Date of letter:1993-07-07
Address of author:Deyang City, Sichuan Province
Date of event:1941-1943
Location of event:Zhengding County, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province
Name of author:Shi Qinhui
Name(s) of victim(s):An Aijie (Shi Qinhui’s mother-in-law), An Aijie ‘s father and husband
Type of atrocity:Murders, Others（MU, OT）
Other details:When the Japanese soldiers mopped up our county, they caught my father, hanged him in the trees and beat him to death. My husband joined the Anti-Japanese posse. He was injured later and captured by the Japanese soldiers. After cruel torture, he died. The Japanese soldiers even burned our belongings hidden in the cellar. This is a debt of blood. The Japanese government must compensate for this.
Tong Zeng,
Thanks to your strong support and help, we finally completed the written materials for demanding damage compensation from the Japanese government after nearly a year. The process was accelerated with the help of Wu Peng after you wrote him a letter. Therefore, I’d like to extend my sincere gratitude to you and your colleagues on behalf of my mother-in-law An Aijie and my wife Fang Xiumei. Although the material is completed, I guess some improvements may be needed. If so, please tell us in the reply. If there is anything I can do, just tell me in the reply. Thank you again. The material was sent on July 7. I am sending another copy with the letter. Please reply if you’ve received it.
Wish you health and luck with your work.
Design Department, Ordnance Branch, Second Heavy Machinery Plant
Shi Qinhui
July 7, 1993
We strongly support the civil claim for damage compensation from Japan!
An Aijie, Fang Xiumei, Liu Wenzhen
Liu Wenxue, Fang Lanjie, Shi Qinhui
July 7, 1993
Chinese victim’s letter of claim for damage compensation from Japan
Japanese government,
On July 7, 1937, Japanese imperialism launched a comprehensive war of aggression against China in an attempt to destroy China. The invading Japanese army raped, burned, killed and looted anywhere they went, causing a terrible disaster to the Chinese people. They also tore my family apart, caused property losses to my family and made me a homeless widow. I demand a damage compensation of RMB 1.1 million from the Japanese government.
The suffering and property losses of my family are described below:
1. In 1941, the Japanese army raided my hometown Xifangtou Village, Zhengding County, Hebei Province, China. They captured my father-in-law (my husband’s father), hung him on a big tree in our yard and beat him to death.
2. In 1942, the private resistance forces that my husband Fang Chouwen joined were defeated in a battle in Shujiazhuang, Zhengding, Hebei, China as they were outnumbered and ran out of bullets and food. My husband was injured and captured by the Japanese army. Afterwards, he was brutally tortured and died. His corpse was thrown in Qinghuayuan, Beijing.
3. In 1943, the Japanese army raided my village and burned my family’s valuable clothes and jewelry hidden in the cellar.
4. At that time, my mother-in-law (my husband’s mother) had to take care of two brothers-in-laws, the older of whom was 16 and the younger was 7, while I had to take care of two daughters, the older of whom was 5 and the younger was less than 1. We fled for life respectively, so there was no one to farm over 40-mu (1 mu is about 667 square meters) fertile land of my family for as long as five years.
The above debts must be repaid!
On August 15, 1945, Japan that launched the World War II announced surrender as a defeated country. According to a series of international laws and conventions such as the Yalta Agreement, Cairo Declaration and Potsdam Declaration, the defeated country that launched a war of aggression must compensate the winning countries for all of their losses. The Japanese government shall actively compensate Chinese victims unless it is planning another attempt to realize the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere or views our government leaders as Empress Dowager Cixi or Li Hongzhang in the Qing Dynasty. As the Chinese government has generously given up war reparations, the Japanese government should more actively pay damage compensation to Chinese victims of Japan’s war of aggression against China. This is in line with moral values. I sincerely ask the Japanese government not to hurt the feelings of the Chinese people anymore. To establish a long-term friendship between the Chinese and Japanese people for generations to come, let’s join hands to remove the trauma left by history.
Claimant: 77-year-old ordinary Chinese citizen An Aijie
July 7, 1993
Please send a reply to my daughter’s address:
Fang Xiumei, Fourth Primary School for the Children of Employees of Second Heavy Machinery Plant, Deyang City, Sichuan Province, China.
