Analyzing the “Photographic Evidence” of the Nanking Massacre

As for Photo 130, RON-YY said, “On March 17, 1938, at the Nanking PacificHotel, a Japanese soldier captured a child and searched him for valuables.” The originalof this photograph preserved at Yale University’s Divinity School, is however, with acaption that identified the uniformed man on the photograph simply as a Japanese soldierquartered at the Pacific Hotel in Nanking, March 17, 1938. Although RON-YY correctlynoted the time and location, it added a statement of arbitrary speculation—“a Japanesesoldier captured a child and searched him for valuables.” In addition, a closer look at theoriginal reveals that there is another Japanese soldier on the right edge of the image. Also,that soldier seems to be about to give something to the child rather than rob him.Photo 130Photo 130: “. . . a Japanese soldier captured a child and searched him for valuables.”RON-YY, p. 210.202