We are saddened to learn that Ruan Xiuying, a survivor of the Nanjing Massacre, passed away on May 31 at the age of 90; and Yang Jingqiu, another survivor, passed away on June 1 at the age of 94.

Ruan: Escaped from Death at the Hands of Japanese Soldiers Three Times

 “My father and I were fleeing from Nanjing after the Japanese troops invaded the city in 1937. We got onto a ship at Shuiximen. After a while, the ship pulled up, and four or five Japanese soldiers searched the ship with a big flashlight in their hand. My cousin, the son of one my uncles, was also on the ship. He was just eighteen or nineteen, but the Japanese soldiers said he was a Chinese soldier because there were calluses on his hands. Then he was killed with a single shot.

In spring the next year, we returned and found the Japanese soldiers had burned all of our houses. There were a dozen or so. We had to live in a thatched cottage nearby. One day, I met a Japanese soldier outside. He stuck his bayonet into my head. I put my hands over my head. It started bleeding down my face and I couldn’t even see. That left a big scar on my forehead.

Another day, I was searching for snails in the river. Suddenly some Japanese soldiers fired machine guns at me and almost killed me. I was so scared that I carried my bucket and ran home immediately.

The third time, my father and I were caught by the Japanese soldiers. I remembered I was holding my father and crying. The Japanese soldiers kicked us to the ground and put two machine guns there. They almost killed us. Later after they left, we managed to stand up and walk slowly.

At that time, the Japanese soldiers didn’t even treat us as equal humans. We were just taking it one day at a time. So I feel so lucky to live in a peaceful time now. Life in the past was so hard.”

Yang: Her Father and Elder Brother Were Taken Away by Japanese Soldiers

 “My father graduated from the Huangpu (Whampoa) Military Academy. I had never seen him or heard my family talk about him since he was caught by the Japanese soldiers when I was five. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, I spent more than a decade searching for my father. But I only found an alumni book when he studied at the Huangpu (Whampoa) Military Academy and knew that he graduated in 1925. My whole family relied on my father to support us. So after he was captured, we lived in misery. My ailing mother fainted on hearing the news, and my grandmother was so overwhelmed that she passed away soon.

Later, my mother couldn’t afford to support all of us, so she sent my younger sister to another family for adoption. She was renamed Wang Suming (also a survivor of the Nanjing Massacre; Wang passed away in March 2022).

My elder brother was doing some manual work for the Japanese troops. Because of his short stature, he wasn’t able to carry bags. The Japanese soldiers were not satisfied with him and always whipped him. One day after he came back from the Xiaguan District, we saw scars on his back. That continued until one day when he never came back. My mother waited until midnight. She couldn’t help but cry.

Today’s peace is hard to come by!”