SDHF Newsletter No.205 The Nanjing Incident-Japanese eyewiness 9

The Nanjing Incident: Japanese Eyewitness Accounts
-Testimony from 48 Japanese Who Were There-
By Ara Ken’ichi
No. 9: Chapter 3 Nanjing, as Observed by Artists and Photographers

Mr. Sumiya Iwane, Artist and Naval Correspondent
Mr. Watanabe Yoshio, Photographer, Information Bureau of
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Mr. Koyanagi Jiichi, Member of the Army Press Team

April 3, 2018

We present No. 9 in this series, which contains Chapter 3: Nanjing, as Observed by Artists and Photographers.
Mr. Sumiya Iwane, a well-known artist, applied for the position of combat artist in the Navy. His application was rejected, so he sent a letter to the Minister of the Navy Yonai Mitsumasa and directly approached the head of the Fourth Department of Military Affairs–he was finally accepted.
Mr. Sumiya saw executions of Chinese soldiers at Xiaguan Wharf. He may have observed the execution of unlawful Chinese soldiers who had infiltrated the Safety Zone, discarding their military uniform and hiding their weapons. He saw almost no Chinese civilians in Nanjing, at first, but later he saw a sign for the Refugee Zone, where many Chinese civilians had gathered. He never witnessed a “Massacre” of any sort.
After the outbreak of the China Incident, the Chinese government distributed photos which alleged Japanese brutality, thereby raising sympathy for the Chinese people with great success. So, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs organized a photographic and film team. Mr. Watanabe Yoshio, a rising photographer, was selected to join the team.
Mr. Watanabe spoke about the impact and effect of the well-known photo of a crying baby which appeared in the American magazine Life. It was an entirely staged photo, though. He never saw a massacre in Nanjing. In the Safety Zone, the Japanese army distributed rice and consolation gifts, of which he took a photo, he says.
Mr. Koyanagi Jiichi worked with Mr. Natori Yonosuke, who published the English-language photo magazine NIPPON. They spoke to the Army and Navy of the importance of media. Finally, they were able to convince Major Kaneko Toshiharu, in charge of propaganda in the Army’s Special Service Agency in Shanghai, of the importance of media.
They distributed photos taken in China to photo magazines, newspapers, publishers, and so on overseas under the name “Natori,” who was well-known worldwide. Later, Mr. Koyanagi attached his own name to these photos. His photo of an execution of a Chinese spy in Nanjing was published in Life.
Mr. Koyanagi also referred to the “crying baby” photo that appeared in Life. During the Korean War, he met the photographer who took this fabrication, in Seoul. He told him that the true story behind it was widely known. Mr. Koyanagi strongly denies that a so-called massacre occurred in Nanjing. He simply states: “Facts are twisted by ideology and twisted facts are accepted today.”

URL: https://www.sdh-fact.com/book-article/1144/

PDF: https://www.sdh-fact.com/CL/Ara-Nanjing-9-.pdf

Questions are welcome.

MOTEKI Hiromichi, Acting Chairman
for KASE Hideaki, Chairman
Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact