The Rape Of Nanking (36 page)

95.
Chinese men were often sodomized:
see Shuhsi Hsu,
Documents of the Nanking Safety Zone
, no. 430, p. 153. Also Dick Wilson, p. 76.

95.
At least one Chinese man was murdered:
“Shisou houde nanjing (Nanking After the Fall into Japanese Hands),”
Mingzheng yu-gongyu
20 (January 1938). This article is based on interviews with people who escaped from Nanking and arrived in Wuhan on January 18, 1938. It is reprinted in
Source Materials Relating to the Horrible Massacre
(1985), p. 150.

95.
A Chinese woman had tried to disguise herself:
Xu Zhigeng,
The Rape of Nanking,
p. 115; Sun Zhaiwei,
1937 Nanjing Beige,
p. 353.

95.
Guo Qi, a Chinese battalion commander:
Ko Chi (also known as Guo Qi), “Shendu xueluilu (Recording with Blood and Tears the Fallen Capital),” written in the first half of 1938, published in August 1938 by
Xijing Pingbao,
a Xian newspaper (Xijing is an older name for Xian), reprinted in
Source Materials Relating to the Horrible Massacre
(1985), p. 13.

95.
His report is substantiated:
“Deutsche Botschaft China,” report no. 21, starting on page 114, in the German diplomatic reports, National History Archives, Republic of China.

95.
One such family was crossing the Yangtze River:
Hsu Chuang-ying (witness), testimony before the IMTFE, Records from the Allied Operational/Occupation Headquarters, entry 319, record group 331, p. 2573, National Archives. One survivor, Li Ke-he, witnessed four Japanese soldiers who, after raping a 40-year-old woman, forced her father-in-law and son to have sex with her; see Hu Hua-ling, “Chinese Women Under the Rape of Nanking,” p. 68. The IMTFE records also mention a father being forced by the Japanese to rape his own daughters, a brother his sister, and an old man his son's wife. “Breasts were torn off, and women were stabbed in the bosoms. Chins were smashed and teeth knocked out. Such hideous scenes are unbearable to watch,” the record added; court exhibits, 1948, box 134, entry 14, record group 238, p. 1706, World War II War Crimes Records Collection, National Archives.

96.
Many were able to hide from the Japanese for months:
Minnie Vautrin, diary 1937–40, January 23 and February 24, 1938, pp. 167, 201.

96.
In the countryside women hid in covered holes:
Ibid., February 23, 1938, p. 200.

96.
One Buddhist nun and a little girl:
John Magee to “Billy” (signed “John”), January 11, 1938, Ernest and Clarissa Forster Collection.

96.
Some used disguise—rubbing soot on their faces:
Bergamini,
Japan's Imperial Conspiracy,
p. 37; Minnie Vautrin, diary 1937–40, December 17, 1937, p. 115.

96.
One clever young woman disguised herself as an old woman:
Minnie Vautrin, diary 1937–40, January 23, 1938, p. 168.

96.
Others feigned sickness, such as the woman:
Hsu Shuhsi,
Documents of the Nanking Safety Zone
, no. 408, p. 158.

96.
Another woman took the advice:
Forster's undated letter to his wife, Ernest and Clarissa Forster Collection.

96.
One girl barely avoided assault:
John Magee, letter to his wife, January 1, 1938, archives of David Magee.

96.
Those who defied the Japanese:
Gao Xingzu, Wu Shimin, Hu Yungong, and Zha Ruizhen, “Japanese Imperialism and the Massacre in Nanjing.”

96.
A schoolteacher gunned down five Japanese soldiers:
Hu Hua-ling,
“Chinese Women Under the Rape of Nanking,” p. 68.

97.
In 1937, eighteen-year-old Li Xouying:
Li Xouying, interview with the author, Nanking, July 27, 1995.

100.
“The question is so big”:
Miner Searle Bates testimony before the IMTFE, pp. 2629–30.

100.
The Chinese military specialist Liu Fang-chu:
Li En-han, “Questions of How Many Chinese Were Killed by the Japanese Army in the Great Nanking Massacre,”
Journal of Studies of Japanese Aggression Against China
(August 1990).

