The Rape Of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust Of World War II

by Iris Chang

  Most of the surviving American and European eyewitnesses of the massacre and their families were unstintingly generous with their time and information, giving me telephone interviews, photographs, documents, and even films of the massacre. They include Robert and Morton Bates, Tanya Condon, Frank Tillman Durdin, Marion Fitch Exter, Robert Fitch, Marge Garrett, Peter Kröger, Emma Lyon, David Magee, Angie and Harriet Mills, Fred Riggs, Charles Sone, Leland Steward, Edith Fitch Swapp, Marjorie Wilson, and Robert Wilson Jr.

  Drs. Rana Mitter and Christian Jessen-Klingenberg of the University of Oxford, Carol Gluck of Columbia University, and William Kirby of Harvard University, took the time to review my book before publication and to enrich it with their important scholarly suggestions.

  In San Francisco, several Japanese and Asians met with me to discuss their viewpoints on the Rape of Nanking and Japanese denial of World War II responsibilities. I am grateful for Haru Murakawa’s help in organizing this March 30, 1997 workshop, and for Citania Tam’s generosity in providing office space for the meeting. Many thanks go to the workshop participants, who include Akira Donuma, Keiko Ito, Kenji Oka, Ching Jeng, Sueko Kawamshi, Connie Yee, Hirokiu Yamaji, Noriko Yamaji, and Yasuhiro Yamaji.

  Other people who assisted me in various important ways while I was completing the book include Simon Avenell, Marilyn Bolle, Frank Boring, Mark Cajigao, Julius Chang, Barbara Culliton, Jim Culp, Edward Dodds, Mark Eykholt, David Farnsworth, Robert Friedly, Richard Fumosa, Chris Goff, Paul Golob, Gilbert Hair, Hiro Inokuchi, Ron King, Petrus Liu, David McWhirter, Dale Maharidge, Karen Parker, Axel Schneider, John Sweeney, Shigehisa Terao, Marjorie Traverso, Ao Wang, Gail Winston, Wu Tien-wei, James Yin, and Shi Young.

  Finally, I must thank my husband, Dr. Bretton Lee Douglas, who endured, without complaint, story after gruesome story of Japanese atrocities in China. His love, wisdom, and encouragement gave me the strength to finish this book.

  NOTES

  A Chinese-language edition of this book is available to those interested in obtaining the Chinese character names of people and places mentioned in the text. Write to Commonwealth Publishing Company Ltd., 87 Sung-Chiang Road, 4F, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China, or E-mail the publisher, Charles Kao, at ckao@cw.com.tw.

  INTRODUCTION

  page 4. Years later experts at the . . . IMFTE: “Table: Estimated Number of Victims of Japanese Massacre in Nanking,” document no. 1702, Records of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, court exhibits, 1948, World War II War Crimes Records Collection, box 134, entry 14, record group 238, National Archives.

  5. One historian has estimated: estimates by Wu Zhikeng, cited in San Jose Mercury News, January 3, 1988.

  5. Romans at Carthage: Frank Chalk and Kurt Jonassohn, The History and Sociology of Genocide: Analyses and Case Studies (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1990), p. 76.

  5. The monstrosities of Timur Lenk: Arnold Toynbee, 1947, p. 347, cited in Leo Kuper, Genocide: Its Political Use in the Twentieth Century (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1981), p. 12.

  5. Indeed, even by the standards of history’s most destructive war: For European numbers, see R. J. Rummel, China’s Bloody Century: Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1900 (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction, 1991), p. 138.

  6. It is likely that more people died in Nanking: Statistics from the Bombing of Dresden come from Louis L. Snyder, Louis Snyder’s Historical Guide to World War II (Westport, Conn.: Green-wood Press, 1982), pp. 198-99.

  6. Indeed, whether we use the most conservative number: Brigadier Peter Young, ed., The World Almanac Book of World War II (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: World Almanac Publications/Prentice-Hall, 1981), p. 330. For numbers on the blasts at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, see Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996), pp. 734, 740. Rhodes claims that by the end of 1945 some 140,000 people had died in Hiroshima and 70,000 in Nagasaki from the nuclear explosions. The dying continued, and after five years a total of some 200,000 in Hiroshima and 140,000 in Nagasaki had perished from causes related to the bombing. But it is significant to note that even after five years the combined death toll in both cities is still less than the highest casualty estimates for the Rape of Nanking.

