Analyzing the “Photographic Evidence” of the Nanking Massacre

Photo F: “Public execution. 1938.” Zusetsu: Chūgoku kokukei-shi, p. 235.. . . . Then, a man in a gray military uniform walked up to a group ofcriminals with a Chinese broadsword in his right hand. He appeared tobe drinking something from a small bottle in his left hand. Theinterpreter told me that he was drinking strong Chinese alcohol liquorbecause even professional executioners could not behead someone unlessthey were intoxicated.The criminals were lined up in the ascending order of the seriousness oftheir committed crimes.Now the execution began.The man with a sword forced the first criminal to sit on the ground, andpushed his shoulder down so that he bent forward. After a short while,the executioner swung his sword down swiftly. The head of the criminaldropped on the ground with blood gushing out from the torso, which fellin the right direction with his hands tied in the back.At that moment, spectators clapped their hands all at once. . . . I was soaccustomed to a peaceful society of Japan and my encounter with thisbrutal scene today was so nerve-wrecking that I could not sleep at all onthat night. After the sleepless night, I took an early morning walk.When I passed through a wharf and was about to come out to a road linedwith electric poles, I saw something unbelievable hanging on one of thesepoles. It was a severed head—the head of the chief of the criminal bandwho had been executed on the previous day.90