Chapter 59 2. Chinese judges fighting to the death

That night, all members of the Chinese procuratorate gathered in the room of chief judge Mei Ru'ao. A mixture of pain, anxiety, and resentment tortured everyone so that they could not sleep. During the eight years of the Anti-Japanese War, how many compatriots died, how many lands were ravaged, and the blood debt owed by the Japanese fascist militarists to the Chinese people is too numerous to write down.Now, even Matsui Iwane, the chief criminal of the "Nanjing Massacre" that shocked China and the world, has not been punished. What face will they have when they return to China to meet their 400 million compatriots? !

"The weak country is being bullied!" Whenever Mei Ruao thought of the arrogance and contempt of some judges in the allied countries for the Chinese, she could not help but sigh with heart-wrenching pain. Members of the Chinese procuratorate Xiang Zhejun, Ni Zhengao, Yang Shoulin, Qiu Shaoheng, Zhou Xiqing, Zhang Peiji, Gao Wenbin and more than a dozen people came one after another, and everyone discussed urgently. 33-year-old Qiu Shaoheng took the initiative to invite Ying. He asked to go back to Nanjing and bring a few witnesses himself.Moreover, it is proposed that the person who tied the bell should be untied. It is best to ask two Americans to collect evidence together, so that it will be easier to talk in the future.Mei Ru'ao and Xiang Zhejun immediately went to look for Keenan, the chief of the International Prosecutor's Office, but Keenan, who was addicted to alcohol, was a very sympathetic person. When the evidence collection is mature, discuss again the issue of Matsui Iwane's inclusion in the first case for trial.Back in the room, Xiang Zhejun proposed that local materials could be obtained due to time constraints. He was going to take a few people to the Japanese wartime cabinet archives, where he would definitely find evidence of the Japanese "Nanjing Massacre".

Everyone seems to be in a slightly better mood. Tomorrow, Qiu Shaoheng will be leaving for the country. Mei Ruao found a dozen goblets, filled them with brandy one by one, and said earnestly, "Secretary Qiu, I'll give you a farewell farewell!" More than a dozen people gathered together, and the topic naturally revolved around the issue of returning to China for investigation and evidence collection. Everyone knows that things have turned around because of the joint efforts of the Chinese people. This is the last chance history has given to the Chinese delegation. If this struggle fails, they will become eternal sinners of the Chinese nation.

The air was still somewhat bitter and heavy. Mei Ru'ao said thoughtfully: "This time when we go back to Nanjing to investigate and collect evidence, we must not bring another witness like Qin Dechun here!" Some judges also said: "There are so many empty words and nothing to say, such witnesses can no longer be asked." The chief advisor, Ni Zheng'ao, seemed a little worried: "Now that the KMT and the Communist Party are fighting against each other, and wars are raging everywhere, I worry that the national government will not have the heart to take care of the investigation and evidence collection."

Qiu Shaoheng blushed slightly and stood up excitedly: "Everyone, don't worry! I am neither the Communist Party nor the Kuomintang, but I am a Chinese and a lawyer. I will do my best to safeguard the integrity of the nation and the dignity of the law!" Passionate, generous and loud! Mei Ru'ao stood up slowly, filled more than a dozen wine glasses one by one, and then raised the wine glasses and said: "Everyone, we can only succeed in this struggle and not fail! We are entrusted by the country and the nation to come here." Up to here, if the chief war criminal of Japan’s invasion of China is not severely punished, we will have no face to go back to the country to meet Jiangdong’s elders. I swear: If I don’t achieve my goal, I will commit suicide by jumping into the sea!”

The tragic and painful words shocked everyone's heart! Xiang Zhejun also toasted and stood up slowly: "I swear, if the chief war criminal of Japan's invasion of China is not severely punished, I will commit suicide by jumping into the sea together with Dr. Mei!" "I swear!……" "I swear!……" More than a dozen wine glasses touched each other passionately, and more than a dozen faces were full of sacredness and solemnity: "We swear, if the chief war criminal of Japan's invasion of China is not punished, we will collectively commit suicide by jumping into the sea!"

A dozen glasses of spirits were drained, even those who never drank.When more than a dozen glasses of spirits were poured down, many people had tears in their eyes.They suppressed the tears, but swallowed them together with the strong wine, together with the grief and pain in their hearts. Men don't flick their tears easily! Qiu Shaoheng, chief secretary of the Chinese Procuratorate, arrived in Nanjing on March 12 with Colonel Thomas H. Morrow, his secretary, and Henry Chin Lewis, the American judge. With the active support and cooperation of the Nanjing Military Tribunal for the Trial of Japanese War Criminals of the Ministry of National Defense, many survivors of the "Nanjing Massacre" were interviewed, and many conclusive evidences were obtained. They rushed back with witnesses such as Wu Changde and Liang Tingfang Tokyo.

