Are these PTO photos original?

[Military Trader]

First of all I want to thank you all for any help in advance.

I was wondering if these two photos were originals or copied later. They came from different sources (not together) There are no offical markings on the backs. Thye first one is 8 X 10 and has a blank border around it. the second one is smaller. both have a glossy finish and show age.

[Military Trader]

Back of 1st picture

[Military Trader]

2nd photo

[R MICHAEL]

I know the Tribesman holding the head is a common photo found in a number of PTO vets albums and I am assuming the top one is along the same lines. Hope this helps

Mike

[GHP]

Russo-Japanese War

First of all I want to thank you all for any help in advance.

I was wondering if these two photos were originals or copied later. They came from different sources (not together) There are no offical markings on the backs. Thye first one is 8 X 10 and has a blank border around it. the second one is smaller. both have a glossy finish and show age.

The top one looks more 1905:


Japanese beheading Chinese functionaries, Russo-Japanese War, 1904-5. Incident reported by war correspondent in Moukden. Japanese beheading Chinese functionaries suspected of Russian sympathies. From Le Petit Journal, Paris, 23 April 1905.

source


I was going through another site with many photos of Chinese-conducted beheadings -- the Chinese really excelled at the task! There was a group of photos showing Japanese beheading Chinese prisoners (even your same photo, but clearer -- but I was unable to copy it!!!). While the lithograph above depicts the sword as a Chinese-styled sword, the one I saw in the photos was a Kyu-Gunto like this:


Many of the images were reproduced as postcards with European "tourists" standing over the bodies after the execution. A few showed Germans (wearing picklehaubes) and Japanese lined up watching Chinese officials execute prisoners -- so I guess that was around 1900. Anyway, GHASTLY stuff -- even for me.

--Guy

[GHP]

Found your photo on another site:


And here's the one with the German & Japanese soldiers observing:


source for 2nd image

--Guy

[Military Trader]

Interesting -- Well i suppose I got taken on these as I'm sure there are many many copies out there.

Thank you for the time to find the other photos.