Omura, one of the veterans of the Japanese invasion of China, joined the army in 1936, belonged to the former Japanese 39th Division, came to China with his troops in 1937, participated in many battles, and was the commander of the army when he was defeated and captured. In the prisoner-of-war camp, which was named "Japan's Unarmed Officers and Soldiers Management Battalion", he actively performed in his efforts to be repatriated to China at an early date. And what he did in the land of China from 1937 to 1944, in the form of a self-confession book, wrote a note, named it - my "merits".
One of the passages reads:
It was August 1943, and we were ordered to sweep up a village called Chuanxindian in Danyang County, Hubei Province. In fact, as early as two years ago, during the Battle of Yichang, this place had been occupied by the Japanese army. Half of the houses in the village were once requisitioned as Barracks for the Japanese Army, and all the nearby farmland was plundered as a self-sufficient farm for the Japanese Army, and although the land was still cultivated by the original villagers, the grain laid down was all owned by the Japanese Army. Now that two years have passed, the situation here has not changed in the slightest, except that the houses that were once requisitioned by the Japanese army are no longer inhabited by the Japanese army, and the grain is still continuously transported by the Japanese trucks in the mature season, leaving only some insignificant grains for the locals as food rations.
Having heard of the anti-Japanese armed forces that surrounded the hilly areas of the village, our task was to annihilate this armed force and show a little color to the villagers who had helped them.
At about 8:00 a.m. on August 23, 1943, we broke into the village with rifles, and many of the early peasants, seeing our sudden arrival, did not flee, scream, or kneel down to beg for forgiveness as we expected, but looked at us with wooden expressions and blank eyes, but continued to do their own thing. The reason why they are not afraid of us may be because they are accustomed to seeing the Japanese army.
Those skinny peasants wear rags and carry bamboo baskets to the mountains to dig up tree roots, they will take the roots home and mash them, then filter out the starch, mix with duckweed, wild vegetables, and miscellaneous grains and cook them to eat.
During the day, the troops rest in the village. When it was nearly twelve o'clock in the night, the brigade headquarters issued an order to attack the Baiyun Temple, asking all the members to act immediately.
With a faint starlight overhead, all the men set out, and since the dogs in the village had long since been eaten, there was not even a bark of the dogs, and the weak peasants did not care whether we stayed or went, all they asked for was not to be slaughtered or beaten.
Soon, we reached the peak of Yuquan Mountain, which resembled the back of an ox, where there was a very famous Yuquan Temple, where a Japanese monk with the name of Dharma propagated the Dharma practiced, and there is still a stone stele that records this event. Long before the Japanese army arrived in Dangyang, there were more than 300 monks in the temple, but now there were only 5 poor monks left, and when they saw our arrival, the 5 monks immediately crossed their knees and chanted the sutra, as if to tell us that they were indisputable monks and would not pose any threat to us.
Except for leaving a few soldiers as guards, the rest of the people continued to march in the night. About another 4 kilometers of walking, the footsteps became heavier and heavier, everyone was tired and breathless, and some people began to whisper complaints, and forced their backpacks to be carried by the new reserves. After taking a little rest, I walked a long way in a row and finally saw the shadow of the Baiyun Temple.
Captain Yamada lectured in advance, and after occupying the Baiyun Temple, he killed all the people hiding in the temple and the nearby villagers, and the women and children could not let go! The house should be burned down one by one, and all the livestock and poultry, oil, salt and rice noodles should be taken away!
Hearing this, I was so happy that I could finally grab whatever I wanted again, something I hadn't done in a long time. If you grab more things, you may be praised by Captain Yamada for your insight.
As early as when I was a recruit, Captain Yamada was my instructor, and after coming to China, I had never really killed anyone, and usually used straw people instead of real people for assassination training. During a sweep of a village in Xiaogan County, Captain Yamada, in order to exercise my courage, asked me to assassinate three peasants in front of him, one of whom was an old man who could even walk. At that time, my hands were trembling with fear, and I really did not dare to stab, but I was afraid that others would laugh at me as a coward, and in order not to make Captain Yamada angry, I stabbed desperately under everyone's gaze. In the four years since, I have long since ceased to be satisfied with the simple method of killing people with a bayonet, but have changed my tricks to torture people until they are completely tortured to death. In Jingmen County, I once beat a farmer in his 30s to a bloody hole with a wooden stick full of iron nails, and then tied him to a stone and threw him into the river. When I see him struggling in pain, I feel an unusual excitement and a sense of pleasure that I have never felt before.
