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

by Iris Chang

  CHAPTER 9: THE FATE OF THE SURVIVORS

  183. According to Karen Parker: Karen Parker, telephone interview with the author. For Parker’s legal analyses on jus cogens and Japan’s debt to its World War II victims, see Karen Parker and Lyn Beth Neylon, “Jus Cogens: Compelling the Law of Human Rights,” Hastings International and Comparative Law Review 12, no. 2 (Winter 1989): 411-63; Karen Parker and Jennifer F. Chew, “Compensation for Japan’s World War II War-Rape Victims,” Hastings International and Comparative Law Review 17, no. 3 (Spring 1994): 497-549.

  At a seminar for the 58th anniversary of the Japanese invasion of China, scholars urged Chinese victims to demand reparations from Japan. Tang Te-kang, a professor at Columbia University, said that the victims have a precedent in pressing Japan for compensation—set by Japan itself when it demanded and received reparations from China after it and seven other countries invaded China during the Qing dynasty. According to the historian Wu Tien-wei, Chinese victims are entitled to these reparations according to international law; Lillian Wu, “Demand Reparations from Japan, War Victims Told,” Central News Agency, July 7, 1994.

  184. One man who was nearly roasted alive: Author’s interview with a survivor (name withheld on request).

  184. Another woman whose father was executed: Liu Fonghua, interview with the author, Nanking, July 29, 1995.

  185. In the local newspaper, Lewis Smythe saw articles: Oral history interview with Lewis Smythe by Cyrus Peake and Arthur Rosenbaum, Claremont Graduate School, December 11, 1970, February 26, and March 16, 1971, box 228, record group 8, Yale Divinity School Library.

  185. “not only responded well to the imperialist policies”: “Zhuiyi Rikou zai Nanjing da tusha (Remember the Great Massacre at Nanking),” reprinted in Xinhua Yuebao 3, pp. 988-91.

  185. “Dr. Smythe, there are 100,000 people in this city”: Peake and Rosenbaum oral history interview with Smythe.

  186. In 1951 he left his position: “Biographic Sketch and Summary of Contents,” in Peake and Rosenbaum oral history interview with Smythe.

  186. Bates also left Nanking: Morton G. Bates, letter to the author, October 7, 1996.

  186. David Magee, son of the Reverend John Magee, is certain: David Magee, telephone interview with the author.

  186. For example, Edith Fitch Swapp: Edith Fitch Swapp, telephone interview with the author; Fitch, My Eighty Years in China, p. 125. In his book, Fitch describes his problems with memory loss and his visit to a neurologist. “To my considerable relief the doctor reported there was nothing wrong with my brain; I was just suffering from nerve fag. I had been leading a pretty strenuous life, of course, and possibly the terrible memories of those Nanking days had something to do with it too” (p. 125).

  186. Robert Wilson, the University of Nanking Hospital surgeon: Marjorie Wilson, telephone interview with the author.

  187. “I’m about at the end of my energy”: Minnie Vautrin, diary 1937-40, April 14, 1940, p. 526.

  187. “In May 1940 Miss Vautrin’s heath broke”: Minnie Vautrin, diary 1937-40, handwritten note on the bottom of the last page.

  187. Her niece recalls that Vautrin’s colleagues: Description of Vautrin’s journey back to the United States, her electroshock treatment, her last communication with her family, and her suicide comes from Emma Lyon, telephone interview with the author.

  187. Before he was summoned back to Germany: For Rabe’s last days in Nanking, see Minnie Vautrin, diary 1938-40, February 21, 1928 entry, p. 199; George Rosen report “Deutsche Botschaft China,” document no. 122, National History Archives, Republic of China.

  188. Also, an oral history interview with one of his friends: Peake and Rosenbaum oral history interview with Smythe.

  189. “I am happy I could help you”: Martha Begemann, letter to the author, April 26, 1996.

  189. Rabe kept his promise to the Chinese: Description of Rabe’s efforts to publicize the Nanking atrocities and his downfall in Germany comes from Ursula Reinhardt, letters to the author, 1996-97.

  190. “My grandfather looked embarrassed”: Ursula Reinhardt, letter to author, April 27, 1996, p. 2.

