Blog

Mr. Tong Zeng:
Hello!

Thank you very much for your upholding of justice for the Chinese people who have suffered deeply from the ravages of the Japanese Invasion War. I’m 58 this year, and have personally experienced the barbarian and cruel atrocities of the Japanese imperialist invaders. Their crimes were too numerous to be recorded. Because I have never received school education, I have limited writing and communication ability, I hereby request you to sort out this material on behalf of myself or directly forward the manuscript to the Japanese Embassy in China for which I will feel extremely grateful.

Regards
Yours Faithfully

Chen Yongfu
No. 12, Building 6, 25 Erqiao Zhuiying Dongcun, Hanyang District, Wuhan City, Hubei Province
93.9.20

Officials of the Japanese Embassy in China:

Your country waged a shocking and barbarian invasion war against China from 1937 to 1945, which brought tremendous disaster and pain to China and the Chinese people. The Japanese Invasion Army behaved unscrupulously on the Chinese territory, they burned, killed, raped, looted, and committed all sorts of crimes, their extreme cruelty were witnessed by all. My family is also one of the deeply suffering victims. We strongly demand the Japanese government to compensate for my family’s life and property in accordance with international law on war of invasion .The following is a summary of my family’s damages during the war period:

I. In the autumn of 1943, at Wuchen Village, Shahe Town, Yunmeng County, Hubei Province, the Japanese troops surrounded the whole village at lightning speed with cavalry troops, my parents and I (only several years old) were unable to flee, the Japanese entered the village to pitch camp (it was 5 o’clock in the afternoon), the moment they entered the village they busied themselves with preparing for supper, they killed two of our piglets weighing only ten kg, my mother felt too painful to look on any longer and came up to plead “Sir, they are too small to eat” The two Japanese soldiers bashed my mother with our home’s farming shovel and their rifle butt, my mother collapsed to the ground and became immobile, and lost consciousness, my father took advantage of the Japanese Army’s dining period to carry away my mother and hid her. Ever since then my mother was confined to bed, unable to eat or sleep, after over 50 days, my mother who was only a little over 40 passed away.

II. My family lived on the west bank of Bozi River, the place is Yunmeng, Xiaogan, an important hub of transportation in the area, the Japanese erected bridge and built road on my family’s grain field with several mu without compensation, constructed dormitory for the bridge garrison troop, they even used barbed wire to surround the remaining meager plot of land, which cruelly disrupted our whole family’s livelihood. What’s more, since our village was situated at the central spot of three counties of Xiaogan, Yunmen and Guangshui, each time their troops marched here, our village became their stopover place where they entered the village and pitched camp, The Japanese soldiers would plunder our house’s doors, wall panels, floorboards, plus farming ware and furniture as firewood for cooking and heating purposes each time they stayed here, everything that could be burnt or eaten would be taken away, When the Japanese soldiers were gone, the village women returned home and saw the messy damages, they (including my mother) would break into tears, the sound of crying was earth-moving and echoed in the river valley. Since our properties were all burnt, looted and destroyed by the Japanese soldiers, yet life must go on, and we would buy necessary materials to repair the houses, but when we had repaired the houses and purchased the furniture, after ten days or half a month, the Japanese would come and stay at our village again, throughout seven and eight years, this scenario was repeated a number of times. Before the war my family was comparatively well-off among the Chen clan, but the Japanese ravaged our properties, and destroyed our family, in 1943, with a pair of empty hands, my father took children to leave the hometown and fled to Wuhan.

III. During the Japanese Army’s occupation of my hometown, my father was repeatedly captured by the Japanese army to work as collie laborer, and sent to places one thousand or several thousands of li away, it would take him sometimes several months or as long as over one year to find a chance to escape, as a result my family was reduced to abject poverty; back then my family included one dozen people, including grandfather, grandmother, sisters and brothers, all of them depended on our parents for living, when my father was away there’s no support of living for the family, my grandmother cried day and night, both her eyes went totally blind, my siblings including sisters and brothers totaled 10 persons, because of poverty, due to malnutrition, some fell ill, and some died. After China won victory in the war against Japan, among our ten siblings only four persons including myself, my elder brother, elder sister and younger sister were left. None of the four persons was completely healthy, each had different disability, with no money to treat the illness. My right eye is totally blind at the age of two, the left eye was only 0.2, at present my left eye is only 0.01. (I’m 57 this year), which brought me lifelong trauma.

Compensation should be provided in accordance with articles of international law under the verification of the Chinese government.

Chen Yongfu
No. 12, Building 6, 25 Erqiao Zhuiying Dongcun, Hanyang District, Wuhan City, Hubei Province, People’s Republic of China
93.9.20