The politics of Nanjing : an impartial investigation 2006930462, 9780761835790, 0761835792

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Ex L i b r i s U n iv e r s it a t is A l b e r t e n s is

The Politics of Nanjing An Impartial Investigation

Kitamura Minoru

Translated by Hal Gold

University Press of America,® Inc. Lanham • Boulder • New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK

Copyright © 2007 by Kitamura Minoru University Press of America,® Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard Suite 200 Lanham, Maryland 20706 UPA Acquisitions Department (301) 459-3366 Estover Road Plymouth PL6 7PY United Kingdom All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America British Library Cataloging in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Control Number: 2006930462 ISBN-13: 978-0-7618-3579-0 (paperback : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-7618-3579-2 (paperback : alk. paper)

'S ' The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48—-1984

UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

C o n te n ts

Glossary

vii

Foreword Kitamura Minoru Hal Gold, translator

Lx xii

Introduction 1. 2.

3.

What Is the Nanjing Incident? Setting Up the War Crimes Tribunal 1 Establishing Military Tribunals 2 Problems in the Present concerning the Nanjing Incident Accusations by the Chinese Government 3 Historical Views Govern Japanese Research 4 Research in Taiwan and China 8 Research in the United States by People of Chinese Origin 10 A New Approach to Studying the Nanjing Incident A Return to the Basics of Historical Research 11 Three Types of Evidence that Established the Nanjing Incident 14

1

3

11

Chapter 1: The GMD China Information Committee and Wartime Diplomatic Strategy 1.

The Enigma of Manchester Guardian Correspondent H.J. Timperley Unexpected Facts 17 Left Book Club 18 Timperley and the GMD’s Central Propaganda Department 20 The English-language Chinese Journalist, Sun Ruiqin

17

25

The Politics of Nanjing

IV

2.

3.

4.

Establishment of the GMD China Information Committee 25 The Activities of the China Information Committee Come to Light 25 Testimony on the China Information Committee 29 H yakunin giri: The 100-man Killing Race 32 Promotion of Diplomatic Strategy by the GMD 37 GMD Open Diplomacy 37 Behind-the-Scenes Diplomatic Operations 38 Appeals to America through Missionary Organizations 42 Fact and Fabrication in Wartime Information 47 The News Agency and the Information War 47 Testimony of Theodore H. White 49

Chapter 2: Problems Concerning the Court Decisions 1. 2.

3.

Forming the Judgm ent of the Nanjing Incident The Path to Judgm ent 53 Analyses of the Court Decisions 56 A “Great Massacre” Did Not Appear in Wartime Propaganda Timperley’s Writings Make No Mention of a “Planned Massacre” 63 Reports from Other Cities with Similar Situations 73 Treatment of Prisoners Execution of Chinese Soldiers who Discarded Their Uniforms 83 Problems with Changing Arguments 84 Unprecedented Situation in the History of War 87 From the Viewpoint of the History of Civilization 89 Killing Prisoners of War 93 Facts of Interest in the Hsin Shen Pao 95

53

63

83

Chapter 3: Problems in Documentary Evidence 1.

2. 3. 4.

Japanese and Chinese Translations of English-Language Documents 99 Agenda Slanting 99 Predisposition to Views Yields Slanted Translations 101 Background to English-Language Documentary Materials Information from Anonymous Chinese Persons 102 Sense of Balance Seen in English-Language Sources 103 Chinese Translations of Timperley’s Charges 104 Simultaneously Published Chinese-Language Versions 104 The Facts at Nanjing—Guo Qi’s A Record o f Blood a n d Tears in the Fallen Capital 105 How Nanjing Fell 105

Contents

Living Witnesses to the Great Massacre 107 Fictional Creations to Raise Anger against the Enemy Japanese Soldiers and Arson 111 Facts concerning the Great Massacre 115 Surprising Tranquility in Daily Life in Nanjing 117 Guo Qi’s Subordinates Visit Freely 118

v

110

Chapter 4: Formation of the “300,000 Massacred” Theory 1.

2.

3.

Investigations Concerning the Number of Deaths 121 Enormous Death Toll First Emerges after the War 121 Doubts over the Number of Buried Victims 124 Problems with Reliability of Evidence at the Tokyo Tribunal 133 Nanjing Population in the Immediate Post-Occupation 134 Arguments by the Defense 139 An Investigation of the Smythe Survey 141 Background and Credibility of the Survey 144 Distorted Claims in the Survey 145 One Japanese Who Revealed the Real Meaning of the Smythe Survey 148 The Roots o f ‘AMassacre of 300,000 Victims” 151 The Origin of the 300,000 Figure 151 The Nature of the Chinese Supports the 300,000 Figure 156

References

163

Index

167

G lo s s a ry

The table below contains Pinyin Chinese equivalencies for nam es of individuals and locations m entioned in the text, along w ith explana­ tions for acronyms used. Organization nam es and titles o f publica­ tions have been ren d ered in traditional Chinese w hen they are cited in their original, p ro p er form, e g., Nanking International Relief C om m ittee and H sin Shen Pao. In exceptional circum stances an equivalent has been supplied in parentheses in the text.

CAN Chiang Kai-shek Chungking GMD Hankow KMT IMTFE Mao Tse-tung Nanking Yangtze River

Central News Agency Jiang Jieshi Chongqing G uom indang Hankou Kuom intang (see G uom indang) International Military Tribunal for the Far East Mao Zedong Nanjing Yangzi River

“There was little glory for either side in the battle o f Nanking.” — F. Tilman Durdin, New York Times, 9 January 1938

F o rew o rd

Kitamura Minoru

The Nanjing Incident is a point of contention and strain betw een Ja­ pan and China that seems fated to continue w ithout resolution. Un­ like clashes that offer options o f initiating or restricting som e sort of action—visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, trade disagreem ents, issues over arms and military roles—the essence of the Nanjing problem is historical opinion, and opinions on w hat h appened at the fall of C hina’s capital are often voiced in sup p o rt of a preexisting political o r ethnic position. This is the basis for the continuance o f the problem . No single country has the level of a dom estic clash of opinions over Nanjing that we see in Japan. The num ber of books and articles published in this country with views of w hat h appened with the fall of Nanjing in D ecem ber 1937, original works, and translations from o th er languages probably exceed the total for the rest o f the w orld. For this reason Japan offers an advantageous stage for an investiga­ tion into this problem . O ne purpose o f my research is to show the level o f disagreem ent am ong Japanese over Nanjing, and I point up this dom estic controversy throughout the text of this book w ith ex­ am ples of how certain issues have been taken up by Japanese au­ thors and translators, and published in Japan. With such controversy, we are obliged to search for answers to the question of how the recognition of a Nanjing massacre, o r denial of the same, rose in the awareness of the people of the w orld. We see that this awareness accum ulated from inform ation that spanned a considerable am ount of time: from the letters of Jo h n Rabe, w ritten in the m idst of the Japanese occupation, to those of Harold John Timperley, then following the end of the w ar to inform ation generix

I

X

The Politics of Nanjing

ated in the w ar crim es trials in Nanjing and Tokyo, and continuing until today. These m echanism s by which the w orld cam e to learn of Nanjing at the tim e o f its fall and occupation are im portant in any at­ tem pt to determ ine w hat really hap p en ed during those unfortunate days, and w hat agenda-influenced factors m ight have b een at work. Discussions o f Nanjing invariably lead into num bers: How m any people w ere killed, how m ight the record have been altered up or dow n to protect a particular political slant, w hose w ord can be trusted. I am aware that m any concerned persons are sensitive to this ar­ gum ent o f num bers and ten d to tu rn away from the problem as a bi­ zarre way of m aking one point o r another. In this study, I do take up this issue and the discrepancies in various records, n o t for the p u r­ pose o f adding to the body-count controversy, but because the dis­ crepancies them selves have indeed becom e part o f the politics surroun ding the fall o f Nanjing, and are a valuable indication o f w ho the victims were. O ne o f the m echanics of politics encountered in an international environm ent is the choice of w ords in translating term s from one language to an o th er to reinforce o r undercut som e political agenda. This applies to several Chinese governm ent organizations that are im portant to this book. One is the Zhongyang xuanchuanbu. An honest, accurate translation o f this organization’s nam e w ould be C entral Propaganda Ministry. The Chinese Yearbook, published by the G uom indang (GMD),’ contains listings of governm ent organi­ zations w ith their official English renderings. The 1938-39 issue of this publication gives the English equivalent of the above govern­ m ent organ as Publicity Departm ent. Some researchers and Englishlanguage publications call it the Chinese Ministry of Inform ation. U nder this m inistry was the Guoji xuanchuan chu. Again, assign­ ing an accurate translation, this w ould be ren d ered International Propaganda Com m ittee. This organization, however, does n ot ap­ p ear in the above-cited GMD publication, and rarely appears in o ther GMD sources. Its activities w ere kept from public view, and it is now ap parent that even m ention of its existence was avoided. For this rea­ son, I found no official o r GMD-accepted English translation of the organization’s tide. W here it does appear in English sources, it is translated as the China Inform ation Com m ittee.

" See Glossary for table of pinyin equivalencies for Chinese terms.

Foreword

XI

This organization rem ained out of sight for years following the e n d o f World War II. It was first brought to light by a form er em ­ ployee, T heodore H. White, in his book In Search o f History, p u b ­ lished in 1978. Following this, the form er chief o f this organization, Zeng Xubai, revealed m ore o f this com m ittee’s propaganda activities in a book o f rem iniscences he published in Chinese in 1988 in Tai­ wan. To date, there is no English translation o f this book. The translator and I decided to use the English term Chinese Ministry o f Inform ation as listed in the GMD publication o u t o f def­ erence to the Chinese governm ent’s choice o f w ords. Likewise, we follow ed Theodore H. W hite’s choice o f nam e for his form er em ­ ployer, the China Inform ation Com m ittee, w ith my explanation that the rather innocuous renderings are a d eparture from their Chinese originals in the direction of a concealm ent of purpose, and this is part o f the politics taken up in this book. The disregard for life in the Japanese Army o f the time, both for the enem y and the Japanese soldiers themselves, has been w itnessed to tim e and again. How and why Ja p an ’s military descended from its high m oral standards of the Meiji era is a p roblem in itself. Once e n ­ emy cruelty becom es a propaganda w eapon, however, one m ust be alert for exaggeration, distortion, and falsification in every direction. W hatever the facts of Nanjing were, they have b een pulled in the di­ rections of different agendas, one explanation refuting the other, w ith an honest, objective search for the facts often ab an d o n ed in fa­ vor of o th e r aims. In this study, I have attem pted my ow n search for the tru th w ith the full un d erstan d in g that, as in the past, I will be criticized from those on one side for being biased tow ard the o th er direction, and likewise from those of that p ersuasion for being b i­ ased the o p posite way. If these criticisms tu rn o u t to be fairly well balanced, perhaps that is an indication that I have at least com e close to my goal of an h o n est h isto rian ’s analysis o f an irresolvable problem .

F o re w o rd Hal Gold, translator

W hen I first m et Kitamura M inoru, I was n o t yet aware o f the inten­ sity of controversy in Japan over differing views of w hat h ap p en ed at Nanjing beginning in D ecem ber 1937. I had read and heard com ­ m ents by Japanese w ho denied that there was anything outside of “norm al warfare,” but this school of thought includes m any political figures w ho naturally have a greater presence in the m edia. On the o th er side w ere Japanese w riters and researchers w ho claimed that the atrocities at Nanjing produced a m assacre o f 300,000 victims or m ore. W hen Iris C hang’s book The Rape o f N anjing came out and im­ m ediately m ade the N ew York Times best-seller list, I thought that its acceptance was prem ature and in too great num bers to reflect the reading tastes of the American public. This in itself caused m e to sus­ pect well-financed, political motives at work, a m uch m ore reason­ able assum ption than a rush o f Americans buying a book that only peripherally involves Americans, but this still did not pull m e into the controversy over Nanjing here in Japan. For the fire of interest, I am indebted to two responses to C hang’s claims. The February 2000 issue of the Tokyo-based English-language m agazine J a p a n Echo carried two articles, one by Joshua Fogel, the o th er by Alvin D. Coox, both respected researchers w ho criticized statem ents that Chang m ade in h er book and other places. Coox takes up a series o f allegations that Chang had m ade in speeches and

Foreword

xiii

in writing, and offers his ow n views against them . The first entry reads: Allegation: Until the appearance of the Chang book, no nonfiction publication had ever covered the event at Nanking in substantive detail, and Japanese titles on the subject are scarce because publi­ cation would endanger the authors’ lives. Rebuttal: About thirty-five years ago, I had already treated Nanking in my full-length book Year o f the Tiger (Tokyo: Orient/West, 1964), with which Chang is unacquainted. One section was specifi­ cally called “The Japanese Escutcheon Blemished.” As for books on the subject in Japanese, in July 1998 I conducted a thorough com­ puter search in Tokyo, which turned up no less than fifty-five titles in print—one dated 1959, one 1967, six from the 1970s, twentythree from the 1980s, and twenty-four from the 1990s. The allegation-rebuttal continues, but the above entry is sufficient to show how “Nanjing in Japan” was gaining m om entum w ith the years. Coox confronts the contention o f suppression of inform ation with, “There is now no dearth of public discussion of Nanjing, Unit 7 3 1 ” This statem ent relates to my ow n experience. Unit 731 in­ volved the Japanese military and professional m edical w orld in a planned program of hum an experim entation, after which the u p ­ per-level people achieved distinguished postw ar positions in gov­ ernm ent, academia, and business. In 1996 I published a book o n the subject in English, which then came out in Japanese, first in hard cover and then paperback. One source of inform ation for my book was a “Unit 731 Exhibit” that o p en ed in sixty-one locations th ro u g h ­ out Japan. The costs of venues and other expenses involved in p u tt­ ing on the displays w ere handled m ainly by volunteer Japanese staff w ho w ere interested in bringing out the truth about Unit 731 to their fellow citizens. The exhibitions ran from July 1993 to D ecem ber 1994, and a 193-page, A-quarto size catalog of the exhibit listed a bib­ liography of ninety-six books and articles, plus video program s and several docum entaries that had aired on television, both private net­ works and the NHK. The picture of Japan that Chang and her backers presented was so far rem oved from the Japan I live in, I was intrigued by the apparent political force that Nanjing has m aintained during the past six decades. My next awakening came w hen I saw, through Kitamura and his research, that this was n ot really a continuous p ro ­ cess b ut rather one that surged in the 1980s, and approxim ately fol­

xiv

The Politics of Nanjing

lows the curve of books published on the subject in Japan, which Coox described. Some tim e after Kitamura and I met, his book o n Nanjing was published in Japanese and he said he w ould like m e to translate it into English. W hen I saw the direction his book was taking, my com ­ m ent to him was, “This is a ‘Rashom on’ approach,” recalling the story and later movie concerning an incident in the forest for which each w itness tells the “facts” in a different way. This may n o t be ac­ ceptable as a subtitle for an academ ic work, but as I translated Kitam ura’s book I liked to feel that I was w orking u n d e r the ro o f of that gate to keep the Rashom on approach “etched on my liver,” as the Japanese expression goes, in w hich the reader judges individu­ ally w here the truth resides. This English version contains considerable additions, revisions, and editing changes from the original, som e using m aterial that I searched for to su p p o rt the direction o f Kitam ura’s work; o th er addi­ tions and changes w ere arrived at through discussions betw een au­ th o r and translator. January 2006 Kyoto

In tro d u c tio n

1. What Is the Nanjing Incident? Setting up the War Crimes Tribunal Five m onths after the Sino-Japanese War broke out, on 13 D ecem ber 1937, Japanese troops occupied the G uom indang (Kuomintang) capital of Nanjing (Nanking). The G uom indang (GMD) governm ent had already announced on 20 Novem ber that it w ould move the cap­ ital to Chongqing (Chungking), b u t Nanjing rem ained, as before, the symbolic capital. Then, according to som e accounts, for three m onths following the fall of the city and the subsequent Japanese oc­ cupation, the Nanjing Incident is said to have taken place, an orga­ nized, large-scale massacre, with the u p p e r level of claims for the n um ber o f victims at around 300,000. China, the nation of the vic­ tims, called it the Great Nanjing Slaughter; in Japan it becam e know n as the Great Nanjing Massacre. W hen the Japanese Army took Nanjing, all Japanese celebrated w hat they believed to be the end o f the Sino-Japanese War. But w hen the fall o f the city becam e im m inent, Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek) shifted the GMD capital first to Hankou (Hankow), then later to Chong­ qing, and Japanese forces becam e bogged dow n in a dragged-out war. In 1939 World War II broke o ut in Europe, with England and France against Germany, and at the end of 1941, America and Eng­ land w ere fighting Japan in the Pacific War. T hrough this course of events, the w ar swelled from one betw een China and Japan to one in which Japan was facing the United States, England, and their allies, while the w ar in China still continued. Then, in 1945, eight years after the outbreak of the Sino-Japa­ nese War, Japan surrendered to the Allies and World War II came to an end. The Allies established tribunals in various countries of the

1

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The Politics of Nanjing

w orld, principally in Germ any and Japan, to place on trial those ac­ cused of w ar crim es during the w ar era.

Establishing Military Tribunals In O ctober 1943, w ith World War II in progress, representatives of sixteen nations including the United States, England, France, and China m et in London and established the United Nations Com m is­ sion for the Investigation of War Crimes. O n 29 Novem ber o f the fol­ lowing year, the Far Eastern Branch Com m ittee of the Com m ission for the Investigation o f Pacific War Crimes was form ed in the GMD capital of Chongqing. In August 1945, just before the end of the war, representatives of England, the United States, France, and the Soviet U nion signed the final agreem ent in M oscow for a w ar crimes trial. International Military Tribunals w ere held in Nurem berg, Germany, and Tokyo, Japan, w ith similar tribunals held in a num ber of other countries. Convictions for crim es at the “Great M assacre” at Nanjing (hereafter w ithout quotation marks) w ere handed dow n at two mili­ tary tribunals, one that convened in Nanjing, and one in Tokyo. The Allies at the tribunals divided the charges against the defen­ dants into Class A, Class B, and Class C w ar crimes. Class A crimes re p re s e n te d “Crim es against p eace,” w hich covered planning, starting and conducting aggressive war. Class B crim es w ere those conducted d u rin g the course o f war, th a t is, violations o f the In te r­ natio n al Rules o f War. Class C was in terp reted as “Crimes against h u ­ manity.” This covered m urder both before and during the war, and cruelty. Class A w ar crimes defendants w ere tried at N urem berg and Tokyo, while defendants o f Class B and C w ar crimes w ere placed on trial at military courts in various cities o f the world. From 1947, the military tribunal at Nanjing was held by the GMD Defense Ministry. The court h anded dow n the verdict that during the Japanese occupation o f Nanjing, from 1937 to 1938, there were large-scale killings, arson, looting and rape, and that m ore than 300,000 Chinese w ere killed. Following the Nanjing War Crimes Trial, the International Mili­ tary Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE) confirm ed that during the Jap ­ anese occupation o f Nanjing, m urder, arson, looting and rape oc­ curred, and concluded that m ore than 100,000 p eo p le w ere killed. The results w ere that at Nanjing, a single Japanese regim ental com ­ m ander at the tim e of the attack on Nanjing, Lt. General Tani Hisao, was found responsible for the killings and was executed as a Class B w ar criminal, while In Tokyo, General Matsui Iwane, com m ander of the Japanese Army o f the Yangzi Region at the tim e of the attack on

Introduction

3

Nanjing, was judged responsible for the massacre at Nanjing and was likewise executed as a Class B w ar criminal. G eneral M atsui’s execution as a Class B w ar criminal was for vio­ lations of the International Rules of War, but at the time the tribunal convened he was indicted on charges including Class A w ar crimes, the same as G eneral Tojo Hideki and others. This shows that the Allies did n o t w ant to allow the Nanjing Incident to be handled sim ­ ply as a w ar crime, but intended to raise it to a symbol o f aggressive w ar u n d e r the category of Crimes against Peace.

2. Problems in the Present Concerning the Nanjing Incident Accusations by the Chinese Government The convictions handed dow n at the w ar crim es tribunals did n ot settle the Nanjing Incident. It is an event still filled w ith problem s to ­ day. The Chinese governm ent had m ade the Nanjing Incident a sym­ bol o f Jap an ’s past invasion of the country, and even today China continues her dem and that Japan gain “historical aw areness” o f her invasion of China, including the “Great Nanjing Slaughter.” In 1982, the Japanese governm ent was again subject to dem ands from China. This time, it was over an incident based on erroneous reports carried in m ajor Japanese new spapers. The claim in the press was that the Japanese Ministry of Education, during its review for approval of school textbooks, o rdered revisions in term inology from “invasion of China” to “advance into China” (from sh in rya ku to sh inkoh or shinshutsu). The Chinese governm ent reacted to these false reports and p ro ­ tested to the governm ent o f Japan. Chief Cabinet Secretary Miyazawa Kiichi, w ithout ascertaining w hether the inform ation in the press was true or not, offered apologies. With these events, Japan slid into a w orsening diplom atic situation w ith China. And, in the same con­ text of Jap an ’s past invasions, historical awareness of the invasion of China also extended to creating problem s betw een Japan and o th er countries of Asia. The Chinese governm ent’s dem and for Japan to attain “a correct perception o f history” regarding Jap an ’s past invasions, covering all of Asia, amplified into dem ands that Japan question its ow n political and social structures that took shape since the advent of the Meiji era, and that gave rise to such invasions. In o th er w ords, China pressed Japan to question the m eaning of its ow n m odern history.

4

The Politics of Nanjing

Historical Views Govern Japanese Research The Nanjing Incident has been argued and re-argued in Japan for m any years now. All these argum ents have one point in com m on in that each is based on the personal assertions of the perso n p resen t­ ing the argum ent, and we becom e aware that argum ents show the p ro p o n en t belonging either to the Massacre School, the Illusion School o r the C entrist School. Those o f the Massacre School evaluate and denounce the Nan­ jing Incident in accordance w ith the decisions h anded dow n by the military tribunals at Nanjing and Tokyo. In contrast, p ro p o n en ts of the Illusion School d enounce the decisions o f the Tokyo and Nanjing courts as unreasonable, and assert their claim that there is no m en­ tion o f a Great Massacre at Nanjing in the w ritten records of either of the two tribunals. The C entrist School is m ade u p of those w ho can­ n o t be clearly assigned to either the Massacre School or the Illusion School. Research into Nanjing reflects the differing historical views o f Ja­ p a n ’s m o d ern history of each of the three respective schools. And each o f these views is aligned with a certain characteristic political position tow ard China and o th er Asian countries. Those of the Massacre School assert the historical view that the Nanjing Incident is a symbol of the aggressive attitude and violence that is p art o f the militarism that m anifested itself in Japan following the prom ulgation of the Meiji C onstitution in 1889- They criticize similar aspects continuing today in Ja p a n ’s conservative governm ent and society, and attem pt to oppose it. In international relations, the political position of this school is anti-American in the sense o f o p ­ posing the U.S.-Japan Security Treaties. They are sym pathetic tow ard “the form er C hina” in which both the GMD and the C om m unist Party w ere the targets of Japanese imperialism and the China invasion, and they basically su p p o rt the positions of China and Taiwan today regarding Ja p a n ’s invasion. The Illusion School argues that the assertions of the Massacre School are identical w ith those of the Allied w ar crim es tribunals, and react against “a distortion o f Japanese history into a self-effacing view.” The international position of this school is to oppose pressure by China, w hich shares the same historical view w ith the Massacre School, in pressing Japan to feel rem orse for invasions o f the past. The historical view and political stance of the C entrist School is not necessarily situated betw een the Massacre School and Illusion School. I do n o t wish to assert u n d u e judgm ent here, but there can

Introduction

5

be no m istake in stating that the C entrist School feels an affinity w ith the Illusion School. The Illusion School was the first o f th e dif­ fering schools to receive its term inology, and it originated in 1973 w ith the book by Suzuki Akira, N a n k in g d a ig ya k u sa tsu no m aboroshi (The illusion of the “Great Nanking M assacre”) (Tokyo: Bungei Shunju, 1973). I take the liberty of adopting the orthodox term inology for id en ­ tifying the three respective schools, since these are universally u n ­ derstood am ong researchers. I w ould like to interpret the C entrist School (ch u ka n ha) as b e­ ing closer to chiiritsu, or neutral, since m ost o f those w ho are at­ tracted to this position arrive through the m otivation of research to discern facts, rather than support for a given position. It is interest­ ing to note that adherents to this school are criticized from both sides: those of the Massacre School accuse them of overlooking “facts” and being too far right politically, while those of the Illusion School object to their acknowledging such incidents as killing of POWs and rape, and consider the Centrists com m unistic in outlook. The ongoing argum ents over the Nanjing Incident w ere trig­ gered by the writings of H onda Katsuichi, journalist with the Asahi Shim bun, based on his journey to China and interviews he con­ ducted there. He first w rote a series of articles titled “Chugoku no tabi” (Travels through China) in the Asahi S h im b u n , which started running in August 1971. In the articles he presented inform ation he gathered in China and strongly criticized the actions of the invading Japanese Army. This series of articles was com piled into a book and published by Asahi Shim bun in March 1972, u n d e r the same title. (Published in English translation in 1999 by M E. Sharpe [Armonk, N.Y], The N anjing Massacre: A Japanese J o u rn a list Confronts N a­ tio n a l Sham e). Reacting to this, Suzuki Akira published an article in the April 1972 issue of the Japanese m onthly m agazine Shokun! titled “The Illusion o f the Great Nanjing M assacre,” and in March 1973, he au th o re d the above-cited book of the same title, published by Bungei Shunju. The argum ent over the Nanjing Massacre that H onda and Suzuki launched now has a history of m ore than thirty years. The lines of the argum ents and the problem s therein w ere taken up in detail in M ia no n a k a no nihon g u n (The Japanese Army in Asia), by Kasahara Tokushi (Tokyo: Otsuki Shoten, 1994). The founder and m ajor representative o f the Massacre School was H ora Tomio, w ho started research into the Nanjing Incident in

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6

The Politics of Nanjing

the 1960s and after about a decade published N a n k in jik e n (The Nanking Incident) (Tokyo: Shinjinbutsu Orai Sha, 1972). Also, two o th er m em bers of this school w ho are forem ost researchers and w ho appear later in this book are Kasahara Tokushi and Yoshida Yutaka. H ora is one o f m any researchers of the Massacre School w ho com ­ piled a large am ount of data and advanced the Nanjing Incident into d e e p er studies. I am indebted to these vast reference materials, which I used for my ow n research. The C entrist School can be said to be represented by Hata Ikuhiko, w ho published N a n k in jik e n — “g y a k u sa tsu ” no kozo (The creation o f the “Nanking Massacre”) (Tokyo: C huo Koronsha, 1986). Itakura Yoshiaki, w ho appears in this book, can likewise be consid­ ered a m em ber o f the C entrist School A dherents o f the Illusion School include, forem ost, Suzuki Akira, and also Tanaka Masa’aki and Higashinakano Shudo. The February 2001 issue of the m onthly m agazine Shokun! car­ ried a special rep o rt in which p ro p o n en ts of each o f the schools of argum ent w ere surveyed w ith seventeen items related to the Nanjing Incident. I cannot reproduce the entire survey here, b u t I will sum ­ marize it w ith the m ost pertin en t questions and responses. Q uestions w ere asked of twenty-three persons, am ong w hom were: K asahara Tokushi, university professor Yoshida Yutaka, university professor S u zu ki Akira, nonfiction w riter Tanaka M a sa ’aki, chairm an of a com m ittee to care for a G oddess of Mercy statue erected in the nam e o f General M atsui Iw a n e and dedicated to the prosperity o f Asia Sa ku ra i Yoshiko, journalist H ara Tsuyoshi, form er chief researcher at the Military History D epartm ent of the National Institute for Defense Studies The results of the survey w ere tallied by the m agazine staff and show ed that seven of the twenty-three, including Yoshida and Kasa­ hara, subscribed to the Massacre School. Ten, including Suzuki and Tanaka, w ere o f the Illusion School. Six, including Sakurai and Hara, fell into the C entrist School. Hata Ikuhiko, Itakura Yoshiaki, and H igashinakano Shudo w ere n o t included in this survey because Ita­ kura had passed away by then, and Hata and Higashinakano were carried in a different part of the same magazine in a discussion of the same problem .

Introduction

7

The seventeen item s of the survey looked at the Nanjing Incident from a broad angle. Some of the questions covered w ere, “How m any people w ere killed?” (Q uestion No. 1) and “Were the crimes equal to th e H olocaust o f th e Nazis, o r was it a case o f exceeding the lim its o f th e o rd in ary co n d u c t o f war?” The final q u e stio n asked w h e th e r the p e rs o n ’s evaluation o f the N anjing In cid en t has changed from the past. For the p resent work, I have selected four of the seventeen points o f argum ent, w ith the responses to these four questions given by Kasahara and Yoshida of the Massacre School, Suzuki and Tanaka of the Illusion School, and Sakurai and H ara of the C entrist School. I chose questions n u m b er 1, 3, and 16, and since questions n u m b er 6,7, and 8 o n the survey w ere closely re ­ lated and som ew hat overlapping, I have com bined these into one question. Q uestion No. 1: How m any people w ere killed at the Nanjing Incident? Kasahara: From m ore than 100,000 to plus-m inus 200,000. Yoshida: More than 100,000. Suzuki: Historical docum ents are insufficient, therefore the num ber is unknow n. Tanaka: W ithout qualifications, next to zero. Sakurai: Plus-minus 10,000. Hara: Between 20,000 and 30,000: 20,000 POWs and sol­ diers in plain clothes, several thousand civilians. Q uestion No. 3: How long a period of time did the incident cover? Kasahara: From D ecem ber 1937 to March o f the following year, until a pro-Japanese governm ent was established in Nanjing. Yoshida: From D ecem ber 1937 to March o f the following year, until the retu rn of law and o rd er in the city to approxi­ m ately the form er level. Suzuki: From Novem ber 1937 to 1 January of the following year, w hen the Self-Government Com m ittee (Tze Chih Wei Tuan Hwei) was set up by the Chinese. Tanaka: From D ecem ber 1937 until the end of January 1938, until the Japanese forces com pleted their m opping-up operations. Sakurai: For several days in mid D ecem ber 1937, until G en­ eral Matsui entered Nanjing on 17 December.

The Politics of Nanjing

8

Hard: From D ecem ber 1937 to the end of January, until the en d of the Japanese Army’s m opping-up operations. Com posite o f questions Nos. 6, 7, a n d 8: Was the execution of Chi­ nese soldiers w ho had discarded their uniform s and concealed them selves as civilians a violation of the International Rules o f War? Kasahara: A violation. Yoshida: A violation. Suzuki: The entire picture of the incident is n o t clear, thus it is im possible to answer. Tanaka: Not a violation. Sakurai: No answer. Hara: A court procedure is necessary to carry o u t execu­ tions. Foreigners w ho w itnessed the executions believe they w ere d o n e through p ro p er procedure, and criticism as viola­ tions of the Rules of War did n ot develop. Q uestion No. 16: Could the incident be com pared w ith the crim es of the Nazi Holocaust, o r was it an extrem e in the norm al conduct of war?’ Kasahara: There is also an accidental factor to the incident. The Japanese Army acknowledges that it was an extrem e in the conduct o f war. What could be com pared w ith the H olo­ caust is w hen the Japanese Army carried out mass killings in its “Burn all, Kill all, Loot all” {sankou) operations in areas u n d e r control of the Chinese Com m unist Party. Yoshida: It was a case o f crim e during the reduction of the capital; sa n ko u is som ething different. Suzuki: T here w ere extrem es in the conduct o f war, b u t the H olocaust was o f a com pletely different nature. Tanaka: It was norm al conduct of war, not an extrem e. The H olocaust was of a com pletely different dim ension. Sakurai: There was an extrem e in the conduct of war, but the H olocaust was o f a com pletely different nature. Hara: There was an extrem e in the conduct of war, but the governm ent leaders and military com m anders of both China and Japan had a very shallow appreciation for international law.

Research in Taiwan and China The heated argum ents that took place in Japan over the Nanjing Inci­ d e n t stim ulated research in Taiwan and China. In spite of the fact that news carried in the Japanese press in 1982 to the effect that Ja­

Introduction

9

p a n ’s Ministry of Education had reviewed Japanese textbooks was false inform ation, the reports triggered research in Taiwan, and re­ sulted in com plicated argum ents over w hether Japan “advanced into” o r “invaded” China. As early as that same year of 1982, a special edition p h o to m aga­ zine covering China and titled “An Iron M ountain o f Testimony: H einous Crimes in the Japanese Army’s Invasion o f C hina” was published in Taiwan by C hung Kuo Publishing Co. The sam e p u b ­ lisher issued a Japanese-language edition sim ultaneously u n d e r the same m ain title with the subtitle, “Unshakable Proof of the Japanese Army’s Invasion o f China.” This was p resen ted to schools and librar­ ies in Japan u n d e r patronage of the GMD governm ent. In 1984, the Japanese-ow ned new spaper Sekai Nippo carried a denial of a Great Massacre at Nanjing and voices of pro test rose up am ong m em bers of the GMD in Taiwan. The result o f the controversy was that in 1987, the entire staff of the Kuom intang Party History Com pilation Com m ittee was m obi­ lized and com piled a large-scale edition o f docum ents. One volum e of this w ork by the Central Com m ittee o f the GMD was titled Refer­ ence M aterials o f the Revolution, No. 108. In this collection is found “Violence by the Japanese Army in China—The Nanking Slaughter, Part I.” And, in No. 109 is found “Violence by the Japanese Army in China—The Nanking Slaughter, Part II.” These two volumes, which include docum ents in English published during the Sino-Japanese War, form a valuable reference source. Research into the Nanjing Incident began in China at about the same time it did in Taiwan. In August 1985, a m onum ent called the Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre was con­ structed in Nanjing. The wall near the entrance was engraved with an inscription to “300,000 victims” o f the incident. Since then, m any reference books on the incident have been published in China, in Chinese, including H istorical Resources o f the N anjing Slaughter (1985); H istorical Archives o f the N anjing Slaughter—Preparatory H istory (1987); The In va d in g Japanese A rm y ’s N anjing Slaughter (1987). Materials in China contain inform ation n ot found in Taiwan, in­ cluding administrative records from the Nanjing m unicipal govern­ m ent at the tim e of the Sino-Japanese War, which provide valuable clues to understanding the conditions that existed at the time. These newly publicized m aterials were left behind by the GMD w hen they retreated from Nanjing in 1949 after losing the fight to the C om m u­ nist Party.

10

The Politics of Nanjing

Chinese history textbooks for m iddle school focused on a Nan­ jing Incident. According to a series of articles by Komori Yoshihisa that ran in the Sankei Sbim bun in February and March 2001 u n d e r the title “Reconsidering the Nanjing Incident” (Nitchu saiko), the 1980 version o f Chinese history texts carried an account of the Japa­ nese Army’s cruelty at the tim e o f the occupation of Nanjing, b ut there was no in d ep en d en t topic o f a “Great Nanjing Massacre.” Be­ ginning w ith 1982, however, changes w ere progressively edited into the texts, and in the 1992 version of the textbooks the topic of “The Great Nanjing Massacre” appeared for the first time, while the space allotted to the occupation o f Nanjing grew by alm ost four times. With the 1995 edition of the school texts, illustrations depicting scenes of cruelty w ere added.

Research in the United States by People of Chinese Origin The Nanjing Incident is a topic am ong Americans o f Chinese descent and Chinese residing abroad. Some o f them have form ed an organi­ zation called the Global Alliance for Preserving the History o f World War II in Asia, a coalition of som e thirty organizations worldw ide. Against this background, Iris Chang, an American of Chinese ances­ try, published The Rape o f Nanjing: The Forgotten H olocaust o f W orld War Two (New York: Basic Books, 1997). In this book, the au­ th o r likens the Nanjing Incident to the crim es o f Auschwitz. The book b rought recom m endations by several American historical re­ searchers, and soon m ade the best-seller list. It first seem ed to m e that Iris Chang’s book reaching the best­ seller list in American society indicated that it touched on a variety of problem s in the consciousness of international society. Apart from how m uch truth o r fiction h er book contains, subsequent inform a­ tion I received revealed this to be one m ore exam ple of Nanjing be­ ing used as a political tool.* (Joshua Fogel o f the University of California, w riting in the J o u rn a l o f A sian Studies 57, no. 3 [1998] criticized C hang’s book as “risky.”)

*Translator’s note: The immediate, high sales of this book in America should be a logical cause for suspicion. The incident concerns almost no Americans—only a small number who remained behind to help the Chinese—and touches on no American problems. The sales reflected no reasonable reflection of American reading habits, especially with immediate post-publication sales that made it ob­ vious there was an organized purchasing bloc waiting for the book to come out. I subsequently received proof that the book was indeed bought up by Chinese

Introduction

11

The analysis in Chang’s book is obviously slanted tow ard a p ar­ ticular bias, and num erous historical facts are m isconstrued. Chang argues that in Japan, researchers avoid the subject because they are afraid of losing their jobs, and thus frustrated in their research. No such thing has ever happened, while books and articles on all sides of the argum ent have been published. Such statem ents by Chang are false reporting. In addition, other American researchers into Japanese history have given Chang’s w ork harsh criticism. These w ere carried in the Japanese m onthly magazine Shokunf during the year 1998. The American society’s reaction to C hang’s book for a lim ited time was to question w hether this was a different form o f the familiar Japan bashing that occasionally surfaces in American and European society. The irony o f C hang’s book is that, com ing o u t at that tim e w ith heavy su p p o rt from the Chinese community, it grew out of the re­ search stim ulated in China and Taiwan by the controversy in Japan. This also refutes the “suppression in Jap an ” Chang talks about.

3. A New Approach to Studying the Nanjing Incident A Return to the Basics of Historical Research Research into the Nanjing Incident is not lim ited to a single aca­ demic them e as found in orthodox historical research. W hether we wish it or not, research into the incident exposes that research to the political environm ent that rushes to envelop it, nationally here in Ja­ pan and even m ore so in the international arena. And each re­ searcher is questioned and categorized as to w hich political position the particular research findings are trying to defend. If I presented, as a conclusion to my research, the finding that it is difficult to establish a basis for the claim of a Great Massacre of 300,000 people, the Chinese w ould probably label m e anti-Chinese, and the Japanese adherents to the Massacre School w ould u n d o u b t­ edly label m e as a m em ber of the Illusion School o r the C entrist groups with the object of pushing it onto the best-seller list. The reasons for this, political included, may represent a controversy in themselves. When another book by Chang, on the Chinese immigration into the United States, was pub­ lished, the call went out again to repeat the accomplishment of The Rape o f

Nanjing. ]

12

The Politics of Nanjing

School. O n the o th er hand, if I p oint o u t that u narm ed soldiers w ho discarded their w eapons w ere taken prisoners and executed by the Japanese, the Illusion School adherents w ould label m e leftist or com m unist. W hen I chose the Nanjing Incident for a research them e, I ques­ tio n ed w h eth er o r n o t it w ould be possible to m aintain a distance from its associated political colorings. If I w ere n either Japanese no r Chinese, my research m ight be viewed as devoid o f political and na­ tional encum brances and conducted from a position of neutrality. I cannot, however, alter the fact that I am one citizen of the nation of Japan, w hich the international society has charged w ith the Great Massacre at Nanjing. Also, as long as the Nanjing Incident has ac­ q uired the function of a fu m i-e w ithin Japan, I realized that my re ­ search w ould unavoidably be viewed as politicized.’ After considering this problem from m any angles, I concluded that the only way w ould be to retu rn to the basics of historiographic research. Argum ents until now have p resented m any new examples o f “p ro o f ” and new interpretations applied to know n facts, while the argum ents them selves becam e m ore heated and p u sh ed the entire Nanjing argum ent into increasingly com plicated confrontations. "'■’From w hat I have seen, however, to those w ho subscribe to the Mas­ sacre School, the existence of a Nanjing Massacre is an u n q u es­ tioned, self-evident proposition, and they do n o t allow a questioning o f this existence. Those o f the Illusion School take the position from the outset that a Nanjing Incident m ust be denied. In disregard for a historiographic search for truth, this type of contention has p ro ­ duced a continuous clash of argum ents in which each side declares the existence of its ow n “god” (in this case, however, it becom es a devil) to w hich it professes faith, and created a situation in which views have taken on the tone of a religious argum ent. In contrast to this, my ow n approach for returning to the basics o f h isto rio g rap h ic research is to avoid hasty argum ents and c o n ­ clusions th a t th e re “w as” o r “was n o t” a G reat M assacre at Nanjing, b u t ra th e r to apply an o rd erly process in o rd e r to discern the cir­ cum stances by w hich u n d ersta n d in g s of the various concepts m anifested.

’fum i-e: Literally, “treading on a [Christian] image." In the seventeenth-century purge of Christianity in Japan, government officials ordered people to step on a Christian image to force Christians to reveal themselves.

Introduction

13

The events that m ade up the Nanjing Incident w ere decided u p o n by the w ar crim es trials in Nanjing and Tokyo, and form ed the basis for the decisions handed dow n by those courts. Accordingly, I will start with an orderly analysis of the contents o f these judgm ents, to discern by w hat accum ulation of reasons the understanding o f the greater picture of the Nanjing Incident was achieved. In oth er w ords, I will pursue the w ritten statem ents and oral testim ony by American, European, and Chinese persons that form ed the basis of the court decisions to exam ine w hether the m aterials u p o n w hich the deci­ sions w ere m ade su p p o rt those decisions. In o rd er to accom plish this, I em ployed the following p ro ce­ dures. First, I arranged and categorized the evidence. Next, I identi­ fied the background against which each piece of evidence was generated, and thus gained an understanding o f the ability of each piece of evidence to bear witness. At the o u tset o f this work, I ap­ plied com m on sense in checking and scrutinizing each piece o f evi­ dence. At this tim e, I did not use statem ents of Japanese w ho opposed the content of the evidence, o r newly subm itted evidence by Japanese researchers. If I had included these, I feel that I w ould have provoked accusations o f political bias, that I am a defender of the Japanese position, and it w ould d eter som e people from looking at the developm ent o f my investigation. By “com m on sense” I m ean a rational judgm ent of the quality and scale o f hum an behavior u n d e r given conditions, and which sense o f judgm ent allows a person to achieve an understanding that falls w ithin the field of actual events. It is also the pow er of judgm ent that makes possible an aw are­ ness o f the compatibility of the developm ent of argum ents based on the contents o f the variety of evidence. I believe the m ajority of people conducting their lives in society are equipped with this pow er of judgm ent. In a trial by jury, legal d e ­ cisions concerning incidents are entrusted to a jury o f citizens based on their evaluation o f evidence. While this jury system is n ot now in effect in Japan, I have em ployed the reader-as-jury principle in w rit­ ing this book, and I present my findings before you in the hope that you will apply the com m on sense and rational judgm ent expected of an unbiased jury.

14

The Politics of Nanjing

Three Types of Evidence that Established the Nanjing Incident The docum entary evidence p resented at the tribunals at Nanjing and Tokyo that was used to arrive at a ruling on the Nanjing Incident can be divided into three groups. Group I

Accusations o f Japanese Army conduct in w ritten statem ents and ar­ ticles by W esterners and Chinese w ho w ere resident in Nanjing u n ­ d er the Japanese occupation. Most o f these m aterials w ere published from 1938 through mid 1939. As I will show later, they do not contain any statem ents o f a Great Massacre occurring at Nanjing. It was at the w ar crim es trials held after the w ar that accusations o f acts by individual Japanese sol­ diers took o n the appearance that these w ere elem ents in a planned, large-scale massacre. The m aterials in this group appear in n u m er­ ous reference collections and it is possible to see them in their origi­ nal languages. Group II

M aterials com piled from surveys in Nanjing conducted by the GMD in 1946. These covered testim onies by Chinese residents o f Nanjing w ho experienced the Japanese occupation of the city, surveys of hum an rem ains exhum ed by the GMD, and o th er reports. Individual testi­ m onies also exist by w itnesses w ho rep o rted a great m assacre of thousands, and of tens of thousands, of victims. There are also testi­ m onies by welfare organizations of well over 100,000 killed. And these rep o rts of enorm ous num bers of bodies w ere judged by the w ar crim es tribunals in both Nanjing and Tokyo to be the results of actions by individual Japanese soldiers as rep o rted in G roup I, and a G reat M assacre was judged to have taken place. Presently, neither the Taiwanese n o r Chinese governm ents have released these m ateri­ als in their entirety. They w ere, however, p resented at the Tokyo tri­ bunal, and their core contents w ere exam ined, thus these court records now enable us to know those core contents.