  191. “There is no job for me at Siemens”: John Rabe diary, entry for the years 1945 and 1946, translated September 12, 1996, by Ursula Reinhardt in letter to the author, September 18, 1996.

  191. “Last Sunday I was with Mommy”: Ibid.

  191. “Now Mommy weighs only 44 kg”: Ibid.

  191. “We suffer hunger and hunger again”: Ibid., April 18, 1946.

  191. “Yesterday my petition to get de-nazified”: Ibid., Apri1 18, 1946.

  192. “If I had heard of any atrocities”: Ibid., April 18, 1946.

  192. “On June the 3rd finally I was de-nazified”: Ibid., June 7, 1946.

  193. “Today Mommy is out”: Ibid., June 7, 1946.

  193. Within a matter of days: Renmin Zibao (People’s Daily), December 25, 1996, p. 6.

  193. According to Reinhardt, the family of W. Plumer Mills also sent him packages of food (CARE packages) to Rabe, which helped cure him of the skin disease that was caused by malnutrition.

  193. The Kuomingtang government even offered Rabe free housing: Ibid.; see also Ursula Reinhardt, letter to the author, April 27, 1996; and Renmin Zibao, December 27, 1996.

  193. In June 1948 the city of Nanking learned: Renmin Zibao, December 25, 1996.

  194. Rabe died from an artery stroke: Ursula Reinhardt, letter to the author, April 27, 1996.

  194. Reinhardt was pregnant and immersed in school examinations: Renming Zibao, December 27, 1996.

  194. Rabe’s previous status as a Nazi: Ursula Reinhardt, telephone interview with the author.

  195. Shortly after the discovery of the Rabe papers: Peter Kröger, letter to the author, October 23, 1996.

  195. “Contrary to the current opinions of the Hitler government”: Kröger, “Days of Fate in Nanking.”

  195. The contents were violent beyond her wildest expectations: Renming Zibao, December 27, 1996.

  195. She saw the diaries as political dynamite: Ursula Reinhardt, presentation, December 12, 1996, New York City; Reinhardt, telephone interview with the author.

  195. She spent fifteen hours: Ursula Reinhardt, letter to the author, December 3, 1996.

  195. Shao, who was fearful that right-wing Japanese: Shao Tzuping, telephone interview with the author.

  196. “It’s an incredibly gripping and depressing narrative”: David Chen, “At the Rape of Nanking: A Nazi Who Saved Lives,” New York Times, December 12, 1996, p. A3.

  196. “What makes this report significant”: Asahi Shimbun, December 8, 1996.

  197. “The meaning of this report”: Ibid.

  CHAPTER 10: THE FORGOTTEN HOLOCAUST: A SECOND RAPE

  201. “People say that the Japanese made a holocaust”: “Playboy interview: Shintaro Ishihara—candid conversation,” David Sheff, interviewer, Playboy, October 1990, vol. 37, no. 10, p. 63.

  201. “Japan’s denial of the rape of Nanjing”: Yoshi Tsurumi, “Japan Makes Efforts to Be Less Insular,” New York Times, December 25, 1990.

  201. In his rebuttals: Reprinted in Journal of Studies of Japanese Agression Against China (February 1991): 71.

  202. “The raping of the women”: John Magee, letter signed “John” to “John Magee to “Billy” (signed “John”), January 11, 1938, Ernest and Clarissa Forster Collection.

  202. “dead bodies in every street alley”: Ibid.

  203. “I think the Nanking Massacre and the rest was a fabrication”: Sebastian Moffet, “Japan Justice Minister Denies Nanking Massacre,” Reuters, May 4, 1994.

  203. The violent reaction to his statements: Accounts of Nagano being burned in effigy and eggs being thrown at Japanese embassies can be found in Reuters, May 6, 1994. For information regarding his resignation, see Miho Yoshikawa, “Japan Justice Minister Quits over WWII Gaffe,” Reuters, May 7, 1994.

  203. “just a part of war”: Karl Schoenberger, “Japan Aide Quits over Remark on WWII,” Los Angel
es Times, May 14, 1988.

  203. That month Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone dismissed him: Ibid.

  203. “There was no intention of aggression”: Ibid.

  203. “I didn’t say Japan wasn’t an aggressor”: Ibid.

