| The “Contest To Cut Down a Hundred People” by Tsuyoshi Noda (June 3, 1912 – January 28, 1948) and Toshiaki Mukai (1912 – January 28, 1948). The article was written by Kazuo Asaumi (???? – ????) and Jiro Suzuki (???? – ????) while at the foot of the Purple Mountain, or Zijin Shan (located on the eastern side of Nanjing in Jiangsu province, China). The photograph was taken by Shinju Sato (???? – ????) in Changzhou on December 12, 1937. Published in the Tokyo Nichi (now Mainichi) Shimbun, the headline reads, “‘Incredible Record’ (in the Contest to Cut Down a Hundred People) – Mukai 106 – Noda 105 – Both Second Lieutenants Go into Extra Innings.” Toshiaki Mukai and Tsuyoshi Noda, the 2 officers responsible for the contest to kill a 100 people by beheading, were executed by firing squad after conviction by the Nanjing War Crimes Trials in 1948. Also executed was Gunkichi Tanaka (March 19, 1905 – January 28, 1948), a captain from the Imperial Japanese Army’s 6th “Bright” Division, accused and convicted of 300 executions by sword in the Nanjing Massacre, was shot the same day. In 2000, Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi (born February 17, 1950) of York University in Toronto, Canada, collected the different evidence for and against Noda and Mukai’s innocence. He argued that Mukai had surrendered to United States Army occupation authorities and was extradited to Taiwan believing he had committed actions in combat and therefore wasn’t guilty of war crimes. Professor Wakabayashi also presented evidence that the Guntō swords utilized in the executions could not withstand such use, and that the pace of killings to the Purple Mountain was unsustainable. Noda and Mukai, in the heat of battle, enjoyed the publicity and fame that the contest reporting brought them, and did not think Japan would lose the war, and they would ever have to suffer the consequences of their fabrications. However, it’s possible that the Chinese Government, and many Western academics, are correct in assigning Noda and Mukai as perpetrators of an atrocity. Mukai admits killing Chinese soldiers who surrendered, but with firearms, not swords; they were lined up and shot. This evidence, according to Professor Wakabayashi, is somewhat secondhand and involves Noda’s visits to 6th graders in 1944, and those students’ recollections decades later. In 2003, the families of Noda and Mukai sued the Mainichi Shinbun, for their reporting on the contest in 1937, and the Asahi Shinbun, for a book by Katsuichi Honda in 1981, for 36,000,000 yen. The lawsuit accused the 2 reporters of war crimes. The case was funded by right-wing political organizations in Japan that deny the Nanjing Massacre. It was dismissed in 2005. | |
| Image Filename | wwii1658.jpg |
| Image Size | 169.09 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 800 x 800 |
| Photographer | Shinju Sato |
| Photographer Title | Tokyo Nichi Nichi |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | December 13, 1937 |
| Location | |
| City | Nanking |
| State or Province | Jiangsu |
| Country | China |
| Archive | Mainichi Shimbun |
| Record Number | |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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