Date of letter:1992-09-21
Address of author:Dongyang City, Zhejiang Province
Date of event:1943-01
Location of event:Dongyang City, Zhejiang Province
Name of author:Guo Suohui
Name(s) of victim(s):8 people including Guo Dixun (Guo Suohui’s grandfather) and Xu Guan (Guo Suohui’s grandmother), and many neighbors
Type of atrocity:Biological/Chemical Warfare（BC）
Other details:In addition to the policy of “burn all, kill all, loot all”, the Japanese invaders also pursued a brutal germ warfare. Some of my family members and many neighbors were infected bacteria released by the Japanese soldiers and died. I will seek justice for the victims. I require the Japanese government to compensate for this.
Mr. Tong Zeng:
I am forwarding you a letter that an ordinary person sent to Zhejiang Daily. The author didn’t know your specific address, so he wrote a letter to ask comrade Jiang Ping, chief editor of Zhejiang Daily. So we are forwarding the letter to you.
Committee on Aging, Zhejiang Province
Wang Keyi
September 30, 1992
Mr. Tong Zeng:
After reading an article about the civil compensation program launched by you, I recall of my family’s suffering during Japan’s germ warfare, so I am sending a written material to you. Please sign on behalf of me and claim for compensation against the Japanese government. Sorry for the trouble. Thank you.
Best regards,
Hushan Group, Dongyang, Zhejiang
Guo Suohui
September 21, 1992
Letter of Claim
I hereby claim for compensation against the Japanese government on behalf of my ancestors, family members and some neighbors for the great disaster and irreparable losses that Japan’s war of aggression against China has caused to the Chinese people, especially to my family and neighbors and request the Chinese government to claim for compensation for us against the Japanese government.
The Japanese army carried out the inhuman germ warfare in the war in addition to the notorious Three Alls Policy, causing the plague to spread in my hometown in 1942. On lunar December 11, 1942 (January 1943), my grandfather Guo Dixun was infected when visiting a patient and died the next day. My grandmother Xu Wan was also infected and died the third day. Moreover, my aunt Lv Weilun, Wu Zhilun, Xu Delun, eldest sister—in-law Xia Yue’e and female younger cousin Guo Xiuju were also infected and died in 5 days. My neighbors Guo Dayou, Guo Yinchuan and his wife, Guo Baofa and his wife, Guo Dachuan and Guo Atian were also infected and died. 15 people died in less than 10 days. All the people infected with the plague would voluntarily leave their home for the mountains to wait for death and avoid infecting their family members. The situation became so bad. The plague tore over 10 families apart. Although it’s been decades, the recall of the incident still horrifies me. The doctors sent by the government identified the disease as the plague, so the government cut off the road and isolated the patients for treatment. But they were not cured. All the patients died. The then Kuomintang government didn’t investigate the responsibilities of the criminals because they didn’t care about the death of the people. But now the Communist Party will speak for the people. I hereby ask the Chinese government to claim for compensation against the Japanese government. Based on the above situations, we demand the Japanese government to compensate us 200,000 USD for part of our losses.
Representative of victims’ family members
Guo Suohui (Personal seal)
Hushan, Guozhai, Dongyang, Zhejiang
September 21, 1992
