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Lot 245
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(TOKYO WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL) WITNESS STATEMENTS ON THE RAPE OF NANKING
(TOKYO WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL) WITNESS STATEMENTS ON THE RAPE OF NANKING
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(TOKYO WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL) WITNESS STATEMENTS ON THE RAPE OF NANKING
The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), popularly known as the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, convened in April 1946 to try leaders of the Empire of Japan for their crimes against peace, conventional war crimes, and crimes against humanity, leading up to and during World War II. Presented here is a fascinating yet sobering document created during the trial, a mimeographed report, 89pp. legal folio, ca. April 23, 1946, compiling evidence documenting the atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers during the Rape of Nanjing (formerly romanized as Nanking) in the winter of 1937-1938. The report, compiled by American associate counsel for the prosecution DAVID NELSON SUTTON (1895-1974), was submitted as an article of evidence during the IMTFE proceedings, with copies distributed to members of the prosecution and defense teams, the example presented here being Sutton's personal copy. The report, bound in plain paper covers with a metal file clip and bearing the title ‘Report from China – Atrocities Against Civilians – The Rape of Nanking' in Sutton's hand, opens with a summary of the massacre written by Sutton, and reproduces twenty-seven affidavits from Chinese witnesses, who relate their first-hand accounts of specific instances of mass murder, rape and torture. The majority of these statements were given directly to Sutton or to his fellow associate counsel, Col. Thomas H. Morrow, during a four-week fact-finding mission to China undertaken by the pair in March and April of 1946. Other accounts are included in the ‘Reports and Statistics on Japanese Massacre in Nanking, 1937' compiled by the Protectorate of the District Court of Nanjing in March, 1946, which is reproduced here in its entirety and tallies the total number of murders and rapes committed, the locations where corpses were discovered, and other such data. Many pages bear Sutton's margin notes in pencil. A large part of the report is comprised of the affidavit given to Sutton, as well as contemporary diary entries, by American Rev. James H. McCallum, who directed the university hospital in Nanjing and coordinated refugee relief efforts as part of the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone and the International Red Cross Committee. Shortly after the fall of the city in December 1937, McCallum writes in his diary, in small part: ‘It has been just one week now since the collapse of the Chinese army in its Nanking defence… We all breathed a sigh of relief thinking now order would be restored after the panic and stampede caused by the retreating Chinese army… But a week has passed and it has been hell on earth… It is a horrible story to try to relate; I know not where to begin not to end. Never have I heard or read of such brutality. Rape! Rape! We estimate that at least 1,000 cases at night and many by day. In case of resistance or anything that seems like disapproval there is a bayonet stab or a bullet… Helpless and unarmed, they have been at the mercy of the [Japanese] soldiers, who have been permitted to roam about at will wherever they pleased; there is no discipline whatever and many of them are drunk. By day they go into buildings in our Safety Zone centers, looking for desirable women, they return at night to get them. If they have been hidden away, the responsible men are bayoneted on the spot. Girls of 11 and 12 and women of fifty have not escaped. Resistance is fatal. The worse cases come to the hospital. A woman six months pregnant, who resisted, came to us with sixteen knife wounds on her face and body, one piercing the abdomen. She lost her baby but her life will be spared…' The report further provides many statements made by Chinese witnesses, apparently previously unpublished in full. From a Mr. Lu Fu, in small part: 'Upon entry of Nanking, Chinese civilians of both sexes and all ages, as well as disarmed soldiers, totaling 57,418... were interned by Japanese... In the evening of Dec. 16th, 1937, those who were still alive were marched off to Tsao-Shie-Chia, at Shia Kwen, in a column of four, while each two were bound together by lead wire. There they were machine-gunned, followed by repeated bayonette [sic] thrusts. Corpses were burned by kerosene and, at last, the remains of the burnt corpses were thrown into the river. Amazingly fortunate were two men who escaped this terrible massacre alive, one by the name of FONG, Sergeant of the Training General Corps, the other by the name of KUO, a police of the Pacification Corps. Fong and Kuo managed to loosen the wire bound, then they fell on the ground, pretending death, and dragged nearby corpses to cover themselves. But Fong was wounded in his left arm by a bayonet, and Kuo had his back burned black...' Another, given by a Mrs. Cleng Kia Sze, in large part: '...The first date the Japanese entered NANKING, they fired and burnt our home, and we were proceeding to the refugee camp. There were the following in the party: my mother-in-law, my brother and his wife, two children of mine and my brother-in-law's two children, aged 5 and 2 years of age. As we were proceeding and came to a place called LAO WONG FOU, in Nanking City, we were met by twelve Japanese soldiers, including some officers, who wore swords. One of the soldiers... grasped my sister-in-law, and raped and then killed [her] in the presence of her husband and children, who were killed at the same time. The husband was killed for trying to defend his wife and the two children were killed because they wept when their mother was being raped. The five year old girl was suffocated by having her clothing stuffed in her mouth, and the boy was bayoneted. Their father and mother were both bayoneted and thereby killed. My mother-in-law was also bayoneted and died twelve days later. I fell to the ground, and escaped later with my two children... I went to the refugee camp, and on the way saw many corpses of women and civilian men. The women had their apparel pulled up, and looked like they had been raped...' Much more content graphically relating specific atrocities besides. Shows folds throughout and a few small chips to the covers, else very good.

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November 13, 2025 10:00 AM EST
Elkton, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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