by John Rabe
Early yesterday morning, the Japanese soldier had tried to rape Liu’s wife, the mother of 5 children. The husband came in and with some slaps in the face forced the Japanese to leave. That afternoon the soldier, who had been unarmed in the morning, returned with a gun, looked for and found Liu hiding in the kitchen, and shot him, even though all Liu’s neighbors pled for the man’s life and one even knelt down before the Japanese soldier.
Tanaka promised to advise the military of the incident at once. I do not doubt that he kept his promise, but we have heard nothing of the matter since. We also have yet to hear of any punishment given any soldier other than a few slaps.
Perhaps as a way of consoling me, Tanaka then tells me a very welcome bit of news, that is, that Dr. Rosen and presumably Hürter and Scharffenberg, who are currently staying in Wuhu, will arrive in Nanking on 5 January, the same day that the gentlemen of the American embassy have announced for their visit.
Meanwhile, Krischan Kröger has been on Purple Mountain. The observatory is in ruins and the path to the top more or less demolished, but still passable. I’m not at all pleased by Kröger’s little strolls. He should not place himself in danger so often for no compelling reason—but try and tell him that!
LATER
Water has been restored to the city today, so we now have running water in our bathroom on the second floor. At noon there was even power in a few areas of the Zone, but it was turned off again at around 1 o’clock, probably to keep us from listening to news on the radio.
The reports reviewing our soup kitchens and refugee camps provide an interesting insight into how our committee and its subcommittees have to go about their rather difficult business: Some Chinese are not at all shy about “squeezing.” We are in China, and nothing gets done without a “squeeze.”
Today in my garden I caught a vegetable peddler demanding cut-throat prices. Some women in the camp were about to buy him out. I was able to stop it and showed the fellow the gate.
4 JANUARY
Unfortunately I live a bit too close to the Safety Zone border. I can’t stop worrying about the chance that my house may go up in flames. Yesterday three buildings in the vicinity were torched, and as I write this a new cloud of smoke is rising in the south. The city, by the way, is still dark, although the turbines at Hsiakwan are said to be intact. We keep up a steady stream of protests, but without any visible results. Some improvement in our general situation is apparent now that a troop of military police has been specially charged with guarding the Safety Zone, but even among these shen bings31there are some dubious elements who either close both eyes at once or participate in atrocities themselves.
5 JANUARY
In the review of the individual refugee camps, the Siemens Camp did not do very well. Mr. Han has given our refugees a little too much rice. He’s a kind man, that’s all! The suggestion that some of the refugees be sent to another camp, because the 5,500 square feet in my garden are too small for 602 people, has met with no favor. People feel safe here with me and don’t want to leave. So there’s really nothing that can be done.
I’m very worried about the sanitation problem. I have no idea what to do about it and can only hope no epidemics break out. We had city water until this morning, but it dried up at noon. We still don’t have light. And houses are burning down all around us.
Registration is still not complete. You see tens of thousands of women with babies in their arms standing five abreast in long lines waiting out in the open for up to six hours. How these people endure waiting in the cold like that is a mystery to me.
The Hanchung Men, the gate that was opened yesterday, has been closed again today. Kröger saw about 300 corpses in a dry ditch near the gate: civilians who had been machine-gunned there. They don’t want to let Europeans outside the gates. They probably fear that something about conditions here might get published too soon.
CHAPTER 7
THE DIPLOMATS RETURN
6 JANUARY
HURRAH! The three officials from the American embassy, Mr. Allison, Mr. Espey, and Mr. McFadyen, arrived here today aboard the USS Oahufrom Shanghai by way of Wuhu. They were already outside Nanking once before on 31 December, but were not allowed to land and so went on to Wuhu. Mr. Allison served previously as a diplomat in Tokyo and speaks Japanese.
We can now buy rice and flour from the Japanese military authorities: supplies that the Japanese have captured here. Despite the high price (one sack of rice costs 13 dollars Mex.), we decide to buy rice worth 50,000 dollars Mex. We also have to buy coal worth about 12,000 dollars Mex. The demand for rice, flour, and coal grows daily, since the supplies that the refugees brought with them into the Zone are almost used up.
