The Good Man of Nanking

by John Rabe

  Smythe and I drive back to see Fukuda in an attempt to plead for these people. He promises to do his best; but we have scant hope. I point out that I will have difficulty finding workers for the Japanese if people are being executed. Fukuda admits as much and puts me off until tomorrow. I’m in a truly wretched mood. It’s hard to see people driven off like animals. But they say that the Chinese shot 2,000 Japanese prisoners in Tsinanfu, too.

  We hear by way of the Japanese navy that the gunboat USS Panay,on which the officials of the American embassy had sought safety, has been accidentally bombed and sunk by the Japanese. Two passengers are dead: Sandri, an Italian newspaper correspondent, and Charleson, the captain of the Maypin.Mr. Paxton of the American embassy was wounded in the knee and shoulder; Squire was likewise wounded in the shoulder; Gassie broke a leg; Lieutenant Andrews is seriously wounded; and Captain Hughes also has broken a leg.

  In the meantime a member of the committee has been wounded as well: Krischan Kröger came too close with an open flame to an almost empty gasoline can and has burned both hands. I gave him a good dressing-down. Hempel is bewailing the fact that the Japanese have completely destroyed his hotel. It appears there isn’t much left of Kiessling’s café, either.

  Report of an Address by Mr. Smith (Reuters) in Hankow 23

  By the morning of 13 December, there were still no Japanese soldiers to be seen in the city. The South City was still in Chinese hands. Two serious battles had been fought at the South Gate during the night, and the number of the Chinese dead was put at over 1,000.

  By the eve of 13 December, Chinese troops and civilians had begun to loot. Mainly grocery stores were pillaged, but Chinese soldiers were also seen leaving private homes with food. It would be a mistake, however, to claim that Chinese troops were intent on systematic looting.

  It is worth describing the scenes that took place outside Chinese clothing stores in South City. Hundreds of soldiers thronged before these shops. Ready-made civilian clothes of every sort sold like hotcakes. Soldiers spent their last cent on these clothes, changed into them out in the street, threw their uniforms away, and vanished as civilians. Several hundred of these civilians gathered later at the Military College and the International Club. It was not until almost noon that Mr. McDaniel spotted the first Japanese patrols in South City. In groups of six to twelve men they cautiously and slowly felt their way forward along the main streets. Occasional shots could be heard. Here and there one saw dead civilians at the side of the road, who, or so the Japanese said, had been shot while trying to flee. At the sight of the Japanese, a sense of relief seemed to pass through the Chinese civilian population, and they came out ready to accept the Japanese if they would have behaved humanely.

  In the so-called Safety Zone about a hundred Chinese had been killed by stray bullets and grenades and several hundreds more wounded. By night Japanese troops had entered the Safety Zone as well. About 7,000 disarmed Chinese soldiers were inside the Zone. They had been quartered at the Military College and other buildings. The police in the Safety Zone had been augmented by several hundred Chinese policemen who had fled to South City.

  By the morning of 14 December, the Japanese soldiers had still adopted no hostile attitude toward the Chinese civilian population. By noon, however, in many locations small groups of six to ten Japanese had formed, who then moved from house to house, looting. Whereas the Chinese had restricted their theft primarily to food, nothing was secure from the Japanese. They have looted the city systematically and thoroughly. Until the day I departed, 15 December, by my own observation and that of other Europeans, the houses of the Chinese had without exception been looted, as had most of those belonging to Europeans. European flags flying over these houses were pulled down by the Japanese. Groups of Japanese could be seen departing with various household furnishings, though they appeared to have a special preference for wall clocks.