100.
Officials at the Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanking Massacre by Japanese Invaders:
Author's interviews with museum officials. The number 300,000 is inscribed prominently on the museum's entrance. Honda Katsuichi, a Japanese writer, went back to Nanking a few decades later to check the stories for himself. He thinks that 200,000 Chinese were killed by the second day of the capture of the city and that by February the death toll had risen to 300,000. (Wilson,
When Tigers Fight,
pp. 81–82.) The Chinese historian Li En-han said that “the estimate of the total number of deaths . . . as 300,000 is absolutely reliable.” (Hu Hua-ling, “Commemorating the 53rd Anniversary of the Great Nanking Massacre: Refuting Shintaro Ishihara's Absurdity and Lie,”
Journal of Studies of Japanese Aggression Against China,
November 1990, p. 27.)

100.
The IMTFE judges concluded that more than 260,000 people:
“Table: Estimated Number of Victims of Japanese Massacre in Nanking,” document no. 1702, box 134, IMTFE records, court exhibits, 1948, World War II War Crimes Records Collection, entry 14, record group 238, National Archives.

100.
Fujiwara Akira, a Japanese historian:
Hu Hua-ling, “Commemorating the 53rd Anniversary,” p. 72.

100.
John Rabe, who never conducted a systematic count:
John Rabe, “Enemy Planes over Nanking,” report to Adolf Hitler, in the Yale Divinity School Library. Rabe writes: “According to Chinese reports, a total of 100,000 Chinese civilians were murdered. But that seems to be an overassessment—we Europeans estimate the number to be somewhere between 50,000 and 60,000.”

100.
The Japanese author Hata Ikuhiko claims:
Cook and Cook,
Japan at War,
p. 39.

100.
Still others in Japan:
Ibid.

100.
In 1994 archival evidence emerged:
United Press International, May 10, 1994.

100.
Perhaps no one has made a more thorough study:
Sun Zhaiwei, “The Nanking Massacre and the Nanking Population,” pp. 75–80; “Guanyu nanjing datusa siti chunide yenjou (On the Subject of Body Disposal During the Nanking Massacre),”
Nanjing Shehui Kexue
44, no. 4 (1991): 72–78.

100.
Nanjing zizhi weiyuanhui:
The setting up of such a puppet government was a longstanding custom of the Japanese in areas of China they occupied and it enabled the Japanese to preserve local structures of power and make some local elites beholden to them.

101.
However, this statistic balloons still larger: Archival Documents Relating to the Horrible Massacre
(1987), pp. 101–3; “150,000 Bodies Dumped in River in Nanking Massacre Affidavit,” Reuters, December 14, 1990.

102.
For instance, in his paper:
Wu Tien-wei, “Let the Whole World Know the Nanking Massacre: A Review of Three Recent Pictorial Books on the Massacre and Its Studies,” report distributed in 1997 by the Society for Studies of Japanese Aggression Against China.

103.
The authors James Yin and Shi Young:
Shi Young, telephone interview with the author.

103.
They dismiss arguments from other experts:
It is difficult to say how many bodies washed up along the river were eventually buried along the banks. On April 11, 1938, Minnie Vautrin wrote in her diary that a man mentioned to her that “there are reported still many dead bodies on both sides of the Yangtze and many bloated ones floating down the river—soldiers and civilians. I asked him if he meant tens or hundreds and he said it seemed to him to be thousands and thousands”; diary 1937–40, p. 247.

104.
“Since return (to) Shanghai a few days ago”:
“Red Machine” Japanese diplomatic messages, no. 1263, translated February 1, 1938, record group 457, National Archives.
Manchester Guardian
correspondent H. J. Timperley originally wrote this report, which was stopped by Japanese censors in Shanghai. (See “Red Machine” Japanese diplomatic messages, no. 1257.) His estimate of 300,000 deaths was later included in the message sent by Japanese Foreign Minister Hirota Koki to Washington, DC. The significance of this message is that the Japanese government not only knew about the 300,000 figure given by Timperley but tried to suppress the information at the time.

