of Japanese Nakajima troops made a house-to-house search, taking the victims outside Hanzhong Gate, where he was killed in a mass execution. My second son Chen Wenjiang was bayoneted to death by the Japanese. Townsman Zhang Xuyou witnessed his being taken away. Later, I went outside of Hanzhong Gate to collect and bury his body.52

Yang Henian (楊和年)’s family lived at 5 Kushang Street (庫上). His parents and elder brother were all killed by Japanese soldiers on December 15, 1937, and he buried their bodies when he ventured home in early January 1938. He presented a petition letter to Nanjing Municipal Government on December 28, 1945: On Lunar Calendar November 13, Minguo 26th Year, Nanjing fell to the Japanese, and Japanese troops entered by Wuding Gate (also known as Yuhua Gate). My residence was

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within a short distance from the gate. My parents and elder brother, because everything in the house was valuable and not easy to obtain, were not willing to leave for the refugee zone for safety. To their surprise, when the Japanese entered the city, they rampantly and indiscriminately slaughtered people no matter if they were old or young, and my parents and elder brother were all shot dead. At the time, I, seeking refuge in the refugee zone, was unaware of this, but there was not a day that I did not miss my parents. I took great risk to return home for a look in early January Minguo 27th Year. To my surprise, I found my parents and elder brother all lying outside the doorway, covered with blood, too horrible to look at, and I was terribly sad. According to the neighbors nearby who were old and weak and remained there, they suffered a miserable death at the hands of the Japanese, and in haste I buried them right away.53

On April 2, 1946, Zhao Lishi (趙李氏) filed an affidavit stating that, after she learned that her husband had been killed on December 14, 1937 and located the whereabouts of his body, she wrapped his body in a piece of reed matting and had it buried: On Lunar Calendar November 12, Minguo 26th Year, my late husband Zhao Diangao (趙殿高) was taken from our home at Yaowan Village (窑灣) outside Zhonghua Gate by Japanese troops, who took him away and killed him at Wugui Bridge (五貴橋). I did not learn this until the Red Swastika Society collected bodies on Lunar Calendar January Minguo 27th Year. I used a piece of reed matting to wrap up the body of my late husband and had it buried.54

In many instances, neighbors helped to bury victims as well. On October 26, 1945, Liu Congtai (劉从泰) presented a petition letter, stating that his neighbor Zhou Daifu (周代福) had been shot dead in December 1937 in his yard, and Liu helped bury Zhou when he returned home in January 1938: In December Minguo 26th Year, my house was under gun fire. I took my children to seek safety in the refugee zone. Zhou Daifu, however, found it hard to leave his home. I did not dare to venture back home until January Minguo 27th Year, and saw Zhou Daifu’s house had been burned. When taking a closer look, I saw Zhou Daifu had been shot dead, with his nude body lying in his yard. Several days later I buried him hastily in his premises.55

On November 25, 1945, resident Ye Jiancheng (業鑒成) filed an affidavit concerning his neighbors, who had been detained and killed by Japanese troops and whose bodies were discovered by him: I, Ye Jiancheng, file this affidavit. Because my neighbor Zhou Zaigui (周在貴) at 3 Wangfuli Lane (王府里) was abducted on the afternoon of December 12, Minguo 26th Year, by enemy troops (a small detachment of Nakajima troops who stayed at the Liu family house at 12 Yingao Lane (殷高巷)), Zaigui’s father Zhou Shaohou (周少侯) went there, kneeling down to beg for the release of his son. However, his son was not allowed to return, and, instead, Zhou Shaohou was detained. Five days later, I found the bodies of the Zhou family’s father and son at Wugui Bridge outside Zhonghua Gate. The elder and younger widows, together with the second son Zhou Zaifu (周在富) and others, went to bury their bodies under the city wall. I hereby attest it is the truth.56

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Notes 1. 大寺隆 (Takashi Otera), “大寺隆陣中日记 (Field Diary of Takashi Otera),” in NMIA, p. 197. 2. 東武夫 (Takeo Higashi), 東武夫陣中日记 (Field Diary of Takeo Higashi), 私家版 (Private edition), 2002, cited from The Nanjing Massacre: Vol. 32, p. 396. 3. 東史郎 (Shiro Azuma), わが南京プラトーン: 一召集兵の体験した南京大虐殺 (Our Nanjing Infantry Troops: The Nanjing Massacre Experienced by a Recruited Soldier), Tokyo: 青木書店 (Aoki Bookstore), 1987, cited from 東史郎日记 (Diary of Shiro Azuma), Nanjing: 江苏教育出版社 (Jiangsu Education Press), 1999, p. 219. 4. 上西義雄 (Yoshio Kaminishi), “五十人の捕虏を後ろ手に縛り河に沈めた (Tying up 50 captives and drowning them in the river),” in NCSM, p. 230. 5. 岡本健三 (Kenzou Okamoto), “杭州湾敵前上陸に参加して (Participating the Hangzhou Bay Landing in Front of the Enemy),” 中國 (China), August 1971, pp. 39-40. 6. 佐々木元勝 (Motokatsu Sasaki), “佐々木元勝氏の野戦郵便長日記 (Diary of the Field Post Office Master Motokatsu Sasaki),” 偕行 (Kaiko), December 1984, p. 10. 7. 梶谷健郎 (Kenrou Kajitani), “Kenrou Kajitani Diary,” in NBSN2, p. 437. 8. 梶谷健郎 (Kenrou Kajitani), “参加南京攻略战 (Participating the Nanjing Campang),” in 骑 兵第四联队史 (The History of the Fourth Calvary Regiment), cited from The Nanjing Massacre: Vol. 10: Memoirs by Japanese Officers, Soldiers and Journalists, pp. 109-110. 9. F. T. Durdin, “Butchery Marked Captured of Nanking”, NYT, Dec. 18, 1937, p. 10. 10. F. T. Durdin, “Japanese Atrocities Marked Fall of Nanking After Chinese Command Fled”, NYT, Jan., 1938, p. 38. 11. “龚玉昆证言 (Testimony by Gong Yukun),” 李文奎、刘雯、冯中美调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Li Wenkui, Liu Wen and Feng Zhongmei), in SMN, p. 431. 12. 秋山源治 (Motoharu Akiyama), “死んだ者の替え玉といって捕虏を殺した (It is said that in order to find the substitutes for those who died, we kill captives),” in NCSM, p. 105. 13. 松崎二郎 (Jirou Matsusaki), “入城式までにすごい数の死体を片付けた (Before the city entering ceremony, we cleared out a surprising number of dead bodies),” in NCSM, p. 184. 14. 德田一太郎 (Kazutarou Tokuda), “中国人に頭から油をかけて焼き、銃剣で止めをさ した (Pouring oil over a Chinese head bayoneting a fatal thrust),” in NCSM, pp. 132-133. 15. 田中政市 (Masaichi Tanaka), 恐るべき戦争 上海事变:田中政市陣中日誌 (The Horrible War — Shanghai Incident: Field Diary of Masaichi Tanaka), 私家版 (Private edition), 1999, cited from The Nanjing Massacre: Vol. 32: Japanese Military Documents and Diaries and Letters by Japanese Officers and Soldiers, p. 377. 16. “世界红卐字会南京分会民国26年至34年慈业工作报告书节录 (An excerpt of the report of the World Red Swastika Society Nanjing Branch charity work from 1937 to 1945),” 1945, 南京市档案馆 (Nanjing Municipal Archives), Doc No. 1024/1/34512, cited from NMV5, pp. 74-75. 17. “世 界 红 卐 字 会 东 南 主 会 关 于 办 理 南 京 兵 灾 赈 济 收 支 款 项 数 目 报 告 清 册 节 录 (An excerpt of the World Red Swastika Society Southeastern Main Branch’s itemized expenditure account report of the Nanjing war relief work),” May 1939, 中国第二历史档案馆 (the Second Historical Archives of China), Doc No. 257/385, cited from NMV5, pp. 66-68. 18. “世界红卐字会东南主会救济第三队第一中队队长员伕名册 (Staff list of the first squad, the third relief team, the World Red Swastika Society Southeastern Main Branch),” May 18, 1938, the Second Historical Archives of China, Doc No. 257/400, cited from NMV5, pp. 50-51. 19. “高瑞玉证言 (Testimony by Gao Ruiyu),” 周子廉、杨正元调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Zhou Zilian and Yang Zhengyuan), in SMN, p. 472. 20. “管开福证言 (Testimony by Guan Kaifu),” in CTS, p. 473. 21. “施惠云证言 (Testimony by Shi Huiyun),” 邵荷月、赵玉珂、高方简调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Shao Heyue, Zhao Yuke and Gao Fangjian), in SMN, p. 472. 22. “世界红卐字会南京分会救济队掩埋组掩埋尸体具数统计表 (Burial Statistic Chart, the  World Red Swastika Society Nanjing Branch Relief Team’s Burial Squad),” May 18,

11.4  Groups, Individuals, and Victims’ Family Members and Relatives

23. 24.

25.

26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31.

32. 33. 34. 35.

36.

37.

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1938, the Second Historical Archives of China, Doc No. 593/36, NMV5, pp. 76-81. An English version of a similar chart was used by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East: “Chart Showing Victims of Burying by Red Swastika Society, Nanking,” Document 1702, Exhibit No. 324, pp.  5-8, Microfilm Set T918, Roll 12, Court Papers, Journal, Exhibit, and Judgment of the IMTFE, RG238, National Archives II. Minnie Vautrin, April 15, 1938 diary, Minnie Vautrin Papers, DCHSL. 李世原 (Li Shiyuan), “赴京辦理掩埋工作報告 (Report on the trip to Nanjing for burial work),” March 18, 1938, Shanghai Municipal Archives. The report is given the title “世界紅 卍字會上海分會關於赴京辦理掩埋工作的報告 (The World Red Swastika Society Shanghai Branch’s report concerning the trip to Nanjing for burial work),” in NMV5, pp. 32-34. “崇善堂埋尸等活动状况 (The Burial Activities of Chongshan Tang),” Sept. 1938, Nanjing Municipal Archives, Doc No. 1002/2/1009, cited from NMV5, p. 145, and “伪南京市社会局 调查崇善堂组织、慈业概况登记表 (The Registration Form by the Puppet Nanjing Bureau of Social Services for Investigating Chongshan Tang’s Organization and Charity Activities),” June 15, 1940, Nanjing Municipal Archives, Doc No. 1002/2/1027, cited from NMV5, pp. 141-142. “南京市崇善堂掩埋工作一览表附件一 (Appendix One to the Chart of Chongshan Tang Burial Work),” Nanjing Municipal Archives, Doc No. 1024/35/34512, in NMV5, p. 156. “南京市崇善堂难民区内工作人员一览表 (A List of Chongshan Tang Staff in the Refugee Zone),” Nanjing Municipal Archives, Doc No. 1024/35/34512, cited from NMV5, p. 151. “崔金贵证言 (Testimony by Cui Jingui),” 战国利、杨正元调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Zhan Guoli and Yang Zhengyuan), in SMN, pp. 473-474. “崇善堂掩埋队队长周一渔致伪南京市自治会函 (A Letter by Zhou Yiyu, Leader of Chongshan Tang Burial Team, to puppet Nanjing Self-Government Committee),” February 6, 1938, Nanjing Municipal Archives, Doc No. 1002/19/44, cited from NMV5, p. 143. “伪南京市自治会复崇善堂掩埋队队长周一渔函 (Puppet Nanjing Self-Government Committee’s response to Zhou Yiyu, Leader of Chongshan Tang Burial Team),” February 8, 1938, Nanjing Municipal Archives, Doc No. 1002/19/44, NMV5, p. 143. “南京市崇善堂掩埋队工作一览表 (Nanjing Chongshan Tang Burial Team Work Sheet),” Nanjing Municipal Archives, Doc No. 1024/35/34512, NMV5, pp. 154-­155. An English version of a similar chart was used by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East: “Chart Showing Victims of  Burying by Tsung-Shan-Tang Teams, Nanking,” Document 1702, Exhibit No. 324, pp.  2-3, Microfilm Set T918, Roll 12, Court Papers, Jour-nal, Exhibit, and Judgment of the IMTFE, RG238, National Archives II. “中国红十字会南京分会关于难民救济工作概况节录 (An excerpt of the summary of the refugee relief work by China Red Cross Society Nanjing Branch),” July14, 1938, Nanjing Municipal Archives, Doc No. 1002/19/44, cited from NMV5, p. 177. The 10 charts of “China Red Cross Society Nanjing Branch Burial Squads Statistics,” Nanjing Municipal Archives, Doc No. 1002/2/1024, cited and rearranged from NMV5, pp. 162-173. 中國紅十字會月刊 (China Red Cross Society Monthly), Issue 35, June 1938, p. 47. “国防部审判战犯军事法庭关于同善堂掩埋尸体的调查笔录节录 (An excerpt of the Ministry of Defense Military Tribunal of War Crimes investigation written record concerning the burial of corpses by Tongshan Tang),” January 25, 1947, the Second Historical Ar-chives of China, Doc No. 593/870, NMV5, p. 187. “首都高等法院讯问代葬局掩埋队伕役殷昌和、董广福笔录 (The written record of interrogating Burial Bureau Burial Squad members Yin Changhe and Dong Guangfu at the Capital Supreme Court),” October 19, 1946, Nanjing Municipal Archives, Doc No. 1027/1/825, NMV5, pp. 190-191. “顺安善堂关于掩埋尸骨等项事务调查表节录 (A survey form excerpt concerning Shunanshan Tang’s affairs of burying bodies),” December 17, 1940, Nanjing Municipal Archives, Doc No. 1002/2/1027, NMV5, p. 197.

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38. “明德慈善堂堂长陈家伟关于掩埋尸骨等项事务报告节录 (An excerpt of the report by Mingde Charity Society president Chen Jiawei concerning burying bodies and other affairs),” Dec. 26, 1940, and 明德慈善堂关于掩埋七百余具尸体的报表 (The report about Mingde Charity Society’s burying over 700 bodies), Dec. 26, 1940, both in Nanjing Municipal Archives, Doc No. 1002/2/1027, NMV5, p. 198. 39. “伪第一区公所关于埋尸的报告节录 (An excerpt of the First Puppet District Government report concerning burying bodies),” February 1938, Nanjing Municipal Archives, Doc No. 1002/19/11, NMV5, p. 304. 40. “伪第二区公所工作报告节录 (The Second Puppet District Government report excerpt),” Jan. 28, 1938, Nanjing Municipal Archives, Doc No. 1002/19/12, NMV5, pp. 304-305. 41. “伪第二区公所1938年2月工作报告节录 (An excerpt of the Second Puppet District Government February 1938 report),” March 5, 1938, Nanjing Municipal Archives, Doc No. 1002/19/12, NMV5, p. 305. 42. “伪第三区公所1、2月份工作日报表中有关埋尸体内容节录 (An excerpt of the Third Puppet District Government Jan. & Feb. 1938 report concerning burying bodies),” Jan. & Feb. 1938, Nanjing Municipal Archives, Doc No. 1002/19/13, NMV5, pp. 305-306. 43. “伪下关区公所区长刘连祥关于组织收埋尸体的呈文 (A report by the puppet Xiaguan District Head Liu Lianxiang concerning organizing the activities of burying bodies),” Jan. 30, 1938, Nanjing Municipal Archives, Doc No. 1002/19/15, cited from NMV5, pp. 307-309. 44. “伪南京特别市政府卫生局掩埋队1939年4月支出计数附属工饷表 (The payroll list attached to the April 1939 expenditure calculation of the Dept. of Health Burial Squad, puppet Nanjing Special Municipal Government),” April 1939, Nanjing Municipal Archives, Doc No. 1002/6/17, NMV5, pp. 332-333. 45. “伪督办南京市政公署卫生处1938年5-9月事业报告书节录 (An excerpt of the May-September 1938 work report of the Dept. of Health, puppet Nanjing Government),” Oct. 2, 1938, Nanjing Municipal Archives, Doc No. 1002/6/130, NMV5, pp. 323-324. 46. “日伪南京特别市政府卫生局1939年5月份事业报告书节录 (An excerpt of May report of the Dept. of Health, puppet Nanjing Special Municipal Government),” June 1939, Nanjing Municipal Archives, Doc No. 1002/6/130, cited from NMV5, pp. 333-334. 47. “日伪南京特别市政府卫生局1939年6月份事业报告书节录 (An excerpt of June report of the Dept. of Health, puppet Nanjing Special Municipal Government),” July 1939, Nanjing Municipal Archives, Doc No. 1002/6/130, NMV5, p. 334. 48. “日伪南京特别市政府卫生局1939年7月份事业报告书节录 (An excerpt of June report of the Dept. of Health, puppet Nanjing Special Municipal Government),” Aug. 1939, Nanjing Municipal Archives, Doc No. 1002/6/130, cited from NMV5, p. 334. 49. “沈锡恩证言 (Testimony by Shen Xien),” 井升安、刘兴林调查记录 (Surveyed & recorded by Jing Sheng’an and Liu Xinglin), in SMN, p. 475. 50. “市民盛世徵等关于助款雇工掩埋尸体致南京市抗战损失调查委员会的呈文 (A petition letter by resident Sheng Shizheng and others to the Nanjing Committee of Investigating Damage and Losses during the Anti-Japanese War),” Jan. 9, 1946, Nanjing Municipal Archives, Doc No. 1024/1/35126, NMV5, pp. 201-202. 51. 芮芳缘 (Rui Fangyuan), 张鸿儒 (Zhang Hongru) and杨广才 (Yang Guangcai), “芮芳缘、 张鸿儒、杨广才陈述日军在中华门、花神庙一带集体屠杀市民的结文 (An affidavit by Rui Fangyuan, Zhang Hongru & Yang Guangcai concerning residents massacred by Japanese troops at Zhonghua Gate and Flower God Temple),” Dec. 8, 1945, in ADN, p. 125. 52. 陈学礼 (Chen Xueli), “市民陈学礼关于自行收埋亲属尸体的结文(An affidavit by resident Chen Xueli concerning burying his family member’s body),” April 11, 1946, the Second Historical Archives of China, Doc No. 593/30, NMV5, p. 225. 53. 杨和年 (Yang Henian), “杨和年为其父母兄均遭日军杀害致南京市政府呈文 (A petition by Yang Henian to Nanjing Municipal Government concerning his parents and elder brother killed by Japanese troops),” Dec. 28, 1945, in ADN, p. 250.

11.4  Groups, Individuals, and Victims’ Family Members and Relatives

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54. 赵李氏 (Zhao Lishi), “市民赵李氏关于自行收埋亲属尸体的结文节录 (An excerpt of the affidavit by resident Zhao Lishi concerning her burying family member’s body),” April 2, 1946, the Second Historical Archives of China, Doc No. 593/ 26, NMV5, p. 225. 55. 刘从泰 (Liu Congtai), “市民刘从泰关于自行收埋邻人尸体的呈文节录 (An excerpt of the petition by resident Liu Congtai concerning burying his neighbor’s body),” Oct. 26, 1945, Nanjing Municipal Archives, Doc No. 1003/17/16, NMV5, p. 218. 56. 业鉴成 (Ye Jiancheng), “市民业鉴成关于周少侯父子尸体由亲属自行收埋的结文 (An affidavit by resident Ye Jiancheng concerning the bodies of Zhou Shaohou and his son buried by the family members),” Nov. 25, 1945, the Second Historical Archives of China, Doc No. 593/30, NMV5, pp. 218-219.

Chapter 12

Post-War Military Tribunals

After the war, the Allied Forces established a series of military tribunals in Asia to indict and prosecute Japanese war criminals. The United States tried Japanese war criminals at Shanghai, Manila and Guam; Australia conducted trials at Morotai, Wewak, Labuan, Rabaul, Darwin, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Maunus Island; Great Britain had trials at Singapore, Malaya, North Borneo, Burma, and Hong Kong; China had military tribunals at Beijing, Shenyang, Nanjing, Shanghai, Ji’nan, Guangzhou, Hankou, Taiyuan, Xuzhou and Taipei; the Netherlands tried Japanese criminals at Batavia (Jakarta); France established a military tribunal at Saigon; and the Soviet Union did their trials at Khabarovsk. The most significant and prominent of all the military tribunals, however, is undoubtedly the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo, primarily because all the Class A war criminals were prosecuted at Tokyo. All the other tribunals tried only Class B and Class C war criminals. Of all the tribunals, only the Tokyo Trial and the Nanjing Trial indicted and prosecuted Japanese war criminals in connection with the Nanjing Massacre.

12.1  Nanjing Military Tribunal Even before the war ended in June 1943, the Chinese Nationalist Government decided to establish the committee to investigate enemy crimes. The committee was formed in February 1944, though much of the work was not done until after the war. After the government returned to Nanjing, the Nanjing Committee of Investigating Enemy Crimes (南京調查敵人罪行委員會) and the Nanjing Committee of Investigating Damage and Losses during the Anti-Japanese War (南京市抗戰損失 調查委員會) were established in November and December 1945 respectively to investigate, collect data, and gather evidence of Japanese war crimes. On December 21, 1945, Chiang Kai-shek issued a public announcement in which he indicated that his responsibility would not be fulfilled until justice was done for the victims and survivors of the enemy massacres. He appealed to the Nanjing residents to report © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 S. Lu, The 1937 – 1938 Nanjing Atrocities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9656-4_12

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enemy crimes: “From any of my countrymen who have experienced the massacres and suffered various mistreatments, I would like to know the detailed facts and the main perpetrator of the massacres; I will gladly accept testimony based on facts that eye-witnesses provide in a just and responsible manner.”1 By January 1946, Chiang received 1036 petition reports.2 On February 15, 1946, the Ministry of Defense Military Tribunal for War Crimes was established in Nanjing to extradite, indict and try Japanese war criminals. However, when the International Military Tribunal for the Far East was set up in Tokyo in early May 1946, it was learned that more detailed evidence would be needed for the trials in Tokyo. Many of the evidence reports and petition letters received up to that point were deemed not detailed enough, hence not suitable for the court. Chiang Kai-shek then ordered to establish the Nanjing Massacre Case Committee on Investigating Enemy Crimes (南京大屠殺案敵人罪行調查委員 會), which had its first meeting on June 23, 1946 to investigate and collect detailed evidence suitable for the Tokyo trial, as well as for the Nanjing trial. By October 1946, in addition to verifying the cases previously received, the committee investigated the individual cases of the residents who stayed in the fallen Nanjing, suffered from or witnessed Japanese crimes, and collected a total of 2784 cases. Based on the cases, the committee compiled lists of massacre victims, itemized Japanese war crimes, and the addresses and names of the massacre survivors who could appear in court as prosecution witnesses.3 Soon after the Nanjing Military Tribunal was established, it developed a list of potential Japanese war criminals in connection with the Nanjing Massacre for extradition from Japan. The list includes Central China Expeditionary Army Commander Iwane Matsui (松井石根), Shanghai Expeditionary Army Commander Prince Yasuhiko Asaka (朝香宫鸠彦王), the 6th Division Commander Hisao Tani (谷壽 夫), the 16th Division Commander Kesago Nakajima (中島今朝吾), the 9th Division Commander Ryousuke Yoshizumi (吉住良輔), the 3rd Division Commander Susumu Fujita (藤田進), the 11th Division Commander Munetake Yamamuro (山室宗武), the 13th Division Commander Rippei Ogisu (荻洲立兵), the 18th Division Commander Sadao Ushijima (牛島貞雄), the 10th Brigade Commander Shojikiro Amaya (天谷直次郎), and a number of brigade and regiment commanders.4 It did not include the 10th Army Commander Heisuke Yanagawa (柳川平助), the 114th Division Commander Shigeharu Suematsu (末松茂治), the 103rd Brigade Commander Senji Yamada (山田栴二), and the 65th Regiment Commander Gyosaku Morozumi (両角業作). It can be inferred from the list that up to that point it was not clear to the Chinese which Japanese troops committed atrocities during the Nanjing Massacre, though they included most of the commanders of the Japanese troops involved in attacking Nanjing down to the regiment level. It is not known if the Chinese submitted the list unrevised to the Allied Forces in Tokyo, but they did make repeated requests for extraditing Iwane Matsui. While waiting for the extradition, the Nanjing Military Tribunal tried the Japanese war criminals captured in China, though these criminals were not involved in the Nanjing Massacre. The Nanjing Military Tribunal opened on May 27, 1946, and the first Japanese on trial was Sakai Takashi (酒井隆), who appeared in court on May 30. Takashi was

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accused of plotting the “Ji’nan Incident” in 1928, when he was a military attaché at Japanese consulate in Ji’nan, and murdering the Combat Zone Political Committee Chair and concurrently Special Commissioner of Foreign Affairs in Shandong, Cai Gongshi (蔡公時), and others. In 1934, he was the chief of staff for the Japanese “China Station Forces” Commander Yoshijiro Umezu (梅津美治郎). Takashi was responsible for drafting the contents of the He Yingqing-Yoshijiro Umezu Agreement (何應欽-梅津美治郎協定 or 何梅協定), which aimed to drive the Chinese troops out of North China. In 1941, he was lieutenant general and commander of the 23rd Army, and immediately after the Pearl Harbor Bombing, he led a division to attack British troops at Hong Kong. After capturing Hong Kong, he served as governor there for 3 months until Rensuke Isogai (磯谷廉介) succeeded him. After the war, he was arrested in Beijing by the Nationalist Government in December 1945. Takashi’s trial resumed on August 20, and he was sentenced to death on August 27. Takashi was executed in Nanjing on September 30, 1946.

12.1.1  Hisao Tani on Trial After months’ wait, for various reasons Hisao Tani and Rensuke Isogai were the only Class B war criminals extradited from Japan in August 1946, and Rensuke Isogai had no connection with the Nanjing Massacre. It was apparent that at that point, with Kesago Nakajima and Heisuke Yanagawa dead, Prince Yasuhiko Asaka granted royal family immunity, Iwane Matsui as Class A war criminal to be tried in Tokyo, and the other division commanders nowhere to be found, Hisao Tani was the only Class B war criminal available for the Nanjing Military Tribunal to prosecute in connection with the Nanjing Massacre case. Born on December 22, 1882 in Okayama (岡山県), Hisao Tani graduated from the Military Academy in 1903 and from the Army University in 1911. As a second lieutenant, he served in the Russo-Japanese War, and from 1915 to 1918, he was posted in London as a military attaché. In 1925, Tani was promoted to colonel and took part in the Shandong invasion operation as the chief of staff of the 3rd Division in August 1928. Two years later in 1930, he was promoted to major general and was posted abroad again as representative of the Japanese army, navy and air force to the League of Nations. In August 1933, he took command of the 2nd Brigade of the Imperial Guard Division and was promoted to lieutenant general in August 1934. He was commander of the 9th Depot Division in June 1935 and took command of the 6th Division in December the same year. After the second Sino-Japanese War broke out in July 1937, he commanded the 6th Division to take part in the invasion operations into North China in August. His division was transferred down south to land at Jinshanwei (金山衞), south of Shanghai, in early November, and continued to fight its way toward Nanjing. The 6th Division, attacking the city from the south and southwest, broke into Shuixi and Zhonghua Gates on December 13, 1937, and engaged in mass executions in the areas south of the city, the Shangxin Riverfront area, the Sancha River, and Xiaguan, as well as killings in the southern and western

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sections inside the city walls. On December 22, 1937, the 6th Division was transferred to Wuhu, Anhui Province, and the surrounding area. Tani was transferred back to Japan in January 1938 to be Commander in Chief of the Central Defense Army until 1939, when he retired from active service into reserve. After the war he was detained in February 1946 as a Class B war criminal by the Allied Forces in Sugamo Prison (巢鴨監獄) until his extradition. He arrived in Shanghai on August 1, 1946, but was not transferred to Nanjing until October 2. Tani was officially indicted by the Nanjing Military Tribunal on December 31, 1946 for the atrocities committed by Japanese troops during the Nanjing Massacre period. His trial started on February 6, 1947 with the first session going on for 3 days, from February 6 to 8. At 2  p.m. on February 6, presided by the president of the Nanjing Military Tribunal, Shi Meiyu (石美瑜), the trial started with prosecutor Chen Guangyu (陳光虞) reading the prosecution statement, which was repeated in Japanese by an interpreter, and based on 2784 pieces of evidence investigated by the Nanjing Senate. Tani was accused of committing crimes against humanity and violation of peace. The whole process took more than 40 m before President Shi Meiyu rendered his opinion and made an inquiry about Tani’s experiences in China during the war.5 Before the witnesses of the prosecution were called, the skeletons of six victims were displayed to the court by members of the Red Swastika Society. The skeletons were unearthed from the South Gate area, where the atrocity victims had been buried. According to a statement by the prosecution, one of the skulls indicated that the victim had died as a result of a cut or bullet wound.6 Xu Chuanyin (许傳音), Lewis C. S. Smythe, M. S. Bates, Yao Jialong (姚加隆), Chen Erguniang (陳二姑娘) testified as prosecutor’s witnesses. Xu Chuanyin first took the witness stand. Xu was educated in the United States, earning a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Illinois in 1917. Between 1937 and 1938, Hsu served as the vice-chairman of the Red Swastika Society. He provided a short version of what he had said in the court of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo on July 26, 1946: On December 15, I started by car from the Red Swastika Society on Ninghai Road and passed through Xinjiekou (新街口), Zhonghua Gate, Jiankang Road (健康路) and other places, and there were countless dead bodies strewn by the roadside along the way. The bodies were either on their back, on their stomach, or in a kneeling position, which was a most sad and miserable sight. On December 22, the burial squad completed burying the first batch of the bodies.7

Both Smythe and Bates were American professors at the University of Nanking. Smythe submitted his written statement and three publications, namely, Documents of Nanking Safety Zone by Hsü Shuhsi, Japanese Terror in China by Harold John Timperley, and War Damage in the Nanking Area by himself as evidence. In the statement, he indicated, I testify that form spring 1937 to July 20, 1938, I was in Nanking, and when Nanking Safety Zone was founded at the end of November 1937, I was the secretary of the zone committee.

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After the entry of Japanese soldiers into the city, it became evident that I would have to enter protests daily, regarding terrible mistreatment of the residents in the Safety Zone; since the Japanese asked for facts as the proof, we started drafting reports, and included every single fact in the protests. Later, the protest letters were sent to the British, German and American embassies. The National Christian Council at Shanghai has a complete set of them in its library. In the spring of 1938 H. J. Timperley included the reports in his book, Japanese Terror in China, and Prof. Hsü Shuhsi had compiled Documents of Nanking Safety Zone. The chairman of the Safety Zone Committee, Mr. Rabe who was a German and manager of Siemens Co., and I had the opportunities to contact the Japanese authorities, for we constantly presented protests to them. The American Embassy, which opened in January 1938, asked for these documents to get informed about the conditions and lodge protests with the Japanese authorities, while the German and British Embassies asked for the documents to mail them back to their governments. In 1938, Nanking International Relief Committee, which was renamed from the Safety Zone Committee, in order to get to know the actual conditions of Nanking city and the surrounding counties for making constructive relief plans, asked me to conduct a survey, and I compiled the survey result as War Damage in the Nanking Area (December 1937 to March 1938). I submit this book to the court as the evidence.8

However, according to a report in The New York Times, Bates provided the strongest testimony against Tani: The most damaging testimony against Tani today was given by Prof. M. S. Bates, Nanking University eyewitness. Dr. Bates, who did relief work during the massacres, declared that the Japanese officers had made no efforts to curb the excesses committed by their troops. He estimated that 12,000 civilians and 35,000 unarmed soldiers were killed in the first few weeks after the Japanese entry into Nanking.9

Bates testified that he had witnessed Japanese soldiers raping women “who had been hiding in a basement of a home next door to his and that he had intervened. This was an ordinary example of what went on for 10 days.” He also indicated that “he tried for three hours to prevent the Japanese from marching 300 Chinese soldiers out for execution, but was not successful with his pleas.”10 As did Smythe, Bates provided his written statement as well: I, Miner Searle Bates, was born at Newark, Ohio, U.  S. A., on May 28, 1897. I am an American citizen, now residing at 21 Hankow Road, Nanking. Since 1920 I have been professor of history in the University of Nanking. From 1937 to 1941 I served as Chairman of the Emergency Committee of the University, responsible for its interests and properties in Nanking when that institution removed to West China. I was a member of the International Safety Zone Committee (Nanking), and took an active part in its work during December, 1937, when the Japanese army entered Nanking, and thereafter. I lived with professor Lewis S. C. Smythe, Secretary of the International Safety Zone Committee, and am familiar with and confirm its reports and lists of cases, as submitted to the Japanese authorities in Nanking during December, 1937 and thereafter, duplicates of which are in the files of the American Embassy, Nanking. These reports and lists of cases were published by Professor Hsü Shu-hsi under the title, Documents of the Nanking Safety Zone, printed by Kelly & Walsh in Hongkong, 1939. Large parts of the reports were also

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12  Post-War Military Tribunals published in 1938 by Mr. H.  J. Timperley in England and the United States, in his book called, What War Means or The Japanese Terror in China. In particular, I confirm the references to me and the use of my signature as found in various portions of the Safety Zone reports, for example in Case No. 77. I also wrote three of the personal letters to the Japanese authorities – of which copies are in the American Embassy files – reporting daily the crimes committed by Japanese soldiers on the properties of the University of Nanking or affecting the safety of more than 30,000 refugees then living in the University buildings. The facts in these reports and letters I presented in testimony before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo on July 29, 1946; they were not in any way questioned or challenged by the defense. The killing, wounding, and raping of civilians; the killing of unarmed men accused of having served in the Chinese army; the looting and burning on a vast scale, continued to be serious for three to seven weeks following the entry on December 13, 1937. The crimes against persons were most numerous in the first three weeks, and especially in the first seven to ten days. The following testimony concerns the first seven to ten days only. I saw Japanese soldiers shoot civilians. I saw many dead bodies on the streets, some in uniform and some in civilian clothing. I saw civilians wounded by Japanese soldiers. I saw women being raped by Japanese soldiers. I interfered scores of times to protect civilians from attacks by Japanese soldiers, including raping, shooting, and bayoneting. On December 15 I tried for three hours to prevent the Japanese from marching out 400 men from the Judicial Yuan for execution; but I failed. We neither saw nor heard of, nor did Japanese officials allege, any resistance whatever within the city after the entry on December 13. This fact was only emphasized by the assertion that one Japanese sailor was wounded in Hsiakwan days after. There was no indication of real effort to control Japanese troops until the visit of General Amaya to Nanking on February 6, 1938. Moreover, officers took active parts in certain of the crimes. Japanese officials showed their own recognition of the evil situation by forwarding promptly to Tokyo Foreign Office our daily reports and protests; by securing emergency gendarmes, whose conduct proved to be very bad, in order to supplement the seventeen whom they had here in the first few days; by posting on foreign properties gendarmerie orders that soldiers should keep – which orders were regularly ignored and often torn down by soldiers; and also by promising repeatedly that order would soon be restored, including references to orders from Tokyo that strict discipline must be re-established. Careful checking of the reports of members and staff of the International Safety Zone Committee and of the burial records of Red Swastika Society which the International Committee financed and inspected in its burial work, convinced me that a low and incomplete figure for civilian death  – men, women, and children  – inflicted by the Japanese in the first few weeks of their occupation of Nanking, was 12,000; and for deaths of unarmed men in military clothing, 35,000. Of these murders, over 90 per cent occurred in the first ten days, most of all in the first three days. There certainly were more killings than these, but their circumstances lie outside of my knowledge, and therefore I do not estimate their number. (Signed) M. S. Bates11

Bates was followed by Chinese witness Yao Jialong, who testified that Japanese soldiers set fire to his house and burned it down, and bayoneted his wife, son and daughter to death. Chen Erguniang indicated in court that she had been gang raped by two Japanese soldiers. Tani’s witness, Shou Ogasawara (小笠原青), was the last to

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take the stand before the court adjured at 6 p.m., while a documentary movie about Japanese atrocities in Nanjing was shown after 6.12 The trial resumed at 2 p.m. on February 7, with more witnesses taking the stand in court. “Thirty witnesses gave today first-hand accounts of the ‘Rape of Nanking.’ They described how victims had been raped, shot and ‘smoked to death’ over fires by Japanese troops.”13 Liu Chengzhong (劉誠中), Xie Lisan (謝立三), Hu Kouzhi (胡扣之), Lu Yinfa (廬殷髮), Zhang Sunshi (張孫氏), Li Chenshi (李陳氏), and Gu Yanshi (顧嚴氏) were among those who took the witness stand. However, the following testimonies attracted more attention than others: Zhao Rongsheng (趙榮 生)14 was a survivor who, with martial art skills, had wrestled and fought bare-­ handed with fully-armed Japanese soldiers. Consequently, he was shot and bayoneted multiple times, though he survived the attacks. He showed his scar-covered body in court, with 11 bayonet cuts in the head, two in the neck, his left wrist shot by a bullet and mangled, and a finger of his left hand cut off. Yu Biwen (郁畢文) testified that he and five others had been surrounded by Japanese soldiers, who attacked them with bayonets. While the other five were bayoneted to death, he himself had been bayoneted several times and lost his consciousness. When he came to, a Japanese soldier hit him with a rifle butt and he fainted again, but he, too, survived to tell his story. He displayed his scars from 7 bayonet and two rifle bullet wounds. Liu Maosui (劉毛遂) testified that his mother and over 30 neighbors, who had hidden inside a dugout, were all smothered to death by the Japanese. Chen Wenlong (陳文龍)’s elder brother was killed with 11 bayonet wounds. Kong Hanshi (孔韓 氏)’s uncle, grandma, younger sister and others, six in all, were shot dead. Zhu Guoshi (朱郭氏) witnessed her father and two brothers being bayoneted to death right in front of her, and Japanese soldiers threw his father’s body into the house before they had it burned down. Cheng Jie (程潔), the director of the social service department at Gulou Hospital, testified that the hospital had taken in and cared for many atrocity victims.15 According to the reporter of The New York Times, “other members of the tribunal interrogated witnesses hurriedly and curtly, occasionally anticipating testimony and prompting witnesses on the basis of written statements lying before them.”16 After the witnesses offered their testimonies, Tani was given the opportunity to speak. He claimed that (1) all the atrocities occurred outside the region where his troops garrisoned; (2) virtually all the civilians had fled from the area during the fighting; (3) the above testified atrocities were impossible to occur and could not have happened; (4) he could not accept those fabricated testimonies; (5) during the fighting, civilians could be hurt, and while he was sympathetic, he could not be held responsible.17 When the trial resumed at 2 p.m. on February 8, Tani continued his argument against the testimonies of the previous day. The main points of the argument were similar to those of February 7: first, most of the cases testified occurred outside Zhonghua Gate on December 12 and 13, and at the time fierce fighting was going on, residents should have fled to the Safety Zone; second, on December 12 there was fierce fighting the whole day, and his troops were too busy engaged in fighting to kill civilians. Hence, atrocities could never have happened, were not allowed

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to occur, and could not remain unknown; and third, more than half of the cases did not occur inside the region where his troops garrisoned, but in the area garrisoned by the 114th Division.18 President Shi Meiyu then gave a summarized account of several mass executions, claiming that 57,000 disarmed Chinese soldiers were machine gunned down at Straw Shoe Gorge, and the survivors of the massacre could testify; another 9000 were slaughtered at Torpedo Base, with 8 or 9 individuals surviving this mass execution; more than 5000 refugees were taken from the Overseas Chinese Guesthouse to Zhongshan Wharf by the river, where they were shot. Liang Tingfang (梁廷芳) and Bai Zengrong (白增榮), two survivors of this group, gave testimonies in court. Chen Fubao (陳福寳), who had testified in court in Tokyo in 1946, took the witness stand before Xiao Weishi (萧衛氏), Lu Gaoshi (陸高氏), Lian Tengfang (連騰芳), Xiang Zhenrong (向振榮), Liu Zhenhan (劉振漢) and Huiding (惠定), who was a nun, testified.19 After a recess of 20  m, the trial resumed with the defense argument, before Prosecutor Chen Guangyu, in summing up the prosecution cases earlier, presented, with his description, a picture of mass killing, raping and depredation after the Japanese entry into Nanjing. He said that women from 15 to 60 years of age were raped. Tani repeatedly denied that this took place while he was in Nanking or that it was in his garrison area. Throughout the trial, however, Tani has become a symbol of the entire Nanking horror. Spectators who jammed the court room for the third successive day applauded as the prosecutor said: ‘Even if we put to death a hundred men like Tani it won’t be enough to compensate for the sufferings of the Chinese people’20

Meanwhile, Tani protested that he was not receiving a fair trial: ‘This investigation is unsound, incomplete and inaccurate,’ the divisional commander charged from the prisoner’s dock. ‘All of the witnesses were Chinese. No Japanese were called.’ He claimed that Chinese witnesses who appeared against him were vague and insisted that the atrocities they reported must have been committed by ‘other troops, at other places and at other times.’ (ibid.)

The trial was in session again at 9 a.m. on February 25 and March 3, continuing with the debates in court, though the major arguments remained pretty much the same. On February 25, the prosecution turned down Tani’s request to extradite more Japanese witnesses with the reason that those named were perpetrators as well, hence not proper witnesses. The court then called Guo Qi (郭歧) as a prosecution witness who described, in detail, atrocity cases he had witnessed or learned about when he was trapped in Nanjing after its fall. In 1938, he published his personal experiences in Nanjing in his Bloody Record of the Fallen Capital

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(陷都血淚錄), which appeared in installments in Xijing Pingbao (西京平報) in Xian from August 1 to September 17, 1938. In defense, Tani basically repeated his arguments of the previous days.21 The Tani trial was concluded on March 10, 1947, when his death sentence was announced, along with a summary statement of the major massacres and other atrocities committed by Japanese troops: “at such locations as Flower Goddess Temple outside Zhonghua Gate (中華門外花神廟), Pagoda Bridge (寳塔橋), Stone Guanyin Godess (石觀音), Straw Shoe Gorge at Xiaguan (下關草鞋峡) and other places, our soldiers and civilians, who had been captured before being mowed down by Japanese troops with machine guns in mass killings with their bodies burned to destroy evidence, are Shan Yaoting (單耀亭) and 190,000 others. In addition, those who had been killed individually or miscellaneously and whose bodies had been collected and buried by charity organizations are as many as 150,000. The total victim toll amounts to over 300,000.”22 The victim toll of 300,000 was mentioned for the first time, and it was accepted as the official statement of the Nanjing Massacre victim toll by the national government of the Republic of China in 1947, and was inherited by the People’s Republic of China after 1949. The statement convicts Tani for committing war crimes, violating international laws of treating prisoners of war, and being responsible for the atrocities. Hence he was sentenced to death. (p. 4) Tani was executed by a firing squad on April 26, 1947 at Yuhua Terrace outside Zhonghua Gate.

12.1.2  G  unkichi Tanaka, Toshiaki Mukai and Tsuyoshi Noda on Trial Gunkichi Tanaka (田中軍吉) was born in Tokyo on March 15, 1905. After graduating from the Japanese Military Academy, he served in the 6th Division. In 1937, his rank was captain, and he commanded a company in the 45th Regiment of the 6th Division. He took part in the invasion operation into North China in August 1937 and the landing operation at Jinshanwei south of Shanghai in early November, before fighting and attacking Nanjing from the southwest. In 1940, a Japanese army officer and writer Minetaro Yamanaka (山中峰太郎) published a book, Imperial Soldiers (皇兵),23 in which the author gave a description of Company Commander Gunkichi Tanaka who, armed with Tasukugen Sword (助廣軍刀), hacked and killed people around from Zhanghua Gate to Shuixi and Hanzhong Gates. In addition to Tanaka’s photo in Nanjing in 1937, a photo of the sword is attached in the book with the caption, “It is the company commander’s Tasukugen Sword, with which he has hacked and killed over 300.” After the war, a Korean, Park Jaemun (朴在文), tipped off the Chinese Delegation in Japan that Tanaka had been involved in the killing contest in Nanjing in 1937. Park presented two photos in which Gunkichi Tanaka holding the sword to behead a kneeling Chinese, along with the book, Imperial Soldiers.24 After he was arrested

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in Tokyo as a Class C war criminal, Tanaka was extradited to Shanghai on May 18, 1947 and indicted on September 20. Toshiaki Mukai (向井敏明), born on June 3, 1912, in Yamaguchi Prefecture (山 口県), graduated in 1932 from the Japan School of Commerce. In 1937, he was a sub-lieutenant and the infantry artillery platoon leader of the 3rd Battalion, the 9th Regiment, the 19th Brigade under the 16th Division. Tsuyoshi Noda (野田毅) was born in Kagoshima Prefecture (鹿兒島) in 1912 and graduated from the Japanese Military Academy in June 1937, before serving as a sub-lieutenant and the adjutant of the 3rd Battalion, 9th Regiment of the 16th Division. Both Mukai and Noda took part in the invasion operation into North China in September 1937 and the landing operation at Baimaokou (白茆口), west of Shanghai, in November and fought towards Nanjing. Upon their advance between Wuxi and Changzhou, according to Japanese media coverage, Mukai and Noda committed themselves to a killing contest that the person who first killed 100 Chinese would win the contest. From November 30 to December 13, 1937, The Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun published a series of four installments, the English version of which is quoted in its entirety in Chap. 14 of this book, covering the progress of their contest from Changzhou to Purple Mountain in the eastern Suburbs of Nanjing. While they compared their records, it turned out that Mukai killed 106 and Noda 105, though they found it impossible to decide who reached 100 first. Consequently, they decided to extend the contest to 150. After the war, because of the “100-man killing contest” news coverage, Mukai and Noda were detained in 1946. The Japanese correspondents, Kazuo Asami (淺海 一男) and Jiro Suzuki (鈴木二郎), who had written the news reports, were summoned by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East for questioning on July 1, 1946: The prosecutors summoned us for the various elements which could ascertain the “contest” was “atrocious killing,” for instance, whether it was true or false, how we interviewed them, and then we were grilled about the real meaning of the two officers’ “contest.” But no reporter actually witnessed the two officers kill with swords on the spot. The two just talked about their plan of a “contest,” and revealed to the military reporters their experiences of battlefield heroism, but whether it involved brutality is not known. As to the fact that we heard the two officers say that “both men never kill with swords those who ran away,” I and Mr. Asami did not discuss for consensus (we gave testimony separately), and we emphasized “never kill with swords those who ran away and only kill enemy soldiers who came attacking at them is based on the spirit of Japanese Bushido not to harm civilians. It is not atrocious killing.25

Due to the statement by the correspondents that the killing contest was considered heroic combat actions, rather than atrocious slaughter, the two sub-lieutenants were soon set free. The third and fourth installments of the killing contest news reports were immediately translated into English by The Japan Advertiser, an English newspaper published in Tokyo, and published on December 7 and 14, 1937. The English version was later included into H.  J. Timperley’s What War Means: Japanese Terror in China,26 with both its English and Chinese editions appearing in print in July 1938.

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In Addition, The China Weekly Review, an English magazine published by the Americans in Shanghai, printed a digest version, in English, of the fourth report in its January 1, 1938, issue,27 and this version was further translated into Chinese and published by Shenbao and Xinhua Daily on February 25, 1938, in Hankou.28 Even though the brief and sketchy Chinese version circulated in China in 1938, the complete reports in Japanese remained largely unknown to the Chinese until after the war when Gao Wenbin (高文彬), a Chinese legal assistant to a prosecutor of the International Military Tribunal in Tokyo, came across the newspaper reports while browsing the war criminal-related information in 1947.29 On May 8, 1947, the Chinese made a request to the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers to arrest and extradite Mukai and Noda. The two were arrested as Class C war criminals in Tokyo and were extradited to Shanghai on November 3, 1947.30 They were officially indicted on December 4 after they were escorted to Nanjing. Gunkichi Tanaka, Toshiaki Mukai and Tsuyoshi Noda were tried on December 18, 1947. The trial started at 10 a.m., with the three defendants appearing in court. After Prosecutor Li Xuan (李璿) read the prosecution statement, Mukai and Noda were escorted from the court. Gunkichi Tanaka was the first on trial which began with an investigation inquiry. Tanaka admitted being in Tani’s troops to attack Nanjing and in the combat operations in the western suburbs of the city. He was then shown a photo of the Tasukugen Sword along with a question if he carried the sword with him in combat. When Tanaka gave an affirmative answer, he was shown the publication, Imperial Soldiers, and the photo in which he was beheading a civilian with the sword. He hesitated for a moment upon the question whether inside or outside the city he had killed more than 300 people with the sword as stated in the book, before claiming that the book was propaganda and that killing 300 was but the author’s imaginary account. He made a further attempt to downplay the beheading photo by saying that he was in a shirt in the photo, which indicated it was not in winter, hence, it had nothing to do with Nanjing. He claimed that he was ordered to execute a criminal in Tongcheng, Hubei Province (湖北通城). The prosecutor denied his explanations, and ordered him to be taken away from the court.31 Next on trial was Toshiaki Mukai, who denied that he had entered the killing contest or had killed 106 people. He claimed that he had not been to Nanjing or Jurong, that he had only been to Wuxi, and that he was wounded in combat at Danyang. At Wuxi, he met with the journalist who talked with him jokingly that he would turn him into a hero to help him attract a girl for marriage. He claimed that what had been described in The Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun was fictitious, not facts. The prosecutor read an excerpt from Timperley’s Japanese Terror in China to refute his claims. (ibid.) Tsuyoshi Noda was then called in. He denied being to Nanjing or Jurong either as well, and claimed that he and Mukai parted at Danyang, with Mukai going westward and himself heading east, and they did not meet after that. What was written in the newspaper was not true. Prosecutor Li Xuan, however, did not believe their stories. Instead, he asked for the death penalty for the three defendants for slaughtering innocent civilians. A debate session followed, during which the defense attorneys requested to call in the journalists to testify. (ibid.) When the trial resumed at

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2:10 p.m. after 10 m’ recess, President Shi Meiyu announced the sentence: “defendants Gunkichi Tanaka, Toshiaki Mukai and Tsuyoshi Noda were respectively sentenced to death for continuously slaughtering captives and noncombatants in combat.” As to their claims that the stories in the newspapers were fictitious and the publicity would attract them better wives after the war, the tribunal’s sentence refuted the statement “in that during the war the Japanese military imposed strict censorship and The Tokyo Nichinichi Shinbum was an important and influential Japanese newspaper, and if the killing contest did not take place, there was no reason that the newspaper would dedicate its space specifically to run several segments and a large photo to the contest. The killing contest was published and printed in an important Japanese newspaper, it was not just hearsay.” (ibid.) In passing down the death sentences for the three, the court decision reads: The defendants continuously slaughtered prisoners of war and noncombatants in violation of the Hague Convention and Convention relative to Treatment of Prisoners of War, hence, constituting war crime and crime against humanity. They slaughtered civilians as their combat achievement and engaged in a contest to kill for their amusement, which, extremely violent and vicious, is an unparalleled savage crime. They are indeed pests extremely harmful to human kind and public enemy to the civilization. If they did not receive extreme punishment, the law and order would not be seriously respected in order to have justice. Hereby, they are sentenced to death as a severe exhortation.32

The three defendants were executed on January 28, 1948 by a firing squad at Yuhua Terrace outside Zhonghua Gate.

12.2  T  he International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo On July 26, 1945, Harry S. Truman, President of the United States, Chiang Kaishek, President of the Republic of China, and Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain, jointly issued the Potsdam Declaration, in which the three declared, “We do not intend that the Japanese shall be enslaved as a race or destroyed as a nation, but stern justice shall be meted out to all war criminals, including those who have visited cruelties upon our prisoners.”33 Several months after Japan surrendered on January 19, 1946, General Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Forces issued the Special Proclamation for the establishment of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, along with the Charter of the Tribunal to announce the constitution and principle guidelines of the forthcoming tribunal: Whereas, the United States and the Nations allied therewith in opposing the illegal wars of aggression of the Axis Nations, have from time to time made declarations of their intentions that war criminals should be brought to justice;

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Whereas, the Governments of the Allied Powers at war with Japan on the 26th July 1945 at Potsdam, declared as one of the terms of surrender that stern justice shall be meted out to all war criminals including those who have visited cruelties upon our prisoners; Whereas, by the Instrument of Surrender of Japan executed at Tokyo Bay, Japan, on the 2nd September 1945, the signatories for Japan, by command of and in behalf of the Emperor and the Japanese Government, accepted the terms set forth in such Declaration at Potsdam; … Now, therefore, I, Douglas MacArthur, as Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, by virtue of the authority so conferred upon me, in order to implement the Term of Surrender which requires the meting out of stern justice to war criminals, do order and provide as follows: Article 1. There shall be established an International Military Tribunal for the Far East for the trial of those persons charged individually, or as members of organizations, or in both capacities, with offenses which include crimes against peace. Article 2. The Constitution, jurisdiction and functions of this Tribunal are those set forth in the Charter of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, approved by me this day. Article 3. Nothing in this Order shall prejudice the jurisdiction of any other international, national or occupation court, commission or other tribunal established or to be established in Japan or in any territory of a United Nation with which Japan has been at war, for the trial of war criminals.34

Meanwhile, MacArthur appointed on February 25, 1946 a panel of 11 judges: William Flood Webb of Australia, Edward Stuart McDougall of Canada, Mei Ju-ao (梅汝璈) of China, Henri Bernard of France, Radhabinod R. Pal of India, Bernard Victor Röling of the Netherlands, Erima Harvey Northcroft of New Zealand, Delfin J.  Jaranilla of the Philippines, Ivan Michyevich Zaryanov of the Soviet Union, William Donald Patrick of the United Kingdom, and John Patrick Higgins of the United States, with William Webb as the president of the tribunal. John Patrick Higgins was replaced by his countryman Myron Cady Cramer in July 1946. The tribunal convened on April 29, 1946 and 28 Class A Japanese war criminals were to stand trial. Of the 28, Iwane Matsui (松井石根), commander-in-chief of the Central China Expeditionary Forces, Koki Hirota (広田弘毅), foreign minister in 1937, and Akira Muto (武藤章), Matsui’s deputy chief of staff, were implicated, in different capacities, in the Nanjing Massacre case. Iwane Matsui (1878–1948), born on July 27, 1878 in Nagoya (名古屋), graduated from the Military Academy in 1897 and Army Staff College in 1906. He served and saw action in the 1904–05 Russo-Japanese War. Between 1915 and 1918, he was military attaché in Shanghai, and commanded the 29th Regiment from 1919 to 1921. He was attached briefly to the staff of the Vladivostok Expeditionary Forces to fight against the Red Army in Russia’s far eastern region before he served in China again in 1922 as the head of Harbin intelligence unit and was promoted to major general the following year. He was commanding officer of the 35th Infantry

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Brigade in 1924, and was promoted to lieutenant general in 1927. When he ­commanded the Taiwan Army, he was further promoted to general in 1933, and retired from active service in 1935. He was called into active duty in August 1937 to be the commander-in-chief of the Shanghai Expeditionary Forces. From November 1937, he became commander-in-chief of the re-organized Central China Expeditionary Forces. It was under Matsui’s command that Japanese troops captured Nanjing and committed atrocities in and around the city. In February 1938, he was removed from his commanding position and was recalled back to Japan to serve as a military advisor to the cabinet. After Japan surrendered, he was arrested in March 1946 and officially indicted, along with 27 other Class A war criminals, on May 3, 1946, and charged under Counts 1, 27, 29, 31, 32, 35, 36, 54, and 55.

12.2.1  Testimonies by the Prosecution Witnesses The prosecution’s first witness concerning the Nanjing Massacre case was Robert O. Wilson. Wilson was born and raised in Nanjing, and educated in the United States at Princeton and Harvard Medical School. After his residency training, he returned to Nanjing in January 1936 as a surgeon at the University of Nanking Hospital. He was, in fact, the only surgeon in Nanjing during the massacre period and was in a unique position to operate on those who fell victim to Japanese atrocities. Wilson took the stand on July 25 and 26, 1946. In response to the prosecutor’s request to produce specific instances of the types of injuries the atrocity victims had suffered and had been treated at the hospital, Wilson gave one instance after another: I can say the few instances of patients that I treated during the time immediately following the fall of Nanking, but I will not be able to give their names, except in the case of two, who are here as witnesses. One case that comes to my mind is that of a woman of forty, who was brought to the hospital with the back of her neck having a laceration severing all the muscles of the neck, and leaving the head very precariously balanced. … Upon direct questioning of the woman, and from the story of those who brought her in, there was no doubt in our minds that the work was that of a Japanese soldier. … He was one – the only survivor of a large group of men who were taken to the river bank of the Yangtze River and individually shot. The bodies were pushed into the river, and hence the actual number cannot be ascertained. But he feigned death, crept away in the darkness, and came to the hospital. This man’s name was Liang. Another man was a Chinese policeman and was brought to the hospital with a very deep laceration across the middle of his back. He was the only survivor of a large group taken outside the city wall, who were also first machine-gunned and the wounded were then pierced with bayonets to be sure that they were dead. That man’s name was Wu Changteh.

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One noon I was having lunch in my house, when the neighbors rushed in and told us, at the table, that some Japanese soldiers were raping the women in their house. … We rushed out of the house to accompany the men back to their own house, and the people in the courtyard pointed to the closed door of the gate-house. Three Japanese soldiers stood about in the courtyard with their bayonets. We pushed in the door of the gate-house, and found two Japanese soldiers in the act of raping two Chinese women. We took the women to the University of Nanking Refugee – the campus where there was a large group of refugees, under the supervision of the International Refugee Committee. A man came into the hospital with a bullet through his jaw, barely able to talk. About two-­thirds of his body was very badly burned. His story, as nearly as we could make it out, was that he had been seized by Japanese soldiers, shot, covered with gasoline, and set afire. He died two days later. Another man was admitted with a very severe burn covering his entire head and shoulders. While still able to talk, he told us that he was the only survivor of a large group who had been bound together, had gasoline sprayed over them, and were set afire. We have pictures of these particular cases, that I have mentioned so far. An old man of sixty was admitted with a bayonet wound in his chest. His story was that he had gone from the refugee zone back into the other part of the city to look for a relative. He met a Japanese soldier who bayoneted him in the chest and threw him in the gutter for dead. He recovered consciousness six hours later and was able to get to the hospital. Cases like this continued to come in for a matter of some six or seven weeks following the fall of the city on December 13, 1937. The capacity of the hospital was normally one hundred and eighty beds, and this was kept full to overflowing during this entire period. … I mentioned the eight year old boy. There are two other cases that come to my mind: One was that of a little girl of seven or eight, who had a very serious wound of the elbow, with the elbow joint exposed. Her story to me was that Japanese soldiers had killed her father and mother in front of her eyes, and given her this wound. A girl of fifteen was brought into the hospital by the Reverend John Magee, with the story that she had been raped. A medical examination confirmed this. About two months later this girl came again into the hospital with a secondary rash of syphilis. …35

Xu Chuanyin followed Wilson to the witness stand. When the prosecutor asked him about Japanese soldiers’ actions toward civilians as they entered the city, Xu provided extensive testimony: On the third day I had the chance of the permission of the Japanese military officers to go around the city – all the cities. I had one Japanese going along with me on the car. The purpose of that is to estimate the number of people lying dead on the street and in all the houses. I saw the dead bodies lying everywhere, and some of the bodies are lying there as they were, shot or killed, some kneeling, some bending, some on their sides, and some just with their legs and arms open. It shows that these been done by the Japanese, and I saw several Japanese were doing that at that very moment.

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One main street I even started try to count the number of corpses lying on both sides of the street, and I started to counting more than five hundred myself. I say it was no use counting them; I can never do that. I was at that time on the same car and another Chinese with me. He was educated in Japan, and he speaks Japanese. And he – we together went to his home, and he found that his brother was also shot in that house and on the step – on the doorstep, not take him away yet. The same condition was found in the south city, in the northern part of the city, on the east and on the west, and many many people killed, still lying there, and all – no Japanese – no Japanese soldiers acted any – showed any courtesy to any people. I was fortunate because I had on the car a Japanese – a Chinese who can speak Japanese, and many times I was interrupted, and they try to drag me out of the car, and I – the Japanese on the car help me out because we had permits from them. All these corpses, not a single one I find in uniform – not a single soldier; they are all civilians, both old and young, and women and children, too. All the soldiers – we do not see any Chinese soldier around in the whole city. (pp. 2563–2564)

In response to the inquiry whether Japanese soldiers had searched the Safety Zone and taken a large number of civilians away, Xu indicated: One day I was with the other member, distributing Chinese bread and cakes to those refugees in one of the buildings. When we nearly finish, all of a sudden Japanese soldiers came. Two of them guarded the gate. Several soldiers went in and used ropes and tied the refugee people – the civilians – all civilians – hand in hand – some by some several tens, fifteens, and they took them away. I was standing there and astonished what was the meaning of it. In that compound, in the building, there are about fifteen hundred civilians – refugees – and they took away in such a manner. They even tried to take some of our Swastika members, but after explanation they seemed to let us go. I, at that time, asked for somebody to report immediately to the International Committee – Mr. Rabe. Mr. Rabe and Mr. Fitch came at my request, but these people – these civilians – were already taken away by the Japanese soldiers. When, after a little talk, Mr. Rabe, Mr. Fitch, and myself, and another Chinese, who speaks Japanese – we all went immediately to the Special Service Headquarter – the Japanese Special Service Headquarter. Mr. Rabe made the protest. He asked them first why they entered into the safety zone and took the civilians – the refugees  – away; and second, what do they took them for, where they are now, and also demanded immediate release. The answer we get is they do not know – the Japanese head office, special – head of the Special Service Organization said they don’t know. So we waited there and waited there an hour for them – to enable them to find out where these people go and who took them. We could not find out anything from them. They do not give us any satisfactory answer, and they even promised to give a definite answer before the morning, but they didn’t. On the following day, about seven and eight o’clock, we hear machine gun. Now, around that place – around the headquarters of the International Committee and also the Swastika Society, we immediately sent people spying around, and we know those – we then, at that time we saw those people were machine-gunned and their corpses were pushed into the pond. Later on, we got those corpses up, and also we recognized a few of them. (pp. 2566–2568)

In terms of how Japanese soldiers treated women in Nanjing, Xu gave several instances, including the following:

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In one of the camp, the Japanese soldier came with three trucks in one day, and wanted to take all the girls from that camp, and took them to a place where they can rape them. I went – tried to stop them, but no effect. Now these girls, these women, ranges from thirteen years old up to forty years old I see with my very eyes the Japanese soldier raping a woman in a bath room, and his clothes outside, and then afterwards we discovered the bathroom door, and found a woman naked and also weeping and downcast. Once I went with Mr. FUKUDA. At that time he was vice-consul of the Japanese Embassy, now the secretary of the new cabinet in Tokyo. Now we went to the camp to try to get – to catch two Japanese who were reported to be living there. At the time we reached there we saw one Japanese still sitting there, with a woman on the corner and weeping. I told FUKUDA, “this is the man who did the raping,” and that man was sitting there with his head low there, and FUKUDA began to ask, “Why did you do that – what business have you here?” (pp. 2569–2570)

In his testimony, Xu gave an account of the burial work undertaken by the Red Swastika Society: The Red Swastika has made it as a philanthropic work to bury the dead who are really not able to be buried. Now, at this time, there are so many dead bodies on the street, nobody to look after. The Japanese also came, Japanese soldiers, Japanese military men came to ask our help, say: “Well, you have been doing this kind of work, why can’t you do it for us?” After we get their permission to do this, they gave us a permit and passports and some facilities to travel in the city, so we started burying them. We have on our regular staff around two hundred laborers doing this kind of work. We buried over forty-three thousand where the number is really too small. The reason is we are not allowed to give a true number of the people we buried. Where, at first, we do not dare to give a number, to keep any records, and later on we just kept private records. This number represents only what we have buried. These are all civilians and not soldiers. We have nothing to do with the soldiers. Q. Were there other organizations engaged in the burial of civilian dead in Nanking? A. Yes, there are other organizations were chiefly philanthropic organizations. Swastika is only one of them. Q. Where were these bodies found that were buried by the Red Swastika Society? A. These dead bodies are found either by ourselves or reported by the people in the surrounding places or some – many times the Japanese came around, Japanese officers, soldiers would come around; where there were too many dead bodies around a certain place, they would report to us. The reason is they are very afraid of epidemics so they like to keep these dead bodies away, especially in February and January and March. These dead bodies are first get out of their places where, if they are in ponds, get them out of the water; if, in buildings also, they will be get out. Now when they are get out, we find they are, most of them, nearly all of them are tied, tied hand in hand. Now, sometimes they use rope, sometimes they use wire. It is our sacred practice to have a dead body all unloosed if it is tied. We want to unloose everything, and bury them one by one. But with these wires, now it is almost impossible to do that. In many cases these bodies already decayed so we would not be able to bury them one by one. All we can do is simply to bury them in groups. (pp. 2574–2575)

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After Xu Chuanyin, three mass execution survivors, Shang Deyi (尚德義, Shang Teh Yi), Wu Changde (伍長德, Wu Chang Teh), and Chen Fubao (陳福寳, Chen Fupao) took the stand. After brief inquiries about their identities and the authenticity of their written testimonies, prosecution attorney, David N. Sutton read their written testimonies in English translation. Shang Deyi, 32 in 1946, was a retailer who survived a massacre in which more than 1000 civilians had been machine gunned by the Yangtze River at Xiaguan: I lived at No. 1 Hua-Sin-Hsiang, Shanghai Road (in the Refugees’ Zone) in 1937. At about 11 a.m., 16 December of that year, I was arrested by Japanese soldiers (presumably of the NAKASHIMA Unit), Arrested at the same time were my elder brother, Teh Jen, formerly secretary at Kiashang Airfield Station, my cousin Teh Kin, formerly in the silk trade, and five other neighbors whose names unknown to me. Each two of us were bound together by a rope fastening our hands, and sent to Shiakwan, on the bank of the Yangtze River. More than 1,000 male civilians were there and were all ordered to sit down, facing more than ten machine-guns about 40 or 50 yards in front of us. We sat there for more than an hour. At about 4 o’clock, a Japanese Army Officer came by motor car, and he ordered the Japanese soldiers to start machine-gunning us. We were ordered to stand up before they did the shooting. I slumped to the ground just before firing started, and immediately I was covered with corpses and fainted. After approximately 9 p.m., I climbed out from the piles of corpses and managed to escape and go back to my house. (pp. 2600–2601)

Wu Changde was a 38-year-old food merchant in 1946, but he served in the police force in 1937 and several years prior. He was one of 2000 or so marched on December 15 to be executed outside of Hanzhong Gate, one of Nanjing’s western gates. He managed to survive and described the mass execution in detail: After the fall of the city of Nanking I along with some three hundred other policemen was at the Judicial Yuan. We were not armed as all of our arms had been turned over to the International Committee for Nanking Safety Zone. The Judicial Yuan was a refugee camp and there were many civilians there in addition to the policemen. On Dec. 15, 1937 the Japanese soldiers came to the Judicial Yuan and ordered all the men there to go with them. Two members of the International Committee told the Japanese that we were not former soldiers but they ordered those two men away and forced us to march to the main west gate of the city. When we got there we were ordered to sit down inside the gate. Machine guns were set up by the Japanese soldiers just outside of and on either side of the gate. There is a canal outside this gate and a steep slope leading down to it. There is a bridge across the canal but it is not directly opposite the gate. These persons in groups of over one hundred at a time were forced to go through the gate at the point of bayonets. As they went outside they were shot with machine guns and their bodies fell along the slope and into the canal. Those who were not killed by the machine gun fire were stabbed with bayonets by the Japanese soldiers. About sixteen groups each containing more than 100 persons had been forced through the gate ahead of me and these persons were killed. When my group of something over 100 was ordered to go through the gate I ran as fast as I could and fell forward just before the machine guns opened fire, and was not hit by machine gun bullets and a Japanese soldier came and stabbed the bayonet in my back. I lay still as if dead. The Japanese threw some gasoline on some of the bodies and set them afire and left. It was beginning to get dark. The bodies scattered along the bank and no gasoline was thrown on me. When I saw the Japanese soldiers had left I climbed out from

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the dead bodies and went into a vacant house where I stayed for 10 days. Some one near there sent me a bowl of porridge each day. I then made my way into city and went to the University Hospital. Dr. Wilson attended me. I stayed in the hospital for more than 50 days and when I got out I went to my native home in Northern Kiangsu. On the occasion I have described around two thousand persons former policemen and civilians were killed. (pp. 2604–2606.)

