Date: 18 April 2014
Time: 3:58 PM ET
Mood: 15 hour work day?
yaaay
Sometimes in history we are blessed by counts of people doing wonderful things for humanity. However, more often than not though, history of mankind has been riddled with tragic war stories, natural disasters, and inhumane actions. Unfortunately, this blog entry is about the latter. During 1937 to 1941 predecessing World War II, the Empire of Japan was in war with the Republic of China thanks to the financial backing of Germany, which would later be known as the Second Sino-Japanese War. Familes were torn apart, blood was splattered, and most heavily of all, lives were tossed aside like they were nothing. However, we will be looking at a specific time frame and event that happened during this time which is called the Nanking Massacre.
Daily Music - "Your Easy Lovin' Ain't Pleasin' Nothin'" by Mayor Hawthorne
The Nanking Massacre, or the Rape of Nanking was a period of mass murder and rape by the Imperial Japanese Army on the city of Nanking during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Shockingly, it only took the Japanese troops six weeks to conquer the region "due to the tacit consent among the officers and men that they could loot and rape as they wish." During this time period on their way towards Nanking, two Japanese officers, Toshiaki Mukai and Tsuyoshi Noda, had a bet with another to see who could be the first to kill 100 Chinese people while only using their sword. Suprisingly enough, the Japanese media ate it up, as the bet was covered like it was it's own sporting event. The newspapers - the Osaka Mainichi Shimbun and the Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun - would keep tallies on how many people each person had killed. Supposedly, each person was able to surmount their goal, and as they didn't know which one had finished first they ended up stretching their goal to 150 kills. In the Nichi Nichi newspaper at this point in time, the newspapers were entitled with the headline "Incredible Record' [in the Contest to] Behead 100 People—Mukai 106 – 105 Noda—Both 2nd Lieutenants Go Into Extra Innings."
Daily Comic - "Fighting" by Jim Meddick of Monty
Noda would eventually admit that he never did hit his goal, and that the tabloids had just eaten them up. He went on to say "Actually, I didn't kill more than four or five people in hand-to hand combat... We'd face an enemy trench that we'd captured, and when we called out, 'Ni, Lai-Lai!' (You, come on!), the Chinese soldiers were so stupid, they'd rush toward us all at once. Then we'd line them up and cut them down, from one end of the line to the other. I was praised for having killed a hundred people, but actually, almost all of them were killed in this way. The two of us did have a contest, but afterward, I was often asked whether it was a big deal, and I said it was no big deal." However, that didn't stop prosecutors years later. After the war the two soldiers were charged with war crimes and after being extradited, or handed over to Chinese authorities, they were convicted of their crimes, and on January 28th, 1948, were executed by the Chinese government.
Daily Video - "Sugar Lumps" by comedians Flight of the Conchords
It's really startling that something like this was actually allowed in those years. But then again, that is the price of war and the unfortunate happenstances that can surmount from it. What is your opinion on this? Do you think it's right for soldiers to be able to have contests like these while fighting? And how do you think the media handled it? Comment below as I'd love to hear and discuss with you about this topic!
‡ As always, the "Daily Bloggity" is self written by myself and includes just some of my opinions on different mediums. If you have a subject that you might want me to touch on, feel free to PM me or comment below! I would love to hear some of your ideas! Tune in tomorrow at 5PM Eastern Time for the next edition of the "Daily Bloggity!" Cheers! ‡
- elheroeoscuro
