Edward Drea on the Nanjing Massacre: a Japanese
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Honda Katsuichi. The Nanjing Massacre: A Japanese Journalist Confronts Japan's National Shame. Armonk, N.Y: M.E. Sharpe, 1999. xxvii + 367 pp. $90.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-7656-0334-0. Reviewed by Edward J. Drea Published on H-Japan (November, 1999) Since the early 1970s Honda Katsuichi has de‐ immediacy and intensity to the gruesome depic‐ voted a good part of his professional life to re‐ tions of the murderous and rapacious conduct of counting the brutality of the Imperial Japanese the Japanese army in China that made them fresh Army in China, particularly the Nanjing Massacre. and powerful indictments of a military organiza‐ Honda's frst book on the subject, Chugoku no tion gone amok and a society unwilling to con‐ tabi, (1972) originally appeared in Japan in serial‐ front either that historical fact or its legacy. In ized form in the Asahi shimbun during 1971.[1] other words, timing was everything, and without The section on the Nanjing massacre created a that special immediacy conferred by the context sensation surfacing as it did at a time of Japanese- in which it originally appeared, the overall impact Chinese rapproachment exemplified by Prime of Honda's indictment is diminished. Honda's Minister Tanaka Kakukei's impending to visit Bei‐ works are as much period pieces of reportage as jing. Honda's next book on the atrocities, Nankin e anything else, and reviewing an English language no michi, (1987) more specifically focused on the translation of Nankin e no michi ten years after 1937 Central China campaign culminating in the reading the book in the original ranks as an anti‐ slaughter at Nanjing.[2] Although at that time still quarian experience. The facts are there, but the a work in progress, Honda published the book to intensity and emotion are gone. Or are they? weigh in on the textbook controversy of the early Iris Chang's bestselling The Rape of Nanjing 1980s which, among other things, had sparked a has reignited, at least in the American academic high profile dispute created between Japanese re‐ community, the issue of Japanese military atroci‐ visionists and conservatives over the "truth" of ties committed in China, and general readers fa‐ the Nanjing Massacre. miliar with Chang's book may fnd Honda's ac‐ When originally published, Honda's polemics counts just more of the same.[3] This would be were topical to contemporaneous political, social, unfortunate. and educational debates in Japan. There was an H-Net Reviews Honda tells his English language readers that More to the point, the several accounts drawn his purpose in approving the translation of his from the confessions were unrelated to one an‐ work is to stir Americans to exert gaiatsu (outside other and indeed were heavily laced with then pressure), that mysterious external force that current Chinese Communist propaganda themes, somehow compels Japanese bureaucrats to mend making it possible for apologists to claim the for‐ their ways, and in this case make the government mer soldiers merely mouthed the script their cap‐ acknowledge its horrific past, or as Honda puts it; tors prepared for them. A more systematic effort "bring about change in the disgraceful anti-inter‐ specifically recounting the Nanjing Massacre was nationalist behavior of the Japanese government Waseda University Professor Hora Tomio's 1967 and the conservative forces." (xxvii) This state‐ article "Nankin jiken," the frst of several articles ment implies either that his own efforts in Japan and books on the massacre that Hora published have proven unsuccessful in this regard or that over the next two decades.[6] Hora drew heavily his latest book Nankin Daigyakusatsu (1997) in on testimony and exhibits of the International conjunction with gaiatsu will change opinions.[4] Military Tribunal for the Far East to craft his tale Now, available for a wider English-reading of horror at Nanjing.[7] audience, Honda's work is, after its own fashion, a Honda's lasting contribution to the historiog‐ far more compelling indictment of the imperial raphy of the Nanjing massacre derives from his army than Iris Chang's bestseller. Honda spares path breaking interviews with Chinese victims of few feelings. He is as critical of the official histo‐ the Japanese army's brutality. Their testimony, ries of the campaign for concealing by omission recorded and published by Honda, makes plain facts unfavorable to the imperial army as he is of the scope of the atrocities far exceeded the con‐ Japanese whose appeals to the world about Hi‐ fines of Nanjing. Murder, rape, and pillage began roshima and Nagasaki gain Japan a reputation for weeks earlier when Japanese forces landed at emphasizing Japanese victim hood "without ever Hangzhou Bay and continued remorselessly dur‐ reflecting upon our own violent aspect." (139) In ing the Japanese forces drive upriver the Yangtzu its