duction [1]
The Nanjing (or Nanking) Incident (also known as the Rape of Nanjing, the Nanjing Massacre and the Nanjing Atrocities) remains a highly controversial episode in Sino-Japanese relations. Indeed, as this paper will make clear, it remains so controversial, especially in Japan, that a neutral definition has yet to be agreed upon.[2] However, most would perhaps agree on the following. The Nanjing Incident refers to the killing and raping of large numbers of Chinese over a relatively short period of time by the Japanese military after the city of Nanjing was captured on 13 December 1937. Sadly for the historian, however, the Nanjing Incident is not only an important episode in Sino-Japanese relations, but is also emerging as a fundamental keystone in the construction of the modern Chinese national identity. As a result, the historian's interest in and analysis of this event can be interpreted as an attack on the contemporary Chinese identity,[3] while a refusal to accept the "orthodox" position on Nanjing can be construed as an attempt to deny the Chinese nation a legitimate voice in international society - or, in Iris Chang's words, as a "second rape". Moreover, any demonstrated interest in Nanjing can be viewed in some circles in Japan as "Japan bashing" (in the case of foreign researchers) or "self-flagellation" (in the case of Japanese). In this environment, the debate can become highly emotionally charged, and the historian's struggle to maintain objectivity can quickly fall victim to the demands of contemporary politics.
The importance of the Nanjing Incident to contemporary Sino-Japanese relations can hardly be overstated. Nanjing forms one of the core historical issues on which Japan and China cannot agree, and continues to bedevil the bilateral relationship. It is reflected in the controversy over Japanese history textbooks. It certainly continues to poison Chinese opinion of Japan. Nanjing is also important in understanding contemporary domestic Japanese politics. The debate within Japan about Nanjing (and for that matter textbooks) is also a debate about the legitimacy of the findings of the postwar military tribunals held in Nanjing and especially Tokyo (the Tokyo Trial, or International Military Tribunal for the Far East). One side (the Great Massacre School: see below) is politically and ideologically committed to arguing for the validity of these tribunals and their findings. The Illusion School, on the other hand, is based at least to a certain extent on a rejection of these findings as "victor's justice". The debate in Japan is thus heavily influenced by a broader philosophical and ideological debate on history and historiography, and in particular the debate on the legitimacy of the historical narrative on prewar Japan that emerged from the postwar military tribunals.
Nanjing is a topic that has attracted, especially in the West, and especially on the web, far more activists than historians. It remains a hot domestic and international political issue both in Japan and China. There are large organisations that seem to be involved solely in running anti-Japan and anti-Japanese campaigns about the Nanjing Incident; there are a number of magazines and numerous websites devoted to the Nanjing Incident; and Iris Chang (1997), The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II, has enjoyed phenomenal sales.[4] Despite all the interest in Nanjing, however, the history of the incident remains a largely untold story. Indeed, one of the major problems with the historical research on Nanjing in Japan, where the research is most advanced, is that it has tended to collapse into largely meaningless semantics about whether the sum total of atrocities committed in and around Nanjing can be defined as a "great massacre", or what the definition of "Nanjing" is. Another problem is the obsession with numbers, where the moral and political implications of the discourse about Nanjing are engulfed in a reductionism that focuses solely on the number of victims. There are, however, some encouraging signs that the situation is changing for the better. This paper will attempt to clarify the current state of research on this incident and identify future areas of research.
Current Research
The majority of academic research on the Nanjing Incident is conducted in Japanese, English and Chinese. Of the three language groups, Japanese has produced the most sophisticated research, with the debate in English lagging decades behind. The most objective Chinese language materials are the collections of various primary sources, including the recollections of many of the Chinese military personnel in Nanjing.[5] However, these collections show no evidence of any vigorous critical attempt to distinguish between valid primary materials and other materials: photographs, for instance, which are known to be fabricated, or from different areas and different times, continue to be used to "prove" Japanese guilt in the winter of 1937-38 at Nanjing. Moreover, because of the limitations on free speech in mainland China, much of the secondary material merely parrots the government line of the day, and it would be difficult to describe the situation as a "debate". Thus, for instance, the Westerners who remained behind in Nanjing to run the humanitarian Safety Zone have been vigorously criticised by the Chinese government in the past. To give just one example, a group of researchers at Nanjing University in the 1960s condemned the members of the Western community in Nanjing for turning a blind eye to the Japanese atrocities in the city, and "misused" the primary sources to suggest that they cooperated in the Japanese slaughter of Chinese. [6] According to this group,
Not only were the foreigners unharmed, but amidst the echoing sounds of gunfire as the Japanese carried out their massacre, the foreigners entertained themselves with wine, song, and dance, celebrated Christmas, and ate their fill of roast beef, roast duck, sweet potatoes, and various other fresh food. When they had exhausted their appetites for pleasure they went home.[7]
It is of course true that the Westerners in Nanjing did work with the Japanese, but it was a reluctant cooperation, and there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that it extended to deliberately helping the Japanese kill anyone.
As Chinese concerns about "American Imperialism" diminished, and as Japan became the target of official vitriol (partly at least because of the highly politicised and contentious issue of Japanese textbooks), views in China dramatically changed. Westerners were now depicted as active resistors rather than active collaborators. In another work frequently based on a vivid imagination rather than primary sources, Iris Chang (1997: 139) claimed that members of the international community jumped "in front of cannons and machine guns to prevent the Japanese from firing" on unarmed civilians.[8] However, although that did not happen - there is documentation of only one execution of one man that was witnessed by two members of the Western community who remained in Nanjing after the journalists left on 15 and 16 December - the work of the community is today highly lauded in all the literature on Nanjing and is one of the few areas about which all researchers of the Nanjing Incident can agree.
Despite the fact that there seems to be little sign of internal debate in China, there are indications of an emerging discourse. Several Japanese works have been translated into Chinese, so readers have access to non-official points of view; the web provides a forum in which all points of view can be discussed freely; and the liberal world of free debate is open to those who can read and write in English. It is certainly possible that Chinese researchers will increasingly come to rely on the English publishing world to discuss Nanjing.
Although the research in Japanese remains superior to that in English and Chinese, this was not always the case. Ironically, perhaps, much of the primary material on Nanjing was originally wr
A recent and (from the viewpoint of the historian) very welcome development has been the publication of primary materials originally published in English but for decades now only readily available in Japanese (and to a certain extent Chinese) translation. Martha Lund Smalley ed. (1997), American Missionary Eyewitnesses to the Nanking Massacre, 1937 - 1938, Timothy Brook ed. (1999), Documents