Analyzing the “Photographic Evidence” of the Nanking Massacre

Map 2Map 2: “Assault on Nanking.” A map on p. 79 of Doronko no hei by Hamazaki Tomizō,who participated in the battle of Shanghezhen as a soldier of the 45 th Regiment.Another possibility, judging from the existence of trash seen floating around thesecorpses, is that these were the bodies of combat casualties drifting ashore from upstream.Actually, there was indeed a military engagement on the Yangzi river bank in the west ofthe Zhonghua Gate early in the morning of December 13. At Shanghezhen, about 200men of the 45th Regiment’s 11th Company under the Japanese 6th Division clashed againstsome 20,000 Chinese soldiers who had been retreating all night from Nanking. Lancecorporal Fukumoto Tsuzumi of that company noted in his field diary that some 40,000enemy troops surrounded his unit. According to his record, the resulting battle killed 14men of his unit, including Captain Ōzono Naozō, who was commanding the company, andwounded 35. After that, Second lieutenant Akaboshi Takashi took over the command ofthe company. The following is an excerpt from Akaboshi’s publication entitled Kōnan noharu tōku: Nikka jihen senki—Jōkachin no gekisen [Spring yet to come in southern China:Battle record of the Sino-Japanese War—A battle at Shanghezhen].224