Zhengzhou is a transportation hub in the Central Plains and a strategic location. In order to engulf China as soon as possible, the Japanese army bombed Zhengzhou many times.
February 14, 1938, this day was the 15th Little New Year Festival of the first lunar month in my country. The general public was preparing holiday meals. At around 8 o'clock in the morning, suddenly, fifteen Japanese planes flew from the north, hovering low above Zhengzhou Railway Station, and dropped more than 60 bombs in turn, causing the railway station with dense passengers to travel and the prosperous commercial Datong Road , Dehua Street , as well as nearby Fushou Street, Shunhe Street, Sanduoli, Chaoyang Street, Wanshun Street, and Laofengang , all of which were bombed.
In an instant, thick smoke filled the houses, flesh and blood flew everywhere, and corpses were everywhere. Most of the Wuzhou Hotel, Henan Hotel, , and East China Hotels were blown up, especially the Huayang Spring Bathroom was blown up even worse. Huayang Spring Bathroom was the tallest building in Zhengzhou at that time, with four floors. There are more than 130 rooms and more than 100 employees. They are open day and night. The first and second floors are Chinese and Western restaurants, the third and fourth floors are basin guest rooms and single-room elegant seats. There are elevators, and more than 1,000 guests are coming and going every day.
A loud bang knocked the building into ruins, with more than 600 casualties, and only three people were found alive. Zhao Changhai, a retired old worker at the service company in Beishuncheng Street and Li Hanyun, a retired old worker at the Xi'an Water Plant, were the survivors at the time.
According to Zhao Changhai, "At that time, I heard the sound of slashing bricks, so I took turns shouting: 'Help, help, help, there are people under me!' It was not until the third day that the three of us were dug out. At that time, Li Hanyun and I were still able to be helped by others. Our Huayangchun accountant Wang Hongen, only knows how to breathe and can't speak. Later, I heard that I would die if I was carried to his house."
According to Wang Qing'an, a retired worker at Zhengzhou Third Construction Company, and Liu Defu, a retired worker at the Municipal Service Company, said: "At that time, most of the people went to remove people were from Huayangchun workers' families, and some hired people were scattered. Many of the bodies were blown up or smashed, with legs and limbs and broken heads. Some people thought they were their relatives from their clothes, so they carried them away. They cried and recognized them, and they took them away for more than 20 days."
Man Zhiyu, who was in his eighties, said: "One On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month of 1938, the family was preparing for festival meals. When they stopped in Pubaoxiang, the family hurriedly hid in the air-raid shelter. A Japanese plane threw a bomb in the yard and destroyed three rooms. After the plane left, the whole family quickly ran out of the hole and ran to the countryside. Passing by Sanyi Street, they saw a house that was blown up and there were nine corpses that were blown up next to it. "
Sixty-three-year-old Ding Baozhen said: " It was early to get up early on the 15th day of the first lunar month. When I was buying some goods from Sanyi Fruit Store on the street, I suddenly raised the alarm. I followed everyone into the air-raid shelter, then threw away the bombs, and when I came out, I saw that several houses had collapsed, and there were more than 30 people dead. When I walked to Sanduoli, I saw that Yipinxiang Hotel was also blown into a pile of broken bricks and tiles. "
Since the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, enemy planes have basically come every day, sometimes throwing a few bombs, and sometimes only spinning a few circles scary. On the morning of March 23, 1938, a Japanese plane dropped four bombs from the railway station along Mazhai and Xiaozhao Village. One of them was thrown at the entrance of the air raid ditch in the middle of Xiaozhao Village Street, killing three people. The air raid shelter hole collapsed, and more than 60 people were suffocated inside. They were all killed. The other two were thrown into the south of Xiaozhaozhai Village, and six people died in one bomb crater.
In May 1938, five Japanese planes raided Zhengzhou Railway Station and threw a bomb next to the artillery tower at the west entrance of Datong Road, shattering the artillery tower. Ten people hiding below were dug out, and three died. In August, another ten Japanese plane came and threw two bombs into the No. 1 Chaoyang Street courtyard, blew up three rooms and a gatehouse. More than 40 people hid under the gatehouse and all of them were killed. The Zhang family living in the courtyard were also killed. There was another family of four, and three were killed, leaving only one little girl.
