Analyzing the “Photographic Evidence” of the Nanking Massacre

Photos C and D, which appeared in the December 24, 1937 issue of the Tokyo AsahiNewspaper of Japan and the North China Daily News of China, respectively, were snapshots ofthe Nanking safety zone, where virtually all the remaining Nanking citizens were taking refuge.Uniformed Japanese men, who appeared to be either military policemen or members of thearmy’s special service, are seen giving out cookies to Chinese civilians. One cannot detectany sign of unnatural or dressed-up behavior of the Japanese military personnel or Chinesecivilians seen in these photos. Neither can one detect any facial expressions suggestive offear or a tense atmosphere on the Chinese in the photos, which should have been visible if thecity had been subjected to ongoing massacre, rape, robbery, and arson. One may also wonderwhether women and children would have ventured out to the street if the Japanese army wasactually conducting large-scale killing in the city.These questions prodded the team to collect and investigate as many photographs aspossible that were relevant to the Nanking incident. After reviewing 30,000 pieces of“photographic evidence” on a preliminary basis, some of which were identical to otherphotographs, the research group took out 143 photos which have been frequently used asevidence of the Nanking massacre and conducted thorough research to determine whether ornot each one of them is convincing evidence of the alleged atrocities. Members of the grouptried to pinpoint when each photograph was printed, the source and how it was used thereafter,and compiled a table and a flow chart to summarize the findings. In the end, the research,albeit unwittingly, successfully uncovered the whole truth of these atrocity photos.Outline of the photographic evidence “flow chart”The following is an overview, in five phases, of the major publications andphotographic “evidence” as they have appeared since the fall of Nanking in 1937 through tothe present.(1) 1937-38: Immediately after the fall of NankingThis period witnessed the publication of Timperly’s What War Means, its Chineseedition, and Rikou Baoxing Shilu compiled by the political section of the GMD government’smilitary commission. Timperly’s original English edition did not carry any photos, but theother two were published with quite a few photographs of unknown origin. Those samephotos have since been reprinted in publications of the later periods as proof of large-scalemassacre and rape in Nanking.Again, quite a few of these photos are of unknown origin, with a few exceptions, suchas the moving images captured by John G. Magee and those printed in the Life magazine of theUnited States.Japanese magazines like the Asahi Graph and Shina Jihen Gahō [Sino-Japanese WarPictorial Report] as well as major newspapers published photographs taken by Japanese warcorrespondents. They provided the readers with visual images that were useful inunderstanding aspects of the Japanese troops in China (e.g. uniforms, gear).In addition, there are some photographs that were not made public at the time, butbecame available for the first time after World War II. Most of photographs in this categoryhave been verified as to when and where they were taken.9