Analyzing the “Photographic Evidence” of the Nanking Massacre

(a) Four military personnel at the scene of beheadingSince their first appearance on WMRB and RBS, Photos 6 and 7 have beenreprinted in a number of books and magazines as shown in the following table.Photo 6 Photo 7Timperly (1938) ○ ○Ken Magazine (1938) ○ ○China Weekly Review (1938) ○ ○ZKH (1947) ○ -Ajia no sensō (1956) ○ -Chūgoku no tabi (1972) ○ -Chūgoku no nihonnguni (1972) ○ -QINHUA (1985) ○ ○SND (1995) ○ ○Nanking 1937 (1997) ○ -RON-YY (1997) ○ -RON-I (1997) ○ -These two photographs seemingly captured the scenes of “before” and “after” of anexecution by beheading with a sword because two individuals marked with (a) and (b) ineach photo appear on both of them. The objects (e) and (f) look like the torso of thesevered head of the executed, respectively.But one should doubt the authenticity of these photographs based on thefollowing reasons:1. When beheading someone, the sword-bearer has to step his right foot ahead of the left.But the person on Photo 6 steps forward in his left foot—a posture that may well result ininjuring his left foot.2. The shadows of persons (a) and (c) in Photo 6 fall in different directions while one cansee no shadow of the person sitting and waiting for the execution.3. The left foot shoe of person (a) in Photo 6 looks quite unnatural because it does notpoint forward.4. An unidentifiable object that appears to be black clothes covers the about-to-bebeheaded person under his chest in Photo 6. Although it looks like Buddhist monk’srobe, one may also suspect that it is a result of retouching, because that part should be sunlighted.5. Although the executioner in Photo 6 is seen wearing a jacket-like coat, according toIwata Yoshiyasu, former officer of the Japanese army, no Japanese army man—whetherhe was an officer, non-commissioned officer, or enlisted man—was dressed like that.6. As previously noted, one may wonder who captured this image at such close range andwith whose permission.7. Photo 7 appears to show the scene immediately after the beheading. Nevertheless,the shadows of the persons in this photo do not extend in the same direction as seen inPhoto 6.8. Judging from Photo 7, the beheaded man was sitting on the edge of what looks like ahuge pit. Thus, one may wonder how the cameraman took Photo 6, which was71