epilogue
Nanking Massacre 1937
Epilogue
I JAPAN SURRENDERS
On September 2, 1945, the Japanese representatives signed the official Instrument of Surrender on the deck of the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
The photocopy of the original document. Click to read.
A U.S. pilot beheaded after the Japanese emperor announced surrender.
II THE TOKYO WAR CRIMES TRIALS [1946.3.3-1948.11.12]
All Japanese Class A war criminals were tried by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE) in Tokyo. The prosecution team was made up of justices from eleven Allied nations: Australia, Canada, China, France, Great Britain, India, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, the Soviet Union and the United States of America. The Tokyo trial lasted two and a half years, from May 1946 to November 1948. Other war criminals were tried in the respective victim countries. War crime trials were held at ten different locations in China.
The indictment accused the defendants of promoting a scheme of conquest that "contemplated and carried out ... murdering, maiming and ill-treating prisoners of war (and) civilian internees ... forcing them to labor under inhumane conditions ... plundering public and private property, wantonly destroying cities, towns and villages beyond any justification of military necessity; (perpetrating) mass murder, rape, pillage, brigandage, torture and other barbaric cruelties upon the helpless civilian population of the over-run countries."
Two (Yosuke Matsuoka and Osami Nagano) of the twenty-eight defendants died of natural causes during the trial. One defendant (Shumei Okawa) had a mental breakdown on the first day of trial, was sent to a psychiatric ward and was released in 1948 a free man. The remaining twenty-five (25) were all found guilty, many of multiple counts. Seven (7) were sentenced to death by hanging, sixteen (16) to life imprisonment, and two (2) to lesser terms. All seven sentenced to death were found to be guilty of inciting or otherwise implicated in mass-scale atrocities, among other counts. Three of the sixteen sentenced to life imprisonment died between 1949 and 1950 in prison. The remaining thirteen (13) were paroled between 1954 and 1956, less than eight years in prison for their crimes against millions of people.
Two former ambassadors were sentenced to seven and twenty years in prison. One died two years later in prison. The other one, Shigemitsu, was paroled in 1950, and was appointed foreign minister.
III SHAMELESS DENIAL
Japanese attending a memorial service for seven Class A war criminals.
From the 1970's until 1990, Japan officially began to lie about the Nanking Massacre. Right wing politicians created three types of denial when they came to power in 1972: they distorted the facts, disputed the extent of the Massacre, and even denied the events completely. The Japan Ministry of Education headed the attempts to distort and rewrite the history books. Certain words were replaced, such as "aggression" with "advancing." The entire massacre was re-labeled a "minor incident," or the "Nanking Incident." The Japanese history books even claimed that the massacre occurred because Japanese soldiers were frustrated with the strength of the Chinese army.
During this period, some Japanese citizens came to believe the massacre had been a great exaggeration. The book, Nanking Incident, by Hata Ikuhiko claims that there were only 38,000 to 42,000 victims, whereas most sources state there were over 300,000 victims. This text is considered the text for history classes on the issue by the Japan Ministry of Education.
Perhaps the most outrageous claim was of an absolute denial of the atrocity. The Journey to China sparked the publication of two articles, "Reply to Katsuichi Honda," and "The Phantom of the Nanking Massacre," both declaring that the massacre never happened. They were printed in the March and April edition of Every Gentlemen. In addition, the book, "Fabrication of Nanking Massacre," by Massaki Tanaka, also denied the massacre and blamed the Chinese for the war.
In 1990, Japanese government officials formally denied the Nanking Massacre by stating that it was a lie. On November 10, 1990, the deputy Japanese Consul in Houston told Americans that according to Japanese sources, the massacre never occurred. Shintaro Ishihara, a Japanese writer and politician, was quoted by Playboy, "People say that the Japanese made a holocaust there, but that is not true. It is a story made up by the Chinese." This treatment of the Massacre continued for five more years.
