| Original caption “Japanese soldiers bayoneting captured Chinese soldiers in trench; Japanese soldiers watch from rim of trench.” This image appeared in the November 22, 1938, issue of LOOK Magazine. Under the headline “Killing For Fun!” the caption read, “Hands Tied, Chinese prisoners are used as live targets for bayonets of Japanese recruits. In the foreground a captive is being tormented. Another (left rear) is being stabbed to death. A third (center) has just received the death thrust. A fourth (rear) is being driven into the pit.” We are sending you some pictures of killers in the act of killing. We have plenty of hard boiled correspondents here — [Archibald T.] Steele [(June 25, 1903 – February 26, 1992)] of the Chicago Tribune [actually Chicago Daily News], [F. Tillman] Durdin [(March 30, 1907 – July 7, 1998)] of the New York Times, [Jack] Belden [(February 3, 1910 – June 3, 1989)], an ex-United Press reporter [later LIFE Magazine], Victor Keen [(June 9, 1898 – January 30, 1955)] of the New York Herald Tribune, and others and all of them reckoned the pictures to be the worst things they had ever seen in China, bombing aftermaths and battlefields thrown in. The pictures were taken in Nanking and Soochow recently, that can be judged by the fact that the men are in their summer uniforms. In other words, the killings happened at least 6 months after the occupation of those cities, when some blood lust, however bad, was to be expected. Thus, these pictures must come under the heading of diversion, or else the executions were staged to put the killer instinct into freshly drafted troops. The Japanese soldier-photographers sent the films to Shanghai for developing and printing. They sent them to a Japanese-owned shop and Chinese employees did the natural thing in exceeding the original printing order. Hence, these pictures found the light. These Sons of Heaven went 1 worse than the Romans who, even if they sent their gladiators into the arena wearing half-inch [(12.7 millimeter)] armor, at least gave their victims a short sword and a sporting chance. As you will perceive, all these Chinese soldiers and civilians were led into the killing pit with their arms pinioned.” Captions explained that these were Japanese recruits at bayonet drill. Using Chinese prisoners as targets was a practice that was considered the proper way to season newcomers. This photograph was among 16 souvenir photographs taken by Japanese soldiers. Duplicated secretly, these grisly images made their way to the West eventually and the entire set was used at the postwar Nanking War Crimes Trial in Tokyo from 1946-1948. | |
| Image Filename | wwii1982.jpg |
| Image Size | 334.06 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2057 x 1590 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | Look Magazine |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | January 1, 1937 |
| Location | |
| City | Nanking |
| State or Province | Jiangsu |
| Country | China |
| Archive | Library of Congress |
| Record Number | LC-USZ62-49107 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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