Analyzing the “Photographic Evidence” of the Nanking Massacre

Soldiers shouting “banzai” on the Zhongshan Gate.Asahi-ban shina-jihen gahō, no. 11, 27 January 1938, p. 7.However, the Chinese military leadership behaved in such a way unworthy ofpraise. Although the ICNSZ proposed a three-day truce to the Chinese garrison onDecember 12, the garrison leader rejected it. Then at 8 p.m. on the same day, that verygarrison commander, Tang Shengzhi, escaped from the city through the Yijiang Gate onthe northern side of the city walls—the only gate that was available as an escape routethen—without officially announcing any intention of surrendering to the Japanesemilitary authorities. Thereafter, many of the remaining Chinese soldiers took off theiruniforms and made their way to what was supposed to be the neutral safety zone.Although the Japanese troops captured the gates of the city walls on December 13, quite afew Chinese soldiers kept sniping at Japanese troops inside the city. In addition, the twosides were still severely battling against each other outside the city walls.Immediately after the battle, the areas around the city gate walls were litteredwith corpses. It was true of the Zhonghua Gate in the south and of the Zhongshan Gatein the east—both of them were scenes of severe fighting. By far the largest number ofdead bodies was found at the Yijiang gate in the north. American news correspondentslike F. Tillman Durdin and Archibald Steele noted in their respective articles that thebodies of killed Chinese soldiers formed a small mound six feet high, and that thevehicles of the Japanese army frequently ran over these dead bodies. As these two menrecollected after the war, however, the carnage they saw was the result of the actions of aChinese supervisory unit, which shot their own soldiers to stop them from retreating, in27