Modern World History Oral History Project:

The Nanjing Massacre

Alfred Chen

Modern World History

Mr. Sokoloff

May 31, 2021

 Alfred 1

Japan played an essential role in the Second Sino-Japanese War, and a dramatic military
conflict lasted for eight years during WWII. However, there is a historical event that historians
cannot determine an accurate judgment of even now, which is the Nanjing Massacre that
happened more than seventy years ago. There is a lot of controversy about the Nanjing Massacre
globally. Thus, I intend to compare different versions of the "facts" of the Nanjing Massacre by
looking for some reasonable interpretations and extensive comprehensive evidence. I start that
by asking about the experiences of people around me. My grandfather was from Nanjing, and he
experienced the Nanjing Massacre when he was a child. I want to know his views by asking my
grandpa and getting inspiration from the stories he shared. However, his personal story is
different from what the other Chinese said, Japan's reports, or China's reports. For example,
people are confused about the casualties of innocent Chinese caused by Japanese officers and
soldiers. My grandfather thinks that the Chinese government has exaggerated the death of the
Chinese. In addition, my grandfather has a different idea about the purpose of the Nanjing
Massacre rather than just a massacre. Besides, according to some information I browse online,
textbooks in several countries have significant differences from my grandfather's story. There are
some pictures and artifacts displayed on some Chinese websites as well. All of those resources
and interviews are biased without any doubt, but that's also the reason why historians cannot give
us a particular explanation of the Nanjing Massacre that people all over the world could accept.
There are two interviews as my resource. One contains more about some specific
experiences that my grandfather has, and the other proves the reality of the first interview. There
are some direct quotes from 4:00 to 6:12 in the first interview about two specific matters:

Alfred: "During the Nanjing Massacre, there was an article that caused a stir in China. Two
Japanese officers caught competing to see who could kill the most people in a day. Do you have
any comments on this report?"
Le Nong: "I have heard about the report, but I think there are few or no people downtown who
have witnessed the case. Because this report is the end of World War II, the war reporters
interviewed the local people killed, an interview out of a theory. Some places hung heads, but the
Japanese said that these people were Against the Japanese attack at that time. These belong to
the resistance. But there must have been some Japanese soldiers who killed innocents
indiscriminately. For example, the same is true of the US war in the Middle East. As long as
there is a war, it is inevitable that some innocent people will die unexpectedly because of it."
Alfred: "In recent years, a Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall has been established in Nanjing,
which records that about 300,000 Chinese died because of the Massacre. Do you think that
figure matches what you had in mind, given what you saw at the scene of the slaughter?"
Le Nong: "I don't know if the exact number is actual or not, but I think the death toll is probably
not so high. There were indeed many casualties among the soldiers at that time, about a hundred
Thousand according to records. But whether there are so many other innocent people, I don't
know. Because at the beginning of the war, most people went to the countryside, and after about
 Alfred 2

four months, when they heard that the fighting had subsided a little, they slowly came back to the
cities. So I haven't seen this with my own eyes, so I can't give you an exact answer."1

In interview one, my grandfather talked about what that case looks like from his
viewpoint from the beginning to 4:00. Then after he spoke about his experience, he told me how
the Nanjing Massacre affected his daily life from 6:12 to the end. My grandfather and his family
were not soldiers or involved in politics. They moved from the city to the suburbs at the
beginning of the war. During that time, they were afraid because they had heard that many
people had died in the town, and even the city's walls were covered with heads. My grandfather
told me that although the Anti-Japanese War lasted eight years, the invasion and rebellion of the
Nanking Massacre only lasted about four months. My grandfather believes that the real purpose
of the Massacre was for the Japanese to occupy and control Nanjing, not simply to kill people.
As a result, most of the local buildings and residential buildings did not suffer much damage. On
the contrary, in the years after Japan took control of Nanjing, the Japanese government managed
the city orderly. For the ordinary Chinese, there was not much change in their life. My
grandfather did see these bloody images, but with all the rumors of Japanese soldiers killing
innocent people, he did not know the slaughter with his own eyes. So, his experience doesn't
seem to be objectively helpful in proving these cases.2
However, interview two is an excellent source to prove interview one is helpful. My
grandfather explained that much of what he had heard was true, that we can know from 2:50 to
6:16:

Alfred: "How did you get the real-time information?"

