Date of letter:1992-08-17
Address of author:Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province
Date of event:1937-10-01（lunar calendar）
Location of event:Huairen County, Suzhou City, Shanxi Province
Name of author:Yuan Xiuwu
Name(s) of victim(s):Yuan Xiuwu’s father, grandmother and felow villagers
Type of atrocity:Other Massacres, Others, Murders（OM, OT, MU）
Other details:On October 1, 1937 on the lunar calendar, the Japanese Invasion Army came to our village and killed 108 persons and burned more than 100 houses. My father and grandmother were killed, the Japanese invaders also cut of my grandmother’s hands to take away the bracelets. Soon afterwards I will mail damage of our village, we demand Japanese government to compensate.
Mr. Tong Zeng,
From newspaper reports, I learned that you put forward the proposal at the Fourth Session of the Seventh National People’s Congress last year to demand the Japanese government to pay damage compensation for invasion by Japanese Army , as the child of a victim I want to express my appreciation for you. Thank you for declaring war on Japan, for we cannot take it lying down, in order to give Japan some pressure, I think it’s better to organize a non-governmental organization consisting of victims and their family members.
I am a native of Lieyanzhuang Village, Huairen County, Shanxi Province. On October 1, 1937, the Japanese Invasion Army came to our village, and killed 108 people, burned more than 900 houses, and looted numerous things,. tThey stole over 1000 cattle and sheep, killed my grandmother and my father, and chopped off my grandmother’s two hands. mMy father was only 31 years old when being killed, my grandmother was only 52 then.
Additionally, in 1937 the Japanese Invasion Army killed 16000 people in seven counties in Yanbei (the area north of Yanmen Pass of the Great Wall) in a matter of one month in September,; countless houses were burned and numerous articles were looted.
Recently I returned to my village once, and mobilized villagers to write out their persecution details for your reference.
Regards
Sincerely yours
Son of the victim: Yuan Xiuwu
92.8.17
I want to mention one more issue, i.e. in the past all imperialist countries plundered massive quantity of articles and properties when invading China. For instance: those that are not in China, but are in the museums and libraries of countries like UK, USA, Russia, Japan, there are huge quantities of Chinese cultural relics, books and other substances, it’s high time that we should demand their return. These stolen and looted things must all be retuned, we should find support from legal perspective, and put it forward at the meeting of the National People’s Congress to change it into legislation.
92.8.17