  203. By May, Okuno had been forced to resign: Ibid.

  204. In August 1994, Sakurai Shin: Mainichi Daily News, August 17, 1994.

  204. “the Chinese government regrets that”: Kyoto News Service, August 13, 1994.

  204. “inappropriate”: Ibid.

  204. While Japan was aggressive toward China: Robert Orr, “Hashimoto’s War Remarks Reflect the Views of Many of His Peers,” Tokyo Keizai, December 13, 1994.

  204. “went for the money”: “Japanese Official Apologizes,” Associated Press, January 28, 1997.

  204. “caused some unpleasantness”: Ibid.

  205. In 1990 he was forced to resign from his position: Ibid.

  205. The entire Japanese education system: Hugh Gurdon, “Japanese War Record Goes into History,” Daily Telegraph, April 20, 1994.

  205. The first thing they wanted to know was who won: New York Times, November 3, 1991. Psychology professor Hiroko Yamaji told me that even Japanese college students have asked him the same question: Which country won World War II, the United States or Japan? (Interview with Yamaji, March 30, 1997, during a workshop in San Francisco.)

  206. For example, in 1977 the Ministry of Education: Brackman, The Other Nuremberg, p. 27.

  206. “Immediately after the occupation of Nanking”: The passages in Ienaga’s textbooks and the censors’ comments come from “Truth in Textbooks, Freedom in Education and Peace for Children: The Struggle Against the Censorship of School Textbooks in Japan” (booklet) (Tokyo: National League for Support of the School Textbook Screening Suit, 2nd. ed., June 1995).

  207. In 1970, when he actually won his case: Buruma, The Wages of Guilt, p. 196.

  207. “politically tone deaf”: David Sanger, “A Stickler for History, Even If It’s Not Very Pretty,” New York Times, May 27, 1993.

  208. “It was not fair to describe the Nanking atrocity”: Shukan Asahi, August 13, 1982, p. 20.

  208. Before Fujio’s dismissal: Information on the treatment of the Nanking massacre in textbooks before and after Fujio’s dismissal comes from Ronald E. Yates, “ ‘Emperor’ Film Keeps Atrocity Scenes in Japan,” Chicago Tribune, January 23, 1988.

  209. “The Sasaki unit”: Mainichi Daily News, May 30, 1994. On August 29, 1997, Ienaga won a partial victory in the last of his three lawsuits against the Education Ministry. The Supreme Court ordered the central government to pay Ienaga 400,000 yen in damages and concluded that the ministry had abused its discretionary power when it forced him to delete from his textbook a reference on live human experiments conducted by the Imperial army’s Unit 731 during World War II. However, the Supreme Court continued to uphold the textbook-screening system itself, ruling that the process did not violate freedom of expression, academic freedom, or the right to education, which are guaranteed under the Japanese constitution. (Japan Times, August 29, 1997)

  209. “How long must we apologize”: The military historian Noboru Kojima, quoted in New York Times, November 3, 1991.

  209. “hitting the lottery”: Quoted in Sonni Efron, “Defender of Japan’s War Past,” Los Angeles Times, May 9, 1997.

  209. Ono Kenji, a factory worker: Charles Smith, “One Man’s Crusade: Kenji Ono Lifts the Veil on the Nanking Massacre,” Far Eastern Economic Review, August 25, 1994.

  210. “Not only did the Japanese distributor”: Yates, “ ‘Emperor’ Film Keeps Atrocity Scenes in Japan.”

  210. “confusion and misunderstanding”: Ibid.

  211. Suzuki charged that some of Honda’s and Hora’s stories: Most of the information on the debate between the illusion and massacre factions, the Kaikosha survey, and the tampering with Matsui’s diary comes from Yang Daqing, “A Sino-Japanese Controversy: The Nanjing Atrocity as History,” Sino-Japanese Studies 3, no. 1 (November 1990).

  212. “enemy propaganda”: Quoted in Buruma, The Wages of Guilt, p. 119.

  212. “not only on the Japanese officers”: Ibid., pp. 121-22.

  213. “no less than tens of thousands”: Yang Daqing, “A Sino-Japanese Controversy: The Nanjing Atrocity as History,” Sino-Japanese Studies vol. 3, no. 1 (November 1990): 23.

  213. “there was no excuse”: Ibid.