Introduction

15

Group III Testimony taken after World War II at the Nanjing and Tokyo War Crimes Trials from W esterners and Chinese w ho experienced Nan­ jing u n d e r the Japanese occupation. In both the tribunals, m any of the same witnesses w ho appeared in G roup I, including W esterners, appear in court in this group also. For that reason, the content o f tes­ tim ony in both tribunals can be considered approxim ately similar. Testimony at the Nanjing tribunal has n o t b een released, while all testim ony p resented at the tribunal in Tokyo is know n. I have all the available m aterials in hand, together w ith those o f G roups I and II. If we exam ine the above materials on a basis o f w hat I term “com ­ m on sense,” w hat is the shape of the Nanjing Incident that arises? The m ain research for of this book was conducted and w ritten up from O ctober 1999 through January 2000, and was carried in a series of articles in the Japanese magazine Toa K azan Society, nos. 388, 390, 391, as a three-part introduction to research into the Great Mas­ sacre at Nanjing. W hen I began w riting the present work, I included an introduction and was also able to include num erous m aterials that I had searched o u t and gathered, but space lim itations did not perm it including in the above-cited magazine articles. T hroughout my research, I was aided by advice from a num ber of associates and acquaintances; their cooperation is reflected in the inform ation in these pages.

i

C h a p te r 1 — T h e G M D C h in a In fo rm a tio n C o m m itte e and W a rtim e D ip lo m a tic S tra te g y

1. The Enigma of the Manchester Guardian Correspondent, H.J. Timperley Unexpected Facts The w orld’s first know ledge of a Nanjing Incident came about through a published account of the Japanese occupation o f Nanjing. This is the book by H.J. Timperley, special co rrespondent for the M anchester G uardian, and published in London u n d e r the title, W hat War Means: The Japanese Terror in China. (The new spaper continues today as The G u ardian , published in London.) W hat War M eans was published in its entirety in Japanese trans­ lation in volum e 2 of a reference book titled N icchu senso N a n kin g d a iza n g ya ku jik e n shiryoshu (Materials on the great Nanjing atroc­ ity of the Sino-Japanese war), ed. H ora Tomio, 2 vols. (Tokyo: Aoki Shoten, 1985). Vol. 1: Kyokyto ko ku sa i g u n ji saiban k a n k ei shiryohen (Materials of the Far East International Military Tribunal). Vol. 2: Eibun shiryohen (English-language references). The w ork contains this com m ent by Hora: H.J. Timperley held the citizenship of an Australian national and was working as a China correspondent for the M anchester G uard­ ian. (Portion omitted.) Timperley’s collection of his writings on the criminal brutalities of the Japanese Army during their occupa­ tion o f Nanking was published very soon after the event and ap­ pealed to world opinion. It is possible that this work of his shook the intelligent society of the Western world.

17

18

The Politics of Nanjing

As I explained in the Introduction, W hat War M eans belongs to G roup I evidence. In the Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal in 1947, spe­ cial m ention of the w ork was w ritten into the judgm ent. At the outset of this work, I analyzed W hat War M eans and I confirm ed a surpris­ ing fact that has b een overlooked in research into the Nanjing Inci­ d en t until now, and that is that while Tim perley’s writings are considered those o f a journalist and a third-party w itness w ho criti­ cized th e Japanese occupation o f Nanjing from a n eu tral position, he actually published the statem ents of the China Inform ation C om m ittee, th e p ro p ag an d a arm o f th e GMD’s C hina M inistry of Inform ation. Again, as with Timperley’s work, Lewis S.C. Smythe’s War D am age in the N anking Area, December 1937 to March 1938: Urban a n d R ural Surveys (Shanghai: M ercury Press, 1938) has com e to be considered the view o f a third-party W esterner w ho criticized the Japanese Army from a neutral position. It is now clear that Smythe, through Tim per­ ley’s coordination, w rote w hat he did at the request of, and for pay­ m ent received from, the GMD China Inform ation Com m ittee. At the time o f the Japanese occupation of Nanjing, Lewis Smythe was a professor at Jinling University in Nanjing. Section III of this book contains details and analyses of Smythe and his work, War Damages. As n o ted above, it has becom e clear that the two im portant works that served as court evidence to establish the Nanjing Incident w ere n o t the w orks of third-party persons in a neutral position b u t w ere w ritten for the GMD’s w artim e diplom atic campaign. This is one im ­ po rtan t feature of the present book, and I should like to explain by w hat route I found the surprising facts concerning Smythe.

Left Book Club W hen I located a copy of Tim perley’s W hat War M eans, I was shocked to see on the red, hard cover, “Left Book Club,” and also “Not for Sale to the Public.” The publisher was Victor Gollancz, Ltd., o f London. W hat is the Left Book Club? And why is the book “Not for Sale to the Public”? Why did H ora Tomio, in his bibliographical review of the book, n o t m ention these facts in his otherw ise detailed description o f the book? H ora even failed to m ention that the publisher was the Left Book Club. I located som e one h u n d red books in the sam e series of Left Book Topical Books, all in identical bindings, all published in the 1930s and dealing w ith contem porary E uropean politics. My re ­ search was pulled in the direction of investigating the Left Book

Chapter 1

19

Club. If the nature o f that publisher w ere understood, I reasoned, we can determ ine tow ard w hat readership the book was aimed. And, through understanding the background o f the publishing com pany we can fathom the motives behind the publication of the book. I searched through the books o n contem porary English history, but found no m ention o f the Left Book Club. Then, u n d e r Political Science, I found a copy o f a Japanese book by Mizutani M itsuhiro ti­ tled Laski to sono n a k a m a — “a k a i30 n en d a i" no chishikijin (Laski and his friends: Intellectuals of the “Red Thirties”) (Tokyo: C huo Koron, 1994). This book sum m ed up well the gist of the thoughts of the left wing in England of the 1930s, and also cited Tim perley’s book. The Left Book Club was founded in 1936 as an organization of left-wing intellectuals, and Victor Gollancz, Ltd., was the publisher of its book list. Victor Gollancz and political scientist H arold Laski w ere prom inent am ong left-wing intellectual activists of the day, while the Com m unist Party of Great Britain and the C om intern su p p o rted the publishing activities o f the Left Book Club. I was certain that the in­ ternational political w orld was in the background of Tim perley’s book, and I becam e strongly convinced that Timperley was not m erely a correspondent for the M anchester G uardian, but a m an with another background. Afterwards, I obtained a Japanese translation o f a w ork by Jo h n Lewis, a core m em ber o f the Left Book Club, titled The Left Book Club: An H istorical Record (London: Victor Gollancz, 1970). Japa­ nese translation by Suzuki Kenzo published by Shobunsha, 1991). In this book, am ong the works published by the Left Book Club, w ere listed The R ed Star o f China, by Edgar Snow (London, 1937, and New York, 1938) and China Fights Back: An A m erican W om an w ith the Eighth R oute Army, by Agnes Smedley (1938). Surprisingly, to arouse interest in the China problem am ong readers in England, John Lewis referred to the books by Snow and Smedley, b ut the ques­ tion presents itself as to why he m ade no m ention of Tim perley’s book, which was published at about the same tim e as the o th er two works. Was Tim perley’s work, as H ora Tomio w rote in his biblio­ graphical introduction, really “a book which shocked awake W estern intellectuals”? Problems such as these form the essence of the p resent book, which is based on my paper, published serially in the Japanese m aga­ zine Toa, w ith amplifications. I received a letter from Kasahara Tokushi that advised m e that w hen H ora Tomio translated Tim perley’s book into Japanese, he did not use the edition published by the Left

20

The Politics of Nanjing

Book Club b u t a different edition that was p u t on general sale. Kasahara kindly sent m e a photostatic copy of the cover of the gen­ eral-sale edition o f the book w ith his letter, but the general-sale edi­ tion of the book also shows the publisher as Victor Gollancz, Ltd. For this reason, H ora’s bibliographical introduction is som ew hat incom ­ plete in that it does not identify the publisher. Since H ora was an ex­ perienced w riter with a long list of academ ic works to his credit, this om ission can be seen as intentional. That is, he did not w ant to iden­ tify Tim perley’s w ork w ith the publisher in ord er to avoid associa­ tion w ith a politically oriented organization. In Part 2 I will discuss the problem s that grow o u t of handling m aterial by adherents to the Massacre School.

Timperley and the GMD’s Central Propaganda Department M atsum oto Shigeharu was head of the Shanghai branch of the Japa­ nese news agency Dom ei at the tim e of the Sino-Japanese War. In his m em oirs, The Shanghai Era (Tokyo: C huo Koron, 1975), he w rote that Tim perley was a correspondent for the M anchester G uardian and a m an w ho had a strong sense of justice. It is evident that there was a strong familiarity betw een the two m en. There are also o th er testim onies o n Tim perley’s activities by Japanese. Itakura Yoshiaki heard about Tim perley activities from Fukuda Tokuyasu, a proba­ tionary diplom at in the Japanese Foreign Ministry during the SinoJapanese War and Utsunomiya Naokata, an officer in the Japanese Army’s new s departm ent w ho was stationed in Shanghai. Itakura’s book, The Truth a b o u t the Great N anjing Massacre, contains the de­ tails of the co n ten t of this inform ation. In 1937, Tim perley was living in Shanghai and there is no d o u b t that he was w orking as a journal­ ist. Testimonies from persons of the same era, however, m ake no m ention o f any oth er title o r position he held outside the limits of a co rresp o n d en t for the M anchester G uardian. W hen I first began researching Tim perley’s background, I estim ated his date of birth and looked him u p in the D ictionary o f N a tio n a l Biography, an ex­ tensive multi-volum e set that centers mainly on British persons, b ut I found nothing o n Timperley. I searched o th er reference books w here biographies of journalists are listed but Tim perley never sur­ faced. I began to get the im pression that the m an intentionally cov­ ered his footsteps and kept his identity u n d e r wraps. W ithout clarifying Tim perley’s background, the success o f my r e ­ se arc h in to th e N an jin g In c id e n t w as ta n ta m o u n t to b e in g d o o m ed . I felt that my project was at a dead-end w hen I started searching a volum e published in 1981, in Chinese, by the Chinese

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Social Sciences Publishing Co. titled A Biographical D ictionary o f Foreigners in China in the M odern Age. It was a reference w ork of foreigners w ho came to China and their activities, covering mainly the years 1840 through 1949. An astounding surprise awaited me. I found an entry for “Timperley, H arold John; 1898- ” w ith the re n d e r­ ing of his nam e in Chinese characters, and the entries, “Australian, ar­ rived in China after World War I, journalist w ith Reuters at their Peking office, later w orked for the M anchester G uardian and United Press in Peking; in 1937, after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, the KMT dispatched him to E urope and the United States to engage in propaganda activities. Following this, he was em ployed as adviser to the KMT’s Chinese Ministry of Inform ation.” What this m eans is that the GMD’s propaganda cam paign was in the background of Tim perley’s book. If I pursu ed the story behind the propaganda cam paign of the GMD I thought it w ould reveal a new clue to the Nanjing Incident. However, from w hat sources did this biographical dictionary draw its information? W ithout knowing this I w ould not have the foundation to support an argum ent for this as new evidence in the Nanjing Incident. Just before this discovery, I encountered a w ork by ja p a n ’s lead­ ing p roponent of the Illusion School, Suzuki Akira, Shin N anjing daigyakusatsu no m aboroshi (A new Nanjing m assacre illusion) (To­ kyo: Asuka Shinsha, 1999). In this book, the a u th o r describes Tim­ perley as “adviser to the China Ministry o f Inform ation” o f the GMD. He also notes finding Tim perley’s obituary in the M anchester G uardian and The Times both dated 29 Novem ber 1954, and giving Tim perley’s age at death as fifty-six. Suzuki confirm ed Tim perley’s date of birth from the Biographical D ictionary o f Foreigners in China in the M odern Age. I obtained copies of Tim perley’s obituaries in the M anchester G uardian and The Times, b ut in Suzuki’s Japanese translation of the obituaries, he lists Timperley as “adviser to the Chinese Ministry of Inform ation from 1943,” and states that for seven years he w orked in international liaison. In 1950 he began w orking w ith UNESCO as an education official in the Indonesian embassy, training young m em ­ bers of the diplom atic corps. He soon fell ill and retu rn ed to Lon­ don; then in his later years he becam e a m em ber of the Society of Friends and was involved w ith War on Want, a cam paign to aid u n ­ derdeveloped countries. As po in ted o u t in the ‘A uthor’s/Translator’s Forew ord,” the Chi­ nese Ministry of Inform ation m entioned in Tim perley’s obituary is

22

The Politics of Nanjing

the English translation used by the Chinese G overnm ent for w hat is m ore accurately ren d ered “C entral Propaganda Ministry.” Suzuki’s Japanese translation, however, traces Tim perley’s activ­ ities w ith this organization only to m ere affiliation. He points out that the B iographical D ictionary o f Foreigners in China in the M od­ ern Age does n o t list Tim perley’s year of death, and suggests the exis­ tence o f o th er reference materials. Suzuki, however, does not even consider pursuing Tim perley’s background any further, and in par­ ticular m aking any link betw een Tim perley’s book and his relation­ ship w ith the GMD’s international political propaganda campaign. In addition to these materials, I com pared the inform ation in a book by the C entrist School p ro ponent, Hata Ikuhiko, N a n k in jik e n —g y a ku sa tsu no k o zo (The Nanking Incident: Creation of the great massacre) (Tokyo: C huo Kororonsha, 1986). In here, the author points o u t that Timperley “departed Shanghai in the spring of 1938, b u t the following year he w orked in the Chinese Ministry o f Inform a­ tion o f the Chiang Kai-shek governm ent.” C oncerning Tim perley’s personal history, H ata’s inform ation is very close to that listed in the obituaries in the M anchester G uardian and The Times, b u t Hata notes o th er w orks by Timperley in addition to W hat War M eans that w ere n o t m entioned in the obituaries. It is conceivable that Hata re­ lied on English sources o th er than the obituaries in the two new spa­ pers for inform ation on Timperley. In the bibliography at the en d of his book, Hata m entions that he searched the National Archives in W ashington and the Japanese Diet Library in Tokyo, b ut Hata, like Suzuki, never offers the slightest hint of a suggestion that there was a connection betw een Tim perley’s book and the GMD’s international propaganda campaign. It is appropriate to note here that the only m ention of the fact that from just after the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War Timperley was w orking for the GMD’s overseas propaganda activities, and a suggestion of the association betw een his activities in that capacity and W hat War M eans, is found in A Biography o f Foreigners in China in the M odern Era, a publication w ritten in Chinese and edited by Chinese. W hat are the sources for the statem ents regarding T im per­ ley in the above-cited work? The biography’s forew ord lists a bibliography of sources in Eng­ lish, Japanese, and Chinese. Regarding W esterners, the w ork d e­ p e n d e d m ainly on English-language sources, and if T im perley’s nam e had appeared in any of these, the fact w ould n o t have been overlooked by the m eticulous British editorial staff of the D ictionary

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o f N a tio n a l Biography (w ritten in English and edited by British staff) in their search for personal details for their listings. At the outset, I felt that Timperley was not well know n enough to be listed in the source materials, b u t w hen I saw his obituary listed in The Times, I questioned why he was not included in the D ictionary o f N a tio n a l Biography, a publishing organization that takes pride in its rep u ta ­ tion for careful com pilation. If we apply “worldly com m on sense,” we m ust adm it that a jo u r­ nalist’s w ork is easily pressed into slanting o r m anipulation of infor­ m ation (we m ight at times call it “espionage”) and this naturally becom es part o f that journalist’s work. This is rarely seen w ith Japa­ nese journalists because, while Japanese are feverish inform ation gatherers, they are not skilled in this type o f undercover work. As we shall see later, Tim perley’s Japanese acquaintances w ere unaw are of the m an’s affiliation w ith the GMD. The fam ous pro-Soviet spy group of Richard Sorge is an o u t­ standing exam ple of a foreigner’s approach to espionage. (Richard Sorge, in Tokyo as a correspondent for the G erm an new spaper Frankfurter Allgemeine, was the key m em ber of a spy ring that sent political and military inform ation to the Soviet Union. He joined and feigned allegiance to the Nazi Party and thus becam e privy to highly sensitive m aterial passing betw een Berlin and the G erm an embassy in Tokyo, which he then provided to Stalin.) Of course, Sorge w orked closely w ith Japanese journalist Ozaki Hotsumi, w ho gained an advisory position in the inner circles of Japanese governm ent from which he culled inform ation for transm ission to Moscow, but this again was a rare case for Japanese. Timperley was also concerned with inform ation m anipulation, and the editors of the D ictionary o f N a tio n a l Biography may not have discovered this simply because he m anipulated inform ation on himself. Or, the om ission may have been intentional, to conceal the GMD’s role. Likewise, it m ight also be possible that because Tim per­ ley was a m anipulator of inform ation, the overseas new spapers that carried his obituary did n ot receive the above-cited details about his personal life for inclusion in his background. C ontinuing this same line of reasoning, it is easy to understand Tim perley’s absence from the w ar crim es trials in Nanjing and Tokyo, while num erous West­ erners w ho p la y e d significant roles in his book did appear to bring a “Great M assacre” to trial. With Timperley, only his book “took the witness stand”; the m an him self had disappeared, and thus he never

24

The Politics of Nanjing

had to stand questioning o r cross-exam ination, and especially never had to face the question of political affiliation.

The English-language Chinese Journalist, Sun Ruiqin In spite of the above-cited circumstances, the entry in the Biographi­ cal D ictionary o f Foreigners in China in the M odern Age d eter­ m ined that Timperley, in the prim e o f his career, w orked as a consultant to the China Inform ation Com m ittee, listing the nam es for the initials “H.J.” that Timperley custom arily signed his articles w ith as ‘H arold J o h n ,’ along w ith his date of birth, 1898. Timperley also signed his book w ith just his first and second initials and sur­ nam e, not his full name. After considering all the facts, I felt that the entry for Timperley in A B iographical D ictionary o f Foreigners in China in the M odern Era was m ost certainly based on inform ation that the editor ob­ tained personally. The Introduction to the volum e m entions “additional sources,” su g g e stin g th a t re fe re n c e m a te ria l exists o u ts id e th e liste d b ib lio g ra p h y . In addition, there is a notation that “Professor Sun Ruiqin o f the Translation Section spent a great deal of time and effort editing the first draft o f this volum e prior to the Cultural Revolution. After he died from sickness in 1971, his papers were put in order, expanded and finished.”

Sun Ruiqin is the key. From 1949 until the early 1980s, China was in a state o f seclusion, and u n d e r a blackout of news from W estern co u n ­ tries. Tim perley died in 1954, and this w ould not have b een know n w hen the D ictionary was being com piled. How was Sun Ruiqin in a position to obtain detailed inform ation on Timperley? C onsidering that Sun Ruiqin died in 1 9 7 1 ,1hypothesized that he m ight have been active during the GMD era. I then searched out a copy of W ho's Who in China, an English-language volum e published by The China Weekly Review, a well-known English-language m aga­ zine founded in Shanghai in 1916 by an American, Thom as Milliard. The publication contained m ainly political and financial com m en­ tary on China. In Chinese Weekly Review is called “Mi le m in ping lu n .” The cover o i W ho’s Who in China carried a short biographical introduction of several persons of that era w ho w ere m entioned in Weekly Review, and the publication was issued regularly. In 1974 it was rep ro d u ced in Japan, from the original printing plates, by Ryukeishosha (Tokyo) in a five-volume set that contained all six vol­

Chapter 1

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um es published in China until then. Volume six of the W ho's Who in China edition that was published in China in 1937 lists Sun Ruiqin first in ideographs followed by the notation in English, “J.C. Sun, journalist; Born 1 8 9 8 - The subsequent inform ation contains com ­ m ents of special interest. Sun and Timperley w ere the same age. Sun graduated Peiyang University in Tianjin in 1920. It was the first u n i­ versity in China, established in 1895, and th en know n as Peiyang Da xuetang. The American vice-consul, Charles Daniel Tenney (1857-1930), was the first general education m anager o f this university, a position created w ith the education revolution around the tu rn of the tw enti­ eth century, tow ard the en d o f the Ching (or M anchu) Dynasty. The position com bined the offices of school principal and school adm in­ istrator. The university was based on the American style and in 1917 it becam e a national university. Sun Ruiqin was proficient in English, and after he graduated u n i­ versity he lived in Beijing and w orked as an editor on several Eng­ lish-language new spapers in that city. In 1937, before the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, he established a connection w ith the Beijing office o f Reuters news service. With this contact, he w ould have know n fellow-journalist Timperley, w ho was w orking for Reu­ ters as well as the M anchester G uardian and United Press Interna­ tional. Sun Ruiqin was able to write Tim perley’s personal history from know ledge of the m an gained during this tim e. Thus, w e can establish the credibility of the inform ation on Timperley in the Bio­ graphical D ictionary o f Foreigners in China in the M odern Age. The next step is to reinforce the inform ation at the core o f Tim perley’s activities in the listing, which stated, ‘After the Marco Polo Bridge Inci­ dent in July 1937, the GMD dispatched him to Europe and America, w here he w orked in propaganda dissem ination. He was subse­ quently em ployed by the GMD’s Chinese Ministry o f Inform ation.”

2. Establishment of the GMD China Information Committee The Activities of the China Information Committee Come to Light The GMD’s external propaganda activities during the Sino-Japanese War are clarified in two volum es of research m aterials from China and Taiwan.

26

The Politics of Nanjing

N either o f these two works focuses on the Nanjing Incident as a topic o f research, and the authors of both works give the incident low consideration. The works, however, could shake the founda­ tions o f “official views” o f the Nanjing Incident in which the GMD and the Chinese Com m unist Party are in step w ith each o th er in m aking charges against Japan. The two works cited suggest that the Nanjing Incident was “a p ro d u ct w rapped in potential possibilities for propaganda.” Among research m aterials published in China is a w ork in Chi­ nese titled D iplom atic Exchanges C onducted by the KMT a t Chung­ kin g d u rin g the Anti-Japanese War Period (Chungking Publishing Co., 1995). The w ork was com piled from a variety o f m aterials re ­ leased in that city covering foreign policy activities during the SinoJapanese War. T here are only few footnotes to identify sources, but m aterials w ere gathered from the C hungking Archives Office and n u m ero u s com pilation organizations, lending credibility to the inform ation. Research m aterials published in Taiwan include Research on KMT’s N ew s A d m in istra tio n Policy, 1928-1945, by Wang Lingxiao (KMT Central Party Com m ittee Publishers, Minguo 85 [1996]). This traces the history of the GMD’s control o f news since 1928, shortly after the Nationalist governm ent was established in Nanjing. The au­ thor, Wang Lingxiao, was form erly a new spaper rep o rter w ho stu d ­ ied at the graduate school o f the Historical Research C enter in the governm ental Political University, and com pleted his m aster’s thesis o n the dem ocratization tren d in Taiwan. He subsequently received financial su p p o rt from the GMD Central Historical Com pilatory C om m ittee, and published his m aste r’s thesis after m aking m inor revisions. He ad d ed a large n u m b er o f source notes to the work. In­ cidentally, the GMD C entral Historical C om pilatory C om m ittee p u b lish ed a two-volum e w ork in 1987 titled Violence in China by the Japanese Army: The Great Slaughter a t N anking. In this, the GMD charges Japan w ith the Nanjing Incident, but ten years after this was published, the GMD took the lead in publishing a w ork that may de­ stroy the foundation of its ow n accusation. This is the w ork referred to earlier, Reference M aterials o f the R evolution No. 108 (Introduc­ tion, p. 9: “Research in Taiwan and China.”) and can be considered an indication of the degree o f dem ocratization in ideological m atters in Taiwan. From the a u th o r’s preface in this work, we learn that in 1995, he ran in the election for Congress in Taiwan.

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D iplom atic Exchanges C onducted by the KMT a t C hungking during the Anti-Japanese War Period contains the following passage: In November 1937, the KMT Central Party organs and the National Military Council were reorganized, and consequently the KMT Chi­ nese Ministry o f Information was formed. Within this ministry, the China Information Committee was established to handle diplo­ matic propaganda work. The assistant chief of the Publicity Depart­ ment, Ton Hsien-kuang, handled diplomatic propaganda opera­ tions, and Zeng Xubai was in charge o f the China Information Committee. Afterwards, Zeng Xubai moved to Chongqing when the KMT shifted its government seat there. In addition to the China Information Committee headquarters in Chungking, the organiza­ tion had branches in Shanghai and Hong Kong, and an office in Kunming. Overseas, offices were set up in the United States in New York, Chicago, and Washington; also in London, England; Mon­ treal, Canada; Sydney, Australia; Mexico City, Mexico; and in India and Singapore.

In addition, D iplom atic Exchanges C onducted by the GMD a t Chungking du rin g the Anti-Japanese War Period describes in detail how the headquarters of the China Inform ation C om m ittee and its branches and offices each published their ow n m aterials in d ep en d ­ ently and each set up its ow n news agency. The w ork shows that the China Inform ation Com m ittee was u n d e r direct control of Jiang Jieshi and that each branch and office had jurisdiction in its region for the activities of the GMD party and governm ent organization. The work also describes how, in London in 1940, the China Inform a­ tion Com m ittee published a version of Tim perley’s book for public sale. The assistant chief o f the Publicity D epartm ent in the China In ­ form ation C om m ittee, Tong Xianguang (Ton H sien-kuang), had studied in the United States, graduating from the University of Mis­ souri followed by postgraduate w ork at Colum bia University. He w orked as a journalist for several American new spapers, th en re ­ turned to China w here he was editor on several English-language newspapers. Before Tong studied in America, he was Jiang Jieshi’s English teacher w hen Jiang was a m iddle-school student in the form er e d u ­ cation system. (Jiang w ould have been there betw een fifteen and sev­ enteen years of age.) Thus, by a twist o f fate, he had established an early relationship with the future GMD leader. After World War II, Tong m oved to Tai­ w an from w here he was dispatched to Japan as an ambassador. His

28

The Politics of Nanjing

writings include Chiang Kai-shek (in Chinese), which was issued in Japanese translation in 1955 by N ihon Gaisei Gakkai. Tong’s back­ g round inform ation is taken from his profile in the above-m entioned book. The chief o f the China Inform ation Com m ittee was Zeng Xubai. According to the Chinese publication, W ho's Who in the Republic o f C hina (Taipei: C hung Hwa Publishing Company, 1978), Zeng gradu­ ated from St. J o h n ’s University in Shanghai and was a m an o f letters w ho published the B ea u tifu l Goodness M agazine while teaching at Nanjing’s Jinling W om en’s University. After 1949, he m oved to Tai­ w an and becam e president of C hung Yang News Agency. He w orked at the governm ental Political University in charge o f the lecture p ro ­ gram on new s adm inistration. He also edited a volum e titled The H istory o f N ew s A d m in istra tio n in China. A m ore detailed description of the organization and w orkings of the China Inform ation C om m ittee is found in the above-cited Re­ search on KMT’s New s A d m in istra tio n Policy, 1928-1945- In here, Wang Lingxiao stated the following based on GMD internal archives m aterials that had been declassified several years earlier. This is from the writings o f Tong Xianguang and Zeng Xubai, both of w hom had b een in charge o f overseas propaganda. The organization of the China Information Committee was simple. There were six sections and four rooms. These were the English Publications section; Foreign Affairs section; The Counter-Intelli­ gence section; the Photography section; The Broadcast section; General Affairs section. The four rooms were the Secretariat; News Examination; Reference Materials; and Japan Research.

C oncerning the Nanjing Incident, the following description ap­ pears in the book: When the world was shaken by Japanese Army’s evil actions in the Great Massacre at Nanking, the China Information Committee im­ mediately hired the Manchester Guardian journalist, Timperley, and the American professor, Smythe, who were both in Nanking at the time, to produce propaganda materials for us, titled Facts o f theJapanese Army's Violence and A True Description o f War Dam­ ages in Nanking. Both these books immediately became famous. In this way, the Chinese themselves did not come to the forefront, but by paying m oney and through other means, an international

friend who understands the truth and methods o f our war o f resis­ tance became a spokesman fo r us in a roundabout propaganda method that was one o f the most commonly used techniques of the

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China Information Committee during the war. The results were re­ markable.

(The italicized p o rtion is Wang Lingxiao quoting from Zeng Xubai’s autobiography.) I will take u p Zeng Xubai’s autobiography in a subsequent part o f the book, b u t it should be noted that Wang Lingxiao u sed only Chinese ideographs to rep ro d u ce the nam es of Tim perley and Smythe, w hich he obtained from Zeng X ubai’s autobiography, and he did n ot give the English spellings as he did w ith o ther foreign words and which is according to custom. Timperley and Smythe w ere well know n, thus the author m ust not have been familiar w ith any debate going on about a Nanjing In­ cident. The nam es of o ther foreigners, foreign book titles and for­ eign new spapers are indicated in Roman letters in parentheses following the Chinese rendering. This was not so w ith the nam es of Timperley, Smythe, and the M anchester G uardian. Also, in the After­ notes, the author m akes m ention of the fact that he did not include the Romanized renderings of these names. This indicates that Wang was not familiar w ith any Nanjing Inci­ dent. If he knew of the two m en, he w ould have added their nam es in Roman letters in the usual m anner, and if he knew o f a Nanjing In­ cident he w ould surely have know n the nam es of the two m en by their writings, the previously m entioned W hat War M eans by Tim­ perley and the “Smythe R eport.” Those in the Massacre School look with suspicion u p o n Smythe’s low estim ate of 2,400 victims killed in the city of Nanjing. This is especially a problem since Smythe was a professor o f sociology and trained in taking surveys.

Testimony on the China Information Committee I obtained from a Taiwanese source a copy o f the highly regarded his­ torical docum ent m entioned above, Zeng Xubai: Autobiography, a three-volum e w ork published in Taipei in 1988 (Lienching Pub­ lishing Co.). In Vol. 1, the author writes about the activities o f the China Inform ation C om m ittee during the Sino-Japanese War w ith unrestricted openness. According to Wang Lingxiao’s book, Re­ search on K M Ts News A d m in istra tio n Policy, Zeng Xubai was e n ­ trusted by Jiang Jieshi, and from before the o u tb reak of the SinoJapanese War he w orked in Shanghai as a censor o f news from for­ eign sources. In 1924, the Central News Agency (CNA) was estab­ lished in G uangzhou u n d e r direct control of the GMD; in 1927 the CNA office m oved to Nanjing, which increased its activities.

30

The Politics of Nanjing

In 1931, the China Inform ation Com m ittee had already recov­ ered the authority for handling dom estic news generation from Reuters, United Press, and o th er foreign news agencies, w ho until th en held a grip on dom estic news. W hen Zeng w orked in Shanghai, he censored new s from foreign sources at his will, and prevented its dissem ination in China. Zeng Xubai’s autobiography describes the China Inform ation Com m ittee from its form ation. He writes of the situation just after the Japanese occupation of Nanjing as follows: The most important results we were striving for at that stage of the war in our overall losing fight were to make clear that first, the offi­ cers and soldiers could defeat the enemy in battles through bravery and a sense o f loyalty; and second, that the enemy lacks a sense of humanity and causes harm to ordinary people. Things sometimes work out in an unbelievably convenient manner, and just when we decided that the enem y’s ruthlessness would be an important part o f our propaganda operations, and w e started searching and gath­ ering examples of this, the enem y immediately offered us facts to answer our needs.

Zeng Xubai was referring to an account in the Japanese press h ead ­ lined hyakunin-giri, a race betw een two Japanese Army officers to determ ine w hich could kill one h u n d red Chinese first with his Japa­ nese sword. This will be taken u p in the next section. Zeng Xubai w rote the following concerning his contact w ith Timperley: Timperley was very convenient w hen w e were developing our anti-Japanese international propaganda in Shanghai. He was one of three important people w ho joined the War Resistance Committee. He was Australian. For that reason w e contacted him as soon as he arrived in Shanghai from Nanking. We then flew him from Hong Kong to Hankow to m eet with us and w e discussed everything di­ rectly. We held secret conferences for a long time, and w e decided on the plan for the first phase o f our overseas network for the China Information Committee. At that stage, it would be absolutely no good for Chinese to show our faces, and w e decided that we w ould have to search for international friends who understand the facts o f our war o f resistance and our policy, and for such people to be our spokespersons. Timperley was an ideal choice. Thus, w e de­ cided that our first step would be to make payment to Timperley, and also, through his coordination, to Smythe, and commission both o f them to write and publish two books for us as witnesses to

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the Nanking Massacre....Timperley complied with our w ishes.... Two publications were produced which sold w ell and achieved our propaganda aims.”

The reason for the roun d ab o u t journey to the GMD capital of Hankou was that the overland Shanghai-Nanjing-Hankou route was controlled by the Japanese military, and travel was im possible w ith­ out a perm it. By traveling to Hong Kong, one could board a com m er­ cial flight directly to Hankou. As is clear from the preceding part, it has been established that the GMD’s China Inform ation Com m ittee was at w ork behind the first reports of the Nanjing Incident that w ent ou t to the w orld at the time, the two highly regarded English-language reports. Both Tim­ perley and Smythe w ere m ore than the neutral, foreign observers that the Massacre School treats them as; their connection with the GMD’s propaganda activities is never m entioned in any sources of the Massacre School, and w ithin the writings of Timperley and Smythe, we m ust expect the inclusion of their service to the GMD’s diplom atic campaign. Finally, Zeng Xubai has this com m ent on the overseas p ro p a­ ganda network: We held discussions with Timperley and he became our secret man in charge o f propaganda in America for the China Information Committee. Timperley and w e agreed that he w ould handle the flow of news under the name Trans Pacific News Service. At the same time, we decided that Earl Leaf be assigned to the New York office, Henry Evans to the Chicago office and Malcolm Rosholt to the San Francisco office. These were all experienced American jour­ nalists.... Our propaganda concentrated on America, but w e con­ sidered England and Hong Kong to be channels for propaganda. We also bore in mind that that Shanghai was a key location for es­ tablishing operations in collaboration with KMT members living in occupied territories. We requested Xia Jinlin to set up a propa­ ganda organization in London under the name of a branch office of Trans Pacific News Service.

Zeng Xubai then goes on to explain how Wen Yuanning was in charge of conducting propaganda activities and the exchange of p ro ­ paganda m aterials in Hong Kong, while Dong Shoupeng and his group in Shanghai w orked at establishing operations in collabora­ tion w ith GMD m em bers in occupied territories.

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Hyakunin giri: The 100-man Killing Race From aro u n d the year 1937, the Japanese military exerted control over the n a tio n ’s news media. O ne result was that items w ere placed in them by order. A series o f exaggerated battlefield exploits began to appear in the Japanese m edia to assure the public that the Japanese Army was fighting bravely and to raise m orale am ong the citizens. Japanese usually u n d ersto o d these to be stretches o f the m ilitary’s im agina­ tion and em bellishm ents beyond the reasonable, though it w ould have been risky at the tim e to voice opinions o f that sort. O ne epi­ sode am ong these press placem ents, however, appealed to Zeng Xubai as a w orkable propaganda them e, and in spite o f its outlandish claims, it is, amazingly, still a serious issue today. W hen the Japanese Army was in the final phase of its rapid drive from Shanghai to Nanjing and was in heavy fighting in the area of Kuyung, the Tokyo N ichi N ichi Shim bun carried an account head­ lined H y a k u n in giri, literally, “cutting [killing] 100 persons.” This, according to the new spaper, was a race betw een two Japanese Army officers to see w ho w ould be the first to fell 100 Chinese soldiers w ith their Japanese swords. The Yom iuri Shim bun ran a related story that also told how the Japanese Army “rushed tow ard the city like a huge wave.” The two officers involved w ere sub-lieutenants Mukai Toshiaki and N oda Tsuyoshi. (N oda’s given nam e is som etim es rep o rted as Takeshi o r Iwao, alternate readings o f the characters; Tsuyoshi is cor­ rect.) Three new spaper reports from the w ar zone, all carried in the Tokyo N ichi N ichi Shim bun, w ere dated 30 November, 6 December, and 13 D ecem ber 1937. The articles o f 6 D ecem ber and 13 Decem ­ b er w ere carried in translation in the Tokyo-based English-language new spaper, Ja p a n A dvertiser (later renam ed The J a p a n Times), on the 7th and 14th of the sam e m onth. Timperley subsequently rep ro ­ duced this translation, w ith due credit to its previous appearance in the Ja p a n Advertiser, in the supplem entary m aterial in W hat War Means. W hen he did, he added the title “The Nanking M urder Race.” Below this is the original title as it appeared in the Ja p a n Advertiser, “Sub-lieutenants in race to fell 100 Chinese running close contest.” The first article, just one paragraph, begins, “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 sw ord com bat before the Japanese forces com ­ pletely occupy Nanking, are well in the final phase o f their race, ru n ­

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ning alm ost neck to neck.” The next and final sentence states that this was happening “w hen their u n it was fighting outside Kuyung” at which tim e the score was eighty-nine to seventy-eight. While, o f course, all w ar can be considered m urder, the title seems to press the bounds o f the action beyond battlefield heroics. This was just the first small step this account was to undergo. The story itself, however, defies logic from the beginning. A Japanese sword simply cannot cut scores o f hum an bodies. It w ould be dam ­ aged beyond use. Cutting dow n that m any persons w ith one sw ord is fantasy borrow ed from p opular literature. Kuyung lies on the final approach to the capital of Nanjing, and this was the scene of intensely fierce fighting, with the Chinese p u tt­ ing u p a ferocious, last stand to stop the Japanese advance. The Japa­ nese Army was facing the Nationalist Army’s highly trained leading unit, eq u ip p ed w ith G erm an rifles, Czechoslovakian m achine guns, and G erm an hand grenades. How the two officers could approach, m uch less cut dow n, scores o f the enemy, is a question w ith no rea­ sonable answer. The second of these articles, however, presses reason even fur­ ther: “M ukai’s blade was slightly dam aged in the com petition. He ex­ plained that this was the result of cutting a Chinese in half, helm et and all.” The Japanese original specifies “iron helm et.” The term used in the Japanese original article for this cutting technique was the famed ka ra ta k e wari, o r “Chinese-bam boo-split­ ting cut,” well know n to the Japanese from fictionalized versions of Miyamoto M usashi and other p opular literature of sam urai and swordsm en. Chinese bam boo is m uch larger in diam eter than that found in Japan, and the cut takes its nam e from the image of splitting a stick o f this heavy bam boo from the top straight dow n. This was ap­ parently the first tim e the officer’s sw ord was dam aged, and then only “slightly.” The article th en tells how other Japanese units sm oked o u t hid­ ing Chinese troops at Purple M ountain, and how Mukai and his u nit w ere also forced into the open and the field of battle, w here “the m en sto o d idly by while bullets passed overhead. ‘Not a sh o t hits me while I am holding this sw ord o n my sh o u ld er,’ he explained confidently.” It may be a strange com plim ent to Zeng Xubai, but if he had n ot seen the possibility o f propaganda in that story, it w ould have van­ ished with others o f similar credibility. Because he raised it to a seri­ ous reportage, it was preserved.

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Tim perley’s article was later translated into Chinese by Yang Ming, probably a pseudonym , and included in the GMD’s Reference M aterials o f the Revolution, No. 108. This Chinese translation, however, had som e im portant twists added. The part that reads “in individual sw ord com bat,” an accurate English rendering of the original Japanese, was em bellished to in­ clude the “outrages” of killing civilians and prisoners, and rape. This Chinese version, and this version only, was then used as evidence against Mukai and N oda in the Nanjing War Crimes Trial in 1947. The court did n o t refer to the original Japanese articles, o r to the English translation in the Ja p a n Advertiser and Tim perley’s book. And, on the sole w eight o f this Chinese translation as evidence, the Nanjing court sentenced the two officers to death u n d e r counts assigned to Class C w ar criminals. This alleged rep o rt from the war front and the authenticity of the act of the two army officers becam e a large argum ent in Japan after Suzuki Akira included it in his book N a n kin g daigyakusatsu no m aboroshi (The illusion of the “Great Nanking M assacre”), p u b ­ lished in 1973 by Bungei Shunju. The original articles, as they appeared in the Tokyo N ichi N ichi Shim bun and Yom iuri Shim bun, w ere reprinted in H ora Tomio, ed., titled N icchu senso N a n k in d a iza n g ya ku jik e n shiroshu (Materials o n the great Nanjing atrocity of the Sino-Japanese War), Vol. 1, Kyok u to k o k u sa i gu n ji sa ib a n k a n k e i sbiryohen) (Materials o f the Far East International Military Tribunal) (Tokyo: Aoki Shoten, 1985). W hen Japanese action in Nanjing was taken up at the IMTFE, this race did n o t appear in court in any of the claims or in any form. In fact, the tw o officers had b een held in Sugamo Prison in Tokyo, and w ere released to be extradited to stand trial at Nanjing. I believe this was because the prosecution at IMTFE realized that the account was obviously fantasy, and bringing it up w ould have disadvantaged their other, m ore legitim ate claims. Extradition cleared the problem away from the IMTFE. It m igh t b e argued that th e IMTFE w as estab lish ed to ju d g e Class

A w ar crim es, an d N o d a and M ukai w ere extradited to stand charges o f Class B an d Class C w ar crim es, b u t w h ile th e IMTFE d id in d ict M atsui Iw an e o n C lass A charges, it fo u n d him guilty o f Class B w ar crim es, for w h ic h h e w as ex ecu ted .

Then, as cited above, in 1947, the Nanjing War Crimes Trial used the Chinese translation o f the account of the sw ord killing race, am ended to include prisoners and civilians, w ith the added crim e of

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rape, as evidence. The two m en were judged guilty, the death p e n ­ alty was handed dow n, and Noda and Mukai w ere executed. The sum m er 2000 issue of the J o u rn a l o f Japanese Studies (vol. 26, no. 2) carried an article by Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi, an Ameri­ can of Japanese ancestry and professor at C anada’s York University, titled “The Nanking 100-Man Killing Contest Debate: War Guilt Amid Fabricated Illusions, 1971-75.” In this article, he concludes that the account of the race to cut dow n one h u n d red Chinese was a fabrica­ tion, and that the two officers were unjustly sentenced to death. Wakabayashi makes this com m ent in his abstract: I conclude that the killing contest itself was a fabrication, but the debate over it provoked a full-blown controversy as the historicity o f the Nanking Atrocity as a whole. This larger controversy in­ creased the Japanese p eop le’s knowledge o f the Atrocity and raised their awareness of being victimizers in a war o f imperialist aggres­ sion despite efforts to the contrary by conservative revisionists.

Wakabayashi’s research and article was picked up by the Wash­ ington co rrespondent for the Sankei Shim bun, Komori Yoshihisa, and rep o rted on in the 12 May 2001 issue of that new spaper, once again bringing the issue, and the controversy, before the Japanese public. In 2002, surviving family m em bers of the two officers filed charges w ith the Tokyo District Court against M ainichi Shim bun (formerly Tokyo N ichi N ichi Shim bun, which carried the article), the Asahi Shim bun, which published a book in 1981 also carrying the ac­ count, Kashiwa Shobo, the publishing com pany that issued H onda Katsuichi’s book, in which the account appears, and also w riter H onda Katsuichi himself. The claims w ere based on years of financial and em otional suffering from the groundless accusations in the press. Shortly after the case was announced, in the same year o f 2002, this author (Kitamura) w rote the Tokyo District Court and explained in detail how the decision by the military tribunal at Nanjing in 1947 was based on erroneous evidence. I explained how the only evi­ dence on which the two m en w ere convicted was the altered Chi­ nese translation of the articles that originated in the Japanese press, and how the Chinese translation contained additions that w ere com ­ pletely arbitrary. The court never responded to my letter. In August 2005 the court ruled that it was difficult to decide w hether the sw ord race was fact or fantasy, and rejected the charges brought by the family m em bers.

