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Mr. Tong:

How are you?

I have written an article earlier and sent it to the Political Office of the Japanese Embassy. I am now sending a copy of it to you. You may read it at your leisure. I am still working on collecting materials, documents and proofs and will mail them to the Japanese Embassy.

Also, a signature form is attached.
Wish you good health.

Luo Yunjiang
August 16, 1993

Pursuing Justice for the Victims

　　In July 1944, as the Japanese army unable to take over Hengyang despite long-term attack, they brought more troops from Wuhan to station in the suburbs of Hengyang. About 10,000 Japanese soldiers were stationed near Bailuao Town beside the Changheng highway, 15 kilometers in the north of Hengyang, which was several kilometers away from my village Qilitan, a small port near Xiang River with just a few small stores. After the enemy came, few people could be seen in the village. At first, only the soldiers from Bailuao would come and harass us, but later their gas boats could be seen patrolling from time to time. The soldiers often disembarked to do evil things to us. Day and night, as soon as we heard the sound of the motors, we would panic and run to hide quickly. The villagers would run the seaside to a remote place and some would row their boats to the opposite bank to hide from the Japanese. There were a few villages and many trees on the opposite bank. It was easy to hide there and the Japanese army hadn’t reached there yet.

One day, early in the morning, a young man named Liu XX from my village took a boat with several young men from neighboring villages to the opposite bank. They often went to a place about 500 meters downstream to gamble with young men from the villages there. That day, they chose a ruined temple hidden among woods for their games. It couldn’t be seen easily from outside. Their boat was anchored nearby. At noon, as motor sound came from the downstream of the river, we became nervous and listened carefully to see whether the sound would stop nearby. Soon, we saw three gas boats with each person standing at front and back wearing a kapok life jacket. The gas boats went straight up the upstream. Everybody was relieved. But they didn’t go far. One of the gas boats went towards the opposite bank followed by the other two and they stopped 200 meters upstream of the opposite port. Then, about 30 people went on the bank, walked about 100 meters downstream and then got in the woods. We thought the enemies would raid the villages there and that those who went there today were in danger. About two hours later, someone said that the Japanese had come out. Then we saw the Japanese walking towards the upstream, but there were over 10 people walking with them, who seemed to be tied together with a string. We could vaguely hear the Japanese soldiers shouting at them. We talked to each other, guessing they must be arrested by the Japanese. Soon, they all got on gas boats. With the motor sound, the gas boats sailed up the river. But before they sailed far we heard cries. It turned out that the Japanese were pushing those people and throwing them into the river. The boat shook for a moment and then after some struggle in vain, those captured were gone. All happened so fast and everything was quiet again. The enemy’s gas boats sailed away. We all sighed for the victims. We didn’t exactly know who they were. At night, some witnesses came from the opposite bank and told us that they saw the enemy in the dark searching each house. They found a ruined temple and walked in. Those young men were so focused on gambling that they were unaware of what was going on. The enemies thought these young men were guerrillas, or maybe their small boat anchored by the river caught their attention. The enemies tied their hands back one after another and then took them to the center of the river to throw all of them in.

The next day, all the victims were identified. Their parents, wives and children cried and mourned for them by the riverside, making the onlookers shed tears. The relatives of the victims dared not find their corpses because the enemies were still patrolling in gas boats. Some of the wives of the victims remarried and a group of new orphans and elderly appeared. The wife of Liu XX from my village remarried a businessman from the town, who was sent to jail for crimes he committed in 1948 and died in prison. Then, she remarried again to a boatman from my village. She dies young from poverty and despair. There were a large number of similar cases like this. So many families were destroyed and so many people’s lives were ruined. Who was to blame? The poor Chinese people, they could neither write nor tell. If I hadn’t studied at school for several years, I wouldn’t be able to write either and could only live a life in hatred for the enemy.

Yin XX was a businessman. As our village is a port, there were boats and travelers coming to my village before 1944. Yin XX rented houses in my village to run a hotel. He had a daughter. The three-member family had their hotel looted by bandits one night in 1940. They closed the hotel and moved back to their hometown. Not long after that, his wife died of an illness. Yin XX was blind and weak and was taken care of by his daughter. The father and daughter depended on each other. His daughter turned 14 in 1944. After the Japanese came, she had to hide around every day and took care of his father at the same time. One day in mid-August, over 10 Japanese soldiers barged in the village. The girl was taking care of her father and didn’t have time to escape. The Japanese soldiers entered their house and intended to rape the girl. She cried and fought and his father begged. In the end, they dragged the girl to another room and raped her in turns. After the Japanese soldiers left, the neighbors helped the girl up and comforted her. But the girl was not the same after that. She didn’t speak all day. She couldn’t move around anymore from the injuries she sustained from the rape; she died soon after. Her father was badly hit during the incident and also died not long after that.

