Japanese had to decide whether the Chinese were entitled to treatment under the European law of war. Japan had acceded to the Geneva Convention in 1886, and to the Declaration of Paris in 1887. China was a party to neither, and observed the provisions of neither. Japan, nevertheless, as related by her learned judicial advisers, Professors Ariga and Takahashi, observed towards the Chinese forces, combatant and noncombatant, all the rules of European International Law without resorting to the reprisals to which Chinese barbarities provoked her. "Encyclopaedia Britannica".
On Christmas Day this journal had occasion to refer to the scenes of horror perpetrated in Nanking following the occupation of that city by the victorious Japanese forces. It was then believed that the outrageous behaviour of the troops was the result of temporary indiscipline, and the influence of blood lust aroused by the heat of battle. It was hoped that order would be rapidly restored and that the civilian population of Nanking would be relieved from the horrors they were suffering. It was even suggested in some quarters that the Japanese were taking revenge for the outrages of 1927, though, if indeed they were doing so, they were wreaking it upon the wrong people, for it was not the population of Nanking that was responsible, but the soldiery. To the astonishment of most people it is now learned that these outrages have been continued, and that ever since the occupation of Nanking until within the last few days, abduction of women, rape and looting have been carried on with an industry which would have done justice to a more praiseworthy cause. Chinese have been stabbed with bayonets, or recklessly shot. It is estimated that more than 10,000 people have been killed, some not even guilty of the trivial offence of having the hardihood to fight for their country. How many women have been raped it is impossible to ascertain but the estimates vary from as low as 8,000 to as high as 20,000. Girls of as tender an age as eleven years, women as old as fifty-three have been the forced victims of military lust. Refugees have been robbed of their scanty supply of money, their clothing, bedding and food, and all this was still going on as late as less than a week ago. In the initial stages insufficiency of military police rendered control of the disorderly soldiery impossible. More of such police have been appointed, but as late as a week ago soldiers were still breaking into houses day and night, indulging in rape and abduction.
Contrast that description of the state of affairs which has lasted in Nanking over a period of many weeks with the correctness of the attitude which Japan adopted in the case of the Sino-Japanese war, and the question naturally arises—why this change? There have been no Chinese barbarities for which the Japanese could possibly have taken revenge. If there had been it is suggested that the propriety of their action during the war referred to could with splendid effect have been adopted in this instance, and the Japanese army would have been regarded in a better light than that in which it appears at present. The Chinese people have been assured times out of number that Japan has no grievance against them, but that all it is doing is to chastise the National Government which it accuses of insincerity and imperilling the peace of Asia, and yet the unfortunate quarter of a million Chinese still remaining in Nanking have been subjected to weeks of terror, and what might have been regarded as an isolated case has developed into what seems almost to be a habit. Can it be wondered at that the world stands aghast before such a thing? Is it surprising that it is difficult to believe that an army with such fine traditions as the Japanese can be guilty of such conduct? Yet the evidence that this is the case is overwhelming and the fact that innocent, harmless Chinese civilians are being subjected to such hideous treatment is becoming plainer and whole world. This story, Nanking is tically of the world will one its horror. Much of it cly knows: the rest will make sorry reading for generations to come, and in all earnestness it is suggested that the time thas come when a determined effort should be made by the authorities responsible for the conduct of these men to put a stop to such outrageous behaviour.
"This journal does not believe, and never has believed that these things occur by reason of any set purpose of the Japanese High Command. It prefers to think that those men, firm in the high tradition of their profession must as deeply deplore what is happening as any right-thinking man does. But that does not relieve the Japanese commanders of the imperative duty of stopping these unruly soldiers from further insulting the uniform they wear. They cannot restore the lives which have been lost by reason of such be-,|haviour, nor redress the grievous wrongs which have been done so many unoffending Chinese whose only fault is that they happened to be women, but their own honour, their humanity, their own ideals demand that they should do everything in their power to put an end to what this journal knows continued up until very recently, and for all it knows may still be going on. A soldier should be too proud to take advantage of the defenceless, and if he is not then he should be disciplined until he understands what is expected of him. In this connection the rules governing the conduct of the Japanese Armies are not known to this journal, but it is perfectly safe to hazard the guess that so highly organized a force, with its keen regard for its own honour must have somewhere in its code provisions for the punishment of persons guilty of the grave offences to which reference has been made. This must be emphasized—the impression that the whole world must of necessity form when confronted with such news is an unfortunate one. It is undesirable that world opinion should continue to be flouted. If it is the high esteem in which the Japanese are held, even though there may be disagreement with them and their policies, must inevitably be diminished and no friend of Japan—and she has not lost them all yet—can but hope that order in Nanking will speedily be restored and the Japanese soldier again stand in, that fair fame which his knightly behaviour in the Sino-Japanese War more than forty years ago placed him.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.