When the wheat was ripe in 1939, several Japanese planes came to bomb Zhengzhou again. A bomb was thrown next to the Niu Mansion on Yanling Street, blowing down the wall of Zhu Zhaoyi's house and pouring it on the entrance of the air-raid shelter, suffocating more than 40 people.
According to preliminary investigation, the materials were collected. Japanese aircraft have bombed Zhengzhou many times since February 14, 1938.Near the Xiguan and near the railway station in Zhengzhou alone, nearly 2,000 people were killed and injured by the bombing, and more than 3,000 houses were blown up, and various property losses were severe.
After the Japanese invaded Zhengzhou, they burned, killed, robbed, raped and robbed the bees outside the Xiguan of Zhengzhou, drove out of the villages of Zhang, Caiwang, Shuicheyuan, Fuzhai, Duizhou and other villages outside the village, and enclosed more than 2,000 acres of villages and land. As a Japanese automobile repair factory, barbed wire was installed around them, and more than 1,000 migrant workers were caught to work as a laborer for them. More than 300 houses of Caiwang alone were stripped of, displaced the people and had nowhere to live.
More than 300 people in Xiguan and villages in Zhengzhou were arrested. Li Qinghe said: "The Japanese army invaded Zhengzhou for the second time, and arrested people everywhere to carry things and lead the way. They grabbed more than ten people from our village (Caiwang) Li Zhenzhong, Wang Jingsheng, Zhang Shenggui, Wang Taihe and Jia Tianjun, Jia Zhizhong, , Ma Zhihe and others to go to Huanggang Temple. Wang Taihe, Jia Tianjun, Ma Zhihe have not seen any corpses until now, and no one has lived."
shunhe Street Cui Hongbin said: "My Ma Xiuzhen's husband was captured by the Japanese army to carry wooden barrels. He couldn't carry them in the rain, and he had to do it. If he was slower, the Japanese army would use guns and kick them with leather shoes. The people we were caught were hungry and hungry, and were beaten, and they were covered in mud and blood. After working for a day, they didn't ask for food, and they were not allowed to go home."
Zhao Chengbin said: "In 1944, the Japanese army invaded Zhengzhou and lived in a small Zhaozhai in my village. One day, I captured Zhao Chengxing, Zhao Chengyu, Zhao Yuqing, Yang Laoliu, and Shi Youcai, and I, tortured and beat me, forcing the six of us to steal his wood, and asked us to dig a four-foot-deep soil pit, threatening to bury a living if we don't admit it. Fortunately, Wu Huixiang, a businessman living in my village, bought good wine, cigarettes, eggs and other gifts, and gave them, and then locked me up for three days and three nights to release it."
The Japanese army was burned and killed. There were three people outside the Xiguan of Zhengzhou. They were burned to death by the Japanese army. Seventeen people were shot and killed by the bayonet, and three houses were burned. Xichenzhuang Guo Maolan said: "There are three girls in the same courtyard. They are afraid of being insulted by the Japanese army. During the day, they hide on the roof of the room and are discovered by the Japanese army. They immediately force them down. If the three girls don't come out, the Japanese army lit three houses with fire. The three girls were burned to death."
Cui Hongbin said: "The brother and son of Yang Guoxing and Chen Sanniu in Beiming Hutong were The Japanese army killed him on the street with a bayonet. Ma Luniu and Ma Laohu in our village are railway workers. One day after get off work, they asked the Japanese army to arrest him and take him to the secret service team halfway. After dark, no one came back. The whole family was extremely anxious. Until the next day, someone sent a letter and asked him to take money to redeem the people. The whole family panicked and borrowed tens of thousands of yuan from relatives and friends to take the money to the secret service team leader. However, the Japanese army had already pulled the person to the outer temple of the north city and shot him. "