  Flags were first ripped from the few foreign automobiles still remaining in Nanking before they were commandeered. The Japanese commandeered two cars and several trucks from the Safety Zone Committee. Outside the firm of Kiessling & Bader I ran into Herr Rabe, who with the help of the owner threw out several Japanese who had pulled down the flag and were busy looting the shop. In Hsiakwan the Japanese had bound 400 to 500 Chinese and led them away. All attempts by Europeans to reach them were vigorously forbidden by the Japanese. On 15 December the Japanese granted foreign correspondents permission to board a Japanese gunboat leaving Nanking for Shanghai. It later proved possible to take the same journey on an English gunboat. We were told to gather on the pier. When the wait for our departure lasted longer than expected, we used the time to undertake a short investigative walk. We saw how the Japanese had tied up some thousand Chinese out in an open field, and watched as small groups of them were led away to be shot. They were forced to kneel and were then shot in the back of the head. We had observed some 100 such executions, when the Japanese officer in charge noticed us and ordered us to leave at once. What happened to the rest of the Chinese, I cannot say.

  Mr. Smith had the highest praise for the work of the Germans remaining in Nanking: Rabe, Kröger, and Sperling who are serving their fellowmen and caring for the welfare of Chinese refugees.

  16 DECEMBER

  At 8:45 a.m. I receive a note from Mr. Kikuchi, a very modest and charming Japanese translator, that the so-called “Safety Zone” is to be searched for Chinese soldiers.

  All the shelling and bombing we have thus far experienced are nothing in comparison to the terror that we are going through now. There is not a single shop outside our Zone that has not been looted, and now pillaging, rape, murder, and mayhem are occurring inside the Zone as well. There is not a vacant house, whether with or without a foreign flag, that has not been broken into and looted. The following letter to Mr. Fukuda provides a general notion of current circumstances and the cases mentioned in the letter are only a few out of a great many that we know about:

  Mr. Tokuyashu Fukuda,

  Attaché to the Japanese Embassy,

  Nanking.

  Dear Sir:

  Yesterday the continued disorders committed by Japanese soldiers in the Safety Zone increased the state of panic among the refugees. Refugees in large buildings are afraid to even go to nearby soup kitchens to secure the cooked rice. Consequently, we are having to deliver rice to these compounds directly, thereby complicating our problem. We could not even get coolies out to load rice and coal to take to our soup kitchens and therefore this morning thousands of people had to go without their breakfast.

  Foreign members of the International Committee are this morning making desperate efforts to get trucks through Japanese patrols so these civilians can be fed. Yesterday foreign members of our Committee had several attempts made to take their personal cars away from them by Japanese soldiers. (A list of cases of disorder is appended.)

  Until this state of panic is allayed, it is going to be impossible to get any normal activity started in the city, such as: telephone workers, electric plant workers, probably the water plant workers, shops of all kinds, or even street cleaning. . . .

  We refrained from protesting yesterday because we thought when the High Commander arrived order in the city would be restored, but last night was even worse than the night before, so we decided these matters should be called to the attention of the Imperial Japanese Army, which we are sure does not approve of such actions by its soldiers.

  Most respectfully yours,

  JOHN RABE LEWIS S. C. SMYTHE

  Chairman Secretary

  Almost all the houses of the German military advisors have been looted by Japanese soldiers. No Chinese even dares set foot outside his house! When the gates to my garden are opened to let my car leave the grounds—where I have already taken in over a hundred of the poorest refugees—women and children on the street outside kneel and bang their heads against the ground, pleading to be allowed to camp on my garden grounds. You simply cannot conceive of the misery.

&nb
sp; I drive to Hsiakwan with Kikuchi to check on the electricity works and some of what rice remains. The electricity works looks to be intact and could probably be running again within a few days if the workers trusted the Japanese to protect them. I am willing to help, but given the incredible behavior of the Japanese soldiery, prospects are slim that I could drum up the 40 to 45 workers needed. And given the circumstances, neither would I like to risk having the Japanese authorities call one of our German engineers back from Shanghai.

  I’ve just heard that hundreds more disarmed Chinese soldiers have been led out of our Zone to be shot, including 50 of our police who are to be executed for letting soldiers in.