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My o p inion on this is only a sum m ary o f the obvious. Based on my know ledge of law and court p ro ced u re in Japan— I hold a doc­ torate in political science— I believe the c o u rt’s decision is u n d e r­ standable if o n e sees a political m otive rath e r th an adherence to ju risp ru d e n c e beh in d the rejection o f charges. Article 76 o f the Ja p ­ anese C onstitution states, “All judges shall be in d ep e n d e n t in the exercise o f their conscience and shall be b o u n d only by this C onsti­ tu tio n and the laws.” Reality, however, renders this independence theory only. An u n d erstan d in g of the Japanese judicial system sh o u ld shed light on the decision at Tokyo in 2005. Ja p a n ’s Cabinet designates the chief justice o f the Suprem e Court, w ith his appointm ent formally carried out by the em peror. All o th er Suprem e C ourt justices are appointed by the Cabinet, which consists of the prim e m inister and other m inisters of state, and is re ­ sponsible to the Diet. With low er court judges, including, o f course, the three judges of the District C ourt w ho heard the 100-nin-giri case (there are no juries in these courts), Article 80 o f the Japanese C onstitution states, “The judges o f the inferior courts shall be appointed by the Cabinet from a list o f persons nom inated by the Suprem e C ourt.” Judges of the low er courts are reassigned by the Secretariat of the Suprem e C ourt at undefined periods b u t usually about every two o r three years. It can be sooner, and the new assignm ent m ay be up or dow n the hierarchy scale. Assignments to rem ote branch offices are generally despised and considered a lowering of prestige. Thus, the independence that judges are given by the C onstitu­ tion com es w ith incentives for the judges to m ake decisions that p ro ­ tect their ow n careers. There is an unw ritten but often spoken rule that a judge should never make a decision that goes against the governm ent. At the tim e o f the 2005 decision in Tokyo, China and Japan had b een in a state o f ongoing tensions over historical interpretations. D uring the years leading u p to the c o u rt’s decision, there was a peak­ ing of this tension over Ja p an ’s prim e m inister visiting the Yasukuni Shrine, w here the spirits o f Tojo Hideki and o th er form er leaders of the w ar against China are enshrined am ong those w ho died for Ja­ pan during its wars from the Meiji era on. And of course Nanjing has always been the center of a long-time controversy that seem s due to continue forever unresolved. It was a highly volatile tim e for the co urt to have taken a serious look at the original articles, for I believe the judges w ould arrive at the same conclusion as the IMTFE appar­ ently did half a century earlier. To act on such a conclusion w ould in­

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cite an outburst of protest from China, cause an o th er diplom atic problem for the Japanese governm ent, and jeopardize the careers of the concerned judges. Thus I believe the only recourse the court saw was a vague re ­ sponse and rejection of the claims as an escape from the problem . In China, the 100-man killing contest is considered fact.

3, Promotion of Diplomatic Strategy by the GMD GMD Open Diplomacy The GMD governm ent, faced with the task of fighting Japan with a w eakened military power, m ade the m ainstay o f their anti-Japanese efforts the full use of diplom atic operations to gain su p p o rt from for­ eign countries. The principle focus was concentrated on the United States with the central purpose of gaining American m oral and m ate­ rial support. O pen diplom acy to this end began w ith the outbreak of the w ar in China in 1937. The Nationalist governm ent and Party, though, did not limit its activities to seeking favors from the United States and E urope through roun d ab o u t m ethods o f propaganda. On 26 Septem ber 1937, imm ediately following the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, the GMD am bassador to France, Gu Weijun, better know n as W ellington Koo, traveled to Geneva in o rd er to bring the Japanese invasion to justice through the League o f Nations. There, he broadcast a radio address beam ed at all of America. The original Chinese text is in the Chen Zhigi edition o f D iplom atic Re­ cords o f the Republic o f China, No. 9 (Taipei: Com pilation and Trans­ lation Publishers, 1996). This is the text o f his broadcast; a single spelling erro r in the original text has been corrected: The leaders of the Chinese revolution, which established the Chi­ nese Republic, the first o f its kind on the Continent o f Asia, were fired with imagination by great American political thinkers, taught by the lofty minded, self-denying American missionaries, and in­ spired by the example of American democracy. Thousands of Chi­ nese students have studied in the United States and carried with them to China American ideas and ideals... .1 earnestly h o p e.. .that the American people will not desert their loyal friend, China, in her hour of distress...but will wholeheartedly support her under the guidance of their great President... so that law and order may pre­ vail in international relations and the Peace of the Pacific be as­ sured for the future. (Source: Speech by His Excellency V.K. Well­ ington Koo, Broadcast to the United States o f America from Geneva, 26 September 1937, in William L. Tung, V.K. W ellington

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Koo a n d C h in a ’s W artim e D iplom acy [New York: Center o f Asian Studies, St.John’s University, 1977], 136, 140.)

Four years’ tim e and the outbreak of the Pacific War w ere n eeded for the am bassador’s message to bring results. This broadcast was a m ajor act o f the GMD’s o p e n diplomacy, while the China Inform a­ tio n C o m m itte e ’s m ajor behind-the-scenes activities w ere p e r­ form ed by mobilizing the talents of Timperley and o th er W esterners to the fullest extent.

Behind-the-scenes Diplomatic Operations After Timperley m et w ith the China Inform ation C om m ittee’s Zeng Xubai in H ankou, he retu rn ed to Shanghai and began setting the dip­ lomatic cam paign in m otion. The cam paign was divided into two di­ rections. O ne was to dissem inate to the w orld, through mass media, charges of cruelty against the Japanese Army during the occupation o f Nanjing. If this brought the desired results, it w ould give rise to diplom atic problem s betw een Japan and third countries. The o ther principle aim was to cause the American governm ent to act, and this w ould be developed th rough w orking in concert with American resi­ dents in Nanjing. First we will exam ine how the m edia was used to m ake charges against Japan. Tim perley’s Forew ord to W hat War M eans carries the following explanation o f the publication. Perhaps this book would not have come to be written had it not been for the fact that telegrams reporting the outrages committed against Chinese civilians by Japanese troops which occupied Nan­ king in December of last year were suppressed by the censors in­ stalled by the Japanese authorities in the foreign cable offices at Shanghai. Among the messages that were thus suppressed or muti­ lated were several telegrams which the writer attempted to send to the M anchester G uardian.

W hen Tim perley w rote that the im petus for writing his book came from his reaction to Japanese control of news transm ission, it was to camouflage his secret association w ith the GMD’s China Infor­ m ation Com m ittee. Then, the 22 January 1938 edition of the wellknow n Shanghai-based English-language newspaper, N orth China D aily News, carried an article w ith the details of an instance w hen the Japanese telegraph office refused to transm it a rep o rt by a for­ eign correspondent. The article did not m ention Timperley by name, b u t a reference to the forew ord to W hat War M eans m akes it clear that it is Timperley himself. U nder the headline “North China State-

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merit Hit by Spokesm an,” and subheads reading “Report Termed Ma­ licious,” “Exaggerated,” “U nsubstantiated,” and “C o rresp o n d e n t’s Cable Stopped by Censor,” the article in the N orth China D aily News of 22 January 1938 stated, Yesterday’s leading article in the “North China Daily News” was de­ scribed byjapanese official spokesmen in the afternoon as “grossly exaggerated,” “malicious,” “unsubstantiated” and “tending to be­ smirch the good name o f the Japanese troops.” Doubt as to the ac­ curacy of the facts contained in the article was also expressed by the spokesman when a foreign correspondent said that when he at­ tempted to cable lengthy quotations of the article in question, quoting this journal, the message was turned down by the Japanese censor. The correspondent said that he had filed a protest with H.M. Consul General.

The inquirer, the C hina c o rre sp o n d en t for th e M anchester G uardian, asked the spokesm en if they had any reason to doubt the accuracy o f th e figures given by th e article. “We have sufficient g rounds to d o u b t the com plete accuracy o f this re p o rt,” was the reply. It is interesting to note that even this article verifies that Tim per­ ley him self was n ot in Nanjing to witness any of the events first hand. In the discussion betw een “the co rrespondent” and the Japanese spokesm an, the form er defends the accuracy of his reports by stating that “the inform ation came from sources w hich w ere as fair as could be fo u n d anyw here....O r private sources., they w ere friends of mine. These w ere rep o rts from eyew itnesses w ho gave chapter and verse for every statem ent they m ade.” W hen the Japanese spokesm an was asked if one o r two foreign correspondents could obtain perm ission to visit Nanjing, the answ er was “no civilians w ere allowed to visit the fallen capital, owing to m il­ itary requirem ents.” Timperley rep o rted this incident to the British consul general in Shanghai, in o rd er to lodge a com plaint against the Japanese governm ent. The N orth China D aily N ew s editorial in question was carried in Japanese translation in Eibun shiryohen (English-language refer­ ences), e d ited by H ora Tomio, b u t this w ork did n o t include the edi­ torial o f 21 January that was the origin of T im perley’s thw arted transm ission attem pt. Fortunately, the text o f this editorial was translated and carried the following day, 22 January, in the Chinese-language H a n k ’ou Takungpao. The speedy republishing of the editorial was u n d o u b ted ly the result o f the C hina Inform ation C om m ittee at work. The article in the Hankou new spaper was in­

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eluded in N a n k in jik e n shiryoshu— Chugoku k a n k e i shiryohen (D ocum ents o n the Nanking Incident—Chinese source materials) (Tokyo: Aoki Shoten, 1992). According to this publication, the inform ation in the N orth China D aily N ew s stated that at Nanjing, m ore than 10,000 citizens w ere killed, and betw een 8,000 and 20,000 w om en w ere raped. The basic rule o f historical research is to obtain original docum ents as far as possible. I searched archives in Japan for the 21 January edition of the N orth C hina D aily N ew s that carried the cited editorial, and for the 22 January edition, and located original copies in Hirosaki Uni­ versity, in Aomori Prefecture, b u t the relevant pages o f the new spa­ p e r w ere missing. In addition, the p a p e r had disintegrated so badly, it w ould have been im possible to m ake copies. In the end, I obtained a photocopy of the original N orth China D aily N ew s of 21 January 1937. The p o rtion in question reads, “It is estim ated that m ore than 10,000 p eo p le have been killed....H ow m any w om en have b een raped it is im possible to ascertain but the estim ates vary from as low as 8,000 to as high as 20,000.” The event with the telegraph office, Timperley stressed, was u n ­ questionably an act of censorship on the part of the Japanese, b u t he surely had access to o th er m ethods of sending his articles beyond the reach o f Japanese interference, such as airmail and wireless. The N ew York Times correspondent, F. Tilman D urdin, and o th ­ ers, viewed the fighting in Nanjing and rem ained in the city for sev­ eral days after it fell. They then m oved to Shanghai and dispatched long reports from there by air mail. H ora Tomio collected the reports that D urdin sent overseas and published them in translation in A Collection o f English-Language References, so o th er m eans did exist for Timperley to get his reports o ut o f the country. Most im portant, the original source for the rep o rt that Timperley had attem pted to send by telegraph, the editorial of the N orth China D aily News, was already prin ted in the new spaper and m ade public. The content of w hat he was attem pting to send no longer had sufficient news value to justify sending by telegraph. Let us n o w confirm Tim perley’s skilled diplom atic m aneuverings th rough recent research projects into news history and the cultural activities o f W esterners in China. The N orth China D aily New s was established as a new spaper in Shanghai u n d e r English ow nership in 1864. It was know n in Chinese as Tzulin Hsipao. In 1930, daily circulation stood at 7,000 in Shang­ hai; in addition, m ore than one thousand copies circulated daily in o th er regions o f the country. With the beginning o f the Pacific War, in

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D ecem ber 1941, the Japanese Army occupied Shanghai’s British Concession, w here the new spaper’s offices w ere located, and publi­ cation was suspended. Back in 1938, however, during the early stages of the Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese had no pow er to influence the printing o r dis­ tribution of the new spaper. Japan may have o pposed allowing the editorial to circulate, but there w ere no steps they could have taken to prevent its release at that time. Thus, w hen Timperley added som e com m ents to the editorial and attem pted to cable it overseas, it did not have any scoop value of a “great Nanjing m assacre.” And, the refusal by the Japanese authorities to allow its transm is­ sion cannot be seen as a serious obstacle to preventing the dissem i­ nation o f inform ation. The M assacre School places excessive signif­ icance on this alleged censorship, and uses this refusal to argue that the army was trying to cover u p a great m assacre in Nanjing. There was killing and rape, and it was natural for the Japanese authorities to prevent news unfavorable to the occupation from being transm it­ ted, thus this was no m ore than a governm ent censor fulfilling his duty. Since the co n ten t had already b een carried in a new spaper, the cen sor’s act was his way o f com m unicating that he did not accept the inform ation in the report. Timperley was well acquainted with the news censorship that had form erly been carried out by the GMD w hen it held control over the telegraph office. After the Japanese took Shanghai and gained control of the telegraph office, it w ould have been accepted fact that the Japanese military w ould take over the role of censor; Timperley w ould have certainly expected to en counter Japanese censorship w hen he tried sending his report to England by undersea cable through a telegraph office that had been taken over by Japanese au­ thorities in tim e of war. On 12 D ecem ber 1937 all of Shanghai except the Foreign Concessions was placed u n d e r Japanese occupation. Earlier, in mid November, the GMD’s China Ministry of Inform ation’s News Inspection Office, which was located in the British C onces­ sion, was already u n d e r Japanese jurisdiction. (Ma Guangren, chief editor, Shanghai X inw en shi 1850-1949 [History of news operations in Shanghai, 1850-1949] [Fudan University Press, 1996]). The Shang­ hai telegraph office fell u n d e r the Japanese Army’s jurisdiction, and the im pression is that in spite of this, Timperley purposefully e n ­ tered the netw ork of the Japanese censor in o rd er to create an incident. The N orth China D aily News had a very close relationship with the British Consulate in Shanghai, and also w ith the Shanghai M unic­

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ipal Council, w hich exercised jurisdiction over the British C onces­ sion. In fact, the new spaper was referred to as the surrogate spokesm an for the concession authorities. The N orth China D aily N ew s functioned as the new spaper division of the British interna­ tional news service, Reuters, and held a m onopoly on the dissem ina­ tion of prin ted new s from Reuters th roughout China. The above shows the background of Timperley, the Reuters cor­ respondent, and o f the new spaper division of Reuters, the N orth China D a ily News, and the m aneuvering and cooperation behind the rep o rt o n Ja p an ’s occupation of Nanjing. In addition, Timperley was involved in the British Consulate in Shanghai, and w hen favor­ able conditions arose, he w orked him self into a position o f diplomatic activities. Timperley’s activities w ere not those of an ordinary foreign new spaper correspondent. We see him engaging in behind-the-scenes diplom atic campaigns for the GMD as a paid consultant to the GMD’s Chinese Ministry o f Inform ation’s international-propaganda arm, the China Inform ation Com m ittee. I w anted to research Tim perley’s involvem ent w ith the British C onsulate in his chain o f activities at the time, and the reaction by Japanese diplom atic organizations to Tim perley’s activities. I at­ tem pted research into the records of activities of the British Foreign Office in China, contained in a file titled F.O. 371, and also a file titled “Records o f Diplomacy with Jap an .” Both these records concerning this period of tim e, however, are still classified and n o t op en to the public. Thus, the details are not know n at present, b ut we may well presum e that the British Consul General lodged a protest with the Japanese governm ent.

Appeals to America through Missionary Organizations O n the one hand, Timperley advanced operations aim ed at the coun­ try that was in the diplom atic sights of the GMD, the United States. This can be seen by the contents of letters that he exchanged with M iner Searle Bates w hen Timperley was w orking on W hat War M eans. Bates, an American, was a m em ber o f the Nanking Interna­ tional Safety Zone Com m ittee, professor of history at Nanjing’s Jinling University, and a missionary. After the war, Bates took the stand as a w itness for the prosecu­ tio n at th e Tokyo War C rim es Trial. From th e c o n te n ts o f le tte rs b e tw e e n him a n d Tim perley, it seem s clear th a t B ates h a d no connection w ith the GMD’s China Inform ation Com m ittee. In the exchange of letters betw een the two m en, Timperley em phasized that his intent to publish a book was o f his ow n volition only and

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never indicates that his motive was anything o th er than a desire to spread the word, for apparently hum anitarian reasons, about Japa­ nese cruelty. Timperley claimed that the Japanese authorities’ refusal to trans­ mit his rep o rt to England was an im petus to writing the book. In a letter to Bates dated 4 February 1938, Tim perley writes, “I w ould never have had the idea if it had not been for the suppression o f my telegrams, at least one of which was subsequently carried by Reuters and thus had a m uch w ider circulation.” Timperley further describes his proposed book in a letter to Bates m arked “Shanghai, March 21st, 1938,” in which he states You suggest that my true purpose [in writing a book] is “a dem on­ stration of the cruelty and injury o f such warfare to normal life” and that for that purpose the results o f your econom ic inquiries should make a valuable addition. My main purpose is to expose the de­ liberate and inhuman cruelty of the Japanese in their treatment o f individuals. The econom ic disruption is a serious aspect but incidental so far as the book, as I see it, is concerned.

And, a few days p rio r to that letter, on 14 March, Tim perley shows the scale of inform ation dissem ination he planned with his forth­ coming book w hen he w rote Bates, “Incidentally, I am asking both Gull and Leaf to let m e have an estim ate o f the cost of providing ev­ ery m em ber of Parliament in England and every m em ber o f Congress in America w ith a copy o f the book.” As m entioned earlier, Earl Leaf was an American journalist assigned to the China Inform ation Com ­ m ittee’s New York office, a choice agreed u p o n betw een Timperley him self and m em bers o f the China Inform ation Com m ittee. Yet Timperley never once m entions the GMD Party o r Nationalist Gov­ ernm ent. The reaction by Bates reveals nothing to indicate that he considered the proposed book connected w ith diplom atic o r pro p a­ ganda efforts, and his interest in Tim perley’s w ork was only a m eans to convey the m iseries o f war. The correspondence betw een the two m en is preserved at Yale University, Bates’s alma m ater; in Japan they w ere published in Japa­ nese translation in N a n k in jik e n shiryoshu—A m erica shiryohen (D ocum ents on the Nanking Incident—American references) (To­ kyo: Aoki Shoten, 1992). In the same letter of 4 February cited above, in which Timperley writes o f the Japanese refusal to send his telegram s, he tells Bates, I’ve had another brain wave during the past couple of days as a re­ sult of George Fitch’s arrival, combined with a glimpse o f Magee’s

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excellent films. I told George he ought to go to the States right away and tell his story in Washington— to State Dept, officials, Sen­ ators etc. I think it w ould have a tremendous effect in arousing sympathy for the Chinese people and in demonstrating the impor­ tance o f the American Government’s doing all it can to make it pos­ sible for you people, and others in different parts of China, to hang on as long as you can. Nobody w ho saw Magee’s pictures could fail to realize the important role you folk have played. As a YMCA man, Shriner and Rotarian, George’s contact possibilities are enormous. I think he would certainly be asked to see [Secretary of State Cordell] Hull and possibly even the president. His visit to Washing­ ton w ell might have an important bearing upon future U.S. policy out here. I want to emphasize that this was solely my idea— not George’s. He confessed interest w hen I broached the matter but wondered whether he would be doing the right thing if he diminished still fur­ ther the small group left at Nanking. My own idea is that he would be serving a still larger end by going to the States and I am pushing the matter as hard as I can with the National Committee o f the YMCA, with whom the decision will probably rest. I want you to un­ derstand the position so that if George does push off to the States you will all know that it was my doing and he is not running out on you. If he does go I think it ought to be by clipper and as quickly as possible. I have undertaken to find the necessary funds.

It should be n o ted that the funds for Fitch’s trip, which Timperley had “u n d ertaken to find” m ust have been provided by the GMD be­ fore Timperley w rote that letter, and required no “undertaking” on his part. W here did the idea to send Fitch to the United States origi­ nate? For now, that is lost in the “secret conferences” that the head of the China Inform ation Com m ittee, Zeng Xubai, w rote about after they flew Tim perley to Hankou. But it took m ore than one m an ’s brainchild to finance the venture, and Timperley can be seen here as the coordinator and funds handler. Tim perley’s plan to move American public opinion and the American governm ent in ord er to gain the American su p p o rt that the GMD w anted took a double-punch action w ith W ellington Koo’s ra­ dio speech in Geneva beam ed at America. The arrangem ents for the funds for George Fitch’s air travel to America should be noted. The N ew York Times rep o rter Tilman D urdin knew Timperley well at the time, and in 1986 w hen D urdin rem inisced w ith Kasahara Tokushi, he recalled that Timperley lived like a freelancer, and lived a hard life. If this is u n d erstood as finan­ cial difficulties, how w ould Timperley have been able to arrange funds in advance for an expensive airline ticket?

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Fitch’s activities in America are covered in detail in his published m em oirs, M y Eighty Years in China (“Privately printed for the au­ thor,” Mei Ya Publications, Taiwan, 1974). The sections o f concern are in chapters 10 and 11. According to his book, we see that Fitch m oved from Nanjing to Shanghai on or around 19 January 1938 after he received perm ission from the Japanese Army to board a train together w ith Japanese troops. Q uoting from his book, I was crowded in with about as unsavory a crowd o f soldiers as one could imagine in a third class coach, a bit nervous because sewed into the lining of my camel’s-hair great-coat were eight reels of 16 mm. negative movie film o f atrocity cases, most o f which were taken in the University Hospital. My baggage would undoubtedly be carefully examined by the military when w e got to Shanghai. What might happen if they discovered those films?! Fortunately they w eren’t discovered, and as soon as I could after my arrival I took them to the Kodak office for processing.

After this, Fitch rem ained in Shanghai for about a m onth. Strangely, he makes no m ention of any discussion he m ust have had w ith Timperley during this time. Fitch w ould surely have received an ex­ planation from Timperley on the source of the m oney for the air ticket to America and the m ethod of delivery. Even if Timperley did not reveal that the GMD’s China Inform ation Com m ittee was sp o n ­ soring the trip, it seem s reasonable to assum e that Fitch w ould have been aware o f the GMD in the background. Fitch then departed Shanghai o n 23 February 25th aboard the G erm an liner G neisenau for a three-day trip to H ong Kong, w here he was already expected. Fitch writes, My old friend Jim Henry radioed that he would meet me, and on ar­ rival w e immediately took a train to Canton. There the governor of the province o f Kwangtung, General Wu-Teh-Wu-The-Chen, an­ other old friend, had arranged a reception for me at Civic Hall where I was asked to speak on the Nanking seige and occupation. The hall was crowded.

It m ight be noted here that in writing of his encounters on his jour­ ney to America, Fitch uses the term “atrocities” to describe the situa­ tion in Nanjing, b u t does not once use the term “m assacre.” C oncerning the air leg o f his journey from Hong Kong, Fitch writes, On March 8, I boarded the “Philippine Clipper” and started my first trans-Pacific flight. It was also one of the early flights of the Pan-

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American Line. Eighteen passengers was the maximum accommo­ dation of those ships—and we had just eighteen. At Guam, Wake and Midway Islands, Pan-Am had their own guest houses, with an American manager and his wife w ho served as hostess, and with a four-piece Hawaiian orchestra to play at meal time. If you wanted to play tennis, swim or go fishing, it was arranged for you. (Chap.

11, Carrying the News to Washington—1938) “In H onolulu,” Fitch w rote, “there was a d in n er the evening we ar­ rived w ith a Chinese group and breakfast the next m orning at the Navy Y[MCA] w ith 150 p resen t.” The final leg o f the flight p u t Fitch in San Francisco, w here he was m et “by the Chinese Consul-General and a niece of m ine and taken for an epicurean lunch w ith China friends.” In Los Angeles and o th er locations, Fitch gave two o r three lec­ tures using the Magee films he carried with him, then on 18 April, he arrived in W ashington, “my m ain stop.” He was unable to m eet with either Secretary o f State Cordell Hull o r President Franklin D. Roose­ velt, but, as he writes, I was the guest at the Cosmos Club of Under Secretary o f State Dr. Stanley Hornbeck, whom I had known in China, and was given an opportunity to see many p eop le o f importance, including Col. Henry L. Stimson, Julean Arnold, George Sokolsky, the Red Cross Staff and Ambassador C.T. Wang [Wang Zhengting, the GMD am­ bassador to the United States] and also to show my films to the For­ eign Affairs Committee o f the House, the Office o f War Informa­ tion, to newspaper men and others. It was a lot to crowd into four days, but I had to be in New York by the 22nd [March] to start a speaking trip which was to last until my return to China.

Fitch spent alm ost eight m onths in the United States. After Wash­ ington and New York, as he noted, he passed through the Midwest and in July he was back on the w est coast again, w here he lectured in San Francisco. At the C om m onw ealth Club in that city, his lecture b rought a protest that bo rd ered on threats from the only Japanese in the audience, w ho asked Fitch to retract som e of the statem ents he had m ade or, the m an said, he w ould have to rep o rt Fitch to Tokyo. “I told him ,” Fitch w rote, that I had many Japanese friends and knew that most Japanese were incapable o f such acts as I had described. “But,” I said, “unfor­ tunately everything I said was true and hence I could retract noth­ ing.” Evidently he carried out his threat and his report was added to my dossier in the Tokyo Foreign Office. For many years thereafter

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no letter o f mine to friends in Japan or theirs to me were ever deliv­ ered.

From here, Fitch w ent once again to New York, w here he suf­ fered m em ory lapses that, u p o n a three-day stay in a New York hospi­ tal for exam ination, tu rn ed out to be nervous fatigue from his heavy lecture schedule. He booked passage on a Danish ship scheduled to leave Long Beach, California, on 10 Novem ber for H ong Kong, but, he writes, “I still had a few m ore speeches to make, however, includ­ ing one in Chicago at the Guild Hall w ith Nobel Prize W inner A rthur C om pton as chairman, and another at the Athletic Club in Colum ­ bus, Ohio, w ith Charles Taft as chairm an.” Yet from the tim e Fitch ar­ rived in the United States until he b oarded the ship at Long Beach as scheduled, there is nothing in his writings to suggest that he even hinted at any connection with the GMD’s overseas propaganda activ­ ities. Then, w hen he w rote his m em oirs after the war, he considered various circum stances and avoided any m ention of Timperley and the China Inform ation Com m ittee. Fitch’s activities in America covered a lot of ground, and re­ quired extensive financing and careful planning. With this costly trip originating with Tim perley’s brainchild, it is easy to see the financial support com ing from Tim perley’s employer, as it were, the GMD’s China Inform ation Committee.

4. Fact and Fabrication in Wartime Information The News Agency and the Information War Timperley used his profession of a journalist as a cloak to conceal his w ork for the GMD’s propaganda operations. I should like to exam ­ ine the role o f news agencies, mainly Reuters, in international poli­ tics and w artim e propaganda, which m ade Tim perley’s activities possible. M atsum oto Shigeharu headed the Shanghai branch of the Japa­ nese governm ent news agency Domei during the Sino-Japanese War. In his m em oirs, Shanghai J id a i (The Shanghai era) he stresses how Dom ei was established in January 1936 so that the Japanese could control news in Japan. He then show ed how the British firm Reuters held a m onopoly on news from the Middle East and Asia until after World War I. M atsum oto describes the situation this way: Looking back today, it may give one a strange feeling, but almost all news o f World War I was disseminated to the Japanese people

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through Reuters. Therefore, a considerable amount of news ofvictories and defeats relating to England and her allies during that Great War was politically colored.

Sir Roderick Jones, chief executive officer of Reuters from 1915 to 1941, com m ented th at while news reports may be the foundation of w artim e propaganda activities, m ore than 50 percen t of that news should be true. In tim es of peace, Reuters took pride in the accuracy and reliabil­ ity o f the new s they handled, and therefore their credibility was rated above the o th er news agencies. W hen it came to wartim e, this ele­ vated degree o f credibility that they earned in peace gave them a high level of propaganda power. The G erm an general Erich Friedrich Wil­ helm L udendorff w ent so far as to say, “Germ any did n o t lose The G reat War to the Allies, it lost to Reuters.” M atsum oto Shigeharu had a lateral view point to see through the propaganda netw ork that a news agency, especially Reuters, pos­ sesses. In spite of this, with the close friendship he had with form er Reuters em ployee Timperley, M atsumoto apparently considered Timperley only a M anchester G uardian co rrespondent w ith a strong sense of justice. At least in M atsum oto’s m em oirs, there is nothing to show that he ever suspected Tim perley’s activities in Shanghai in­ cluded anything beyond journalism . It was the same w ith the Japa­ nese Foreign M inistry’s Fukuda Tokuyasu, and Utsunomiya Naokata o f the News Division o f the Japanese Expeditionary Forces, in spite o f the fact that w hen both these m en came into contact w ith Tim­ perley he was w orking secretly to advance the form ation o f policies for the GMD’s China Inform ation Com m ittee. Som ething else that bears m ention is that in the forew ord to W hat War Means, Timperley w rites o f “several good Japanese” w ho appear only in anonymity. Their identity com es to light in the re ­ cords the Tokyo War Crimes Trial. During the questioning of Hidaka Shinrokuro, form er consul general of Japan in Shanghai, these an o n ­ ym ous p eo p le w ere revealed as Hidaka himself, M atsum oto and Utsunomiya. In his forew ord to W hat War M eans Timperley states, “the idea of producing this book was entirely my ow n.” He further writes, “It is by no m eans the purp o se of this book to stir up anim osity against the Japanese people. I have m any Japanese friends w hom I hold in the highest respect and I wish it w ere politic to m ention their names. O ne in particular is an im portant official and another of rare fineness o f intellect and feeling holds a semi-official position in Shanghai.”

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There is no d o u b t that statem ents like these w ere intended to re­ move traces o f the GMD’s China Inform ation Com m ittee from his book. Timperley him self was undoubtedly a m an of integrity w ho re ­ spected hum anitarian principles. W hen he becam e involved w ith the GMD, he adopted the guise of a neutral correspondent to his Japa­ nese friends’ eyes. This did n o t low er his character; it was m ore likely in accordance w ith his ow n convictions. Looking back on it from to ­ day, w e m ust adm it to a degree o f gullibility in M atsum oto and the others in their relations w ith Timperley in Shanghai. This is a reflec­ tion of the extent to which Japanese in general are n ot suited to espi­ onage and foreign diplomacy.

Testimony of Theodore H. White T heodore H. W hite was scouted by the GMD in 1939 to w ork for the party’s propaganda activities. He w ent to Chongqing to take up his job there at the GMD China Inform ation Com m ittee at the height of the war, from April through D ecem ber 1939, and later becam e a well-known journalist. In 1978 he published his rem iniscences, In Search o f H istory (H arper and Row). It was also issued in Chinese translation u n d e r the title Bai X inde and in Japanese translation by Simul Publishing, Tokyo, in 1981, adding to the m aterial available to Japanese readers to contribute to the controversy. In this book, White reveals the propaganda activities carried out by the China Inform ation Com m ittee of the GMD, while he levels sharp criticism at the Chongqing governm ent and cultural situations in the city. I will excerpt portions of his w ork concerning the China Inform ation Com m ittee. The section containing examples o f how photos w ere retouched and num erical values in reports w ere altered into erroneous figures for contriving propaganda into “facts” is of particular interest. White was then twenty-three years old, the youngest am ong U.S. advisers to the Chinese governm ent. He described his position at the time as follows: I was titled Adviser to the Chinese Ministry o f Information... .1 was employed to manipulate American public opinion. The support of America against the Japanese was the government’s one hope for survival; to sway the American press was critical. It was considered necessary to lie to it, to deceive it, to do anything to persuade Amer­ ica that the future of China and the United States ran together against Japan. That was the only war strategy of the Chinese govern-

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ment when I came to Chungking in 1939, and my job was to practice whatever deception was needed to implement the strategy.

White w rote that after his job at the China Inform ation Com m ittee sw itched from advisor to writer, I learned much about the self-propelling life o f legends, true and false. The correspondents clamored at me, as an “insider” o f the governm ent, for real copy to pad out the unpronounceable monosyllabic place names that marked the military commun­ iques; the United Press bureau had to fill a minimal five-hun­ dred-word cable budget every day; Reuters had to file two thou­ sand words a day, whether there was news or not. I tried to meet their needs. A one-paragraph item in a Chinese newspaper caught my eye; som ewhere in Chekiang province, then occupied by the Japanese, a Chinese woman named Tsai Huang-Hua had thrown a grenade into a theater attended by Japanese soldiers, killed several, and escaped alive. I translated the Chinese characters—“H uangHua”—o f her name literally, and she became Miss “Golden Flowers” Tsai, the guerrilla chieftain, the Amazon leader of a band o f Chinese resistants. I padded the story a bit, and it caught with the foreign reporters, all except Durdin. Their home offices de­ manded pictures to go with the story. My colleagues at the Informa­ tion Service provided a photograph o f a young Chinese woman in uniform, packing two pistols at her waist. She became the “Pis­ tol-Packing Miss Golden Flowers.” The reporters wanted more, and the Information Service provided more and more and more. For a few months, as I fed out the story, “Golden Flowers” Tsai be­ came a heroine o f the resistance, second only to Madame Chiang Kai-shek herself. At the hands of rewrite men back in America, her exploits became legend. Three years later, long after I had left the service of the Chinese government, the now defunct A m erican W eekly gave her a full front-page spread. By then I was temporarily Far Eastern editor o f Time magazine in New York and when it was suggested that Time pick up the story, I had to demur and confess my role as father of a fraud. More serious was my effort to describe the vastness of the dislo­ cation and tragedy, for that effort concerns the writing of history, and its interlock with journalism. I wrote much about refugees and their suffering. The National Relief Commission claimed it had sta­ tistics. I examined them: the records showed that in the fourteen months betw een the beginning of the Japanese invasion in 1937 and the fall o f Hankou in 1938, the Commission had served in and out of the refugee camps som e twenty-five million meals—the count came from the refugees who trudged twice a day through the

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rice-gruel and chow line at the temporary shelter camps. Their fig­ ure was twenty-five million m eals—not people. By some garble in my own story, the figure was transmuted to the statistic that twenty-five million people had fled the Japanese invaders in the first years o f Chinese resistance. The figure was cabled abroad, re­ mained fixed in morgues, appeared in magazine articles, con­ stantly appears and reappears in learned accounts of the China war. The figure has becom e part of history.

White was em ployed at the China Inform ation Com m ittee in Chongqing from April 1939, and there is no m ention that while he was in Chongqing he ever m et with Timperley. White does, however, state that im m ediately after making contact w ith som eone from the GMD Inform ation Section in Hong Kong, he boarded the airplane for Chongqing. White w rote the following concerning an event that took place before he took that Hong K ong-to-C hongqing flight. “In Chungking, the propaganda service was about to lose an Australian new spaperm an w ho supervised a six-man staff o f Chinese feature w riters p um ping out stories to feed the American and British press.” Would that Australian journalist be Timperley? In D ecem ber 1939, White resigned from the China Inform ation Com m ittee. From then on, discord betw een the division and W estern journalists in C hong­ qing increased with grow ing disagreem ent on how w ar news should be handled. The result was that it turned the eyes o f foreign corre­ spondents tow ard the C om m unist Party, and after Ja p an ’s defeat in 1945 this w orked to the advantage of the Com m unist Party in the e n ­ suing internal struggle. But this was still in the future. C oncerning the situation w ith the China Inform ation Com m ittee in Chongqing, in the 1990s, articles and research volum es w ere p u b ­ lished on the Chinese continent. Among several of these on the sub­ ject o f the w ar o f resistance was Peidou renw u jis h i (A biography of active people in the auxiliary capital) (Chungking Publishing Co., 1995). As cited above, as a first point of questioning the Left Book Club that was printed on the cover of Tim perley’s W hat War Means, I p u r­ sued the connection betw een Timperley and the GMD’s China Infor­ m ation Com m ittee. I confirm ed that the aim of the GMD’s basic wartim e diplom atic policy was to bring about America’s intervention in the w ar throug h circulating news abroad o n the Japanese Army’s cruelty in China. In Part I I I will start with Timperley and, based on the application of com m on sense m entioned in the introduction, an­ alyze news content from the China Inform ation C om m ittee to dis­

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cern w hat part this m ight have played in the understanding of the Nanjing Incident that form ed the basis for the decisions o f the po st­ w ar military tribunals.

'

C h a p te r 2 — Problem s C oncerning th e C o u rt D ecisions 1. Forming the Judgment of the Nanjing Incident The Path to Judgment The existence of the Nanjing Incident was established in the judg­ m ents handed dow n at the military tribunals at the GMD Defense Ministry in Nanjing and the International Military Tribunal for the Far East held in Tokyo. Soon after the end of World War II, in Novem­ ber 1945, the Enemy Crimes Investigation C om m ittee was e sta b -. lished in Nanjing u n d e r the Nanking District P rosecutor’s Office to investigate the Great Massacre of that city. Participating organiza­ tions included the GMD, police, medical associations, lawyers’ asso­ ciations, B uddhist organizations, and others, with a total of fourteen organizations sending representatives to the com m ittee. Each orga­ nization shared in taking verbal testim onies and in collecting w ritten materials. In February 1946, The Nanking District Prosecutor’s Of­ fice issued the “R eport on the Enem y’s Crimes.” Following this, the Chinese governm ent conducted w ar crim es trials at various locations throughout the country, the m ost notable and m ost publicized being the trial held in Nanjing. Incidentally, I found no records of the precise dates w hen the Nanjing trial convened o r ended. The GMD was n o t interested in precise records. Of course, their m ajor and tim e-consum ing p ro b ­ lem at the tim e was fighting the com m unists. Records w ere kept of individual cases, and these show that G eneral Tani’s trial was held from 6 February to 10 March 1947, w hen the guilty verdict and death penalty w ere handed dow n. The trial of Sub-Lieutenants Noda and Mukai began on 4 D ecem ber 1947, w ith the verdict and death p e n ­ alty h anded dow n 18 D ecem ber 1947. 53

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The Politics of Nanjing

The process o f setting up the Enemy Crimes Investigation Com ­ m ittee and o th er p ertin en t inform ation is described in the preface of “Report o n the Enem y’s Crimes.” The w ritten judgm ents o f the Nanjing War Crimes Trial are re­ corded in Reference M aterials o f the Revolution, No. 109 (in Chi­ nese only), b u t records of the evidence u p o n w hich the decisions w ere based w ere n o t included. However, the “Report o n the En­ em y’s Crim es” by the Nanking District P rosecutor’s Office was also subm itted to the IMTFE, w here it was translated into Japanese and English. The IMTFE convened in Tokyo in May 1946; the Nanjing Massa­ cre was taken u p in July of the same year. Judgm ents for the entire tribunal w ere h anded dow n in Novem ber 1948. In Japan, the re­ cords o f the trial, including the oral proceedings, w ere com piled and published in Japanese by H ora Tomio. Also included in this com pila­ tion was the Nanking District P rosecutor’s “Report on the Enem y’s Crim es,” w hich appears in both the original Chinese and Japanese translation (the latter published in Tokyo by Aoki Shoten, 1985). The tribunals at Nanjing and Tokyo used m uch of the same evi­ dence and m any of the same witnesses. Accusations against Japanese soldiers of rape, looting, arson, and m urder that Timperley writes of in W hat War M eans was given heavy consideration at the courts in constructing the fram ew ork o f a Great Massacre. It should be noted that the specific incidents at which Timperley leveled accusations w ere n o t p u rsu ed for the pu rp o se o f verification, b u t w ere p re ­ sented in court as new evidence for these acts by Japanese soldiers, and argued from that position. While there is no direct reference to W hat War M eans in the re ­ cords of the IMTFE, it is reasonable to see a clear influence of Tim perley’s book functioning first as the basic fram ew ork for draw ­ ing up the prem ise for a court hearing on the Nanjing Incident, and th en for supporting court proceedings at both Nanjing and the IMTFE. The w ritten judgm ents handed dow n by the Nanjing court m ade special m ention of W hat War M eans and o f the previously cited “Smythe Report” as im portant evidence to prove the existence o f a G reat Massacre. Even though Tim perley’s book is m ade u p o f re­ ports he ostensibly received from m ainly unidentified people, the Chinese judge cited Tim perley’s book as the a u th o r’s ow n eyewit­ ness accounts.

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The record shows that William Webb, the tribunal president at the IMTFE, had read Tim perley’s book and had draw n from its con­ tents. Perhaps it m ight have b een expected that he w ould have an in ­ terest in w hat his fellow Australian had to say, especially since Webb came into the tribunal w ith a background not as a judge but as a prosecutor. D uring the afternoon session of 11 Novem ber 1948 (be­ ginning w ith docum ent 49,604), Webb read the following in court concerning Nanjing: According to another w itness Chinese were hunted like rabbits, everyone seen to move was shot. At least 12,000 non-combatant Chinese men, w om en and children met their deaths in these in­ discriminate killings during the first two or three days o f the Japa­ nese occupation of the city.”

In num erous testim onies presented at court, no reference appears to this num ber of victims. For this reason, the figure 12,000 civilian victims was probably calculated from the passage in W hat War M eans (p. 59), which states, “Evidences from burials indicate that close to 40,000 unarm ed persons w ere killed within and near the walls of Nanking, ofw hom some 30 percent had never been soldiers.” W esterns w ho w ere residents in Nanjing u n d e r the Japanese oc­ cupation and w hose testim ony appeared in W hat War M eans as anonym ous witnesses offered testim ony in both tribunals either in w ritten affidavits o r court appearances. Timperley, on the o th er hand, as cited earlier, appeared in neither the Nanjing n o r the Tokyo tribunal. “Decisive evidence” was determ ined based on new evi­ dence that em erged from postw ar investigations by the Chinese gov­ ernm ent, especially the large num ber o f corpses exhum ed in the city area, and on these the facts of the Great Massacre w ere decided. At the Nanjing tribunal, the num ber o f dead in the judgm ent handed dow n was “in excess o f 300,000,” while the Tokyo tribunal decided o n a figure o f m ore than 100,000. The background for this discrepancy in figures will be taken up later in the book. The line of argum ent leading to decisions on the Nanjing Incident at both the Nanjing and Tokyo tribunals can be defined as follows: It was clear that there were many unlawful acts, including murder. The enorm ous number o f bodies buried within the city is the cu­ mulative result of many individual unlawful acts. In consideration of these, it was generally agreed that a Great Massacre did take place.

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Analyses of the Court Decisions Following is an overall view of the decisions handed dow n by the Nanjing and Tokyo tribunals of a Great Massacre at Nanjing, seen from the view point of each tribunal. (Italics added by the author.) "C h in a N a tio n a l D e fe n s e D e p a rtm e n t, \Nar C rim e s M ilita ry T rib u n a l”

D eath w arrant for Tani Hisao, Japanese leader in the Nanking Great Massacre and War Criminal. 10 March, 36th Year o f the People’s Gov­ ern m en t (1947). (Excerpts quoted from Reference M aterials o f the Revolution, No. 109 ) “D uring the course of the war, Tani Hisao allowed the soldiers u n d e r his com m and to act as they wished, killing prisoners o f w ar as well as non-com batants. They raped, pillaged and stole property. Sentenced to d eath.” Outline o f the facts: The Japanese military clique saw our capital [Nanjing] as the center o f our resistance against them. The power­ ful, brutal and cruel 6th Division under Tani Hisao, the 16th Divi­ sion under Nakajima, the 18th Division under Ushijima, the 114th Division under Suematsu and other units were joined under the command o f General Matsui Iwane and attacked [Nanjing] in uni­ son. Our armies met them with unbending resistance, which en­ raged the enemy, and in revenge, after the fa ll o f the city, they carried out a planned massacre. The 6th Division under Tani Hisao acted as the spearhead and on the evening of December 12th, 1937, they took Zhonghua Gate by storm, the lead unit scal­ ing the walls with rope ladders, entering the city and beginning the massacre. The following morning large armies led by Nakajima, Ushijima, Suematsu and others again advanced into the city and carried out large-scale massacres in different parts therein, accom­ panied by arson, rape and looting. The most violent massacres oc­ curred that year from December 12th through December 21st, which is also the period when Tani’s division was stationed in Nan­ king. .. The total number o f victims was in excess of300,000. It was the extreme o f misery, and cannot be described in written or spo­ ken words.

