Chapter 9 8. Memories from "Hotline"

Using the words of the victim as evidence, some people may say whether it was mixed with water, so isn't the "diary" that these Japanese soldiers wrote down in real time back then the most powerful factual proof?In fact, there were at least tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers who participated in the massacre as witnesses and perpetrators. Some of them did not take the crimes on the tip of swords and guns seriously, while some felt guilty all their lives, and some would never leave the battlefield again. I would like to mention this sin of the year in front of others, and some people confessed their sins in the way of "confiding" out of strong conscience and self-blame in the future, so these people more or less finally gained the inner peace. Some kind of release.The subsequent actions of these Japanese veterans should be respected and forgiven by the Chinese people.

Here, the author must introduce to readers the deeds of a Japanese woman named Tsuki Matsuoka.Matsuoka Tamaki was born in 1947 after the war as a Japanese teacher. After 1987, Ms. Tsuki Matsuoka began to study the history of modern Japanese invasion of China. The Nanjing Massacre incident touched the heart of this young and kind Japanese woman. Later, Japanese right-wing representative Shintaro Ishihara and other politicians continued to publish in Japan. Said that "the Nanjing Massacre was fabricated by the Chinese", out of a righteous conscience, Matsuoka Tsuki felt more and more strongly that she had a responsibility to let the Japanese people understand the truth of history, so at her initiative, in 1997 During the three days from October 10th to 12th, 2010, she set up a "Nanjing Massacre Information Hotline" for the former Japanese soldiers who participated in the Nanjing Campaign together with her companions in the "National Liaison Committee for the 60th Anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre". What Ganghuan didn't expect was that the "hotline" had an unexpected effect. Hundreds of veterans who participated in the Battle of Nanjing called in one after another, asking to "tell" the "those things" they experienced.This made Tsukasa Matsuoka very excited and moved. Since then, she has started a long and difficult work that lasted more than five years, which Zhu Chengshan, curator of the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall of the Victims in China, called a great work of "brave, unyielding, and indomitable" "—Interview with Japanese veterans.

"The old people are over 80 years old and are about to usher in the end of their lives. If the truth is not found out now, this period of history will be buried in darkness. Once the investigation is lost, what the Japanese soldiers actually did to the Chinese people during the peak period of the Nanjing Massacre Countless atrocities and the opportunity to obtain data to support them will never have a second chance." Tsuki Matsuoka's work began in this way, but it is not easy to do such a thing in Japan that is called "traitorous behavior" by right-wingers. "Although the investigation started, even if the old people were found, many of them did not talk about Nanjing, some were so stubborn that they even denied seeing the corpse, and some said that their troops did nothing. Except for repeated visits, they used enough There is no other way except intensive interviews.” Tsukasa Matsuoka did not give up, she continued to move forward, “During the repeated visits, the testimonies that touched the core of the Nanjing Massacre increased, and the former soldiers who assisted our investigation also appeared. We are courageous. We think that more testimonies must be recorded.” So we increased the number of interviews with former soldiers and went to various places in Japan to record interviews.

During the five years, Matsuoka and his colleagues interviewed more than 200 veterans, and they must interview clearly whether they stabbed to death Chinese citizens who did not use weapons and whether there were brutal acts such as rape.She often had to fight veterans and their relatives who wanted to deny the atrocities until they finally "speak the truth."Later, on the basis of interviews with more than 200 veterans, Matsuoka formally sorted out the personal narrative materials of 102 veterans, compiled them into a book and published them in Japan.Matsuoka looked around at his work as "there will be a gleam of light shining into history in the darkness".

In 2002, the Chinese version of "Nanjing War: Searching for the Sealed Memory—Testimonies of 102 Former Soldiers of the Japanese Invasion Army" edited by Matsuoka Tsuki was published by Shanghai Dictionary Publishing House, and Zhu Chengshan wrote a preface to the book. Matsuoka Huan's actions are very valuable. Out of high respect for this Japanese woman, Mr. Zhu Chengshan specially opened a column on the exhibition wall of the "Nanjing Massacre Victims Memorial Hall", introducing Matsuoka Huan's deeds and her life. Book. Therefore, the author also obtained the following precious materials: Japanese veterans recalled what they saw and experienced directly on December 13, 1937——

Furukawa Kozo (formerly the machine gunner of the 2nd Machine Gun Squadron of the 33rd Infantry Regiment of the 16th Division of the Japanese Army): Although we don't know the topography and detailed place names, we have gone to Xiaguan.I still remember Xiaguan.In order to get there, we (checked while looking at the map) passed by Xuanwu Lake, turned from north to west, and entered Xiaguan. In the fierce battle of Zijin Mountain, a large number of soldiers were killed in just three days.When we got off Zijin Mountain, there were many fellow villagers and friends in the alliance. When they met, they said to each other: "Ah, I'm still alive." This became a greeting.

