Analyzing the “Photographic Evidence” of the Nanking Massacre

The readers are advised to imagine the moment when Forster photographed thisscene. What would Forster have done if he had seen a Japanese soldier robbing the child?Instead of taking a snapshot, he would have protested strongly against that act. The realitywas, however, he did take Photo 130, most likely because the Japanese soldier did notcommit any abominable act.A more careful look at the photo reveals that the sentry depicted there is seensmiling a little, possibly being aware of Forster’s camera. It seems that the child onlyhappened to be sitting in the back. One can see no expression of fear on the child’s face.Furthermore, that a child could be in such a location where Japanese soldiers were on guardduty is testimonial to the degree of safety in Nanking at the time.Images Photographed by the Japanese (1): Photographs of Satō ShinjuSatō Shinju accompanied the Japanese troops to Nanking as a war correspondentof the Tokyo Nichinichi Newspaper (today’s Mainichi Newspaper) and took some 100photographs.Photo 131 is his snapshot of two second lieutenants—Mukai Toshiaki and NodaTsuyoshi—at the eastern gate of Changzhou, to the east of Nanking, in late November 1937.As seen on Photo A, Photo 131 is printed with a Tokyo Nichinichi Newspaper’s article onits December 13 issue. This was the fourth of an article series that started on November10 and featured these two second lieutenants who, according to the story, competed witheach other to kill 100 opponents first with their sword. The Tokyo Nichinichi Newspapercarried this article series for a morale boosting purpose at wartime.Nevertheless, the military court in Nanking tried and convicted these two Japaneseofficers after the war by adopting these articles as evidence. Since Asami Kazuo, acorrespondent who penned these articles, failed to admit to the fictional nature of the articlestory, the Nanking court had the two officers shot to death in a public execution on January28, 1948.Later investigations have proved that the story of the Tokyo Nichinichi Newspaperarticles was indeed a fiction. In addition, the details of this episode are beyond the scopeof this book’s topic. Therefore, the focus here will be on the role that this photographplayed in the media reporting of this episode.The newspaper article shown on Photo A contains the following passage: “Twosecond lieutenants of Mukai Toshiaki and Noda Tsuyoshi extended their score of killing to106 and 105, respectively, during the battle to capture the Zijin Mountain. At the noon ofDecember 10, they faced each other again holding their swords marked with some nicks.”Imagine that this article were without Photo 131. Then, the readers might welldetect an element of fiction in the story, or at least question its authenticity. Only a smallnumber of readers would be likely to accept this story as a genuine one. Theaccompanying photograph, however, may increase the degree of the story’s truthfulnessdrastically because the readers are likely to assume that someone who captured that imageof these two men, “holding their swords marked with some nicks,” truly faced them “at thenoon of December 10.”203