Before reading the report, I brushed a photo of a small soldier of the Myanmar Expeditionary Force. The kid in the photo is only a teenager, wearing a tattered military uniform, marching to the camera, smiling brightly. But the people who saw his smile were all carrying a hint of sadness.
Who is he? What's his name? So young on the battlefield, is there a chance to come back alive? At that time, many netizens left a message under the photo saying that if he was still alive, the relevant departments should treat him well.
Later, no one expected that this baby soldier could be found, and his name was Chen Youli. Chen Youli was able to be found thanks to his complete files. Chen Youli joined the army in 1944 at the age of twelve.
But the person I want to talk about below is not him, but another anti-Japanese hero who joined the army in 1944. He was an old farmer in Shanxi named Hao Zhiquan. In 1944, at the age of 16, Hao Zhiquan joined the Eighth Route Army until the liberation of his hometown of Shanxi.
He was a hero who participated in the War of Resistance Against Japan, but because his files were destroyed, he could not prove his identity and did not get the treatment he deserved. So, he can only point to the photos in the museum and tell others: I am the person in the photos.
I. "You see, he is still wearing the uniform of the Eighth Route Army."
Before writing this article, I mentioned about the elderly Hao Zhiquan with a Shanxi friend, and the Shanxi friend was surprised to say that this person was not the person in our local museum!
This person's name is Hao Zhiquan, born in 1928, and he should be 92 years old this year. He has a photograph of himself wearing the uniform of the Eighth Route Army when he was young, preserved in the "Yushe County Fossil Museum", with a total of four people in the photo.
According to elder Hao Zhiquan, the man sitting was their battalion commander, Hao Sancheng. And the one standing taller to Hao Sancheng's right was himself. Unfortunately, due to the age and overexposure of the photo, the face in the photo is very blurry and difficult to argue.
It can only be faintly seen from the silhouette that it was a young man with a square face and big ears, and the silhouette was somewhat similar to Hao Zhiquan today. Except for this photo, Hao Zhiquan could not produce any proof. Because all his archives were destroyed during the special period.
Hao Zhiquan joined the army in 1944 when he was 16 years old, and his unit was the 14th Regiment of the 385th Brigade of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army, and his battalion belonged to the "Yushe Independent Battalion". At that time, it was well-known in the army and was a well-known model battalion.
Hao Zhiquan followed his old superior Hao Sancheng and fought from the age of 16 to the age of 21. He once participated in the Battle of Taiyuan and fought against the Japanese mercenaries under Yan Xishan, the "King of Shanxi". In order not to be a slave to the country, Hao Zhiquan, when he was a teenager, wanted to join the army.
However, he did not have the opportunity to go to war until he was 16 years old, and the next year, the devil surrendered. However, I did not expect that when Taiyuan was liberated later, they still had the opportunity to confront the devils.
At that time, in order to defend his own territory, Yan Xishan built 6,000 pillboxes in and around Taiyuan City according to the mountainous terrain. In interviews with foreign reporters, 500 poison capsules were publicly displayed. There was a clamor, vowing to coexist and die with Taiyuan.
If the People's Liberation Army wants to invade Taiyuan, it is not easy to talk about it. If you attack hard, the casualties will be very heavy. Seeing that victory is imminent, it is obviously not advisable to use flesh and blood to "pile" victory at this time.
The battle was particularly fierce, and Hao Zhiquan and the Japanese mercenaries confronted each other. However, under the fierce offensive of our army, Taiyuan was successfully liberated. When Taiyuan was liberated, Hao Zhiquan was only 21 years old.
So he stayed in the army for another year. Later, Hao Zhiquan returned to his hometown and became an ordinary person, and his heroic deeds were thus dusted off until the events mentioned at the beginning of the article happened.
Second, how difficult is the "proof of identity"
According to Hao Zhiquan, after he returned to his hometown, the archives remained in the county archives. However, because of the destruction of the four old, the archives were robbed, and his archives were burned in a fire.
At present, the relevant departments have preferential treatment against Japanese veterans, but he cannot produce files to prove that he participated in the anti-Japanese resistance. For this reason, he began filing complaints many years ago.
"Fighting devils" is a very proud thing for Hao Zhiquan. He joined the army at the age of 16 in response to the call to fight devils and not to be slaves to the country. Later, by chance, he fought the devil twice on the battlefield.
The first time was in 1944 when he joined the army, and the second time was when Taiyuan was liberated. This is really important to him, even if he can't be treated, even if it can prove that he really "beat the devil".
However, he appealed everywhere, and the reply was that he had to see the original file, otherwise he could neither be treated nor proved his identity. Later, when a reporter learned of what had happened to him, he went to interview him and asked him what else he could prove his experience at that time.
The old man mentioned that he had a picture of "being taken away" by someone. This photo is the one mentioned at the beginning of the article, which was preserved in the Yushe County Museum.
The old man said that when Yushe County wanted to open a museum, they wanted to find some photos of company commander Hao Sancheng. Hao Sancheng is a great hero of Yushe County, but the museum cannot find Hao Sancheng's photo, and they heard that Hao Zhiquan's family had it, so they asked him to take it.
Now Hao Zhiquan can only point to the photos of the museum and say to others: "Sitting in the middle is our company commander, and the person standing on the side is me", "You see, still wearing the uniform of the Eighth Route Army."
epilogue
The 92-year-old Hao Zhiquan is a person who has come all the way from the war years, and anti-Japanese heroes like them, because the archives are stored in the relevant departments, the result is that they are burned and lost in special circumstances.
Some of them can also prove their identities through their own units and comrades-in-arms, but unfortunately, people in the same unit as Hao Zhiquan have either died like the company commander or have no way to contact them. In fact, at that time, there may not be a few situations like this.
When I first heard this story, I was still thinking: Now that the face recognition technology is so strong, by scanning the bones of the face on the photo, it should be possible to determine that the person in the photo is him.
In addition, who went to his house to find a photo at the Yushe County Museum, this person should also be able to find out. However, after looking at the photo, I realized that I was wrong, and the facial features of that photo were too blurry.
Still, I always believe the story is true. The soldier of the Eighth Route Army above the photo, with a square face and big ears, looks at the silhouette and must be the old man Hao Zhiquan. Otherwise, how could he have been complaining since he was in his early 60s and for many years.