"I watched a Roman orgy of the execution of two high-ranking Japanese army officers for war crimes.

I had no love for the Japanese. Their record in China was bestial and I had only recently been their prisoner. But the carnival that preceded the deaths of the two completely sickened me and I determined that, if I had any influence, then such sights would not occur again.

The two Japanese, hands tied behind their backs, were placed behind the cab of a large army truck. Behind them, as they stared stonily ahead along the streets over which only a short time back they had swaggered as conquerors, was a posse of Chinese army gendarmes armed to the teeth. Sub-machine-guns, revolvers, rifles and even two hand grenades were pointed at the backs of the two men. In front of the truck was another vehicle carrying a detachment of soldiers. And in the rear were two other trucks each of them carrying about thirty armed men.

This cavalcade of death paraded through the town for several hours before arriving at the public execution ground on the out of the city. Hundreds of thousands of men, women and children were whipped into a frenzy of hate as the two were slowly driven by.

I looked at the two men. They were brave. Their faces showed no sign of emotion. Amid the terrible din of curses from the men and obscenities from the women they stared fixedly ahead. They were soldiers and they were going to die with the courage of soldiers. I was filled with compassion for this though I had no doubt that their crimes called for the supreme penalty.

At the execution ground they were made to kneel with bowed heads. A gendarme, loaded Mauser at the ready, stood behind each man. On the word of command they placed the muzzles of the weapons at each man's neck and then, as another command was barked out, both the Japanese officers fell to the ground with half their heads blasted away.

And then pandemonium as the crowd in one surge broke through the ranks of soldiers and raced to the spot where the bodies lay. I saw one woman dip her handkerchief in the blood of one officer and then wave it in hysterical madness as she screamed obscenities at the mutilated forms by her feet. Others joined her in kicking the dead men. A young girl bent down and exposed the genital organ of one of the officers. She pointed at the dead man's pubic region and a group of women rushed forward and joined her in an orgy of mutilation."

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