The Good Man of Nanking

by John Rabe

  Mr. Jeffrey, the deputy at the British embassy, promised that he’d speak on my behalf with the British navy, so that I can travel to Shanghai either on the Butterfield & Swire steamer Wantungon 22 February or with the English gunboat Aphistwo days later, together with the servant that the Japanese embassy has allowed me to take along.

  16 FEBRUARY

  Jimmy Wang, from the Autonomous Government Committee and at the same time a (secret) member of our organization, tells me that the Chinese have decided to buy our headquarters and give the building to the committee as a gift. Very fine idea.

  Mr. Allison from the American embassy arrives with news that the “green bean problem” has now been settled. The beans can be imported and distributed both inside and outside the Zone.

  From a Memorandum of Chancellor Schar fenberg for the German Embassy in Hankow

  Re: Situation in Nanking on 17 February 1938

  We were awakened early this morning by the friendly bombs of the Chinese and then a long sequence of flak fire by the Japanese. The sun was so bright, however, that we could not see much.

  On 15 inst. we were given permission to drive out to the area of the Sun Yat-sen mausoleum, and we got as far as the swimming pool. The lovely willows along the road near the pagoda have all been chopped down and almost all the villas have been burned. We could not walk in the area because there were still too many corpses, blackened and partially eaten by dogs.

  On the trip back we entered the palace of President Lin Sen. The building has not been burned and in time it can probably be restored, despite the great damage to all its façades from the shelling; it looks horrible, and it really is a shame. It’s hard to believe, but in the reception room upstairs, there on the splendid marble floor, lay the cadaver of a pony, half decomposed and gnawed away. Which also explained why the marble staircase was in such bad shape.

  On our drive through the city some life and movement were to be seen, though mostly just the older generation. The committee claims that about 100,000 are in the city now, that is, they’ve left the camps. We even saw a ricksha and a horse-drawn wagon. Unfortunately there are cases of beriberi among the refugees now, and the committee acted swiftly to ship beans from Shanghai. I’m very pessimistic about epidemics, especially because of the water supply, and then there’s the garbage, and finally still too many bodies lying about. The weather is very changeable at present. When it’s as warm as it is today, you can’t go out on the street for the stench of corpses. Things will get better only after the Zone has emptied out more. To illustrate conditions in Nanking: The Rev. Forster had reported the theft of a piano to the Japanese; he was then taken to a warehouse in which there was a collection of 17 instruments of all kinds. Was his one of those?

  “No!”

  Then would he please select a replacement. Forster declined.

  Nanking is black as pitch at night, and of course there’s no street lighting of any sort.

  P. SCHARFFENBERG

  17 FEBRUARY

  Mr. Ritchie, the postal commissioner, is about to reopen the post office, with the Japanese. Until now he’s had no success reopening in any of the destroyed areas.

  The farewell tea at Miss Minnie Vautrin’s was very nice. Besides Dr. Bates and Fitch, Mr. Ritchie, Mr. Allison, and Dr. Rosen had been invited. There were some very lovely things to eat, but saying goodbye was dreadful!

  The refugees at the university—there are still 3,000 women and girls there—besieged the door and demanded that I promise not to leave them in the lurch, that is, not to leave Nanking. They all went down on their knees, weeping and wailing and literally hanging on to my coattails when I tried to depart. I had to leave my car behind, and once I had fought my way to the gate, which was instantly closed behind me, had to return home on foot. This all sounds very exaggerated and lugubrious. But anyone who has witnessed the misery here understands what the protection we’ve been able to give these poor people really means. It was all so obvious, none of it has anything to do with heroics.

  18 FEBRUARY

  Committee meeting: The “Green Bean Problem” is finally settled.

  My suggestion to name Mr. Mills vice chairman, and/or acting chairman is accepted. I will remain chairman for about two months, and if I have not returned to Nanking by then, presumably Mills will then officially be made chairman. We decide to change the name of the Zone Committee to Nanking International Relief Committee. Mr. Sone is named the successor to Mr. Fitch, who is returning to America. Mr. Smythe will continue to fill the posts of both treasurer and secretary but is to be relieved of one of them later on.

  I remain as before a committee member of the International Red Cross in Nanking.

  Fukuda pays me a call at headquarters to tell me that my trip to Shanghai has been given final approval. He doesn’t know anything about my being allowed to take a servant along, but will make inquiries. Maybe I’ll take Tsai with me.

