During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the anti-Japanese armed forces led by the Eighth Route Army dealt a major blow to the Japanese army in the base areas behind enemy lines. In order to extinguish this anti-Japanese force, the Japanese army carried out a crazy "sweep" in the base area behind the enemy's back, and from 1940 onwards, this "sweep" became more brutal. In the "sweeping process", the Japanese army carried out the so-called "ember extinguishment operation", which is what we usually call the "three-light policy". Against this background, the Japanese army, Pan Jiayu, the center of the anti-Japanese base area in eastern Hebei, premeditated to create a terrible atrocity, that is, the Pan Jiayu massacre.
Panjiayu is a small village in Jidong District, located in Fengrun County, Hebei Province, surrounded by mountains, forested with fruit trees, rich in fruits such as longan and grapes, and is a beautiful and rich village. The village was founded in the second year of Yongle, the villagers have been recuperating here for generations, after more than 600 years of development, by the time of the tragedy, the village has 220 households, a total of 1700 people.
After the fall of Jidong, the villagers of Panjiayu persisted in the anti-Japanese struggle and developed into a strong anti-Japanese fortress in the eastern Hebei region. Of course, the Japanese army will not sit idly by, they have established many strongholds around Panjiayu, and they will come to "clear the countryside" when there is nothing to do. At the same time, the Japanese army also established a baojia organization here, issued "good citizen certificates" to villagers, and practiced "five consecutive sittings" and so on. The villagers in Panjiayu were quite backbone, not only burning the household registration books and good people's certificates issued by the Japanese army, but also resolutely refusing to hand over grain to the Japanese army. It is precisely because of this that it has aroused the extreme hatred of the Japanese army.
On January 24, 1941 (the 27th day of the lunar month), Sasaki Jiro held a meeting and conveyed the orders of the Japanese military department to prepare to encircle and suppress Panjiayu, with two main purposes: one was to fight the eighth road, and the other was to punish the common people. On January 25, before dawn, Japanese troops from Fengrun, Luanxian, Tangshan, Qian'an, Zunhua, and other places surrounded Panjiayu under the command of Sasaki. A few villagers who got up early to catch up with the market just bumped into the muzzle of the gun and became the ghosts of the guns. (Below: Jiro Sasaki discusses a treacherous plan with the traitor)
At seven or eight o'clock in the morning, the devil finally entered the village. They kicked at the door door to door, men, women and children, even those who were seriously ill and bedridden, and all rushed into a large pit on the west side of the village. The old mother of the villager Pan Ruide did not want to leave the house, and was actually cut in two by the devil; Pan Fengzhu's old mother was 78 years old, could not walk, and was hammered to death by the devil.
After the villagers were gathered in the pit, Sasaki Takasago stood up, preached a lie of "Sino-Japanese goodwill", and then forced the villagers to ask: "Who is the eighth road in the village" and "Where is the grain hidden?" Despite the machine guns around them, surrounded by Japanese troops, and each carrying a shining bayonet, the villagers did not respond, glaring at the enemy. (Below: Pan Family Compound Ruins)
The Japanese army was furious and pulled a young man out of the crowd, and the youth broke his mouth and scolded, and was immediately hacked to death by the Japanese army. Pulling out several more women, the Japanese army once again swung their sabers, killed them all, and cut open the stomach of a pregnant woman. Then more than 30 people were pulled out, poured gasoline on them and lit them, forcing them to run around and shoot them with guns; more than 30 young women, dragged into the sweet potato cellar by the Japanese army, raped and defiled, filled with corn stalks, and burned them all alive with a fire. (Below: Survivor)
At about 10 o'clock, Sasaki held a saber in his hand and said with a sneer, "It's too cold here, for the sake of Sino-Japanese goodwill, please go to the village compound and show you a good drama." Then, the Japanese punched and kicked, driving the crowd into the Pan family compound. The walls of the compound were high and thick, and the yard was covered with thatch, pine branches, corn stalks, and several machine guns were mounted on the walls. The villagers realized that the disaster was coming, and the crowd was in chaos in an instant, running around, but before they could run to the door, they were assassinated by the devils. At this time, the thatch, etc. thatch that had been poured with gasoline was ignited, and suddenly the flames burst into flames, and the crowd wailed in the fire and bullets. (Below: People burned to death)
Under the cover of thick smoke, Pan Guosheng and several other young people bravely seized a machine gun, but unfortunately they could not be used and died under the indiscriminate gun; Pan Shumi's old mother retrieved a grenade and threw it back towards the Japanese army, killing 3 Japanese soldiers. Pan Guokui and more than 10 other people braved the rain of bullets and bullets to open the north gate that was built with bricks and rushed out of the compound to survive; more than 30 people hid in a bungalow and blocked the door before the Japanese set fire, and also escaped. (Below: The marks left by the bayonet on the door when the Japanese army pursued and killed the villagers, survivor Zhang Fengyun)
However, most of the villagers eventually died tragically. In order to avoid the bullets, more than 50 civilians hid in the barn, and the fire burned down the barn, burying them all alive. In a middle passage in the west courtyard, more than 200 people were crowded, all of whom were shot by the Japanese army, and because of the density of people, many of them stood until death. In order to drive Pan Jiayu to extinction, after the little devils shot the villagers, slashed and burned them, they found that someone was not dead, and they threw grenades to blow up. There were many children outside the courtyard, and the ghost soldiers caught them and threw them into the fire; some of the children either trampled to death directly on the street, or provoked them with bayonets and threw them out hard; Pan Ruigao's daughter was torn in half by two devils.
After this catastrophe, a total of 1237 people were killed in Panjiayu, and more than 300 people survived. The piles of bodies that had been burned into charcoal and could not distinguish between men and women were gathered up and buried in 4 large pits, named "Meat Grave Mounds".
However, the terror did not frighten the bloody Pan Jiayu people, and the surviving Pan Shuping youth established the "Pan Jiayu Revenge Group" and vowed to pay the enemy's blood debts. On July 18, 1942, the revenge group set up an ambush in the Qian'angan River Trough, annihilated 150 Japanese troops, personally killed Sasaki, the mastermind of the Panjiayu Massacre, and avenged the villagers who were killed in Panjiayu!