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The contents of this site are direct quotes, translations, or abridged versions of scholarly works by Japanese historians or researchers. |
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Doctored Photos |
| "We all know that words can deceive, but somehow,
we have the tendency to believe that photographs speak the truth. However, this innocent sentiment has been taken
advantage of time and again. Ever since improved technology made it possible to do so, photographs have been used by propagandists to accomplish their political purposes." Nobukatsu
Fujiokafrom lecture given at Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, Sept. 17th 1999 |
The following information has been abridged from Reipu obu Nankin no Kenkyu (The Study of the Rape of Nanking) , co-published by Nobukatsu Fujioka and Shudo Higashinakano from Shodensha in Sept. 1999. (available in Japanese only)
| PHOTO 1 : "Japanese...rounded up thousands of women. Many of them were gang raped or forced
into military prostitutions" PHOTO 2 : "Arson destroyed one-third of Nanking during the massacre...Japanese troops set fire to a house in the suburbs" Photo 3: "Corpses of Nanking citizens were dragged to the banks of the Yangtze and thrown into the river" (coming soon) |
PHOTO 1 
Caption in Iris Chang's book
: "the Japanese... rounded up thousands of women. Many of them were gang raped or forced into military prostitution"
Original caption and
source : "A group of women and children returning to Rising Sun Flag Village after working in the fields,
protected by our soldiers."
Original source: Nihon University professor Hata Ikuhiko traced the photo to one of a set of four taken by correspondent
Kumazaki, for November 1937 issue of Asahi
Graph. The original title of the
article in which it appeared was "A
Wartime Refuge: The Rising Sun Flag Village in Jiangnan".
This is the ORIGINAL
PHOTO:
Japanese troops had entered the village of Jiangnan
on a pacification mission. Pacification involves informing the occupied residents about the occupying nation's
policies, and allaying their fears. In this case, it meant keeping watch over farming activities and communicating
with the villagers.
Many of us are unfamiliar with the behavior of Chinese soldiers of this period. Chinese soldiers habitually stole
from civilians, burnt their homes, and raped and murdered them. In this photograph, Japanese soldiers are accompanying
the villagers to protect them from potential outrages of that sort.
Here are the other three photos taken by Mr.Kumazaki, and their explanations:
villagers picking cotton
the villagers sorting the
cotton in front of a farmhouse
This family (above) was the first to seek refuge in Rising Sun Flag Village after having heard about it. The mother became ill and died during the war. The father fled the hostilities with his three daughters aged 20, 14, and 12, wandering from village to village. The party, having been joined by a relative's daughter, finally arrived at Shengjiaqiao. They now enjoy peaceful lives under the protection of the Imperial Army.
The 12-year-old and the 20-year old daughters re-appear in Iris Chang's photo :
Transformation of a photo's atmosphere, from bucolic to beastly :
Technique 1)
trimming of photo, especially the little child and older women plodding behind and the cotton cart at the tail of the procession
Technique 2)
blur images to eradicate peaceful expressions of the villagers, including the smile on the boy
Technique 3) fake caption
Professor Fujioka's comment,
at Foreign Correspondents' Club of Tokyo, Sept.17th 1999 :
"I visited Stanford University in November last year in an effort to trace the source of such fraudulent usage
of photos. There, at the East Asian Library of the Hoover Institute, I found a Chinese book entitled "Records
of the Japanese Atrocities", published by the Politburo of the Nationalist governmentfs Military Committee
in 1938.
This book contained the same photo. The gist of the Chinese text describing it is, "Group after group of women
and girls from farming families in the Jiangnan District was led away to Japanese Army Headquarters, where they
were humiliated, gang-raped, and shot to death.
The book was published in 1938, only a year after the original appeared in Asahi Graph. The Politburo, which was
the propaganda arm of the Nationalists, was already busy using a photo from the Japanese press to concoct what
they called proof of Japanese Army atrocities."
PHOTO 2
Caption in Iris Chang's book
: "Arson destroyed one-third of Nanking during the massacre... Japanese troops set fire to a house in the
suburbs"
This photo is a fake.
This tank was not in existence at the time of the Battle of Nanking, which took place in December 1937.
According to expert information,* the tank shown in the photo is a Model 97 light-armored vehicle, which was designed in 1937,
but whose production began in 1939.
Furthermore, the model was not equipped with a flamethrower.
The predecessor of Model 97 was the Model 94 light-armored vehicle, which are also shown in Iris Chang's book,
and were used in the Battle of Nanking.
The differences between the two models are obvious. The photograph shows the light-armored vehicles, not technically
"tanks" as Chang explains, proceeding toward Zhonghua Gate, viewed from the rear.
The design for Model
97 was accepted, provisionally, in September 1937. In November 1937, a prototype was manufactured. Subsequent production
statistics are as follows :
|
1938 |
0 |
|
1939 |
274 |
|
1940 |
284 |
|
1941 |
0 |
|
1942 |
570 |
|
TOTAL |
1,128 |
The first frontline unit to be supplied with the
Model 97 was the 48th Reconnaissance Regiment from Kumamoto, on November 30, 1940.
* former Army officer belonging to tank unit, Yoshiharu
Iwata