At the same time, Xiang Zhejun brought Zhou Xiqing, Yang Shoulin, Gao Wenbin and others to the archives of the Japanese Wartime Cabinet every day. He sat there for a whole day and patiently searched through the mountains of materials. Finally, One piece of criminal evidence came out from the voluminous files.These evidences are: The Chief of Staff of the Tenth Army of the Japanese Army, who participated in the capture of Nanjing, issued an instruction to the chiefs of staff of his divisions and the commanders of the troops directly under him on December 20, 1937. More than a hundred pieces." Obviously, this is the number that the Japanese military greatly reduced to cover up the atrocities committed by soldiers.But no matter how hard he tried to cover it up, he had to admit that his subordinates had committed violence against women, which shows the seriousness of the violence.

A report by Prosecutor Nishiyaya Toru, a special researcher on thought in the 13th year of the Showa era (1938) of the Ministry of Justice of Japan, "Rumours about the China Incident", records that many of them were punished by the District Court for violating the Army Criminal Law. Examples of sentencing in which some soldiers were punished for speaking out about their atrocities against civilians in Nanking.The leaders of the Japanese fascist military state strictly forbade the soldiers from revealing the truth about their violence in China. They not only dismissed these truths as "rumours", but also punished those soldiers who told the truth.Even so, there are still many truths revealed bit by bit, which shows how widespread and serious the crime is.

A secret order issued by the Japanese military department to the commander of the theater: "It is wrong for soldiers to speak out about their cruelty to Chinese soldiers and civilians." The order also said: "If the soldiers who participated in the war are investigated, Probably all of them are criminals who murdered, robbed, and raped." The order did not deny the objective existence of Japanese atrocities, but it was much more frank than Toru Nishiiya dodging with a fig leaf. In addition, there are some very cruel and specific evidence of crimes, such as the report and photos of the "killing contest" held by the Japanese army who captured Nanjing published in the "Tokyo Niichi Shimbun"; the photo of the Japanese squadron leader Tanaka Gunkichi who captured Nanjing beheading 300 people with a saber and introduction, etc. Xiang Zhejun copied and numbered these empirical evidence one by one, and some even took photos.He wants to use these evidences to avenge the compatriots who died in the "Nanjing Massacre" and send those executioners who committed heinous crimes in China to the guillotine!

On April 1, 1946, the meeting room of the Meiji Life Building in Tokyo. The Executive Committee of the Procuratorate of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East held a meeting here to discuss the list of Class A war criminal defendants.This was the last meeting to discuss the defendant list before trial.Prosecutors from all over the world want to seize this last opportunity to put those war criminals who have committed serious crimes against their own people and have not yet been listed on the dock, and the Chinese delegation is no exception. more tense. The list for discussion at this meeting is: Kimura Heitaro (Secretary of the Ministry of the Army), Kenzo Sato (Director of the Military Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of the Army), Hiroshi Tamura (Chief of the Captive Intelligence Bureau), Jingjun Oka (Director of the Military Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of the Navy), and Nanjiro (Ministry of the Ministry of the Navy). The second Wakatsuki Cabinet Minister Lu), Matsui Iwane (commander of the Central China Front Army), Masaki Jinzaburo (deputy chief of staff of the Army) and others. When discussing Matsui Iwane, the Chinese prosecutor Xiang Zhejun once again reported the crime of the "Nanjing Massacre" by the Japanese invaders, and then, as an investigator, the American judge Sutton reported the facts of their investigation and evidence collection in Nanjing. go through.He said in an extremely excited and angry tone: "The 'Nanjing Massacre' is a real fact. The Japanese army not only massacred a large number of Chinese prisoners with machine guns, but also beheaded, disemboweled, burned, and buried alive. method, slaughtered many civilians in Nanjing, raped women no less than 20,000 cases, the scale of the massacre, the cruel method of killing, and the large number of deaths are unique in this war!" After finishing speaking, he sent the Japanese army Many photos taken by myself showing off the might of the imperial army were displayed one by one, and passed on to the prosecutors present at the meeting for viewing. Finally, Chinese witnesses Wu Changde and Liang Tingfang, as survivors of the "Nanjing Massacre", narrated their narrow escapes in the Hanzhong Gate and Zhongshan Wharf massacres. The prosecutors present at the meeting were shocked. They were so excited by the bloody testimonies. During the voting, they all voted for it. Even the military judges who made a fuss last time also raised their solemn arm. After hard work, the judges of the Chinese delegation finally put Iwane Matsui, the culprit of the "Nanjing Massacre", on the list of defendants in the first trial with a large number of irrefutable facts.