Date of Letter:1993-06-01
Address of Author:Yongqing County, Langfang City, Hebei Province
Date of Event:1942-1945
Location of Event:Yongqing County, Langfang City, Hebei Province
Name of Author:Zhu Jinpeng
Name(s) of victim(s):Zhu Jinpeng
Type of atrocity:Slave Laborers (SL)
Other Details:In January 1942, Japanese invaders caught slave laborers in Daqinghe, Hebei Province. I was caught and worked as a slave laborer for 4 years without enough food and warm clothing and had to suffer cursing and beating. The Japanese headmen were Sato and Sako. I was not sent back home until March 1946.
Petition
Demand the Japanese Government to pay the Chinese slave laborers for salaries
China and Japan have only forgone the war reparations between governments, but our government has never given up the reparation for victims as individuals. My experience of being a slave laborer is unforgettable. In January, 1942, when the Japanese army of aggression was mopping up around Daqing River in Hebei Province, they captured a lot of slave laborers and imprisoned them in Tanggu Concentration Camp. I was captured at the time and sent by boat to Tsukino Village, Tone District, Gunma Prefecture with a lot of other laborers. Then we got off at Gokan Railway Station and arrived at a small ravine over 6 lis (1 li = 500 meters) south from it. We were forced to be laborers and dug caves every day for four years. The cave was more than 30 lis long from east to west, used for generating hydroelectricity. The slave laborers lived a life worse than animals every day. We ate fodder and chaff dumplings, only two dumplings each meal. No coats in winters and no shirts in summers, we worked like cattle and horses nakedly. The Japanese foremen beat and yelled profanities at us behind with whips. They called us ‘Qianggulong’ and ‘Bageyalu’. Some laborers didn’t have enough to eat and tried to steal corn lichens on the mountain, but were discovered by the foremen and beat to death. Some jumped from the mountain and killed themselves. Some tried to escape, but were beat to death or bitten dead by dogs. The Japanese said we were ‘ slaves whose country is dead’ and are the food of their foreign breed dogs. Many Chinese slave laborers were crippled and killed by this slavery. Till the end of 1945 when Japan surrendered, among the over 400 Chinese slave laborers, only a little over 100 survived. In March, 1946, with the help of America, we returned to the receiving station of Qingdao Red Cross, China and were then taken back home from there. A lot of details are hard to be fully described here. (There were two Japanese overseers. One was named Sato, and the other was Sataka )
We as Chinese slave laborers, strongly demand the Japanese government to pay due reparations:
1. I had been a slave laborer in Japan for 4 years; worked for 12 hours every day. How much salaries should I be paid based on an ordinary Japanese worker’s salary?
2. When I worked as a slave laborer in Japan, I did not have enough to eat and wear. How much living expenses should be compensated based on an ordinary Japanese worker’s expenses?
Chinese laborer victim: Chu Jinpeng (name seal), living in Bingjiao Village, Sanshengkou Township, Yongqing County, Hebei Province
Testifiers (Witnesses): Liu Miaoge, Ma Ruifu, Zheng Wenlin, Wang Zhimai
No. 11 Detachment: Leader Tian Fuzeng
No. 1 Squad Monitor: Chu Jinpeng (name seal) Vice Monitor: Qi Liang
Members: Zhang Shufa, Zhang Zilu, Wang Kuiyuan, Liu Jinling, Liu Changxi, Zhang Yuanze, Xu Shuming, Guo Zhenduo, Wang Jinsheng, Zhu Dianchen (12 in total)
Committee of Bingjiao Village, Sanshengkou Township, Yongqing
County (village committee seal)
