Date of letter:1993-04-12
Address of author:Honghe County, Honghe Prefecture, Yunnan Province
Date of event:1941
Location of event:Vietnam
Name of author:Wang Lihua
Name(s) of victim(s):Wang Lihua’s father-in-law
Type of atrocity:Murders (MU)
Other details:My father-in-law He Xiancheng was doing business in Vietnam in 1941, when Japan and Vietnam were at war. He was mistaken as a member of the Yunnan-Vietnam anti-Japanese group, arrested and tortured to death. Please instruct us how we can claim compensation from Japan.
Comrade Tong Zeng:
How have you been?
We don’t know each other. But I am writing to you because I’ve read about you from the Weekly Digest. You are making every effort to help the victims of the anti-Japanese war and their family to relieve their pain that they have endured for dozens of years. It has been my hope for dozens of years to claim for compensation against Japan, but I can’t find a way. I’m really grateful to you for pursuing justice for families of victims like me.
My grandfather He Xianlong was born in 1909, went to school when he was little and began to do business at age 21. In 1941, he used his own 250,000 yuan and borrowed 250,000 yuan to do business in Hanoi, Vietnam. (Then, Japan was using Vietnam as a way to occupy Yunnan, China). The Japanese army occupied Hanoi, Vietnam. On the second day after my grandfather arrived in Hanoi, the traitor mistook him for an important person with the guerrilla in Yunnan. My grandfather was captured, brutally tortured using various means, beaten to death and thrown into a river.
News came about my grandfather’s death. My great grandmother was heartbroken at losing her only son. Anxious to find her son, she sold the property twice and asked my uncle He Canguang to investigate about my grandfather’s cause of death in Vietnam and take back his body (He Canguang is still alive. He is an overseas Chinese and lives at Nuzheng Street, Vientiane, Laos). My great grandmother sold out the property, but couldn’t find back my grandfather’s body. She lost everything and the property four generations of my family lived in. My great grandmother, grandmother and mother are all widows. There are only the elderly and children in our family, so our life is extremely difficult. The three elderly try hard to sustain our life by knitting, embroidering and growing vegetables. My grandmother Yang Yunzhuan died after being a widow for 51 years.
The Japanese invaders took the lives and property of millions of Chinese people. They should pay for their heinous crimes and compensate for our loss.
I am not sure about what exactly I should do and what procedures I should perform. Please give me guidance and help. Thank you! Look forward to your reply.
Best wishes for your family and everything!
Retired cadre
Wang Lihua
No. 49, Nanmen Street, Yisa, Honghe, Jianghe, Yunnan
April 12, 1993
