Date of letter:1993-05-26
Address of author:Wuqing County, Tianjin City
Date of event:1942-01
Location of event:Daqing River, Hebei Province
Name of author:Yang Shude
Name(s) of victim(s):Yang ShudeType of atrocity:Slave Laborers（SL）
Other details:One day in January 1942, the Japanese soldiers mopped up in Daqiang River in Hebei. They caught a lot of people to do hard labor in Japan, and I was one of them. I had been tortured in Japan for four years, without enough food or clothes. Some of us committed suicide, and some escaped but was caught again and killed. I require the Japanese government to compensate.
Petition
China has given up war compensation between governments only and it did not include the civilian compensation.
The following are my unforgettable painful memories of laboring in Japan. In January 1942, many people including me were captured by the invading Japanese army during a raid in northern Daqinghe, Hebei and we were sent to Tanggu Camp. Later I was dispatched to a railway station of Nomura, Ligon, Gunma, Japan. I was forced to labor for 4 years in a ravine 6 miles southern of the railway station. I dug a cave every day, which was over 15 km long from east to west and used for hydraulic power generation. We did heavy work every day but was fed by the same food being fed to pigs. We were always starved. Instead of being provided with warm clothes in winter and thin clothes in summer, we were only given a crotch cloth every day to work naked. The Japanese foremen often beat the Chinese laborers with sticks and whips like they did to cattle and horses and called us morons. Many Chinese laborers were beaten to death by the Japanese foremen. It was the life for animals, not human. It was a very hard life indeed. Some laborers killed themselves, and some escapees were arrested back and mauled alive by Japanese dogs. The Japanese foremen said, “You Chinese people cannot run away. You are just food for the Japanese dogs.” Many Chinese laborers were tortured to death and many others were disabled due to work-related injury or beatings and constant, random physical abuse. When Japan surrendered in late 1945, only over 130 out of over 400 Chinese laborers were still alive. We returned to our motherland in March 1946 with the help of the American army and were received by the Red Cross of Qingdao, China. We may talk about the details in person.
I strongly demand compensation against the Japanese government.
1. I worked as a laborer for 4 years in Japan and suffered 4 years, so I should be compensated a 4-year wage of 40,000 USD.
2. I should be compensated 5,000 USD for my mental suffering.
3. I should be compensated 5,000 USD for work-related injury in the belly and leg injury due to the beating by the Japanese foremen. It’s a total of 50,000 USD.
Witnesses: Living witnesses who were also taken away to be forced laborers in Japan:
Liu Shuge: Address: Shangwuzhuang, Sanshengkou, Yongqing, Hebei
Ma Ruifu: Address: Shangwuzhuang, Sanshengkou, Yongqing, Hebei
Wang Yongyi: Address: Dengquanwu, Houbian, Yongqing, Hebei
Zheng Wenlin: Address: Shangwuzhuang, Sanshengkou, Yongqing, Hebei
Victim and forced Chinese laborer: Yang Shude
Address: No. 2, Dongsijing Road, First Avenue, Wangqingtuo, Wuqing, Tianjin
