by Iris Chang
49. Surviving Japanese veterans claim: Azuma Shiro, undated letter to the author, 1996.
49. Soldiers were even known to wear amulets: George Hicks, The Comfort Women: Japan’s Brutal Regime of Enforced Prostitution in the Second World War (New York: Norton, 1994), p. 32.
49. “At first we used some kinky words”: Interview with Azuma Shiro in In the Name of the Emperor (film), produced by Nancy Tong and co-directed by Tony and Christine Choy, 1995.
49. “After raping, we would also kill them”: Quoted in Hu Hua-ling, “Chinese Women Under the Rape of Nanking,” p. 70.
50. “Perhaps when we were raping her”: Shiro Azuma, undated letter to the author, 1996.
50. raping some twenty women: “The Public Prosecution of Tani Hisao, one of the Leading Participants in the Nanking Massacre,” Heping Daily, December 31, 1946.
50. “Either pay them money or kill them”: Quoted in Bergamini, Japan’s Imperial Conspiracy, p. 45.
50. “Great Field Marshal on the Steps of Heaven”: Quoted in Bergamini, Japan’s Imperial Conspiracy, p. 39.
50. The next day the Western news media: Hallett Abend, “Japanese Curbing Nanking Excesses,” New York Times, December 18, 1937.
51. “I now realize that we have unknowingly wrought”: Okada Takashi, testimony before IMTFE, p. 32738.
51. “I personally feel sorry”: Ibid., pp. 3510-11.
51. “Never before”: Dick Wilson, When Tigers Fight, p. 83.
51. “the Japanese army is probably the most undisciplined army”: Ibid., p. 83.
51. “It is rumored that unlawful acts continue”: Bergamini, Japan’s Imperial Conspiracy, p. 43; IMTFE exhibit no. 2577; “Proceedings” (Canberra), p. 47187.
52. “My men have done something very wrong”: Hidaka Shunrokuro’s testimony, IMTFE, p. 21448.
52. “Immediately after the memorial services”: Hanayama, p. 186, quoted in Bergamini, p. 41.
52. “The Japanese Expeditionary Force in Central China”: Yoshimi Yoshiaki, “Historical Understandings on the ‘Military Comfort Women’ Issue,” in War Victimization and Japan: International Public Hearing Report (Osaka-shi, Japan: Toho Shuppan, 1993), p. 85.
53. But in 1991 Yoshimi Yoshiaki unearthed: For English-language information on Yoshimi’s discovery in the Defense Agency’s archives, see Journal of Studies of Japanese Aggression Against China (February 1992): 62. The discovery made the front page of the Asahi Shimbun just as Prime Minister Miyazawa Kiichi was visiting Seoul, South Korea, in January 1992.
54. “a black hole”: Theodore Cook, telephone interview with the author.
54. “To this day”: “Some Notes, Comparisons, and Observations by Captain E. H. Watson, USN (Ret) (Former Naval Attaché) After an Absence of Fifteen Years from Japan,” Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Division of Naval Intelligence, general correspondence, 1929-42, folder P9-2/EF16#23, box 284, record group 38, National Archives.
54. In her book The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Ruth Benedict, The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1946).
56. “Sub-Lieutenants in Race”: Bergamini, Japan’s Imperial Conspiracy, p. 21. The Osaka newspaper Mainichi Shinbun as well as the Tokyo newspapers Nichi Nichi Shinbun and the Japan Advertiser (English edition) all reported this killing competition.
56. “One day Second Lieutenant Ono said to us”: Quoted in Wilson, When Tigers Fight, p. 80.
57. “All new recruits are like this”: Ibid.
57. “They had evil eyes”: Oral history interview with Tominaga Shozo, in Haruko Taya Cook and Theodore F. Cook, Japan at War: An Oral History (New York: New Press, 1992), p. 40.
58. “loyalty is heavier than a mountain”: Azuma Shiro, undated letter to the author, 1996.
59. “I remember being driven in a truck”: Quoted in Joanna Pitman, “Repentance,” New Republic, February 10, 1992, p. 14.
59. “Few know that soldiers impaled babies”: Ibid.
CHAPTER 3: THE FALL OF NANKING
61. A city long celebrated: For Nanking’s literary and artistic legacy, ancient history, and the treaty to end the Opium Wars, see Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 24 (1993).
61. And it was in Nanking in 1911: Encyclopedia Americana, vol. 29 (1992).
62. The picture would include the intricately carved stone statues: for Drum Tower history, see Julius Eigner, “The Rise and Fall of Nanking,” National Geographic (February 1938). Eigner’s article, which includes color photographs, provides an excellent description of life in Nanking immediately before the massacre.