Mr. Han does not agree with the purchase. He has heard from a rice dealer that the Chinese troops are about to retake Nanking. People claim to have heard the thunder of cannons southwest of the city. If Nanking is retaken, Han says, we’ll have rice and flour for free. Unfortunately, I must disabuse him of any such hopes.
At around 10 o’clock a Japanese truck arrived and took about 15 employees from my Siemens Camp to be put to work at the electricity works in Hsiakwan. The coolies left only very reluctantly. Last time, despite all the promises of the Japanese, they were badly taken care of, if they were taken care of at all. Besides which, instead of being sent to the electricity works in Hsiakwan, some of them were put to work clearing trenches outside the city gates.
At 5 o’clock this afternoon, Mr. Fukuda paid me a visit to tell me that by decision of the military authorities our International Committee is to be dissolved and our supplies and moneys are to be taken over by the Autonomous Government Committee. I immediately protest any handing over of our assets and supplies. We have no objection to their taking over our work, but wish to point out that before the city is secure under the rule of law and order, the refugees cannot return to their former homes, which for the most part have been demolished and looted or burned down.
I at once call a meeting of the committee, in which my answer to Mr. Fukuda is discussed and a proposal prepared outlining how we envision the restoration of law and order. I have the feeling that the Autonomous Government hasn’t the vaguest idea how to tackle these problems, even though they are being advised by the Japanese. All that interests them are our assets. Their claim is: “You received the money from the Chinese government, and so now it belongs to us!”
We are most decidedly of a different opinion and will leave no stone unturned in the defense of our opinion, for which we expect strong support from both the American and German embassies, although as yet we do not know what their viewpoints really are.
From a Report of Ambassador Trautmann to the Foreign Ministry
Hankow, 6 January 1938
Re: Taking of Nanking, Plundering by Japanese troops
The activity of the International Committee, headed by Herr Rabe, an agent of Siemens, has received highest commendation from all sides. Minister Kung 32 has asked me to express his particular thanks to Herr Rabe. I would like to reserve the right to request that Herr Rabe be awarded a decoration later.
TRAUTMANN
7 JANUARY
I presented Mr. Fukuda a letter in which the standpoint of the International Committee is clearly laid out. He told me that strict instructions have come from Tokyo stating that order absolutely must be restored in Nanking immediately. At the same time, however, all administrative tasks (including those of Mayor Rabe?) must be handled by the Autonomous Government Committee and not by us Westerners. “We Westerners” certainly have no objection there. We only hope the Autonomous Committee is up to the task.
I once again call Fukuda’s attention to the danger to which we are all exposed as long as perhaps a thousand corpses are lying about the city unburied. These corpses have been partially eaten by dogs. At the same time, however, dog meat is being sold by the Chinese in the streets. For 26 days now, I have been asking for permission to have these bodies buried, but always to no avail. Fukuda promi
sed to petition the military yet again to give the Red Swastika Society permission to bury the corpses.
During my absence this morning, at about 10 o’clock, a Japanese soldier broke into my servants’ quarters. The women and girls ran screaming to my rooms, were pursued up to the attic by the soldier, when a Japanese officer and interpreter who happened to call upon me found them and ordered him out. The incident is a good measure of what sort of safety is to be found in European houses at present, 26 days after Nanking was taken.
Mr. Riggs brings me the following report from his inspection tour today: A woman is wandering the streets with glazed eyes. She is taken to the hospital, where they learn she is the sole survivor of a family of eighteen. Her 17 relatives have been shot and bayoneted. She lived near the South Gate. Another woman from the same area, who has been living in our camp along with her brother, lost her parents and three children, all of them shot by the Japanese. With what little she had left, she bought a coffin so she could at least bury her father. Hearing news of this, Japanese soldiers ripped the lid from the coffin and dumped the body onto the street. Chinese don’t need to be buried, was their explanation.
