On December 12, 1937, the Japanese army surrounded Nanjing on three sides, and Tang Shengzhi, commander of the Nanjing garrison, ordered 150,000 defenders to retreat, and the original policy was to "cross the river in one part and break through most of them". However, after arranging the retreat task, Tang Shengzhi added a deadly nonsense: "If conditions permit, each department can cross the river to break through on its own."
Tang Shengzhi's nonsense led to the retreat of the defending troops becoming "most of them crossing the river, one part breaking through." Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians rushed to the vicinity of Shimonoseki, and as a result, the river crossing boats had already been burned in advance, and a large number of soldiers and civilians turned back to the city. On December 13, the Japanese army captured Nanjing, and the Japanese army began to search and kill potential civilian soldiers in the city, resulting in the brutal massacre of 300,000 soldiers and civilians, known in history as the "Nanjing Massacre".
Old man Zhang Xiuhong: A sad past
The Nanjing Massacre was not just a massacre, the various atrocities of the Japanese army were frequently staged for 6 weeks, and the city of Nanjing became a purgatory on earth. In 2007, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre, an old man, supported by his daughter-in-law Jiang Jinlan, came to the scene of the memorial service, and she broke the silence that had been tightly guarded for 60 years and told a heartbreaking past:
The old man's name is Zhang Xiuhong, and his breast name is Hongzi. When the Japanese army captured Nanjing in 1937, Zhang Xiuhong's home was in the area of The Double Gate of Shazhou Wei in Nanjing. After the Japanese soldiers entered the city, the whole city was full of scattered soldiers and desperately fleeing people, and the whole city was panicked, and people were running around like frightened birds, not knowing where to live.
In order to avoid the Japanese soldiers, the parents fled with their sister in advance, and Zhang Xiuhong and her grandfather stayed behind to watch the house. After the Japanese soldiers entered the city, they set fire to the three wooden houses of Zhang Xiuhong's family. There was no way, Zhang Xiuhong had to "run back" with her grandfather. The two grandfathers hid in the field day and night, brought some rice to cook, put it in their pockets after the meal was ready, and ate a little when they were hungry. Hearing that the Japanese were killing people everywhere in the city, Zhang Xiuhong and grandpa did not dare to go home.
The grandfather and grandson hid in the field for more than 10 days, because there was really no food, the grandfather returned home with Zhang Xiuhong to see if he could find some food cushions for the stomach. The family's three houses had burned to ashes, and the ground was littered with corpses. The Japanese soldiers went around in groups of three and five in groups to catch baby girls. In order to avoid the capture of the Japanese army, many female dolls used pot ashes to paint their faces, and some families hid the female dolls in the grass piles in the fields.
"If I don't go, we'll both die."
When the Japanese soldiers "swept up", they raised their bayonets and stabbed them into the haystacks one by one. Some of the female dolls were stabbed, and when they couldn't stand the pain, they ran out, and after being caught by the Japanese soldiers on the spot, they were thrown on the grass and burned. At that time, many female dolls were burned in the grass like this, which was very tragic. The grass pile is not safe, more people hide the female doll in the reeds, and Zhang Xiuhong is also hidden in the reeds by her grandfather. Zhang Xiuhong clearly remembered that there were forty or fifty female dolls hiding in the reeds around her.
At first, the Japanese soldiers did not find them, but they were discovered a few days later. The hateful Japanese soldiers lit a fire in the reeds, the girls cried and shouted, and Zhang Xiuhong and the two female dolls dived into the water to escape. It was winter, the ice water was extremely cold, and they struggled to swim across the other side in the ice water and escaped the disaster. Most of the female dolls who did not venture into the water were burned to death in the reeds.
Zhang Xiuhong escaped from the reeds, and she fled home to be with her grandfather. Soon several More Japanese soldiers arrived, and the Japanese soldiers saw Zhang Xiuhong, who was soaking wet, and wanted to drag her away. The Japanese soldier shouted "Saihu, Saihu" as he reached over and grabbed her. Grandpa begged them that the child was too young not to hurt her. The Japanese soldiers did not listen, and stabbed their grandfathers with bayonets and bled them straight to the blood.
Zhang Xiuhong cried and knelt down, and she said to her grandfather, "If I don't go, we both have to die, it doesn't matter if I die alone, but I can't let you die with me." Then, Zhang Xiuhong was dragged by the Japanese soldiers to a bed in the next house. Zhang Xiuhong was in pain to die and come back to life, and after the Japanese soldiers left, Grandpa hugged her and cried: "Hongzi, you saved me!" You suffered! ”
Endure the humiliation and steal, the devil survives now
At that time, food was a problem, let alone medicine, so Grandpa had to tie her legs tightly with a rope to help her heal her wounds. But not long after, the Japanese soldiers came again. This was the most painful experience of Zhang Xiuhong's life, when she was only 12 years old! After the Japanese soldiers left, a neighbor came up with the idea to help her shave her hair and pretend to be a boy, and told her to learn to talk to boys to get rid of the disaster. When the Japanese soldiers returned, they saw that Zhang Xiuhong had shaved her hair and spoke like a boy, so they did not drag her away.
During that time, Zhang Xiuhong personally saw the Japanese soldiers pulling dozens of girls, getting a basin of water, and forcing the girls to wash away the ash and mud on the bottom of the pot on their faces one by one. Then pick a beautiful pull away, those who do not obey will be stabbed with bayonets, and some girls will be killed on the spot, and those who are not beautiful will be killed by the Japanese army with machine guns on the spot. Such an experience, Zhang Xiuhong witnessed several times, and many people's female dolls died under the atrocities of the devils.
The Japanese youth knelt down to Zhang Xiu
Not long after Zhang Xiuhong shaved her head, the Japanese soldiers did not let her go, she was arrested by the Japanese army to work, carrying soil, carrying water, and lifting stones. Zhang Xiuhong could not move, and was stabbed with a bayonet by the Japanese soldiers and beaten with the butt of his rifle. Zhang Xiuhong's left leg is still in pain when it is windy and rainy. In order to survive, if you can't stand it, you have to endure it, and at that time, in order to be able to live, you can endure any pain.
Zhang Xiuhong survived in this way, but the damage caused to her by the Japanese soldiers was a lifetime. After the end of the War of Resistance, Zhang Xiuhong's parents returned to the city, and the whole family lived on this relief. At the age of 20, Zhang Xiuhong married a young man who was also a survivor. But what pained her most was that when she gave birth to her son, because of the trauma she had suffered that year, she gave birth to his son for three days and three nights. From then on, she could never have children again, and the doctor said it was a miracle that she was able to give birth to a son.
Later years
In her later years, when Zhang Xiuhong told the atrocities of the Japanese army, some Japanese youths knelt down on the spot and asked for forgiveness. Zhang Xiuhong has repeatedly told her own experience in public, as a testimony of the atrocities of the Japanese army in the Nanjing Massacre, she hopes that her testimony can restore that sad history, so that future generations can remember history and never repeat the same mistakes.
On December 19, 2016, Zhang Xiuhong died in Nanjing at the age of 90. The experience of the elderly Zhang Xiuhong is still heart-wrenching to read, and her experience will always wake up future generations: think of danger in peace and cherish peace.