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grandmother’s body in quilt and carried it to a small temple nearby. We found an empty coffi n but no lid, and
hurriedly put her body in and covered it with whatever things we could fi nd on the ground. We also put my
mother with her coverings in a one-wheel cart which we found. With me pulling the rope in front of the cart,
my father pushing and balancing the cart handles in the back, together with all my siblings, we fl ed Wu-Yi in
no time and went to a smaller village named Tang-Jing-Zi. We stayed there for about a month until after the
Chinese New Year. When my father heard that the city of Nanking and its surroundings were getting more
orderly relatively speaking, my father led us back to Wu-Yi. The Japanese military had left Wu-Yi already, and
we went back to the small temple, but could not fi nd great-grandmother’s body or coffi n. Maybe she had been
buried by others already.
Crossing the Yangtze River on a small boat back to Nanking, we saw many dead bodies bloated like
balloons fl oating around us, and the smell of the corpses from the upstream Ba-Gua-Zhou Island made me
feel like puking. These bodies were often the result of killing practices and competitions among the Japanese
troops, and many of the bodies were without their heads as decapitation was one of the Japanese’s favorite
execution methods. The walls of the city moat were covered with blood drops and bullet holes.
Numerous residents continuously came back to the city and everyone looked very worried. According
to the Japanese new rule, before entering the city, everyone must apply for this so called “good citizen ID”,
issued only after investigation by the occupying Japanese authority. Even with this “good citizen ID” on hand,
each resident when entering the city had to bow and present this ID to the Japanese soldiers guarding the city
entrance. If the soldiers detected any tiny bit of disrespect from the resident, they would slap his face or drag
him inside for torture. Furthermore, if the Japanese guards noticed any marks on the foreheads that might
be the result of wearing a Chinese soldier’s hat, the Japanese guards would conclude that the person was a
Chinese Nationalist soldier and would have pulled him aside for questioning or execution.
When we fi nally arrived home, we found that all the doors and windows were gone and the entire house
was ransacked. We settled in the house after tidying up the place a little, but started worrying about how
we could support our lives without any apparent means. My father asked me to go to this Hong-Zhi-Lang
fermentation factory and bought many fermented tofu and preserved vegetables at wholesale price and went
to the streets to sell to people, hoping to get some profi t to help support our family’s daily needs. I went all
over the city, but did not see many people out on the street. Instead, I often found dead bodies in the damaged
or destroyed houses. I did see people with Tong-Shan-Tang (a funeral house) logo on their sleeves moving
around searching for dead bodies.. Since by then my nose had developed this sharp sense of smell for dead
human bodies, including the ability to distinguish dead human bodies from other animals’ dead bodies, I often
helped them fi nd dead bodies in some overlooked areas and notifi ed the body-searching team where to dig.
For each such body I discovered, they would pay me one Mao (1/10 of a Yuan), while they would get one
Yuan from a local Chinese charitable organization. Within a period of three months, I helped locate about
one thousand dead bodies.
Although there were grave dangers posed by the Japanese troops in Nanking, many heroic acts were
performed by many people, including many foreigners (Germans, Americans, British, Danish, etc.) who were
living in the international zones in Nanking (at that time, many foreign powers had jurisdictions over certain
parts of Nanking). These Westerners set up an International Safety Zone and helped save about 200,000
Chinese from being killed and about 20,000 women from being raped. After the war, many retired Japanese
soldiers confessed and provided their criminal photos to the public. Also, many Japanese lawyers and people
volunteered to help the Chinese victims to fi le claims for reparation in Japanese courts.
In spite of the atrocities committed by the Japanese soldiers against my family, I am not seeking any
revenge, and do not hold any animosity against the Japanese people. The fact that I have become a Christian
has helped me to forgive the Japanese. I tell my three children and nine grandchildren that they must not hate,
but they must never forget this part of history. I don’t want this kind of things to happen again to anyone
else in the future.
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