  6. An estimated 20,000-80,000 Chinese women were raped: Catherine Rosair, “For One Veteran, Emperor Visit Should Be Atonement,” Reuters, October 15, 1992; George Fitch, “Nanking Outrages,” January 10, 1938, George Fitch Collection, Yale Divinity School Library; Li En-han, a historian in the Republic of China, estimates that 80,000 women were raped or mutilated. (“‘The Great Nanking Massacre’ Committed by the Japanese Army as Related to International Law on War Crimes,” Journal of Studies of Japanese Aggression Against China [May 1991]: 74).

  6. Many soldiers went beyond rape: Author’s interviews with survivors.

  6. “bestial machinery”: Christian Kröger, “Days of Fate in Nanking,” unpublished diary in the collection of Peter Kröger; also in the IMTFE judgment, National Archives.

  7. “Nothing the Nazis under Hitler would do”: Robert Leckie, Delivered from Evil: The Saga of World War II (New York: Harper & Row, 1987), p. 303.

  10. During the conference I learned of two novels: R. C. Binstock, Tree of Heaven (New York: Soho Press,1995); Paul West, Tent of Orange Mist (New York: Scribners, 1995); James Yin and Shi Young, The Rape of Nanking: An Undeniable History in Photographs (Chicago: Innovative Publishing Group, 1996).

  12. “erecting a cathedral for Hitler in the middle of Berlin”: Gilbert Hair, telephone interview with the author.

  CHAPTER 1: THE PATH TO NANKING

  19. For as far back as anyone could remember: Tanaka Yuki, Hidden Horrors: Japanese War Crimes in World War II (Boulder, Co.: Westview, 1996), pp. 206-8. (Although Tanaka is the author’s surname, he uses an American-style of presenting his name as Yuki Tanaka for this English-language book.) According to Tanaka, the modern Japanese corrupted the ancient code of bushido for their own purposes. The original code dictated that warriors die for just causes, not trivial ones. But during World War II, officers were committing ritual suicide for the most absurd of reasons, such as for stumbling over their words when reciting the code. The concept of loyalty in bushido was also replaced by blind obedience, and courage by reckless violence.

  20. It is striking to note: Meirion Harries and Susie Harries, Soldiers of the Sun: The Rise and Fall of the Imperial Japanese Army (New York: Random House, 1991), p. vii.

  21. “A parallel situation”: Samuel Eliot Morison, “Old Bruin”: Commodore Matthew C. Perry 1794-1858 (Boston: Atlantic-Little, Brown, 1967), p. 319.

  22. “As we are not the equals of foreigners,”: Delmer M. Brown, Nationalism in Japan: An Introductory Historical Analysis (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1955), p. 75. (Italics mine.) (Brown’s citation: Satow, trans., Japan 1853-1864, or Genji Yume Monogatari, p. 4).

  24. “destined to expand and govern other nations”: Taiyo, July 1905, quoted in ibid., p. 144.

  24. Modernization had earned for the country: Ibid., p. 152.

  26. The population had swollen: Paul Johnson, Modern Times: The World from the Twenties to the Nineties (New York: Harper-Collins, 1991), p. 189.

  26. “There are only three ways left to Japan”: W. T. deBary, ed., Sources of the Japanese Tradition (New York, 1958), pp. 796-97, quoted in ibid., p. 189.

  27. Why, the military propagandist Sadao Araki: Quoted in ibid., p. 189.

  27. Nor were Japan’s covetous intentions: Ibid., p. 393. For more information about the ambitions of some Japanese ultranationalists regarding the United States during that era, see Records of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations, 1882-1954, Office of Naval Intelligence, Intelligence Division—Naval Attaché Reports, 1886-1939, box 525, entry 98, record group 38, National Archives. As early as December 1932, a U.S. naval intelligence report noted that best-sellers in Japan tended to be books on war—particularly on the possibility of American-Japanese war. This report and others analyzed the con
tent of Japanese books, articles, pamphlets, and lectures that dwelled on the topic of a Japanese invasion of the United States. Some of these publications bore titles such as “The Alaska Air Attack,” “The Assault on Hawaii,” and “The California Attack.” Here are a few examples of Japanese propaganda from the early 1930s that made their way into American naval intelligence files (the following names come directly from an English-language report and may be misspelled):

  —A lecture by Captain K. Midzuno revealed that the Japanese military not only developed strategies for attacking Pearl Harbor from the air but also foresaw the possibility of American raids on Tokyo.

