"The Japanese soldiers stabbed me in the shank."

In December 1937, Japanese invaders occupied Nanjing. Innocent civilians were ravaged. The huge debt of blood  will never be forgotten. 

In winter of that year, my grandparents took the  family of five moved to the safety zone at Yihe Road for shelter. In the afternoon of December 16, four Japanese soldiers came to our place, who were carrying guns and wearing ferocious looks. They gathered all the people in the yard in sequence, shouting at us in harsh voices. When they saw beautiful women in the crowd, they bursted out terrible laughter. Six women were chosen and dragged into the room by them, being raped. All people left in the yard, especially the families of the six women, felt as if a knife were being twisted in their hearts, but they could do nothing about it, only with tears falling like rain. After a while, the Japanese soldiers came to the yard again, shouted: “Chinese soldiers, are  there any Chinese soldiers? Stand out!” But no matter what they shouted, no one answered, and the atmosphere was very tense . Then a dozen  of young male adults were dragged out of the crowd by the Japanese soldiers. My 25-year-old uncle was among them . My grandmother couldn’t stop her tears, and most people present were also weeping. After the Japanese soldiers robbed all the rooms of valuable articles, they took my uncle and  a dozenofother young men away. Since then, no one had ever heard  of  them! When my uncle was carried off  by the Japanese , the entire family were weeping in overwhelming pain. Especially my old grandmother, she cried day in and day out and cried herself blind in the end. She was sick in bed and passed away before long.

Less than two hours after the Japanese soldiers left, another five Japanese soldiers broke into the yard again. They also ordered  us to stand in the yard. With no probable causes, they used bayonets to poke the crowd and beat them with gun handles. Almost all the people in the courtyard were beat in this way. Even I, who was only a fifteen-year-old child then, was stabbed in the shank by a Japanese soldier for no reason.  The wound started to bleed profusely , and the pain was so severe. The scar is still visible now. At that time, crying and screaming resounded  through  the yard. On the spot, an old man fell in the pool of blood, and several other women were raped!

My grandfather realized that it was  unsafe there and wanted to go back to our home . After a few days, my grandfather said to me: "Let’s go to Mingwalang to have a check ." when we walked to the Ninghai Road, we saw a lot  of dead bodies of civilians on the roadside, mangled and bloody, with some lacking arms, some having  no legs, the intestines of some dragging to the outside, and even some losing their heads, which was really terrible. Some of the roadside houses were burnt down, some were robbed, and some even had no doors. At the entrance of a building, several Japanese soldiers were standing there and there was no single person  on the road. As we were walking  not far from the standing Japanese soldiers, they shouted something. We couldn't understand, but we had to stand still and wait. One Japanese soldier came up and lifted off my grandfather’s hat with the bayonet. He jabbed my grandfather in the chest easily.  Grandfather covered his chest with hand, which was soon filled with blood, and even the clothes were red. I was so terrified and took out a handkerchief to help my grandfather, but what was the use of a handkerchief? My grandfather squatted down on the ground and couldn't stand up. The Japanese soldiers stared at us with fierce eyes and they pushed my grandfather to the ground. After a while, the other two Japanese soldiers waved us to leave. My grandfather said to me in weak voice: "Let's go back!" So I took my grandfather back to the Yihe Road. Just a few days later,my grandfather's injury worsened and died.

The Japanese soldiers behaved more and more furiously. They came to our place many times a day. I remember on December 20, they came to the place up to eight times. Each time there were at least two to three soldiers , and at  most  seven to eight soldiers . They came to rob, rape, arrest and kill civilians. Even old women in their 60s and young girls were raped. How  could you live a life like this ? There were five or six households in the yard. Adults  planned and dug a hideout in the ground that very night. In the morning, except two or three old people who acted as doorkeepers , everyone else hid in  the hideout , and went out in the evening. In this way we spent more than half a month there. One day, several Japanese soldiers came again and asked for "flower girl" (beautiful girls) to the old man guarding the door. The old man answered there was none , then he was shot dead by the Japanese soldiers. When we first moved into the safety zone, there were thirty or forty people in the yard. After a short period of a dozen of  days, there were only seventeen or eighteen people left. It was actually not safe in the safety zone.