After disembarking from Zijin Mountain, the squadron concentrated in Nanjing. After two or three days of peace, they received the task of "envoys", that is, to clean up the defeated Chinese soldiers.We carried heavy machine guns to the freight station at the end of the Yangtze River in Xiaguan.There was a long row of trucks filled with Chinese soldiers.Opening the car door, because it was overcrowded, even though it was an extremely cold winter, they were all so hot that they took off their clothes and were naked.This (scenario I) still remember.We got the naked soldiers who were weak and staggering out of the wagons, put them on rafts floating on the Yangtze River, and shot them with heavy machine guns.

The raft can carry twenty or thirty people.On the opposite bank, we pointed our heavy machine guns at the defeated Chinese soldiers on the rafts floating in the torrent.Some defeated soldiers jumped up with a "beep" and fell into the river, while many soldiers just drifted along the river.The machine gun shooting at the closest distance is of course a hundred shots.The defeated soldiers fell into the river in pain when they were hit.Who made the raft I don't know.The order from the headquarters of the brigade was sent to our No. 2 Machine Gun Squadron, and I was "commissioned" according to the order of the squadron leader.

A brigade has a machine gun squadron, a squadron has 4 squadrons, and a squadron has 2 heavy machine guns.I am the acting team leader, so I took 2 heavy machine guns to perform the task of "commissioning". I did the "service" two or three times, and each time I pulled the defeated Chinese soldiers out of the truck and put them on a raft to let them drift. I ordered the team to shoot with machine guns.Shoot multiple times at the drifting raft.There are all kinds of rafts, some are tied with iron drums and logs are arranged on it; some are made of timber.There are soldiers who make rafts, but it is the engineer team who make these things. The "cassation" was done for a short time of about one week or less than two weeks, but I still remember the experience of "cassation".The other troops did not tie up the defeated soldiers, and the weak ones were loaded on rafts like this. We just used heavy machine guns to shoot the defeated soldiers who floated past.

The defeated soldiers who were killed with heavy machine guns could not distinguish whether they were soldiers or civilians.Some were naked, some wore military uniforms like those of the Japanese army, and some wore ordinary clothes. It is unclear whether there were peasants among the defeated soldiers, but they were generally treated as defeated soldiers. It is said that in addition to using machine guns to deal with it, there are also landmines planted on the outer city wall, and the defeated soldiers will be concentrated on it, and hundreds of people will be killed when it explodes.After the fall of Nanjing, the task of our Japanese army is to clean up the defeated Chinese soldiers.In short, it took quite a while to clean up the defeated soldiers and did these things.In Nanjing, I heard a lot of incidents of other squadrons killing people in one way or another. This is called the Nanjing Massacre.We carried out such brutal missions, and that was real.