  19 FEBRUARY

  I receive news from the British embassy that I can leave on the English gunboat Beeon Wednesday, 23 February. I gratefully accept. Mr. Jeffery will find out if I can ship my 53 crates of household goods to Shanghai on the Wantung.The furniture must remain here in any case, unfortunately all of it still not packed because I couldn’t find any crates for it.

  20 FEBRUARY

  The Chinese on the committee want to hold a large reception in my honor at headquarters tomorrow afternoon. I’ve got to put together a speech fast. Everyone shall be given their due. The Americans, all of whom have been invited to the reception of course, want to give yet another special reception for all the embassies at eight o’clock tomorrow evening. That pleases me especially: Even the Japanese are invited. It’s doubtful if Dr. Rosen will come. He says he doesn’t want to spend any more time with these “murderers.” For a diplomat, that’s going way too far, but it’s hard to even approach him about it.

  21 FEBRUARY

  What a shame I’m so unmusical! Reverend Jas. H. McCallum has composed a choral piece in my honor, entitled Nanking Nan Ming,and has also written the text: “We want beans for our breakfast, beans for our lunch.” I didn’t know the dear old parson, whom the Japanese came close to stabbing to death, had such a sense of humor.

  4:00 P.M.

  Large reception at the headquarters of the Safety Zone Committee. I am given an official letter of thanks in Chinese and English, copies of which are to be sent to Siemens China Co. as well as to Dr. Rosen of the German embassy. I respond to the various speeches in which I am praised more than I merit.

  My speech is received enthusiastically, both by the Americans and the Chinese, who ask for the text so that it can be translated into Chinese. The Chinese want my autograph. They have brought along huge sheets of white paper that I’m supposed to fill up somehow. I am embarrassed by my lack of poetical texts, but I manage tolerably enough by taking refuge in the poetry albums of my youth.

  7 P.M.

  A cozy farewell dinner surrounded by my American friends. Then, at eight o’clock, a reception for the German, American, and Japanese embassies.

  The English representative, Mr. Jeffery, could not come because his Japanese guard will not let him out after eight in the evening. Mr. Jeffery has protested at length but is too polite to take energetic action against such nonsense. Dr. Rosen, Scharffenberg, and Hürter were there from the German embassy; Mr. Allison, Espey, and McFadyen came from the American. I had to be careful in formulating my speech because of the Japanese.

  22 FEBRUARY

  Mr. Loh Fu Hsian, whose real name is Captain Huang Kuanghan, an air force officer and the brother of Colonel Huang of the OMEA (Officers Moral Endeavor Association), has, with some help from Han, been given a pass for the trip to Shanghai. I will smuggle him aboard the Beeas my servant, and that way he can finally escape from danger, because he’s been hiding in my house since the fall of Nanking. Capt. Huang, who shot down several Japanese aircraft, was ill when the city was conquered by the Japanese. He attempted to flee, but could n
o longer get across the Yangtze. While trying to swim one of the arms of the river, he lost his close friend. He, however, managed to get back through the city wall and into the Safety Zone.

  I spend the whole morning packing. My lao bai xinghave dragged in still more wood—all of it pilfered, I’m sure. Some of the planks come directly from a construction site. They’re still smeared with cement.

  I have received permission from the Japanese embassy to ship my crates to Shanghai on the Wantung.And so all that’s left is the task of getting them on board, which I’ll have to leave to Mr. Han and my American friends here, since I shall have already left for Nanking when the Wantungarrives.

  1 P.M.

  Tiffinwith Dr. Rosen and Mills, Dr. Bates, Miss Vautrin, Magee, Forster, Hürter, and Scharffenberg.

  8 P.M.

  Dinner alone with Dr. Rosen, whose heart is heavy with the problems of his current fate and who tells me some of them.

  Radio news at 10 o’clock: Germany has recognized Manchukuo. The report goes on to say that our Ambassador Trautmann, currently in Hankow, has thus been put in a difficult situation vis-à-vis the Chinese government. We’re afraid he may very well resign, although nothing is mentioned about that. It’s very difficult here to see through the situation at home, but: Right or wrong—my country!

  23 FEBRUARY, 8 A.M.

  All the Americans come to say goodbye. Sperling, Han, and a few of the Chinese from the electricity works take Captain Huang and me to Hsiakwan.

