Analyzing the “Photographic Evidence” of the Nanking Massacre

Timperly may well have selected this photo in view of its sensational imagebecause in his private correspondence with Bates prior to the publication of his book, hesaid that the photographs should be as shocking as possible.Photos 17, 18, and 19 are those of dead children. In RBS, Photo 17 iscaptioned as a three-year-old child who was stabbed to death by the Japanese in Nanking.RON-YY explains that this image was one of the images taken by Magee. TheRON-YY’s caption states that “thousands of children were killed during the Nankingmassacre. These were among a few identified from photographs. The oldest amongthem was barely three.” Such a photograph was, however, nowhere to be found amongMagee’s still or motion pictures.Photo 17: RBSPhoto 18: RBSThe caption of Photo 18, which is also among the RBS photo group, identifiesthe dead bodies as three small children killed by Japanese aerial bombing of PingshiStreet—a main street that connected the Zhonghua Gate and the safety zone—in Nanking.WMRB, which was published almost at the same time, however, stated that they were thevictims of atrocities committed by Japanese military men.Photo 19:This image made its mediadebut in RBS.93