Thus is w ritten the section o n the overall explanation of the Great Massacre, the killing of civilians and prisoners of war, and o f arson, rape and looting. The court judgm ent continues w ith the situation regarding rape and violence am ong civilians.

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The number o f our wom en who were violated byjapanese soldiers during the two days o f December 16th and 17th, 1937 had ex­ ceeded one thousand. The outrageous and cruel methods used have no precedent in history. For example, on December 13th a woman by the name o f Tao Tang [the person’s maiden name is Tang; her married name is Tao] was gang raped byjapanese sol­ diers at 5 Tong ren hou, Zhonghua Gate. They then cut her belly open and burned her to death....In the same month, from the 13th through the 17th, Japanese soldiers gang raped a young girl out­ side Zhonghua Gate, then tried to force a Buddhist priest who came by to do the same. He refused and the Japanese soldiers cut off his penis and left him to die.

Regarding the num erous fires that occurred in Nanjing during the Japanese occupation, the following is written: On December 20th, once again there was planned, violent arson throughout all of Nanking. Taiping Road, in the center of the city, was engulfed in flames and continued burning into the night. All fire fighting equipment was confiscated by the Japanese and any­ one w ho ran to the rescue of the citizens was killed to the last per­ son.

As stated above, the overall situation of the Great Massacre was stated in the co u rt’s decision at the Nanjing tribunal. The reasoning behind the c o u rt’s decision was based on “Investigation into Unlaw­ ful Acts by the Enemy,” and is given as follows. The fact o f more than 300,000 victims was not only personally ex­ perienced by more than 1,250 people, including Lu Sheng and Guo Qi, w ho testified to the situation, but is proved by testimonies of Xu Zhuanyin and Zhou Yiyu, both of whom were in charge of burying large numbers o f bodies. The Hong Wan Kuai [Buddhist Society] placed the number of buried bodies at 43,071. According to the statistics o f the Chung Shan Tang organization, the figure was 112,266. The number of more than 3,000 who died leaving no relatives to pray for them that was engraved on the memorial stone o f Lingu Temple was also taken as evidence. This was placed there by the illegitimate governor under the Japanese puppet govern­ ment. Also, according to the Nanjing tribunal, at Rainflower Ter­ race outside Zhonghua Gate, and also at the 10,000-people shaft [a term used to designate a pit for burying large numbers o f dead bodies] the bodies o f 1,000 victims w ere exhum ed and examined, by a team under a forensic doctor, Pan Yingcai, to arrive at a con­ clusion. Examination showed large numbers of the bones bore signs of wounds from swords, gunshot and blunt instruments.

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To com plete the evidence for the above-cited “Investigation into Unlawful Acts by the Enem y” the court used the published works by Timperley and Smythe. The court statem ent follows: Other materials consisted o f What War Means [the Chinese title translates, “Recorded Facts of the Japanese Army’s Violence”) by foreign journalist Timperley, The Truth o f Nanking War Damages, by Smythe, and A Record o f Blood and Tears in the Fallen Capital, by Guo Qi, battalion commander at the battle of Nanjing. These written records agree with each other in all parts. Also, Americans w ho were in Nanjing at the time, Professors Bates and Smythe, gave sworn testimony in this court that these were the facts of the events they witnessed.

The w ritten judgm ent of the court shows that the counsel for the defense offered the following argum ents: 1. The army unit u n d e r the com m and of Tani Hisao pulled o u t of Nanjing o n 21 Decem ber; responsibility for the m assa­ cre lies w ith Nakajima, Suem atsu and other units. 2. The defen d an t’s unit was well disciplined and orderly, and did n o t kill anyone. 3. All evidence p resen ted o n this incident is fabricated and lacks grounds for proof. The record shows that the court rejected this objection, stating that the defen d an t’s (Tani’s) unit was stationed in Nanjing from 12 through 21 December, and that the court recognizes that Tani had the duty o f defending Z honghua Gate, and that, according to testi­ m ony by firsthand w itnesses at an area by Z honghua Gate, Tani’s troops com m itted a total of 459 incidents o f arson, m urder, rape, and pillage. O ne of these w itnesses, for example, Mang Shifu, testified, “Sub­ o rdinates u n d e r Tani Hisao com m itted m urder, arson and rape w ith o u t reason, and Tani’s u nit m ust be recognized as the m ost m erciless, killing well over 100,000 peo p le.” Thus, objections from the Japanese defendant’s side w ere totally rejected by the court, and a decision arrived at as follows (the follow­ ing is a sum m arized translation from the C hinese): Acts o f cruelty by the accused during the war included violence en­ compassing such acts as killing prisoners of war and civilian noncombatants, accompanied by rape, looting, theft and destruction of property. This violates the Regulations Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land o f the Hague Convention and the Geneva Convention’s rules for treating prisoners o f war, and constitutes

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war crimes and crimes against humanity and should be punished with the death penalty.

As cited above, the Nanjing War Crimes Trial prosecuted Lt. General Tani, com m ander of one o f the regim ents in the attack on Nanjing, as one of those responsible for the Great Massacre. The charges w ere violations of the International Rules of War in the category Class B War Crimes. The judgm ent also devoted m any pages to acts that took place at the area General Tani was assigned to attack (a section of Zhonghua Gate). O ther regim ental com m anders w ho fought in the attack on Nanjing died in the Pacific War o r w ere detained as p riso n ­ ers o f w ar and did not appear at the Nanjing tribunal. C om pared w ith the Nanjing trial, at the Tokyo m ilitary tribunal, G eneral Matsui Iwane, com m ander of the C entral China Expedition­ ary Force, was prosecuted as the sole representative w ho bore all re ­ sponsibilities for the Nanjing Massacre. The charges against him w ere n o t just that he was being tried as a Class B w ar criminal, b u t at the tim e he was accused, he was charged w ith the Class A w ar crime category of crim es against peace, and was included in w ith General Tojo Hideki and others on trial as Class A w ar criminals. For this reason, the judgm ent of the Tokyo War Crimes Trial was m ore com prehensive than the Nanjing trial concerning conditions in Nanjing u n d e r Japanese occupation. The following was read in court by the president o f the IMTFE on 11 Novem ber 1948 (Court Transcripts no. 4 9 ,6 0 4 -). The Rape of Nanjing

As the C entral China Expeditionary Force u n d e r com m and o f Matsui approached the city of Nanjing in early D ecem ber 1937, over onehalf o f its one million inhabitants and all but a few neutrals w ho re­ m ained behind to organize an International Safety Zone, fled from the city. The Chinese Army retreated, leaving approxim ately 50,000 troops behind to defend the city. As the Japanese forces storm ed the South Gate o n the night of 12 D ecem ber 1937, m ost of the rem ain­ ing 50,000 troops escaped through the N orth and West Gates of the city. Nearly all the Chinese soldiers had evacuated the city o r had abandoned their arms and uniform s and sought refuge in the Inter­ national Safety Zone and all resistance had ceased as the Japanese Army en tered the city on the m orning of 13 D ecem ber 1937. The Ja p ­ anese soldiers sw arm ed over the city and com m itted various atroci­ ties. According to one of the eyewitnesses they w ere let loose like a barbarian horde to desecrate the city. It was said by eyewitnesses that

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the city appeared to have fallen into the hands of the Japanese as cap­ tu red prey, that it had n o t m erely b een taken in organized warfare, and that the m em bers o f the victorious Japanese Army had set u p o n the prize to com m it unlim ited violence.” The above co n ten t can be seen in o th er sources also, giving a view o f the situation in the city. The tribunal p resid en t’s oral rep o rt continues (C ourt Record no. 49,605):

JIM

Individual soldiers and small groups of two or three roamed over the city murdering, raping, looting and burning. There was no dis­ cipline whatever. Many soldiers were drunk. Soldiers went through the streets indiscriminately killing Chinese men, wom en and chil­ dren without apparent provocation or excuse until in places the streets and alleys were littered with the bodies of their victims. Ac­ cording to another witness Chinese were hunted like rabbits, ev­ eryone seen to move was shot. At least 12,000 non-combatant Chinese men, w om en and children met their deaths in these indis­ criminate killings during the first two or three days of the Japanese occupation of the city.

C oncerning incidents o f rape, the Nanking War Crimes Trial seem s to have influenced the following portion of the judgm ent at Tokyo. The tribunal president continues: There were many cases o f rape. Death was a frequent penalty for the slightest resistance on the part o f a victim or the members of her family w ho sought to protect her. Even girls of tender years and old w om en were raped in large numbers throughout the city, and many cases of abnormal and sadistic behavior in connection with these rapes occurred. Many w om en were killed after the act and their bodies mutilated. Approximately 20,000 cases of rape oc­ curred within the city during the first month o f the occupation.

I1'!

The situation concerning fires was read as follows (Record no. 49,606): After looting shops and warehouses the Japanese spldiers fre­ quently set fire to them. Taiping Road, the most important shop­ ping street, and block after block of the commercial section of the city were destroyed by fire. Soldiers burned the homes o f civilians for no apparent reason. Such burning appeared to follow a pre­ scribed pattern after a few days and continued for six weeks. Ap­ proximately one-third of the city was thus destroyed.

The following excerpt concerns the killing of civilians and sol­ diers w ho had discarded their uniform s (Record no. 49,606):

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Organized and w holesale m urder of male civilians was con­ ducted w ith the apparent sanction of the com m anders on the p re ­ tense that Chinese soldiers had rem oved their uniform s and w ere m ingling w ith the population. G roups o f Chinese civilians w ere form ed, b o u n d w ith their hands behind their backs, and m arched outside the walls of the city w here they w ere killed in groups by m a­ chine gun fire and w ith bayonets. More than 20,000 Chinese m en of military age are know n to have died in this fashion.” The judgm ent o f the Tokyo trial contained portions regarding conditions outside the walls o f the city o f Nanjing that did n o t ap­ pear in the judgm ent of the Nanjing trial (Record no. 49,607): Those outside the city fared little better than those within. Practi­ cally the same situation existed in all the communities within 200 li [about 66 miles] of Nanking. The population had fled into the countryside in an attempt to escape from the Japanese soldiers. In places they had grouped themselves into fugitive camps. The Japa­ nese captured many of these camps and visited upon the fugitives treatment similar to that accorded the inhabitants of Nanking. Of the civilians who had fled Nanking over 57,000 were overtaken and interned. These were starved and tortured in captivity until a large number died. Many of the survivors were killed by machine gun fire and by bayoneting.

The following was contained in the judgm ent concerning the killing o f prisoners of war (Record nos. 49,607 and 608): Large parties of Chinese soldiers laid down their arms and surren­ dered outside Nanking; within 72 hours after their surrender they were killed in groups by machine gun fire along the bank of the Yangzi River. Over 30,000 such prisoners of war were so killed. There was not even a pretence o f trial o f these prisoners so massa­ cred.

The num ber o f persons killed at Nanjing is taken up in the fol­ lowing p o rtio n of the judgm ent (Record no. 49,608): Estimates made at a later date indicate that the total number o f ci­ vilians 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 the 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 w hose bodies

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The Politics of Nanjing

were destroyed by burning or by throwing them into the Yangtze River or otherwise disposed of by Japanese.

Also read in court w ere accounts of reactions by W esterners and b y jap an ese to the actions o f Japanese forces in Nanjing (Record no. 49,611): News reports o f the atrocities were widespread... .Following these unfavorable reports and the pressure o f public opinion aroused in nations all over the world, the Japanese Government recalled Matsui and approximately 80 o f his officers but took no action to punish any o f them. (Emphasis added by the author.)

Finally, the following was read in court regarding the duration of the Great Massacre (Record no. 49,612): [Rjape, arson and murder continued to be committed 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.

The decision o n the above indictm ents was handed dow n by the court o n 12 N ovem ber 1948 and contained the following (Record nos. 49,815 and 816): Before the fall of Nanking the Chinese forces withdrew and the oc­ cupation was o f a defenseless city. Then followed a long succession o f most horrible atrocities committed by the Japanese Army upon the helpless citizens. Wholesale massacres, individual murders, rape, looting and arson were committed byjapanese soldiers. Al­ though the extent o f the atrocities was denied by Japanese wit­ nesses the contrary evidence of neutral witnesses o f different nationalities and undoubted credibility is overwhelming. This orgy o f crime started with the capture o f the city on the 13th December 1937 and did not cease until early in February 1938. In this pe­

riod o f six or seven weeks thousands o f women were raped, up­ wards o f 100,000 people were killed and untold property was stolen and burned. At the height of these dreadful happenings, on 17 December, Matsui made a triumphal entry into the city and re­ mained there from five to seven days... .He was in command o f the Army responsible for their happenings. He knew of them. He had the power, as he had the duty, to control his troops and to protect the unfortunate citizens o f Nanking. He must be held criminally re­ sponsible for his failure to discharge this duty. (Emphasis added by author.)

And so, the IMTFE h anded dow n its decision on Matsui as follows: “The Tribunal holds the accused Matsui guilty u n d e r C ount 55, and

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not guilty u n d e r C ounts 1, 27, 29, 31, 32, 35, 36 [Class A crimes] and 54.” C ount 55 u n d e r which Matsui was convicted was “Disregard of duty to secure observance of and prevent breaches o f laws o f w ar,” w hich is a Class B crime. The Tokyo tribunal was convened specifi­ cally to try defendants of Class A w ar crimes. Thus, in convicting Matsui u n d e r C ount 55, the court had to depart from its original purpose. It m ight be noted that at the IMTFE, Class C War Crimes (Crimes against Humanity) did not constitute an in d ep en d en t category. The counts cited in the decisions for Class A, Class B, and Class C w ar crim es w ere form ulated u p o n fifty-five types o f evidence to form the indictm ent; nine of these counts applied to Matsui as a defen­ dant. The charges at the IMTFE fell into three m ajor categories: con­ spiracy to com m it aggression, aggression, and conventional w ar crimes. If we take the essentials factors that w ent into form ing the judg­ m ent in random order, they can be expressed as follows: 1. A planned massacre developed over a period of six or seven weeks. 2. The atrocities that took place at Nanking becam e widely know n th roughout the w orld and raised voices of protest from various countries. 3. There was a spread of incidents o f arson, pillage and rape b y jap an ese soldiers. 4. Victims totaled from 100,000 to 300,000. I should like to address the above four points o n the situation in Nanjing u p o n which the judgm ent o f the IMTFE was form ed and com pare them with the situation in Nanjing as described in Timperley’s W hat War M eans and other English-language articles and re ­ ports of the time. First, I will address points 1 and 2.

2. A “Great Massacre” Did Not Appear in Wartime Propaganda Timperley’s Writings Make No Mention of a “Planned Massacre” The judgm ent of the IMTFE included the charge that the Japanese Army “carried out a planned m assacre” that lasted “six o r seven w eeks.” The m ost reasonable m aterials to search for the co u rt’s basis

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for arriving at this conclusion w ould be the descriptions Timperley p resen ted in W hat War Means. The co n ten t o f Tim perley’s book can be divided into two areas. O ne is m ade u p o f reports by W esterners resident in China concern­ ing indiscrim inate bom bing in different cities o f the country, and lack of discipline am ong the Japanese during the occupation. The w eight of testim ony in this area o f the book concerns indiscrim inate aerial bom bing by Japan, w ith especially heavy docum entation of criticism during the w ar by the Chinese Nationalist Party, by the U nited Kingdom and by the United States leveled against the Japa­ nese for the aerial bom bing of Chongqing. With the e n d of the war, news and criticism of Japanese bom bing of civilian areas vanished from these three official sources. The charge of indiscriminate bom b­ ing or bom bing of civilian areas did not appear at the IMTFE o r at the w ar crim es tribunal at Nanjing. Indiscrim inate bom bing becam e w idespread in World War II. The United States, which was conducting the IMTFE and u n d o u b t­ edly had influence over the Chinese Nationalist Party and Britain, concentrated its aerial attacks on Japan to firebom bing urban areas w ith incendiaries and napalm , then culm inated these w ith the two atom ic bom bs. American influence in arranging to keep charges of this sort o u t o f the tribunals in Tokyo and Nanjing is a reasonable suspicion. The rem ainder of Tim perley’s book, approxim ately two-thirds of the total pages, concerns charges against the Japanese Army in the occupation o f Nanjing. This portion can be classified into two groups. The first is m ade u p o f w ritten reports in English subm itted by the In­ ternational C om m ittee to the Japanese Embassy from D ecem ber 1937 through early February of the following year. This is the com ­ m ittee th a t set u p the In te rn atio n a l Safety Z one for p ro te c tio n of civilians d u rin g th e b a ttle fo r N an jing. T he r e p o r ts c o n ta in e d in c id e n ts o f rap e, p lu n d er, and m u rd e r by Jap an ese soldiers, and item s o n th e p ro te c tio n o f civilians. The o th e r classification of m a­ terial covering th e sam e p e rio d is m ade u p of anonym ous rep o rts by W estern resid e n ts of N anjing co n cern in g the behavior o f Ja p a ­ nese tro o p s. R eports su b m itted to th e Jap an ese Em bassy c o n c e rn ­ ing the behavior o f Ja p an e se tro o p s w ere p u b lish e d in English by th e GMD in the spring o f 1939 u n d e r th e title D o c u m en ts o f the N a n k in g S a fety Zone, Shuhsi, ed. (Shanghai, H ong Kong, Singa­ p o re: Kelly and Walsh, 1939). The b o o k contains a to tal o f sixty-nine reports, each dated, and each report contains several charges and sub-reports.

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The English original was published in Kerning Wenhsien (Refer­ ence m aterials o f the revolution), Vol. 109. The content becam e know n in Japan w hen the English was translated into Japanese by Flora Tomio and published u n d e r the title Eibun shiryohen. Timperley obtained a copy o f either the m anuscript o r the book before it was released, selected approxim ately one-third of the total content o f the book, and reproduced it as is in W hat War M eans. If we exam ine the charges and reports in W hat War M eans and D ocum ents o f the N a n kin g Safety Zone, n either describes a planned and extended-period Great Massacre. Timperley him self does n o t in­ dicate vast-scale m urder in his use of term s such as “m assacre” in making charges against the Japanese Army during its occupation of Nanjing. The num ber of cruelties that w ere actually w itnessed first­ hand is limited. For that reason, it may be well to consider the sepa­ rate incidents recorded in the two works cited above as reports of individual incidents w ithin a Great Massacre. Then this provides the necessary logic for the establishm ent of a Great Massacre at Nanjing. First o f all, leaving the question of the quantity of victims at Nanjing aside, and exam ining the “quality” of each act o f cruelty, it will still not result in a finding o f “a planned Great M assacre” o f several h u n ­ dred thousand victims. The charges leveled against the Japanese Army in W hat War M eans can be divided into two categories. One encom passes arson, pillage, rape, and m u rd e r by Japanese soldiers. The o th er category is the capture and group killing of Chinese soldiers w ho had discarded their uniform s and m ingled with the civilian population. I will dis­ cuss this latter category later in the book. I should like to m ention here, however, that large-scale executions of Chinese soldiers w ho had shed their uniform s and o f POWs e n d ed in the latter part of De­ cember, after the Japanese troops had occupied Nanjing. For this reason, it is im possible to find, in the above-cited executions, the ele­ m ents to construct “a planned Great Massacre that extended six or seven w eeks.” T he m ain e le m e n ts for this charge, “a p la n n ed , great m assacre lastin g six or se v e n w e e k s ,” that ap p eared in th e ju d g m en ts o f th e tri­ b u n als at N anjing and Tokyo sh o u ld have b e e n b u ilt o n in cid en ts o f arson, lo o tin g , rape, and m u rd er b y ja p a n e se tro o p s that lasted over that p e r io d o f tim e. First, let u s exam in e the “p la n n e d ” charge. W h en th e Jap an ese Army w as sh ort o f su p p lies and so u g h t to fur­ nish their n e e d s by req u isition in g, that is co m m a n d eerin g , su p p lies locally, charges w ere m ad e by p e o p le w h o ap p ear in W hat War M eans that th e Jap an ese Army w as in a p la n n ed p lu n d er o f th ese

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supplies. However, the overw helm ing num ber of actual cases o f pil­ lage and rape that w ere rep o rted and appear in W hat War M eans w ere com m itted by individual soldiers and by groups o f from two to five m en in spontaneous outbreaks w ith no indications that they w ere planned, m uch less organized. Among several sources that su p p o rt this is Tim perley’s editorial in the N orth China D aily N ew s of 21 January 1938, which states, This journal does not believe, and never has believed that these things occur by reason of any set purpose of the Japanese High Command. It prefers to think that those men, firm in the high tradi­ tion of their profession must as deeply deplore what is happening as any right-thinking man does. But that does not relieve the Japa­ nese commanders o f the imperative duty of stopping these unruly soldiers from further insulting the uniform they wear.

pa

T here is also the previously cited account that William Webb, tri­ bunal president at the IMTFE, read in court: “Individual soldiers and small groups o f two o r three roam ed over the city m urdering, raping, looting and burning. There was no discipline whatever.” Yet the tri­ bunal apparently ignored this reading in its judgm ent and attributed the atrocities to a “plan” by the Japanese Army. Japanese Army officers and kem pei officers challenged this kind of behavior, and while there are only a few cases of arrests made, there are rep o rts o f charges by army and kem pei officers against Ja p ­ anese soldiers. Below is rep o rt N o. 59 in the Appendix to W hat War Means-. On December 18th, while Major Y. Nagai was kind enough to call on our Chairman, Mr. Rabe, at his house at Siao Tao Yuen, a neigh­ bour right opposite called for help because four Japanese soldiers had entered his house and one o f them was raping one o f the wom en. Major Nagai caught the man and slapped his face and or­ dered him out. The other three soldiers ran when they saw the Ma­ jor coming.

The following is No. 146 in the Appendix: On December 23rd, 3 p.m., two Japanese soldiers came to the Han­ kow Road Primary School Refugee Camp, searching for property and then raped a Miss Hwang of the staff. It was immediately re­ ported to the Japanese Special Service Military Police. They sent Military Police to get the soldiers who had left, so they took the girl to their office and held her as witness. The same evening, other Jap­ anese soldiers came and raped Mrs. Wang’s daughter. About 7.00

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p.m. three other Japanese soldiers raped two young girls, one of whom was only 13 years old.

The following is from D ocum ents o f the N a n kin g Safety Zone, Incident No. 220: “January 30 [1938], a ja p a n e se soldier came to the University Middle School about 5 p.m. to get a w om an. O ne w orker persuaded him to go away. He took a w om an from a house nearby but a military police came and took him. He n eeded help so got an­ o th er military police and the two o f them bound the soldier and took him away. [Bates]” The above happened w ithin the safety zone, and is not rep resen ­ tative of general conditions in the city. But even concerning condi­ tions in the city outside of the Safety Zone we can gain a glim pse th rough rep o rts by m em bers of the International Safety Zone Com m ittee. As for the adm inistration outside the Safety Zone, on 1 January 1938, the Nanking Self-Government Com m ittee was established with the backing of the Japanese Army with the intention o f handing over the National People’s G overnm ent to the Chinese to replace the International Safety Zone Com m ittee. The Nanjing Self-Government Com m ittee, from the time it was established, was in com m unication with the previously established Nanking International Safety Zone Com m ittee, and began w ork to aid the lives o f the residents of the entire Nanjing region. The Japanese w anted to release the safety zone from W estern control and bring the entire city u n d e r the juris­ diction o f the Self-Government Com m ittee. Thus, from January 1938, the Japanese began proceedings with the International Safety Zone C om m ittee to have the Chinese in the Safety Zone retu rn to their hom es as soon as possible, and from then on, the activities of the International Safety Zone Com m ittee shrank, with the intention that the com m ittee was to be dissolved during March of the same year. The com m ittee was actually dissolved on 10 February, but the Safety Zone continued until the e n d o f March, as people gradually retu rn ed to their hom es. D ocum ents o f the N a nking Safety Zone contains reports and m em oranda in chronological groupings. The last entry in the group “Dec. 14, 1937-Jan. 7, 1938” is titled “Num ber 34—M em orandum on Restoring Normal C onditions in Nanking.” In this, the following is contained: Before the population is moved into a section that is to be opened for people to return to their homes and business, the following

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steps should be taken: a. All wandering soldiers should be excluded from the new area. b. A strong system o f military police throughout the area should be put in operation to see that the area is clear of soldiers. Military po­ lice office should be specified where people may safely report any disturbance by soldiers. c. Arrangements should be made for important rice shops to open the morning the section is opened to the population. d. City water should be turned on in the area and places made avail­ able for people to get water. e. A number of civilian police should be moved into the section and organized.

HAM

1 '•"M*

There is no m ention, however, of any extrem e danger during a great m assacre that w ould m ake it im possible for the people to retu rn to their hom es. But the city was still far from being in peace. In the same m em orandum cited above u n d e r the subhead “Burning m ust stop,” is the following: “It is now beyond the stage o f shops— in w hich how ever m any people also lived—and has been destroying houses in w hich people m ust live w hen they retu rn to those areas of the city.” From this, it is evident that Japanese soldiers w ere setting fire to shops and hom es that had been vacated w hen the residents fled to the Safety Zone. Thus, the W esterners criticized the fact that the n u m b er o f Japanese military police officers was insufficient, and en ­ forcem ent of o rd er w ould be too w eak for people to retu rn to their hom es and shops w ith a sense of security, but gave no indication of any encouragem ent of looting o r rape by plan of the Japanese Army authorities. The m ain p u rp o rt of their criticism was the laxity of mili­ tary discipline displayed am ong Japanese soldiers and the disorderly conduct that this led them into. There is n o recognition of any planned violence. Tim perley’s W hat War M eans begins w ith the following citation: Those w ho appreciate true valour should in their daily intercourse set gentleness first and aim to win the love and esteem of others. If you affect valour and act with violence, the world will in the end de­ test you and look upon you as wild beasts. Of this you should take heed. — Extract from Para. 3 of The Im p eria l Precept to the Soldiers a n d Sailors, issued by the Emperor Meiji on January 4th, 1883. Au­ thorized English translation on page 228 of The Ja p a n Year Book, 1937. (This is read to all units o f the Japanese Army at frequent in­ tervals in peacetime.)

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Timperley holds this up to reflect the situation in Nanjing as a vi­ olation o f the ethical code of Japanese soldiers. In addition, it m ight be n o ted that Timperley evaluates the Japanese Army’s rapid ad­ vance from Shanghai to Nanjing in only one m onth as a rare exam ple in the history of war. The above sentences show w here Timperley places priority in his criticism. In the text of his book, Timperley ac­ cuses the Japanese soldiers o f “disorder or w orse”; he by no m eans accuses of the army o f a planned m assacre or planned destruction of property. The subtitle to W hat War M eans is “The Japanese Terror in China.” Perhaps by this he im plied an organized cruelty, and Tim­ perley lined o u t a tentative conclusion for his book that there was a policy of terrorization by the Japanese Army in Nanjing. In reply, M iner Bates, professor at Nanking University, in a letter from Nanjing dated 14 March 1938, w rote the following to Timperley: Not sure of a policy o f terrorization, though som e things look like it. There was also a general hatred and contempt, with a bad carry­ over from the punitive idea sponsored in higher quarters, and an artificially stimulated fear o f snipers or of hidden Chinese sol­ diers—quite ridiculously at variance with the facts of their own ex­ perience. After command did forbid the wrongful acts (repeatedly) there was no genuine effort at enforcement.

The “punitive idea” is probably rooted in Prime M inister Konoe Fum im aro’s com m ent m ade in the sum m er o f 1937. Soon after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, in m id August, in the Shanghai area, the C hinese Army attacked the Jap an ese forces and in clu d ed in th eir attack air raids o n Jap an ese naval vessels and civilian areas in the Foreign C oncessions. At that tim e, Konoe scream ed, “We c an n o t to lerate this any m ore. There is no o th er way but to punish the arro­ gant Chinese Army to make the Chinese governm ent rethink the sit­ uation.” This was never translated into any plan o r o rd er to the military to com m it m ayhem in the capital city. Supplem entary materials that show the actual conditions in Nanjing u n d e r the Japanese occupation w ere com piled by the G er­ man, Jo h n H. Rabe, chairm an o f the Nanking International Safety Zone Com m ittee, and concern food and o ther supplies for the Chi­ nese citizens. I should like to present his letter, which was rep ro ­ duced in Tim perley’s book as D ocum ent No. 19 (p. 252, Appendix D). The letter was dated 14 January 1938. Italics w ere added by the

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author. [“Tze Chih Wei Yuan Hwei” is Chinese for the Self-Govern­ m ent Com m ittee.] Mr. Tokuyasu Fukuda Japanese Embassy, Nanking My D ear Mr. Fukuda, O n D ecem ber 21st m em bers of the foreign com m unity called the attention o f the Japanese authorities to the fact that food and fuel supplies available for the civilian p opulation in Nanking w ere very inadequate and asked them to take suitable steps to cope w ith the situation. O n D ecem ber 27th I talked this m atter over w ith Mr. Fukui, especially regarding rice and coal. Mr. Fukui replied that the Army preferred to handle the rice through the Tze Chih Wei Yuan Hwei b u t that he w ould help us to secure coal for soup kitchens. However, a coal yard was assigned to the Tze Chih Wei Yuan Hwei to use for relief purposes. This yard contained 550 tons o f coal w hen w e first investigated it on D ecem ber 27th. But because m uch o f the coal had b e e n hauled away by others in the m eantim e, only 100 tons was secured for soup kitchens. At the same tim e that we w ere negotiating with Mr. Fukui, Major T. Ishida o f the Army Supply D epartm ent voluntarily told Mr. Sperling that he w ould sell us plenty of rice and flour for re ­ lief purposes. Mr. Kroeger and Mr. Sperling approached Major Ishida o n the m atter and he offered us 5,000 bags o f flour on January 7th. He also prom ised to sell us 600 tons o f coal for soup kitchens. T hree days later w h en Mr. Kroeger w ent back to arrange delivery o f the rice, Major Ishida said he could n o t sell us rice, flour o r coal because it was to be distributed through the Tze Chih Wei Yuan Hwei. O n January 8th, the Tze Chih Wei Yuan Hwei told us that they had b een assigned 1,250 bags of rice fo r fre e d istrib u tio n o u tside o f the Z one and 10,000 bags of rice to sell, and asked us to help them truck it. We organized this on Sunday, the 9th, and had five trucks on the job M onday m orning. In the m eantim e they had secured perm ission to sell the 1,250 bags assigned to distribution and use a similar am ount from assignm ent of 10.000 bags for free distribution later. The hauling of the 1,250 bags was com pleted in two days and sold as rapidly as it arrived. W hen the m en supervising the trucking started to get the o ther 10.000 bags on the 12th, they were told that that assignm ent had b een tu rn e d dow n and that now only 1,000 bags could be

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secured every three days. Already two days’ delay had been used in negotiations about the matter. A check-up yesterday, January 13th, shows that all the coal in coal yards which we had pointed out to you on D ecem ber 27th as places w here coal m ight be m ade available for civilian use, has either been hauled away or burned. (These seven yards on D ecem ber 27th con­ tained over 2,000 tons of coal.) We are glad to cooperate w ith you and the Tze Chih Wei Yuan Hwei in caring for this civilian population which now has no econom ic basis of support. This was evidenced by closing o u r rice shop w hen the Tze Chih Wei Yuan Hwei asked us to on January 10th and on the same day in helping them truck the rice assigned to them —from which ou r soup kitchens and camps did n o t receive a single bag. We u n derstand that you registered 160,000 people w ithout including children u n d e r 10 years of age, and in som e sections w ithout including o lder w om en. Therefore there are p robably 250,000 t o 300,000 civilians in the city. To feed this population on norm al rations of rice w ould require 2,000 ta n of rice per day (or, 1,600 bags p er day). From this it will be clear that the p ro p o sed 1,000 bags for every 3 days is less than one-third the am ount o f rice needed. Up to the present the people have got­ ten along very largely on their private stores o f rice b u t that is being rapidly used up and the dem and for purchasing rice has risen very rapidly since January 1st. There should im m ediately be m ade available for purchase by the people at least 1,000 bags p e r day as soon as possible. In addition to this there should be flour available for p u r­ chase in large quantities and 2,000 tons of coal, for one o r two m o n th s’ supply, as well as o th er fuel. Deliberate and efficient planning is necessary in o rd er to prevent great suffering in this w inter weather. I w rite therefore to enquire w hat the state of affairs actu­ ally is, and w hy the arrangem ents previously m ade have been canceled. The people m ust eat and w hen they are deprived of rice, o r of the fuel w ith which to cook it, they are reduced to a bitter condition indeed. Permit m e to ask you to straighten out this m atter at once w ith the military authorities so that there will be a dependable supply of rice and fuel m ade constantly available for the people. W hether the rice and fuel com es through o u r ow n Com m ittee o r through the Tze Chih Wei Yuan Hwei makes no difference to us. What o u r Com m ittee does de-

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sire is that som e adequate supply o f these essentials o f life be m ade available to the people. It w ould be well to have this done so far as possible on a com m ercial basis. In closing, let m e add a w ord. If you have any suggestions as to how the service w hich o u r C om m ittee is rendering can be im proved, we shall be m ost happy to have them . With kindest regards and thanks for your untiring help in these m atters, I am, Respectfully yours, (Signed) Jo h n H.D. Rabe, Chairman International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone The above clearly shows the relationship betw een the International Com m ittee for the Nanking Safety Zone, the Nanking Self-Govern­ m ent C om m ittee, and Japanese authorities. Above all, it shows that in early January 1938, Japan supplied rice to the Chinese of the city outside of the Safety Zone, and that a situation quite contradictory to a continuing Great Massacre existed in Nanjing and was testified to by third-party W esterners. Next I w ould like to address the claim of an “extended p eriod of six to seven w eeks.” C ounting from the Japanese occupation of Nanjing o n 13 D ecem ber 1937, this m eans that the m assacre w ould have had to have lasted to the latter part of February or the beginning o f March 1938. Reports by anonym ous W esterners that appear in W hat War M eans contain num erous entries that contradict those w ho say that a massacre lasted for six o r seven weeks. For exam ple, C hapter 2 is a continuation of a “narrative in diary form ,” beginning on page 20 o iW h a t War M eans, by “a foreign resi­ d e n t of Nanking.” In this, it shows that at a tim e that was supposed to be the height of the Great Massacre, from 24-25 D ecem ber 1938, the w riter and a g roup of people celebrated Christm as Eve and Christ­ mas day. Then the entry on the 27th begins, “The third w eek o f Japa­ nese occupation begins and is celebrated w ith the arrival o f a Nisshin Risen Kaisha ship from Shanghai.” The ship arrived at the o u ter port of Xiaguan, facing the Yangzi River, and m arked the resum ption of services on the Yangzi betw een Shanghai and Nanjing. The diary re­ p o rt of the anonym ous w riter continues: “Four representatives of the com pany called at my office and prom ised that a regular service will soon be established on the river. A n um ber o f ladies are in the party and are taken on a sightseeing trip of the city. They distribute a

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few sweets to som e children and seem trem endously pleased with them selves, also w ith Ja p an ’s w onderful victory, b u t of course they hear nothing of the real tru th —n o r does the rest of the w orld, I suppose.” The content of this diary entry indicates that the w riter observed the ladies being escorted around town. The writer, however, m akes no m ention of any lim itations by the Japanese Army to the sightsee­ ing course. An entry in D ocum ents o f the N a nking Safety Z one for 1 Febru­ ary 1938, No. 57, contains twelve items. These concern the retu rn of refugees to their hom es from the latter p art of January, and records conditions w ithin the city o f Nanjing outside of the Safety Zone. Cases o f rape against refugees after they retu rn ed to their hom es are cited, b ut there is no m ention of anything that resem bles a largescale massacre. T he a b o v e-cited in c id e n ts c o n tra d ic t th e e x iste n ce o f a p la n n e d , Great Massacre in Nanjing that supposedly continued over a period of six o r seven weeks. Clearly, there w ere undisciplined o u t­ breaks o f looting, rape, arson, and m urder by Japanese soldiers, and attem pted incidents of such. Nine years later, however, at the War Crimes Trials in Nanjing and Tokyo, these acts w ere judged to be part o f a greater schem e and “p lanned,” and to have continued for a d u ra­ tion of “six to seven w eeks.” The above judgm ents w ere at least a m isconception o f the entire situation and m ore accurately could be considered a fabrication.

Reports from Other Cities with Similar Situations Point 2. The atrocities that took place at Nanjing becam e widely know n th roughout the w orld and raised voices of protest from vari­ ous countries. The court records of the proceedings at the Nanjing and Tokyo trials show that the judgm ents o f the courts w ere not based on the atrocities at Nanjing as being individual, undisciplined acts by soldiers b u t part o f a planned, Great Massacre of six to seven weeks duration. And, if we consider that the new s did spread thro u g h o u t the w orld and raised voices of protest, th en it m atched the aim o f the GMD’s w artim e propaganda efforts. H ow did these propaganda activities develop, and w hat was the real value they provided? W hen I pursued this question, I found the pertin en t sources in the English-language Chinese Yearbook, edited and com piled by the GMD’s Council o f International Affairs (Commercial Press, Shang­ hai). If Tim perley’s W hat War M eans p rom oted the GMD’s govern-

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m ent propaganda from behind the scenes, The Chinese Yearbook re p re se n ts th e o p e n and official p ro p ag a n d a and info rm atio n dis­ sem in atio n activities o f th e GMD p arty and governm ent. The first issue o f th e Yearbook covers th e years 1935 to 1936, and th e p u b li­ catio n continued covering successive years for a total o f five issues, the final issue covering 1940 and 1941. Issue 4 covers 1938 and 1939, carrying the news of the period, w ith 80 percent of the text concerning the Sino-Japanese War, and has the characteristic of a special edition on the war. After the fall of Nanjing, the GMD governm ent shifted its seat to Wuhan, then after that fell to the Japanese in O ctober 1938, the GMD governm ent shifted to Chongqing. For that reason, Issue 4 also covers the Japa­ nese occupation o f Wuhan, and records the overall early trends in the Sino-Japanese War. The editor o f D ocum ents o f the N a nking Safety Zone, Shu Hsihsu, as a representative of the Council of International Affairs, w rote a preface to this Issue 4 dated March 1939, which shows that this vol­ um e of The Chinese Yearbook was published w ith the su p p o rt of the Division of Inform ation of the GMD’s Ministry o f Foreign Af­ fairs. The inform ation on the cover reveals that Com m ercial Press, the publisher and distributor of The Chinese Yearbook, functioned norm ally in the Foreign C oncession o f Shanghai even after the o u t­ break of the Sino-Japanese War, and had sales outlets n ot only in vari­ ous parts o f China but in cities in America, England, and Germany. The Chinese Yearbook was distributed thro u g h o u t the w orld. Among the w ar-related m aterials o f the 1939 entries, those con­ cerning reports that deal directly with the Great Massacre at Nanjing w ere com piled by Shu Hsihsu himself, and titled “Japanese War C on­ d u ct.” This p o rtio n of the yearbook was w ritten to rep o rt o n the cru­ elty o f the Japanese during the invasion o f China. It contained extracts from Shu H sihsu’s previously published book, titled The War Conduct o f the Japanese (Kelly and Walsh, 1938), and also vari­ ous reports and news from the English-language press. Among the sources from w hich items are reproduced are Tim perley’s W hat War M eans and D ocum ents o f the N a nking Safety Zone. The entire p o r­ tions o f “Japanese War C onduct “ entered in The Chinese Yearbook are too long to reproduce here in their entirety. The portions below are excerpted from som e twenty-three pages o f the book, com pris­ ing approxim ately 25,000 words. I have chosen a small part of them that rep resen t the m ain thrust of the content. Com m ents in p aren ­ theses are by the author [Kitamuraj.

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[Excerpts from The Chinese Yearbook, pp. 180-204. Approxi­ mately 2,000 w ords excerpted from a total of approxim ately 13,000 words.] I. Mowing Down Fleeing Refugees

A. Shanghai—“If I saw 20 refugees m ow ed dow n, I saw at least 200,” a foreigner w ho visited the Jessfield area yesterday m orning told the N orth China D aily News. B. N a nking—The Japanese w ere first rep o rted in the Safety Zone that m orning, Dec. 13. I drove dow n with two of o u r com m ittee m em bers to m eet them , just a small detachm ent at the southern e n ­ trance to the zone. They show ed no hostility, though a few m om ents later they killed 20 refugees w ho w ere frightened by their presence and ran from them . For it seems to be the rule here, as it was in Shanghai in 1932, that anyone w ho runs m ust be shot o r bayoneted. —Private circular, author, The War C onduct o f thejapanese, p. 158. C. A m oy—Many civilians w ere killed on the Bund w hen the first d e­ tachm ent o f the Japanese came. The m achine guns came o n firing continuously, m owing dow n all who w ere before them , irrespective of age or sex. —Dispatch (dated 13 May 1938), South China M orning Post, 17 May 1938. II. Killing Prisoners of War

A. N a nking —Squads o f m en picked o u t by Japanese troops as for­ m er Chinese soldiers have been tied together and shot. These sol­ diers had discarded their arms and in som e cases their military clothing. Thus far we have found no trace of prisoners in Japanese hands o th er than such squads actually or apparently on the way to execution, save for m en picked up anywhere to serve as tem porary carriers o f loot and equipm ent. —Report, N orth China D aily News, 25 D ecem ber 1937. More than 10,000 unarm ed persons have b een killed in cold blood. Most of my trusted friends w ould p u t the figure m uch higher. There w ere Chinese soldiers w ho threw dow n their arms or su rren ­ dered after being trapped; and civilians recklessly shot and bayo­ neted, often w ithout even the pretext that they w ere soldiers, including not a few w om en and children. — Private letter (dated 10 January 1938), author, The War C onduct o f the Japanese, p. 98. B. A m oy—The H ong Kheng was the only British ship anchored at Amoy w hen the fighting broke out and the only one to take off refu-

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gees from the International Settlem ent. The following account of the fighting was given by one of the officers: “I saw a detachm ent of about 50 Chinese soldiers w ho w ere prisoners lined u p in military fashion. O ne o f the Japanese d ro p p ed his hand as a signal and a m a­ chine gun was tu rn e d o n the Chinese w ho w ere m ow ed dow n.” — Report, South China M orning Post, 14 May 1938. III. Plundering and Burning Cities

A. N a nking—W hole sections o f the city are being systematically burned. At 5 p.m . Smythe and I w ent for a drive. All Taiping Road, the m ost im portant shopping street in the city, was in flames. We drove through show ers o f sparks and over burning em bers. Further south w e could see the soldiers inside the shops setting fire to them and still further they w ere loading the loot into army trucks. — Private cir­ cular, author, The War C onduct o f the Japanese, p. 167. B. Shanghai—A letter in your p ap er today...that there have been since Dec. 1 to date at least two fires daily in Nantao for four days is perhaps exaggerated. [The writer] bases his conclusion o n the fact that he has visited Nantao four days for about ten hours and never e n co u n tered a single fire. He believes that small fires used by the Jap­ anese military to keep warm have been construed to be large fires.... I can state w ith certainty that there have b een at least tw o m ajor fires in Nantao every 24 hours since Dec. 1. Perhaps they are fires to keep the military warm, b u t I have never know n buildings to be burned d o w n to keep soldiers w arm . — Pysocephalous, letter to editor, N orth China D aily News, 24 January 1938. C. Som ew here in North China— In one village the visiting army had b u rn ed the doors, windows, furniture, farm im plem ents and other articles; h ad eaten and destroyed large quantities o f grain, and p re­ vented the harvesting o f crops, and had taken away m ost o f the farm anim als and carts. I w ent through hom e after hom e w here there is nothing left b u t the em pty shell. — Private letter, National Christian Council Broadcast, 27 March 1938. IV. Looting, Rape, and Murder

A. Shanghai— How a drunken Japanese soldier w ent on a drunken spree in the H ungjao district and, being unable to obtain the w om en he dem anded, shot and killed three old Chinese w om en, shot an­ o th er old w om an, and either shot or bayoneted four m en, was re-

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vealed yesterday by a Briton who, happening to hear of the affair while he was out w est o f the railway, conducted an exhaustive inves­ tigation of the spot. In a second incident, a Chinese em ployee of a British firm was shot and badly w ounded w hen, it is alleged, he was unable to give two intoxicated Japanese soldiers any money. —Report, N orth China D aily News, 16 January 1938. B. Soochow—It was n o t until Nov. 21 that I returned. My com panion and I had to drive carefully to avoid running over bodies o f the dead lining the roads and scattered over the fields. W hen we arrived, lo o t­ ing on the part of uniform ed Japanese soldiers was proceeding in lively fashion. Mission property as yet, had not b een m olested. From that tim e until Dec. 11, we w ent into Soochow nearly every day. We saw that every bank and shop and every residence had been forced o p e n ... .On one of o u r trips, however, we found that m ission p ro p ­ erty had been looted thoroughly....[T]he area betw een Shanghai and Nanking, a distance of some 200 m iles.. .six m onths ago, was the m ost densely populated portion of the earth ’s surface, and the m ost prosperous section of China. To-day the traveler will see only cities bom bed and pillaged. —Private letter, China Weekly Review, 19 March 1938, Supplem ent, p. 24. C. H angchow —The streets w ere full of straggling troops, not in any sort of o rd e r.. .all along the o th er side of the street going from shop to shop, looting and pillaging all over town. —Private report, China Weekly Review, p. 5. D. N anking—Able G erm an colleagues p u t the cases of rape at 20,000. I should say n ot less than 8,000, and it m ight be anywhere above that. E. Wnhu—A letter that reached H ongkong at the end of January from a well-known comm ercial m an described two sights that he w it­ nessed: Japanese soldiers in one case forced a w ater pipe dow n a w om an’s throat and pum ped in w ater till h er bow els burst; in the other they tore a long strip of flesh from a w om an’s hand and while it was still attached rubbed oil into it and b u rn ed it. The incidents which he described took place long after the occupation o f the city. —Com m ents, The Rock, March 1938, p. 100. E Paoting, H opei— [T]he Japanese search for w ood everywhere, that they use in prodigal fashion for quick fires. As a result, loose w ood now being exhausted, doors, w indow frames, furniture, farm tool, even the frames o f houses that they are pulling dow n are rapidly be­

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ing used up for fuel. — Private letter (dated 10 D ecem ber 1937), H.J. Timperley, W hat War Means, p. 77. G Pingting, Shansi— Pingting was used as a base for supplies and sending soldiers no rth and south, east and west, so there has been a constant com ing and going of troops. Those com ing from the front w ould rest a day o r so and loot and rape. The soldiers and their horses w ere q uartered in the hom es of the people, appropriating ev­ erything they w anted in them and using furniture, doors, everything of w ood about them , to build their fires. Mr. C. early established relations w ith the officers of the con­ quering army and w e m et som e very fine Japanese m en, som e of them had studied in American institutions. The soldier’s attitude d e­ pends u p o n w hat kind o f a m an he is, and som e of them are bad and som e o f them are good. — Private letter (dated 17 D ecem ber 1937), H.J. Timperley, W hat War Means, p. 73. H. The W uhan Cities (com prised of Wuchang, Hankow, and H an­ yang)—Several cases of rape by Japanese soldiers have occurred in Hankow, one involving the bayoneting of a C hinese w om an endeav­ oring to protect her 14-year-old granddaughter. In another, four sol­ diers successively raped a young girl. —United Press dispatch, Hankow, 7 Novem ber 1938. That W uchang fared w orse than Hankow during the recent occu­ pation was revealed for the first tim e today in a rep o rt from a reliable foreign source, w hich states that Wuchang, for the past 10 days re­ sem bled an arm ed city, with the rum ble of trucks and artillery echo­ ing in the m ain streets th roughout the day. With no constabulary in the city, considerable looting is said to have taken place....Japanese military police are doing their utm ost to cope w ith the situation in Wuchang, b ut are faced w ith an uphill task. —Reuters dispatch, Hankow, 9 Novem ber 1938. With Japanese Army units com pletely o u t of hand, the Chinese portions o f H ankow have been undergoing a Saturnalia almost equaling in h o rro r that experienced in Nanking last December. Looting, burning and raping have been occurring daily, and large areas in Hanyang and W uchang have b een existing u n d e r a dread reign of terror. For an entire week, the consular police have been risking their lives in futile endeavors to control their soldier countrym en, and for the first tim e yesterday the Japanese com m and issued orders for the tightening u p of discipline.

