The Holocaust resulted in the deaths of at least 6 million Jews over a period of 6 years. But the worst single event in WWII has to be the “Rape of Nanking (Nanjing)”. After the Japanese army captured Shanghai, it moved on to Nanking. The Chinese army barely put up a fight and the city quickly fell on Dec. 13, 1937. The next six weeks saw horrifying atrocities that included murder, rape, and arson on a huge scale. It is estimated that between 100,000-300,000 civilians and prisoners of war. The event was barely covered outside China and Japan. The Japanese media covered up the atrocities, but in one exception, some Japanese newspapers actually lionized two war criminals.
The papers highlighted a contest by two Japanese officers to see who could behead the most Chinese in a short period of time. Lieutenants Toshiaki Mukai and Tsuyoshi Noda were reported to be in the beheading competition. One headline read “Incredible Record in the Contest to Behead 100 people – Mukai 106 – 105 Noda – Both Lieutenants Go Into Extra Innings”. The two 26-year-olds were interviewed and neither showed any remorse. The articles claimed the killings were done in combat. “Second Lieutenant Noda broke into an enemy pillbox…[and] killed four enemy. When Second Lieutenant Mukai heard this, he invaded an enemy camp at Henglinzen…and laid fifty-five enemy low with his sword.” Although nonsensical, the paper’s readers were entertained by the series of articles following the contest.
Later, Noda tried to correct the impression that he had killed over 100 Chinese soldiers in hand-to-hand combat. “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.” In the interviews, the two found nothing wrong with killing prisoners. Mukai complained the killings were hard on his sword! It was “marred because I sliced someone down the middle, together with his helmet.” Noda, when he went home on leave, was treated as a hero. He gave talks to elementary schoolchildren.
The beheading contest was forgotten with the end of the war. As was the punishment. In 1947, both men were arrested by the U.S. Army for war crimes. They were extradited to China where they were tried by the Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal. They were charged with “killing civilians for sport and used murder to compete and entertain.” Along with Gunkichi Tanaka, who killed over 300 Chinese prisoners, they were executed on Jan. 28, 1948. The story was revived in 1971 when a Japanese historian published an article about the beheading contest. This opened a debate in Japanese media about how bad it had been in Nanjing and specifically whethere there had been a contest. It was argued both ways and it is hard to determine just how bad the actions of Noda and Mukai were. There may not have been a competition, but surely they killed prisoners with their swords, as did many Japanese officers in Nanjing. (There is strong evidence that Japanese officers would do “sword practice” on unsuspecting Chinese civilians that walked past them.) Whether 5 or 105, it was still a war crime. The fact they did not challenge and in fact participated in the news coverage makes it clear the two were evil.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_man_killing_contest
https://allthatsinteresting.com/japanese-contest-to-kill-100
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