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The oral data
from the workers of coal mines and iron ores in Benxi
Ma Guozhi
Ma Guoqiang Han
fengming Bao
Jingyang Sun Lianjia
Tao Shoutao Lei ming
Wang qingzhen Zhang fengxiang
Benxi lies in the eastern part of Liaoning province, which
is rich in coal mines, iron ores and so on. After the
Russo-Japanese war ended in 1905,the Dachang plutocrat invaded the
Benxi lake. In the name of Benxi lake coal and iron company, it
had occupied the mines for 40 years, plundering the resources in
Benxi.
The plundering history could be divided into two phases.
The first phase was from 1905 to 1930. In this phase, the action
was mainly the import of commodity and export of capital. They run
the coal and iron company of Benxi lake and the China-Japan coal
and iron company of Benxi lake, which was the import supply center
of raw material and the military base where they invaded the
Northeast of China. During this period, Japan competed against
other capitalist countries with the coal and iron from Benxi and
gained the upper hand. They increased investment for reproduction
on an extended scale, at the same time, they exercised cruel
exploitation and enslavement to the Chinese works in order to get
more profit. The second phase is from 1931 to 1945, Benxi was
controlled by the Japanese invader,so the plundering was
monopolistic. The trait of this phase is that the colony economy
was set up and the plundering was crueler and
more barbarous. To get more workers, the Japanese plundered
the labor from north
China and Northeast China by recruiting, cheating, apportioning
and arresting. From
1941 on, the soldiers and citizens resisting the Japanese were
collected and sent to northeast China to be the warslaves , where
they were called special workers. The workers suffered the tragedy
from the Japanese, lots of the workers died.
According
to incomplete statistics, the Dachang had plundered 2000000 tons
of coal , 7000 tons of iron , 17000 tons of special steel. They
left lots of the mass graves as a result of their cruelty to the
workers.
The following are
parts of the oral data from the survivors of that time.
Ma
Guozhi
(Note
: Ma Guozhi is a retired worker of Benxi coal mine. The data was
base on his oral data in the August 1999.)
My name is Ma
Guozhi, I was born on the 17th September, 1927. I am 73 years old.
When I was 13 years old, for the poverty, I had to work in the
Benxi coal mine company owned by the Japanese. I was too young to
go to the shafts, so I did odd jobs in the general affairs office
of the general department. I witnessed the cruelty and the 1942
April explosion. I also knew something about the four mass graves
near the Benxi lake.
The
general department was in the big white building. The organization
was finance sector, secret sector, general sector and construction
sector. The general head is a Japanese Dachangxibalang , he is
very cruel and sinister. The workers were in tragedy. Most of the
workers were from Zhuanghe county, some were the soldiers of the
Eighth route army. Workers ate steam bread of corn and slept
on the bricks, they used the rope to keep the trousers as
the belt. They had no shoes. The water socks were only used by the
labor when he went into the shafts. They had no clothes, for the
rags were the clothes. The bed was the big bed hung by the rope.
The gangmaster beat the workers` head with the pickaxe stick and
shouted “is
your head hard? Then you should enter the shaft”.
The rule of the general
department and the gangmaster made lots of workers die. For
I worked in the office, I witnessed the gangmaster reported
the death number to the minister. The
gangmaster has four account books
There
are four mass graves near the Benxi lake, they are Yueyaling,
Nantianmen, Sikengkou and Taipinggou. The Yueyaling mass grave is
near Luitang, which was divided into upper level and lower level
and had more than 300 shafts. The workers had no safeguard. The
workers died from starve, hungry and
wound everyday. There is a sick-man yard in Liutang. The
laborer who was critically ill was put in the yard to be waiting
for death by the gangmaster. Sometimes the sick was thrown into
the lookum and was covered by a piece of straw mat. If the sick
was still living , they would put a piece of brick on his chest.
After the death ,the
corpses were dumped on the hills with double-rope cranes, a simple
crane made of the planks. The corpses were not buried. The slags
were shipped there too. One year, typhoid spread. Lots of workers
died of it. Even in one day, several cranes of coupses were
shipped on the hill. The number of the corpses dumped in Yueyaling
is too large to count. I remembered over 20 men died in one day.
The corpses in
Yueyaling
almost were miners who worked in Liutang mine. The bleached bones
could be seen even a few years ago.
What
were buried in the Sidengkou mass grave were Chinese miners who
died when gas explosion took place in Benxi lake in April 1942.
