Chapter 31 29. Forced labor

Jingle!Jingle! ... The sound of the copper bell ringing seemed to be that of an old man moaning in pain. On the morning of March 8, 1945, in the "Forest Barracks" of the Japanese Army in Gongzhuling, south of Changchun, China, a Japanese rang a dilapidated copper bell while walking. At that time, when the war situation deteriorated and the Japanese troops moved to the south, the old barracks of the armored convoy forcibly accommodated many Chinese.In this cold, unheated old barracks, there are large planks covered with only a thin cotton blanket, on which a Chinese person is sleeping next to each other. If you want to turn over, you must turn over together, otherwise, someone will pressed to the bottom.

The Japanese supervisor is Army Corporal Nishihara (and dormitory chief). At this time, he is ringing the wake-up bell in the long corridor.Those who didn't wake up sat there covered with quilts, and those who got up sat on thin quilts and wore tattered cotton clothes, and then went to the toilet listlessly.The drains in the toilets were frozen. The room was full of dust. They carried broken rice bowls and ate sorghum rice porridge and pickles. I, who was the military police corporal in the military supply inspection squad, put my hands in the coat pockets, put down the ears of the winter hat, stamped my feet vigorously, patrolled the long corridor, and looked into the dormitories on the left and right. .

"Nishihara-kun, there are too many people lying in the dormitory! How many people are going to work today?" I asked Nishihara who was ringing the bell. "It's not bad to have 300 people today." "Why are there so few today?" "The 6 injured are still not recovering, and there are more than 50 sick people" "Aren't they eating?" "Eat!" "Bastard! That's not okay! If people who can eat are called sick, aren't all people sick?" "There were also people who escaped during the night, so the number decreased in the morning."

"Gongzhuling Station, didn't you say that people without a pass don't sell train tickets? Maybe they are wandering on the streets?" "No, there are no more vagrants on Gongzhuling Street, because there are gendarmes who specialize in catching vagrants. Someone still colluded with them in advance and sent them to Caijia Station to board the train and escape." "At present, as long as you have money, you can escape. However, if anyone who escapes secretly is caught and brought back, he will be beaten to death! It's nothing to kill a few!" Hearing what I said, Nishihara smiled.

After a while, many people gathered in front of the flagpole in the center of the barracks playground.There are Japanese workers here, they don’t live in the barracks, they live in the staff dormitories nearby; there are 200 Japanese middle school students from Jiamusi Middle School who came here to "serve the country with diligence" (diligent service); and there are 300 who are housed here Chinese forced labor.Under Nishihara's order, all the people who came here sang the national anthem of Japan first, and then the national anthem of Manchukuo, and the national flags of the two countries were hoisted into the sky.

Although the 300 Chinese also participated in singing and raising the flag, none of them were interested in such things.Some people were stomping their feet; some were still wearing flip-flops and clothes that showed their arms.When Nishihara shouted "salute" at the end, all the Chinese refused to bow their heads. I am standing in the Japanese team, so I can see the Chinese clearly.I thought, what a bunch of impolite fellows, I saluted in front of your flag, but you didn't salute yourself.What's more serious than this is that the recent war situation has worsened. Therefore, when I walk on the street, I always feel that someone is laughing at me, and I always feel that the Chinese are silently resisting.

The Chinese go to work under the supervision of many people. They have to cross the railway every day and walk two kilometers to the aircraft factory to go to work.Every day, they walked back and forth silently with their hands sleeved in the cold wind, while gendarmes on horseback patrolled around the team, keeping watch. Another 300 Chinese assembled on the factory playground.Japanese staff and workers also gathered.Then, four officers headed by Lieutenant Eguchi, the munitions inspector, arrived from the Japanese Aviation Staff Headquarters.Next came Nishimura, the director of the Gongzhuling Manufacturing Plant of Manchuria Flying Co., Ltd., Guan Ben, the chief of the general affairs section, Heng Cheng, the chief of the labor section, and others.

Lieutenant Eguchi stepped onto the stage and received the salute from the Japanese.When he straightened his white-gloved arm, a second lieutenant carefully took out the Japanese Emperor's "Jihad Edict" from the paulownia box and read it out.During this process, the Japanese bowed their heads several times.Then Miyagi stepped onto the stage, and said as usual: "For the peace of the East, the Holy War has been going on for four years. The imperial army, which has achieved great results, is the key to victory in the Greater East Asia War. Therefore, , This burden falls on the shoulders of the gentlemen. At present, the Japanese army urgently needs 2,000 aircraft. The Japanese and the people of Manchuria must complete this task under the guidance of the spirit of one-heartedness and one-heartedness.”

Most of the Japanese employees were dissatisfied with holding meetings in the open air in such cold weather, and as for the Chinese, no one listened to these lectures. After the disbandment, the Japanese workers all went back to the branch factories, and the Chinese also walked into the factories with their hands sleeved.These Chinese were not originally workers of this military aircraft factory. They came to this factory in Fengtian because they could not find work in Fengtian (now Shenyang City), and they were hungry and cold.At the end of December last year, because the factory was bombed by the US military, it was moved to Gongzhuling.

Except for some of the Japanese workers who are old workers, most of them came to Northeast China to work as workers from the Japanese countryside to participate in the pioneering mission.This group of people was only about 15 years old when they came to China. In the factory, unpacked and unpacked machines and raw materials were piled up everywhere; in the corner, Japanese workers and apprentices could be seen driving the machines to work.The factory used to be the logistics warehouse of the Air Force. The glass on the factory building was all broken, and the wind and snow whizzed into it.

