During the Second World War there were a huge number of war crimes which were committed
by the different armies which were involved.
Some of the most horrific atrocities took place by the Japanese Army, and it’s estimated
that millions of civilians were killed by crimes committed by the Japanese.
There is an argument that the Second World War began much earlier than in September 1939
with the Invasion of Poland, as in Asia the Japanese were causing chaos during the Invasion
of China.
The Second Sino Japanese War began on the 7th July 1937, and ended on the 2nd September
1939 and it was the largest war in Asia of the 20th century.
Because of the conflict, 25 million Chinese Civilians would be listed as missing or a
casualty of the conflict, and this was much more than the military casualties.
But during the Japanese invasion of china, two friends and officers would decide to have
a brutal and barbaric contest, to see which one could kill 100 people using a sword the
fastest.
But what is the story behind this shocking war crime, that resulted in the executions
of the two officers?
Join us today to look at the Brutal executions of the contest to kill 100 people using a
sword, and remember to support our channel, please make sure to subscribe.
In 1937, a Japanese Newspaper titled the Osaka Mainichi Shimbum along with it’s other newspaper
the Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun published an article which was incredibly sinister.
In the article, it covered a sick contest that two Japanese officers were having.
The contest between Toshiaki Mukai and Tsuyoshi Noda centered around which of the two officers
would kill 100 people with a sword first.
They had this competition that took place as the Japanese were heading towards Nanking,
a place where they carried out some of the world’s worst war crimes and the Nanking
massacre.
There were four articles in total, and the officers it’s claimed managed to reach their
goal of 100 kills using a sword during the heat of battle.
The killings its alleged took place on the way to Nanjing, and during the massacre of
Nanjing its estimated that around 200,000 to over 300,000 people were slaughtered in
one of the worst atrocities in history.
On the march to the Nanjing, many atrocities were committed.
The newspaper would state of the competition, ‘Since leaving Wuxi, one had already killed
56 men and the other has succeeded in killing 25.’
But over the next few days, the newspaper hurriedly communicated more on the contest,
they said, ‘Second Leftenant N broke into an enemy pillbox and killed four enemy, when
Second Leftenant M heard this he invaded an enemy camp at Henglinzen and laid 55 enemy
low with his sword.’
The newspaper even carried interviews allegedly with the men and Mukai would state, ‘with
things going like this, I’ll probably cut down a hundred by the time we reach Danyang,
you’re going to lose,’ but then Noda would say, ‘By the time we reach Danyang, I’ll
show you what king of record I can rack up.’
The newspaper continued to report on the contest, and reporters caught up with them after they
left Danyang, and said ‘It’s 89-78 in the contest to cut down 100 a close race,
how heroic.’
It was difficult to work out who had won the contest, however because of this the pair
then decided to restart their brutal and sick competition.
Mukai and Noda then agreed to begin the competition but to add another 50 kills to the tally,
racing to kill 150 people as quick as they could with their asowrd.
On the 13th December 1937, the newspaper would report ‘Incredible Record in the contest
to behead 100 people, Mukai 106, 105 Noda, Both 2nd Leftenants go into extra innings.’
With this, the newspaper were reporting on the mass murder and slaughter of civilians
and members of the Chinese army almost as if it was a football match or sport.
With this, they were trying to generate excitement for this brutal competition that then men
were having as if it was a game, and the Japanese readers would get excited about the reports.
The final reports on the grisly and brutal contest would state that Mukai was upset as
he had sustained some damaged to his sword which marred any possible victory and he had
sustained this damage to the blade after he slice someone down the middle together with
his helmet.
The reality of the contest was that if the men were actually killing these civilians
for sport, then they were killing prisoners of war and were actually committing horrific
war crimes, and slaughtering vulnerable people with their blades.
The reality is that they were possibly killing defenceless people who did not have any weapon
on them.
Noda would later state, ‘Actually I didn’t kill more than four or five people in hand
to hand combat.
We’d face an enemy trench that we captured and and when we called out You come on, the
Chinese soldiers were so stupid they’d rush towards us all at once.
Then we’d line them up and cut them down.’
Some have claimed that the contest to kill 100 with a sword never even happened and wasn’t
accurate and that the numbers involved were probably inflated.
Noda stated that there was a contest held between the two, but it was not a big deal
and that the Newspaper embellished what was happening for the propaganda value.
He claimed that, ‘I was praised for having killed a hundred people, but almost all of
them were killed,’ after they were lined up and executed with Noda acting as the executioner.
But after the Second World War had come to an end in the Pacific, the Americans sought
to bring some justice for the huge amount of slaughter and terror which had been caused
by the Japanese.
With this they established the International Military Tribunal for the Far East which functioned
as the Nuremberg Trials did, bringing scores of war criminals to justice.
Some of the most high profile Japanese Generals such as Hideki Tojo were executed for their
involvement in aggressing the war in the Pacific, and it was in the Tribunal that the story
of the contest reached the Americans.
Following this, the two soldiers Toshiaki Mukai and Tsuyoshi Noda were arrested and
were then extradited to China and were tried by the Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal.
This individual trial was aimed to punish the people who committed atrocities in Nanjing.
After hearing evidence at the trial, the men were both found guilty of atrocities committed
during the Battle of Nanking, and also the massacre and were then sentenced to death.
On the 28th January 1948, both of the men were taken to a secluded and quiet spot in
the mountains in a district of Nanjing and the men were then shot by a firing squad for
their crimes.
In Japan, there has been much debate as to what actually happened with the contest, and
there were calls by politicians for the media companies who owned the newspapers to retract
their wartime reports on the contest.
Some believed that the killing contest were more likely brutal executions carried out
by the pair, rather than them fighting Chinese soldiers with swords.
It was said ‘There were hundreds and thousands of soldiers like Mukai and Noda,’ meaning
that the scores of soldiers who slaughtered unarmed civilians were not exclusive to the
two in the contest.
Today the Nanking Massacre Memorial in China has a display on the contest, and allegedly
one of the swords that was used is in display in a museum in Taiwan.
The amount of war crimes that were committed by the Japanese were incomprehensible.
The thought that two officers would have a contest to commit horrendous war crimes is
not so far from the imagination, and it’s possible that the two did have this contest.
But what cannot be denied is the huge amount of execution, slaughter and murder that took
place on the road to Nanking and also when the Japanese forces reached the city.
Many of the crimes of the Japanese today still remain lost to time, and many are yet to have
been uncovered, and remain untold.
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