"Bacterial Warfare" has changed from a scar to a knot, putting all victims and victims' families in a long wait.
September 5, 90-year-old Ding Dewang was reading the survey data of that year at home. Beijing News reporter Shi Runqiao photographed
text丨Beijing News reporter Shi Runqiao
edited 丨Hu Jie
proofreading 丨Li Lijun
►This article 6799 words Read 12 3 minutes
Speaking of "bacterial warfare", 83-year-old Xu Wanzhi was silent for dozens of seconds, and his expression gradually became solemn.
"Bacterial Warfare" is a history. From 1941 to 1943, the Japanese army released bacteria that caused the epidemic in Changde, Hunan, causing the plague outbreak in Changde and at least 7,643 people died.
"Bacterial Warfare" is also a long lawsuit on issues left over from war. In 1997, 108 victims of "bacterial warfare" and relatives of China submitted a complaint for the "State Compensation Litigation for the 731 Japanese Army Invasion of China" to the Tokyo District Court, suing the Japanese government to court, demanding that the defendant apologize for the crime of bacterial warfare and compensate for the crime of bacterial warfare. In 1999, 72 Chinese victims and relatives of the victim filed a second lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court. In 2002, the Tokyo District Court admitted that Japan carried out bacterial warfare in Changde, Hunan, Zhejiang, and Yiwu in China, but rejected the plaintiff's request for apologies and compensation. In July 2005, the Tokyo High Court's second-instance judgment upheld the original judgment. In May 2007, the Supreme Court of Japan announced that it would reject the appeal of the Chinese plaintiffs' group of complaints on the results of the second instance.
"Bacterial Warfare" has changed from a scar to a knot, putting all victims and victims' families in a long wait. This year, according to Xu Wanzhi's visits and statistics, there are only 20 victims of Changde in the plaintiff's group. But everyone cannot reconcile with memory. Everyone works hard to preserve memory and believe that there will be a day of victory.
3Talk once and hurt once
Xu Wanzhi is currently the executive vice president of the Changde City Bacterial War Victims Association of Hunan Province.
mentioned his painful memory, and Xu Wanzhi began to remain silent after saying a few words. Melancholy climbed up the old man's face bit by bit. He said softly that he couldn't continue to talk now. Turning around and going to the study to retrieve a statement he wrote in 2012.
records his painful childhood experience. In 1943, Xu Wanzhi was four years old and lived in a town about ten kilometers away from Changde. In September of that year, my father picked rice and went to Changde City to do business. After returning home, he had a high fever, his neck was red and swollen, and his crotch was lumpy, and he died five days later.
Xu Wanzhi said that he later learned that his father was suffering from plague . At that time, with Changde City as the center, the epidemic was raging in the streets and alleys of the city and the rural fields. The plague is commonly known as "crow disease". Patients have high fever, chills, and red bumps in the groin. When the patient died, his whole body was cramped, his thighs and neck were swollen, his condition was severe, and his dignity was lost. Patients with pneumoplague also vomit blood foam on their mouths, which is extremely contagious.
September 8, Xu Wanzhi watered flowers in the yard at his doorstep. Photo by Shi Runqiao, reporter of Beijing News
In the following days, Xu Wanzhi's cousin, grandma, uncle and brother passed away one after another, leaving seven people in the family of twelve. A creditor came to collect debts and moved out all the valuable assets of the family directly. The Xu family lost their main labor force, and the surviving people relied on weaving cloth and spinning, digging wild vegetables, and catching fish and shrimps in the lake to fill their stomachs.
After Xu Wanzhi became an adult, he heard from his mother that he had healed himself due to plague and survived tenaciously. After Changde was liberated, he was able to go to public primary schools. He realized that he was a survivor of a disaster.
"It hurts once you talk about it." Xu Wanzhi said that he had received no less than dozens of interviews, and every time he talked about it, he was tearing open the scar.