62. “like a coiling dragon and a crouching tiger”: Encyclopedia of Asian History, vol. 3 (1988).
62. The first invasion occurred: On the invasions of Nanking, see Julius Eigner, “The Rise and Fall of Nanking,” National Geographic (February 1938): 189; Jonathan Spence, The Search for Modern China (New York: Norton, 1990), pp. 805, 171-74.
63. Vestiges of the old China remained in the streets: Julius Eigner, “The Rise and Fall of Nanking”; Anna Moffet Jarvis, “Letters from China, 1920-1949,” box 103, record group 8, Jarvis Collection, Yale Divinity School Library; interview with Pang Kaiming, a survivor of the Nanking massacre and former ricksha puller, July 29, 1995.
63. Surely, he proclaimed: Rev. John Gillespie Magee, “Nanking Yesterday and Today,” lecture given over the Nanking Broadcasting Station, May 28, 1937, archives of David Magee.
64. In the summer of 1937: Author’s interviews with survivors.
64. “Are they giving us an air-raid practice?”: Chang Siao-sung, letter to friends, October 25, 1937, Ginling correspondence, folder 2738, box 136, series IV, record group 11, UBCHEA, Yale Divinity School Library. The facts in her letter were confirmed by the author in her 1997 telephone interview with Chang Siao-sung, now residing in Waltham, Massachusetts.
65. Frank Xing, now a practitioner of Oriental medicine: Frank Xing, interview with the author, San Francisco, January 28,1997.
65. My own grandparents nearly separated forever: Interviews with my maternal grandmother, Yi-Pei Chang, my mother, Ying-Ying Chang, and my aunt, Ling-Ling Chang, May 25, 1996, in New York City.
67. Long files of Chinese soldiers: For descriptions of Nanking as the fighting continued in Shanghai in November, see Commanding Officer J. J. Hughes to Commander in Chief, U.S. Asiatic Fleet (letterhead marked “Yangtze Patrol, U.S.S. Panay”), November 8, 1937, intelligence summary for week ending November 7, 1937, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Division of Naval Intelligence, general correspondence, 1929-42, folder A8-2/FS#2, box 194, entry 81, record group 38, National Archives.
67. More than two hundred thousand Japanese troops: 793.94/11378A, general records of the Department of State, record group 59, National Archives; Yin and Young, The Rape of Nanking, p. 9.
67. Neither really trusted the other: Sun Zhaiwei, 1937 Nanjing Beige (1937: The Tragic Ballad of Nanking) (Taipei: Shenzi Chubanshe, 1995), pp. 31-32.
68. “Either I stay or you stay”: Ibid., pp. 27-31.
68. Before reporters he delivered a rousing speech: 106/5353, January 2, 1938, Papers of the British War Office in the Public Record Office, Kew, London; Sun Zhaiwei, 1937 Nanjing Beige, p. 33.
68. “dazed if not doped”: Harries and Harries, Soldiers of the Sun, p. 219.
68. He sweated so profusely: Sun Zhaiwei, 1937 Nanjing Beige, p. 33.
69. First Chiang ordered most government officials to move: Commander E. J. Marquart to Commander in Chief, U.S. Asiatic Fleet (letterhead marked “Yangtze Patrol, U.S.S. Luzon [Flagship]”), November 22, 1937, intelligence summary for week ending November 21, 1937, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Division of Naval Intelligence, general correspondence, 1929-42, folder A8-2/FS#2, box 194, entry 81, record group 38, National Archives.
69. Within days official-looking cars packed with luggage: Minnie Vautrin, diary 1937-40, November 16 and 19, December 4, 1937, pp. 71-72, 94-95, Yale Divinity School Library.
69. And then, in mid-N
ovember, fifty thousand Chinese troops: Ibid., November 17, 1937, p. 72.
69. Arriving from upriver ports: Commanding Officer J. J. Hughes to Commander in Chief, U.S. Asiatic Fleet (letterhead marked “Yangtze Patrol, U.S.S. Panay”), November 29, 1937, intelligence summary for week ending November 28, 1937, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Division of Naval Intelligence, general correspondence, 1929-42, folder A8-2/FS, box 194, entry 81, record group 38, National Archives.
69. By December an estimated ninety thousand Chinese troops: Sun Zhaiwei, “Nanjing datusha yu nanjing renkou (The Nanking Massacre and the Nanking Population),” Nanjing shehuai kexue (Nanking Social Science Journal) 37, no. 3 (1990): 79.
