Analyzing the “Photographic Evidence” of the Nanking Massacre

pictures which the preceding chapters did not discuss much in detail. In reference to themaking of short movies for overseas propaganda purposes, the previously mentionedGMD document contained the following passage:Our division [International Propaganda Division] obtained the assistanceof many U.S. experts in the editing of the movies. Since it was our firstexperience in this enterprise, we were short-handed in terms of bothmanpower and needed materials. We were unable to create backgroundsets or to hire actors. As a result, we had no choice but to film the scenesoutdoors, using props available on the spot, as if recording a documentaryprogram. All the people who appeared in these films are our honorablestars—the students of the military academy in the movie “Jianjun”[Founding of Armed Force], the sober-minded populace in “FearlessChongqing,” and peasants and factory workers in “Tongyou” [Wood Oil].Likewise, a variety of weapons used in “Jianjun” and a numerous vehiclesdepicted in “Yunnan-Burma Line” are all our props.This quote explained the oft-seen unnatural demeanor on the part of the characters shownin both camera photographs and in motion pictures—they were students, peasants, andworkers mobilized as amateur actors or actresses on the spot to pose for either stillphotographs or movies. They were “extras” whom the GMD propaganda bureau usedfor the creation of its propaganda footages for distribution to the media overseas.Media tool for arousing pro-Chinese and anti-Japanese sentiment internationallyThe research team was confident that its analysis became near-perfect in the end.The team made some surprising discoveries in the course of its research. One suchdiscovery was the following quote from the GMD propaganda bureau’s confidentialreport:Since Guangguang Xinwen Sheyin Tongxinshe [Guangguang News FilmCommunications Company] had started distributing news articles, thephotographs originating from that company accounted for 95 percent of allthe photos printed with China-related news articles all over the world.Foreign correspondents in Chongqing always purchased photographs fromthat company and published them as if they were their own. Thecompany is almost the sole provider of news photographs to foreigncorrespondents and dignitaries who wish to collect photographic materials.As previously noted in this chapter, the GMD propaganda bureau consolidated allpropaganda filming activities under the central news agency’s filming bureau in thespring of 1938. Thereafter, according to this report, the central news agency’s filmingbureau was transformed into the Guangguang News Film Communications Company,which distributed 95 percent of all the news photographs that appeared withChina-related articles in newspapers or magazines all over the world in 1939.The same confidential report also made references to those foreign233