The third photograph we will examine is Photograph 3-1, which is often presented as irrefutable proof that civilians were massacred in Nanking. The caption Chang provides is: "Corpses of Nanking citizens were dragged to the banks of the Yangtze and thrown into the river (Moriyasa Murase)."

  
Photograph 3-1                     Photograph3-2

In this case, the provenance of the original is known. It was taken by Murase Moriyasu (not "Moriyasa"), a former soldier who saw action in Nanking. This photograph was used as the background for the jacket of Chang's book, and also appears in much of the educational material intended for Japanese children. We must dispel, once and for all, the myths that have been constructed around this photograph.

There is no indication in Chang's book as to where on the banks of the Yangtze this photograph was taken. But in the original photograph (3-2), there is additional background. As shown in Chang's book, this photograph was cropped to produce the desired effect.

Photograph 3-2 became famous as photographic proof of the "Nanking Massacre" when the Mainichi Shinbun (August 16, 1983 edition) printed it under the headline "There Really Was a Nanking Massacre: A Former Japanese Soldier Provides Photographic Evidence." The newspaper also reproduced Photograph 3-3 from Chang's book.

Photograph 3-3

Takahashi Yoshihiko, an officer who fought in the Battle of Nanking (now residing in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture), saw the photograph in the newspaper. He recognized it immediately as "an area in which I had fought -- Xinhezhen -- from the background." One of the photographs shows corpses of dead soldiers that had drifted down the river and were cast ashore at the confluence of the Jiajiang and Yangtze rivers.

Our research group contacted Takahashi to inquire about the conditions at the time. He provided with a detailed letter, and even a hand-drawn map (courtesy of Matsuo Ichiro) that shows the area where the photograph was taken, and which we have reproduced.

Takahashi was attached to the 2nd Mountain Artillery Regiment, an independent unit. He had been officially appointed head of an observation party attached to Headquarters. His duty was to assist the regimental commander in the handling of the artillery by determining how to concentrate the firepower of the regiment. The portion of Takahashi's letter that describes the course of events leading up to hostilities with Chinese troops, follows.

After landing at Hangzhou Bay, I proceeded to Nanking. When it looked as though the date of the general offensive would be moved up, the regimental commander made a rapid advance to Nanking, leading part of the regiment. I was ordered to "lead the remaining advance troops (2,500 men) in rapid pursuit of the Regiment." On the evening of December 11, we arrived at Mianhuadi (the southernmost location on my map). At that time, I received a special order from the regimental commander: "I am in the process of forming a suicide squad. First Lieutenant Takahashi shall head the mountain artillery platoon which, as the left detachment under the leadership of the commander of the 11th Company, 45th Regiment, shall proceed to Xiaguan, and block the enemy's escape route."

With one 75-millimeter cannon, we arrived at Xinhezhen, where we were commanded by Captain Osono, head of the 11th Company, 45th Regiment. At daybreak on December 14, we boarded collapsible boats provided by engineers attached to the Company, travelled down the Yangtze, and waited for nightfall to attack the Xiaguan District. However, at about 6:00, the enemy launched a general offensive. The Chinese beat drums, rang bells, banged on basins, and then attacked.

We fired our cannon point-blank until we ran out of ammunition. With one shell we could fire 200 shots which resembled pachinko balls. With each firing, about 100 enemy soldiers were blown into the air. Since they couldn't escape without passing through Xinhezhen (where we were), it was a desperate battle.

The melee lasted from 6:00 to about 11:00. The surrounding marshland and the roads were covered with the dead, both theirs and ours. Human bodies were used like railroad ties [as shields from enemy fire]. The battle was fought on top of the dead and wounded -- it was hell on earth. By the time we were sure that we had been victorious, it was about 11:00. Enemy soldiers began to strip off their uniforms and jump into the river. We shot at them from the bank. We felt as though we were firing our machine guns on swimmers at a beach resort. When I looked downstream, I saw that enemy soldiers had begun to pick up railroad ties from the riverbank. They bound them together with their belts and the leather straps from saddles to make rafts, which they were using to cross the river.

Our heavy field artillery unit was firing a 15-centimeter howitzer, aiming squarely at those rafts. We had hoisted an observation balloon, so we knew that every shot was hitting its target. The Yangtze became a sea of blood. As far as the eye could see, the surface of the water was covered with the dead and wounded. The Yangtze River had been transformed into hell.

From Takahashi's true-to-life account, we learned the following about the photograph in question:

(1) The corpses were not those of civilian residents of Nanking, but of Chinese soldiers who died in battle. It is painful to look at them, but death is inevitable in war, which is, by nature, cruel. They are not proof that the Japanese military committed war crimes or perpetrated a massacre.

During the Russo-Japanese War, in the assault on Port Arthur, tens of thousands of Japanese corpses covered the battlefield. But no one has come forward to accuse Russian troops of massacring Japanese citizens in the Russo-Japanese War. In a war, armed combatants do battle with each other. Even if the consequences are horrific, one cannot claim that they are unlawful acts.

(2) In his letter, Takahashi states that these photographs are not from the land battle fought at Xinhezhen. Since some of the corpses are naked, they either died in combat on the Yangtze, or drowned.

(3) The dead soldiers did not expire where the photograph was taken. Since the corpses all face in the same general direction, it is obvious that they had drifted, carried by the current of the river.

(4) Takahashi's map tells us that the corpses were photographed at either Location A or B, judging from the lumberyard shown in the background.

Whatever the case, these photographs, which were for many years accepted as irrefutable evidence of a massacre in Nanking, cannot, under any circumstances, be connected with the massacre of civilian residents of that city.