Date of letter:1993-09-25
Address of author:Yuanshi County, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province
Date of event:1942-02
Location of event:Yuanshi County, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province
Name of author:Wang Yu
Name(s) of victim(s):Wang Yu, etc.
Type of atrocity:Slave Laborers（SL）
Other details:In February 1942, many people were cheated by traitors into doing tunnel work in the name of worker recruitment. The camp life was like that of a prison. Wang Yingbin risked his life to escape and succeeded. Many people died there. Note: Sealed proof document provided by town (township) government is contained in the letter.
Demanding compensation from the Japanese government
In February 1942, the Japanese army used traitors to take away our village’s Wang Yu, Chen Ji, Wang Guofu, Li Qingxu, Wang Xiangzhu and others under the excuse of recruiting workers and brought them to the mountains of Wujialou in Huailai County as tunnel worker. After arriving at Shijiazhuang, fearing we would flee, they took away our “Identification Card”. They used iron cage train to ship us to a construction site surrounded by barbed wires and electrified wire netting. They named it a construction site, but it looked like a “concentration camp” and was closely guarded like a prison. Armed personnel stood around as guard and forced us to work, we couldn’t even have a decent meal, let alone receiving pay. The time was freezing winter, but we lived in shabby thatched sheds, and humid caves, with bleeding hands and feet due to frostbite; yet we were still forced to work, and would be beaten severely if we moved a little slowly, with sick workers received no medical treatment. Each day the number of dead due to freezing, starving, wound, disability or illness multiplied, no one bothered to bury the dead ones, children workers were thrown into valleys. It was really a horrible sight.
Back then I was younger than others, and I risked my life and worked hard to finally find my way out of the den of horror. Now I’m 78, and I feel lucky that I have survived despite my disabled body. Others all died miserably there, even their bodies could not be found, which is surely an incomparable loss to their families! Based on the above, we strongly demand the Japanese government to follow international practice, and offer us deserved compensation in the spirit of humanitarianism.
The survivors: Wang Yu, Chen Jinfeng, son of victim Chen Ji; Li Juchen, grandson of Li Qingxu, and Wang Yingbin, grandson of Wang Guofu.
September 25, 1993
