Michael Cash wrote:

> On Sat, 30 Oct 2004 01:47:14 +0900, Eric Takabayashi
> <etakajp@yahoo.co.jp> brought down from the Mount tablets inscribed:
>
> >Michael Cash wrote:
> >
> >> In regards to the Rape of Nanking, you no doubt recall the story of
> >> the two officers who were reported in a Tokyo newspaper as being
> >> engaged in a contest to see who would be the first to behead 100
> >> Chinese. I recently resumed reading 20世紀にっぽん殺人事典
> >> http://tinyurl.com/4b24l and was surprised to find the contest among
> >> the entries in the book.
> >>
> >> Are you aware of what became of the two officers?
> >
> >IIRC, they were both put on trial in China, and at least one, who was featured in something I read, was
> later released and returned to Japan. And more recently the descendants of one or both of the men sued
> the newspaper which carried the story, claiming that they had fabricated the headhunting contest. The
> outcome of that I do not recall.
> >
> >What of it?
>
> I was just curious.
>
> The account in the book I mentioned said that the men themselves
> claimed it was a fabrication meant to make heroes of themselves so as
> to attract a bride.

I wouldn't be surprised if the story were a fabrication with or without the mens' knowledge or approval.

On the other hand, do they claim to be completely innocent of any atrocities such as rape or the deliberate
killing of civilians or POWs, or ordering others to do so? Otherwise, it makes little difference what they
did. What little I get to read in mainstream media about how Japanese soldiers were treated as POWs in
China according to the account of some former soldiers themselves gives me the impression that they got off
very light indeed. I don't recall the details, but I will never forget one man's story of how the Japanese
POWs, former enemies, were given white rice to eat, while the Chinese guards had none. Then of course,
there was how many Japanese war orphans or those abandoned by fleeing families were taken in by Chinese and
allowed to have some sort of life.

Such stories make me wonder whether Chinese hate Japanese more then or now.

> Any bitch ghoulish enough to be attracted to
> somebody for that is a woman I don't care to get within 100 miles of.

If they had actually been killing scores of armed enemy soldiers in battle, where their own lives had been
at risk, it could have been cool. The Red Baron is usually presented as a character to be admired, despite
being an enemy.

> The part I found most interesting is that both were put on trial in
> the tribunals in Tokyo after the war and acquitted. China indicated
> that they would like a word with the two. They got them, tried them,
> convicted them, and stood them up against a wall in 1949. Or so goes
> the account in the book I referenced anyway.

Why were they not executed, or like many POWs, later let go?

> Does it strike anyone else as peculiar that the story seems to have
> been carried in only a single newspaper?

You mean the original account of the headhunting contest?

--
 "I'm on top of the world right now, because everyone's going to know that I can shove more than three
burgers in my mouth!"