  The road to Hsiakwan is nothing but a field of corpses strewn with the remains of military equipment. The Communications Ministry was torched by the Chinese, the Y Chang Men Gate has been shelled. There are piles of corpses outside the gate. The Japanese aren’t lifting a hand to clear them away, and the Red Swastika Society24associated with us has been forbidden to do so.

  Hundreds of Chinese were executed in the open areas of the city.

  This gate, Y Chang Men, led to the harbor suburb of Hsiakwan. Only one passage was still open, and in it the bodies of Chinese soldiers were piled high, along with sandbags. People driving to Hsiakwan had to pass them for weeks.

  It may be that the disarmed Chinese will be forced to do the job before they’re killed. We Europeans are all paralyzed with horror. There are executions everywhere, some are being carried out with machine guns outside the barracks of the War Ministry.

  Katsuo Okazaki, the consul general, who visited us this evening, explained that while it was true that a few soldiers were being shot, the rest were to be interned in a concentration camp on an island in the Yangtze.

  Our former school porter is in Kulou Hospital; he’s been shot. He had been conscripted to do labor, was given a paper attesting to the work done, and on his way home was shot twice in the back for no reason at all. His old certificate of employment, issued by the German embassy, lies before me drenched with blood.

  As I write this, the fists of Japanese soldiers are hammering at the back gate to the garden. Since my boys don’t open up, heads appear along the top of the wall. When I suddenly show up with my flashlight, they beat a hasty retreat. We open the main gate and walk after them a little distance until they vanish in dark narrow streets, where assorted bodies have been lying in the gutter for three days now. Makes you shudder in revulsion.

  All the women and children, their eyes big with terror, are sitting on the grass in the garden, pressed closely together, in part to keep warm, in part to give each other courage. Their one hope is that I, the “foreign devil,” will drive these evil spirits away.

  17 DECEMBER

  Two Japanese soldiers have climbed over the garden wall and are about to break into our house. When I appear they give the excuse that they saw two Chinese soldiers climb over the wall. When I show them my party badge they return the same way they came.

  In one of the houses in the narrow street behind my garden wall, a woman was raped, and then wounded in the neck with a bayonet. I manage to get an ambulance so we can take her to Kulou Hospital. There are about 200 refugees in the garden now. They fall to their knees when you walk by, even though in all this misery we barely know up from down ourselves. One of the Americans put it this way: “The Safety Zone has turned into a public house for the Japanese soldiers.”

  That’s very close to the truth. Last night up to 1,000 women and girls are said to have been raped, about 100 girls at Ginling Girls College alone. You hear of nothing but rape. If husbands or brothers intervene, they’re shot. What you hear and see on all sides is the brutality and bestiality of the Japanese soldiery.

  Herr Hatz, our Austrian auto mechanic, gets into an argument with a Japanese soldier, who reaches for his sidearm but is immediately floored by a well-placed hook to the chin, whereupon he and his two Japanese comrades, all armed to the teeth, take off.

  The Japanese consul general, Katsuo Okazaki, demanded yesterday that the refugees leave the Zone for their homes and open their shops again as soon as possible. The Japanese soldiers have saved them the trouble of opening their shops: There’s hardly a shop in the city that has not been broken into and looted. Miraculously, the house of the German ambassador, Dr. Trautmann, has been spared.

  When Kröger and I arrive back at my house after checking on Trautmann’s, Kröger is amazed to find his car again behind my house. Japanese soldiers had taken it away from him yesterday while he was inside the hotel with some Japanese officers. Kröger stands his ground in front of the car until it is returned to him by its three Japanese occupants, one of whom says, “We friend—you go!”

  This afternoon during my absence, these same soldiers are back in my garden again and take Lorenz’s car instead. I had instructed Han that if he couldn’t get rid of such guests, he should get a receipt, no matter what. He got one, too. It reads as follows: “I thank you present! Nippon Army, K. Sato.”