106.
In November 1937, Father Jacquinot de Bessage:
Tien-wei Wu, “Let the Whole World Know the Nanking Massacre,” p. 16.

106.
When the Presbyterian missionary W. Plumer Mills:
Angie Mills to the author, February 16, 1997. In her family archives, Mills found a copy of a speech given by John Rabe on February 28, 1938, at the Foreign YMCA in Shanghai to a group of Westerners. In it he said, “I must tell you Mr. Mills is the man who originally had the idea of creating the Safety Zone. I can say that the brains of our organization were to be found in the Ping Tsang Hsiang No. 3 [the address, according to Angie Mills, of Lossing Buck's house, where nine or ten of the Americans were living during this period, near Nanking University]. Thanks to the cleverness of my American friends: Mr. Mills, Mr. Bates, Dr. Smythe, Mr. Fitch, Mr. Sone, Mr. Magee, Mr. Forster and Mr. Riggs, the Committee was put on its feet and thanks to their hard work it ran as smoothly as could be expected under the dreadful circumstances we lived in.”

107.
Interestingly enough, the
Panay
would later be bombed:
“Sinking of the U.S.S.
Panay,
” ch. 11 of
Some Phases of the Sino-Japanese Conflict
(July–December 1937), compiled from the records of the Commander in Chief, Asiatic Fleet, by Captain W. A. Angwin (MC), USN, December 1938, Shanghai, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Division of Naval Intelligence, general correspondence, 1929–42, folder P9–2/EF16#23, box 284, entry 81, record group 38, National Archives; “The
Panay
Incident,” Records of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Records of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations, 1882–1954, Intelligence Division—Naval Attaché Reports, 1886–1939, box 438, entry 98, record group 38, National Archives; “The Bombing of the U.S.S.
Panay,
” drawn by Mr. E. Larsen after consultation with Mr. Norman Alley, December 31, 1937, box 438, entry 98, record group 38, National Archives; Weldon James, “Terror Hours on
Panay
Told by Passenger,”
Chicago Daily News,
December 13, 1937; A. T. Steele, “Chinese War Horror Pictured by Reporter:
Panay
Victims Under Japanese Fire for Full Half Hour; Butchery and Looting Reign in Nanking,”
Chicago Daily News,
December 17, 1937; Bergamini, pp. 24–28.

108.
“We were not rich”:
Marjorie Wilson, telephone interview with the author.

108.
“Would they kill us?”:
Alice Tisdale Hobart,
Within the Walls of Nanking
(New York: Macmillan, 1928), pp. 207–8.

108.
“We were more prepared for excesses from the fleeing Chinese”:
“Deutsche Botschaft China,” German diplomatic reports, document dated January 15, 1938, starting on page 214, National History Archives, Republic of China.

109.
The son of a sea captain:
Details of John Rabe's early life come from correspondence between the author and Rabe's granddaughter, Ursula Reinhardt, and from the archives of the Siemens Company, Berlin Germany.

109.
“I believe not only in the correctness of our political system”:
Rabe's account of the Rape of Nanking can be found in his report to Adolf Hitler, entitled “Enemy Planes over Nanking,” copies of which are now at Yale Divinity School Library, the Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanking Massacre by Japanese Invaders, and the Budesarchiv of the Federal Republic of Germany. Information and quotes in this section not otherwise attributed come from this report.

112.
“the mayor of Nanking.”
Letter from John Rabe of the International Committee for Nanking Safety Zone to the Imperial Japanese Embassy, December 27, 1937, enclosure to report entitled “Conditions in Nanking,” January 25, 1938, Intelligence Division, Naval Attaché Reports, 1886–1939, Records of the Office of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations, 1882–1954, Office of Naval Intelligence, box 996, entry 98, record group 38, National Archives.

113.
lost an eye:
Fitch,
My Eighty Years in China
, p. 101.

113.
only a fraction of the total food:
Hsu, p. 56.

116.
Han Chung Road:
Hsu, p. 2.

116.
mingled with civilians:
Letter from John Rabe to Fukuda Tokuyasa, December 15, 1937, box 996, entry 98, record group 38, National Archives.

116.
“We knew that there were a number of ex-soldiers”:
George Fitch, diary entry for December 14, 1937, reprinted in
My Eighty Years in China,
p. 106. One of the original copies can be found in 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 filed for the week ending February 13, 1938, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Division of Naval Intelligence, general correspondence, 1929–42, p. 5, folder A8–21/FS#3, box 195, entry 81, record group 38, National Archives. In the diary, Fitch wrote:
“Not a whimper came from the entire throng. Our own hearts were lead.... How foolish I had been to tell them the Japanese would spare their lives !”

