Tokyo Daily Shimbun photo report on the beheading of a hundred people
In November 1937, on the way from the Songhu battlefield to Nanjing by the Invading Japanese Army, two murderous Japanese lieutenants, on a whim, proposed to carry out a "race to kill a hundred people" that exterminated humanity, with whoever killed 100 people first won. Both executioners served in the Japanese 16th Division. A man named Toshiaki Xiangjing, 26 years old, a native of Yamaguchi Prefecture, served as the leader of the artillery squad; The other was Takeshi Noda, 25, a native of Kagoshima and an aide-de-camp to the Toyama Brigade.
The general course of the killing match was that between Wuxi and Changzhou, Xiang Jing killed 56 people, while Noda Yi killed 25 people. On December 2, Xiang Jing and Noda Hadhi had already attacked Danyang County with their troops. Along the way, they killed everyone, killing a total of 70 Chinese. Among them, Noda killed 40 people; Toshiaki Xiang killed 30 people.
At noon on December 10, the two men attacked with the 16th Division to the foothills of the Purple Mountain in Nanjing. When they meet again, the "record" is 106:105, and Xiang Toshiaki kills one more person than Noda, but because it is not clear who killed 100 people first, the victory or defeat is difficult, so the competition to kill 150 people is resumed.
The bloodthirsty Toshiaki Xiang told the Reporter of the Tokyo Ildo Shimbun: "Unconsciously, Noda and I are more than a hundred people, so happy!" My 'Sekisun Roku' (Japanese sword name) was a little damaged because when I split a guy, even his helmet and body were in two pieces, so the blade was slightly damaged. After the war is over, I will definitely give this Japanese sword to your company. ”
Later, when Noda reported to the students in Kagoshima, he said, "Actually, in the white-knife battle of the charge assault, only four or five people were killed. We were holding enemy trenches and shouting inside: 'Come, you!' Come on!' Those soldiers... Just one by one came out and walked up to me, I lined them up, and then cut them down one by one... Almost all of them do this", our behavior is not so "brave", "but it is famous for 'slashing a hundred people with a knife'." ”
On December 18, 1947, three war criminals were tried at the Nanjing Military Tribunal, from left to right: Tanaka Junji, Noda Yan, and Toshiaki Xiangjing.
Other incidents of 100 beheadings included the killing of 300 men by a man from The Japanese 6th Division Captain Tanaka Junkichi.
After Japan's surrender in 1945, Gao Wenbin, a Chinese representative attending the trial of Japanese war criminals at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo, inadvertently discovered the report in Japanese military archives that had been sealed by the Allies, and immediately notified Nanjing, China, that two Japanese officers had been extradited back to China. After the Nanjing Military Court found out the trial, both confessed to the charges and were executed by firing squad on January 28, 1948, at the Yuhuatai Execution Ground outside the Zhonghua Gate in Nanjing.
Three blood-delinquent war criminals were escorted to the execution ground by Chinese gendarmes
Verdict of the Nanjing Trial War Criminals Military Tribunal on the three war criminals Tanaka Junji, Xiangjing, and Noda:
The defendants, Junji Tanaka, Toshiaki Xiangjing, and Takeshi Noda, were accomplices in the Nanjing Massacre, and the continuous massacre of prisoners and non-combatants by the defendants and others was a violation of the Hague Rules of Land Warfare and the Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners in Time of War, which shall constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity. His slaughter of civilians, his martial arts, and his killing of people as a competitive entertainment can be described as extremely vicious and brutal, and he is actually a human cockroach and a civilized public enemy.
Xiang Toshiaki also shouted injustice all the way
At the last request of the war criminals, they were given a cigarette and were about to begin execution
On the verge of death, war criminals are still chanting militaristic slogans
Executions are carried out