一月十日
ローゼンが、手紙を持ってきてくれた。ドーラのはもちろん、ミュンヘンにいる二人の子ども、グレーテルとオットーのもある。そのほかに『ティルマンの息子たちの物語』というきれいな本とソーセージニ本、クネッケパンニパック、インシュリン、バター一キロ。こんなにいろいろ贈り物に囲まれると、なんだか慰問袋をもらった兵隊のような気がする。
九時
クレーガーが、石田少佐から返事をもらって帰ってきた。日本軍はなんと、我々に米や小麦粉を売ろうとしない。はっきり約束したくせに。自治委員会だけに売ろうというのだ。我々のほうでは、言われたとおり今朝早々と米の販売を中止してしまった。難民たちはひどくがっかりした。自治委員会がまだ専用の販売所を開いていないからだ。これは大変なことになる!
ローゼンが本部に訪ねてきた。日本軍は、私にだけでなくローゼンにも、報告書に少し手加減してもらいたいといってきたという。ローゼンはいった。「だから、『あなた方に水と電気をとめられたと報告しておきましょう』といってやりましたよ」
十六時
自治委員会は、安全区のなか、我々の本部の近くに販売所をつくった。これで、さしあたっての最大の難問は解決したことになる。アリソン氏に引き合わせるため、ミルズは私をつれてアメリカ大使館に行った。これまで我々が日本大使館に毎日提出してきた、ひきもきらない日本兵の犯罪に関する報告書を代って作ってくれることになったのだ。
ヒュルターから聞いたところでは、クトゥー号の船内で、P氏とV・S氏が衝突したそうだ。その結果、P氏はV・S氏に(武器はピストル、距離は三十歩の）決闘を申しこんだ。そうこうしているうちに、二人は香港についた。だが、香港では決闘がゆるされていないので、ドイツにもちこすことになった。その後P氏もV・S氏も別々の船で帰国した。まったくなにをかいわんやだ。われわれはここで、命がけで他人の命を救おうとしているというのに、同じドイツ人が自分の命をもてあそんでいるとは。
Report from the Nanking Office of the German Embassy (Rosen) to the Foreign Ministry
15 January 1938
On 9 January after an interruption of one month, the Nanking office was reopened upon our arrival here after a two-day journey without incident aboard the British gunboat Cricket.
According to reports of my German and American informants, when it became known that foreigner representatives were intent on returning to Nanking, feverish operations were begnn to remove the corpses lying about the streets-in some places "like herrings"-of civilians, including women and children, slain in a campaign of pointless mass murder.
In a reign of terror lasting several weeks, including massive looting, the Japanese have turned the business section of the city, that is the area along Taiping Street and the entire section south of so-called Potsdamer Platz, into a heap of rubble, in the midst of which a few buildings whose exteriors appear somewhat less damaged are still standing. This arson, organized by the Japanese military, is still going on to this day-a good month after the Japanese occupied the city-as is the abduction and rape of women and girls. In this respect, the Japanese army has erected a monument to its own shameful conduct.
Just within the so-called Safety Zone, which thanks to the Rabe committee has essentially been saved from destruction, there have been hundreds of cases of bestial rape, all incontrovertibly documented by Germans, Americans, and their Chinese coworkers. The file of letters that the committee has sent to the Japanese authorities contains a plethora of truly shocking material. As soon as time allows, I shan forward copies, with reference to this report. I would, however, like to note at this point that foreign nationals, and above all Herr Rabe and Herr Kröger, both functionaries of the NSDAP, as well as Herr Sperling, have caught Japanese soldiers in flagranti at such violations and have risked their own lives in scaring them away from their victims.
In many cases, members of Chinese families who attempted to resist these fiends were themselves killed or wounded. Even within the offices of the German embassy the employee Chao was ordered at gunpoint to hand over any women present on the property. Having previously lived in Dairen, Chao can speak a little Japanese and was able to explain to the Japanese that this was the German embassy and there were no women present. The threats continued even after Chao had explained to them that this was the German embassy.
At the American Mission Hospital women are constantly being admitted, the most recent case occurring only yesterday, who have suffered grave bodily harm from rape committed by packs of men, with the subsequent infliction of bayonet and other wounds. One woman had her throat slit half-open, a wound so severe that Dr. Wilson himself is amazed that she is still alive. A pregnant woman was bayonetted in the belly, killing the unborn child. Many abused girls still in their chldhood have likewise been admitted to the hospital, one of whom was violated 20 times in succession.
On 12 January, my English colleague, Consul Prideaux-Brune, the English military attach6 Lovat-Fraser, and the English air-force attache Commander Walser visited the house of Mr. Parsons of the British-American Tobacco Company and discovered there the body of a Chinese woman into whose vagina an entire golf club had been forced. There are documented cases in which accomplices have forced the husbands and fathers of victims to witness the violation of their domestic honor. In several instances, officers are known to be accessories, as was the case when
Reverend Magee attempted to protect a group of Chinese Christians in the house of an absent German military advisor.
Reverend Magee attempted to protect a group of Chinese Christians in the house of an absent German military advisor.
There is no evidence that any action has been taken-or if so, of what sort-by higher authorities against individual perpetrators, since the Japanese are silent about these matters and refuse to understand that a ruthless cauterizing of these offenses would accomplish more than all attempts to cover them up.
It is considered a self-evident matter of honor for the Japanese army to murder without further ado (indeed, there are thousands of such cases) every enemy soldier no longer actively engaged in combat, as well as any man judged to be such by some noncommissioned officer, whose
decision cannot be appealed.
decision cannot be appealed.
Given such a collapse of military discipline and order, it should therefore come as no surprise that no respect is shown the German flag. Thus various German buildings have been deliberately torched, others looted terribly, and almost all of them subjected to more or less minor theft. Given the cult status that the Japanese accord pictures of their emperor, it is perhaps especially remarkable that the looters did not shy from taking pictures of the Führer and Field Marshal General von Hindenburg.
I have left no doubt in the minds of the Japanese that we demand full restitution for all such losses, since there was no military necessity whatever for them and indeed some of them are the deliberate result of Japanese actions taken well after the occupation of the city, and likewise that I regard the term "consolation money" (solatium) favored by the Japanese as perhaps one that may sound better to them, but is in no way acceptable as an expression of partial payment.
ROSEN
ラーベの日記index