118.
“All 27 Westerners in the city”:
Letter from John Rabe to the Imperial Japanese Embassy, December 17, 1937, enclosure no. 8 to report entitled “Conditions in Nanking,” January 25, 1938, box 996, entry 98, record group 38, National Archives. This letter can also be found in Hsu Shuhsi, ed.,
Documents of the Nanking Safety Zone: Prepared under the Auspices of the Council of International Affairs, Chungking
(Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore: Kelly & Walsh, 1939).

118.
“We did not find a single Japanese patrol”:
Rabe to Imperial Japanese Embassy, December 17, 1937; Hsu Shuhsi,
Documents of the Nanking Safety Zone,
p. 12.

118.
“Yesterday, in broad daylight”:
Rabe to Imperial Japanese Embassy, December 17, 1937; Hsu Shuhsi,
Documents of the Nanking Safety Zone,
p. 20.

118.
“If this process of terrorism continues”:
Rabe to Imperial Japanese Embassy, December 17, 1937; Shuhsi Hsu,
Documents of the Nanking Safety Zone,
p. 17.

118.
During the great Rape some Japanese embassy officials:
IMTFE judgment, National Archives. See “Verdict of the International /Military Tribunal for the Far East on the Rape of Nanking,”
Journal of Studies of Japanese Agression Against China
, November 1990, p. 75.

118.
“if you tell the newspaper reporters anything bad”:
Fu Kuishan's warning to Rabe, recorded in John Rabe diary, February 10, 1938, p. 723.

119.
Once there, he would chase Japanese soldiers away:
Robert Wilson, letter to family, January 31, 1938, p. 61.

120.
failed to take the matter seriously:
Even the Japanese embassy staff seemed secretly gleeful of the excesses of the Japanese army. When Hsu Chuang-ying caught a Japanese soldier raping a woman in a bath house and informed Fukuda, vice-consul of the Japanese embassy, of the situation, he saw that Fukuda had “a little smile on his face.” Transcript of the International Military Tribunal of the Far East. Testimony of Hsu Chuang-ying, witness. RG 311, Entry 319, page 2570-2571. Records from the Allied Operational/Occupation Headquarters, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

120.
“when any of them objects [Rabe] thrusts his Nazi armband”:
Copy of George Fitch diary, enclosed in file from Assistant
Naval Attaché E. G. Hagen to Chief of Naval Operations (Director of Naval Intelligence), Navy Department, Washington, D.C., March 7, 1938, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Division of Naval Intelligence, general correspondence, 1929–42, folder P9–2/EF16#8, box 277, entry 81, record group 38; also reprinted in Fitch,
My Eighty Years in China,
p. 114.

121.
Once, when four Japanese soldiers in the midst of raping and looting:
“Cases of Disorder by Japanese Soldiers in the Safety Zone,” filed January 4, 1938, in Hsu Shuhsi,
Documents of the Nanking Safety Zone,
p. 65.

121.
“bad business to shoot a German subject”:
“Cases of Disorder by Japanese Soldiers in the Safety Zone,” subenclosure to enclosure no. 1–c, Intelligence Division, Naval Attaché Reports, 1886–1939, Records of the Office of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations, 1882–1954, Office of Naval Intelligence, folder H–8–B Register#1727A, box 996, entry 98, record group 38, National Archives.

121.
During one of his visits to the zone:
Minnie Vautrin, diary 1937–40, February 17, 1938, p. 198.

121.
“almost wear a Nazi badge”:
Fitch, “Nanking Outrages,” January 10, 1938, Fitch Collection.

121.
“He is well up in Nazi circles”:
Robert Wilson, letter to family, Christmas Eve 1937, p. 6.

122.
Born in 1904:
Early biographical information on Robert Wilson comes from Marjorie Wilson (his widow), telephone interviews with the author.

122.
The first two years for the Wilsons:
Ibid.

122.
After the Marco Polo Bridge incident in July:
Robert Wilson, letter to family, August 18, 1937.

123.
“He saw this as his duty”:
Marjorie Wilson, telephone interview.

