Inside Story about Misery of Survived Chinese Laborers in Japan during WW II Disclosed

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, January 18, 2002

Inside Story about Misery of Survived Chinese Laborers in Japan during WW II Disclosed

After the outbreak of the Pacific War, we had been toiling as slaves in a Japanese coal pit for two full years and were subjected to inhuman treatment, the bone ashes of many of us had not been brought back to their homeland, we will tell the truth of history to the world people.

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After Japan's surrender in September 1945, survived Chinese laborers in Japan finally returned to their homeland.

In January this year when the name list provided by a Japanese friendly group appeared in the media, children of the survivors and some survivors themselves finally came out and declared to the people: After the outbreak of the Pacific War, we had been toiling as slaves in a Japanese coal pit for two full years and were subjected to inhuman treatment, the bone ashes of many of us had not been brought back to their homeland, we will tell the truth of history to the world people.

"The Boat Is Bound for Japan, I'm Finished!"

He was the first Chinese laborer who died at the hands of the Japanese. His name had been forgotten, But everybody knew he was called "Little Guangdong". He had a fiancee who worked in the Shanghai Daxing General Merchandise Company.

Survivor Wang Jianyi, 89, told the reporters: At that time there were about 2,000 Chinese laborers on the 10,000-ton-class Daiyumaru transport ship, many of them were Shanghai natives, come were unemployed workers from printing shops and machinery plants, some were pig head meat peddlers, some were bankrupt businessmen due to gambling, others were young job-seekers from elsewhere to Shanghai. In August 1943 when the anti-Japanese war was drawing almost to an end, Shanghai's economy was rapidly declining, many enterprises went bankrupt one after another, leaving many young people unemployed. A Japanese labor bureau put up street notices on recruitment of workers everywhere, offering luring settling-in allowances and providing two meals a day. Around that time, some 2,000 Shanghai workers signed up, the work place was said to be in Dalian.

Wang Jianyi recalled that it was at midnight when "Little Guangdong" jumped into the sea, Japanese policemen on the boat still discovered that a pair of "Little Guangdong's" cloth shoes were neatly placed on the well-lit deck, beneath which was a slip of paper bearing the words: "The boat is bound for Japan, I'm finished!"

"Bound for Japan!", this sad news began to spread like pestilence among the laborers, on the night of August 13, 1943, the 2,000 Chinese laborers spent the fearful night on the transport ship loaded with iron sand, no one knew what kind of fate they would face.

A Thin Cotton Blanket Used for Two Years

Around 350 Chinese laborers got down the ship at Fukuoka after 17 days (the rest went to Hokkaido Island), they were divided into seven groups, with Xu Miaofa being appointed as deputy leader of the third group. Xu said, on the day when they got down from the ship, they as group leaders were given a treat of Japanese roast meat, then they were asked to see a film, but since then they had had no more taste of meat dishes.

The work site of Otani Coal Mine was a place in the size of a middle school playground walled by wooden boards. All Chinese laborers were arranged in one and the same dormitory, and each worker was provided with only one thin blanket.

"It was such a thin blanket that we had used for two full years!", said Xu. We had 47 brothers, most of them, in fact, died from hunger and cold! Xu was unable to remember many of their names, but he did remember many of the Chinese laborers who were as vital and vigorous as dragons and tigers when they alighted from the ship, but later they trembled and ran a high fever inside the blankets, the next morning they were found to be frozen to death when their blankets were lifted.

They did eat two meals a day, what they ate were two lumps of rice plus some dried turnips, or ate some rice flour. Before daybreak every morning, they went to work down the pit, they wore work clothes, they could not return until after working for 12 hours when the sun set downhill, repeating this process again and again.

The pit was full of danger, but Xu said from another perspective, inside the pit it was still relatively safe, the Japanese regarded coal as more important than the lives of the Chinese, so the safety measures inside the pit were rather strict, the mine was, however, dangerous after all, many brothers had died in the mine, when a lump of coal fell down, people in the mine were crushed to death there, even their skeletons could not be found.

In an effort to demonstrate humanity, the Japanese set up a clinic by the dormitory,which simply could not treat internal diseases, the only thing it could do was to bind up the wound and reduce inflammation. A worker who had a minor trouble and had an injection in the clinic, but the next day he died for no reason.

The death of a Chinese laborer meant, for Japanese manager, only one person less when the latter made the roll call the next day, but for Chinese laborers, it meant they saw those by their side passing away day after day, they had thus gradually become indifferent toward this. Xu told the reporters he once carried the body of a dead brother to cremate, when he put the bone ashes of the dead into a wooden casket, he thought to himself: "I, too, will definitely die in Japan."

"I was Almost Beaten to Death"

Chinese laborers had never ceased escaping from the day of their arrival in Japan, but the Japanese cruelly punished the escapists. There was no way out for those running away from the coal mine. First of all, if they were caught they would be savagely beaten by the police; secondly, even if they succeeded in running away, they had no hiding place, they would finally be discovered by the Japanese who reported this to the police; thirdly, even if they succeeded in escape they could not leave Japan, and could only hide themselves in deep mountains to be "wild men".

The first large-scale escape occurred in the Otani Coal Mine was a six-men group who ran away together, that was the most successful escape, with three of them running away, but their whereabouts were unknown till this date, the other three were seized and were heavily beaten in the face of all other laborers. Since that time, the Japanese had begun to install electrified wire nets near the coal mine, and arranged pickets and policemen on duty there.

Wang Jianyi told the reporters it was a tree-less sulfur mountain around the site of the coalmine. In hot days, the mountain top began smoking, sometimes Chinese laborers stared at the mountain blankly thinking of their native place, or they would think of their escaped brothers, wondering at which corner they would hide themselves in the mountain, or whether they had again been caught by Japanese policemen.

Since they were unable to run away, those still alive became particularly united, and they looked with hatred upon renegades who informed against them and helped the Japanese. Xu Miaofa said a brother who could not go to work for sick, when this was discovered by the Japanese who questioned Xu, as a deputy group leader, about the reason for the worker's absence, Xu said, "I'm the group leader, I have the right to decide whether a sick man need to work or not." When the Japanese raised his hand to beat, Xu turned around and ran away. Xu and another group leader Chen suspected that the laborer in charge of accounting who informed against them, so the two group leaders led several other brothers to teach that man a lesson. As a result, that very night, Xu and Chen were led to the office of the Japanese, where they were given a sound beating by several policemen with iron rods. Then they were dragged back to their dormitory. Later, they discovered that group leader Chen's buttocks were beaten black and blue, while Xu was also badly battered.

The following day, Chen could not get up, Xu also got the trouble of lumbago.

Carrying Bone Ashes Caskets Back Home

At that time, changes had begun to take place in the war situation. The United States carried out bombings of Sukuoka, cities and towns were almost reduced to shambles, while the excited Chinese laborers heard airplanes roaring past. Later, the laborers recalled it was possibly the day when Mikado-emperor of Japan issued the letter of surrender, all Japanese, including policemen and foremen, stood on the playground, with their heads lowered and eyes filled with tears. Then, the Japanese stealthily withdrew, followed by American soldiers' jeeps driving in and out of the mine site until the time when a Kuomintang officer appeared, it was only at that time that the laborers who had experienced two full years of inhuman life came to know they could leave this devilish place one and for all.

When Xu, carrying with him several bone ashes caskets, stepped into the ship leaving Japan, he told the reporters: "My feeling at that time was: I came home alive at last."

By People's Daily Online

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