  —In Japan in Danger: A Great Naval War in the Pacific Ocean, Nakadzima Takesi described scenarios of a victorious war waged by the Japanese against the United States through naval battles and air bombardment.

  —In Increasing Japanese-American Danger, Vice Admiral Sesa Tanetsugu wrote that he was convinced of the inevitability of Japanese-American conflict.

  —Ikedzaki Talakta presented in The Predestined Japanese-American War a compilation of articles on the subject of the inevitability of a Japanese-American war. A newspaper review lauded this book as “a work of passionate love for the native land” and assured readers that “if Japan draws its sword, the false, haughty America will be powerless” (February 3, 1933 report, p. 260).

  27. “Before a new world appears”: Delmer Brown, Nationalism in Japan, p. 187; see also Okawa Shumei, “Ajia, Yoroppa, Nihon (Asia, Europe, and Japan),” p. 82, translated in “Analyses,” IPS document no. 64, pp. 3-4 (italics added).

  29. To prepare for the inevitable war with China: Tessa Morris-Suzuki, Showa: An Inside History of Hirohito’s Japan (New York: Schocken, 1985), pp. 21-29.

  30. “We appear to be standing in the vanguard of Asia”: Quoted in Ian Buruma, The Wages of Guilt (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1994), pp. 191-92.

  30. “Why are you crying about one lousy frog?”: Ibid., p. 172.

  30. “deep ambivalence in Japanese society”: Letter from Rana Mitter to author, July 17, 1997.

  31. It was reputed that more than one teacher: Harries and Harries, Soldiers of the Sun, p. 41.

  31. A visitor to one of its elementary schools: Iritani Toshio, Group Psychology of the Japanese in Wartime (London and New York: Kegan Paul International, 1991), pp. 177, 191.

  31. abuse: Ibid.

  32. “I do not beat you because I hate you”: Ibid., p. 189.

  32. The intensity of the training in Japan: 106/5485, February 1928 report, p. 136, Papers of the British War Office in the Public Record Office, Kew, London. An OSS report on Japanese army training summarizes the process of indoctrination: “The smallest infraction or error in regulations brings instant and severe punishment. Act tough—shout, don’t talk—scowl, don’t look pleasant—be tough—have no desires—forget your family at home—never show emotionalism—do everything the hard way—don’t let yourself be comfortable—train and discipline your desires for comfort, food and water—suffer pain and hardship in silence—you are a son of Heaven”; report no. 8974-B, dissemination no. A-17403, distributed December 28, 1943, Research and Analysis Branch Divisions, Intelligence Reports “Regular” Series, 1941-45, box 621, entry 16, record group 226, National Archives.

  32. “During these impressionable years”: 106/5485, February 1928 report, p. 84, Papers of the British War Office.

  33. That August, while attempting to land thirty-five thousand fresh troops: David Bergamini, Japan’s Imperial Conspiracy (New York: Morrow, 1971), p. 11.

  33. In the 1930s Japanese military leaders: John Toland, The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire (New York: Random House), p. 47. “Crush the Chinese in three months and they will sue for peace,” Minister Sugiyama predicted.

  CHAPTER 2: SIX WEEKS OF TERROR

  37. “specialist in thought control, intimidation and torture”: David Bergamini, Japan’s Imperial Conspiracy (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1971), p. 16.

  37. “a beast”: Kimura Kuninori, Koseiha Shogun Nakajima Kesago [Nakajima Kesago, General of the Individualist Faction]. (Tokyo: Kôjinsha, 1987), p. 212.

  37. “masked shogun”: Sugawara Yutaka, Yamatogokoro: Fukumen Shogun Yanagawa Heisuke Seidan [Spirit of Japan: Elevated Conversation from the Masked Shogun Yanagawa Heisuke]. (Tokyo: Keizai Oraisha, 1971), p. 9.

  37. Consider the example of Suchow: Wu Tien-wei, “Re-study of the Nanking Massacre,” Journal of Studies of China’s Resistance War against Japan (China Social Science Academy), no. 4 (1994): 43; Central Archive Bureau, China No. 2 Historical Archive Bureau; Jilin Province Social Science Academy, ed., Pictorial Evidence of the Nanjing Massacre (Changchun, PRC: Jilin People’s Publishing House, 1995), p. 31; Dick Wilson, When Tigers Fight: The Story of the Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1945 (New York: Viking, 1982), p. 69.

