On Sun, 31 Oct 2004 00:27:33 +0900, Eric Takabayashi
<etakajp@yahoo.co.jp> brought down from the Mount tablets inscribed:

>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.

I left the book in my truck, so I'm going from memory here. One or
both of them was supposedly in a field hospital in China when a
reporter from the newspaper came through. One of the officers asked
him 嫁を世話して下さい, and the reporter suggested that it would be
better if he were a hero and got a bride himself. Then the two of them
concocted the story.

Of course, I have no personal way of knowing if that is the truth or
not. But for them to have been acquitted at the tribunals in Tokyo,
I'm guessing there must have been a total lack of corroborating
physical evidence and/or eyewitness testimony. Either that or the
tribunals were totally fucked...which is a distinct possibility, I
suppose. Either way, the two were able to "that's my story and I'm
sticking to it" their way out of there.
>
>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?

That section of the book didn't cover anything like that at all. There
may be material out there somewhere that can answer those questions,
but I don't know what or where it is. 

>> 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?

"Stood up against a wall" is a euphemism for being executed by firing
squad.

The book said something to the effect that the Chinese were not at all
amused by the idea that the two had been beheading innocent Chinese
for the purpose of attracting wives. So it would seem that the Chinese
court chose to believe that what they had told the reporter about
their motives were true, but that their denial of the contest having
been anything more than a hoax was false. The way it read to me was
"We're going to shoot your asses for even joking about shit like that,
whether you actually did it or not". Perhaps part of the reason I read
it that way was at least in part due to the fact that they had already
been acquitted of the crimes.
>
>> 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?

Yes, that.

If it were the big deal that the newspaper account seems to hype it up
to have been, wouldn't it seem likely that at least ONE other paper in
Japan would have been carrying it? Maybe there was another paper
carrying it, but the only articles I've ever seen mentioned in
connection with the story all come from a single newspaper.





--

Michael Cash

"I am sorry, Mr. Cash, but we are unable to accept your rap sheet in lieu of
a high school transcript."

                                Dr. Howard Sprague
                                Dean of Admissions
                                Mount Pilot College