Soon after the Lugou Bridge Incident, the Japanese army invaded Baoding, Hebei Province. One night. Several Japanese soldiers went door to door with electric janes to search for women, and an ordinary man was killed by the fierce Japanese soldiers because he failed to hand over the women, annoyed the Japanese soldiers...
This is a letter from a foreigner documenting the bestiality of the Japanese army.
On July 7, 1937, under the pretext of the disappearance of a Japanese soldier, the Invading Japanese Army launched the "Lugou Bridge Incident", which launched an all-out war of aggression against China, followed by the fall of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi and other vast areas of Northern China, and the common people were in dire straits.
An overseas Chinese who remained in Baoding, Hebei Province, recorded the brutal beastly acts of the Japanese army in his daily diary. The original text is reproduced as follows:
I'll start by explaining it to a few friends who can see the letter. Since the Japanese army occupied Baoding, I have written a diary every day, titled "Records of Seeing and Hearing", mainly for my family to watch. There are a few things that I did not mention in my diary and would like to be described and criticized in this letter.
Let me describe a few specific things that I know best and in detail. It has been more than seventy days since the change of dominion here. So we've more or less left the real war zone, and we've also gotten out of the extremely tense, white-hot, chaotic, and commotionous scenes. In fact, in the last two months, there has been no major battlefield within sixty miles of our surroundings.
In the past seven weeks, there have been very few Japanese troops stationed here, often less than 2,000, and the movement of troops has not been frequent. The gendarmerie is responsible for maintaining law and order here. Less than a month after the Japanese occupation of Baoding, a considerable number of police units were established in the city, which still exist today, so the residents of the city still feel as safe as usual for most of the time. However, the following thing happened a few days ago, and it is not uncommon to hear similar things. Here's the thing; three Japanese soldiers entered a wealthy dwelling with only servants in the house, and the master had fled elsewhere. He collected many valuable antiques and various calligraphy and paintings. The Japanese soldiers honestly and unceremoniously picked up their beloved things and went away...
At the beginning of the week, we sent a clerk to a nearby village to visit the clerks of the cooperative, which we had facilitated. Japanese soldiers encroached on several houses in the village. At night, if the Japanese soldiers knocked on the door, the owners did not open the door immediately, they broke through the door. One night, a Japanese soldier went door to door with an electric jane to search for a woman. On that day, an old man was angry with the Japanese soldiers because he could not give up a woman, and he was beaten to death...
Most of the fuel used by ordinary people in winter is leaves, dry grass and grain straw, and rarely use firewood. The Japanese soldiers looked for firewood everywhere and roasted the fire. When the loose wood that could be used as firewood was used up, the Japanese soldiers dismantled the doors, windows, furniture, agricultural tools, and even the beams and pillars of the house and used them as fuel for ignition.
Today there was a woman in the shelter who was crying while talking, and one of her weaving wooden machines was also used as firewood for the Japanese soldiers. She said: "I live on the loom
Across the street was a courtyard belonging to the local church, and inside was a semi-Western-style house built thirty years earlier, so strong that they dismantled part of the paneling. Yesterday, we twisted those windows and doors down and moved them to our own yard. Also yesterday, a few Japanese soldiers climbed over the back wall and sneaked into our small patio courtyard, and when we realized that a tree five inches in diameter had been sawn off by them. Afterwards, when my American companions went to greet them, they also seemed a little embarrassed...
I did not add wording to these things to bring them to a climax, but merely to document the consequences of the war here. At this moment, I heard a true story: in the courtyard of Nanshou, not far from us, three tenants were beaten by Japanese soldiers because they had let their women go, one of them had lost his teeth, and the other had been injured in one leg and could no longer walk.
Are the things mentioned above inevitable consequences of any war? War may make this worse!
I don't want to curse the entire Japanese nation with some wording, I don't mean it at all, and I don't want to curse the entire Japanese army. From what we have seen and heard, there have been some Japanese soldiers and officers who have also shown good sympathy and human virtue, and I can cite many examples. A few people in the Japanese army told me personally that they didn't like to fight, but that "we have to obey orders." The meaning of this sentence is very obvious. Bound by the snare of a certain system, forced to go to war, completely deprived of their freedom, they do not know what it is for or what the outcome will be.
Oh my God, pity these people! Take pity on this old world that is still haunted by the evils of war!
Aren't we Christians helpless to save the madness of war? How far have we worked?
This letter is especially intended to be seen by a few relatives and friends who are closer. I hope that you will not burn the flames of hatred because of this, but I hope that this letter will enable you to carefully consider and disprove you when confronted with false and nonsensical propaganda...
October 20, 1937 in Baoding