There was a young farmer Li XX from Wangtang Village. He was 28 years old, his wife 25 and they had a 3-year-old son. In September 1944, 3 Japanese soldiers appeared suddenly at this village of only three houses. Apparently, the Japanese had no clear target, they just randomly pick a village. At that time, the villagers were not organized to escape so they were often caught by the enemies. When the Japanese soldiers suddenly appeared at Li’s door, his wife was the first to see them and called loudly to Li, “The Japanese are here. Take our son away. Quick!” With that, she ran out of the back door to escape. But Li was in the bedroom with their son and didn’t have time to respond. One Japanese soldier blocked Li and his son in the house and the other two shot out from the back door to get his wife. There was a big pool near Li’s house. Li’s wife ran out of the back door and saw the enemies chasing her. She knew she wouldn’t be able to get away from them, so she ran to the big pool, hesitated and jumped in. The Japanese soldiers ran to the pool and stood there watching for a while, guessing that she was dead. Then, they returned to Li’s house and got the other soldier. After they left, Li ran to the pool, jumped into it and took his wife out. But it was too late. He cried badly, so did their son. Other villagers felt sorry for them.

My aunt lived in Baizhu Village (2.5 km from my house). It was a remote and hidden place. A young couple moved there to hide from the war. Unexpectedly, one day, 5 Japanese soldiers came to this remote village. Early in the morning, all the villagers left their houses and hid among the woods. The couple hid not far from each other. The Japanese soldiers couldn’t find women in the village, so they entered the woods. One soldier found the woman of the couple, raped her and then called the other four to rape her in turns. The man of the couple could see the whole process, but he couldn’t do anything because each of the soldiers had a weapon in their hands. After the soldiers left, the woman was in so much pain. The man and other women from the village persuaded her to go home. The man was handsome, the woman beautiful and they got along well. But after the incident, the couple suffered enormous mental anguish and pain and they couldn’t deal with the situation. Not long later, the man left home and never came back. The woman went insane and was missing. We lost her whereabouts after the war.

Materials sorted by: Luo Yunjiang
August 12, 1993, Shenzhen

Mr. Ambassador:

This is the third letter I’ve sent you, containing information about several tragic events that happened in my village. It is of true information with time and place provided for reference. Too many events like this happened in just a few months during the Hengyang’s occupancy. One can imagine the number of similar events that happened all over China during Japan’s 8-year invasion.

During the 8-year anti-Japanese war, over 10 million Chinese people were killed by your imperial army, hundreds of thousands of women were raped and properties of tens of billions yuan were looted. The then Japanese ruling class was undeniably liable for the victimization of the Chinese people in your invasion against China.

How can the 8-year debt of blood be written off as if the war and suffering had never happened? After 8 years of traveling in China, the Imperial Army are now enjoying their golden years, they must be reliving the memories of torturing and murdering the Chinese people, while the Chinese people are suffering physical and mental pain and anguish inflicted by the Imperial Army.
8 years is a long time. Each day of the 8 years, there were Chinese people falling in a pool of blood and Chinese women raped. The vast, beautiful land of China was trampled by the Japanese army. The Chinese history during 1937-1945 is a history of violation, oppression and hatred. The life of tens of millions of people, the property of tens of billions yuan and the happiness of hundreds of thousands of women cannot be taken in vain. The invaders must take responsibility for that.

The Chinese people didn’t attack the heart of German fascist Berlin as the Soviets did. The debt was repaid and war criminals like Hitler were duly prosecuted. The Chinese people didn’t trample on Japan’s land. As a country that was invaded for 8 years, China is fully justified to attack Tokyo and arrest the criminals such as Hideki TOJO. To say the least, we should interrogate those from the Imperial Army who became our prisoners, sentence those with heinous crimes to death and detain some with minor crimes. But we didn’t. We didn’t attack, or curse or insult. All of the war criminals, murderers and rapists were forgiven like our guests and tourists. The kind Chinese people didn’t kill a single Japanese sinful person. How kind and generous we are.

For over 40 years, the past Japanese governments didn’t admit it was a war of aggression, let alone apology.

Right now, there are over 400,000 Chinese people signing to demand your government an apology and compensate civilian victims. It is a just request and the call of millions of Chinese people who were victimized, suffered and insulted. You Japanese people say “Chinese leaders once said to give up war reparations.” I’d like to ask whether you should make war reparations or not? What is the nature of the war? It is a war of aggression. The invaders are responsible for compensating the losses.

Each year, you Japanese people pray for those who died from the atomic bombing in Nagasaki and Hiroshima and visit Yasukuni Shrine including Hideki TOJO, the terrible executioner that butchered Chinese people. I think those people killed by the atomic bombs should seek Hideki TOJO out at Yasukuni Shrine and ask him to pay for their death if they had a spirit. These war criminals like mad dogs bit people any chance they got. The crimes roused the indignation of righteous people worldwide. I thank the righteous scientists for inventing atomic bombs so the war was ended with a righteous weapon. Otherwise the war would have killed another millions of Chinese people including me, they might have been starved to death or murdered. The atomic bombing in Nagasaki and Hiroshima killed 180,000 Japanese people, but how many Chinese people were butchered? It’s 60 times larger than that figure. Do you know that?

You Japanese people say that war reparations includes civilian compensation. But you should also know that our current government leader said, “The former leader said the Chinese government does not demand war reparations. But the people can demand civilian compensation, which won’t be interfered by the government.” The meaning is clear. War reparations are different from civilian compensation and our government won’t interfere in the just request of us civilians. So, why do you mention the speech of the former leader instead of the current one?

History cannot be tampered with.

Do not cause hatred for generations.

Victim: Luo Yunjiang
August 15, 1993