  213. What happened to Azuma Shiro: Catherine Rosair, “For One Veteran, Emperor Visit Should Be Atonement,” Reuters, October 15, 1992.

  213. The troubles for Motoshima Hitoshi: Buruma, The Wages of Guilt, pp. 249-50.

  EPILOGUE

  215. “Loot all, kill all, burn all”: Rummel, China’s Bloody Century, p. 139.

  215. “I have received orders”: Quoted in Wilson, When Tigers Fight, p. 61.

  216. At least one author on China: Jules Archer, Mao Tse-tung (New York: Hawthorne, 1972), p. 95.

  216. R. J. Rummel, author of China’s Bloody Century, points out: Rummel, China’s Bloody Century, p. 139.

  216. In areas that may have served as landing zones: Ibid., p. 138.

  216. We now know that Japanese aviators sprayed fleas: Ibid., pp. 140-41.

  216. The final death count was almost incredible: Ibid., pp. 149, 150, 164.

  217. “the transfer of oppression”: George Hicks, The Comfort Women (New York: Norton, 1994), p. 43.

  217. Japanese soldiers were forced to wash the underwear of officers: Nicholas Kristof, “A Japanese Generation Haunted by Its Past,” New York Times, January 22, 1997.

  217. “act of love”: Tanaka Yuki, Hidden Horrors, p. 203.

  218. “To be frank, your view of Chinese”: Xiaowu Xingnan, Invasion—Testimony from a Japanese Reporter, p. 59.

  218. A Japanese officer in Nanking who bound Chinese captives: Xu Zhigeng, The Rape of Nanking, p. 74.

  218. “a pig is more valuable now”: Azuma Shiro diary, March 24, 1938.

  218. “Every single bullet”: General Araki speech, quoted in Maruyama Masao, “Differences Between Nazi and Japanese Leaders,” in Japan 1931-1945: Militarism, Facism, Japanism?, ed. Ivan Morris (Boston: D. C. Heath, 1963), p. 44.

  219. “Who is greater, God or the emperor”: Joanna Pitman, “Repentance,” New Republic, February 10, 1992.

  219. “I am going to the front”: Bergamini, Japan’s Imperial Conspiracy, p. 10.

  219. “The struggle between Japan and China”: Toshio Iritani, Group Psychology of the Japanese in Wartime (London and New York: Kegan Paul International, 1991), p. 290.

  221. The less restraint on power within a government: R. J. Rummel, Death by Government (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 1995), pp. 1-2.

  222. The German government has paid: Information on German postwar restitution comes from the German Information Center, New York City.

  223. “Those who ignore history”: “Japan Military Buildup a Mistake, Romulo Says,” UPI, December 30, 1982.

  224. In April 1997, former U.S. Ambassador Walter Mondale: Barry Schweid, AP, April 9, 1997.

  224. The Rape of Nanking even made its way: William Lipinski (D-IL) drafted the resolution, copies of which can be obtained directly from his office or from the world wide web site of www.sjwar.org.

  224. “In the past war”: Chinese American Forum 12, no. 3 (Winter 1997): 17.

  1 From W. H. Auden, Collected Shorter Poems, 1930-1944 (London: Faber and Faber, 1950), “In Time of War,” XVI, pp. 279-80.

  2 Taisa Isamo, Asaka’s staff officer for intelligence, later confessed to friends that on his own initiative he had forged the order. Another Japanese officer, Tanaka Ryukichi, said that in April 1938, Taisa, then the head of the 74th wing of the Japanese army, told him an interesting tale. Taisa told him that when his troops landed at Hangchow (or Hangzhou) Bay and pushed inland, nearly 300,000 Chinese troops were cut off from retreat, so they threw away their weapons and surrendered to the Japanese. “To arrange for so many prisoners, to feed
them, was a huge problem,” Taisa reportedly said. As the story goes, Taisa seized upon a quick-fix solution to eliminate the food problem: “I immediately issued orders to all troops: ‘We must entirely massacre these prisoners!’ Using the name of the military commander, I sent these orders by telegram. The wording of the order was to annihilate.” We will never know if this story is true, but it must be noted that even if Taisa had indeed forged the kill order on his own, this does not absolve Prince Asaka of responsibility for the massacre. Asaka could have issued an order to cancel the massacre once it started and court-martialed his intelligence officer.