In December 1937, after being occupied by the Japanese army, the city of Nanjing suffered a catastrophe in human history, and more than 300,000 compatriots were slaughtered and killed, which became an indelible haze in the hearts of every Chinese.
In fact, long before the invading Japanese army entered the city of Nanjing, a killing contest had already begun.
When the invading Japanese army marched from the Songhu battlefield to Nanjing, Xiang Jing Minming and Noda Yi engaged in a big competition to slash and kill Chinese, with whoever killed 100 people first as the winner, which is the infamous "hundred people beheading" in the history of the War of Resistance.
Toshiaki Xiang was 26 years old at the time, serving as the commander of the artillery squad, and Noda Washi was 25 years old at the time, an aide-de-camp of the Toyama Brigade, and both of them served in the 16th Division of the Japanese invasion of China. On the way to capture Nanjing, they slashed and killed innocent people all the way to the foot of The Purple Mountain in Nanjing, and the Japanese reporter who followed them and reported on them interviewed them and offered to take a group photo of them.
Toshiaki Mukai Takeshi Noda
However, after Japan's defeat and surrender, the two murderous devils, Toshiaki Xiang and Takeshi Noda, quietly returned to Japan, and it was not until a full decade after the incident was known to the world that they finally got a fair trial.
About how the beastly behavior of these two murderous demon leaders was discovered, thanks to a young man, Gao Wenbin.
In the year of Japan's unconditional surrender, 23-year-old Gao Wenbin officially graduated from Shanghai Soochow Law School and was fluent in English.
On May 15, 1946, Xiang Zhejun, then chief prosecutor of the Shanghai High Court, approached Gao Wenbin through his teacher and asked him to translate a passage from a newspaper into English as quickly and accurately as possible.
For Gao Wenbin, translating the content of the newspaper was not a difficult task, and the translation was completed quickly.
After this meeting, what he never expected was that he had actually passed the examination and would soon be able to follow the Chinese delegation to the trial of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, known in history as the "Tokyo Trial."
The International Military Tribunal for the Far East was established at the Army Non-Commissioned Officer School in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, and since most of the people involved in the Tokyo trials at that time were British, American and French personnel, the Tribunal adopted a British, American and French interrogation system, and the official language used was English.
At that time, as a Chinese prosecutor participating in the Tokyo trial, many of the evidence and materials that Xiang Zhejun wanted to bring to Tokyo were Chinese and had to be translated into English before they could be presented to the International Military Tribunal for the Far East.
In order to obtain more powerful evidence, Xiang Zhejun contacted the prosecutor general of the court and asked the Allied headquarters to open the internal secret files of the Japanese army, and obtained the consent of the Allied headquarters.
Since then, in addition to translating a large amount of trial evidence into English, Gao Wenbin has also had an important task, that is, to find more ironclad evidence about Japan's invasion of China in the vast sea of Japanese military secret archives.
Gao Wenbin found that due to the tight information blockade of the Japanese army, many materials about the Nanjing Massacre were made public for the first time. Among these materials, there are more than 2,400 conclusive evidence of the Nanjing Massacre.
Gao Wenbin
One of the newspapers that caught Gao Wenbin's special attention was a Japanese shimbun published in Tokyo, Japan, and although he was not proficient in Japanese, he could also see the meaning of the content in general.
On December 12, 1937, reporters Asami and Suzuki were sent at the foothills of the Purple Mountain to "a hundred-man beheading competition" aimed at Nanjing. Such a rare competitor, the warriors of the Katatsuki force, Toshiaki Xiang and Lieutenant Takeshi Noda, scored 106-105 in the Purple Mountain Raiders on the 10th.
At noon on the 10th, the two lieutenants met with a Japanese sword with a broken blade, and Noda said, "Hey, I cut 105, what about you XiangJing?" ”
Xiang Jing said, "I'm 106." ”
The two lieutenants laughed loudly, and it turned out that who cut 100 people first did not ask, counting it as a game of draw! How about cutting down another 150 people? The two agreed.
From the 11th, the competition of "150 people beheading" will begin. At noon on the 11th, in the Purple Mountain near the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, Lieutenant Xiang Jing said the ending of the "Game of 100 People Chopping Hands". ”
The methods and tyranny of "a hundred people beheading" and "killing competition" shocked the whole world, and the crimes committed by these two notorious murderous demons Xiang Toshiaki and Noda Toshiaki and Noda Against the Chinese people were finally made public at this time.
Looking at this news report that seemed to be a "hero", Gao Wenbin thought of his compatriots being so persecuted, and the flame of anger in his heart was instantly ignited, and he had only one thought in his mind: "As a Chinese, the only idea is to execute them." ”
In the archives' reference room, Gao Wenbin stayed all day, carefully examining materials and newspapers, and resolutely not sparing any evidence related to the Japanese invasion of China.
The army structure of the Japanese army invading China was based on place of origin, and each unit was a so-called "local unit", and in order to seize the first merit in the occupation of Nanjing, fierce competition was launched among the various units.
