Date of letter:1993-05-13
Address of author:Bishan, Chongqing, Sichuan
Date of event:1937
Location of event:Nanjing, Jiangsu
Name of author:HUANG Zengshu
Name(s) of victim(s):HUANG Kan (HUANG Zengshu’s grandfather)
Type of atrocity:Air Bombings (AB)
Other details:In 1937, the house of HUANG Kan (HUANG Zengshu’s grandfather) was air-bombed by Japanese planes, causting huge economic and literature loss.
Dear Teacher Tong,
I am a senior teacher from Laifeng Middle School, Bishan, Chongqing, and a CPPCC member of Chongqing City. My name is HUANG Zengshu. Not long ago, I came across an article on Weekend Digest, “Demand Justice from Japan”. From the article, I learned about how painstaking it was for you to go through all the difficulties and demand justice and compensation from Japan on behalf of war victims and their families. I respect and admire your sense of responsibility as a Chinese and your patriotism, and I resonate with your feelings, courage and hope. I have been hugely encouraged by you and I would like to tell you about the damages and traumas to my family during the Japanese invasion. Could you shed light on our case and see if we could ask for compensation? If we could, I would write to you with more details.
My grandfather HUANG Kan (his style name Jigang) was a pioneer in the Revolution of 1911, a great scholar of Chinese literature and culture. When he was teaching at Nanjing Central University, he bought a house with all the money he had saved in his entire life in Jiuhua Village, Nanjing. In the house, he stored over 10 thousand books. In 1937, the house was bombed by Japanese planes. The air bombing caused huge economic loss to our family and literature loss to our country.
Moreover, I was born during the war. When my mother was pregnant with me, she was a sick refugee. So since I was born, I have been suffering from bad health, and the war trauma has been passed onto my kids. They are not in good health, either. They get sick easily and have to bear so much pain.
Please kindly give me some advice on whether I could ask for compensation.
Best wishes,
HUANG Zengshu, Laifeng Middle School, Bishan, Chongqing
05/13/1993
