Date of letter:1996-04-09
Address of author:Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province
Date of event:1937-09
Location of event:Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province
Name of author:Ge Yanjun
Name(s) of victim(s):Zhang Xueliang (Ge Yanjun’s father), Ge Yanjun’s maternal grandfather
Type of atrocity:Air Bombings, Murders（AB, MU）
Other details:My father was killed in 1937 when Hangzhou was bombed by the Japanese bombers. In 1942, my grandfather was caught by the Japanese soldiers to work as a porter, forced to carry things looted by them. Because my grandfather was old and could not bear a heavy load, he was whipped and kicked by the Japanese soldiers and eventually fell down a mountain slope and died. I want to make a complaint and claim for compensation.
Comrade Tong Zeng,
Today, I received your letter dated March 30, in which you said I once mentioned a comfort woman and asked me to tell you her address. You’ve made a mistake. I didn’t write you a letter about comfort women.
I wrote you a letter in November 1992, in which I described the loss of two of my close relatives during Japan’s war of aggression against China. My father (Zhang Xueliang) died in the bombing of Japanese planes in Hangzhou in September 1937. My widowed mother had to escape to a foreign place with my grandfather. In 1942, my grandfather was captured by the Japanese army and forced to carry supplies they robbed up a mountain. Due to an old age, my grandfather couldn’t complete the task. So a Japanese soldier whipped and bayoneted him before kicking him off the mountain. Not long after that, my grandfather died with hate in his heart. As my mother and I had no one to depend on and lived a difficult life, my mother had to sell eggs to make a living. Unfortunately, she was “fancied” by a Japanese businessman and suffered from insult.
At the end of 1992, I wrote a letter to an old man Zhong Jiwen who knows about the suffering of my grandfather and mother (he was once captured by a Japanese businessman as a slave laborer and often brutally abused) and sent his reply to you.
Now, both my mother and Zhong Jiwen have passed away.
Life is priceless. Japanese imperialists’ crimes during the war caused irreparable losses to my family. I strongly denounce their crimes and demand damage compensation.
Best regards,
Ge Yanjun
April 9, 1996
Address: 4-401, No. 39, Hengfu Road, Guangzhou
Postal code: 510095
Tel: 020-3594151 (home)
(Guangzhou) 3595977-3020 (office)
