Date of letter:1992-06-08
Address of author:Jingmen City, Hubei Province
Date of event:1940-06-13
Location of event:Jingmen City, Hubei Province
Name of author:Li Huanran
Name(s) of victim(s):Li Huanran’s younger brother and father, and civilians of Jingmen City
Type of atrocity:Air Bombings, Biological/Chemical Warfare, Others（AB, BC, OT）
Other details:The news stirred my emotions. My younger brother and my father were killed by the Japanese invaders. On June 6, 1940, the Japanese soldiers occupied Jingmen City. On June 13, they bombed Jingmen City and dropped gas bombs. Thousands of people died of toxic gas within less than a month. I firmly require the Japanese imperialist aggressors to compensate and apologize to the Chinese people. The signature form is attached.
Comrade Tong Zeng:
How are you?
I am so excited after reading the article on documenting Chinese people’s demands of compensation for their loss against Japan from China Business Journal and I have developed a strong interest in the issue of war reparations and damage compensation. I am also aroused by the catastrophes during the Japanese army invasion of China half a century ago.
I admire you for your sense of mission towards the party, our people and our nation. For someone like me who is 60 years old this year, I cannot help but burst into tears when recalling Japan’s imperialist war of aggression against China because my father and a younger brother were killed by the butchers’ knifes of the invading Japanese in the war. My mother Wu Guohua is 90 years old, but she still harbors intense hatred of Japan’s invasion of China because Japan’s raids broke my family apart and killed my family members.
You young people have done a great deed for the ordinary people of China and demonstrated your strength of character. You articulated what is in our countrymen’s minds for the last century. What you have done is very educational for my children. The young people today did not suffer from Japan’s imperialistic invasion of China in the past. They have lived a happy life; only the elderly over 60 have suffered from Japan’s invasion of China.
At the 20th anniversary of the normalization of Sino-Japanese relations, I firmly support and demand the Japanese Emperor to do two things sincerely. One is to apologize to the Chinese people and the other is to compensate the Chinese people. During the 8-year anti-Japanese war, the Japanese army caused military casualties of 3.8 million, civilian casualties of 18 million and property losses of 300 billion USD. The Chinese government only gave up the compensation of 120 billion USD. It is just and proper for the Chinese people to demand compensation of 180 billion USD for the victims.
I am engaged in work for the elderly with the Committee on Aging at the Jingmen Bureau of Agricultural Mechanization. I was born in Shayang District. Shayang was and is a large town of Jinmen; it is a land of abundance with a dynamic market, and is conveniently accessible in all directions. I will briefly describe to you the evil crimes committed by Japanese invaders in Jingmen.
On June 6, 1940, the Japanese invaders occupied Jingmen. At the break of dawn on June 13, the Japanese army began to fire artillery shells and later in the morning Japanese planes hovered above the sky of Shayang. Three incendiary bombs landed on Shayang streets. After observing the fires from the bombs and hovering at low altitude, the Japanese planes then strafed the people and dropped 100 poisonous gas bombs. The civilians fled to the west in a panic and many of them were killed by bullets and the poisonous gas. The remaining Shayang refugees who survived by the skin of their teeth escaped to Xinji to the west of Shayang, Hujiafengyuan and Sanjiadian after the Japanese army occupied Shayang. They suffered from hunger, diseases and the threat of bandits. As the Japanese army had dropped poisonous gas bombs, the poisoned weeds caused intense itchiness, redness, swelling, and blisters on the legs of refugees walking among the weeds. They became increasingly ill due to the ineffectiveness of native medicine and doctors against the poison, and so their wounds festered and they died. There was not enough food for the refugees who congregated, and they suffered from hunger and became extremely weak. Besides, they drank the water from the fields, puddles or water infected by refugees washing their wounds in it. The disease was widespread. In less than one month, over 1,400 refugees died of illness.
Between 1941 and 1945, the invading Japanese army built an airport in Jingmen. The Duodao District airportthen became an evil slaughter house. Our Chinese compatriots were killed there by fascist and inhuman methods such as by burying them alive, sending dogs to devour them, drawing their blood and dissecting them alive. Over 3,000 Chinese people were killed at the airport. The Japanese invaders implemented the Three Alls Policy in China and committed heinous crimes on the Chinese people. Should we not demand compensation from them?
Committee on Aging, Bureau of Agricultural Mechanization, Jingmen, Hubei
Li Huanran
June 8, 1992
We firmly demand that Japan pay compensation of 180 billion USD to the Chinese people for the crimes committed during Japan’s war of aggression against China.
Signatures of my family:
Mother, 90, Wu Guohua
Myself, 60, Li Huanran
My wife, Mu Kaixiu
Sons, Li Jianjun, Li Zhou
Oldest daughter, Li Zhaorong
Second oldest daughter, Li Yanli
Youngest daughter, Mu Xiaohong
Sons-in-law, He Jianpin, Xu Xingfu, Tan Mingxiang
Grandsons, Li Zhonghua, Li Xiangyang, Li Zhen, Tan Mu, Li Jingjin
