Part II Disaster Strikes
Japanese military’s atrocities
Introduction
The Nanjing Massacre is a crime of war and a crime of anti-humanity committed by the Japanese military in Nanjing, including crimes of killing, raping, rooting and arson on a large scale.
The massacre started in Nanjing on Dec. 13, 1937 after the fall of the city. Over the course of six weeks, there were over 300,000 Chinese soldiers and innocent civilians killed, and over 20,000 women raped by Japanese troops. After the disaster, one third of the buildings in the city were destroyed and countless economic losses were induced.
One of the sites where the Japanese military committed the mass massacre
More information
Contest in killing
On their way from Wuxi to Nanjing, two Second Lieutenants in the Japanese 16th Division, Toshiaki Mukai and Tsuyoshi Noda, encouraged by their commanders, decided to have a contest in killing, in which the one who first killed 100 people with a sword would be the winner.
The contest took place en route from Wuxi, Changzhou, Jurong of Zhenjiang, Tangshan of Nanjing when Toshiaki Mukai had killed 89 while Tsuyoshi Noda had killed 78, with neither winning out by killing 100. They continued their killing contest.
When they got to the Zijin Mountain in Nanjing on Dec. 10, Tsuyoshi Noda had killed 105 while Toshiaki Mukai had killed 106. Both of them had surpassed the figure of 100, but making it impossible to determine who the winner was. Therefore, they decided to continue the contest to see who could finish 150 kills the first.
The Tokyo Nichinichi Shinbun newspaper made serial reports about the massacre, claiming the two are “Heroes of the Imperial Army”.
After Japan surrendered, the two criminals Toshiaki Mukai and Tsuyoshi Noda were tried by justice and sentenced to death in Nanjing on charge of “Civilized Public Enemy”.