According to the Saturday News, xiang jing and Noda had already begun this inhuman killing game as early as November 30, 1937, and that the two had brutally killed 89 and 78 innocent people on the way to attack Nanjing. These reports not only have a clear time and place, but also detail the massacre and photographs.
Since there was no material on this period of history in the evidence that Xiang Zhejun had brought to the Tokyo trial, the Chinese part of the trial had been basically completed at this time, and there was no opportunity to submit this part of the evidence to the International Military Tribunal for the Far East.
Xiang Zhejun
After Gao Wenbin found this report, he immediately consulted with Xiang Zhejun. They took photographs of the newspaper and printed three copies, one of which was kept as a stub and the other two were mailed to the Ministry of Justice and Administration of the National Government in Nanjing.
At this time, the judicial administration department of the National Government was trying one of the main perpetrators of the Nanjing Massacre, Gu Shoufu, at the Nanjing Military Tribunal, and the arrival of this newspaper was even more ironclad evidence of the massacre of innocent Chinese people.
However, nearly a decade has passed since the time of the "Hundred Beheadings" incident, and it is not easy to find the two war criminals of that year.
On December 10, 1935, the main direction of the 16th Division of the Japanese invasion of China, toshiaki Xiangjing and Takeshi Noda, was the Zhongshan Gate in Nanjing.
On December 12, the Japanese 16th Division, under heavy artillery bombardment, occupied the main peak of Purple Mountain. It was also at this time that Toshiaki Xiang and Takeshi Noda stood at the foot of the Purple Mountain and took the infamous photo.
On December 13 alone, the 16th Division, under The 16th Division of Toshiaki Xiang and Takeshi Noda, bloodily killed more than 20,000 civilians. Throughout the Course of the Nanjing Massacre, the brutal killing of civilians by this force reached more than 160,000.
The Tokyo Trial
With the help of the Allied Headquarters in Japan, he began to search for toshiaki Xiangjing and Takeshi Noda in the vast sea of people to get the trial they deserved.
After the outbreak of the Pacific War, the Japanese 16th Division was incorporated into the Japanese 14th Army that attacked the Philippines, mainly stationed on the island of Leyte.
In October 1944, Americans landed on the east coast of Leyte Ande and attacked the Japanese 16th Division. The Japanese 1st Division, the 26th Division and the 68th Brigade successively reinforced Leyte Island and used the suicide aircraft of the "Kamikaze Special Attack Team" to attack the US warships, and the war situation was once anxious.
To this end, MacArthur, then commander of the Allied forces in the Southwest Pacific Theater, proposed the strategy of "dividing the Japanese army from behind in a two-sided attack", and achieved great success, and most of the Japanese 16th Division was annihilated. According to statistics, the US army annihilated a total of 13,158 people and captured 620 people, which also meant that the 16th Division was doomed.
However, after Japan's defeat and surrender, the names of Toshiaki Xiang and Takeshi Noda appeared on the list of Japanese prisoners of war repatriated by the Allies.
Commander of the Battle of Leyte MacArthur
Therefore, the Ministry of Justice and Administration of the Nationalist Government contacted the Nationalist Government Delegation in Japan, asked them to contact the Allied Headquarters in Japan, and submitted an application to "arrest Xiang Toshiaki and Noda Takeshi".
More than a month later, under the investigation of the Investigation Section of the Allied Headquarters, the national government delegation to Japan received the reply: "Due to the passage of time, the search and investigation work of the International Gendarmerie of the Allied Countries has not made any valuable progress. ”
On the list of soldiers who were repatriated to the Japanese mainland after Japan's defeat and surrender, there were two people, Toshiaki Xiang and Takeshi Noda. But after they returned home, there was no more news, which made the investigation difficult. So, where do you start to find these two people?
The international gendarmes first came to Theo village of Shinshiro in Jiuke County, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, where many Japanese invading soldiers who had been repatriated to their hometowns were closed to talking about their inhuman atrocities on the battlefield of the invasion of China, let alone the fact that they slaughtered ordinary people.
When the international gendarmes went door to door with a picture of Toshiaki Izumi, no one knew the whereabouts of this bloodthirsty demon.
Subsequently, the search of international gendarmes in Yamaguchi Prefecture did not find any valuable breakthroughs, leaving the entire investigation to an impasse.
After the end of the war, Toshiaki Xiang and Takeshi Noda quietly returned to Japan among the repatriated Japanese prisoners of war, most likely because of the defeat, and the two executioners who had been "famous" on the battlefield had to live a civilian life that disappeared.
The International Gendarmerie also sent people to Noda's hometown of Tashiro, Kagoshima Prefecture, to investigate, but to no avail. Due to the chaos in Japan after the defeat at that time, coupled with the serious situation of the names of Toshiaki Xiang and Takeshi Noda, the search was further difficult.
