Date of letter:1992-10-09
Address of author:Houma City, Shanxi Province
Date of event:1943-02-23
Location of event:Jinnan City, Shanxi Province
Name of author:Jia Xisheng
Name(s) of victim(s):Jia Zhenshan（Jia Xisheng’s father）
Type of atrocity:Slave Laborers, Murders, Others（SL, MU, OT）
Other details:I hope to get help from Mr. Tong, and I send the photo of the place where my father was killed. My father was a farmer. The Japanese soldiers often forced him to do hard work. The Japanese soldiers considered my father a “Chinese soldier” and bayoneted him to death.
Director Chen:
I sent you my signature form of demanding compensation against Japan in this June and got your help. I’ve recently obtained evidence materials about my father’s victimization and I am now sending the materials to you. Let me know in the reply letter if there’s anything I can do.
Best regards,
Jia Xisheng
October 9, 1992
Evidence materials
This is to certify that comrade Jia Xisheng (head of the Organization Department of Houma Pingyang State-Owned Machinery Factory under China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation)’s father Jia Zhenshan from Xizhuangpo wa.s killed by the invading Japanese army on February 23, 1943
The victimization of comrade Jia Zhenxing is as follows. As Jinnan, Shanxi fell to occupation after 1938, our village was occupied by the Japanese army and the villagers lived under their iron heel of Japanese invaders. Comrade Jia Zhenshan was born from a farmer family and his ancestors were also farmers. During the occupancy, he was often taken away by Japanese soldiers to be a forced laborer. On February 23, 1943, Jia Zhenxing was captured, tied up and forced to carry flour. The cruel enemies forced him to work with hands tied up. When he was carrying flour up a hill, a bag of flour fell on the ground. An insane Japanese soldier took him to a path of rubble and bayoneted him in the left chest and abdomen. The innocent Jia Zhenshan died, leaving his wife and son.
Additionally, the Japanese soldiers set a fire to his house during a raid, damaging most of the furniture, causing serious losses.
Thousands of Chinese people suffered from the invasion of Japanese militarism. Comrade Jia Xisheng’s family is one of those in our village who were greatly victimized by the Japanese army. All the living elderly villagers can be the witnesses. This is a blood debt the Japanese invaders owe to the Chinese people.
Villagers’ Committee of Xizhuangpo, Beizhang, Xinjiang, Shanxi
(Villagers’ Committee seal)
September 30, 1992
Signature for Demanding Compensation Against Japan
China Business Herald August 11 (Third edition)
Our government has never given up damage compensation against Japan
The Chinese government gave up war preparations against Japan in 1972, but never announced to give up damage compensation. The Legal Daily of May 23 published an article in which jurist Tong Zeng explains the difference between war preparations and damage compensation. War preparations are paid by the defeated country launching the war of aggression to the invaded countries for their losses, while damage compensation is bearable by the defeated country launching the war of aggression for violating the laws of war and humanitarian principles and committing severe crimes to the people of the invaded countries and their property. After the World War II, the Jews, Polish and French people have claimed for a great amount of compensation on the grounds of being persecuted by the Nazis.
(Excerpt from Legal Daily)
Explanation about the following pictures
Picture ① is a path of rubble, the site where my father was killed by a Japanese soldier.
Picture ② is a small pit where my father’s corpse was stored. At that time, we had no money to bury my father, so with the help of relatives and friends, we placed my father’s corpse in a broken tank and stored it in the pit. We buried him until the People’s Liberation.
The above are materials about the victimization of my father and evidence materials provided by the Villagers’ Committee.
Organization Department of Houma Pingyang State-Owned Machinery Factory, Shanxi
Jia Xisheng
October 8, 1992
