Analyzing the “Photographic Evidence” of the Nanking Massacre

Images reprinted from a variety of sources(1) A severed head for public viewingPhoto 95 shows a gruesome scene of a severed head displayed for public viewing.One senses a cruel personality of those who perpetrated the act.This photograph appeared for the first time in the January 10, 1938, issue of Lifemagazine with the following caption:Chinese head, whose owner was incorrigibly anti-Japanese, was wedged in abarbed-wire barricade outside Nanking just before the city fell Dec. 14 [sic].It remained in good condition in the freezing weather, facing towardNanking, . . .Although this explanation may give the readers the impression that the Japanese wereresponsible for this inhumane act, no one has been able to determine who was beheadedand who placed his head on a palisade. Most likely because of its obscure origin, theimage was never reprinted thereafter for a long time.Photo 95Photo 95: This image made its media debut in the January 10, 1938, issue of Life magazine.154