Japanese massacre Chinese at Changjiao

8th May 1943: A Japanese officer's account of his practice of beheading Chinese civilians with his family sword

Victorious Japanese soldiers during their occupation of China, during which there were numerous atrocities. Most of them are poorly documented in the West.

The Rape of Nanking, when as many as 250,000 unarmed Chinese were massacred in 1937, is relatively well known in the West. Less well-known and even less well-understood are other atrocities against the Chinese civilian population during the Japanese occupation of China. Between the 5th and the 12th May there was a massacre of Chinese civilians at Changjiao, regarded as the second worst in the whole war:

The Changjiao Massacre was directed towards Chinese civilians. It was started by the Japanese China Expeditionary Army. The tragedy occured in Chingjiao, Hunan. The leader was Shunroku Hata. The Changjiao Massacre went on for four days, and 30,000 civilians were killed.

I personally severed more than forty heads. Today, I no longer remember each of them well. It might sound extreme, but I can almost say that if more than two weeks went by without my taking a head, I didn't feel right. Physically, I needed to be refreshed.