During the Rape of Nanking in 1937, two Japanese officers, Toshiaki Mukai and Tsuyoshi Noda, held a contest to be the first to kill 100 people with a sword. They tied thousands of civilians, wounded soldiers, the old and feeble, and refugees together and pushed them into a river. Then, they threw kerosene-soaked straw into the river, causing them all to burn to death. The death toll reached over 300,000. Both officers were later executed for war crimes.
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