  That’ll make Lorenz happy!

  Across from the War Ministry, at the base of a dugout mound, are 30 bodies of Chinese soldiers who were shot there yesterday under martial law. The Japanese are now starting to clean up the city. From Shansi Road Circle (“Bavarian Square”) to the War Ministry, everything is tidy already. The corpses are simply tossed into the ditches.

  At 6 p.m. I bring 60 straw mats to my refugees in the garden. Great joy! Four Japanese soldiers scramble over the garden wall again. I catch three of them on the spot and chase them off. The fourth works his way through the rows of refugees as far as the main iron gate, where I nab him and politely escort him out the door. No sooner are these fellows outside than they take off at a run. They don’t want to tangle with a German.

  Bodies were piled into ditches and left there.

  Usually all I have to do is shout “Deutsch” and “Hitler” and they turn polite, whereas the Americans have real trouble getting their way. Our letter of protest directed to the Japanese embassy has apparently made a lasting impression on Mr. Kiyoshi Fukui, the 2nd secretary. At any rate he promised that he would pass the letter on at once to the highest level of army command. While Dr. Smythe and I are speaking with Fukui at the Japanese embassy, Mr. Riggs arrives and asks us to return to headquarters, where Mr. Fukuda is waiting for us. The question of getting the electricity works back into operation is discussed. At the request of the Japanese I send the following telegram to Shanghai:

  Siemens China Co. 244 Nanking Road, Shanghai

  Japanese authorities would like German engineer to come to Nanking to restart the local power plant. No damage to plant apparently was done in last fighting. Please reply through Japanese authorities.

  RABE

  The Japanese understand that it’s in their interest to come to terms with us, although they recognize us only reluctantly. I tell them to give the commandant my regards and to tell him that I have had enough of my post as “mayor” and would be happy to resign.

  18 DECEMBER

  Our hope that order would return with the arrival of the commandant has unfortunately not been realized; on the contrary, things are worse today than yesterday. I already had to expel soldiers from our garden early this morning. One of them comes at me with his sidearm drawn, but he quickly puts it away.

  As long as I am personally at the house, everything is all right. So far these fellows have shown some respect for Europeans, but not for Chinese. I am constantly being called from headquarters by various people in the neighborhood whose houses soldiers have broken into. I drag two Japanese out of a back room in a house that has been totally looted. While we are speaking with a Japanese officer about getting the electricity works running again, one of our cars just outside the door is stolen. We barely manage to get the car back. The soldiers have almost no regard for their officers.

  A Chinese man dashes into the room and tells us that his brother was shot because he refused to give his cigarette case to the soldier
who had forced his way into the house. When I protest, the Japanese officer with whom we are negotiating about the electricity works provides me with a Japanese pass to be affixed to the front door. We drive home to paste it on right away.

  Just as we arrive we catch a soldier trying to break in. He is driven off by the officer. At the same moment one of my Chinese neighbors arrives and tells us that four soldiers have broken into his house and that one of them is about to violate his wife. The Japanese officer and I storm into the neighbor’s house and prevent the worst; the soldier gets a slap on each cheek by the officer, and is then allowed to go.

  Just as we are about to drive off again, Han arrives and reports that he has been robbed by one of the soldiers who broke in during my absence. That was too much for me. I got out of the car and told the Japanese officer to drive back without me. All these dreadful events had left me feeling physically ill.

  But the Japanese colonel wouldn’t hear of it. He apologized and declared quite candidly that after seeing what he had seen today, he was convinced that we had not been exaggerating and would do his best to put an end to this state of affairs.

  6:00 P.M.

  I arrive home just in time to meet up with a pair of Japanese soldiers who had entered by way of the garden wall. One of the two has already taken off his uniform and sidearm and is about to violate one of the girls among the refugees, when I come up and demand that he return at once the same way he came. The other fellow is already sitting astraddle the wall when he spots me and a gentle push sends him on his way.