  At 9 o’clock on the dot, Mr. Jeffery and Williams from the British embassy appear, and with their help I am allowed without further ado to board a launch from the British gunboat Bee.On board the Bee,lying at anchor about two miles upriver, I am received cordially by the commander, Captain Armstrong, and his first officer, Mr. Brain-Nicols. The launch is piloted by a young officer, Sub-lieutenant Pearson. The fourth guest in the officers mess is the doctor, Surgeon Lieutenant Colonel Joynt. I’m very happy there’s a doctor on board. I’m not feeling very well, I’ve caught a cold that has settled in my bones.

  Shortly before departure, Dr. Bates brings me a résumé from the press. I still have to think about what details I want to make public. In any event, I don’t want to see the committee get into any difficulty because of it.

  LATER (ON BOARD THE HMS BEE)

  HMS Beeweighs anchor at 9 a.m. We pass Ching Kiang in the afternoon. Since by order of the Japanese there can be no traffic on the Yangtze at night, we anchor this evening near Kou-An.

  I am being treated splendidly on board. The cabin, meals, and service are excellent. The Chinese servants on board are apparently all in a puzzle over Mr. Huang (or Loh Fu Hsian). It’s obvious that he’s not a servant, but we’re keeping mum. The Bee’s officers think he’s my “comprador.”56I’m feeling somewhat better.

  From a Memorandum of Chancellor Schar fenberg for the German Embassy in Hankow

  Re: Situation in Nanking on 4 March 1938

  On 23 February Herr John Rabe left Nanking, after being honored by both Chinese and foreign nationals at several impressive and dignified gatherings, with many good and stirring farewell speeches expressing great gratitude for his service on behalf of the Safety Zone. He had to give a few speeches himself, and especially at the celebration held by the American missionaries and the foreign nationals he found the right words to say to Japanese general consul Fukui about the support to be given the work of the International Relief Committee, as it is now called.

  On 27 February, both the Austrian Rupert Hatz and Zaudig the Balt left town. Richard Hempel, the hotelier, and Eduard Sperling, the “chief of police” of the Safety Zone, are the only Germans left.

  The Safety Zone is now 50 percent cleared. Until night falls, you now see a good many Chinese in the city. But only an occasional ricksha, no pony wagons, though now and then a donkey pulling a cart.

  Dr. Brady, an American physician, has arrived, and the Relief Committee has assigned him to inspect all 36 refugee camps and inoculate everyone. He has inoculated several thousand people, and Police Chief Sperling has been asked to work with him, to make sure that all the camps are cleaned. Sperling is organizing a kind of “refuse disposal” because you can scarcely imagine how filthy it all is here; the garbage is piled high in vacant lots between buildings in the residential areas, and it’s even worse outside.

  They are now hard at work removing bodies from the center of the city. The Red Swastika Society has been given permission to bury the 30,000 bodies in Hsiakwan. They manage 600 a day. The bodies are wrapped in lime and straw mats, with only the legs hanging out, then driven back into the city and buried in mass graves also filled with lime. It’s said that circa 10,000 have been dealt with.

  The garrison commander, Major General Amaya, keeps a tight rein on things, and we no longer hear of atrocities, and order is also being restored in general. All the trees that the Chinese chopped down for barricades against tanks have been removed, so that the roads near the Sun Yat-sen mausoleum are free again. But in that entire area, which is probably as large as the city enclosed by the long city wall, you do not see a single farmer in the fields. The entire harvest there is ruined.

  War equipment is being gathered up and taken away as well; it is all piled in Hsiakwan, along a line from the train station to the charred remains of the Bridge Hotel—but we are not allowed there under any circumstances. Thousands of vehicles of every sort, steamrollers, etc. are parked there, waiting to be shipped to Japan, some as scrap metal. But the fire trucks that were also commandeered have been returned to the Chinese.

  The Japanese have opened the little movie house on the side street next to the Chinese newspaper offices on Potsdamer Platz as a Chinese theater. The Japanese pay every actor, believe it or not, ten cents a day.

  Since 1 March the Nanking Kung Paohas been appearing, a small double-column sheet, but very neatly printed, containing Japanese notices put together by Chinese editors. Price: 2 cents.

