Analyzing the “Photographic Evidence” of the Nanking Massacre

and she found the following passage in the letter: “My military duty would never haveallowed me to commit an act like the alleged 100-man killing contest.”A countless number of publications have merely quoted the Tokyo NichinichiNewspaper article series and its photograph as evidence of the alleged killing competitionin disregard of countervailing evidence like Noda’s letter. One can see the end result ofthis irresponsible use of the articles and the photograph at the Memorial Hall in Nanking,where Photo 131 as enlarged to the real-life size is on display.Careful study of this episode must begin with the critique of the Tokyo NichinichiNewspaper article series by setting aside its accompanying photograph—Photo 131.One final note about this article is that the Mainichi Newspaper, as renamed fromthe Tokyo Nichinichi Newspaper after World War II, stated in its 1989 publicationShōwa-shi zenkiroku [Complete record of the Showa era]: Chronicle 1926-1989 that the“100-man killing contest turned out to be a fiction.”Photo 132 is another example of how a different caption sends a totally differentmessage to the viewers. Referring to this image, QINHUA, specifying the date asDecember 15, 1937, said, “The Japanese troops carried away properties robbed from thepopulation in Nanking with the use of a variety of wagons including baby buggies.” Satō,who took this image, however, furnished a totally different account as regards its context.In “Nankin jiken” nihonjin 48-nin no shōgen [Nanking Incident: Accounts by 48 Japaneseeye-witnesses] by Ara Ken’ichi, he was quoted as saying,Caption may change drastically the impression which its viewers may obtainfrom a photograph. One of the photographs I took on the 15th [ofDecember 1937] inside the Nanking city walls shows Japanese soldierscarrying baggage in their back. It also depicts one of them using a babybuggy. The baggage of the soldiers was heavy. . . . I know about it verywell. The soldiers I saw there were walking with drooping shoulders,seemingly because they had lost tension after their triumphant entry into thecity. I understood very well how they felt, and I captured this scene toshow such an after-battle demeanor of the soldiers to prospective viewers.Nevertheless, quite a few sources later captioned this image as “Japanesesoldiers carrying requisitioned items.”Certainly, a baby baggy could not be a property of a soldier. Someone who feltextremely tired after a battle probably stole it somewhere to facilitate his walk with heavybaggage, weighing some 30 kilograms, on his back. Nevertheless, the fact remains thatSatō, who himself had difficulty in walking after he had hyper-extended his knee at thetown of Wuxi, took this image out of his sympathy to the soldiers dragging their feet with aheavy load on their back. In summary, this photograph cannot serve as a proof toauthenticate the robbery of private properties allegedly committed by the Japanese soldiersin Nanking.206