8 JANUARY
Mr. Fukui brings me news that Dr. Rosen, Hürter, and Scharffenberg will be arriving tomorrow with two gentlemen from the British embassy. Dr.Rosen’s and Hürter’s houses are in good shape, as is the German embassy. All that was stolen at Dr. Rosen’s were his automobile, a bicycle, and various bottles of liquor. I don’t know how things look at the Englishmen’s homes. Scharffenberg’s house, which lies outside the Zone, has been badly looted. Scharffenberg will have to live at Hürter’s. The unpleasant part is that neither of these houses has water or electricity. I wrote Fukui another letter to that effect. I’ve heard that the gentlemen from the American embassy are also without water or light. They’re all freezing, sitting around a large fireplace at the embassy. It’s beyond me why they don’t simply demand that the Japanese provide water and power.
Corpses left unburied were mauled and eaten by dogs.
The Japanese slaughtered children as indiscriminately as adults.
I’ve already received Fukui’s assurance that the Japanese embassy will allow new automobiles to be brought from Japan for the gentlemen at our embassy, and presumably at other embassies as well, to replace the cars that were stolen.
The rumor has spread among the Chinese again today that Chinese soldiers are about to retake the city. In fact, the claim is that Chinese soldiers have already been spotted inside the city. The first result of this was that all the many little Japanese flags decorating the huts and houses inside the Zone vanished; even the Japanese armbands that all Chinese wear disappeared, and as Mills has just told me, a sizable group of refugees has come up with the idea of attacking the Japanese embassy.
The least insurrection on the part of any Chinese will be punished by death. We’re happy that thus far our Zone has remained perfectly quiet and can only hope that we are spared such tragic events.
LATER
In a Japanese newspaper lent me by Dr. Bates, I found the following article:
TheTokyo Nichi Nichi of 17December 1937
Returning Normalcy. Chinese Merchants Prepare for Business:
Nanking, Dec. 15. With the city of Nanking having been cleared of the Chinese looters, an early return to normalcy is expected as the Chinese merchants, now back from the refugee zone, are busy preparing for reopening their shops. Peace and order in the city is maintained by the Japanese Gendarmerie authorities, who posted guards at the important Chinese government structures including the Executive and Legislative Yuans, the Finance Ministry, the Central Military Academy, and the Central Aviation School.
9 JANUARY
10 a.m.: discussion with Wang (“Jimmy”), a member of the Autonomous Government Committee, who tells us that a few days ago the Japanese were planning to close down our committee by force. But then they thought better of it. We’re not allowed to sell any more rice to the refugees, however. We have no objection to that, if the Autonomous Government wants to take over the sale itself.
I visit the houses of Dr. Rosen and Hürter, and the German embassy, and find everything in order, but no electricity or water.
Kröger and Hatz arrive at our Zone headquarters at 11 o’clock and report that there’s been a “small” execution that they were forced to witness. A Japanese officer and two soldiers drove a Chinese civilian out into one of the ponds on Shansi Road. When the man was standing hip-deep in the water, one of the soldiers made himself comfortable behind a nearby sandbag barricade and kept firing until his victim sank into the pond.
Dr. Rosen, Hürter, and Scharffenberg have arrived on the English gunboat Cricket,which also brought three officials of the British embassy, Consul Prideaux-Brune, Colonel Lovat-Fraser, and Mr. Walser, an air-force attaché, who, however, was not permitted to land, since the Japanese alleged that they had not been informed of his arrival.
Kröger, Hatz, and I went to the German embassy at 2 o’clock this afternoon and at about 3 the three German officials arrived, accompanied by Mr. Tanaka and Mr. Fukuda of the Japanese embassy, and we welcomed them with a bottle of champagne that Kröger had “commandeered” somewhere. Dr. Rosen was given a splendid Buick on loan from the Japanese to replace his stolen car, as well as a Ford for official use by the German embassy. Rosen swears that he will never give the two vehicles back. We join Scharffenberg on a visit to his house, which is in an indescribable state of disorder from having been looted. Among the many things that were dear to him, Schalauje33misses his top hat and 40 neckties. As soon as we get to take a vacation in Japan again, we’ll keep an eye open to see if we can’t catch someone wearing said items. The “shah” is quite cool and collected, by the way. I would have thought he’d fly into a rage, but he maintained the splendid composure acquired from 37 years in China!