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However, w ith officers and NCO’s [noncom m issioned officers] unwilling, and in som e cases, frightened, of controlling their m en, the Japanese authorities have, it is understood, requested the dis­ patch of further consular police. Only reason for the situation not equaling the bloodbath of Nan­ king is the fact that there are fewer Japanese troops in the area, the Chinese p opulation is smaller, and the Foreign Concessions, with the presence of m any Europeans, have a som ew hat restraining influ­ ence. — Dispatch, H ongkong Sun d a y H erald, 13 Novem ber 1938. I. C anton— Substantiated charges o f rape by Japanese soldiers have spoiled the comparatively good record which, until these past few days, the m en of the army o f occupation had m ade for itself. The know n cases o f w om en w ho have been violated include a w om an of 75, two w om en each 67 years o f age, a little girl o f 12 and h er sister aged 15. As soon as the army entered the city, the Baptist Old Folks’ Hom e to the east of the city was visited by soldiers, and all the rice found on the place was taken away. This institution is that of the Chinese Bap­ tists, and not the American Southern Baptist Mission, so the Ameri­ can flag is n ot flown, and the soldiers did not hesitate to deprive the p oor old people of all they had to eat. — Report, South China M orn­ ing Post, 11 Novem ber 1938. For one to say that the cruelty was not so severe as in Nanking is to deny the facts. True there has not been as m uch o f it because a large percentage of the people have m anaged to disappear som e­ where. But the fact rem ains that every type o f crim e has b een com ­ m itted. Murder, rape, and looting have been done in the day even before the eyes of others. — Letter to the editor, South China M orn­ ing Post, 11 Novem ber 1938. In the past week, 23 definite cases of rape have b een medically established at two o f the large refugee centers operated by British and American workers. —Dispatch, H ongkong S u n d a y Herald, 13 Novem ber 1938. From the above descriptions we see that com pared w ith o th er cities, the victimization of Nanjing is handled with greater severity. It is also a fact, however, that there is no awareness of a Great Massacre of 300,000 victims. Except for the subject of killing prisoners o f war, the situation concerning victims in Nanjing is rep o rted as being simi­ lar to o th er cities. If that is so, how did propaganda produce the overw helm ing and exaggerated criticism of Japanese actions in Nanjing? This question

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was addressed by Yang Guangzhu, consul general o f China to the Philippines and resident in Manila, in his book World Sym pathy fo r China. In this, he reports on the developm ent o f m ovem ents in Eu­ rope and the United States to aid China. Com m ents in parentheses are by the a u th o r [Kitamura]. [Excerpts from The Chinese Yearbook, pp. 303ff] I. Europe

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A. G overnm ents—The series o f resolutions, platonic though they are, that have b een adopted by the League Assembly and Council in 1937 and 1938; the declarations of the Nine-Power Treaty Confer­ ence held at Brussels in N ovem ber 1937; and the u tteran ces of President Franklin D. Roosevelt on various occasions are clear and definite evidences o f the fact that the governm ents of all the nations of the w orld—with few exceptions— are morally on the side of China. B. Press—From the very beginning o f the conflict, w hen it was yet the Lukouchiao [Marco Polo Bridge] Incident until after the fall of Can­ to n and H ankow w hen it has becom e the w orst w ar that has ever b e e n w aged in Asia, the press of the w orld, spontaneously and al­ m ost unanim ously, has lined u p against the aggressor that is Japan. In Septem ber 1937, Japan began her cam paign of indiscrim inate bom bardm ent of Chinese o p e n towns and noncom batants. This in­ discrim inate aerial warfare im m ediately brought forth a wave of in­ dignation thro u g h o u t the w hole w orld. The London Times, the D aily Telegraph, the M anchester G uardian, the. New s Chronicle, the M orning Post, the J o u rn a l de Geneve, LIntransigeant, Le Temps, and m any others th roughout the United Kingdom and the continent raised in uniso n a vehem ent protest against Jap an ’s “stupid display o f barbarity.” C. In te rn a tio n a l O rganizations—The m ost active international o r­ ganization w hich has b een w orking indefatigabfly] in the interest of peace and China is the International Peace Campaign. With national com m ittees of the Cam paign in practically every country, it m ain­ tains an “International H eadquarters” at Geneva. The w ork of the Cam paign u p to the end of O ctober 1938, may be sum m arized as fol­ lows: .. .it endeavored to reverse the policy adopted by m ost govern­ m ents of refusing to come to the assistance of a friendly Pow er w hom by the League C ovenant they had solem nly sw orn to defend... a n d ...to stim ulate m easures o f individual action to m ake good to som e extent the deficiencies of the governm ents.. .a n d .. .to prom ote

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m aterial aid on a considerable scale to the victims o f the w ar in China. G overnm ents should also be urged to p u t an em bargo on the supply o f petrol, metal, planes, etc., to the guilty countries, and re ­ fuse them any financial aid. D. N a tio n a l O rganizations — 1. In England O n Oct. 5, 1937, the Archbishop of C anterbury presided at a na­ tional m eeting of protest...dem onstrations and m eetings w ere sub­ sequently held by churches, peace societies, political parties, trade unions, cooperative societies, adult schools, and social and profes­ sional groups thro u g h o u t the entire country. On O ctober 17, [1937], 10,000 persons gathered in Trafalgar Square for the dem onstration organized by the London Trade C oun­ cil and the London Labor Party... A resolution was adopted dem an d ­ ing that the G overnm ent take joint action with o th er countries to bring econom ic and financial pressure to bear on Japan, and urging individuals to boycott Japanese goods. In Manchester, the Bishop and the Lord Mayor spoke in the Free Trade Hall, w here 2,000 p e o ­ ple passed a similar resolution. O ther m eetings w ere held in Leeds, Bradford, Liverpool, and Glasgow. Between 3 [and] 40 m eetings in su p p o rt of China w ere held in the M anchester district during S eptem ber-O ctober 1938, u n d e r the initiative of the M anchester District China Relief and Cam paign com ­ m ittee. D uring the m onth o f Septem ber, m eetings w ere also held in M anchester itself and it suburbs, Liverpool, Stockport, Blackpool, Rugby, and Bradford. 20,000 pam phlets w ere distributed to raise funds for the establishm ent of the Peace Hospital. (M anchester G uardian correspondent Jo h n Timperley can be considered to be behind this.) 2. In France The m ost active national association in France devoted to the w ork of organizing public sympathy for China is the Association “Les Amis du Peuple Chinois.” This association has 52 organizations as its m em ber groups, as well as individual m em bers. The Association has been publishing since April 1938, a very excellent m onthly magazine entitled China. It has organized during the course of the year 400 meetings. 450,000 leaflets have been distributed in which the names of Japanese goods to be boycotted w ere given, and 300,000 m ore ap­ pealing for boycott have been sent out. In February 1938, France sent a strong delegation to the World C onference on Boycott against Japan held in London.

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3. In Belgium In O ctober 1937, at the initiative o f the students of the University o f Brussels, a group o f prom inent B elgians...established “Les Am­ ities Chinoises,” com posed of m em bers w ho may hold different p o ­ litical views b u t have the single aim o f helping China. [The organi­ za tio n ]... furnished speakers to very m any organizations; m ore th an 150 m eetings have b een held in the large cities th roughout the country...as well as in sm aller towns. [The Association’s] Propa­ ganda Com m ittee edited, in collaboration w ith the Boycott Com m it­ tee, a poster, 100,000 copies o f which w ere distributed. Item s 4 through 12 describe activities in Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Holland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and, u n d e r one heading, a very brief entry for G erm any and Italy, which ends by stating: “In view, however, of the definite governm ental policy of G erm any and Italy and the strict control over the press and the p e o ­ ple, no persistent evidence may be found of organized sympathy in su p p o rt of the Chinese cause.” II. America

1

[Kitamura]: The entry for America is a lengthy and detailed account of approxim ately 5300 w ords by B runo Schwartz in which he writes of progress being m ade in solidarity betw een civilian organizations and China, in boycotts of Japanese goods, of donations for China, on editorial sym pathies for China seen in the natio n ’s press, o n various organizations supporting China, and of American political leaders w ho came o u t publicly against Jap an ’s invasion. It is now know n that the above-cited articles prom oted activities in su p p o rt of China and protests against Japan. In all the above, how ­ ever, there are no reports o f any protest m ovem ents regarding a G reat Massacre in Nanjing. This is understandable since the GMD it­ self did n o t publicize any inform ation o n a G reat Nanjing Massacre, n o r did any o th er news source rep o rt on such an incident. This is significant. In short, at the tim e of the Japanese occupation of Nanjing, there w ere n o reports o f any Great Massacre at Nanjing, and even the GMD, w hich m ade overseas w artim e propaganda the m ainstay of its activities, did not dissem inate any reports to that effect. Nor did third-party w itnesses from W estern countries have a com m on aware­ ness that a Great Massacre took place at Nanjing.

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3.Treatment of Prisoners Execution of Chinese Soldiers Who Discarded Their Uniforms In the m idnight hours of 12 D ecem ber 1937, G eneral Tang Shengzhi, com m ander in chief of the Chinese forces, following orders from Jiang Jieshi, fled Nanjing. Jiang him self had fled m ore than four days earlier, at daw n on 8 December, with his wife and close associates, by two airplanes. This greatly w eakened the Nanjing garrison, and large num bers of Chinese soldiers w ho w ere not able to flee the city dis­ carded their arms and uniform s, fled into the Nanjing Safety Zone and hid. The Japanese forces m oved in and occupied the city on the 13th, and im m ediately searched the Safety Zone, w here they m ade prisoners o f those soldiers w ho w ere trying to pass for civilians, and executed them en masse. From the tim e this happened, these mass executions w ere inter­ preted as a planned action. Because of this, the focus o f argum ent has been n ot o n w hether the “planned” elem ent is fact or fallacy, b ut rather on w hether these mass executions w ere part o f the inevitable actions o f w ar o r w h eth er they represented unreasonable violence. These incidents, along w ith those in which arm ed and uniform ed Chinese soldiers w ere taken prisoner and killed outside the city walls, are m ajor points in the ongoing argum ents over Nanjing that have continued in Japan, particularly betw een the Illusion School and the Massacre School, since the m id 1980s. The officers and m en o f the Japanese Army w ho w ere at Nanjing and later testified, and ex­ tensive military records, added fuel to the argum ents o n both sides. The basis for the argum ents for both the Illusion and the Massa­ cre schools is the Annex to the Hague Peace C onvention of 1907, the Hague Regulations Respecting the Laws and Custom s o f War on Land. Japan was one of the countries that, in 1911, ratified the treaty. Based on the interpretation of these articles, soldiers taken prisoner in uniform and obviously carrying w eapons should be treated differ­ ently from soldiers w ho have shed their uniform s and abandoned their w eapons, although the C onvention m ade no m ention of this act o f shedding uniform s and abandoning w eapons. The battle for Nanjing produced a situation n ot anticipated by the framers of the Convention. The Illusion School developed the argum ent that the soldiers w ho w ere executed w ere engaged in w ar in civilian clothes, and they

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lacked the necessary requirem ents set forth in the Hague Regula­ tions to be considered prisoners of w ar (i.e., openly carrying w eap­ ons and by their uniform s clearly potentially distinguishable as a participant in the w ar). In contrast to this, the Massacre School stresses the p o in t that even if soldiers w ho w ere fighting in civilian clothes are not granted prisoner-of-war status, aside from executions o n the field o f battle, a court m artial is necessary before they can be executed, and execut­ ing nonresisting soldiers in large num bers was a violation of the Hague Rules. The problem o f executing soldiers w ho had shed their uniform s is included in the following subchapter o f execution o f prisoners of war. In Japan, Professor Yoshida Yutaka of H itotsubashi University has been the leading figure from the Massacre School in the argu­ m ent. He sent me a copy o f his research papers of this subject and in­ dicated the focus of his argum ents against the Illusion School. His studies looked into extensive papers, articles, and books by adher­ ents to the Massacre School, and also those of the Illusion School, w ho refuted Yoshida’s ow n argum ents. All these reference w orks that Yoshida relied on w ere published betw een 1980 and 2000, an indication of the currency of the Nanjing controversy in Japan.

Problems with Changing Arguments I should like to set forth my evaluations of the argum ents that I have p resen ted thus far. Also, I should like to confirm the “decisions” m ade by W estern w itnesses during the Sino-Japanese War w ho ap­ p ear in Tim perley’s W hat War M eans. Incidentally, the interpretation of the Hague Regulations m ust be seen in the light of the interpreta­ tio n as it stood at the tim e of the battle of Nanjing, devoid o f inter­ pretations that hold today. In the case o f international law and also w ith crim inal and civil law in general society, a court decision based on “the spirit of the law ” and “com m on social acceptance” will vary according to the judge’s interpretation of the provisions of the law. Before I received the various publications and reports from Professor Yoshida regard­ ing interpretations of international law at the time of the Sino-Japa­ nese War, I believed that soldiers w ho shed their uniform s and concealed them selves in the civilian population w ould n o t be given the p rotection expected o f prisoners of war. But I confirm ed that, as

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Yoshida asserts, the spirit of the Hague Regulations Respecting the Laws and Custom s of War on Land is clearly that the provisions should be p u t into effect from hum anitarian considerations. As a re ­ sult, the Japanese legal m inds w ho ratified the H ague Regulations re ­ alized the need for prudence in dealing with plain-clothes soldiers and an understanding of the court procedures necessary for execut­ ing them , and the awareness of this n eed was carried over into the Sino-Japanese War. The Japanese troops w ho occupied Nanjing, however, neglected this court m artial procedure and executed en m asse Chinese sol­ diers w ho had discarded their uniform s and w eapons and tried to pass for civilians, the same as if they had been plain-clothes soldiers. Yoshida asserts that the execution o f those Chinese was in violation of international law that was in effect at the tim e o f the Sino-Japanese War. As Yoshida also points out, given the situation at the tim e, the Chinese soldiers w ho shed their uniform s and m ingled w ith the refu­ gees did not have the intention to fight as plainclothes soldiers, b ut w ere rem nants o f a defeated army w ho had lost the will to fight, and the Japanese Army, rather than considering them plain-clothes sol­ diers, looked at the situation as a m opping-up operation of the re­ m aining troops o f a defeated army. There w ere also cases, however, am ong these Chinese soldiers w ho shed their uniform s and hid am ong the civilian population in Nanjing, of som e w ho concealed small arms on their persons. Guo Qi w rote of this in his rem inis­ cences, and I take this u p in Part 3 of this book. W hen G uo Qi com ­ m ents o n the high fighting spirit of the Chinese at Nanjing, however, it was probably nothing m ore than his imagination, since the fighting spirit displayed by the Chinese soldiers at Shanghai was com pletely absent at Nanjing. G uo does report, however, on plain-clothes Chi­ nese soldiers w ho killed and w ounded Japanese soldiers. Thus, since Japanese troops experienced Chinese plain-clothes soldiers in the fighting before the attack on Nanjing, and after the rapid attack and occupation of the city, Chinese soldiers they en countered in plain clothes—in this case those who had shed their uniform s— re p ­ resented a military group that still had the intention to continue the fight. In o th er w ords, the organized resistance had ended, but the w ar was not over; the seeds o f continued fighting w ere there, and the Japanese saw themselves in a situation w here any slacking of vigi­ lance on their part w ould get them killed. It was understandable that Japanese soldiers w ould seek out Chinese soldiers hiding in plain clothes. According to Guo Q i’s rem iniscences, well after the Nanjing

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fighting was over, the Japanese Army continued searching o u t Chi­ nese soldiers w ho w ere hiding in the city. As Yoshida also points out, in the Pacific War that took place sev­ eral years after the occupation of Nanjing, there w ere incidents of American soldiers also executing surren d ered Japanese prisoners on the spot. For that reason, I may be perm itted to state that just after the furious battle o f Nanjing, w ith the fighting m ental attitude of sol­ diers focused o n killing and incapacitating the enemy, w h en the Ja p ­ anese soldiers discovered Chinese soldiers w ho had shed their uniform s in hiding and th en killed them , if the Chinese w ere in small groups, it was probably considered an inevitable situation o n the field of battle. The Japanese soldiers had no idea it m ight be raised as a problem in later days. Incidentally, the Japanese Army was n o t fighting in a rem ote bat­ tlefield, but in a city that com m anded the eyes and ears of the w orld and u n d e r observation by W esterners from neutral countries. And, w ith no explanation o f their actions to the outside w orld, the Japa­ nese executed large num bers of Chinese captive soldiers. Yoshida discovered the “inhum ane aspect” in the large-scale exe­ cution o f soldiers w ho had shed their uniform s. He m ade this a sym­ bol of Japanese m ilitarism of the era and criticizes it continually. In contrast, H igashinakano and others o f his Illusion School inter­ p reted the Hague Regulations Respecting the Laws and Custom s of War o n Land from various angles, and argue that from the standpoint of international law, the execution of soldiers should be rem oved from considerations o f violations o f such international law. Higashinakano’s m ost recent argum ent is that soldiers w ho surrendered and w ere executed w ere illegitimate soldiers, and therefore they should not be recognized as prisoners of war, no r w ere they judged to be plain-clothes soldiers by a military court, as required. According to Higashinakano, form er soldiers w ho shed their uniform s and hid am ong civilians w ere not prisoners of war, th ere­ fore not subject to international law governing prisoners of war, and outside the requirem ents of protection of prisoners. And, he em pha­ sizes, that the execution of Chinese soldiers w ho w ere n ot prisoners of w ar while outside the Nanjing gates in the prosecution of the war, should be considered as an extension of the m ethods of w arfare em ­ ployed by armies, and as such any reference to the Hague Regula­ tions will reveal that there w ere no violations. My ow n view of the Hague Regulations Respecting the Laws and Custom s of War on Land and its application w ithin the limits of the interpretations o f the law, is that it is difficult to find sufficient rea­

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soning to justify the Japanese Army’s continuous, large-scale killing with no legal procedures. The argum ents in Japan develop on both sides, w ith the Massacre School dom inant.

Unprecedented Situation in the History of War It seem s strange from the vantage p oint o f the p resent that thirdparty w itnesses in Nanjing from W estern countries refrained from as­ serting judgm ents on the mass executions of Chinese soldiers w ho had shed their uniforms. Higashinakano raises exam ples of this one after the other, but so far as I have seen, W estern witnesses used the term “mass m u rd e r” to describe the large-scale killing o f Chinese w ho had shed their u n i­ forms, b ut did not use the term “m assacre.” W estern observers w ere aware of the Hague Regulations Re­ specting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, and expressed the view that they ho p ed the Japanese w ould be lenient, from a hum ane standpoint, in dealing w ith the Chinese soldiers, b u t there was no dem and for clem ency based on judgm ents form ed in international law. T here was no p rec e d e n t of soldiers discarding w eapons and uniform s e n m asse, m ingling w ith the civilian p opulation, and th en being captured, hence th ere was no basis for m aking a positive judgm ent. Tim perley’s W hat War M eans (pp. 196-97) contains the follow­ ing instance involving Christian Kroeger, a G erm an businessm an w ho was treasurer of the International Red Cross C om m ittee of N an­ king, and Rupert Hatz, w ho was an Austrian engineer and Nanjing resident. On the morning of Jan. 9th [1938], Mr. Kroeger and Mr. 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. Kroeger 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 on one shoulder. He fired again and missed the man. The third shot killed him.

This entry is footnoted: We have no right to protest about legitimate executions by the Jap­ anese Army, but this certainly was carried out in an inefficient and brutal way. Furthermore, it brings up a matter w e have mentioned many times in private conversation with the Japanese Embassy

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men: this killing o f people in ponds within the Zone has spoiled and thereby seriously curtailed the reserve water supply for the people in the Zone. This is very serious in this long dry spell and with the city water coming so slowly. [Note by reporter.]

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This w ritten statem ent by the two m en uses the term “legitim ate exe­ cutions,” which shows that they are taking other legal executions into consideration. Their reasons for judging them to be “legitimate executions” are n o t m entioned. A nother case was p rin ted in D ocum ents o f the N a n kin g Safety Zone, a rep o rt by Lewis S.C. Smythe in which jealousy by one Chi­ nese caused him to rep o rt to the Japanese kem peitai an accusation against a certain Wang Xinlun, a m an of unclear background w ho was th en an inspector of the city police. Wang was w orking to gather refugees into the Safety Zone. The o th e r Chinese rep o rted that Wang had raped w om en and had h id d en guns by burying them in the ground. The district head denied that Wang had raped w om en and said that four o th er m en h ad buried the guns. W hen M iner Bates of the International C om m ittee for the Nanking Safety Zone and p ro ­ fessor at Ginling University was asked w hat the attitude of the Inter­ national C om m ittee should be, Smythe recorded, “Bates said that if this Wang was a form er soldier w e could not interfere. That was a military m atter.” From the above we know that statem ents by W esterners do not absolutely criticize executions o f Chinese plain-clothes soldiers. The m ain p oint of their criticism is that large num bers of soldiers were executed swiftly w ithout d u e legal process, and the problem was that this violates hum an decency. W esterners w ere not conscious of any m assacre in the execution o f soldiers w ho had discarded their uniform s and m ingled w ith the civilian population. Thus, they did n o t im m ediately accuse the Japanese Army o f a planned massacre that violated the Hague Regulations Respecting the Laws and Cus­ tom s of War on Land. The victims them selves, the Chinese, did not issue formal p ro ­ tests that the killing of officers and m en was a violation of interna­ tional law. In 1925, Jiang Jieshi, com m ander in chief of the National Revolutionary Army, had established the Involvem ent Law of the Rev­ olutionary Army, a set o f rules covering w ar and fighting. U nder these, retreating, w hen not d o n e in obedience to an order, called for punishing that u n it’s highest-ranking officer w ith death by gunshot. And, it is possible that the soldiers them selves w ould also be exe­ cuted for retreating w ithout an o rd er to do so and abandoning their com m ander, even if the com m ander had b een killed in action. The

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annihilation o f the Nanjing garrison was triggered by Jiang Jieshi’s o rd er to General Tang Shengzhi, com m ander in chief of the Chinese forces, to abandon the city. Tang issued orders for the army units u n ­ der him to flee Nanjing on their own; then Tang, w ith several m em ­ bers o f his staff, fled the city by boat across the Yangzi. Thus, the retreat from Nanjing was in no way a violation o f any order. O n the o ther hand, soldiers w ho discarded their w eapons and uniform s and dispersed am ong the civilian population w ere posing as noncom ba­ tants, an extrem ely disgraceful act. At the battle o f Shanghai, which preceded the battle o f Nanjing, an 800-man unit u n d e r the com ­ m and of Xie Jingyuan p u t u p a stubborn defense of the Chinese Army base at Zhabei from 18 O ctober for four days and nights, and was later praised as an exam ple of the spirit of the resistance. O n 31 October, u n d e r orders from Jiang Jieshi, the unit w ithdrew to the In­ ternational Settlem ent, b ut earned the title “The Brave 800.” Yet, by com parison, the Chinese voice a m uch lo u d er concern for soldiers w ho abandoned the battle of resistance, hid am ong the civilian population, and w ere ferreted o u t and executed. The zeal for denunciation blinded the Chinese to the sham e o f the situation. Along these same lines, the rem iniscences of Guo Qi w ere published in China in 1938. In these, he w rote of experiencing Nanjing u n d e r Japanese occupation and of the Chinese soldiers w ho concealed themselves as civilians. The m ajor Chinese new spapers o f the time, such as the Chungyang Jih p a o and the Takungpao, did not carry this work in series, b u t the H siching P ’ingpao, a small, local new spaper in rem ote Xiang, did carry the “Reminiscences” in series, and the rea­ son is understandable. While it m ight be argued that exaggerated charges of cruelty against the Japanese Army could have b een con­ sidered a docum entary tool to raise the fighting spirits of Chinese in distant regions, it is m ore reasonable to see the Chinese governm ent trying to limit exposure of the disgrace of h er fighting m en discard­ ing their w eapons and uniform s, and their lack of spirit to carry on the w ar of resistance. Also, Jiang Jieshi and his general w ho prom ised to defend Nanjing, Tang Shengzhi, had abandoned the capital and fled, facts that the Chinese side naturally w ished to keep from surfacing.

From the Viewpoint of the History of Civilization In the above statem ents, I do n ot m ean to approve of, w ithout criti­ cism, the mass executions of Chinese soldiers w ho had abandoned their uniform s and arms. My aim is an objective evaluation o f the sit­ uation at that time, w ithout adding presuppositions o f my own. The

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cruelty and inhum ane aspects of swiftly killing nonresisting persons certainly cannot be overlooked, but limiting the view only to m ilita­ rism as the prim e cause of the cruelty and inhum anity w ould make it difficult to develop an argum ent about the problem w ith m eaning today. As a significant elem ent that m ade the Japanese Army look even m ore brutal than it really was during the days surrounding the battle for Nanjing, 1 w ould rather like to focus o n the im m aturity or lack of political direction in the Japanese Army activities in o rd er to discuss this from a standpoint of the history o f civilization. Also, as I base my argum ent o n this historical outlook, I should like to bear in m ind the continuity of Japanese history from the Meiji period. This is n ot to disregard the em ergence of dem ocracy in the p o st­ w ar era, b u t to regard the continuity o f num erous factors that unite the political, structural, and qualitative aspects o f prew ar Japan with the present. From this view point, we can avoid the often-voiced, oversim pli­ fied, and extrem e position that the Nanjing Incident resulted from violence caused by aberrant behavior u n d e r Japanese militarism. And we see that the Nanjing Incident was perp etrated by Japanese w ith the sam e sensitivities and pow ers of reason that the rest o f us possess— and from there one is led to question that, if this is true, how did norm al people com e to be enveloped as accom plices to such slaughter? This, in turn, opens the way to pursue the Nanjing Incident from a standpoint of greater com m on sense, and allows us, as Japanese, to give careful consideration to the m eaning of the Nanjing Incident today. It is often said that w ar is an extension of politics by o th er means. For that reason military actions are deeds w ith political attributes. To m aintain the aims of the political attributes in military action, it is necessary to explain o r even justify the reason for such action. An exam ple of this in w hich Jiang Jieshi’s attitude is apparent oc­ curred soon after the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937 w hen the GMD swiftly established the China Inform ation Com m ittee to m anage Jiang Jieshi’s political propaganda. (As pointed o u t in the Forew ord to this book, this translation of the organization’s title is in deference to the GMD’s ow n choice of English term inology; a m ore accurate rendering of the characters that becam e the English term “Inform ation” w ould be “International Propaganda.”) The Japanese Army continued its rapid advance tow ard Nanking u n d e r extrem e shortages of supplies and w ith no latitude in the tight schedule o f their m arch. W hen they en tered Nanjing to occupy it, they enco u n tered a city littered w ith the discarded w eapons and u n i­

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forms of Chinese soldiers, and that w ould logically have m ade them suspect that large num bers of com batants w ere hiding in the city. Even if the Japanese flushed them out, there was no way to even b e ­ gin obtaining food supplies for them . The Japanese troops m ust have felt that if the hiding soldiers w ere n o t decim ated, the occupa­ tion w ould be extrem ely risky. The field com m anders had to use their ow n judgm ent. Also, during the Sino-Japanese War, the Japa­ nese Army instructed its troops to “Forage your supplies from the e n ­ emy” (k a te w a teki n i yoru). This could be considered an aberrant extension o f the practice. An extrem e exam ple was w hen the Japa­ nese high com m and sent its ow n soldiers to death through the ju n ­ gles o f Iwo Jim a with no provision for supplies. U nder strange military regulations like these, it is clear that the Japanese Army w ould not have food for prisoners, and again points u p the lack of thinking in the Japanese Army high com m and. If the Japanese w anted to execute the Chinese as plainclothes soldiers, they should have been aware o f the Hague Regulations Re­ specting the Laws and Customs of War on Land and should have p e r­ form ed som e sort of court procedure, even if they realized that they m ight be criticized afterwards for holding such a trial in form only. Adherents to the Massacre School like to present the view that, as the Japanese arm ed forces m oved over the great landm ass o f China, the Japanese w ere polite tow ard W esterners and arrogant with the Chi­ nese. But as for accusations of a double standard, a political position of m easures based on confidence was absent, and from the prew ar era through the postw ar years, the Japanese are inclined to simply al­ low things to take their course with no basis in principle, and after­ wards are unable to offer a suitable explanation of w hat took place. This is not too far from the Japanese way of handling things even to ­ day, w hen we often see Japanese tending to allow things to happen as they will, in the belief or hope that “the problem will resolve on its ow n” (N a n to ka n a ru m o n o sa). In contem porary terminology, there is no concept o f accountability. This lack o f aw areness of having to explain o n e ’s actions produces irresponsibility. After the occupation of Nanjing, the Japanese subunits sent up requests for instructions on how to handle the large n um ber of pris­ oners. And, according to an explanation often advanced to explain the situation, u p p e r ranking officers resp o n d ed w ith “Handle the sit­ uation m ost appropriately at your discretion” (Tekigi shori seyo). This makes the decision behind the o rd er vague, and shows an irresponsible avoidance of personal accountability in the person giv­ ing the order.

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The tradition of Japanese society is that there is no single person in a position of responsibility w ho makes a clear decision. In the ex­ trem e conditions o f the battlefield, this tradition causes efficiency and military discipline to disintegrate. Incidentally, as I will take up after this, it is u n d e rsto o d that in the reality of fighting a battle, supra-legal m easures are taken that arise from a n eed to seize an ad­ vantage, and th at these m easures d o n o t com ply w ith the H ague R egulations b u t are generally approved according to “Necessity in War.” This concept was p u t forth before World War I by G erm an legal experts as kreigsraison, w hich stated that necessities that arise in w ar take precedence over the m an n er in which the w ar is fought. Ar­ ticle 22 of the Hague Regulations Respecting the Laws and Customs o f War o n Land, however, specifies that in handling prisoners w ho pose a th reat to o n e ’s ow n troops, the rights o f the captors are not unlim ited. The concept o f “Necessity in War” attem pts to override this, and was rejected by English, American, French, and Italian legal scholars. In China, G erm an military advisers w ere beh in d the effi­ ciency of Jiang Jieshi’s Nationalist Army. Toward the e n d o f 1937, however, the G erm ans en d ed their association w ith the Chinese and o n 28 April 1938 en tered into an agreem ent with the Im perial Japa­ nese Army. Since this was after the fall o f Nanjing, kreigsraison was n o t part o f the Japanese m ilitary’s education w hen the city was at­ tacked and occupied. Of course, the Japanese Army had taken Ger­ m any as a role m odel following the Franco-Prussian War, but the high morality in battle that the Japanese Army dem onstrated in the RussoJapanese War forces one to notice the sharp difference that took place in three decades. Any n u m b er o f explanations—we m ight call them excuses— m ight be thought up logically to justify relying on “Necessity in War.” Looking at it from a position of “Let us explain” o r “We are obliged to explain,” however, is in itself a display of accountability, and in that sense signifies an attitude of assum ing responsibility for o n e ’s ac­ tions. Japan, however, has a culture in w hich it is a virtue n o t to make excuses o r offer explanations after the fact. Offering apologies is of course p art o f the culture, b u t these are rarely accom panied by at­ tem pts to ju s tify a certain action. Thus, to the Japanese w ho are trained to obey authority, it is difficult to see their army in need of a doctrine such as “Necessity in War” to explain their actions or even acts o f violence. Looking at it objectively, executing large num bers of Chinese sol­ diers w ithout p ro p er docum entary procedures and w ithout careful consideration of w hat they w ere doing was, rather than a display of

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cruelty, m ore easily seen as a politically im m ature attitude that p re­ vented an awareness o f the real im port o f o n e ’s actions. Viewing it from the reverse side, if the Japanese had b een able to think about the results of their actions, they m ight have hesitated to com m it this mass m urder, and it w ould n ot provide the Illusion School w ith an advantageous argum ent in their custom ary attem pts to defend, from the view point of international w ar codes, the Japa­ nese Army’s execution of large num bers of Chinese soldiers. It is im ­ p ortant to notice how these killings change value according to the agenda o f the perso n judging: to the Illusion School, they w ere legit­ imate executions; the Massacre School considers them part of an u n ­ justified massacre.

Killing Prisoners of War A large n u m b er of Chinese soldiers w ho su rrendered in the battle zone in army uniform w ere held in confinem ent for several days and then executed. This conduct, com pared with the mass executions of soldiers w ho discarded their uniform s and hid am ong the civilian population, becam e a problem of far greater com plications. The fo­ cus of this incident was the execution of 20,000 of these POWs by M ount Mufu, outside the city walls to the northw est. The Annex to the Convention o f the Hague Regulations Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land provides that prisoners o f w ar “m ust be h u ­ manely treated.” Even if charges are leveled that this mass execution was a planned massacre, the Japanese side has no room for a co u n ter argu­ m ent. W esterners w ho criticized the Japanese occupation o f China probably heard of this large-scale execution by w ord of m outh, and believed it to be fact. In the prosecution of war, however, “Necessity in War” provides for the execution o f prisoners o f war. Yet professor Yoshida Hiroshi of H itotsubashi University, even at that time, taught that this kind of interpretation was in the m inority am ong scholars of law in the w orld. A scholar of law w ho was close to the Japanese Army, Shinobu Junpei, com m ented during the Sino-Japanese War on the killing o f prisoners of w ar by applying strict limitations, such as, “If prisoners of war are to be killed, it m ust be restricted to situations w here protection of o n e ’s ow n troops is difficult.” According to Yoshida, this was not the situation at the time outside of Nanjing. From this viewpoint, he charged that the behavior of the Japanese Army in killing prisoners of w ar was contrary to the Hague Regula­ tions Respecting the Laws and Customs o f War on Land.

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Unlike the argum ents by the Illusion School concerning the kill­ ing of soldiers w ho shed their uniform s and m ingled w ith the civilian population, now here is there a direct counterargum ent by the Illu­ sion School concerning this execution o f prisoners of war. Even so, it is difficult to m ake the accusation that large-scale kill­ ings o f prisoners o f w ar was planned before the act. In the rem inis­ cences of Guo Qi, regarding the acts he him self w itnessed, he w rote, “The p risoners o f w ar w ho w ere not executed w ere incarcerated and suffered u n d e r heavy labor.” This com m ent is backed by form er Japa­ nese Army colonel Sakakihara Kazue w ho was called as a w itness on behalf o f the defense at the IMTFE. Sakakihara was am ong the troops in the Japanese expeditionary army at Shanghai, and he later took p art in the occupation o f Nanjing. His testim ony at the IMTFE was through Japanese interpreters. The English court records regarding his testim ony on these prison­ ers reads as follows [IMTFE transcripts, pp. 32, 678-79]: We scarcely captured war prisoners before entry to Nanking, and I was told that our troops captured approximately 4,000 in the vicin­ ity of Nanking, one-half of whom were sent to Shanghai and the rest detained in Nanking. Though I saw several of them were em­ ployed for common labor, I never maltreated them, dismissing them when their duties were over. A certain Liu of Szehaien is an actual case whom I so dismissed. The treatment of prisoners can be ascertained by hearing him. Decampment and theft were fre­ quently committed by war prisoners and I suppose the latter crime was duly punished according to law, but the former crime, as I un­ derstand it, was let alone without punishment. Part of the Japanese transcripts, however, differs from the Eng­ lish version and translates as follows: “Up until the tim e w e reached Nanjing w e sent large num bers o f prisoners to headquarters, b u t af­ ter entering the city w e im prisoned about four tho u san d .” There was no counterargum ent from the prosecution concern­ ing his statem ents un d o u b ted ly because the facts w ere know n and judged to be true. In H onda Katsuichi’s postw ar gathering of testim onies for his book N a n k in e no m ichi, he w rites of one occasion w here several thousand prisoners w ere released by Japanese Army units b u t on the way to their hom es w ere captured by other Japanese units and executed. The above exam ples should show that the execution of prison­ ers was n o t u n d e r the com plete control of the Japanese Army, no r u n d e r a pre-planned policy. Some o f the executions w ere indeed car­

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ried o u t u n d e r army orders for two m ain reasons: O ne was the elim ination of soldiers w ho had concealed th eir form er m ilitary as­ sociation by changing into civilian clothes, including risk from those w ho still carried concealed w eapons; the second reason was expediency, o f n o t having food supplies to feed the captives as pris­ oners o f war. The first reason also had an expediency aspect to it since the Japanese forces never anticipated that the Chinese w ould discard arms and uniform s and try to pass as civilians. Still, m any of these executions cannot be condoned. The same applies to the execution of soldiers w ho had shed their uniforms: simply executing captives on the spot on the field of battle points to com plete lack of awareness and understanding of the m eaning o f responsibility.

Facts of Interest in the Hsin Shen Pao Examining supplem entary material on the execution o f prisoners of war, I should like to present here materials, alm ost never publicized, in the form o f a Chinese-language daily new spaper published u n d e r Japanese m anagem ent, H sin Shen Pao. Established in O ctober 1937 in Shanghai, the new spaper continued publication until the Japa­ nese surrender. I first heard of this new spaper through a book in Chinese by Ma G uangren, The H istory o f New s M edia in Shanghai, 1850-1949 (Fudan University Press, 1996). H sin Shen Pao is p re ­ served in the United States on microfilm in the Library o f Congress and also in the Shanghai Municipal Library, but in the microfilm re­ productions in Shanghai, the years 1937 and 1938 are missing. Thus, for the present study, I obtained a copy of the reproductions from the U nited States. H sin Shen Pao was m entioned in the above-cited rem iniscences of the Chinese soldier Guo Qi, who had shed his uniform and m in­ gled with the civilian population while Nanjing was u n d e r Japanese occupation. Guo Qi relates how, while he was in hiding, he tried to obtain inform ation on the w ar situation from this same new spaper, which was regularly posted on walls in the city streets. Thus, his rem ­ iniscences m ade me realize that Guo Qi had been reading this new s­ paper in a Nanjing u n d e r Japanese occupation. And this m ade me consider the new spaper valuable research m aterial that should be incorporated into this study. This, then, was a new spaper u n d e r Ja p ­ anese m anagem ent posted on the streets o f Nanjing for Chinese citi­ zens to read during the height of the alleged massacre. W hat kind of propaganda w ould the Japanese authorities post? How w ould they try to conceal the “m assacre” that was supposed to

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be taking place? In reality, there was alm ost no reportage on the ac­ tivities of the Japanese Army in Nanjing. From the tim e the Japanese Army occupied the city on 13 D ecem ber 1937 to the en d o f January of the following year, large headlines concerning the form ation of the Nanking Self-Government Committee appeared several times. In the m idst of the all-im portant massacre, however, no defense of the Japanese Army’s actions appeared in the newspaper. There were sev­ eral articles w ith photographs reporting on friendly exchanges among refugees and soldiers in the Safety Zone. Among these, an article o f 8 January 1938 was reprinted in W hat War M eans. These articles, how ­ ever, w ere n o t u n d e r large headlines but w ere carried as m inor news items. It w as as if nothing untow ard had hap p en ed in Nanjing, with the front pages carrying items of no particular excitem ent. The 25 D ecem ber 1937 edition of H sin Shen Pao carried an arti­ cle o f interest that concerned nearly 20,000 prisoners held at M ount Mufu outside of Nanjing. A Chinese w ho can be thought o f as a news rep o rter w ent to the place of incarceration and m ade arrangem ents through a Japanese Unit Leader Yamada to interview Shen Boshi, w ho was one of the prisoners and was formerly a m em ber of the gen­ eral staff o f the leading unit. The article carried the headlines and subheads, “After the fall of Nanjing, 20,000 Chinese soldiers taken prisoner. Shortage of supplies m ade it difficult to find ways to feed them . Everyone favorably im pressed w ith preferential treatm ent by Japanese Army.” The content of the interview was that on the first day o f internm ent Japan was not able to supply food to the prisoners. The u n it m ade efforts to obtain food supplies, and the rep o rter told Shen Boshi that there w ould be food supplied to the prisoners that evening. Shen Boshi expressed appreciation to the rep o rter and said that if the Japanese Army allowed him, he knew o f a large quantity o f rice in an u n d erg ro u n d room below the gun battery at the foot of M ount Fugui that he w ould like to distribute not just to all the prisoners but to the Japanese as well. This tells us once again that food supplies w ere short and it was difficult to continue holding the prisoners. Fol­ lowing this there was no other news in H sin Shen Pao concerning the prisoners at M ount Mufu. Today, num erous sources show that these prisoners w ere executed. It goes w ithout saying that w hen the Japanese executed nearly 20,000 prisoners because o f difficulties in being able to feed them, just as cited earlier in the cases o f killing soldiers w ho had shed their uniform s, the Japanese Army abandoned all responsibility of having to account for their actions.