In addition to the use of machine guns and landmines, massacres have also been witnessed.Most of the new Japanese officers who participated in the battle, and most of the officers who were promoted from cadre candidates, became the second lieutenant of the official system (after receiving a year of training and became an officer), they became squad leaders. They often say "try to cut", The Chinese were arrested and beheaded in the name of defeated soldiers.In front of the soldiers, the leader of the new squad cut it, and said that it would be best to leave a layer of skin on the neck after the cut.I have clearly seen the beheading close at hand.Before the fall of Nanjing, I also saw several times, attacking villages to capture defeated soldiers, the team leader chopped off the necks of the defeated soldiers. Now that I think about it, I really did something too cruel to the Chinese.Mention such words, and the scene will be repeated in the dream.Until a few years ago, I had the dream of being chased by Chinese soldiers countless times at night.The dream was extremely scary, and I broke out in a cold sweat from the nightmare.Even in the middle of the night, my wife would often shake me awake and ask me "what's wrong".Thinking about it now, I will still be haunted by nightmares. Okawa Shunsuke (formerly the machine gunner of the 1st Machine Gun Squadron of the 33rd Infantry Regiment of the 16th Division of the Japanese Army): We shot at Chinese soldiers fleeing across the Yangtze with heavy machine guns.The Yangtze River is very wide, many people are fleeing, we shot from behind.I was a shooter, and because it was war, I shot.When the troops crossed the Yangtze River, I was in charge of covering shooting. I said it was covering shooting, but the other party never fired back.We "da da" to catch up with the shooting.We were the only ones shooting. ...the corpses of the Chinese who died in the fierce battle were lying everywhere... Yoshiji Sawada (former chemical defense unit of the 33rd Regiment of the 16th Division of the Japanese Army): On December 13, when chasing escaped Chinese soldiers down the mountain from Zijin Mountain, they saw many trampled corpses lying there, probably run over by tanks.Stepping over the corpse, our squadron pursued down the hill.Before entering Xiaguan, the road was full of dead bodies.The fall of Nanjing was captured by the fast-running troops first.The infantry advanced too fast and swarmed to the city gate at once. The heavy artillery and artillery behind them mistakenly attacked the infantry as enemies, so some soldiers were hit by friendly bullets. We followed behind, entered the city through the Yijiang Gate with a large city wall, and mopped up the defeated soldiers in the houses.Our command squad barely mopped up, but the other troops caught all the men who could be called men. "This is strange, this may be a soldier", he said while pulling and grabbing it and taking it to the warehouse.This kind of thing has been going on repeatedly. There is a row of large warehouses at Xiaguan Wharf, filled with captured Chinese men.Every warehouse is full of Chinese people, and there are hundreds of people in the crowd. After the sweep was over, we heard that the Chinese were going to be dealt with, so we ran to the pier to see how the Chinese were killed. At the entrance of the warehouse, there was a detachment of the 9th Squadron, about 10 soldiers, with two light machine guns, pointing the guns at the inside of the warehouse and guarding against riots.The 9th Squadron was responsible for surveillance, and the other two light machine guns were used to kill Chinese.Drag the men stuffed in the warehouse outside, let them run from the pier to the trestle in groups of five or so, and shoot from behind with a light machine gun.In other cases, about five people stood up and ran facing the pier, killing them all repeatedly in this way.The men wore local clothes, some work clothes.Good guys or bad guys, let them run from the pier and shoot them from behind.We said to each other, "Damn it."The Chinese who were shot jumped into the Yangtze River, so there was no need to clean up and let them go with the river. The banks of the Yangtze River were stained red by splashing blood.The Chinese sitting in the warehouse were being aimed at by two machine guns. The Japanese soldiers raised their hands "Oh", and asked the Chinese to stand up and run to the pier.Those who refused to obey the orders of the Japanese soldiers were definitely killed on the spot, and those who ran to the river were also shot. Those who jumped into the river may have a glimmer of hope of being saved, but the probability is extremely low. ... During the raid, the division issued an order that "every household must be raided. If the enemy is found to have sneaked into a house with foreign rights, an on-the-spot inspection can be carried out."The sweeping area is divided by the alliance.All the regiments participated in the mopping up, and we were ordered to go here and there, door-to-door on the corner of the street where we were assigned.They said they were arresting the enemy, but they didn't know who the enemy was, so they arrested all the suspicious men who could be called men.Go in everywhere.When we entered Yijiang Gate, we raided the area close to the edge. Dead bodies were scattered everywhere around Yijiangmen.Due to the fast attack speed of the Japanese army, the enemy had no gap to escape.Some of the dead bodies were wearing regular army uniforms, and some were wearing ordinary clothes, all kinds.Not only near the city gate, but even when they raided into Nanjing city, there were dead bodies lying everywhere.Not only our troops were mopping up, but other