Chapter 33 31. Voices of war criminals

"I really want to go back soon... I have done bad things, and war is a bad thing. I understand all of this. Now, no one can tolerate wars anymore, and no one can tolerate the existence of the old society anymore. Then why still Don't let us go back..." "I'm over 50 years old. I can't work. It's useless. Let me go back while I'm still healthy. Otherwise, I won't even have the opportunity to educate my children..." I forgot that I was a war criminal who committed a great crime, and I kept thinking about going home.That was April 1954. "Can I go home safely?" No matter what, I have to live until that day!My wife who raised four children for me.She must have been living a miserable life at this time.

In the past 10 years, whether in the Ural Mountains or on the plateau of Central Asia, there was not a single day that I did not miss my wife.Today, a letter came from home suddenly, and my whole body seemed to tremble from joy and uneasiness. "I hope the whole family is well." While praying in my heart, I tore open the envelope, flipping through the ten or so pages of letter paper anxiously, looking for the name of the person who wrote the letter.The eldest son, the second son, and the third son all wrote to me, proving that they are all alive.However, I opened my eyes and searched for the letters from my wife and second daughter two or three times, but I couldn't find them.

"What's going on? Maybe?" While trying to dispel the ominous thoughts, I picked up the letter from my eldest son with trepidation. "Father! On January 14, 1947, on the way back to China from Dalian, my mother left the four of us, calling my father and our names, and left this world. We did not go to school, and now we are giving a A carpenter as an apprentice. We only have father left now, please come back alive no matter what! This is our only wish!" I feel like I've been hit in the head!As I read page after page of the children's mournful, detailed letters, my throat felt as if it was about to burst, and darkness appeared before my eyes.All hopes and wishes were in vain.I barely supported my body that had lost strength, as if I was wandering alone in that desolate wilderness.

"People who are good at cherishing themselves will not lose their minds over these things. It's too much!" I reminded myself while trying to maintain calm in front of everyone.However, my chest seemed to be on fire, and the pain was unbearable. That night, I covered my head with a quilt and cried until dawn, thinking about my wife all night. "Father, please forgive us! My mother, she..." I imagined the scene of my wife's body being thrown into the sea, and the abandoned children crying and crawling around at the feet of strangers; I imagined hugging my mother The dead body, calling out the names of their parents, the appearance of the four children who were crying to death; imagined the face of infinite distress after the wife and the children fell ill during the journey.

But now, I have become a newborn person. How I look forward to having a beautiful family life like China that recognizes women's rights and freedoms!You, why did you die so early!When I think of this every night, I can't help but sigh: "It's not because of the war! Let me think so hard" At dawn on the third day, I was in so much pain that I was going crazy.These pains, no matter how I think about it, the war brought me!And for no other reason!I have to find a way out for myself. I begin by cursing this war and the sinners who started it. "Today, the ashes of 650 people were sent back to Japan. How do you feel about being a mother? What about the feelings of the children who lost their fathers, and the wives who lost their husbands?

"Bastard! If you think that way, can the war be won? In Japan, there is no such woman!" I recalled when I saw off the ashes of the war dead on the pier, I used to scold my wife like this. "Yes! Who doesn't have a father, a husband, and a precious son? The Chinese patriots I killed, and the relatives of the 12 million Chinese patriots killed by the Japanese army, how deeply and strongly should I be indignant! And I, now I only think about my own affairs. I am lamenting for the loss of the life built on the blood and sweat of the Chinese people, and I am crying for the loss of the "happiness" stained with the blood of the people, how despicable it is!"

I recalled my past life scene by scene, and the more I thought about it, the more serious my sins became. In February 1942, every household was posting Spring Festival couplets, and everywhere was filled with a happy atmosphere of the Spring Festival.At that time, in order to weaken the combat effectiveness of the Shandong Column of the 18th Group Army on the Chinese side, I was ordered by my superiors to send Xiasong, a "police officer", to arrest Zhang Leyao and Xiao Benzhong from Daqin Island, Penglai County, Shandong Province. The pretext for arresting people was that they were delivering supplies to the Eighth Route Army of the Jiaodong Military Region in Shandong Province.I personally tortured Zhang Leyao: "Hey! You were sent by the Eighth Route Army to buy things here, right?"

"No, I brought the fish caught on the island here to exchange for something for the New Year." "Don't lie!" "I'm not lying! I'm a fisherman from Daqin Island!" "Stubborn guy! If you don't speak out with your mouth, I'll let your body speak out! Take off his clothes and hit me!" I ordered my subordinates. He lay face down on the concrete floor, and there was a crackling sound on the bronze-colored muscles on his body, and dozens of whips were whipped continuously.The welt, which was white at first, turned purple after a while.In this way, he still did not say a word.