  The number of Japanese canteen owners and petty merchants continues to grow. All in all, conditions here have improved. A major disadvantage, of course, is that the water mains do not yet function very well. The upper stories get only a trickle now and then.

  Herr Hempel and Herr Sperling are thinking of reopening the Foo Chong Hotel at some point. They are banking on Japanese officers as hotel guests, and on the banquets that the Chinese on the Autonomous Committee will hold for the Japanese.

  The Japanese still make entering and leaving the city difficult, i.e. for Westerners. Attaché Fukuda was in Shanghai again, traveling by car this time; it took eight hours and he claims the road is in good order once more. But we’re in a mouse hole here, and the cat is Japanese!

  P. SCHARFFENBERG

  24 FEBRUARY (ON BOARD THE HMS BEE)

  Around 11 o’clock we pass the forts at Kian Yin. According to newspaper reports, the devastation should be much worse. You can see Chinese working in the fields along the banks. We pass three wrecked warships. A Japanese gunboat, a Chinese gunboat, and a Chinese cruiser, the Hai Yin.

  25 FEBRUARY

  I radio both the American general consulate to inform Fitch and the German general consulate to inform Siemens China Co. of my arrival. Fitch is leaving for America tomorrow afternoon. I would very much like to speak with him before he departs and give him his mail from Nanking.

  28 FEBRUARY

  At 2 p.m. yesterday afternoon we arrived in Shanghai. As we passed the Gneisenau,which was lying at anchor ready to depart, I heard someone call my name but could not discover from which of the many portholes the call came. Mr. Fitch was on board as well. I wasn’t able to get his mail to him because by the time I landed at 3:15, the Gneisenauhad already pulled out and could no longer be reached. I spotted Mutti waiting for me as we passed the customs jetty. But she didn’t recognize me from that distance.

  And now I’m sitting nice and cozy in Shanghai, and feel “proud as a Piefke” when the victorious troops marched into Berlin.57Everyone thinks I’m a
hero, and that can be very annoying; for I can see nothing heroic about me or within me.

  With all the hymns of praise being sung in my honor, I’m reminded of the lovely poem that tells of a lad from Hamburg who saves one of his buddies from drowning, and when the father of the rescued lad calls on him that evening to thank him for saving his son’s life, the lad says: “Saved his life?—Oh crap!” and rudely rolls over on his other side.

  BACK HOME AGAIN AFTER THIRTY YEARS IN CHINA

  On 16 March 1938, Mutti and I boarded the Conte Bianca Manofor home. Captain Huang, who had preceded us, was waiting for us at the dock in Hong Kong, along with his nineteen-year-old wife and her entire family, who live there and who took touchingly good care of us for three days. The German community had prepared a reception at the German Club in Hong Kong, where I spoke about some of my experiences. Almost the entire community, with Frau von Falkenhausen at their head, came on board to say goodbye.

  After an absolutely wonderful trip via Manila and Bombay on the Italian ship, which is fitted out very luxuriously, we landed in Genoa on 12 April 1938.

  On 13 April we learned in Munich that Otto, whom we had not seen for seven years, has in the meantime marched into Austria as a soldier. On 15 April we arrived in Berlin.

  John and Dora Rabe, 1947

  PART 2

  JOHN RABE IN HIS GERMAN HOMELAND

  CHAPTER 12

  BETWEEN THE NANKING AND BERLIN DIARIES

  BEFORE RETURNING HOME, John Rabe held a press conference in Shanghai, which was reported in all the newspapers in China and by almost all the large news agencies from around the world. Rabe spoke of his close cooperation with American missionaries, university teachers, and doctors. It had indeed been only these Americans and three Germans, John Rabe, Christian Kröger, and Eduard Sperling, who had remained in the city when the Japanese stood at the gates and whose International Committee had provided 250,000 Chinese relative security inside the Safety Zone. At this press conference Mr. Rabe spoke about the shortage of food in Nanking, about the plight of its citizens, but he said nothing about the excesses of the Japanese soldiers in order not to worsen the relationship between the International Committee and the Japanese army. The Ostasiatischer Lloyd, Shanghai’s little German newspaper, published some excerpts from his diary, but only those about the Japanese air raids and the shelling of the city of Nanking before it was taken, and nothing of the horrors that everyone was waiting to hear about. Rabe was celebrated as a hero by all the papers and press agencies. He found that amusing.