troops were also mopping up, so there were repetitions, and the Chinese who arrived first killed the Chinese.Sometimes I feel that there is no human breath in that house, and I see that all the people inside have been killed.There are also those who saw the Japanese stepping in and tried to escape, and were shot dead with a "bang" from behind.There are all kinds of things, very miserable, and it's really creepy to think about.Anyone who felt suspicious was killed, and the escaped people were brought and thrown on the pier in a murderous manner.The so-called Nanjing Massacre, what I saw was to let the Chinese run to the pier, and then shoot them all with machine guns from behind.The wharf is a big place, how many people can a warehouse hold?The Chinese sat there in the dark, probably hundreds of them.There are many such warehouses, and the number of them is astonishing.It is said that machine guns were used to kill not only them, but finally the warehouse was set on fire to burn them all to death.If so many people were all killed by machine guns, it would not take a few hours. ... The surface of the Yangtze River is slow, and the depths are rapids, and none of the Chinese soldiers who fell into the water can get up.I heard that there was a story of pouring oil on the corpses of Chinese people by the Yangtze River.There are so many people, I can't kill them all at once. (The number of people killed) was probably in the tens of thousands, because everyone who could be called a man was arrested.Only our squadron can't handle it, other troops can do it.The Nanjing massacre has always been a problem, maybe it refers to these.Many good people who were not soldiers were killed, and people whose occupations had nothing to do with soldiers were treated as soldiers, and the postman was also taken away.In Japan, there are many people who don't know, what do they think?Even those who had nothing to do with soldiers were captured and killed as soldiers. Shigeru Okazaki (formerly a private of the 1st Battalion of the 38th Regiment of the 16th Division of the Japanese Army): The 33rd Wing is the vanguard.At 12 o'clock that night, the 33rd Wing and the 38th Wing had a handover.There you can see the Peace Gate two kilometers ago.An order was issued from above, saying that three teams should go up and take down the Peace Gate.Behind us, the mountain guns and the regiment guns started firing. At this time, someone called me "Hurry up!" But people from the other two teams said, "If you rush too fast, you will lose your life. Let's rest here first." So , Only one of the three teams went up.I ran 50 meters after loading the LMG with 500 rounds.The bullets "snapped" from the city gate, we had scattered the shots, but some people were still targeted, and we sacrificed many people as a result.At that time, Nanjing was the first to fall to Hepingmen.And we are the ones who advanced the Heping Gate the most!We went in waving the sun flag. About 1,000 Chinese soldiers did not know that they came in from the city gate in four rows carrying military flags. We captured these Chinese soldiers, and then loaded the prisoners on trucks to Xiaguan, let them line up in four rows, and opened fire. killed them... In Nanjing, I beheaded five people.It felt like killing a fly.The trick is to leave the skin on the front of the neck uncut.We had them sit cross-legged with their arms folded over their chests, so when the head was chopped off they fell forward.They fell in the direction of the Purple Gold Mountain, which is equivalent to falling in the direction of the imperial palace in Japan.We also tied Chinese people to the pillars left by the burnt houses, and asked our subordinates to stab them to death with bayonets.The battle in the Dabie Mountains was fierce, with an average of one person killed and three injured.At that time, the 2nd Battalion of the 38th Regiment was completely destroyed, and 1,000 people were killed.We thought at the time that horses were weapons and soldiers were consumables, which was tragic.So we are more relaxed and happy when killing Chinese people than killing a bird.I thought at the time that as long as Nanjing was captured, Japan would be able to end the war. Tokuda Ichitaro (formerly a private of the 2nd Battalion of the 33rd Infantry Regiment of the 16th Division of the Japanese Army): On December 13th, at about 8:00 in the morning, they entered the Taiping Gate in Nanjing... The soldiers were not allowed to move unless they were ordered.I remember that the team leader said "kill all the men".After entering Nanjing, we were reminded that "places with foreign interests must never enter", because if we don't pay attention, international problems will occur.We only arrest men, because there is no order to arrest women, only to arrest all men.As long as it is a man, bring it for inspection. "I used to be a soldier," he said casually and was arrested.There are a large number of captives near the fire gate, all of them are panic-stricken.Then three or four thousand people were arrested at once, no matter men, women or children.Outside the fire gate, engineers laid piles on the right corner of the gate, and then built a barbed wire fence to enclose the Chinese people inside, with landmines buried underneath.Write "land mine" on the white paper to remind the Japanese soldiers not to step on it.We gathered the captured people there, pulled the fuse, and with a "boom", the mine was detonated.The corpses were piled up like a mountain.It is said that landmines were laid because it was too late to hit with rifles.Then, we boarded the city wall, poured gasoline on the bottom, lit it and burned it.The corpses piled up in a mountain are staggered and overlapped, which