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According to research by Massacre School adherents, the o rd er “Kill all prisoners” was issued to all units in the prison camp. Here, I w ould like to look at the situation that arose with the prisoners and the Japanese Army. First, the Japanese Army units that w ere holding those nearly 20,000 prisoners could n o t obtain sufficient food supplies for them ­ selves, m uch less supplies to feed the prisoners. At that point, the prisoners should have b een released, just as was done by som e of the o th er units. If the prisoners consisted m ainly of soldiers from the arm ies o f w arlords allied w ith the Nationalist governm ent, they w ould have b een poorly trained peasants w ith no fighting spirit, and w ould alm ost surely have retu rn ed to their villages and resum ed farming. Among the prisoners, however, w ere crack troops from the Central Army. Releasing them while the w ar was still in progress w ould encourage them to retu rn to the battle front, which w ould be tantam ount to the Japanese killing their ow n troops. Both the Chi­ nese prisoners and the Japanese Army w ere squeezed into a position from which there was no way out. It is an easy m atter to recognize the cruelty o f the one w ho gave the order, “Kill all prisoners.” What, though, w ere the options avail­ able to the Japanese Army at the time? One way w ould have been to simply let the prisoners die o f starvation, but that requires tim e and personnel to oversee the prisoners, and there was the chance that the prisoners w ould riot. In this tight situation, the o rd er came to “Kill all prisoners.” Is this not a sad com m ent on the Japanese Army’s ability to resolve a problem? Looking at the situation from another angle, it was a tragedy brought on by the unique Japanese Army attitude of placing no value on establishing logistics to supply the troops. Lacking sufficient su p ­ plies from logistical support, the organization of the Japanese Army during the Sino-Japanese War pushed the Japanese soldiers into com m itting unnecessary and offensive acts. Then, in the Pacific War, which started four years later, the same attitude again caused heavy damage to their ow n troops w hen Japanese com bat units w ere dis­ persed th roughout the southern regions w ithout establishing supply lines, with the resultant tragedies of large num bers of Japanese troops dying not from battle but from starvation. Concerning the killing of large num bers o f Chinese prisoners at the time of the attack on Nanjing, it is not sufficient to criticize this only from the view point o f Japanese militarism at the time. Rather, this m ust be pursu ed also as a fault in the organizational peculiarity of the Japanese Army. Through this lens, light will be shed on various

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aspects of the causes behind the num erous problem s, and a deep er way o f thinking about the actual situation in Nanjing will becom e possible. W hen m em bers o f the Illusion School defend the killing o f large num bers o f Chinese prisoners, they bring u p the subject of extrem e limits of food supplies, along w ith the shortage of personnel to guard the prisoners, and the stress of battle. An im portant elem ent o f their defense relies on the provision that “Prisoners may be killed if failing to do so endangers the safety of o n e ’s ow n troops.”

C h a p te r 3 — P ro b le m s in D o c u m e n ta ry E v id e n c e

1. Japanese and Chinese Translations of English-Language Documents Agenda Slanting As w e have seen, the various w ritten reports o f the tim e concerning Nanjing u n d e r Japanese occupation contradict the reasoning behind the judgm ent on the Nanjing Incident handed dow n at the w ar crimes trials at both Nanjing and Tokyo. Prior to the release o f D ocum ents o f the N a n kin g Safety Zone, Timperley selected som ew hat less than one-third of the content of the m anuscript and reproduced this in W hat War M eans, adding his ow n editorial explanations. Timperley w rote in such a way as to give the im pression that the incidents w ere all w itnessed by various Westerners. Actually, in som e cases, W esterners ostensibly did read reports that had b een w ritten in Chinese by unidentified Chinese w ho w ere said to be cooperating with the W esterners’ missionary and charity efforts; they then trans­ lated these reports into English. Yet Timperley’s book gives the im­ pression that all the reports are attributable to third-party Westerners. The title of the Chinese translation of W hat War M eans carries the m eaning “Eyewitness Accounts by Foreigners of Violence by the Japanese Army” (WaijenMutu chung chih jih ch u n p ao x in g ), Vol. 108. The Chinese m an w ho translated this in 1938, Yang Ming, dis­ torted his translation to give the im pression that foreigners “eyew itnessed” the incidents described. I obtained a photocopy of the edition of W hat War M eans that was n o t published by Left Book Club b u t p rinted and published by Fanfare Press, London, July 1938, and for general sale. The cover of 99

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this edition also carries the w ords “Com piled from eyewitness accounts.” These m anners of expression, however, w ere exaggerations and em bellishm ents u sed during the w ar for propaganda purposes, and becam e tools in the postw ar politically oriented controversy. In contrast, in confirm ing historical facts, we should be ex­ trem ely cautious about “reference m aterials” and the pow erful influ­ ence o f evidence in the translated versions of these materials, and n o t allow these to distort o u r understanding o f the facts. Slanted m istranslations are found in D ocum ents o f the N anking Safety Zone, No. 15,” a p o rtion that was n o t included in W hat War M eans. A section dated 17 D ecem ber 1937 contains a total o f fiftyfive reports u n d e r the heading “These are cases that have b een re­ p o rte d by o u r w orkers in writing. O thers have com e to o u r attention b u t w e did n o t have time to get them recorded. Cases 1 to 15 filed D ecem ber 16.” The Japanese translation, however, carries the m ean­ ing, “W ithin these reports there are included incidents that w ere re­ p o rte d by [our] com m ittee staff (Hora Tomio, ed., Eibun shiryohen, p. 168). Perhaps the difference was due to a m isreading o f “these” for “th ere ” b u t for w hatever reason, the English original carries the m eaning that all the fifty-five incidents u n d e r this heading w ere re­ p o rte d by Chinese w orking for the Nanking Safety Zone. The Japanese translation, H okoku no n a k a n i w a ..., indicates that “w ithin these reports are those which w ere reported by...,” and here again we see politically oriented translator’s license; the Eng­ lish “o u r w orkers” should be ren d ered koin, while the Japanese translation uses the term for “com m ittee m em bers,” iin k a i no shok u in . Thus, the Japanese carries the m eaning that som e o f the inci­ dents w ere rep o rted by Chinese and the others are from Western eyewitnesses. In fact, w ithin the fifty-five reports are certain m inor incidents that w ere directly w itnessed by W esterners, w hile there are also incidents taken from Chinese persons identified by nam e w ho rep o rted in w riting to W esterners w ho th en translated these reports into English. The majority o f the incidents listed, however, are from Chinese-language reports by anonym ous Chinese, translated into English and w ritten u p and signed by W esterners. Then, according to the introduction to the Japanese transla­ tion—which is used by the Massacre School in Japan to su p p o rt their views— the translations into English of these anonym ous reports w ere g ro u p ed together w ith the above-cited reports and p resented as if they w ere all direct eyewitness reports by W esterners, artificially enhancing the pow er of argum ent of this material.

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Also, as cited above, the use o f the equivalent for “com m ittee m em bers” to express unidentified “w orkers” also adds unw arranted pow er o f conviction to the materials.

Predisposition to Views Yields Slanted Translations Translations o f w ritten works usually present the translator w ith sev­ eral options of w ords and expressions w ith w hich to p resen t the original in the second language. This translator’s license, in turn, opens the way to adding political direction to m atch that of the trans­ lator. Some of these can be m inor twists, som e are m ore pro n o u n ced m anipulations that w iden the gap betw een the original and the translation. In W hat War M eans, Timperley drew from D ocum ents o f the N a n kin g Safety Zone. Tim perley’s introduction to ‘A ppendix A,” a listing of case reports, begins, “The following cases o f disorder, o r worse, w ere recorded by foreign observers and rep o rted to the Japa­ nese authorities” (p. 173). In H ora’s Japanese translation, “o r w orse” was em bellished to the equivalent o f “o r m ore malicious violence,” m otto aku sh itsu no boko. In the same introduction to Appendix A, Timperley writes, “While a sufficient num ber of these cases w ere observed by foreign­ ers to make clear w hat was going on, o th er cases w ere rep o rted to these observers by Chinese co-workers, w hose veracity there was no reason to d o u b t.” Then in H ora’s Japanese translation, these all be­ came “eyewitness reports by W esterners.” In another section o f W hat War M eans (Appendix B, p. 196), Timperley writes, “Mr. Kroeger and Mr. Hatz saw a Japanese officer and soldier executing a po o r m an in civilian clothes in a pond inside the Safety Zone.” A footnote to this states, “We have no right to p ro ­ test about legitimate executions by the Japanese Army, but this cer­ tainly was carried o u t in an inefficient and brutal way.” Therefore, this m ust have b een part of the Japanese Army’s execution o f sol­ diers w ho had shed their uniform s. In the Japanese translation, however, the w o rd “execution” is ren d e re d “slaughtered” o r “m as­ sacred,” gyakusatsu-, “p o o r m an” is ren d e re d “a citizen in civilian clothes,” heifu ku o k ita shim in. O n page 58 of W hat War M eans, Timperley writes, This is not the place to discuss the dictum of international law that the lives o f prisoners are to be preserved except under serious mili­ tary necessity, nor the Japanese setting aside of that law for the frankly stated vengeance upon persons accused o f having killed in battle comrades of the troops now occupying Nanking.

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The “frankly stated vengeance” tucked into this convoluted sentence did indeed apply to o th er cases in Ja p an ’s war, especially in later years in the w ar in the Pacific. But Tim perley’s reference to the ven­ geance motive is n o t touched u p o n anywhere in the book, nor does this vengeance motive at Nanjing appear in any writings that I have found so far.

2. Background to English-Language Documentary Materials Information from Anonymous Chinese Persons There are also exam ples of overstating facts in English-language m a­ terials that one should be careful about. As already cited, a fairly large p o rtio n o f D ocum ents o f the N a nking Safety Z o n e (Nos. 8 and 15) and A ppendix A o f W hat War M eans w ere w ritten by the process of Chinese reporting incidents in w riting and handing these statem ents to W esterners w ho th en translated them , o r had them translated, into English. While th ere are som e cases in which the nam es o f the Chinese persons w ho rep o rted the incidents are given, the Japanese transla­ tio n in m ost cases was lim ited to reporting the Chinese nam es in the Japanese syllabary, since the English sources listed them only in Rom anization. In o th er cases, only the nam es o f the W esterners w ho rep o rted the incidents w ere given, and the Chinese w ho rep o rted them rem ained anonym ous. In D ocum ents o f the N a n kin g Safety Zone, No. 58, the nam e of the Chinese p erso n w ho subm itted a w ritten rep o rt is n o t identified; in the Afternotes to the rep o rt it is stated that the reason for the om is­ sion is that one of th e persons w ho filed the rep o rt was killed and an­ o th e r p erso n was threatened. No. 58 contains seventy-seven sepa­ rate reports, and was published 2 February 1938. O n the previous day, 1 February, however, in No. 57, a rep o rt by a W esterner stated that the Japanese military police w ho w ere present at the site o f the incident arrested the Japanese soldiers and, as No. 58 suggests, it is difficult to see the Japanese considering the people w ho subm itted the reports as enem ies simply because they w ere Chi­ nese. If the Chinese w ho rep o rted incidents w ere killed by the Japa­ nese, why d id n ’t W esterners reveal this? The im pression is that the m u rd erer was n o t specified b u t referred to only vaguely.

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After this, from the beginning o f March, incidents o f victims in Nanjing, especially incidents o f m urder, w ere revealed in the “Smythe R eport,” yet Chinese who assisted in the com pilation w ere n o t punished o r persecuted by the Japanese. Thus, it seem s that even w hen D ocum ents o f the N anking Safety Zone, No. 58 was being com piled, the Chinese w ho subm itted reports to this w ork appeared to be in no d anger from the Japanese. But in spite of this, the killer of the Chinese person w ho subm itted w ritten reports was n ot p erse­ cuted and the Chinese w ho was killed rem ained anonym ous. O ne gets the im pression that the Chinese w ho subm itted reports in the com pilation o f No. 58 w ere m em bers of Jiang Jieshi’s GMD. If they w ere m em bers, their reports w ould have m ingled fact and falsehood in accordance with the party’s wartim e propaganda operations. Un­ til further p ro o f is uncovered, this rem ains a reasonable hypothesis.

Sense of Balance Seen in English-Language Sources At the o u tset o f this work, I considered that English-language sources relating to the Sino-Japanese War w ould be slanted by p o ­ litical bias ro o te d in the GMD’s overseas pro p ag an d a operations. Tim perley’s W hat War Means, however, and o th er representative overseas propaganda publications produced by the GMD, did not contain the blatant dram atization o f facts that I had expected. Acts o f cruelty w ere criticized based on a sense o f justice, and the presentation seem ed generally fair. At least on a first reading nothing evoked a reaction that “this is a lie.” This could have been the West­ e rn e r’s pride in o n e ’s ow n intelligence, o r pride on the part of the Chinese in charge o f diplomacy. Or the reporting m ight follow the creed of the Reuters CEO m entioned earlier w ho stated that wartim e propaganda should be one-half truth and choose, as effective w ar­ time propaganda, that which is neither com plete lie nor com plete truth but som ew here in the space betw een the two. The unex­ pected, however, was that Japanese translators and com pilers in later years w ould add biases and slant the original English texts. This situation was created on a foundation of preconceived notions in Ja­ pan that the “Great Massacre” at Nanjing m ust have happened, and this fueled th e c o n te n tio n in Ja p an am ong th o se o f varying convictions.

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3. Chinese Translations of Timperley’s Charges Simultaneously Published Chinese-Language Versions

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The Chinese version of Tim perley’s W hat War M eans was published sim ultaneously w ith the original English version: Wairen m uduz h o n g z h i rijun baoxing (Hankou: National People’s Printing Office, July, Year o f the Republic 27, 1938). The Chinese title translates, “Eyewitness accounts by foreigners [i.e., non-Chinese] of violence by the Japanese Army.” The incredibly fast and efficient publication of the Chinese translation sim ulta­ neously with the English original m ust have b een the result of coor­ dinating w ork by the GMD’s China Inform ation C om m ittee and the Political D epartm ent of the National Military Council. The Preface to the Chinese edition, w ritten by a literary scholar of fame in China, Guo Mo-ruo, contains a harsh criticism of the w arped condition of Ja p an ’s m odern civilization. This Chinese ver­ sion of Tim perley’s book also contains several tens of photos, while the original contained no photos. In August 1937, just after the start of the Sino-Japanese War, Guo Mo-ruo en d ed ten years o f self-exile in Japan and retu rn ed hom e to China. In 1938 he was head chief of the GMD’s G overnm ent Com ­ m ittee’s 3rd Room. Before he defected, Guo participated in the N orthern Expedition as a vice-minister of political dep o rtm en t of the People’s Revolutionary Army u n d e r the suprem e com m and o f Jiang Jieshi, w here he dem onstrated his ability in propaganda. Looking at his writings of early February 1927, just p rio r to breakdow n o f the First Nationalist-Com m unist United Front, we can see that he was a top-class agitator by his harsh criticism of Jiang Jieshi in his work, “Qing kan jinri Jiang Jieshi” (Take a look at today’s Jiang Jieshi). This article is included in Guo M o-ruo’s autobiography, Vol. 4, u n d e r the subtitle “O n the Way to the N orthern Expedition.” Several m onths after Guo published his criticism of Jiang Jieshi, the latter grabbed suprem e political power. Guo knew that he m ight be arrested or assassinated, and he defected to Japan. The m ain body of the Chinese translation o f W hat War M eans, excluding the preface and the photos that w ere added in the Chinese version, was later rep ro d u ced in Reference M aterials o f the Revolu­ tion, No. 108. Also, H ora Tomio included a Japanese translation of the Forew ord in A Collection o f English-Language M aterials. G uo Mo-ruo w rote his ow n preface to the Chinese version. In this preface, he analyzes the cruelty of the Japanese military as a d e­

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velopm ent rooted in the w arping of Japanese civilization from the Meiji era onw ard. This content and line of argum ent, however, is not G uo M o-ruo’s original. It comes from the w ritings o f form er U.S. Sec­ retary o f State Henry L. Stimson in w hich he presents a distorted analysis o f Japan based on a biased, American and Euro-centric view of history. Timperley included this piece o f Stim son’s w riting at the en d o f W hat War M eans. Guo Mo-ruo, however, did n o t include this Preface in his collection o f his ow n writings, and w e are com pelled to search for the answ er why. G uo’s Preface is nothing m ore than his typical agitation in the guise of im portant interpretations of criticisms of Japanese civiliza­ tion. It should be noted that even w ith his propensity for dram atiza­ tion, Guo does not make charges for a Great Massacre.

4,The Facts at Nanking—Guo Qi’s A Record of Blood and Tears in the Fallen Capital How Nanjing Fell There are know n facts regarding w hat really h ap p en ed at Nanjing that, on the one hand, adherents to the Illusion School prefer to overlook, on the other hand, these facts w ere apparently the begin­ ning of later, exaggerated claims. In the daw n o f 8 D ecem ber 1937, w ith the Japanese Army fight­ ing its way tow ard the capital of Nanjing, Jiang Jieshi, his wife, and close associates fled the city aboard two airplanes. On 12 December, the Japanese Army advanced to the walls of Nanjing and issued a call for surrender. General Tang Shengzhi, su­ prem e com m ander for the city of Nanjing, refused to surrender. In a move to prevent others from fleeing the city, he ordered all available boats destroyed, except for those u n d e r his possession. This was his way o f forcing the soldiers to rem ain in the city and fight the Japa­ nese invasion, while the civilian population, he reasoned, w ould hinder the Japanese Army’s advance. Then in the m idnight hours of 12 December, following new orders from Jiang Jieshi, w hich w ere probably transm itted by radio, Tang and his top staff fled across the Yangzi River in the only large-size boats he had left undestroyed. With no com m ander and no strategy, the Chinese Army fell into chaos. It was, in fact, no longer an army but a disorganized m ob of soldiers. The Japanese com m and w aited twenty-four hours for a reply to its su rren d er dem and. No response came, and they storm ed and oc-

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cupied the city. It h ap p en ed w ithin one day, and in that confusion, soldiers and civilians ran to the Yijiangmen Gate in hopes o f escap­ ing the city ahead o f the Japanese onslaught, reaching the Yangzi River and crossing it. G eneral Tang, however, had ordered the Chi­ nese Army to swing the gate shut from the outside and barricaded w ith sandbags. The fleeing hordes of Chinese m assed behind the gates and their sheer hum an w eight finally nudged the sandbags back and pressed the gates open. It was like a trap sprung open. W hen the people reached the river and saw that the boats had been destroyed, their desperation becam e m ore intense. The only hope they saw was to cross the river and get away from the city. At this point, the Japanese Army came from behind and started firing o n the mass o f panic-stricken soldiers and civilians, including w om en and children, while the Japanese Navy fired from their ves­ sels o n the Yangzi. A Chinese officer w ho was at the scene of this m assacre at the Yijiangmen Gate later m oved to Taiwan w here he w rote and p u b ­ lished his description o f the scene. The Japanese Army occupied the city. As an invading army, they w ere o n edge about m eeting arm ed resistance or guerrilla warfare. The streets o f Nanjing w ere littered w ith discarded helm ets, guns, and uniform s, and the Japanese searched for plainclothes soldiers or those w ho had discarded their uniform s and w eapons and tried to blend in w ith the civilian population. Japanese soldiers looked, for exam ple, for shoulder marks to indicate that the perso n had carried an army knapsack, and large num bers of these p eople w ere captured and killed. Afterwards, several Japanese scholars criticized these kill­ ings, claiming that even in the heat o f an invasion a Chinese was enti­ tled to a trial to determ ine his sentence, and killing captives w ithout due process violated international law. My research supports the be­ lief that these form er soldiers and plain-clothes soldiers w ere killed in this m anner for about two weeks after the occupation. As for looting, about 80 percent o f the population of Nanjing had fled before the invasion. The plus-or-m inus 250,000 people left be­ hind w ere m ainly poor, those w ho had no m eans to flee. Japanese lo­ gistics was always badly organized and unable to keep supply lines m oving to frontline troops, and for ten days or two weeks, until lo­ gistics finally caught u p w ith the troops, I believe the Japanese sol­ diers looted m ainly vacated houses, w here foodstuffs had been abandoned. After that there was little o r no need to continue looting for sustenance, and it probably subsided, b u t som e soldiers also looted art works and valuables.

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Reliable accounts blam e the Japanese soldiers’ wild sexual be­ havior and rape sprees at Nanjing for the decision by the Japanese military com m and to set up a system o f controlled brothels. The first w om en brought into China u n d e r orders of the Japanese Army to w ork as “com fort w om en” occurred in early 1938, so the tim ing w ould be accurate. The so-called com fort stations, including som e Korean-run establishm ents, w ere operated mainly by civilians, but those for the military w ere placed u n d e r a health-inspection p ro ­ gram u n d e r Japanese military m edical units. The aim was to reduce the incidence o f sexually transm itted dis­ eases am ong the troops. This was a serious problem in the Japanese military, as it has been in o th er countries, and the army com m and looked to brothels exclusively for the military and u n d e r military sanitation control as a way to com bat this. The p u rp o se was, of course, to m aintain the arm y’s fighting strength. It is the duty of every army com m and to protect the health of its soldiers in ord er to m aintain fighting strength. Com fort stations u n ­ der control o f Japanese medical staff w ere the Japanese m ilitary’s way of reducing syphilis and other sexually transm itted diseases in the ranks.

Living Witnesses to the Great Massacre Guo Qi’s A Record o f B lood a n d Tears in the Fallen C apital was used as decisive evidence o f a great m assacre in Nanjing by the Nanjing War Crimes Military Tribunal in 1947. It receives special m ention in the w ritten judgm ent. As already noted, Guo Qi was an officer in the People’s Revolu­ tionary Army, and he was in Nanjing for three m onths after the city fell. Thus, he experienced the entire period during which the Great Massacre is claimed to have taken place. After he left Nanjing, he w rote dow n his experiences in the above-cited book, A Record o f B lood a n d Tears in the Fallen Capital. Beginning in August 1938 this w ork was carried in installm ents in a daily new spaper, X ijing P ’ingpao. The core part o iB lo o d a n d Tears, chaps. 3 to 18, is included in the Chinese w ork Records o f the G reat Slaughter a t N anking. The Ja p an e se tra n sla tio n was p u b lish e d u n d e r th e title, N a n k in jik e n sh iry o sh u — C hugoku k a n k e i sh iry o h e n (see p. 40 above). I com pared the Chinese original w ith the Japanese translation and they are identical in content. The book contains the following headings and subheadings. [Bracketed com m ents are by Kitamura.] Subhead 3: An unprecedented great slaughter began. Subhead 4: An un p reced en ted great adultery.

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S u b h ead 5: An a rd u o u s struggle by th e In te rn a tio n a l C om m ittee. Subhead 6: An un p reced en ted great conflagration. Subhead 7: A p u p p e t governm ent created w ith difficulty— the Self-Government Com m ittee. Subhead 8: Investigation of various foreign consulates and appropriation of foreigners’ property. Subhead 9: The life style o f o u r refugees. Subhead 10: M onopolized by beastly [Japanese] soldiers. Subhead ll:T h e post exchange o f the beastly soldiers. Subhead 12: Preferential treatm ent of Buddhist priests. Subhead 13: Pitiful villains [refers to Chinese traitors]. Subhead 14: Shameless false rum ors about “Hsin Shen Pao.” Subhead 15: Rumors in the areas around Nanking. Subhead 16: Beastly soldiers make a false show of mercy in funeral services for o u r soldiers w ho died in action. Subhead 17: The Com m unist society in the Safety Zone. Subhead 18: Abolition of the Safety Zone. In Part 2 o f this book, I deal with the factors that w ent into form ­ ing the judgm ent o n the Nanjing Incident at the Nanjing tribunal and the IMFTE as well. I address the following four charges, which are com m only m ade, concerning w hat happened. 1. The incident was a planned, large-scale m assacre that devel­ o p e d over a p eriod of six to seven weeks. 2. News o f the acts o f brutality com m itted in Nanking spread thro u g h o u t the w orld and gave rise to protests from people of differ­ en t nations. 3. The arson, looting, and violence com m itted by the Japanese Army was w idespread. 4. The n u m b er of dead was betw een 100,000 and 300,000. I have already exam ined num bers 1 and 2, com paring them with conditions in Nanjing as described in reports in English by the GMD and foreign observers in Nanjing w ritten during the Sino-Japanese War. I will com pare num bers 3 and 4 w ith Guo Q i’s B lood a n d Tears, as Chinese m aterial w ritten at the tim e of the war, using the follow­ ing subheadings from B lood a n d Tears: Subhead 3, “An un p rece­ d en ted great slaughter began”; Subhead 4, “An u n p reced en ted great adultery”; Subhead 6, ‘An un p reced en ted great conflagration”; Sub­ head 9, “The life style o f o u r refugees.” For the convenience o f p re­ senting the points o f the argum ents, I will take u p the above four

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subheadings in this order: 4, 6, 3, and 9. As a Chinese w ho was a liv­ ing w itness to the time span of the “Great Nanjing Massacre,” how did Guo Qi record the events in the city? The following items are included in Subhead 4, “An u n p rec e ­ d en ted great adultery.” Item 1: Girls from twelve years o f age to el­ derly w om en of eighty years were raped. Item 2: Gang rapes. Item 3: Japanese soldiers forced a Chinese male to rape his ow n m other. Item 4: Japanese soldiers severed the penis o f a B uddhist priest. C oncerning Item 1, the rape o f a twelve-year-old girl, G uo Qi writes o f a m an w ho was an acquaintance of his. The m an w en t to visit his m other and took along his twelve-year-old daughter dis­ guised as a boy for her protection. As they w ere walking together, Japanese soldiers saw through the disguise and raped the girl. Guo Qi w rote the rep o rt in his book as his acquaintance’s direct eyewit­ ness account of the incident. Item 2, concerning the gang rapes of Chinese w om en, contains incidents including those that Guo Qi himself witnesses. Some d e ­ tails may be dram atized, but the content agrees in general w ith inci­ dents listed in D ocum ents o f the N a nking Safety Zone, and leaves no room to d o u b t the veracity of the statem ents. C oncerning the occurrence of sexual violence against w om en that occurs in war, it is the same now as in the past. Recent m ajor ex­ amples w ere seen in 1991 during the internal struggles in Yugoslavia following the breakup of the Soviet Union satellites. A docum entary w ork that directly confronts the problem of sexual violations of w om en in w ar in the World War II period is BeFreir u n d Befreite: Krieg, Vergewaltigungen, K inder (1945. The tru th o f the liberation of Berlin—War, rape and children), by Helke Sander and Barbara Johr (Hrsg) (Munich: A. Kunstmann, 1992). This book investigated large-scale rapes of G erm an w om en by Soviet soldiers com m itted shortly after the Allied attack on Berlin. It also deals with cases com m itted by American and French soldiers. On the one hand, the book takes a straightforward look at the G er­ m an Army’s activities in Eastern Europe, and the organization of brothels exclusively for the military, and is not intended as a criticism of the Soviet Army. It is a w ork of great significance that clearly shows how the w eakness o f w om en causes them to suffer victimization in war. The irresponsible behavior of the Japanese Army in China, while not an exceptional example, cannot be allowed to pass w ith­ out censure.

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Fictional Creations to Raise Anger against the Enemy These three items—Item 1, the account of the rape o f an eighty-yearold w om an; Item 3, the incident o f the son forced to rape his ow n m other; and Item 4, the account of severing the penis of a Buddhist priest— are all heavy w ith doubts about their veracity. Item 1 is from hearsay that reached Guo Qi describing how a Japanese soldier could n o t find a young w om an in the Safety Zone and so w ent to X iaguan, alongside the Yangzi River, and attacked the elderly w om an. Guo Qi rep o rted the conversation as follows: Woman: “Why do you attack m e, a w om an o f my age?” Japanese soldier: “D on’t think I w ant you to have a baby for m e!” Guo Qi knows that the refugees all know this story to be a joke. The language o f the conversation quoted by Guo Qi in the book is in com plicated, colloquial expressions of the Nanjing dialect. It is im­ probable that a Japanese soldier w ould speak or u n derstand this. Item 3, forcing som eone to rape his ow n m other, claims that first the Japanese soldiers raped the wom an, then forced her son to rape h er while the Japanese soldiers all stood around and enjoyed the scene. Applying com m on sense, this is not the type of violence that appeals to Japanese. It can be defined as accusing som eone of “defil­ ing hum an ethics to the degree of violating his ow n m other.” It paral­ lels a Chinese expression, “cao n i m ade," which is equivalent to the English-language “m other fucker.” This incident bears the m ark of G uo Q i’s conjuring up Japanese soldiers engaging in despicable ac­ tions draw n from Chinese references that defile hum an ethics, to su p p o rt despising the “beastly soldiers.” Item 4 relates the account o f a B uddhist priest accidentally com ­ ing u p o n a scene w here Japanese soldiers w ere raping a w om an, and the soldiers trying to force the priest to also rape the victim. W hen he refused, the soldiers rem arked, “Your organ is o f no use.” They then severed the p riest’s penis and left him to die. I am pressed to claim that this is also a concept rooted in Chinese culture, closely related to the custom o f castration to produce eunuchs. O ne well-known case of p unishm ent by penis severing dates from several centuries B.C.E., during the early Han period in China. The case involved the fam ous historian Ssuma Chien, w ho was accused of the crim e of d e­ fending a military com m ander w ho betrayed the dynasty and was p u nished by having his penis severed. This episode is well know n to all Chinese, th en and now, and it m ust be noted that this incident

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w ith the priest was incorporated into the text of the judgm ent of a G reat Massacre h anded dow n at the Nanjing Tribunal. I do not accuse Guo Qi of being a liar. Exaggeration and fabrica­ tions have b een deeply em bedded into Chinese thought for cen tu ­ ries. These ideas rooted in history and legend w ere called u p o n to stir up sentim ents to increase the resistance against the Japanese oc­ cupation as one form of wartim e propaganda. This is evident in the fact that each of these incidents listed in Guo Qi’s w ork was followed by his phrases designed to heighten fighting spirit.

Japanese Soldiers and Arson Similar fabrication also appears in Guo Qi in Subhead 6, ‘An u n p rec­ edented great conflagration.” This subheading is divided as follows: (1) “The air changed color.” (2) “Everything razed from Zhonghuam en to Neigiao. (3) “The Transportation Ministry destroyed by fire.” (4) “Xiaguan area com pletely b u rn ed .” G uo Qi writes that all the fires w ere caused by the Japanese troops, b u t reference to Chinese records o f the same period shows that the fires in item s 3 and 4 above, the burning of the T ransporta­ tion Ministry and of the m ain harbor and railway station, and harbor area of Xiaguan, w ere the results of fires set by the Chinese troops as they retreated from the city. C oncerning the burning o f the Transportation Ministry, there is a w ork titled X ia n jin g sanyueji (A three-m onth record of the fallen capital), w ritten in diary style by a Chinese Army doctor nam ed Jiang Gonggu. In his book, which was com pleted in August 1938, Jiang re­ counts how he discarded his army uniform after Nanjing was aban­ doned and hid in the city as a civilian. He describes his feigned civilian life in the city u n d e r Japanese occupation. In his entry for 12 D ecem ber 1937 he w rites that as the Chinese Army was facing the fall o f Nanjing, “they them selves set fire to the Transportation Ministry building and bu rn ed it dow n.” This entire diary is reproduced in Ref­ erence M aterials o f the Revolution, No. 108. As noted above (p. 40), the Japanese version, published in 1992, is entitled N a n k in jik e n sbiryoshu— Chugoku k a n k e i shiryohen. The Massacre School, how ­ ever, largely ignores this source because the evidence it contains about the Chinese Army also contributing to the destruction o f the city runs counter to their agenda. The new Transportation Ministry building, it should be pointed out, was the Nationalist G overnm ent’s pride, a symbol o f its new

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construction plan. It was a m agnificent structure, built w ith aid from the U nited States and Britain at a cost rep o rted to be around US$200,000. N ew York Times co rrespondent Tilman D urdin, in his article o f 22 D ecem ber 1937, rep o rted continuous explosions in the building from m unitions that had b een stored there. It is easy to un d erstan d why the Chinese and the Massacre School w ould w ant to attribute the burning o f this building to the Japanese. Further testim ony from a Chinese source that the Chinese Army was responsible for the com plete razing by fire o f the Xiaguan area is found in the rem iniscences of Niu Xianming, a Chinese officer who spent eight m onths in Nanjing after the fall disguised as a Buddhist priest. Niu Xianming m oved to Taiwan together with the Nationalist governm ent, and in I960 he began writing his m em oirs in serial form for a Taiwan-published magazine called Zhongw ai (Inside and outside China). In 1971 Niu published these m em oirs in a book ti­ tled H u a n su ji (Return to the secular w orld). In this work, he writes that the Chinese Army set fires u p o n its retreat from Nanjing as part o f its scorched-earth policy, that is, to deprive the invading and occu­ pying army o f facilities. The m ain portions of this book are also in­ cluded in the above-cited Reference M aterials o f the Revolution, No. 108. As n o ted above, the same m aterial was translated into Japanese by the Tokyo-based Nanking Incident Research Association and p u b ­ lished u n d e r the title N a n k in jik e n shiryoshu— Chugoku k a n k ei shiryohen (D ocum ents on the Nanking Incident— Chinese source m aterials) (Tokyo: Aoki Shoten, 1992). The original book contains ten chapters, each o f which contains several incidents. Only three chapters w ere included in the Japanese translation, and these w ere abbreviated. The portion that stated that the Chinese soldiers w ere the ones w ho b u rn ed the new and magnif­ icent Transportation Ministry building was excluded, to su p p o rt the Great Massacre School’s position that all the fires w ere set by the Jap ­ anese Army. Also, the introduction to this section in the Japanese ver­ sion states erroneously that the author, Niu Xianming, was the head priest at a Nanjing tem ple. The original Chinese text of H uansuji states that Niu Xianming was in charge of an engineering u nit in the Chinese Army, and army engineers w ould be the ones in charge of carrying ou t a scorched-earth strategy. This lends credence to the au­ th o r’s w ritten testimony. At the tim e o f the fall of Nanjing, Niu Xianming had twenty-four G erm an-m ade rubber boats, probably with a capacity of few er than ten persons each. He received orders from the Chinese com m ander

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in chief, Tang Shengzhi, to have the boats destroyed by o th er units in a tactic know n as “Smash the cookpots, scuttle the boats,” a Chinese expression that signifies a die-hard determ ination to fight fiercely. It is equivalent to “Burn your bridges behind you,” and in this case it literally m eant burn. Niu relates in his diary how he enlisted the as­ sistance of o th er units in setting fires in Nanjing, and because o f his responsibility for overseeing the burning, he was n ot able to leave the city. It is a point of interest that the destruction o f the boats was the reason m any Chinese soldiers and officers w ere unable to evacu­ ate across the Yangzi River, and had no choice b u t to rem ain in Nanjing concealed in the civilian population. From the above, we see that testim onies from Chinese and West­ erners during this period make it necessary to reexam ine the large num bers o f fires in Nanjing following the occupation of the city. It is im portant also to realize that any reason given for the Japanese Army to b urn m unicipal buildings and usable facilities in Nanjing once the capital was in their hands m ust be very weak. If anything could be said for such action, it w ould be counterproductive, for while an army will understandably torch buildings in a battle to gain a city, burning dow n buildings in a city already u n d e r their control w ould be cutting their ow n throat, and Nanjing fell w ithin twenty-four hours after the initial attack. Then in the early part o f January 1938, the Japanese forces urged the Chinese to set u p the Nanking SelfG overnm ent Committee. The N ew York Times o f 9 January 1938 carried a lengthy, detailed article by its correspondent, Tilman Durdin. It was datelined 22 De­ cember, Shanghai, by airmail. He headlined the article: “Japanese Atrocities M arked Fall of Nanking after Chinese Com m and Fled.” Subheads followed: “Mass Killings by the Japanese Em braced Civilians — Total of Chinese Dead Was 33,000" “THE CONQUERORS RAN WILD” “Deep-Rooted H atred Instilled by Barbarities — Burning by Chinese Caused Vast Loss” Some excerpts from this lengthy article follow: The seige as a w hole was feudal and medieval in many aspects. The Chinese defense within a city wall, the wholesale Chinese burning of villages, mansions and populous business districts for miles around the metropolis and the slaughter, rape and looting by the Japanese after their occupation of the city all seem to belong to a more barbaric, vanished period.

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Thus, D urdin supports the fact that there was killing, rape, and loot­ ing by Japanese soldiers that, according to other testim ony a n d ac­ kn o w led g m en t by the p resid en t o f the IMTFE, was the result of soldiers ru nning wild and not by order. Returning to the question of large-scale burning, D urdin’s article continues: Orgy o f Burning by Chinese The advance o f the Japanese beyond Kuyung was the signal for an orgy o f burning by Chinese troops, apparently as a part o f last-min­ ute preparations for resistance around the city walls. From Tangshan— China’s “West Point,” where are situated the artillery school, the infantry school and General Chiang’s provi­ sional Summer headquarters—on across fifteen miles o f country­ side into Nanking almost every building was set afire. Whole villages were burned. Barracks, mansions in Mausoleum Park, the modern chemical warfare school, the agricultural research experi­ mental laboratories, the police training school and dozens of other institutions were reduced to ruins. The torch was applied to dis­ tricts around the South Gate and in Hsiakwan, which were in real­ ity small cities in themselves. Calculated Chinese military incendiarism accounted for destruction of property easily worth 20,000,000 to 30,000,000, more destruc­ tion than had been wrought by Japanese air bombardment of Nan­ king for the months of warfare preceding the Nanking siege, but equaled, probably, by the damage caused by Japanese explosives during the actual siege and byjapanese troops after the occupation of the city. Chinese military leaders usually explained the wholesale burning around the city as dictated by military necessity. It was said to be es­ sential to destroy all obstructions, all shelters, all facilities that might be utilized by the Japanese in the final struggle around the city walls. To this end, not only buildings but trees, bamboo groves and underbrush were cleared away. Neutral observers believe the burning was to a great extent an­ other Chinese “grand gesture,” an outlet for rage and frustration, the result o f a desire to destroy everything that the Chinese were to lose and that might be used by the Japanese, a manifestation o f the extremist “scorched earth” policy, which calls for leaving the Chi­ nese districts to be occupied by the Japanese only blackened wastes of no use to the conquerors.

D urdin w rites o f looting, especially of food, but often anything small enough to be carried away, and of rape by the Japanese troops, of w eeding o ut form er soldiers and executing them , m any with their hands tied behind their backs. He then writes that the cause o f the collapse was Tang’s fleeing the city, som ething that m any m em bers

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of his ow n staff did not know was in his plans. The co rresp o n d en t ends his article w ith a one-sentence paragraph that sum s u p the tragic situation: “There was little glory for either side in the battle o f Nanking.” O n 12 Novem ber 1938, the GMD Army retreated to the city of Changsha, in H unan Province, w here once again they carried out their scorched-earth policy and destroyed the entire city by fire (in­ cluding the norm al school w here Mao Z edong [Mao Tse-tung] stu d ­ ied in his youth). The Japanese Army, though, had no intentions of occupying Changsha; the Chinese Army set the fires too soon, and the intended scorched-earth policy was only a m eaningless destruc­ tion of the city. The citizens of Changsha raged against the GMD Army, and so, to com pensate for the burning, Jiang Jieshi o rdered the leaders o f the Chinese forces executed by gunshot. From the above, we see strong evidence that the major, largescale fires in Nanjing w ere the w ork o f the GMD in its scorched-earth policy. Any fires started by Japanese troops w ould have been the burning o f w ood from individual hom es and shops to m ake bonfires to w arm themselves. O n the contrary, any Japanese soldier setting fire to a m ajor building, all o f which becam e possessions of the Japa­ nese Army the day after the initial attack on the city, w ould be depriv­ ing his ow n forces o f useful facilities in the occupation and w ould probably face discipline from his ow n superiors. This, as in o th er m atters in this book, I leave for the readers to judge.

Facts Concerning the Great Massacre Next, I w ould like to address the large-scale killings as they appear in the claims o f the Great Massacre in the “U nprecedented large-scale killings” as given in Subhead 3, and exam ine events rep o rted by Guo Qi as “actual facts.” The scale of the massacre, 300,000 victims, will be taken u p in Part 4, section 1, “Investigations concerning the Num ­ ber of Deaths .” At this point, I should like to address the credibility of the m assacre as claimed by Guo Qi. Guo Qi’s accusations begin with the conditions that existed in­ side the Safety Zone, reporting first on the execution of male soldiers w ho sought protection in the zone by hiding am ong the refugees. In this p o rtio n I concur in general with his writings. However, he writes that in one of the refugee camps a single pistol bullet was found (he does not identify w ho found it) and therefore ten Chinese w ere killed there. And, in another case, Japanese soldiers sawed dow n a tree 1.8 m eters from the ground and an elderly w om an w ith tradi­ tional Chinese foot bindings was forced to stand o n the tree stum p

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and m ade to fall to h er death. And an elderly m an was suspended from a tree limb and soldiers drew lots for a chance to e n te r into a contest to sever the rope by rifle shot from a distance o f 300 or 400 m eters, causing him to fall to his death. These accounts, as with those in Volume 4 of a rape of an elderly w om an and the severing of a B uddhist prie st’s penis, all appear to be creations for the p u rp o se of raising hatred o f the enemy. My reasons for believing so follow. First, the cam ps for the protection of the refugees w ere m anaged by the International Com m ittee. If there w ere an incident such as a slaughter of ten people in the refugee camp, it w ould surely appear in D ocum ents o f the N a n kin g Safety Zone. And, it w ould have b rought severe protests from the W estern community. There are, however, no corresponding accounts of this. Next, if it had been the intent of the Japanese soldiers to harass and tau n t the elderly w om an w ith the b o u n d feet, it was n o t neces­ sary to go to the trouble o f sawing dow n a tree som e 1.8 m eters above the ground. That w ould be a laborious task. They could have found a rock o r som e w ood to serve the purpose. Forcing a w om an w ith b o u n d feet, w ith uncertain gait and p o o r balance, to stand on an elevated place is a cruel way to sham e a person with an u n d ercu r­ ren t in Chinese culture. It surfaced again in a famous incident in 1999 w hen The Secret Records o f M ao Tse-tung was com piled and published. A Japanese edition was later published by the editorial team of San ka i Shim bun. In this, there was an account during the Cultural Revolution in w hich Liu Shaoqi, the president o f the Peo­ p le ’s Republic o f China at the tim e and prim e enem y o f Mao Zedong, was reprim anded while m ade to stand on top of a w obbly table. This sounds like the sam e type o f thought. Finally, the account o f an old m an suspended from a high tree branch w hile Japanese soldiers com peted to shoot the ro p e and send him crashing to his death. Parting a rope with a bullet from a distance of 300 o r 400 m eters may be extrem ely difficult b u t possi­ ble, and for that very reason it can be thought of as an am using way to rouse anger against the enemy. There was, however, alm ost fanati­ cal m anagem ent o f arms and am m unition in the Japanese Army, and it is difficult to imagine Japanese soldiers am using them selves in this way. If such an incident w ere brought to light, the soldiers w ould u n ­ doubtedly be punished, and it is difficult to imagine four o r five sol­ diers agreeing to play a game like this. Also, at a range of 300 to 400 h u n d red m eters, even if a bullet did hit the target, there was a danger

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that stray bullets or a ricochet could hit other Japanese soldiers. This entertaining shooting contest lacks credibility.

As n o ted above, A Record o f B lood a n d Tears in the Fallen Capi­ tal, Subhead 3, contains examples of the Chinese image of cruelty in imaginary acts com m itted by Japanese soldiers, in com bination with generous usage o f the Chinese term for “great slaughter.” And, Guo Qi sum m arizes the occurrences of these expressions as follows: The beastly soldiers played just like children at their games, and killed our fellow-Chinese. These are the accounts I saw and heard of. Regardless o f time and place I am obliged to write down these incidents of wild killing. When I heard even just the sound o f one gunshot it meant that another of our fellow Chinese became a vic­ tim. The gunshots continued all day every day for three months, therefore the number o f dead is estimated to be very large.

