<div>Sequence number:s0967
Date of letter:1993-01-05
Address of author:Longyan City, Fujian Province
Date of event:Not mentioned
Location of event:Malaysia, Singapore
Name of author:Zhang Guoxian
Name(s) of victim(s):Zhang Guoxian’s father
Type of atrocity:Others, Murders(OT, MU)
Other details:Enclosed in the letter are photos of a mourning event in Malaysia for 18 townsmen killed by Japanese, among them there was my father Zhang Yingqi. After my father’s shop in Malaysia was bombed by Japanese, he took me to work in Indonesia. However, father was killed by Japanese in Singapore the next year.
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Teacher Tong Zeng:
How are you?
I am a returned overseas Chinese and live at No. 34, Qiaomin Road, Xi’ancun, Longyan, Fujian.
One of my friends sent me an article titled “A Wave of Civilian Claims for Compensation” from Yangcheng Evening News of December 18, 1992. I’ve learned from the article that you’ve courageously raised the issue of compensation, personally sent 108 petitions from 108 Chinese victims to the visiting Prime Minister KAIFU and launched the signature drive of “demanding damage compensation against Japan”. I’ve seen your bravery from the description. I am so excited that you are doing something so meaningful for our people.
My family was victim of the war. On September 3, 1992, I wrote a letter to the Emperor of Japan who was to visit China. I mailed it to the Japanese Embassy in China and asked it to forward to the emperor. I demanded compensation in the letter. Half a year has passed, but I haven’t received a reply. This letter provides an account of my family’s suffering during the Japanese invasion of Southeast Asia. The attached photo shows the mourning hall built for 18 countrymen (brutally killed by the Japanese army in Penang, Malaysia) at a memorial service held at Persatuan Lung Yen Penang in 1945. One of the victims was my father Zhang Yingqi (below the right couplet. He followed my grandfather to Penang in 1920 where they ran a tableware store. Then, Japan launched a war and the Japanese army bombed Penang for three days. The store collapsed; my father and grandfather lost their livelihood. To make a living, my father asked a countryman to take me, then 15-year-old, to Indonesia to find work. My father himself got a job in Singapore and was savagely killed by the Japanese army the next year (he was only 36 years old when he felled). After knowing the bad news, my grandparents became ill. Struck by fear and sorrow, they died one after another. My mother (then 33 years old) took 3 daughters (11, 7 and 4 years old respectively) back to our hometown with the help of countrymen. In 1953, I took my wife, son and daughter from Indonesia back to hometown to take care of my mother. She is 85 years old now and during every festival of ancestor worship, she would cry sadly and tell me to take my dead father’s spirit back to our homeland for burial. My 8 family members of three generations suffered much from the war. I demand that the Japanese government pay compensation for our losses and all of the expenses for my family’s trip to Singapore to take my father’s ashes back to the homeland for burial so that my parents may be buried together.
I would like to request to join the signature movement as a victim. I’ll follow your instructions as to the procedures and future arrangement. Please take the time to reply me. Looking forward to your instructions.
Best regards,
<p style=”text-align:right;”>Zhang Guoxian
Lunar January 5, 1993</p>
Mailing address: No. 34, Qiaomin Road, Xi’ancun, Longyan, Fujian
Postal code: 364000
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