"My sister and I were two children picked out from the dead piles."

My name is Xia Shuqin, born in May of 1929, Nanjing. Before the Japanese invasion of Nanjing, my family had nine people, including my grandfather Nie Zuocheng (in his 70s), my grandmother Mrs. Nie Zhou (in her 70s), father Xia Ting’en (in his 40s), mother Mrs. Xia Nie (in her 30s), the eldest sister Xia Shufang (16 years old), the second sister Xia Shulan (14 years old), the second younger sister Xia Shuyun (4 years old), the youngest sister Xia Shufen (1 year old) and the 8-year-old me. We lived in the house of a (Mohammedan) whose last name was Ha at No. 5 of Xinlukou, Chengnan. At that place, except my sister Xia Shuyun and me, the whole family was killed by the Japanese army. My sister and I were two children picked out from the dead piles. 

On the morning of December 13, 1937, a group of Japanese soldiers (about 30 people) came to knock on our door. They shot the owner of the house Mr. Ha immediately he opened the door. Seeing this, my father kneeled down in front of them, begging them not to kill any more people, but was shot dead by them as well.

My mother was scared to hide under the table with the 1-year-old youngest sister, but she was dragged out by the Japanese soldiers. They grabbed my sister away from my mother, throwing her fiercely to the ground to kill her. Then they tore away my mother’s clothes and several soldiers gang raped her before killing her with the bayonet. They cruelly stuck a bottle into my mother’s private part.

Later several Japanese soldiers forced into the neighboring room where hides my grandfather, grandmother, and two elder sisters. They tried to rape my elder sisters, but were strongly resisted by grandfather and grandmother, so they killed the two old people brutally. 

Then the Japanese soldiers tore away all the clothes of my two elder sisters, they gang raped them before killing them with the bayonet. The soldiers stuck my grandmother’s walking stick into my eldest sister’s private part.

I was hiding in the quilt on the bed. I cried aloud out of scare, then I was stabbed on the back by the Japanese soldiers three times, so I fainted. I didn’t know how long had passed, when I was awaken by the cry of my 4-year-old younger sister, I found we were surrounded by the bodies of my family. We could do nothing but cried loudly, wishing to wake up mother…

We looked for food everywhere. Fortunately there were some parched rice and rice crust left in the kitchen. We lived on these food and the cold water in the water vat for 14 days, accompanying by the bodies of our families. Later, we were successively adopted by the “Hall of the Old” (a charity institute) and my uncle. My uncle’s family was also very poor. In order to reduce the life burden, since 12, I had to support myself. I once sold vegetables and served as the servant.

In this way, seven people in my family were killed by Japanese soldiers in a very short time. Whenever I thought about it, I couldn't help crying and I almost cried my eyes out every time.

In October 1949, after the establishment of the new China, my life began to become better. In 1954, I married to Zhang Hongzhang and then we raised three children.

 (Zhu Chengshan, investigation records of August, 1994.)