Another survivor, Wang Huazhang, is 102 years old this year and lives in a nursing home in Changde urban area. According to the nurse, Wang Huazhang likes to stay alone every day. When asked about "bacterial warfare", he said that the Japanese army was indeed rampant and did not want to talk about it further.
House 0On September 5, 102-year-old Wang Huazhang spent the morning in coffee and TV background sound. Photo by Shi Runqiao, reporter of Beijing News,
Wang Huazhang wrote in his own collection of bacterial warfare documentary essays "The Tribulation": "On November 4, 1941, the Japanese invaders 731 unit drove a light bomber and invaded Changde City at dawn, dropping a large amount of toxic substances into Guanmiao Street and Jige Lane in the city center." These substances were millet, wheat grains, cotton wool and rag strips, which fell like rain, with four or five hundred kilograms. After
, the plane circles towards Shigongqiao Town . After dawn, there were material spread by planes everywhere on the roofs, streets and docks in the town, especially Beiheng Street threw the most. Not long after, the plague began to spread in the urban and rural areas of Changde. "When the epidemic entered its peak period, the entire Beiheng Street was almost echoing with the wailing cry of the loss of relatives day and night."
After that, the plague spread from Shigongqiao Town to surrounding rural areas and townships, which became the second source of the spread of the plague disaster.
Shigongqiao Town is an old town located in the northeast of Changde County. It is surrounded by water on all sides and is the only waterway transportation route in Changde County at that time. According to data, in the early 1940s, there were more than 400 shops and residents in the town, with a population of more than 2,000. As a distribution center for products, merchants from all over the world transport cotton, rice and aquatic products in Shigongqiao Town. The local famous silverfish is rich in quantity and good meat quality, and the dry silverfish business is booming.
In 1942, 22-year-old Wang Huazhang worked as a buyer at Dadechang Silk Cloth No. of Shigongqiao. He recalled in the collection that he did not know the cause and harm of the dead at that time, and he also regarded it as a strange smell that the deceased watched at home. As a result, he was infected with the plague and had a fever of more than a few days later. Fortunately, the diagnosis and treatment of Shigongqiao Epidemic Prevention Hospital was able to become a survivor.
It is not only survivors who suffer from the pain.
90-year-old Zhang Lizhong couldn't stop tears when he talked about childhood memories. As a family member of a victim of bacterial warfare, he has always treasured a yellowed photo, which is his heirloom. Afraid that the moisture in the south would cause the photo to get damp, he wrapped the photo with two layers in a plastic bag and tied it tightly with a red rope.
September 5, Zhang Lizhong stared at the treasured family photo at home. Beijing News reporter Shi Runqiao took a photo of
. There are six people in the photo. They are Zhang Lizhong's parents and brothers taking a photo before the plague came. Zhang Lizhong remembers that there is a Guangong Temple on Guanmiao Street in Changde. There is a stone tablet in front of the temple, with four sentences engraved on it: Be a good person, read good books, speak good words, and do good deeds. Grandma and father often took themselves to see.
The temple was also destroyed after the Japanese army began bombing their hometown.
At that time, Zhang Lizhong's father Zhang Jinhui opened a "Zhang Culture" engraving shop in Changde City. Relying on his father's first skills, the whole family of thirteen, including two servants and two engraving apprentices, lived a worry-free life. In 1942, a servant and two younger brothers had a fever at the same time and their necks were swollen. The doctor diagnosed with plague and died one after another the next day.
Grandmother suffered a severe mental injury and died of illness in the winter of the lunar calendar that year. Since then, grandfather, nurse and father all died within two years and the engraving shop went bankrupt. Zhang Lizhong only has his mother and elder brother left to rely on. Zhang Lizhong and his elder brother worked on the transport ship one after another, and went to the street to sell tangerines, tea braised eggs, cakes, and other life, and they didn't have the chance to study anymore.
Looking for the Dead
For the first time, contemporary people linked the plague that occurred in Changde in the 1940s with the Japanese bacterial war.
