China in WW2

The Nanjing Massacre: A Swedish Diplomat Reports (Part Three)

• By Peter Harmsen
• 4 August, 2019
• 2 Comments

In late 1937 and early 1938, the Swedish envoy to China, Johan Beck-Friis, who was based in Shanghai, filed a series of reports to the Foreign Ministry in Stockholm about Japanese excesses taking place in the conquered capital of Nanjing.

Beck-Friis was prevented from visiting Nanjing in person, but his many connections allowed him to form a picture of what was taking place, and he sought to alert his superiors in Sweden to the gruesome events. 

The reports are now located in the National Archives in Stockholm and are made public here for the first time ever in an English version. This is the last in a series of three.

Letter from Johan Beck-Friis, Swedish envoy to China, to v Swedish State Councilor Karl Gustaf Westman, February 12, 1938

Mr. State Councilor

According to a release by Domei News Agency, a memorial service took place in Nanjing on February 7 to commemorate Japanese officers and soldiers killed in battle. General Matsui, the supreme commander of Japanese forces in Central China, used the opportunity to order people under his command, including a member of the Japanese imperial family, Lieutenant General Prince Asaka, to strengthen the discipline within their respective units in order to boost the prestige of the Imperial Army. This way, General Matsui managed to make his officers aware of the need to put an end to the many reports that have harmed the Japanese troops’ reputation. Domei describes General Matsui’s measure as unique in the annals of the Japanese Army.

At a press conference the day before yesterday, the Japanese charge d‘affaires Hiraka, who just returned from Nanjing, stated that the conditions in Nanjing have improved greatly compared with the situation in December, and that Japanese war regulations were extremely stern, adding that “more than ten” Japanese soldiers in Nanjing had been court-martialed and punished severely for disciplinary infractions. He did not, however, wish to describe the character of those infractions.

When Mr. Hidaka was asked about the punishment meted out to a Japanese soldier who had beaten US embassy secretary Allison in the face and was to be punished, according to a promise made by the Japanese foreign minister, he replied that the incident was “still under investigation.” Since according to the media the Japanese amnesty, which had been announced over the past few days, also covers the army in China, it seems that he has a better chance than before of not being brought to account.

These Japanese measures to reinstate discipline among the troops in Nanjing are of course to be welcomed, even if it is hard to avoid asking why similar measures have not been taken earlier. Both General Matsui and Mr. Hidaka visited Nanjing as early as the middle of December and had the opportunity to see for themselves the state of affairs. After his return from Nanjing shortly after Christmas Mr. Hidaka told a friend of mine that the descriptions of the events carried by the newspapers were unfortunately exceeded by reality, and that it was necessary to immediately move the soldiers out of Nanjing, which however did not happen.

The day before yesterday I met a person who had just returned from Nanjing, where he had stayed since the occupation of the city and where he had been one of the leaders within the safety zone. He confirmed everything I had heard previously and gave the number of women who had been raped at about 20,000. He described one case in which he was able to conclude that a woman had been raped 37 times within one day. What bothered him the most was the fact that as far as he was informed, none of the commanders had done anything to rein in the soldiers, apart from polite rebukes. The only case he was aware of in which someone had tried to interfere was an incident he himself had witnessed. An inebriated Japanese soldier had attacked two Germans with his bayonet and attempted to tie them up, at which point a Japanese officer, who was passing by, had slapped the soldier in the face but subsequently let him run.

Even if Mr. Hidaka’s claim that “more than ten” Japanese soldiers have been punished for disciplinary infractions in Nanjing is correct, one has to say that the number of punishments is remarkably modest compared with the number and character of the infractions. If it was not widely known that the Japanese lack a sense of humor, one would almost be inclined to assume that Mr. Hidaka was joking when in order to provide evidence of the Japanese discipline and the strict Japanese war regulations he stated that in the course of two months of occupation of Nanjing, during which 20,000 women were raped and perhaps as many people were killed, “more than ten” Japanese soldiers had undergone disciplinary punishment.

Sincerely,

Johan Beck-Friis