Chen Fubao testified that 37 people were machine-gunned and he and another person were made to throw the bodies into a pond on December 14, 1937: On the second day the Japanese were in Nanking, 14 December, they took thirty-nine from the Refugee Area. They were civilian men. They examined them, and those that had hat mark on the forehead, or a callous spot on hands caused by handling a gun, were brought to a little pond, and taken out on the other side. I and another were put to one side, and the Japanese used light machine guns to kill the rest. There were thirty-seven who were killed in this way, and I saw this. Most of the people were civilians. I am a resident of Nanking and knew a number of these people to be civilians in Nanking. I know one in particular, was a policeman in Nanking. I was 18 at the time, and lived in Nanking. They were buried by the Red Swastika Society four months later and in the meantime the bodies were in a pond where they had been thrown. I helped throw the bodies in the pond; by order of the Japanese. This happened in the day time in the morning near the American Embassy. (p. 2609)

On July 29, 1946, M.  S. Bates, an American professor at the University of Nanking since 1920, testified as a prosecution witness. He told the court what he had personally observed concerning the atrocities committed against the civilians. His extensive testimony is quoted in part as follows: Q. What was the conduct of the Japanese soldiers toward the civilians after the Japanese were in control of the city of Nanking? A.  The question is so big, I don’t know where to begin. I can only say that I, myself, observed a whole series of shootings of individual civilians without any provocation or apparent reason whatsoever; that one Chinese was taken from my own house and killed. From my next door neighbor’s house two men, who rose up in anxiety when soldiers seized and raped their wives, were taken, shot at the edge of the pond by my house, and thrown into it. The bodies of civilians lay on the streets and alleys in the vicinity of my own house for many days after the Japanese entry. The total spread of this killing was so extensive that no one can give a complete picture of it. We can only say that we did our best to find out, in checking up carefully upon the safety zone and adjoining areas. Professor Smythe and I concluded, as a result of our investigations and observations and checking of burials, that twelve thousand civilians, men, women and children, were killed inside the walls within our own sure knowledge. There were many others killed within the city outside our knowledge whose numbers we have no way of checking, and also there were large numbers killed immediately outside the city, of civilians. This is quite apart from the killing of tens of thousands of men who were Chinese soldiers or had been Chinese soldiers. Q. What were the circumstances under which the former soldiers or alleged soldiers were killed? A. Large parties of Chinese soldiers laid down their arms, surrendered, immediately outside the walls of the city and there, within the first seventy-two hours, were cut down by machine gun fire, mostly upon the bank of the Yangtze River. We of the International Committee hired laborers to carry out the burials of more than thirty thousand of these soldiers. That was done as a work relief project inspected and

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directed by us. The number of bodies carried away in the river, and the number of bodies buried in other ways, we cannot count. Within the safety zone a very serious problem was caused by the fact that the Japanese officers expected to find within the city a very large number of Chinese soldiers. When they did not discover the soldiers, they insisted that they were in hiding within the zone and that we were responsible for concealing them. On that theory, Japanese military officers and non-commissioned officers were sent among the refugees in the safety zone day after day for about three weeks attempting to discover and seize former soldiers. It was their common practice to require all able-bodied men in a certain section of the zone, or in a certain refugee camp, to line up for inspection and then to be seized if they had callouses upon their hands or the marks of wearing a hat showing on the skin of the forehead. I was present throughout several of these inspections and watched the whole process. It was undoubtedly true that there were some soldiers – former soldiers among these refugees, men who had thrown away their arms and uniforms and secured civilian clothes. It was also clearly true that the majority of the men so accused or seized – and seized were ordinary carriers and laborers who had plenty of good reasons for callouses on their hands. The men so accused of having been soldiers were seized, taken away, and, in most cases, shot immediately in large groups at the edges of the city. In some cases a peculiar form of treachery was practiced to persuade men to admit that they had been soldiers. Using the proclamation issued by General MATSUI before the Japanese Army took Nanking, and distributed widely by airplane, the proclamation which declared that the Japanese Army had only good will for peaceful citizens of China and would do no harm to those who did not resist the Imperial Army, Japanese officers tried to persuade many Chinese to come forward as voluntary workers for military labor corps. In some cases these Japanese soldiers urged Chinese men to come forward, saying, “If you have previously been a Chinese soldier, or if you have ever worked as a carrier or laborer in the Chinese Army, that will all now be forgotten and forgiven if you will join this labor corps.” In that way, in one afternoon, two hundred men were secured from the premises of the University of Nanking and were promptly marched away and executed that evening along with other bodies of men secured from other parts of the safety zone. Q. What was the conduct of the Japanese soldiers toward the women in the city of Nanking? A. That was one of the roughest and saddest parts of the whole picture. Again, in the homes of my three nearest neighbors, women were raped, including wives of University teachers. On five different occasions, which I can detail for you if desired, I, myself, came upon soldiers in the act of rape and pulled them away from the women. The safety zone case reports, to which we have previously referred, and my own records of what occurred among the thirty thousand refugees on the various grounds and in the building of the University of Nanking, hold a total of many hundreds of cases of rape about which exact details were furnished to the Japanese authorities at the time. One month after the occupation, Mr. Rabe, the Chairman of the International Committee, reported to the German authorities that he and his colleagues believed that not less than twenty thousand cases of rape had occurred. A little earlier I estimated, very much more cautiously and on the basis of the safety zone reports alone, some eight thousand cases. Every day and every night there were large numbers of different gangs of soldiers, usually fifteen or twenty in a group, who went about through the city, chiefly in the safety zone because that’s where almost all the people were, and went into the houses seeking women. In two cases, which I remember all too clearly because I nearly lost my life in each of them, officers participated in this seizing and raping of women on the University property. The raping was frequent daytime as well as night and occurred along the roadside in many cases.

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On the grounds of Nanking Theological Seminary, under the eyes of one of my own friends, a Chinese woman was raped in rapid succession by seventeen Japanese soldiers. I do not care to repeat the occasional cases of sadistic and abnormal behavior in connection with the raping, but I do want to mention that on the grounds of the University alone a little girl of nine and a grandmother of seventy-six were raped. (pp. 2629–2634)

Another massacre survivor, Liang Tingfang (梁廷芳), took the stand on July 30. His written affidavit was read by prosecution attorney Thomas H. Morrow. Liang was in the Medical Corps to take care of the wounded Chinese soldiers in Nanjing, but after the Japanese took the city, he changed into civilian clothes to seek refuge in the Safety Zone. On December 16, 1937, however, along with many others, Liang was rounded up by Japanese soldiers: On the sixteenth, we were ordered by the Japanese to proceed to Shsia Kwan, on the Bank of the River YANGTSE, in Nanking. I estimate there were above 5,000 who were marched 4 abreast, and the line was ¾ of a mile long. When we arrived there we were placed in a line near the River, and on either side of the line there formed and in front of line were machine guns and Japanese soldiers, with the machine gun pointing at the line. There were two trucks carrying rope, and men were tied five in a group with their wrists tied below their backs, and I saw the first men who were shot by rifles in such groups and who were then thrown in the river by the Japanese. There were about 800 Japanese present, including officers, some of whom were in sedan automobiles. We were lined up on the edge of the river, and before our wrists were bound, my friend saw that rather than die in this way, he would sooner jump in the river and be drowned. We started from the refugee camp about five o’clock in the evening, arrived at the bank of the river about seven o’clock and the binding of the prisoners, and shooting kept up until two o’clock. The moon was shining at the time, and I saw what was happening, and my watch was on my wrist. My friend and I decided to escape after the shooting had been going on for 4 hours, and about eleven o’clock my friend and I made a dash for the river, and jumped in it. The machine guns fired at us, but we were not hit. (pp. 3370–3371)

On August 8, Morrow read to the court excerpts of “Interrogation of Matsui, Iwane,” which was conducted on March 8, 1946, in Sugamo Prison, and was accepted by the court as prosecution evidence. Matsui admitted that he had learned of Japanese atrocities as soon as he entered Nanjing in December 1937 from Japanese diplomats there, and there were lawless elements in his troops, whose behaviors toward the Chinese population were generally bad: Q. The charges also are made that the discipline of troops that captured Nanking was very bad. A. I considered the discipline excellent but the conduct and behavior was not. Q. Of the soldiers? A. Yes. Q. This was at Nanking? A. Yes. I think there were some lawless elements in the army. Q. I understand then you are drawing a distinction between the obeying of orders by a soldier in the process of operations and what the soldier does off duty and in this instance after the town was captured? A. Yes. Q. And, of course, the officers commanding the troops in Nanking did have the duty of overseeing the behavior of their soldiers both off duty and on duty? A. Yes.

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Q. Why do you say that it is your opinion that the behavior of the soldiers was bad? On what do you base that statement? A. On account of their behavior toward the Chinese population and their acts generally. … Q. Some people claim that Prince Asaka was responsible very much for what happened in Nanking but because of his relation with the Imperial family little or nothing has been said about it. Is that correct? A. I do not think so. Prince Asaka had joined the army only about ten days before its entry into Nanking and in view of the short time he was connected with this army I do not think he can be held responsible. I would say that the Division Commanders are the responsible parties. … Q. You stated that you went into Nanking on the 17th. Did you see any bodies of dead civilians, women or children? Anything of that sort? A. They had all removed by this time. I saw a few dead Chinese soldiers near the west gate. Q. The Chinese War Crimes Commission claims that several hundred thousand civilians were killed and that there was burning and pillaging of Nanking right after the capture on the 13th. Was there any other evidence than what you stated that the town had been badly handled in the capture? A. That is absolutely untrue. There was no, absolutely no, ground for such accusations. This I can state upon my honor. … Q. Do you have any papers or correspondence or a diary which indicates your activities at Nanking and Shanghai in 1936 or 1937? A. The only notes in my diary concern a court martial of an officer and perhaps three soldiers in connection with the rape of Chinese in Nanking. Q. What is the date and what was the verdict of the court? A. I think the officer was executed and the soldiers imprisoned. This was as a result of my advocating severe punishment for offenders. I received this information when I was in Shanghai and put it in my diary there. Q. I suppose you can give us a copy of that? Procure it for us? A.  All my records were burned including my diary but I have a few notes made from memory since which I think will be useful if I come to trial. My house was destroyed in one of the bombing raids. (pp. 3457–3465)

John G. Magee, an American Episcopal missionary, took the stand on August 15 as a prosecution witness. Magee was educated at Yale, and went to Nanjing as an Episcopal minister in 1912, a post he held until 1940. Magee, who provided extremely extensive and detailed testimony that lasted 2 days, testified that killing began immediately after the Japanese entered Nanjing: It was unbelievably terrible. The killing began immediately in several ways, often by individual Japanese soldiers or, up to thirty soldiers together going about, each one seeming to have the power of life or death; and then, soon, there was organized killing of great bodies of men. Soon there were bodies of men lying everywhere, and I passed columns of men being taken out to be killed. These people were being killed by rifle fire and machine gun principally. Also, we knew of groups of several hundred being bayoneted to death. One woman told me that her husband’s hands were tied in front of her, and he was thrown into a pond, and she stayed there, and they wouldn’t let her rescue him. He was drowned before her face…. On December 14, our school cook’s boy was taken off with a hundred other men down, outside the city walls near the railroad tracks. He told me that they were divided into two groups of about fifty each, their hands were bound in front of them, and they began killing them in front. He was in the back, and – a fifteen year old boy he was, and he was gnawing frantically at the ropes around his wrists and finally got them released and slipped into a culvert or a dugout or a drain underneath the railroad track. He escaped back about thirty-­

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eight hours or more later, telling us the story. That was the first proof we had of what was happening to these groups of men that first were being taken off. On that same evening or the next evening, I don’t know which, I passed two long columns of Chinese all tied up with their hands in front of them, four by four. I should say that, the very least, there were a thousand men in these two columns, or there may have been closer to two thousand. I do not remember seeing a single Chinese soldier in the group. At least, they were all in civilian clothes. The wounded began to filter back into the mission hospital. A man would often be shot or bayoneted, would faint – would feign death and would get back to us, and we got authentic information as to what was happening to these columns of people that were being constantly taken out in those early days. On December 16, they came to a refugee camp that I knew very well because it was one of my Christian congregations and took out fourteen men from that congregation, including the fifteen year old boy of the Chinese pastor. Four days later, one member of that fourteen, a coolie, came back to tell us the fate of the others. They had been gathered together with about a thousand men and marched to the bank of the Yangtze River and there mowed down with cross-fire machine guns from either end. This man threw himself a split second before the bullets got him and was untouched. The bodies of those about him fell over him, and he lay there until it was dark, under this cover, and was able to make his escape. On that same day that these fourteen men were taken out, my chauffeur came to me and said they had just taken his two brothers. He didn’t dare go on the street, but his wife went with me to where these people were being collected. I found in that open space about five hundred Chinese seated on the ground. We stood on the edge of the crowd until this woman had found both of her brothers-in-law in the crowd, and then walked up to the Japanese sergeant who seemed to be in charge. He was – I walked up with the woman to the sergeant, and he was so furious and drove us off that I just said, “It is hopeless,” and we had to walk away. On the next day I took – I saw – I was with three other foreigners – two Russians and my colleague, Forster, an American. We were standing on the balcony of the house and saw a man killed. A Chinese was walking along the street before this house in a long silk gown; two Japanese soldiers called to him, and he was so frightened; he was trying to get away. He hastened his pace, was trying to get around a corner in a bamboo fence, hoping there was an opening, but there was no opening. The soldiers walked in front of him and couldn’t have stood more than five yards in front of him, and both of them shot him in the face – killed him. They were both laughing and talking as though nothing had happened; never stopped smoking their cigarettes or talking and with no – they killed him with no more feeling than one taking a shot at a wild duck, and then walked on. On December 18, Vice Consul TANAKA of the Japanese Embassy asked me to go with him to the northern part of the city to Hsiakwan to point out foreign property, as he wanted to put notices to protect them. I could not possibly have gotten out of the city gate except that I was in his car. We turned onto an alley to take a short cut, but soon ran into so many bodies that the car had to back out of the alley, as we couldn’t possibly get through without driving over so many bodies. We then went on down to the Bund, near the Butterfield and Swire Company, and he – while he went in there with his Japanese policeman to put up notices, I got out of the car and walked to the river side of the Bund, where I could see down below me, and there I saw three piles of Chinese dead. I don’t know how many bodies were there, but my estimate would be somewhere between three hundred and five hundred. That may have been too small. The clothing was burned off these bodies, and many of them were charred. Evidently, they had been set on fire. (pp. 3894–3902)

Magee told the court instance after instance the terrible and sometimes bloody experiences the women, old and young, had gone through at the hands of Japanese soldiers in Nanjing:

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It was again the same story, unbelievably terrible. The rapings continued day by day. Many women were killed and even children. If a woman resisted or refused, she was either killed or stabbed. I took pictures, moving pictures of the wounds of many of these women  – women with their necks slit, stabs all over their bodies. If the husband of the woman tried to help her in any way, he was killed. One evening I was called to a house where a Japanese soldier had come at four-thirty in the afternoon. He was trying to rape the man’s wife and this owner, the man’s (sic) husband, helped her to escape out of a door the Japanese soldier didn’t know was in the back of the house. The Japanese soldier was unarmed when he first came. He went away and came back armed and killed the woman’s husband. The woman took me out in back of the house where the husband’s body was. The first case of rape that I personally ran into was among the very first nights. A woman stopped me and my colleague Forster on the street and begged us to save her life. It was in the dark. This woman said her story. She had been taken from her husband at six o’clock that afternoon and taken in a motor car for three or four miles where three Japanese soldiers raped her. They sent her back to within about a mile of her house and she got out very near to where we were going; and just as the Japanese soldier called to her, she either saw us or heard us and rushed up to us and asked us to save her, which we did. On December 18th, I went with Mr. Sperling, a German member of our Committee, to the residential section of the city. It seemed to us that there were Japanese soldiers in every house after women. We went into one house. On the ground floor a woman was weeping, and the Chinese there told us she had been raped. They said there was still another Japanese in the house on the third floor. I went up there and tried to get into the room that was indicated. The door was locked. I pounded on the door and shouted and Sperling soon came and joined me. After about ten minutes a Japanese soldier came out leaving a woman inside. On December 20th I was called to a house where they told me a little girl of ten or eleven had been raped. I took her to the hospital, but I got to the house in time to keep three other Japanese soldiers from going in. When I returned from the hospital, I was called to another house, drove out three Japanese in the woman’s quarters on the second floor; and then the Chinese there pointed to a room. I rushed into the room, bursting open the door and found a soldier – a Japanese soldier – in the act of rape. I drove him out of the room, completely out of the house and out of the alley where the house was. There were many other cases of this kind. There was one of our biggest problems – all of us foreigners’. We couldn’t do anything about keeping them from taking off men, but we could prevent them from raping these women. My colleague Forster and I after a few days of occupation learned we could never leave a house where we had a number of Christian refugees together at the same time. He and I were living with our Chinese Christians and trying to protect them, but  – apart from the other foreigners, we were some distance off. But the other Americans there invited us to New Year’s dinner on January first. It was our custom to stand in the streets all day long, one or the other of us guarding three houses; and as soon as the Japanese soldiers stopped at one of these houses, we would rush at him and he would go off. On New Year’s Day one of the Americans came in a car and invited us to come. I didn’t want to leave but he said nothing could happen in an hour there. He would have us back in an hour. So we went. That was the particular place where we were keeping most of our young girls. Before we were through with the meal, two of our Chinese came running to say there were Japanese soldiers in there after the girls. We were not in time to save two girls from rape. One woman that I have known for almost thirty years, one of our Christians, told me she was in a room with one girl and that when the Japanese solider came in, she knelt before him, begging him to leave the girl alone. He hit her over the head with the flat side of a bayonet and raped the girl…. This widow, when the Japanese first entered, had been raped repeatedly. Then they decided to try to escape to our Safety Zone. On their way, as they were going along the street in the dark, the woman got separated from her old mother. The mother told us that she

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had been taken into a house on the way and raped twice. Seventy-seven years old! The widow, after returning to her home from the safety of Ginling College, told us she had been raped many times. Altogether I think she said she had been raped between seventeen and eighteen times. A Bible woman, that is, a Christian woman evangelist, told me she was living with an old woman, an eighty year old Chinese – that means she is seventy-eight or seventy-nine years old. A Japanese came to her house, called out the old woman to the door, and then made motions for her to open her clothing. The old woman said, “I am too old,” and the soldier shot her dead. (pp. 3904–3910)

Magee had visited the crime scene at a residential compound in the southern section of the city where 11 people were killed, including two young girls who had been raped and murdered by Japanese soldiers. In his testimony he recounted the horrible atrocities in great detail: I went into No. 6 Hsinkai Road36 and was shown around by an old maternal grandmother of many of these children who were killed. Only two children escaped out of the thirteen people in that house. A little girl of about eight or possibly nine told me the story, who had been through the whole thing and was stabbed in the back twice. I photographed the wounds in her back which had healed at that time. This thing had taken place when the Japanese soldiers first came into the city. About thirty soldiers had come to the door and knocked. The owner of the house, a Mohammedan I think, open the door; they killed him instantly. Then they killed the Chinese who was kneeling behind him. Then the owner of the house’s wife. Then they went through into a little open court to a side room where there was – They went into this room to the side of the court and there grabbed and started to strip two young girls, fourteen and sixteen. The paternal grandmother of these children threw her arms around one girl to protect her and they killed the grandmother. She was seventy-four years old. Her husband, seventy-six years old, sprang to his wife and threw his arms about her, and they killed him. They then raped these girls I don’t know how many times, and killed them, and the old maternal grandmother who was showing me around brought me a bamboo stick that she said had been taken – I think she took it herself because she was the first one back – from the vagina of one of those girls. The little girl, too, was in that same room and her either brother or sister about four – the child was in boy’s clothes but that isn’t proof – it was a girl – and I say this girl was stabbed twice. In another room, off the same larger courtyard, the mother was hiding under a bed with her one year old child. They raped the woman and then killed her and also the one year old baby, and when the body was found there was a bottle pushed into the vagina of the woman. The little girl told me of another murder of a child, I don’t know what age, that was cut down through the head with a sword. The bodies had been carried out of the building by the time I got there, which was possibly six weeks afterwards, but the blood was spattered everywhere, and if my moving picture camera – if I had had colored film it would have shown blood spattered on the table where one of the girls was raped and on the floor where another person was killed. The old woman took me out to an open space near the house and unrolled a covering – it was a bamboo covering – from the bodies of the fourteen year old girl, the sixteen year old girl, and the mother who was this old woman’s daughter, and one year old baby. (pp. 3894, 3910–3923.)

On August 29, the prosecution presented a series of evidence concerning Japanese military atrocities in Nanjing. Prosecutor Sutton read the written affidavits by Lewis S. C. Smythe, George A. Fitch, Shui Fang Tsen, (程瑞芳), and James H.  McCallum, along with his December 1937 to January 1938 diary entries, as well as the written statements by atrocity survivors and witnesses, Sun Yuanzhen (孫遠震, Sun Yuen-cheng), Li Disheng (李滌生, Lee Tih-sung), Lu Shenshi (陸沈

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氏, Loh Sung Sze), Wu Jingcai (吴經才, Woo King Zai), Zhu Yongweng (朱勇翁, Chu Yong Ung) and Zhang Jixiang (張繼祥, Chang Chi Hsiang), Ha Duxin (哈篤 信, Hu Tu Sin), Wang Chenshi (王陳氏, Wong Chen Sze), Wu Junqing (吴君清, Wu Zah Tsing), Yuan Wangshi (袁王氏, Yien Wang Sze), Wang Panshi (王潘氏, Wong Pan Sze), Wu Zhangshi (吴張氏, Woo Chang Sze), and Chen Jiashi (陳賈 氏, Chen Kia Sze). These survivor and witness accounts provide vivid descriptions of residents’ sufferings amidst Japanese atrocities in Nanjing and their pains of losing family members to Japanese brutality right in front of their eyes. In his statement, Li Disheng gave an account of his personal experiences in December 1937: About the 15th of December 1937, at about 8 o’clock in the morning I came out of a grocery store at North Tsu Sze An No. 46, and I saw two Jap soldiers coming towards me. The Japs were drafting Chinese civilians into a labor gang and I could see that they already had gathered up a gang of about 30 Chinese civilians. The Japs ordered me to stop, at the time I had a rice bowel in my hand and I stooped over to lay the bowel on a plank, – the Japs did not like my not stopping at once and they slapped me in the face and made me join the labor gang. We have marched to Hsing Chung Gate, Shakwan, and ordered to remove the sand bags that had been piled up in front of the gate by the Government Troops during the war, to block the way of the Japs. The first day passed without anything happening. On the second day I went to work again and there I saw three of civilians working in the gang shot to death by the Japs, because they did not understand very well what the Japs had ordered them to do. Then I made up my mind to run away after I had finished the day’s work…. On about the 23rd of December I was living in a house on Peiping Road, and at about 9 o’clock in the morning two Jap Officers and a few other Jap soldiers came to our street with a Chinese and had this Chinese do the talking for them. The Japs ordered all of the people in the neighborhood to come out of their houses and then had this Chinese tell them that they were all required to take out residence certificates from the Japs. These people were also told that those that had previously worked for the Chinese Army and those who were fit to do some military service and those who had been drafted into the Chinese labor gangs should step forward, they were told that these people would be taken care of by the Japs. They could work for the Japs and that they would be paid for their work, provided with shelter and would be allowed to go home at any time they wanted to quit the services of the Japs. About fifty to sixty persons then stepped forward in the line. Most of these people were homeless and jobless and thought the Japanese would do what they had promised to do. I then went to my home and watched from an upstairs window. I saw the Japs march these fifty or sixty men to the other end of the street known as – it is skipped in this translation. All of these fifty or sixty men were lined up in a vacant lot alongside of a pond of water. They were all machine gunned to death. I saw one still alive and struggling and then the Japs sprayed gasoline on all of them and burned them all. (pp. 4485–4487)

Ha Duxin survived because he did not have callouses on his hands, but a noodle maker was shot dead because he had them on his right hand: On 14th of December I saw a Japanese shoot a civilian and kill him because he had callous marks on his right hand. They claimed that this indicated he was a soldier, and the callous came from handling a rifle. However, the man was a civilian who made noodles. I was examined for the same reason, but had no callous marks on my hands. The shooting happened in the yard of a house where I was staying at the time. I saw a Chinese woman dragged into a house by two Japanese soldiers. She was crying at the time, and attempted to resist. I also saw a Japanese some two weeks later dragging a

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girl about thirteen years old into a house and was told afterward that the girl had been raped there. (p. 4496)

Wang Chenshi testified that her husband had been murdered while attempting to protect her from rape: My husband was killed by the Japanese on December 26, 1937 four Japanese soldiers came to my home (No. 1 Yang Chu Hong) about four in the afternoon. They were about to rape me and three of them forcibly unclothed me, as to upper part of my apparel, and at that time my husband came to protect me and he was instantly kicked to death. My children were in the same room, and were crying. My children were 2 months and 4 years of age. They did not rape me after killing my husband but left the house. (p. 4498)

Chen Jiashi lost several of her family members to Japanese atrocities on the first day of Japanese entry into the city: The first date the Japanese entered NANKING, they fired and burnt our home, and we were proceeding to the refugee camp. There were the following in the party, my mother-in-law, my brother37 and his wife, two children of mine, and my brother-in-law’s two children, aged 5 and 2 years of age. As we were proceeding and came to a place called LAO WONG FOU, in Nanking City, we were met by twelve Japanese soldiers, including two officers, who wore swords. One of the soldiers wearing a sword, whom I thought was an officer, grasped my sister-in-law, and raped her and then killed in the presence of her husband and children, who were killed at the same time. The husband was killed for trying to defend his wife and the two children were killed because they wept when their mother was being raped. The five year girl was suffocated by having her clothing stuffed in her mouth, and the boy was bayoneted. Their father and mother were both bayoneted and thereby killed. My mother-in-law was also bayoneted and died twelve days later. I fell to the ground, and escaped later with my two children. This all happened about 10 o’clock in the morning, and in broad daylight on the streets of Nanking. I was an eyewitness of all this. I went to the refugee camp, and on the way saw many corpses women and civilian men. The women had their apparel pulled up, and looked like they had been raped. I saw about twenty, mostly women. (pp. 4506–4507)

The document No. 1741 is the statement by Wang Jiangshi (王江氏, Wong Kiang Sze), admitted by the court as prosecution Exhibit No. 315. The statement was not read in court and is therefore not included in the court transcripts: Statement of Mrs. Wong Kiang Sze, Aged 66 I am a resident of Nanking and was a resident when the Japanese first captured the city. My son and son-in-law were with me when the son-in-law was shot and killed and my son taken away and never returned since that time. My son-in-law was an accountant and my son was a clerk in the courts. My son-in-law was in the refugee zone when shot by the Japanese and neither he nor my son were soldiers, or in the military service. I begged on my knees that my son-in-law be spared, but it was no use. There were five or six Japanese soldiers in the crowd, and one or two had swords. They gave no reason whatever for the shooting. The son-in-law was 46, and my son was 41 at the time. I am a widow of 66 years of age. I saw piles of dead bodies in Nanking at this time although I did not see anyone else killed in my presence.38

Prosecutor Sutton then continued with some of the Nanjing Safety Zone documents before he presented “Report by the Chief Prosecutor of the Nanking District Court,” tallying the number of victims of Japanese atrocities in Nanjing, along with the statistical charts tallying bodies buried by Chong Shan Tang burial squads and

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the Red Swastika Society. In addition, Sutton read “The Statement made by Lu Su (魯甦) to the Procuratorate of the District Court of Nanking.” Upon entry of Nanking, Chinese civilians of both sexes and of all ages, as well as retreating soldiers, totaling 57,418, were interned by Japanese in the villages at Mu-Fu Hill. Many died since neither water nor food was given. Many were frozen to death. In the evening of Dec. 16th, 1937, those who were still alive were marched off to Tsao-Shie-Chia, at Shia-­ Kuen while each two were bound together by lead wire. There they were machine-gunned, followed by repeated bayonet thrusts. Corpses were burnt by kerosene and, at last, the remains of the burnt corpses were thrown into the river. In this large-scale massacre were two men who escaped alive, one by the name of FONG, Sergeant of Training Head Corps, the other by the name of KUO, a police of the Pacification Corps. Fong and Kuo managed to loosen the wire bound, then they fell on the ground, pretending death, and dragged corpses to cover themselves. But Fong was wounded in his left arm by bayonet, and Kuo had his back burned black. Fong and Kuo escaped to Ta-Mao-Tung, at Shang-Yuen Gate, where I, Lu Su, found plain clothes for them to change into, after which, they slipped away by crossing the river at Pa-Kwa-Chun. (I was then working in the Police Office. During street fighting, a shell wounded my leg. When hiding at Ta-Mao-Tung, at Shang-Yuen Gate, very near the scene of massacre, I was therefore able to witness this tragedy.)39

The prosecution next presented “Summary Report on the Investigation of Japanese War Crimes committed in Nanking, prepared by the Prosecutor of the District Court, Nanking,” with excerpts of the document read by Prosecutor Sutton. The document indicates that the “materials investigated up to this time discloses more than 300,000 killed.” (p. 4546) Since the day the enemy entered the city, more than 200,000 were murdered, and those who had not retreated were killed wherever they encountered the enemy. Those who tried to hide were captured and killed with swords. Moreover, in order to assemble the prisoners for odd jobs, they were forcibly taken away in trucks to unknown places, and nothing has been heard of them for about eight years. The manner in which they were probably killed is still unknown. (pp. 4542–4543)

In addition to murders and killings, the document stipulates other atrocities: C. Particulars Concerning Rape. The victims of rapes ranged from young girls to old women 60 to 70 years old. The forms of assaults are as follows: One woman would frequently be assaulted by a number of soldiers. A woman was killed for refusing intercourse. For amusement, a father was forced to assault his daughter. In another case, a boy was forced to assault his sister. An old man was forced to assault his son’s wife. Breasts were torn off, and women were stabbed in the bosoms. Chins were smashed, and teeth knocked out. Such hideous scenes are unbearable to watch. D. Particulars Regarding Plunder. Shops and residences were searched for clothes, utensils and treasures. Goods found were all carried away. E. Particulars Regarding Destruction. In the course of entering the city, the enemy not only destroyed planes and weapons, but also set fire to house everywhere. Great damage was inflicted, and the losses of the citizens are too numerous to be counted. (pp. 4544–4545)

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On both August 29 and 30, Sutton also read excerpts of American and German diplomatic documents, which provide detailed information and descriptions of the atrocities committed by Japanese troops in Nanjing.

12.2.2  Testimonies by the Defense Witnesses During the lengthy process of trial, a long succession of defense witnesses took the stand as well. Those who either appeared in court, provided written affidavits, or their interrogation or inquiry records were read, concerning the Nanjing Massacre case, include Iwane Matsui (松井石根), commander-in-chief of Central China Expeditionary Force, Akira Muto (武藤章), deputy chief of staff of Central China Expeditionary Force, Mamoru Iinma (飯沼守), chief of staff of Shanghai Expeditionary Force, Mitsuo Nakasawa (中澤三夫), chief of staff of the 16th Division, Yasuto Nakayama (中山寧人), staff officer of Central China Expeditionary Force, Kazue Sakakibara (榊原主計), staff officer of Shanghai Expeditionary Force, Koji [Hirotsugu] Tsukamoto (塚元廣次), chief of Judicial Department of Shanghai Expeditionary Force, Sekijiro Ogawa (梶川碩次郎), chief of the Legal Affairs Section of the 10th Army, Jiro Wakizaka (胁坂次郎), commander of the 36th Regiment, the 9th Division, Takashi Nishijima (西島剛), commander of the 1st Battalion of the 19th Infantry Regiment under the 9th Division, Yoshihide Ouchi (樱内義秀), acting commander of the 7th Battalion of the 9th Mountain Artillery Regiment under the 9th Division, Hiroshi Osugi (小杉 宏), leader of the Observation Section of the 1st Battalion of the 3rd Artillery Regiment under the 3rd Division, Itaro Ishii (石射猪太郎), director of the Bureau of East Asiatic Affairs, Foreign Ministry, Shinrokuro Hidaka (日高信六郎), consul-general at Shanghai, Nobubumi Ito (伊藤信文), minister-at-large in China, and Matsui’s lifelong friend and confident Takashi Okada (岡田尚). Iwane Matsui took the witness stand on November 24, 1947. Defense attorney Floyd J. Mattice read Matsui’s written affidavit. In section 5 under the title “Measures taken at the time of capture of Nanking and the so-called cases of plunder and outrages in Nanking,” he stated: Notwithstanding my scrupulous care in capturing Nanking, in the busy and unsettled condition at that time it may have been some excited young officers and men committed unpleasant outrages, and it was to my great regret and sorrow that I, afterward, heard rumors of such misconduct. At the time of capturing Nanking I was sick in bed at Soochow, some 140 miles away, and I was unaware of any such outrages committed contrary to my orders and received no reports thereof. After entering Nanking on 17 December, I heard about it for the first time, from the Commander of the Kempei unit, and I, at once, ordered every unit to investigate thoroughly and to punish the guilty men …… On the 19th I inspected through the city accompanied by 15 or 16 officers and men, but fires had already been put out and the streets were calm, with many refugees returning to their homes. We saw only about twenty dead Chinese troops lying on the streets and the order within the city was generally being restored. …

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In short, during my stay in Shanghai after the fall of Nanking until February, 1938, the only thing I heard was a rumor towards the end of December 1937 to the effect that there were some cases of illegal acts in Nanking but I had received no official report about such fact. I hereby definitely state that the U.S. Army’s broadcast in Tokyo after the war’s end concerning the alleged large-scale massacre and outrage as has been asserted by the prosecution in this Court was the first time that I ever heard anything about it. After I heard the broadcast I tried to investigate the activities of our Army subsequent to our capture of Nanking, however, the responsible persons at that time were already dead or detained and punished overseas, while the documents concerned were destroyed by fire. It is impossible to go back ten years and investigate and study the true situation in detail. It is possible that a great number of Chinese soldiers and civilians were killed or wounded by bombs, artillery shells and rifle bullets during the Nanking campaign, but I do believe that there is not a bit of truth in the prosecution charge that there were cases of planned massacre in the fight of Nanking. Nothing can be further from the truth that the slander that the staff of the Japanese Army ordered or tolerated the above deeds. In view of the situation at that time, it is needless to say that I did everything in my power as commander of the Central China Area Army to take measures to prevent the occurrence of such unfortunate incidents to give severe punishment to the guilty and to compensate for the damages. However, it is to my great regret that the result was not perfect due to the hectic condition of wartime.40

Prosecutor Brigadier Nolan then conducted an extensive and lengthy cross examination on Matsui, which is quoted in part as follows: Q. On page 9 of your affidavit, about the middle of the page, you say that some excited young officers and men may have committed unpleasant outrages in Nanking. Was there an answer? A. Yes, I said so. I did not see it with my own eyes, but I know of it from reports. Q. Now, what were these unpleasant outrages? A. Rape, looting, forceful seizure of materials. Q. And murder? A. That, also. Q. And from whom did you receive these reports? A. From the gendarmerie. Q. Now, you explained to us that at the time of capturing Nanking you were ill in bed at Soochow, 140 miles away, and were unaware of the outrages committed. How did you hear that Nanking had fallen. A. From reports. Q. From whom? A. From the Commander of the Army. Q. And, who was he? A. From the reports of the Commander of the Shanghai Expeditionary Force, who was then General Prince Asaka, and from the Commander of the 10th Army, Lieutenant General Yanagama. Q. The fact is that these two Army Commanders kept you in close touch with the progress of the operations, did they not? A. Yes. Q. And, you tell us that you heard about the outrages after entering Nanking on 17th of December from the Commander of the Kempei Unit. Did you receive reports from any other persons after you entered Nanking? A. When I went to the Japanese Consulate, I heard reports – stories of similar nature from the consul. …

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Q. What did you hear? A. I heard from the Japanese consul at Nanking that among the officers and men of the Japanese Army, which had entered Nanking, were some who had committed outrages. … Q. How long did the atrocities go on in Nanking, General Matsui? Do you know? A. I don’t know. I think most of the outrages were committed immediately after our entry into Nanking. Q. You heard the evidence of the witness Magee at page 3,922 and of the witness Bates at page 2,644 of the record in which they said they went on for about six weeks after the fall of the city. Did you know about that? A.  I heard their testimony given before this Tribunal, but I don’t believe it. (pp. 33,849–33,859)

Akira Muto was interrogated on April 19 and 22, 1946. However, only the latter concerns the Nanjing Massacre case. Excerpts of the April 22 interrogation record were read by prosecutor Pedro Lopez on January 24, 1947: Q. Do you attribute it to coincidence the fact that you were the Deputy Chief of Staff of General Yamashita when the rape of Manila happened? A. In the case of Nanking, two battalions were to enter the city. However, the whole army entered within the walls, thereby resulting in the rape of Nanking. In the case of Manila, … Q. Has it troubled your conscience to find that so many women and children were either killed or raped, either in China and the Philippines? A. After the atrocities in Nanking and Manila, and being a member of the General Staff at both incidents, I felt that something was lacking in the Japanese military education. Q. What do you think is lacking in military education? A. The troops that committed the atrocities in Nanking and Manila were men mobilized in a hurry, and they were not trained properly in military education. Q. When did you come across that book written by an American on the rape of Nanking? A. I have not seen the book, but I merely heard that such a book was printed in America. … Q. Were you not ashamed as professional soldier that such a state of things should find itself in a book indicating against your army? A. I felt that it was a shame to the Japanese troops. … Q. When you heard in 1938 about the book mentioning about the rape of Nanking, did you not discuss the matter informally with other officers in a higher echelon? A. There were no discussions. Q. You mentioned about informal discussions about atrocities committed in China. Of what did those discussions consist? A.  There were no discussions concerning the rape of Nanking in regards to the published book. However, because the Japanese troops were misbehaving, there were informal discussions.41

Mamoru Iinuma testified as defense witness on November 6, 1947, with defense attorney Floyd Mattice reading his written affidavit before Iinuma was cross examined by prosecutor Brigadier Nolan. In the affidavit, Iinuma stated: 10. I made three inspection tours on each day, December 16, 20, and 31, 1937, but found no corpse in the streets. In the neighborhood of Siakwan I saw scores of bodies of soldiers killed in battle but as for the alleged tens of thousands of slaughtered bodies never did I see them even in a dream. I admit there were small fires but never did I see a case of intentional incendiarism nor receive a report about it. In the city within the castled walls there were a few burnt houses, but nearly all of them remained as they had been. I always gave instruction to Japanese Army to pay careful attention to fire, warning them heavy responsibility for it.

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11. After the entry to Nanking a few cases of plunder and outrage were reported to General Matsui. He regretted that these unlawful acts were done despite of his repeated instructions. He instructed the officers to do their best to prevent the occurrence of misdeed and insisted on a severe punishment on lawlessness. …… A few soldiers removed articles of furniture privately and some removed articles of furniture belonging to foreigners, but the matter was settled by returning the articles in question to their owners or by compensating for the loss, the offenders being punished. … Q. If you please look at paragraph 10, you will see that you make reference to the neighborhood of Siakwan where you saw scores of bodies of soldiers killed in battle. A. Yes. Q. Where is Siakwan, General Iinuma? A. It is outside the city walls of Nanking, to the west, on the banks of the Yangtze River. … Q. Did you know that the foreign residents had complained? A. I did not know whether the foreign residents had protested, but I heard of incidents such as the stealing of a piano or of an automobile after the incidents had occurred and took appropriate measures. … Q. Did you hear of any cases of murder or rape? A. Yes. Not of murder though. Q. Of rape. When did you hear of that? A. I don’t remember that date. Anyway, it was after our headquarters moved into Nanking. Q. And how long was that after the fall of the city? A. It was after the 25th or 26th of December. Q. Well, General Matsui knew about these before you did, according to your affidavit; is that a fact? A. I believe that is possible.42

Mitsuo Nagasawa was on the witness stand on November 6, 1947, and Floyd Mattice read his written affidavit, in which he testified: 4. The 16th Division, which reached the walls of Nanking at Chungshanmen at the dawn of December 13, 1937, sent in about two battalions into the city and had them sweep the area previously indicated, that is the area embracing R[T]aipingshan, Shanyuen-men, Hsiakwan and Chungshan Road. The sweeping was continued on the next day also. On the fifteenth of December the 16th Division headquarters and a small unit entered the city, but no inhabitants had evacuated from the area under the charge of the division. On December 23rd dispositions of troops were changed. A part of the 16th Division was given new disposition of guarding the inside and outside of the city, substituting another unit which entered the city previously, and remained in Nanking until about January 20th of the following year. 5. The refugees’ area became, after the change of disposition of December 23rd, included in the garrison district of the 16th Division. The area was marked out clearly at the time of entry and was guarded strictly simultaneously with the entry and even officers were not permitted to go in or out this area unless they had special permission. … And yet when we made our sweep inside the city limits of Nanking, there were no Chinese to be seen with the exception of the refugee area. Therefore, being unable to trust that all the inhabitants in the refugees’ area were peaceable citizens, the necessity of investigating the inhabitants of the area came about. 8. Thus, a Sino-Japanese Joint Commission was organized on Dec. 25th to investigate the inhabitants. The method of investigation was to interrogate or inspect the Chinese one by one in the presence of both Japanese and Chinese and judge whether he was a straggler or not by consultation of the Japanese soldiers and the Chinese committee; for the general people, certificates of residence were issued. Those who were determined to be stragglers

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were turned over to the Headquarters of the Shanghai Expeditionary Force. Accordingly, it is indeed not true that they were slaughtered. …… I never did hear of any organized or mass plundering. Needless to say it is absolutely without fact that the Headquarters ordered, connived, or permitted such illegal acts. … It is true that the Japanese troops could not at once identify the existence of foreign flags as being synonymous of foreign interests with confidence, and sometimes they could not help raiding places that impressed them as being dangerous. It is regrettable that these raids gave rise to all kinds of complications. 12. There is no such fact that organized rapes were committed by Japanese soldiers. There were a few scattered offenses concerning discipline as I recall, but I know they were all punished in accordance with the laws. 13. The places where buried bodies were said to have been found according to the evidence presented by the prosecution are those places where the Chinese troops had built positions and defended themselves as in the case of the area between ‘Chungshan Men’ and ‘Ma-Gun’ or places where there were facilities for the receiving of the dead and wounded from their positions as in the case of Taiping-Men Fukueishan and the vicinity. It is a fact that many of the soldiers of both sides were killed in these areas. But never was there any mass butchery committed at these places. … It is absolutely not true that illegal and violent acts of the Japanese troops were frightening the inhabitants at that time. (pp. 32,623–32,630)

Then, Nagasawa’s affidavit was challenged by prosecutor Nolan: Q. In paragraph 13 of your affidavit, in speaking about places where bodies were buried, you refer to evidence presented by the prosecution. What evidence are you referring to? A. I have forgotten the number of the document, but it is a document which was published by the charitable – which originated from the charitable organization in Nanking. Q. Well, are you suggesting that the numbers of bodies buried were the bodies of soldiers who fell in the fighting within the walls of Nanking? A. Yes. Not merely within the city walls, but the great number of them were found in the fortified areas immediately outside the city walls. Q. And were there women and children amongst the number? A. What do you mean by that? Q. Well, in the number of dead that were picked up according to the evidence of the prosecution there were women and children. Were these killed outside the wall? A. Since I am not testifying that I saw these bodies myself, I do not know. …………… Q. Who were the Chinese members of the commission that was organized after the entry into Nanking? A. I do not remember. Q. What happened to the Chinese stragglers who were turned to the headquarters of the Shanghai Expeditionary Force? A. They were treated as prisoners of war. Q. Were they tried for any offenses? A.  That is a matter for superior headquarters. I do not know what happened later. (pp. 32,641–32,644)

As a defense witness, Yasuto Nakayama was called to give testimony on May 5 and 12, 1947. Defense attorney Ito read his written affidavit. The parts most relevant to the Nanjing Massacre are as follows: Later, we heard that the committee had protested against the atrocities committed by the Japanese soldiers within these quarters. However, their protest did not reach the Central

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China Area Army Headquarters. Even granting that there were such illegal acts there, protests had to be offered to the Japanese Consulate which was to establish communication with the Special Service Organs, and the Shanghai Expeditionary Army Headquarters which had had direct responsibility for guarding Nanking. Despite this, there were no information from the Shanghai Expeditionary Army to the Central China Area Army and ­therefore neither Commander Matsui nor Staff Department knew the above-mentioned protests. Unlawful acts by the Japanese soldiers, if any, had to be investigated and court-martialed and only the results were to be reported to the Central China Area Army Headquarters. … 19. Before and after the ceremony for the entry into the walled city of Nanking was held, I went to Nanking and carried out inspections in the city. On those occasions I saw no dead or massacred bodies of the Chinese civilians except about one hundred dead bodies near Hsiakwan, and about thirty near Asia Park, which looked like Chinese soldiers. I hear that there were about five thousand prisoners of war in Nanking. But they have never been massacred, but they have gradually been released on the other side of the Yangtze, according to the information received from both armies.43

Prosecutor David N. Sutton cross examined Nakayama on May 12 and 13, 1947: Q. Is it not a fact that after Nanking fell, all armed resistance within the city ceased? A. Yes, I think that the armed resistance ceased on the morning of the 13th. … Q. At how many places in the city of Nanking did you see dead bodies? A. Two places. … Q. And did you not learn that there were bodies of thousands of dead civilians on the banks of the Yangtze River, where they had been shot by Japanese soldiers? A. Absolutely not. Q. Did you see Chinese civilians tied together being marched along the streets of Nanking by Japanese soldiers? A. No. Q. And did you not learn that groups of civilians of more than one thousand each were taken from the safety zones, marched to the banks of the Yangtze, and mowed down by machine gun fire by Japanese soldiers? A. I have never at any time seen or learned of anything like that, and I do not believe that such is a fact. … Q. Is it not a fact that the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone made daily reports and sometimes several reports on the same day to the consular authorities relative to the atrocities committed by Japanese troops in Nanking? A. Yes, I learned of that much later. Q. And in addition to those reports did not Dr. Bates on behalf of the University of Nanking and Mr. John H.  D. Rabe and John G.  Magee and others make reports to the consular authorities concerning the atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers in Nanking? A. I learned of those facts later through somebody else. … Q. You stated that soldiers were not permitted to enter these quarters without special permits. Did not soldiers repeatedly enter the safety zones in the daytime and night time and carry off women and girls to be debauched? A. I don’t think that is true. … Q. Was it not the policy of the Central China Expeditionary Forces to seek out disarmed Chinese soldiers and when found to shoot them? A.  The Central China Expeditionary Forces never adopted any such policy. (pp. 21,918–21,940)

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Koji [Hirotsugu] Tsukamoto, who appeared in court on May 6, 1947 as a defense witness, provided his testimony from the perspective of chief of the Judicial Department of the Shanghai Expeditionary Force: After the entry into Nanking, unlawful acts were committed by Japanese troops, and I remember Commander Matsui calling all officers together and telling them of the occurrence of such cases and giving strict orders for the maintenance of military discipline with the greatest severity. Four or five officers were involved in the above cases, and the rest were mostly trifling ones committed by privates. The kinds of crimes were chiefly plunder, rape, etc., while the cases of theft and injury were few, and the cases of death caused by those very few, to the best of my knowledge. I remember there were a few murder cases, but have no memory of having punished incendiaries or dealt with mass slaughter criminals. The above crimes were committed at different places, but a considerable number of cases, I believe, took place in the refugees’ quarters in Nanking. (p. 21,563)

In comparison with previous defense witnesses, Itaro Ishii was most candid in his testimony. He took the stand as a defense witness on October 3, 1947. In his written affidavit, he stated: Our forces made a triumphant entry into Nanking about December 13. Following that our acting Consul-General at Nanking (Fukui Makoto), returned to his post there from Shanghai. His first report to the Foreign Office from Nanking was about the atrocities of our troops there. This telegraphic report was transmitted without delay to the Director of the Bureau of the Military Affairs, War Office. At that time, the Foreign Minister, being alarmed and worried about the matter, urged me that some step or other should be taken quickly to suppress such disgraceful deeds. I told him in reply that a copy of the telegraphic report had already been transmitted to the War Office, and that I intended to warn the military authorities against the deeds at the coming liaison conference of the War Office, the Ministry of the Navy and the Foreign Office. …… On that occasion, I brought forward the problem of atrocities, reminded the Chief of the Foreign Section, Bureau of Military Affairs, War Office, of the high ideal of “Holy War” and the glorious name of “Imperial Army”, and demanded to take strict measures to stop them immediately. The military delegate shared my feelings and acceded to my demand. Shortly after that, a written report of the acting Consul-General at Nanking reached the Foreign Office. It was a detailed account, typewritten in English, of the atrocities of our troops, drawn up by an international security committee consisting of representatives of the residents of the third powers in Nanking. Our Consul-General at Nanking had obtained a copy of it, and sent it to the Foreign Office. I read the report through closely and reported the outline of the matter to the Foreign Minister. On the occasion of the following liaison conference I showed the report in question to the Chief of the First Section, Bureau of the Military Affairs, War Office, and repeated my demand, in compliance with the will of the Foreign Minister. The military delegate told me in answer that a strict warning had already been given to the Nanking Occupation Force. From that time onward the cases of atrocities grew less. … Foreign Minister HIROTA, as I was told, requested War Minister SUGIYAMA to take strict measures promptly with regard to the case of Nanking atrocities; I was informed of the fact by Foreign Minister HIROTA at that time. At the same time I made the same request to the competent authorities of the War Office.44

Itaro Ishii was cross-examined by prosecutor Comyns Carr: Q. Now, in the last sentence of the same paragraph you say that from that time, that is, after the military delegate had told you that he had sent a warning, the cases of atrocities grew

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less. Do you not know that, in fact, from those reports, they continued as bad as ever down to the end of the first week of February, 1938? A. Yes, I do remember that. But what I point out in my affidavit, that such cases grew less – that they were much less than on the large scale in which such acts were committed at the time of the occupation and entry into the city. Q. Did you not receive a report dated the 2nd of February, 1938, reporting no less than 70 cases of rape, murder, arson and robbery which had taken place in Nanking in the four days, January 28, 29, 30 and 31? A. I do not remember the date of the receipt of such a report nor as to the period of time covered, referring to – in connection with these acts. I do recall, however, receiving a document reporting something over 70 such cases. … The President: Did you take the view that the Acting Consul-General’s report called for immediate attention and immediate action in view of its nature? The Witness: Yes. The President: Was it given immediate attention and immediate action taken? The Witness: The report was transmitted to the army immediately after its receipt from Nanking. Then soon after – when I say soon after, that means about two or three days later – I sponsored at my office a liaison conference among section chiefs of the Military Affairs Bureau and passed on this matter, calling their attention to this grave matter. The President: Having regard to the nature of the report, can you say whether or not the warning was immediately given? The Witness: This is only my supposition but I think that the army took the matter up immediately. … Q. When you received these later reports wasn’t it obvious to you that the warning said to have been given by the Army was having no effects? A. Yes, I had the impression that the warning issued by the Central Army authorities was not thoroughly taking effect. … Q. Now, did HIROTA bring this matter before the cabinet? A. I have not heard that it was presented to the cabinet. However, Foreign Minister HIROTA referred the question to the War Minister. I heard this directly from the Foreign Minister at that time. I should like to clarify that a little further. Foreign Minister HIROTA requested the War Minister to take up the matter. Correction. The Foreign Minister took up the question with the War Minister – so I was told by the Foreign Minister then. Q. But you have told me that the reports continued to come in from Nanking that the atrocities were continuing after that? A. Yes. Q. Did HIROTA take any further steps when you reported that to him? A. I don’t think that Foreign Minister HIROTA took up this question with the War Minister frequently or many times. I think it was once or twice. … Q. And did you not know that the responsibility was on the government and not on the commanders in the field for the treatment of prisoners? A. I can’t quite comprehend the point in the question. Q. Now, according to your information, was any responsible person ever punished for these atrocities? A. I have not heard. Q. Did HIROTA ever take any steps to secure the punishment of the responsible person? A. I should think Foreign Minister HIROTA discussed that matter with the War Minister. Q. Did he bring that matter up in the cabinet? A. I have not heard the matter being submitted to the cabinet. … Q.  Mr. ISHII, when you received these reports from Nanking, did you and the Foreign Office accept them at face value?

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A. We considered most of them to be facts. However, yes, generally speaking we accepted them at face value, although there were many points of duplication between reports received from foreign sources, which also included reports from the Chinese, and we believed that there might have been, or there may be, duplication in the reports both from foreign sources and from Chinese sources. But we generally took these at face value. (pp. 29,977–29,995)

Another Japanese diplomat, Shinrokuro Hidaka, appeared in court as a defense witness on May 5, 1947. He was stationed in Shanghai, but from time to time, he made trips to Nanjing during the massacre period, and in his written affidavit, he revealed his observations as well his point of view: Reports on anything wrong already done by Japanese soldiers were submitted to the Consulate-General by foreign residents. Most of those reports were based on hearsay, however, and since the Consulate-General had not time enough to investigate each of them the reports were sent to the Foreign Ministry, Tokyo, (I read through some of the copies in Shanghai) and to the Army in Nanking. It seemed the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo gave notice of these reports to the War Ministry. (3) I went to Nanking several times during that period and each time I went I heard reports from the Nanking Consulate-General. I saw existing conditions and talked with foreign residents. I submitted written report of those items to the Foreign Ministry, and made the same report orally to Foreign Minister HIROTA and other Foreign Ministry Staff members when I returned home for instructions at the end of January 1938. Then I heard whenever reports were submitted from the officials on the spot the authorities in Tokyo called the attention of the Army to them. It was due to this fact, as I said before, that the Army Central Headquarters sometimes gave directives about this to Army officials on the scene. Furthermore, I knew that in early February Major General Honma, the chief of the General Staff Office Division, went to Nanking. He told me that, though the purpose of his trip was chiefly concerned with problems of foreign relations, there were other matters concerning the Chinese people. … It was due to the propaganda of the Chinese Army and authorities that anti-Japanese feelings were generally strong. Even the few old men, women and children who had remained in the occupied area acted as spies, sabotaged, or attacked Japanese soldiers in the dark. By those acts the activities of Japanese Army were greatly hampered. Japanese soldiers at first tried to treat civilians with kindness, taking them as quite apart from military men. As a matter of fact, however, confronted with such an attitude on the part of the inhabitants there rose among the Japanese soldiers a feeling of hostility and an attitude of suspicious watchfulness.45

After his lengthy affidavit was read by defense attorney Mattice, prosecutor Tavenner made a statement: “If it please the Tribunal, apart from certain admissions valuable to the prosecution, the affidavit contains statements so completely at variance with the mass of our oral testimonies and documentary evidence on the rape of Nanking that we consider it would be a waste of time to cross-examine on it or to refer the Tribunal to the whole of that evidence.” (p. 21,465). Takashi Okada’s father was an intimate friend of Iwane Matsui, and because of the close relationship, he had been acquainted with Matsui since his childhood. He had studied Chinese language and modern history of China at Toa Lobun Shoin (East Asia’s Common Language College). After graduation, he worked as a lecturer at Shanghai Political Middle School, and was able to maintain constant contact with Matsui. In his affidavit, which was read in court on November 7,

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1947, he revealed a conversation with Matsui when the latter was removed from his commanding post in February 1938: In the middle of February, General MATSUI was ordered home after being discharged from his post as part of the reorganization of the army. He said to us then with a sigh: “It is my great regret to be called home in the middle of my task, which would be a far more honorable mission for us to accomplish than holding the Commandership of the Army  – the task which consists of stopping armed hostilities at the fall of Nanking and concentrating our efforts in the reconciliation with the Chinese Government without extending the fighting line upstream past Nanking, but since my discharge from this post has been commanded by the Emperor, I must obey as a subject should.”46

Apparently, it is in contradiction to what Matsui indicated in his interrogation on March 8, 1946. He was relieved from his commanding duty because of the atrocities in Nanjing, not, as he stated in court, because “I considered my work ended in Nanking and wished to doff my uniform and engage in peaceful pursuits.”47 Okada’s version is closer to the truth, though the real reason is not “part of the reorganization of the army” either.