Surprising Tranquility in Daily Life in Nanjing We find a m ajor contradiction in Guo Q i’s writings w hen w e com ­ pare w hat he w rote in his ninth part, titled “O ur Life as Refugees,” w ith the account he gives in Subhead 3, “An U nprecedented Great Massacre.” G uo Q i’s daily life in Nanjing does not reflect the events that w ere supposed to be going on during at the tim e o f a Great Massacre. W hen Guo Qi first m oved into the Safety Zone, he was one o f a group o f people w ho lived in the deserted Italian C onsulate build­ ing. There, the occupants all contributed m oney to a pool and used this for m aking purchases o f food and o th er daily necessities, for which they had to go into the city’s Safety Zone. He writes that there was danger of being taken into custody by Japanese soldiers to w ork as porters for them , am ong other risks. He spent the m ornings read­ ing in the consulate building, and he writes that at tim es he bought books on ancient Chinese philosophy. The m oney he spent on books, he w rote, was separate from w hat he budgeted for daily n e ­ cessities, and w e m ight reasonably imagine that he w ent o u t just to buy reading material. He w rote, “ W hen n o o n came, I used to go to the hom e o f my fellow officer to have lunch there. At the same tim e I tried to get inform ation on the Japanese. Som etimes we played board games. In either case, it was an uneventful way to pass the time. In the evenings, people came into tow n to tear off copies of H sin Shen Pao, a new sletter of phony propaganda, and tried to guess the real m eaning behind the rep o rts.” (I have already discussed H sin Shen Pao in another part of this book.)

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From the above, we see that G uo Qi’s life during the tim e o f the G reat Massacre was leisurely, that he lived mainly in the Safety Zone, and that it w ould be possible to argue that a Great Massacre was in progress outside the zone. The Safety Zone, it m ust be rem em bered, was m erely o n e area in the city w ith its lines of dem arcation defined only by city streets. T here w ere no walls separating the zone from the rest o f the city, and in his com ing and going, Guo Qi w ould have been able to hear sounds from o th er areas of the city. If, as G uo Qi w rote in Subhead 3, “The gunshots w ent on every day all day for three m onths,” and a m assacre had b een in progress in the regions outside the Safety Zone, that is, in the p art of the city that bordered the so u th ern extrem e o f the Safety Zone w here G uo Qi spent his days after the fall o f Nanjing. C om m on sense should tell us that he w ould n o t have been able to live a life o f such leisure—a life, as seen in his writings, that approached lethargy.

Guo Qi’s Subordinates Visit Freely Next, I w ould like to exam ine Subhead 9, “O ur life as refugees.” Guo Qi had five h u n d red m en u n d e r him in the Nationalist Army. These soldiers lived in Nanjing passing for civilians, but they often w ent to call o n G uo Qi to request m oney for living expenses. D uring these frequent visits, the civilians w ho lived with Guo Qi in the Italian C on­ sulate voiced concern that if these people w ere discovered to be sol­ diers, it w ould bring trouble to the o th er residents. It is difficult to im agine that Guo Qi’s subordinates all lived hidden in the Safety Zone. The Japanese Army’s search for form er soldiers hiding in the Safety Zone was extrem ely thorough and severe. Ordinary soldiers w ere not gifted w ith the intelligence and appearance of the officers, which allow ed them to disguise them selves as civilians doing various kinds o f work. Japanese troops used Chinese interpreters w hen searching for soldiers in hiding. Most of the ordinary soldiers came from the rural areas, and their local accents, m anners, and appear­ ance placed them in high risk o f being detected. Thus it is am ple rea­ son to think— and it is probably to be expected—that they sub­ m erged them selves in the p o p u latio n o utside the Safety Zone, and, precisely because this kind of situation existed, Guo Qi also realized that there w as a contradiction in writing of his subordinates com ing and going while a Great Massacre was supposed to be in progress. He rem edied this contradiction in his revised edition of A Record o f B lo o d a n d Tears in the Fallen Capital.

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Guo Qi had m oved to Taiwan in 1949, with the establishm ent of the People’s Republic o f China. There, in 1979, he reissued his book, dram atized the section on the massacre, and “directed” the Great Slaughter. And, in the 1979 reissue, the original title was changed to N an jin d a dush a (The great Nanjing slaughter) (Taipei: Chungwai Tushushe). The m ain body of the book is included in Reference M a­ terials o f the Revolution, No. 108. I will show how Guo Qi dram atized the part in question. The subheading in A Record o f B lood a n d Tears in the Fallen C apital that deals with the soldiers visiting him reads as follows: “The threat to their lives from hunger and cold was im m ediate, b u t I had absolutely no m eans of gaining any money.” The “threat to their lives” is, of course, clearly from hunger and w eather in the cold and snowy Nanjing winter, with no finances to avert these conditions. In this work, Guo Qi makes no m ention o f any danger from being m assa­ cred by Japanese soldiers. B lood a n d Tears contains nothing to even suggest that the Chinese soldiers w ere at any risk from a m assacre in progress in their com ing and going to seek m oney from their form er com m ander. In the revisions that appeared in The Great N a n kin g Slaughter published in 1979, Guo Qi added this: “U nder the Japanese Army’s continuing great massacre in Nanking, with the smell of blood in the air and the rain blood, they visited m e at risk of their lives” (Refer­ ence M aterials o f the Revolution, No. 108, p. 190). The Japanese Army carried out a registration o f residents of Nanjing in the first part of January 1938, and issued “Certificates of Safety” to the citizens w ho, according to the Japanese evaluation, were not concerned with military resistance. People in possession of one of these proof-of-registration certificates, in the form of a pocketsize card, w ere guaranteed personal safety. The face o f the registra­ tion card show ed the p e rso n ’s nam e, age, sex, and physical and facial characteristics, and it carries the message that the bearer is not antiJapanese. G uo Qi and the others living w ith him in the Italian C on­ sulate all possessed these identification cards, and in all probability so did his form er subordinates w ho came to call o n him for money. Since these m en w ould have had to convince the Japanese Army’s Chinese interpreters that they w ere not soldiers in hiding, we can see that they w ere soldiers o f some breeding, from the C entral Army, w hich was u n d e r direct control o f Jiang Jieshi, and possibly from Nanjing.

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In oth er w ords, those subordinates o f G uo Qi carried these iden­ tification cards and w ent about the city streets. In B lood a n d Tears, G uo Qi clearly states that the frequent visits to him by his form er sub­ ordinates took place after the registration of Chinese citizens. In the revisions in The Great N a n kin g Slaughter published in 1979, how ­ ever, this was altered to indicate that the visits took place before the registration. By rearranging the o rd er of events and revising the text, Guo Qi m ade it seem that the form er soldiers risked death at the hands of the Japanese soldiers in o rd er to visit him. In tim e, G uo Qi was recognized as a form er officer by a Chinese perso n living in the Safety Zone, w ho blackm ailed him w ith a d e­ m and for hush m oney in o rd er not to reveal his tru e identity. Be­ cause of this, G uo Qi m oved to a different location, inside the Safety Zone. After he relocated, G uo Qi bought old books for him self and spent his days in leisurely reading. From his w indow he w rote how he could see the activities o f Japanese troops on the w ide street in front of the house. This com m ent, however, was om itted in his 1979 revised book. The Nanking Safety Zone allowed G uo Qi to live the easy life he describes, mainly buying and reading books, while a G reat Massacre was supposed to be going on outside the Safety Zone — surely a contradiction in reasonable thinking.

C h a p te r 4 — F o rm a tio n o f th e “3 0 0 ,0 0 0 M a s s a c re d ” T h e o ry

1. Investigations concerning the Number of Deaths Enormous Death Toll First Emerges after the War There is not one single Chinese source w ritten from the tim e of the fall of Nanjing through the following years up until the Japanese sur­ render in 1945 that m entions anything even closely resem bling a massacre o f 300,000 people. O n the contrary, these sources provide glimpses o f a Nanjing unim aginably settled down. But in spite of this, the huge num ber of victims in burial records, w hich seem s groundless but which surfaced after the war, has becom e conclusive evidence in deciding that a large-scale m assacre occurred during the occupation of the city. As m entioned earlier, the core reference m aterials establishing the n um ber of dead as 300,000 was the Nanjing District P rosecutor’s “Report on the Enem y’s Crimes,” com pleted in February 1946. This publication was presented as evidence at the w ar crim es trials in both Tokyo and Nanjing. Also, with the aim of supplem enting this in­ form ation, in the 1980s the Chinese Com m unist G overnm ent re ­ vealed new materials. The original docum ents contained in “Report on the Enem y’s Crimes” have never been m ade available to the p u b ­ lic; they are stored in Taiwan, and copies no d o u b t also exist in m ain­ land China. Both countries keep them classified. The core parts of the original docum ents, however, w ere read aloud in the IMTFE, and thus we also have this part of the court records in English. The num ber o f dead claimed in “Report on the Enem y’s Crim es” was com piled from two sources. O ne was testim onies in postw ar surveys conducted am ong Chinese residents concerning people 121

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slaughtered by Japanese soldiers. The o th er was testim onies taken from B uddhist charity and welfare organizations, and individuals in­ volved in the task of burying bodies in 1938, im m ediately after the fall o f Nanjing. The conditions u n d e r w hich surveys w ere conducted for “Report o n the Enem y’s Crim es” include elem ents that make com prehension difficult. These are the reactions by the people be­ ing surveyed, w hich is described in the rep o rt as follows:

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Through the enem y’s tactics o f violent deception, the peace of mind o f the people has been destroyed. Thus, as this survey pro­ gresses, the number of people w ho report cases of murder of their own free will be very few, and in addition when members of the survey team visit people in their homes, the citizens’ mouths are closed like cicadas in winter and they say nothing. Or, there are those w ho deny the facts, and those who compromise their own honor and pretend to know nothing. Others have moved away and are no longer available, and there are still others o f whom it is not known whether they are alive or not and no way of locating them.

This situ atio n , according to th e rep o rt, necessitated “passing th ro u g h all m anner of untow ard difficulties in o rd er to conduct the survey.” Since this was alm ost a decade after the initial Japanese occupa­ tion of Nanjing, it is entirely understandable that som e people had left the city and their w hereabouts w ere unknow n. However, the m eaning o f the statem ent, “T hrough the enem y’s tactics o f violent deception, the peace o f m ind of the people has b een destroyed,” is baffling. The survey was conducted from Novem ber 1945 through February 1946. It had been three to four m onths since “the enemy,” the Japanese Army, had surrendered; the su rren d er cerem ony on the deck o f the USS M issouri had taken place 2 Septem ber. Japanese control in China had been eradicated, Jiang Jieshi’s Nationalist Gov­ ern m en t had retu rn ed to Nanjing from Chongqing, and the people w ho form ed Ja p an ’s p u p p e t governm ent u n d e r Wang Jing Wei had b een arrested and w ere facing trial. It was difficult to fathom the shadow of Japan still casting its influence over the Chinese people. Much less is it possible to imagine “the enem y’s tactics o f violent deception.” In the Chinese language, the concept of gram m atical tense is very weak. For that reason, it is not clear w h ether the “tactics of vio­ lent d eception” is in the past tense or the present. If the p resent was intended, that is, the tim e w hen the survey was being conducted,

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there was absolutely no such operation on the part of Japan, n o r any chance for Japan to exert such influence. If the past tense was m eant, then it w ould be com pletely unreasonable to expect any continuing influence after Jap an ’s surrender. Therefore, the phrase “the en ­ em y’s tactics o f violent deception” that begins the sentence is no m ore than an arbitrary em bellishm ent to the situation by those con­ ducting the survey. Among the citteens of Nanjing, recollection o f the Japanese Army’s rape and killing was n o t very fresh in the memory. It is understandable that the people surveyed w ere depressed, b u t it is difficult to accept that “their m ouths w ere closed like cicadas in w in­ te r” because of a threat from the Japanese. What, at that tim e, was there to fear from talking about the Japanese Army? Why did the p e o ­ ple deny the “facts” stated by the survey takers? “Their m ouths w ere closed like cicadas in w in ter” described a sit­ uation in which the people report alm ost nothing, and even w hen the survey takers pressed them w ith leading questions, the inter­ viewees answ er mainly w ith denials. It should be n o ted that w hen David Sutton, representing the Chinese, was reading the charges aloud at the IMTFE, he com ­ m ented, “I will om it the next paragraph,” and he elim inated the part containing “their m ouths w ere closed like cicadas in w inter.” Ad­ m itting that people w ere afraid to speak to the survey takers w ould have b een a very unconvincing claim to make in court (IMTFE re ­ cords, No. 4541). Next is the highly im portant num ber of bodies buried at Nanjing, which, at the Nanjing War Crimes Trial, involved the testim ony of a m an by the nam e of Lu Su. At the tim e of the w ar o f resistance, he was a m em ber of the police force. Postwar, w hen the Nanjing War Crimes Trial was in session, he was working for the Chinese governm ent. Ac­ cording to the statistics com piled in “R eport on the Enem y’s Crimes,” the total n um ber o f bodies buried in and around Nanjing following the battle was m ore than 160,000. Lu Su, in his testimony, stated that he personally witnessed the burial o f som e 57,000 b o d ­ ies. Adding these two figures together results in a total of 217,000. This is the n um ber of deaths that the court insisted h ap p en ed at Nanjing. The com pilers of “Report on the Enem y’s Crim es,” how ­ ever, decided to raise this to 279,586, apparently a random ly chosen num ber since there is no o th er w ritten basis for it. Then the Chinese judges in the Nanjing court ro u n d ed this u p to 300,000 people killed at Nanjing. Traditionally, Chinese officials are n otorious for their ran ­

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dom dealings w ith num bers in im portant m atters. Nanjing was one m ore example.

Doubts over the Number of Buried Victims It w ould be im possible to pu rsu e the details of every testim ony by or­ ganizations and individuals concerned w ith burial of the dead, or w itnesses to the mass m urders. As a representative exam ple, I should like to exam ine the records of the Red Swastika Society and the C hung Shan Tang. These two organizations pro d u ced detailed records o f the dates, times, and places of the burials and the num ber o f bodies they buried. There are also m any docum ents from the same period that lend credence to the activities o f these organizations. The Red Swastika Society disposed of som e 40,000 bodies; the C hung Shan Tang an­ n o unced that it had disposed of som e 110,000 bodies. Let us first ex­ am ine the Red Swastika Society. After the war, this organization subm itted a report, “Burial Re­ cords o f the World Red Swastika Society, Nanking Branch Relief G roup.” This is included in “Report on the Enem y’s Crim es” as an annexed statistical table. In there, it is recorded that the society b u r­ ied som e 40,000 bodies. This w ork agrees w ith Japanese-language sources in the num ber of bodies buried. At the IMTFE, am ong docu­ m ents n ot subm itted by counsel for the defense, was an article in the O saka A sahi Shim bun, N orth China edition (a special edition of the new spaper covering the situation in North China), of 16 April 1938. Also not subm itted was a report, now stored in the Liaoning Prov­ ince Records Office, that was issued by the Special Team of the Ja­ pan-ow ned South M anchuria Railway Com pany in late March 1938, covering the activities of that team in Nanjing. According to these two reports, the Red Swastika Society buried, w ithin the Nanjing city walls, 1793 bodies u p until m id March 1938. C oncerning the n um ber o f bodies buried outside the city walls, there is a slight discrepancy betw een the O saka Asahi Shim bun and South M anchuria Railway Com pany reports, but both show figures of plus or m inus 30,000. These two Japanese sources w ere trans­ lated into Chinese and are contained in The War o f Resistance againstJapan," Vol. II, No. 1, ed. Zhang Baifeng (Sichuan University Press, 1997). Com paring the figures in these two reports w ith those in the statem ent subm itted postw ar by the Red Swastika Society, the figure o f 1793 for bodies buried w ithin the city m atches exactly. In addi­ tion, the cost of these burials, as rep o rted in the O saka M ainichi

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Shim bun, N orth China edition, is recorded as approxim ately 11,000 yuan, with an additional supplem ent o f 8,000 yuan. The Shanghai of­ fice o f the South M anchuria Railway Company, Nanking Special Team, recorded the cost as 11,175 yuan and a supplem ent of 8,950 yuan. This agreem ent supports the validity o f the two reports, and also suggests the existence o f an original rep o rt on which these two reports w ere based, because the num bers of bodies stated are in close agreem ent, as are the am ounts o f the fees cited. T here is, however, a discrepancy concerning the records for b o d ­ ies buried outside the city walls. The rep o rt of the South M anchuria Railway Company, Nanking Special Team, states that up to 15 March 1938 the num ber of dead buried outside the city walls was 29,998. The postw ar rep o rt of the Red Swastika Society, however, shows the num ber o f dead buried up to the same 15 March as 35,097, an in­ crease of som e 5,000 bodies. C onsidering that the figures covering the num ber o f bodies buried within the city are in agreem ent, the ad­ ditional 5,000 bodies in the postw ar rep o rt is suspect of an arbitrary increase in the figures. Thus, taking 35,097 bodies buried from March 19 through O ctober 30, and adding 6,233, plus 1,793 buried w ithin the city, the total num ber o f bodies came to 43,071. (Actual calculation, 43,123 ) Xu Zhuanyin (Hsu Chuan Ying) testified at the IMTFE on the m orning o f 16 July 1946. (IMTFE records, pp. 2555ff). He stated that he earned a PhD from the University of Illinois, w here he was e d u ­ cated “w hen I was only thirteen years old.” He testified in English, though IMTFE w ritten records show his English to be som ew hat im ­ perfect, even broken at times. He identified him self as chief o f the Housing Com m ission of the International Com m ittee for the Nan­ king Safety Zone. After a description o f the dead bodies he w itnessed in the streets of Nanjing, he was asked how m any Chinese citizens w ere in the Safety Zone. His answ er m ore o r less corroborates w hat others have testified: “over two h u n d red thousand—com es pretty nearly to three h u n d red thousand people in the safety zone.” Xu also identified him self as vice-chairman of the Red Swastika Society, and testified in court u n d e r direct questioning that the soci­ ety had som e two h u n d red laborers w orking to bury the dead, and that they buried over 43,000 bodies, but “the n u m b er is really too small.” He follows this up by stating, “The reason is we are n o t al­ low ed to give a true n um ber o f the people we b u ried .” This statem ent was undoubtedly a suggestion that the Japanese Army was suppressing inform ation to conceal evidence o f a m assa­ cre that involved a larger num ber of bodies. The Japanese Army,

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however, never applied pressure on the Red Swastika Society. O n the contrary, the society and the Japanese military w orked closely with each other. The O saka Asahi Shim bun and the rep o rt by the South M anchuria Railway Company, Nanking Special Team, b o th rep o rted th at burials in Nanjing w ere carried out th rough co o p eratio n b e ­ tw een the Jap an ese side and the Self-Governm ent Com m ittee. There are o th er parts in the court testim ony of Xu Zhuanyin that contradict different evidence. Xu stated, for example, that all the bodies buried by the Red Swastika Society w ere noncom batants: “These are all civilians and n o t soldiers. We have nothing to do w ith soldiers” (IMTFE records, No. 2574.) This conflicts w ith Tim perley’s account in W hat War M eans, given below.* T here is no m ention of Xu’s testim ony in the IMTFE’s judgm ent. The judges apparently decided his testim ony was n o t reliable enough to consider. It should also be n o ted that even Xu, w ho ten d ed to exaggerate and w ho identified him self as chief o f the H ousing Com m ission in the International Com m ittee for the Nan­ king Safety Zone, testified that there w ere few er than 300,000 Chi­ nese in the Safety Zone at the time the capital fell (IMTFE records, Nos. 2559-61). The Red Swastika Society was a new religious order founded in China in 1922. It carried o u t extensive charity w ork th rough a na­ tionw ide netw ork. In 1924 the organization established relations w ith the Om oto-kyo sect o f Buddhism in Japan, and after the Man-

' Translator’s Note: Several points in Xu’s testimony cast doubt on his credibility. He stated in court: “I was educated in Nanking and in the University of Illinois when I was only thirteen years old.” (IMTFE records, Nos. 2557- 58). Yet when I examined his records from the University of Illinois, they show him attending when he was thirty years old. It could have been his accent that made “thirty” seem to be “thirteen,” but thirty would not logically warrant “when I was only.” Since he was not asked to repeat, we can see that the court personnel, including the monitors, all understood “thirteen.” He also left a record of suspicious answers regarding what he witnessed at the Russian Legation fire. He testified in vague terms that he saw Japanese soldiers pour kerosene on the Russian Legation and then set fire to it, after which the building was completely destroyed. The cross-examiner then countered, “But Mr. Witness, this Russian Legation was not burned. Are you dreaming in regard to this, or are you telling a lie?” Xu replied, “Well, I don’t know what you mean; the Russian Legation in Nanking not burned?" At this point, Tribunal President Webb cuts in: “Counsel must accept the witness’ answer" (Court Record, No. 2,589).

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churian Incident o f 1931, the society m oved into M anchuria and continued its charity w ork there. It was probably because o f this affinity w ith Japan that after the Japanese invasion o f Nanjing, w hen the Japanese set u p the Nanking Self-Government Com m ittee, they selected the m an in charge o f the Nanjing branch o f the Red Swastika Society, Tao Xishan, as chairm an of the com m ittee. This was reported o n page one in the Japa­ nese-ow ned Chinese-language new spaper, H sin Shen Pao, of 24 De­ cem ber 1937. It should be added that the w ork o f burying the dead carried o u t by the Red Swastika Society was done w ith the approval and financial su p p o rt of the Japanese authorities. Timperley makes no m ention o f the Red Swastika Society in W hat War M eans, b u t he writes, “Evidences from burials indicate that close to 40,000 u n ­ arm ed persons w ere killed within and near the walls of Nanking, of w hom som e 30 percent had never been soldiers” (W hat War Means, p. 59). In o th er words, according to Timperley, 70 percent w ere sol­ diers in hiding. Note also how this differs from the above-cited testi­ m ony of Xu Zhuanyin o f the Red Swastika Society at the IMTFE, w here he states that a ll the dead buried by Red Swastika w ere noncom batants. Regarding the restoration of stability in Nanjing after the occupa­ tion, Timperley records one o f his unidentified-foreigner sources stating in a letter w ritten 10 January 1938, ‘At last foreign diplom ats have been allowed to re-enter (this week), which seem s to indicate a desire for stabilization.” Timperley continues: “More than 10,000 unarm ed persons have been killed in cold blood.” He adds a footnote here stating, “This fig­ ure shows the caution of the observer in making this earlier estim ate, which should be com pared with the subsequent evidences from burials indicating 40,000. Cf. W hat War Means, Chap III, p. 59 ” Im m ediately after the Japanese Army occupied Nanjing, it issued reports stating that the n um ber of discarded bodies in the city n u m ­ bered m ore than 50,000, and this was reported on page one of H sin Shen Pao on 28 D ecem ber 1937. As show n in the preceding part, the rep o rt subm itted by the Red Swastika Society to the IMTFE has high credibility, though Xu him self was not a reliable person. Here, I should like to pursue the charge o f a Great Massacre in concrete term s, using the evidence in the rep o rt issued by the Red Swastika Society. The rep o rt on bodies buried by the society gives precise locality nam es and the num ber o f corpses, with a breakdow n in the burial locations and num bers o f bodies buried according to m en, w om en, and children. Also indicated are the dates and tim es of

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each burial. A nnotations indicate the places w here the bodies w ere gathered prior to burial and conditions at these collection locations. The listings of burial sites are separated into those w ithin the city walls and those outside. The sites w here the bodies w ere gathered and w here they w ere buried are som etim es different, but w ith few exceptions those discovered w ithin the city w ere buried w ithin the city, those discovered outside w ere buried outside. Bodies w ere som etim es in a state of decom position, and there are cases w here bodies discovered outside the city w ere buried just w here they w ere found. The total n um ber of bodies buried w ithin the city walls by the Red Swastika Society was, according to their records, 1793, strikingly less than those buried outside the city. Burial operations term inated the en d o f February 1938. The situation w ould logically indicate that the actual battle for Nanjing was not overly furious w ithin the city. In spite o f this, the judgm ent at the IMTFE read, “This orgy of crime started w ith the capture o f the City on the 13th D ecem ber 1937 and did n o t cease until early in February 1938. In this p eriod of six or seven weeks thousands of w om en w ere raped, upw ards of 100,000 people w ere killed and u n to ld property was stolen and b u rn ed ” (IMTFE records, p. 49,815). This clearly shows a contradiction be­ tw een the situation and the judgm ent. The total n u m b er of bodies recorded as buried outside the city was 41,183. The burial w ork continued until the en d of O ctober 1938. Checking against the daily records of the n um ber of bodies buried, and also the records of the collection areas and burial sites, we see that on 21 February, 5,000 bodies that w ere gathered at the Xiaguan Torpedo Brigade pier w ere decayed, and so w ere buried at that site. This figure of 5,000 is a prom inently large num ber in the record. Xiaguan is the outer harbor o f Nanjing facing the Yangzi River. Recent research has revealed that the Torpedo Brigade pier is w here the Japanese Army executed the som e 20,000 prisoners o f w ar who w ere being held at M ount Mufu, som e five to six kilom eters distant. It is reasonable to assum e that the large num ber o f bodies here came from this mass execution. In addition, on 26 February, the Red Swastika Society found 1902 bodies, and on March 1, another 1,364 bodies at M ount Mufu, which the society trucked to the Xiaguan area and buried. These bodies also are very likely those of the executed prisoners. Again, there w ere six body collection sites with a capacity o f be­ tw een one thousand and two thousand bodies each. Two of these

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sites w ere in the Xiaguan area; two w ere to the w est o f Xiaguan, at a locale by the Shangxinhe River facing the Yangzi River. O f the other sites, on e was outside the H anchon Gate, and another was outside the Peace Gate. There is on e burial and body collection report in the lists in w hich the location is not clear. This burial work was con ­ ducted on 28 D ecem ber 1937, at w hich time 6,466 b odies w ere in­ terred. According to Hora Tomio, the original burial records in the Nanking Archives Office sh ow the burial site to be in the Xiaguan area. There is a w hite paper affixed over the d ocum ent for som e u n ­ know n reason, perhaps to conceal the location nam e, but this is only a guess.

Anywhere one looks in the Xiaguan area one can expect to find bodies of soldiers w ho w ere taken prisoner and executed at M ount Mufu. The burial records of the Red Swastika Society show that a large n um ber o f the body-gathering sites outside the city are concen­ trated on the banks o f the Yangzi. This fact has been established from past research. It becom es clear, then, that we can consider these bodies representing POWs executed on the banks of the Yangzi; also, soldiers and refugees w ho tried to flee across the Yangzi and w ere shot by the Japanese Army in their attem pt; Chinese soldiers w ho w ere hiding in civilian clothes, ferreted out and executed on the banks o f the Yangzi; and finally, Chinese soldiers w ho died shooting each o th er in the attem pt to board rafts and boats to cross the Yangzi during the disorderly flight from Nanjing. This latter was largely rep resen ted by Chinese soldiers resentful o f their fellow soldiers w ho had gained access to a raft o r small boat, shooting from the riverbanks. There is one problem , however. The original burial records of the Red Swastika Society that w ere included in new research m ateri­ als m ade public by the Chinese governm ent list all the dead bodies collected in Nanjing at the time of the Japanese occupation as “in coffins.” At that time, however, there was a severe shortage of coffins in Nanjing. This claim is su p ported by the July 1938 edition o f “Re­ cords o f Activities” o f the Nanjing branch of the Red Cross and by a petition to the Public Affairs Office o f the Nanjing city governm ent for financial assistance, subm itted by the chairm an o f the Chang Sheng Zi Shan, a Chinese benevolent organization. The above-cited m aterials are included in “Records of the Nan­ king Slaughter.” The Red Swastika Society’s reports of its activities published postw ar stated that the num ber of bodies placed in coffins am ounted to around 1,000, and the rest w ere w rapped in reed mats and buried. Accordingly, it is impossible that 40,000 bodies w ere

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placed in coffins. This assertion simply does not m atch the condi­ tions at the tim e. Referring to the original docum ents, there is no way I can tell if the burial records subm itted to the w ar crim es trial at Nanjing w ere m istakenly w ritten different from the original docu­ m ents, b u t they are too slipshod to be considered conclusive evidence. Japanese com pilers of m aterials in later years m ust have realized this loose m anner o f reporting alleged facts and quietly rew ritten the parts in question. In 1985, H ora Tomio published (in Japanese) “D ocum ents of the International Military Tribunals.” In this publica­ tion, he included his translation from the Chinese of “World Red Swastika Society, Nanking Branch, Relief Party Burial Team Inter­ m ent Body C ount Records.” Here, he accurately translates “in cof­ fins,” but in his 1992 publication in Japanese, “Chinese Materials from the Nanking Incident,” in place of “in coffins,” he used the term for “the bodies w ere collected.” Next, I w ould like to address the C hung Shan Tang. We know from a variety of records that this organization did exist at the time in Nanjing and carried o u t the w ork of burying dead bodies. The p ro b ­ lem lies w ith the scale of its operations that, critical study reveals, does not surface in the m aterials of the time. C oncerning this ques­ tionable scale o f its activities, even the Massacre School, in one of its reference books, calls for “very p ru d en t evaluation” o f this organiza­ tio n ’s docum ents. As w e have already seen, the burial records of the C hung Shan Tang w ere core evidence in reaching a judgm ent on the Nanjing Inci­ den t at the Nanjing military w ar crim es trial. Let us take u p the issue of this organization’s burial records. The burial records subm itted by the C hung Shan Tang indicate the dates and tim es of the com m encem ent and term ination o f the burial work, b ut there was no listing of the precise num bers of days and tim es as was recorded by the Red Swastika Society. The burial unit of the C hung Shan Tang was split u p into four w ork parties, and each party kept its ow n records. The burial activities of this organiza­ tion w ere conducted from January through the end of April, working w ithin the city walls from January through March and only during the o ne m onth o f April they w orked outside the Nanjing city walls, to the southeast. The m ain regions they w orked w ere different from the banks o f the Yangzi River w here the Red Swastika Society operated. The records o f the C hung Shan Tang show that the num ber of bodies buried from January through March totaled 7,549 D uring the single m o n th o f April the n u m b er reco rd ed was fo u rteen tim es this

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am ount, a total o f 104,718. D uring this m onth of April, however, the num ber of w ork parties rem ained the same as before, four. Also, while the rep o rt listed the locations w here the bodies w ere col­ lected, generally the burial sites w ere listed m erely as “Near the city walls,” w ith the location rarely indicated. Especially to be n o ted is that all the listings outside the city walls indicated the burial sites as “W astelands and vegetable gardens in the vicinity,” with no local re ­ gional nam es indicated. C om pared with the burial records of the Red Swastika Society, those subm itted by the C hung Shan Tang are conspicuously defi­ cient. Is it really credible that the organization buried 110,000 b o d ­ ies? Going further, and at the risk o f sounding cynical, the portions in the new m aterials subm itted by the People’s Republic o f China deal­ ing with the C hung Shan Tang provide a decisive solution to the problem in that they show how the scale of this organization was ex­ trem ely small. Here is a concrete example. In February 1938, the C hung Shan Tang subm itted a bill from the chief of the organization’s burial unit, Zhou Yiyu, to the Nanking Self-Government C om m ittee for truck repairs in connection w ith the organization’s vehicular transportation of the dead bodies. This doc­ u m en t is preserved in the Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nan­ jing Massacre, which the People’s Republic o f China built on the outskirts o f Nanjing in 1985. It is a docum ent o f high interest in that it provides an understanding o f the scale of the C hung Shan Tang that does n o t appear in inform ation of the era. In this docum ent, the above-cited chief o f the burial unit wrote: In the almost one month since the burial unit was formed, our work load is often overwhelming. Yet w e suffer from a shortage of vehicles. Our organization is presently using a 1924 model. We are making emergency repairs ourselves, but w e especially request the following: 1.-A battery 2 .-Wrist pins (for pistons). 3 .-A clutch, and other parts.

This show s that the C hung Shan Tang had only one vehicle in its possession. The Red Swastika Society, two m onths later, in April 1938, requested paym ent from the Self-Government Com m ittee for gasoline for trucks used to transport dead bodies. In the text of the request the Red Swastika Society states that it used the society’s ow n funds to purchase 200 im perial gallons o f gasoline and this ftiel was soon used up. The Red Swastika Society was w orking outside the city during the m onth o f April, but its area of activities, judging from the burial

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P oint 1: The m aterials that form ed the basis o f the survey that took place te n years after the battle for Nanking are o f unidentified origin. It is im possible to determ ine the num ber of bodies ten years after the incident. The figures given are products of the imagination. P oint 2: The huge num bers of dead that resulted from the furi­ ous battle for N anking w ere n o t considered, and all the dead w ere attrib u ted to a m assacre; this is an error. As evidence for the p ro se ­ cution, it is know n that the Nanking population right after the battle was in the neighborhood of 200,000. P oint 3: The n u m b er o f bodies buried, as show n on the burial lists, vary greatly in dates, tim es and places. In the case of the C hung Shan Tang at the end of D ecem ber 1937, the average daily am ount of bodies disposed o f was 130, but from April 9 through 18, 1938, the organization lists 26,612 bodies buried, a sudden rise in daily aver­ age to 2,600 bodies. C om parison of the form er and latter figures in­ dicates this to be falsified exaggeration and unreliable evidence. The Red Swastika Society also produced records w ith contradictions. As one exam ple, their records show that in February 1938, they w orked for four consecutive days at the Torpedo Brigade at Xiaguan. During the first and second days the organization reported 524 and 197 bodies b uried respectively. O n the third day, however, the total shoots u p to 5,226. Even if we consider [a] fluctuation in the w ork force, this is an extrem ely illogical rise, prom pting the suspicion that the figures w ere arbitrarily inserted. P oint 4: The figures p resen ted by the C hung Shan Tang all show a rate contrived to arrive at a logical decrease in the n um ber o f b o d ­ ies from m ale, female and children. The figures o f the Red Swastika Society, however, do n ot identify any of the bodies as female o r chil­ dren, which w ere actually very small in num ber. Since it w ould n o r­ mally be unusual for w om en and children to be at a w ar front, the figures show n by the C hung Shan Tang can be considered fabrica­ tions do n e in later years. The above doubtful records are probably reflected in the court decisions. The judgm ent at IMTFE differs from that of the Nanjing trial, which recognizes 300,000 victims at Nanjing. The records of the Tokyo War Crimes Trial show a lesser num ber accepted by the court, o f “m ore than 100,000 killed.” There is no reason given why the IMTFE “bargained dow n” the 300,000 figure of the Nanjing tribu­ nal to this 100,000. The IMTFE defense counsel concluded that the figures given by the C hung Shan Tang w ere exaggerated, slipshod, and contrived. It

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also sees problem s w ith the figures given by the Red Swastika Soci­ ety, w hich I consider reliable. As a m atter of fact, the burial figures of the Red Swastika Society do raise the suspicion that they w ere in­ flated to som e degree. However, considering this from the probability of the reports from the previously studied body collection sites and their agree­ m ent w ith o th er docum ents of the time, I regard the Red Swastika Society’s records with a higher degree of credibility than those o f the C hung Shan Tang.

2. An Investigation of the Smythe Survey Background and Credibility of the Survey The Smythe Survey is an indispensable source for any study of the death toll at Nanjing. The cover of this w ork reads: “War D am age in th e N a n k in g Area, D ecem ber 1937 to M arch 1938: Urban a n d R u ­ ra l Surveys, by Dr. Lewis S.C. Smythe (Professor of Sociology, Uni­ versity o f Nanking) and Assistants, o n beh alf o f the N anking In te rn atio n a l Relief Com m ittee. C om pleted June 1938” (Shanghai: M ercury Press, 1938). The book was published in the original Eng­ lish in both Shanghai and Nanjing; the Shanghai and Nanjing edi­ tions have slightly different layout b ut the contents are identical. H ora Tomio included the entire survey in Japanese translation in his A Collection o f English-Language References. The Nanking Interna­ tional Relief Com m ittee, on w hose behalf the Nanjing edition was published, was the successor organization to the International Safety Zone Com m ittee. The author, Dr. Smythe, was a professor at the m is­ sionary-affiliated University of Nanking. As secretary of the Nanking Safety Zone Com m ittee, he w orked closely with the Germ an, Jo h n Rabe, and others, in protecting the Chinese refugees from the war. Smythe had a large num ber o f Chinese assistants w orking in the field, and after the battle for Nanjing, from March through June 1938, he conducted a sam pling survey in Nanjing and in six prefec­ tures (xian) outside the city on the damages inflicted by the war. The results w ere published imm ediately after the survey was com pleted. As pointed o ut earlier, Smythe was com m issioned to conduct and publish his survey by H arold Timperley, consultant to the GMD’s China Inform ation Com m ittee. The short tim e betw een com pletion o f the survey and the p u b ­ lishing of the Shanghai and Nanjing editions displays the high level

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of planning and preparation behind this project, and shows how the GMD’s China Inform ation Com m ittee was w orking in the back­ g round to m ove it ahead. But regardless o f any political background to the report, Smythe was a sociologist and a college professor in sociology. He w ould have b een pressed to conduct his survey w ith professional standards if even just to up h o ld his pride as a sociologist and professor. Let us ex­ am ine his m ethods. Sm ythe’s survey describes the w ar damages as p art of a family survey in term s o f hum an loss and property losses u n d e r several headings. His survey w ithin the city contained five items, one of which was “Deaths and Injuries due to Hostilities,” and covered 9 March through 2 April, w ith supplem entary surveys 19 through 23 April. The family survey was conducted by selecting one hom e out of every fifty, chosen by the house address num ber. Surveys covered the num ber of family m em bers, deaths and injuries from war, em ploy­ m ent and earnings, type of work, and o th er data. The findings were th en m ultiplied by fifty and the calculated results show ed the total num ber of civilian family m em bers killed as 2,400. Smythe deter­ m ined the pop u latio n of Nanjing during the survey period to be 221,150. In an o th er o f Sm ythe’s surveys conducted in a different m anner b u t on the sam e principle in six rural prefectures nearby the city, the conclusion was that close to 30,000 people w ere killed due to hostil­ ities. Let us first exam ine the city survey. This part of Sm ythe’s survey was taken u p and qu o ted by the Massacre School as a parenthetical statem ent that Sm ythe’s conclusion that 2,400 people w ere killed w ithin the city was an un d erstatem en t. H ora Tomio, in his “Explan­ atory N otes” to English-Language M aterials w rote the following com m ent: An estimate o f the total number of victims based on this kind of sampling survey w ould be extremely rough.... I believe it can be generally stated that neither the calculated number o f victims based on the special statistical survey of inhabit­ ants o f Nanjing at the time by the Nanking International Relief Committee, nor the note in that survey by Professor Smythe, the person in charge o f the survey, giving another calculation, are reli­ able. .. .The prosecution at the IMTFE did not submit this survey as evidence, perhaps because they did not consider it had worth as material evidence. This report o f course has advantageous points to the defendants, yet the defense counsel also did not submit the

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Smythe Survey as documentary evidence. This was probably be­ cause even the defense counsel looked upon the figures expressed there with doubt.

I should like to exam ine the doubtful points that w ere raised. Prior to conducting the survey in question, Smythe, as a professional academ ic sociologist, had conducted surveys o n flood dam ages in the districts surrounding Nanjing. The forew ord to Sm ythe’s survey contains a com m ent by M iner Bates, professor of history at Nanking University, as follows: The International Committee which authorised these surveys had within its membership a trained sociologist, Dr. Lewis S.C. Smythe Professor o f Sociology at the University o f Nanking, who not only had general experience in survey methods, but also had taken a re­ sponsible part in two earlier surveys o f calamities in this region. These inquiries were: the Economic Survey made on behalf o f the National Flood Relief Commission by the Department o f Agricul­ tural Economics o f the College o f Agriculture and Forestry o f the University o f Nanking (report published by Professor J. Lossing Buck, Director, under the title “The 1931 Flood in China”); and the survey o f the rural Areas Affected by the Shanghai Hostilities (1932), made at the request of the Minister o f Finance by the same Department of Agricultural Economics (unpublished)....The ac­ complishment o f the present surveys is largely dependent upon the unusual abilities and energies o f Dr. Smythe, even though he has not been able to give full time to them while acting both as Treasurer and Secretary of the International Committee.

The Great Massacre School quotes from the writings and re­ corded w ords of Bates, and surely he is one of the m ost reliable w it­ nesses at Nanjing. How do the adherents to that view point look u p o n the com m ents of Bates concerning Sm ythe’s ability? They clearly quote the parts in Smythe that su p p o rt their agenda and ig­ nore the parts that do not. The Smythe Survey is the product o f a sociologist with rich expe­ rience in conducting surveys in his region of China. But this was also a w ork that was com piled with the GMD’s aims of creating p ro p a ­ ganda against the Japanese military. C onsidering the w ork from this angle— that Smythe was in the em ploy of the propaganda arm of the GMD governm ent—the motive em erges for Smythe to expand on the actual scale of victimization. It is un d ersto o d that deaths am ong the civilian population not related to battle casualties are on the scale o f 2,400 victims, as Smythe calculated. This represents a severe num ber o f victims.

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Smythe him self w rites that he felt the calculated num ber, that is, the results from his survey, was less th an the actual toll, and, based on burial records, he en tered his estim ated figures o f civilian, noncom ­ batant deaths as 12,000 persons. This can also be seen as conjecture on the part o f the GMD’s China Inform ation C om m ittee in o rd er to further their agenda. It m ight be n o ted that this casualty figure of 12,000 is the same figure as that in the previously cited Timperley book, and both in­ stances of its appearance seem to have a com m on source. After this, Smythe appeared in the postw ar Nanjing Military Tri­ bunal and, according to court records, he took the oath and subm it­ ted his survey to the tribunal (cited in China-Related D ocum ents on the N a n kin g Incident, p. 308.) The judgm ent of the Nanjing tribu­ nal, while m aking a claim on the one hand that 300,000 p eo p le p e r­ ished in the Nanjing Incident, also sees the judges at Nanjing as either unaw are o f o r unconcerned with the fact that Sm ythe’s survey contradicts their judgm ent of a massive slaughter of as m any as 300,000 lives. W hatever the case, the judgm ent displays a case o f ex­ trem e slackness in court procedure. Next, I should like to look into the reason why the Smythe Survey was n o t taken into consideration at the IMTFE. The reason was n o t because the survey lacked credibility as evidence, b ut rather because the issue at court was n o t the n um ber of people killed in Nanjing, b u t w h eth er General Matsui Iwane, as com m ander in chief o f the C entral China Area Army, was o r was n o t guilty o f failure to control the actions o f his troops. The judgm ent against Matsui is cov­ ered earlier in this book, and was based on the charge that he was in com m and of the army and did n o t control his troops. For this, he was found guilty o f “Disregard o f duty to secure observance o f and p re ­ vent breaches of laws o f w ar.” As is clear in the w ording of the judgm ent, even though the IMTFE did n o t claim 300,000 victims b ut had p resented 2,4000 as in the “Smythe R eport,” it was the question of M atsui’s responsibility to control his troops that was u n d e r investigation. N either the defense n o r the prosecution subm itted Sm ythe’s survey as evidence because the n u m b er o f victims was n o t the issue. The results of Sm ythe’s survey on hum an deaths and injuries in Nanjing have b e e n finely analyzed statistically. Professor Niwa Haruki o f Osaka Gakuin University School of Economics published a m ag­ azine article titled “Searching for Facts to U nderstand the Smythe Survey—The Fabrication of the Great Nanking M assacre” (Jiyu m ag­ azine, April 2001, published by Jiyusha). In his article, Niwa focuses

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on the fact that the Smythe survey show s that 44.3 percent o f adult m ale victims w ere unmarried and living alone, an unreasonably high percentage. This p h en om en on can be explained by the fact that many youngsters w ere taken prisoners as suspects o f being plain­ clothes soldiers, and executed, and am ong them there w ere natu­ rally a num ber o f single and living-alone males.

