Analyzing the “Photographic Evidence” of the Nanking Massacre

Photo N: A photograph among the record files of Akaboshi Takashi. The person indicatedwith an arrow mark is Mr. Akaboshi.Map 3: “The battle of Shanghezhen.” A map on p. 105 of Kōnan no haru tōku: Nikkajihen senki—Jōkachin no gekisen by Akaboshi Takashi.A map included in Akaboshi’s book indicates the existence of lumberrepository—where some Chinese soldiers most likely constructed rafts.Such is an account included in Akaboshi’s book which was published in1968—well before Honda Katsuichi’s Chūgoku no tabi or Murase’s photo collection cameout. Higashinakano’s “The Rape of Nanking” no kenkyū quoted almost the same storygiven by Takahashi Yoshihiko, who as a first lieutenant of the Independent 2nd MountainArtillery Regiment directed the artillery attack as described in Akaboshi’s account.Likewise, Hamazaki Tomizō, who had fought under Akaboshi as a non-commissionedofficer in Shanghezhen, said in his privately published book entitled Doronko no hei[Soldiers covered with mud], “Those enemy combatants who had attacked us either jumpedinto the river or tried to extricate themselves on board small ships or rafts. They leftbehind several thousands of dead bodies.”Thus, those Chinese soldiers who attempted their escape boarding the rafts wereblown to death by the artillery fire, and their bodies were probably washed ashoredownstream. What Murase photographed with his camera was possibly a scene of theChinese military men killed in such a manner. Although one cannot determine whether226