More than 3000 men were buried at one time. It was raining when
the gas explosion happened. Spurted flames and smoke spread out of
the shaft. The Japanese army blocked the pithead. They want to
protect the
shaft rather than the workers. The workers` relatives cried
and run to the shaft. But the army
blocked up the
pithead. They electrified wine entanglements to keep the relatives
away from the pithead. The wines being aflame , some men were
electrified to die. When the fire was out, carts of corpses were
shipped and they looked liked coke and could not be distinguished
from each other. The corpses were piled near the pithead, then
they were shipped to the Sikengkou where lies a pit that is 80
meters long and 80 meters wide. The corpses were thrown into the pit. There were more
than 3000 corpses, most of them
having no arms or legs. The Japanese set up a wood tablet,
which was changed into a stone one. Now it is still there. If you
dig here, you could see the bleached bone. Four of my family were
working in the mine, they were my father, my two old brothers and
I. my father happened to repair the rails near the pithead. The
wind caused by the explosion blew him out of the mine and he was
injured a little. My two old brothers happened not to enter the
shaft. But the other miners were not lucky as us. The 70% of the
dead came from Zhuanghe, they were so poor to die in a strange
place.
The
Nantianmeng mass grave locates near the Liutang. It
is a ground mass grave. The corpses were thrown on the
hills with adjustable coffins. Sometimes they use one coffin to
carry two corpses. The
coffin could be used again and again. The corpses were not
buried. The wild dogs ate the corpses too much, they even wanted
to eat the living man. There were many bleach bones on the hills
till the initial past-liberation.
The Taipinggou mass grave stored the rest
corpses of the gas explosion of Benxi lake
The
miners struggled for existence on the brink of death because they
did not know whether they could live to the evening when they
entered the mine shaft in the morning. Liguangtai , from Zhuanghe
county, stole a little bean oil when he oiled the trams. Having
discovering this, the gangmasters beat him to death with the pick.
From then on, the oil
for the trams were mixed with poison. The gangmaster used the pick
to beat the miners too much that he
almost changed them everyday. My work mates, such as Tang
Yongzhou, Tian Yinian, Zhang Defu, could not endure the torments,
so they hang themselves. Others rioted to escape. In February
1943, some special works rushed out of the three electrified wire
nettings. Two of them were shot dead on the spot, the others were
grasped and fed to the demi-wolves
The means that Japanese
aggressors oppressed Chinese were vicious. They had a complete set
of organized system. They had special task sector, the police
sector, the labor management sector. They had a lot of demi-wolves
living in a house that was 50 meters long and 30 meters wide. They
trained the demi-wolves with scarecrows. When they ate men, they
would eat the throat first. The demi-wolves looked like the wolf,
their tails resembled that of the fox. They were black and gray.
They ate meat. They even ate men everyday. There were water
dungeon that in fact were dead prison. Once a man was sent to the
prison, he was doomed to die.
I
was young then, so I did the odd jobs, such as sending message to
the shaft. I suffered from the tolerance. The scar was caused when
I was in the shaft when the roof fell. The wound was closed with
28 stitches. The scar in my body was caused by the Japanese`s
steel rope. From then on , the wound had been infectious. Only after the liberation did it get
well when I took operation in the hospital. The doctor took out a
rusted steel one centimeter long.
back>>
Ma Guoqiang
Noted : the retired worker of Benxi lake. The data was sorted out
from his oral data.
I
am Ma Guoqiang, 75, I entered the mine in 1941 and became a
ventilating worker. When I worked in the mines, the Japanese were
invading China. The Chinese workers in Benxi coal mine had to work
at least 12 hours a day. Being oppressed by the Japanese , the
workers lived worse than the beast. The methods of management were
very cruel. The workers had to entered the shaft at six in the
morning, took the three-couplet lamp ticket to bring the lamp,
handed over the lamp in the shaft, and handed over the lamp ticket
when he was back. The miners suffered the scold and beat. The food
was acorn bread, frozen messy potatoes. The good food was the
steamed bread of the corn mixed with the leaves. The miners` legs
got edema. They could not shit sometimes. The clothes were pasted.
Once washed, they would be like the wrap cloth of the bean curd.
If the workers were not careful enough, the clothes would be
strips. The shoes were water socks, which could not endure one
week. So we had to work without shoes.
The
miners had no freedom in the charge of the supervisor. There were
three electrical nettings. There were four gates. Everyone
of them was guarded by the soldiers. The miners should go
into the workplace through the big gate with the labor ticket.
They should show it when they were far away from the gate. The one
whose action was slow would be beaten. The one who entered the
gate without the gatekeeper`s agreement would
be beaten or be fed to the demi-wolves. The life of the miner was
inferior to a chicken.
