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The “10,000 Cries for Justice” initiative provides an important digital archive of historical written letters about WWII atrocities inflicted by the Japanese military on the Chinese population during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1931-1945).  This digital archive documenting the first-hand experience of the victims provides powerful evidence to refute all the false claims made by the Japanese government. It provides a powerful tool to learn from history. By finally resolving the long-overdue injustices, it will help to establish genuine friendship between the Japanese people and the Chinese people, and true peace between Japan and China, as well as other countries.

This collection of letters were written by Chinese atrocity victims sent to Mr. Tong Zeng (童增) starting in the early 1990s.  These letters can be accessed via the bilingual website (www.10000cfj.org). [1]  This article presents excerpts from several sample letters from this historical collection of these important letters.

Originally around 10,000 letters were written to Mr. Tong Zeng.  Since copying machines were not readily available to Mr. Tong Zeng about 20-25 years ago, many of the letters were borrowed by many relatives and friends of the letter writers and by journalists, and were never returned.  Therefore, Mr. Tong Zeng currently has only about half of the original collection. [2]

The letters can be classified into nine categories:

• Air Bombings (AB)
• Biological/Chemical Warfare (BC)
• Nanking Massacre (NM)
• Other Massacres (OM)
• Murders (MU)
• Rapes (RA)
• Sex Slaves (SS, also euphemistically known as Comfort Women)
• Slave Laborers (SL)
• Others (OT)

Reading these atrocities brings chills down your spine, because the experiences of the victims were horrifying and unimaginable.  It makes you yell out loud “how can one human do this to another human?”  Even though it is painful to read about these atrocities, it is important that we must do so, in order to keep history from repeating itself.

We provide excerpts from one sample letter from each of the first eight categories of atrocities.

Air Bombings (AB):  Letter s0098 (clicking on the letter ID allows you to see the whole letter) [3].  This letter describes the air bombing and other atrocities in Wuyi County, Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province:

“More than 8,000 people died from being buried alive, burning to death, freezing, boiling with hot water, cramming pepper water, poisoning, attacking by hounds, starving, body splitting by horses (all kinds), hanging, skinning, mutilation, (gang) raping, live targets of shooting and flesh carving.  …  After the Japanese army retreated in May 1945, 25 shoulder pole loads of human bones were excavated, more than 2,700 skeletons were discovered across the area.  …  18 women were raped (gang raped) before death, over 500 women were raped by brutal force; these women were stripped and raped in broad daylight, and “teased” before being raped, some even died from splitting the body with knife.”

Written by
Tang Qiangshen
1992.12.15
Return address: 33 Xinxing Road, Wuyi County, Zhejiang Province

Biological/Chemical Warfare (BC):  Letter s0758.  This letter describes the Japanese Army using cholera as a biological weapon in Yunnan Province:

“Furthermore, in 1941 when the Japanese Army invaded Western Yunnan, after Baoshan was conquered, large crowds of residents living in Baoshan and other places in Western Yunnan swarmed to Kunming to avoid slaughter by the Japanese Army. Immediately afterwards cholera broke out in Kunming. At first people thought it was epidemic plague, but soon it spread to the whole city. Those contracted cholera first would have symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea, and soon they died in less than one day. On the streets one could see dead people each day. Back then at the biggest and most famous coffin shop (the boss was surnamed Zhao) on Wenmiao Street in Kunming, all the coffins were sold out.”

To keep the Japanese army from advancing from the Baoshan area of Western Yunnan to Kunming and other parts of China, the Chinese army destroyed the Gongguo Bridge, the only bridge on the Lancang River connecting the Baoshan area and the Kunming area, thus stopping the Japanese invasion of Kunming.

“Since the Japanese Army was unable to cross the Lancang River natural barrier, they burned, killed and looted in Baoshan and other places, persecuted common people.  Afterwards, they spread cholera bacteria in Western Yunnan, therefore the fleeing people of all social circles brought the cholera bacteria to Kunming and spread it around.  …  As mentioned above, the number of civilians suffering direct or indirect damage from the Japanese Army runs to thousands and millions. Newspapers published at that time all carried the story.”

Tang Qingyu
November 20, 1992
Address: 53 Jingxing Street, Kunming, Yunnan Province

Nanking Massacre (NM):  Letter s3562.  This letter describes his family’s experience during the NM:

“I was born here in 1936. When I was a little over one year old, the Japanese Imperialism savagely invaded China, and carried out barbarian Nanjing Massacre in Nanjing. My father Zhang Jilu was killed in this Massacre when he was only 27, and later my two uncles were also killed in bombing by Japanese aircrafts, leaving only my grandparents, my aunt, my mother and myself in the family. In the aftermath of this tragic incident, my grandfather Zhang Chuhai lost three sons, my young mother lost her husband, and I lost my father when I was only a little over one year old, which forced my family to lose livelihood.  Since I was young, my mother tasted untold hardship in begging while holding me on her back. Since I was still young, and my mother was a woman, we were humiliated everywhere. Even if we received one meal, we did not know where the next one would come.”