At that time, Yoshimiyoshi Yoshimiya, a professor of history at the Chuo University of Japan, found records of bacterial warfare in the business diary of Colonel Kumamoto, the former Japanese base camp counselor at the Library of the Defense Institute of Japan. Ibino, who was the combat staff at the time, recorded the bacterial combat process he participated in in China.
"Yimen Diary" has a specific record of the implementation of Changde bacterial war . Imoto wrote: "On November 4, 1941, the implementer (Mibo of the 731st airline, Matsuda, Miho), launched a bacterial attack on Changde City, spreading fleas in the air infected with plague. " After
obtained this key evidence, Japanese lawyer Keiichiro Ichise told Changde official that the locals do not need to bear the cost, they only need to investigate the facts of the bacterial war victims, and they will help the victims to seek justice in Tokyo court for free.
When telling the litigation experience of bacterial warfare, the old people always mention a name: Chen Yufang. In 1996, Chen Yufang was 43 years old and was the deputy director of the Changde Foreign Affairs Office at that time.
Chen Yufang recalled that she described her "eyes lit up and agreed in one go." It was mainly out of two simple wishes, "One is to allow the victim to go to Japanese courts to personally accuse Japanese militarism's crimes, and the other is to do something for the dead. At that time, the main person in charge of the municipal party committee signed this work plan led by Chen Yufang and told her: "We must collect historical evidence now and leave a piece of history for future generations." "
26 years later, Chen Yufang admitted that she still had a strong national sentiment at that time. Keiichiro Ichise was a polite Japanese with sincere words and reliable actions. She thought that her nation relied on the Japanese to remind the Japanese to discover the history of disasters and to sue with their help. If she didn't even seize such a historical opportunity, she would be really ashamed. Chinese. The work of finding victims was difficult. At first, the only reference publication was "Xin Si Calamity - 1941 Changde Bacterial War Documentary" compiled by the Municipal Party History Office. The book only records the epidemic situation in Changde city, Shigongqiao Town and Lijiawan Village, Taoyuan Town. The death toll was less than 100, and there were only dozens of registered reporters with names and surnames.
volunteers can only follow the clues. According to the clues provided by the registered reporter, they can search and interview victims in the city, suburbs and larger townships in Changde, and collect information in archives and libraries. At the same time, based on the "city-county-town" unit, with the assistance of the local government, convene a symposium on direct victims and relatives of victims.
90-year-old volunteer Ding Dewang recalled that he and the volunteers in the village often came to interview each household at home. While recalling, the victim's family asked him while asking each interview for at least a few hours. He lamented that in a family, the clearest memory of the elderly is the elderly, most of whom are around 80 years old. This means, "If the investigation is started later, these elderly people will never be found again. "
69-year-old former director of the Institute of Bacterial War Crimes of Hunan University of Arts and Sciences, Professor Chen Zhiyuan is still studying bacterial war historical materials. According to the historical materials he provided in the book "Documentary: Japanese Invasion of China Bacterial War", in this investigation, the time of death of each patient incurred is worth verifying. The time provided by the family must match the age and season when the onset of the epidemic site and the concentrated death of the people in order to verify its effectiveness. Sometimes, the family members cannot remember accurately, so they recommend marriage, having children, congratulations or other family events that have a certain time recalled by other relatives. Count it, or ask the local elderly to help recall and make sure it is correct.
photos of the investigation and interview of the Changde Municipal Bacterial War Victims Investigation Committee that year. Photo provided by the interviewee
followed by the victim's symptoms. Some people say that their relatives are cold and hot when they are sick. When they are cold, they can't suppress the cold even if they cover three quilts. The volunteers told him that it is not plague but malaria . Some people say that their relatives vomit and diarrhea when they are sick, and they die very quickly. The investigator told him that it is cholera .