12.2.3  Summation of the Prosecution After the witnesses of both prosecution and defense testified in court and were cross-examined, the prosecution presented its summation. On February 18, 1948, the section concerning the Nanjing Massacre was read: The Rape of Nanking When Nanking fell on 13 December 1937 all resistance by Chinese Forces within the city ceased. The Japanese soldiers advancing into the city indiscriminately shot civilians on the street. Once the Japanese soldiers had obtained complete command of the city, an orgy of rape, murder, torture and pillage broke out and continued for six weeks. During the first few days over 20,000 persons were executed out of hand by the Japanese. The estimates of the number killed in and around Nanking within six weeks vary from 260,000 to 300,000, all of whom were brutally murdered without trial. The accuracy of these estimates is indicated by the fact that the records of the Red Swastika Society and the TsungShan-Tong shows that these two organizations between them buried over 155,000 bodies. During this same period of six weeks not less than 20,000 women and girls were raped by Japanese soldiery. The defense does not deny the fact of atrocities having taken place at Nanking but it suggests that a number of the atrocities were committed by retreating Chinese soldiers. It also refers to the punishment of those who had committed war crimes by Court Martial. The number of these must have been very few as TSUKAUOTO, Koji, the Prosecutor and Judge for the Central China Expeditionary Forces, said that he handled only ten cases. There is ample evidence that the accused MATSUI, who at that time commanded the Central China Expeditionary Force, knew of the atrocities committed at Nanking. Many reports of atrocities were made to Japanese diplomatic officials in China and these were forwarded by them to the Foreign Office. The Foreign Office forwarded the reports to the War Ministry and the fact of the atrocities having been committed was discussed with War

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Ministry representatives at Liaison Conferences. A whole series of reports, one of them containing a report of over 70 cases of rape, were sent to the Foreign Minister, the accused HIROTA Minami, who was Governor-General of Korea at the time, had read reports about the rape of Nanking in the press. There can be no doubt that the rape of Nanking and the atrocities that occurred there were very well known in official Japanese circles. Foreign newspaper accounts of the atrocities in Nanking and Shanghai were also referred to in the Budget Committee of the House of Peers on the 16th of February 1938. The accused KIDO was present.48

In an attempt to disclose the possible reasons behind the atrocious behaviors of Japanese troops at Nanjing, the summation indicates that “The massacres disclosed by the evidence divide themselves into three classes: The first of these are massacres committed during the course of, or immediately after the completion of, some military operation. The dual policy behind them would appear to be to relieve the army of the embarrassment of guarding prisoners of war and to terrorize their opponents.” (p. 40,085). The summation also provides accounts about the manners or circumstances in which the murders and massacres were carried out, in the section “POW Summation – Appendix A”: (1) Murder and Massacre. 4. Thousands of Chinese in groups which sometimes included former soldiers and sometimes only civilians were massacred by Japanese troops. Civilians were taken by the Japanese troops under the pretext that they had formerly been soldiers, or because they had failed to answer satisfactorily some questions put to them, or for no apparent reason, frequently bound together in groups, marched out of the city, lined up and killed by machinegun fire and their bodies thrown into ponds or the Yangtze River or sprayed with gasoline and set afire. Civilians in untold numbers were murdered by Japanese troops. Murder of men, women and children appeared to be the order of the day for the Japanese soldiers of Nanking for a period of over six weeks following the fall of that city. Any word or action on the part of a civilian which for any reason an individual soldier did not like was sufficient ground for the murder of the individual, and civilians were frequently murdered for no apparent reason except for the sport which the Japanese soldiers enjoyed in killing them. Anyone suspected of having formerly been in the Chinese Army was likewise murdered. (pp. 40,116–40,117)

The summation goes on to quote the testimonies of such witnesses as Robert Wilson, M. S. Bates, John Magee, James McCallum, George Fitch, Shang Teh Yi, Wu Chang Teh, Chen Fu Pao, Liang Ting-Fang, Sun Yuen Cheng, Lu Su, James Espy, and many others, before it focuses on “Torture” and “Rape”: (2) Torture. 32. Indignities of every nature were committed by Japanese soldiers against Chinese civilians although the Chinese civilians were most subject and pitiful in their submissive attitude. They were kicked and beaten, made to stand undressed in the cold, had water poured down their noses, their bodies stabbed and burned, and subjected to all forms of human torture. Upon the discovery of family relationship among the Chinese, a son would be required to have intercourse with his mother, a father with his daughter, a brother with his

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sister, in the presence of and to the delight of the Japanese soldiers. (Report of the Procurator of the District Court of Nanking (R 4543–44) (3) Rape. 33. During the period from December 13, 1937 to February 6, 1938, thousands of Chinese girls and women in Nanking ranging in ages from nine to seventy-seven years of age, were horribly, and in many cases repeatedly raped by Japanese soldiers. John Rabe, Chairman of the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone, in a report to the German Foreign Office, dated January 14, 1938, stated that in the month following the fall of Nanking not less than 20,000 women and girls had been raped by Japanese soldiers (R 4594). Thousands of these women died as the result of mistreatment at the hands of the Japanese, and other thousands were butchered by the Japanese soldiers after they had been repeatedly raped. Japanese soldiers frequently desecrated the bodies of the victims who had been raped and killed, by inserting a stick or bottle or other foreign substance in the female organ and leaving the body exposed to public view. These crimes of violence occurred almost as frequently in the daytime as at night. If members of the family, or even the children of the victims interfered with the lustful conduct of the soldiers, they were horribly beaten or killed on the spot. (pp 40,131–40,133)

About looting and burning, the summation provides the following statement: (4) Robbery, Looting and Wanton Destruction of Property. 46. Pillage by the soldiers and destruction of private property began after the fall of the city and when it was entirely in the hands of the Japanese military forces. Private residences, schools, hospitals, public buildings were entered and personal property of every kind stolen and carried off by the soldiers. After several days of occupation, organized pillages and burning by the soldiers began and continued for some six weeks. Trucks guarded by soldiers would be stopped in front of a store, all of the goods in the store removed by the soldiers or persons directed by them, and then the buildings would be burned. This was repeated block by block, day after day, for a period of four or five weeks. The Y.M.C.A. Building, numerous church buildings, school buildings, public buildings and private residences, including the Russian Embassy, were burned by Japanese soldiers. (p. 40,141)

As to the number of total victims killed by Japanese troops in and around Nanjing, the summation states: (5) Total Number of Persons Killed at Nanking after the Capture of that City. 50. It is impossible definitely to determine the total number of citizens of Nanking killed by Japanese soldiers following the fall of that city. Bodies of civilians killed by the Japanese soldiers littered the streets for weeks. Corpses were lying in doorways, yards, gardens, in public buildings and in private dwellings throughout the city. Huge piles of charred remains beside the ponds and the river indicated where massacres had occurred. Two charity organizations, the Red Swastika Society and the Tsung-Shan-Tong, for months, engaged in burying the dead in and around Nanking, burying only those bodies which the family or friends of the decedent had not buried. 51. The records of the Red Swastika Society, of which Dr. Hsu was Vice-President, show that this society buried 43,071 corpses of civilians – men, women and children – in and around Nanking during the period of several months following the fall of that city (R 4537–40)

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52. The records of the Tsung-Shan-Tong indicate that the total number of victims buried by that organization in the vicinity from 26 December 1937 to 20 April 1938 was 112,266 (R 4537–39). 53. The report of the Chief Prosecutor of the District Court of Nanking, dated 20 January 1946, giving the facts which his investigation had disclosed concerning the conditions in Nanking following the fall of that city summarized as approximately 260,000 the number killed by the Japanese troops in and around Nanking following the fall of that city (R 4536–37). 54. The summary report on the investigations of Japanese war crimes committed in Nanking prepared by the Procurator of the District Court of Nanking in February 1946 determined that at least 300,000 persons were massacred collectively or individually by the Japanese troops in Nanking (R 4542–47). (pp. 40,147–40,148)

12.2.4  Summation of the Defense On April 9, 1948, the defense presented its summation concerning the atrocities committed by Japanese troops in Nanjing: 3. The Alleged Nanking Outrage The Chief Prosecutor, in his opening statement, said that the Nanking occupation by the Japanese forces was characterized by systematic and cruel assaults and tortures against tens of thousands of Chinese women and children, and mass destruction of houses and properties, in excess of military need, which were unprecedented in modern warfare. No doubt there were some outrages. There always are during heavy military actions.49

Concerning the murder and massacre, the summation dodges the issue of mass executing captured or surrendered Chinese soldiers while stating: The excitement and chaotic state of affairs in Nanking, following the armed clashes between Chinese and Japanese troops caused the latter’s suspicion and uneasiness regarding the plain-clothes Chinese soldiers among the Chinese civilians, leading to the possible shooting or killing by the Japanese soldiers of some of the innocent civilian Chinese, through their mistaking the civilians for the plain-clothes soldiers. That there were such unfortunate occurrences is within the realm of possibility. It is an unwarranted assertion, however, to regard those occurrences as part of a planned cruelty purpose. (pp. 47,229–47,230)

Concerning the violations against women, the defense stated: As to the charge of raping, we admit that there were some imprudent youths among the troops then in China, who committed this shameful crime during the existing excitement. Among the cases so reported, some were, however, the result of approach by Chinese girls to the Japanese soldiers. When discovered, they accused the Japanese of forcing them. The Japanese Army was strict in the punishment of violators of women, and it is unthinkable that, though there might have been some who were imprudent enough, it was done systematically by a large number of them. (p. 47,233)

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The defense accused the Chinese of setting fire to the buildings in the city: “The Chinese were, however, imbued with an extreme anti-Japanese feeling, resorted to the scorched earth policy of fire to everything. There were even some girls who were setting fire to dwelling houses in the city after the fall of Nanking.” (p. 47,234). As far as looting is concerned, the defense claimed that: as the supplies from the rear were not arriving rapidly enough, they [Japanese troops] were forced to use private houses as their billets and requisitioned many private citizens’ household articles. … It seems to us that there were persons who saw the scene in which Japanese soldiers were the sole offenders, and their word, we find offered as evidence thereof. They did not, however, see the whole picture of the situation as above mentioned. The requisition the Japanese troops resorted to, was a just, unavoidable act, and not a mass looting. (pp. 47,232–47,233)

In the summation’s “Appendix concerning the Alleged Nanking Atrocities” the defense challenged the burial records and victim toll presented by the prosecution and claimed that many of the corpses were the result of combat actions: The above-mentioned exhibits are said to have been based on information collected in 1946, ten years after the occupation of Nanking by the Japanese troops, and it is not clear on what basic data these tables were made. Especially as to the number of corpses, it would be impossible to establish the number ten years after the occurrence, so we must conclude that the figures are all based on assumption or guesswork. Of course, we can easily imagine that the Chinese troops did their best to defend Nanking, as it was the most important position for them. The Japanese Army fought a desperate fight in capturing Nanking, and the number of the dead on both sides was far more than that in other battles. So it is natural that there should have been many corpses in and out of the wall at that time, but it is a mistake to assume that those corpses were those of the Chinese who were massacred by the Japanese troops. The locations of corpses mentioned in the said affidavits are: vicinities of the principal gates, Yu-hua Tai, Hua-shen Miao, outside of Shui Hsi Men-Shang Ho,50 Chungshan Men-Ma Chun,51 Tung-chi Men-Fangshan52 or Shang-hien Ho and Hsia Kuan, all of which were the key points, where occurred a great number of casualties on both sides. Of the above-mentioned points the ones which lie within the walls of Nanking were the collecting points for the killed and wounded in the rear of the said position, and those bodies were buried in various places in the city. They were not bodies of persons who were massacred by Japanese troops. Furthermore, it is natural that at such defiles as “Tsao-hsie Hsia,” Hanchung Men and Ling-ta Szu, where the mass murdering was said to have been committed, the battles of pursuit and retreat were especially fierce and dreadful. So we can understand how corpses were found there in large numbers.53

While questioning the burial statistics and alleging that some of the body counts were exaggerated, the defense discredited the prosecution witnesses and documentary evidence: “On this point a number of witnesses and much documentary evidence were presented by the prosecution. Among them, however, are found many fictions and groundless stories, exaggerated statements of facts, or definitely sensational propagandistic phrases.” (p. 47,227). The defense also accused the prosecution of presenting affidavits containing exaggerated data, in particular, concerning the victim toll in relation to the population inside the walled city of Nanjing:

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Exhibit No. 327 says that the number massacred after the occupation by the Japanese Army was said to have been more than two hundred thousand. But at the time of the entry, the population inside the walls was actually around two hundred thousand according to evidence on the part of the prosecution, and there is no claim that the entire population was massacred. On the contrary, the evidence shows that the majority of the citizens remained alive. It can be easily surmised that each of these affidavits contain matter exceedingly exaggerated for the purpose of propaganda. (p. 47,271)

In addition, the summation attempts to challenge and discredit the testimony provided by the prosecution witnesses. It claims that M. S. Bates’ “evidence is a vague and unreliable statement and it may well be that he arranged stories told by others and repeated them.” (p. 47,263) As to the testimony offered by John Magee, the defense indicated in the summation: The things mentioned in his evidence, except the above five cases, were based upon nothing more than that he saw many Chinese gathered for some purposes or upon hearsay. His figures are inaccurate and no mention is made as to the place or name. Therefore, they are not reliable. He also stated that the streets were packed with dead bodies and traffic was blocked. But according to the statement made by the witnesses for the defense, none of them had seen so many corpses. The Japanese Army made the so-called clearance of the battlefield immediately after the formal entry to the city and scarcely a single corpse was seen when General MATSUI arrived on December 17. (p. 47, 264)

However, American Vice Consul, James Espy, who entered Nanjing on January 6, 1938, more than three weeks after the city fell, reported: We were informed by Japanese themselves on the day of our arrival at Nanking that many bodies had to be cleaned up the day before. However bodies are still to be seen in houses, in ponds and along the sides of by-streets. We have been informed by an American citizen that a house containing fourteen Chinese in the south city was entered by Japanese soldiers. He said he saw the bodies of eleven persons, the women amongst whom were said to have been raped before being killed. Two small children and one other alone survived. A small pond nearby the Embassy was dragged the other day for corpses. It disgorged some twenty or thirty bodies of Chinese dressed in civilian clothing.54

Both George Fitch and James McCallum provided written affidavits on prosecution behalf. The defense alleged, McCallum’s “statement is all hearsay, being based upon alleged information obtained from others, or his imagination, and it is clear that he did not witness Japanese soldiers committing any of the things mentioned.”55 Fitch’s affidavit is discredited as “very abstract and sensational” and he “merely indulged in the conclusion that the men he saw marched off were to be shot. He did not say they were shot. No doubt he saw the corpses, but there is no evidence showing what caused the deaths.” (p. 47,264). The defense attempted to discredit Chinese massacre survivors’ affidavits as well. While the summation does not challenge the fact that Shang Deyi survived the mass execution, in an effort to discredit his testimony, it questions who detained him and marched him to Xiaguan for execution: He stated that he was caught in the refugee area by the Nakajima unit on 16 December 1937 and was taken to Hsia Kuan.

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But at that time the area was guarded by some other unit not by the above unit. Therefore, the wrongful acts could not have been committed by men of the Nakajima unit. The soldiers of other units could not have taken him to Hsia Kuan because Hsia Kuan was outside their jurisdiction. (p. 47,262)

The Nakajima unit refers to the Japanese 16th Division, and it was the 9th Division that conducted mopping up operations in the Safety Zone. It is understandable that an individual with limited education and no proficiency in Japanese language could misidentify the Japanese troops who wore no distinct identification markers. As to the affidavit by Sun Yuanzhen, the summation states: This witness testified that ten thousand Chinese had been killed by the Japanese troops there. But he did not make clear when and where those crimes were committed. He indicated that they were committed on the bank of a river, but it is not clear at what place and on what river bank they were committed. This scene must have been one of great confusion, and it would have been quite impossible for him to count so large a number as ten thousand. (ibid., pp. 47,266–47,267)

Li Disheng’s affidavit is not challenged about the facts or accuracy of his testimony, rather his being able to move around in and out of the walled city: He indicated several cases of wrongful acts committed by Japanese soldiers which he says he saw. This witness was a boy of eighteen at that time. He was at Hsia Kuan from December 15 until about December 20, at Peking Road on the 23d of December, and was at Shanghai Road about 27th. If there was such a state of panic as the prosecution wants us to believe, we cannot imagine that an eighteen-year-old boy would be roaming in such a dangerous zone from one place to another. (p. 47,267)

The affidavit provided by Wu Jingcai, however, is challenged in terms of the definition of looting: In his statement Woo King Zai told about looting by Japanese soldiers, but he gave no information concerning what was taken or the manner or circumstances under which the articles were taken. The defense’s evidence has shown that at that time many articles were requisitioned by the Japanese Army. Obviously, Woo King Zai was laboring under the misapprehension, not understanding that the Japanese soldiers were requisitioning the property. (pp. 47,267–47,268)

The summation shows that the defense made every possible effort to shirk Japanese troops’ responsibility for committing the atrocity cases presented by the prosecution and shift the blame to the Chinese. In spite of this, in front of overwhelming evidence, it does not deny the existence of massacres and other atrocities. The significance of the summation, however, also rests on the fact that almost all the challenges, analyses, critiques, denials in various degrees, such as the controversial issues concerning the victim toll, burial data, population in Nanjing, which have been repeatedly raised by some of the right-wing circles in Japan over the years, can find origin in the summation that the defense presented at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo on April 9, 1948.

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12.2.5  Judgment More than two years after the trials commenced and after seven months’ deliberation, the official judgment of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East was reached in November 1948 by the consensus of the judges from 10 countries, while Radhabinod R. Pal, the judge from India, expressed his dissenting opinions. Even though Pal had doubts about some of the prosecution evidence concerning the Nanjing Massacre, he stated, “Whatever that be, as I have already observed, even making allowance for everything that can be said against the evidence, there is no doubt that the conduct of the Japanese soldiers at Nanking was atrocious and that such atrocities were intense for nearly three weeks and continued to be serious to a total of six weeks as was testified by Dr. Bates. It was only after February 6 or 7 that there was a noticeable improvement in the situation.”56 The judgment reached by the judges negated the challenges and denials concerning the nature of massacre, rape, plunder, destruction by fire, death toll, and burial data expressed in the defense summation. William Flood Webb, President of the Tribunal, read the lengthy judgment from November 4 to 12, 1948, and the section under the title, “The Rape of Nanking,” which was presented on November 11, stipulates: The Japanese soldiers swamped over the city and committed various atrocities. According to one of the eye witnesses they were let loose like a barbarian horde to desecrate the city. It was said by eye witnesses that the city appeared to have fallen into the hands of the Japanese as captured prey, that it had not merely been taken in organized warfare, and that the members of the victorious Japanese Army had set upon the prize to commit unlimited violence. Individual soldiers and small groups of two or three roamed over the city murdering, raping, looting and burning. There was no discipline whatever. Many soldiers were drunk. Soldiers went through the streets indiscriminately killing Chinese men, women and children without apparent provocation or excuse until in places the streets and alleys were littered with the bodies of their victims. According to another witness Chinese were hunted like rabbits, everyone seen to move was shot. At least 12,000 non-combatant Chinese men, women and children met their deaths in these indiscriminate killings during the first two or three days of the Japanese occupation of the city.57

People living outside the city walls were not treated any better than residents inside the city either. The judgment indicates: Those outside the city fared little better than those within. Practically the same situation existed in all the communities within 200 li (about 66 miles) of Nanking. The population had fled into the country-side in an attempt to escape from the Japanese soldiers. In places, they had grouped themselves into fugitive camps. The Japanese captured many of these camps and visited upon the fugitives treatment similar to that accorded the inhabitants of Nanking. (p. 49,607)

The judgment gives a concise account concerning the mass executions and victim numbers: Large parties of Chinese soldiers laid down their arms and surrendered outside Nanking; within 72 hours after their surrender they were killed in groups by machine gun fire along

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the bank of the Yangtze River. Over 30,000 such prisoners of war were so killed. There was not even a pretence of trial of these prisoners so massacred. Estimates made at a later date indicate that the total number of civilians and prisoners of war murdered in Nanking and its vicinity during the first six weeks of the Japanese occupation was over 200,000. That these estimates are not exaggerated is borne out by that fact that burial societies and other organizations counted more than 155,000 bodies which they buried. They also reported that most of those were bound with their hands tied behind their backs. These figures do not take into account those persons whose bodies were destroyed by burning or by throwing them into the Yangtze River or otherwise disposed of by the Japanese. (pp. 49,607–49,608.)

In terms of such atrocities as raping, looting and burning, the judgment indicates: There were many cases of rape. Death was a frequent penalty for the slightest resistance on the part of a victim or the members of her family who sought to protect her. Even girls of tender years and old women were raped in large numbers throughout the city, and many cases of abnormal and sadistic behavior in connection with these raping occurred. Many women were killed after the act and their bodies mutilated. Japanese soldiers took from the people everything they desired. Soldiers were observed to stop unarmed civilians on the road, search them, and finding nothing of value then to shoot them. Very many residential and commercial properties were entered and looted. Looted stocks were carried away in trucks. After looting shops and warehouses the Japanese soldiers frequently set fire to them. Taiping Road, the most important shopping street, and block after block of the commercial section of the city were destroyed by fire. Soldiers burned the houses of civilians for no apparent reason. Such burning appeared to follow a prescribed pattern after a few days and continued for six weeks. Approximately one-third of the city was thus destroyed. (pp. 49,605–49,606.)

The judgment states that the “barbarous behavior of the Japanese Army cannot be excused as the acts of a soldiery which had temporarily gotten out of hand when at last a stubbornly defended position had capitulated  – rape, arson and murder continued on a large scale for at least six weeks after the city had been taken and for at least four weeks after Matsui and Muto had entered the city.” (p. 49,612.) Iwane Matsui was found guilty under Count 55, but not guilty under Counts 1, 27, 29, 31, 32, 35, 36 and 54. He was sentenced to death by hanging: In 1935 MATSUI was placed on the retired list but in 1937 he was recalled to active duty to command the Shanghai Expeditionary Force. He was then appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Central China Area Army, which included the Shanghai Expeditionary Force and the Tenth Army. With these troops he captured the city of Nanking on 13th December 1937. Before the fall of Nanking the Chinese forces withdrew and the occupation was of a defenseless city. Then followed a long succession of most horrible atrocities committed by the Japanese Army upon the helpless citizens. Wholesale massacres, individual murders, rape, looting and arson were committed by Japanese soldiers. Although the extent of the atrocities was denied by Japanese witnesses the contrary evidence of neutral witnesses of different nationalities and undoubted responsibility is overwhelming. This orgy of crime started with the capture of the city on the 13th December 1937 and did not cease until early in February 1938. In this period of six or seven weeks thousands of women were raped, upwards of 100,000 people were killed and untold property was stolen and burned. At the

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height of these dreadful happenings, on 17 December, MATSUI made a triumphal entry into the City and remained there from five to seven days. From his own observations and from the reports of his staff he must have been aware of what was happening. He admits he was told of some degree of misbehavior of his Army by Kempeitai and by Consular Officials. Daily reports of these atrocities were made to Japanese diplomatic representatives in Nanking who, in turn, reported them to Tokyo. The Tribunal is satisfied that MATSUI knew what was happening. He did nothing, or nothing effective to abate these horrors. He did issue orders before the capture of the City enjoining propriety of conduct upon his troops and later he issued further order to the same purport. These orders were of no effect as is now known, and as he must have known. It was pleaded in his behalf that at this time he was ill. His illness was not sufficient to prevent his conducting the military operations of his command not to prevent his visiting the City for days while these atrocities were occurring. He was in command of the Army responsible for these happenings. He knew of them. He had the power, as he had the duty, to control his troops and to protect the unfortunate citizens of Nanking. He must be held criminally responsible for his failure to discharge this duty. (pp. 49,814–49,816.)

Koki Hirota was convicted under Counts 1, 27, and 55 and sentenced to death by hanging as well: As to Count 55 the only evidence relating him to such crimes deals with the atrocities at Nanking in December 1937 and January and February 1938. As Foreign Minister he received reports of these atrocities immediately after the entry of the Japanese forces into Nanking. According to the Defense evidence credence was given to these reports and the matter was taken up with the War Ministry. Assurances were accepted from the War Ministry that the atrocities would be stopped. After these assurances had been given reports of atrocities continued to come in for at least a month. The Tribunal is of opinion that HIROTA was derelict in his duty in not insisting before the Cabinet that immediate action be taken to put an end to the atrocities, failing any other action open to him to bring about the same result. He was content to rely on assurances which he knew were not being implemented while hundreds of murders, violation of women, and other atrocities were being committed daily. His inaction amounted to criminal negligence. (p. 49,791)

Akira Muto, however, was found not guilty concerning the Nanjing Massacre: MUTO was an officer on the Staff of MATSUI from November 1937 to July 1938. It was during this period that shocking atrocities were committed by the Army of MATSUI in and about Nanking. We have no doubt that MUTO knew, as MATSUI knew, that these atrocities were being committed over a period of many weeks. His superior took no adequate steps to stop them. In our opinion MUTO, in his subordinate position, could take no steps to stop them. MUTO is not responsible for this dreadful affair. (p. 49,820)

Although Muto was not responsible for the atrocities committed at Nanjing, he was convicted for his role in the atrocities committed at Manila, the Philippines, in addition to other indictments. The tribunal found him guilty on Counts 1, 27, 29, 31, 32, 54 and 55. Consequently, he was sentenced to death by hanging. Iwane Matsui, Koki Hirota, and Akira Muto, along with several others, were executed by hanging on December 23, 1948 in Tokyo.

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Notes 1. 國民政府主席行轅秘書處接受南京市民陳述大屠殺冤憤公告 (Announcement by the Nationalist Government President Headquarters Secretariat concerning accepting Nanjing residents’ expressions of injustice and indignation about the massacre), December 21, 1945, cited from 南京大屠杀史料集: 23 南京大屠杀案市民呈文 (A Collection of Source Materials on the Nanjing Massacre: Vol. 23 Residents’ Petitions concer-ning the Nanjing Massacre Case), 张建宁编 (ed. by Zhang Jianning), Nanjing: 江苏人民出版社 (Jiangsu Peoples’ Publishing House), 2006, p. 2. 2. “首都人民陳述函件加紧分類整理中 (Capital people’s statements are being speedily sorted and processed),” Shenbao, January 6, 1946, p. 1. 3. 南京市臨時參議會檢送南京大屠殺案敵人罪行種類統计表等公函 (Nanjing Temporary Senate’s official letters containing sorting statistics of the enemy crimes in the Nanjing Massacre case), October 5, 1946, cited from 南京大屠杀史料集: 21 日军罪行调查委员会 调查统计 (A Collection of Source Materials on the Nanjing Massacre: Vol. 21 Investigation Statistics by the Investigation Committee of Japanese Troops Crimes), 郭必强、姜良芹编 (ed. by Guo Biqiang and Jiang Liangqin), Nanjing: 江苏人民出版社 (Jiangsu Peoples’ Publishing House), 2006, pp. 1707–1717. 4. 司法行政部關於南京大屠殺案戰犯名单 (The Ministry of Justice list of war criminals concerning the Nanjing Massacre case), 1946, cited from NM24, pp. 54–56. 5. “谷壽夫在京受審 (Hisao Tani on Trial in Nanjing),” Shenbao, February 7, 1947, p. 2. 6. “Tani Denies 1937 Nanking Massacres,” North-China Daily News, February 7, 1947, p. 1. 7. “戰犯法庭公審劊子手谷壽夫 (War Criminal Tribunal Tries Butcher Hisao Tani),” Central Daily, February 7, 1947, p. 2. 8. 軍事法庭傳訊証人史密斯教授証詞 (The testimony of Professor Smythe, a witness summoned by the Military Tribunal), February 6, 1946, 中国第二历史档案馆 (the Second Historical Archives of China), Doc No. 593/?, cited from NM24, pp. 367–368. 9. “General Denies Role in Nanking Massacre,” NYT, February 7, 1947, p. 9. 10. “Tani Denies 1937 Nanking Massacres,” North-China Daily News, February 7, 1947, p. 1. 11. M. S. Bates, “Written Statement,” February 6, 1947, the Chinese version is in the Second Historical Archives of China, Doc No. 593/?, the English version is in Folder 1132, Box 126, RG10, YDSL. 12. “谷壽夫在京受審 (Hisao Tani on Trial in Nanjing),” Shenbao, February 7, 1947, p. 2. 13. “30 Chinese Testify on Nanking Massacre,” NYT, February 8, 1947, p. 6. 14. According to the report “昨續審谷壽夫 (Yesterday Trial of Hisao Tani Continues). 15. “南京大屠殺真相: 各證人憤慨陳詞 (The Truth of the Nanjing Massacre: Various Witnesses Angrily Testify),” Shenbao, February 8, 1947, p. 2. 16. “30 Chinese Testify on Nanking Massacre,” NYT, February 8, 1947, p. 6. 17. “南京大屠殺真相: 各證人憤慨陳詞 (The Truth of the Nanjing Massacre: Various Witnesses Angrily Testify),” Shenbao, February 8, 1947, p.  2, and “30 Chinese Testify on Nanking Massacre,” NYT, February 8, 1947, p. 6. 18. “谷壽夫三度受審 (Hisao Tani on Trial for the Third Time),” Shenbao, Feb. 9, 1947, p. 2. 19. Ibid and “審訊戰犯谷壽夫 昨日開辯論庭 (War Criminal Hisao Tani on Trial, Debates in Court Yesterday),” Central Daily, February 9, 1947, p. 4. 20. “Japanese General Asserts Trial is Unfair; Denies Active Role during Rape of Nanking,” NYT, February 9, 1947, p. 32. 21. “谷壽夫二度受審 (Hisao Tani on Trial again),” Shenbao, February 26, 1947, p. 2. 22. “谷壽夫判處死刑 (Hisao Tani Sentenced to Death),” Central Daily, March 11, 1947, p. 3.

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23. 山中峰太郎 (Minetaro Yamanaka), 皇兵 (Imperial Soldiers), Tokyo: 同盟出版社 (Domei Shuppansha), 1940. 24. 中国驻日代表团关于战犯田中军吉逮捕经过致国防部二厅代电 (Dai Telegram from the Chinese Delegation in Japan to the Second Department of the Defense Ministry concerning the arrest of war criminal Gunkichi Tanaka), June 9, 1947, cited from NM24, pp. 485–486. 25. 鈴木二郎 (Jiro Suzuki), “私はあの「南京の悲劇」を目撃した (I had witnessed that ‘Nanjing tragedy’),” 丸 (Maru), Vol. 24, No. 1 (November 1971), pp. 96–97. 26. Appendix F, “Murder Race,” in Harold John Timperley’s What War Means: Japanese Terror in China, London: V. Gollancz, p. 284. 27. “How Lieutenants Mukai and Noda Exceeded Murder Quotas,” China Weekly Review 83, no. 5 (January 1, 1938): 115. 28. “紫金山下殺人竸賽” (Killing contest under Purple Mountain), Shenbao, January 25, 1938, p.  2, and “南京紫金山殺人竸賽 (Killing contest at Nanjing Purple Mountain),” Xinhua Daily, January 25, 1938, p. 2. 29. 张慎思 (Zhang Shensi), “高文彬忆‘百人斩’证据发现经过” (Gao Wenbin’s recollections about his discovering the evidence of ‘the 100-man killing contest’),” BBC Chinese News, September 2, 2005 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/chinese/simp/hi/newsid_4200000/newsid_4209900/4209976.stm), and 李宗远 (Li Zongyuan), “‘杀人比赛’ 灭绝人性 ‘刀劈百 人’ 犯下罪行 (Inhumane ‘killing contest’ and criminal act of ‘chopping 100 men’),” 环 球时报 (Global Times), August 22, 2000, p. 2. 30. “和顺輪榮歸祖國五機關派員接收 (Heshun returns to motherland, five agencies dispatch representatives to receive her),” Shenbao, November 5, 1947, p. 4. 31. “軍事法庭審日戰犯 三殺人元兇處死刑 (Military Tribunal Tries Japanese War Criminals, Three Murderers Sentenced to Death),” Central Daily, December 19, 1947, p. 5 32. 军事法庭关于战犯向井敏明等判决书 (The judgment of the Military Tribunal concerning war criminal Toshiaki Mukai and others), Dec. 18, 1947, cited from NM24, p. 497. 33. Harry S. Truman, Chiang Kai-shek and Winston Churchill, “Potsdam Declaration,” July 26, 1945, Foreign Relations of the United States: The Conference of Berlin, Vol. II, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1960, pp. 1376–1377. 34. Douglas MacArthur, “Special Proclamation,” January 19, 1946, The Department of State Bulletin, Vol. XIV, No. 349, March 10, 1946, p. 361. 35. Pritchard and Zaide, The Tokyo War Crimes Trial, Vol. 2, Transcripts of the Tribunal, pp. 2534–2539. 36. It should be #5 Hsing Lu Kao [Xinlukou, 新路口]. See Magee’s caption for the film footage of Case 9, Film 4, in Chap. 4 of this book. 37. It should be “my brother-in-law.” 38. Wong Kiang Sze, Statement of Mrs. Wong Kiang Sze, June 6, 1946, Document No. 1741, Exhibit No. 315, Microfilm Set T918, Roll 12, Court Papers, Journal, Exhibits, and Judgments of the IMTFE, RG238, National Archives II. 39. Pritchard and Zaide, The Tokyo War Crimes Trial, Vol. 2, Transcripts of the Tribunal, pp. 4538–4539. 40. Pritchard and Zaide, The Tokyo War Crimes Trial, Vol. 14, pp. 33,821–33,825. 41. Pritchard and Zaide, The Tokyo War Crimes Trial, Vol. 7, pp. 16,130–16,134. 42. Pritchard and Zaide, The Tokyo War Crimes Trial, Vol. 13, pp. 32,650–32,657. 43. Pritchard and Zaide, The Tokyo War Crimes Trial, Vol. 9, pp. 21,904–21,908. 44. Pritchard and Zaide, The Tokyo War Crimes Trial, Vol. 12, pp. 29,970–29,973. 45. Pritchard and Zaide, The Tokyo War Crimes Trial, Vol. 9, pp. 21,453–21,456. 46. Pritchard and Zaide, The Tokyo War Crimes Trial, Vol. 13, pp. 32,751–32,752. 47. “Interrogation of Iwane Matsui,” March 8, 1946, p. 2, Document No. 10,104, Exhibit 12.No.

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48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56.

57.

12  Post-War Military Tribunals 257, Microfilm Set T918, Roll 12, Court Papers, Journal, Exhibits, and Judgments of the IMTFE, RG238, National Archives II. Pritchard and Zaide, The Tokyo War Crimes Trial, Vol. 16, Proceedings of the Tribunal, pp. 40,027–40,029. Pritchard and Zaide, The Tokyo War Crimes Trial, Vol. 19, Proceedings of the Tribunal, pp. 47,225–47,226. “Shui Hsi Men-Shang Ho” refers to the area between Shuixi Gate and Shangxin River Township (水西門-上新河). “Chungshan Men-Ma Chun” refers to the area between Zhongshan Gate and Maqun Township (中山門-馬羣). “Tung-chi Men-Fangshan” refers to the area between Tongji Gate (通濟門) and Fangshan (方山). Pritchard and Zaide, The Tokyo War Crimes Trial, Vol. 19, pp. 47,269–47,270. James Espy, “The Conditions at Nanking, January 1938,” p. 9. Pritchard and Zaide, The Tokyo War Crimes Trial, Vol. 19, p. 47,266. Radhabinod R.  Pal, “The dissenting opinion of the member for India” in The Tokyo War Crimes Trial, Vol. 21, Separate Opinions, ed. by R.  John Pritchard and Sonia Magbanua Zaide, New York: Garland Publishing Inc., 1981, p.1099. Pritchard and Zaide, The Tokyo War Crimes Trial, Vol. 20, Judgment and Annexes, pp. 49,604–49,605.

Chapter 13

Controversies over the Nanjing Massacre

13.1  A Reversal of Course by the Americans With the judgment of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, it seemed that the Nanjing Massacre case was considered settled, and a page of history was turned over, with few apparent complaints from the Japanese at the time. However, with the West Berlin crisis, conflicts with the Soviet Union, and the Communist victory in China in 1949, geopolitics changed dramatically. As a result, the United States reversed its course by setting free many of the Japanese war criminals. In Circular No. 5 of March 7, 1950, which is also known as the Fifth Directive, Douglas MacArthur “established in Tokyo a three-man parole board authorized to reduce prison sentences of Japanese war criminals, held in Japan.”1 Concerning eligibility for parole, the document stipulates: 6. Eligibility for parole. a. A war criminal who has faithfully observed all the rules and regulations of the place or places in which he is or has been confined is eligible to be considered for parole by the Board after serving the following portions of his sentence as ordered executed: (1) One third, if a single sentence. (2) One third of the total, if consecutive sentences. (3) One third of the longer, if concurrent sentences. (4) Fifteen years, if a sentence or consecutive sentences exceeds forty-five years. (5) Fifteen years, if a life sentence. b. In determining eligibility for parole, confinement credit as authorized in paragraph 2 will apply.2 7. Application for parole. Applications for parole shall be limited to those submitted by the war criminal to the Board, provided, however, that the Board, on its own motion, may consider any case. 8. Matters considered. a. In addition to verifying the eligibility for parole of the war criminal, the Board shall consider: (1) The record of trial if available, and all facts pertinent to the case in which he was convicted.

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(2) The report of the person as to the behavior and attitude and work record of the prisoner during the confinement. (3) His age and his physical and mental conditions. (4) Financial status and other conditions of his family. b. The Board may consider such matters as it deems pertinent, and may subpoena and bear witnesses.3

The Soviet Union and Mainland China condemned and protested MacArthur’s parole system.4 The Soviet Union Embassy at Washington D.C. lodged a protest on May 11, 1950: On March 7 of this year, General MacArthur, Command-in-Chief for the Allied Powers in Japan, issued Circular No. 5 by which it was established that all the war criminals who are now serving terms in prison in Japan, according to sentence, may be released before the completion of their terms. …… The circular of the Commander-in-Chief represents an attempt to free by a unilateral order the major Japanese war criminals from completing their punishment, which was determined and came into legal force by the sentence of the International Tribunal, in which representatives of the U.S.S.R., the U.S.A., Great Britain, France, China, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, and the Philippines participated. Such acts of the Commander-in-Chief, directed towards changing or entirely reversing the decision of the International Tribunal established on the basis of the agreement between the U.S.A., Great Britain, the U.S.S.R., and China, authorizing the said Court to determine the degree of punishment for the major Japanese war criminals, guilty of committing the gravest crimes against humanity, constitute a gross violation of the elementary norms and principles of international law. According to Article 17 of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal, as well as according to clause “B” (2) of paragraph 5 of the decision of the Far Eastern Commission of April 3, 1946 concerning “the apprehension, trial, and punishment of war criminals in the Far East,” the Commander-in-Chief has the right to reduce or otherwise alter the sentence pronounced by the International Tribunal only while considering the question of the approval of this sentence. Neither the Charter of the Tribunal nor the afore-mentioned decision of the Far Eastern Commission contain any provisions which would give the Commander-in-Chief the right to reduce or otherwise alter the sentence after it has been approved and put into effect. …… The Soviet Government urges the Government of the United States to take measures immediately to revoke the afore-mentioned illegal Circular No. 5 of March 7 of this year in regard to the Japanese major war criminals sentenced by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East.5

In response, the U.S. Department of State offered a rebuttal in its note of June 8, 1950, which is quoted in part: The Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers is the sole executive authority for the Allied Powers in Japan, and as such, has the responsibility for carrying out the judgments of any international courts appointed by him. This is specially recognized by Article 17 of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and by paragraph 5 (b) (1) of the Far Eastern Commission policy decision of April 3, 1946. Under Article 17 of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers may “at any time” reduce or otherwise alter a sentence of the Tribunal except to increase its severity and paragraph 5 (b) (2) of the Far Eastern Commission policy decision of April 3, 1946, confirms that he has “the power to approve, reduce or otherwise alter any sentences,” imposed by any international courts appointed by him.6

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The note also indicates that “no reductions or alterations in the sentences imposed by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East have been made by the Supreme Commander and none are contemplated by him.” The note, then, continues with a play on words that a “parole is in no sense an alteration of a sentence but permission by the appropriate authority for the convicted criminal to serve part of his sentence outside of prison under certain conditions and controls and subject to being returned to prison for serving the remainder of the sentence if the conditions of the parole are violated.” (ibid) Thus, MacArthur’s parole system went forward. By November 6, 1950, 127 Japanese war criminals had been released, though most of them were relatively minor Class B and Class C war criminals.7 The most prominent prisoner paroled from Sugamo Prison in 1950 was Class A war criminal, Shigemitsu Mamoru (重光 葵), who had been sentenced to 7  years in prison by the International Military Tribunal. After he was set free, he was elected to the Diet, or Japanese Parliament, in 1952 and appointed foreign minister and deputy prime minister in 1954 under the Ichiro Hatoyama (鳩山一郎) cabinet. As a cabinet member, he endeavored to negotiate for the early release of more Japanese war criminals. After the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, Washington needed Japan as a vital base, militarily and logistically, to fight the Korean War. Former enemies became allies, and the U.S. became increasingly tolerant toward Japan. On September 8, 1951, the Allied Powers headed by the U.S. signed with Japan the San Francisco Peace Treaty, which came into effect on April 28, 1952, to return sovereignty back to Japan, though Article 11 of the treaty stipulates: Japan accepts the judgments of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and of other Allied War Crimes Courts both within and outside Japan and will carry out the sentences imposed thereby upon Japanese nationals imprisoned in Japan. The power to grant clemency, to reduce sentences and to parole with respect to such prisoners may not be exercised except on the decision of the Government and Governments which imposed the sentence in each instance, and on the recommendation of Japan. In the case of persons sentenced by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, such power may not be exercised except on the decision of a majority of the Governments represented on the Tribunal, and on the recommendation of Japan.8

In spite of Article 11, the Americans unilaterally accelerated the freeing of Japanese war criminals and by January 12, 1952, a total of 575 had been released9 since the Circular No. 5 was issued. However, it appeared that this speed was not good enough. President Truman issued the Executive Order 10393 on September 4, 1952, to form the Clemency and Parole Board for War Criminals in regard to granting sentence reductions and parole for the Japanese war criminals. “The Board shall make the necessary investigations in, and advise the President with respect to, those cases in which a decision of the Government of the United States is required on recommendation by the Government of Japan for clemency, reduction of sentence, or parole, with respect to sentences imposed on Japanese war criminals by tribunals established by the Government of the United States or by the International Tribunal for the Far East. In making its investigations, the Board may examine witnesses and take testimony to the extent deemed necessary or advisable.”10

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Eventually, MacArthur’s limit that “parole after 15 years for prisoners with sentence of life imprisonment” was abandoned. Of the Class A war criminals who had been sentenced to life imprisonment by the Military Tribunal, Kiichiro Hiranuma (平沼騏一郎) was paroled in 1952; Kingoro Hashimoto (橋本欣五郎), Shunroku Hata (畑俊六), Jiro Minami (南次郎), and Takazumi Oka (岡敬純) were released on parole in 1954; Sadao Araki (荒木貞夫), Naoki Hoshino (星野直樹), Okinori Kaya (賀屋興宣), Koichi Kido (木户幸一), Hiroshi Oshima (大島浩), Shigetaro Shimada (嶋田繁太郎) and Teiichi Suzuki (鈴木貞一) were paroled in 1955; and Kenryo Sato (佐藤賢一) was released in 1956. By the end of 1958, all the Japanese war criminals, including Class B and Class C war criminals, were released. For some of the war criminals, however, they were not only released but also enshrined in the Yasukuni Shrine (靖國神社). Altogether, 1068, who had been convicted as war criminals by the post war military tribunals, were honored in the shrine. By October 1978, of those enshrined, 14 were Class A war criminals: Hideki Tojo (東條英機), Kenji Doihara (土肥原賢二), Iwane Matsui (松井石根), Heitaro Kimura (木村兵太郎), Koki Hitota (廣田弘毅), Seishiro Itagaki (本垣征四郎), and Akira Muto (武藤章), all of whom had been sentenced to death by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and hanged on December 23, 1948; Kuniaki Koiso (小磯國昭), Toshio Shiratori (百鳥敏夫), and Yoshijiro Umezu (梅 津美治郎), who had been given life sentences and died in prison; Yosuke Matsuoka (松岡洋右) and Osami Nagano (永野修身) who died before they were tried; Shigenori Togo (東鄉茂德) who had been sentenced to 20 years and died in prison; and Kiichiro Hiranuma who received a life sentence but died shortly after he was released on parole in early 1952. The American tolerant attitude and policy toward Japan, which remained unchanged throughout the Cold War era and beyond, undoubtedly left the door open for Japanese rightists and revisionists not only to challenge the tribunal’s judgment and rehabilitate war criminals, but also to deny the Nanjing Massacre.

13.2  W  ritings and Research on the Nanjing Massacre in China and Japan from the 1950s to the Early 1970s After the Communists came to power in 1949, the Chinese fought a 3-year war with the Americans in Korea, and hostility toward the Americans was on the rise. By the time the San Francisco Peace Treaty was being negotiated, the Chinese media criticized U.S. policy toward Japan. With the purpose of condemning America’s attempts to re-arm Japan and encourage Japanese militarists, Xinhua Daily (新華日報), a newspaper published in Nanjing, ran a series of stories by massacre survivors and witnesses from February 22 to March 3, 1951. The fifth installment, published on February 26, is the story told by the atrocity survivor Li Qiquan (李起全) under the title “The enmity and hatred that can never be forgotten (没齒難忘仇和恨).” After showing the scars on his chest and belly, Li recounted what had happened when he

13.2 Writings and Research on the Nanjing Massacre in China and Japan…

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went to seek shelter at the Presbyterian church compound at Shuangtang (雙塘) in southwestern Nanjing: On the very day we got in the church compound, the Japanese devils came too, demanding laborers to carry things for them. Almost everyone seeking refuge here were elders, children and women. But the American agreed instantly, handing 12 of us civilians to them as labors. I was in my forties, also in poor health. No sooner had we reached the entrance of Shijia Lane (施家巷) than the Japanese devils ordered us to line up, using us as shooting targets, altogether shooting 14 people dead. Because they ran out of bullets, the Japanese devils bayoneted me and another person. I was bayoneted seven or eight times in the shoulder, chest side, and abdomen sides. Four of the thrusts caused the most serious wounds, which disemboweled me.11

Li fainted but regained consciousness at midnight. He managed to crawl to the underground cave at the oil milling shop and hid there for three to four days before he made it back to the church compound. (ibid) The seventh installment, “An undaunted girl (一個不屈的姑娘),” published on March 1, is a story told by an elderly Xiaguan resident Zhu Zhenyu (朱振宇) about his daughter Zhu Erguniang (朱二姑娘). In 1937, Zhu was the owner of a chinaware store in Xiaguan. After he lost the store to the engulfing fire, Zhu and his daughter followed the refugees to run away from Nanjing to seek refuge in Erban Bridge (二板橋), a village in the southern suburbs. Fearing that they might be sexually abused by Japanese soldiers, young women attempted to disguise themselves by cutting their hair short, blackening their faces with dust and dressing as young men. So did Zhu’s daughter, who disguised herself as a young man. Soon after they arrived, Japanese soldiers came and searched the house they resided in. An armed Japanese soldier accused Zhu’s daughter of being a Chinese soldier and attempted to drag her out of the house, but she would not yield. When several soldiers came to force her to move, she grabbed a Japanese bayonet, but before she was able to use the weapon, she was bayoneted three times in the abdomen and killed.12 On February 26, 1951, Xinhua Daily also ran a full-page article under the title, “A retrospective account of the enormous bloody debt of the Nanjing Massacre committed by Japanese invaders (追記日寇南京大屠殺的血海深仇).” The article indicates that the Nanjing Massacre took place 13  years earlier, “but never for a moment do people in Nanjing forget the miserable days 13 years earlier in which parents, wives and children were killed.” In addition to a summarized description of the massacres, it highlights individual cases. Qian Shoumo (錢守謨), an employee at the Telecommunications Bureau, was a mass execution survivor. When Nanjing fell, he went with his parents to the “Refugee Zone”, staying at 16-1 Dafang Lane.13 On the morning of December 16, I was taken with four other persons bound together with ropes. We were marched by the Japanese devils from the “Refugee Zone” to Yijiang Gate. Fortunately, the rope joint was at my side and I untied it. Holding the rope in my hands, I followed to the riverside. About 200 people got killed ahead of me before my turn came. Realizing this was a life or death moment of life and death befell me then, without considering the consequences, I tumbled into the river to save my life. Floating in the river were countless bodies of those who had just been slaughtered and thrown into the river. I covered myself with the bodies to dodge the bullets from the Japanese machine-gunning into the river. Thus, I made my way to the riverside and remained alive. (ibid)

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Sun Youfa (孫有發) was a Xiaguan Power Plant employee who had been rounded up by Japanese soldiers. 45 other employees were executed, but he survived because the Japanese asked him to cook for them. Sun indicated: Once inside the city, the Japanese devils killed whomever they came cross, and 45 of our Power Plant workers were mass executed. At the time I was taken as well, and when we were marched to Coal Dock there were already amassed over 2,000 people there, all stripped of their clothes. Finally, they were led to the Yangtze riverside to be machine gunned one batch after another. Later, maybe because the executioners felt that was too troublesome, they kept people inside a power house at Coal Dock and set the building on fire to burn them all. (ibid)

This article gives a brief description of the 100-man killing contest that The Tokyo Nichnich Shimbun reported in December 1937 under the subtitle, “At the foot of Purple Mountain,” stating that Sub-lieutenant Noda killed 105 and Sub-lieutenant Mukai (宫岡) killed 106. (ibid) Apparently, it is based on the English translation of the report, for the name 向井 was incorrectly rendered as 宫岡. In addition to the massacres and killings, the article gives a detailed account of the burning activities and the behaviors of Japanese soldiers in the city: Upon entering the city, Japanese invaders burned whatever houses they set their eyes on, and from Zhonghua Gate to Inner Bridge (内橋), from Taiping Road to Xinjiekou, as well as business district around Confucius Temple, huge fires kept burning for several days. While they were engaged in burning, except for those thatched huts and houses made of wooden boards that could be burned instantly, because they felt it troublesome to burn solid buildings, they turned to chemical substance. The soldiers who made inspection rounds would first make marks on the buildings, and then the soldiers responsible for setting fire would put the chemical substance at doors and windows according to the marks. This way, after the building caught fire, even water would not put out the fire. Numerous tall buildings collapsed and were reduced to charred rubbles. It was cold winter, and Japanese invaders freely pulled down door boards and window panes to build fires to warm themselves. As the flames engulfed the house, the Japanese invaders would simply walk away. (ibid)

Violation of women is another atrocious crime the article accuses Japanese soldiers of committing at Nanjing: In addition to killing and burning, the more relentless behaviors of the Japanese devils at Nanjing were rapes. Many women’s hair still stand on end at the thought of those miserable and humiliating days – it was hatred weaved with blood. Tao Tangshi (陶湯氏), whose residence was at 5 Renhouli Lane (仁厚里) in Mendong area, was gang raped before her abdomen was cut open and her body was burned; Xiao Yushi (萧余氏) who was nine months pregnant, 16-year-old young girl Huang Guiying (黄桂英), Chen Erguniang (陳二姑娘), and 70-year-old grandma were all ruthlessly raped in the area near Zhonghua Gate. Zhang Sunshi (張孫氏)’s husband was stabbed to death by Japanese devils, and she was raped until she went insane; 12-year-old girl named Ding (丁小姑娘) was gang raped by 13 Japanese devils, and because she shouted for help, her abdomen was stabbed by 13 bayonets …… (ibid)

While referring to the cases in which women resisted rapes, the article records an instance no other sources have mentioned: “There was a woman teacher from Bafutang Elementary School (八府塘小學). After Japanese invaders came several times, attempting to rape her, she obtained a pistol. By the time Japanese

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invaders arrived again, she hid herself underneath a bed and shot dead five Japanese devils before she calmly met her own death.” (ibid) In April 1951, The Records of the Atrocities Committed by the Enemy Japanese Invading China (日寇侵華暴行錄),14 a book by Guo Shijie (郭士傑), was published in Beijing. It consists of 14 chapters, and the content of the first chapter, “Painful memories of the Nanjing Massacre (南京大屠殺的慘痛囘憶),” is similar to that of the Xinhua Daily article. This chapter appears to be a variation of it, or rather, a rewriting attempt based on the same material and cases with a few additional instances cited, though this time “Mukai” is correctly rendered as 向井, rather than 宫岡, and the teacher from Bafutang Elementary School shot dead three Japanese soldiers instead of five. It provides summarized descriptions of killings, rapes and burning, citing concisely a list of cases as evidence, with a touch of anti-­ American propaganda. Apart from the 1951 publications, the Communist regime rarely mentioned the Nanjing Massacre again. As both Mainland China and Taiwan claimed that theirs was the only legitimate government for the whole of China, they tried hard to win recognition from the international community, including Japan’s. Both sides gave up the right to seek war compensation from Japan. Under these circumstances, the Nanjing Massacre was conveniently ignored. In academia, except for one instance, there was no research done on the Nanjing Massacre either. The lone academic attempt was initiated by Gao Xingzu (高興祖, 1928–2001), a professor at the History Department of Nanjing University. Gao was born in December 1928  in Wujin, Jiangsu (江蘇武進). After he graduated from Nanjing University in 1954, he joined the History Department faculty, with his research focus on Sino-Japanese relations, in particular, the Nanjing Massacre. Gao was the pioneer researcher on the topic in China, and strongly advocated and appealed for preserving the massacre sites with monuments and establishing the Nanjing Massacre Museum. He played a leading role in searching, collecting and publishing archival materials and was the founding president of the Nanjing Massacre Research Association. He passed away on January 8, 2001, in Nanjing. Gao initiated the academic research on the Nanjing Massacre in 1960 when he and three young teachers, Hu Yungong (胡允恭), Wu Shimin (吴世民) and Zha Ruizhen (查瑞珍), mobilized seven students from his department to conduct a research project. It took them about 2 years to investigate, research archival documents, photos, and other materials, and survey and interview the massacre survivors and witnesses still residing locally. The outcome of this research project was a mimeographed booklet of around 75,000 words under the title, The Massacre Committed by Japanese Imperialists at Nanjing (日本帝国主义在南京的大屠杀), which, produced in 1962, was not an openly or officially published work. Gao made several attempts to have the booklet published. In 1963, Jiangsu People’s Publishing House planned to publish an edition with its circulation limited internally to a small circle. Consequently, even that edition failed to make its appearance, for the press was advised not to publish it for the sake of Sino-Japanese relations, though the proofreading galley had already been printed. In November 1963, Gao’s group was given 15 copies of the proofreading edition. The mimeographed booklet was not turned

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into a real publication until March 1979, albeit it remained an internally circulated edition unavailable on the market. Due to the fact that the booklet was mainly written in the 1960s, in order to be politically correct under the circumstances at the time, it is full of anti-Nationalist Government and anti-U.S. rhetoric. Eventually, Gao’s work was made available to the public in 1985 under the title The Atrocities Committed by the Japanese Troops Invading China: The Nanjing Massacre (日军侵华暴行:南京大屠杀), which was translated into Japanese the following year.15 Based on the 1979 booklet, it is a completely rewritten and much improved version. It not only removes the politically correct rhetoric of the 1960s and 1970s, but also heavily quotes the eyewitness accounts left behind by American missionaries and Japanese soldiers’ diary entries available up to that time. Its significance is that it is the first book length academic research on the topic ever published in China. In the 1960s, however, the Nanjing Museum had a display, with photos and descriptions, about the Nanjing Massacre in its history of China exhibition. In the summer of 1965, the author of this book, at the age of 9, was led by his father to visit the exhibition, at the end of which, in a dimly lighted corner, there was a small section attributed to the massacre. It is the very first exposure the author had to the event. However, even the modest display disappeared with the advent of the Cultural Revolution, which started in the summer of 1966. In Japan, after the International Military Tribunal for the Far East completed its mission, the Nanjing Massacre was not mentioned and discussed until 1956, when a former army officer Katsumi Shimada (島田勝已), who had served in the 16th Division as the commander of the Second Machine-gun Company of the 33rd Regiment, published an article, “The Nanjing Battle and the Massacre Incident (南 京攻略戦と虐殺事件),” in the June 1956 issue of the journal Specials of Jinbutsu Orai (特集人物往来). It is basically the author’s battlefield memoir, in which he attempted to defend the Japanese soldiers’ actions concerning the issue of wanton killings: While vigorously engaged in pursuing and attacking, as well as in the battles of attacking the city thereafter, we inflicted heavy casualties upon the enemy. In particular, Tani’s troops, moving from a distant location south of Nanjing, approached the enemy’s retreat route, and encountered enemy forces equal to a regiment in the marsh swamp outside Zhonghua and Shuixi Gates. These enemies, either changing positions to launch attacks or on their way to retreat, suffered a destructive blow at the hands of Tani’s troops. It is true that Tani’s troops had slaughtered a huge number of people. In combat actions like this, they engaged in slaughtering which was justified as a rightful action. Especially considering it was done under agitated and indignant circumstances, I am afraid, they had no other choice. Over a dozen enemy remnant soldiers were collected by the troops that had captured Taiping Gate. While Japanese soldiers were making the enemy soldiers sit down on the road to be guarded over, one of the enemy soldiers, probably feeling that his life had been threatened, took out a grenade he had concealed and threw it to a soldier on guard, killing him. Thus, Japanese soldiers, regardless of anything else, would not listen to the orders of their superiors, and instantly killed all the remnant soldiers. Under the circumstances, I am afraid that one cannot judge the particularity on the battle fields with regular mentality.16

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Masatake Imai, an Asahi Shimbun Nanjing branch reporter before the hostilities started, was embedded in the attacking Japanese troops to enter Nanjing immediately after its fall. He published in the December 1956 supplement issue of Bungeishunju Magazine (文藝春秋) an article, “The Mass Killings inside Nanjing (南京城内の大量殺人),”17 in which he gave a detailed description of the massacres he and his colleague Seigo Nakamura had witnessed at the Yangtze riverside and a vacant lot by the Asahi Shimbun Nanjing branch office: I was told that Japanese soldiers had collected a large number of Chinese in a vacant lot beside the office, intending to kill them. Among them were the nearby Western-style clothes shop’s owner named Yang and his son. They were not soldiers. The maid asked me to hurry up to save them, otherwise they would be killed. Behind the maid was Yang’s wife, whose pockmarked face was streaked with tears, trembling all over, at her wit’s end. Special correspondent Seigo Nakamura (who is at present the chief of the Asahi Shimbun U.S. headquarters) went out in a hurry. It was at dusk on the hillside near the branch office. The vacant lot was crowded with four or five hundred Chinese men who were squatting there. On one side of the lot was a half-destroyed, blackened brick wall. Facing the wall, six Chinese stood in a line. About 20 or 30 steps away, Japanese soldiers fired rifle shots all at once at these men, who fell forward. As they were about to fall to the ground, bayonets were thrust into their backs. The small hillside under the last sunshine at dusk was reverberated with the painful moaning of the dying. Then another six men stood there. Men were killed one batch after another, while the crowd of four or five hundred squatting men in the lot watched them fall down one group after another with a helpless look. What was that helplessness and nothingness? Surrounding the lot were a large number of women and children, who watched it in a daze. If one looked at their faces closely, one would see unmistakably that they were filled with horror and hatred as their fathers, husbands, brothers and children were being killed right in front of them. They must have cried and wept. My ears, however, heard none of them. What filled my ears were the rifle shots and the victims’ cries, and all I could see were the rays of the setting sun, staining the blackened brick wall red. Panting for breath, I told a staff sergeant who was standing by my side. “Among them there must be some people who are not soldiers. Please spare them.” I cast a sidelong look at the staff sergeant’s expressionless face. “The Western-style clothes shop owner and his son are not soldiers. I can vouch them with my life.” “Do you know which are them?” “I do. His wife is here, and once she calls out they will come out.” Without waiting for an answer, I pushed Yang’s wife forward. Mrs. Yang called out Yang’s name. A wrinkle-faced old man and a lad of about 20 ran out of the crowd. “It’s these two. They are not soldiers at all. They are running a Western-style clothes shop and often come to our Asahi branch office. Well, you two quickly go back home.” Instantly, the people in the vacant lot stood up all at once. The thought that they would be spared if they simply appealed to these men freed them from their helpless and dazed state of mind. They rushed toward us and clung to the hems of our coats. “Will you continue with the killing? Look there, women were crying continuously. Even if killing them is not avoidable, can’t you find a place when women and children cannot see?” We spoke the above words in agitation. The sunset glow disappeared from the sky. Turning our backs on the speechless and stiff-faced sergeant, I and Mr. Nakamura left the vacant lot. We heard gunshots behind us.18

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In the February 25, 1957 issue of Japan Weekly (日本週報), both Masaaki Tanaka (田中正明) and Kensuke Hata (秦賢助) contributed articles concerning the Nanjing Massacre. Tanaka’s article, “The Nanjing Massacre Incident and Iwane Matsui’s Diaries (南京虐殺事件と松井石根日記)”19 is based on selected excerpts from Matsui’s diary entries from August 14 to the end of December 1937. Rather than in diary format, it is narrative in form and the content is heavily edited, rearranged and rewritten. The only connection it has with the Nanjing Massacre is that in order to deal with Japanese atrocities, on December 18, Matsui summoned the officers of his troops in Nanjing before he severely reproached them and ordered them to tighten up the troops’ disciplines, punish the perpetrators, and maintain order. (p.6) Hata was a writer who had interviewed the officers and soldiers of the 65th Regiment, the 103th Brigade under the 13th Division at the front in China. His article “The White Tiger Troops Smeared with Captives’ Blood (捕虜の血にまみ れた白虎部隊)”20 describes the mass executions the 65th Regiment were involved in: Massacre started on the afternoon of the 15th and reached its apex by night. On this day, a long procession of captives marched through the streets in Nanjing toward Taiping Gate. They were as many as twenty thousand. …… These were the large number of captives the White Tiger Troops brought with them as presents when they entered Nanjing. The fate that awaited this endless procession was death. Even the so-called “crack White Tiger Troop” slaughtered their captives. Was it White Tiger Troop’s wrong doing? Was it the intention of the humane commander, Colonel Morozumi (両角大佐)? Or, was it the way chosen by the Division Commander, Lieutenant General Rippei Ogisu, to handle it? The Army Headquarters did seek instructions several times from the Central Supreme Command (General of Staff, the Army Ministry). The instruction initially cabled back was “Handle it after deliberations!” But how could they deliberate among themselves? The Army Headquarters found itself in a dilemma, and consequently, made a third request for instructions. The order received was “The Army Headquarters was responsible for handling it!” The Army Headquarters felt that the attitude of the Central Supreme Command was ambiguous. The city entering ceremony to welcome His Highness Price Lieutenant General Asaka was to be held imminently, which made the Army Headquarters extremely anxious. “Kill them all,” the Army Headquarters recklessly concluded. Inside the city, Japanese troops had started slaughtering captives and mopping up the remaining enemies until no Chinese soldier was in sight. In addition, Japanese troops thought that under the circumstances, in which there was a shortage of food supply, they could do nothing but to kill the twenty thousand captives. However, it was said that Colonel Morozumi expressed his opposition. He thought that these captured prisoners should be released to go back to their native villages after being disarmed. What he had was a normal thought, but it could not be enacted. Although he was a commanding officer, after all he was merely a regiment commander. Besides, after the troops won one battle after another at the fronts on the continent, it did not matter which troops they were, they all became extremely conceited and beside themselves. As a result, they indulged themselves in doing whatever they wanted. (p. 15)

In fact, Hata did not go to China until the summer-autumn months of 1938, several months after the Nanjing Massacre took place, and stayed with the 65th

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Regiment for a relatively short period of time. His China trip resulted in the book-­ length publication of the 65th Regiment’s battlefield experiences in China, The White Tiger Troops (白虎部隊), in 1939. Colonel Gyosaku Morozumi, who was the commander of the 65th Regiment from September 10, 1937 to December 10, 1938, wrote an introduction: “With a courageous and no-turning-back spirit, Mr. Hata dragged his huge 75-kilogram body to the Hubei front to collect first-hand primary sources.”21 The Hubei front refers to the Wuhan Campaign, which lasted from June 11 to October 25, 1938. The information helps pinpoint Hata in China with the 65th Regiment during the summer-autumn months of 1938. Based on his interviews with servicemen, he wrote about what the 65th Regiment had done at Nanjing in The White Tiger Troops: That day, Morozumi troop captured the Mufu Mountain Fort in the suburbs two kilometers from Nanjing along the Yangtze riverside. During this battle, the Morozumi troop captured 20,000 enemy remnant soldiers. Among this huge number of captives, there were 2,000 defeated soldiers who had held Lao Luzhai Village (老陸宅) and Majiazhai Village (馬家宅) to make Morozumi troop suffer tremendous casualties. The thought that “these fellows are the ones who killed our fellow soldiers” would make them the most hateful enemies. The troop was overwhelmed to all of a sudden have so many captives. It was not right not to feed them, or, not to provide medical care, and in addition, they had to guard them closely. All this caused the troop a lot of troubles. However, capturing so many enemies, no matter what, was Morozumi troop’s splendid victory.22

Eighteen years later in 1957, probably based on the same interview notes, he provided a similar description about the same event in “The White Tiger Troops Smeared with Captives’ Blood,” On December 13, Showa 12th Year, the White Tiger troops captured the Mufu Mountain Fort which was situated in the suburbs two kilometers from Nanjing along the Yangtze riverside, thus, striking a song of victory. During this battle, the White Tiger troops captured more than 20,000 enemy soldiers. Among this unprecedented huge number of enemy captives, there were 2,000 remnant enemies who had held Lao Luzhai Village and Majiazhai Village to make Morozumi troop suffer tremendous casualties. During the Nanjing Campaign, the first troop that attacked into the city was Wakisaka troops (脇坂部隊). On the day the city entering ceremony was held, the White Tiger troops escorted into Nanjing the enemy captives whose number was several times more than the White Tiger troops themselves. And therefore, it made the procession of the White Tiger troops appear extremely magnificent. However, taking too many captives caused us a lot of troubles and made us overwhelmed. We could not feed them, but, first, we were short of food supplies, and second, we must provide medical care for the captives. Meanwhile, we had to guard them closely. All these were truly trouble to a troop.23

In The White Tiger Troops, Hata described an episode in which a Chinese engineering captain was beheaded after he was captured by the Japanese in front of the Nanjing city walls.24 It happened that Fumio Horigoshi (堀越文男), a communication squad leader of the 65th Regiment, recorded exactly the same beheading incident in his December 14, 1937 diary entry, which was published 57 years later in 1996.25 It indicates that, based on the information and materials he had collected when he was with the 65th Regiment, Hata’s writings are largely reliable and faithful, though his description about taking a large number of captives into the city

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before marching them out through Taiping Gate to the execution ground is not accurate. The Yamada Detachment captured a large number of Chinese soldiers and kept them in the barracks at the foot of Mufu Mountain before mass executing them by the Yangtze riverside nearby. Hata’s 1957 article attracted limited attention when it was published, but 15 years later it became one of the focuses of heated debates among Japanese scholars. Atsuyoshi Niijima (新島淳良) was a scholar whose research interest was modern China, including literature and politics. After visiting Nanjing in March 1967, he wrote two articles concerning the Nanjing Massacre: “The story of the ‘Nanjing Massacre Incident’ that took three hundred thousand lives (三十万人の生命 奪つた「南京虐殺事件」とほ)” published in the July 3, 1967 issue of East Wind News (東風新聞), and “Yuhua Terrace and what we learned about the Nanjing Massacre (雨花台、南京虐殺の話をきく) in the September 1967 issue of Daian (大安),26 in which he gave a brief account of the Japanese attack and capture of Nanjing, as well as a large number of refugees in the city, not only the local residents who had been forced by war conditions to abandon their homes, but also those who had fled to Nanjing from such war-ravaged areas as Shanghai, Suzhou, Wuxi, Zhenjiang, and Wuhu to seek shelter in the Safety Zone. He briefly described the massacres and mass executions at Xiaguan, Yijiang Gate, Swallow Cliff, Straw Shoe Gorge, Wutai Hill, Hanzhong Gate, as well as 5000 refugees detained at the Overseas Chinese Guesthouse and marched to the Yangtze riverside where they were slaughtered. He then substantially quoted massacre survivor Wu Changde’s testimony at the Tokyo Trial, The New  York Times correspondent Frank Tillman Durdin’s news dispatch, a paragraph from H. J. Timperley’s book, What War Means: Japanese Terror in China, and sentences from a letter by M. S. Bates. In addition, he related Jiang Genfu (姜根福)’s experiences of surviving Japanese atrocities and the story of Sub-lieutenant Mukai (宫岡) and Sub-lieutenant Noda and their killing contest. Apparently, he retold what he had heard from his Chinese hosts. (pp. 3–6) Several years later, Niijima gave a lecture at a local branch of the Japan-China Friendship Association and published his lecture in a pamphlet of 26 pages, The Nanjing Massacre (南京大虐殺), in March 1971,27 as well as two more articles: “The Nanjing Massacre I know about (わが南京大虐殺),” in the August 1971 issue of Situation (情况), 28 and “The three-dimensional structure – The Nanjing Massacre (立体構成  – 南京大虐殺)” in the August 1971 issue of New Review (新評),29 though his articles attracted limited attention from the public. In October 1967, Tomio Hora (洞富雄, 1906–2000), a historian from Waseda University (早稻田大學), published his book, The Mystery of Modern War History (近代戦史の謎).30 Hora was born on November 14, 1906 in Nagano (長野県), and graduated from Waseda University in 1931 before he took a position in the library of his alma mater. In 1937, he started teaching as an adjunct lecturer at the same university, and became a full-time assistant professor in 1957. After earning his Ph.D. in 1960 from Waseda, he assumed the position of associate director of the university library until 1966, when he returned to teaching as a full professor. In order to devote himself fully to his research and writing, he retired in March 1977, and passed away on March 15, 2000 in Tokyo.

