Analyzing the “Photographic Evidence” of the Nanking Massacre

Shanghai. Several photos I saw when we were drinking at a temple inDachangzhen last night were probably distributed in such a manner. . . .Across the Garden Bridge are foreign settlements. One of the high-risebuildings there is the building of the Yokohama Species Bank. . . . OneChinese man approached the postal service staff in the backyard of thatbuilding and showed some items of unknown origins such as golden rings,jades, and pornographic pictures. This Chinese man stalked people likeus and tried to sell stolen and contraband items. We were able topurchase a golden watch that would normally cost 10 yen at 3 yen. . . .As for the pornographies, the price of one set was half a yen. Since suchpeddlers are everywhere around that area, those proficient in Chinese areable to buy a variety of merchandizes. Our guess narrowed the originalsource of the pornographies to one spot. . . . [In addition to such eroticphotographs, they distribute photographs that captured horrible scenes ofbattles, including those of dead bodies. One of them shows a Chinesewoman crying and standing with her lower body naked. We cannotdetermine whether that image was taken by the Japanese or the Chinese.](* The bracketed portion was censored and blacked out when his book waspublished during the war time.)Second lieutenant Kajimura Itaru, who was called up from the reserves in August 1937and participated in the Shanghai and Nanking campaigns, also noted similar obscenegoods in his memoir entitled Tairiku o tatakau [Battles on the Continent]. In his journalentry of February 3, 1938, Kajimura quoted part of an article published in the October 29,1937, issue of the Fukuoka Nichinichi Newspaper:As I walked through the streets of Dezhou, I saw a red slip of paper thatsays “This house has been robbed already, and is empty” placed on almostevery house. I was told it was a “talisman” to keep away stragglingChinese soldiers from intruding and pillaging the houses. Yet, I couldsee obvious traces of looting in these houses, which were almost empty.I pitied the people of China. On my way back from the headquarters tothe barracks, I came across with three armored vehicles which our troopshad captured at Pingyuan from the Chinese. When I looked into theinside of one of them with the permission of Major M, I was surprised tosmell perfume on its seat. Furthermore, I saw a handbag, an umbrella, aFrench perfume bottle, and erotic photographs left there. It seems that onboard that armored vehicle were a young officer and a female CCPmember.Judging from this story, pornography was available clandestinely not only amongJapanese military men but also among Chinese officers and soldiers.It seems more reasonable to conclude that someone retouched and re-captionedsuch obscene pictures to make them look like the scenes of rape committed by theJapanese. It is worth nothing here that rape was a severe offense under the Japanesearmy’s criminal regulation. Under the army’s criminal law enacted in 1908, a Japanese101