Just as Gao Wenbin and Xiang Zhejun were waiting for the news that the Allied forces stationed in Japan were investigating the war criminals of the "Hundred Man Chop" competition, the Allied Investigation Section sent a good news: "A war criminal of the Nanjing Massacre has been captured." ”
The war criminal who was arrested was named Junji Tanaka, who served as a lieutenant in the 6th Division of the Japanese invasion of China during the Nanjing Massacre.
Tanaka Junkichi
After the Japanese army invaded the city of Nanjing, Tanaka Junji held a saber named "Sukehiro" and launched a new "hundred-man slaughtering competition". In Nanjing, he wielded a knife and beheaded unarmed civilians, from zhonghuamen to Shuiximen, and allegedly "killed all over the city of Nanjing and beheaded more than 300 people."
In the book "Imperial Soldiers" written by the military reporter Ryotaro Yamanaka, it is a detailed record of Tanaka Junji's killing.
However, despite the capture of Junkichi Tanaka, Toshiaki Xiang and Takeshi Noda still have no news. Just when everyone was about to despair, a clue suddenly appeared, and while Tanaka Junji was interrogating, he learned from his mouth that he knew Takeshi Noda and had recently seen him in Saitama Prefecture, Japan.
The Allied Investigation Headquarters immediately dispatched international gendarmes to Saitama Prefecture, while 17 members of the Chinese delegation were accusing and trying the most heinous Japanese Class A war criminals. An uphill struggle is being waged to avenge the wrongs of millions of victims.
On August 20, 1947, after a six-month search by the International Gendarmerie, noda was finally found at an obscure market in Saita Prefecture, the executioner who had conducted the "Hundred Chop" competition ten years earlier.
Toshiaki Mukai
By this time, Noda had already taken off his military uniform and was hiding among the city wells, wrapped in a white cloth on his head, and started a small business in a not-so-prosperous street in Saitama Prefecture.
After capturing Noda, everyone agreed that he and XiangJing would definitely have a connection. Sure enough, the investigation section inquired about The whereabouts of Toshiaki Xiangi from Noda's mouth.
On September 2, 1947, Toshiaki Xiangjing, dressed as a peasant, was captured by international gendarmes in the countryside not far from his hometown of Yamaguchi Prefecture. However, at the time of his arrest, he completely denied that he was Xiang Jing, claiming that he was just an ordinary local farmer and had never participated in the war of aggression against China.
In the face of the strong evidence, it was the photo printed in the Daily News, and finally the two executioners bowed their heads.
Although Xiang Toshiaki and Noda Werehi were only second lieutenants when they committed the "Hundred Beheading" atrocities, and they were also low-ranking officers among the war criminals arrested and tried after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, their crimes were extremely brutal. As a result, the two of them, together with Tanaka Junji, were escorted to Nanjing to be tried by Chinese.
Trial court
Since November 6, the military tribunal for the trial of war criminals has begun to interrogate Xiang Toshiaki and Takeshi Noda, but they are still making all kinds of arguments, only admitting that they had followed the Japanese troops to invade Nanjing, and not admitting that there was a "hundred-man beheading" competition, let alone admitting their crimes.
In order to evade responsibility, Xiang Jing went so far as to argue that "the reports in the Tokyo Daily News" are all false, and this is to "praise martial arts" for himself, and to get a good couple with the envy of the bo female community. ”
On December 18, the Military Tribunal for the Trial of War Criminals held a public trial of Xiang Jing, Takeshi Noda, and Junji Tanaka at the Great Hall of the Inspirational Society, No. 307 Zhongshan East Road, Nanjing, with Shi Meiyu as the president of the court, and the court was full.
In order to allow more people to hear the process of the public trial of war criminals, a special radio was installed outside the courtroom, and the crowd of people who came to listen to the public trial was crowded under the loudspeaker.
During the trial, Toshiaki Xiang, Takeshi Noda, and Junyoshi Tanaka repeatedly denied the fact that they were engaged in a murder match, and they never pleaded guilty.
After a series of fair trials, presiding judge Shi Meiyu pronounced sentences on Toshiaki Xiangjing, Takeshi Noda, and Junyoshi Tanaka: "During the battle, XiangJing Toshiaki, Noda Takeshi, and Tanaka Junyoshi slaughtered prisoners and non-combatants continuously, and it was planned to be executed everywhere. ”
Toshiaki Mukai, Takeshi Noda, Kokichi Tanaka in Nanjing
On January 26, 1948, the Military Tribunal for the Trial of War Criminals received a telegram approved by Chiang Kai-shek to "issue a death sentence to Toshiaki Izumi, Takeshi Noda, and Junji Tanaka."
On January 28, Toshiaki Xiangjing, Takeshi Noda, and Junji Tanaka were taken to a military vehicle and prepared to be escorted to the Yuhuatai Execution Ground outside the Zhonghua Gate for execution.
At 11:04 a.m., the military vehicle arrived at the Yuhuatai Execution Ground, and Xiang Toshiaki, Takeshi Noda, and Junyoshi Tanaka were pushed to the court by the gendarmes after smoking their last cigarette.
After a few gunshots, the three war criminals who had participated in the "hundred-man beheading" finally got the retribution they deserved.