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As a historian, Hora was the forerunner in academic research on the Nanjing Massacre in Japan and contributed tremendously to the field. His first academic attempt on the topic is The Mystery of Modern War History, which consists of four parts, discussing (1) the start of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, (2) the Nanjing Incident, (3) the initial stage of the 1939 battle of Khalkhin Gol (ノモンニン), Mongolia, and (4) the outbreak of the Korean War. Hora devoted the second section to the Nanjing Massacre by quoting the original documents and other primary sources available at the time, ranging from Nanjing Safety Zone documents, the transcripts of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, H. J. Timperley’s What War Means, to John G.  Magee’s diary letters, diaries by the Japanese 30th Infantry Brigade Commander Touichi Sasaki, German eyewitness accounts, newspaper reports by both Western and Japanese journalists, and Atsuyoshi Niijima’s reports. The author presented a comprehensive study of the Nanjing Massacre with in-depth analysis, discussing such issues as the general situation of the massacre, rounding up of the defeated Chinese soldiers, rape, looting, burning, the safety zone, victims’ body counts, and the persons held accountable for the massacre. He later revised, supplemented this section with more materials, and expanded it into his first book length research on the topic, The Nanjing Incident (南京事件),31 which, published in April 1972, contains such chapters as “The Outbreak of the Lugou Bridge Incident (蘆溝橋事件の発端),” “The Outbreak of the Second Shanghai Incident (第二次上海事变の発端),” and “Nanjing Atrocities (南京アト ロツティーズ).” Then, he worked on two volumes of primary source material concerning the Nanjing Massacre, Sino-Japanese War Source Materials: The Nanjing Incident (日中戦争資料: 南京事件),32 which appeared in print in November 1973. As the first serious historian in Japan who did pioneering research on the Nanjing Massacre, Hora mainly took a documentary approach to introduce and depict the events, provide analytical comments, and present his arguments based on the primary materials and documents from various sources. During the Vietnam War, American troops massacred several hundred civilians at My Lai on March 16, 1968. The American war atrocities in Vietnam, which was exposed by the media in the United States, cast a unique but significant influence on Japanese society and produced a ripple effect. While the Japanese in general remained critical about the My Lai Massacre, the incident also made some introspective about their own troops’ behaviors during the war. Some in media professions felt it their responsibility to search for the truth of the war atrocities which, committed by Japanese troops decades earlier, were kept hidden and remained unknown to the public. It was under these circumstances that the year of 1971 witnessed the emergence of a variety of writings, including magazine articles, personal recollections, and surveys, concerning the Nanjing Massacre and Japanese atrocities at other locations in China. The July 1971 issue of Ushio (潮) published “Record of continued hidden Nanjing Massacre (隠されつづけた南京大虐殺の記録)” as part of “the Crimes that the Japanese had committed in Mainland China: One hundred people’s Testimonies and Confessions (大陸中国での日本人の犯罪: 100人の証言と告 白).”33 It is a collection of 60 individuals’ opinions about the Japanese war crimes

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in China, with a large proportion of the participants being former Japanese soldiers. Many of them expressed remorse over the Japanese atrocities committed in China. However, though the collection’s title highlights the Nanjing Massacre, out of the 60 participants, only The Asahi Shimbun’s former war correspondent and photographer Koyo Kageyama (影山光洋) revealed his personal experience at Nanjing after its fall. He stated that he had witnessed at the Yangtze riverside 40 to 50 bodies of Chinese soldiers who had been shot dead. (p.116) Quite a few former Japanese soldiers among the group attested to the killing of Chinese prisoners of war and civilians at such locations as Shandong (山東), Shanxi (山西), Hebei (河北), Anhui (安 徽), Hubei (湖北), Hunan (湖南), Heilongjiang (黑龍江) and Inner Mongolia (内 蒙古). Some of the descriptions are detailed and graphic, with specific incidents. For instance, in 1942, Japanese troops took prisoner dozens of the Eighth Route Army soldiers and cadets, including about 20 female students, and used them as bayonet practice targets at Taiyuan, Shanxi (山西太原). (p.  115) At Guoxian, Shanxi (山西崞縣, present-day Yuanping 原平), Japanese soldiers took villagers as bayonet practice targets and killed a pregnant woman with a grenade. (p. 141) Although these writings, published from the 1950s to early 1970s, offer information from different perspectives about the massacre and do not always agree with one another in terms of viewpoints and opinions expressed, no heated debates or controversies had been triggered.

13.3  The Start of Controversies Katsuichi Honda (本多勝一, 1932–), an Asahi Shimbun correspondent who had been reporting in Vietnam in the later 1960s took an interview approach to introduce the Nanjing Massacre. It was Katsuichi Honda who shocked Japanese society with his newspaper stories about the Japanese war crimes in China. Honda was born on January 28, 1932 in Nagano, and in 1950 he entered Chiba University (千葉大學) for pharmaceutical studies. After he graduated and obtained his pharmacist certificate in 1954, he enrolled at Kyoto University (京都大學) to study writing. In 1958 he started working for Asahi Shimbun as a copy editor and worked as a journalist for Asahi Shimbun’s Hokkaidou (北海道) branch from 1959 till 1962, when he was transferred back to the newspaper headquarters in Tokyo. In 1971, he visited China, in particular, those regions that suffered tremendously from Japanese atrocities during the war period. From June 13 to July 18, he visited Guangzhou, Beijing, Shenyang, Fushun (撫順), Anshan (鞍山), Tangshan (唐山), Nanjing, Shanghai and Shaoshan (韶山). At the locations where the atrocities took place, he interviewed survivors and eyewitnesses. Honda’s stories under the title “Travels in China (中国の旅)” were published in his newspaper Asahi Shimbun Evening Edition (朝日新聞夕刊) from August 26 to December 25, 1971  in 40 installments under four parts: The Pingdinshan Incident (平頂山事件), The Mass

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Grave (萬人坑), The Nanjing Incident (南京事件), and The Three-All Policy (三光 政策). The Nanjing stories were published between November 4 and 16  in 10 installments. While in Nanjing from July 10 to 12, Honda met and interviewed the massacre survivors Jiang Genfu (姜根福), Chen Degui (陳德貴), Mei Fukang (梅 福康), and Cai Zhoushi (蔡周氏), who described in detail their personal survival experiences and losing family members to Japanese atrocities during the massacre period. In addition to telling his own story and the losses suffered by his family, Jiang Genfu told about Li Xiuying (李秀英), who had been bayoneted while resisting a rape attempt, and gave a brief account of “the 100-man killing contest” involving two Japanese sub-lieutenants: One day, sub-lieutenants “A” and “B” received orders from their superior officers that they were to have a killing contest: with the distance of 10 kilometers from Jurong to Tangshan in the outskirt of Nanjing, whoever first kills 100 men would get an award …… The two were engaged in the contest. Consequently “A” killed 89 while “B” killed 78. After their arrival at Tangshan, the superior officer ordered them again to kill another 100 within the distance of 15 kilometers between Tangshan and Purple Mountain. The result of this round was that “A” killed 106 and “B” killed 105, with both reaching the goal. However, the superior officer made another statement, “It is not clear who first reached the 100 mark; there should be another contest: from Purple Mountain to Nanjing city, there are 8 kilometers, and this time the goal is 150.34

Mainly due to the large circulation of the newspaper, The Asahi Shimbun, Honda’s Nanjing Massacre series attracted tremendous public attention, though it invited criticism and disputes. These Asahi Shimbun installments and other stories Honda wrote during his China tour, arranged into 12 parts, were collected in a book-­ length publication under the same title Travels in China in 1972.35 While Honda’s China stories made their appearance in The Asahi Shimbun, Jiro Suzuki (鈴木二郎), one of the war correspondents who reported in 1937 “the 100-­ man killing contest” published in the November 1971 issue of the monthly magazine Maru (丸) an important and controversial article, “I witnessed that ‘Nanjing tragedy’ (私はあの「南京の悲劇」を目撃した). In this article, the author indicated that he and two other journalists, Kazuo Asami (淺海一男) and Mitsumoto (光本), who reported “the 100-man killing contest,” were summoned on June 24, 1946 by the International Military Tribunal. Mitsumoto lived in Kansei (関西). Suzuki and Asami appeared in court on July 1 to be questioned about the killing contest. As a result of their testimony, the two sub-lieutenants were released, though they were later found guilty and executed in Nanjing.36 In addition, Suzuki recalled what he had seen and experienced in Nanjing after its fall when he entered the city with Japanese troops. Immediately after he entered the city through Zhongshan Gate, together with another fellow journalist, Suzuki went into the building of the Officers’ Moral Endeavor Association for a rest. No sooner did they fall asleep than four Japanese soldiers with their bayonets fixed broke into the building rushing toward them. Both of them jumped up, shouting that they were Japanese, before the soldiers stopped attacking them. Suzuki indicated that at the moment “we did not wear uniforms. It did not matter whether you were

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in uniform or not, these soldiers would kill.” (p. 97) He went on to give a description of a mass execution he had witnessed: Thus, I witnessed for the first time the horrible massacre. The prisoners of war were lined up on top of the city wall that was 25 meters in width before they were bayoneted one by one and fell off outside of the wall. On top of the city wall, many Japanese soldiers raised their bayonets and shouted at the top of their lungs while bayoneting the prisoners in the chest and waist, blood seen splashing, and the air ghastly terrifying. Over there, I beheld once again the ferocious looks of the Japanese soldiers who attempted to bayonet me. I witnessed that tragedy shortly before I felt at a loss and petrified. However, in the middle of the cruel massacre, something incredible came up, which I can never forget. That was the manners and expressions of the prisoners who had been bayoneted and then fell down. While facing the Death, some of them beamed with a satisfactory smile, while others laughed heartily at times, expecting “the arrival of death.” I heard several times that on this battle field, a bunch of people holding red spears (similar to Japanese spears, but the spear heads were tied with red tassels), who were fearless of death, attacking ahead one after another, were engaged in the hand-to-hand fight that Japanese soldiers were afraid of. It was rumored that these people holding red spears had firm belief and faith that they would not die even if they were shot. I learned this afterwards from the Japanese soldiers who had bayoneted captives. (p. 98)

After that, he returned to the Officers’ Moral Endeavor Association, only to find that A dozen enemy remnant soldiers were tied with wire to a big tree, which I had failed to notice inside the gate. Everybody’s face was white as paper and their bodies uncovered. Some of them sat while others stood there, staring at me with blank looks. All of a sudden, several Japanese soldiers came in noisily. Two or three of them carried iron picks, which made them look like engineers. Without casting a glance at me standing nearby, one of the soldiers, standing in front of the big tree, shouted, “These guys had the audacity to harm our fellows!” Instantly, he struck his pick into the head of one of the soldiers who was unable to resist. The sharpening tip of the flashing pick made a whur sound, and blood gushed out. Seeing this, several soldiers behind him struggled, but to no avail, becoming the prey of other soldiers. It truly happened in an instant. Among the captives, there were disarmed soldiers, as well as people who looked like civilians. Having seen this, I hurried to leave. From then until the 15th when I left Nanjing, I interviewed to gather materials for writing in the city. On both sides of the road leading to Guanghua Gate were winding ditches filled with countless badly burned corpses, and under a lot of logs that were laid on the road were dead bodies as well, with their hands and feet sticking out, thus displaying a true picture of hell on earth. I saw tanks, with the turning track sending out sound, ruthlessly roll over them. The stench of corpses, together with the smell of the overflowing smoke of gunpowder, was spreading out. It was as if amid the scorching hot hell, the hell of bloody pools, that I had the illusion of being in the position of “a jailor.”

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At the location in the north outside of the city known as the river and land transportation hub Xiaguan, which is opposite to Pukou across the Yangtze River, Japanese soldiers swiftly chased thousands of soldiers and civilians who were unable to escape. They were mowed down by Japanese troops with machine guns, the place became heaps of dead ­bodies and bloody waters, with the yellow water in the Yangtze turned into crimson, the color of blood, while countless dead bodies were floating on the river. (p. 99)

Akira Shishime (志志目彰), as a school boy, had listened to Tsuyoshi Noda talking about his killing contest experience in China. Having read Honda’s stories and Suzuki’s memoirs, he wrote an article, “A Recollection of the Sino-Japanese War: ‘The 100-man Killing Contest’ (日中戦争の追憶: ‘百人斬り競争’),” which appeared in the December 1971 issue of the monthly magazine China (中國). It was in the spring of 1939, a year before Shishime graduated from the elementary school attached to the Kagoshima (鹿児島) Teachers School, that Noda came as an alumni and a returning war hero to the school in his native town to talk about his war experiences in China, in particular, about his involvement in “the 100-man killing contest”. In his talk, Noda indicated: I am the person whom the newspapers refer to as the brave warrior from the local area and the brave warrior of the 100-man killing contest…… In reality, I only killed four or five people in hand-to-hand combat…… Whenever we took over a trench, we would call out “Ni, lai, lai.”37 Chinese soldiers were dumb fools who came out in hordes. We then lined them up before striking them down with swords one by one to the end of the line…… I was given credit for killing 100 men, but in fact all of them were killed in this manner. …… The two of us did have a killing contest, but when people asked afterwards if it was a big deal, I would reply it was nothing……38

Then, Shishime commented, “However, it was not killing in hand-to-hand combat, but killing surrendered enemies who had already given up their weapons; the experience talk by these ‘warriors’ was a big shock to me. It was truly both cruel and cunning.” (p. 44) At the end of the article, he pointed out, “In addition, even though the Maru magazine report indicates that Sub-lieutenant N told both Mainichi Shimbun (每日新聞) reporters Jiro Suzuki and Kazuo Asami that ‘he did not kill those who ran away,’ however, probably what he told us candidly in person is closer to the truth.” (p. 45) Soon after Honda’s “Travels in China” serial reports appeared in The Asahi Shimbun, Shichihei Yamamoto (山本七平, 1921–1991), a former Japanese army officer, the Yamamoto Bookstore (山本書店) owner and a freelance critic, wrote an article, “The Asahi Shimbun ‘I am sorry’ (朝日新聞の「ゴメンナサイ」),”39 under his pseudonym Isaiah Ben-Dasan (イザヤ・ペンダサン) in the January 1972 issue of Gentlemen! (諸君!). Born on December 18, 1921 in Tokyo, Yamamoto was baptized as a Christian while attending Aoyama College (青山學院) in 1937. Upon graduation from the college in 1942, he was drafted into the army, and when the war ended he was a sub-lieutenant in an artillery company under the 103rd Division, stationing in Luzon, the Philippines. On September 16, 1945, he was arrested and kept in a detention center in Manila, and did not return to Japan until 1947. He opened Yamamoto Bookstore in 1956. Over the years, as a critic, he published

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numerous articles and books. Mainly due to the mentality that Japanese themselves should not blame one another by searching for and taking responsibility for the war crimes,40 he resented Honda’s “Travels in China”. In his January 1972 Gentlemen! article, he accused Honda’s newspaper stories, with false testimonies, of making the readers and ordinary Japanese people feel guilty, responsible for the massacres, and obliged to render apologies. Honda responded with an article in the form of an interview with a correspondent P, “An open letter to Isaiah Ben-Dasan (イザヤ・ベンダサン氏への公開状),” in the February 1972 issue of the same magazine. He indicated the two dozen years after it was defeated, Japan had not informed the populace of the facts of what Japan had done in China. Japan had followed the path of aggression war. His journey of interviewing and reporting at the sites of the Japanese militarist war in China was to track down the atrocities committed by former militarists, so as to pay sincere apologies and prevent the revival of militarism.41 In the March 1972 issue of Gentlemen!, Isaiah Ben-Dasan continued to challenge Honda in his article, “A reply to Mr. Katsuichi Honda (本多勝一様への返信),” especially concerning the validity and accuracy of Honda’s “100-man killing contest” report. After quoting Jiang Genfu’s account in Honda’s Asahi Shimbun report, he presented his suspicion about killing 89 people over the distance of 10 kilometers from Jurong to Tangshan. In order to prove Jiang’s story was unreliable and false, he added one element, namely, time, to Jiang’s account. He argued that it usually took soldiers one hour to travel four kilometers, and 10 kilometers would take them about 150 minutes to cover. To kill 89 people within 150 minutes, the sub-lieutenant had to kill one person every 1 minute and 36 seconds with either sword, pistol or rifle, which was an impossible task.42 However, Ben-Dasan failed to indicate that in reality 10 kilometers could be covered in various manners in terms of time, because on the battlefield, soldiers could not just march on but had to be engaged in combat actions and mopping up operations, which could be time consuming, not to mention that many of the victims were civilians and prisoners of war. A large number of unarmed civilians and prisoners of war could be slaughtered in a relatively short time at relatively fewer locations and did not require much travelling. Honda fought back with another lengthy Gentlemen! article, “Noise abuse to my eyes (雑音でいじめられる側の眼),” in which, while refuting Ben-Dasan’s accusations one by one, Honda cited in entirety both the November 30 and December 13, 1937 Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun reports of the 100-man killing contest, and quoted in part Jiro Suzuki’s article “I had witnessed that ‘Nanjing tragedy’” and Akira Shishime’s memoir “A Recollection of Sino-Japanese War” to show that the 100-­ man killing contest was originally reported by the Japanese journalists imbedded in the attacking Japanese troops, rather than hearsay authored by Jiang as Ben-Dasan had accused. Honda also referred to the news coverage and responsibility concerning the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam in connection to the responsibility and punishment for war crimes committed by Japanese troops in China.43 Apparently, Honda was disappointed with the right-wing magazine Gentlemen!, as well as with Ben-­ Dasan’s arguments, and he ended the article with a goodbye to Ben-Dasan and the readers of Gentlemen!.

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In the same April 1972 issue of Gentlemen!, however, Isaiah Ben-Dasan published another article, “A postscript to Mr. Katsuichi Honda (­本多勝一様への追 伸),”44 to continue his arguments, in particular, disagreeing with Honda’s concept that Japan was responsible for and guilty of the war crimes in China and should apologize. In the following months, although Honda remained silent, Ben-Dasan published one article after another in every monthly issue of Gentlemen!, of which the articles in the May, June and August issues directly concern either Honda or the 100-man killing contest. These articles reiterated his previous points, but no significantly new substance was added. Meanwhile, from August 1972 to April 1974, Shichihei Yamamoto published a series of articles under his real name in Gentlemen!. These articles were collected later into a book length publication under the title Our Japanese Troops (私の中の日本軍),45 which appeared in print in November 1975. When Honda and Ben-Dasan were engaged in a heated argument over the 100-­ man killing contest and Japanese war crimes in China, a non-fiction writer and journalist Akio Imai (今井明夫, 1925–2003), who wrote under his penname Akira Suzuki (鈴木明), joined Shichihei Yamamoto by publishing an article “The Illusion of the Nanjing Massacre (南京大虐殺のまぼろし)” also in the April 1972 issue of Gentlemen!. Born in Tokyo on October 28, 1925, he graduated from Rikkyo University (立教大学) before becoming a journalist for the magazine Weekly Time (週刊タイムズ). By the time he wrote the April 1972 article for Gentlemen!, he served as the chief editor of the monthly journal, Investigation Information (調查情 報), which was published by Tokyo Broadcasting System Holdings (東京放送). Beginning this article by citing Honda’s November 5, 1971 Asahi Shimbun story about the 100-man killing contest, Suzuki argued that killing during wartime was totally different from peacetime. In his view, the commander of the 6th Division was innocent and should not have been executed. He further openly denied the Nanjing Massacre, which he considered a fabrication, alleging that the only primary sources are Timperley’s book and Japanese Major General Touichi Sasaki’s account in his diary that while his troops were advancing toward Heping Gate, Chinese soldiers kept on coming to surrender, and they numbered as many as several thousand. The agitated Japanese soldiers, completely regardless of the advices of their superior officers, killed the captives one by one. Recalling the bloodshed by many of their fellow soldiers and the last ten days’ hardship, even Sasaki himself wanted to say, “Kill them all,” not to mention the soldiers.46 Besides that, however, he failed to produce any solid evidence. Meanwhile, he challenged the judgment of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. Suzuki continued to produce articles on this topic. The August 1972 issue of Gentlemen! published his “Why was Sub-Lieutenant Mukai killed: The illusion of the Nanjing ‘100-Man Killing Contest’ (向井少尉はなぜ殺されたか:南京「百 人斬り」のまぼろし),”47 a lengthy article of 26 pages, which, also begins with Honda’s November 5, 1971 report along with November 30 and December 13, 1937 Tokyo Nichnichi Shimbun reports, traces the whole process of the 100-man killing contest: its original news coverage, the arrest, detention, and extradition of Toshiaki Mukai to China, as well as his trial, appeal and execution in Nanjing. In the process,

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Suzuki cited excerpts of the letters, diary notes, and final words written by Mukai when he was in jail, and revealed the author’s trip to Taiwan to interview those who presided over or were involved in the Nanjing trial. In October 1972, Suzuki published “Why was Sub-Lieutenant Mukai killed·An Appendix (向井少尉は何故殺 されたか·補遺),”48 in which he accused Honda of publishing “fabricated facts” and the testimonies of the witnesses at the Tokyo Trial were ambiguous. Another Suzuki’s article, of 47 pages, was published in two installments in the December 1972 and January 1973 issues of Gentlemen!, under the title, “Nanjing·December 1937 (南京·昭和十二年十二月).”49 The author made a painstaking effort to search for and reach the Japanese correspondents and former Japanese soldiers who were in Nanjing during the battle and after its fall. Eventually, he was able to interview about 8 journalists and over a dozen former Japanese servicemen. These interview notes were included in the article first to discredit Masatake Imai’s 1956 report about his eyewitness of the mass executions, Kensuke Hata’s 1957 article and Jiro Suzuki’s 1971 memoirs recalling his experience in Nanjing. The author attempted to deny that the massacre had occurred at all. Soon after this article was published, Suzuki collected his Gentlemen! articles on the topic into a book entitled The Illusion of the Nanjing Massacre (南京大虐殺のま ぼろし),50 which appeared in print in March 1973. To refute the denial and arguments by Shichihei Yamamoto and Akira Suzuki, Tomio Hora wrote and published articles in the journal History Review (歷史評論). For the November 1972 issue, he wrote “The mental structure of young officers formed by military education – ‘the 100-man killing contest’ was a ‘fact’ or a ‘told fact’ (軍隊教育に培われた青年将校の精神構造 –「百人斬り競争」は「事 実」であったか「語られた事実」であったか).”51 By citing evidence and source materials from various origins, the author provided a detailed and in-depth analysis of “the 100-man killing contest” in this article. While criticizing the arguments by Ben-Dasan, Yamamoto, and Suzuki, he also pointed out that the Japanese military education was to blame, for it had cultivated and encouraged cruelty among the officers and soldiers. Hora then published a lengthy article, “The Nanjing Incident and Criticism of Historical Sources (南京事件と史料批判),”52 in two segments in the June and July 1973 issues of History Review. In the June segment, in response to Akira Suzuki’s interviewing former soldiers of the Japanese 13th and 16th Divisions and his articles published in Gentlemen!, Hora cited The Tokyo Asahi Shimbun December 17, 1937 coverage, the writing of Kensuke Hata, as well as the diaries of the 103rd Brigade Commander Senji Yamada and other sources, to reconstruct the massacres and critically analyze Suzuki’s interviews, so as to argue against his viewpoints. In the July segment, Hora analyzed and criticized Akira Suzuki’s interviews with the Japanese correspondents who had travelled with the Japanese attacking troops in December 1937 with the evidence he had cited from Masatake Imai and Jiro Suzuki’s articles. Furthermore, he revisited the issues concerning the “100-man killing contest” by refuting the arguments in Akira Suzuki’s newly published book, The Illusion of the Nanjing Massacre (南京大虐殺のまぼろし), and Shichihei Yamamoto’s accusation that Kazuo Asami had fabricated the killing contest.

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The History Review articles, along with other works previously published by Hora on the topic, lay the foundation of his research framework and methodology on the Nanjing Massacre, and many of his later works were derived and evolved from them. A couple of years later, he revised and edited his History Review articles and reprinted them in book form under the title, Criticism of “The Illusion of the Nanjing Massacre” (南京大虐殺「まぼろし」化工作批判),53 in August 1975. “The Nanjing Incident and Criticism of Historical Sources,” was also collected by Katsuichi Honda in his book The Conspiracy of the Pen (ペンの陰謀),54 which appeared in print in September 1977. His further refined research efforts supplemented with much more information, The Confirmed Edition of the Nanjing Massacre (決定版南京大虐殺),55 made its appearance in print in December 1982 as Hora’s representative work on the topic. With a documentary approach, The Confirmed Edition of the Nanjing Massacre, consisting of two parts, namely, “The Truth of the Nanjing Atrocities (南京アトロ ツティーズの実相)” and “Criticism on the Illusion of the ‘Nanjing Massacre’” (‘南京大虐殺’まぼろし化工作批判),” provides detailed and in-depth analysis and criticism with numerous eyewitness accounts and other primary materials, though mainly of Japanese origin. The first part, using source material from the chapter “Nanjing Atrocities” of his 1972 book, The Nanjing Incident, supplemented with quite a few newly discovered or newly available sources, is arranged in topical format, focusing his arguments on seven major issues. Hora first compared the number of Chinese prisoners of war reported by Japanese military correspondents in December 1937 with the prisoner number issued by the Japanese authorities at the same time. He argued that the disparity between the two reveals the fact that a large number of the prisoners had been slaughtered. Therefore, as to the incidents in which prisoners of war were massacred, it was largely evident at that time. However, we did not know the truth about the Nanjing Massacre until after Japan was defeated, when the prosecution continuously presented evidence during the International Military Tribunal for the Far East at Tokyo. In fact, the Nanjing Massacre incident had been known to the world a long time ago. Those who had been kept completely in the dark and eulogized the holy war were the Japanese alone. The soldiers who had returned from the war were strictly restrained by a gag order and almost nobody revealed anything about it. (p. 15)

The second topic the author discussed is the massacres, which took place in and outside the city when Nanjing fell to the Japanese. Hora cited extensively quotations from Japanese soldiers’ wartime diaries and military correspondents’ writings, which describe their witnesses and observations about the mass executions and massacre sites with heaps of dead bodies, including lengthy citations from the diaries and writings by Touichi Sasaki, Morikazu Takashiro (高城守一), Sekiji Geka (外賀関次), Katsumi Shimada, Jiro Suzuki and Heisuke Sugiyama (杉山平助). Yoshio Akahoshi (赤星義雄) was a private in the 13th Regiment, the 6th Division, who described what he had witnessed on December 14, 1937 when he ran an errand in Xiaguan. It seemed there were at least 50,000 dead bodies floating in the Yangtze, which was indeed turned into a river of the dead. (p. 24)

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Hora also cited the historical records of Japanese military units as evidence that large numbers of Chinese prisoners of war had been mass executed. The history of the 33rd Regiment, 16th Division, keeps the following account: “Enemy soldiers came to surrender in large numbers to the Japanese troops who had entered the city, making it difficult to deal with at the time. But the fact that the whereabouts of these surrendered soldiers were later unknown was considered after the war as the massacre incident at Nanjing, causing stories of various sorts to circulate in different countries around the globe, thus damaging our troops’ traditional reputation, which is truly regrettable.” (p. 22) The Summary of the 9th Division’s Combat Operations (第九師団作戦経過の概要), which was compiled in January 1938, indicates, “Then, the division’s right-wing regiment served as the main force to conduct mopping-­up operations in the city, wiping out more than 7000 defeated troops.” (p. 28) Meanwhile, however, Hora made a comment about Japanese troops machine-­ gunning the fleeing Chinese troops, among whom there were surrendered soldiers and civilians outside several of Nanjing’s western gates, “the Japanese military considered these military operations as rightful combat behaviors, whereas, the Chinese regarded them as massacre, just like what had happened at Yuhua Terrace.” (p. 26) The third topic Hora focused on is “Prisoners of War, ‘Soldiers in Plain Clothes’ and Refugees were Massacred in Large numbers (捕虜·「便衣兵」および難民の 大量虐殺).” He began this section with a reference to the December 17, 1937 Asahi Shimbun news coverage that Morozumi troop had captured 14,777 Chinese soldiers at Mufu Mountain. Hora stated that all of the captives had been slaughtered by the Morozumi troop for lack of food supplies to feed the captives. (p. 32) Concerning the mass executions at the Yangtze riverside, he quoted Masatake Imai’s 1956 memoir article that there were dark, tangled mountains of dead bodies at the Yangtze wharf. (p. 34) Touichi Sasaki, major general and commander of the 30th Brigade, the 16th Division, indicated in his writing that up to January 5, 1938, “In the nearest suburbs outside the city, the remnant enemy soldiers who had disobeyed orders were successively rounded up. Those who had been executed in Xiaguan numbered several thousand.” (p. 40) In addition, Hora cited the testimonies by Liang Tinfang (梁庭 芳), Shang Deyi (尚德義), Sun Yuanzhen (孫遠震), and Lu Su (魯甦) at the Tokyo Trial, as well as Chen Degui (陳德貴)’s testimony collected by Katsuichi Honda, as evidence that large numbers of the captured Chinese soldiers and civilians had been mass executed by the Yangtze, though he expressed his doubts about the credibility of the massacre victim number of 57,418 provided by Lu Su. (p. 36) To support his point of view further, Hora cited extensively the writings of Motokatsu Sasaki (佐々木元勝), head of a Japanese military post office. He published his war experiences in China in book form in 1941 under the title, The Banner of a Field Post Office (野戦郵便旗), in which Sasaki indicated that, after he arrived in Nanjing on December16, 1937, he had seen a large number of captured Chinese soldiers marched away. (p. 41) After Sasaki’s post office was relocated to Xiaguan, he recorded what he had witnessed by the river bank:

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On the riverbank, after the remnant soldiers had been mowed down by machine guns, bodies piled up. By the road, under the embankment and on the riverside, bodies were heaped one on top of the other. No sight was more tragic than this. In addition, how many bodies had been washed away by the muddy waves of the Yangtze, nobody could tell. (p. 43)

Sasaki’s description is echoed by the accounts of Domei correspondents Mikizo Fukazawa (深澤干藏) and Yuji Maeda (前田雄二) in the latter’s book In the War Currents (戦争の流れの中に). On December 17, 1937, they had a celebration dinner party in the evening at their field branch office. At dinner, Mikizo Fukazawa reported shocking news. Fukazawa had been to Xiaguan by himself at dusk to look around, and found that there were a lot of dead bodies by the Yangtze downstream from Xiaguan. When he arrived, he saw heaps of bodies stretching for quite a distance. It was said that if guards found someone not yet dead and moving, they would instantly kill the person. The following morning, two or three friends and I drove out. While passing through Yijiang Gate, all the corpses had been cleared out. Therefore I did not have the horrible feeling of going through the gate of hell. Having passed through Xiaguan, it was indeed like what Fukazawa had described. On the road by the riverbank, there were a large number of corpses of Chinese soldiers piling up like hills and stretching quite a distance. It looked like the corpses were doused with gasoline before they were burned. (p. 42)

Hora used 65 pages to cover his next topic, Atrocities Committed against the Innocent Nanjing Residents (無辜の南京市民にたいする残虐行為). Again he cited a large number of quotations from primary sources and writings from a variety of origins to cover such issues as killing of residents, raping women, looting and burning committed by Japanese soldiers in Nanjing. He quoted accounts by eyewitnesses of different nationalities, such as M.  S. Bates’ December 15, 1937 Nanjing conditions report, John Magee’s testimony at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, and a quotation from the report of a German eyewitness, which is cited in part here: On 14 December the Japanese troops, who were insufficiently provided for due to the fast advance, were let loose on the city and acted in a manner which is just indescribable for regular troops. They took all seizable stores of foodstuffs from the refugees, woolen sleeping blankets, clothes, watches – in short, everything worth taking. Not only resistance, but a dilatory or slow handing over was immediately answered by the bayonet and many, just because they did not comprehend the language, etc., became victims of this circumstance. …… It was no rare picture that a single Japanese soldier drove four coolies, who had to carry his loot. This organized thieving and plundering lasted fourteen days and even today one is still unsafe from some groups, who, for any reason whatsoever, go out to “requisition.” A few food stores were broken into and emptied during the retreat of the Chinese troops, and a few fires were also started. However, by far the greater part of the city was undamaged at the time of its capture. (pp. 68–69)

Huang Junxiang (黄俊鄉), a Chinese civilian who had survived a mass execution, provided written testimony for the Tokyo Trial as prosecution evidence, document No. 1733, though this testimony was not read in court: On December 11, 1937,56 Japanese troops breached the city walls near Guanghua Gate, entering the city and approaching the refugee zone. Two days later Japanese troops began searching the residences. Having seen discarded weapons, they felt certain that there were

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a lot of soldiers hiding in the refugee zone. Thus, regardless of international laws, they started killing. All those between ages 18 and 40 were rounded up as Nationalist soldiers. During the first few days more than 2,000 were detained, and I was one of them. The detainees were then lined up four abreast, and departed from the refugee zone. The procession, two miles long, marched toward the spots along the Yangtze riverside. At night, Japanese troops killed almost all of them. (p. 95)

Kenzou Okamoto, born in Tokyo, was drafted into the Japanese army in May 1937 before he took part in the Hangzhou Bay landing operation and the Nanjing battle. In the August 1971 issue of the monthly journal China, he published his wartime experiences under the title, “Participating the Hangzhou Bay landing in front of the enemy (杭州湾敵前上陸に参加して),” in which he gave a detailed account of such atrocities as mass execution and rape committed by the Japanese in Nanjing. Hora quoted a segment of the article, which is cited in part as follows (the omitted part in the middle can be found in Chapter 11): Someone claimed that the Nanjing massacre incident did not occur. That is nonsense. I witnessed the massacre. After Japanese troops had captured Nanjing, because we were unable to make a distinction between innocent residents and guerrillas, resident certificates were then issued. Our troop was also involved in such tasks as questioning people. Even though Chinese people were required to fill out their birth years, months, dates, occupations, and genders, very few Chinese could write. We tried to explain to those who could not write, but they could not understand us. Therefore, it would be ok for those who could give answers clearly, but those who were slow in giving answers or talked incoherently were considered suspicious to be dealt with differently. …… It was not clear whether those who were killed were guerrillas. When we tried to distinguish whether they were innocent residents, it was not always based on solid ground. Because of language miscommunication, the situation could not be made clear. Although what is in hell and in Sukhavati is hardly different, in fact it is nonsense. Rape incidents were not rumors either. They truly were facts. After Nanjing was captured, that situation was terrible. Since after the Hangzhou Bay landing, there had been no women in the troops. Soldiers were young people…… The superior officers said that if you did that thing, have the woman killed on the spot. Bayonets were not allowed to be used, neither was shooting, and they should be beaten to death. I think this way made it impossible for others to know who had killed them. It was because rape and theft would be court-­ martialed. This being said, but in the front line troops, sometimes discipline was slackened and they turned a blind eye to the incidents. Nobody was shot as punishment …… No, nobody was punished either. Not only soldiers did bad things. Sometimes, officers took the lead. (pp. 70–72)

Hora discussed his next topic, During “the Celebration of Victory” (「南京勝利 祭」の期間), from the perspective of the Japanese military by examining the responses of the Japanese military authorities towards atrocities. According to the record of interrogating Akira Muto during the Tokyo Trial, against General Matsui’s order that only two or three battalions were to enter Nanjing, the whole army got inside the city walls, thereby resulting in the rape of Nanjing. (p. 126) After the city entering ceremony on December 17, 1937, upon learning that atrocities had been committed by his troops, Iwane Matsui instantly issued orders to the Shanghai Expeditionary Army and the 10th Army that, except for the forces necessary to garrison Nanjing, the rest of the troops should evacuate

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the city right away. Meanwhile, he ordered to tighten the discipline of the troops and punish unlawful behaviors. (ibid) However, atrocities did not stop after Matsui’s orders were issued. Instead, the reign of terror continued for 6  weeks. With quotations from the testimonies by Magee, Fitch, Bates, and Tsen Shui-fang to show the unlawful behaviors of Japanese soldiers during that period, Hora pointed out that the commander of the Nanjing Garrison, who was the commander of the 16th Division Kesago Nakajima, and his subordinate Major General Touichi Sasaki were two terrible figures responsible for the atrocities committed then. (pp. 127–132) After repeated protests by John Allison in Nanjing and presentations American Ambassador Joseph Grew made in Tokyo, the General Staff Office dispatched Major General Masaharu Homma (本間雅晴) to investigate. Matsui indicated during the Tokyo Trial that Homma arrived in Shanghai by the end of January 1938, telling Matsui that the Japanese authorities in Tokyo were concerned after receiving reports concerning the atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers in China. Homma got to Nanjing early February to investigate and Nakajima was replaced by the 10th Brigade Commander Shojikiro Amaya as the Nanjing Garrison Commander in mid-­ January. The situation did not substantially improve until mid-February. (pp. 132–134) In the section, The Estimate of the Death Toll (犧牲者数の推定), Hora discussed the descriptions and reports concerning victim numbers from eyewitness accounts and court testimonies, and analyzed the credibility of the burial records from different sources, such as the Red Swastika Society, Chongshan Tang and other groups. He cited a lengthy quotation from the Japanese defense summation during the Tokyo Trials, about the burying records of the two organizations: The above-mentioned exhibits are said to have been based on information collected in 1946, ten years after the occupation of Nanking by the Japanese troops, and it is not clear on what basic data these tables were made. Especially as to the number of corpses, it would be impossible to establish the number ten years after the occurrence, so we must conclude that the figures are all based on assumption or guesswork. …… Now, let us next cite some examples indicating the figures in these exhibits to be fraud and incredible, namely: the “Chung” Burial Party buried 404 corpses during its work from the 26th to 28th of December 1937, that is to say, it has buried 130 corpses a day, on average, but the said party buried 26,612 of them in the vast area of the site of the Army Arsenal and Yuhua Tai from the 9th to the 18th of April 1938 and the average of its work amounted to 2,600 corpses a day. If you compare the above-mentioned amount of work in December 1937 with that in April 1938, you find exaggeration of statement and unreliability of the figures. There could not have been so many corpses five months after the battle, in the area of Yuhua Tai already cleared up by our troops. We can point out a similar contradiction in the areas of Shui Hsi Men-Shang Ho, Chungshan Men-Ma Chun, and Tungchi Men-Fang Shan. Concerning the number of corpses buried by the “Red Swastika Society”, it dealt with 672 corpses in a day and 996 in another day, while they were estimated at 4,685 on the 9th of February and 5,805 on the 21st of the same month. However changed the number of workers might have been, there cannot have been such a large difference. It is to be considered that, after all, the desired figures were inserted in the desired places purposely. Besides, in the figures shown by the “Chung” Burial Party the ones of corpses of persons, male and female and children, are given with plausible ratio of

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reduction, but in the figures given by the “Red Fylfot[Swastika]” Party there are no corpses of female persons and children. It is impossible to believe the existence of women and children in the front from which almost all non-combatants had already fled. Furthermore, on observing this table as a report of the scheduled burial work, the “Red Fylfot [Swastika]” Party worked continuously at the Mine Unit Wharf at Hsia Kuan, from the 19th to the 22nd of February, and though the party dealt with 5,226 corpses on the 21st, on the 19th and 20th it dealt with only 524 and 197 corpses respectively. It is contrary to reason that on the first day of work the figure should be large, but that it should gradually decrease day by day. We can point out this kind of contradiction in the work at the Coal Harbor and the Commissary Depot. (pp. 139–140, the original English text is in The Tokyo War Crimes Trial, Vol.19, Proceedings of the Tribunal, edited by R.  John Pritchard and Sonia Magbanua Zaide, pp. 47, 269–47, 273)

Hora opined that the above attempt to discredit the burial records was questionable. He pointed out that it was the Japanese military authorities that ordered the burial squads to dispose of the strewn corpses, and the Japanese military should also keep the reports sent by the burial squads. The Chinese side might infer that the Japanese military authorities may have destroyed the records, but they could not be certain of this. Therefore, the Chinese side would not play the dangerous game of presenting doubtful evidence to the Military Tribunal. (p. 140) Meanwhile, he drew readers’ attention to an April 16, 1938 news report from The Osaka Asahi Shimbun (North China edition) that stated there were tens of thousands corpses strewn in ditches and small rivers. Japanese monks worked together with the Red Swastika Society and Self-Government Committee to bury, up to that point, 1793 corpses in the city and 30,311 corpses outside the city, with many more bodies scattered outside the city and behind the hills. (pp.  140–141) Hora compared the number of corpse buried in the Japanese news report with that in Red Swastika Society’s burial record, and they largely match one another. He believed that not all the victims’ bodies found were recorded, and the total victim number can be as high as over 200,000, (p. 145). However, he expressed his doubts and reservations about Lu Su’s number of 57,418 (p. 149) and Chongshan Tang’s burial record of 100,4718 corpses buried outside the city. Its record of 7548 bodies found inside the city was considered by him to be somewhat exaggerated but not fabricated. (p. 142) Hora’s last topic is the Responsibility of the Atrocity Incident (残虐事件の責 任). He first discussed the issue of whether the Central China Expeditionary Forces headquarters or the 10th Army had ever issued orders to eliminate or kill the surrendered Chinese soldiers. According to Akira Muto, Matsui’s deputy chief of staff, since the Sino-Japanese war was an undeclared war, the captured Chinese soldiers were not treated as prisoners of war. Yasuto Nakayama (中山寧人), a staff member, agreed with Muto. (p.  156) But did the headquarters ever issue formal orders? Kimiteru Kouno (河野公輝), a photography journalist embedded in the 6th Division, claimed that he had seen in the division headquarters a document to communicate an order which states, “Do not tolerate the Communist tyranny; in order to crush the rampant activities of the Communist bandits, peasants and workers would be definitely killed’ even women and children, all would be killed (共產主義 の暴虐む許さず、共匪の跳梁む粉砕するため、農夫、工夫はもとより、女

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子供にいたるまで、全员殺戮).” (p. 160) As to the origin of the order, Hora suspected that it might have been issued by the 10th Army, of which Heisuke Yanagawa was the commander who should shoulder the responsibility. Although he could not rule out the possibility that someone in the Central China Expeditionary Forces headquarters might have issued it, Hora did not believe that Matsui was aware of it. Hora further probed the issue as to who was truly responsible for the atrocities. He had reason to believe that division commanders were more likely the responsible parties. He cited the case in which the 65th Regiment had rounded up about 15,000 Chinese soldiers before slaughtering them, and Senji Yamada indicated that his division commander ordered them to “execute the captives”; a regiment commander Tasugawa (助川) under the 16th Division once indicated to Akira Suzuki that “his division commander had said not to keep captives”; and Matsui stated during an interrogation session after the war that he thought the division commanders were the ones responsible. (pp. 161–163) Hora argued that while he thought the division and brigade commanders would not encourage or award behaviors like rape and looting, they literally acquiesced in these terrible criminal activities. (p. 165) He also pointed out that the militarist education in schools in general, education in the military in particular and the deteriorating moral values among the officers and soldiers should also be blamed for committing atrocities. (p. 187) The second part of the book, “Criticism on the Illusion of the ‘Nanjing Massacre’ (‘南京大虐殺’まぼろし化工作批判),” is based on his 1975 book of the same title, with some reorganization, revision, and updated information. This part consists of three sections: (1) Is “the 100-man killing contest” really a false report? (「百人斬 り竸争」ははたして虚報か), (2) The unusual interview activities of Akira Suzuki (鈴木明のめざましいルポ活動), and (3) “The criticism of historical source material” by Shichihei Yamamoto (山本七平氏の「史料批判」). Hora stated that “the 100-man killing contest” was not an incident that would necessarily attract much attention within the research on the Nanjing Massacre, but due to the political intention in claiming it was a false report, he could no longer remain silent. (p. 200) By tracing back the disputes between Isaiah Ben-Dasan and Katsuichi Honda, Akira Suzuki’s joining the dispute to Ben-Dasan’s rescue, Shichihei Yamamoto’s series, “Our Japanese Troops,” and other critics’ responses, he criticized the viewpoints held by Ben-Dasan, Suzuki and Yamamoto, and refuted their allegation that “the 100-man killing contest” was a false report. Hora discussed Suzuki’s article, “Nanjing · December 1937,” and provided in-­ depth analysis and criticism of Suzuki’s interviews with former Japanese officers and soldiers of the 13th and 16th Divisions. By quoting Senji Yamada’s diary entries, he questioned the accuracy and credibility of the contents of the interviews. He further analyzed the testimonies several former Japanese officers provided as defense witnesses in the court of the Tokyo Trial, and proved that they had provided false testimonies in court, for what they had said could not be true. (p. 256) He criticized Suzuki’s doubts about the huge number of corpses, and accused Suzuki of sharing the same views as the Japanese defense in the court of Tokyo Trial. Hora

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cited the content from the book, The Life of a Diplomat (外交官の一生), by Itaro Ishii, to refute Suzuki’s allegations that John Magee’s testimony at Tokyo Trial and The New York Times correspondent F. Tillman Durdin’s reports were not creditable. Hora also quoted different sources to analyze the articles by Kensuke Hata, Masatake Imai and Jiro Suzuki to defend the articles’ credibility against the allegations and attacks by Suzuki. In his book, Our Japanese Troops (私の中の日本軍), Shichihei Yamamoto claimed that the Nanjing Massacre is an illusion, with the allegation that the content of Jiro Suzuki’s article had been fabricated. In the last section, Hora conducted a detailed and in-depth analysis of Suzuki’s article and Yamamoto’s allegations, and with evidence drawn from various sources, including Durdin’s news dispatches in The New York Times, Hora proved that Suzuki’s descriptions were reasonably creditable. In addition, he also criticized Yamamoto’s arguments concerning the victim toll and casualty numbers.

13.4  The Turning Point Up to this point, the controversies over “the 100-man killing contest” and other Nanjing Massacre related issues were largely debated within Japan. 1982, however, serves as a significant turning point, when the Japanese Ministry of Education (文部省) approved and authorized the newly revised history textbooks for its public school systems. Every 4 years, the Textbook Authorization and Research Council ( 教科用図書検定調查審議会) under the Ministry of Education reviews and evaluates the textbooks written and proposed for publication by several private companies. The function of the council is to ensure that the contents of the textbooks are objective, impartial and free from errors. The council approves and endorses the textbooks that pass its inspection. The local education boards then select textbooks from the Ministry of Education authorized list for the elementary, junior high and high schools under their jurisdictions. The review/approval process, therefore, is supposed to ensure academic accuracy. The process is also highly political, and the outcome is extremely lucrative for the private companies whose textbooks are endorsed. On June 25, 1982, the Japanese Ministry of Education completed the textbook review process and disclosed changes in the new history textbooks for the coming fall semester, and one of the changes was to “replace the word ‘invasion’ with the apparently more neutral ‘advance’ to describe the Japanese Imperial Army’s attacks in China in the 1930s and in Southeast Asia and the Pacific in the 1940s.” Meanwhile, education “officials also instructed publishers in Japan’s lucrative textbook market to delete, condense or alter other references to the country’s culpability for specific wartime incidents.” In terms of the Nanjing Massacre, the new books suggested that “the ‘Rape of Nanking’ in 1937 may have been provoked because Japanese soldiers were angered by the losses they had suffered – at the hands of a relatively small

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number of poorly trained and equipped Chinese resistance fighters, according to contemporary accounts.”57 Prior to the recent revision, one textbook version of the incident read: “At the time of the occupation of Nanking, Japanese forces killed and assaulted many Chinese soldiers and civilians and plundered and set fires. Japan was internationally criticized for the rape of Nanking. It is said that the number of Chinese victims totaled 200,000.” The new version reportedly reads: “In the midst of the confusion of the occupation of Nanking, Japanese forces killed many Chinese soldiers and civilians. Japan was internationally criticized for the rape of Nanking.” (p. A14)

In addition to triggering internal complaints and protests from some Japanese teachers’ organizations, the textbook revision prompted strong protests from China, Korea and other Asian neighbors. While demanding an immediate correction, the South Koreans protested against the distortions in the textbooks, which deleted key facts concerning Japan’s 50-year colonial rule of Korea. The Koreans considered the change of textbooks suggestive of a change of course in postwar Japan. After dozens of reflective years, Japan set to rewriting the textbooks, posing an ominous question to its neighboring countries. (ibid.) China lodged a protest that the new textbooks glossed over atrocities committed by Japan’s conquering army and downgraded the invasion and occupation of China from aggression to advance, stating that the textbook revisions were made by the Japanese militarists who “cannot dispel the painful memories of their aggression, killing and torture and plunder from the minds of the Chinese people.” The Chinese responded by publishing photos of beheadings in Nanjing and accounts of the brutality of Japanese soldiers in China during the war. Meanwhile, they demanded immediate correction of passages dealing with Japanese atrocities. China also cancelled a visit to Beijing by Japanese Education Minister Heiji Ogawa (小川平二). Ultraconservative officials were regarded by the Chinese, as well as many experts in Japan, as largely responsible for the revisions, and these officials were backed by the right wing of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, a conservative group in spite of its name.58 In the early 1980s, after Mao Zedong died in 1976 and Deng Xiaoping came to power in 1977, there were outcries and complaints about Mao’s regime in terms of dealing with the Nationalist Government leadership and sacrifice during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Many of the former Nationalist generals asked that the Nationalist contribution to the war be recognized and victims of the Nanjing Massacre be memorized. The textbook revision incident coincided with the appeal to rehabilitation and helped precipitate the process. A substantial number of wartime memoirs were written, including those by the surviving Nationalist soldiers who wrote about the atrocities they had gone through during the Nanjing Massacre. In November 1983, the Nanjing Municipal Government set up a special office responsible for compiling the history of the Nanjing Massacre, establishing the memorial museum of the Nanjing Massacre, and building memorial monuments or markers at the massacre sites. From February to June 1984, the office sponsored a massive survey among Nanjing residents and discovered 1756 massacre survivors and eyewitnesses. These people were interviewed, and the written records of the

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interviews were archived. Consequently, the long overdue Nanjing Massacre Memorial Museum was established on August 15, 1985, almost 48 years after the massacre took place; the monuments and markers were set up at 13 major massacre sites also in August 1985. Source Materials Relating to the Horrible Massacre Committed by the Japanese Troops in Nanjing in December 1937 (1937. 12. 13-­侵 华日军南京大屠杀史料)59 was published in 1985; Archival Documents Relating to the Horrible Massacre Committed by the Japanese Troops in Nanjing in December 1937 (1937. 12. 13-侵华日军南京大屠杀档案)60 and Draft Manuscript of the History Relating to the Horrible Massacre Committed by the Japanese Troops in Nanjing in December 1937(侵华日军南京大屠杀史稿)61 were published in 1987; but the outcome of the survey, A Collection of Testimonies by the Survivors of the Nanjing Massacre Committed by the Japanese Troops Invading China (侵华日军南 京大屠杀幸存者证言集), did not appear in print until 1994.62

13.5  The Rise of Japanese Revisionists Since he published the short article “The Nanjing Massacre Incident and Iwane Matsui’s Diaries (南京虐殺事件と松井石根日記)” in Japan Weekly in February 1957, Masaaki Tanaka produced few publications concerning the Nanjing Massacre for more than two decades. When the history textbook revision met with strong responses from China, Korea and other Asian countries, Tanaka found himself unable to remain quiet any longer. According to Tanaka, “the textbook incident of the 1982 summer was like a nightmare,” as “China and South Korea actively cooperated in lodging protests, making it an international incident.” In his opinion, “demanding another country to revise textbooks is apparently a violation of education rights and interference with another country’s internal affairs.”63 In 1983 and 1984, several of his articles appeared in magazines, namely, “Hoax of ‘the Nanjing Massacre’ (“南京大虐殺”のでっちあげ)” in Yasukuni (靖国, July 1983), “‘The Nanjing Massacre’ and Iwane Matsui’s Battlefield Diaries (“南京虐殺”と松井石 根の陣中日誌)” in Gentlemen! (諸君!, September 1983), “The Tokyo Trial Judgment and the Fabrication of ‘the Nanjing Massacre’” (東京裁判と“南京大虐 殺”の虚構)” in Foreign Relations Times (外交時報, February 1984), and “The risk of revising textbooks to succumb to the historical review of ‘the Tokyo Trial’ (“東 京裁判史観”に屈服した改訂教科書の危険性) in Full View (ゼンボウ, February 1984). In 1983, his book, The Tokyo Trial and its Divided Rulings (東京裁判とは 何か 六つに分かれた判決), also appeared in print. In June 1984 he published The Fabrication of ‘the Nanjing Massacre’: Reading through the Diary of General Iwane Matsui (“南京虐殺”の虚構  – 松井大将の日記を巡って), which was instantly hailed as a landmark work by the revisionists, and helped establish his reputation as the revisionist representative and spokesman. Born on February 11, 1911 in Tagano (長野県), Masaaki Tanaka graduated in 1933 from the Academy of Asian Studies (興亜学塾) before he served as a clerk at the Pan-Asia Association (大亜細亜協会), of which Iwane Matsui was one of the

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founders and became its chairman in 1935. While working at the association, he formed a close association with Iwane Matsui by serving as the latter’s personal secretary, and in spring 1936 accompanied Matsui on a trip to South and Central China. In August 1938, as a reporter embedded in the Japanese troops, Tanaka went to Nanjing and stayed there for three weeks. He was drafted in December 1942 and served in the Japanese Army stationing in China from 1942 to 1945. After the war, he was editor-in-chief of Minamishin Current News (南信時事新聞) in his hometown, and from 1958 to 1973, he was secretary-general for the United World Federalists of Japan (世界連邦協会), before becoming managing director of the International Peace Association and an adjunct lecturer at Takushoku University (拓 殖大学) in Tokyo. Because of his close tie with Iwane Matsui, Matsui’s war time diaries, which Matsui had claimed to the Tokyo Tribunal that he had lost, came into Tanaka’s possession. Tanaka published Matsui’s diaries in 1985 under the title, The Battlefield Diaries of General Iwane Matsui (松井石根大将の陣中日誌).64 Due to the fact that Tanaka altered, modified, and deleted parts of the diaries at more than 900 places, he was severely criticized by such Japanese historians as Ikuhiko Hata (秦郁彦), Yoshiaki Itakura (板倉由明) and Tokushi Kasahara (笠原十九司) for falsification. As a result, he suffered academic ostracism after the controversy. However, The Fabrication of “the Nanjing Massacre” remains his major work, though the incentive that drove him to write on the topic stemmed from the mentality of a former imperial Japanese soldier loyal to Iwane Matusi, and his primary mission of writing it was to deny the occurrence of the Nanjing Massacre and the judgment of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. In that sense, he was not a scholarly historian doing academic research. Therefore, with biased and unbalanced approaches, flawed arguments, factual errors, unreliable sources and careless conclusions, his works inevitably lack academic accuracy and objective analysis. Tanaka died of pneumonia on January 8, 2006 in Tokyo. In The Fabrication of “the Nanjing Massacre,” Tanaka claimed that the Nanjing Massacre and Japanese atrocities in that city had never occurred. Because his starting point was denial of the massacre, he bluntly denied any reports, survivors’ testimonies, eyewitness accounts, and writings that described the massacre and Japanese atrocities, be they provided or written by Chinese, Japanese, Americans, or Germans. The book begins with a sharp criticism of Katsuichi Honda and his “Travels in China” series. According to Tanaka, the contents of “Travels in China” were Chinese victims’ words, or stories. After all, they were “hearsay.” He accused Honda of going to China to collect a bunch of “hearsay” from someone named Jiang and publishing them unaltered without verifying their veracity or checking Japanese evidence. Therefore, Honda was an extremely irresponsible news correspondent.65 As to Masatake Imai, who wrote in 1956 about his eyewitness accounts of the mass executions in Nanjing, Tanaka stated with certainty that Imai apparently had lied by writing something up as if he had witnessed it with his own eyes. (p. 61) Tanaka’s comment about Kensuke Hata was that “Mr. Hata enlisted in 1939, about 2 years after the Nanjing Incident took place. Apparently what he wrote is absolutely a mixture of hearsay and fabrication.” (ibid) “It has been found that Mr. Hata was not

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a correspondent attached to the troops during the Nanjing battle, and what he wrote is but fabrication and hearsay.” (p. 242) His comment about Tomio Hora and his work is as negative: The method adopted by Professor Tomio Hora is that he first set the tone that several hundred thousand people had been slaughtered, then he set out to collect the related source materials, and from first-hand primary sources to those below third-hand materials such as hearsay, rumors and lies, everything was collected. Eventually, the number of corpses, number of prisoners of war, number of kidnapped, and the bodies buried were all counted as those who had been “massacred” by Japanese troops. An attitude like this can never be called the attitude of a scholar in good conscience. (p. 33)

Tanaka’s comments about the eyewitness accounts by the nationals of the third neutral countries were equally critical and negative. Concerning H. J. Timperley’s What War Means: Japanese Terror in China and the Documents of the Nanking Safety Zone compiled by Hsu Shuhsi, he asserted: “From these two books, it can be seen that after Japanese soldiers and officers entered the city, they killed, raped and looted everywhere, with lawless behaviors too many to be counted. It appeared that unlawful violations were quite serious. However, after careful analysis, there are fabrications, exaggerations and repetitions in the books, and almost all of them were hearsay.” (p. 29) He reached the conclusion that the contents of the two books were nothing but collections of hearsay, and was absolute certain that the documents of the International Committee for Nanking Safety Zone were written and compiled in this manner: “According to the record of ‘the International Committee,’ every day the 15 members had lunch together, and while eating they discussed information they had heard respectively, and recorded. This was the collection of hearsay.” (p. 30) What Tanaka did not know is that several of the 15 members on the committee list had withdrawn from Nanjing before the Japanese captured the city. According to enclosure No. 6 to the American diplomatic document, “The Conditions at Nanking,” compiled by Vice Consul James Espy in January 1938, there were only 11 members on the committee.66 The allegation that the committee’s documents were created out of the lunch talks is apparently nothing short of an imaginary surmise. Tanaka indicated that from the very beginning the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone was extremely prejudiced against the Japanese. “This point can be determined from the following facts: the ‘International Committee for the Safety Zone’ of Nanjing called Japanese troops ‘invaders,’ and quibbled that the Chinese troops had not looted, and had not done anything until after Japanese troops entered the city. Chairman Rabe (a German) even made a false report to his home country, saying that ‘the rape cases committed by Japanese soldiers within a month numbered 20,000.’”67 Several American missionaries, such as Lewis Smythe, Robert Wilson, and Minnie Vautrin who stayed in the city and witnessed Japanese atrocities, recorded in their diaries and personal letters that from December 19, 1937 to January 20, 1938, almost every day there was burning in the city. Tanaka, however, proved with Japanese soldiers’ words that “‘the burning in Nanjing’ was purely a rumor” and the judgment of the Tokyo Trial was absurd. (pp. 31–32)

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Five American and British correspondents in Nanjing, namely, Archibald Trojan Steele of The Chicago Daily News, Charles Yates McDaniel of the Associated Press, Frank Tillman Durdin of The New  York Times, Arthur von Briesen Menken of Paramount Newsreel, and Leslie C.  Smith of Reuters, had published dispatches reporting the Nanjing Massacre in December 1937 and January and February 1938  in their respective media, with Steele and Durdin, in particular, reporting extensively. However, Tanaka asserted differently: Except for 120 Japanese special correspondents and photographer journalists, there were journalists and photographers from various countries in the narrow area within Nanjing, competing with one another to cover the news. In addition, five American and British ships anchored in the Yangtze River. As I indicated earlier, there were still 27 foreigners who had stayed in Nanjing since before the hostilities reached there, watching closely. It can be said that Japanese troops were under watchful eyes, and were monitored everywhere. However, eight years had passed, until Japan was defeated in the East Asia War and the Tokyo Trial was about to begin, nobody had ever reported the large-scale massacres, in which Japanese troops had systematically massacred 100 thousand, 200 thousand or 300 thousand people. (p. 244)

Tanaka also alleged that during the Tokyo Trial, the prosecution witnesses, American or Chinese, offered false testimonies in court. John Magee testified as a prosecution witness on August 15 and 16, 1946 in court. He provided testimony of atrocity cases, including some victims whom he had filmed at the University of Nanking Hospital. Tanaka, however, simply brushed aside the overwhelming evidence and discredited Magee’s testimony by saying, “American pastor Magee in two days provided one hundred and dozens of atrocity cases involving killing, raping and looting committed by Japanese soldiers and officers. Consequently, except one case of murder, one rape and one looting, all the rest were hearsay, rumors or conjectures, imagination, or his own fabrications.” (p. 314) As to M. S. Bates’ testimony that 12,000 civilian men, women and children were killed inside the city walls, Tanaka pointed out that the testimony was in contradiction to a report in December 16, 1937 Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun (東京日日新聞) by Japanese correspondents Wakaume (若梅) and Murakami (村上), who had interviewed Bates and quoted him as saying that after Japanese occupation, peace soon returned to Nanjing. (pp. 309–310) Tanaka was much freer and more irrational in his statement to discredit Chinese witnesses. He regarded Xu Chuanyin’s testimony as “dream talk,” and Chen Fubao was a witness of abnormal personality (pp.  315–317). In Tanaka’s opinion, the Tokyo Trial was a unilateral and unjust trial, and the Nanjing Massacre “was dramatically directed and created by the Tokyo Trial, which was a court where victors punished the defeated. The court’s trial was extremely one-­ sided, ‘proving’ with ulterior motives the ruthless brutality of Japanese troops.” (pp. 27 & 305) Tanaka’s resentment toward the Tokyo Trial was so intense that he indulged himself in taking delight in the death of General Henry Walker in a car accident, because the “person responsible for executing seven war criminals was Lieutenant General Henry Walker, who gave the execution orders,” and in 1951, Walker’s car fell off a cliff in Korea and “he met his death before he had time to utter a sound. Coincidentally,

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that day was December 23, the same day as Matsui and six others’ death day, also at midnight, and it was the same hour and same day as Matsui and others were executed. Of course, the accident took place in 1951, three years later.” (pp. 85–86) Over the years, Tanaka endeavored to advocate his argument that the Nanjing Massacre was but a fabrication by the Chinese. All the testimonies and eyewitness accounts provided by Chinese survivors were labeled either as false allegations or hearsays unconfirmed by Japanese accounts. He even went so far as to resort to cultural profiling and slander in order to discredit the descriptions of the Nanjing Massacre and Japanese atrocities recorded by the Chinese: Since the Records of the Three Kingdoms (三國志)68 came into being, China has been extremely skillful at propaganda. There had been countless instances in which a defeat in battle was presented as victory in propaganda. It was also recorded in The Art of War by Sunzi (孫子兵法). The propaganda, which was not only adopted during war time, but also used in daily life, is so ingenious that Japanese people can hardly match it. China is a country of language, a country of words. It can be said that this nation’s ability of verbal embellishing, describing and exaggerating is far better than other nations.69

Undoubtedly, Tanaka here suggested that the Nanjing Massacre was another perfect example of propaganda, in which “the ability of verbal embellishing, describing and exaggerating” was displayed. While profiling Chinese culture as one symbolized by propaganda and exaggeration, Tanaka advocated good intentions on the part of the Japanese even in military expansion to foreign lands and launching wars. He quoted with admiration Iwane Matsui’s justification of Japan’s wars with Russia, in Korea and China: Two. Japan’s Purpose of Launching Wars in the Past 1) The 1894–1895 Sino-Japanese War was fought to expel China’s improper political power from Korea, to ensure the independence of Korea and guarantee Japan’s self defense. 2) The Russo-Japanese War’s purpose was to prevent Imperial Russia from invading Manchuria and Korea, to ensure the integrity of Manchuria and the independence of Korea, and further to ensure the independence of Japan. 3) The reasons that several times Japan sent troops to China since the Manchuria Incident and the China Incident since 1937 were that each time China violated the agreements and treaties between China and Japan (for instance, the violation of the neutral zone designated during the first Shanghai Incident of 1932). Japan’s direct purpose was to protect the life, property and interests of the Japanese people in China, to maintain self defense, and further to limit European and American political, economic and ideological invasion, so as to establish and maintain the peace of East Asia. (pp. 335–336)

In an effort to deny the Nanjing Massacre, Tanaka cited the accounts of Masaki Unemoto (畝本正巳), a former Japanese soldier, who justified the killings by revealing the mentality of Japanese soldiers who committed atrocities in and around Nanjing: Japanese troops fought bloody battles in Shanghai and lost many of their fellow soldiers. In addition, they were so intensely engaged in pursuing and attacking operations that they skipped meals and gave up sleep time, and while encountering desperate and stubborn resistance of Chinese troops at the positions in the outskirts of Nanjing, many fellow soldiers were shot dead when they could literarily see the lights of the capital Nanjing right

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ahead of them. Having witnessed this sight, they couldn’t help weeping while holding their dead fellow soldiers. After the war, many fellow soldiers recalled that under the circumstances, each and everyone of them nurtured a determination: “Capture Nanjing, and once war is over, we can go home. This is the last battle, and the time to make our contribution and win honor is now!” “Fight, for it is the last endeavor!” Then, they mustered a huge amount of courage to plunge into the fighting. Whereas, the soldiers and officers at the front line encountered the enemy face to face. Since the 12th, everywhere they ran into enemy soldiers who had been defeated and dispersed in disorder, armed enemy soldiers attempting to hide themselves, enemy soldiers who, resorting to the positions and buildings, continued to shoot back, plain-clothed personnel with pistols and grenades on them, and combatants who could not be distinguished from civilian residents. The mentality of Japanese soldiers and officers at the time was: “Just now you refused to open the city gates and surrender; but now seeing the situation does not go well, you throw away weapons to surrender. Hum! ……” “If only they raise white flags and surrender in large numbers, but there was one here and another over there ……” “Surrender? What a nice thought, I do not know when I will be killed, do not have any mercy, kill him!” It was in this mentality that in a split of a second, when they met with the enemy, that they, regardless of consequences, rushed up to kill. In addition, to treat the surrendered enemy as prisoners of war or as combatants, whether they lost their will to fight, and if there were innocent civilian residents among them, they did not have time to have calm judgment. The front line soldiers did not act “according to international laws.” As to the enemy or hostile persons, in a split second, if you do not kill him, he will kill you. This was common occurrence in history. This was not a fabricated mentality and battlefield behaviors of the soldiers and officers. (pp. 27–28)

Whatever Tanaka’s intention of quoting the account was, Masaki Unemoto’s above statement does admit that wanton killing had taken place at Nanjing and reveals, to some extent, possible reasons why they had committed atrocities there. In justifying Japanese troops’ mopping-up operations, Tanaka indicated that civilians, including women and children, were killed in those operations: “During the Tokyo Trial, the prosecution witness Xu Chuanyin said in his testimony, ‘Japanese soldiers shot at anything moving,’ ‘shot at anyone,’ ‘when they saw anyone running, they shot them dead,’ in an attempt to make people believe how brutal, how hideous and ferocious, and how cruel Japanese soldiers were. This refers to what happened in mopping up operations between [December] 13 and 15, and it is natural and right for combating troops to act like that.” (pp.  185–187) He then quoted a former Japanese officer: On the battlefield, if you do not kill the opposite party, he will kill you. If a little cat moves, you have to raise you rifle to train at it, and sometimes you shoot when you feel suspicious. During the mopping up operations, you shot at those who were running whether they were in uniform or in plain clothes. You would not let women and children go either, and would point rifles at them while searching the objects they were bringing with them. (pp. 145–146)

Tanaka further stated that he did not deny that there were times when Japanese troops’ discipline became loose, and such atrocities as raping and looting occurred during the mopping up operations.

