Born in 1882 and graduated from the 24th class of the Japanese Army University, Tani Shoufu was a native of Okayama Prefecture, Japan, and fought in the Russo-Japanese War. He was a fanatical militarist who repeatedly told his subordinates: "Plunder, robbery, rape in combat are important means of maintaining morale." In 1937, japan invaded China in an all-round way, and by this time Tani was already the commander of the 6th Division of the Japanese Army. After the Battle of Songhu, he led his troops on a long-distance attack and directly attacked Nanjing.
On December 13, 1937, the 6th Division broke through the Zhonghua Gate defended by Sun Yuanliang's 88th Division and took the lead in attacking Nanjing. After learning the news of the Japanese army entering the city, many Nanjing citizens rushed to the streets and prepared to flee for their lives. In a frenzy, Gu Shoufu ordered the Japanese army to throw grenades at the fleeing crowd, and also ordered the machine gunners to strafe, and he himself killed more than a dozen civilians with combat knives. On the afternoon of December 15, Gu Shoufu instructed his men to rush to the captured more than 2,000 Chinese military policemen to shoot with machine guns outside the Zhonghua Gate, and then checked one by one, found that the bullets were not dead, and directly pulled them to bury alive.
On the night of the 18th, Gu Shoufu once again made a crazy move, tying up 67,418 Chinese military and civilian wires and rushing to the Xiaguan Grass Shoe Gorge. Machine guns were then set up and fired at the crowd, and finally the entire body was incinerated with kerosene. On December 22, the 6th Division was transferred to Anhui, and Gu Shoufu's evil deeds in Nanjing were stopped. Soon after, the tragedy of the Nanjing Massacre was exposed by an American journalist, and the world was shocked. Under the pressure of public opinion, Emperor Hirohito of Japan transferred Tanisuo back to China.
On August 15, 1945, Japan announced its unconditional surrender. Gu Shoufu knew that his crime was extremely evil, and in order to escape punishment, he ran to the countryside and hid. He was eventually captured by the U.S. military and handed over to China as a war criminal in February 1946. Gu Shoufu knew that what awaited him must be a just trial, and the court would definitely sentence him to death. At the thought of this, the executioner was so frightened that his family bought a church hospital in Nanjing with a huge amount of money and took a drug of suspended animation in a vain attempt to escape the trial.
When Xing Zijian, who was in charge of guarding Gu Shoufu, heard the news that this executioner had suddenly died of a violent illness, he had been in contact with Gu Shoufu several times, this demon's body was doubly strong, how could he suddenly die violently? Is there anything catty about that? Thinking of this, Xing Zijian did not delay for a moment, and immediately rushed to the hospital morgue to check Gu Shoufu's body. It turned out that Gu Shoufu's body was still warm, and his heart was beating weakly. This revealed the conspiracy of this murderous demon to escape trial by using fake death.
Subsequently, the Nanjing Military Tribunal held a trial of Gu Shoufu. In court, this murderous demon brazenly defended his crimes, describing the massacre as being "hit by a stray bullet." In order to expose Gu Shoufu's lies, the court also showed the skull with holes or scars dug out of the "Nanjing Mass Grave". To this, Gu Shoufu actually denied: "Why do you say that this was pierced by the knife and gun of the Japanese soldiers?" ”
Gu Shoufu's shameless face aroused great indignation, and the court immediately screened the "Documentary on the Crimes of the Japanese Army in Nanjing" provided by the International Red Cross Society. On April 26, 1947, the court finally pronounced a verdict on Gu Shoufu, and the presiding judge said to the executioner: "You have committed a lot of crimes in China, even if you kill you a hundred times, you will not be able to compensate for one of my 300,000 compatriots!" ”。
Escorted by the gendarmes, Gu Shoufu was escorted to the Yuhuatai execution ground. Along the way, the crowd was surging and many angry people could not control their sad and indignant mood, and threw debris at Gu Shoufu. After arriving at the execution ground, this murderous demon whose hands were stained with the blood of Chinese soldiers and civilians faced the muzzle of the black hole hole, frightened and his legs went weak, and finally he threw himself on the ground with a thud. Two gendarmes set Gu Shoufu up, and Zhang Tao, the gendarme squad leader, raised his gun and aimed it at the back of Gu Shoufu's head and fired a "bang", the bullet obliquely entered from the top of his head and flew out of his mouth, killing the demon on the spot. Zhang Tao recalled in his later years: Shooting Gu Shoufu in this way was still too preferential to him, and he felt that only by using the ancient Ling Chi on this executioner could he vent his resentment.