There was a
special house in which lived the special miners. They were
supervised by the safeguard. They even had to apply for the
lavatory. There were two hammocks face to face. The new miners
lived in the upper hammock, the senior miner lived in the lower
hammock. In the morning , the gangmaster would stroke the miners`
head with the pick or the hammer. Shouted:” are your heads hard?
If it is hard , you should work.” As long as the miner
is living , he should go into the shaft. I was younger than 20
then, after overtime work of several days,
I could not
endure and refused to go into the shaft. I was called the suspect
and caught to the special task sector . They
took away my cloth and beat me, trampled me
, burned me with the dog-end.
Two days later, they saw me dying, so they let my brother carry me
home. I was scarcely thrown into the demi-wolves pen.
My body has the scabs even now.
When the miners were living, they suffered the
disaster. When they died, they suffered still much. When the gas
explosion and epidemics were witnessed, lots of workers died. The
four mass graves near the Benxi lake were formulated then. There
were infectious disease, typhoid and cholera. Few miners survived.
There was a insulation camp in Cigou, the sick miner was carried
here. Some living miner was encased in the coffin and carried to
the Nantianmen. There were lots of bones in the Nantianmen. The
wild dog ate too much meat, so they even wanted to eat the
living man. The Japanese always said that there were so many
Chinese , when a miner died, it did not count much. There were
dead men every day in the mine, they were carried out by the cart.
The corpses and bones covered the hills. The valley of Nantianmen
was filled and leveled up. The children dared not go to the hills.
The miners were mostly the laborers and prisoners of war that were
grasped from outside. They died outside their hometown and were
not buried, they were thrown on the hills. After the liberation,
there were many bones on the hills. Now they are covered by the
earth.
back>>
Han
fengming
Noted : Han fengming ,
a retired worked of Benxi coal mine. The data was based on his
oral data.
I
am Han fengming, 91. I went into the mine when I was 17. I had
been in the shaft for five years since the Japanese invaded China.
I witnessed lots scenes that the Japanese persecuted Chinese
laborers. I remembered that one year, I was in the Cigou mine, the
gas exploded, there was conflagration in the shaft. There were 120
men in the shaft, more than 30 were dead, more than 10 were
wounded. I was wounded too.
The life is miserable. The food is potatoes, jowar, steamed
acorn bread. We were always hungry. The acorn
made the body edematous. What the Japanese wanted was the
coal, so there was no safeguard step. All kinds of incidents often
happened. The miners usually were covered in the shaft. Someone
was lucky to survive and the others were passed away. There
was an isolation in the Sikengkou. The sick men were sent there to
wait for death. The sick man had bad fate. At first, the corpses
were carried by a thin coffin to the Nantiannen mass grave. Then
the Japanese took the coffin back. Afterward the plague ,typhoid,
cholera came, lots of miners died. 10 to 20 miners died someday.
They did not use the coffins, they mount the corpses on the crane,
carried the corpses to the Nantianmen, threw it on the hills. Then
it was the wild dog`s business.
back>>
Bao Jingyang
Noted : a retired
worker of Benxi coal mine. The data were based on his oral data in
the August 1999.
I am Bao Jingyang, 85, I went to the mine in the Dev. 1935.
I had been working in the Liutang coal mine for nearly ten years.
I witnessed something the Japanese persecuted the Chinese mine
When
I went into the mine, I could not get enough food to eat, I
could not get enough cloth to wear. The food was acorn steamed
bread, salted bean. I lived in a big house with nettings outside.
There were two kangs face to face. Each kang accommodate 70 or 80
men. There was no fire , so I got jerky in my ankle after two
years on this kang. When I went to the mine, I was sent to pick
the coal in the shaft. I had to do or else I would be beaten.
Sometimes I had to work overtime for 40 hours continuously, so
tired that I could not stand up. Afterward I was arranged to pick
the coal in the Liutang mine. The Japanese gangmaster called
Dazuozuomu happened to see my go-cart , which was hindered by a
big stone. He cursed me. Gang helped to push the cart. For I just
worked overtime, I cleaned my eyes. He marked
my name in his notebook. Then I was beaten and was penalized to
work a month without wage. When I was in Yazuizi mine, a Japanese
called Dazhong abused Chinese miners. We dared not to let him see
our lunch box, for he would stroke it to leak, so we could not eat
with it.
The
Chinese miners were oppressed by the Japanese. Because of the gas
explosion, the roof fall, the plague, the contagion, lots of
miners died. In April 1942, after the biggest gas explosion, we
cleaned up the shaft. The clean work lasted for more than 10 days.
