Date of letter:1993-08
Address of author:Wuhan City, Hubei Province
Date of event:Not mentioned
Location of event:Hankou, Wuhan City, Hubei Province
Name of author:Chen Deqing
Name(s) of victim(s):Chen Deqing’s family
Type of atrocity:Sex Slaves (SS)
Other details:In Hankou, Hubei, the Japanese deceived women on the excuse of recruiting female workers and sent them to be comfort women. We knew that from a family letter and went to search them, however, to no avail. Later we heard that they were sent to the battlefront.
Claim
My grandfather Chen Hui, grandmother Liu Yuehua, took my father Chen Cuxiong to flee to Hankou, Hubei, before the Japanese invaders occupied Anhui in 1938, when the Japanese Invasion Army entered Hubei, they ran to the French Settlement to seek protection, back then the Japanese invaders pretended to recruit female workers for a tofu workshop in Hankou, after workers were recruited they were sent to the Japanese settlement in Hankou to work as comfort women in Jiqingli, in the process our family saw someone delivered message, we then went there to find out the truth, but the Japanese soldiers stood guard at the gate, and we were unable to get in. Later we made query from many sources, it was rumored they were sent to frontline at Shashi in Jingzhou, and ever since then there was no news about the whereabouts. Over the past several dozen years our family never said anything about it, out of consideration for face, and afraid of being laughed at if others knew the matter, there’s nowhere to express our sorrow and bitterness. Now we read an article on newspaper saying there’s a tide of private claims, it was then that we knew Lecturer Tong Zeng was helping us Chinese victims to redress grievances, aiming to demand justice from the Japanese government, and obtain compensation for victims across the nation during the Anti-Japanese War, Today we also learned the Japanese government has conceded wrongdoing for its war actions in the first half of this month, which provided mental comfort for the victims, we hereby lodge a claim.
August 1993
Will: Chen Deqing
Looking forward to receiving reply from Lecturer Tong Zeng
