From left to right: Japanese Admiral Kiyoshi Hasegawa, General Iwane Matsui, and Prince Yasuhiko of Asaka in Nanjing, China, 18 Dec 1937
The Mastermind of the Nanjing Massacre
Prince Asaka Yasuhiko was an uncle of Japanese Emperor Hirohito, who had directed a plan to wage a war against China as early as in 1935. In March of 1936, a year before the war, Emperor Hirohito reviewed the plans which were so detailed that they included descriptions of the provocation which would be staged at the Lugou Bridge (卢沟桥) in the outskirts of Beijing. In November 1937, Emperor Hirohito appointed Prince Asaka as the commander-in-chief of the Japanese forces sent to assault the Chinese capital Nanjing.
The full-scale military attack on the ancient capital city formally began on 1 December 1937. Days later, Prince Asaka arrived at the field headquarters, and when he learned that Chinese troops showed no intention to surrender, he issued a series of orders under his personal seal marked as “top secret, destroy after reading”. The message in the orders was consistent and clear: “Kill all captives”.
On December 5, Emperor Hirohito made ratification of the proposition of the Japanese army regarding the removal of the constraints of International Law on the treatment of Chinese prisoners.
Soon, in the area of Mt Black Dragon (乌龙山) near Nanjing, 18,000 captured Chinese troops, and 40,000 civilian refugees fled from Nanjing, were mass murdered.
Japanese General Iwane Matsui entered Nanking, December 1937
COMMENTS FROM MINDS
Eric
Yep at the beginnings of WW2.
All Things Chinese
We are now probably at the beginning of WW3.
soxfan1957
Only if Trump gets re-elected. He wants to be “the war president” to round out his resume for greatness. He tried it with COVID and it has sort of backfired on him.
All Things Chinese
He is very likely to be re-elected. The eight characters of his birth chart is almost identical to that of the United States, so a circle is about to be complete. He will end something existing and start something new for America, not by his will or capacity but fate.
soxfan1957
Yes, I fear he will be re-elected and I fear his last 4 years will be more destructive than his first four. The one saving grace so for is the Supreme Court (unlike our Senators) aren’t catering to him.
All Things Chinese
He will certainly wreak havoc in the next four years, I have no doubt about that – he doesn’t have a kind heart or sound mind, and most folks around him are even worse on both accounts.
He becoming president is not by accident and no forces within the US can stop him from being destructive to the system.
On the other hand, if he loses in an unlikely scenario, the conflict and destruction could even be more violent and speedy as most of his supporters view it as the last chance to defend their privileged economic and cultural position at home and aboard and many are well-armed.
The Nanjing Massacre
On December 12, Nanjing was captured and subjected to six weeks of systematic genocidal carnage by Prince Asaka’s army. About 20,000 women and girls were raped, and nearly 300,000 Chinese people were massacred, with a third of the city burned down, and everything of value stolen by the Japanese soldiers.
A Chinese POW was about to be beheaded by a Japanese army officer in Nanjing
It is later confirmed by the historical documents that Prince Asaka was directly responsible for 444 incidents of murder, mass executions, rape, arson, and looting against Chinese civilians in Nanjing.
The article “Contest To Cut Down 100 People” was published on a Japanese newspaper in December 1937
When he was recalled to Japan, he was promoted to the rank of general by Hirohito for what he did in Nanjing.
On 14 August 1945, Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s unconditional surrender. On May 1, 1946, SCAP officials found Prince Asaka having committed war crimes against humanity and being chiefly responsible for the killing in Nanjing. However, the International Military Tribunal for the Far Eat for the prosecution did not bring the war criminal to trial, peculiarly. Nor was Emperor Hirohito, the power behind the prince, prosecuted.
The failure to uphold justice for Chinese victims by the West-dominated international court left the door open for Japan later to deny the established facts and declare that there were no massacres ever occurried in Nanjing and no war crimes committed by Japan. With two million Chinese died as the direct result of Japan’s military invasion of China, Japanese today still have the guts to call the entire event as “China incident”.
Who Helped the Mass Murderers to Escape Their Fate?
The answer: Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Occupation Force in Japan, General Douglas MacArthur. It is known now that Macarthur made a secret deal with Emperor Hirohito after he was visited by the emperor on 27 September 1945, and the general then sent a telegram to the U.S. President Harry Truman, urging him to grant immunity to all members of the Japanese royal family.
When Joseph Keenan, the chief prosecutor representing the United States at the war crimes trial, was about to catch a flight to Japan in early December that year, an urgent letter from President Truman was delivered to him, instructing him not to press charges against Japanese emperor and the entire royal family.
300,000 Chinese massacred in Nanjing and millions more who lost their lives in other parts of China at the hand of the Japanese army were betrayed by the International Tribunal and butchered once again spiritually by the American general and the U.S. Government.
The mass murderer Prince Asaka was allowed to spend most of his time playing golf and died of natural causes on 13 April 1981 in the comfort of his own home at the advanced age of 93, while Hirohito, one of the biggest war criminals in human history, was able to continue his life as emperor and pass his throne to his son after his death.