English-language version, The Nanjing Mas‐ River toward the Chinese capital. What happened sacre combines the translation of Nankin e no at Nanjing in December 1937 was neither the start michi with selected excerpts of Chugoku no tabi point nor the end point of Japanese brutality in and Nankin Daigyakusatsu plus an introductory China. Honda concludes that to speak only of fve overview written by Frank Gibney and an after‐ days at Nanjing is meaningless, and the three word prepared by Japanese historian Fujiwara month period from November 1937 to January Akira. Before discussing The Nanjing Massacre, 1938 must be considered as a single phenomenon. however, it is worth noting that Honda's exposure (134, 285) One might add that during the next sev‐ of Japanese atrocities in China had precedent. en years in China, especially in the notorious Kanki Haruo's edition of Sanko, Nihonjin no "mopping up" campaigns conducted in north Chi‐ Chugoku ni okeru senso hanzai no kokuhaku na, the Japanese feld army's conduct was a run‐ (1957), drew on confessions made by Japanese sol‐ ning tale of atrocity. diers in the early 1950s while awaiting repatria‐ Honda's methodology relies on heavily on the tion to the Chinese Communists.[5] Protests by Ja‐ journalistic device of juxtaposition. He quotes at panese veteran's groups, an attack on the editor, length, for instance, from contemporary Japanese and accusations that the accounts were trumped newspaper accounts of military operations in Chi‐ up communist propaganda enabled many Japa‐ na, replete with the "patriotic gore" so character‐ nese to dismiss the book as mere sensationalism. istic of the period, and supplements those journal‐ 2 H-Net Reviews istic accounts with the versions of operations in servations which in no way detract from her su‐ the published official military history of the cam‐ perb effort. In several instances, military nomen‐ paign.[8] Contrasting wartime propaganda and clature is not as precise as one might expect. For the impersonal rendering of the official history example, should the "small battleships" on page with the oral testimony of Chinese victims of the 39 not be "small gunboats?" Asagumo, not Chuon brutal war machine highlights all the more the shimbunsha (17) publishes the Defense Agency's discrepancy over "historical truth" between the official history series, and Shirai Katsumi is surely oppressor and the oppressed. Where available, the historian Usui Katsumi (284). Better editing Honda also provides Japanese soldiers' frst per‐ should also have eliminated the maddening repe‐ son accounts, including excerpts of the diary of tition of the awkward construction "who was xx 16th Division Commander General Nakajima Ke‐ years old by traditional Chinese reckoning," sago [9], of the feld army's brutality "for the sake which carries literal translation too far. These are of those Japanese who believe the strictly disci‐ minor cavils. Sandness' excellent translation has plined imperial army would never act like that." made available to a much wider audience one as‐ (119) The narrative is liberally illustrated with pect of Japan's attempts to come to terms with its facsimiles of contemporary Japanese newspaper disgraceful conduct in China and should effective‐ accounts of the fghting, maps, schematic draw‐ ly put to rest fatuous assertions that Nanjing re‐ ings, and photos of the sites of various massacres mains a taboo topic. The debate over the Nanjing or rapes or both, and photographs those of aging Incident in Japan may not have been resolved in a Chinese peasants whose straightforward testi‐ politically correct manner, but as Honda's work monies of personal suffering are the heart and shows it has been and continues to be an emo‐ soul of Honda's work. tional issue that prompts outrage, reflection, and The reader is entitled to ask why the Japanese perhaps someday closure. soldiers routinely committed such crimes. Honda Notes does not address that issue preferring to let Japa‐ [1]. Honda Katsuichi, Chugoku no tabi, (Trav‐ nese veterans of the campaign explain their moti‐ els in China) Tokyo: Asahi shimbunsha, 1972. vations directly. He implies that social forces of "a [2]. Honda Katsuichi, Nankin e no michi, (The forced, undemocratic modernization that dramat‐ road to Nanjing) Tokyo: Asahi shimbunsha, 1987. ically benefited the military,"(27) were at the root of the behavior. More compelling speculations on [3]. Iris Chang, The Rape of Nanking: The For‐ the soldiers' motivations for systematic murder gotten Holocaust of World War II. New York: Ba‐ and rape are offered in Frank Gibney's well sic Books, 1997. drawn introduction and Fujiwara AkiraÕs post‐ [4]. Honda Katsuichi, Nankin daigyakusatsu, script. Gibney plays off Iris Chang's work as an (The great Nanjing massacre) Tokyo: Asahi shim‐ uncritical account of what happened at Nanjing in bunsha, 1997. order to emphasize to the reader that Honda gets [5]. Kanki Haruo, ed., Sanko, Nihonjin no the facts straight.