is very difficult to burn.Most of the people above are dead, but there are still a large number of living people below. ... The squad leader ordered the recruits to "stab the deadly knife", examine the corpses, and stab those who were still alive to death.I also stepped on the soft corpse to find someone who was still alive, and when I found it, I only said "this person is still alive", and then other soldiers came up and stabbed him to death.The bayonet slammed into the throat, and the blood spurted out like a spray of water, and the person's face turned pale in a flash.The scream of "ahhh" is often heard.The Chinese people are not easy to die.People from other squadrons are also there, and the squadron leader is also there. Our squadron mainly stabs the fatal knife.It was done on a squadron scale.The disposal of those corpses will be done by other troops, and they will be placed there for the time being.It is said that the corpses were tied together with wires and pulled by horses and trucks to Xiaguan for disposal.The mountain of corpses covers an area of ​​about 100 pings (one ping is about 3.3 square meters—the author’s note) if the size of the farmland is used. The prisoners in military uniforms were holding guns. When I went from the squadron to contact the captain at the rear, there were five or six prisoners there, so I said, "let go of your big gun, let go."After the fall of Nanjing, guns were vital to them, and of course they refused to put them down, so they fled towards Xiaguan.I thought they would be killed on the Yangtze River anyway, so I let them go.Many enemy soldiers surrendered.Because there were too many, I stopped contacting the brigade. When I came back, I arrested all the surrendered soldiers nearby and took them to the place where the engineers had planted the mines in advance.There were also some Chinese soldiers who changed into plain clothes and hid in the refuge, but they were all found out and dragged out later.Now that I think about it, I feel that they are very pitiful.Presumably there are other city gates, and there are people from inside the city and people from outside.Our troops only arrested and killed those near the emergency exit, and did not go to places too far away.We did pretty brutal things.I heard that the names of the dead Chinese people are engraved on the city wall of Nanjing, and I wanted to see it once, but I was afraid that it would be considered useless if I went, so I didn't go. I've heard of people being machine gunned down in Shimonoseki, but I haven't seen it.It is said that it was because there were too many people in China, and they could not be killed with machine guns in Xiaguan, so they were killed by detonating landmines at the fire gate. Yuichiro Shimomura (former artilleryman of the 33rd Regiment of the 16th Division of the Japanese Army): The most corpses are probably near the emergency exit.There is an enemy trench in front of the Taiping Gate, and a large number of corpses are buried in the trench.It was morning, and some "corpses" were still twitching.One can imagine the situation where the enemy fought against the Japanese army there. We dug trenches, covered the bodies with earth and buried them.Our vehicle units pass over there.Only the places where vehicles passed were covered with soil, and other places were left as usual, so the corpses could be seen.On the back of the mountain where there is no vegetation, the body is buried there, and the feet can be seen exposed.The corpses belonged to the Chinese, of course, all the Japanese had been dug up long ago, and after cremation they became remains. The trench is roughly 2.5-3 meters wide, and the length is unknown.The depth is roughly the height of a person, about 2 meters.It is not clear how much such a trench was dug. How many people were buried?No attention was paid to how many people were buried there.We're tired and shaky.It is said that the 6th Squadron killed a large number of people at that time. When I passed the fire gate, I saw the city wall, and the trench was probably near there.There are no other troops, just our squadron.For some reason, it seemed that the captives were not disposed of there.Since I haven't seen the actual situation, I don't know.But, I'm afraid that's it.A part of the corpse seems to be still twitching... When citing the materials of these Japanese military parties, I once thought about whether to use the third person to make "literary" narration of what they said. Later, I found that no matter how "artistic" or "real" I was, I was no match for the executioners. As vivid and bloody as I personally told it... War can change human nature, and war makes criminals not feel guilty. This is the greatest tragedy.In addition to knowing the "real scene" of the first day of the Nanjing Massacre on December 13, 1937 from the dictation of these veterans, we can also clearly feel and touch the spirit of these executioners when they killed our Chinese compatriots. The carnival, the peace, the spontaneity, the deliberation, the numbness.There is nothing more terrifying than this.This is war.This is the battle with the devil.This is the tragedy of a failed state. Well, there is no need to take out the "memories" of Japanese veterans one by one as the "Japanese" proof of the first day of the massacre.The "memory" of these people above alone is enough for us to see the cruelty and hysteria of the Japanese mobs! In fact, the "oral" histories of 102 former Japanese veterans provided by Ms. Matsuoka are just a few tributaries of the Yangtze River water that was stained red by the corpses of Chinese defenders.The real blood flow is permanently hidden by another memory person, it is the city of Nanjing——