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In addition, they had indeed executed “vicious prisoners of war,” those who hid weapons underneath beds or on roofs, pretended to surrender but attempted to escape, resisted stubbornly, and changed into plain clothes, that is to say that at the time there were quite a few escapees and plain-clothed squad members who could not be counted as prisoners of war according to war time international laws. About this, Mr. Yuji Maeda wrote in his In the War Currents: The following day (December 16), I, Arai (新井), and Harakawa (袚川) in the photo went together to the Military Academy to watch “executions.” The prisoners of war, kept in the buildings in a corner of the campus, were taken into the yard one by one. A sergeant ordered them to run to the dugout ahead of them when the soldiers, who had got ready, bayoneted at their backs. Those prisoners who had fallen into the dugout screaming were bayoneted once again. On the campus, there were three “execution sites” like this. (p. 189)

The prisoners of war were apparently slaughtered systematically on well organized execution grounds rather than in the battlefields. In Tanaka’s book, The Fabrication of “the Nanjing Massacre, which was intended as a denial declaration of the Nanjing Massacre, the evidence of the massacre and Japanese atrocities are unmistakably obvious. Scattered in The Fabrication of “the Nanjing Massacre are numerous factual errors, and due to limited space, just list a few here. On page 142, Tanaka indicated that Japanese planes accidentally bombed American warship Panay near Jiangyin (江陰) and while attacking Nanjing, Japanese artilleries shelled British merchant ship Ladybird. The USS Panay bombing incident and the circumstance under which HMS Ladybird was shelled are discussed in detail in Chapter 10 of this volume. On December 12, 1937, American river gunboat USS Panay was bombed and sunk about 28 miles upstream from Nanking in the Hexian (和縣) waters in Anhui Province, about 200 miles away from Jiangyin. British river gunboat, HMS Ladybird, rather than a merchant ship, was shelled and injured also on December 12, 1937 in the Wuhu harbor. There are numerous errors concerning dates. He listed the publications and research project, the dates when the publications and research project mentioned the number of Nanjing Massacre victims: Reform Daily (改造日報), 1945 People’s Daily (人民日報), 1946 Workers’ Daily (工人日報), 1946 …… …… People’s China (人民中国, Japanese edition), 1947 The Nanjing Massacre, (Department of History, Nanjing University (南京大學), 1948

420,000 200,000 300,000 …… 300,000 Several hundred thousand (p. 59)

Of those listed above, Workers’ Daily did not start its publication until July 15, 1949, while Peoples’ China made its publication debut in June 1953. Nanjing University was not formed until 1949, and its History Department did not initiate the Nanjing Massacre research project until the early 1960s.

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Tanaka mentioned on page 62 that Jiro Suzuki published an article in 1957 (昭和 32年) in the magazine Maru (丸), concerning his eyewitness account of the Japanese atrocities in Nanjing. In fact, Suzuki’s article, “I witnessed that ‘Nanjing tragedy’ (私はあの「南京の悲劇」を目撃した),” appeared in the November 1971 issue of that magazine. On pages 243–244, Tanaka cited The Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun that Steele of The Chicago Daily News, McDaniel of the Associated Press, and Smith of Reuters returned on December 14 to Nanjing from Shanghai for a discussion. The truth is that the three correspondents stayed in Nanjing to cover the siege, city’s fall and the initial stage of the massacre, and they did not leave for Shanghai until December 15 and 16 by USS Oahu, HSM Ladybird and Japanese destroyer Tsuga (栂). The Nanjing Self-Government Committee was inaugurated with a mass meeting at Drum Tower on January 1, 1938. Tanaka stated on page 254 that a mass meeting was held for the establishment of the committee on January 3. These are relatively minor and insignificant errors, but they clearly indicate that Masaaki Tanaka is far from being a serious and careful researcher. It seems that he did not bother to check the accuracy of the sources he intended to use, but simply picked up something unreliable, inaccurate, or, probably some hearsay. If the above-mentioned factual errors are minor and insignificant, the accusation he made regarding the prosecution witness Xu Chuanyin’s testimony in court of the Tokyo Trial about the burning down of the Russian Embassy on January 1, 1938 appears to be something he made up out of thin air: The failure of witness Xu Cuanyin is that he mixed up the legation with the embassy. The legation was in Tianwangsi (天王寺) 20 li away from Nanjing, whereas the embassy was inside Nanjing at a location east of North Zhongshan Road. It was not a thatched house, but the embassy that was on fire. The legation was a thatched house, which was not on fire. Witness Xu insisted all the time that it was the legation, the thatched house. Defense counsel Kanzaki (神崎) said: Well, the legation you have talked about was not burned down, and nobody set fire to it at all. Is the witness talking in a dream or telling a lie? It must be one of the two. Even witness Xu had to remain silent to end this episode. (p. 316)

The Russian Embassy or Legation was in no time in history ever located in a small rural town Tianwangsi east of Nanjing, and even in the 1930s, an embassy or legation would never be a thatched house. To uncover the truth, it is necessary to trace back to the transcripts of the International Tribunal for the Far East, concerning the cross-examination of Xu Chuanyin: CROSS-EXAMINATION. BY MR. KANZAKI: Q In answer to a question put by the prosecution you answered that the atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers continued until the end – until the conclusion of the war. Is that correct? A That is not quite correct. If I remember correctly, my statement is this: where it was the worst about the first few months, especially three months, and later on it gradually diminished more or less. …… Q Then may I understand that atrocities of the Japanese soldiers continued for a few months, is that so?

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A No. It didn’t continue only for a few months. It is only on a wider scale and less conspicuous. For instance, as late as 1942 one member of my own tribe was raped to death. And also I know another case in Tien-Wang-Su,70 that is 1943. Two or three Japanese soldiers went to that village and tried to get chickens and meat. It happened in one family they found a very beautiful young woman and they raped her, and when the husband came back they killed two of the three Japanese soldiers. And afterwards the Japanese got angry at that and the next day – let me finish. On the following day the Japanese came – Q No, that is sufficient. MR. SUTTON: May it please the Court – THE PRESIDENT: He does not understand. Continue with your answer. A On the following day, then, the Japanese came on the pretention that they will give work to some of the men in that village. So by this way they get most of the men out of that village and take them to work and shoot them, machinegun them, and after that the Japanese gave the fire and burned that whole village out. Q Mr. Witness, you stated earlier that the Japanese soldiers set fire to the Russian Legation. When did this take place? A 1942. Q What month and what date? A Well, it is in the – I can’t remember the date now. Q You stated earlier that you witnessed this fire. By what method was this fire started? A Well, the fire was started by setting it burning. All storehouses, very easy to set on fire. Q Mr. Witness, you stated earlier that the fire was set by pouring kerosene. You say that you witnessed the fire. Did you or did you not witness this fire? A You are twisting the facts. What I said in the morning is kerosene, that is the burning of the Russian Legation. That Legation, the houses were very near to the place I lived; that is near Nanking. This is Tien-Wang-Su, about twenty li from Nanking. Q We are asking about the Russian Legation. A All right. What do you want to ask about the Russian Legation? Q I am talking about the Russian Legation. Will you please tell the Court the state and circumstances of the fire concerning the Russian Legation. A Well, the Russian Legation is only about, well, I shall say a few blocks where maybe I shall say several hundred yards from the place where I lived. Now, when they were there where I was, near that place on the road because my habit is usually taking a walk in the private places. That’s about at noontime I was walking on there. As I walked there I see a number of soldiers, Japanese soldiers there. Of course, at first sight I don’t know what was going on. Later on I see so many so I try not to see too much, not walk too near to them. But I still far enough to see that they are doing – pouring some of the kerosene on those – in those places. After a little while then I see big smoke burning there. Q You said you were taking a walk. What time was this, in the morning, or in the afternoon, or in the evening? A It was about noontime, twelve. Q Was the building burned down totally, completely? A From the effects – from the aftereffects of course it is burned down, but in the burning I tried to get away from them [sic] places. I didn’t try to find out how much was burned. That is none my business. Q In regard to the necessity of seeing it, that is beside the point. Could you tell us what the soldiers were doing? THE MONITOR: Could you tell us what you saw when you were there. A I saw the soldiers were pouring this oil on them, and the fire was started. After the burning, of course, I don’t like to – I didn’t try even to stop the fire nor to have anything to do with that. Q I am not asking whether you had any interest in it. I am just asking what you actually saw.

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A I told you what I saw already. Is that not clear? What is not clear? Q This morning you said that the building was totally burned. Now you state that you do not know whether it was completely burned down or not. You just said that you saw some smoke rising. Which is true? A Well, you are misunderstood me. Where I said you were – I understand you were asking me whether I watched that fire and how much was burned. You are asking me now that question. This morning I told the whole instance. Now, after I didn’t watch for the whole burning of that, but I can see because so near to my home it totally burned up. Q But, Mr. Witness, this Russian Legation was not burned. Are you dreaming in regard to this, or are you telling a lie? A Well, I don’t know what you mean; the Russian Legation in Nanking not burned? THE PRESIDENT: Counsel must accept the witness’ answer.71

Tianwangsi, or Tien-Wang-Su, is mentioned in the transcripts concerning a 1943 incident at a village there in which a woman was raped and two Japanese soldiers were killed. In retaliation Japanese troops slaughtered male villagers and burned the village down. The thatched Russian Legation house appears nowhere in the cross-­ examination. Apparently, it is Tanaka who was either talking in a dream or telling a lie, and one of the two must be true. In addition to what has been discussed, Tanaka’s other arguments include three major issues. First, Iwane Matsui was innocent. Tanaka visited Matsui three times in Sugamo Prison while on trial. Matsui claimed that he had never heard of a massacre until the trial started. Since the alleged massacre had not occurred, Matsui should not be held responsible for failing to control his troops. Second, he contended that the burial record by Chong Shan Tang had been fabricated for the Tokyo Trial. The burial data of the Red Swastika Society had been inflated. Most of the bodies buried by the Red Swastika Society were Chinese soldiers killed in action, or soldiers who died from their wounds or illness, and others who lost life in aerial bombing. The third issue concerns the population of Nanjing in connection to the massacre victim number. Tanaka argued that since the population of Nanjing at the end of 1937 could have not been more than 250,000, it was not possible for the Japanese to slaughter 300,000, the victim number claimed by the Chinese. He failed to mention the fact that 250,000 was merely a rough estimate, not census data, of the population residing within the city walls; there were quite a few “fugitive camps” of refugees in the suburbs; around 150,000 Chinese troops who participated the Nanjing campaign to defend the city, did not belong to the local population; and, most importantly, since December 9, 1937 when Japanese troops encircled Nanjing, and the Chinese military blocked every city gate, the residents in the city could not get out while it was impossible for people outside the city to get in either. Both the major mass executions and burial activities were carried out outside the city walls. Except for those who had been marched out of the city to be executed in Xiaguan and outside Hanzhong Gate, the majority of the massacre victims, who had not been in the city during the first week after the city’s fall, and the residents living in the walled city were two groups of people separated by the city walls. The simplistic arithmetic method does not seem to be an adequate or convincing solution.

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13.6  Searching for Japanese Soldiers’ Wartime Diaries As the debates over the Nanjing Massacre gained momentum, in an effort to refute the denial arguments of Tanaka and others, some researchers in Japan turned to searching for the diaries left behind by those Japanese soldiers who had been directly involved in the mass executions. The Asahi Shimbun reported on July 28, 1984 that the Kyoto City War Exhibition for Peace (平和のための京都の戦争展), which would start on August 2, received the wartime diaries of a soldier. According to the news report, “This diary was left behind by a soldier from Kyoto Prefecture, who had served in the troops participating in the Nanjing campaign, and was later killed in combat in mainland China. The diary was discovered by the War Executive Committee. The bereaved family members hoped that his name would not be disclosed. The diary entries recording what had happened during his service in army of half a year from August 1937 to February 1938 were written in two notebooks.”72 The soldier recorded on December 14, 1937 that his platoon went to the safety zone and found the defeated Chinese soldiers mixed with refugees. We just picked out about 500 who seemed or roughly looked like remnant soldiers. …… Because a platoon could not kill so many, we needed two machine guns from the First Machinegun (Company) in addition to our company’s six machineguns. All the soldiers with rifles gathered. All the remnant soldiers were sent to a castle in the distance. All of them were shot with light and heavy machine-guns. It was a miserable sight to look at. (ibid)

The news report provides an analytical explanation of the circumstances: In this diary, when the Japanese troops were mopping up, they reached the “refugee zone” centered on the American mission school, the University of Nanking (金陵大学, present-­ day Nanjing University), and the Americans had not yet entered war with Japan. Due to the fact that the identification between soldiers and regular civilian residents was ambiguous and it was expressed as “seemed or roughly looked like remnant soldiers,” you can see there is possibility that non-combatants were included among the Chinese killed. In addition, a platoon (usually consisting of 50 to 60 people), to which this soldier belonged, and six light machine guns, with which the company was equipped, did not have enough manpower or equipment to massacre 500 people. They borrowed two heavy machine guns from a machine gun company. It shows that the massacre was done systematically. (ibid)

On August 5, 1984, The Asahi Shimbun published the diary excerpts written by a private first class from the 23rd Regiment, the 6th Division, who stayed in Nanjing for four days in December 1937, and participated in killing civilians. The former soldier, whose identity was also kept anonymous, died of kidney disease in 1974. The 400-page diaries, along with “three photos of scenes where the heads of murdered Chinese men and women are rolling,” were discovered at his farm house in Kitago Village, East Usuki District, Miyazaki Prefecture (宮崎県東臼杵郡北郷 村). He wrote in his December 15, 1937 diary entry: Today, about two thousand chunkolo (清国奴, derogatory term for the Chinese) who had no way to escape, continuously came, holding white flags, to surrender together. The old are mixed with the young ones, wearing various clothes, and their weapons were thrown away…… We treated them in whatever ways we wanted and killed them in various ways.

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Recently, we detained totally innocent Chinese and buried them alive, or threw them into a fire, or beat them to death with wood boards…….”73

The news report provides a detailed description of the three photos: Remained in the album are three business-card-sized black and white photos. One photo is taken in front of a building which looks like a residence house, twelve people’s heads are rolling. The one in the middle is a female-looking face. The other two photos are corpses of women and old men who are wearing clothes. Whether the shooting location is in Nanjing or not is not mentioned, but it is said that he told his family members in private before his death that they were “photos of the Nanking Massacre.” (ibid)

According to his family members, “there were times he became worried while looking at these old photos. Before he died, he said to his former fellow soldiers and family members, ‘It was because I killed innocent people.’” (ibid) On August 7, 1984, The Mainichi Shimbun (每日新聞) published the testimony of Toshikazu Kurihara (栗原利一), a former Japanese soldier, who had been involved in mass executing surrendered Chinese soldiers at Nanjing in December 1937. Kurihara was a squad leader in the Tayama Battalion (山田大隊), the 65th Regiment of the 13th Division. He participated in the Nanjing campaign and Xuzhou campaign, and was wounded on the way toward Hankou. He was sent back to Japan for medical treatment. It was during his recuperation at the end of 1938 that he wrote down his battlefield accounts.74 On December 13, 1937, Kurihara’s battalion captured the Wulong Hill Fort northeast of Purple Mountain and attacked and occupied the Mufu Mountain Fort north of Nanjing the following day: The First Battalion’s 135 soldiers disarmed 130,000 surrendered Chinese soldiers, and made them prisoners of war.” A sketch “Island” provides details about how the massacre was carried out. “It was said that they would be temporarily shipped to an island in the middle of the river. As the boats were in the middle of the river, the boats were kept away from us, when they were shot from all directions at once. From night to dawn, we killed one batch after another. Then we poured gasoline over the corpse before they were burned. We used willow branches as hooks to drag the bodies one by one to the middle of the stream to be carried away by river currents. The number of people our troop (killed) was 13,500. Now, even if I think about it, I cannot imagine it.” According to Mr. Kurihara, it was from December 17 to the night of December 18 that prisoners of war were killed. From early afternoon, we tied the hands of the prisoners of war behind their backs and linked them one by one, and then brought them to the Yangtze riverside, about 4 kilometers away from the camp. Because the number of people exceeded 10,000, it was getting dark when everyone got there. There was an island in the offshore area, and a superior officer said, “place prisoners of war on that island.” But suddenly came the order of “shooting.” Shooting continued for about an hour. Prisoners could be seen desperately running away, and in order to avoid being hit by horizontal bullets, they climbed up to the top of a corpse pile and a pillar of three or four meters in height was formed. (ibid)

In addition, Kurihara’s testimony attempts to refute the efforts to cover up or shift the responsibility for the massacre: The History of Local Troops (鄉土部隊記) issued in 1965 (jointly published by Fukushima Prefecture Townsmen Association and others) indicates that the army issued an order to kill all the prisoners of war, but Brigade Commander Senji Yamada decided to release them to

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the other side of the river. However, when a dozen boats loaded with prisoners of war sailed toward the opposite river bank, the opposite shore fired shots at the prisoners of war, which triggered a riot among those prisoners remaining on this side of the river, and they attacked the Japanese soldiers guarding them. We shot dead over one thousand people. Mr. Akira Suzuki’s Illusions of the Nanjing Massacre (南京大虐殺のまぼろし) took the same “self-defense firing” story based on the testimony of the senior officers, including Brigade Commander Yamada and other officers. So did The Army Combat Operations during China Incident I (支那事變陸軍作戦 ) by the Defense Research Institute’s War History Section of the Defense Ministry, and Sino-Japanese War 3 (日中戦争3) by Mr. Noboru Kojima (児島襄) issued in July this year. About “the self-defense firing view” Mr. Kurihara said, “POWs who were tied up behind their backs and could not move freely would not cause riots in groups. Massacre is a fact, and it is better to clarify.” (ibid)

13.7  R  esearch on the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Writers and Scholars Over the years since the 1970s, the writers, researchers and scholars engaged in research on the Nanjing Massacre in Japan found themselves categorized into three camps: (1) the Massacre School whose members acknowledge that large-scale massacres had occurred; (2) the Illusion School who deny that the Nanjing Massacre had ever happened and consider it a fabrication or illusion; and (3) the Centrist or Moderate School who believe that the massacre scale was much smaller than what the Massacre School members have acknowledged. The prominent figures of the Massacre School are Tomio Hora, Katsuichi Honda, Akira Fujiwara (藤原彰, 1922–2003), Tokushi Kasahara (笠原十九司, 1944–), Keiichi Eguchi (江口圭一, 1932–2003), Hisashi Inoue (井上久士, 1950–), and Yutaka Yoshida (吉田裕, 1954–). Most members of this group being historians in academia, they organized themselves into a research group, the Association of Investigation Research on the Nanjing Incident (南京事件調査研究会), though not all those who are categorized as Massacre School scholars are members of the association. While they acknowledge the occurrence of the massacre, individual members vary with one another concerning the total victim toll, ranging from 100,000 to over 200,000. As discussed earlier, the members were engaged in heated debates against those from the Illusion School. One of their significant contributions to the research on the topic is to search for, compile and publish collections of primary sources. Source Material of the Sino-­ Japanese War History Vol. 8, the Nanjing Incident I (日中戦争史資料 8 南京事件 I) and Source Material of the Sino-Japanese War History Vol. 9, the Nanjing Incident II (日中戦争史資料 9 南京事件 II),75 compiled and published by Tomio Hora in 1973, are two volumes that contain the records of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East concerning the Nanjing Massacre, H.  J. Timperley’s What War Means, Hsu Shuhsi’s Documents of the Nanking Safety Zone, Lewis Strong Casey Smythe’s War Damage in the Nanking Area December 1937 to March 1938, and

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news dispatches written by The New  York Times correspondent Frank Tillman Durdin. In 1992, the Association of Investigation Research on the Nanjing Incident translated and published a two-volume set of primary sources under the title, A Collection of the Nanjing Incident Primary Sources (南京事件資料集).76 The first volume contains American sources consisting of American diplomatic documents, American missionaries’ letters and diaries, and news dispatches by American ­correspondents; the second one contains Chinese sources, including burial records, the Nanjing Military Tribunal documents, and news reports about the massacre. In addition, they translated and published John Rabe’s Nanjing diaries,77 Minnie Vautrin’s Ginling diaries,78 and a collection of German diplomatic documents.79 This group of scholars’ other major research effort includes collecting the diaries and memoirs of former Japanese officers and soldiers who were in Nanjing during the massacre period, such as, The Concealed Regiment History (隠された聯隊 史),80 The Nanjing Incident: Kyoto Division Related Source Materials (南京事件: 京都師団関係資料集),81 A Field Diary of the Sino-Japanese War: The Battlefield Experiences of a Logistics Soldier (日中戦争従軍日記: 一輜重兵の戦場体験),82 The Nanjing Massacre Recorded by the Imperial Army Soldiers: The Field Diaries by the Soldiers of the Yamada Detachment, the 13th Division (南京大虐殺を記錄 した皇軍兵士たち:第十三師団山田支隊兵士の陣中日記),83 and The Nanjing Campaign: In search of the Sealed Memories (南京戦: 閉ざされた記憶を尋ね て),84 to name a few. Some of the researchers also published Chinese survivors’ testimonies they had obtained on a trip to China to interviews survivors: Tokushi Kasahara’s The Nanjing Incident: The Testimonies by 27 Survivors (南京事件: 体 験者27人が語る),85 and The Nanjing Campaign: Severed Soul of the Victims (南京 戦: 切りさかれた受難者の魂),86 by Tamaki Matsuoka (松岡環), who also interviewed former soldiers and published In Search of the Cealed memories about the Nanjing Campaign: The Testimonies of 102 Former Soldiers (南京戦閉ざされた 記憶を尋ねて: 元兵士102人の証言)87 They also produced a substantial amount of book-length research literature on the topic in a battle of words against the Illusion School. In addition to the works authored by Tomio Hora and Katsuichi Honda, which have been discussed earlier, other scholars’ major works are The Nanjing Massacre (南京大虐殺),88 The Japanese Troops in Nanjing: The Background of the Nanjing Massacre (南京の日 本軍: 南京大虐殺とその背景),89 and How the Nanjing Massacre is Viewed: Examination by Japanese, Chinese and American Researchers (南京事件をどう みるか: 日・中・米研究者による検証),90 all by Akira Fujiwara; Emperor’s Troops and the Nanjing Incident (天皇の軍隊と南京事件) by Yutaka Yoshida;91 Japanese Troops in Asia (アジアの中の日本軍),92 One Hundred Days in the Nanjing Safety Zone (南京難民区の百日),93 The Nanjing Incident (南京事件),94 The Nanjing Incident and the Campaigns for Three-All Policy (南京事件と三光作 戦),95 The Nanjing Incident and the Japanese (南京事件と日本人),96 The History of the Debates over the Nanjing Incident (南京事件論争史),97 and “The 100-Man Killing Contest” and the Nanjing Incident (「百人斬り競争」と南京事件),98 all by Tokushi Kasahara; The Nanjing Massacre and the Spiritual Structure of the Japanese (南京大虐殺と日本人の精神構造)99 by Michio Tsuda (津田道夫). In

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addition, these scholars worked together closely and published their research jointly: The Nanjing Incident Considered (南京事件を考える),100 The Nanjing Massacre Sites (南京大虐殺の現場へ),101 Research on the Nanjing Massacre (南京大虐殺 の研究),102 Modern History Studies and the Nanjing Incident (現代歴史学と南京 事件).103 To the volume entitled“13 lies” by the deniers of the Nanking Massacre (南京大虐殺否定論13のウソ),104 seven members, namely, Akira Fujiwara, Yutaka Yoshida, Tokushi Kasahara, Hisashi Inoue, Katsuichi Honda, Kenji Ono (小野賢 二) and Harumi Watanabe (渡辺春己), contributed chapters to refute all the challenges and allegations put forward by those of the Illusion School concerning such issues as the Tokyo Trial and its judgment, the victim toll, burial records, international laws and the POW status of the disarmed Chinese soldiers mass executed by Japanese troops, the population of Nanjing, and the 100-man killing contest. The major members of the Illusion Schools are Shichihei Yamamoto, Akira Suzuki, Masaaki Tanaka, Kenichi Ara (阿羅健一, 1944–), Shudo Higashinakano (東中野修道, 1947–), Nobukatsu Fujioka (藤岡信勝, 1943–), and Minoru Kitamura (北村稔, 1948–). Before Higashinakano joined the group in the late 1990s, the members of the Illusion School were mainly writers of social and political issues, politicians, or former Japanese officers. Higashinakano, Fujioka and Kitamura, however, are university professors who became actively involved in publishing books on the topic since 1998. The members of this group formed themselves into a research organization known as the Nanjing Association (南京学会) in 2000. They denied that the massacre had ever occurred at Nanjing with arguments focusing on the following issues: the Nanjing Massacre was unknown in Japan before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, which fabricated the massacre with hearsay evidence; the number of bodies in Chongshan Tang and other groups’ burying tablets were fabricated or inflated, hence not reliable; those who had been killed and buried were either killed in combat or air bombing, rather than in massacres; after Nanjing fell, a large number of plain-clothed Chinese soldiers hid inside the refugee zone, and since they were not entitled to POW status, it was rightful combat action to arrest and execute them; it was the defeated Chinese soldiers, rather than Japanese troops, that murdered civilians and committed rapes, looting and burning; since the population of Nanjing before the city fell was 200,000, it was impossible for Japanese troops to massacre 300,000 people there; the fact that after the city fell its population increased steadily indicates that Japanese troops were well-­disciplined and the massacre of that magnitude had never occurred; and the Westerners who had remained in Nanjing were anti-Japanese and sympathetic with the Chinese, hence their testimonies, diaries, letters, and other records are not trustworthy. Almost all of the above arguments can find their origins in the summation of the Japanese defense presented on April 9, 1948 in the court of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo, but were denied by the judgment of the same tribunal on November 11, 1948. For details, see the related section of Chapter 12 of this book. Their arguments were also refuted by the members of the Massacre School in their research in general and in the book entitled “13 lies” by the deniers of the Nanking Massacre (南京大虐殺否定論13のウソ) in particular.

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The Illusion School collected and published primary sources as well, for instance, The Collection of Source Materials Concerning the Nanjing Battle History (南京戦 史資料集) which was first published in 1989 and was later supplemented with new material and published again as The Collection of Source Materials Concerning the Nanjing Battle History Vol. II (南京戦史資料集 II)105 in 1993. The two volumes largely contain the wartime field diaries of Japanese officers and soldiers who had participated in the Nanjing campaign and had been involved in or witnessed the atrocities. Ironically, although the original intention of publishing the diaries was to deny the occurrence of the massacre, a substantial number of the descriptions in the diaries helped prove that the massacre did take place, and they were conveniently used by the members of the Massacre School to effectively refute the arguments of the Illusion School. In addition, Kenichi Ara had interviewed former Japanese soldiers and published in 1987 Listen to the Statements about the Nanjing Incident (聞 き書南京事件).106 When the book was republished in 2001, its title was renamed Testimonies by 48 Japanese about “the Nanjing Incident” (「南京事件」日本人 48人の証言). As did those of the Massacre School, members of the Illusion School, in addition to publishing a large number of journal articles, produced quite a few books on the topic as well: Masaaki Tanaka’s A Summary of the Nanjing Incident: Fifteen Rationales that Negate the Massacre (南京事件の総括: 虐殺否定十五の論拠);107 A Thorough Examination of “the Nanjing Massacre” (「南京虐殺」の徹底検 証)108 and The Truth of the 1937 Offensive Campaign on Nanjing (1937南京攻略戦 の真実),109 The Nanjing Incident: Deciphering the top secret documents of the Nationalist Party (南京事件 : 国民党極秘文書から読み解く),110 The Nanjing Campaign Represented (再現南京戦),111 and The Truth of Nanjing “100-Man Killing Contest” (南京「百人斬り競争」の真実),112 all by Shudo Higashinakano, who also edited and published the Annals of the Nanjing Association entitled The Forefront Researches on the Nanjing “Massacre” (南京「虐殺」研究の最前 線),113 and coauthored three other publications: A Study of “The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II” (「ザ∙レイプ∙オブ∙南京」の研究)114 and The Fabrication of the “Anti-Japanese” Historical View (「反日」史観の虚 構),115 and Analyzing “the photographic evidence” of Nanking Massacre (南京事 件「証拠写真」を検証する);116 Big Questions about the Nanjing Massacre (南 京虐殺への大疑問)117 by Toshio Matsumura (松村俊夫); There was no Nanjing Massacre (南京大虐殺はなかった)118 by Yuji Maeda (前田雄二); An Exploration of the Nanjing Incident (南京事件の探求)119 by Minoru Kitamura; and The Core Issues of the Nanjing Incident (南京事件の核心)120 and The Historical Development of the “Nanjing Incident” (「南京事件」発展史),121 both by Shigenobu Miyasawa (冨澤繁信). The representative scholars of the Centrist School are Ikuhiko Hata (秦郁彦, 1932–), Yoshiaki Itakura (板倉由明, 1932–1999), Masaki Unemoto (畝本正己, 1913–?), and Akira Nakamura (中村粲, 1934–2010). This group of scholars and writers do not have their own independent organization and are rather loosely identified. They acknowledge that the massacre did occur at Nanjing, but on a much smaller scale, with their total victim toll estimates ranging from 10,000 to 40,000.

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They share views more closely with those of the Illusion School than the Massacre School members even to the extent that some of the members can be regarded as belonging to the Illusion School. For instance, Masaki Unemoto is identified as a centrist by some but considered an illusionist by others. Their major arguments also dwell on victim number, burial records, the population of Nanjing, the legitimacy of mass executions, the Tokyo Trial, and other issues. The most influential scholarship produced by this group is The Nanjing Incident: The Constitution of Massacre (南京事件: 虐殺構造)122 by Ikuhiko Hata, who also authored Tracking the Mystery of Showa History (昭和史の謎を追う),123 The Issues at Debate in the Modern History (現代史の争点)124 and The Lights and Shadows of the Modern History: The Controversies over the Nanjing Incident (現代 史の光と影: 南京事件から嫌煙権論争まで).125 He discussed and analyzed the possible causes that led to the occurrence of the massacre, and his victim toll estimate is 40,000, the highest among the centrists. The major works by other researchers of this group include The Distortion of Historical Facts: The Nanjing Massacre Incident by the Tokyo Trial (史実の歪曲: 東京裁判に見る南京虐殺事件)126 and The Truth: An Examination of John Rabe’s Nanjing Incident Diaries (真相・南京 事件ラーベの日記を検証して),127 both by Masaki Unemoto; Is the Nanjing Incident Truly Like This (本当はこうだった南京事件)128 by Yoshiaki Itakura, who also authored a large number of journal articles on the topic, and had a heated debate with Shudo Higashinakano over John Rabe’s diaries;129 Akira Nakamura, however, in addition to editing The Defense Side’s Source Materials which were not Presented at the Tokyo Trial (東京裁判却下未提出辯護側資料)130 and Dissentient Judgment of Justice Pal: International Military Tribunal for the Far East131 in English, was engaged in a debate with Nobukatsu Fujioka, who had challenged Nakamura’s victim toll estimate of 10,000.132

13.8  Chinese Academic Research on the Nanjing Massacre On March 10, 1947, the Nanjing Military Tribunal concluded Hisao Tani’s trial with the verdict which, concerning the magnitude of the massacre, states: As listed, at such locations as Flower Goddess Temple outside Zhonghua Gate (中華門外 花神廟), Pagoda Bridge, Stone Guanyin Godess (石觀音), Straw Shoe Gorge at Xiaguan and other places, our soldiers and civilians, who had been captured before being mowed down by Japanese troops with machine guns in mass killings with their bodies burned to destroy evidence, are Shan Yaoting and 190,000 others. In addition, those who had been killed individually or miscellaneously and whose bodies had been collected and buried by charity organizations are as many as 150,000. The total victim toll amounts to over 300,000. The dead bodies were strewn all over the place, extremely tragic, and the barbarous cruelty is truly beyond description. For instance, at 1 p.m. on December 15, over 2,000 of our soldiers and policemen, after being captured by Japanese troops, were marched to a location right outside Hanzhong Gate before they were all mowed down with machine gun bullets, and those wounded but still alive were burned alive. At 6 p.m. the 16th of the same month, more than 5,000 refugees, who gathered in the Overseas Chinese Guesthouse, were taken

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by Japanese soldiers to Zhongshan Wharf, where they were mowed down with machine guns, with their bodies tossed into the river. Only two men, Bai Zengrong and Liang Tinfang, who were wounded by bullets and jumped into the river, floating with the corpses, survived. On the night of the 18th of the same month, 57,418 soldiers and civilians were tied up with wires before they were rounded up to Straw Shoe Gorge at Xiaguan, and they were also mowed down with machine guns. Those who still struggled in pools of blood were bayoneted to death, with gasoline poured over the corpses before they were burned.133

In Appendix 1 of the verdict concerning the mass killings, 28 large and small-­ scale massacres and mass executions are listed, including the three cases mentioned in the verdict, with each claiming victims ranging from 8 to over 50,000, and the total victim toll amounting to 196,005,134 while Appendix 2 contains a list of 858 individual murder cases. (pp. 291–348) The statement in the verdict has since set the tone of the scale and magnitude of the Nanjing Massacre, along with the total victim toll of 300,000, for the Chinese official stance about the massacre, no matter whether it is the Nationalist Government or the Communist Government. Though the Communist regime rarely mentioned the Nanjing Massacre from the 1950s to the mid-1980s, whenever the topic is touched upon, the Chinese Communist Government faithfully inherits the Nationalist Government’s statement concerning the massacre. Over the years, research done by Chinese researchers and scholars have been consistently in concert with the official stance. In an article entitled “How can the historical fact that three hundred thousand fellow countrymen were slaughtered be denied (30万南京同胞被屠杀史实岂容否定)?” which was published in the No. 2, 1991 issue of Research on the War of Resisting Japan (抗日战争研究), Sun Zhaiwei (孫宅巍), a Nanjing-based scholar in the field, offered his views and analysis regarding the issues of the total victim toll, the burial records, and the population in Nanjing in connection to the victim toll. He listed ten large-scale massacres with over one thousand victims each: 1. December 15, 1937. More than 2000 persons were killed outside Hanzhong Gate. The claim is supported by a statement in the March 10, 1947 Hisao Tani trial verdict and the testimony by this massacre’s survivor Wu Changde on November 1, 1945. 2. December 15, 1937. About 9000 people were massacred at the riverside near Torpedo Base, citing as evidence this massacre’s survivor Yin Youyu (殷有 餘)’s testimony of October 19, 1946 that “about 9,000 officers, soldiers and civilians were detained that day” and “Japanese soldiers mowed them down with four machine guns, with only 9 of them remaining alive.” 3. December 16, 1937. More than 5000 people were slaughtered at Zhongshan Wharf. The Hisao Tani trial verdict states that at 6 p.m. on December 16, 5000 refugees at the Overseas Chinese Guesthouse were rounded up by Japanese troops who marched them to Zhongshan Wharf where they were mowed down with machine guns, the victims’ bodies thrown into the river thereafter. The claim is supported by the testimonies of two of this massacre’s survivors, Liang Tinfang on October 7, 1946 and Liu Yongxing (劉永興) in 1984.

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4. December 16, 1937.135 Over 4000 people were massacred at Xiaguan, citing the statement in Appendix 1 to the Hisao Tani trial verdict, “at the Dafang Lane Refugee Camp, a lad named Shan Yaoting and over 4000 others were rounded up and led to Xiaguan, where they were mowed down with machine guns.” The affidavit provided by Shan Yaoting’s wife on April 2, 1946 is quoted as supporting evidence. 5. December 17, 1937. More than 3000 people were killed at Coal Dock. The victims include more than 40 engineers and workers of the Power Plant. The author cited the affidavit filed by Lu Fazeng (陸法曾) on October 25, 1945, and the testimony by He Shoujiang (何守江) in 1984 as evidence. 6. December 18, 1937. More than 57,000 people were massacred at Straw Shoe Gorge, citing Lu Su’s testimony of December 7, 1945 as evidence. The claim is also supported by the Japanese correspondent Yokoda (横田)’s December 16, 1937 report, “In the hilly areas surrounding the Wulong Hill Fort and the Mufu Mountain Fort, the Morozumi Troop captured 14,777 defeated enemy soldiers of Nanjing, and because they have never captured such a large number of enemy before, the troop find it difficult to handle.” It was reported in The Asahi Shimbun on December 17, 1937. 7. December 1937. About 28,000 people were killed in the Shanxin River area outside Shuixi Gate, citing as evidence the petition filed on January 9, 1946 by two lumber merchants Sheng Shizheng and Chang Kaiyun, who lived there, witnessed some of the killings and provided funds to bury victims’ bodies. 8. December 1937. In the southern suburbs at the locations surrounding Fengtai Township (鳳台鄉) and Flower Goddess Temple, over 7000 people were killed, quoting as evidence a statement in Appendix 1 to the Hisao Tani trial verdict, “During December 1937, more than 5000 refugees and over 2000 soldiers were massacred in the areas surrounding Fengtai Township and Flower Goddess Temple near South Gate. All the victims’ bodies were buried by Rui Fangyuan, Zhang Hongru and Yang Guangcai and others in cooperation with the Red Swastika Society at such locations as Yuhuai Terrace, Wangjiang Cliff and Flower Goddess Temple.” The author also added that in preparation of the Hisao Tani trial an excavation effort was made to dig up several thousand skeletons at the locations outside Zhonghua Gate. 9. December 1937. Over 50,000 people were massacred by the riverside at Swallow Cliff, citing the statement in an investigation/survey form filled out by Li Longfei (李龍飛) on October 1, 1945, “Japanese troops shot and killed more than 50,000 young people on the river beach by Swallow Cliff. The place was covered with dead bodies, too horrible to look at.” The claim is supported by the testimony provided in 1984 by Guo Guoqiang (郭國强), a soldier of the Chinese 88th Division, who witnessed over 20,000 disarmed Chinese Central Government troops mowed down by Japanese troops with machine guns. 10. December 1937. More than 30,000 people were massacred along the area around Pagoda Bridge and Torpedo Base, citing a statement in Appendix 1 to the Hisao Tani trial verdict, “During December 1937, along the area around

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Pagoda Bridge and Torpedo Base outside the city walls, more than 30,000 soldiers and civilians were slaughtered. Sun then tallied the number of the victims of the above large-scale massacres and obtained a total of 195,000.136 Sun also pointed out that, according to the appendices to the Hisao Tani trial verdict, except for the 10 large-scale massacres, there were over 870 other killings of varying scales. Among them, the massacres with over 100 victims were as follows: over 300 people were killed in a wheat field north of Nantong Road (南通路) at Xiaguan; over 300 were killed at the Jiang Family Garden (姜家花園) near Yijiang Gate; several hundred were killed respectively at the Fourth Lane (四條巷) and the Fifth Lane (五條巷) near Drum Tower; four to five hundred were killed respectively at Fangsheng Temple (放生寺) by the Sancha River and the Ciyou Orphanage Refugee Camp (慈幼院難民營); more than 500 were massacred at Longjiang Bridge (龍江橋) near the river mouth; more than 200 were killed and tossed into the ponds at Dafang Lane; and over 500 were massacred along the riverside at Jiujia Embankment in Xiaguan. (p. 111) By using the burial records of the Red Swastika Society, Chong Shan Tang (崇 善堂), and the Red Cross Society, he subtracted from the burial records the number of bodies buried at or collected from the locations where those 10 large-scaled massacres had taken place. As a result, the Red Swastika Society had 17 burials left with 5093 bodies buried on its record; Chong Shan Tang also had 17 burials left with 66,463 bodies; while the Red Cross Society buried 5704 bodies outside Taiping Gate. Combining the three figures amounts to a total of 77,260 bodies, which is the number of victims of small-scale massacres and individual killings, according to Sun, and adding this number to the 195,000 from the large-scale massacres, Sun obtains a total of 272,000 victims. (ibid) In 1991 Sun published “A study on disposing of the Nanjing Massacre corpses (关于南京大屠杀尸体处理的研究)” in the journal, Nanjing Social Science (南京 社会科学), largely in response to the denials of the massacre on the part of Masaaki Tanaka, Shichihei Yamamoto and Kenichi Ara. The author discussed the issue in four sections. In the first section, he listed 185,000 bodies buried by charity organizations, namely, the Red Swastika Society buried 43,071; Chong Shan Tang buried 104,718; the Red Cross Society buried 8949; and Tong Shan Tang (同善堂) buried about 7000.137 In response to Masaaki Tanaka’s argument that the Red Swastika Society’s burial tally was but a post-war manufactured material, Sun cited the content of a letter the Red Swastika Society presented to the Nanjing Self-Government Committee on April 4, 1938, stating that up to that time “altogether over 30,000 bodies have been buried and the burial work is still in progress. …… As it is getting warm, there are quite a few dead bodies remaining inside the city, while the work of transporting bodies will have to stop with our gasoline supplies running out, and we become extremely concerned that the stench will spread and cause epidemics.” To further

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prove that the burial statistics are not a post-war compilation, Sun quoted a survey form the Red Swastika Society submitted in August 1938 to the Social Work Section of the Nanjing Municipal Government that “over 40,000 corpses have been buried,” and a report the chairman of the Red Swastika Society, Chen Guanlin, sent in October 1938 to Liang Hong-zhi (梁鴻志), the chairman of the Executive Yuan (行 政院) of the Japanese-sponsored Central China Provisional Government, that “more than 40,000 bodies have been buried.” (pp. 72–73) In addition, the author mentioned a report in the Japanese newspaper, The Osaka Asahi Shimbun (大阪朝日新聞) North China edition, published on April 6, 1938: The Red Swastika Society, the Self-Government Committee and the monks affiliated with Myouhouji Temple (妙法寺) cooperated with one another in disposing of bodies. They loaded bodies into trucks, while reciting the Buddhist scripture, Nammu Myo Ho Len Ge Kyo (南無妙法蓮華經), and buried the bodies at the designated locations, though it took them a lot of materials and man power. They withstood the disgusting stench to continuously collect and bury bodies. Up to now, 1,793 bodies have been disposed of inside the city and 30,311 outside the city. (p. 73)

To Kenichi Ara’s claim that “either before or after Nanjing fell, there was no evidence that the Benevolence Society had conducted burials at any location,” and the society’s burial material was “purely fabrication;” and Masaaki Tanaka’s argument that Chong Shan Tang’s burial activities “became rapidly increased after April,” which was against “the usual rule that there were more bodies at the initial stage and it became fewer and fewer later,” Sun quoted a letter the president of Chong Shan Tang, Zhou Yiyu (周一漁), sent on December 6, 1938 to the Disaster Relief Committee of the Jiangsu Province (江蘇省賑務委员會) that “In this incident (referring to the fall of Nanjing), our humble society had established clinics in the refugee zone, organized burial squads, and conducted other relief activities.” In addition, he cited the testimony by Cui Jingui, who had been on a Chong Shan Tang burial squad, and according to Cui’s testimony, he stipulated that “First, Chong Shan Tang originally had four burial squads with 49 members on them, and apart from that, the society had hired a large number of short-term hands, who had not been registered in any written records, to help speed up the process of collecting and burying the bodies; second, collecting and burying bodies in rural areas was handled in such a careless and hasty way that the bodies were thrown into trenches and ditches, where they were simply buried, so that a large number of bodies could be buried in a relative short time; and third, Chong Shan Tang had assigned specific personnel to keep the burial tally for the purpose of paying the workers and reporting to the authorities the progress of burial activities.” (ibid) In the second section, Sun listed 35,000 bodies buried by individuals and groups. Concerning the case that lumber merchants Sheng Shizheng and Chang Kaiyun had hired workers to have 28,730 bodies buried in the Shangxin River area, Masaaki Tanaka considered it a big lie because the Red Cross Society and the Red Swastika Society had already been in the area fourteen times to collect and bury a total of 8400 bodies there. In response, Sun cited the petition that Sheng Shizheng and Chang Kaiyun filed on January 9, 1946 with the Nanjing Committee of Investigating the Damage and Losses during the Anti-Japanese War (南京市抗戰損失調查委員

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會) that they had paid 40 cents for each body buried with a total expenditure of 10,000 Chinese dollars on their part. (pp. 74–75) The second case concerns three local residents, namely, Rui Fangyuan, Zhang Hongru and Yang Guangcai, who had a volunteer burial squad of over 30 individuals organized with authorization obtained from the Red Swastika Society. They buried around 7000 bodies around the Yuhua Terrence area outside Zhonghua Gate. Sun argued against Masaaki Tanaka’s accusation that the bodies buried by this group overlapped with those buried by the Red Swastika Society with reference to the affidavit filed by the three residents. Sun indicated that this group buried bodies from January 7 to February 25, 1938. Meanwhile, the number of bodies buried by the Red Swastika Society during that time span at this location is 537. The two groups had been engaged in their separate burial activities. However, even if there might be overlap, the number of 537 appears insignificant to either the number of 43,071 of the Red Swastika or 7000 of this group. (p. 75) The third case is about the 400 plus bodies collected and buried by a Muslim burial squad. There appeared to be no dispute over the number of bodies buried by the Muslims. (ibid) In the third section, Sun discussed the 7400 victim bodies buried by the local Japanese sponsored governments: in October 1938, the Nanjing Municipal Government had collected and buried more than 3000 bodies in the city’s eastern suburbs; Xiaguan District Government had collected and buried 3240 bodies in Xiaguan and the Sancha River area; and the First District Government buried about 1200 bodies in the southern part of the city. Although there were no disputes over these cases, the author made attempts to distinguish the numbers of bodies buried by the aforementioned local governments from those buried by other charity organizations, other groups and individuals. (pp. 76–77) In the fourth section, Sun mentioned the confession made by a Japanese prisoner of war, Hisao Ota (太田寿男), in 1954 when he was in the prisoners of war detention center in Fushun (撫順), Liaoning Province, in China. In a confession, which was reported by a Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun (每日新聞) on December 14, 1990, Ota stated that, as a major affiliated with the Second Docking and Shipping Headquarters, he reached Xiaguan on December 15, 1937, and from December 16 to 18, his soldiers had disposed of a huge number of bodies. According to his recollections, the soldiers had thrown 19,000 bodies into the river, while another major, Yoshimi Adachi (安達由己)’s men had thrown 16,000 bodies into the river in the same period. In addition, from December 14 to 15, Adachi’s troop had disposed of 65,000 bodies. Ota also estimated that other troops had thrown about 50,000 bodies into the river, and claimed that a total of 150,000 bodies had been disposed of by Japanese troops either by throwing them into the river or by burning. (pp. 77–78) While considering Ota’s confession an important source, Sun pointed out with a touch of doubt over Ota’s number: However, considering Ota offered the source material 16 years after the Nanjing Massacre took place with a long time elapsed, and, in particular, he was not personally involved in

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Sun also conducted an in-depth research study on the Nanjing population before and during the Nanjing Massacre period. He published an article under the title “The Nanjing Massacre and the Nanjing Population (南京大屠杀与南京人口)” in 1990, again in Nanjing Social Science, in response to Masaaki Tanaka’s accusation that, “With 200,000 residents and 50,000 defenders, the population of Nanjing at the time was 250,000 altogether. Even if every one of them was killed with nobody remaining alive, the number could only be 250,000, but why was it said that over 300,000 had been murdered?” Sun tackled the issue in three parts. In the part of “the regular residents,” he first traced the changing sizes of Nanjing’s population over the years since 1927, when the Nationalist Government was established in Nanjing, with its population recorded as 360,500. The population grew steadily since then and in 1934 it was 796,955, while by November 1935 it grew to over one million at 1,009,502. It stayed around one million since then with most months over one million, and peaked in April 1936 at 1,019,148. He then listed several tables that contain Nanjing’s population data collected by the city’s government from April 1936 to early November 1937.138 Population Statistics, April 1936139 House & People Districts 1st District 2nd District 3rd District 4th District 5th District 6th District 7th District 8th District Yanziji Dis. (燕子磯區) Xiaoling Dis. (孝陵區) Shangxin Riv. (上新河區) Total

Household 27,513 18,544 17,297 27,892 31,082 14,334 19,223 8748 12,722 7,004 13,542 197,937

Population Male 99,386 57,474 60,813 94,070 90,776 47,003 56,630 21,016 31,816 17,868 35,105 611,957

Female 55,363 38,112 37,406 54,605 64,244 31,078 39,039 14,903 26,545 16,178 29,718 407,191

Total 154,749 95,586 98,219 148,675 155,020 78,081 95,669 35,919 58,361 34,046 64,823 1,019,148

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Population Statistics, First Half of 1937 District 1st District 2nd District 3 rd District 4th District 5th District 6th District 7th District 8th District Xiaoling Dis. Yanziji Dis. Shangxin Riv. Lingyuan (陵園) Total

Location In the city In the city In the city In the city In the city In the city Xiaguan Pukou Rural Rural Rural Rural

Population 134,496 88,679 84,430 138,263 140,269 79,163 76,407 30,916 50,518 63,472 51,805 7166 945,584

Population Data, November 1937 Districts 2nd District 3rd District 4th District 5th District 6th District 8th District Xiaoling Dis. Total

Household 9440 10,119 18,076 22,785 11,288 7625 7467 86,800

Population 37,324 38,889 70,688 108,247 50,877 29,456 37,611 373,092

Time reported Oct. 27’37 Oct. 28 Oct. 30 Nov. 3 Nov. 1 Oct. 30 Oct. 30

According to the data collected for the first half of 1937, before the war started, the population of Nanjing’s 11 districts was 945,584. However, since war broke out in Shanghai on August 13, 1937, with the Japanese conducting air raids frequently on Nanjing, a significant proportion of the residents left. On October 18, 1937, the Ministry of Interior, in order to obtain the information of actual population size at the time, ordered the districts’ governments within Nanjing Municipality to collect population data, but by early November only 7 districts reported, with a combined population of 373,092, while the remaining 4 districts, namely, 1st, 7th, Swallow Cliff, and Shangxin River Districts, because the previous community organizations were disrupted or dysfunctional due to residents’ departure, failed to collect the data. The author then compared and analyzed the pre-war data and the 7-district statistics and found out the decrease rate from the 1936 census was 42.2%, and from the first half year of 1937 data was 39%. By applying the decrease rates, he deduced

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that by early November 1937, the population of Nanjing’s 11 districts was roughly 589,033 or 572,061 respectively. (pp. 76–77) After Shanghai fell on November 12, 1937, and especially after it was announced that the relocation of the national capital from Nanjing to Chongqing, more people moved out to escape the war affected area. To explain how many residents might have stayed on, the author quoted a letter the Nanjing Municipal Government sent on November 23, 1937 to the Military Commission, which states, “Our city’s population at present is over 500,000. Except the part of the population who are able to leave the city by themselves, another part who are absolutely unable to leave the capital, it is estimated that about 200,000 refugees need to be dispatched out.” (p. 76) The author further stated analytically that from November 23 to December 13, more residents could have departed, but the population would not have decreased dramatically due to the following reasons: 1. The majority of the well-to-do residents had left Nanjing earlier, and most of the remaining population of over 500,000, however, either had no relatives or friends in other places they could go to, or could not financially afford to move. 2. Due to the establishment of the “refugee zone,” and the rapid deterioration of the war situation, the Nanjing Municipal Government failed to materialize the plan of dispatching 200,000 refugees. 3. After the war approached Nanjing, the Garrison Defense Headquarters, for military purposes, kept all the boats on the Yangtze River under its control, making it impossible for some of the residents to cross the river northward or sail along the river upstream. There is reason to believe that two weeks before the city fell, the movement of the residents was largely limited to that toward nearby suburban areas or between the urban and rural areas within the municipality. …… Many residents eventually moved to the “refugee zone,” causing this “refugee zone” of less than four square kilometers to be packed with over 200,000 refugees. All this indicates that after the enormous exodus before November, the size of the population remained relatively stable. Even if taking into consideration that a small number of people had departed, up to the time of city’s fall, doubtlessly the population of regular residents was about 500,000. (p. 77)

In the second part, Sun raised the issue of the number of Chinese defenders at Nanjing. A large number of massacre victims were Chinese soldiers attempting to defend Nanjing, and it is of significant research value to analyze the size of the total Chinese defense forces. Sun first attempted to provide a complete list of the troops involved in the Nanjing campaign: the 36th, 41st, 48th, 51st, 58th, 87th, 88th, 103rd, 112th, 154th, 156th, 159th, and 160th Divisions, in addition to the Central Instructional Corps (which contained 3 brigades or 11 regiments), Gendarmerie (which had four regiments), two artillery battalions at the forts, one communications battalion, a special force, 8 anti-tank guns, 10 armored vehicles, and 27 anti-­ aircraft artillery pieces. In all, the Nanjing defense forces consisted of 13 divisions plus 15 regiments. According to the Chinese military staffing standards in 1937, one division, if fully manned, had 10,923 officers and soldiers, with two brigades or four regiments in addition to one artillery battalion, one engineering battalion and one logistics battalion in it. Each fully manned regiment typically had 2200 persons. Thus, the 13 divisions and 15 regiments, if manned fully, should have had 175,000 persons, but all the above troops had taken part in the battles at Shanghai with heavy

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casualties sustained. The author, therefore, took a painstaking effort, searching in the Second Historical Archives of China in Nanjing, and obtained the numbers of troops in some of the divisions’ battlefield summary reports: 36th Division 41st & 48th Divisions 51st & 58th Divisions 87th Division 88th Division 103rd Division 160th Division Gendarmerie Force Instructional Corps

11,968 16,929 17,000 10,000 6000 2000 9000 5490 15,000

The above 9 divisions and 15 regiments had 113,387 men. Comparing against their fully manned status, the size of these troops were 86.4% of the regular size, and by applying the 86.4% rate, the 13 divisions and 15 regiments had 151,199, or about 150,000, officers and soldiers. (pp. 77–78) Sun further analyzed data from source materials collected and concluded that the Chinese soldiers who had been killed in combat should not have exceeded 10,000. Then how many Chinese troops evacuated to safety during and after Nanjing’s fall? Searching again those battlefield summary reports, he obtained the following data concerning the number of troops who had been successfully evacuated: 36th Division 41st & 48th Divisions 51th & 58th Divisions 88th Division 160th Division Gendarmerie Force Instructional Corps

4937 11,851 5000 500 3400 2456 4000

Of the above 7 divisions and 15 regiments, a total of 32,144 men safely evacuated, or about 31.7% of the 101,387 in the same 7 divisions and 15 regiments when the Nanjing campaign started. Again applying the 31.7% rate, out of the 150,000 troops, a total of 47,550, or about 50,000 officers and soldiers had successfully evacuated. Consequently, Sun reached the conclusion that out of 150,000 troops who had participated in the Nanjing campaign, about 10,000 had been killed in combat and around 50,000 had successfully evacuated, leaving 90,000 trapped in Nanjing. (pp. 78–79) In the final part, Sun dealt with the migrant population issue. Since the war started in Shanghai, thousands upon thousands of refugees had fled the war affected areas. The majority of them passed through Nanjing to the interiors, while many of them also took refuge in Nanjing and its surrounding areas. Every day, more than one thousand refugees arrived in Nanjing, and the Red Cross Society Nanjing

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branch alone provided shelter, food and transportation for 155,960 refugees over the months. (p. 79) As the war dragged on, thousands of wounded Chinese soldiers had been transported to Nanjing as well. The Red Cross service point at the Xiaguan railway station received 12,747 wounded soldiers in two weeks in October 1937, and provided medical care for 6620 of them. (ibid) Sun indicated that, due to the large volume of migrant crowds, including refugees and wounded soldiers, it was not an exaggeration that several dozen thousands of them stayed on in the Nanjing area for various reasons, and he concluded with a statement that “before Nanjing fell, there were indeed over 500,000 residents, 90,000 trapped Chinese troops, along with several dozen thousand refugees and wounded soldiers, constituting a total population of over 600,000. This makes it possible for the invading Japanese troops to commit the crime of slaughtering 300,000 innocent people in the Nanjing area.” (p. 80) Sun’s major points and arguments concerning the victim toll, the burial records, and the population issue remained largely unchanged and were included, with some editorial variations, in the book under the title The Nanjing Massacre (南京大屠 杀), which was edited by Sun and published by Beijing Publishing House in 1997. Except for the analysis and debates over the victim toll, the burial records and the population analysis were written into the three-volume set, The Nanjing Massacre: A Complete History (南京大屠杀全史), which was edited by Zhang Xianwen (张 宪文) and published by Nanjing University Press in 2012. The Nanjing Massacre: A Complete History is another attempt to provide a comprehensive study and analysis after Sun’s 1997 work. Basically with a documentary approach, this book uses source materials in Chinese, English, Japanese and other languages of various origins ranging from government archival materials, diplomatic documents, Chinese survivors’ testimonies, and Japanese solders’ diaries to German businessmen’s reports and diaries, and American missionaries’ eyewitness accounts. Because more Japanese soldiers’ diaries are made available and translated into Chinese, it tends to quote more accounts by Japanese soldiers but fewer of the affidavits, petitions, and testimonies provided by Chinese survivors and witnesses for the Nanjing Military Tribunal in the 1940s. Another noticeable feature of the book that is different from the previous works is that it emphasizes less the issue of the total victim toll. In general, it appears to prefer not to discuss the victim toll issue in relatively definite number but has the issue remain in vague terms. Except a quote from the Hisao Tani trial verdict of the 1947 Nanjing Military Tribunal that “total victim toll amounts to over 300,000” and a citation of the 1948 Tokyo Trial’s judgment that over 200,000 had been murdered in the sections discussing the two trials respectively, this book does not specifically designate a section for the victim toll issue. In previous works, Lu Shu’s testimony that 57,418 had been mass executed is always quoted in describing the massacre at Straw Shoe Gorge. However, this book cites a Japanese source that about 15,000 had been massacred. In addition, in a footnote, after quoting Lu Shu’s 1946 testimony, it indicates, “from the viewpoint of common knowledge, at night, it was not possible for Lu Shu to see clearly the mas-

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sacre at Mufu Mountain, and even less possible for him to give an accurate number of victims to the single digit.”140 Previously, in discussing the massacre at Swallow Cliff, a quotation is cited from Appendix 1 to the Hisao Tani trial verdict, that on the beach at Swallow Cliff, over 50,000 disarmed youth were slaughtered.141 The 2012 book, however, after stating that “Due to lack of ferry vessels, Chinese soldiers and civilians were trapped at the riverside by Swallow Cliff after the Japanese captured Nanjing. When Japanese troops reached the Swallow Cliff area, they mowed down these trapped Chinese soldiers and civilians with machine guns,” indicates that: As to the massacre at Swallow Cliff, up to now, it is recorded only in Chinese source materials while no Japanese or third-party source materials keep record of it. Among the Chinese source materials, the diaries by Tsen Shui-fang, the dormitory matron at Ginling College is the contemporary record kept at that time, and hence it has better value as source material, while the value of other source materials, which are memoirs provided later, are not as good as the diaries written at the time. Tsen Shui-fang stated in her January 3, 1938 diary entry: Many people died in Nanjing as well. Many of the Chinese soldiers who failed to escape from Nanjing died. Several thousand soldiers went hungry in Swallow Cliff for three days. Later they sent two of the soldiers to surrender to the Japanese. They were provided with food for a couple of days, but they were mowed down with machine-guns on the third day. All this was witnessed by Wei Sifu, who was there. Some of the soldiers, as well as civilians, were roped together and led to a ditch. They were shot one by one with their bodies falling into the ditch. It was the most piteous sight that one row after another of people killed in that manner. The corpses of those who were killed at Swallow Cliff are still lying there. At some places, dogs dragged bodies away. I cannot help feeling sad that they suffered such a miserable death. Many women became widows.142

Apparently, it implies that only several thousand were massacred at the location by Swallow Cliff. In terms of the burial records, the most controversial one is apparently the burial data presented by Chong Shan Tang. In the 2012 book, the section that tackles the disposing of victim bodies was written by Sun Zaiwei, who presented the full burial tally of Chong Shan Tang burial squads as he had done in his 1991 article and 1997 book. However, in the 2012 book he indicated that because Zhou Yiyu, the president of the society, was detained from December 26, 1938 to January 2, 1939 by Japanese military police who also searched Zhou’s residence and confiscated all the written records of the society. “Therefore, as to the huge number of bodies buried by the society, at present no data which indicates the burial process has been found to support the huge number. (p. 863) Attached to Chong Shan Tang’s burial statistics chart is a footnote which says, “As to the data of Chong Shan Tang’s burying 112,266 bodies, because it came into being after the war, and, with only 40 plus workers registered, it was indeed difficult for them to accomplish the task of burying an average of several thousand bodies daily. Therefore, there have been controversies over it in academia. As to this society’s burial activities, it relies on digging up additional archival sources for in-depth research.” (p. 862) In the case of Hisao Ota’s confession of disposing of 150,000 bodies, while the 2012 book presents his confession, it cites the diary kept by Kenrou Kajitani (梶谷 健郎), who was a sergeant serving the Second Docking and Shipping Headquarters

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as well. The diary states that Hisao Ota arrived at Xiaguan on December 25, 1937, over a week after the time he claimed that he had disposed of thousands of bodies into the river, to put the credibility of Ota’s confession in doubt. It also points out that either Ota’s confession or Kajitani’s diary is singular evidence by itself with no other source to support it. (pp.  904–911) Apparently, these are indications that Chinese researchers in academia are inclined to accept a total victim toll fewer than 300,000, though this number is still the government’s official stance. Since the mid-1990s, scholars in China have become increasingly active in doing research on the Nanjing Massacre, and have produced a large number of research results concerning different aspects of the topic, including translation of English, German, and Japanese primary sources, as well as translation of the major works by Japanese scholars. The most prominent effort is the 72-volume set, The Collection of the Nanjing Massacre Source Materials (南京大屠杀史料集), which was published in Nanjing from 2005 to 2010. In recent years, there has been a tendency in academia that scholars have become tolerant in discussing Japanese scholars’ works even though the opinions expressed in those books are somewhat different from their own, as well as flexible in examining and analyzing the various cases and issues related to the Nanjing Massacre and publishing their research results. It also makes it possible to have the representative works of the Japanese right-wing authors translated and published in China. For instance, Masaaki Tanaka’s The Fabrication of “the Nanjing Massacre” (「南京虐殺」の虚構) was translated and published in 1984 by the World Knowledge House in Beijing; the Chinese version of Shudo Higashinakano’s A Thorough Examination of “the Nanjing Massacre” (「南京虐殺」の徹底検証) was published by Xinhua Publishing Press in Beijing in 2000; and Toshio Matsumura’s Big Questions about the Nanjing Massacre (南京 虐殺への大疑問) was also translated and published by the same Xinhua Publishing Press in 2001.

