On August 13, 1937, the Japanese army began to launch a full-scale attack on Shanghai, and on November 12, the Chinese Nationalist Army finally could not withstand the crazy attack of the Japanese army, and was forced to abandon Shanghai, retreat on all fronts, and Shanghai fell.
The home fell, and for the family of four of primary school teacher Yao Zhilu, the nightmare began.
Yao Zhilu
Not long after the Battle of Songhu began, the southern city of Shanghai where Yao Zhilu's family was located was soon occupied by the Japanese army. Wherever the Japanese army went, they burned and looted, and the people fled in all directions. Yao Zhilu had to flee the Japanese occupation zone with his wife Ma Fangzhen and two young daughters along with the flow of refugees.
However, under the gunfire of the invaders, nowhere was safe. Yao Zhilu's family could only flee to the third brother's house of his wife Ma Fangzhen in the French Concession.
The situation is chaotic, and no one has a good time. Ma Fangzhen's third brother, watching his sister's family of four fleeing naturally can't say anything, and can only say what everyone eats, and the days are getting more and more difficult. Yao Zhilu knew in his heart that the third brother's family was originally unsustainable, and now that he had added four pairs of chopsticks, it was naturally more difficult. I have no income, although the third brother does not say anything, but it is not a matter of "eating white rice" after all.
Yao Zhilu and his wife discussed many times, preparing to go to the interior to find a job to make a living, and then take his wife and children over when they were stable. Although Ma Fangzhen hesitated several times, there was no better way, and she could only let her husband go out alone.
A group photo of Yao Zhilu and her eldest daughter
One day in April of the following year, Yao Zhilu left Shanghai alone with 100 yuan, leaving his wife and two young daughters alone.
Yao Zhilu went to Nanchang, Wuhan, and other places one after another; although some cities in the interior had not yet been occupied by the invaders, they were also scorched earth, and enemy planes flew over the cities from time to time to bomb indiscriminately.
Yao Zhilu was full of anger at the atrocities of the enemy, but he had no choice. The 100 yuan was quickly spent, and he wanted to find the second brother and the fourth sister, settle down as soon as possible, and then take his wife and daughter to the family reunion.
However, after the Japanese army captured Shanghai, it did not end the aggression and atrocities, and continued to attack along the Yangtze River to the entire inland. Yao Zhilu's dream of family reunion was shattered.
The war was chaotic, the Japanese army invaded our territory, killed our compatriots, robbed us of resources, and everywhere was filled with an air of terror. It was normal for the Yao Zhilu family to be able to live happily together, but at this time it became a luxury, and the Chinese people's right to live was deprived by the Japanese invaders.
Yao Zhilu was plunged into endless pain. "Eating other people's food in vain" is uncomfortable; it is helpless to find a job; it is painful to see no wife and children, and it is humble to escape from war. Yao Zhilu, who was wandering around, could only write to his wife about his sorrows and homesickness, denouncing the atrocities of the Japanese, lamenting the impermanence of the situation, and scolding "being a person in a chaotic world is simply not a person."
Yao Zhilu's letter to his wife
Ma Fangzhen, who stayed in Shanghai, also had a very difficult time with her two young children.
Ma Fangzhen's third brother's family also has many children, and several children can only squeeze into a small room, and they have eaten the last meal. Ma Fangzhen tried her best not to add trouble to her brother, she set up a small stall on the street, went to the suburbs to sell rice, and tried her best to maintain the livelihood of the three people.
Once, Ma Fangzhen went to the suburbs to sell rice, and was caught by a Japanese ghost, who locked her up with another man who was arrested. Ma Fangzhen remembered the child and discussed escaping with the man. But the man was afraid of being caught by the devil and killed his head, and did not dare to run. Ma Fangzhen thought to herself, if you don't run, you will die here, there is still a chance to run out, and there are still children at home. She saw an opportunity and ran out.
Ma Fangzhen ran to her brother's house in one breath, and as soon as she entered the house, she passed out.
At this moment, Yao Zhilu also fell ill. He wrote to his wife: "The hospital here is not only small, but also the consultation fee is very expensive, not as bento as Shanghai, if you see it once, at least four yuan, can I afford it?" "Without you, my illness would not have been washed with a poultice so often that it would not have gotten better. If you haven't taken a bath in three months, you should know my bitterness" "On the one hand, I want to use it here, and you want to use it there, making the two heads and three counts helpless." ”
Ma Fangzhen looked at her husband's letter and could only tell her bitter feelings with tears. More than a dozen letters from the husband, the size of the paper is different, the texture is different, sometimes written with a pen, sometimes written with a brush, and also written with a pencil, which shows how difficult the husband's situation is.
Ma Fangzhen with her two young daughters
Two years later, Ma Fangzhen finally found a relatively stable job, washing bottles in a pharmaceutical factory. Washing bottles sounds like it's easy, but it's actually very hard, you have to do more than ten hours of work every day, you have to go to work before dawn, and you don't go home late at night. Two children, can only be the big to take care of the small, she can not take care of anyone.
Even so, Ma Fangzhen's salary is not enough to support a family of three. Every day, the three people just eat some porridge, there is no dish at all, if there is a dish, they also make some pickles. Three people huddled in a bed, the cabin was sweltering in the summer, and Ma Fangzhen slept on the street.
The two children usually dare not go out, for fear of encountering Japanese devils. Every time I go out, I am scared, even if I am sick, I can only stay at home, "if you are seen by Japanese devils, they will suspect that you have an infectious disease and bury you alive." Later, the children could go to school, and in order to avoid the Japanese devils, they took a long detour to school.
In two years, Ma Fangzhen never received a letter from her husband. She had only heard that her husband seemed to have died in August 1938. She never found out the exact time and place of her husband Yao Zhilu's death, let alone search for his remains.
No one knows how a primary school teacher, a husband, and a father went through the rest of their miserable and helpless lives.
This is Japan's war of aggression against China, which has caused great disasters to a person and a family.
Also, how many people, so many families? Are the heinous crimes committed by Japan in our country forgivable?