At that time, the families of victims such as Xu Wanzhi and Zhang Lizhong volunteered to become volunteers. They traveled to more than a dozen villages and towns in Changde City. I brought my own dry food and rode my bicycle. I rode more than 100 kilometers on the farthest day. Half a century after the plague, the memory of this land is still tragic. Ding Dewang wrote an folk song to describe the death scene in his memory of Niuhupo Village near his hometown: "Every family is crying, and there are new graves on the mountain. There are few pedestrians on the ridges of the fields, and chickens and dogs are also wailing."
In 2002, three months before the first instance judgment of the bacterial war lawsuit, the Changde bacterial war "Victims List" was finally completed. Over the past seven years, the volunteer team investigated more than 10 counties and cities around Changde, obtained more than 15,600 victim materials, and confirmed that at least 7,643 of them were victims of bacterial warfare.
The standards for identifying victims are quite strict. According to scholar Nie Lili, in terms of time, it was limited to the time when the Japanese army suffered the plague in 1941, and the epidemic that occurred outside this period was not within the registration scope even if it was suspected that it was done by the Japanese army. In terms of testimony, the victim's relatives should be alive, and neighbors or friends at that time have testified against him. The village committee and other administrative organizations must also issue a victim certificate. In addition, except for the victims recorded in historical documents, other newly discovered epidemic points must have clear transmission channels.
September 7, the plaintiff Zeng Xiaobai of the Bacterial Warfare Litigation showed his collection of the Bacterial Warfare Victims. Photo by Shi Runqiao, reporter of Beijing News
. In addition to 7,643 people, there are many victims that cannot be registered. According to the commentary on the "Bacterial Warfare" exhibition area of Changde Museum, there was once a "Beggars' Sect" living in Jigong Temple in the north of Shigong Bridge. All beggars died in the plague and no one left their names. In the Shanwang Family Ancestral Hall of Shenshi Temple in Changlinggang Township, thousands of officers and soldiers were infected, but their names were untestable; 99 households in Caijiawan, Shuangqiaoping, 371 people, and only one person survived because he went out to help. Most of the dead had no descendants, so they could not register.
In 2002, the Japanese court determined the validity of this number from a legal level in its judgment on the Japanese bacterial war claims.
Tough lawsuits in Japan
Ho Yingzhen, a member of the first plaintiffs group, started after retirement. Daughter Liu Lu recalled that in 1996, Deputy Director Chen Yufang of Changde Foreign Affairs Office found his home and hoped that He Yingzhen would join the litigation team.
Liu Lu knew for the first time that He Yingzhen had experienced the extremely cruel plague, and six family members passed away within 18 days.
Retired He Yingzhen began to "fight bacterial war with full-time."
89-year-old He Yingzhen. She was one of the first plaintiffs to Japan. Photo by Shi Runqiao, reporter of Beijing News
Working place is a bungalow of seven or eight square meters, with a sign hanging outside the house: "Changde Bacterial War Victims Reception Office of the 731st Japanese Army invading China." This is a miscellaneous room in Changde Foreign Affairs Office. Stacks of paper materials are piled in the corner. He Yingzhen is on duty at the reception desk almost every day, responsible for contacting and recording the bacterial war victims who come to apply for registration.
At the end of the investigation, the second phase of the work began: a court hearing in Japan. Chen Yufang remembers that because she did not have the special funds for litigation in Japan, she and the members of the plaintiffs often had headaches about the funds.
Xu Wanzhi remembered it very clearly that in early 2000, he, his wife and two children were laid off, and his family could not afford the 5,000 yuan for lawsuits in Japan. Coincidentally, a relative came back from working in Guangdong and lent himself two thousand yuan. Xu Wanzhi raised three thousand yuan from elsewhere.