Notes 1. “Russians Protest Japanese Paroles,” NYT, May 13, 1950, p. 8. 2. The document’s second paragraph goes as follows: “2. Confinement credit. All time spent in confinement, either as a war criminal suspect or war criminal, will be credited to the sentence as ordered executed, excepting pre-trial confinement previously ordered remitted. Detention as a prisoner-of-war will not be credited.” 3. General Headquarters, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, “Clemency for War Criminals, SCAP Circular No. 5, 7 March 1950,” the enclosure to Far Eastern Commission’s “Note by the Secretary General,” March 30, 1950, FEC-314/18, Folder 5 (Parole Board: SCAP Parole System), Box 5 (Records relating to Japanese War Crimes, 1943–1960), Records of the Legal Adviser relating to War Crimes (Lot File No. 61 D33), RG59, National Archives II. 4. “Russians Protest Japanese Paroles,” NYT, May 13, 1950, p.  8. and “M’Arthur Scored on Parole Policy,” NYT, May 16, 1950, p. 4.

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5. “Soviet Note of May 11, 1950,” Department of State Bulletin, Vol. 23, July 10, 1950, pp. 60–61. 6. “U.S. Note of June 8, 1950,” Department of State Bulletin, Vol. 23, July 10, 1950, p. 60. 7. “Nine More Japanese Paroled,” NYT, November 7, 1950, p. 6. 8. “Treaty of Peace with Japan,” September 8, 1951, San Francisco, United Nations Treaty Series, 1952, Vol. 136, (No. 1832), p. 56. 9. “20 More Japanese Paroled,” NYT, January 13, 1952, p. 19. According to another news report of August 17, 1952, in NYT (page 7) under the title “U.S. to Review Cases of Japan War Criminals,” “Prior to the Peace Treaty the American-controlled Allied Occupation of Japan had paroled 892 war criminals sentenced by them.” The Peace Treaty was signed on Sept. 8, 1951. Apparently, the figure 575 refers to the number of Japanese war criminals who had been released on parole since the circular of March 7, 1950, issued. 10. Harry S. Truman, “Executive Order 10393, September 4, 1952,” Federal Register, Vol. 17, No, 175, September 6, 1952, p. 8,083. 11. 紹伊 (Shao Yi), “没齒難忘仇和恨 (The enmity and hatred that can never be forgotten),” Xinhua Daily, February 26, 1951, p. 2. 12. 锦輝 (Jin Hui), “一個不屈的姑娘 (An Undaunted girl),” Xinhua Daily, March 1, 1951, p. 2. 13. 本報記者 (The newspapers correspondent), “追記日寇南京大屠殺的血海深仇 (A retrospective account of the huge debt of blood concerning the Nanjing Massacre committed by Japanese invaders),” Xinhua Daily, February 26, 1951, p.  5. The article was digested and republished in Beijing in the Volume 3, Issue 5 of 新華月報 (Xinhua Monthly) on March 25, 1951, pp. 988–991. 14. 郭士杰 (Guo Shijie), 日寇侵華暴行錄 (The Records of the Atrocities Committed by the Japanese Invading China), Beijing: 聨合書店 (The Union Bookstore), 1951. 15. 高兴祖 (Gao Xingzu), 日军侵华暴行: 南京大屠杀 (The Atrocities Committed by the Japanese Troops Invading China: The Nanjing Massacre), Shanghai: 上海人民出版社 (Shanghai People’s Publishing House), 1985. The Japanese version: 高興祖著, 牧野篤訳 (translated by Atsushi Makino), 南京大虐殺: 日本軍の中国侵略と暴行, Tokyo: 日本教職 員組合 (Japan Teachers and Staff Union), 1986. 16. 島田勝已 (Katsumi Shimada), “南京攻略戦と虐殺事件 (The Nanjing Battle and the Massacre Incident),” 特集人物往来 (Special Issue of Jinbutsu Orai), June 1956, p. 111. 17. 今井正剛 (Masatake Imai), “南京城内の大量殺人 (The Mass Killings inside Nanjing),” 特集文藝春秋 (Special Issue of Bungeishunju Magazine), December 1956, pp. 154–159. 18. Ibid., pp.  156–157. Another version of the English translation can be found in Katsuichi Honda, The Nanjing Massacre, pp. 184–185. 19. 田中正明 (Masaaki Tanaka), “南京虐殺事件と松井石根日記 (The Nanjing Massacre Incident and Iwane Matsui’s Diary),” 日本週報 (Japan Weekly), Feb. 25, 1957, pp. 3–10. 20. 秦賢助 (Kensuke Hata), “捕虜の血にまみれた白虎部隊 (The White Tiger Troops Smeared with Captives’ Blood),” 日本週報 (Japan Weekly), Feb. 25, 1957, pp. 13–15. 21. 両角業作 (Gyosaku Morozumi), 序 (Introduction), to 秦賢助 (Kensuke Hata)’s 白虎部隊 (The White Tiger Troops), Tokyo: 平凡社 (Heibonsha), 1939, p. 1. 22. Kensuke Hata, 白虎部隊 (The White Tiger Troops), Tokyo: 平凡社 (Heibonsha), 1939, pp. 183–184. 23. Kensuke Hata, “The White Tiger Troops Smeared with Captives’ Blood,” pp. 13–14. 24. Kensuke Hata, The White Tiger Troops, pp. 182–183. 25. 堀越文男 (Fumio Horigoshi), “堀越文男陣中日记 (Field Diary of Fumio Horigoshi),” in NMIA, p. 78. 26. 新島淳良 (Atsuyoshi Niijima), “雨花台、南京虐殺の話をきく (Yuhua Terrace and we learned about the Nanjing Massacre),” 大安 (Daian), Vol. 13 (September 1967), pp. 2–6.

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27. Atsuyoshi Niijima, 南京大虐殺 (The Nanjing Massacre), 日中友好協會 (正統) 永福支部 (Eifuku Branch, Japan-China Friendship Association), 1971. 28. Atsuyoshi Niijima, “わが南京大虐殺 (The Nanjing Massacre I know about),” 情况 (Situation), August 1971. 29. Atsuyoshi Niijima, “立体構成—南京大虐殺 (The three-dimensional structure—The Nanjing Massacre),” 新評 (New Review), Vol.18 (August 1971), pp. 48–57. 30. 洞富雄 (Tomio Hora), 近代戦史の謎 (The Mystery of the History of Modern Wars), Tokyo: 人物往来社 (Jinbutsu Ōraisha), 1967. 31. Tomio Hora, 南京事件 (The Nanjing Incident), Tokyo: 新人物往来社 (Shin Jinbutsu Oraisha), 1972. 32. Tomio Hora, 日中戦争資料: 南京事件 (Sino-Japanese War Source Materials: The Nanjing Incident), Tokyo: 河出書房新社 (Kawade Shobō Shinsha), 1973. 33. “隠されつづけた南京大虐殺の記録 (Record of continued hidden Nanjing Massacre),” 潮 (Ushio), July 1971, pp. 112–156. 34. 本多勝一 (Katsuichi Honda), “中国の旅 (Travels in China),” 朝日新闻 夕刊 (Asahi Shimbun Evening Edition), November 5, 1971, p. 2. 35. Katsuichi Honda, 中国の旅 (Travels in China), Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1972. Apart from the four parts appeared in Asahi Shimbun installments, the other 12 parts are “The Chinese impression of the militarist Japan,” “At the former Jiayou (佳友) Factory,” “Correction facility,” “Human beings for bacteriological tests and vivisections,” “Fushun—The history of the invaded,” “Massacre for epidemic prevention,” “Anshan and former Kubota (久保田) Foundary,” “Nearby the Marco Polo Bridge,” “The journey of the slave boat carrying forced labors,” “Battlefields at Shanghai,” “Harbor,” and “The true stories of ‘expeditions’ and ‘bombings.’” 36. 鈴木二郎 (Jiro Suzuki), “私はあの「南京の悲劇」を目撃した (I witnessed that “Nanjing tragedy”),” 丸 (Maru), Vol. 24, No. 1 (November 1971), pp. 96–97. 37. The transliteration for the Chinese phrase “你, 来, 来 (You, come, come).” 38. 志志目彰 (Akira Shishime), “日中戦争の追憶 (A Recollection of Sino-Japanese War),” 中 國 (China), December 1971, pp. 43–44. 39. イザヤ・ペンダサン (Isaiah Ben-Dasan), “朝日新聞の「ゴメンナサイ」(Asahi Shimbun ‘I am sorry’), 諸君! (Gentlemen!), January 1972, pp. 166–179. 40. 森恭三 (Kyouzou Mori), “本書によせて (Preface to this book),” in 中国の旅 (Travels in China), Tokyo: 朝日新聞社 (Asahi Shinbunsha), 1972. p. vi. 41. Katsuichi Honda, “イザヤ-ベンダサン氏への公開状 (An Open Letter to Isaiah Ben-Dasan),” 諸君! (Gentlemen!), February 1972, p. 211. 42. イザヤ・ペンダサン (Isaiah Ben-Dasan), “本多勝一様への返信 (A reply to Mr. Katsuichi Honda),” 諸君! (Gentlemen!), March 1972, p. 51. 43. Katsuichi Honda, “雑音でいじめられる側の眼 (Noise abuse to my eyes),” 諸君! (Gentlemen!), April 1972, p. 152. 44. イザヤ・ペンダサン (Isaiah Ben-Dasan), “本多勝一様への追伸 (A postscript to Mr. Katsuichi Honda),” 諸君! (Gentlemen!), April 1972, pp. 132–143. 45. 山本七平 (Shichihei Yamamoto), 私の中の日本軍 (Our Japanese Troops), Tokyo: 文藝春 秋 (Bungei Shunjū), 1975. 46. 鈴木明 (Akira Suzuki), “南京大虐殺のまぼろし (The Illusion of the Nanjing Massacre), 諸君! (Gentlemen!), April 1972, pp. 186–187. 47. Akira Suzuki, “向井少尉はなぜ殺されたか:南京「百人斬り」のまぼろし (Why was Sub-Lieutenant Mukai killed: The illusion of the Nanjing ‘100-Man Killing Contest’),” 諸君! (Gentlemen!), August 1972, pp. 178–203. 48. Akira Suzuki, “向井少尉は何故殺されたか·補遺 (Why was Sub-Lieutenant Mukai

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Killed·An Appendix),” 諸君! (Gentlemen!), October 1972, pp. 108–115. 49. Akira Suzuki, “南京·昭和十二年十二月 (Nanjing·December 1937),” 諸君! (Gentlemen!), December 1972, pp. 152–170, and “南京·昭和十二年十二月(続) (Nanjing·December 1937 (Continue)),” 諸君! (Gentlemen!), January 1973, pp. 232–259. 50. Akira Suzuki, 南京大虐殺のまぼろし (The Illusion of the Nanjing Massacre), Tokyo: 文藝 春秋 (Bungei Shunjū), 1973. 51. Tomio Hora, “軍隊教育に培われた青年将校の精神構造—「百人斬り競争」は「事 実」であったか「語られた事実」であったか (The mental structure of young officers formed by military education—‘The 100-man killing contest’ was a ‘fact’ or a ‘told fact’).” 歷史評論 (History Review), No. 269 (November 1972), pp. 30–48. 52. Tomio Hora, “南京事件と史料批判 (上), (The Nanjing Incident and Criticism of Historical Sources, Part One).” 歷史評論 (History Review), No. 277 (June 1973), pp. 106–118, and “南 京事件と史料批判 (下), (The Nanjing Incident and Criticism of Historical Sources, Part Two).” 歷史評論 (History Review), No. 278 (July 1973), pp. 64–83. 53. Tomio Hora, 南京大虐殺: 「まぼろし」化工作批判 (The Nanjing Massacre: Criticism of the Illusion), Tokyo: 現代史出版会 (Gendaishi Shuppankai), 1975. 54. Katsuichi Honda, ペンの陰謀: あるいはペテンの論理を分析する (The Conspiracy of the Pen: Or the analysis of the logics), Tokyo: 潮出版社 (Ushio Shuppansha), 1977. 55. Tomio Hora, 決定版南京大虐殺 (The Confirmed Edition of the Nanjing Massacre), Tokyo: 德間書店 (Tokuma Shoten), 1982. 56. In the original text, the date is Lunar Calendar November 9, 1937, which is December 11, 1937. 57. Tracy Dahlby, “Japan’s Texts Revise WWII: ‘Invasion’ Becomes ‘Advance;’ Asians Become Irate,” Washington Post, July 28, 1982, pp. A1 & A14. 58. Ibid., p. A14, “Japanese Stands by Revisions in Texts That Irritate China,” NYT, Aug. 11, 1982, p. A8, “Seoul Bids Japan Act at Once to Correct Changes in Texts,” NYT, Aug. 25, 1982, p. A4, and Henry Scott Stokes, “Japan Pledges Textbook Revision,” NYT, Aug. 27, 1982, p. A2. 59. 侵华日军南京大屠杀史料编委会、南京图书馆 (The Committee on the Source Materials Relating to the Nanjing Massacre Committed by the Japanese Troops Invading China and Nanjing Municipal Library), 1937. 12. 13-侵华日军南京大屠杀史料 (Source Materials Relating to the Horrible Massacre Committed by the Japanese Troops in Nanjing in December 1937), 江苏古籍出版社 (Jiangsu Archives Press), 1985. 60. 中国第二历史档案馆、南京市档案馆 (The Second Historical Archives of China and Nanjing Municipal Archives), 1937. 12. 13-侵华日军南京大屠杀档案 (Archival Documents Relating to the Horrible Massacre Committed by the Japanese Troops in Nanjing in December 1937), 江苏古籍出版社 (Jiangsu Archives Press), 1987. 61. 侵华日军南京大屠杀史料编委会 (The Committee on the Source Materials Relating to the Nanjing Massacre Committed by the Japanese Troops Invading China), 侵华日军南京大屠 杀史稿 (Draft Manuscript of the History Relating to the Horrible Massacre Committed by the Japanese Troops in Nanjing in December 1937), 江苏古籍出版社 (Jiangsu Archives Press), 1987. 62. 朱成山 (Zhu Chengshan), 侵华日军南京大屠杀幸存者证言集 (A Collection of Testimonies by the Survivors of the Nanjing Massacre Committed by the Japanese Troops Invading China), 南京大学出版社 (Nanjing University Press), 1994. The Japanese version: 侵華日軍 南京大屠殺遇難同胞紀念館編, 加藤実訳 (translated by Minoru Katō), この事実を...:「 南京大虐殺」生存者証言集, 松戶 (Matsudo): ストーク (Sutōku), 2000. 63. 田中正明 (Masaaki Tanaka), 「南京虐殺」の虚構―松井大将の日記を巡つて (The Fabrication of “the Nanjing Massacre”: Reading through the Diary of General Iwane Matsui), Tokyo: 日本教文社 (Nihon Kyōbunsha), 1984, p. 353.

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64. 松井石根大将の陣中日誌 (The Battlefield Diary of General Iwane Matsui), ed. Masaaki Tanaka, Tokyo: 芙蓉書房 (Fuyō Shobō), 1985. 65. Masaaki Tanaka, The Fabrication of ‘the Nanjing Massacre,’ p. 16. 66. Enclosure No. 6 to the report “Conditions at Nanking, January 1938.” 67. Masaaki Tanaka, The Fabrication of ‘the Nanjing Massacre,’ p. 309. 68. 三國志 (Records of the Three Kingdoms), the historical record of the Three Kingdom period (184–280 A.D.), is one of China’s 24-Dynasty historical records. It records the historical events of the later years of East Han Dynasty (東漢末年, 184–220 A.D.), Wei Kingdom (魏, 220–265 A.D.), Wu Kingdom (吴, 222–280 A.D.), and Shu Kingdom (蜀, 221–263 A.D.). It was written by Chen Shou (陳壽) in 289 A.D. 69. Masaaki Tanaka, The Fabrication of ‘the Nanjing Massacre,’ p. 248. 70. Tien-Wang-Su is an old transliteration form for Tianwangsi (天王寺). 71. Pritchard and Zaide, The Tokyo War Crimes Trial, Vol. 2, Proceedings of the Tribunal, pp. 2583–2589. 72. “「南京大虐殺」克明に 従軍兵士の手帳発見 (“The Nanjing Massacre” elaborated faithfully, army soldier's diaries discovered),” 朝日新聞 (Asahi Shimbun), July 28, 1984, p. 22. 73. “南京虐殺、現場の心情 宮崎で発見元從軍兵士の日記 (The Nanjing massacre and feelings on the spot, the diary of a former soldier discovered in Miyazaki),” Asahi Shimbun, Aug. 5, 1984, p. 22. 74. “元陸軍伍長、スケッチで証言, 南京捕虜一万余人虐殺 (Former Army squad leader and a sketch provide testimony: More than ten thousand prisoners of war were massacred at Nanjing),” 每日新聞 (Mainich Shimbun), Aug. 5, 1984, p. 22. 75. 日中戦争史資料編集委員会 (The Editorial Committee of the Sino-Japanese War History Source Materials), 日中戦争史資料 8 南京事件 I and 日中戦争史資料 9 南京事件 II (Source Material of the Sino-Japanese War History Vol. 8, the Nanjing Incident I and Source Material of the Sino-Japanese War History Vol. 9, the Nanjing Incident II), Tokyo: 河出書房 新社 (Kawade Shobō Shinsha), 1973. 76. 南京事件調査研究会 (Association of Investigation Research on the Nanjing Incident), 南京 事件資料集 (A Collection of the Nanjing Incident Primary Sources), Tokyo: 青木書店 (Aoki Bookstore), 1992. 77. ジョン·ラーベ (John Rabe), 南京の真実: The Diary of John Rabe (The Truth of Nanjing: The Diary of John Rabe), 平野卿子訳 (Translated by Kyōko Hirano), Tokyo: 講談社 (Kōdansha), 1997. 78. ミニー·ヴォートリン (Minnie Vautrin), 南京事件の日々—— ミニー·ヴォートリン日記 (Daily Record of the Nanjing Incident: Minnie Vautrin Diaries), 岡田良之助, 伊原陽子訳 (Translated by Ryōnosuke Okada and Yōko Ihara), Tokyo: 大月書店 (Ōtsuki Book-store), 1999. 79. 石田勇治 (Yūji Ishida), 笠原十九司 (Tokushi Kasahara), 吉田裕 (Yutaka Yoshida), 資料 ド イツ外交官の見た南京事件 (Source Material: The Nanjing Incident Witnessed by the German Diplomats), 石田勇治訳 (Translated by Yūji Ishida), Tokyo: 大月書店 (Ōtsuki Bookstore), 2001. 80. 下里正樹 (Masaki Shimozato), 隠された聯隊史 (The Concealed Regiment History), Tokyo: 青木書店 (Aoki Bookstore), 1987 and 1988. 81. 井口和起 (Iguchi Kazuki), 木阪順一郎 (Junichiro Kisaka), and 下里正樹 (Masaki Shimozato), 南京事件: 京都師団関係資料集 (The Nanjing Incident: Kyoto Division Related Source Materials), Tokyo: 青木書店 (Aoki Bookstore), 1989. 82. 小原孝太郎 (Kōtarō Kohara), 日中戦争従軍日記: 一輜重兵の戦場体験 (A Field Diary of the Sino-Japanese War: The Battlefield Experiences of a Logistics Soldier), ed. by 江口圭一 (Keiichi Eguchi), 芝原拓自 (Takuji Shibahara), 京都 (Kyoto) : 法律文化社 (Law and Culture Press), 1989.

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83. 小野賢二 (Kenji Ono), 藤原彰 (Akira Fujiwara) and 本多勝一 (Katsuichi Honda), 南京大虐 殺を記錄した皇軍兵士たち:第十三師団山田支隊兵士の陣中日記 (The Nanjing Massacre Recorded by the Imperial Army Soldiers: The Field Diaries by the Soldiers of the Yamada Detachment, the 13th Division), Tokyo: 大月書店 (Ōtsuki Bookstore), 1996. 84. 松岡環 (Tamaki Matsuoka), 南京戦: 閉ざされた記憶を尋ねて (The Nanjing Campaign: In search of the Sealed Memories), Tokyo: 社会評論社 (Shakai Hyōronsha), 2002. 85. 笠原十九司 (Tokushi Kasahara), 南京事件: 体験者27人が語る (The Nanjing Incident: The Testimonies by 27 Survivors), Tokyo: 高文研 (Kōbunken), 2006. 86. Tamaki Matsuoka, 南京戦: 閉ざされた記憶を尋ねて (The Nanjing Campaign: In search of the Sealed Memories), Tokyo:社会評論社 (Tokyo: Shakai Hyoronsha), 2002. 87. Tamaki Matsuoka, 南京戦: 切りさかれた受難者の魂 (The Nanjing Campaign: The Severed Soul of the Victims), Tokyo: 社会評論社 (Shakai Hyōronsha), 2003. 88. Akira Fujiwara, 南京大虐殺 (The Nanjing Massacre), Tokyo: 岩波書店 (Iwanami Bookstore), 1985. 89. Akira Fujiwara, 南京の日本軍: 南京大虐殺とその背景 (The Japanese Troops in Nanjing: The Background of the Nanjing Massacre), Tokyo: 大月書店 (Ōtsuki Bookstore), 1997. 90. Akira Fujiwara, 南京事件をどうみるか:日・中・米研究者による検証 (How the Nanjing Massacre is Viewed: Examination by Japanese, Chinese and American Researchers), Tokyo: 青木書店 (Aoki Bookstore), 1998. 91. 吉田裕 (Yutaka Yoshida), 天皇の軍隊と南京事件 (Emperor’s Troops and the Nanjing Incident), Tokyo: 青木書店 (Aoki Bookstore), 1985. 92. 笠原十九司 (Tokushi Kasahara), アジアの中の日本軍 (Japanese Troops in Asia), Tokyo: 大月書店 (Ōtsuki Bookstore), 1994. 93. Tokushi Kasahara, 南京難民区の百日 (One Hundred Days in the Nanjing Safety Zone), Tokyo: 岩波書店 (Iwanami Bookstore), 1995. 94. Tokushi Kasahara, 南京事件 (The Nanjing Incident), Tokyo: 岩波書店 (Iwanami Bookstore), 1997. 95. Tokushi Kasahara, 南京事件と三光作戦 (The Nanjing Incident and the Campaigns for Three Alls), Tokyo: 大月書店 (Ōtsuki Bookstore), 1999. 96. Tokushi Kasahara, 南京事件と日本人 (The Nanjing Incident and the Japanese), Tokyo: 柏 書房 (Kashiwa Shobō), 2002. 97. Tokushi Kasahara, 南京事件論争史 (The History of the Debates over the Nanjing Incident), Tokyo: 平凡社 (Heibonsha), 2007. 98. Tokushi Kasahara, 「百人斬り競争」と南京事件 (“The 100-Man Killing Contest” and the Nanjing Incident), Tokyo: 大月書店 (Ōtsuki Bookstore), 2008. 99. 津田道夫 (Michio Tsuda), 南京大虐殺と日本人の精神構造 (The Nanjing Massacre and the Spiritual Structure of the Japanese), Tokyo: 社会評論社 (Shakai Hyōronsha), 1995. 100. Tomio Hora, 藤原彰 (Akira Fujiwara) and Katsuichi Honda, 南京事件を考える (The Nanjing Incident Considered), Tokyo: 大月書店 (Ōtsuki Bookstore), 1987. 101. Tomio Hora, Akira Fujiwara and Katsuichi Honda, 南京大虐殺の現場へ (The Nanjing Massacre Sites), Tokyo: 朝日新聞社 (Asahi Shimbunsha), 1988. 102. Tomio Hora, Akira Fujiwara and Katsuichi Honda, 南京大虐殺の研究 (Research on the Nanjing Massacre), Tokyo: 晚聲社 (Banseisha), 1992. 103. Tokushi Kasahara and 吉田裕 (Yutaka Yoshida), 現代歴史学と南京事件 (Modern History Studies and the Nanjing Incident), Tokyo: 柏書房 (Kashiwa Shobō), 2006. 104. 南京事件調査研究会 (Association of Investigation Research on the Nanjing Incident), 南京 大虐殺否定論13のウソ (“The 13 lies” by the Deniers of the Nanjing Massacre), Tokyo: 柏 書房 (Kashiwa Shobō), 1999. 105. 南京戦史編集委員会 (Nanjing Battle History Editing Committee), 南京戦史資料集 I, II

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(The Collection of Source Materials Concerning the Nanjing Battle History Vols. I & II), Tokyo: 偕行社 (Kaikosha), 1989 & 1993. 106. 阿羅健一 (Kenichi Ara), 聞き書南京事件 (Listen to the Statements about the Nanjing Incident), Tokyo: 図書出版社 (Book Publishing House), 1987, and its 2001 version: 「南京 事件」日本人48人の証言 (Testimonies by 48 Japanese about “the Nanjing Incident”), Tokyo: 小学館 (Shōgakukan), 2001. 107. Masaaki Tanaka, 南京事件の総括: 虐殺否定十五の論拠 (A Summary of the Nanjing Incident: Fifteen Rationales that Negate the Massacre), Tokyo: 謙光社 (Kenkōsha), 1987. 108. 東中野修道 (Shudo Higashinakano), 「南京虐殺」の徹底検証 (A Thorough Examination of “the Nanjing Massacre”), Tokyo: 展転社 (Tendensha), 1998. 109. Shudo Higashinakano, 1937南京攻略戦の真実 (The Truth of the 1937 Nanjing Offensive Campaign), Tokyo: 小学館 (Shōgakukan), 2003. 110. Shudo Higashinakano, 南京事件: 国民党極秘文書から読み解く (The Nanjing Incident: Deciphering top secret documents of the Nationalist Party), Tokyo: 草思社 (Sōshisha), 2006. 111. Shudo Higashinakano, 再現南京戦 (The Nanking Campaign Represented), Tokyo: 草思社 (Sōshisha), 2007. 112. Shudo Higashinakano, (南京「百人斬り競争」の真実 (The Truth of Nanjing “100-Man Killing Contest”), Tokyo: ワック (Wakku Kabushiki Kaisha), 2007. 113. 南京学会 (Nanjing Association), 南京「虐殺」研究の最前線 (The Forefront Researches on the Nanjing “Massacre”), ed, by 東中野修道 (Shudo Higashinakano), Tokyo: 展転社 (Tendensha), 2002-. 114. 藤岡信勝 (Nobukatsu Fujioka), 東中野修道 (Shudo Higashinakano), 「ザ∙レイプ∙オブ∙南 京」の研究 (A Study of “The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II”), Tokyo: 祥伝社 (Shōdensha), 1999. 115. 田辺敏雄 (Toshio Tanabe), 東中野修道 (Shudo Higashinakano), 阿羅健一 (Kenichi Ara), 新井佐和子 (Sawako Arai), 「反日」史観の虚構 (The Fabrication of the “Anti-Japanese” Historical View), Tokyo: 日本政策研究センター (Japan Policy Research Center), 1998. 116. Shudo Higashinakano, 小林進 (Susumu Kobayashi), 福永慎次郎 (Shinjirō Fukunaga), 南京 事件“証拠写真”を検証する (Analyzing “the photographic evidence” of Nanjing Incident), Tokyo: 草思社 (Sōshisha), 2005. 117. 松村俊夫 (Toshio Matsumura), 南京虐殺への大疑問 (Big Questions about the Nanjing Massacre), Tokyo: 展転社 (Tendensha), 1998. 118. 前田雄二 (Yuji Maeda), 南京大虐殺はなかった (There was no Nanjing Massacre), Tokyo: 善本社 (Zenponsha), 1999. 119. 北村稔 (Minoru Kitamura), 南京事件の探求 (An Exploration of the Nanjing Incident), Tokyo: 文藝春秋 (Bungei Shunjū), 2001. 120. 冨澤繁信 (Shigenobu Miyasawa), 南京事件の核心 (The Core Issues of the Nanjing Incident), Tokyo: 展転社 (Tendensha), 2003. 121. Shigenobu Miyasawa, 「南京事件」発展史 (The Historical Development of the “Nanjing Incident),” Tokyo: 展転社 (Tendensha), 2007. 122. 秦郁彦 (Ikuhiko Hata), 南京事件: 虐殺構造 (The Nanjing Incident: The Constitution of Massacre), Tokyo: 中央公論社 (Chūō Kōronsha), 1986. 123. Ikuhiko Hata, 昭和史の謎を追う (Tracking the Mystery of Showa History), Tokyo: 文藝春 秋 (Bungei Shunjū), 1993. 124. Ikuhiko Hata, 現代史の争点 (The Issues at Debate in the Modern History), Tokyo: 文藝春 秋 (Bungei Shunjū), 1998. 125. Ikuhiko Hata, 現代史の光と影: 南京事件から嫌煙権論争まで (The Lights and Shadows of the Modern History: The Controversies over the Nanjing Incident), Tokyo: グラフ社 (Gurafusha), 1999. 126. 畝本正己 (Masaki Unemoto), 史実の歪曲: 東京裁判に見る南京虐殺事件 (The Distortion

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of Historical Facts: The Nanjing Massacre Incident Vieved by the Tokyo Trial), 埼玉県浦和 市 (Saitama-ken Urawa-shi): 閣文社 (Kakubunsha), 1992. 127. Masaki Unemoto, 真相・南京事件ラーベの日記を検証して (The Truth: An Examination of John Rabe’s Nanjing Incident Diary), Tokyo: 文京出版, 建帛社 (Bunkyō Shuppan and Hatsubai Kenpakusha), 1998. 128. 板倉由明 (Yoshiaki Itakura), 本当はこうだった南京事件 (Is the Nanjing Incident Truly Like This), Tokyo: 日本図書刊行会, 近代文芸社 (Nihon Tosho Kankōkai and Kindai Bungeisha), 1999. 129. Yoshiaki Itakura, “東中野論文「ラーベ日記の徹底検証」を批判する (A criticism of Higashinakano’s article ‘A thorough examination of Rabe’s diary’),” 正論 (Seiron), June 1998, and東中野修道 (Shudo Higashinakano), “やはり「ラーベ日記」は三等資料板倉 由明氏の批判に答える (A reply to Mr. Yoshiaki Itakura’s criticism of ‘Rabe’s diary’),” 正 論 (Seiron), July 1998. 130. 東京裁判資料刊行會 (The Society for Publishing Tokyo Trial Source Materials), The Defense Side’s Source Materials Which Were not Presented at the Tokyo Trial (東京裁判却 下未提出辯護側資料), Tokyo: 国書刊行会 (Kokusho Kankōkai), 1995. 131. 中村粲 (Akira Nakamura), Dissentient Judgment of Justice Pal: International Military Tribunal for the Far East, Tokyo: 国書刊行会 (Kokusho-Kankokai), 1999. 132. 藤岡信勝 (Nobukatsu Fujioka), “中村粲氏の「南京事件一万人説」を批判する (A criticism of Akira Nakamura’s ‘estimate of ten thousand victims in the Nanjing Incident’),” 正論 (Seiron), March 1999 and 中村粲 (Akira Nakamura), “「南京事件」の論議は常識に還 れ-藤岡信勝氏の批判に答える (The common sense in discussing ‘the Nanjing Massacre’: A reply to Nobukatsu Fujioka’s criticism),” 正論 (Seiron), May 1999. 133. “谷壽夫 判處死刑 (Hisao Tani Sentenced to Death),” Central Daily, March 11, 1947, p. 3. 134. “谷寿夫战犯判决书附件关于集体屠杀部分统计节录 (An except of the appendix to war criminal Hisao Tani’s verdict concerning the statistics of the mass killings),” ADN, pp. 163–167. 135. According to Appendix 1 to the Hisao Tani trial verdict, the date listed is December 18, 1937, which is November 16, 1937, in the Lunar Calendar which was more popular in use by folks back then. See ADN, p. 165. 136. 孙宅巍 (Sun Zhaiwei), “30万南京同胞被屠杀史实岂容否定 (How can the historical fact that three hundred thousand fellow countrymen were slaughtered be allowed to deny)?” 抗日 战争研究 (Research on the War of Resisting Japan), No. 2, 1991, pp. 107–111. 137. Sun Zhaiwei, “关于南京大屠杀尸体处理的研究 (A Research on the disposing of the Nanjing Massacre Corpses),” 南京社会科学 (Nanjing Social Science), No. 4, 1991, pp. 72–74. 138. Sun Zhaiwei, “南京大屠杀与南京人口 (The Nanjing Massacre and the Nanjing Population),” 南京社会科学 (Nanjing Social Science), No. 3, 1990, pp. 75–77. 139. All the three population charts are cited from Sun’s 1990 Nanjing Social Science article, ibid., pp. 76–77 140. 张宪文 (Zhang Xianwen), 南京大屠杀全史 (The Nanjing Massacre: A Complete History), Nanjing: 南京大学出版社 (Nanjing University Press), 2012, p. 200. 141. Sun Zhaiwei, 南京大屠杀 ( The Nanjing Massacre), Beijing: 北京出版社 (Beijing Publishing House), 1997, p. 129. 142. Zhang Xianwen, The Nanjing Massacre: A Complete History, p. 219.

Chapter 14

The 100-Man Killing Contest and Controversies

The 100-man killing contest between Sub-lieutenants Toshiaki Mukai (向井敏明) and Tsuyoshi Noda (野田毅) largely took place before Japanese troops reached the suburbs of Nanjing, and in comparison with the calamity and magnitude of the Nanjing Massacre, it is a relatively insignificant incident. There must have been a large number of Japanese soldiers, who, involved in killing surrendered and disarmed Chinese soldiers as well as civilians before and during the Nanjing Massacre period, had remained unidentified and were not punished after the war. However, major Japanese newspapers followed the development of the 100-man killing contest and covered it consecutively from November 30 to December 13, 1937. The publicity, which brought temporary fame and glory to the two sub-lieutenants then, provided evidence for the Allied Forces to apprehend, indict, and eventually execute them in Nanjing in 1948. The high profile trials of the two sub-lieutenants, their death sentences, the controversies that the incident triggered in the 1970s in connection to the efforts of denying the Nanjing Massacre, as well as the defamation lawsuits filed against The Mainichi Shinbum (每日新聞), the successor to The Tokyo Nichinichi Shinbum (東 京日日新聞), The Tokyo Asahi Shinbum (東京朝日新聞), publisher Kashiwa Shobo (柏書房出版社), and correspondent/writer Katsuichi Honda (本多勝一), from 2003 to 2006, brought further publicity to the incident and led to additional controversies in both China and Japan.

14.1  O  riginal News Coverage of the “100-Man Killing Contest” On November 30, 1937, The Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun, one of the most influential Japanese newspapers, ran a story dispatched from Changzhou, China by three correspondents, Kazuo Asami (淺海一男), Mitsumoto (光本), and Yasuda (安田), who were embedded within the Japanese combat troops: © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 S. Lu, The 1937 – 1938 Nanjing Atrocities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9656-4_14

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The 100-Man Killing Contest! Two Sub-lieutenants Already Kill 80 [Changzhou, November 29, sent by correspondents Asami, Mitsumoto, and Yasuda] The ___ troop, which had swiftly covered the 40 kilometers between Changshu and Wuxi in six days, travelled the same distance between Wuxi and Changzhou with equally remarkable speed in only three days, a truly incredible and speedy attack. At the front, two young officers in the Katagiri Troop (片桐部隊) are engaged in a 100-man killing contest. It is learned that, since setting out from Wuxi, one has killed 56, and the other 25. One is Sub-lieutenant Toshiaki Mukai, age 26, of the Toyama Troop (冨山部隊), who is from Kojiro Village, Kuga County, Yamaguchi Prefecture, and the other is Sub-lieutenant Tsuyoshi Noda, age 25, of the same unit, from Tashiro Village, Kimotsuki County, Kagoshima Prefecture. Sub-­ lieutenant Mukai, who has reached the third dan (段) in sword training, runs his fingers along the blade of the “Seki-no-Magoroku” (關孫六) sword that is kept at his side, while Sub-lieutenant Noda speaks with pride of his treasured sword, which, though without a title inscription on it, was a family heirloom handed down from his ancestors. After leaving Wuxi, Sub-lieutenant Mukai marched along the railroad tracks for 26 or 27 kilometers, while Sub-lieutenant Noda traveled on a road parallel to the railway line. The following morning, after their separate departures, Sub-lieutenant Noda broke into an enemy pillbox in an unknown village eight kilometers from Wuxi and killed four enemy soldiers. Hearing about this, Sub-lieutenant Mukai resolved to persevere. That night, he led his men to charge into an enemy position in Henglinzhen (横林鎮) and killed 55. After that, Sub-lieutenant Noda cut down nine in Henglinzhen, six in Weiguanzhen (威 関鎮), and another six on the 29th at Changzhou Station, a total of 25. Sub-lieutenant Mukai killed four near Changzhou Station. It is at the station that the correspondents ran into the two having a get-together. Mukai said, “At this rate, I expect to cut down 100 by the time we reach Danyang, not to mention Nanjing. Noda is doomed to lose. My sword has cut down 56, and its blade is chipped in only one spot, I tell you.” Noda responded, “The two of us make it a rule that we do not cut down someone who runs away. I am not winning any points since I serve as a ___, but you’ll see my record by the time we reach Danyang.”1

A few days later, on December 4, the second segment of the report, sent from Danyang (丹陽), appeared in print in the same newspaper, with the killing spree reaching 86 and 65 for Mukai and Noda respectively: Advance Swiftly, The 100-Man Killing Contest [Danyang, December 3, sent by correspondents Asami and Mitsumoto] This newspaper has covered the 100-man killing contest which started on the way to advance to Nanjing between two young officers, Sub-lieutenants Mukai and Noda of the Katagiri Troop and Toyama Troop which are vanguard troops. Since setting off from Changzhou, the two have fought ferociously, and by 6 p.m. December 2, before entering Danyang, Sub-lieutenant Mukai has cut down 86, and Sub-lieutenant Noda 65. They are in a close contest. Within the distance of 40 kilometers2 from Changzhou to Danyang, the former killed 30, and the latter 40. The heroic fighting spirit of the two sub-lieutenants, which resembles that of Asura (阿修羅), is beyond words. This time, the brave fighters fought together against the enemy along the Nanjing-Shanghai Railway line at Benniuzhen (奔牛鎮), Luchengzhen (吕城鎮), and Lingkouzhen (陵口鎮) (all are located north of Danyang). Sub-lieutenant Mukai was the first to break into Danyang’s Zhongzhen Gate (中正門), and Sub-lieutenant Noda had a minor injury on his right hand. In the 100-man killing contest, both sub-­lieutenants continued to distinguish themselves with new records. When the correspondents caught up with the Katagiri Unit, which, without taking a break after capturing Danyang, rushed forward in chase of the enemy, Sub-lieutenant Mukai, still marching in

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formation, said with a smile, “That fellow Noda is catching up with me. I should be careful, not to take it lightly. Noda’s injury is pretty minor, there is no worry about that. While cutting down an enemy in Lingkouzhen, his bone chipped the blade of my “Seki-no-Magoroku” sword, though I am sure I can still cut down a hundred or two hundred with it. I will ask the reporters of Tonichi Daimai (東日大毎)3 to be the judges.”4

The number of people killed by the two Sub-lieutenants jumped to 89 and 78 respectively when the newspaper published the third report, dispatched from Jurong on December 6: 89–78, the 100-Man Killing Contest, a Great Fighting Contest! Heroic Sub-Lieutenants Mukai and Noda! [Jurong, December 5, sent by correspondents Asami and Mitsumoto] Two young officers, Sub-lieutenants Toshiaki Mukai and Tsuyoshi Noda of the Katagiri Troop engaged in the 100-man killing contest before reaching Nanjing, are on the front line in the fierce assault to capture Jurong. Before the city was captured, the two were neck to neck in the contest: Sub-lieutenant Mukai cut down 89, while Sub-lieutenant Noda killed 78.5

By the time the two sub-lieutenants reached the Nanjing suburbs at the foot of Purple Mountain on December 12, their killing records went well beyond the 100 mark for both, with Mukai killing 106 and Noda 105: The 100-Man Killing Contest Exceeds Goal, Mukai 106, Noda 105, Two Sub-­ Lieutenants Extend Contest [At Purple Mountain, December 12, sent by correspondents Asami and Suzuki (鈴木)] The brave fighters, Sub-lieutenants Toshiaki Mukai and Iwao [Tsuyoshi] Noda, of the Katagiri Troop, who started a rare example of having a contest, “the 100-man killing contest,” reached the mark of 106 and 105 respectively by the time they got to Nanjing on the 10th during the assault on Purple Mountain. At noon on the 10th, the two sub-lieutenants faced one another with their blade-chipped Japanese swords in hand. “Hey, I cut down 105, how about you?” Noda said. Mukai replied, “I killed 106!” The two sub-lieutenants burst into laughter without bothering to figure out who killed the 100 first. Consequently, they agreed, “Let’s consider it an even game this time, and extend the contest to 150.” Thus, they agreed to start the 150-man killing contest on the 11th. It was during the day on the 11th at the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum overlooking Purple Mountain that Sub-lieutenant Mukai, who was in the process of mopping up Chinese stragglers, told us about the tied result of the 100-man killing contest. “I am glad that we both went beyond the 100 mark before we knew it. My Seki-no-Magoroku sword got chipped when I cut a man wearing a helmet in half as if slicing a piece of bamboo. I promised to present this Japanese sword to your newspaper as a gift once the war is over. At about 3 a. m., when some fellow units adopted a marvelous strategy to force the remaining enemy out of their hideouts in Purple Mountain, I was also forced out. Standing there amidst a hail of bullets, with my sword in hand, I cursed, ‘Who gives a damn about it.’ However, nothing hit me, I’m sure, due to this sword,” he said, showing the correspondents the Magoroku sword which, amidst a shower of enemy gunfire, had sipped the blood of 106 lives. (Illustration for the photo) Two officers of “the 100-man killing contest.” Iwao Noda (right) and Toshiaki Mukai (left). = The photo was taken at Changzhou by special correspondent (Shin) Sato (佐藤(振)).6

However, The Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun is not the only newspaper that pu-­ blished “the 100-man killing contest” news series. The Osaka Mainichi Shimbun (大阪每日新聞) also published these reports on December 1, 4, 7, and 13, 1937

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under different titles with the content slightly modified. From December 1937 to March 1938, such newspapers as The Osaka Mainichi Shimbun Kagoshima & Okinawa Edition (大阪每日新聞鹿児島沖縄版), The Kagoshima Mainichi Shimbun (鹿児 島每日新聞), The Kagoshima Asahi Shimbun (鹿児島朝日新聞), and The Kagoshima Shimbun (鹿児島新聞) printed a series of follow-up reports about the 100-man killing contest, Noda’s heroic return, his father’s pride, and the speeches Noda made to local groups. Immediately after the first report appeared in The Tokyo Nichinich Shimbun, on December 1, 1937, The Osaka Mainichi Shimbun Kagoshima & Okinawa Edition published a dispatch indicating that “Sub-lieutenant Tsuyoshi Noda of the Toyama Troop, who vowed to accomplish the 100-man killing contest and became well-­ known for his military ability in the areas south of the Yangtze, is from Tashiro Village, Kimostsuki County, Kagoshima Prefecture,”7 On December 16, 1937, The Kagoshima Asahi Shimbun reported an interview with Noda’s father, who stated, “My child is consecrated to the Emperor, so he is aware that he may die in combat. However, if newspapers have such publicity as this, it would be a shame if he dies during the 100-man killing contest … and this is my concern.” In addition, he shared the battlefield notes his son had mailed home: Before long, we discovered a large number of enemy troops, about 3,000 in number. We encircled them on three sides and launched an assault when we were about 50 meters away. Consequently, the enemy left behind over 500 bodies and fled. This can be counted as the third fierce battle I have engaged in, though I recently have become used to combat actions, and soon the reports about spectacular battles will become available.8

The Kagoshima Shimbun published a report on December 18, 1937, under the title, “Pleasant man in conversation, well-known participant of the 100-man killing contest, Sub-lieutenant Tsuyoshi Noda, for whom the Japanese people feel greatest honor and gratitude, is from Tashiro Village, Kimotsuki County (話題の 快男子 百人斬り名選手 野田穀少尉 日本人たる無上の光榮に感激 肝属郡田 代村出身),” in which Noda’s parents were interviewed. His mother was quoted as saying that Noda had liked soldiers since early childhood. Noda’s letter to his father was quoted as well.9 Over a month later on January 25, 1938, The Osaka Mainichi Shimbun Kagoshima & Okinawa Edition ran a report concerning Noda and the killing contest, “Killing 253 people with swords, and now making a pledge to kill 1,000” (二百五十三人を 斩り, 今度千人斩り発愿). It quotes a letter that Noda wrote to a close friend, Sekirou Okamura (中村碩郎), in Kagoshima. Noda bragged about his bravery in combat and admitted his participation in the killing contest: At present, in Central China … we totally smashed about 50 miles of the enemy’s so-called bastion of iron and captured Nanjing in one go. I almost lost my life for the country and went to heaven not five times but ten times, because enemies were also tenacious and would not run away no matter what. Therefore, we started the 100-man killing contest you learned about from The Osaka Mainichi Shimbun, with the firing of rifles and machine-guns as a lullaby and mortars and land mines as jazz. I killed 105 upon entry into Nanjing, and there-­ after I killed another 253, thanks to Namidaira Sword, which is a mess from the killing.

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Feeling that killing 100 or 200 will accomplish nothing remarkable, I made an arrangement with the contest rival Officer Mukai to have a 1,000-man killing contest.10

In the same letter, Noda included a poem, “The Song of the Sharpness of the 100-Man-Killing Japanese Sword” (百人斬日本刀切味の歌), written by Noda’s fellow officer Masajirō Muguruma (六車政次郎), in praise of Noda’s heroic deeds during the 100-man killing contest: One. Tonight you bid farewell to the moon of the hometown, but it is the sword that sends out a chilly light. Two. With a sword as pillow, in camping sleep, you dream the weeping voices hungry for blood. Three. Rainstorm sweeps through the land south of the Yangtze, providing you with the opportunity to get acquainted with the 100-man killing contest. Four. When you wave the sword three feet long, blood splashes like wind blows. Five. With your military uniform, you clean the blood stains from your sword, though you see no wound on your arms. Six. Today your face looks exactly as it did yesterday, but tomorrow you will once again stand the test of bayoneting. Seven. Your complexion was like a mirror when you left your homeland, but today it catches the blood color of dark red. (ibid)

Muguruma graduated in the same class as Noda from the Military Academy. In 1937 he served as the First Battalion adjutant in the Ninth Regiment with Noda, while Noda was the adjutant of the Third Battalion. In memoir articles, Muguruma mentioned on several occasions his association with Noda, as well as the 100-man killing contest. Undoubtedly, the news report is tinged with wartime propaganda and the newspaper editors may have exaggerated for propaganda purposes. However, the letter and poem do not seem to be a total fabrication made up by correspondents or editors. Even if the contents of the letter and poem are exaggerated or fabricated to some extent, they were initially created by Noda and Muguruma. In March 1938, Noda returned to Japan for training. He took this opportunity to visit his native village and gave lectures to elementary school pupils. The local media reported his visit and lectures. On March 21, 1938, The Kagoshima Shimbun reported, in detail, that Noda returned to his hometown for a visit, during which he reunited with his family, went to his native Tashiro Village to pay respects to ancestral graves, and spoke at an elementary school about his 100-man killing contest experiences. At 9:02 p.m. on the 19th, his father Isema met Sub-lieutenant Tsuyoshi Noda, who will change trains at the Ijuin (伊集院) Station to Nansatsu Railway (南薩線). His son, a 26-year-old young warrior, appeared radiant with vigor, holding out of the window a wineglass, which was specially prepared in the train carriage for a toast to continued fortune in war, while he was talking about his achievements in combat since he departed for war. When asked about the contest he had with Sub-lieutenant Mukai, he said with a smile that he had killed 374 enemies, and that it was wonderful, wearing a kasaya (袈裟), to cut in half an enemy, who fell with a loud sound. Even though my favorite sword is not a wellknown one, it rarely breaches. As he was talking, he unsheathed, showing others his sword that gleamed coldly. From the middle of the blade to the tip, there were a few breaches, but people indeed could not believe that this sword blade had been splashed with the blood of 374 Chinese, because it was still stainless and shiny.

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“I took part in the battles in the areas between Tianjin-Pukou Railway (津浦線) and Beijing-­Hankou Railway (京漢線) and the battles toward Beijing-Hankou Railway. Then I fought in battles to attack and capture Changshu (常熟) and Nanjing, and after that was again transferred back to North China, undergoing many combat actions, large and small. It can be said that I went through a hail of bullets, but not a single bullet has ever hit me. During the battle to attack Purple Mountain, seven soldiers around me were killed by bullets and fell, but I, who was among them, was not shot, and I am sure that bullets can never hit me,” the young sub-lieutenant with brilliant combat achievements said with a smile. When he was asked how many his contest rival Sub-lieutenant Mukai has killed, he again burst into a smile and said perhaps 160 to 170. One could feel in his words his love for a fellow officer. Sub-lieutenant Noda plans to talk about his killing contest experiences to the children at his father’s school, Tsunuki Elementary School (津貫小學), in the morning on the 20th. In the afternoon, he will give a speech at a reception hosted by the school district. On the 24th, 25th and 26th, he will return to his native village, Tashiro Village in Kimotsuki County, to pay respects to his ancestral graves.11

On March 22, 1938, The Osaka Mainichi Shimbun Kagoshima & Okinawa Edition also reported Noda’s home coming visit: After learning of Sub-lieutenant Noda’s heroic home return visit, I went to the home of the school principal hoping to interview this warrior, but I was told that from 9:00 a.m. that day, Sub-lieutenant Noda had been talking about his combat experiences to the children of Tsunuki Elementary School. The sub-lieutenant appeared to be extremely busy, but his father, Mr. Isema, said, “Sub-lieutenant Noda fought from North China to Central China. With the campaign to attack and capture Nanjing as his last battle, he altogether took part in about 20 fierce battles, killing 374 enemy soldiers in all, and in particular during an attacking operation at Handan, Hebei Province (河北邯鄲), he killed more enemies by sword than at other places, so that the sword became crooked.”12

According to a news dispatch in The Osaka Mainichi Shimbun Kagoshima & Okinawa Edition on March 26, 1938, on the 25th Noda went to visit Shinto Institute (神刀館) in Kagoshima, where he used to practice martial arts. Shinto Institute held a grand reception to welcome Noda, who gave a speech as well. Noda left for Tokyo after the reception, around 1: 20 p.m. that day.13 As late as May 19, 1938, The Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun published a follow-up report about the participants of the 100-man killing contest, this time about Toshiaki Mukai. Correspondent Nishimoto (西本) interviewed Sub-lieutenant Mukai on the battlefield in a village named Risizhuang (日寺莊) in Hubei Province. This report erroneously states that Tsuyoshi Noda was killed in combat in Hainan Island (海南島): Lieutenant Mukai is the young officer who agreed to carry out the 100-man killing contest with his fellow officer, Lieutenant Noda, last year during the Nanjing campaign. He used his favorite sword, Seki-no-Magoroku Sword, to kill 107. After the Nanjing campaign he shaved his long beard and arranged for the 500-man killing contest with his fellow office, Lieutenant Noda. He fought from Xuzhou (徐州), Dabie Mountain (大别山) to Hankou, Zhongxiang (锺祥) and other places, and altogether he has killed 305. However, because Lieutenant Noda was killed in combat in Hainan Island, Mukai could only continue the endeavor on his own to achieve the goal of killing 500.

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“I’ve killed well with sword, though the sword tip gets stuck sometimes; because I am confident, I have few problems. Since I entered the war, I have not yet got sick; I have never been wounded either, which is indeed incredible. It is probably because my body has gotten used to fighting for long periods of time. I only feel sorrow when I write letters of condolence to the families of soldiers under my command who were killed in battle. I regret that I was unable to have the 1,000-man killing contest. Since I parted with Sub-lieutenant Noda, I have tried my best to reach the goal of killing 500, and as of now, I have killed with sword 305 in all ….”14

The first English version of the event was published by The Japan Advertiser, an English newspaper published by Americans in Tokyo. The Japan Advertiser’s version was later included in Harold John Timperley’s book What War Means: The Japanese Terror in China, as the book’s Appendix F, which helped disseminate information about the event in the English speaking world. On December 7, 1937, The Japan Advertiser ran the English version of the third report published by The Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun the previous day: SUB-LIEUTENANTS IN RACE TO FELL 100 CHINESE RUNNING CLOSE CONTEST Sub-lieutenant Toshiaki Mukai and Sub-lieutenant Takeshi Noda, both of the Katagiri unit at Kuyung, in a friendly contest to see which of them will first fell 100 Chinese in individual sword combat before the Japanese forces completely occupy Nanking, are well in the final phase of their race, running almost neck to neck. On Sunday when their unit was fighting outside Kuyung, the “score”, according to the Asahi, was: Sub-lieutenant Mukai, 89, and Sub-lieutenant Noda, 78.15

A week later on December 14, 1937, The Japan Advertiser printed its version of the fourth report: CONTEST TO KILL FIRST 100 CHINESE WITH SWORD EXTENDED WHEN BOTH FIGHTERS EXCEED MARK The winner of the competition between Sub-lieutenant Toshiaki Mukai and Sub-lieutenant Iwao Noda to see who would be the first to kill 100 Chinese with his Yamato sword has not been decided, the Nichi Nichi reports from the slops of Purple Mountain, outside Nanking. Mukai has a score of 106 and his rival has dispatched 105 men, but the two contestants have found it impossible to determine which passed the 100 mark first. Instead of settling it with a discussion, they are going to extend the goal by 50. Mukai’s blade was slightly damaged in the competition. He explained that this was the result of cutting a Chinese in half, helmet and all. The contest was “fun”, he declared, and he thought it a good thing that both men had gone over the 100 mark without knowing that the other had done so. Early Saturday morning, when the Nichi Nichi man interviewed the sub-lieutenant at a point overlooking Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s tomb, another Japanese unit set fire to the slopes of Purple Mountain in an attempt to drive out the Chinese troops. The action also smoked out Sub-­Lieutenant Mukai and his unit, and the men stood idly by while bullets passed overhead. “Not a shot hits me while I am holding this sword on my shoulder,” he explained confidently. (pp. 284–285)

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The “100-man killing contest” was first published in China on January 1, 1938 by The China Weekly Review, an English weekly published by Americans in Shanghai: HOW LIEUTENANTS MUKAI AND NODA EXCEEDED MURDER QUOTAS The Nichi-Nichi Shimbun, leading Tokyo newspaper, published a dispatch from its correspondent in Nanking on December 12 which unintentionally pro-vided fresh information regarding the massacre of Chinese which took place in Nanking following the occupation of that city by the Japanese forces. The dispatch was dated, “On the Foot of Purple Gold Mountain—Nanking,” and told of two Japanese army officers, SubLieutenant Toshiakai Mukai and Iwao Na-da “who started a rare race of killing 100 enemy men.” On Dec. 10 the two young officers met at the foot of Purple Mountain in the vicinity of the tomb of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, “carrying their edge-nicked Japanese swords in hand.” Said Lieut. Noda, “I have killed 105—How many have you done?” Lieut. Mukai replied, “I have killed 106,” following which, to quote the report, the two officers laughed “Aha-ha, Mukai won by one,” but it was impossible to ascertain which had first passed the 100 mark; hence it was decided to call it a tie and extend the competition until 150 Chinese had been killed by each officer. The report in the Nichi-Nichi containing the photos of the two contestants, stated that the race “started with renewed vigor on December 11 for the 150 goal.” The report in the Tokyo newspaper, although probably exaggerated, shed considerable light on the orgy of looting, murder and rape which took place following the entrance of Japanese soldiers in the Chinese capital.16

The China Weekly Review’s version was translated into Chinese and appeared in Shenbao (申報) and Xinhua Daily (新華日報), both published in Hankou, on January 25, 1938, though the Chinese translation mistakenly switches the positions of Mukai and Noda in their conversation: KILLING CONTEST UNDER PURPLE MOUNTAIN Unparallelled Cruelty of Enemy Soldiers The China Weekly Review just reported that Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun recently carried a news dispatch entitled “Under Purple Mountain in Nanjing,” describing two Japanese enemies who had the impudence of holding a contest in our country to see who killed more people. These two Japanese enemies, one named Mukai and the other Noda, agreed that the winner would be the one who first killed 100 people. After Nanjing was captured, the two enemies, each holding a blade-nicked sword stained with blood, met in front of the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum at the foot of Purple Mountain. The original text contained a conversation between the two enemies. The one named Mukai said: “I have killed 105, how have you done?” Noda replied: “I have killed 106.” The two enemies laughed toward each other. Noda won by one. However, it was unable to ascertain who had first killed 100; hence, it was decided that the contest will continue until 150 were killed. The elated reporter indicated in a note: These two imperial soldiers would continue with their killings! The newspaper published a photo of the two enemies, as if telling their countrymen that they were the heroes of “Imperial Army”! The China Weekly Review commented: foreign missionaries could attest that Japanese troops indulged themselves in killing. When the Japanese enemies attacked and captured Nanjing, our unarmed refugees, who were unable to escape, were rounded up to a location and mowed down with machine guns. In the areas under

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Japanese enemy occupation, except for those who were forced to carry loads, there were no prisoners of war, for all were killed. That is, Chinese soldiers were killed even when they surrendered their weapons. In the refugee zone, those who were of conscript age were accused of being soldiers and were shot in large groups. These were indeed atrocities of unparalleled cruelty.17

Apparently, from the beginning, neither Americans nor Chinese believed that the two sub-lieutenants were heroes in combat. To them, “the 100-man killing contest” was nothing more than one of many killing sprees committed by Japanese troops first along the Yangtze Valley and then at Nanjing.

14.2  Memoirs Recounting the 100-Man Killing Contest During the war, because of the media coverage of the 100-man killing contest, Toshiakai Mukai and Tsuyoshi Noda were regarded as war heroes. From 1937 to 1946, neither Mukai nor Noda, nor anybody else ever denied that they had participated in the 100-man killing contest. Neither did anyone challenge the authenticity of the news reports, or complained to any of the newspapers that the correspondents had fabricated the reports. There were no disputes or controversies of any kind concerning the 100-man killing contest and its media coverage before 1946. Immediately after Japan was defeated by the Allies Forces, some of the news reports concerning the 100-man killing contest served as evidence and led to the arrest, indictment, trial and execution of Mukai and Noda. Since then, these news reports gradually faded into history and had remained buried in newspaper archives. From 1948 to 1971, the incident was rarely mentioned in either China or Japan. There were no controversial disputes for decades, and the killing contest related media coverage seemed to be forgotten. In fact, nobody unearthed or collected these various news dispatches about the killing contest until more than 50 years later in Japan. In China only a digest version derived from the English translation circulated among a small group of people in Nanjing during the same period of time. This version was related to the Japanese visitors, who went to Nanjing and showed interest in the Nanjing Massacre and related issues. It was this inaccurate version of the 100-man killing contest, which was brought back by Katsuichi Honda and published in The Asahi Shimbun in November 1971 that triggered controversies in Japan. In The Asahi Shimbun, Honda reported a large number of Japanese atrocity cases taking place in various locations in China, including Nanjing, but why did the 100-­ man killing contest invite controversies in 1971? Reports similar to Honda’s version were published on a number of occasions in the 1960s. Due to the limited circulation of those publications, the previous stories attracted little attention. Whereas, The Asahi Shimbun is a major influential newspaper that reaches readers of all walks of life across Japan. This is the first reason why Honda’s November 5, 1971 report triggered controversies over the 100-man killing contest. Second, at the time nobody had ever collected all the related news reports and

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made them available. What Jiang Genfu told Honda is an incomplete and inaccurate version, and the inaccurate details made Honda’s report vulnerable to criticism by the right-wing, who challenged the credibility and reliability of the story. Third, the two sub-lieutenants were executed for their involvement in the 100-man killing contest. The right-wing circle, in particular, some of the former Japanese soldiers, considered it unacceptable, for many of them had similar experiences of wantonly killing people in China and endeavored to justify their atrocious behaviors. Finally, the right-wing circle used the inaccurate report about the 100-man killing contest as a breakthrough point to challenge and deny the atrocity reports and further challenge and deny the Nanjing Massacre. The 1970’s debates over the 100-man killing contest has generated a substantial amount of literature in Japan since then. As the debates were going on, several individuals directly involved or having close contacts with the two sub-lieutenants came forward with their memoirs, which provide different perspectives of the 100-man killing contest. 1971 witnessed the publication of two memoir articles: “I witnessed that ‘Nanjing tragedy’ (私はあの「南京の悲劇」を目撃した),” by Jiro Suzuki, who coauthored the fourth report of the killing contest, and “A Recollection of the Sino-Japanese War (日中戦争の追憶),” authored by Akira Shishime, who listened to Tsuyoshi Noda’s talk about the killing contest in an elementary school in 1939. In the article, Suzuki reprinted in entirety the first and fourth reports of the 100-man killing contest to provide detailed information about the origin and development of the contest as it was originally reported. The information was absent from Honda’s Asahi Shimbun story. He then described how he and Kazuo Asami, the correspondents of the original reports, were summoned to the International Military Tribunal for the Far East as witnesses to testify. Both emphasized in written statements that, based on the words of the two sub-lieutenants, the officers had never killed those who ran away and only killed enemy soldiers who were attacking them. The killings were considered to be based on the spirit of Bushido, rather than acts of atrocity.18 To the procurator’s office, these were surely not reliable testimonies. But were there truly atrocious killings? Finally the day came for us to testify in court. Asami first appeared in court. When he was on the witness stand, raised his hand, and took oath in a loud voice, it was declared that because “the documents are incomplete” they would not hear his testimony. Asami came back to the resting area extremely dispirited. Before long, a secretary came over and said, “You two do not need to return.” I was finally relieved because, having been as nervous as the next person to appear in court, I would not have the opportunity to testify as witness. However, it was learned that the two officers were executed after they were arrested by the Nationalist Government, and even our signed affidavits were ignored. (p. 97)

After providing detailed eyewitness accounts of the atrocities committed by Japanese troops at Nanjing, Suzuki concluded the article: Now, as the on site correspondent, I finally have the courage to write down this “testimony.” I am ashamed to say that as to the reason that the “Nanjing Massacre” became a “scene” shocking the world, I thought as I was amidst smoke of gunpowder, dead bodies, and blood, it took place because of the so-called sense of responsibility and “excitement,” the “identification” with “war,” and the numbness and ignorance of the international laws of war.

