Social media is asking for help in getting rare historical photographs to an archive or museum to preserve original pictures from one of the most infamous massacres in modern history, “The Rape of Nanking.”
Twitter user Honey Barbara came across a TikTok video in which the owner of a pawn shop, Pawn Man, revealed the photo album. In the video, he claims there are about 30 graphic pictures of the event. “This is the most disturbing thing I have ever seen in my life, and I desperately need you guys’ help,” he said. If these photos can be verified as authentic by experts, they could have overreaching historical and cultural significance.
Because it would be “inappropriate,” the shop owner didn’t want to use the name “Pawn Man” or any type of music in the video. He explained that a customer had contacted him regarding “an old book of photos from World War II. It’s been in their family for a while, and they wanted me to try and sell it. I said, ‘Okay,’ not knowing what I was about to get into.” Little did he know the implications of what he was about to see.
He goes on to say the album belonged to a soldier likely stationed in Southeast Asia “probably around 1937, 1938.” We then see an antique photo album with a large dragon decorating the cover. As he opened the book, he casually flipped through various pictures of landmarks and life in the region. The photos then became more military and war related before he stopped.
“Then I got to this page, and I cannot show you what’s beyond this page,” he told viewers, going on to add, “When I got beyond that page, I screamed. Somehow, that guy who took those photos was present for The Rape of Nanking. He took about 30 photographs that are unknown to history that are worse than anything I have ever seen on the internet.”
The event he referred to is the infamous story of “The Rape of Nanking,” and it is widely viewed as one of the most horrific and atrocious acts committed in the 20th Century.
On Dec. 13, 1937, some eight years before World War II officially began, Japanese forces invaded China, specifically targeting its capital city of Nanking. According to The History Channel, as the Japanese took control of Nanking, the Chinese leadership fled further inland to Hankow. It was at this point that the invading army aimed to demoralize all of China in one brutal act, committing unspeakable crimes of violence against a mostly defenseless population.
From History Channel’s “This Day in History” from 2010:
“To break the spirit of Chinese resistance, Japanese General Matsui Iwane ordered that the city of Nanking be destroyed. Much of the city was burned, and Japanese troops launched a campaign of atrocities against civilians. In what became known as the ‘Rape of Nanking,’ the Japanese butchered an estimated 150,000 male ‘war prisoners,’ massacred an additional 50,000 male civilians, and raped at least 20,000 women and girls of all ages, many of whom were mutilated or killed in the process.
“Shortly after the end of World War II, Matsui was found guilty of war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and executed.”
What makes finding these photographs so astounding is precisely what the shop owner points out in the TikTok. The Japanese military did not want to leave evidence of their crimes, so they destroyed as many pictures as they could. It left the world with very little physical evidence to document what happened. However, some photographers managed to escape with their film intact.
Why did he reach out to his TikTok audience? “I don’t own this book. I’m not going to buy this book, and I probably couldn’t afford it. I have no idea what it’s worth; it’s probably very expensive. But the simple fact is a museum needs to take that.” He added that because of the photos’ importance, he won’t sell the album to a private collector or send it back to the owner because “these photos need to be seen, documented, and preserved.”
Indeed, it is a rare find with cultural and historical significance, and a round of applause is in order for the shop owner and Twitter user Honey Barbara for bringing it into the social media spotlight.
Published: Sep 1, 2022 11:17 am