Zhang Mingde
1992.6.2
Yinchuan City, Ningxia Autonomous Region

Other Massacres (OM):  Letter s0265.  This letter describes the Nanmazhuan Massacre in Fenyang City, Shanxi Province:

“That day, upon entering the village, the Japanese army captured, beat and killed people from door to door. After they broke into the yard of our house, they began to beat everybody, and took everything from us. Being scared, we had no place to hide. They asked all of us to raise our hands. We were not allowed to move. Then, they tied up my father and my second uncle and carried them away. At that time, our village had over 200 households, over 100 people were brutally tortured by the Japanese soldiers. Among the 100, 40 young men were bound with ropes. They were lined up next to a huge water pit in our village. Inside the pit some area was dry. The heads of the Japanese gave orders to fire and shoot those unarmed villagers, so the soldiers started to shoot them to death with rifles and machine guns. In a sudden, the 40 innocent young men fell into the pool of blood. The whole pit turned red. This is the ‘Nanmazhuang Massacre’ of Fenyang County which created a stir in Middle Shanxi Area during the Japanese war of aggression against China (this case is especially recorded in Fenyang County Annals). My father Duan Huanyou, and my second uncle Duan Huanlong were murdered by the Japanese army in this appalling massacre. I was only 7 at that time and I saw everything with my own eyes how my father and my second uncle were cruelly killed. I can never forget this horrible scene.”

Duan Peishen
February 9th, 1993

Murders (MU):  Letter s0060.  This letter describes the murders of his family members in Fushan County, Linfen City, Shanxi Province:

“We are from Xiadong Village, Dongzhang Township, Fushan County of Shanxi Province. In 1943, the Japanese army came to Fushan, burned, killed and looted everywhere, pursuing the inhuman ‘Sanguang’ policy (the policy of ‘burn all, kill all, loot all’). On August 28th, 1943 (of lunar calendar), they invaded our village, captured my grandfather Zhang Dagen and my father Zhang Kunhui , tortured them ruthlessly and beat them to death . My grandfather was 47 years old and my father was 23 at the time.”

Zhang Xianglong, Zhang Xiangfeng, Zhang Xiangwu
March 1st, 1993

Rapes (RA):  Letter s3626.  This letter describes his family’s experience in Changsha City, Hunan Province:

“One of my older female cousins, only 13, was discovered by the Japanese soldiers even though she was disguised as a boy with her head being shaved. Three Japanese soldiers dragged her away to rape her and cut open her vagina because she was too young.”

“In June 1944, the Japanese army invaded Changsha for the third time. On the afternoon of lunar July 13, when my mother, along with a group of women, was returning home from the countryside, they were captured by the Japanese army, stripped off with hands tied on the back and then bayoneted to death. My mother was bayoneted for eight times and thrown into Xiang River. An old widow was also thrown into the river after being bayoneted to death. As nobody came to collect her corpse, the corpse was pushed to the river bank by waves and eaten by crows bit by bit in the hot weather, with bones dragged away by dogs.”

Zhou Zhenqiu
March 18, 1993

Slave Laborers (SL):  Letter s2114.  This letter describes the experience of his uncle as a slave laborer in Japan for four years.

“In January 1942, many people including my uncle were captured by the invading Japanese army during a raid in northern Daqinghe, Hebei and sent to Tanggu Camp. Later they were sent to the railway station of Tsukino, Tone, Gunma, Japan. They were forced to labor for 4 years in a ravine 3 km southern of the railway station. They dug a cave every day, which was over 15 km long from east to west and used for hydraulic power generation. They did heavy work every day but ate pig feed and they were always starved. Instead of being provided with warm clothes in winter and thin clothes in summer, they were only given a crotch cloth in a year to work naked. The Japanese foremen often beat the Chinese laborers with sticks and whips and called them morons. My uncle saw with his eyes that many Chinese laborers were beaten to death by the Japanese foremen. The life was inhuman and intolerable. Some laborers committed suicide and some escaped and were caught back, bitten to death by foreign dogs. My uncle was strong before he’s captured, but he got weak due to the heavy work. To avoid being beaten by the foremen, he worked hard day and night. There was one time he was too hungry and exhausted in the cave that he blacked out. When he came to himself, he felt great pain in his chest and spit blood. He struggled to get up, thinking about talking to the foremen to take a rest. But unexpectedly, when the wolf-like foremen saw my uncle not working, they started beating my uncle in his head with sticks despite his begging. They didn’t stop until my uncle bled in the head. My uncle was injured, but the foremen didn’t give him treatment or medicine, or food if he didn’t work. So my uncle didn’t have a choice but keep working. The Japanese foremen said, ‘You Chinese people cannot run away. You are just food of Japanese dogs.’  Many Chinese laborers died there of torturing. Also, many laborers were disabled due to the beating or work and some got blinded. They suffered in Japan until the end of 1945 after Japan surrendered. My uncle Wang Jinsheng and other survivors returned to the Red Cross of Qingdao, China in March 1946 with the help of the American army. Finally, my uncle reunited with the family.”