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Before witnessing the Nanjing Massacre, that is, during the month when I was with the troops between Shanghai and Nanjing, I had repeatedly witnessed “slaughter.” Because of continuous brutal combats and numerous dead bodies and blood on the battlefields, I became numb. However, when I saw many Japanese soldiers die in combat, I cannot say that I was not filled with hatred against the enemy and the feeling for revenge, as well as desire for cruelty. Enmity and horror on the battlefields and victors’ wanton behaviors toward the defeated led to the My Lai Incident, which should stand for trial. Finally, I pay my respect to those who have the courage to admit that “we committed massacres.” (p. 99)

Chiefly because of his eyewitness account of Japanese atrocities at Nanjing and his association with the 100-man killing contest, since the publication of this memoir article, Suzuki had been repeatedly attacked by right-wing figures, who accused him of fabricating atrocities. After reading Honda’s Asahi Shimbun story and Suzuki’s memoir article, Akira Shishime published a short article in December 1971 recalling his boyhood experience of listening to Tsuyoshi Noda’s talk in the elementary school: However, in front of the elementary school pupils, Sub-lieutenant N looked casual and comfortable, without showing any of the strong character usually found in a military guy, or, in my current view, appearing conceited, which we experienced several years later. Perhaps it was the calmness a person had after going through numerous combat actions, or maybe it was the leisure or nonchalance he had when he spoke to his own people, the pupils of his alma mater.19

While Akira Shishime heard Noda admit in his public lecture that the heroic killing contest was but killing the surrendered Chinese soldiers, Groups of stooping Chinese soldiers emerged with their hands up …Why didn’t Chinese soldiers run away? Why didn’t they resist? Were the soldiers actually fools? … Even now, I clearly remember the sentence “we would call out ‘Ni, lai, lai.’ Chinese soldiers were dumb fools who came out in hordes.” … At the moment, we had no humanistic feeling such as indignation or sympathy for the Chinese soldiers, who had been killed with swords. We never gave a thought to it, but those Chinese soldiers must have had younger brothers like me. … Then, the war was lost. My change was slow, and I had remained a militarist until the February 1 General Strike, when the Far East Trial started. Whenever media and global public opinion exposed the corruption of the former military, in particular, the key officers of the regular troops who encouraged the launch of war, I would get angry, but I started seriously accepting the reports about the incidents of the Nanjing Massacre. From then on, I felt that I understood the complete meaning of Sub-lieutenant N’s talk, and started to consider that I, too, should shoulder the responsibilities of the Japanese imperialist wars abroad. Soon after, the local media reported that people like Sub-lieutenant N were shot as war criminals in Nanjing. Ah, it should be done like this. It was a natural result! I thought it was over, and did not give it another thought. … In addition, even though the Maru magazine report indicates that Sub-lieutenant N told both The Mainichi Shimbun reporters Jiro Suzuki and Kazuo Asami that ‘he did not kill those who ran away,’ probably what he told us candidly in person is closer to the truth. According to Suzuki, the Far East Tribunal’s Ichigaya (市谷) court terminated the prosecution halfway. Probably Suzuki’s statement, “only kill enemy soldiers who came attacking them is based on the spirit of Japanese Bushido … It is not atrocious killing” worked.

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However, in the court of the Nationalist Government, it was ruled as atrocious killings and they were sentenced to death. (pp. 44–45)

After Honda’s Asahi Shimbun report led to the 100-man killing contest debate mainly published in the magazine Gentlemen!, magazine New Currents Weekly (週刊新潮) made an effort to contact the correspondents, who covered the killing contest in 1937, in hope that they could provide information about what really happened. Mitsumoto had died after the war in 1950, but other reporters were alive. In its July 29, 1972 issue, New Currents Weekly ran an article, “The reporters, whose ‘false reports’ of the ‘100-man killing contest’ resulted in death sentences for war criminals, would not rescue them from death row, and now is a star of Sino-Japanese relations (「南京百人斬り」の‘虚報’で死刑戦犯を見殺し にした記者が今や日中かけ橋の花形).” The article reveals that during the 1947 Nanjing trial, Sub-lieutenant Mukai’s younger brother, Takeshi Mukai (向井猛), contacted both Kazuo Asami and Takeo Toyama (冨山武雄), who was the battalion commander and Sub-lieutenant’s immediate superior officer, hoping the two would come to his brother’s rescue. Asami sent him a note, in which he wrote, “(1) The news reports were heard from Mukai and Noda and he never witnessed the scene. (2) The acts of the two officers were not cruelty against residents and prisoners of war. (3) The character of the two officers was virtuous. (4) Matters on the right have already been stated to Prosecutor Parkinson of the military tribunal in Tokyo and have been attached to the inquiries, without indicating that it is ‘fabricated’.”20 With this note, Asami refused Takeshi’s request. Asami did not offer any information to New Currents Weekly in 1972 either. Whereas, Toyama offered Takeshi an alibi certificate, stating that Sub-lieutenant Mukai, wounded in the left knee on December 2 in Danyang’s suburbs, was taken by the medical team and did not return to his post until December 15 in Tangshui (湯水). If the certificate was accepted by the court, it would prove that Sub-lieutenant Mukai was absent from combat operations from December 10 to 12 and could not kill people at Purple Mountain as reported in the 4th report. Takeshi was pleased to send the certificate to Nanjing. (ibid). Shinju Sato (佐藤振壽), The Tokyo Nichinichi Shinbum photographer and correspondent, who took the snapshot of the two sub-lieutenants holding swords at Changzhou, provided his testimony to the magazine: “Anyway, when the 16th Division entered Changzhou, we found lodging near a city gate. We called it lodgings, but it was more like a camp tent, and we set up the newspaper’s flag. While I was inside the lodging, Mr. Asami came saying he needed to have a photo taken, and I asked what photo. He pointed to the two officers who were outside the camp tent, telling me that “these two are engaged in the 100-man killing contest,” and said to the two officers, “would you do me the favor of having your photo taken?” The officers uttered an “Oh,” and, thinking that might be interesting, let me take the photo. That is the picture “photographed at Changzhou.” The photo was taken by the city gate. I remember Asami said that the officers had run out of cigarettes, and I got out from my backpack two packs of “Ruby Queen” brand, each containing 10 cigarettes, to give them as a present. In the process of my taking photos, Asami held a notebook to take note of what the two were saying. Therefore, I heard the complete story of that report.”

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It is not a fictional story at all, at least it is a story that he himself heard directly from them, which is a testimony. …. “At that time, my question was who would keep count for the 100-man killing. I do not remember whether I or Mr. Asami asked the question while I was taking the photo. Surely someone asked, “You said that you have killed such a number of people, but who was keeping count of the killings?” They said that Sub-lieutenant Noda was a battalion adjutant and Sub-lieutenant Mukai the commander of an infantry artillery platoon. Each had an orderly and would keep his own record.” They really said that, – this way, as I understand it. The above I had truly experienced on the battlefield.” (p. 35)

In the same article, Jiro Suzuki, coauthor of the 4th report, recalled: Then, as was reported, together with Mr. Asami, I ran into the two sub-lieutenants at Purple Mountain. Thus, present there were Sub-lieutenant Mukai, Sub-lieutenant Noda, Mr. Asami and myself. The battle for Purple Mountain was extremely fierce. Enemy resistance gradually weakened, and they were chased to the summit. Finally, a poisonous gas named “Red Barrel” was used to smoke them out before they were mopped up. It was at that moment that we met with the two sub-lieutenants. … Thus, we were told the content of that article. (p. 36)

In commenting Suzuki’s description of the meeting between the correspondents and the two sub-lieutenants, the author of the article indicated that the fourth report, “[At Purple Mountain, December 12, sent by correspondents Asami and Suzuki],” shows that the dispatch was cabled out on December 12, and it was likely that the meeting took place on December 11. If such were the case, Captain Toyama’s voucher certificate that “He was wounded on December 2 and did not return until December 15” for Sub-lieutenant Mukai can be regarded as “a counterfeit alibi,” and “this might also have been a plot to save the life of his former subordinate.” (ibid). Meanwhile, Suzuki revealed more information about the meeting with the sub-lieutenants: We heard them say, “We only killed with swords those who rushed toward us. We never killed the enemies who ran away.” We believed their words and transmitted them back home. … The function of the correspondents with troops is to report and let people know the heroic fighting deeds of Japanese officers and soldiers. We faithfully reported what we had seen and heard on the battlefields, including combat achievements and stories. (ibid)

Five years later Suzuki published another memoir essay under the title, “The correspondent with troops at the time (当時の従軍記者として),” in The Conspiracy of Pen (ペンの陰謀), a book edited by Katsuichi Honda. Suzuki here emphasized that, as a correspondent on dangerous battlefields, he did not have the guts to fabricate stories: Did the correspondents, who had been living with officers and soldiers on the battlefields day and night and running through the storm of shots and shells, really fabricate joking news? I did not have the guts to do so. It was at Purple Mountain close to the city of Nanjing, amidst the shelling from the enemy and our own, we directly heard the number of their killings from the two officers who were about to finish their contest. It happened 39 years ago, but I would never forget it.21

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Meanwhile, Suzuki expressed his shock at reading Shishime’s memoir, in which Sub-lieutenant Noda talked in public about killing surrendered Chinese soldiers in an elementary school. Suzuki felt he was “betrayed,” for he had believed their words that they had not killed those who ran away, not to mention killing surrendered enemy soldiers or non-combatants. (pp. 357–358). Kazuo Asami, the correspondent who coauthored all four news reports and chose to be silent for the New Currents Weekly’s July 29, 1972 article, contributed a chapter for Honda’s Conspiracy of Pen in 1977. In this memoir chapter, Asami provided details as to how he met with the two sub-lieutenants and interviewed them at several locations from Wuxi to Purple Mountain: It was indeed at a corner of the square in front of Wuxi Railway Station that I encountered two Japanese young officers, Sub-lieutenants M and N. … I remember that our group of correspondents were by the side of the square, setting up a camp tent for the night while taking a break, when the two officers, M and N, having seen our newspaper’s flag, which had been hung up, walked toward us. … They expressed discontent that because their troops were small basic-level units, their heroic fighting spirits were rarely reported in the newspapers and magazines at home. … The two officers told us that they planned to have a “100-­ man killing contest,” saying that the plan was for the combat competition to display the young officers’ brilliant achievements in combat. I selected the competition plan out of many combat stories, attached it at the end of the combat reports of that day, and transmitted it back. Thus, it became the first of a series of “100-man killing contest” reports. When the two officers were leaving our place, the journalists asked them how to obtain the achievements and results of the contest. They replied that we surely would set up our newspaper flag on the main road along the fighting line, and once they saw the newspaper flag, they would come to talk. Then, they walked away briskly. In fact, in ferocious combat, one could “kill enemies with a sword” at will. Even under other circumstances, from the viewpoint of the moral standard at the time in Japan, their behaviors were not considered too immoral. In particular, on the front line, where we were with the troops, the behaviors were not at all seen as immoral, which was absolutely the fact. In the fragments of my vague memories about that front line, only the following scenes will forever stay in my memory. For instance, it indeed took place at the captured Infantry Academy of the Republic of China close to Danyang (at the side toward Shanghai’s direction). I saw several dozens of Nationalist soldiers’ bodies lying in the opening behind the academy, with nothing left above the neck of each body. I can never forget the horror and gloom I felt then. Also, as we moved forward a little from Wuxi, I cannot forget the sight of more than 10 enemy soldiers who, hands tied with thick wires, were tossed by the road. Most of them had been knocked out, but others had fallen down on the ground. At that time, KMT soldiers were wearing thick cotton military uniforms for winter. Someone from the Japanese troops tore a small portion of the military uniforms, ignited with a match the cotton that protruded from that portion and set it afire. Burning cotton spread fire and the soldier became a person burning in hell on Earth…. It was under such unusual circumstances that I and other reporters heard Sub-lieutenant M and Sub-lieutenant N talk. After that talk, the two sub-lieutenants showed up three or four times at our places (because we moved forward every day, our location kept on moving), telling us what was going on with their “contest.” Even though the specific times and locations have disappeared from my memories, I definitely remember that the two sub-­ lieutenants visited us once at the location when we just passed Danyang, once or twice near Qilin Gate, and once or twice near the main road in front of the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum. Sometimes, one of the sub-lieutenants came, and sometimes both of them did in high spirit.

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It appeared that they were involved in complicated and busy fighting, for they talked only about the most essential and indispensable things, almost without small talk, before they returned to the front in haste.22

In 1993, photographer Shinju Sato published his wartime memoir, “Following the troops on foot (從軍とは步くこと),” which was collected by a major Japanese right-wing publication, The Nanjing Battle History Related Source Materials, vol. II (南京戦史資料集 II). In addition to providing detailed descriptions about Japanese atrocities, in particular the mass executions of surrendered Chinese ­soldiers Sato personally witnessed in Nanjing, Sato contributed one section to the 100-­man killing contest under the heading “Photographing the two officers of ‘the 100-man killing contest’” (‘百人斬り’の両将校を撮る), offering further details about the interview with the sub-lieutenants and other information: After he provided the cigarettes, what would he learn from the officers? I listened attentively to the conversation between correspondent Asami and the two officers. One was the battalion adjutant, Sub-lieutenant Tsuyoshi Noda, and the other was artillery platoon commander, Sub-lieutenant Toshiaki Mukai. What they talked about was a shocking topic: from now until the time before Nanjing was captured, they would see who would be the first to kill 100 Chinese soldiers with swords! … They said that from now until before entering Nanjing they would kill 100 Chinese soldiers with swords, but who would make sure the number was counted? If nobody kept count, there was no way to prove the fact that they had killed 100 people. I raised the issue to the two officers, and the answer I got was as follows: the soldiers under Sub-lieutenant Mukai were responsible for counting the number of people killed by Sub-lieutenant Noda, while the soldiers under Sub-lieutenant Noda were responsible for counting the number of people killed by Sub-lieutenant Mukai.23

While providing information about the accurate time and location of the photo taking, and the details of the interview content, Sato raised his questions and doubts about the killing contest: I got a rough idea of it, but exactly when would they have the opportunity to kill Chinese soldiers with swords in hand-to-hand combat? This was the issue, which baffled me. That is to say, usually in combat actions, they were almost unable to get close to the enemy soldiers. In other words, they would rarely have hand-to-hand combat. They would only have the opportunity to kill Chinese soldiers with Japanese swords in hand-to-hand bayonet fighting, which rarely took place. Under the circumstances, while the battlefield must have been in a chaotic state, Sub-­ lieutenant Noda, the battalion adjutant, would have the responsibility of assisting the battalion commander and delivering orders to different companies. Meanwhile, as the commander of the artillery platoon, Mukai must have directed artillerymen to fire artillery pieces. Under the circumstances, how could they, Sub-lieutenant Noda or Sub-lieutenant Mukai, kill Chinese soldiers with swords? It left me with a big question mark. … I only met with the two sub-lieutenants once in Changzhou, and soon forgot about the meeting. At a location not far from Nanjing, I ran into reporter Asami. He had the nerve to ask me for cigarettes, “Those two are still engaged in the contest. Could you loan me some cigarettes for them to use?” When I met with Asami once again after the war, he asked me, “The prosecutor of the military tribunal at Ichigaya summoned me for inquiries. Did he go to your place?” Correspondent Asami said that because he had written the news report of the “100-man

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killing contest”, the Chinese prosecutor questioned him about the circumstances at the time. I was not involved in it, but later I was summoned for inquiries by other agencies. As the photographer, my name appears in the caption of the two sub-lieutenants’ photo. A reporter from New Currents Weekly got my address from the personnel department of The Mainichi Shimbun, and came to my home. The purpose of his interview was that I would tell him the truth about Sub-lieutenants Noda and Mukai. (pp. 574–575)

Apparently, the three correspondents’ memoirs provide evidence that they did not fabricate the 100-man killing contest. Although they were not in a position to witness the actual killings in person, they obtained the information through interviews with the two sub-lieutenants who claimed to have killed a large number of enemy soldiers with swords in combat. Their statements prove that the two sub-­ lieutenants had lied in court in Nanjing in December 1947 that they had not provided the information that newspaper had published. In 1985, former Japanese soldier Gosaburou Mochizuki (望月五三郎), a private serving in the Eleventh Company, the Ninth Regiment of the Sixteenth Division, published a personal edition (私家版) of his wartime experiences under the title My China Incident (私の支那事变). Tsuyoshi Noda had served as a drillmaster in the 11th Company temporarily, providing Mochizuki with the opportunity to observe Noda at close range and enable him to write about Noda in My China Incident in a section under the heading “The 100-man killing (百人斬り),” in which he recounted what he had witnessed in the 11th Company on the way from Changzhou to a location near Danyang: It was probably from this time on that Sub-lieutenants Noda and Mukai started their “100-­ man killing contest.” Sub-lieutenant Noda came to our 11th Company as an officer on probation to be our drillmaster, and he took the position of the battalion adjutant after he was promoted to sub-lieutenant. He was running back and forth on horseback during the march, responsible for dispatching orders to the companies. He was well known for the “100-man killing contest,” for which he was honored as a “warrior.” At home, he was highly commended by newspapers and on the radio. He would tell his subordinates, “Hi, Bouzuki, take that Chinese man over to me.” Thus, that man was brought over. At first, that man was begging desperately for mercy, but soon he became quiet, obediently kneeling down in front of the sub-lieutenant, who raised his sword high, repeatedly making trial attempts at his back before he struck down his sword with an abominable smile on his face. With just one strike, the head instantly flew off before the body fell down. The blood gushed from the neck so forcefully that it sent the stones on the ground rolling. I had meant to look away, but I fixed my eyes on the sub-lieutenant’s sword. Although I had seen my fellow soldiers die right in front of me and I had stepped over many dead bodies, I did not understand why the defenseless farmers were slaughtered for no reason whatsoever. Killings like this increasingly escalated. Whenever they saw Chinese men, Noda and Mukai would vie with one another, waving their swords. It would have been ok to kill enemies with swords in combat, but they would not spare farmers who, with tears, were begging for their lives. All they cared about was killing. The regiment and battalion commanders must have known about this, but they acquiesced in their behavior, allowing the 100-man killing contest to continue. I have no idea why such ruthless behavior was even regarded as heroic deeds to be widely propagated. Because there was no media at the front, they could blur the distinction

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between Chinese soldiers and Chinese farmers for the reports. It was of some significance to get the reports passed through the Department of Reporting to be reported at home. But it is a huge blemish in the history of world warfare from today’s point of view.24

According to the statements in the memoirs written by Akira Shishime and Gosaburou Mochizuki, the killing contest participants had wantonly slaughtered surrendered and disarmed Chinese soldiers and other non-combatants. They were war criminals, not battlefield warriors performing heroic deeds.

14.3  The 100-Man Killing Contest Law Suits, 2003–2006 The debates over the 100-man killing contest, which started in the early 1970s, continued and gained momentum in the following decades. Encouraged by the debates, in particular the right-wing rhetoric, and also due to their life experiences as the executed war criminals’ daughters and sister, who claimed to have faced discriminations and other difficulties in marriage and career, Emiko Cooper (惠美子· クーパー), Toshiaki Mukai’s eldest daughter who married an American serviceman, Chieko Tadokoro Mukai (向井(田所)千惠子), Mukai’s second daughter, and Masa Noda (野田マサ), Tsuyoshi Noda’s younger sister, filed on April 28, 2003 a defamation lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court (東京地方裁判所) against The Mainichi Shinbum, which is the successor to The Tokyo Nichinichi Shinbum, The Asahi Shinbum, publisher Kashiwa Shobo (柏書房出版社), and Katsuichi Honda (本多勝一), seeking a total of 36 million yen (about 300,000 US dollars) in compensation for their families’ sufferings, both financially and emotionally. Counseled by a team of 17 attorneys led by Tomomi Inada (稻田朋美) who, a noted right-wing politician, is a House Representative in Diet (2005-) and Japanese Defense Minister (2016–17), the three plaintiffs sued the Mainichi Shinbum for fabricating and publishing the 100-man killing contest series in 1937; the Asahi Shimbun for publishing Katsuichi Honda’s “Travels in China (中国の旅)” series (1971), and the books, Travels in China (中国の旅) (1972), and The Road to Nanjing (南京への道) (1987); the publisher Kashiwa Shobo for publishing the book, 13 lies by the deniers of the Nanking Massacre (南京大虐殺否定論13のウ ソ) (1999); and Katsuichi Honda for writing “Travels in China” series and authoring the books, Travels in China, The Road to Nanjing, and “13 lies” by the deniers of the Nanking Massacre.

14.3.1  Plaintiffs’ Litigation Requests (訴訟の要請) (I) The 100-Man Killing Contest was Fabricated by The Nichinichi Shimbun Correspondents

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The plaintiffs asserted that the 100-man killing contest serial reports appearing in The Nichinichi Shimbun from November 30 to December 13, 1937 were fabricated by the newspaper correspondents. Claiming that Mukai and Noda did not engage in the 100-man killing contest as described in The Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun series, they provided the following statements: (a) When the Nanjing campaign was going on, Japanese media, including The Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun, and The Asahi Shimbun, competed with one another to cover battlefield news, which at the time was a popular topic and attracted readers’ attention. The news reports overlooked the truth or facts to boost morale and encourage people to fight.25 (b) On December 2, 1937, after Sub-lieutenant Mukai was injured in a battle at Danyang, he was taken in by the medical squad and did not return to the 3rd Battalion, also known as the Toyama Battalion (冨山大隊), until mid-­December. On December 4, 1937, the Toyama Battalion departed from Danyang, heading for Jurong. Because the Kanazawa Division (金沢師団), or the 9th Division, blocked the withdrawal route west of Jurong on the 5th, the brigade commander ordered the Toyama Battalion to change the marching route to turn north without participating in the battle to attack Jurong. Therefore, since Mukai was injured and left the frontline, Noda did not enter Jurong, and the 33rd Infantry Regiment did not participate in the battles at Purple Mountain, neither Mukai nor Noda went to the top of Purple Mountain. (pp. 113–114) (c) In The Nichinichi Shimbun 100-man killing contest reports, there are other statements that are either false or have discrepancies. The first report of November 30, 1937 indicated that Mukai killed 56 and Noda cut down 25 from Wuxi to Changzhou. However, according to Shinju Sato, when he took a photo of the two sub-lieutenants at Changzhou, Asami said that the sub-lieutenants would have a 100-man killing contest from here to Nanjing. Sato did not hear them or Asami mention they had killed 56 and 25. In addition, in the first report, the total number of people killed by Mukai was reported to be 55 at Henglin plus 4 at Changzhou station, and the total number should be 59, which was inconsistent with the number 56. The second report, published on December 4, 1937, states that Mukai killed 30 and Noda killed 40 between Changzhou and Danyang, while Mukai was the first to enter Danyang’s Zhongzhen Gate. As noted earlier, Mukai was injured by shelling at Danyang and left the frontline. Noda did not enter Danyang either. The third report, which appeared in the newspaper on December 6, 1937 was published only one day after the previous one. On the same day, reporter Asami interviewed to collect material at Danyang, and it was unthinkable that the reporter interviewed the result of the “100-man killing contest” far away from Danyang at Jurong. The fourth report of December 13, 1937, according to which the two sub-lieutenants made killing records of 106 versus 105 at Purple Mountain on the 10th, reported that it was decided to start the “150-man killing contest” on the 11th. What can be said about the report is that its content is a false, bizarre story in heroic grand words. (pp. 114–115)

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(d) Regarding the 100-man killing contest reported by The Nichinichi Shimbun, except for Gosaburou Mochizuki, none of the two sub-lieutenants’ subordi-­ nates had witnessed the killings and none believed the stories either. The follow-­up reports in other newspapers therefore cannot be trusted. Noda denied the 100-man killing contest when he was delivering a public talk in his native Kagoshima. Mukai, however, after the Nanjing campaign told his subordinates that the 100-man killing contest was but newspaper correspondents’ creation based on the jokes he had told them. (p. 115) (e) On July 1, 1946, in Room 325 of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, American prosecutor Parkinson interrogated Mukai. As a result, it was ruled that the 100-man killing contest case would not be prosecuted because there was no factual evidence. Mukai was released. Reporter Asami and reporter Suzuki were questioned prior to Mukai’s interrogation. Both reporters stated that the content of The Nichinichi Shimbun reports was true. Their affidavits were not submitted to the tribunal because neither of the reporters witnessed the killing contest. It was ruled that their reports had no value as evidence. (ibid) (f) During the Nanjing Military Tribunal trial, the two sub-lieutenants stated: 1. Though Noda only met with reporter Asami twice and Mukai met with him once, the newspaper reported four or five times. 2. When Noda met with reporter Asami on a tank at Qilin Gate, Asami indicated that he had already dispatched his report. Later, Noda learned that was the report of Purple Mountain. 3. Because neither of the sub-lieutenants entered Jurong, the Jurong report was a fabrication. 4. Mukai only participated in combat operations at Wuxi and Danyang. Wounded in the left knee and right arm below the elbow, he was taken in by the medical squad and left the frontline. The Purple Mountain report was fabricated. 5. The two sub-lieutenants parted at Danyang and did not meet again until after Mukai returned to the Toyama Battalion. 6. Mukai was interrogated by the prosecutor of the Tokyo Trial in July 1946, the 100-man killing contest was ruled false, and it was ruled that Mukai was not guilty and would not be prosecuted. However, the Nanjing Military Tribunal tried the two sub-lieutenants in a single session, refusing their request to call reporter Asami and the Toyama Battalion commander as witnesses and without even investigating the victims, and on the same day sentenced the two sub-­ lieutenants and Captain Gunkichi Tanaka (田中軍吉) to death. The request to review the affidavits by the two sub-lieutenants, the Toyama Battaion commander, and the Toyama Battalion secretary Takemura Masahiro (竹村政弘) for another trial was sent but was not accepted. They were executed on January 28, 1948. It was clear that this trial was unjust and nothing but a retaliatory trial. (p. 116) (g) The 100-man killing contest reported by The Nichinichi Shimbun was false because it was unlikely that the strength of Japanese swords was strong enough. In other words, the sword was a symbol of the officer’s status. (ibid)

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(h) The Nichinichi Shimbun 100-man killing contest reports were unlikely and false in terms of the organization of the Japanese Army at the time. Mukai was an infantry artillery platoon commander responsible for commanding the artillery platoon to shell the enemy, but did not participate in frontline attacks. His task was to eradicate or suppress enemy’s heavy weapons and was extremely busy. It was a violation of military law and not permissible to leave his post suddenly. Besides, Mukai had no combat experience with sword. In addition, Noda was the battalion adjutant, and the battalion adjutant was in charge of administrative organization and regulation of the battalion headquarters, a very busy job. He would get involved in hand-to-hand fighting only in emergency situations, for instance, if the battalion headquarters were suddenly attacked. It was not forgivable for him to leave his post for a killing contest. (pp. 116–117) (i) Judging from the nature of the Nanjing campaign, the 100-man killing contest was not possible. The Nanjing campaign was modern warfare, a battle between the organized Japanese and Chinese forces. The Chinese troops engaged in a German-style organized defense campaign, and their weapons were comparable to those of the Japanese troops. It was unlikely that the two sub-lieutenants would wave their swords in front of Chinese soldiers. (p. 117) Regarding the issue of slaughtering prisoners of war during the 100-man killing contest, the plaintiffs argued, “As a basis for supposing that ‘the 100-man killing contest’ was slaughtering POWs, defendant Honda cited the story of Akira Shishime, who heard the talk given by Sub-lieutenant Noda when he was a primary school student, but it is not certain whether such a talk really occured. Also, the content of such a story is unthinkable in modern warfare like the Nanjing campaign, and it cannot be trusted at all.” (ibid). As far as Mochizuki Gosuke’s descriptions of Noda’s slaughtering Chinese farmers during the 100-man killing contest, the plaintiffs asserted, Defendant Asahi has submitted a section of My China Incident by Mochizuki Gosuke as the proof of “slaughtering peasants,” but it is said that there are more than 200 errors in this book. It is doubtful whether the “memorandum” or “material” etc. upon which the evidence relied, was in existence or not. It is unclear where Gomusuro Mochizuki belonged to during the Nanjing campaign. In the section of the “100-man killing,” it incorrectly describes the positions of Changzhou and Danyang. There is an error in the location where the 100-man killing was supposed to begin, and the descriptions are abstract and ambiguous as well. It cannot be trusted at all. (p. 118)

(II) Defamation against the Sub-Lieutenants Led to a Decline in the Social Evaluation of Bereaved Family Members (遺族の社会的評価の低下) In addition to the allegation that the 100-man killing contest was fabrication created by the Nichinichi Shimbun correspondents, the plaintiffs asserted that in such publications as Travels in China, Road to Nanjing, and 13 lies by the deniers of the Nanking Massacre, Katsuichi Honda, publisher Kashiwa Shobo, and Asahi revealed the names of Sub-lieutenant Mukai and Sub-lieutenant Noda, described them as brutal human beings slaughtering prisoners of war with almost no verification, and spread the information. It was not only defamatory to the two sub-lieutenants, but

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also led to the deterioration of social environment for the family members of the two sub-lieutenants, caused them emotional sufferings and infringed upon their affections of love and adoration for the two sub-lieutenants, who were their father and brother, as well as infringed upon their right to privacy. Consequently, it lowered the social evaluation of the plaintiffs, and it damaged their unalienable honor and reputation. (p. 112). (III) The Defendants Infringed upon Plaintiffs’ Affection of Love and Adoration (敬愛追慕の情) for the Two Sub-Lieutenants Even if each book in this case was only defamatory to both sub-lieutenants and did not constitute damage to the honor of the bereaved families, the plaintiffs claimed that defendant Honda, defendant Kashiwa Shobo and defendant Asahi, in each of those books, with the defamatory descriptions of the two sub-lieutenants as indicated previously, infringed upon, beyond the social limit of reasonable tolerance, the personal interests, such as the affection of love and adoration the plaintiffs have toward the sub-lieutenants. (ibid). (IV) The Defendants Infringed upon Plaintiffs’ Right to Privacy The right to privacy is a privilege that a person’s private life is not invaded by others, that a person does not want others to know the facts of his/her private life, and a right not to disclose information. That the plaintiffs’ father or brother were executed as war criminals in the Nanjing Military Tribunal is a matter of plaintiffs’ privacy. Defendant Honda, defendant Kashiwa Shobo and defendant Asahi presumptuously published this fact in each of the books in this case and violated the plaintiffs’ right to privacy. (ibid).

14.3.2  Defendants’ Arguments (被告の主張) In response to the plaintiffs’ allegations, the defendants voiced their rebuttals with arguments based on the evidence they had collected. There were four focal points of argument in court, namely, (a) whether the 100-man killing contest truly occurred; (b) whether the two sub-lieutenants killed enemy soldiers in combat slaughtering surrendered Chinese soldiers and civilians during the 100-man killing contest; (c) whether the defendants inflicted defamation damages on the sub-lieutenants and the plaintiffs; (d) whether the defendants infringed upon the plaintiffs’ affection of love and adoration toward the two sub-lieutenants and plaintiffs’ right to privacy. (I) The Arguments Regarding the Existence of the 100-Man Killing Contest One. Defendant Katsuichi Honda argued that the evidence concerning the 100-man killing contest as reported by The Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun is clear as follows: (a) The Nichinichi Shimbun reported the killing contest in four installments from November 30 to December 13, 1937. The reports were authored by four corre-

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spondents: Asami, Mitsumoto, Yasuda, and Suzuki. During the inquiry sessions at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, as well as in other writings thereafter both Asami and Suzuki indicated that they had interviewed the two sub-lieutenants and heard of the contest from the two. In addition, reporter Sato, who directly heard the two sub-lieutenants talk about the 100-man killing contest, recalled “During the interview, it was asked, ‘You said that you have killed such a number of people, but who would keep the count of the killings?’ and I heard the two sub-lieutenants say, ‘Each of us has an orderly and each keeps his own record.’ They truly said that.” It was unlikely that the two sub-­ lieutenants would offer false information to reporter Asami. All these provide facts and evidence to indicate that the two sub-lieutenants had the 100-man killing contest. (b) In addition to The Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun series coverage, the 100-man killing contest was reported in each of the following newspapers: The Osaka Mainichi Shimbun Kagoshima Edition on December 1, 1937, The Osaka Mainichi Shimbun Kagoshima Okinawa Edition on December 2, 1937, The Kagoshima Asahi Shimbun on December 16, 1937, The Kagoshima Shimbun on December 18, 1937, The Osaka Mainichi Shimbun Kagoshima Okinawa Edition on January 25, 1938, The Kagoshima Shimbun on March 21, 1938, The Kagoshima Asahi Shimbun on March 22, 1938, The Kagoshima Shimbun on March 26, 1938, and The Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun on May 19, 1939. Sub-lieutenant Noda admitted having the 100-man killing contest in a letter to his friend Sekirou Okamura along with the poem, “The Song of the Sharpness of the 100-Man-Killing Japanese Sword.” (The Osaka Mainichi Shimbun Kagoshima Okinawa Edition, January 25, 1938); after returning to Japan, when interviewed by a reporter, Noda made a statement admitting the 100-man killing contest (The Kagoshima Shimbun, March 21, 1938); Noda’s family member also admitted the 100-man killing contest in a statement (The Kagoshima Asahi Shimbun, March 22, 1938). These reports further confirmed the fact that the two sub-lieutenants were involved in the 100-man killing contest. (c) In 1937, Gosaburou Mochizuki served in the 11th Company under the Tomaya Battalion, and participated in the Nanjing campaign. In his book My China Incident, he described the two sub-lieutenants engaged in the 100-man killing contest. His description was detailed and faithful. If he was not the person who had personally observed the event, he would not be able to write it. (d) Akira Shishime published an article in the December 1971 issue of the journal China in which he recounted the content of the lecture given by Sub-lieutenant Noda when he listened as an elementary school pupil. According to his description, Noda admitted in his talk that he was involved in the 100-man killing contest. As Shishime was aiming for a soldier’s career, he was shocked by Noda’s story. Therefore, the talk left him a clear memory and the article’s content was detailed and written with certainty. (e) Neither of the sub-lieutenants denied in their wills that they participated in the 100-man killing contest. (pp. 119–120)

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In addition, defendant Asahi pointed out that in 1967, Sub-lieutenant Noda’s father Isema Noda (野田伊勢熊) contributed an article to the Repose of Souls, Issue 2 (鎮魂第二集), a publication of the Military Academy’s 49th class, in which Isema acknowledged the fact of the two sub-lieutenants’ 100-man killing contest after the Nanjing Military Tribunal trial. (p. 127). Two. The 100-Man Killing Contest was not Fabricated by Reporters. Defendant Asahi asserted that the 100-man killing contest reported by The Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun was a true event and the reports were based on what the sub-­ lieutenants had told the newspaper’s correspondents in interviews. (a) Reporter Asami personally conducted the interviews and wrote the reports. The sub-lieutenants actively offered information. Therefore, the reports’ contents were true. On June 15, 1946, during an inquiry session at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, when prosecutor Parkinson asked whether the third and fourth of The Nichinich Shimbun’s reports were true or false, Asami clearly indicated that they were true. Asami submitted an affidavit to the Nanjing Military Tribunal on December 10, 1947, stating, “What the two did was never atrocious actions against residents and prisoners of war etc.” and “The facts described in the reports were those I heard from the two on the right and wrote down.” An article in the July 29, 1972 issue of New Currents Weekly indicates that reporter Asami heard the stories from the sub-lieutenants. In “The new marching bugle is not loud enough (新型の進軍ラッパはあまり鳴らない),” which was included in The Conspiracy of Pen and published in September 1977, Asami stated that the two sub-lieutenants themselves talked about planning the 100-man killing contest, and afterwards the sub-lieutenants came to visit Asami, talking about the results of their killing contest. The interviews were described in detail. (p. 125) (b) Suzuki was the coauthor of The Nichinichi Shimbun’s fourth report, and together with Asami, he interviewed the two sub-lieutenants, who actively talked about the content of the report, which was true. On June 15, 1946, at the Far East Military Tribunal, when he was questioned by prosecutor Parkinson about the veracity of The Nichinichi Shimbun’s fourth report, he answered clearly that it was true. In the November 1971 issue of Maru, Suzuki published the article, “The Nanjing Tragedy I witnessed,” in which he indicated that he wrote down what he had heard from the two sub-lieutenants. In the article in the July 29 issue of New Currents Weekly, Suzuki stated that together with Asami, he met with the two sub-lieutenants at Purple Mountain and they recounted what they heard from the sub-lieutenants. In “The correspondent with troops at the time,” which was included in The Conspiracy of Pen and published in September 1977, Suzuki indicated specifically that he had heard the story directly from the two sub-lieutenants at Purple Mountain, but did not believe it was atrocious killing. In addition, he stated that he had heard the story from the two sublieutenants in the book Testimonies by 48 Japanese about “the Nanjing

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Incident”(「南京事件」日本人48人の証言), which was published by rightwing writer Kenichi Ara (pp. 125–126) (c) Consistently, Sato said when he took the photo of the two sub-lieutenants, which appeared with The Nichinichi Shimbun’s fourth report, he heard the sub-­ lieutenants talk about their 100-man killing contest. Sato indicated in the article in the July 29, 1972 issue of New Currents Weekly that he heard the two sub-­ lieutenants inform Asami of the progress of the 100-man killing contest. Reporter Asami took notes of what the two sub-lieutenants said, regarding how to count the number for the 100-man killing contest: “If so, I will understand the story,” thus he was convinced. In “Following the troops on foot,” which was included in the collection, The Nanjing Campaign History Related Source Materials, Vol. II, published in December 1993, Sato further described that he had heard the two sub-lieutenants actively talk with reporter Asami about the 100-man killing contest. Later he ran into Asami again before entering Nanjing, and learned that Asami continued to interview and collect material for the 100-­ man killing contest. In addition, Sato testified in this court that he heard the sub-lieutenants and reporter Asami talk about the 100-man killing contest. (p. 126) Three. Sub-Lieutenant Mukai was not Injured in December 1937. Defendant Honda refuted the plaintiffs’ claim that Mukai was injured at Danyang. In the court of the Nanjing Military Tribunal, the two sub-lieutenants claimed that Noda ceased to engage in combat operations east of Qilin Gate and did not enter Nanjing, while Mukai was wounded in combat at Danyang and was taken in by the medical squad. However, as indicated earlier, Noda had talked about the 100-man killing contest in a detailed manner. The Nanjing campaign historical records showed that the Tomaya Battalion participated in the Nanjing campaign. Regarding Mukai, there was no description of Mukai’s injury in the march record kept by Kenehei Tanaka (田中金平), who was one of Mukai’s immediate subordinates serving in the 3rd infantry artillery platoon of the Tomaya Battalion. In addition, in an article published by The Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun on May 19, 1939, Mukai himself acknowledged that he had not been injured. The sub-lieutenants’ statements could not be trusted because they were contrary to the objective records and testimonies. (pp. 120–121). Defendant Asahi provided more details: Kenehei Tanaka, who served in the 3rd infantry artillery platoon of the Tomaya Battalion, was a direct subordinate to Sub-lieutenant Mukai. My Nostalgia for the Combat Experiences (我が戦塵の懐古録), which was published by the Nine Artilleries Gathering (九砲の集い), the Fellow Soldiers Association (戦友会), of the Artillery Company, the 9th Infantry Regiment of the 16th Infantry Division, contains “The 3rd Infantry Artillery Platoon (第三歩兵砲小隊は斯く戦う)” in which Tanaka kept a detailed account of the 3rd Infantry Artillery Platoon’s marching record. Although there are descriptions of those who died or were injured in combat, there is no description that Sub-lieutenant Mukai, who was the platoon commander, was injured in combat at Danyang and was taken in by the medical squad.

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It is unthinkable that the direct platoon commander left the front line and there is no such description. That Sub-lieutenant Mukai being injured in a battle at Danyang, being taken in by the medical squad, Sub-lieutenant Mukai’s excuse statement at the Nanjing Military Tribunal, and the injury certificate submitted by Battalion Commander Tomaya are not considered to be totally true statements. (p. 128)

Four. Issues Concerning the Strength of Japanese Swords. Defendant Honda also challenged the plaintiffs’ statement that the strength of Japanese swords was not strong enough to kill dozens of people. (II) Killings in Combat vs. Slaughtering POWs and Noncombatants Defendant Honda asserted, It is obvious that the two sub-lieutenants carried out the 100-man killing contest not only in combat but also in killing surrendered soldiers, prisoners of war and farmers. (a) According to Gosaburou Mochizuki’s My China Incident, Sub-lieutenant Noda murdered any Chinese he found during the march. “Killing like this increasingly escalated. Whenever they saw Chinese men, Noda and Mukai would vie with one another, waving their swords.” According to the previously mentioned article by Akira Shishime, Sub-lieutenant Noda admitted that they made the surrendered soldiers and prisoners of war “line up before striking them down with swords one by one to the end of the line.” (b) Tomio Hora, former professor at Waseda University (早稲田大学) conducted a detailed critical study on the source materials and thought that the 100-man killing contest was in fact a competition of slaughtering prisoners of war. Masatoshi Tanaka (田中正俊), former professor of the University of Tokyo also made an empirical observation based on the objective data, and indicated that almost all those who were killed in the 100-man killing contest were people who were not armed. Akira Suzuki, who wrote The Illusion of The Nanjing Massacre, said that there was the possibility that the 100-man killing contest was killing prisoners of war. Professor Ikuhiko Hata (秦郁彦) of Takushoku University (拓殖 大学) also made his judgment that the 100-man killing contest “does not seem to be a story occurring in combat.” During the Nanjing campaign in 1937, it was commonplace phenomenon that Japanese troops committed plundering, raping, arson, and killing prisoners of war and civilians, … (p.121)

(III) Issues about the Defamation Damage to the Two Sub-Lieutenants Leading to the Deterioration of Plaintiffs’ Social Environment Defendant Honda asserted: Regarding the defamation against the dead themselves, it should be denied according to the principles and content of the law concerning defamation. Distortion of major facts is the requirement to decide whether the defamation against the dead becomes defamation against the plaintiffs. It is clear that the main facts of “the 100-man killing contest” and “murdering prisoners of war and those who were not armed” are true as described in section エ. (p. 118)

Defendant Mainichi, the successor to The Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun and The Osaka Mainichi Shimbun, made a statement concerning The Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun reports of 1937. Whether or not The Nichinichi Shimbun reports in this case caused defamation toward the two sub-lieutenants should be judged on the basis of the reading criterion and ordinary

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attention of the general readers and should be judged on the basis of the reading criterion of the time when the reports were published, These reports were under the circumstance of the war between two countries during the Sino-Japanese War about the two sub-lieutenants of the Japanese army, who attacked at the positions and pillboxes held by the regular troops of the enemy country. Media reported that a large number of enemy soldiers were killed and the news concerning the fighting between the regular forces. It was reported that those soldiers, who had been defeated, would not be killed, but there was no report about slaughtering non-combatants. In the war actions launched by the state powers, there was a lot of news coverage about killing the enemy country’s regular troops. The combat operations conducted by the Japanese troops at that time greatly increased the social evaluation of the two sub-lieutenants, rather than damaged their reputation. (pp. 132–133)

Defendant Asahi disputed plaintiffs’ accusation in terms of its publications, Travels in China and The Road to Nanjing. Asahi argued: Whether a report reveals facts or expresses opinions or comments properly should be judged on the basis of ordinary attention and reading criterion of the general readers. In Travels in China since the 16th printing, The Collection of Katsuichi Honda, Vol. 14, Travels in China, The Road to Nanjing, and The Collection of Katsuichi Honda, Vol. 23, The Road to Nanjing, two sub-lieutenants are anonymously mentioned as “M” and “N” and neither of the sub-lieutenants’ real names are revealed. Therefore, the readers would not recognize “M” and “N” as the two sub-lieutenants. Furthermore, since they cannot recognize the plaintiffs as the bereaved family members of “M” and “N,” defamation against the two sub-lieutenants and the plaintiffs cannot be established. Even though the above-mentioned Travels in China and The Road to Nanjing reveal that “the 100-man killing” carried out by “Sub-lieutenant M” and “Sub-lieutenant N” was a competition to slaughter prisoners of war, “the 100-man killing” was the war action of combatants in 1937 during the Sino-Japanese War, more than 60 years ago. The bereaved family members are unlikely to be held responsible or accused, and neither defamation damage is caused to the plaintiffs who are the bereaved family members of the two sub-­ lieutenants. (p. 123)

(IV) Infringement of Plaintiffs’ Affection of Love and Adoration toward the Two Sub-Lieutenants and of Plaintiffs’ Right to Privacy Defendant Kashiwa Shobo argued that the affection of love and adoration the plaintiffs have toward the two sub-lieutenants was not infringed upon. The affection of love and adoration the bereaved family members have is strongest immediately after the person’s death, and thereafter it will be alleviated with the passage of time. The facts about the dead are to strengthen the character of historical facts over time. Regarding such historical facts, it is necessary to consider that historical exploration with historical evidence etc., is dominated by the freedom of expressive activities for that purpose. The above-mentioned work was published 52 years after the death of the two sub-lieutenants. Its purpose and content are solely for historical exploration by demonstrating historical evidence, and it does not illegally infringe upon the affections of love and adoration the plaintiffs have for the two sub-lieutenants. (p. 122). As far as the infringement of plaintiffs’ right to privacy, defendant Kashiwa Shobo indicated:

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Plaintiffs alleged that 13 Lies of the Nanjing Massacre Deniers with the statement “Plaintiffs are bereaved family members of Sub-lieutenants “M” and “N,” who were executed by the Nanjing Military Tribunal” led to the infringement of plaintiffs’ privacy rights. There is no room for infringing the privacy of the plaintiffs because there is not a single word mentioned to identify the plaintiffs as the survivors of the sub-lieutenants “M” and “N.” (pp. 122–123)

Defendant Asahi also made a statement concerning the infringement of plaintiffs’ right to privacy: The plaintiffs alleged that plaintiffs’ father and brother were executed as war criminals in Nanjing on the grounds of holding “the 100-man killing contest” was a matter belonging to plaintiff's privacy, whereas, in Travels in China and some of the publications mentioned above, the two sub-lieutenants are anonymously mentioned as “M” and “N” in lieu of their real names, and there is no mention of their relationship with the plaintiffs at all. There is no way for general readers to recognize the matter belonging to plaintiff's privacy. By doing so, it is impossible to infringe the privacy rights of plaintiffs by what is stated in Travels in China and The Road to Nanking. (p. 124)

14.3.3  Court Decision On August 23, 2005, Akio Doi (土肥章大), a judge of the Tokyo District Court, handed down the court decision in which he dismissed the plaintiffs’ litigation requests and ruled that the plaintiffs were to cover all legal fees involved in the trial. In a detailed and balanced manner, the court decision analyzes all the evidence and arguments provided by both parties. Concerning The Nichinichi Shimbun report series and other major facts about the 100-man killing contest, the court decision stipulates: So, to examine The Nichinichi Shimbun reports published between November 30, and December 13, 1937, the background of the Nanjing campaign at the time, over-enthusiastic news covering the Nanjing campaign, and the possibility of military censorship, the above-­ mentioned series of reports, in general, were published for the sake of raising the fighting morale of the nation’s citizens. The possibility that the reports were published with the content including false information and exaggeration is also sufficiently considered. Then, as was acknowledged previously, judging from Kenehei Tanaka’s march record and more detailed notes by Souichirou Inukai (犬飼総一郎), the Toyama Battalion did advance to the vicinity of Jurong, but there was a possibility that the battalion did not enter Jurong. Kiyoharu Miyamura (宮村喜代治), who had been Sub-lieutenant Mukai’s subordinate for about one year since 1940, said that the story of the 100-man killing contest was a joke, which was declared to become an article. Furthermore, in light of the actual situation of the Nanjing campaign, the positions of the two sub-lieutenants in the Toyama Battalion, Japanese swords’ strength and ability to kill, whether the two sub-lieutenants carried out “the 100-man killing contest” according to the content of The Nichinichi Shimbun reports, it is not without doubt. (pp. 190–191)

Then, the court decision makes three significant points regarding the fact that The Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun reports were based on the conversations between

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the two sub-lieutenants and newspaper correspondents, rather than the correspondents’ fabrication: However, according to the acknowledged facts, ① Reporter Sato, who took the photo in the fourth report of The Nichinichi Shimbun in this case, was not involved in writing The Nichinichi Shimbun report, but from the publication of the article in the July 29, 1972 issue of the New Currents Weekly until the time of his testimony in our court, he has consistently stated that he heard the two sub-lieutenants say that they would immediately begin “the 100-man killing contest.” In light that this statement is based on his memory according to the notes he had taken when he was with the troops, it is difficult to flatly deny its credibility. ② Both Asami and Suzuki, who dispatched The Nichinichi Shimbun report, from the time they were questioned by prosecutor Parkinson at the Far East Military Tribunal, they had said that they had never witnessed a scene of “the 100-man killing contest.” While acknowledging the fact that the content of the concerned report in The Nichinichi Shimbun was heard from the two sub-lieutenants, they consistently stated that the content of The Nichinichi Shimbun report was true. ③ Both sub-lieutenants themselves also said in their wills, because one of the two sub-lieutenants talked to a newspaper reporter, regardless of whether the content was a joke or not. When The Nichinichi Shimbun reports in this case were published, they showed what had been said. It is acknowledged that at least when both lieutenants talked to newspaper reporters, including reporter Asami, this was the opportunity for the reports about “the 100-man killing contest” to be created. (p. 191)

The court decision analyses the news reports issued in Kagoshima in which either Noda’s letter to a friend or his remarks in public lectures admitting the 100-­ man killing contest during his temporary return home were published: In addition, according to the previously acknowledged facts, Sub-lieutenant Noda’s letter to Sekirou Okamura was published in a report in The Osaka Mainichi Shimbun Kagoshima Okinawa Edition dated January 25, 1938. In that report, the article in which Sub-lieutenant Noda seemed to admit “the 100-man killing contest” was published. When Sub-lieutenant Noda temporarily returned to Japan in March of 1938, Kagoshima local newspapers and national newspapers’ Kagoshima regional editions featured Sub-lieutenant Noda as a warrior of “the 100-man killing contest,” and a comment made by Sub-lieutenant Noda admitting “the 100-man killing contest” was published. Sub-lieutenant Noda himself also admitted it in the lectures he had in Kagoshima. At least, Sub-lieutenant Noda made remarks to admit “the100-man killing contest” after The Nichinichi Shimbun’s reports were published. (ibid)

Concerning the issue of whether Sub-lieutenant Mukai was injured in combat at Danyang and was unable to participated in the battle at Purple Mountain, the court decision’s analysis goes as follows: Plaintiffs, however, argued that Sub-lieutenant Mukai was injured in combat at Danyang, that he was taken in by the medical squad and left the front line, and could not have participated in the battle at Purple Mountain. The defense statements made by the two sub-­ lieutenants at the Nanjing Military Tribunal and the certificate provided by Battalion Commander Toyama to the Nanjing Military Tribunal also made a statement to that effect. However, according to the above-mentioned acknowledged facts, the two sub-lieutenants’ defense statements and Battalion Commander Toyama’s certificate were submitted only to the Nanjing Military Tribunal, and in this respect, the objective evidence at the time of the Nanjing campaign should be submitted. If Sub-lieutenant Mukai was injured in a battle at Danyang and left his post, it should be described in the march record by Kenehei Tanaka, who was a direct subordinate to Sub-lieutenant Mukai. Despite that such a description

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could not be found, in Souichirou Inukai’s note, there was a description stating that he heard the story of Sub-lieutenant Mukai's injury, but the content was not specifically certain. It should be said that it is insufficient to acknowledge as fact that Sub-lieutenant Mukai was injured in combat at Danyang, left the frontline, and was unable to participate in the battle at Purple Mountain. (pp. 191–192)

With reasonable analysis, the court decision reaches the conclusion that the Toyama Battalion, in which the two sub-lieutenants had served, carried out operations in the vicinity of Purple Mountain during the Nanjing campaign in December 1937: Plaintiffs argued that the attack at Purple Mountain was in the area of the 33rd Infantry Regiment and that neither of the sub-lieutenants went to Purple Mountain. However, as acknowledged previously, the Toyama Battalion joined the Kusaba Brigade (草場旅団) as the pursuit team and acted as the vanguard corps. Although there were places unknown in the marching route, it was acknowledged that the 1st Battalion, the 9th Regiment, went on a rescue mission and at least carried out operations at the southern foot of Purple Moun-­ tain. It seemed that relatively intense fighting was carried out at the southern foot of Purple Mountain. There is not necessarily no error in The Nichinichi Shimbun’s fourth report about the location as “at the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum overlooking Purple Mountain.” It was acknowledged that the Toyama Battalion to which both sub-lieutenants belonged carried out operations in the vicinity of Purple Mountain. (p. 192)

The court decision also provides possible and feasible reasons why the International Military Tribunal for the Far East detained the two sub-lieutenants but did not prosecute them: Plaintiffs also said that Sub-lieutenant Mukai had been interrogated by US prosecutor Parkinson at the Tokyo Tribunal from 1946 to 1947 and that “the 100-man killing contest” was not prosecuted due to lack of evidence. However, there is no evidence to explain why Sub-lieutenant Mukai was not prosecuted. Prosecutor Parkinson told Sub-lieutenant Mukai, “There are many people in the United States who suffer from annoyance by newspaper reports,” though there is no objective evidence to support the said statement. The content of how the case was handled and the reasons of dealing with it in such a way remain unknown. Even if Sub-lieutenant Mukai was not prosecuted, judging from the fact that the Tokyo Tribunal tried only so-called Class-A war criminals, the act of Sub-lieutenant Mukai was considered not to be equivalent to that of a Class A war criminal. Just because it was not picked up in the Tokyo Trial, naturally it should be said that it is not regarded as a case not based on facts. (pp. 192–193)

Based on the analytical examination of a series of focal issues concerning whether The Nichinichi Shimbun reports about the 100-man killing contest are correspondents’ fabrication, including related evidences and arguments, the court decision concludes: According to what is stated above, at least it can be certain that The Nichinichi Shimbun reports concerned in this case are a series reports, which were written with the opportunity when two sub-lieutenants talked about “the 100-man killing contest” with news reporters, including reporter Asami. After the reports were published, Sub-lieutenant Noda was said to have made remarks admitting “the 100-man killing contest.” Therefore, although it cannot be said that there is no possibility that false information and exaggeration, concerning the marching routes and the detailed content of the killing contest, are included in the series reports, it is difficult to acknowledge that two sub-lieutenants’ “100-man killing contest” is the fabrication of newspaper correspondents not based on any facts. (p. 193)

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The court decision also discusses the issue of slaughtering prisoners of war during “the 100-man killing contest.” It first analyzes the statement Akira Shishime published in a monthly magazine: While in elementary school, Akira Shishime listened to Sub-lieutenant Noda’s lecture in which he heard Sub-lieutenant Noda say that during “the 100-man killing contest,” most of those killed were prisoners of war rather than opponents in hand-to-hand fighting. It is acknowledged that he stated in the monthly magazine that most of “the 100-man killing” by Sub-lieutenant Noda was slaughtering prisoners of war. However, due to the fact that it was during elementary school that Akira Shishime heard the Sub-lieutenant Noda’s talk, and then published the story in the monthly magazine after over 30 years had elapsed, it does not mean there is no problem about whether his memory is accurate. (ibid)

In addition, the court decision provides analytical comments about Gosaburou Mochizuki’s wartime memoir, in which he stated that Noda and Mukai vied with one another to kill farmers with swords in their 100-man killing contest: In addition, at that time, Sub-lieutenant Noda, as a drillmaster, served together with Mr. Gosaburou Mochizuki who, according to the above-mentiond 2 (1) ナ (コ), described the situation that the 100-man killing contest Sub-lieutenant Noda and Sub-lieutenant Mukai were engaged in had already escalated to the extent that they vied with one another to kill farmers. It does not matter whether it can be decided as true or false information, but there is no objective material which flatly proves it as false. (p. 194)

After providing a series of analytical statements, the court decision concludes: “In light of these points, it cannot be said that the content of the above-mentioned Akira Shishime’s written account to be totally false.” (ibid). Regarding whether “the 100-man killing contest” is a true event or a fabricated story, the court decision, on one hand, provides the following statement: “In addition, concerning the truth of the story of ‘the 100-man killing contest,’ positive and negative opinions have intertwined up to the present, including those acknowledged documents mentioned above in 2 (1) ト, and various works. It is considered that the evaluation of it as a historical fact is still undecided.” On the other hand, it stipulates, “In light of the above points, it is insufficient to acknowledge the facts as revealed in this case to be apparently false.” (ibid). As far as the plaintiffs’ allegation concerning the defamation damage against the two sub-lieutenants is concerned, the court decision denies the allegation with legal interpretations: However, it should be understood that moral rights such as honor are so-called personal exclusive rights. A person loses his/her ability to possess the right upon the person’s death. In the same manner, the above-mentioned moral rights disappear as well. With respect to the honor of the deceased, it is reasonable to assume that the honor and the love of the deceased are legally protected only when the practical law acknowledges the necessity of its legal protection. In addition, in private law, neither is there a general rule to acknowledge that the bereaved family members or heirs are permitted to establish the rights of the same content with respect to the moral rights such as honor, which the deceased had possessed before his/her death, nor does there exist a provision to recognize that the bereaved family members or heirs can enjoy and exercise the moral rights of the deceased. Therefore, since the act of damaging the honor and the love of the deceased does not constitute an independent infringement of moral rights under private law, the plaintiffs’

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allegation that both sub-lieutenants’ honor was damaged cannot be judged as such and cannot be adopted. (pp 187–188)

To the plaintiffs’ claim that their affection of love and adoration toward the two sub-lieutenants have been infringed, the court decision responds in a statement with a philosophical touch: Because the affection of love and adoration the bereaved family members have toward the deceased is a kind of personal moral interest and should be protected on certain occasions, the infringement of affection may constitute an unlawful action on some occasions. However, in general, it is acknowledged that the affection of love and adoration the bereaved family members have toward the deceased appears to be strongest immediately after the death and then gradually decreases with the passage of time. On the other hand, it can be said that the facts concerning the deceased can be in transition to be historical facts as time elapses. Historical facts often become the subject of controversy in terms of their existence and content, and they possess the characteristic that they can be given various evaluations according to different periods of time. Therein appears a matter concerning a decline in the social evaluation of the deceased, which, after a considerable length of years, is taken up as a historical fact on some occasions. However, it is necessary to understand that careful consideration should be given to the freedom of exploring historical facts and freedom of expression. Therefore, regarding the expressive actions concerning such historical facts, the expressive actions should not be evaluated as unlawful except on the occasion that, despites the fact that the expressive actions’ important part of the basic facts or commentary concerning the decline in social evaluation which the deceased had before death can be instantly seen as apparently false, they insist on publicizing them, and moreover, comprehensively considering various issues such as the content of the infringed interests, the problems of the content and characteristic of the expression, and the trend of controversy over it, the expressive actions on the occasion are deemed detrimental to the affection of love and adoration the bereaved family members have to such an extent that they are difficult to tolerate. (pp. 188–189)

The court decision provides a straightforward statement concerning the plaintiffs’ allegation that their right to privacy has been infringed: Plaintiffs argue that the plaintiffs’ inherent honor is damaged and plaintiffs’ privacy rights have been infringed by the description in the books concerned in this case. However, as the acknowledged facts stated above, the books in this case do not mention any plaintiffs’ living conditions, experiences, behaviors, etc. so it is not acknowledged that plaintiffs’ honor and privacy rights are violated. Therefore, plaintiffs’ allegations on this point cannot be adopted. (p. 188)

Dissatisfied with the ruling of the Tokyo District Court, on September 5, 2005, the plaintiffs appealed to the Tokyo High Court. In the appeal statement, the plaintiffs somewhat revised their strategy. They admitted that Noda and Mukai had talked about “the 100-man killing contest” with correspondents, including reporter Asami. However, they argued that talking about the killing contest was not the same as actually enacting it. The plaintiffs refuted the decision of the Tokyo District Court concerning this issue with the following arguments: (1) It is a irrefutable fact that two sub-lieutenants were featured as heroes in propaganda, but there is no evidence to prove that “the 100-man killing contest” existed as an actual occurrence; (2) Mukai was injured and it was impossible for

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him to participate in the combat actions at Purple Mountain; and (3) Gosaburou Mochizuki’s book and the article written by Akira Shishime are unreliable evidence. In addition, they argued that the alibi certificate, submitted by Battalion Commander Toyama, which vouches for Mukai’s injury, is a document. They also emphasized the infeasibility of “the 100-man killing contest” due to the frailty of Japanese swords.26 Yoshinori Ishikawa (石川善則), the presiding judge of Tokyo High Court, rejected the case on May 24, 2006. Concerning the issue of whether “the 100-man killing contest” as reported by The Nichinichi Shimbun series is a historical fact, the decision of the Tokyo High Court stipulates with a dualistic approach: In light of the actual situation of the Nanjing campaign, the missions the two sub-­lieutenants had in their troops, the strength of Japanese swords and their practical usefulness as a fighting weapon in modern warfare, the content and substance of “the 100-man killing contest” in The Nichinichi Shimbun reports concerned in this case, as well as the number of killings, it is hard to believe the content of the reports, and it is reasonable to think that the fighting result of “the 100-man killing” in the reports is doubtable. However, even if the content of the contest is different from the content and substance of The Nichinichi Shimbun reports, in light of the following points that the two sub-lieutenants served in the troops when the Nanjing campaign was in progress, and at that time, “the 100-­man killing contest” did not appear to be an unthinkable contest, it is impossible to deny the fact of the contest itself. Therefore, it should be said that it cannot be acknowledged that “the 100-man killing contest” in The Nichinichi Shimbun reports is totally false fabrication by news correspondents.27

The Tokyo High Court decision approaches the defamation issue with interpretations and analysis of legal concepts and documents: In light of the provisions of the criminal law and the copyright law, judging from the moral ideas of the legislative foundation, it cannot be denied that a person’s honor should be protected even after death. However, it is obvious that defending a person’s dignity and considering the deceased as an agent of honor and other things cannot acknowledge the deceased as the subjectivity of rights, neither can it recognize the legal moral rights of the deceased. In terms of unlawful behaviors, it is impossible to acknowledge that there exist practical law regulations that deny the personal exclusivity concerning the honor and moral rights the deceased had before death. It is also impossible to acknowledge that there is a provision stipulating that the family members and other relatives of the deceased have the claim right to be exercised. Then, for the dead, even if deceased persons were to exist in the world, even if actions that infringe their honor were done, it cannot be said that it constitutes an illegal action that violates the moral rights of the deceased under the Tort Law. There is no reason to judge the remaining points of the plaintiffs’ claim that the honor of both sub-lieutenants is damaged by the description in each of the books concerned in this case. (pp. 251–252)

According to the Tokyo High Court decision, the descriptions in the books the defendants authored and published, neither lowered the plaintiffs’ social status or social evaluation, nor infringed upon the plaintiffs’ privacy rights: Since the description in each of the books concerned in this case does not mention anything about the children and younger sister of the two sub-lieutenants, it is impossible for plain-

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tiffs to be recognized as the children or younger sister of the two lieutenants by the description of each of the books in this case, or to be able to lower their social position, even though those who know the plaintiffs as the children and younger sister of the ­sub-­lieutenants may personally point to the plaintiffs as something interesting. Because of that, the description in each of the books concerned in this case cannot damage the inherent honor of the plaintiffs or violate their privacy right. (p. 252)

Concerning the plaintiffs’ allegation that their affection of love and adoration toward the two sub-lieutenants was infringed upon by the defendants’ books and writings, the Tokyo High Court decision points out that “the 100-man killing contest” was published and made widely known by others long before the defendants’ publications appeared in print in 1971. According to the above acknowledged facts, regarding “the 100-man killing contest” in Japanese domestic newspaper reports such as those of The Nichinichi Shimbun and The Osaka Mainichi Shimbun Kagoshima and Okinawa Edition dated December 1, 1937, the reports in The Japan Advertiser, and reports of Japanese atrocities by Timperley. On the other hand, for both sub-lieutenants, there are facts about their death sentence announced at the Nanjing Military Tribunal and the facts of their executions at Nanjing Yuhua Terrace. It is inevitable that these reports and material about the facts, real images of the behaviors of the two sub-lieutenants before their death are taken from various viewpoints as the object of the exploration for historical facts. And also five years before the report “The contest of the two Sub-lieutenants,” authored by dependant Honda, was published in newspaper, The Asahi Shimbun, in 1971, Minoru Omori (大森実)’s description of “the Nanjing 100-man killing” in his book Tiananmen in Flames (天安門炎上す) (1966) was seen much earlier. (pp. 252–253)

The court decision then stipulates the preconditions that lead to the infringe-­ ment of the affection of love and adoration toward the deceased. (ibid.) After receiving the Tokyo High Court decision, on June 6, 2006, the plaintiffs filed an appeal to the Japanese Supreme Court. Isao Imai (今井功), a Supreme Court judge, dismissed the case on December 22, 2006,28 maintaining the rulings by the Tokyo District Court and the Tokyo High Court. This brought the 100-man killing lawsuits to an end, though controversies over the killing contest would endure for years to come.