  38. The invasion, according to the China Weekly Review: China Weekly Review (March 1938).

  38. “There is hardly a building standing”: Manchester Guardian reporter Timperley wrote this account, which was telegraphed to London by another correspondent on January 14, 1938.

  38. On December 7, as the Japanese troops: For this section on Asaka’s replacement of Matsui, see Bergamini, Japan’s Imperial Conspiracy, ch. 1, p. 22.

  39. “not good”: Kido, Nikki, 468, quoted in ibid., p. 23.

  39. “sparkle before the eyes”: Nakayama Yasuto, testimony before IMTFE, “Proceedings,” p. 21893 (see also pp. 33081ff., 37238ff., and 32686 [Canberra]), quoted in ibid., p. 23.

  39. “The entry of the Imperial Army”: Quoted in ibid.; see also IMFTE judgment, pp. 47171-73, National Archives.

  40. After Asaka heard this report: Bergamini, Japan’s Imperial Conspiracy, p. 24; Information on footnote on Tanaka Ryukichi comes from Pictorial Evidence of the Nanjing Masacre, p. 35. (Bergamini’s book is poorly footnoted so it must be used with caution. However, the citation suggests that he interviewed Tanaka.)

  41. “BATTALION BATTLE REPORTER”: Quoted in Jilin Province Social Science Academy, ed., Pictorial Proof of the Nanking Massacre , p. 62. The English translation of this command appears in Yin and Young, The Rape of Nanking, p. 115.

  42. “To deal with crowds of a thousand”: Kimura, “The Battle of Nanking: Diary of 16th Division Commander Nakajima,” Chuo Kouron Sha [Tokyo] (November 24, 1984). Nakajima’s diary appeared in a December 1984 supplement to the Japanese periodical Historical Figures. The English translation of parts of his diary appears in Yin and Young, The Rape of Nanking, p. 106.

  43. “It was a magnificent view”: Azuma Shiro, Waga Nankin Puratoon [My Nanjing Platoon] (Tokyo: Aoki Haruo, 1987).

  44. fifty-seven thousand: IMTFE verdict.

  45. “The [Japanese] army encountered great difficulties”: Quoted in Honda Katsuichi, Studies of the Nanking Massacre (Tokyo: Bansei Sha Publishing, 1992), p. 129.

  45. “After three or four hours”: Kurihara Riichi, Mainichi Shimbun, August 7, 1984.

  46. “The result was a mountain of charred corpses”: Honda Katsuichi, The Road to Nanking (Asahi Shimbun, 1987), quoted in Yin and Young, p. 86.

  46. After the soldiers surrendered en masse: For this section, “The Murder of Civilians,” see Gao Xingzu, Wu Shimin, Hu Yungong, and Zha Ruizhen (History Department, Nanjing University), “Japanese Imperialism and the Massacre in Nanjing—An English Translation of a Classified Chinese Document on the Nanjing Massacre,” translated from Chinese into English by Robert P. Gray (pgray@pro.net). See also China News Digest, special issue on the Nanjing massacre, part 1 (March 21, 1996).

  46. Corpses piled up outside the city walls: Gao Xingzu, “On the Great Nanking Tragedy,” Journal of Studies of Japanese Aggression Against China (November 1990): 70.

  47. These atrocities shocked many of the Japanese correspondents: The English translations of the Japanese journalists’ accounts of the Nanking massacre appear in Yin and Young, The Rape of Nanking, pp. 52-56.

  47. “One by one the prisoners fell down”
: Ibid.

  47. “On Hsiakwan wharves”: Imai Masatake, “Japanese Aggression Troops’ Atrocities in China,” China Military Science Institute, 1986, pp. 143-44.

  48. “Those in the first row were beheaded”: Omata Yukio, Reports and Recollections of Japanese Military Correspondents (Tokyo: Tokuma Shoten, 1985).

  48. “Before the ‘Ceremony of Entering the City’ ”: Quoted in Moriyama Kohe, The Nanking Massacre and Three-All Policy: Lessons Learned from History (Chinese-language edition, People’s Republic of China: Sichuan Educational Publishing, 1984), p. 8.

  48. “I’ve seen piled-up bodies”: Quoted in Yang Qiqiao, “Refutation of the Nine-Point Query by Tanaka Masaaki,” Baixing (Hong Kong), no. 86 (1985).

  49. “Women suffered most”: Quoted in Hu Hua-ling, “Chinese Women Under the Rape of Nanking,” Journal of Studies of Japanese Aggression Against China (November 1991): 70.