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Mr. Tong Zeng:

How are you?

I am Zhu Jiying, 56 years old, a primary school teacher of Lingdong, Lanxi, Jinhua, a key city of central Zhejiang. Your great task is drawing worldwide attention and has made a huge impact on China, It has also drawn my close attention and resonance. Fifty years ago, on May 28, 1942, the Japanese army invaded Lanxi, a beautiful land flowing with rice and fish, conveniently located in central Zhejiang. I was then only 4 years old. According to my mother (she died at age 92 in 1982), the Japanese army heavily bombed Lanxi before capturing it. My elder sister Zhu Gendi, brother-in-law Xu Wenhua and their son lived near Xiaka, Lancheng. Their house was burned down by Japan’s sulfur incendiaries and the whole family was savagely slaughtered. A more tragic scene came later. At that time, my father took the whole family – my mother, second eldest brother, third eldest brother, fourth eldest brother and me – to flee to my grandmother’s house to escape bombing. My grandmother’s house was in Dongyuan, Lingdong, Lanxi, where Yongxue cave of the Underground Long River is located. But who would have known that the Japanese army carried out a mass killing in Dongyuan under the foot of Qu Mountain on the day that Lanxi fell into the invaders’ hands. My mother once told me that after my father took the whole family to hide at Huangwei Temple deep in the mountains with other local people, he went down the mountain on his own to visit and fetch valuables in my grandmother’s house. Unfortunately, my father was brutally killed by Japanese soldiers at the gate of my grandmother’s house. According to the undertaker (he is still alive at this writing), my unrelenting and well-built father got stabbed 9 times, which must have resulted from his resistance. Then, my over 50-year-old mother took my 13-year-old second eldest brother and 4- or 5-year-old me to flee to the 20-year-old eldest brother in Shanghai. We lived by begging along the way to Shanghai. Since then, my eldest brother had carried the burden of taking care of the family on his shoulders. We grew up under the care of my eldest brother and mother, the Party and government after the People’s Liberation. I have an elder sister Zhu XX in the countryside, the youngest of my mother’s seven daughters. She is 68 years old and lives at XX Village, Lingdong, Lanxi. When the Japanese army invaded Lanxi, she was newly married. She was then beautiful and plump. It’s said that after my father was killed and, in the year of Lanxi’s fall, we left for Shanghai, she was raped by Japanese soldiers. We don’t know why her husband had let her flee to Shanghai by herself. After much ordeal encountered, she finally found us at our new house;, we hugged and cried together. In 1949 after the People’s Liberation, someone from her husband’s family came and brought her back. Sadly, she sometimes would go into a trance from the physical and mental injuries she sustained from the rape and during fleeing. With increasing age, she became stooped and weaker. This could have been caused by the “unknown toxicity” from the tragedy experienced in her youth.

Our family suffered enormously in this great national catastrophe. I heard that dozens of Dongyuan people were killed by the Japanese army and numerous houses burned down. We have kept the tragedy in mind since we were little and passed it down from generation to generation. When my mother was alive, she would tell us the tragedy at the table on the New Year’s Eve to commemorate my father. We, the siblings, would also tell the tragedy at the proper time to the next generation. My eldest brother took a leave to return to Dongyuan to commemorate my father who died 50 years ago. After the ceremony, he called out loudly “Down with Japanese militarism!” “Never let the tragic history repeat itself!” My son told me that every time after my eldest brother visited my father’s grave, he would tearfully shout slogans like “Down with the Japanese army!” My mother died at age 92 in 1982. I was then working at school 7.5km away from home, so I was unable to be around with her when she died. What a difficult choice between loyalty to work and filial piety. My wife told me that my mother died peacefully, only calling my father’s infant name, “Lianzi,” twice. I was so sad to hear that. Respectable Mr. Tong, your brave and courageous act reflects and resonates with the inner voice of my generation and the previous ones as well. If one day Japan apologized and compensated to the Chinese people, I think my parents would then rest in peace.

Mr. Tong, I’ve learned that you have created a “compensation signature form”. I don’t know how to get it. Please mail a copy to me so I can sign it to comfort my parents’ souls in their graves. Thank you very much.

I’d like to introduce my family to you:

My eldest brother: Zhu Jihe, a retired deputy professor from the School of Foreign Languages Shanghai University.

My second eldest brother: Zhu Jixiang, died of illness in 1984.

My third eldest brother: Zhu Jixian, senior engineer of the Northwest Electric Power Design Institute of the Department of Energy, Xi’an.

My fourth eldest brother: Zhu Jihong, senior engineer of the Shanghai Metallurgical Design Institute at No. 1, the Bund, Shanghai.

Uncles and Aunts’ Family:

Elder brother: Zhu Zaowen, chairman of the CPPCC Chengdu, chief engineer, senior engineer

Elder sister: Zhu Jiying, French nationality, president of the French-Sino Sodality Union in France, a celebrity

Younger brother: Zhu Jiming, associate professor of the School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tai’an, Shandong.

I myself: Class A teacher with the junior high school of Lingdong, Lanxi, Zhejiang. See the envelope for the mailing address.

Yours faithfully,
Best wishes to your family.

Junior high school of Lingdong, Lanxi
Zhu Jiying (Personal seal)
July 15, 1992