Notes 1. “百人斬り競争!両少尉、早くも八十人 (The 100-man killing contest! Two sub-lieutenants already kill 80),” Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun, November 30, 1937, p. 11. 2. The original here is “十里,” meaning “10里.” One Japanese 里 equals to 3.927 km. “十里” is about 40 km. The distance between Changzhou and Danyang is 44 km. 3. Tonichi Daimai (東日大毎) is the short form for Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun (東京日日新聞) and Osaka Mainichi Shimbun (大阪每日新聞). 4. “急ピッチに躍進 百人斬り競争の経過 (Advance swiftly; The 100-man killing contest),” Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun, December 4, 1937, p. 11. 5. “89–78 〝百人斬り〟大接戦 勇壮!向井、野田両少尉 (89–78, “The 100-man killing contest,” a great fighting contest! Heroic Sub-Lieutenants Mukai and Noda!),” Tokyo Nichinichi

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Shimbun, December 6, 1937, p. 7. 6. “百人斬り〝超記録〟向井 106–105 野田/両少尉さらに延長戦 (The 100-man killing contest exceeds goal, Mukai 106, Noda 105, Two sub-lieutenants extend the contest),” Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun, December 13, 1937, p. 11. 7. “百人斬り”波平”二百本の中から選んだ銘刀 田代村出身野田毅少尉 (“Namidaira Sword” used in the 100-man killing contest is chosen out of the 200 great swords: Sub-lieutenant Tsuyoshi Noda is a Tashiro Village native), 8. “南京攻略の華百人斬り再出發 背に浴びた太刀提げて 鹿児島出身の若武者野田毅少 尉 (Young warrior Sub-lieutenant Tsuyoshi Nada, a Tashiro vilage native, who is involved in the gloeious 100-man killing contest, pulls out the sword from his back and once again sets out),” 鹿児島朝日新聞 (Kagoshima Asahi Shimbun), December 16, 1937, cited from KCT, pp. 147–148. 9. “話題の快男子 百人斬り名選手 野田穀少尉 日本人たる無上の光榮に感激 肝属郡田 代村出身 (Pleasant man of the topic, well-known participant of the 100-man killing contest, Sub-lieutenant Tsuyoshi Noda, about whom the Japanese people feel extremely honored and grateful, is from Tashiro village, Kimostsuki County), 10. “二百五十三人を斩り, 今度千人斩り発愿 (Killing 253 people with swords, and now making a pledge to kill 1000),” Osaka Mainichi Shimbun Kagoshima and Okinawa Edition, January 25, 1938, p. 3. 11. “袈裟がけ・唐竹割-突つ伏せ-唸れる銘刀の凄味 三百七十四人を斬つた戰場の花形 (A star on the battlefield, wearing a kasaya, with sword cuts in half an enemy, who falls with a loud sound; He uses the sword, which sends out chilly light, to kill 374),” Kagoshima Shimbun, March 21, 1938, cited from KCT, p. 150. 12. “斬りも斬ったり敵兵三百七十四人 剛勇野田少尉突如加世田に凱旋 (Killing 374 enemy soldiers with sword, incredibly brave Sub-lieutenant Noda unexpectedly returns in glory to Kaseda),” Kagoshima Asahi Shimbun, March 22, 1938, cited from KCT, pp. 150–151. 13. “百人斬の野田少尉神刀館で講演 (Sub-lieutenant Noda of the 100-man killing contest gives a speech at Shinto Institute),” Osaka Mainichi Shimbun Kagoshima and Okinawa Edition, March 26, 1938, cited from KCT, p. 151. 14. “戦死した競争相手に「孫六」 手向けの斬れ味 向井中尉漢水戰線にあり (Offer the killing record of “Seki-no-Magoroku Sword” as a tribute to the contest rival who was killed in combat; Lieutenant Mukai at the front along the Han River),” Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun, May 19, 1938, p. 7. 15. Harold J. Timperley, What War Means: The Japanese Terror in China, p.284. 16. “How Lieutenants Mukai and Noda Exceeded Murder Quotas,” The China Weekly Review, 83, no. 5 (January 1, 1938): 115. 17. “紫金山下殺人竸賽 敵兵慘絕人寰 (Killing contest under Purple Mountain; Unparallel cruelty of enemy soldiers),” Shenbao, January 25, 1938, p. 2. The content of the Xinhua Daily report is mainly the same as that of Shenbao. “南京紫金山殺人竸賽 寇軍暴行慘絕人寰 (Killing contest at Nanjing Purple Mountain; Unparallel cruelty of enemy troops’ atrocities),” Xinhua Daily, January 25, 1938, p. 2. 18. 鈴木二郎 (Jiro Suzuki ), “私はあの「南京の悲劇」を目撃した (I witnessed that “Nanjing tragedy”),”丸 (Maru), Vol. 24, No. 1 (November 1971), pp. 96-97. 19. 志志目彰 (Akira Shishime), “日中戦争の追憶 (A Recollection of Sino-Japanese War),” 中 國 (China), December 1971, p. 43. 20. “「南京百人斬り」の‘虚報’で死刑戦犯を見殺しにした記者が今や日中かけ橋の花 形 (The reporter, whose ‘false reports’ of the ‘100-man killing contest’ resulted in death sentences for war criminals, would not rescue them from death row, and now is a star of the Sino-Japanese relations),” 週刊新潮 (New Currents Weekly), July 29, 1972, p. 34. 21. Jiro Suzuki, “当時の従軍記者として (The correspondent with troops at the time),” in ペン

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22. 23. 24.

25. 26.

27. 28.

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の陰謀 (The conspiracy of pen), ed. by Katsuichi Honda, Tokyo: 潮出版社 (Ushio Shuppansha), 1977, p. 356. 浅海一男 (Kazuo Asami), “新型の進軍ラッパはあまり鳴らない (The new marching bugle is not loud enough),” in ペンの陰謀 (The Conspiracy of Pen), pp. 340–347. 佐藤振壽 (Shinju Sato), “Following the troops on foot,” in NBSM2, p. 574. 望月五三郎 (Gosaburou Mochizuki), 私の支那事变 (My China Incident), 私家版 (private edition), 1985, pp. 43–45. An except was published under the title, “南京・「百人斬り競 争」は農民虐殺だった—望月五三郎の手記 (Nanjing: ‘The 100-man killing contest’ is slaughter of farmers — Notes by Gosaburou Mochizuki),” in 中帰連:戦争の真実を語り継 ぐ (Chūkiren: The true descriptions of war), no. 30 (Sept. 2004): 47–48. “判决 (Court Decision),” August 23, 2005, in KCT, p. 113. 渡辺春已 (Harumi Watanabe), “「百人斬り」裁判の争点と本多側の主張 (The argument points of “the 100-man killing” and the statement by Honda’s side),” in 本多勝一 (Katsuichi Honda), 星徹 (Tōru Hoshi), and 渡辺春已 (Harumi Watanabe), 南京大虐殺と「 百人斬り競争」の全貌 (The Overall View of the Nanjing Massacre and “the 100-Man Killing Contest”), Tokyo: 金曜日 (Kin’yōbi), 2009, pp. 65–66. “判决 (Court Decision),” May 24, 2006, in KCT, pp. 253–254. “棄却の通知 (Notice of Dismissal),” December 22, 2006, in KCT, p. 278.

Bibliography

Archival Sources American Board Commission Foreign Missions Files, Harvard Houghton Library. China Mission Files, Special Collection, Yale Divinity School Library. China Missionary Files, Harvard Yen-ching Library. Court Papers, Journal, Exhibits, and Judgments of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, RG 238, the National Archives II, College Park, MD. Diplomatic dispatches, reports, and documents, Department of State Central Decimal Files, 1930– 1939, RG 59, the National Archives II, College Park, MD. Diplomatic telegrams and documents, FO371, Foreign Office, Political Departments, General Correspondence, 1906–1960, Public Record Office, Kew, London. Foreign Missionary Files, Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, PA. Peking I, Politisches Archiv, Auswärtiges Amt, Berlin. Peking II, Politisches Archiv, Auswärtiges Amt, Berlin. Missionary Files, Burke Library, Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University. Missionary Files, Disciples of Christ Historical Society Library, Nashville, TN. Missionary Files: Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Missionary Correspondence, 1897–1940, Roll 11, Scholarly Resources Inc., Wilmington, DE. Nanking Embassy Archives, 1938, Diplomatic Posts, China, Record Group 84, the National Archives II, College Park, MD. Yangtze Records. (1938). Records of admiralty. London: Public Record Office.

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Index

A Abend, Hallett, 298, 301, 308 Accounts by U.S. & UK journalists Durdin, Frank Tillman, 35, 45, 254–255, 291, 294–297, 304, 309, 368, 474, 490, 495, 505 McDaniel, Charles Yates, 46, 254–255, 291, 294, 340, 495, 499 Menken, Arthur von Briesen, 45, 146, 254, 255, 291, 340, 495 Smith, Leslie C., 39, 46, 61, 87, 254–255, 291, 297–298, 344, 359, 495, 499 Steele, Archibald Trojan, 45, 254, 255, 263, 291–293, 359, 364, 495, 499 Adachi, Yoshimi (安達由己), 513 Aldridge, Clayson Wheeler, 146, 339 Allison Incident, 210–211, 311, 341 Allison, John Moore, 210–211, 278, 332 Amaya, Shojikiro, (天谷直次郎) 207, 347, 414, 487 Aphis, HMS, 346–347 Armstrong, Harold Thomas, 344–345 Asaka, Prince Yasuhiko (朝香宫鸠彦王), 414–415, 434, 442, 472 Atcheson, Jr., George, 283, 331, 339 B Bagua Island (八卦洲), 49, 51, 55, 400 Bai Chongxi (白崇禧), 349 Baoshan (寳山), 17, 21, 27 Bazi Bridge (八字橋), 18–19 Bee, HMS, 291, 332–333, 344–345, 347 Beidaying (北大營), 7 Beimaokou (白茆口), 24, 387

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 S. Lu, The 1937 – 1938 Nanjing Atrocities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9656-4

Bible Teacher’s Training School for Women (BTTS, 金陵女子神學院), 137, 274, 338 Bidder, Hans, 359, 364 Boxer Rebellion (義和團運動), 3–4, 15, 357 Boxer Protocol (辛丑條約), 4, 11 Brady, Richard Freeman, 149, 179, 340 Brown, Robert Ellsworth, 333 Bryan, Ferrebee Catherine, 340 C Cai Gongshi (蔡公時), 6, 415 Chen, Francis Fei Jen, (陳斐然), 302 Chen Guanlin (陳冠麟), 371, 512 Chen Qinghua (陳慶華), 309–311 Chen Wenshu (陳文書), 248 Cheng Langbo (程朗波), 79, 323 Chiang Kai-shek (蒋介石), 34–35, 37, 193, 303, 343, 349, 354, 413–414 China Import & Export Lumber Co. (祥泰木 行), 49, 147, 340 China Station Army (中國驻屯軍), 11, 415 Chizhi University (持誌大學), 18 Cooper, Charles Albert, 335 Chuanshakou (川沙口), 20–22, 26 Chunhua (淳化), 25, 34–35, 39, 74, 110, 113 Churchill, Winston Leonard Spencer 424 Craighill, Lloyd Rutherford 333 Cricket, HMS, 344–345 D Dachang (大場), 23–24, 33 Dajiaochang Airdrome (大校場機場), 240, 242

573

Index

574 Demchukdongrob, Prince (德王), 10 Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平), 491 Diplomatic documents American, 331–342 British, 343–349 German, 349–361 Dirksen, Herbert von, 349 Disposing of victim bodies by Chongshan Tang (Benevolence Society 崇 善堂), 69, 75, 384–387, 390, 450, 452, 487–488, 501, 506, 511–512, 519 Burial squad staff, 395 Burial statistical chart, 387–389, 395 Cui Jingui (崔金貴), 55, 385–386, 512 Zhou Yiyu (周一漁), 384, 386, 512, 519 Families, relatives, groups & individuals, 405–407 Chang Kaiyun (昌開運), 406, 510, 512 Chen Guoxing (陳國興), 107 Chen Xueli (陳學禮), 406 Liu Congtai (劉从泰), 407 Rui Fangyuan (芮芳缘), 114, 406, 510, 517 Shen Xi’en (沈錫恩), 104, 125, 405 Sheng Shizheng (盛世徵), 406, 510, 512 Wang Yan (王琰), 101 Yang Guangcai (楊廣才), 114, 406, 510, 513 Yang Henian (楊和年), 406 Ye Jiancheng (業鑒成), 407 Yu Yangjinhua (余楊金華), 99 Zhang Hongru (張鴻儒), 406, 510, 513 Zhao Kuiyuan (趙奎元), 119 Zhao Lishi (趙李氏), 407 Japanese troops, 365–370 Azuma, Shiro (東史郎), 366 Durdin, Frank Tillman, 368 Endo, Takaharu (遠藤高明), 214–215 Gong Yukun (龚玉昆), 369 Higashi, Takeo (東武夫), 224, 366 Kajitani, Kenrou (梶谷健郎), 368 Kaminishi, Yoshio (上西義雄), 366, 367 Meguro, Fukuharu (目黑福治), 216–217 Miyamoto, Seigo (宫本省吾), 54, 213–214 Okamoto, Kenzou (岡本健三), 367, 486

Sasaki, Motokatsu (佐々木元勝), 205, 237–240, 484 Shen Wenjun (沈文君), 57 Local governments, 402–405 Bi Zhengqing (畢正清), 403 Liu Lianxiang (劉連祥), 402–403 Shen Guisen (沈桂森), 403 Wang Kedi (王科第), 403 Xia Yuanzhi (夏元芝), 404 Xiao Caiyuan (萧財源), 404–405 Zheng Baohe (鄭寳和), 403 Other organizations, 401 Chen Jiawei (陳家偉), 401 Huang Yuexuan (黄月軒), 401 Liu Decai (劉德才), 401 Yu Shaozhang (于紹章), 401 Red Cross Society, 58, 81, 89, 101, 144, 370, 371, 390–401, 511, 512, 514, 517 Burial statistical chart, 399–400 Guo Zizhang (郭子章), 390 Lu Boheng (陸伯衡), 390 Red Swastika Society (紅卍字會), 48, 55, 58, 67–69, 71, 75, 88, 109, 114, 125, 139, 183, 187, 283–284, 356, 359, 370, 372, 374–383, 390, 404–407, 416, 418, 429, 431, 440, 450, 452, 487, 488, 501, 510–514 Burial squad staff, 372–373 Burial statistical chart, 375–383 Cui Jixuan (崔濟軒), 372 Gao Ruiyu (高瑞玉), 374 Guan Kaifu (管開福), 374 Li Shiyuan (李世原), 383 Ouyang Dulin (歐陽都麟), 372 Shi Huiyun (施惠雲), 374–375 Doihara, Kenji (土肥原賢二) 10 Donald, William Henry, 148, 348, 425 E East Hebei Anti-Communist Autonomous Council (冀東防共自治委員會), 10 Eight-Nation Alliance Expedition Forces (八 國聨軍), 3 Espy, James, 105, 135, 146, 151, 171, 335, 337–340, 455, 494 F First Sino-Japanese War (甲午戰争), 5 Fischer, Martin, 261

Index Flower Goddess Temple Huashen Miao (花神 廟), 114, 421, 454, 508, 510 Fujita, Susumu (藤田進), 414 Fukuda, Tokuyasu (福田笃泰), 147, 279, 429 Fukui, Kiyoshi (福井淳), 256–257, 342, 347, 355, 447 Funiu Hill (伏牛山), 34 G Gassie, Jr., Emile Peter, 331–332 Gale, Francis Clair, 254 Gao Guanwu (高冠吾), 110, 404 Gauss, Clarence Edward, 29, 249 Geopolitical change in East Asia Article 11 of San Francisco Peace Treaty, 465 Charter of IMTFE, 464 Far East Commission, 463 Circular No. 5, 463–464 Parole of war criminals, 463 USSR & China, 463–464 Yasukuni Shrine (靖國神社), 466 Ginling College (金陵女子文理學院), 56, 75, 100, 137–138, 143, 189, 195, 253, 272, 283, 284, 297, 301, 338–339, 353, 369–370, 390, 437, 519 Grew, Joseph Clark, 333, 487 Guandong Army (関東軍), 6–10 Gu Zhutong (顧祝同), 37, 349 Guanghua Gate (光華門), 34–36, 40, 105, 110, 114, 206, 225, 240–241, 318, 344, 478, 485 Günther, Karl, 355, 357, 360 Guo Qi (郭歧), 316 H Han Xianglin (韓湘琳), 248 Hanawa, Yoshitaka (花輪義敬), 357 Hangzhou Bay (杭州灣), 18, 24, 28, 206, 228, 486 Hansen, Johannes Morch, 146, 247, 340 He Yinging-Yoshijiro Umezu Agreement (何 梅協定), 9, 415 Hebei Chaha’er Political Council (冀察政務 委員會), 10 Heping Gate (和平門), 40, 207, 215, 219, 380, 391, 393, 481 Hirota, Koki (広田弘毅), 349–350, 425, 447–449, 451, 459 Hitler, Adolf, 259, 355 Holmes, Robert J, 148 Holt, Reginald Vesey, 352, 353

575 Homma, Masaharu (本间雅晴), 487 Hongo, Tadao (本郷忠夫), 210–211, 352, 355 Hongqiao Airdrome Incident, 16-17 Howe, Robert George, 343, 346, 347 Hsu, Shuhsi (徐淑希), 161, 251, 254, 340, 416, 452, 494, 504 Huanggutun (皇姑屯), 6 Hughes, James Joseph, 332 Hujuguan (虎踞關), 87, 90, 113 Hull, Cordell, 29, 105 100-man killing contest, vi, 32, 120, 310, 424, 468, 477, 479–482, 489–505, 507, 529–561 Debates in Japan in 1970s, 476–479 Gentlemen! & other writings, 480–481, 540 Honda’s “Travel in China” series & other writings, 476–477, 479 Jiang Genfu (姜根福), 474, 477, 480, 538 Media coverage in 1930s, 529–537 Memoirs of contemporaries, 537–545 Mochizuki, Gosaburou (望月五三郎), 544, 547–548, 550, 553, 558–559 Muguruma, Masajirō (六車政次郎), 533 Mukai, Takeshi (向井猛), 540 Mukai, Toshiaki (向井敏明), 32, 120, 310, 468, 469, 474, 481, 545–561 Noda, Isema (野田伊勢熊), 474, 491 Noda, Tsuyoshi (野田毅), 32, 120, 310, 468, 474, 479, 545–561 Okamura, Sekirou (中村碩郎), 550, 556 Tanaka, Kenehei (田中金平), 552, 555 Tanaka, Masatoshi (田中正俊), 553 Toyama, Takeo (冨山武雄), 540 Hürter, Alfred Mathias Peter, 345, 351, 357 I Idzumo (出雲號), 13 International Committee for Nanking Safety Zone, 94, 98, 119, 122, 124, 136, 138, 141, 146, 149, 154, 161, 220, 222, 247–286, 301, 307, 323, 338, 430, 494 International Import and Export Company, or Heji Company (和記洋行), 57, 59, 60, 68, 274, 333 International Military Tribunal for the Far East, 65, 80, 135, 163, 165, 207, 251, 257, 260, 273, 275, 286, 333, 335, 413–414, 416, 418, 422, 424–459, 463–466, 470, 475, 481, 483, 485, 493, 499, 504, 506, 508, 520, 538, 547, 550–551, 557

576 International Military Tribunal for the Far East (cont.) Judges Bernard, Henri (France), 425 Cramer, Myron Cady (US), 425 Higgins, John Patrick (US), 425 Jaranilla, Delfin J. (Philippines), 425 McDougall, Edward Stuart (Canada), 425 Mei Ju-ao (梅汝璈, China), 425 Northcroft, Erima Harvey (New Zealand), 425 Pal, Radhabinod R. (India), 425, 457 Patrick, William Donald (UK), 425 Röling, Bernard Victor (Netherlands), 425 Webb, William Flood (Australia, Tribunal President), 425, 457 Zaryanov, Ivan Michyevich (USSR), 425 Judgment, 457–459 Matsui, Iwane trial, 457–459 Summation of Defense, 453–456 Prosecution, 450–453 Witness testimonies of Defense Hidaka, Shinrokyro (日高信六郎), 441, 449 Iinma, Mamoru (飯沼守), 441 Ishii, Itaro (石射猪太郎), 441, 447, 490 Ito, Nobubumi (伊藤信文), 441 Matsui, Iwane (松井石根), 441–442 Muto, Akira (武藤章), interrogation, 425, 441, 443, 458–459, 466, 486, 488 Nakasawa, Mitsuo (中澤三夫), 441 Nakayama, Yasuto (中山寧人), 441, 445, 446, 488 Nishijima, Takashi (西島剛), 441 Ogawa, Sekijiro (梶川碩次郎), 441 Okada, Takashi (岡田尚), 441, 449–450 Ouchi, Yoshihide (樱内義秀), 441 Sakakibara, Kazue (榊原主計), 441 Tsukamoto, Koji [Hirotsugu] (塚元廣 次), 441, 447 Prosecution Bates, M. S., 443, 446, 451, 455, 457 Chen Fubao (陳福寳), 420, 430, 440, 495 Chen Jiashi (陳賈氏), 438–439 Espy, James, 451, 455

Index Fitch, Gorge, 428, 437, 451, 455 Ha Duxin (哈篤信), 438 Interrogation of Iwane Matsui, 441, 458 Li Disheng (李滌生), 437, 456 Liang Tinfang (梁廷芳), 433, 484, 509 Lu Shenshi (陸沈氏), 437 Lu Su (魯甦), 440, 451, 484, 488, 510, 518 Magee, John, 427, 451, 455, 485, 490, 495 McCallum James, 247–248, 254, 273–275 Shang Deyi (尚德義), 65, 430, 455, 484 Smythe, Lewis, 437 Sun Yuanzhen (孫遠震), 437, 439, 464, 510 Tsen Shui-fang / Cheng Ruifang (程瑞 芳), 284, 437, 487, 519 Wang Chenshi (王陳氏), 439 Wang Jiangshi (王江氏), 439 Wang Panshi (王潘氏), 438 Wilson, Robert, 426–427, 451, 494 Wu Changde (伍長德), 430, 474, 509 Wu Jingcai (吴經才), 438, 456 Wu Junqing (吴君清), 438 Wu Zhangshi (吴張氏), 438 Xu Chuanyin (許傳音), 48, 248, 416, 427, 430, 495, 497, 499 Yuan Wangshi (袁王氏), 438 Zhu Yongweng (朱勇翁), 438 Zhang Jixiang (張繼祥), 438 Isogai, Rensuke (磯谷廉介), 415 J Jacquinot, Father or Robert Emile, 247 Jacquinot de Besange, 247 January 28 Incident, 8 Japanese journalists’ accounts Adachi, Kazuo (足立和夫), 46 Asami Kazuo (淺海一男), 422, 477, 479, 482, 529–530, 538–543, 546–547, 550–552, 556, 557, 559 Fukazawa, Mikizo (深澤干藏), 46, 47, 485 Haraikawa, Chikashige (袚川親茂), 47 Imai, Masatake (今井正剛), 46, 471, 482, 484, 490, 493 Kosaka, Eiichi (小坂英一), 325 Maeda, Yuji (前田雄二), 47, 485, 498, 507 Matsumoto, Shigeharu (松本重治), 46 Mitsumoto (光本), 477, 529–530, 540, 550 Moriyama, Yoshio (守山義雄), 46

Index Nakakawa, Kigen (中川紀元), 324–325 Nakamura, Seigo (中村正吾), 46, 471 Oya, Soichi (大宅壮一), 324–325 Sato, Shinju (佐藤振寿), 120, 540, 543, 546, 550, 552–553, 556 Shugiyama, Heisuke (杉山平助), 325, 483 Suzuki, Jiro (鈴木二郎), 422, 477, 479, 480, 482–483, 490, 499, 538–539, 541 Yasuda (安田), 529, 550 Japanese Marine Headquarters, 18 Japanese military presence in Shanghai, 15–16 Japanese soldiers’ accounts Akaboshi, Yoshio (赤星義雄), 231, 483 Akira, Hosaka (保坂晃), 31 Akiyama, Motoharu (秋山源治), 369 Anonymous soldier (Kyoto), 502 Anonymous soldier (Miyazaki), 502 Asano, Zennai (浅野善内), 232 Azuma, Shiro (東史郎), 109, 366 Endo, Takaharu (遠藤高明), 54, 214–215 Fukumoto, Tsuzuki (福元続), 230 Funahashi, Teruyoshi (舟橋照吉), 224–225 Geka, Sekiji (外賀関次), 483 Higashi, Takeo (東武夫), 224, 366 Hino, Ashihei (火野葦平), 28 Horigoshi, Fumio (堀越文男), 473 Iinuma, Mamoru (飯沼守), 209–210, 317, 443–444 Ike, Matachi (井家又一), 89, 227–228 Isa, Kazuo (伊佐一男), 225–226, 318 Ite, Junji (井手純二), 240–241 Iwazaki, Masaharu (岩崎昌治), 236–237 Kajitani, Kenrou (梶谷健郎), 235–236, 368, 519–520 Kitayama, Atau (北山舆), 109, 221–222 Kondo, Eishirou (近藤榮四郎), 54, 215–216 Kurihara, Toshikazu (栗原利一), 503–504 Maeda, Kitsuhiko (前田吉彦), 229–230 Makihara, Nobuo, 31 Makihara, Shouta (牧原信夫), 222–223 Masuda, Rokusuke (增田六助), 123, 220–221 Matsui, Iwane (松井石根), 36, 207–209, 227, 229, 319, 369, 472, 486–487, 492 Matsusaki, Jirou (松崎二郎), 369 Meguro, Fukuharu (目黑福治), 54, 216–217 Miyamoto, Seigo (宫本省吾), 54, 213–214

577 Mizutani, Sou (水谷莊), 226–227 Nakajima, Kesago (中島今朝吾), 108, 217–218 Okamoto, Kenzou (岡本健三), 367, 486 Okumiya, Masatake (奥宮正武), 241–242, 344 Orita, Mamoru (折田護), 229 Ota, Hisao (太田寿男), 513–514, 520 Otera, Takashi (大寺隆), 366 Sasaki, Motokatsu (佐々木元勝), 205, 237–240, 317, 368, 484–485 Sasaki, Touichi (佐々木到一), 219–220, 475, 481, 484 Sone, Kazuo (曾根一夫), 206, 232–233, 240, 281 Takashiro, Morikazu (高城守一), 230–231, 483 Tanaka, Masaichi (田中政市), 370 Tanaka, Saburo (田中三郎), 52 Tatokoro, Kouzou (田所耕三), 234 Tokuda, Kazutarou (德田一太郎), 369 Ueba, Takeichirou (上羽武一郎), 109 Uemura, Toshimichi (上村利道), 211 Yamada, Senji (山田栴二), 212–213, 489, 504 Yamamoto, Takeshi (山本武), 228–229 Jeffery, Ernest William, 147, 180, 347 Jenkins, Jr., James Douglas, 92, 334, 340 Jiangdong Bridge (江東橋), 74–77, 377 Jiangnan Cement Factory (江南水泥厰), 355, 360 Ji’nan Incident (濟南慘案), 6, 415 Jinshanwei (金山衞), 24, 28, 415, 421 Johnson, Nelson Trusler, 292, 297, 331 Jurong (句容), 25, 34, 239, 360, 423, 477, 480, 531, 546, 547, 555 K Kanghwa, Treaty of (江華島條約), 2 Kasuya, Yoshio (粕谷孝夫), 342 Kawagoe, Shigeru (川越茂), 349 Kearney, James Francis, 248, 254 Kerr, Archibald Clark, 343 Knatchbull-Huge-ssen, Hughe Montgomery, 343 Kondo, Eijiro (近藤英次郎), 345, 352–353 Kong Xiangxi (孔祥熙), 349 Korea, Colonization of, 1–5, 491 Korean War, 165, 465, 475 Kung Dah Cotton Spinning & Weaving Co. Ltd (公大紗厰), 18

578 L Ladybird, HMS, 255, 291, 332, 344, 498–499 Lafoon, Sidney Kennedy, 147, 340 League of Nations, 8, 360, 415 Lean D. J., 247–248, 253 Li Hong-zhang-Hirobumi Ito Convention (李 鴻章-­伊藤博文恊定), 2 Li Hung-nien (李鴻年), 284 Li Kehen (李克痕), 316 Lin Na (林娜), 315 Lion Hill (獅子山), 211, 231, 394 Liuhang (劉行), 22–23 Liuhe (瀏河), 8, 20, 33 Liu Huaide / Walter Lowe (劉懐德), 248 Liuqiu Kingdom (琉球王國), 1, 12 Liu Rouyuan (劉柔遠), 314 Lovat-Fraser, William Alexander, 343–346 Lugou Bridge (廬溝橋), 11–12, 16, 475 Lugou Bridge Incident, 12, 205, 475 Luodian (羅店), 20–22, 27 Lu Suping (陸束屏), 161, 251, 265 Luzon, USS, 331 M MacArthur, Douglas, 424–425, 463–466 Mackay, Ivor E. L., 247 Manzhouguo (满洲國), 8–9, 205, 350 Mao Zedong (毛澤東), 168, 491 Maqun (馬群), 105, 108–110, 207, 223–224, 237, 239–240, 368, 389, 404, 454, 487 Mass executions or killings at Central city section, 121–122 Drum Tower (鼓樓) & Yinyangying (陰陽 營), 87, 97–101, 511 Eastern city section, 206–207 Eastern suburbs, 105–110 Northern city section, 123–125, 207 Qingliang Hill (清凉山) & Gulin Temple (古林寺), 87–90, 206, 228, 252 Sanpailou (三牌樓) & northwestern city section, 87, 90–93 Shanxi Road (山西路) & Dafang Lane (大 方巷), 87, 93–96, 374, 511 Southern city section, 114–116 Southern suburbs, 110–114, 206 Western & southwestern city sections, 116–119 Wutai Hill (五台山) & Shanghai Road (上 海路), 87, 101–105, 474 Massacres at Coal Dock (煤炭港), 49, 57, 59–62, 510

Index Hanzhong Gate (漢中門) & Hanxi Gate (漢西門), 49, 78–81, 229, 375, 406, 430, 454, 474, 501, 508 Jiangdong Gate (江東門) & Shuixi Gate (水西門), 49, 76–78, 206, 316, 375, 386, 391, 406, 454 Sancha River (三叉河), 49, 69–73, 206, 513 Shangxin Riverfront (上新河), 49, 73–75, 206, 386, 454, 513 Straw Shoe Gorge (草鞋峡), 49–55, 57, 206, 374, 406, 421, 439, 454, 507, 513, 519 Swallow Cliff (燕子磯), 49, 55–57, 72, 206, 474, 510, 519 Torpedo Base (魚雷營) & Pagoda Bridge (寳塔橋), 49, 57–59, 421, 509–510 Xiaguan (下關), 49, 66–69, 209, 235, 240–242, 311, 320, 366, 387, 390–391, 433, 454–455, 474, 484–485, 488, 501, 510, 514 Zhongshan Wharf (中山碼頭), 49, 62–65, 374, 403, 421, 509 Massacre / atrocities, testimonies by Massacre / killing survivors Bai Zengrong (白增榮), 62–63, 420, 509 Bo Hongen (柏鴻恩), 67 Chen Degui (陳德貴), 59, 477, 484 Chen Fubao (陳福寳), 93, 420, 430, 431, 495 Cheng Jinhai (程金海), 95 Huangfu Zesheng (皇甫澤生), 111 Huang Junxiang (黄俊鄉), 485 Huang Zhangshi (黄張氏), 58 Hui Ding (慧定), 174–176 Jin Jiaren (金家仁), 88 Liang Tinfang (梁廷芳), 62–63, 484, 509 Li Fucheng (李福成), 112, 169 Li Qihong (李其宏), 95 Li Qiquan (李起全), 466 Li Xiuying (李秀英), 176–178, 473 Liu Jinxiang (劉金祥), 90 Liu Shihai (劉世海), 77 Liu Yongxing (劉永興), 63–64, 509 Luo Zhongyang (駱中洋), 70–71 Mei Fukang (梅福康), 183, 477 Miao Xuebiao (苗學标), 78 Pan Kaiming (潘開明), 61 Qian Shoumo (錢守謨), 467 Sha Guanchao (沙官朝), 182 Shang Deyi (尚德義), 65, 430, 455, 484

Index Shi Gengyun (施賡雲), 67 Shi Ming (石明), 50 Sun Youfa (孫有發), 468 Tang Guangpu (唐光谱), 50–51 Tang Shunshan (唐順山), 91 Tang Zhengyou (湯正有), 80 Wang Pengqing (王鵬清), 87–88 Wu Changde (伍長德), 79, 316, 430, 474, 509 Xia Shuqin (夏淑琴), 171, 174 Xu Jin (徐進), 64 Xu Jiqing (徐吉慶), 71 Yang Wenfu (楊文復), 183 Yan Xinyi (言心易), 316 Yin Youyu (殷有餘), 57, 509 Yu Hai-t’ang, 272 Zhang Conggui (張从貴), 77 Zhang Zhengye (張正業), 111 Zhao Changrong (趙長榮), 97 Zhao Shifa (趙世發), 68 Zheng Zongli (鄭宗禮), 166 Zhu Hongbao (諸鴻寳), 116 Zhu Xisheng (朱錫生), 182 Zuo Runde (左潤德), 117 Testimonies of burning, 151–156 looting, 145–151 violation of women, 135–144 Matsui, Takuro (松井久太郎), 11 May Fourth Movement (五四運動), 5 May 30th Martyrs Tomb (五卅公墓), 18 McFadyen, Jr., Archibald Alexander, 333 Media coverage in Chinese, 307–316 English, 291–307 Japanese, 317–326 Meiji Restoration (明治维新), 1 Miaohang (廟行), 23–24, 27 Miyasaki, Sadao (宮崎貞夫), 16 Molingguan (秣陵關), 34–35, 110–111, 113, 142, 252, 307 Mochou Lake (莫愁湖), 78, 326 Moriyama, Kōhei (森山康平), 205 Morozumi, Gyosaku (両角業作), 414, 473 Mudan Incident (牡丹社事件), 1 Mufu Mountain (幕府山), 34, 40, 49–50, 52, 105, 206, 212, 214–216, 308, 320, 321, 379–380, 399–400, 473–474, 484, 503, 510, 519 Mufu Mountain Fort (幕府山砲台), 40, 212, 214, 216, 308, 320–321, 473, 503, 510

579 Munro-Faure, Paul Hector, 247, 272 Murai, Urumatsu (村井倉松), 7 Muto, Nobuyoshi (武藤信義), 8 My Lai Massacre, 475, 480, 539 N Nanjing Campaign (南京戰役) Advance to Nanjing, 25 Atrocities in Yangtze Valley, Eyewitness accounts of, 26–32 Battles at Nanjing, 33–37 Evacuation order by Tang Sheng-zhi, 38–40 Fall of Nanjing, 37–40 Ultimatum by Iwane Matsui, 36 Nanjing Military Tribunal, 62, 163, 177, 193, 413–424, 505, 508, 547, 549, 551–552, 555–556 Chen Guangyu (陳光虞), 416, 420 Gao Wenbin (高文彬), 423 Li Xuan (李璿), 423 Mukai, Toshiaki (向井敏明) trial, 421–424 Noda, Tsuyoshi (野田毅) trial, 421–424 Prosecution witnesses Bai Zengrong (白增榮), 420 Bates, M. S., 416, 431, 451 Chen Erguniang (陳二姑娘), 192, 416, 418 Chen Fubao (陳福寳), 420, 491 Chen Wenlong (陳文龍), 416, 419 Cheng Jie (程潔), 419 Gu Yanshi (顧嚴氏), 419 Guo Qi (郭歧), 420 Hu Kouzhi (胡扣之), 419 Hui Ding (惠定), 174, 175 Kong Hanshi (孔韓氏), 419 Li Chenshi (李陳氏), 419 Lian Tengfang (連騰芳), 420 Liang Tingfang (梁廷芳), 420 Liu Chengzhong (劉誠中), 419 Liu Maosui (劉毛遂), 419 Liu Zhenhan (劉振漢), 420 Lu Gaoshi (陸高氏), 420 Lu Yinfa (廬殷髮), 419 Smythe, Lewis C. S., 416 Xiang Zhenrong (向振榮), 420 Xiao Wishi (萧衛氏), 420 Xie Lisan (謝立三), 419 Xu Chuanyin (許傳音), 416, 497, 499 Yao Jialong (姚加隆), 416 Yu Biwen (郁畢文), 419

580

Index

Nanjing Military Tribunal (cont.) Zhang Sunshi (張孫氏), 419 Zhao Rongsheng (趙榮生), 419 Zhu Guoshi (朱郭氏), 419 Shan Yaoting (單耀亭), 421, 508, 510 Shi Meiyu (石美瑜), 416, 420, 424 Tanaka, Gunkichi (田中軍吉) trial, 421–424, 547 Park Jaemun (朴在文), 421 Tasukugen Sword (助廣軍刀), 421, 423 Minetaro Yamanaka (山中峰太郎), 421 Tani, Hisao (谷壽夫) & trial, 415–421, 508–511, 518–519 Defense statement, 419–420 Defense witness Ogasawara, Shou (小 笠原青), 418 Verdict, 421 Nanking International Relief Committee, 253, 264, 417 Nanking Theological Seminary (金陵神學院), 121, 154, 254, 280, 281, 338–339, 433 Nanshi or Nantao (南市), 24, 29 National Christian Council, 313, 417 Niushou Hill (牛首山), 34–35, 110 Nobuo, Makihara, 31 Northern Expedition (北伐戰争), 6, 15

Pearl Harbor Bombing, 267, 271, 274, 282, 335, 415 Peck, Willys Ruggles, 339 Phillips, Herbert, 147, 348 Pickering, James Vance, 247–248, 254 Potsdam Declaration, 424–425 Prideaux-Brune, Humphrey Ingelram, 147, 343–347, 353 Pude temple (普德寺), 87, 376, 379, 381–383 Pukou (浦口), 25, 38–40, 197, 206, 213, 219, 228, 241, 331, 479, 515 Purple Mountain (紫金山), 25, 32, 34, 36–38, 62, 105, 109, 207, 219–220, 222, 224, 317, 422, 468, 477, 503, 531, 534–536, 540–542, 546, 547, 551, 556–557, 560

O Oahu, USS, 255, 269, 291, 293, 294, 332–333, 344, 499 Officers’ Moral Endeavor Association (勵志 社), 120, 318, 324–325, 477–478 Ogisu, Rippei (荻洲立兵), 414, 472 Ohyama, Isao (大山勇夫), 16 Okamura, Tarou (中村太郎), 47 Okinawa ken (沖縄県), 1 Open letter to Nanjing residents, 250 Opium War (鴉片戰争), 3 Orphanage for Girls of Revolutionary Martyrs (女子遺族學校), 325 Overseas Chinese Guest House (華僑招待所), 61, 63, 71, 95, 188, 320, 420, 474, 508, 509

R Red Cross Hospital, 62, 227, 270, 272, 295, 323 Ren Yuandao (任援道), 404 Research by Chinese scholars Early 1950s, 466–471 Articles in Xinhua Daily (新華日報), 466–469 Guo Shijie (郭士傑), 469 Early 1960s, 469–470 Gao Xingzu (高興祖), 469–470 Sun Zhaiwei (孫宅巍), 509–518 Zhang Xianwen (张宪文), 518 Research by Japanese scholars Articles of 1950s, 470–474 Kensuke Hata (秦賢助), 472, 482, 490 Masatake Imai (今井正剛), 471, 482, 484, 490, 493 Katsumi Shimada (島田勝已), 470, 483 Masaaki Tanaka (田中正明), 207, 472, 492, 507 Articles of 1960s & 1970s, 474–483 Honda, Katsuichi (本多勝一), 476–477, 480–481, 489, 504

P Panay, USS, 40, 242, 291, 331–333, 344, 498 Paris Peace Conference, 5 Parsons, Serjeant, 343–344 Patriotic Girls School (愛國女校), 18 Paxton, John Hall, 146, 331, 332

Q Qilin Gate (麒麟門), 35, 70, 109, 209, 237, 314, 317, 324, 368, 542, 547, 552 Qin Dechun (秦德纯), 10–11 Qin-Dorihara Agreement (秦土協定), 10 Qinhuai River (秦淮河), 69–70, 78, 230, 324 Qixia Hill (棲霞山), 34–36, 105–107, 206, 272, 357 Quangongting (全公亭), 24

Index Hora, Tomio (洞富雄), 470–475, 482–483, 504 Kageyama, Koyo (影山光洋), 476 Niijima, Atsuyoshi (新島淳良), 474 Shishime, Akira (志志目彰), 479, 538–539, 545, 548, 550, 553, 558, 560 Suzuki, Akira (鈴木明) or Akio Imai (今井明夫), 477, 481–482, 489 Suzuki, Jiro (鈴木二郎), 483, 490, 499, 537 Yamamoto, Shichihei (山本七平) or Isaiah Ben-Dasan (イザヤ・ペン ダサン), 479–482, 489–490 Centrist School, 507 Hata, Ikuhiko (秦郁彦), 493, 507, 553 Itakura, Yoshiaki (板倉由明), 493, 507 Nakamura, Akira (中村粲), 507 Unemoto, Masaki (畝本正己), 496–497, 507 Illusion School, 506–507 Ara, Kenichi (阿羅健一), 506–507 Fujioka, Nobukatsu (藤岡信勝), 506, 508 Higashinakano, Shudo (東中野修道), 506, 508 Kitamura, Minoru (北村稔), 507, 510 Maeda, Yuji (前田雄二), 507 Matsumura, Toshio (松村俊夫), 507 Miyasawa, Shigenobu (冨澤繁信), 507 Nanjing Association (南京学会), 506–507 Tanaka, Masaaki (田中正明), 207, 492–502, 506–507, 510–514, 520 Denying Nanjing Massacre, 492–498 Factual errors, 493–499 Tampering Matsui’s diaries, 493 Massacre School, 504–506 Association of Investigation Research on the Nanjing Incident (南京事件 調査研究会), 504, 505 Eguchi, Keiichi (江口圭一), 504 Fujiwara, Akira (藤原彰), 206, 504–506 Honda, Katsuichi (本多勝一), 28, 30, 52, 206, 493, 504–506 Hora, Tomio (洞富雄), 482–483, 493, 504–506, 553 Inoue, Hisashi (井上久士), 504, 506 Kasahara, Tokushi (笠原十九司), 493, 504, 506 Kazuki, Iguchi (井口和起), 206 Kisaka, Junichiro (木阪順一郎), 206

581 Matsuoka, Tamaki (松岡環), 206, 505 Ono, Kenji (小野賢二), 206, 506 Shimozato, Masaki (下里正樹), 206 Tsuda, Michio (津田道夫), 505 Watanabe, Harumi (渡辺春己), 506 Yoshida, Yutaka (吉田裕), 04, 505 Ritchie, William Walter, 147, 180, 348 Roberts, Frank Needham, 331 Rosen, Georg F, 110, 261, 262, 344–345, 351–356, 360 Rural Leaders Training School (農業専修科), 264 Russo-Japanese War, 4, 390, 415, 425, 496 S Safety Zone, 39, 48, 68, 81, 89, 91, 94, 98, 119, 122, 124, 135–136, 138–141, 143, 150, 152–153, 161, 171, 176, 179–180, 191, 197, 206–207, 220, 222, 225–228, 247–286, 293, 295–298, 300, 302, 304–305, 308–309, 313, 316, 318, 323, 325, 336–338, 345–347, 351, 353–354, 357, 371, 384, 390, 416–419, 428, 430–433, 436, 439, 446, 452, 456, 474–475, 494, 502, 504–505 Saito, Yozo (斋藤要藏), 16, 17 San Francisco Peace Conference, 166 San Yu Towel Factory (三友實業社毛巾厰), 7 Santai Cave (三台洞), 56 Scharffenberg, Paul Hans Hermann, 110, 345, 351, 356–358 Schultze-Pantin, G., 247 Scarab, HMS, 344 Search for Japanese soldiers’ diaries, 502–504 Self-Government Committee (自治委員會), 79, 125, 151, 161, 211, 253, 323, 348, 354, 371, 386, 402–404, 488, 499, 512 September 18 Incident, 7–8, 15 Shangyuan Gate (上元門), 49, 50, 57, 210, 212, 380, 394, 444 Shen Boshi (沈博施), 321 Shen Yushu (沈玉書), 248 Shi Jingzhe (時景哲), 17 Shields, Philip Robert, 247, 253 Shimonoseki, Treaty of (馬關條約), 3 Shimura, Kikujirou (志村菊次郎), 11, 223 Shiozawa, Koichi (塩沢幸一), 7 Shixianggongmiao (施相公廟), 22 Shizilin Fort (獅子林砲台), 20, 21 Sho Tai (尚泰), 1

Index

582 Sindberg, Bernhard Arp, 286, 355, 358, 360 Song Zheyuan (宋哲元), 10 Shanghai Campaign (淞滬會戰) Battles between Panjing (潘涇) & Yangjing (楊涇), 22–23 Battles between Wenzhaobang (蕰藻浜) & Zoumatang (走馬塘), 23–24 Fall of Shanghai, 24–25 Outbreak, 17–19 Japanese landing & battles, 21–22, 33–37 Steward, Albert Newton, 248, 254 Suematsu, Shigeharu (末松茂治), 414 Sugamo Prison (巢鴨監獄), 416, 433, 465, 501 Sun Shurong (孫叔榮), 79, 324 Sun Yat-sen (孫中山), 34, 62, 212, 238, 324, 359, 404, 531, 535–536, 542, 557 Sun Yat Sen Memorial Park (中山陵園), 108, 110, 210, 404 Suzhou Creek (蘇州河), 24 T Taiping Gate (太平門), 40, 105, 108–110, 120, 144, 207, 217–219, 224, 232, 309, 318, 374–375, 381, 388, 470, 472, 474, 511 Taiwan Expedition (台湾出兵), 1 Takashi, Sakai (酒井隆), 9, 414–415 Tanaka, Masaichi (田中政市), 370 Tanaka, Masakazu (田中正一), 273, 435 Tang Shengzhi (唐生智), 34–40, 349 Tang Zhongmo (湯忠謨), 248 Tanggu Truce (塘沽協定), 9 Tangshan (湯山), 11, 25, 34–35, 66, 105, 107, 207, 343, 476, 477, 480 Tao Baojin (陶保晋, 陶錫三), 371 Teng, Ting-chang, 146, 340 Testimonies of Chinese witnesses about Brothers or sisters killed Chen Keting (陳克亭), 88 Fa Fenggao (法風高), 100 Gao Lanying (高蘭英), 94 Ge Xiuhua (葛秀華), 101 Gu Quanxin (顧全鑫), 92 Hao Liming (郝立明), 97 Li Wenying (李文英), 189, 197 Liu Fengying (劉鳳英), 96 Liu Xiurong (劉修榮), 76 Ma Hongyou (馬鴻有), 104 Ma Suzhen (馬素珍), 98 Pan Chunchao (潘春潮), 164 Shi Shaoqing (石少卿), 79

Wang Daming (王大銘), 104 Yang Suhua (楊素華), 78 Zhang Zhengan (張正安), 166 Businesses or homes burned Chen Yaonan (陳耀南), 156 Li Jian (李健), 156 Liu Wenqing (劉文清), 155 Sheng shifu (盛實甫), 155 Yan Haichao (嚴海潮), 155 Zi Tao (梓濤), 155 Daughters or daughters in law raped Jia Shengshi (賈盛氏), 194 Liu Lishi (劉李氏), 194 Lu Guobin (陸國賓), 195 Wang Zhangshi (王張氏), 195 Xu Chenshi (徐陳氏), 195 Mothers or wives raped Chen Shixing (陳士興), 194 Cheng Guodong (程國棟), 194 Huang Changshun (黄長順), 194 Li Yuansen (李元森), 193 Wang Rugui (王如貴), 194 Other relatives killed Gao Wenhui (高文惠), 189 Li Wenying (李文英), 189 Ma Minglong (馬明龍), 190 Wu Caiyun (武采雲), 189 Wu Zhengxi (伍正禧), 189 Yang Yilan (楊義蘭), 181 Yu Mingong (於敏恭), 100 Zheng Zhoushi (鄭周氏), 188 Zhou Fengying (周風英), 100 Parents or grandparents killed Chen Delu (陳德祿), 26 Chen Guangxiu (陳光秀), 107 Chen Jun (陳俊), 115 Chen Zhewen (陳哲文), 74 Fu Zuojin (傅左金), 112 Ge Jinyin (葛金銀), 108 Gu Qingzhen (顧慶禎), 26 Hu Bingsen (胡炳森), 74 Jiang Luzan (蔣輅贊), 26 Jin Hongshou (金宏壽), 103 Li Boqian (李伯潜), 168 Li Xiuhua (李秀華), 165 Liu Kanglin (劉康林), 115 Liu Xiquan (劉喜權), 61 Lu Hongcai (陸宏才), 118 Lu Yuhua (陸玉華), 108 Ma Mingfu (馬明福), 164–165 Ma Zhongshan (馬忠山), 184 Shi Xuehui (史學慧), 114 Shao Hanzhen (邵翰珍), 108

Index Shao Yongzhen (邵永真), 164, 165 Sun Baoqing (孫寳慶), 119, 196 Sun Qichen (孫启琛), 122 Wan Arong (萬阿榮), 27 Wang Yuhua (王玉華), 124 Wei Tinkun (魏廷坤), 123 Wu Yongxing (吴永興), 27 Xie Changrong (謝長榮), 111 Xie Dazhen (謝大珍), 117 Yang Baoyan (楊寳炎), 185 Yang Chunlin (楊椿林), 113 Yue Songshou (岳松壽), 113 Zhang Hongfang (張紅芳), 185 Zhang Xiyuan, 30 Zhao Kezhen (趙克珍), 115 Zhao Yushu (趙玉樹), 28 Zhu Maohong (諸茂洪), 119 Rape victims themselves Chen Erguniang (陳二姑娘), 192–193 Liu Chenshi (劉陳氏), 193 Ma Xx (馬xx), 143 Shen Fan (沈帆), 193 Yang Xx (楊xx), 192 Zhang Shi (張氏), 98 Zhang Wenying (張文英), 192 Spouses killed Dai Zhangshi (戴張氏), 67 Deng Mingxia (鄧明霞), 96 Fang Xueren (方學仁), 186 Li Baoru (李寳如), 186 Li Xiongshi (李熊氏), 113 Sun Jiashi (孫賈氏), 99 Xia Zhangshi (夏張氏), 124 Xu Zhoushi (徐周氏), 106 Xue Shijin (薛世金), 120 Yan Jinshi (嚴金氏), 92 Yan Jinshi (閻金氏), 92 Yang Mashi (楊馬氏), 185–186 Yi Yazu (易亜祖), 108 Yin Wangshi (殷王氏), 164–165 Zhang Chenshi (張陳氏), 58 Zhang Fengzhen (張鳳珍), 180 Zhang Gaoshi (張高氏), 162, 198 Zhou Liangshi (周梁氏), 186 Zhou Yushi (周俞氏), 186 Zhu Zoushi (朱周氏), 103 Sons or daughters killed Ha Mashi (哈馬氏), 171–173 Chen Xiang (陳湘), 187 Ding Lishi (丁李氏), 187 Hong Daquan (洪大全), 163 Jin Mashi (金馬氏), 122 Jin Wenshi (金温氏), 188

583 Liu Qingying (劉慶英), 187 Lu Liushi (吕劉氏), 98 Mao Jiashi (毛賈氏), 108 Qi Wushi (戚吴氏), 162 Shen Hashi (沈哈氏), 117 Tang Youcai (湯有才), 61 Wang Wanshi (王萬氏), 188 Wu Cuishi (吴崔氏), 162 Xu Jialu (徐嘉祿), 95 Xu Tingnian (徐庭年), 188 Yin Wangshi (尹王氏), 164–165 Yu Zhongduo (俞仲鐸), 96 Zhang Wangshi (張汪氏), 98 Zhu Zhenyu (朱振宇), 467 Witnessing massacres or the sites Cai Shunshou (蔡順壽), 122 Chen Jinhe (陳金和), 94 Chen Qinghua (陳慶華), 309–311 Dai Xiuying (戴秀英), 123 Gao Xiuqin (高秀琴), 80 Ge Shikun (葛仕坤), 56 Guo Guoqiang (郭國强), 56 Guo Xuegen (郭學根), 66 He Shoujiang (何守江), 58 He Wangshi (何王氏), 88 He Yufeng (何玉峰), 74 Hu Chuntin (胡春庭), 67 Hu Zhangshi (胡張氏), 120 Jiang Xingchun (蔣行春), 111 Jiang Xinshun (姜鑫順), 67 Lai Liqing (賴立清), 59 Li Debiao (李德標), 106 Li Kehen (李克痕), 316 Liang Yushan (梁玉山), 81 Liu Rouyuan (劉柔遠), 314 Liu Songsong (劉松松), 113 Lu Fazeng (陸法曾), 60, 510 Mao Delin (毛德林), 93, 99, 104 Niu Xianming (鈕先銘), 54 Peng Wensong (彭問松), 107 Qin Jie (秦傑), 74 Qiu Ronggui (邱榮貴), 76 Sheng Wenzhi (盛文治), 113 Shi Ronglu (史榮祿), 54 Shi Shenghua (施 華), 181 Sun Chengying (孫成英), 112 Sun Dianyan (孫殿炎), 77 Wang Guizhen (王桂珍), 78 Wang Yongyuan (王永源), 122 Wang Youlin (王又林), 125 Wu Jinshan (武金山), 125 Wu Liancheng (吴連城), 93 Xia Wanshun (夏萬順), 55

584 Testimonies of Chinese witnesses about Brothers or sisters killed (cont.) Xu Jishun (徐吉順), 93 Yang Qinzhou (楊勤州), 73 Yin Nangang (殷南岡), 67 Yuan Airui (袁靄瑞), 312 Yuan Congrong (袁从榮), 94 Zhang Defa (張德發), 104 Zhang Jingzhi (張静芝), 56–57 Zhang Shirong (張士榮), 59, 66, 72 Zhang Wushi (張吴氏), 106 Zhang Xiuying (張秀英), 67 Zhao Xinglong (趙興隆), 93 Zhou Guifang (周桂芳), 89 Witnessing others killed Bian Lifen (汴立芬), 99 Chen Jinkun (陳金坤), 191 Du Changfu (杜長復), 121–122 Fu Yongcheng (傅永成), 115 Gao Ping (高平), 108 Guo Sunrong (郭蓀榮), 179 Han Baoru (韩寳如), 123 Huang Biru (黄碧如), 101 Jiang Fengsheng (江鳳生), 98 Jiang Shiming (蔣士明), 122 Jin Jiahong (金家洪), 191 Ke Rongfu (柯榮福), 165 Li Keming (李克明), 121 Li Shouyi (李守義), 103 Li Wenguo (李文國), 99, 122 Lin Xiuzhen (林秀珍), 102, 109 Liu Dengxue (劉登學), 117 Liu Meishi (劉梅氏), 191–192 Ma Jingwen (馬静雯), 122 Ma Quanzhong (馬全忠), 101 Monk Hailong (海隆和尚), 114 Qiu Jinfu (邱金夫), 99 Song Jinzhang (宋錦章), 111 Su Guizhen (蘇桂珍), 103 Sun Qingyou (孫慶有), 118 Sun Yucai (孫育才), 113 Wang Jinlong (王錦龍), 104 Wang Sushi (王蘇氏), 95 Wu Guozhen (吴國珍), 191 Wu Xieshi (吴謝氏), 103 Xia Guiying (夏桂英), 123 Xie Baojin (謝寳金), 96 Xie Jinwen (謝金文), 191 Yang Pinxian (楊品賢), 190 Zhang liancai (張連才), 57, 180 Zhang Yibo (張懌伯), 32 Zhu Chuanan (朱傳安), 104 Zhu Lushi (朱陸氏), 123

Index Witnessing rape Guan Xuecai (管學才), 196 Ke Rongfu (柯榮福), 165 Li Xiuqing (李秀清), 144 Jin Xiuying (金秀英), 144 Qian Chuanxing (錢傳興), 197 Shen Aiyun (沈愛雲), 197 Shen Yingmu (沈應木), 197 Tang Zhensheng (湯振聲), 196 Yang Zhushi (楊朱氏), 198 Yao Chunxi (姚春熙), 28 Textbook revision incident, 491 Thomson Incident, 342 Thomson, James Claude, 342 Tiger Cave (老虎洞), 36–37 Tiger Hill (老虎山), 50, 54, 57, 61 Timperley, Harold John, 161, 251, 265, 310, 313, 316, 417–418, 422–423, 474, 475, 481, 494, 504, 535, 561 Tonghak Rebellion (東學黨起義), 3 Tongji Gate (通濟門), 36, 40, 105, 114, 186, 206, 232, 318, 389 Trautmann, Oskar Paul, 257, 260, 349–350, 359 Truman, Harry S., 424, 465 21 Demands (21條), 5 Twinem, Mary Dorothy Fine, 283–284 2003–2006 lawsuits, 545–561 Court Decisions, 555–561 District Court, 555–559 High Court, 560–561 Supreme Court, 561 Defendants Asahi Shinbum (朝日新聞), 545, 548–552, 554, 561 Honda, Katsuichi (本多勝一), 537–541, 545, 548–549, 552, 554, 561 Kashiwa Shobo (柏書房出版社), 545, 549, 554 Mainichi Shinbum (每日新聞), 545 Inada, Tomomi (稻田朋美), 545 Inukai, Souichirou (犬飼総一郎), 555–556 Judges Akio Doi (土肥章大), 555 Imai, Isao (今井功), 561 Ishikawa, Yoshinori (石川善則), 560 Plaintiffs Cooper, Emiko (惠美子·クーパー), 545 Mukai, Chieko Tadokoro (向井(田所) 千惠子), 545 Noda, Masa (野田マサ), 545

Index U Umezu, Yoshijiro (梅津美治郎) 9, 415, 466 University of Nanking (金陵大學), 81, 89, 93, 97–99, 102, 120, 122, 135, 137, 174, 178, 193, 247–249, 253–254, 262, 265, 267, 272–273, 277–280, 282, 285, 297, 299, 301, 312, 338, 339, 341, 342, 371, 416–418, 426–427, 431–432, 446–495, 502 University of Nanking Hospital (鼓樓醫院) , 88, 99, 102, 120, 122, 174, 178, 265, 267, 273, 282, 285, 299, 426, 495 Ushijima, Sadao (牛島貞雄), 414 W Wang Chengdian (王承典), 248 Wang Chonghui (王寵惠), 349 Wanping (宛平), 11–12 Walser, J. S., 345, 353 Wayside Wharf (匯山碼頭), 19 West Bridge (西橋), 93–94, 101 Western eyewitnesses & records Bates, Miner Searle, 81, 102–103, 138, 140, 248, 253, 255, 262–265, 286, 297–299, 306–307, 313, 340–341, 359, 416–418, 431, 450, 455, 457, 474, 485, 487, 495 Bauer, Grace Louise, 255, 265–267 Fitch, George Ashmore, 60, 91–92, 119, 137, 139, 149, 153–154, 172, 255, 267–270, 280, 297, 302–303, 306, 339–340, 428, 437, 451, 487 Forster, Ernest Herman, 96, 138, 248, 252, 254–255, 270–272, 435–436 Hatz, Rupert R., 94, 139, 153, 255 Hempel, Richard, 255, 357 Hynds, Iva M., 255, 262, 309, 341 Kröger, Christian Jakob, 48, 81, 94, 105, 145, 254, 259–261, 279, 311, 353, 358 Magee, John Gillespie, 49, 68, 96, 102, 103, 106, 136, 137, 140–141, 150, 171–172, 174–176, 247, 255, 269–273, 302, 322–323, 353, 355, 427, 434–435, 437, 443, 446, 451, 455, 487, 495 McCallum, James Henry, 89, 99, 154, 175–177, 179, 248, 254–255, 273–275, 340–341, 358, 437, 451, 455

585 Mills, Wilson Plumer, 93, 116, 124–125, 136, 146, 248, 251–253, 255, 275–277 Podshivoloff, Nicolai, 96, 255, 270 Rabe, John Heinrich Detlev, 124–125, 136, 152, 172, 247–248, 254, 256–261, 268, 275–276, 278, 279, 297, 353–356, 358–359, 417, 428, 432, 446, 450, 452, 494, 505, 508 Riggs, Charles Henry, 102, 124, 137, 210, 248, 253, 255, 276–279, 340–341 Smythe, Lewis Strong Casey, 125, 142, 153–154, 248, 254–255, 278–280, 297, 300, 416, 417, 431, 437, 494, 504 Sone, Hubert Lafayette, 54, 102, 121, 205–206, 232–233, 248, 254–255, 280–282, 341 Sperling, Eduard, 125, 153, 248, 253–254, 261–262, 268, 278, 353, 436 Trimmer, Clifford Sharp, 248, 253, 255, 282–283 Vautrin, Minnie, 56, 57, 72, 75, 81, 90, 92, 110, 195, 225, 283–284, 341, 383, 494 Wilson, Robert Ory, 93, 122, 139, 141, 154, 174–179, 181, 251–252, 255, 272, 275–276, 284–286, 306, 341, 426–427, 431, 455, 494 Zautig, Auguste, 254 Zial, A., 96, 255, 270 Williams, Walter Henry, 343–344, 347–348 Wu Tiecheng (吴鐵城), 7 Wu Yueh-chiao, 146 Wuding Gate (武定門), 40, 115, 206, 406 Wuhu General Hospital, 332–333 Wulong Hill (烏龍龙山), 38, 56, 105, 213 Wulong Hill Fort (烏龍龙山砲台), 34, 40, 213, 308, 320–321, 503, 510 Wusong (吴淞), 17, 21, 22, 232–233 X Xiaolingwei (孝陵衞), 34, 36–37, 402 Xianhe Gate (仙鶴門), 105, 108–109, 218–219, 224 Xinjiekou (新街口), 72, 78, 144, 312, 387, 391, 416, 468 Xingzhong Gate (興中門), 70, 387, 392, 395 Xu Chuanyin (許傳音), 48, 248, 416, 427, 430, 497, 499 Xu Yongchang (徐永昌), 349 Xuanwu Gate (玄武門), 123, 221, 242

586 Xuanwu Lake (玄武湖), 123, 217, 225, 232, 242 Y Yamamuro, Munetake (山室宗武), 414 Yanagawa, Heisuke (柳川平助), 414–415, 489 Yangfang Hill (楊坊山), 37 Yanghang (楊行), 22, 27 Yin Rugeng (殷汝耕), 10 Yijiang Gate (挹江門), 38–39, 47, 64, 69, 208, 237–238, 241, 314, 370, 375, 387, 392, 394–395, 400, 402, 467, 474, 485, 511 Yinkong Hill (銀孔山), 37 Yoshizumi, Ryousuke (吉住良輔), 414 Yuan Shikai (袁世凯), 2 Yuhua Terrace (雨花台), 34–37, 73, 77, 110, 113–114, 374, 421, 424, 474, 484, 510, 561

Index Z Zhabei (閘北), 7, 17–18, 23–24, 41, 238–239, 338 Zhang Xueliang (張學良), 6–7 Zhang Zhizhong (張治中), 17, 41 Zhang Zuolin (張作霖), 6 Zhangbei Incident (張北事變), 9 Zhonghua Gate (中華門), 34, 37–38, 44, 62, 73, 77, 105, 110, 111, 113, 114, 116, 169, 184, 193–194, 206, 230, 231, 312, 318, 374–377, 379–383, 387, 401, 406–407, 415–416, 419, 421, 424, 468, 508, 510, 513 Zhongshan Bridge (中山橋), 64, 68, 71, 392 Zhongshan Gate (中山門), 36–38, 57, 62, 105, 110, 119, 217, 237–238, 240–241, 318, 325, 374, 389, 402, 404, 477 Zhongyang Gate (中央門), 40, 123 Zhou Enlai (周恩来), 165