British Diplomatic Archives First Time Exposure of Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Army

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, December 29, 2001

British Diplomatic Archives First Time Exposure of Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Army

Dec 26 saw two young scholars engaged in the study of the Japanese army's Nanjing Massacre show in an interview to the reporter the British diplomatic archives about the Japanese atrocious massacre in Nanjing. The two young scholars are: Wang Weixing, deputy curator of the History Research Institute of Jiangsu Academy of Social Sciences and Yang Xiaming, associate professor of the Party's school of the CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee.

This 19-page material is copied from the original diplomatic archives of the British Archives and sent to them by Mr. Ranamitter of China Research Center in the Oxford University, which covered a time-span of January 15 to Feb.1, 1938. On every page of the secret-coded telegram there is a decoded content of the telegram typewritten with a typewriter in English, which is followed with a going-over handwriting remark of British diplomatic official and a seal chopped specially for registration of the file of the British diplomatic documents.

The general idea of one copied telegram dated Jan.15, 1938 sent from China indicates: the mail concerning the atrocities committed by the Japanese army has been sent to the foreign ministry. A person in the National Commission of Christianity said: even the Japanese diplomats who followed the army to break into the city of Nanjing felt greatly shocked to see the dark rule of killing, raping and robbing committed by the (Japanese) army and the atrocity was still being carried on. Due to not being able to take any effect on the Japanese military side the Japanese official in the Embassy hoped in despair that the material could be sent to Tokyo without passing through the Japanese military side. It was suggested that the missionary could manage to expose these facts in Japan. Somebody assured me that the material of the witness could be delivered to me by way of Suzhou and Hangzhou and then further on to Tokyo.

A British diplomat remarked at the bottom of it, saying I held a doubt whether the Japanese paper could have the guts to publish these materials as they would besmear the Japanese military, thus incurring the loosing of lives, and the reporter would be killed or dismissed.

As introduced from May to June last year, Mr Ranamitter working in the Oriental Department of British University of Warwick came to Jiangsu for collecting historical materials concerning China's anti-Japanese war. In a talk with the History Research Institute of the Jiangsu Academy of Social Sciences, he said that he wanted to compile, together with his colleagues, a book of collection about the China' War of Resistance against Japan. It would include the materials about the Nanjing Massacre by the Japanese invading army discovered in the diplomatic archive of the British Archives. It was only after the repeated requests of Wang Weixing and Yang Xiaming that he sent them these copied materials from the diplomatic archives.

This is a note jotted down by the third party and so it is of objective reliability. As the historical materials came from the British authorities they are of undoubted authoritativeness. In the past we found some materials taken down by injury-doers and sufferers and also some by the third parties as by (German and American) but this is the first time that we found materials supplied by the British authority. It shows that the evidences of the Nanjing Massacre are from quite a multiple sources, all telling in one voice the seriousness of the Nanjing Massacre.

As revealed by Wang Weixing, we've found out that many of the materials from the diplomatic archives correspond to the other materials we've previously discovered, thus making the evidences more reliable and irrefutable. The note further indicated that the materials about the atrocities in Nanjing depend respectively on that supplied by American missionaries in Nanjing and by doctors at Wuhu. Wang said the Japanese did quite some atrocities in Wuhu too and he called on the friends working in Anhui historical circles to strengthen their studies on the Japanese atrocious activities in Anhui.

Massaki Tanaka, a Japanese rightwing scholar said he once paid a visit to the then Japanese diplomat about it, pointed out further Wang Weixing and the official answered he learnt nothing of the Nanjing Massacre. The material now found in the archives of the British foreign ministry noted down in a clear-cut way the atrocities of the Japanese invading army in Nanjing. This has made the diplomats feel greatly shocked and could do nothing but admit it. And so it is enough to refute the out-and-out lie of the Massaki Tanaka.

As learned these pieces from the British diplomatic archives are not complete yet and the further collection needs more funds and the translated version of the material collected from the British diplomatic archives can be published in the magazine of "Archive of Republic of China" early next year.

By PD Online Staff Han Rongliang

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