Analyzing the “Photographic Evidence” of the Nanking Massacre

only in the Chinese edition of Timperly’s book but also in four other leaflets that becameavailable in China thereafter.It is now obvious that the story of the Rape of Nanking was a result of a joint wartimepropaganda project between the GMD propaganda bureau and some of the Westerners living inNanking at the time. At the time, it was not an event recognized as documented fact.Investigation of 143 “atrocity” photosPhoto APhoto BPhotos A & B: See Chapter 2 for analysis.It is in the 1970s that the Rape of Nanking, conceived as wartime propaganda in 1938,resurfaced with the veneer of historical fact. Commentators who advanced this thesis haveoften presented photographic evidence to corroborate their contention. A simple questionprompted a research group of the Japan “Nanking Society” to start an investigation of thesephotos.Judging from the scenes captured in Photos A and B, it is obvious that the cameramanwho took these images pointed his camera straightforward at close range at a man who waseither about to behead someone or had just finished doing so. Prior permission wasabsolutely necessary for that cameraman to take such images. One wonders who issuedpermission. If those executioners in these photos were genuine Japanese soldiers, the cameracrew could not have been either Westerners or Chinese, but must have been Japanese. Butthese photos were printed in GMD sources—the Chinese edition of Timperly’s book and RikouBaoxing Shilu [Authentic Record of Japan’s Brutal Acts]—which were published as early asJuly 1938. It would have been impossible for a Japanese camera crew to obtain permission tocapture such photographic images for the purpose of serving the GMD’s propaganda needs.Also, the identities of the four Japanese servicemen in these photos could have beeneasily verified at the time. In the case of so-called “100-men slashing contest,” Japanesemedia reported two second lieutenants, Mukai Toshiaki and Noda Tsuyoshi as war heroes forthe purpose of wartime propaganda. The Chinese military court in Nanking tried and7