Tuesday, January 12, 2016

How many killed in Nanjing? China blows up the death figure 15 times

*** Since some people seem to be hysteric about the recent APA hotel "incident", here is something about "Nanjing massacre". It is great that APA hotel is not withdrawing books that mention about Nanjing incident. ***
 
Chinese government claims that over 300,000 people were killed in Najing in about 6 weeks between December 1937 – beginning Feb 1938 by the Japanese army. This is so-called Nanjing massacre. But there is one simple discrepancy in this figure. That is:

The population of Nanjing was 200,000 when the Japanese army entered the city in mid December 1937.

This was recorded by Westerners who lived there. John Rabe, the chairman of the Safety Zone Committee (non-governmental organization composed of 16 Westerners) in Nanjing wrote in his diary on December 10, that when the Nanking battle began, the population was 200,000. After the Japanese victory and occupation took place, the Safety Zone Committee in its document on December 17, and in subsequent documents, consistently recognized the same number. This figure could be trusted, because it was necessary for the Safety Zone Committee to know the accurate number of people in the Zone in order to distribute food to them. Many were refugees.

In Nanjing, there were also Chinese soldiers and their families. The International Military Tribunal for the Far East stated that “All Chinese troops withdrew, but 50,000 remained in the city to defend it.”

Considering the above statement, the population in the walled city of Nanjing was 200,000 plus 50,000, or not more than 250,000 when the battle started.

So how did the population decrease after the “massacre”?
The Safety Zone Committee recorded that in January 1938, the population was 250,000. 


The population continued to increase. After the Safety Zone was dissolved at the beginning of February 1938, Lewis S.C. Smythe, professor of Nanking University investigated the population with the help of Chinese staff. He estimated the population of Nanking to be 250,000 – 270,000 as of the end March 1938.

The Nanking City Administrative Office of the Nanking Restoration Government, which was established on March 28, 1938, registered 277,000 inhabitants.

So, from 250,000 to 270,000 – population did increase, according to these population surveys by the third parties. How does 300,000 deaths fit in here?

On February 1, 1938, when the “Nanjing massacre” was supposed to be happening, Chinese representative Wellington Koo at the League of Nations said 20,000 people were assumed to be killed in Nanjing. Notice the difference in digit here - Chinese government today claims 15 times higher deaths than what its representative was insisting in those days.

Does the Chinese government tell truth about its brutality, past and present, in inner Mongolia, Uygur, Tibet, and in their mainland? No. Then why believe its claims on Japanese “atrocity”? Chinese government minimizes its own atrocity, while fabricating and super-exaggerating one for its neighbor to divert attention.


Reference: 
Takemoto Tadao and Ohara Yasuo, "The Alleged 'Nanking Massacre' ~ Japan's rebuttal to China's forged claims," 2000