There is such a veteran in the history of the Party in our country, who was a newly promoted company commander who fought with the Japanese army to the death, and finally was seriously injured because of the gap in firepower, captured by the Japanese army, transported to Japan for labor, and endured inhuman treatment for half a lifetime.
But in that land of bullets, he later led a thousand comrades to launch the Hanaoka Rebellion, which shocked Japan. After returning to China after all kinds of difficulties, he launched a lawsuit against Japan's atrocious acts of that year, and can be called "the first person to claim compensation from the people against Japan", and his name is Geng Zhen.
Unfortunately captured
Geng Zhen's life was run through by the misfortune of fate and the tenacity of the self, and he was born on November 6, 1915 in Xiangcheng County, Henan. His family was originally a scholar, and his life should have blossomed on the road to school, but when he was young, his family was robbed by bandits.
The ransacked family could no longer support his studies, and after only four years of private school and two months of study at Xiangyang Middle School, he was forced to leave school. In 1932, Geng Zhen responded to the call to join the army, and was promoted to company commander in the Battle of Xinkou, the Battle of Zhongtiao Mountain, and the Battle of Yuzhong for his outstanding military ranks.
In 1944, Geng Was ordered to sit in Luoyang, when the Japanese army gathered fire and was preparing to capture Luoyang. Geng's troops were on the offensive line of the Japanese army, and at this time their own troops were weak, while the Japanese army was well-equipped, not only with several heavy weapons, but even equipped with five tanks.
In the face of such a fierce firepower of the enemy, Geng Zhen still chose to stick to the end, even if he could not retreat with his whole body, even if he died on the battlefield, it was ten thousand times stronger than being a cowardly shrunken-headed turtle! In the fierce exchange of fire with the enemy, Geng's back, feet and even the pinna of his ears were injured to varying degrees.
He bathed in the battlefield, covered in blood, as if he had become a bloody man. A shell exploded near him, and the violent shock wave made him pass out in a trance. After this battle, more than 70 people in Geng Zhen's company were all killed, and his own life and death on the battlefield were unknown.
When Geng opened his eyes again, he found himself on a steamship that swung left and right, to be precise, a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp. The ship was home to more than 300 Chinese, all of whom were prisoners of war captured in the campaign. At that time, Japan launched a large-scale war against the outside world, resulting in a shortage of labor in its own country, and these people were transported to serve as labor.
Hanaoka riots
After arriving in Japan, Geng and his party were escorted to the Midoraka Island Group of the Hanaoka Mine in Akita Prefecture. There were more than 900 people here, and Geng Zhen was elected as the labor captain inside.
It was a fiery hell on earth, where they were treated inhumanly, and their thin clothes were extremely worn in the cold winter. Scattered like strips of cloth, a pair of simple straw shoes wrapped around their feet, but they could not stop the water on the ground.
The laborers endured the feeling of weakness from hunger as they endured the painful frostbite on their bodies. The ruthless Japanese army did not give a satisfactory answer to the problem of food and clothing, and the laborers were greeted every day with only the fierce whips that beat their skins and flesh, and the hunger that came from their bones made them look at Venus.
At that time, there was a laborer named Xue Tongdao, 23-year-old Xue Tongdao was a young man who was bouncing around before he came here, but at this time he was so sick that he could even walk and walk. On the way back that day, an old North Korean mother could not bear it and secretly handed him a small rice ball.
This made Xue Tongdao's heart warm, and he just stretched out his hand to prepare to take it, but a Japanese overseer immediately rushed over and knocked out the warm rice balls and slapped him hard.
After Xue Tongdao returned to the station that night, the construction workers bombarded this young man with all kinds of torture equipment in order to kill chickens and monkeys, and the leather whip made a grunting sound on him. The laborers on the side looked red in the eye, and one of them poked Geng Zhen and said, "Look what they hit, it's a bull whip, a sun-dried cow!" ”
Geng Zhen's long-term forbearance was on fire at the touch, and he finally decided not to endure it anymore, and it was better to let go of the long pain than to give it a go. That night he approached several other squadron leaders to discuss strategy. Hokkaido has been passing by Soviet troops all year round, and if the uprising is successful and they can flee to Hokkaido, there may be hope of survival.
Half a year has passed slowly, and more than 900 people are now tortured by them, and only more than 700 people remain, and this is their only hope. On June 30, 1945, he broke out an uprising, according to the plan, several laborers should take the lead in cutting off the power line of the Japanese liaison room, but they were discovered by the Japanese army, and in the battle, several laborers were not only killed, but also let the Japanese army sound the alarm, and the uprising was exposed.
In the panic, Geng Zhen had to flee to the mountains with the remaining laborers, but the Japanese troops, who had already beaten the grass and snakes, called on the local police station in an endless stream, and the army roughly estimated more than 20,000 people and surrounded them.
After a long period of abuse, the laborers were already weak and could not withstand the fierce attack of the Japanese army, and many of them did not even have the strength to commit suicide, and they were captured again under the surging attack of the Japanese army. The Hanaokayama riots caused an uproar in Japan, and the army was furious that it killed 418 people in three days.
Prosecution of Japan
When Japan tracked down the leader of the uprising, it was his own idea to come forward, and it had nothing to do with others, they just participated in it. On September 11, 1945, Geng was sentenced to death for wartime harassment. Geng Zhen was already calmly facing death at this time, but accidentally learned that Japan had now been defeated and surrendered, so he let him escape from death again and returned to China in November of the same year to heal his wounds.
In September 1947, when Geng appeared on Japanese soil again, he was a witness at the Yokohama Military Tribunal, accusing the Japanese of cruel mistreatment of the laborers in Hanaoka. As a result of the case, seven prisoners, including Masatoshi Kono, director of the post office, were sentenced to death.
Geng Zhen also continued to start his own life as a living in Henan, until the time flickered, and it came to 1885, when he was already 71 years old. But by chance, he saw the news of hanaoka survivors compensating Kashima for construction. As one of the survivors of the year, Geng Zhen also quickly joined them.
In December 1988, Geng organized other survivors to form the Hanaoka Victims' Association to formally file a complaint against Kashima Construction. In the midst of the dispute between the two sides, the Fraternity, represented by Geng Zhen, has maintained a tough attitude and demanded an apology and compensation from Kashima Construction.
On November 29, 2000, the Tokyo court announced a settlement between the two parties. But the 500 million compensation was paid in the form of donations, for which Geng Zhen always refused to receive, he righteously said, "This is a matter of moral bottom line, compensation is a confession, what is donation?" This is ultimately a linguistic confusion between black and white! ”
On August 27, 2012, Geng passed away at the age of 97. Until his death, the old man did not receive this compensation.
brief summary:
When he died cremated in 2012, more than two dozen pieces of shrapnel were found in his ashes, and the scene was filled with awe. And the old man is still sticking to his bottom line in this life and never crossing.
Unequivocal in the face of great right and wrong, taking the lead in the face of difficulties and obstacles, this is the fundamental reason why the old man is loved and respected by people, the hero has passed away, and the spirit will live forever!