The next day, I wanted to torture him again, so I went to the detention center. "Zhang Leyao's internal bleeding is severe, and he has a fever. Since last night, he has not eaten and kept humming." "What? Internal bleeding and fever!? You care about these things, can you still be a guard! You don't want to eat cornmeal steamed buns and salted radish sticks. This is pretending to be sick! Pour a bucket of cold water on his head, and his illness will disappear. Alright," I reprimanded the guard. "Ouch! Ouch!" A terrible moan that seemed to come from hell.I walked as lightly as possible and walked into the detention center.Every cell there holds innocent and kind-hearted people captured by us invaders from foreign countries who broke into China.

In the dark corner of the prison, I found the "prisoner" who was lying there with redness and swelling all over his body, unable to sit or sleep, and roared angrily: "Zhang Leyao! Come out!" At that time, the dozen or so people sitting next to him all turned around at once, and all the dozen or so eyes were fixed on me, with hatred and sorrow shining in their eyes.Each pair of eyes seems to express the nostalgia for the mother and the miss for the wife, and they all seem to contain horror and sadness. "Turn away!" I couldn't help shouting loudly. On the third morning from that day, it was I who was on duty.At the door of the foreign affairs department, a girl about 15 years old came to me with her bag down and her head down.

"Go over there!" I shrugged my chin into the long corridor and shouted.Another 10 minutes later, the girl appeared at my table again. "I'm Zhang Leyao's daughter. Because my father didn't come home, I came here from the island alone. Let me meet my father!" I was stunned.From that island, a man came here?As I thought, I looked at the girl.She was wearing a short tan top that looked like it had been made two years ago.This little dress was tightly wrapped around her growing body, and her wrists were more than two inches exposed from the cuffs, making her look chilly.The bangs on her head are deliberately long, covering her beautiful eyebrows.Further down, there are two bell-shaped eyes with fearful eyes and long black eyelashes. "I don't know your father! Go find another policeman! Go back!" "No! It's in this cell. I've spent 10 days, I've been everywhere, nothing. My dad is not a bad guy, let's meet! I beg you. Let's meet, I beg is you!" "Bastard! I said no, but I just can't! Hey! Pull her out!" A burly man walked over and grabbed the girl's skirt at once. At this time, big teardrops flowed from the girl's eyes, and they fell onto the back of the big man's hand. "It's really dirty!" The big man yelled, then raised his big hand, and hit the girl's round face that lost all blood.The girl fell to the ground with a scream.But she immediately sat up on the dirty floor, staring at me with eyes full of tears, even her lips were trembling. "My father is not a bad person! He won't let me meet, so give this thing to him!" After speaking, he held the small bag in both hands and wanted to hand it to me. "Don't dawdle! Pull her away!" At the same time, the small bag that the girl handed over flew into the corridor.Then, the girl was grabbed by the hair and her whole body was dragged on the ground. She shouted desperately: "I beg you, let my dad come home early!" she cried while crying.But what's the use of crying like this! Not only did I trample on the beautiful heart of this poor girl, but I also killed her father. "Dad will be back soon. As soon as the Spring Festival comes, I will put on the good clothes my dad bought and put on a hairpin with flowers." Maybe this girl is still depicting the joyful Spring Festival in her heart! The 30th day of the twelfth lunar month has passed, and the Spring Festival has come, but my father has not come back... That is the heart of a daughter who stands on the shore and looks at the ships on the sea every day, waiting for her father! It was the figure of a lovely girl who was looking forward to her father wholeheartedly, listening to the roar of the tide and the sound of the oars, watching the sailboats on the sea, and running along the seashore. In order to find her father who had run away from home, the 15-year-old frail girl sailed alone in a small boat, broke through the waves on the vast Yellow Sea, and came to unaccompanied Dalian, wandering the streets for more than ten days , finally came to my table.But I actually shattered this girl's innocence and took away the happiness she had longed for. Now, the girl with her father's face in her mind, standing by the sea day after day waiting for her father's return, must be looking at the sky of Dalian shrouded in dusk on the other side of the sea, feeling infinitely sentimental!Now, maybe this devilish figure of me appeared in her mind again, full of hatred and curse towards me, standing in the cold tidal wind, stretching my red and swollen hands into the cold sea water Going to pick up oysters!And I was sitting in the heated room, doing nothing, not eating Chinese-style oyster hot pot! "Please dad come back alive no matter what! This is our only wish!" What shall I do with that maiden who hears the cry of my motherless children?For the families of so many people I have killed, how can I give them back their relatives who will never come back? Thinking of these, I am really ashamed.However, I am still alive, receiving meticulous care from the victimized Chinese people, and living freely. On the evening of June 6, 1952, I suddenly caught a cold and felt uncomfortable.Before the bed was made, I quietly lay down on the bed.Even the partners around me didn't notice it, but the staff immediately came over and said to me: "What's the matter? Are you uncomfortable? Get some rest!" After a while, the doctor in the infirmary came, examined me carefully, took a blood test, and prescribed two injections