Liu Lu recalled that there were about 30 of the first batch of plaintiffs, and now, except for his mother, only three are left alive. Before retirement, my mother was an administrative cadre, with a bold personality, dared to do it, and was not frightened. She remembered that during the lawsuit, my mother always had a sentence on her lips: "We will definitely win, we must have confidence!" My mother also had a great memory and often preached in public in Japan and China, never taking drafts.One year, after returning to Changde from Japan, my mother preached that an old Japanese man cried and knelt down at him after listening to the preaching. He said that his father had participated in the war of aggression against China and he wanted to apologize to the Chinese for this.
Chen Zhiyuan once made a 100,000-word appraisal document for the Japanese lawsuit, "The harm of the Japanese Bacterial War on the Peace Residents of Changde City and Shigongqiao Town in 1941", and appeared in court to testify in the second trial as a scholar.
What impressed Chen Zhiyuan was the Japanese lawyer's understanding of history. Japanese lawyers and citizens who support the lawsuit were attacked by Japanese right-wingers as "traitoring the country." He asked the Japanese lawyer what he thought, and the other party said that the lawsuit was actually beneficial to Japan's own country. Japanese lawyers believe that if Japan wants to change the image of past invaders and be recognized by the invaded countries in Asia, it should apologize. This is a necessary historical responsibility.
In August 2002, after five years of court trial, the Tokyo District Court made a judgment. The plaintiff's request for compensation was rejected, but the numerous evidence provided by the plaintiff was fully accepted, and the historical fact that the Japanese army launched a bacterial war was recognized.
On August 27, 2002, on the day of the first instance judgment of the Tokyo District Court, a plaintiff support group from Hunan and Zhejiang arrived in Tokyo to support the plaintiff. Photo provided by the interviewee
According to the Japanese version of the judgment directly quoted by scholar Nie Lili in the book, the Tokyo District Court admitted that "from 1941 to 1942, the 731st troops, the 1644th troops, etc., threw plague bacteria to Quzhou , Ningbo , Changde and other places, and directly sowed cholera bacteria into Jiangshan." It admitted that "the actual combat use of bacterial weapon , as a link in the Japanese military's combat behavior, was launched in accordance with the instructions of the Central Army (the Ministry of Army and the General Staff Headquarters) during the war."
Regarding the cruelty of bacterial warfare and its social impact, the verdict reads: "In areas such as this incident, because the plague is spread through social life forms, under the urgent situation of people's continuous deaths, mutual resentment and suspicion arise between people, which greatly affects the interpersonal relationships and social life of regional society, and at the same time leaves serious trauma in people's psychology."
On July 19, 2005, the Tokyo High Court of Japan lost the second instance lawsuit for the Japanese invasion of China. The plaintiff's lawsuit request for apology and compensation was rejected on the grounds that "the state has no responsibility", and believed that it was not in accordance with international practice for individuals to submit compensation to the state.
In 2007, after dozens of trials, the Supreme Court of Japan announced that it would uphold the original verdict.
Wait for that day
In 2001, Japanese photographer Shigeruo Tan visited Changde, a victim of bacterial warfare, and pointed the lens at the victim of bacterial warfare. "Southern Weekend" reported in 2005 that Shigeru Kiyoshi pushed the camera to a distance of only 10 cm from the photographer's face, wanting to feel the memory of war written on the face.
He said: "What I feel when taking photos of Chinese people is the dignity and personality of being a human being. It is something that cannot be felt on the face of Japanese people." Now, these victims are getting old, but they still have a sense of tough dignity.
Zhang Lizhong's neighbor described that after getting up at six o'clock every morning, he could see Zhang Lizhong walking in the garden. He was "very mighty" at the age of 90. In order to ensure physical fitness, Zhang Lizhong practiced Qigong for an hour every day on the old-fashioned spring and autumn chair. The centenarian Wang Huazhang also insisted on "fully taking care of himself" in the nursing home. In addition to basic living aspects such as eating, walking, and taking a bath, he can also drive a scooter to pick up express delivery at the entrance of the nursing home.
In 2011, the Investigation Committee of Bacterial War Victims, which was responsible for the collection of litigation data, was reorganized into the "Changde City Bacterial War Victims Association".
