Analyzing the “Photographic Evidence” of the Nanking Massacre

Apart from this speculation, another part of the photo is questionable enough forone to doubt its authenticity. Judging from his uniform, this “service man” wassupposedly a member of the Japanese navy’s landing force, rather than an army soldier.But compared with a real sailor uniform of the Japanese navy as shown on Photo A, thecollar of the uniform worn by the man on Photos A and B is obviously different.Whereas the collar of the Japanese sailor has only one white line, the collar of the man’suniform in these alleged atrocity photos—as seen on Photo B, which is an enlargedversion of the part of Photos A andB—is entirely white-colored.Photo A: The uniform of the Japanesenavy’s landing force. Its collar ismarked with a white line. A part of thecover of Asahi-ban shina jihen gahō,no. 16.Photo B: A part of Photo 8 enlarged. Theuniform’s collar is all white-colored instead ofwhite-trimmed.Although Honda Katsuichi in his Chūgoku no nihongun (p. 117) explained thisphoto as a scene of a Japanese “soldier” posing for a snapshot after he had beheadedsomeone, all these considerations make it difficult to identify this man as a Japanesesailor.(c) Japanese army men allegedly burying Chinese civiliansPhoto 10 was originally printed in RBS as evidence of Japanese troops buryingChinese nationals alive. Multiple sources have reprinted this photo and each of thosesources have attached to it a slightly different caption. Furthermore, each reprintedversion was cropped differently. (The solid line indicates the area reprinted on Honda’sChūgoku no tabi, short dotted line on Chūgoku no nihongun, and long dotted line onZKH.)75