Date of letter:1993-02-23
Address of author:Wuhan City, Hubei Province
Date of event:1939, 1940
Location of event:Wuhan City, Hubei Province
Name of author:Chen Bingtang
Name(s) of victim(s):Chen Bingtang’s grandfather, father, mother and aunt
Type of atrocity:Slave Laborers, Sex Slaves(SL, SS）
Other details:In 1939, after the Japanese occupation of Wuhan, my grandfather and father were conscripted labor. In 1940, the Japanese came “recruiting workers”. My mother and two aunts applied the job because my grandmother’s family was really poor. Later we discovered that they were deceived to be comfort women.
Letter of Claim by a Chinese Civilian
My ancestors lived in the north of Shangqiu, He’nan. But in early years of the National Republic period, the Yellow River flooded several times and made it very difficult to make living, so the whole village had to fleet from the hometown. At that time, my father was too young to walk and my grandparents begged along the way for months to arrive in Wuhan. My grandparents built a shed outside the U.K. Sanmatou Railway at Hankou to live in. They worked as porters at Hankou and raised 3 daughters and 2 sons.
In March 1939 after the Japanese army invaded Wuhan, my grandfather and father were captured by Japanese army subsequently and forced to be laborers. In 1940, Japanese army people dressed in civilian cloth came to our house, saying they were hiring female workers for a cigarette factory. Considering that the family had no sources of income, my grandmother let my 17-year-old mother Wang XX and two 16-year-old twin aunts to work in the factory. But unexpectedly, three of them, among other women, were high jacked on a truck and sent by the Japanese army on the late night of May 5 to their comfort women house at Jiqingli, Hankou to be comfort women. In June, they were again transferred to the comfort women house at the frontline of Sha, Hubei. We only knew that my aunts and my mother were deceived to be comfort women later when my grandfather and father escaped from Hu’nan where they were forced to work as laborers for the Japanese army to Hankou. .
Zhang XX, the son of one of my grandfather’s countrymen saw that my mother Wang XX and my twin aunts Chen XX and Chen XX, three were sent to the comfort women house in Sha, Hubei in early morning of that day. Zhang XX was then working as a forced laborer in the cafeteria of the comfort women house at Jiqingli, Hankou. The Japanese army built high fences around Jiqingli to prevent victims from escaping or their families for saving them. Moreover, there were two armed guards at the gate to prevent entry of Chinese people. In 1941, Zhang XX was kicked out of the house because he got seriously ill. Then, he came to our house and told us the truth.
During the World War II, the conscienceless Japanese bandits implemented the Three Extinctions Policy on our land. They killed our compatriots and raped Chinese women, destroyed our land. Chinese people shouldn’t be insulted and humiliated like that. In 1945, our ancestors defeated Japanese invaders with millet and rifle. After the People’s Liberation in 1949, we’ve lived a happy, peaceful life.
I cannot suppress my anger whenever I recall past memories of my family’s being insulted and have suffered. I strongly demand the Japanese government to apologize to Chinese people and compensate my family for all pain and suffering and lost caused during the Japanese invasion period.
Offspring of victims
Chen XX
Postal code: 430074
Wuhan, Hubei
