s1081

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<div>Sequence number:s1081
Date of letter:1993-04-10
Address of author:Fushun City, Liaoning Province
Date of event:1940
Location of event:Zhuji City, Zhejiang Province
Name of author:Zhang Shengliang
Name(s) of victim(s):Zhang Shengliang, Zhang Changlai and townsmen
Type of atrocity:Others, Other Massacres(OT, OM）
Other details:My origin place was Zhang Village, Zhuji City, Zhejiang. After 1940, the enemy attacked my village and burnt down all houses except a dozen. Old people around sixty or seventy years old were killed in groups, among which Zhang Changlai was stabbed to death brutally. My personal loss is more than 1600 yuan. Could you tell me how I can claim compensation?
 
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Comrade Tong Zeng:
Hello!

Recently I read the report “Federation of Chinese Civilian Victims for Japan Compensation” on P.8 of No. 423 of the 92.9.21 issue of Ten-Day Press Digest (Shanghai Overseas Information 8.31)”. I immediately wrote a letter to the editorial department of Changchun Ten-Day Press Digest to ask for info about “correspondence address, chief person and postal code of your federation”. Thanks for your reply from the magazine. I hereby give your federation a detailed account of our village’s damages brought on by the Japanese invaders in this letter.

My native place is Shuixiazhang Village, Paitou Town, Zhuji City, Zhejiang Province. Zhegan Railway passed by my village; on the Puyang River at the entrance to the village, there is a railway bridge, after the enemy’s troops entered our village, they built a blockhouse at the bridgehead, with army stationed, permanently.
Before 1937, our village had about one thousand villagers, including 150 farming households, the whole village had about 500 inherited residential houses (all of which were two-story houses in brick and wood structure), the other structural buildings including the ancestral halls, big temples, incense rooms, and study, lobbies as well as public use “Treading Pestle Room” (tool for husking rice), “Grader Room” (tool for husking rice or grind powder) and so on ran to over one hundred. The whole village had a total of over 600 houses in brick-wood structure. After 1940, the Japanese army entered our village, with the exception of about a dozen or so civilian houses, because of the remote location from the village, all other structural buildings were burned down and totally destroyed by the enemy troops!

Back then, according to popular belief majority of the villagers fled! There were seven old women aged from around 60 to over 70 who were forced by the Japanese invaders to walk into the field near the entry of the village before being stabbed to death with bayonets one by one! The bodies were abandoned in the field, no one dared to retrieve them, and finally even the bodies were nowhere to be found!

Another old man Zhang Changlai, over 70 years old was beaten despite illness and old age, and then thrown into stone plate of the treading pestle to be pounded to death! Still another old man Zhang Yimei, over 60 years old was beaten by the enemy before thrown into a pond in front of our village’s ancestral hall. He was surrounded by the enemy, and stabbed to death with bayonets! Another old man Zhang Yihuo, over 60 years old, was beaten to half death by the enemy, then thrown into a big pit in the field. The enemy threw rocks at him, and thought he was dead and left. But he regained consciousness in the night and slowly fled, and survived! There were many more such tragedies, of which I only knew one or two. These were a few tragic stories I learned of and it is a very small portion compared the number of villagers killed.

In early 1940, the villagers pooled money to build a “Shuixiazhang Tea Factory”, back then I was working at Zhejiang Construction Department responsible for cooperative financial business and the “Jin Wu Yong (three counties of Jinhua, Wuyi, Yongkang) Agricultural Bank” Preparation Commissioner, directly under the Construction Department. Back then my late father also wanted to join the tea factory as a shareholder in my hometown. He asked me to give him 500-1000 yuan cash so as to buy shares. He also asked me to find ways to borrow 15,000 yuan with interest from the bank on behalf of the tea factory, which would be used as working capital. I sent 500 yuan to my late father as share money, and discussed with Old Man Wu (a native of Dongyang), who was Chairman and General Manager of Zhejiang Province Regional Bank! At that time he said our village was only five li (Chinese miles) away from the enemy’s outpost Paitou Town, and was unwilling to directly give loan to our village’s tea factory, but was willing to give me a personal loan of 12,000 yuan. I immediately gave this amount to my late father for use by the tea factory. At that time villager Zhang Yihuo contributed 800 yuan as share, my late father contributed 500 yuan, the villagers agreed, after discussion that Zhang Yihuo who had business experience, and recommended him to be the manager, my late father was deputy manager and chief treasurer. Unfortunately, in August of that year, the enemy’s mopping-up operation extended to our village, whereby the villagers quickly transferred the products and the factory outfit to nearby mountains, some products and equipment were all damaged! Afterwards, my late father sold the products that had been transferred, and returned the sales income of 11000 yuan in cash to me, there still remained bank interest of a little over 1000 yuan, and I could only repay it gradually. For villagers who contributed shares, it was not possible to return their investments to them in full amount. I personally sustained loss of over 1,600 yuan while the accumulated losses sustained by all the investing villagers were much larger! Regarding the above mentioned incident, senior villagers who were 70 and above were all able to recall the details of this account.

In the autumn of 1987, I paid a visit to the hometown, at that time it was already more than forty years after the victory of Anti-Japanese War, but in the village I could still see:
(I) There was no more brick tile house, currant houses are made of mud wall and thatched roof, there were even a number of grass shed which can hardly provide shelter against wind and rain!
(II) Back then men aged over 50 were unable to set up family. Even now there were still a dozen or so unmarried singles!
(III) Several villagers complained to me: During the Anti-Japanese war period, villagers in our village sustained the heaviest damages and losses. After liberation, when the superior department was investigating damages by the Japanese invaders, the town government each time reported that our village was a typical case of heaviest damage. But up till now there’s not a single penny of relief fund!

It has been learned that the number of people nationwide joining your federation to demand Japanese compensation has topped one hundred thousand, could I ask what kind of formalities are needed to join in your federation? I would appreciate greatly if you could inform me, so as to facilitate contact with the villagers!

Regards
Yours faithfully!
<p style=”text-align:right;”>Zhang Shenliang
93.4.10</p>
Return address: Zhang Shengliang c/a Zhang Lanjun of 32-1 Huinan Road, Jiangjun Street, Fushun City
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