This evening at 8 o’clock I had the three gentlemen from the German embassy, along with Kröger, for dinner and some of the wine Kröger rescued from Scharffenberg’s, and was told stories of what had happened to the passengers aboard the Jardines Hulk,and the fates of the Beeand Panay.34
Hürter read us a report that Rosen had sent to the Foreign Ministry in Berlin. Dr. Rosen says that we 22 foreigners who remained behind here in Nanking have behaved as bravely as the first Christians in Rome who were devoured by lions in the arena; but that these lions simply didn’t like us and preferred Chinese flesh. When asked about his view of the Japanese, Rosen replied with a Turkish proverb—he was once part of the legation in Constantinople:35 “As long as you’re on the bridge with the billy goat, you have to say ‘uncle’!”
As we were about to set down to dinner at 8, one of the buildings nearby burst into flames. The arrival of the diplomats does not seem to have stopped the Japanese soldiers from carrying out their campaign of arson!
10 JANUARY
Rosen brought me letters, from Mutti in Shanghai, from Gretel and Otto in Munich. And I also got a lovely book, “The Story of Tilman’s Sons,” two cervelat sausages, two packages of rye wafers, insulin, and two pounds of butter. With it all lying so prettily there around me, I felt like a soldier with his gifts from home.
9 A.M.
Kröger returns from a visit by Major Ishida with news that Japanese don’t want to sell us the rice and flour they promised. They’ll supply only the Autonomous Government Committee. In compliance with Japanese orders, we stopped selling rice this morning, to the great disappointment of the Chinese refugees, for whom the Autonomous Government Committee has thus far not set up a single outlet. The situation is getting critical.
Dr. Rosen visits us at our committee headquarters. The Japanese have asked him, just as they have asked me, to be somewhat cautious in his reports. He says he told them: I shall report that you have cut off our water and power.
4:00 P.M.
The Autonomous Government Committee has opened an outlet for rice inside the Zone, not far from our headquarters. So for now at lea
st, the worst of the crisis is taken care of. Reverend Mills accompanies me on a visit to the American embassy to introduce me to Mr. Allison, who has promised to continue our work in regard to the protests that we have submitted daily to the Japanese embassy about the endless stream of crimes committed by the Japanese soldiery.
FROM THE FAMILY DIARY
I hear from Hürter that an argument broke out on board the Kutwobetween P. and v. S. as a result of which P. challenged v. S. to a duel (pistols— 30 paces). Since duels are illegal in Hong Kong, where they were headed, the duel is to take place in Germany. P. and v. S. are now each on board separate ships heading for home. All commentary superfluous! Here we are in peril of our own lives, trying to save human lives, and our fellow countrymen are playing games with theirs!
Report from the Nanking Office of the German Embassy (Rosen) to the Foreign Ministry
15 January 1938
On 9 January, after an interruption of one month, the Nanking office was reopened upon our arrival here after a two-day journey without incident aboard the British gunboat Cricket.
According to reports of my German and American informants, when it became known that foreigner representatives were intent on returning to Nanking, feverish operations were begun to remove the corpses lying about the streets—in some places “like herrings”—of civilians, including women and children, slain in a campaign of pointless mass murder.
In a reign of terror lasting several weeks, including massive looting, the Japanese have turned the business section of the city, that is the area along Taiping Street and the entire section south of so-called Potsdamer Platz, into a heap of rubble, in the midst of which a few buildings whose exteriors appear somewhat less damaged are still standing. This arson, organized by the Japanese military, is still going on to this day—a good month after the Japanese occupied the city—as is the abduction and rape of women and girls. In this respect, the Japanese army has erected a monument to its own shameful conduct.