Wartime photos taken in China by army press officer found

Friday 14th August, 04:42 AM JST

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Beelzebub at 09:20 AM JST - 14th August

It has been said that many of the atrocity photos of the Rape of Nanking were "leaked" to the outside world by Chinese who worked at photo lab in Shanghai, who had been requested by the Japanese army to develop the negatives of their "glorious victory." I was told this by my professor at university, a Chinese, but haven't actually seen any printed sources to confirm it. It would be interesting to research the background of the atrocity photos, and how they fell into the hands of the western media. The photo lab story certainly seems plausible --- all they would have needed were extra sheets of photo paper.
Klein2 at 09:48 AM JST - 14th August

A lot of those have been 'shopped. I can tell from some of the pixels, and I have seen a few 'shops in my time.
societymike at 09:58 AM JST - 14th August

Klein2, you are making absolutely no sense. There are no pictures posted in this article.
timorborder at 10:11 AM JST - 14th August

Let's get off the propaganda hobby horse for a moment and recognize these photos for what they are, namely an important pictorial record both of China at that time, and one of the darker chapters of Japanese history.
OssanAmerica at 10:35 AM JST - 14th August

In war both sides use propaganda. The entire IJA atrocity show was actually propaganda (not saying no facts used at all) to arouse anti-JP sentiment in the non-commital United States by the Chiang Kai Shek forces. If you don't believe this just watch some of the US Army propaganda training films at the time. In the same way, photos showing friendly relations between J-troops and Chinese civilians are also propaganda, and again not saying some of that wasn't fact either. War is as grey as everything else, but of course to those who can only see in black and white this will not be understood.
FryingMonkey at 11:04 AM JST - 14th August

Really though, I would love to see those albums.
smithinjapan at 11:53 AM JST - 14th August

I agree with timorborder that these photos, regardless of the propaganda they were likely taken for, are important historical documents. I also agree with Ossan that BOTH sides were involved in propaganda, and in many cases with regards to history they STILL are.

I would still be interested in seeing the photos.
aj2o1 at 12:45 PM JST - 14th August

any pictures of the human experimentation by Unit 731?
studebaker at 01:42 PM JST - 14th August

Klein2: I get your reference.
Klein2 at 02:18 PM JST - 14th August

societymike .. it's nothing to worry about.... Whew. Studebaker, thanks. I was feeling all alone there for awhile. I just swing from meme to meme sometimes like Tarzan.

It might all be propaganda, but these photos sound innocuous. Who knows? As far as I am concerned, this is just digging up old bones. Who is to say that J troops and CKaiShek's group of Chinese did not have common goals at some points, and that Jmilitary and Chinese civs did not get along long enough for a few photos? If we can agree that the potential for propaganda is high, then it appears that we are on our own to choose our truths as rationally as we can. Personally, regarding Nanjing, for instance, I put a lot of stock in eyewitness accounts of Japanese soldiers. They are generally very repentant, and their explanations are lucid and filled with detail. Their stories are bad enough and are not likely to be embellished. Some of the accounts are mutually corroborating. Although they do not realize it themselves, the real gems of veracity are the ones who incriminate themselves and remain unrepentant. They are despicable, but almost definitely truthful.

Anyway, what matters is what happens today. Japanese people seem to be civilized and polite. They seem to be devoted to remaining so. That must be astronomically more important than something that happened over 60 years ago. I was not born in Yugoslavia and do not want to make my world into one.
benhur at 07:15 PM JST - 14th August

enough writing! where can we get a look at these priceless pictures??!
GW at 01:24 AM JST - 15th August

buggerlugs,

any of the photos to which you refer, if they existed, wud have of course been removed prior to public announcement of "finding" these pics
OssanAmerica at 07:11 AM JST - 15th August

any pictures of the human experimentation by Unit 731?

There is no mention at all of Unit 731 in the above article so if you're serious, that's a pretty asinine question. But if there were, you should know that they would be held by the United States under wraps since we took over all the material and data pertaining to chemical and biological warfare.
DentShop at 01:50 PM JST - 15th August

We Ossan? How much involvement did you actually have in "taking over" these material?
bamboohat at 02:54 PM JST - 15th August

While these photos may be interesting to see, there is no way I'll believe that photos taken by a propaganda officer, and filtered through sixty years of reverse rationalization means anything at all.

I suspect they will be used to promote a history that the Japanese would like to believe and promote, rather than what actually happened.

the only photos that are really a true "snapshot" of the reality of the time are nature photos and sports photos. Everything else, due to the nature of photography, is staged.