Nanking Page #2

After a brief goodbye to the passengers,

I take the launch,

which is honking impatiently now,

back to Shokwan.

My last bridge is burned.

The city

is practically deserted now,

except for the poor,

who have no place to go.

This morning, after the service began,

the warning siren sounded.

The pastor asked,

"Shall we continue, or go to a dugout?"

One man said, "Continue." And we did so.

Life is real. Life is earnest these days.

Slowly, the heavy bombers drew near.

When the bombing could be plainly heard

inside the city,

the pastor stopped preaching,

and asked us all to pray silently for peace.

The Chinese appear to regard Shanghai

as the main theater of war,

because Shanghai protects Nanking.

But for how long?

Smoke-filled skies

signal to the world

the final chapter

of the greatest war drama yet filmed.

The actual fall of Shanghai!

At 10:
00 a.m.,

the order came.

"Regiment is to pursue enemy

towards Nanking."

"All troops have to be ready immediately."

General Matsui said Nanking

is the capital of China,

and our capturing of it

will be an international event.

With General Matsui's principle in mind,

we began immediately to make our plans.

From the Tokyo

Nichi-Nichi newspaper,

reported on the road to Nanking.

"There are two

young commissioned officers

"who have undertaken a contest

to cut down a hundred with their swords.

" It is said that one man has already killed

" When we reporters came upon

the two of them conferring,

"second lieutenant Mukai said,

'With things going like this,

"'I'll probably cut down 100 by the time

we reach Danyang, never mind Nanking.

"'You're going to lose.

My sword has killed 55,

"'and it's only got one little nick on it.'

"Second lieutenant Noda responded,

"'By the time you're in Danyang, I'll show

you what kind of a record I can rack up.'"

Every time we seize a village

on the way to Nanking,

newly-commissioned officers

will test their swords

on the defeated Chinese soldiers.

When you behead someone,

you need to use a strong stroke,

so you raise the sword high,

and bring it down with force.

The head falls, and blood flies straight up

like a red pillar of fire.

There's an officer I know

who always bragged about killing people.

He would tie their wrists

and ankles with rope

so that the person to be beheaded

won't be able to stand or stretch his legs.

Everyone copied his style.

Tonight's news, none too good.

Conditions look bad. Rumors and unrest.

Word is, the Japanese are approaching

from three directions.

Over and over again,

I am struck by the similarity

of Jesus' day and today in China.

Three other missionaries and I

spent an hour and a half today

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