Le Nong: "At that time, most information was transmitted by newspapers, but since the Japanese
army blocked the propaganda channels of the Chinese government, most of the information came
from the underground government of the Chinese Kuomintang. I used to find leaflets secretly
handed out by underground government agents on the streets or in hidden places to learn about
the battle in real-time. And most of these leaflets did turn out to be true after the second world
war."3

Those quotations can give us a great sense of how the Nanjing Massacre looked like.
From the beginning to 2:50, my grandfather talked about how the Chinese government revolted
against the invading of the Japanese. Most of the information came from leaflets secretly
distributed by the underground organization of the Kuomintang government at the time. Also,
my grandfather mentioned the situation of his family after he illustrated the way he gained
information. People were flustered initially, but life was back on the right track in about half a

1
Lenong Chen, interview by Alfred Chen, audio, May 9, 2021,
https://soundcloud.com/qianyi-chen-219031915/interview-2.
2
Chen, audio.
3
Lenong Chen, interview by Alfred Chen, audio,
https://soundcloud.com/qianyi-chen-219031915/interview-3.
 Alfred 3

year. The personal story that my grandpa has is different from the Japanese and the Chinese
government. The Chinese government always holds 300,000 people, and most are ordinary
citizens dead in the Nanjing Massacre. I want to figure out the best way to interpret the Massacre
because they all have different biased pieces of evidence.4
To find a more critical interpretation of the Nanjing Massacre, I found some sources
online too. Wikipedia shows a broad cause and start, the whole process, and some important
events during the Nanjing Massacre.5 In the point of view of Japanese, according to a paper by a
Japanese undergraduate, there are different ways that China and Japan teach students about the
Nanjing Massacre. There is a quote that represents most of the idea that the Japanese student
holds:

"The differences in the ways the Chinese and Japanese publics have remembered Nanjing are a
major obstacle to reconciliation today, and historical education is one reason for the rift.
However, a simple look at the history textbooks used by both Japanese and Chinese students
makes clear how different those public memories are."6

There is much vital evidence that Japan has another way to treat the Nanjing Massacre
than China and with some unique ideas and emotions. The less biased evidence is the artifacts.
There are two ways that I found those. First of all, many artifacts are recorded in the Nanjing
Massacre Memorial Hall, which won't have any bias for the actual historical artifacts.7 Besides,
there is an article published by a famous Chinese News website. Hundreds of pictures were
recorded at that time.8 Nevertheless, it isn't very objective because I cannot prove that all of those
pictures are real and taken precisely. Also, an image can not tell us a whole story. We have to
connect them with the correct context.
I start researching and finding sources by interviewing my family members. Since my
grandfather lives in China, I interviewed him twice over facetime. I record the interviews using
the app "Dolby On" and have no editing to keep the original audio. The Nanjing Massacre took
place more than seventy years ago, so my grandfather's memory may not be accurate. During the
interview, he wasn't as emotional as I had expected. Instead, he was thinking and talking along
with my questions, but I can still relate to his experiences. Although my grandfather told me
some when I was a kid, it's still my first time interviewing my grandfather in this formal way.
Besides, interview two could provide us with the reality of interview one. The interview is not
comprehensive absolutely. We need more artifacts to support my grandfather's experience.