As soon as the Chinese came to the factory, they were led to the unopened machines.The on-site supervisor drove them with wooden sticks and moved the machines and raw materials.The faces of the Chinese show that they are cold, tired, and distressed by the humiliation. I have been watching them do these jobs.I thought: "The manufacture of airplanes, airplanes, and special attack aircraft is the most important! No matter how much sacrifice is made, this task must be completed for the victory of the war!" So, when I saw the Chinese working slowly, I was angry in my heart.In my mind, I imagined the continuous production of special attack aircraft on the factory assembly line and the special attack aircraft loaded with bombs to sink Chinese warships. In fact, right next to this factory, an air force is stationed.Every day, the juvenile aviation soldiers of the Japanese army receive special attack training there. At this time, two Chinese people walked over carrying a motor on a pole.Suddenly, the shoulder pole broke with a "creak", and the motor fell to the concrete floor with a "grumbling" sound, and the main shaft was bent. I went up and slapped each of them with a "slap, slap". "Bastard! You want to die!" I cursed angrily, and then beat the waist of the man in front with a wooden stick, knocked him to the ground, and kicked him in the shoulder repeatedly.The man was about 30 years old, with prominent cheekbones and eyes fixed on me.I kicked him down again. When the on-site supervisor came over, I said to him: "This bastard surnamed Liu is an annoying guy, please pay attention to him!" To the supervisor, come to another workshop. In this workshop there is a Japanese who is using a file on a vise to file something.Walking in front of him, I fastened the ears of the winter hat, and then unbuttoned it, the movement was very natural. At this time, the two of them glanced at each other and understood everything in their hearts.After a while, he walked to the tool storage in the corner of the workshop.This person was Ito Caochang sent by the Xinjing (Changchun) Gendarmerie Headquarters. His mission was to secretly spy on the political activities of the Japanese and Chinese, so he concealed his true identity and pretended to be an ordinary worker. In this factory, except for the soldiers of the air force, the rest of the Japanese also concealed their true identities.I walked into the tool warehouse with him, and secretly reported to Ito about the Chinese surnamed Liu on a "tool application form". My task at the time was to monitor more than 150 Chinese in the engine shop.Some of them are installing machinery on the concrete floor, some are picking soil baskets, some are transporting machinery with iron rods or shoulder poles, and 20 people are moving a large machine. The Chinese surnamed Liu was carrying mechanical parts with a pole while bearing back injuries.A worker next to him was about to replace him, but the supervisor grabbed the worker's skirt and pulled it aside, causing a foot-long tear in the clothes. I thought, "Anyone who gets in the way of building an airplane has to show him some color!" Machinery and raw materials are continuously transported, all of which are carried by the Chinese with their hands, thin bodies and shoulders. In Japan's Aviation Staff Headquarters, technicians from the soldiers of the Kwantung Army were organized into a technical team of 700 people and dispatched to this factory.However, until April, when a delegation of Japanese capitalists came here to visit, only wings and nacelles could be manufactured here, but not one of the most important engines was produced. I, Eguchi, Nishimura... No matter how anxious we were, the result was that not only the Chinese refused to work, but even the Japanese were slow to work, and the number of workers continued to decrease. The work of the day continued until late at night.When work was over, the Chinese who had been working all day under the insults and beatings of the supervisors had to queue up at the main entrance of the factory to be searched, beaten and scolded. According to my instructions, the guards detained the Chinese surnamed Liu.After two hours of confinement, he was taken to the gendarmerie interrogation room.I was wearing a gendarmerie uniform, reeking of alcohol, and sitting there with a thick whip.In front of my desk, a man surnamed Liu was stripped naked and sitting on a bench. "You deliberately let the machine fall and break it!" "No such thing!" "Who sent you to spy on the imperial army's military secrets?" "have no idea!" The whip slammed on him with "slaps, slaps", leaving streaks of red bloodstains, but he gritted his teeth and endured it, refusing to make a sound.I was so angry that I was shaking all over, and frantically whipped his back that had turned purple and was dripping with blood. In the next room, Gunso Suzuki was torturing a young Japanese worker.He planned to leave the factory and return to Japan because his mother was ill.I only heard Suzuki shout: "Are you still Japanese! You say you hate the war, don't you! I will make you hate it even more! Come here!" At this time, the sound of slapping was heard again. "Did you know? Right now, the soldiers of the Imperial Army are fighting desperately there!" So, I immediately beat and insulted the Chinese surnamed Liu harder than Suzuki. In the black building of the "Gendoril Police Unit in Gongzhuling", every night, there was the sound of whips and groans rushing into the quiet night sky. War, wherever it is, brings suffering to people and takes human life.But I, for the war, killed and tortured the Chinese people day and night. Wars of aggression turn human hearts into ghosts; wars of aggression turn people into slaves and deprive the people of their happiness; wars of aggression are demons that trample on the lives of innocent people. I want to swear to the Chinese people: "I will completely abandon the road of war I walked yesterday, resolutely oppose war, and dedicate the rest of my life to peace and the friendship between the people of Japan and China!" Author bio: Born in a middle peasant family in Gushang County, Gifu County, Japan, he graduated from high school and worked as a driver of a state-owned railway. On August 15, 1945, Gongzhuling was arrested.