Considering what would happen 2 years later, legit feels like a deleted scene. Always fascinated me a bit how everyone says officially WW2 started when Germany invaded Poland. That other country always seems to be left out, and we’re not declared war on.
During Imperial Japans invasion of Nanjing in 1937, officers Toshiaki Mukai and Tsuyoshi Noda decided to hold a contest for the first man to kill 100 people. The contest was treated like a sporting event, with reporters giving updates on who was in the lead. The killings were done mainly with swords, although there are reports of also using bayonets and punching people to death. The victims were mainly prisoners of war.
Toshiaki Mukai described the event as “quite pleasant”. While they were keeping track, they both admitted to drinking lots of alcohol, and after both reaching 100 victims, they both realized they didn’t know who reached 100 victims first. Because of this, they decided to start over. They described how they would line people up 1 by 1 and then use swords to decapitate people on a row. In the end, the score reached Mukai 106, Noda 105, making Mukai the “winner”
In 1947 both were arrested and triad at the Nanjing war crimes tribunal. They were found guilty and executed in 1948 by firing squad.