69. The troops transformed the face of Nanking: F. Tillman Durdin, “Japanese Atrocities Marked Fall of Nanking After Chinese Command Fled,” New York Times, December 22, 1937; “21 U.S. Citizens Now in Nanking: Only Eight Heed Warning to Evacuate Besieged City,” Chicago Daily News, December 7, 1937; 793.94/11466, General Records of the Department of State, microfilm, record group 59, National Archives; Harries and Harries, Soldiers of the Sun, p. 219.
69. In early December the military also resolved: A. T. Steele, “Nanking Ready for Last Stand; Defenders Fight Only for Honor: Suburban Areas Aflame; Chinese May Destroy City in Defeat,” Chicago Daily News, December 9, 1937, p. 2; Durdin, “Japanese Atrocities Marked Fall of Nanking,” p. 38; Minnie Vautrin, diary 1937-40, December 7, 1937, p. 99, Yale Divinity School Library.
70. “an outlet for rage and frustration”: Durdin, “Japanese Atrocities Marked Fall of Nanking,” New York Times, p. 38.
70. On December 2, hundreds of boxes of Palace Museum treasures: Minnie Vautrin, diary 1937-40, December 2, 1937, p. 93, Yale Divinity School Library.
70. Six days later, on December 8, Chiang Kai-shek: For information on the departure of Chiang, see Reginald Sweetland, “Chiang Flees to Escape Pressure of ‘Red’ Aides,” Chicago Daily News, December 8, 1937; Frank Tillman Durdin, “Japanese Atrocities Marked Fall of City after Chinese Command Fled,” New York Times, December 22, 1937, p. 38; 793.94/12060, report no. 9114, December 11, 1937 (day-by-day description of Japanese military maneuvers), restricted report, General Records of the Department of State, record group 59, National Archives.
70. During the battle of Shanghai: For statistics on the Chinese and Japanese air forces, see Sun Zhaiwei, 1937 Nanjing Beige, p. 18. See also Julian Bloom, “Weapons of War, Catalyst for Change: The Development of Military Aviation in China, 1908-1941” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Maryland, n.d.), San Diego Aerospace Museum, document no. 28-246; Rene Francillon, Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War (London: Putnam, 1970); Eiichiro Sekigawa, Pictorial History of Japanese Military Aviation, ed. David Mondey (London: Ian Allan, 1974); Robert Mikesh and Shorzoe Abe, Japanese Aircraft, 1910-1941 (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1990).
71. During the battle of Shanghai, Italian-trained Chinese pilots: Bergamini, Japan’s Imperial Conspiracy, p. 11.
71. On December 8, the day Chiang and his advisers left the city: A. T. Steele, “China’s Air Force, Disrupted by Superior Planes of Foes, Leaves Nanking to Its Fate,” Chicago Daily News, December 8, 1937.
71. Second, the government officials who moved to Chungking: Nanking Massacre Historical Editorial Committee, ed., (Zhongguo dier lishe dang an gan guan, Nanjing shi dang an guan) Archival Documents Relating to the Horrible Massacre Committed by the Japanese Troops in Nanking in December 1937, No. 2, National Archives, Nanking Municipal Archives (Nanking: Jiangsu Guji chubanshe [Jiangsu Ancient Books Publisher], November 1987), p. 46.
71. Third, the troops did not come from the same regions: Wei Hu, former paramedic for the Chinese military in Nanking, interview with the author, January 17, 1997, in Sunnyvale, California.
71. Fourth, many of the “soldiers” in this army: Ibid.
71. Tired, hungry, and sick: Archival Documents Relating to the Horrible Massacre (1987), p. 46.
71. Worst of all, Chinese soldiers: Ibid.
72. “protect innocent civilians”: Quoted in Yin and Young, The Rape of Nanking, p. 32; Xu Zhigeng, Lest We Forget: Nanjing Massacre, 1937 (Beijing: Chinese Literature Press, 1995), p. 43.
72. “Our army must fight to defend”: Sun Zhaiwei, 1937 Nanjing Beige, pp. 98-99; Xu Zhigeng, Lest We Forget, p. 44.
72. Privately, however, Tang negotiated for a truce: General Records of the Department of State, 793.94/11549, record group 59, National Archives; “Deutsche Botschaft China,” document no. 203 in the German diplomatic reports, National History Archives, Xingdian, Taipei County, Republic of China. Chiang’s rejection of the proposal came as a shock to Tang and the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone. In a letter of January 24, 1938, W. Plumer Mills wrote, “General Tang had assured us that he was confident that Gen. Chiang would accept the truce proposal, so we were surprised to receive a wire from Hankow the next day to the effect that he would not”; from the family archives of W. Plumer Mills’s daughter, Angie Mills.
