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| Nanjing Massacre |
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 The cross at theMemorial Hall, displaying the estimated duration and death toll. |
TheNanjing War Crimes Tribunal was established in 1946 by thegovernment ofChiang Kai-shek to judgeImperial Japanese Army officers accused of crimes committed during theSecond Sino-Japanese War. It was one of ten tribunals established by the Nationalist government.
The accused included Lieutenant GeneralHisao Tani, the generalRensuke Isogai, company commander Captain Gunkichi Tanaka and Second LieutenantsToshiaki Mukai andTsuyoshi Noda, made famous by thehundred man killing contest.
GeneralYasuji Okamura was convicted of war crimes in July 1948 by the Tribunal, but was immediately protected by the personal order of Nationalist leaderChiang Kai-shek,[1] who retained him as a military adviser for theKuomintang (KMT).[2]
While he was questioned by the investigators, he however testified about theNanjing Massacre:[3]
I surmised the following based on what I heard from Staff Officer Miyazaki, CCAA Special Service Department Chief Harada and Hangzhou Special Service Department Chief Hagiwara a day or two after I arrived in Shanghai. First, it is true that tens of thousands of acts of violence, such as looting and rape, took place against civilians during the assault on Nanking. Second, front-line troops indulged in the evil practice of executing POWs on the pretext of (lacking) rations.
Iwane Matsui had been judged by theTokyo tribunal;Prince Kan'in Kotohito,Kesago Nakajima andHeisuke Yanagawa had been dead since 1945;Isamu Cho had committed suicide; andPrince Yasuhiko Asaka had been granted immunity by GeneralDouglas MacArthur as a member of the imperial family.Hisao Tani was therefore the only other general prosecuted for theNanjing Massacre. He was found guilty on 6 February 1947 andexecuted by a firing squad on 26 April. All the accused were sentenced to death in 1947.
The death toll of 300,000 is the official estimate engraved on the stone wall at the entrance of theMemorial Hall for Compatriot Victims of the Japanese Military's Nanjing Massacre in Nanjing.