Asahi News paper's photographs
The peaceful sceneries and conditions at Nanking
By Masaki Tanaka
Asahi News Paper 5 times photographs Special Number
Special news reports from Nanking just after the occupation by the Japanese military Asahi newspaper reported the peaceful sceneries and conditions at Nanking five times since the Japanese military occupied Nanking. In those reports, there was no photo showing any Japanese brutality. Instead, they reported the scenes indicating the heartful friendship between the apanese military and the Chinese living there. These special reports about Nanking had been offered five times since the occupation of Nanking by the Japanese military , December 13th, 1937 until January 13th, 1938. The photos below are the copies from the special reports by Asahi newspaper. Besides Asahi Newspaper, other newspapers such as Yomiuri Newspaper and Tokyo Nichi-Nichi Newspaper made reports from Nankig with many photos. The bottom line is that these photos and articles about Nanking are, so to speak, the primary historical records. Those are published just after the occupation of Nankig. On the other hand, most of the documents and testimony insisting there happened to be the Nanking Massacre are presented after the International Military Tribunal for Far East. In addition, many of them are, what is called, hearsay evidences. |
Peace Revives in Nanking (Dec. 17th,1937)
![]() Peace Revives in Nanking First of all, let's start with the first report of that series. The headline is Peace has come back to Nanking filled with residents' delight and welcome to the Japanese military. The photo below were taken by Correspondent Kawamura on Dec. 17th, the fifth day after the occupation. Picture 1 ( right ) The Japanese soldiers going for shopping. This picture shows the Chinese already kept street stralls as soon as the fifth day after the occupation. Japanese soldiers went for shopping without carrying guns. On this day, Dec. 17th, ceremonial entry into Nanking was held, General Matsui being at the head of the Japanese troops. Michio Suyama, ex-soldier who fought during Nanking Campaign says, This is a picture showing the real scenery just after the occupation. On the afternoon of the 17th when the ceremonial entry was held, I strolled through the Chinese street stalls without carring guns. Many Chinese wearing hand-made armbands walked up to us Japanese. Picture 2 (top the middle) Farmers working on their farm around Nanking. This picture shows pastoral scenery in which farmers are working on their farms around Nanking. This proves that Nanking residents could get back to their peaceful lives soon after the Japanese occupied Nanking. Picture 3 (bottom the middle) The Chinese refugees coming back to Nanking. Many Nanking refugees started to come back to their hometown, Nanking soon after the battle of Nanking had been over. Chu Nishisaka who is an ex-soldier belonging to the 34th infantry regiment, the first regiment to take over Kuanghua Gate, says, Our unit left Nanking on the14th day after the occupation of Nanking and on the way to Shanghai, we met a lot of Chinese refugees going back to Nanking. The Chinese had an ear to what would be going on around them. So they were very fast to go away from the coming devastation and also very fast to come back where they used to be once they knowed the place was safe. General Matsui wrote down in his diary on Dec. 20th that he had heard at first there had been some unrest conditions among the remaining Nanking residents but that as the Japanese had recovered the peace of the city, the residents seemed to come to feel relieved. He also wrote that many refugees had been seen to come back to the city. Picture 4 (left) The barber on the street The barbers on the streets were often seen here and there in China. You can see the people in the picture wearing hand-made armbands printing Japanese national flag. Look at their amiable smiles. This picture shows that the Chinese could resume their usual livings and that the Japanese soldiers strolled through the city as soon as the fifth day after the Japanese occupied the city. The city of Nanking soon got back their usual peaceful conditions as General Matsui pointed out in his diary. I want to ask you, everybody if you can believe that the Nanking Massare really happened under the conditions these pictures are showing you. The Chinese official view written in the National Archives, 史料選集第4集 dipicts the conditions of Nanking at that time as follows. On Dec. 13th, 1937, Japanese army invaded Nanking. They committed unconceivable massacre of Nankig residents as long as six weeks. More than 190,000 innocent Chinese were massacred and burnt to ashes. Additionally more than 150,000 were slauthtered dispersedly. The total number of the massacred amounted to over 300,000. This is one of the dominant authorities on which the advocates of Nanking Massacre rely on. They also describe in that archives as follows. Japanese army killed every person they saw, raped every women they saw and after that they slaughtered the raped women. They looted whatever they wanted. They burnt every house, shop, and any other building in the city. They brutally murdered the people in various ways. They decapitated heads,splited the heads into pieces, ripped the stomachs, scooped out hearts, buried alive,dismembered bodies, ripped genitals, sticked anus and female genitals, burnt to death, drowned, machine-gunned, etc. Nobody ever knows more brutal, cruel atrocities than these in the history. Four months ago, in 通州, more than 200 Japanese residents and soldiers were slaughtered by the Chinese the very ways as mentioned above. (通州 incident) Do you know that there is a custom called Cannibalism in Chinese culture in their history? On the other, the Japanese never have such kinds of custom in the culture. The Chinese fabricated false stories and tried to push their own cruel acts off onto the Japanese. We would like to ask you whether ou still believe that Nanking Massacre by the Japanese really occurred as they insist under the peaceful conditions as showed in the pictures listed here. |
Hearful to Yesterday's Enemy (Dec.22th.1937)
![]() Hearful to Yesterday's Enemy The second special report was presented on the newspaper on Dec. 22nd, 1937. |
Nanking Smiles (25th Dec 1937)
![]() 1 Children happily playing with toy tanks, unexpected gifts from Japanese soldiers. 2 Children playing in and around a broken coach. 3 Children receiving medical checkups. 4 Women singing a hymn peacefully in a church Phototes by Hayashi, special correspondent. |
Friendship Deepens with New Year Asahi-Shimbun( 30th Dec 1937)
![]() 1 Chinese mending shoes for Japanese soldiers 2 'Here you are, milk for the boy.' A women thanks a kind troop commander. 3 A medical orderly treating a child for trachoma. 4 Chinese wounded soldiers under treatment by Japanese medical corps Photo by Hayashi, special correspondent. |
Under the New Flag Asahi-Shimbun (13th Feb 1938)
![]() 1, 2, 3 Japanese soldiers and Chinese residents working together to restore the city's water supply operation. 4 Spring has come to the open-air stall quarters. Photos by Hayashi, special correspondent |
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