Some of the biggest war criminals of the Second World War belonged to the Japanese army, and
it’s believed that up to 14 million civilians were killed by Japanese forces. They rampaged
throughout different lands, and they also caused chaos and torture wherever they went.
After the war there were a number of Japanese Generals who were brought to trial at the
end of the conflict and some of them were sentenced to death. Iwane Matsui was one of
those men who was condemned for his involvement in the crimes of Nanking. Untold horrors were
carried out by Japanese forces in Nanking, and the International Military Tribunal For
the Far East condemned Matsui to death. Join us today as we look at the brutal execution
of Iwane Matsui, the Beast of Nanking. Remember to support our channel, please make sure to
subscribe.
Iwane Matsui was born in 1878, and he was the son of a samurai. After he finished his
schooling, his parents wanted him to continue his education however Iwane was concerned
about his father’s finances. Because of this he decided to go for a career inside
of the military as it was cheaper than universities and other schools. Matsui was later accepted
into the Imperial Japanese Army Academy, and he was considered a brilliant student and
he graduated second in his class. In 1901 he was admitted into the Army War College
an elite training school, and he continued studying for a number of years. But he then
was sent to Manchuria as a company commander in a combat unit of the 6th Regiment. He was
wounded in a battle but he was considered an expert on china. He studied the language
and he requested to be stationed in China. He was initially sent to France on an assignment,
but then he would get what he wanted to be sent to China. He was based there between
1907 and 1911, and then later on as an officer in Shanghai. He became considered in the Japanese
Army as one of the experts on China, and he even struck up a friendship with the first
president of the Republic of China.
Matsui then continued to rise throughout the ranks of the army, and he became a major general.
He was also the chief of the intelligence division of the Army General Staff. He left
this in 1928 to make a trip to Europe. He continued to travel as a Japanese dignitary
representing the military, but as time went on he began to criticise Chinese leaders,
but he later resigned from active duty in the army. But in July 1937, a full scale war
broke out between the Japanese and Chinese and this spread quickly across to Shanghai.
Matsui was called from the reserves and was appointed as the commander of the Shanghai
Expeditionary Army. Matsui was seen as an ideal candidate to conduct negotiations, and
he said his mission would be ‘to make the Chinese people recognise that Japanese troops
are the real friends of China, and that ‘I am going to the front not to fight an enemy
but in the state of mind of one who sets out to pacify his brother.’ However his friends
would say there could be no friendship between Japan and China.
His forces ultimately forced Shanghai to fall to the Japanese, and there was a large toll
on Chinese civilians int he area. Matsui said that improvements should be made to Chinese
reggae camps, and he even donated money himself to help establish a safety zone for Chinese
civilians in Shanghai. But then he was appointed commander of the Central China Area Army,
and he outlined that he was determined to capture the capital city of China Nanking
which was 300 km west of Shanghai. He said that war with the Chinese would not end until
it had fallen and was under their control, which would bring a collapse of the Chinese
government. His troops were tired from the fighting in Shandghai, but he made the decision
to advance slowly towards Nanking. However they would commit scores of war crimes and
horrific atrocities on the road to nanking, and it was said that Matsui was not able to
restrain these men under his command, as he was an elderly general plucked from retirement.
There were large scale assaults by Japanese forces, massacres of civilians and more horrifying
acts but as time went on in Nanking things would get much worse. Matsui issued specific
instructions on how they were going to take Nanking, and regarding some of the war crimes
that occurred on the route to the city are said, ‘the truth is that some acts are unavoidable.’
Most of the buildings and civilian homes outside Nanking had been burned down to stop the Japanese
army seeking shelter. There had even been two Japanese soldiers who were allegedly battling
it out to see who could kill 100 people the quickest using a sword, slaughtering civilians
with their weapons. In Nanking though, the crimes were endless. General Iwane Matsui
gave the Chinese a deadline to surrender by, and then he gave them another hour before
telling his soldiers to heavily assault the city. The crimes committed by the soldiers
its believed led to around 100,000 people being slaughtered in cold blood. One surgeon
at the hospital said, ‘The slaughter of civilians is appalling. I could go on for
pages telling of cases of rape and brutality almost beyond belief. Two bayoneted corpses
are the only survivors of seven street cleaners who were sitting in their headquarters when
Japanese soldiers came in without warning or reason and killed five of their number
and wounded the two that found their way to the hospital. Let me recount some instances
occurring in the last two days.
