Date of Letter:1993-11-10
Address of Author:Hongdong County, Linfen City, Shanxi Province
Date of Event:1944-1945
Location of Event:Hongdong County, Linfen City, Shanxi Province
Name of Author:Zhang Tiancheng
Name(s) of victim(s):Zhang Tiancheng, Li Shirong, Zhang Shulong, Han Jinxi
Type of atrocity:Slave Laborers (SL)
Other Details:When the Japanese invaded my hometown, over 20 villagers of Hongdong County, Shanxi Province were caught to work as slave laborers, but now we are the fortunate 4 survivors. We, Zhang Tiancheng, Li Shirong, Zhang Shulong and Han Jinxi, were caught at different places in June, 1944. There were over 400 people working along with us, but many of them died during working. I was only a child at that time and was not sent back home until November, 1945.
Dear Tong Zeng, Qi Lu, Chen Jian and other leaders:
Hello!
We recently learned that you had taken time from your busy schedule to launch a campaign to claim reparations against Japan. We are delighted, for this is quite a kind deed. In my opinion, this may even extend lives a few more years for a portion of the Chinese people whose bodies have been wrecked and sickly due to forced labor work that benefitted Japan.
In Zhaocheng Town, Honggang County, 20 some people were forced to be slave laborers in Japan. Now only four are still living. Two of the four are seriously ill – one is unable to walk due to a stroke and one has serious rheumatoid arthritis problems. But now we feel happy and refreshed again, because you leaders truly care for us. Even if we do not succeed in the end, we are thankful to you. But, hopefully we will succeed.
Sincerely,
Wish you good health and success at work.
Zhang Tiancheng
November 10th, 1993
Claim ‘Reparations against Japan’ by
Zhang Tiancheng, 70 years old, originally from Bei Wokou Village, Liucun Town, Linfen County, now living in Southern Yard, Mianhuazhan, Zhaocheng Town, Honggang County.
Li Shirong, from Li Village, Dicun Township, Honggang County, and still living there.
Zhang Shulong, from East Street, Zhaocheng Town, Honggang County, and still living there.
Han Jinxi, from Liwu Village, Tumen Town, Linfen County, and still living there.
We were captured by the Japanese army from different places. In June, 1944, we were sent to Taiyuan Concentration Camp by train escorted by the Japanese army. In the camp, we worked like cattle and horses and lived a life that is not for human.
In August, the Japanese needed slave laborers in Japan, so we were forced to join teams of laborers and went from Taiyuan to Shijiazhuang, Beijing, Tianjing, and finally to Tanggu. There, we changed clothes and formed into squads, platoons and companies. The first batch of over 200 people was sent by ship. When they arrived in Japan, they started to work at Chinese Laborers Management Station, Fukuoka Steel Plant. Over 400 of us got on a ship later. After several days on the ship, we debarked at Port Moji [Editor’s note: the writer probably meant 门司 instead of门市], Japan. There we got our clothes disinfected and took showers. Then we took the train, passing Osaka, to the Ibaraki Prefecture Chinese Laborers Management Station in Fukagawa District, Tokyo. At that time, several people were sick, and people were dying continuously. Moreover, they had not made proper contacts with labor units. So we simply stayed and let our bodies heal for over 10 days; and most of us recovered. We then started to do intense hard labor. Instead of a fixed unit, we worked in various stations, factories, steamships and wooden boats. Wherever laborers were needed, we went. If it was nearby, we went by foot; if it was far, we went by vehicle. But the work was extremely tiring; we were still kids at the time. We had to unload salt from wooden ships. One load was over one hundred jins (1 jin=500 grams) and we had to continue working for 4 hours straight at a time. We also loaded and unloaded sacks to and from steamships, about 170 or 180 jins per sack. The intense work of just one day would leave us aches in the back, legs and arms. It was really hard to bear. We went on working like this until August, 1945, when a fire burnt all of our work sites and we stopped the laboring. The food was not good; we ate black or white noodles with some vegetables; but no meat for the entire year.
After around 5 days, the administrators brought us to the Chinese Laborer Management Station in Niigata Prefecture on foot. We resumed the intense labor there. We carried coal, salt, food, and sometimes cement to and from steamships. Meals were worse. We ate nasty food such as acorn noodles. In short, we suffered a lot and lived a destitute life.
Not until the US troops landed in Niigata Prefecture did we stop the hard labor in Japan.
In November, with the escort of the US military, we arrived in Tanggu, in our own country. The officers of the National Government received us in Beiyang University, Tianjing, and helped us process repatriation procedures. Later we heard that the government was conscripting, so we got on the trains and went our separate ways.
I have some questions: how to deal with the cases in which the victims died on their way to Japan, in Japan, on their way back to China or after they got home? Hope you could explain them in your reply. We will appreciate that.
Sincerely,
Wish you a successful career and
a healthy body
Scrivener: Zhang Tiancheng
November 10th, 1993
