Hundred man killing contest

The hundred-man killing contest (also known as the Contest to kill 100 people using a sword or Competition that shall determine who is more proficient at slaying one-hundred men exclusively through the art of the blade) (Japanese: 百人斬り競争, romanized: hyakunin-giri kyōsō, Chinese: 百人斬比賽) was a sensationalized story published first in prominent Japanese newspapers including the Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun and Osaka Mainichi Shimbun in late 1937 during the Japanese invasion of China. The articles described two Japanese Army officers, Toshiaki Mukai and Tsuyoshi Noda, allegedly competing to see who could kill 100 people with a sword first while advancing toward Nanjing. Reporters covered the "contest" as if it was a sporting event, complete with running tallies and competitive banter. Later, other Japanese newspapers had picked up and reprinted the stories. However modern historians widely regard these newspaper accounts as Japanese wartime propaganda or exaggeration. The original accounts printed in the newspaper described the killings as hand-to-hand combat; however, historians have suggested that they were most likely a part of Japanese mass killings of Chinese prisoners of war.

Both officers were later convicted by the Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal for war crimes and crimes against humanity due to their involvement in atrocities, including the unlawful killing of Chinese POWs and civilians during the Nanjing Massacre, and were executed in 1948. They were not convicted solely on the basis of the contest articles.

The news stories were rediscovered in the 1970s, which sparked a larger controversy over Japanese war crimes in China, particularly the Nanjing Massacre.