Analyzing the “Photographic Evidence” of the Nanking Massacre

In Photos B and C, another man is seen carrying the infant in the direction of therailway from the right side. The man wearing a hat in Photo B seems to be the sameperson as the one on Photo 2. However, again, this man who looked like the baby’sfather appeared to pay no attention to the other man who was taking his child away. Yetanother man, whose identity is unknown, in Photo B is identical to the one captured inPhotos C and E. He is seen hoisting the infant in an unnatural manner. In addition,there is a child who has a head injury. Nevertheless, the only captured individual inPhoto A was that baby.Furthermore, a motion picture that contains this same footage includes anintriguing scene. Gekidō: Nitchū senshi hiroku [Turbulent Time: Confidential Recordsof the Sino-Japanese War] shows what appears to be a smoke canister releasing smokebeside the infant. The next segment shows the very moment when the baby turned hishead to look at the smoke. One could speculate that someone was making the sceneappear as if the location had just been bombed.Contemporary testimony concerning these photos is worth quoting here. Thefollowing is an excerpt from Senji sendenron [Discourse on Wartime Propaganda] byKoyama Eizō in 1942. According to the Japan Public Relations Association, Koyamawas chief of the research department of the Health and Welfare Ministry’s demographicresearch institute before the end of the war. As an expert on propaganda warfare, healso lectured on public opinion and propaganda at the University of Tokyo. He becamethe director of a national opinion poll center after World War II, and became a professorof Rikkyō University.Correspondents of each country, either wittingly or unwittingly, representthe interests of their home country. At the same time, they tend to lookfor sensational news stories. Sometimes, they even concoct false storieswhich even the Chinese dare not to trump up. A case in point is aninternationally acclaimed photograph that captured a sensational scene ofa baby who was seemingly separated from the parents and was cryingalone at a ruin in Shanghai immediately after the Japanese bombing.Fortunately, a correspondent of Chicago Tribune News Service presentedother photos and convinced the public that someone brought the baby tothe scene and fabricated what appeared to be a dramatic photo scene.This is a masterpiece by “Newsreel Wang,” Chiang Kai-shek’s favoritephoto journalist known for his activities since the time of the ManchurianIncident. Along with his reporting on the Panay Incident, thisphotograph was instrumental in promoting anti-Japanese sentiment amongthe American public. The Chinese have constantly tried to induce thethird party’s intervention against Japan by exaggerating the devastationscaused by their own military defeats. That such “fabricated” propagandaphotos played important roles during World War I is a well-known factsubstantiated in a variety of sources.64