"The fighting is getting fiercer and fiercer, and I am afraid that my life will soon be over. Sacrificing my modest efforts to capture Nanjing, the capital of the enemy army, is the glory and pride of showa boys for life. I decided to charge forward, as a soldier, it was time to die, without the slightest hesitation or fear, to die decisively. I want to be the best warrior! ”
The above passage is a suicide note written by Toshiro, a veteran of the Japanese invasion of China, to his mother and brother before participating in the Battle of Nanjing, and this suicide note was sent back to Japan, preserved by his mother, and later displayed it in court when he revealed the brutality of the Japanese army, and was deeply ashamed of what he did.
After writing his suicide note, he followed the Ninth Wing of the Japanese Sixteenth Division regiment to cross mopan mountain and march into Nanjing. In his personal notebook" "Dong Shilang's Field Diary", He wrote: On December 9, we had arrived near the city of Nanjing, and at 7 o'clock in the morning, with the sound of a cannon, we launched a fierce attack, and soon captured the enemy's position.
As seen in many battlefields, the wounded of the enemy were abandoned in the trenches, and the pain caused them to cry, and soon this wailing would disappear, and the Japanese soldiers would not pity because they were wounded, and would not hesitate to stab their bayonets into their chests. But care must be taken, the enemy wounded are very cunning, they will take the opportunity to kill The Japanese soldiers, most of the time will use grenades to blow themselves up to kill and injure the Japanese soldiers.
Personal belongings and weapons of all kinds were thrown around, and they destroyed the cannons as they fled in order to keep us from getting these powerful weapons. The enemy army fled into the mountains, turned into a pursuit battle, the mountains were undulating, we would go down the hill, the next up the hill, exhausted, but also to watch out for the enemy troops hiding in the hiding place to put cold guns. Don't think that they are all cowards, they are not much worse than us, they are still not afraid of death when they fight, but it is difficult for them to meet good commanders, and when the commanders escape, their morale will quickly collapse and give us a clearly favorable war situation.
While crossing the third peak, he was suddenly strafed by machine gun fire from the hill on the right, and several soldiers walking in front were killed on the spot and several others were seriously injured. We did not dare to go any further, and hurriedly dragged the dead bodies down the mountain. This made us very embarrassed and angry, and we could only call heavy artillery to bombard the mountain.
In the afternoon, my squadron, in coordination with a squadron of the Twentieth Wing, went to several nearby villages to search for the "defeated remnants". The people in the village did not even escape, we gathered everyone together, all searched, and found a soldier's identity card on a middle-aged man, and the whole village was killed because of him, including the old man and the child.
During the search, the Twentieth Wing encountered stubborn resistance and caused heavy casualties. They vented their anger on the common people, and at least three villages were slaughtered. About a hundred young adults were captured and ordered to carry the dead and wounded Japanese soldiers. When they reached their destination, they were all killed. Many became tools for practicing bayonets or targets for shooting, and these unfortunate fellows did not even have a grave, and the bodies were scattered on the side of the road to rot.
On December 10, we marched a certain distance, very close to the Purple Mountain, still not getting food, and had to rely on the field procurement in the name of "requisition" to fill our stomachs, soldiers broke into local homes, rummaged through boxes and cabinets to find anything to eat, and if they resisted, they would be killed, and if they hid the grain, they would still be killed.
I stormed into a large, dilapidated house with twelve or three women and children, not a single man. They shrank into a huddle, their faces filled with unspeakable apprehension, resentment, and grief. Their slender, aging arms wrapped tightly around the bodies of their children and grandchildren. The little children did not dare to look at us, so frightened that they could not even cry, grabbed their grandmother's sleeve and buried their faces inside.
I actually sympathized with them, why is the war? Is it aggression aimed at territorial occupation? Soldiers found some rice in their rags, the food they used to keep alive, but we took it with great cruelty. Someone suggested burning the house down, and I waved my hand to ask them not to do that. Without food, they will starve to death, no one will care, this is war, life is so insignificant.
Reference from the English edition of Toshiro Battlefield Diary (THE DIARY OF AZUMA SHIRO)