Last night the house of one of the Chinese staff members of the university was broken
into and two of the women, his relatives, were assaulted. Two girls, about 16, were
assaulted to death in one of the refugee camps. In the University Middle School where there
are 8,000 people the Japanese came in ten times last night, over the wall, stole food,
clothing, and raped until they were satisfied. They bayoneted one little boy of eight who
[had] five bayonet wounds including one that penetrated his stomach, a portion of omentum was
outside the abdomen.’ Thousands of innocent people and suspected members of the Chinese
army were killed, and they were shot dead and their remains were either burned, buried
or thrown in the Yangtze River. A witness said, ‘It is not until we tour the city
that we learn the extent of destruction. We come across corpses every 100 to 200 yards.
The bodies of civilians that I examined had bullet holes in their backs. These people
had presumably been fleeing and were shot from behind. The Japanese march through the
city in groups of ten to twenty soldiers and loot the shops.... I watched with my own eyes
as they looted the café of our German baker Herr Kiessling. Hempel's hotel was broken
into as well, as [was] almost every shop on Chung Shang and Taiping Road.’
The accounts of the horrific incidents committed by his soldiers continued to reach Matsui’s
headquarters. But there was a movement inside of the Army General Staff to remove him from
power. The atrocities of Nanking had caused international embarrassment for the Japanese,
and some wanted him court martialled for negligence. He was replaced and he then accepted a job
of a cabinet councillor, and he did resigned to protest in opposition to an alliance with
Nazi Germany. As the war was going on, he was in a sense at the background of things,
but he did become the President of the Association for the National Defence Concept, an anti-western
and antisemitic group that sought to support the Japanese war effort. After the war was
over for the Japanese with the allied occupation, a warrant was issued for the arrest of General
Iwane Matsui. He gave himself in to Sugar Prison on the 6th March 1946, He was then
a defendant of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, which was established
to try Japanese War Criminals. Matsui was charged with crimes against peace, and that
he was responsible for the Nanking Massacre. He planned to defend himself, and he referred
to the conflict between the Japanese and Chinese as ‘a fight between brothers.’ Regarding
Nanking, he admitted he knew of a number of crimes committed by soldiers including assault,
murder and looting, but he denied the existence of large scale massacres. He said he took
responsibility for his men’s actions, but that the responsibility was a moral one and
not a legal one.
However he was a man who was accused of 38 charges, and the judges dismissed 37 of them
but ultimately he was convicted and sentenced to death for his role in the Nanking Massacre.
They said, ‘The Tribunal is satisfied that Matsui knew what was happening. He did nothing,
or nothing effective to abate these horrors. He did issue orders before the capture of
the city enjoining propriety of conduct upon his troops and later he issued further orders
to the same purport. These orders were of no effect as is now known, and as he must
have known... He was in command of the Army responsible for these happenings. He knew
of them. He had the power, as he had the duty, to control his troops and to protect the unfortunate
citizens of Nanking. He must be held criminally responsible for his failure to discharge this
duty.’
He believed that the troops were a disgrace for what they did at Nanking, and he claimed
that, ‘The Nanjing Incident was a terrible disgrace ... Immediately after the memorial
services, I assembled the higher officers and wept tears of anger before them, as Commander-in-Chief ...
I told them that after all our efforts to enhance the Imperial prestige, everything
had been lost in one moment through the brutalities of the soldiers. And can you imagine it, even
after that, these officers laughed at me ... I am really, therefore, quite happy that I,
at least, should have ended this way, in the sense that it may serve to urge self-reflection
on many more members of the military of that time.’
On the evening of the 22nd December 1948, General Iwane Matsui met with other condemned
Japanese officials including Hideki Tojo at the chapel inside of the prison. He led them
in shouting three cheers of Banzai to the emperor. But in the courtyard of Sugamo Prison
a gallows had been created. He led the other condemned men up the gallows, and all simulataneously,
they were all to be executed. The nooses were tied around their necks, and then the trapdoor
was released and Matsui along with Hideki Tojo, Akira Muto and Kenji Doihara were left
hanging.
There are some people who believed that General Iwane Matsui was a general who was unjustly
executed, but there are others who say that he was responsible for the crimes committed
by his forces. He was a man who when he went to the gallows was 70, and an elderly man.
He has also been referred to as ‘The Hitler of Japan,’ for his actions and connection
to Nanking.
Thanks for watching
To support our channel please make sure to subscribe
Once again thanks for watching