In December 1937, during the Japanese invasion of China, two officers of the Imperial Japanese Army — Lieutenant Toshiaki Mukai and Lieutenant Tsuyoshi Noda — turned mass killing into a grotesque game.
They competed to see who could behead 100 people first using their swords, a so-called “friendly contest” that Japanese newspapers proudly covered like a sporting event.
Their victims were not soldiers but defenseless Chinese prisoners and civilians captured during the advance toward Nanjing.
By the time the city fell, both officers claimed to have surpassed their goal. Their names became forever linked to one of the most infamous atrocities of the Nanjing Massacre, where over 300 000 men, women, and children were slaughtered.