It was because I kept killing people that I was promoted to the rank of commander (superior soldier of service), and I was given three elite armbands, and a long-term badge of public service, these "honors" drove me to become more violent and ruthless, and more and more fond of killing.
When the red sun rose from the east, it was also the time of our attack, and there were guerrillas hiding in the mountains three hundred meters away, who took the lead in firing, but soon retreated. After the hill was occupied, the signal soldiers fired signal flares indicating that they had occupied the enemy's position.
It didn't take long for the woman to howl like a tearing heart and lungs, and I knew exactly why she was howling, and I was used to it. Standing on a large rock, looking around, you can already see the smoke from the house after it was lit. The command squad came with an order to let us search the village.
Finally, when the time came to show my skills, I, as a veteran, broke into a large family with seven houses with a box of high soldiers and a few others, smashed the door of the house with all hands and feet, and stared wide-eyed in the dim room, searching for something of value, because the locals were good at hiding things, so they had to knock on the wall.
Just as I was tapping the wall with the butt of my rifle, suddenly a woman rolled out of the hay heap of the cowshed, holding in her arms a little boy who looked no more than two or three years old. Her sudden appearance was enough to startle me, and I shouted to the stupid Masuda First Class soldier standing by, "Kill her immediately!" ”
Masuda immediately stabbed her calf with the bayonet on his rifle, and blood gushed out in an instant. Masuda then smashed the butt of her gun on her head and back, and she lay on the ground, protecting the child with her weak back and letting Masuda beat her severely.
"Very brave!" I walked over to masuda, waved my hand to make Masuda stop, then kicked the woman the back of her waist and shouted in Chinese to stand up.
She obviously understood, but she didn't move, is this contempt for me? I grabbed her by the hair, picked her up hard, and ordered Masuda to stab her in the face, as well as the child in her arms.
Masuda hesitated and refused to move. I scolded loudly, "You coward? There's nothing to be afraid of killing a woman with bare hands! ”
Just then, the high-class soldier in the box ran over with a rifle, shouted "Let me come," and then plunged his bayonet into the woman's flank. The woman screamed and sat on the ground with the child in her arms, blood gushing out.
Masuda didn't seem to want the credit to be taken away by The Box, shouting "Ah, ah", and stabbed the bayonet, once, twice, three times, and then stopped.
The woman let out a heart-rending cry, and threw herself forward on the ground, the blood staining her clothes red, she held the child tightly with one hand, and the other hand grabbed the dirt on the ground, her head suddenly shook up and down, and the child pressed under her leaned out and cried, and the box stabbed the bayonet, and the child's crying stopped abruptly. The woman suddenly straightened her legs and did not move, and the mother and son died.
Seeing their pain and struggle, a wave of pleasure surged through my body, and I actually clapped my hands and applauded. The house was all set on fire, and three old men and a forty-year-old woman were thrown into the house on fire by us, and when we heard their screams, we sang a Japanese minor tune with a beat.
Just as I was about to leave with my men, Captain Fujii came over and ordered that the corpses in the village be collected and all covered with grass and burned. We were instructed to do so, and we looked up, our eyes full of flames, and the unpleasant smell of burnt paste wafted through the air.
This operation, there are still some gains, a total of thirteen cattle and two horses, as well as oil, salt and sugar, when resting, while eating the "fruits" of the robbery, while bragging about how many women we have captured and killed many people, this chaotic atmosphere makes people feel very comfortable, without the slightest shame.
The article refers to the self-confession notes of Ōmura Yuezo, a veteran of the Japanese invasion of China, and the pictures are taken from the Internet, and have no substantial relationship with the characters in the text.
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