Seeking apology and compensation for the atrocities committed by the Japanese military was a long-overdue item for seeking justice and closure that has been buried in the hearts and souls of thousands and thousands of Chinese atrocity victims and their relatives. Thousands of people wrote to Tong Zeng endorsing and thanking him for his work and wrote to him providing details of the atrocities that they or their family members had experienced. Within a few years, he had received about 10,000 such letters, and that is why his campaign is called \u201c10000 Cries for Justice.\u201d [3]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The number of letters that Tong Zeng kept on receiving grew and grew. When they occupied a large part of his office as shown in the photo<\/p>\n\n\n\n Large collection of atrocity victims\u2019 letters in Tong Zeng\u2019s office was a concern that these valuable historical archives could be lost due to fire or theft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He became concerned that those priceless records of history could disappear as the result of a fire or theft. So he thought about keeping a digital record of these historical archives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the years passed by, not only that there was no progress from Japan to face up to this part of history, many Japanese government leaders have continued to make comments denying the existence of these atrocities. Mr. Tong thought that publishing these personal accounts would provide powerful evidence to refute all the false claims made by the Japanese government. Righting this injustice could be a catalyst to establish genuine friendship between the Japanese people and the Chinese people and true peace between Japan and China, as well as for other countries. Therefore, having a website of these letters and making them easily available to the whole world became even more urgent. In January 2014, he found two Chinese American friends in the U.S. to collaborate with him and his team. They then formed the \u201c10,000 Cries for Justice\u201d team to develop a website that can store these letters digitally and make them searchable and easily available to the whole world. After working nights and days for over a year and a half, the initial website was announced by this team on July 22, 2015 in a press conference in Beijing. After working for another two more years, the website was able to contain the 4,000 Chinese letters. Furthermore, about 500 of these letters have been translated into English to make the \u201cCries for Justice\u201d a bilingual website. [3]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Below we show a sample of such letters:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nanking Massacre:<\/u><\/strong> \u201cI 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.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Written by Zhang Mingde, Yinchuan City, Ningxia Autonomous Region, 6\/2\/1992.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sex Slaves:<\/u><\/strong> <\/strong>\u201cIn 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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For over 70 days, I was locked in that painful prison-like room, wasn\u2019t given enough food or water and had to relieve myself in the room, living like an animal. I couldn\u2019t 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\u2019s family. My uncle took a donkey with him to carry me home. We stayed one night at my uncle\u2019s in Gaozhuang and he sent us home the next day. After I returned home, I was so ill that I couldn\u2019t 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\u2019t even support myself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n An open letter written by Hou Qiaolian of Yangquan City, Shanxi Province written in Nov. 1992 on behalf of 35 former sex slaves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biological\/Chemical Warfare:<\/u><\/strong> <\/strong>\u201cIn 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSince 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. \u2026 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Written by Tang Qingyu, 53 Jingzing Street, Kunming, Yunnan Province, 11\/20\/1992.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Slave Laborers:<\/u><\/strong> \u201cIn 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 was 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\u2019t stop until my uncle bled in the head. My uncle was injured, but the foremen didn\u2019t give him treatment or medicine, or food if he didn\u2019t work. So my uncle didn\u2019t have a choice but keep working. The Japanese foremen said, \u2018You Chinese people cannot run away. You are just food of Japanese dogs.\u2019 Many Chinese laborers died there of torturing. Also, many laborers were disabled due to the beating and the torturous 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Written by Wang Genyou, nephew of Wang Jinsheng (deceased), Langfang City, Hebei Province, 7\/6\/1994.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Settlement Agreement Between Mitsubishi and Chinese Slave Laborers<\/u><\/strong>: As part of the campaign to seek justice for the Chinese victims of Japanese atrocity during the Second Sino-Japanese War, Tong Zeng and others also worked with the atrocity victims to pursue legal actions. A milestone was reached when Mitsubishi (one of the major Japanese corporations who was involved in the slave labor business) and many Chinese who were former slave laborers for Mitsubishi reached an agreement on June 1, 2016 on the issue of compensation for former slave laborers or their descendants. [5]<\/p>\n\n\n\n The settlement agreement states:<\/p>\n\n\n\n As of June 2022, 1,154 former slave laborers of Mitsubishi or their beneficiaries have accepted this settlement agreement, including a handful who witnessed this milestone while they were still alive. Currently, the oldest survivor is 103 years old. It was especially gratifying for them to hear that Mitsubishi has accepted its responsibility and has offered their sincere apology. The Mitsubishi-Chinese slave laborers settlement agreement helps to close the wounds inflicted on many of the slave laborers. [6]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Summary<\/u><\/strong>: Tong Zeng\u2019s more than 30 years of effort and the resulting \u201c10,000 Cries for Justice\u201d website have allowed the voiceless to speak. In the future, when more resources can be allocated, Tong Zeng and his team plan to translate all the other Chinese letters into English. [7]<\/p>\n\n\n\n References<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n [1] More information on Tong Zeng and “10,000 Cries for Justice” can be found in an earlier article “10,000 Cries for Justice”: https:\/\/www.dontow.com\/2015\/06\/10000-cries-for-justice\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [2] “A Conversation with Tamaki Matsuoka: ‘The Conscience of Japan'”: https:\/\/www.dontow.com\/2022\/06\/a-conversation-with-tamaki-matsuoka-the-conscience-of-japan\/.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Photo-of-Tong-Zengs-Letters-1-1024x768.jpg\")
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