Date of letter:1992-12-16
Address of author:Yuci City, Shanxi Province
Date of event:1943
Location of event:Yuci City, Shanxi Province
Name of author:Yao Ziwen
Name(s) of victim(s):Yao Ziwen
Type of atrocity:Others (OT)
Other details:In 2am, the 21st of the first lunar month of 1943, I was suddenly arrested by the Japanese military police because I’d provided food for communists. I was tortured cruelly and detained for more than two months. Now I claim compensation from Japan.
Comrade Tong Zeng:
How have you been?
I am Yao Ziwen, 79, from Nanzhang, Zhuangzi, Yuci, Shanxi.
1. I am a victim of Japan’s war of aggression against China and also a survivor. In 1936, I worked as a manager with Sanjin Goods Warehouse at my county. I remember that at 2:00 am of lunar January 21, 1943, I was suddenly taken away by armed soldiers of the Japanese Gendarmerie of Yuci and charged with secretly providing cloth and salt for the Eighth Route Army. I was interrogated by Officer Yamamoto and was brutally tortured at 4:00 am on that day. I blacked out several times due to electrocution. They poured cold water at me to wake me up and then electrocuted me again to make me admit that I’ve provided cloth and salt for the Eighth Route Army and have secretively communicated with them. (At that time, the Japanese imposed an economic blockade on our local area.) After over two months’ detention and brutal torturing for 21 times, My whole body was hurt and I couldn’t physically handle it anymore. In this situation, I had to admit that I had secret communication with the Eighth Route Army. They ordered foreign dogs to bite my legs several times. The scars were left all over my body due to electrocution and biting which causes my headache and pain on each rainy day. After more than two months’ torture, my life was at stake. I thank my parents who used a cart to pull my unconscious “corpse” back home which would be otherwise eaten by foreign dogs.
2. Losses
a． The soldiers of the Japanese gendarmerie took my two gold rings during the interrogation.
b． More than 800 silver dollars were spent to cure me who was half-dead , I gradually recovered and had some energy.
c． After I was captured by the Japanese gendarmerie, my Sanjin Goods Warehouse suffered a heavy loss due to the lack of management. The warehouse had an original capital of 28,000 silver dollars, but 10,000 silver dollars were used to ransom me (given to the Japanese gendarmerie). Thereafter, Sanjin Goods Warehouse went bankrupt and I was unable to do business again.
The Japanese gendarmerie caused me a loss of about 30,000 silver dollars.
3. My existence today is due to the Communist Party’s new China. There would be no new China without the Communist Party.
Therefore, I demand Japan to compensate my loss.
Survivor: Yao Ziwen
December 16, 1992
Nanzhang, Zhuangzi, Yuci, Shanxi
Postal code: 030612