4
Chen, audio.
5
Nanking Massacre, https://www.history.com/topics/japan/nanjing-massacre.
6
Reconciling Narratives of the Nanjing Massacre in Japanese and Chinese Textbooks,
https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/file/kasahara.pdf.
7
WWW Memorial Hall of the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre (1937-1938),
http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/NanjingMassacre/NM.html.
8
南京大屠杀近百幅历史照片Historical Photos of the Nanjing Massacre,
https://baike.baidu.com/reference/26188/9760zcg80zh_eCwyDSCG_mCO-rxNwX8Q5YCvwjLQxtB0Z7-P
dODYCJLmxwj2g26bua3wcwHiYj1sxINEbHXoa8V6DCc9GwBqSzKvUcXfgA.
 Alfred 4

Therefore, I found four more websites that are relevant to the Nanjing Massacre. In addition, I
found some historical pictures from a reliable Chinese webpage. Still, to prove the connection
between real stories and photos, I found a website in the USA that contains a basic overview of
the causes, processes, and consequences of the Nanjing Massacre.
Last but not least, I am trying to figure out why there are so many different voices in the
story. Therefore, I am looking for a university paper published by a Japanese student. By
comparing those three sources and my interviews together, I might better understand what
happened.
There is a direct quotation in the interview from 4:00 to 6:12, including the authentic
experiences that happened when my grandpa was ten years old in Nanjing, China. Except for the
answer I expected to hear from my grandpa, I accidentally heard that there were some places in
Nanjing hanging heads! That shocked me a lot because the war was more bloody than I
imagined. However, my grandpa and his family escaped to a suburb at the beginning of the war,
so all those stories he told me are the stories his friends told him at the time. Therefore, I am not
sure if the story is exaggerated or just a part of it. People were flustered initially, but life was
back on the right track in about half a year.9 That could provide me some ideas that the reason for
the Nanjing Massacre may not just murder people, but they might have another purpose like
occupy the land of China. That is one of the points I would like to explore further.
When it comes to the artifacts, a well-known publisher in China published about 100
historical pictures of the Nanjing Massacre. All of them include many significant parts of the
Massacre.10 However, those pictures posted by the Chinese news website might have some bias,
but we are not sure about that. If there is no bias, those pictures will be reliable because a listed
news company publishes them in China. Besides, the Massacre happened more than 70 years
ago. No one can make sure all those pictures are not exported. Those pictures are just one piece
of historical evidence to support the idea that some people have, but we have to find out the
reason behind the photographs. For example, we cannot determine that all the Japanese officers
killed innocent Chinese citizens if just one Japanese officer killed some innocent Chinese
citizens.11
Besides, there is a memorial hall in China called "The Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall,"
located in Nanjing. I have looked upon the Internet and visited in person on March 15, 2017.
Indeed, there are many historical relics in the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall. Photos and
names of the victims hung on dozens of walls as high as six meters. Behind large glass walls are
skulls and bones, along with mutilated razor blades. There is much factual evidence like this.12
People who can visit the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall will further convince the Nanjing
Massacre's authenticity.
A Japanese undergraduate student, Tokushi Kasahara from Tsuru Bunka University,
published an essay to illustrate the bias that exists in the Nanjing Massacre. The paper clarifies

9
Chen, audio.
10
南京大屠杀近百幅历史照片Historical Photos of the Nanjing Massacre.
11
南京大屠杀近百幅历史照片Historical Photos of the Nanjing Massacre.
12
WWW Memorial Hall of the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre (1937-1938).
 Alfred 5

