Chapter 32 Chapter 31: Beituan Poison Massacre That Shocked North China (1942.5.27)

Beginning on May 1, 1942, the Japanese invaders gathered 50,000 puppet troops, and under the personal command of Okamura Ningci, the commander-in-chief of the North China Front Army, they launched an unprecedentedly cruel, crazy, brutal, and inhumane "May Day" campaign against Jizhong District. "Big "mopping up" and repeated "emotional suppression".The Beixuan massacre that shocked North China was the most vicious massacre in this "sweep" by the enemy. On May 27, Masaru Uesaka, Major General of the 53rd Brigade of the 59th Division of the Japanese Army, led more than 500 Japanese soldiers from the first brigade of the Japanese Army, together with more than 2,000 Japanese and puppet troops from Dingxian and Anguo, to attack Beituan, Dingxian County. Village, in disregard of public international law, released poison gas on the civilians and some armed personnel of the county brigade who were hiding in the tunnel, and also shot, stabbed, hacked, and burned, creating a massacre of more than 800 Chinese compatriots.

Beituan is located 60 miles southeast of Dingxian County, Hebei Province, with the Shahe River in the north. It is the center of the Dingnan Anti-Japanese Base Area, and the district and county leading agencies are often stationed here.The militiamen in this village are brave and good at fighting. With the help of the people, they built the Liancun Tunnel, which can connect with Xicheng and Dongcheng in the east, and connect with Nantong and Donghu Tunnel in the south.Although the enemy continues to mobilize and sabotage, and the puppet army and traitors continue to threaten and intimidate, the determination of the people of Beituan Village to fight against the enemy is as firm as a rock!

The beastly Japanese invaders tried every means to destroy this anti-Japanese fortress on the Jizhong Plain. At 6 o'clock in the morning on May 27, 1942, after the Japanese and puppet troops surrounded Nantuan and Beituan, they began fire reconnaissance.At the same time, according to the drawings of our tunnels provided by the traitors, we blocked the exits of the tunnels in our south and beituan villages to prevent our anti-Japanese soldiers and civilians from breaking through and retreating from the tunnels.After the fire reconnaissance, the enemy began to attack the village from thirty directions: one was from the northeast entrance of the village, the other was from the southeast entrance of the village, and the third was from the east of the village.The devils bombarded the village with heavy artillery fire at the northeast entrance, and many houses and courtyard walls were blown down and caught fire.However, our soldiers and militiamen who were waiting in full battle were on standby in the walls and bunkers at the entrance of the village.When the devils saw that the village did not fight back, a commander raised his command knife and ordered the devils to charge. When the devils rushed to our troops and militiamen, grenades and landmines exploded among the devils.The explosion made the devils roll and crawl, and fell down one by one.The living ghosts also retreated.After a while, the devils rushed up again.

Because the enemy was strong and we were weak, the firepower was very different, and finally the devils broke into the village.The soldiers and militiamen of our group still persisted in street fighting and fought the devils until after one o'clock in the afternoon.At this time, the devils blocked the east half of the street, and the streets and houses were full of devils.Under such circumstances, the troops and militiamen were forced to go down the tunnel from Li Luojie's house on Zhongping Street. The wolf-like Japanese devils broke into Beituan Village. According to the drawings provided by the traitors, they found several cave openings, ignited the high-yidu suffocating poison gas, and threw them into the caves. , The hole is covered with a quilt, so that the poisonous gas will flow everywhere in the hole.Not long after, the cave was filled with poisonous gas.As the poisonous smoke overflowed from each hole, many secret exits were discovered by the enemy, and they blocked and released poison there.There are 800 to 900 refugees in the cave. When they smell the gas with the smell of chili, gunpowder and sweet, they only feel their noses choked, and then they cry, sneeze, suffocate, and runny nose.As people were getting more and more poisoned, their whole body had a fever, so they leaned against the cave wall to get cool.Soon, the voices of people in the cave became weaker and weaker, and groups of people suffocated to death amidst extremely painful struggles.Some died with their heads buried in the ground, some tore their own clothes and died against the cave wall, and some died while hugging their children tightly.Wang Niuer of Beituan Village took his two sons into the cave. The eldest son was 10 years old and the second son was 8 years old. They slept on the knees of their father Wang Niuer and died in the cave.According to surviving eyewitnesses: before the father and son died, the son called his mother, and the father said: "Son! Don't call your mother, she doesn't know where she died. Let's die together!" Another example is Li Juhuai in Beituan Village. There was a child under one year old in her arms. The child was sucking on the nipple, and both mother and child died tragically in the cave.There was also a 50-year-old woman who died in the cave with her arms around two girls who were about 10 years old.

