Date of letter:1992-07-06
Address of author:Wuyi County, Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province
Date of event:1944-04-18
Location of event:Wuyi County, Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province
Name of author:Jin Nianxiang
Name(s) of victim(s):Jin Nianxiang’s grandfather
Type of atrocity:Murders, Others, Air Bombing(MU, OT, AB)
Other details:On April 18th 1944 on the lunar calendar, the Japanese splashed cold water onto Jin’s grandfather and caused his death. Their cattle were killed under bombing, houses and other belongings also destroyed.
Respectable Mr. Tong,
I greatly admire you for initiating the campaign to demand damage compensation from Japan for the Chinese people and for speaking what the Chinese people who have suffered from the war want to say. Japan’s war of aggression against China was a terrible disaster to the Chinese people and caused heavy losses to them. It’s known to all that compensation should be paid if someone damages the property of other people, or injures or kills them. So it is reasonable, legal and proper that the people’s losses resulting from a war should be compensated because the people are innocent.
My family are direct victims of the war. In 1944 (on lunar April 18), when the Japanese army invaded Xiangqin Town, my grandfather Jin Qian was captured by them because he refused to flee away with other family members. They tied my grandfather to a wooden board and kept pouring cold water at him until he was dead. My family’s one head of yellow cattle was bombed dead by the Japanese planes and two of our buildings were burned down by the Japanese army, along with all the clothes and grain in them. In Xiangqin Town, many people were bombed to death by Japanese planes or bayoneted to death by the Japanese army. Shouldn’t the Chinese people’s losses caused by the cruel Japanese army be compensated? According to the international law, Japan should compensate the Chinese people for their heavy losses resulting from the unjust war launched by Japan to ease their indignation.
Best regards,
Victim’s nephew Jin Nianxiang
July 6, 1992