for me.After a shot of penicillin, I thought about the past and felt really ashamed.Later, the staff came several times to ask questions.In the middle of the night, I suddenly felt a hand touching my forehead. I opened my eyes and saw that it was the doctor standing on the bedside with the staff.They were checking me up and giving me an injection.The same thing happened when I opened my eyes for the third time. "Why do I have to stay up all night to nurse me who has committed a felony?" I thought with infinite gratitude in my heart.Not only that, my stomach cancer was cured by a special treatment.I also had 16 teeth inlaid and glasses. On August 6, 1955, I had a toothache. After being diagnosed by a doctor, I received both injections and medicine. The next day, unexpectedly, the doctor came to see me early in the morning: "How is it? Does it still hurt!" "Today is Sunday, but you still don't rest" I was very grateful and sat up immediately. "Lie down, if it doesn't hurt anymore, the swelling has subsided!" He said happily.On the same day, he came again twice and gave me an injection each time. "Today is Sunday, who doesn't have a lot of things at home! Because of a war criminal's toothache..." Thinking of this, I couldn't help being moved by the noble heart of this female doctor who was about the same age as my eldest daughter, like a gentle mother, so I burst into tears. "You also want to become such noble people!" I sobbed as I wrote letters to the children in my distant hometown. In the past, due to the crimes committed by me and the Japanese militarists and fascists, the Chinese people suffered the disaster of their parents and brothers being killed.However, after the victory, they took care of me, a harmful enemy, in every possible way.When I think of this, as a war criminal, I can't figure it out. In February 1956, as a war criminal, I was allowed an unprecedented social visit. After visiting Shenyang, go to Fushun again.I went to a nursing home, "What a paradise!" As soon as I entered the gate, I thought in my heart.We also visited welfare facilities in schools, kindergartens, nurseries, residences, factories, and rural areas. We all sighed and said: Only when the exploiting people's country is eliminated can there be such human happiness! "No matter what kind of sacrifice we make, we cannot let the working people shed a single drop of blood." This is the proposition of the Communist Party and the people's government, which regard people as the most precious asset and cherish them.We lament that without a new social system, there can be no human happiness. Visiting nursing homes deepened our feelings.I visited an elderly person in a nursing home. This old man has worked for the Japanese monopoly capitalists for decades. All the coal he dug up was plundered by Japanese warmongers, who made cannons and warships, which in turn were used to invade China.This is an old man who survived many hardships in a cruel war in an inhumane social system. Seeing this beautifully decorated room and happy cultural life, and thinking that I once made an enemy of the Chinese Communist Party, which was fighting for the establishment of such a beautiful and happy society, and tried to prevent such a beautiful society from appearing, I was really sad. The old man's countenance changed as he spoke of his past life according to our hopes. "I am alone now. But in the past, I was not like this. In the second year of the Manchuria Incident, my nephew, who had done nothing wrong, and 8 other co-workers were killed by the Japanese devils in Pingdingshan. When I talked Seeing these things, I can’t bear it in my heart.” Tears were already glistening in the old man’s eyes. "Stop talking! That's too unfortunate!" After I finished speaking, I knelt down in front of him and begged, "Please punish me in any way you want!" Isn't it me who takes away the old man's happiness forever!Japanese invaders!Tens of millions of people have lost such a beautiful and happy life today!Faced with the fact that the old man felt uncomfortable and felt chest tightness as soon as he recalled it, I knew that even if I was hacked into pieces, the old man's hatred would not be solved! I feel pain, not only myself, but also the Japanese Emperor and the big chaebol who made me do this, and all the remnants of Japanese militarism, should be cut to death in the face of these facts. "It's difficult to talk about the past. The past is the past. You should study hard and fight for peace!" Seeing our tense expression, the old man spoke peacefully.This is the state of mind of an old man who, on the basis of hating and cursing the war, has suppressed his uncontrollable feelings of personal hatred and talked freely about his desire for peace! "Don't just think about personal affairs, but first consider the people's affairs." How well the old man said it!This is the mood of the 600 million Chinese people. This is not the truth! "A real person is one who abandons everything personal, thinks about the future of the nation, and unremittingly pursues the peace and happiness of all mankind." I clearly understand this from the words of this old man. I realized that in order to defend peace, the foundation of happiness, the only way I, as a war criminal in the Second World War, should go was to oppose wars that destroy peace and happiness, and to smash the plots of war provocateurs. The cruel war that I have experienced deeply must not be repeated on human beings again, and this is also my absolute responsibility as a war criminal. Author bio: Participated in the invasion of Kanto Prefecture in 1930. In 1940, he served as a general clerk in the supplementary and foreign affairs police section of the police department. In 1945, he served as the general affairs section chief and second section chief of the second section of the foreign affairs section, acting as an agent of the police department.