Professor Niwa, however, analyzes an o th er survey by Smythe conducted during tim es of peace, in the spring of 1932, in which Smythe estim ates the percentage of “single and living-alone m ales” o f the entire male population of Nanjing to be 5.2 percent. The results that a sudden rise in a short tim e of single and liv­ ing-alone males discovered am ong m ore than 2,500 dead noncom ­ batants leads us to the conclusion that these victims w ere not all people w ho had been living in Nanjing previously, b ut that large num bers o f them included plain-clothes soldiers. O f course, this fig­ ure of 5.2 percent males single o r living alone is against the total male population. Subtracting m inor males from this total male p o p ­ ulation w ould produce a figure som ew hat higher than 5.2 percent. Even in this case, however, Professor Niwa reasons that 44.3 per­ cent w ou ld be far ou t o f line with logic. In this book, m ore details o f N iw a’s statistical analysis had to be edited out for reasons o f space, but as a n ew argument on Smythe’s survey Niwa’s article deserves se ­ rious attention.

Niwa’s study did not analyze Sm ythe’s survey conducted in the six prefectures surrounding Nanjing. I shall take these u p now.

Distorted Claims in the Survey Sm ythe’s survey covering the six prefectures outside the Nanjing walls raises no objections from the Massacre School over the m eth­ ods he used, in contrast to the objections this school raised w ith his city survey. This is in spite o f the fact that both w ere the same type of sam pling survey. The results show ed that civilian deaths in the rural areas am ounted to slightly u n d e r 30,000, and probably raised no ob­ jection because this satisfies the desire to find agreem ent w ith a massacre. W hen I read the Smythe Survey, my first reaction was to w o n d er why there was such a large num ber of deaths. The rural regions that Smythe covered in his survey are indicated on m aps appended to the survey, and cover an extensive area. M easuring according to the dis­ tance scales on the m aps, the survey covered an area 140 kilom eters north-to-south and 90 kilom eters east-to-west. C om pared with the area o f the city of Nanjing, which is roughly eight kilom eters north-

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to-south and eight kilom eters east-to-west, the rural survey area was tw o h u n d red tim es as large. The History D epartm ent o f the Japan Self Defense Agency p u b ­ lished a history of the Sino-Japanese War titled The L a n d War in the Sino-Japanese War (Tokyo: Asagumo Shim bunsha, 1975). Volume 1 covers u p to January 1938. According to this study, w hen the w ar was being conducted in the areas outside the city in m id D ecem ber 1937, the Japanese Army concentrated on pushing westward. In prepara­ tion for the attack on Nanjing, the troops w ere divided into three at­ tack forces, and each of these was further split into attack units, each taking a different ro u te tow ard the city. Then, two units drove o n to ­ w ard Nanjing traveling upstream along the left and right banks o f the Yangzi River adjacent to the three m ajor thrust routes. W hen the m aps of this battle plan are m atched w ith the m aps in the Smythe Survey that show the regions his rural survey covered, they do not m atch very closely. It w ould have b een possible for the residents in the battle zones to have fled. The Japanese Army was fighting in this region for about one w eek in their rapid drive o n Nanjing. Rather than enveloping the p eo p le in the war, the Japanese soldiers w ere m ore probably fired u p in the rush to take Nanjing. Also, the advance units w ere not fanned o u t or deployed in o p en form ation, and num erous regions w ere far distant from the Japanese spearhead. And it can be assum ed that in these rural regions two h u n d red times the land area of Nanjing itself, the Chinese inhabitants had the chance to take refuge in rem ote places in the region. The residential situation in the p re­ fectures was far different from that in Nanjing, w here large num bers of citizens living w ithin closed gates suddenly w ere confronted with large num bers of occupying troops. And, because it was a vast land area, it is difficult to imagine large-scale killings erupting here, as w ould be reasonable in a lim ited, high-population-density region. H ere is how the Smythe Survey was conducted in the rural areas. Two survey team m em bers w ere sent into each o f the six prefectures. The survey was conducted for fifteen days, from 8 through 23 April 1938. The survey team m em bers m oved along the sides o f the m ain roads, th en retu rn ed in a zigzag pattern. O n the retu rn they chose one village o u t of every three they encountered, and chose one fam­ ily o u t o f every ten in that village for the survey. This rural survey, in a land area two h u n d red tim es greater than the urban area, was conducted in one half the tim e of the city survey. And, as far as can be discerned from the contents, the entire survey team consisted of twelve m em bers. Further, the survey was con­

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ducted as planned in four of the prefectures and the so uthern half of another. In the rem aining prefecture-and-a-half, however, the areas w ere u n d e r the political influence o f the GMD governm ent. Lowranking officials in these areas, however, are village-born landlords and enjoy autonom y free from GMD controls, and tend to keep o u t­ siders out. These officials knew nothing o f these survey operations and w hen they com m enced, the officials intervened and prevented the survey from being carried out properly. C om pared w ith the sur­ vey in the lim ited area of the enclosed city, with twice the tim e spent as in the rural survey and with no serious obstacles, the rural survey was extrem ely rough, with the unavoidable consequences that the results w ere unreliable. In addition, the data in the rural survey w ere processed in a different m anner from the urban survey. The urban survey was conducted by selecting one family o u t of every fifty and m ultiplying the results by fifty to calculate the general situation. This is a reasonable and understandable m ethod. The rural survey, how ­ ever, used a m ethod in which one village out o f three was selected and one of every ten families in that village was selected for the sur­ vey. The tabulated figures were m ultiplied by thirty and the figures arrived at w ere interpreted as the results for that lim ited region. The tabulations for the rural survey, however, w ere different. As Smythe shows in Item 3, “Tabulations o f the Survey,” in the introduc­ tion to his survey, he m ultiplied the average dam ages to each sur­ veyed family in its ow n region of the prefecture by all the families in five prefectures. These figures for the total num bers of families in each prefecture w ere taken from the previously cited peacetim e sur­ vey, “Land Utilization in China,” by Buck. The total n um ber of families for each prefecture is show n in ap­ p e n d e d Table 17, b ut the total households for five xian is 186,000. With this kind of calculation, households that received absolutely no dam age from the w ar w ere calculated in w ith those that did, yield­ ing, as a result, a highly expanded total. This is a statistical m anipula­ tion to raise the apparent level of personal w ar damages. Then, as if to im press people w ith these expanded survey results, the Smythe Survey contains the following: Deaths by Violence The total deaths reported were 31,000 or 29 per 1,000 residents for the 100 days covered, at the rate of 106 per annum. Compare the normal death rate for China o f 27 per annum. 87 per cent of the deaths were caused by violence, most o f them the intentional acts o f soldiers. One was killed in every seven families, equivalent to a total o f som e 1,700,000 killings if the same rate were applied to the

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rural families o f the United States; over 8,000,000 among the farm families in China; perhaps 800,000 among the strictly defined farm families o f Japan proper.

T here is, however, m ore to Sm ythe’s survey. He disguises his writings w ith a cloak of neutrality for anti-Japanese aims. O f course, this is to be expected in a project done u n d e r com m ission o f the GMD’s in te rn a tio n a l p ro p ag a n d a arm , th e C hina In form ation Committee. Kasahara Tokushi agrees w ith all the results of the Smythe Survey. According to him, claims that these areas that w ere the subject o f sur­ vey w ere exposed to the Japanese Army units in their fevered rush to attack Nanjing, and w ere in the path o f the assault waves o n the city. Then after the city was occupied, these same rural areas w ere in the Japanese Army’s zone of m opping-up operations in their search for hiding Chinese soldiers, m aking the rural regions a two-time victim o f the Japanese Army. From 1988 through 1995, the six prefectures that w ere the sub­ jects o f the rural survey published a w ork titled X ian Z h i (Xian Jo u r­ nal) , w ith the survey results of damages listed by each xian. Kasahara q u o ted this inform ation in his ow n w ork published in Japan in an at­ tem pt to su p p o rt his claim that as m any as 30,000 people w ere killed in the rural areas alone: N a n k in jik e n w o do m iru ka? (How do you view the Nanking Incident?), ed. Fujiwara Akira (Tokyo: Aoki Shoten, 1998). Now that w e see how Smythe used a statistical trick in the tab­ ulations o f his rural survey, however, it is necessary to reexam ine the data to ascertain the real extent of hum an victims.

One Japanese who Revealed the Real Meaning of the Smythe Survey Regarding the Smythe Survey, there is a valuable rep o rt from a Japa­ nese view point at the time of the war. The following quotes are from a rep o rt com piled in July 1940, during the Sino-Japanese War, the shorthand records o f which w ere rep o rted in the m inutes o f the sur­ veillance session held in the political section of the Ministry for C on­ structing New Asia (Koa-in seim u-bu), which is explained below. This is a rep o rt by Yoshida Saburo titled “Cultural Facilities o f Third C ountry Nationals in China.” This rep o rt m entions Tim perley’s W hat War M eans, and is a valuable research m aterial in that it shows how Tim perley’s book was treated at the tim e of the Sino-Japanese

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War. As I have m entioned often, Tim perley’s book becam e very strong evidence in the postw ar w ar crimes tribunal in Nanjing. The group conducting the survey was m ade u p o f all Japanese participants, w ho gave their findings in their ow n fields of specialty, covering Chinese thought, education, religion, and scholarship. Af­ ter Yoshida m ade his presentation, Iwam ura Shinobu, a scholar of Asian history, presented his ow n findings u n d e r the same them e as Yoshida but from a different viewpoint. Toyo Bunko, a branch o f the National Library of Japan, in Tokyo, holds the shorthand records of the survey group. I p resent an overview here. The Japanese prim e m inister’s cabinet established the Koa-in seim u-bu in D ecem ber 1938, w ith the prim e m inister at the time, Konoe Fumimaro, presiding, and with the organization headed by four m inisters u n d e r him. These w ere the m inisters of the Foreign Office, Finance, Army, and Navy. The organization conducted Chinarelated governm ental, economic, and cultural affairs; it did n o t e n ­ gage in diplomacy. In 1942, the newly form ed Great East Asia Minis­ try absorbed the organization and its activities w ere term inated. Yoshida Saburo was b orn in 1908. In 1940 he was conducting re­ search and studying as a m em ber of the Citizens Spiritual and Cul­ tural Research C enter (Kokumin seishin kenkyu kai), w hich was established in 1932 u n d e r direct jurisdiction o f the Japan Ministry of Education. Yoshida w rote m any reports on the various cultural and intelligence strategies conducted by foreign countries. The “third country nationals” m entioned in the title of the rep o rt are people o th er than Chinese and Japanese who w ere involved in the events o f the time. Yoshida w ent to Shanghai to conduct the survey and through the Japanese YMCA he m et a Mrs. Milliken of the Presbyte­ rian Church. He received a letter of introduction from h er to M iner Searle Bates in Nanjing, and proceeded to that city. From Bates, he learned o f the relief w ork going o n in Nanjing and at the sam e time Bates gave him a copy of Smythe’s survey as reference m aterial. Ac­ cording to Yoshida’s report, I received this material at the time, which consisted o f various sta­ tistical researches and war related field research. This type o f mate­ rial is distributed world wide to raise funds. Among these statistics were included researches on agricultural products in the Nanking region, and on population surveys in the Nanking region. These works are held up as scientific surveys and create an impression through statistics throughout the world that Japan is doing hideous things. But if one looks closely, the scientific aspect cloaks anti-Jap-

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anese propaganda. As an example of what they are doing, when they formulate sta­ tistics on damages in the Nanking area, these are itemized by war damages directly related to war, damages from fires, and damages from looting byjapanese soldiers. With fire damages, the survey in­ cludes damages from fires set by the fleeing Chinese troops in with the total. The figures are exacting, but this makes it look as if all the damage from fire was the fault o f the Japanese Army. In this way, this clever tactic o f what w e could call scientific warfare spreads through the world, and is seen as fact. Since Dr. Bates knew that I am a friend o f Mrs. Millikin he gave me this material without hesita­ tion. At that time, he told me, “This book [Smythe’s survey] deals only with the problems in the region of Nanking, but there is an­ other book you Japanese should definitely read, as it is something that is happening all over China.” The book was W hat W ar M eans by M anchester G uardian journalist Timperley which tells o f the degree o f damages in this war throughout China. I obtained this anti-Japanese material in Shanghai in the British Concession. If one goes to the other side o f Soochow Creek [i.e., the Foreign Conces­ sions, separated from the main part of Shanghai by the Garden Bridge] the shops sell anti-Japanese literature, and also Soviet-re­ lated material. In the areas under the Japanese Land Combat Corps, the battle at Changsha is reported going very well, but as soon as one crosses over Garden Bridge, one can see numerous written materials about Japanese defeats and massive retreats. I obtained this book from Kelly and Walsh, a publisher and bookshop chain that was ap­ parently also doing business in Japan before Maruzen established its chain. In this book, W hat W ar M eans, is the account of the “Mur­ der Race” which drew its material from a Japanese newspaper. It tells of the exploits of a certain sub-lieutenant and was included in this book just as it was in the Japanese [English-language] newspa­ per. Journalists edit materials such as this which are disadvanta­ geous to Japan and this book is the result. Anti-Japanese literature such as this is widely read among foreigners. When I returned to Shanghai and spoke about this with Mrs. Milliken, she was startled and said, “That’s not a good book. It was written dramatically, thus if historians discuss it just as it is, it will be a problem. You people are historians, so you should see things more objectively. That is only one historical resource, but if som e­ one takes that as all the material on the subject, it will be a prob­ lem .” In this book it states that certain members among Japanese authorities support the publishing of it. If they did, it would be a problem. That statement is probably a lie. The book states that all proceeds from sales will go to the Red Cross. This was cleverly

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done. Books o f this type will be read in large numbers, so this pres­ ents a serious problem. Mrs. Milliken told me that Japanese leftwing people often com e to her seeking permission to translate this book into Japanese.”

The above quote by Yoshida Saburo is rather long, b ut com ing from a Japanese observer o f the time it is a valuable view concerning the writings o f Timperley and Smythe. The “M urder Race” m en tio n ed in the quote is one elem ent of the Great Massacre, b u t w ho at the time could have im agined the scale that the claims w ould take in the com ­ ing years?

3. The Roots of “A Massacre of 300,000 Victims” The Origin of the 300,000 Figure C oncerning the num ber of dead in Nanjing during the Japanese oc­ cupation, there are the two sources described below. O ne is the claim that was m ade post-W orld War II for the large n um ber o f Chinese killed in Nanjing based mainly on the records p resented for the num ber o f bodies buried. The o th er source is re ­ cords of burials based on surveys conducted and publicly released just after the battle for Nanjing. Both these sources, which claim to show the facts as they took place betw een D ecem ber 1937 and March 1938, disagree w ith each other; which, if either, can be believed? At the IMTFE, the defense voiced objections to the burial records of the previously cited Buddhist organizations, w hich w ere the basis for the GMD’s claim for the large num ber of persons killed. I believe this was the reason the judgm ent of the IMTFE decreased the n u m ­ ber o f dead to one-third the num ber claimed in the judgm ent at the Nanjing w ar crimes tribunal. In this present w ork also, I raise som e new points of d o u b t concerning these, and I leave it to the reader to act as the jury and decide. The figure o f m ore than 300,000 victims at Nanjing, which was p resen ted at the Nanjing tribunal, does not m atch the situation at the tim e as gleaned from a variety o f docum ents and inform ation. To p u t it bluntly, if one starts with the assum ption that there w ere defi­ nitely 300,000 victims and th en looks for evidence to back this up, it could lead to a conclusion that there w ere indeed 300,000 victims. The claim for a “Great Massacre of 300,000 victims” was already planned during the w ar as a highlight in the projected trial in which

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to bring claims against Japanese w ar criminals. In o rd er to validate the statem ent that the claim involved a falsified process, it is neces­ sary to exam ine the records of m eetings o f the GMD during and after the war. If these records w ere preserved in Taiwan, they w ould give us a chance to shed light on w h eth er o r n o t the 300,000 claim was based on false inform ation. Declassification is now realized in princi­ ple in Taiwan, and records dating back m ore than fifty years are now o p e n to the public. If, however, the records of those m eetings w ere stored w ith the huge quantity o f records in the archives of the Second National Ar­ chives Office in Nanjing, it w ould be a barrier to gaining access to them . Revealing the content of the records w ould severely shake the reliability o f the diplom acy card that the People’s Republic of China plays against Japan. The Second National Archives Office extends perm ission to view docum ents in its possession only to those who, according to the decision o f the Suprem e CCfi already agree to the existence of a large-scale massacre. We shall p u t aside for now the argum ent o f how a G reat Massacre o f 300,000 p ersons came into existence in the GMD, but it is difficult to imagine a figure of 300,000 suddenly and arbitrarily appearing in a GMD m eeting. The num ber m ust not have b e e n a random choice; it m ust have had som e origin. The Zhong Yang Tong Xun She (Chung Yang T’ung Hsiin She), a new s agency established u n d e r direct jurisdiction of the GMD, re­ leased reports that aim ed to raise the fighting spirit of the Chinese. N othing in this agency’s reports at the tim e m entions victims of war in Nanjing or a death toll o f 300,000 persons. The agency reported that, according to hearsay from foreigners at the resort tow n o f Guling at the top o f M ount Lushan, 5,000 m en u n d e r the age o f forty w ere killed in the International Settlem ent. Also, people w ho fled Nanjing told o f 80,000 persons killed, and this was rep o rted by the agency. These news reports are contained in Reference M aterials o f the R evolution, No. 109, u n d e r the title “Various News Reports and Social Com m entary following the Fall of Nanking.” In The Chinese Yearbook for the year 1939 I found an article that m ight be considered to be the origin of the 300,000-victims claim. A clue came in a criticism of censorship by Japan o f an international ca­ ble, and the item that was censored was the article that Timperley had attem pted to send. In his Forew ord to W hat War Means, Tim per­ ley inferred that the article he attem pted to cable to England was re­ fused several tim es by the Japanese authorities, but the actual date o r

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dates w ere not identified. The cable refusal, seen from the Japanese side, was published in the North China D aily New s of 21 January 1938; details are given in C hapter 1 of this book, w ith details qu o ted from the beginning o f the actual article in question. According to The Chinese Yearbook, the Japanese authorities refused transm ission of Tim perley’s article on 16 January. And in the refused cable was the passage, “Some 300,000 Chinese civilians had been slaughtered by Japanese in the Yangtze delta area” (The Chinese Yearbook, 1938-39, p. 295). The article giving the account of the refusal o f the cable w ent through Reuters and two days later, on 18 January, it appeared in the H u n a n C hungyangjihpao, a new spaper u n d e r direct jurisdiction of the GMD. The content of the article that the Japanese refused to transm it was carried in the Chungyang Jihpao and contained this passage: “In one region o f Kinhu [an area stretching betw een the Nanjing and Shanghai regions] the n um ber o f Chinese m assacred reached 300,000” {Reference M aterials o f the Revolution, No. 108, p. 560). Also, the 31 January edition o f the H a n k 'o u Takungpao car­ ried an article that contained the passage “According to the rep o rt by British Journalist Timperley, the enem y killed a m inim um o f 300,000 civilians o n the line of advance from Shanghai to Nanking” {Refer­ ence M aterials o f the Revolution, No. 109, p. 224). Let us consider the m utual relationship and the results generated by the above-cited reports. Near the beginning of Chapter 1 o f W hat War M eans, w ithout in­ dicating any sources o r grounds, Timperley m akes the statem ent, “At least 300,000 Chinese military casualties for the Central China cam­ paign alone and a like n um ber of civilian casualties w ere suffered.” The Chinese governm ent, however, quoted from Tim perley’s tele­ gram of 16 January (the one that was stopped by the Japanese cable office) in which he stated that “approxim ately 300,000 civilians w ere slaughtered in the region o f the Yangtze delta.” This is a different m eaning from Tim perley’s statem ent in W hat War M eans. O n 17 D e­ cem ber 1937, four days after the fall of Nanjing, Jiang Jieshi, in the tem porary capital of Hankou, announced, “O ur arm ies have re ­ treated from Nanking.” In this same speech he also claimed that the Chinese Army had suffered a total of 300,000 dead and w ou n d ed since the w ar of resistance began against the Japanese in July 1937, and he urged the Chinese to greater action. (Source: Article in H sin ShenPao, 18 D ecem ber 1937, telegraphed from the H ankou office of Reuters, carried in a section titled “Dashiji” in H istory o f China's War o f Resistance against Japan, w ith Maps, Wu Yuexin, chief editor,

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published in 1995). For that reason, the beginning p art o f Timperley’s statem ent in W hat War M eans, “At least 300,000 Chinese m ilitary casualties for the C entral China cam paign alone” can be seen as a being based on Jiang Jieshi’s statem ent. Jiang, though, m ade no m ention o f civilian casualties. The second part o f the statem ent, however, “and a like num ber o f civilian casualties,” has absolutely no basis. This was m erely Tim perley’s dram atization. Tim perley’s 16 January article was similar in content to his later statem ent at the beginning of W hat War M eans. That is, he first fixed the area of w ar dam age to be the vast Central China zone, then, w ith­ o u t indicating any grounds, added a casual com m ent, “and a like n um ber of civilian casualties,” based simply on the huge n um ber of military casualties. Through these m anipulations o f the data he ex­ p an d ed the cruelty of the Japanese Army’s invasion. After this, w hen Tim perley tried sending an o th er article, on 21 January, he u n d o u b t­ edly m ade the attem pt know ing it too w ould be refused. Thus, Tim perley shined a spotlight o n the content of his messages through a p ro test against the control o f news flow. Timperley, an experienced journalist w riting for a “com m on sense” readership in England, in his 16 January article, which was refused transm ission, identified the area that received war damages as being lim ited to the Yangzi delta, a term w hich contains an overlapping o f the Shanghai and Nanjing re­ gions. And in this zone, “at least 300,000 Chinese w ere slaughtered.” It is difficult to believe that Timperley w ould actually attem pt to send such inform ation, and it w ould be understandable that his message was refused for reasons of exaggeration. The M ainichi Shim bun o f 22 D ecem ber 2002, on page 3, re ­ p o rte d that the reference room of the Victoria University of M anches­ ter had a copy of Tim perley’s article o f 16 January 1938. This article clearly contained the w ords, “Some 300,000 Chinese civilians had b e e n slaughtered by Japanese in the Yangtze delta area.” Following this, the N orth China D aily N ew s of 21 January 1938 carried a letter to the new spaper by Timperley him self in which he objects to a change in term s applied by the editorial staff of the same new spaper in a colum n of 18 January that rep o rted on Tim perley’s attem pted cable transm ission of 16 January, and quoted from the same. In his letter, Timperley points o u t that his original rep o rt stated, ‘A survey by one c om petent foreign observer indicates that in the Yangtze delta no less than 300,000 Chinese civilians have been slaughtered— in m any cases in cold blood.” The purp o se o f Tim-

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perley’s letter to the new spaper was to object to the rew ording of this p o rtion into, “300,000 Chinese civilians had been executed fol­ lowing Japanese occupation in Shanghai-Nanking area.” Tim perley’s objection was based on the fact that “executed” carries the m eaning of killing after complying w ith due process, and implies resistance against the Japanese Army by those executed, preced ed by som e form of investigation or trial after they w ere captured, while his origi­ nal w ording leaves no d o u b t as to the m assacre quality of the killing, and m akes the charge for w ar crimes. I believe that the editorial staff o f the N orth China D aily New s viewed “a survey by one com petent foreign observer” as thin grounds for a claim of 300,000 civilian deaths, felt it risky to publish the statem ent, and probably rew rote the copy to m atch the w artim e situation and to carry the m eaning of civilian resistance to the Japanese invasion and the “execution” o f the resistance fighters. The N orth China D aily News, it should be re­ m em bered, was British ow ned and carried o u t extensive anti-Japa­ nese propaganda during the Sino-Japanese War, yet it considered Tim perley’s rep o rt too exaggerated even for its anti-Japanese edito­ rial policy. Then postwar, the war crimes tribunal at Nanjing received the claims o f 300,000 civilians killed, only by th en the area u n d e r question had narrow ed to the city of Nanjing. And, following this, the Allies at the postw ar IMTFE received the sam e claim from the Nanjing trial, but decided to reduce the num ber of deaths by onethird. As far as I have discerned, the reasoning behind this reduction is still not docum ented and can only be considered an arbitrary figure. Tim perley was then a “shadow ” m em ber of the China Ministry of Inform ation’s international propaganda arm, the China Inform ation Com m ittee. After his 16 January cable was refused, he sent it through his form er employer, Reuters. From there the inform ation was trans­ m itted to, and carried in, the GMD-owned new spaper, C hungyang Jihpao. The GMD editorial staff added dram atization to Tim perley’s statem ent. “Central China,” an area o f som e one m illion square kilo­ m eters, becam e the “Yangtze delta,” the 300-kilom eter stretch of land betw een Shanghai and Nanjing. And, Tim perley’s arbitrary “and a like n um ber of civilian casualties” then came into close-up focus and the p oint o f his statem ent, “approxim ately 300,000 civilians w ere slaughtered in the region of the Yangtze delta.” This dram atized content was further distributed to the w orld w hen it was included in The Chinese Yearbook.

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After this inform ation was released, m any people tu rn e d their at­ tention from the obvious w ar casualty situation in Shanghai as a point o f discussion and, even though the Japanese Army itself sus­ tained heavy losses, and focused o n Nanjing w here, for a half year following the occupation, the Japanese military authorities p rohib­ ited the entry of foreign journalists. T hrough the above m echanism , a fram ew ork was prepared for the theory of a Great Massacre of 300,000 civilians during the first three m onths of the Japanese occupation. The above is evidence-based reasoning, and deserves consider­ ation as the process by w hich the outlandish statem ent of 300,000 ci­ vilian deaths came into existence and built the fram ew ork for the theory, or claim. Then, eight years later, Ja p an ’s defeat in the w ar provided the o p p ortunity to strengthen and elaborate on the fram e­ w ork to m ake it a highlight in the politically m otivated aspect of prosecuting Japanese for w ar crimes.

The Nature of the Chinese Supports the 300,000 Figure Finally, I should like to take the liberty of digressing from this b o o k ’s m ain purp o se of exam ining the facts and touch on a p h en o m en o n of Chinese history that m ust be considered, and discuss the problem from the point of view of com parative culture. In establishing the existence of a Great Massacre of 300,000 p eo ­ ple, the GMD, in their surveys o f damages, had to have n ot only eye­ w itness accounts o f evidence of large-scale killings, b u t also claims of massive burials o f victims. These w ere provided by postw ar surveys, and testim onies of these by Chinese carried a large p o rtio n of the w eight in the claim at the Nanjing and Tokyo w ar crim es trials. These testim onies do n o t always m eet requirem ents for credibility o r for w hat we w ould call a judgm ent o f com m on sense. To p u t it in other w ords, there w ere people w ho collaborated w ith a politically m oti­ vated plan to establish a G reat Massacre at Nanjing, and in spite of the fact that m any Nanjing residents did not join in the plan, there w ere o thers w ho took the initiative to serve the political aims of the GMD. The Chinese are reputedly—and unquestionably—cultural exaggerators. This is n o t baseless stereotype b u t is u n d e rsto o d by Chi­ nese them selves and by scholars of China. Exaggeration perm eates the literature— it is in fact a literary device for enhancing an idea, spicing up conversational language as well as the formal language of speeches. A fam ous exam ple for encapsulating this characteristic is a line from C hina’s best-know n poet, Li Bo (???-762). In a poem la­

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m enting his growing old, he w rote, “This w hite hair, three thousand zhang long.” In the T’ang period of the p o e t’s day, one zhang was equal to approxim ately three m eters, thus his hair—in the poem — w ould be som e nine thousand m eters in length. W hen Li Bo bru sh ed those lines into one of his im m ortal poem s, he was using the device o f exaggeration that by then had already long been p art of the Chi­ nese way o f expression and part o f the literary and cultural heritage. If I evaluated the testim onies relating to the deaths at Nanjing as expressions o f the characteristic Chinese cultural heritage tendency tow ard exaggeration, however, it w ould only produce a fruitless, nonconstructive argum ent. O n the contrary, in the years following the war, new testim onies have em erged in China that continue ex­ panding the 300,000 figure. How do these new testim onies arise? At first I thought that the Chinese policy of handling num bers was very loose. I once shared a table at a banquet with two friends of m ine, one from Taiwan, one from China, and we spoke frankly about the matter. They both agreed that there is no question that “We Chi­ nese tend to express things w ith exaggeration, particularly with enorm ous num bers. Enorm ous num bers in them selves do n o t have to reflect the true situation, though, but are acceptable if they simply convey the im pression of enormity.” This 300,000-victims claim was the subject o f an exam ination in a m odern Chinese study group I belong to. At that time, a Chinese col­ league in this group gave me a copy of an article in Chinese titled “Rewarding the Nation with Lies.” This was published in 1999 in no. 22 of a series titled R iben x in h u a q ia o b a o , w ith th e English title “Ja p an New O verseas C hinese.” The article in q u e stio n a p p e are d in a section titled “H u aren Z hengm ing” (Scream ing d isp u tes of the C hinese). The author of the article, a m an w ho goes by the p en nam e o f Lin Siyun, provided m e w ith a unique view point into my questions. Ac­ cording to Lin, a p h enom enon for which he coined the term “patri­ otic lies” appeared am ong Chinese w ho en tered the m odern era. This was caused by an overwhelm ing love for the country, and a m ethod o f inspiring patriotism . The d eep er the love for the country, the d eep er the hatred for its enem ies, the larger the lie. Then, once a “patriotic lie” appears, it is imm ediately a taboo for the public n o t to accept it. Even if it is know n to be a lie, a situation has been created in w hich it is im possible to object to it. O n the contrary, anyone w ho violates the taboo and calls the lie a lie w ould be labeled a Chinese w ho d o e sn ’t love his country, a backstabber of the Chinese, and an enem y o f the people. For example, large num bers o f Chinese, deep

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dow n, half believe and half doubt the claim that a Nanjing Massacre claim ed the lives o f 300,000 victims. But, they do not talk about it. Lin Siyun brought u p o th er events in China concerning “patri­ otic lies” in addition to the Nanjing Massacre. One was the Great Leap Forward, a plan for expanding industrial and agricultural p ro ­ duction p ro p o sed by Mao Zedong and begun in 1958. The plan failed several m onths after it was initiated. Patriotic Lies, according to Lin, also included the Cultural Revolution and the Tiananm en Square Incident. With the Great Leap Forward, the governm ent an­ n o unced that huge increases in agricultural p roduction p e r land unit had b e e n achieved through com petition am ong farmers, which even a cursory glance w ould reveal as false, even impossible, claims. With the C ultural Revolution, the governm ent created phony stories about an overw helm ing n u m b er of crim inal charges against Liu Shaoji, president o f the PRC and a m ajor enem y of Mao Zedong, charging him with conspiracy, treason, and reviving capitalism. C on­ cerning the Tiananm en Square Incident, Lin Siyun writes about the false accounts of 30,000 killed in Tiananm en Square, which w ere re­ leased to the foreign press as fact. Each patriotic lie was achieved by distorting the facts and eventu­ ally b rought about a blow to the Chinese society. With the Great Leap Forward it was the extrem ely large num ber of people w ho died from hunger. With the Cultural Revolution, an abnorm al w orld evolved in w hich fact and falsehood w ere reversed. With the Tiananm en Square incident, an orderly p e o p le ’s m ovem ent was declared a disorder, and patriotic lies transferred from hatred for the enem y to hatred for the C om m unist Party in exaggerated term s to fire u p that hatred and anim ate the people. And, according to Lin, w hen the same lying ten ­ dency was applied to the Great Nanjing Massacre, it provided the Japanese governm ent w ith a logical rebuttal, and with it a reason for n o t having to apologize to China for the true cases of death and vio­ lence by the Chinese people at Nanjing. Lin states that he wishes for no m ore political lies to em erge am ong the Chinese public, because these lies bring w ith them great pains and cost. And, he en d ed his book w ith the hopes that brave people w ould break the taboo of rem aining silent about the coun­ try ’s patriotic lies. In D ecem ber 1999, Lin Siyun p resen ted a p ap er (in Chinese) ti­ tled “Why C an’t China Catch Up w ith Japan?” on a site titled “Ways to Strengthen the N ation,” which is on the hom e page of the R enm in R ibao (People’s Daily) new spaper. This was posted for alm ost one m onth and caused a heated controversy. Such is Lin’s character. I

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happen to know that his family has been living in Nanjing for consec­ utive generations. The August 1999 issue of the Japanese m onthly m agazine Sekai took up the subject o f Nanjing as a gulf betw een Ja­ pan and China that clings to the m ind and does n o t disappear. The publication carried running debates in its pages. The problem , ac­ cording to the Chinese, is that the Japanese tendency to search for the reality of the Nanjing massacre stim ulates the Chinese sense of victimization, and this deepens the em otional gap betw een the two sides. The debate in Sekai magazine received its im petus from a Japa­ nese m an by the nam e o f Azuma Shiro. As a soldier, Azuma was in the battle for Nanjing. He kept a diary during his term in the army and published it later in five volum es as A zu m a Shiro's Diary. More than fifty years afterw ards he u sed his diary as the basis to w rite a book titled Waga N a n k in p u r a to n (O ur N anking p lato o n ) (Tokyo: Aoki Shoten, 1987). This w ork was quoted in several o th er books on Nanjing published in Japan in the ongoing controversy that contin­ u ed through the years. One work that quoted Azuma was Kakusareta rentai-shi (The history o f the hidden regim ent), by Shimosato Masaki (Tokyo: Aoki Shoten, 1987). A nother was N a n k in jiken: Kyoto sh id a n k a n k e i shiryoshu (The Nanking Incident: Records of the Kyoto Regiment), ed. Kisaka Junichiro et al. (Tokyo: Aoki Shoten, 1989). H ashim oto Mitsuji was a soldier in the Im perial Japanese Army during the occupation o f Nanjing. Azuma’s published diary con­ tained allegations that Hashim oto had treated the Chinese cruelly, and in 1993 H ashim oto filed a com plaint against Azuma and the p u b ­ lisher, Aoki Shoten, insisting that the claim had no basis in tru th and the allegation was slanderous. Azuma and the publisher lost the first trial in the Tokyo District Court in 1996, and the second trial in the Tokyo High C ourt in 1998, w hen the courts accepted the claims of the plaintiff. The author and publisher w ere ordered to pay dam ages of 500,000 yen (approxim ately US$5,000). The decision of the High Court came in a civil case concerning one particular incident in the diary, but the Chinese governm ent re­ acted w ith scream ing objections in the Chinese m edia denouncing the Tokyo decisions as a denial o f the Great Nanjing Massacre. This reaction o n the part of the Chinese was intended as an attack against the Illusion School, which was supporting H ashim oto’s lawsuit, and w ould present the high court judgm ent as evidence that the Nanjing Massacre was a fabrication.

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Azuma im m ediately appealed his case to the Suprem e Court. He th en w ent to China accom panied by m em bers of his su p p o rt group from Japan and m ade a speech to u r in China appealing for su p p o rt there in his struggle w ith the courts in Japan. The result of this China adventure was that A zu m a Shiro’s D iary was translated into Chinese, including the original statem ents re ­ garding H ashim oto, and published in March 1999, by Jiang Su Edu­ cational Publishing Co., Shanghai. The following m onth, Azuma appeared on a highly p opular audience-participation program on C hina’s C entral television netw ork, “Shihua Shishuo (True talk, true explanations). Videotapes of the program w ere rebroadcast u n d e r the title “M emories of the War” on 18 and 25 April. At the time, a Jap ­ anese female, Mizutani Naoko, was studying in Beijing. She attended the live program broadcast along w ith others also studying in Beijing at the time; Mizutani participated in the program as a m em ber o f the audience. She gave h er ow n views o f w hat she considered to be true against the claims o f Azuma and his supporters. Below, I p resent the views exchanged o n the program as w ritten up in the Sankei Shimbun of 2 Ju n e 1999 and Sekai magazine in its Ju n e 1999 issue. The articles w ere titled “Why I Raise O bjection to Azuma Shiro’s Histori­ cal Attitude which Creates a Gulf betw een China and Japan.” The ar­ ticles and the Chinese television program brought o u t these views, w hich the opposing sides see as the origin of the problem . A zu m a group: The Nanjing Massacre is not fully taught in Japan. M izutani: The Japanese governm ent acknowledges the N an­ jing Massacre and the Incident is included in 100 percent of high school textbooks. A zu m a group: The Tokyo High C ourt’s judgm ent was politi­ cal. The aim of the right wing in Japan is to show the Nanjing Massacre as a created falsehood. M izutani: At the Tokyo High Court, the problem was with the vagaries about the things Azuma did, saw, and heard. A zum a: The only problem was that the judge did not believe that everything I w rote in my diary was true. M izutani: It is n o t only the right wing; even people w ho ac­ cept the Nanjing Massacre as truth also criticize Azuma’s book. A zum a: You m ust m ean H onda Katsuichi. H e’s jealous b e­ cause I’m the only one China pays attention to. The im pression is, o f course, that the argum ents did not m esh w ith each other, b u t according to subsequent statem ents by Mizu-

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tani, there w ere o th er Japanese on the program w ho conceded that there was cruelty at Nanjing but that the claim by the Chinese of 300,000 victims is baseless. To this, elderly Chinese w ho also took part in the debate shouted “Idiots!” In addition, a female em ployee o f the Memorial Hall of the Victims o f the Nanjing Massacre asked Mizutani directly, “Do you o r do you n o t believe Mr. Azuma?” And from the chief editor o f the Chinese book A H istory o f the Japanese In vasion o f China came the question, “Do you o r do you n o t agree that a Nanking Massacre took place?” In both cases, the questioners dem anded a yes-or-no answer. Mizutani, as was m ade clear in the Sekai article, stated h er posi­ tion by saying that there can be no denial o f history, that Japan caused m any victims and inflicted large-scale dam age in China, and especially with the occupation o f Nanjing caused large-scale deaths. She stated that as a history researcher she strives to elim inate em o­ tional argum ents and determ ine historical facts in a levelheaded m anner. With M izutani’s August 1999 essay in Sekai as the im petus, views from all sides w ere subm itted to the same magazine and carried in the pages o f subsequent issues. From am ong them one can very well glean the situation w ith Japanese thoughts on the m atter, u n d e r­ stand the problem s that form ed betw een China and Japan, and at­ tem p t to ascertain them in a reasonable and cool-headed m anner. Sun Ge is a researcher at the D epartm ent of Letters of the China Science and Sociology Research Institute in Beijing. In April 2000 she p resented a paper titled “The Sino-Japanese War: Em otions and Recollections.” In the opening of her thesis, Sun cites the Chinese discussion television program m entioned above, and states that in contrast w ith the general understanding in Japan that all Chinese m edia are governm ent controlled, this program was n ot created by governm ent officials to form Chinese thinking; it was a unique p ro ­ gram planned to present the Chinese public w ith a variety o f view­ points. thus, one reason Azuma was included was to stim ulate an exchange of various views concerning “the recollection of war.” The program was absolutely not in the least intended as a venue to argue about Azuma’s fight with the courts in Japan. Incidentally, M izutani’s com m ents served to expand the com plex problem that exists over “the em otions of memory.” Sun Ge, as a researcher into history, was obliged to evaluate M izutani’s spirit o f criticism. Sun claims, however, that Mizutani cre­ ates a problem in that she com pletely ignores “the em otions o f m em ­ ory.” According to Sun, “The significance o f the Chinese p e o p le ’s

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feelings over the Sino-Japanese War is that it is the m em ory of a tre­ m endous scar o n the Chinese nation, and that the victims’ awareness o f this cannot easily be assuaged.” Sun Ge states that the problem is not M izutani’s personal stand on the m atter, but rath er the historical studies and education of the past that gave rise to the attitudes expressed by Mizutani. Further, ac­ cording to Sun Ge, until now, “the em otions of memory,” which m eans the feelings o f living persons, was ignored in historical stu d ­ ies as an obstacle that hindered learning the facts. W estern-origi­ nated m o d ern historical studies developed as a search for objective truths in history, and treated the m em ory o f feelings as a barrier to gaining “the objective reality o f history.” Sun Ge asserts that the loss of “the em otions of m em ory” robs history of its tensions and com plications, and history becom es dead know ledge easily taken advantage of by ideologues and politics. These assertions, however, could easily be countered by the argu­ m ent that the em otions o f m em ory itself can be converted easily into an object o f ideology o r politics. The proposition of historical stud­ ies that requires the objective pursuit of tru th is not so easily swayed. This proposition has a thread of connection with the them e of this book, the ability to make decisions based on com m on sense. Sun Ge gives serious consideration to the m ain points of the em otions of memory; she confirm s that adhering to the em otions that arise from recalling the past, som ething that appears in the thoughts of knowl­ edgeable Chinese persons, can easily be converted to ethnocentric em otions. Then, Sun Ge states, from these ethnocentric em otions, people can easily be led to a sim ple choosing of one conclusion con­ cerning history. And, Sun Ge continues, that if the Chinese continue clinging to this tendency, it m akes it im possible for Chinese thinkers to face com plicated international political relations, and they cannot participate effectively in living history. I feel hopeful that a new theory of historical study m ethods will be established am ong intellectual circles in both China and Japan concerning the description of the Sino-Japanese War, w ith special em phasis on the Nanjing Incident.

R e fe re n c e s

Anon. 1938b. “‘North-China’ Statement Hit by Spokesman, Correspondent’s Cable Stopped by Censor,” N orth C hina D aily News, 22 January. Anon. 1954. “Mr. H. J. Timperley,” The Times (London), 29 November, p. 11. Chen Zhiqi, ed. 1996. Z honghua m in g u o w aijiao shiliao h u ib ia n (A collec­ tion of historical materials on the diplomacy of the Republic o f China). Vol. 9. Taibei: Guoli Bianyingguan. China Weekly Review, ed. 1937/1974. W ho’s Who in China: Biographies o f Chinese Leaders. Shanghai: China Weekly Review, 1937, fifth ed. Re­ printed in W ho’s Who in China: Biographies o f Chinese. Tokyo: Ryukei Shosha, 1974. Chongqing Kangzhan Congshu Bianzhuan Weiyuanhui, ed. 1995. Kangz h a n sh iq i C hongqing d e d u iw a i jia o w a n g (International exchanges during the War of Resistance). Chongqing: Chongqing Chubanshe. Council o f International Affairs. 1939. The Chinese Year Book. Shanghai: The Commercial Press. Dong Xianguang. 1955. Sho K aiseki (Jiang Jieshi). Trans. Terajima Tadashi and Okuno Masami. Tokyo: Nihon Gaisei Gakkai Shuppankyoku. Durdin, F. Tilman. 1937a. ‘All Captives Slain,” N ew York Times, 18 Decem ­ ber, pp. 1, 2. --------- . 1937b. “Foreigners’ Role in Nanking Praised.” N ew York Times, 19 December, pp. 1, 2. --------- 1938a. “Japanese Atrocities Marked Fall of Nanking after Chinese Command Fled: Nanking Invaders Executed 20,000,” N ew York Times, 9 January, pp. 1, 38. --------- . 1938b. ‘American Holdings Looted in Nanking Since Its Conquest,” N ew York Times, 9 January, pp. 1, 2.

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Guo Qi. 1979- N anjing d a tu sh a (The great Nanjing massacre). Taibei: Zhongwaiguo Shushe. Guo Weidong et al., eds. 1993 .Jin d a i w aiguo zai-H ua Wenhua jig o u zo n g lu (Foreign cultural organs in modern China). Shanghai: Renmin Chubanshe. Hata Ikuhiko. 1986. N a n k in jik e n — “g ya kusatsu" no ko zo (The Nanjing in­ cident: The structure o f a “massacre”). Tokyo: Chuko Shinsho. Hora Tomio, ed. 1985a. N icchu senso N a n k in d a iza n g y a k u jik e n shiryosh u (Materials on the great Nanjing atrocity o f the Sino-Japanese War). Yol. 1: K y o k u to k o k u sa i g u n ji sa ib a n k a n k e i shiryohen (Materials of the Far East International Military Tribunal). Tokyo: Aoki Shoten. --------- . 1985b. N icchu senso N a n k in d a iza n g ya ku jik e n shiryoshu (Mate­ rials on the great Nanjing atrocity o f the Sino-Japanese War). Vol. 2: E ibun shiryohen (English-language references). Tokyo: Aoki Shoten.

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