123.
No doubt to dispel loneliness:
Robert Wilson, letter to family, October 12, 1937, p. 15.

123.
Most contained gruesome descriptions:
Ibid., August 20, 1937, p. 9.

123.
“a respectable museum”:
Ibid., December 9, 1937, p. 35.

123.
On September 25, in one of the worst air raids:
Ibid., September 25 and 27, 1937; Minnie Vautrin, diary 1937–40, September 26, 1937, p. 33.

124.
Heavy black curtains were drawn:
Robert Wilson, letter to family, August 23, 1937.

124.
There were approximately one hundred thousand wounded Chinese veterans:
Commander Yangtze Patrol E. J. Marquart to Commander in Chief, U.S. Asiatic Fleet (letterhead marked
“Yangtze Patrol, U.S.S.
Luzon
[Flagship]),” intelligence summary for week ending October 24, 1937, October 25, 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; Minnie Vautrin, diary 1937–40, October 26 and November 8, 1937, pp. 55, 64 (she writes that some 100,000 soldiers have been injured or killed in the Shanghai area).

124.
Soldiers who healed were returned:
Ibid.

124.
Chinese doctors and nurses:
Minnie Vautrin, diary 1937–40, December 5, 1937, p. 96; Ernest and Clarissa Forster, letter to parents, December 7, 1937, Ernest and Clarissa Forster Collection.

124.
Ultimately, however, he was unable to convince them:
Robert O. Wilson (witness), testimony, Records of the Allied Operational /Occupation Headquarters, IMTFE transcript, entry 319, record group 331, pp. 2531–32, National Archives.

124.
By the end of the first week of December:
Mrs. E. H. Forster report, December 12, 1937, from newsletter in Ernest and Clarissa Forster Collection.

124.
When Richard Brady:
Robert Wilson, letter to family, December 2, 1937; A. T. Steele, “Tells Heroism of Yankees in Nanking,”
Chicago Daily News,
December 18, 1937.

125.
“It is quite a sensation”:
Robert Wilson, letter to family, December 7, 1937.

125.
“naturally pretty shaky”:
Ibid., December 14, 1937.

125.
Wilson saw Japanese flags fluttering:
Ibid.

125.
They broke into the main hospital:
Durdin, “Japanese Atrocities Marked Fall of Nanking”; Rabe, “Enemy Planes over Nanking”; an excerpt from a verbal presentation by Mr. Smith of Reuters about the events of Nanking on December 9–15, 1937, document no. 178, Hankow, January 1, 1938, in “Deutsche Botschaft China,” German diplomatic reports, National History Archives, Republic of China.

125.
“swift kick”:
Robert Wilson, letter to family, December 18, 1937.

125.
He also watched soldiers burn a heap of musical instruments:
Ibid., December 28, 1937.

126.
“The crowning insult”:
Ibid., December 19, 1937.

126.
“December 15: The slaughter of civilians is appalling”:
Ibid., December 15, 1937.

126.
“December 18: Today marks the 6th day”:
Ibid., December 18, 1937.

126.
“December 19: All the food is being stolen”:
Ibid., December 19, 1937.

126.
“Christmas Eve: Now they tell us”:
Ibid., December 24, 1937.

126.
“The only consolation”:
Ibid., December 30, 1937.

127.
Frequently Wilson and the others saw the Japanese:
Durdin, “Japanese Atrocities Marked Fall of Nanking.”

127.
After the fall of Nanking, the big trenches:
Robert Wilson, letter to family, December 24, 1937.

127.
The Japanese soldiers he confronted:
Robert Wilson, letter to family, December 21, 1937, p. 6; Marjorie Wilson, telephone interview with the author; John Magee to “Billy” (signed “John”), January 11, 1938, Ernest and Clarissa Forster Collection.

127.
One of the worst scenes:
Marjorie Wilson, telephone interview with the author.

127.
He told his wife that he would never forget the woman:
Ibid.

127.
“This morning came another woman in a sad plight”:
J. H. McCallum, diary entry for January 3, 1937, reprinted in
American Missionary Eyewitnesses to the Nanking Massacre, 1937–1938,
ed. Martha Lund Smalley (New Haven, Conn.: Yale Divinity School Library, 1997), p. 39.