Under the Iron Hooves of Nanjing

Author: Qin Feng, Yang Guoqing, Xue Bing / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-07-01
Features: Evidence of Japan's invasion of China, memories of national humiliation. Nanjing fell, falling so dramatically, so brutally, yet so heroically. I have always immersed myself in macro perspectives, focusing on presenting the drift of the times and emotions through historical images. This book depicts the situation in Nanjing after the Japanese army captured it in December 1937. Nanjing was the headquarters of the Japanese occupation forces at the time and later the seat of the government, a region under strict Japanese control. Therefore, the creators of these images must have been the Japanese army itself or its affiliated institutions. In other words, we can gain new historical insights by examining the discrepancies and contrasts in the emphases of the two sides. This is undoubtedly valuable. — Qin Feng, A New Attempt at Integrating Historical Images and Texts
In the first six weeks after the Nanjing Massacre following the city's fall, the invading Japanese forces held two large-scale events in Nanjing: the "Entry Ceremony" and the "Soul-Comforting Ceremony." The former, with the posture of a "victor," declared the military occupation of Nanjing; the latter, promoting the "spirit of the dead" in Shintoism, used religious forms to boost morale. Thus, these two deliberately arranged events by the Japanese forces were closely linked and had profound intentions, making them an important part of the Nanjing Massacre that deserves sufficient attention and research. — Yang Guoqing, When the Banner of Peace Flew Over the Ancient Walls
After the Nanjing Massacre ended, the suffering of the Nanjing people did not end. In a sense, the heavy humiliation, merciless torment, extreme poverty, constant fear of impending persecution, and the struggle to survive by participating in unwilling labor or activities—living in a perilous situation akin to cohabiting with tigers in the dark, the prolonged battle between conscience and the desire for survival, the confusion and despair over the unpredictability of liberation and victory—was far more unbearable than a swift death. — Xue Bing, Supplementary Notes on the History of Nanjing's Occupation
The over two hundred historical images collected in this book are mostly selected from Japanese military publications. Although the original purpose of these images was to promote and glorify the Japanese invasion, they inadvertently revealed the atrocities of the invaders, recorded the survival and suffering, decline and struggle, humiliation and resistance of countless ordinary people during Nanjing's occupation, and left behind detailed records of Japanese and activities as well as glimpses of urban life. Many of these historical images are previously unseen by readers.