73. On December 10, the Japanese waited for the city to surrender: Xu Zhigeng, Lest We Forget, p. 44; Bergamini, Japan’s Imperial Conspiracy, p. 29.
73. “From the 9th to the 11th of December”: Tang Sheng-chih to Chiang Kai-shek, telegram, reprinted in Archival Documents Relating to the Horrible Massacre (1987), p. 35.
73. At noon on December 11, General Gu Zhutong placed a telephone call: Sun Zhaiwei, 1397 Nanjing Beige, pp. 122-23.
74. Tang received a telegram: Ibid, p. 123.
74. At 3:00 A.M. on December 12: Ibid., p. 124.
75. But then electrifying reports reached Tang: Yin and Young, The Rape of Nanking, p. 38.
75. Sperling agreed to take a flag: Commanding Officer C. F. Jeffs to the Commander in Chief, U.S. Asiatic Fleet (letterhead marked the U.S.S. Oahu), February 14, 1938, intelligence summary for the week ending February 13, 1938. The report included an excerpt from a missionary letter (from George Fitch’s diary, name not given), which was not given to the press for fear of reprisals from the Japanese; Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Division of Naval Intelligence, General Correspondence, 1929-42, folder A8-21/FS#3, box 195, entry 81, record group 38, National Archives; see also George Fitch, My Eighty Years in China (Taipei: Mei Ya Publications, 1974), p. 102.
75. That afternoon, just minutes before his commanders: Sun Zhaiwei, 1937 Nanjing Beige, pp. 124-26.
76. Not surprisingly, the order to retreat: Ibid.
76. Their soldiers continued to fight the Japanese: Wilson, When Tigers Fight, p. 70.
76. Even in the larger, tragic scheme of things: Durdin, “Japanese Atrocities Marked Fall of Nanking”; A. T. Steele, “Reporters Liken Slaughter of Panicky Nanking Chinese to Jackrabbit Drive in US,” Chicago Daily News, February 4, 1938; F. Tillman Durdin, “U.S. Naval Display Reported Likely Unless Japan Guarantees Our Rights; Butchery Marked Capture of Nanking,” New York Times, December 18, 1937; author’s interviews with survivors.
77. But before the gate lay a scene: For details of the congestion, fire and deaths before the gate and the desperate attempts to cross the river, see A. T. Steele, “Panic of Chinese in Capture of Nanking, Scenes of Horror and Brutality Are Revealed,” Chicago Daily News, February, 3, 1938, p. 2; Arthur Menken, “Witness Tells Nanking Horror as Chinese Flee,” Chicago Tribune, December 17, 1937, p. 4; Durdin, “Japanese Atrocities Marked Fall of Nanking,” p. 38; Fitch, My Eighty Years in China, p. 102; Wilson, When Tigers Fight; Gao Xingzu, Wu Shimin, Hu Yungong, and Zha Ruizhen, “Japanese Imperialism and the Massacre in Nanjing”; author’s interviews with survivors.
77. Tang witnessed much of this chaos: For information on Tang’s journey to the docks, see Sun Zhaiwei, 1937 Nanjing Beige, pp. 133-35.
78. Terrified crews tried to ward off the surging mob: Author interview with survivor Niu Xianming in Montery Park, California, and interviews with other survivors in Nanking, People’s Republic of China.
78. That evening a fire broke out on Chungshan Road: How the fi
re started near the Water Gate is a matter of dispute. A. T. Steele wrote that Chinese soldiers torched the Ministry of Communications—a beautiful $1 million office building and ceremonial hall—to destroy all the ammunition that had been stored inside [“Power of Chinese in Capture of Nanking, Scenes of Horror and Brutality Are Revealed,” Chicago Daily News, February 3, 1938]. Another speculates that stray Japanese shells might have ignited nearby to ignite the ammunition; still another believes that two military vehicles had collided and burst into flames in the tunnel under the Water Gate [Dick Wilson, When Tigers Fight, pp. 66-85].
79. Never experienced a day as dark: Sun Zhaiwei, pp. 133-35.
CHAPTER 4: SIX WEEKS OF HORROR
81. Approximately half the original population: Sun Zhaiwei, “The Nanking Massacre and the Nanking Population,” pp. 75-80.
