Date of letter:1993-03-03
Address of author:Xingcheng City, Liaoning Province
Date of event:Not mentioned
Location of event:Not mentioned
Name of author:Li Zhirong
Name(s) of victim(s):Li Chuansheng （Li Zhirong’s father）
Type of atrocity:Slave Laborers（SL）
Other details:Li Chuansheng was conscripted labor dredging mud in Hokkaido, Japan. The Japanese took fun of the Chinese Slave Laborerss during spare time by making them join wrestling match. Many labourers were infected with diseases and died in Japan. The rest returned home after the Japanese surrendered.
Respectable Comrade Tong Zeng:
How have you been?
I’ve learned from the article Pursuing Justice Against Japan by Yang Liwen published by Sichuan News and reprinted by Weekly Digest that, you’ve done your utmost for years to pursue justice for Chinese victims of Japan’s war of aggression against China. You have spoken the innermost words of victims and expressed the wishes of the whole nation. It’s a just act. The victims and their relatives will thank you! The whole nation won’t forget you! Your achievement will be recorded in history forever!
My name is Li Zhirong, the son of Li Chuansheng who was captured and sent to be a laborer in Hokkaido, Japan. Now, I work with the Labor and Personnel Department of Donghua Machinery Factory, Xingcheng, Liaoning. I am writing (we spoke on the phone this morning) to request your assistance:
1. I demand compensation from Japan because my father suffered a lot when he was captured and enslaved in Japan.
Please tell me what materials and procedures to make such a demand. I thank you for your unselfish help.
2． I signed the signature-gathering campaign launched by you and your colleagues, and I fully support the just act of filing claims for compensation. I am willing to share the costs and will go to Beijing to participate in the “battle” if necessary.
3． I will spare no effort to complete other work and assignments required to file claims for compensation.
4． What is the progress of the claim–filing campaign? What is the latest development internationally? What is the prospect of filing claims?
Looking forward to your reply.
Yours faithfully,
Li Zhirong (Person’s seal)
Labor and Personnel Department of Donghua Machinery Factory, Xingcheng, Liaoning
Evening of March 3, 1993
Note:1．Postal code of my factory: 125128
2．Telephone of my factory:（04262）63512(to 227)
3．Fax of my factory:（04262）63515
4．Cable address of my factory: Xingcheng Laioning 7032
5． Conditions about my father’s labor work are attached below
Review about my father’s being taken away to labor in Japan during Japan’s war of aggression against China
1. Profile of my father
Name: Li Chuansheng, born in 1911 (the Year of Pig), Xiezhuang, Sungeng, Qihe, Shandong (now under the jurisdiction of Biaobaishi due to reorganization of the rural government). He worked as a miner in Badaojiang, Tonghua, Jilin in his youth. He was then captured and forced as a slave laborer in Japan. After returning to China he was assigned to work at Hengtai Match Factory (then Foreign Match Company), Ji’nan.
2. Conditions about his laboring in Japan
He was captured and sent to Hokkaido, Japan before Japan’s surrender. He suffered a lot during that period. He had to do extremely heavy work such as dredging mud and didn’t have enough food to eat. He often ate fruit, etc. found by roads or dirty ditches or alive fish caught in a river. At the spare time, the Japanese people would make Chinese laborers wrestle to have fun. The winner would be “awarded” a biscuit (bun) and then made to wrestle again…
Due to heavy work, cold weather, hunger and dark and humid living conditions, many Chinese laborers caught diseases such as scabies and couldn’t get treatment. Some laborers were badly enslaved, suffered a lot and finally died of illness in a foreign country (Japan). My father was lucky to return to China because of his strong body and mind, luck and Japan’s surrender.
Complied by Li Zhirong
Victim’s son
March 3, 1993
Address: Labor and Personnel Department of Donghua Machinery Factory, Xingcheng, Liaoning
Postal code: 125128
Tel: (area code 04262）63512 (to) 227 (office)
5523（home）
