Analyzing the “Photographic Evidence” of the Nanking Massacre

and 90, one may assume that the photos were taken at the same location. This means thatthe cameraman walked around the area with a camera in his hands and took the photos fromthree different angles. Such a feat would have been impossible if he had tried tophotograph the scenes unbeknownst to the perpetrators of the alleged crimes.Photos 82, 89, and 90 share another common feature, that is, the face of the circledindividual found in each of them. Strangely, this person posed as a victim in Photo 82whereas he was a victimizer in Photo 89. The Sankei Newspaper already touched on thispoint in its September 27, 1998, issue, and suggested the possibility that the scenes werestaged. In addition, the man about to swing down a sword in Photo 81 seems to beidentical to the man wearing glasses in Photo 82, while the man with his neck tied with arope in Photo 85 appears to be the same as the one seen in the background (second from theright) in Photo 90. Furthermore, all persons were thinly dressed, and the wall structuresseen in these photos look more like those more typical of tropical areas than of Nanking.As for Photos 91, 92, and 94, they are highly likely to be pornographic images asdiscussed in Chapter 2, judging from the postures of the photographed individuals. Onemay also detect some staged elements in the movements of the persons shown in Photos 83,86, 87, and 93—the existence of a camera or cameras close to them may have made theirbehavior a little unnatural. One more unnatural scene is the leg puttee of the man capturedin Photo 86—he is not wearing it properly.Based on these findings, one may reach the following conclusions with respect tothe nature of the Marion Fitch photo collection. First, even the “owner” of the collection,who was also responsible for “providing” these to a media source, was unable to ascertainthe exact origin of these images. She failed to clarify who took these photographs, thelocations depicted and on what date they were taken. One could even speculate that theonly role that the “owner/provider” played was merely to testify that Japanese militarypersonnel had taken these images. The story concerning their origin, as recounted byMarin Fitch, certainly serves as an effective tool to make the viewers believe that thesephotographs are authentic and reliable.Second, the scenes shown in almost all of the Fitch photos are not those of winter,when the alleged Nanking massacre unfolded. Third, it would have been impossible forthose images which, according to Fitch’s account, were kept tightly in her possession, to beprinted in the books published by the GMD’s propaganda bureau. That these imagesappeared in such sources is testimonial to the existence of fabrication or staging of theaccount of the “owner/provider” or of the photographs themselves.153