Wang Jinsheng (dead)
Claimant: His nephew Wang Genyou

Sex Slaves (SS), or Euphemistically called Comfort Women (CW):  Letter s1380.  This is a letter submitted by Zhang Shuangbing on behalf of about three dozen sex slaves.  Below is an excerpt from one of these sex slaves from Shanxi Province.

“In March 1942, the Japanese soldiers came to Jiazhang Village, Xiyan Town and captured my father Hou Yinshai, deputy head of the village, and me. Then, they took off our upper clothes and beat us with sticks. We were bruised all over the body. Afterwards, they took us to Jingui Village and separated me from my father. I was dragged into a room which was then locked and I didn’t know where my father was. At over 11 p.m. that night, someone opened the door and took me to another room. After I entered the room, I saw a black-face officer and realized something bad was going to happen, so I cried out loud, which made the officer angry. He kicked me with leather shoes and dragged me on the bed. Then, he gagged me, stripped off all my clothes and raped me. I just turned 14 and was ruined by them. At dawn, I was taken back to the room where I was first kept. After that, every day from dawn to night, I would be raped by the Japanese for over 20 times.

For over 70 days, I was locked in that painful prison-like room, wasn’t given enough food or water and had to relieve myself in the room, living like an animal. I couldn’t see daylight until I was needed. After over 70 days, I got all swollen up. At last, my family ransomed my father and me with a flock of silver dollars (over 20), a donkey and over 250kg of wheat from my family and over 200 silver coins from my husband’s family. My uncle took a donkey with him to carry me home. We stayed one night at my uncle’s in Gaozhuang and he sent us home the next day. After I returned home, I was so ill that I couldn’t eat or drink. I was seriously ill for over a month. Since then, I have become afraid of dreaming, demented and would have a brain disorder and talk nonsense when I want to talk about important matters or talk too much. My whole life is ruined by the Japanese. Now, I couldn’t even support myself.”

Hou Qiaolian
November 1992

Summary:  Tong Zeng’s “10,000 Cries for Justice” Collection (童增书简) provides clear-cut evidence of the massive and inhumane atrocities that the Japanese military inflicted on the general population all over China (as well as other parts of Asia) during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1931-1945).  These atrocities violated international humanitarian law (also known as the law of war or the law of armed conflict) as stated in the Geneva Conventions and the Hague Conventions. Some people consider this collection of victim letters to be analogous to the “Diary of Anne Frank.” [4]  It is important to study these letters because we must not let history be forgotten.  If we learn from it, then perhaps we can have true reconciliation between Japan and China, and genuine friendship between the Japanese people and the Chinese people.  Then true peace between Japan and China can be established.

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[1] More background information about the “10,000 Cries for Justice” initiative and its website can be found in two earlier articles “10,000 Cries for Justice” and “An Archive of Historic Cries for Justice Letters.”

[2] Mr. Tong Zeng currently has about 4,000 letters, plus another 1,000+ “Form Letters.”  Currently, the “www.10000cfj.org” displays only the letters, and only about 15% of the letters have been translated into English.

[3] In the “10,000 Cries for Justice” website (www.10000cfj.org), each letter has a unique 5-character ID, starting with the letter “s” followed by four numbers.  If you click on letter’s ID, you can see the whole letter.  Please note that the English translations of some of the letters are being improved.  So when you check the website, some of the wordings might have been changed.  Also, at the end of the English letter, if you click on the button “Click to see the  scanned letter”, it shows you the scanned copy of the original Chinese handwritten letter.  If you want to see the Chinese transcribed digitized letter, go to the search page of the Chinese version of this website (http://www.10000cfj.org/?page_id=141), and type in the unique ID in the first box.

[4] The Liaoning Provincial Education Press also thinks that the Tong Zeng’s Collection has historical significance, and is planning to publish in book form a sample of 100 of these letters.  The scheduled publication date of this bilingual book is July 2018.