Most of the people who died of poisoning in the cave were the elderly, women and children, and those who were physically strong struggled to find the entrance of the cave. In the five-foot-high and three-foot-wide cave, they were able to stand up and walk. The corpses were blocked and the passage was impassable. Even those who could barely touch the entrance of the cave and climbed out could not escape the bayonets and pursuit of the devils at the entrance of the cave. When the strong young men and women rushed out, they were immediately captured by the enemy, and the Japanese invaders brutally massacred them!50 corpses fell on Nanbei Street, 70 corpses fell on Lijiafen, more than 250 corpses fell on Lijia Street, more than 90 corpses were found on the well platform of Feng Xiangyun and Wang Zhiheng's house in the northeast of the village, Li Luomin's yard was stabbed to death 29 people.There were 16 people whose heads were beheaded in Zhugende's Doijing.

Some of the victims clenched their fists and stared angrily; those lying down with their feet on the ground and digging up a pile of dirt with their hands;In the courtyard of Zhu Gende's house, the Japanese invaders smashed the head of a young man with a wheel, causing his brains to flow out.Li Zhuer, a young woman, sat naked in a corner of the wall, her legs spread apart, her head fell to her chest and died.In this village, Song Luoxian married his daughter-in-law Wang Bainv, who was 20 years old. She knelt at the gate of Yan Guifu and died.Li Luoxin was burnt to death, and was thrown into the well again.

As soon as some people got out of the cave, they were kidnapped and taken to Li Luomin's house on the west side of Lijia Street, and handed over to devils wearing red cloths on their sleeves.This was the so-called "Red Ministry" that killed people without blinking an eye. Dozens of people were arrested in one day. The Japanese devils gathered these ordinary people in two huts, and the doors were tightly closed.These ordinary people were so crowded in that hut that they couldn't breathe. Some had a fever and took off their clothes.Ten of them were overly poisoned, mentally disturbed, and thirsty, so they pushed open the small door, knelt in the yard and shouted loudly: "I'm thirsty, give me some water!" Kill him with 38 guns.In this way, 12 people died overnight.

People who found the entrance to the north of the village struggled to climb out, but the Japanese invading army had already blocked here and set fire to it.Young people climbed fast and suffered minor fire injuries, but after climbing out, some were stabbed or shot to death by Japanese fascists, some were thrown into the fire and burned to death, and some were tied to trees by the enemy with iron wires on their collarbone and burned die.More than a dozen old people, women, and children climbed out of the cave, dying. The enemy threw them one by one into the well of Wang Shangzhi's house, and the well turned into a well of flesh and blood.The stabbed dead were dismembered by knives, bloody and bloody, and difficult to identify.All that was burned was the black skeleton of human flesh, and it was impossible to tell who it was.Those who were thrown into the well, due to the hot weather, when people went to salvage them one or two days later, the corpses were already decomposed, so they had to fill the well. In the spring of 1946, when the well was dug, 10 heads were found. Judging from the size and shape of the hair and the head, it was proved that one of them was a child.

On the afternoon of May 27, the farmer Wang Wenxue crawled out of the cave, covered in mud, dripping with tears and snot, and was escorted by the Japanese army to the south room of Zhu Gende's house.At this time, there were thirty to forty people in the room. Like Wang Wenxue, these people crawled out of the cave after being poisoned.Later, some people were escorted here one after another by Japanese ghosts.When it was dark, a total of seventy or eighty people were arrested.The enemy stands guard outside the gate, watching over these innocent people.Due to the heavy poisoning and the enemy refused to give them water to drink, 16 people died overnight.

After breakfast on the 28th, the Japanese army drove these innocent people to the compound of Gendig's house. They surrounded them tightly with bayonet-tipped guns.The interpreter said to the people: "... whoever puts on the military uniform can live, and those who don't change to die die...".Then they asked one by one, but people ignored them.Seeing that people didn't say change or no change, the interpreter ordered: "Those who are willing to wear military uniforms stay in the west courtyard, and those who don't want to change uniforms go to the east courtyard!" Just ask: "Do you wear military uniform?" Some replied "No", while others said "Yes".The 16 people who said they didn't wear them were sent to the east courtyard.

