A modern drama Nanjing Trials was staged Wednesday evening in Nanjing Zijin Grand Theatre to revive people’s memory of the war crimes tribunal set up 70 years ago in Nanjing to judge the Japanese war criminals. the drama was staged for the observance of the 80th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre.
The drama is based the trial in 1947 of Hisao Tani, one of the principal culprits of the Nanjing Massacre, the head of the sixth division of the Japanese army, who was extradited to China for trial by the military tribunal of the then Ministry of Defense.
The Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal was established in 1946 by the government of Chiang Kai-shek to judge four Japanese Imperial Army officers accused of crimes committed during the Second Sino-Japanese War. It was one of thirteen tribunals established by the Nationalist government.
The accused were Lieutenant General Hisao Tani, company commander Captain Gunkichi Tanaka and Second Lieutenants Toshiaki Mukai and Tsuyoshi Noda, who became notorious by the contest to kill 100 people using a sword.
Hisao Tani was the only officer prosecuted for the Nanking massacre. He was found guilty on 6 February 1947 and executed by a firing squad on 26 April. All the accused were sentenced to death in 1947.
On Dec 13, 1937, Japanese troops captured Nanjing, then China's capital, and began a slaughter lasting more than 40 days. About 300,000 civilians and Chinese soldiers, who had laid down their arms, were murdered.
