The preceeding two photographs are very disturbing, since they show a row of severed heads on display. Chang included Photograph 1 in her book, with the following caption: "The severed heads of Nanking victims (New China News Agency)." She does not cite the photographer, or the time when or place where the photograph was taken. But interestingly enough, it appears in a collection of photographs, also entitled The Rape of Nanking, which preceded Chang's book. Its authors are Shi Yong and James (Jidiao) Ying. The second printing was made in 1997 (the date of the first printing is unknown).

Captions in this book, a compilation of anti-Japanese propaganda photographs, are in both Chinese and English. Chang reproduces some of them verbatim, so she must have used the book as her main source of photographs. Photograph 2 appears on p. 113 of the Shi and Ying book. We would like readers to compare it with the one in Chang's book. The eight heads are obviously the same, but there is a slight difference in the directions they face between the two photographs. The photographer moved them.

In the photograph in the Shi and Ying book, there is something resembling a wall in the background. Those who have been in Nanking attest that no such wall exists in that city.

We also find it strange that the eight heads are those of middle-aged men. Most likely, they belonged to political offenders slaughtered during internecine conflict between the Nationalist and Communist parties. The Chinese then used them to make Japanese scapegoats for their own misdeeds.

Furthermore, the book compiled by Shi and Yin describes this photograph as one of those discovered in the estate of a former soldier in Miyazaki Prefecture, as reported in an article in the August 4, 1984 edition of the Asahi Shinbun, but this claim is patently false.