The descendants of the families of three victims of bacterial warfare joined the association and became the new pillar of the association. Yi Youxi, 60 years old this year, served as the secretary of the association's party branch according to the suggestion of his uncle Yi Xiaoxin.Gao Feng, a 48-year-old lawyer, has been collectively elected as president by the elderly since 2005 because of his father Gao Xuguan. Another member named Hu Jinggang is 72 years old. His grandfather died of the plague. After seeing media reports, Hu Jinggang and two other old friends signed up for volunteers, taking on the task of organizing information, video and photography using computers.
This year marks the tenth year of Hu Jinggang joining the association. Although he suffers from hypertension, and heart disease, he calls himself a "young man" in the association. In order to preserve the historical memory of the victims, Hu Jinggang set up a camera to visit the homes of nearly 40 plaintiffs in Changde City and recorded oral history of videos.
For ten years, nearly 40 people have been recorded intermittently, and by this year, more than a dozen people have passed away. What impressed Hu Jinggang the most was He Yingzhen. Speaking of the details of bacterial warfare, He Yingzhen's memory is blurred due to a stroke, but she still wants to record it. Hu Jinggang photographed her twice, recalling her childhood, and He Yingzhen cried twice.
In Shigongqiao Town, the former epidemic area, people are also trying their best to preserve their memories.
A stone tablet stands at the former site of the epidemic area of Shigongqiao Town. The stone tablet carved the names of every residents of Shigongqiao Town who died in the plague. Photo by Shi Runqiao, reporter of Beijing News
In the 1940s, in order to conquer the plague, the government of the Republic of China decided to dig lakes and flood the old city. The once prosperous 200-meter commercial street has now become a narrow dirt road, standing between two lakes. In 2003, a joint venture between victims of bacterial warfare in Shigongqiao Town erected a monument and placed it on the side of the dirt road. The one-meter-high stone tablet is engraved with the names of every residents of Shigongqiao Town who died in the plague. Some young deceased people have never had their own name because of their poor backgrounds, and can only be known to future generations by their names such as "Jiang Zhuer", "Jiang Gouer", and "Ding Laizi". Lu Guangyue, a member of the association, is a survivor of the plague and has now passed away. On several occasions during the Qingming Festival, Lu Guangyue took his children to the former site of the epidemic area. Walking along the old street, Lu Guangyue told the next generation about the bacterial war history that he knew little by little. In order to inherit this memory, another member of the association, He Jiemin, once attended classes in middle school for several years. "The old man is a living fossil, and the things he tells will not be dry," Lu Guangyue said. The biggest feature of He Jiemin's lecture is that he does not need drafts and can easily write a short story.
In addition, Chen Zhiyuan, a retired professor at Hunan University of Arts and Sciences, called for the construction of special parks, monuments or memorial halls in Changde City to use rich historical materials to show the entire process of bacterial warfare. This will be a sacred space for all Changde citizens: "There is a square and a monument for primary and secondary school students and citizens to visit and visit in groups, and the educational significance is more prominent."
Chen Zhiyuan believes that there will be a day of victory. "Victims in the academic community and Changde must be prepared. On that day, there must be enough information to strive for the final victory."
Six years ago, He Yingzhen suffered from Alzheimer's disease , which gradually developed into moderate forgetting and did not know her husband and daughter. But after hearing her daughter introduce the reporter's purpose, she seemed to understand. In an instant, her memory flashed and she suddenly said sincerely: "Thank you."
(Liu Lu is a pseudonym)
References
"Scars: The Bacterial War Memories of the People of Changde in China" by Nie Lili, "Documentary: Japanese Invasion of China" by Chen Zhiyuan
"Iron Proof is Like a Mountain Is Not Rejectable" by Zhang Lizhong Collected and compiled the collection of essays
"Iron Proof is Like a Mountain and Can't Denied" by Zhang Lizhong.
