Analyzing the “Photographic Evidence” of the Nanking Massacre

Agnes Smedley describes how the Communists fought against the Japaneseabout that time in her China Fights Back:We passed whole battalions clothed in Japanese overcoat and some inJapanese uniforms. There must have been two to three thousand menclad like this—and we knew that each coat had meant a dead Japanese.These men carried on their shoulders the certain signs of their victory. . . .the “thousand stitch cloths” made by Japanese women to guard soldiersagainst bullets, and the Buddhist charms designed for the samepurposes . . . . had been useless when the Eighth Route Army met theirbearers, whose dead bodies lined the roads for miles on the battlefield.Such is Smedley’s description of the CCP force on November 5, 1937, when the Japanesearmy was conducting the Taiyuan operation in northern China. She mentions suchlocations as Yangquan close to Tunliu prefecture in her account. Her accountcontradicts the official Japanese history, stating that Japanese “dead bodies lined theroads for miles.” Thus, suffice it to say, one cannot determine whether the dead body inPhoto 52 was the one killed by the Japanese or by CCP guerrillas. In addition, oneshould consider the possibility that this man was killed by CCP guerrillas clad inJapanese military uniforms.That Photos 53-55 do not portray the scenes in Nanking is obvious even from thecaptions of RBS. The caption in Photo 53 states that the two dead bodies are a parentand a child killed by enemy planes at Zhabei in Shanghai while the caption attached toPhoto 54 says the dead shown on the image were a parent and a child who fell amid thebombing by enemy planes in downtown Chuzhou. As for Photo 55, its caption reads,“Chinese nationals murdered by the enemy force at Liangmazhen in the ShanxiProvince.”Photos 53-55: RBSPhoto 53Photo 54 Photo 55121