After arriving at the East Hospital, Wang Wenxue saw that Xu Genzhu and Xu Fushan, who were originally from the school, had been shot by the enemy beside the yam well.Then a Japanese soldier brought a bucket of water, dipped the foreign knife in the water, pulled Liu Yuzhang to the side of the well, made him kneel down, chopped off his head with one knife, and kicked the body into the well.Then he pulled four more people, knelt down beside the yam well, and beheaded them one by one.When the Japanese army went to kill the third person, Wang Wenxue jumped from the gap in the boundary wall of the east and west courtyards to the west courtyard, ran to the crowd who were changing their uniforms, and changed into military uniforms to avoid being killed. In the afternoon, the Japanese army took civilians who had put on military uniforms as prisoners of the "Eight Routes" and escorted them to Ding County (on the way to Ding County, they picked and killed 14 people who couldn't walk).From Ding County to Shimen Labor Training Center by car.Later, they were transported to Qianjinzhai Coal Mine in Fushun to work as laborers. After the enemy left, 15 corpses were found in the yam well of Zhu Gende's house, two of them were shot dead, and 13 were chopped with knives, but people didn't know how the dead died. The situation of the victim. In the afternoon of the second day, dozens of ordinary people who were not yet dead were tied out of the house by the Japanese devils. One with bare arms and trouser legs, and an officer with a saber, commanded the two devils to take the bound people away. , dragged to the dunghill, and shot them all!For example, Li Luomin from Beituan is 65 years old, and Liu Bingzhan, a 13-year-old child, did not let him go.When it was Li Luotian's last turn, he stretched his neck, looked at the sky and the ground, gritted his teeth, and resolutely walked to the execution ground. After the gunfire, he fell into a pool of blood.The bullet passed through the upper part of Li Luotian's shoulder and then through the lower lip, without hurting any vital parts, so he knew in his heart that he lay there motionless, Li Luotian survived and became a witness to the atrocities committed by the Japanese invaders people. From May 27th to 28th, the Japanese invaders occupied Beituan Village for two days and one night. They poisoned, shot, stabbed, and hacked more than 800 of my compatriots. In addition, they raped and ravaged our women. From young girls to old ladies in their 50s and 60s, it is difficult to count the raped women compatriots. There are as many as 35 people who are only famous.This village with only 222 households and 1,227 people has almost become a deserted place after the tragic massacre by the Japanese army Oe. On June 26, 1942, in order to accuse the enemy of killing 800 innocent compatriots in Hebei, Central and Northern Tuan, the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Command issued a telegram to accuse the heinous crimes of the Japanese invaders to the whole country and the world.The power-up states: "Hatred and righteous indignation filled our whole body, which made us choke our breath when we narrated the incident. Beituan is a village in Dingnan County in central Hebei. The people of Central Hebei suffered deeply from the brutal Japanese invaders. Tunnels were created to avoid them. Beituan also built such tunnels. On May 28, the Japanese invaders dispatched more than 300 people from various nearby strongholds to attack the vicinity of Beituan. People in more than ten nearby villages saw the enemy coming fiercely, so One after another came to hide in the tunnels of Beituan, but the Japanese bandits deliberately slaughtered these innocent people, so they adopted the most barbaric, cruel, and despicable means in human history, and perpetrated brutal murders on these people who were hiding in the tunnels! When they entered Beituan Village, the Japanese invaders searched repeatedly to find the entrance of the tunnel, and poured a large amount of suffocating gas into it. Under the vicious hand of the Japanese invaders, most of the more than 800 unarmed people who were hidden in the tunnel The old men, old women, women, children, sick and weak, and infants who were holding sticks were all suffocated to death by poison gas! Their corpses filled the tunnels, and the tragedy was unbearable. Japanese fascist bandits used artillery and poison gas to loot Beituan The whole village, the region that animates us, has turned into a silent hell, where the laughter of people, the cry of children, and the crowing of chickens and dogs cannot be heard!" The Beituan massacre is one of the massacres committed by the Japanese invading army in Jizhong.On June 22, 1956, the enemy chief Uesaka Katsuki was finally given a fair trial by the Chinese people in Shenyang.In the face of hard facts and a large amount of evidence, the maker of the Beituan tragedy, Uesaka Masaru, had to plead guilty. The following is the confession of Uesaka Masaru: "...On May 27, 1942, during the Battle of Jizhong, 22 kilometers south of Ding County (the location is forgotten) and near the north bank of the Hutuo River, the unit that caused the incident (was) the 163rd Infantry Regiment under the command of Uesaka Masaru. Among them The crimes in the south of Ding County were committed by the No. 1 Brigade, and the crimes in the north bank of the Hutuo River were committed by the No. , driving into the tunnel and using poison gas, a large number of people were killed, some were stabbed with bayonets or beheaded with sabers and raped, etc. In addition, in order to collect information, residents were tortured, set fire and destroyed, not to mention property plundered Yes, they have done it. This kind of cruelty is the characteristic of the imperialist Japanese army. As a result, countless residents were killed. If we use specific figures to speculate, this is only a guess. The number of people injured and wounded was more than 3,000 based on the minimum calculation. Among them, about 1,000 (people) were killed by the Eighth Route Army and residents in Nantuan and Beituan of Ding County; about 2,000 (people) were killed in the north bank of Hutuo River people) above. I have so educated the Japanese imperialist army to play (its) cruelty (of). How can I atone for this crime? This is entirely my responsibility, and I feel that my responsibility is great. I I sincerely apologize in front of all the Chinese people. My previous confession has been translated and read to me in Japanese, and it is correct with my confession.” Respondent: Masaru Uesaka (signature) Excerpted from page 1 of No. 21 of Masaru Uesaka (Volume 7)