that most Japanese and Chinese students know and commit the truth that the Nanjing Massacre
took place in Nanjing. Most Chinese students believe the hundred-man killing contest existed,
but Japanese students do not. The main reason that causes this difference is that they received
further education. In Japan, it is more known as the Nanking Incident than the Nanjing Massacre
in China. In Japanese textbooks in recent years, stories of bloody scenes of Japanese massacres
have significantly been reduced.13
In contrast, in China, both teachers and textbooks have greatly emphasized the number of
Chinese casualties and stories of massacres. The target audience for this paper should be the
Chinese and Japanese who are concerned about the Nanjing Massacre. Even now, neither
country has a fully agreed version of the overall case. The paper details the revised history of the
Nanking Massacre in Japanese textbooks from several legal perspectives. It is a bias of the
Japanese government to constantly cut out the story pieces and play down the bloody violence.
And every year, the Chinese government overemphasized China's losses at the time. Therefore,
the two countries have different educational concepts and knowledge transmission about the
Nanjing Massacre, resulting in the children's cognition of the Nanjing Massacre being more and
more extreme.
Therefore, according to my interviews and online material surveys, one thing that can be
confirmed is that most people agree that the Japanese did attack Nanjing and committed murder
and aggression. However, the Chinese believe that Japan once killed innocent people, but most
Japanese do not admit it because of incomplete unilateral evidence. Today's young Japanese,
who did not experience the real Nanjing Massacre, often take it for granted that much of the
Massacre was fabricated by the Chinese because they only know about the case through their
one-sided history textbooks, which the Japanese government has revised. From the standpoint of
the Chinese, it isn't easy to understand what the Japanese think. I'm not Japanese, but I don't
think they'd be willing to admit that their predecessors did these things. Therefore, I also
understand why there has been no objective and accurate statement on the Nanjing Tu lying case.
Without the testimony of a third country, there will never be a unified version of events based on
two countries holding different views and other one-sided and single evidence.
For my grandfather, his experience was different because he didn't join the army. He and
his family had taken refuge in the countryside during the war, so it must have been further from
the accounts of some of the soldiers who were lucky enough to survive. From his interview
alone, he did not agree with either side of the Japanese or Chinese government 100% because he
believed his eyes, he did not see so many people die. Still, he also got the rumors from his
friends or through the gossip that the Japanese officers killed innocent people at random. I think
my grandfather's interview is not a perfect match with any party because there is bias in each
party, which is beyond doubt in the study of historical cases. Therefore, during the investigation
and comparison of historical circumstances, different views on Bais should be obtained from
people with different or opposite opinions in other countries involved in this event. Some
artifacts with less bias should be used to elaborate on this matter through their understanding.

13
Reconciling Narratives of the Nanjing Massacre in Japanese and Chinese Textbooks.
 Alfred 6

Perhaps, even then, there will be Bais, but our goal is to reduce bias, and it's hard to have a
provocative view of something that has been happening for years. For me, I prefer first-hand
data. In this way, I can first understand the overall event only through some simple clues. Later,
when I access secondary data, I can compare or combine my views with others so that the event
can be explained more reasonably and in line with the facts.
 Alfred 7

Annotated Bibliography

Chen, Le Nong. Interview by Alfred Chen. Audio.

https://soundcloud.com/qianyi-chen-219031915/interview-3.
            This is a short interview to prove the first interview we had about the Nanjing
Massacre. In this interview, we can get a good explanation of how my grandpa got that
news during the war.

———. Interview by Alfred Chen. Audio. May 9, 2021.

https://soundcloud.com/qianyi-chen-219031915/interview-2.
            I interviewed my grandfather about the Nanjing Massacre that took placed during
WWII in China. I am looking for some personal experience and trying to confirm the
reality of that Massacre.

Nanking Massacre. https://www.history.com/topics/japan/nanjing-massacre.

            This web page contains a basic overview of the causes, processes, and
consequences of the Nanjing Massacre.

Reconciling Narratives of the Nanjing Massacre in Japanese and Chinese Textbooks.

https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/file/kasahara.pdf.
            This is a document analyzing the bias that exists in the Nanjing Massacre, and
why and how those bias still exists until now. The education(schools) in China and Japan
teach this event in "different" ways, that is the main factor.

WWW Memorial Hall of the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre (1937-1938).

http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/NanjingMassacre/NM.html.
            It is a source about the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre. There
are many historical artifacts in that memorial hall, which could be considered as pieces of
evidence.

南京大屠杀近百幅历史照片Historical Photos of the Nanjing Massacre.

https://baike.baidu.com/reference/26188/9760zcg80zh_eCwyDSCG_mCO-rxNwX8Q5Y
CvwjLQxtB0Z7-PdODYCJLmxwj2g26bua3wcwHiYj1sxINEbHXoa8V6DCc9GwBqSz
KvUcXfgA.
            There are about 100 historical pictures that reflect the life of a part of the people
during the Nanjing Massacre. Those pictures are published from a news website in China.