Date of letter:Not mentioned
Address of author:Not mentioned
Date of event:1942-03-13
Location of event:Changsha City, Hunan Province
Name of author:Not mentioned
Name(s) of victim(s):The author and his parents as well as his/her 3-year-old son
Type of atrocity:Air Bombings (AB)
Other details:On the morning of March 13, 1942, when my parents and I with my 3-year-old son passed by the front of the spinning mill, we were bombed by the Japanese aircrafts. My parents and my son were killed badly mutilated, and my left arm was injured. Since then, I had lost the ability to work, and my mind and body greatly damaged. Note: (the envelope was lost) please send a letter to: Zhou Hao, Metal Structure Branch, Changsha Heavy Machinery Plant, Changsha, Hunan
Mr. Tong Zeng:
Ni Hao
I’m a reader of “Reader’s Digest”, since reading the article “History Has Not Forgotten——An Account of Chinese Civilians Demanding Damage Compensation from Japan” published on the October 1992 issue of “Readers’ Digest”, I kept this topic very unsettling in my mind for a long time Half a century has passed, the Japanese Invasion War had brought such bitter and traumatic war experience to the Chinese people, the cost of survival at the expense of shedding so much blood can never be erased. Numerous Chinese people lived in extreme misery under the iron heel of the invasion army, and countless Chinese civilians found their families broken and separated from wives and children amid the random and frantic bombing of the Japanese Invasion Army. This invasion war brought unprecedented disaster never seen in 1,000 years to the Chinese people. Several million Chinese people generously devoted themselves to the cause of Anti-Japanese War, more than 20 million compatriots suffered injury, assets worth over USD 100 billion were destroyed……
It is exactly this invasion war that ruined my family, and afflicted the deepest and the biggest calamity on earth to myself.
It was the morning of March 13, 1941, the 30th year of the Republic o China, in Changsha, Hunan, my parents and I along with my 3 years old son were just passing the gate of the Old Yuxiang Spinning Factory (now Changsha Textile Factory), we heard a loud boom, amid the explosion of bombs indiscriminately dropped by Japanese aircrafts, my parents and I along with my 3-year old son were heavily injured with bleeding wounds. The explosion also savagely ripped off my left arm as I fainted instantly. When I regained consciousness I found I had been carried to Xiangya Hospital, whose president was an American Because I underwent an amputation operation, and lost a lot of blood, it was necessary to have blood transfusion. In a humanitarian gesture, the kind-hearted wife of the Hospital President donated her blood to me, which pulled me back from the brink of death. Nevertheless, because I lost productivity, I was dismissed by the cruel capitalist factory owner. I immediately lost livelihood, and lived in difficulty to raise my two infant daughters, who were born after I have lost my left arm.
My elder daughter was diagnosed as having polio after birth. Back then my little daughter was only a few years old. My husband was an underground worker, and was cruelly persecuted to death by the counterrevolutionary KMT. Hearing the news of my husband’s death, I almost got into a nervous breakdown, but for the sake of the two daughters, I forced myself to live on, and supported the a household of three with only one hand.
Over the past half a century, I fully tasted the agony of losing my endeared family member and my arm, and suffered severe torment both mentally and physically.
The invasion war waged by the Japanese army made me lose my family members, and made me disabled which imposed the biggest misfortune on earth on me.
It can be argued that I am also one of the victims of this invasion war.
I’m willing to respond to your declaration, and assemble all victims in South China to contribute signatures collectively.
Please mail your detailed instructions to:
Zhou Hao
Hunan Changsha Heavy Machinery Factory——
Metal Structure Branch
