Nanjing Massacre

A pawn shop owner has made a major historical World War 2 discovery and is begging TikTok viewers to help get it into a museum.

So far, it’s done just that, amassing over 9.4 million views in under a day. “This is the most IMPORTANT historical find of my career and I need to get this to a special place where it can be preserved, studied, and talked about,” he explained on “When I got that book on Monday and I opened it up and I got on that page, I screamed.

Lost photographs depicting one of the 20th century's worst atrocities may have turned up in a Minnesota pawn shop this week. Evan Kail, known as the "Pawn ...

"People being executed, bodies...there's a lot of photos of bodies in the streets that have just been left to rot," he said. To this day, some Japanese nationalists deny that the Rape of Nanjing ever took place. ET: This story has been updated with a verified video of the incident. "Somehow, that guy who took those photos was present for the Rape of Nanking. They were met by nationalist counter-protesters who waved the Rising Sun imperial flag. Over six weeks, Japanese soldiers perpetrated [numerous mass executions and mass rapes](https://www.newsweek.com/exposing-rape-nanking-170890), while looting and burning the city and surrounding towns. Tens of thousands of women were raped, and some were also disemboweled. Then he plans to see if a museum will acquire it. Then the war started creeping into the images. [Nanjing Massacre](https://www.newsweek.com/chinese-artists-explore-nanjing-massacre-64237), unfolded after the Japanese Imperial Army seized the newly established capital of the Republic of China on December 13, 1937. The photos appeared to be taken by a member of the U.S. Flipping through the book, Kail said that it started before World War II.

A pawn shop owner in Minnesota claims to have discovered long-lost photos taken during the Nanjing Massacre. In a video posted to TikTok with over 9.5 ...

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Collector Evan Kail says he found never-before-seen photos of the Nanjing Massacre — but other social-media historians aren't so sure.

“I’m trying to get it in a place where it can have as many views as possible,” he tells Rolling Stone. But when he spoke to Rolling Stone on Thursday afternoon, he said he had already been contacted several times by a museum that said it was located in Nanjing. They even appear in stock photo company archives.” As she noted on Twitter, some of the photos date back to 1905. Instead, she says, they were most likely photos from several war events ranging in age, packaged and sold as souvenirs to the owner, who put them in his album as a memento. “The simple fact is: a museum needs to take that.” and I opened it and I got beyond that page, I screamed,” he said in a TikTok video that now has been liked over 1.9 million times and has over 40,000 comments and shares.

A pawn shop owner in Minnesota claims to have discovered long-lost photos taken during the Nanjing Massacre. In a video posted to TikTok with over 9.5 ...

Click here to find out more about our partners. Find out more about how we use your information in our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy. You can select 'Manage settings' for more information and to manage your choices.