At first, the corpses were integrated, which were carried to the
Sikengkou mass grave. Afterward the corpses were rotted, so we
scratch the corpses with big comb. The cave was dark, we usually
broke the arms and legs of the corpses. The corpses were carried
by three or four. There were about 3000 miners died. It is so
miserable
The
miners that died of contagion were no less than the ones during
the gas explosion. There were so many miners carried to the mass
grave from the small hospital. I remembered there were two
brothers named Yang, all got the cholera. The gangmaster that
called kidnapper Liu ordered men to draw them to the end of the
big house. The old brother said :”you
are so ruthless, I am not dead yet, you draw me out!”
After half a day, the brothers died. The contagion took so many
miners away that the big house looked empty. The other big houses
were as such. But the Japanese devil grasped lots of youth, the
big houses were full again.
back>>
Sun Lianjia
Noted:
Sun Lianjia, retired worker of Benxi coal mine. The data
were based on his oral data in the July 1999.
I
am Shun Lianjia, 82. I went to the mine in the May 1942. I gnash
when I recall the Japanese aggressors persecuting us miners.
In
the April 1942, I joined the anti-Japanese guerilla in my hometown
Linyi county. In the
May 1942, when we encamped in a big village near the Yan county,
we were besieged by the Japanese army. I and other 50 comrades
were taken captives and carried to the county city. On the second
day, we were sent to the Linyi county. we were detained half a
month there. The meal was a little porridge, so we were hungry all
the days. There was no toilet so we relieved ourselves in the
room. There were lots of fleas. We wanted to be solved as soon as
possible. One day, the guard ordered us go out. Each of us wore a
piece of white list on the arm, on which signed Benxi coal
company. We were carried to Yanzhou by the truck. Each got a quilt
there. Then we were carried to Jinan by the train. We
lodged for a night at the labor association. Then we were carried
by the train to Benxi Liutang coal mine. It was May 1942. The gas
explosion just happened. Our first job was to clean up the rubbish
of the explosion. The broken shoes, the broken caps, the fishy
smell of the blood and the corpses, all filled the mine.
The
miners were divided into two parts. One part was the laborers that
were grasped or cheated in the areas nearby. The other part was
the anti-Japanese person. We were controlled strictly than the
laborers. For instance, there were three level electrical
nettings. The ordinary laborers, one level only. We were called
special workers. We lived in the big house in the mine district
encircled by the nettings, 70 or 80 men in a house. We were
guarded whether we were on or off the work. When we went to work,
we had to queued along a small road in front of the house. After
the calling, we began working, after the calling, we went back.
Then the netting encircled the house. Nobody could go out. The
food was steamed acorn bread. We should eat one at the breakfast
and supper. When eating, we had to hold the bread in both hands or
else the dreg would fall. Sometimes we should eat the frozen
potatoes and rotted cucumber. Before the sleeping, we should queue
in the yard for calling. If one was missing, we all should not go
to bed and not talk or doze. We special workers suffered more than
the miners.
The
Japanese aggressors did not think we Chinese human being. They
cursed us and beat us arbitrarily. One day, it was raining, on the
road near the little nettings. I was late for giving way to a
Japanese gangmaster. He slapped me and cursed:” you bad Chinese, you
should die. ” A miner was so tired that he slept during
the work, he rested his head on the timber. The Japanese
gangmaster beat the temple with a hammer, the miner died without
the awareness.
The miners were
doomed to death once they were ill, for the Japanese did not care
the life of the miners. I got the sickness two times. One was
cholera. I got the high fever several days and did not eat
anything , even the acorn steamed bread. A work mate called Wei
exchanged some millet with his cloth. He fed me when he was off
the work with the millet porridge. After the attendance of twenty
days, I survived. If I died, nobody would know me, even my parents
would not know where I was buried. I was so lucky that I survived.
Someone was not lucky as I was, a miner called Sunyongdian got the
cholera. His sickness was critical. After
two days, he died before he was carried to the hospital.
The gangmaster ordered men to place the corpse under the big tree
in the back yard. There were many corpses there, for it was
winter, the corpses could not be buried until the spring. Another
miner called Liu, his neck got a sore, the maggot living there.
For his illness was not infectious, he could get some medicine
from the hospital when he was critical, even the doctor would not
be earnest. The miner Xuelingzhu was ill. When the gangmaster
forced him to enter the shaft, he cut off his fingers to protest
at the cavity. What the miners worried was the sickness. For we
were foreigners, there were no relatives here. And we were
circumscribed in the nettings. If someone was ill, if he was
lucky, he could survive. If he was not lucky, he was doomed to
die. It was sorrow to see the miners die one by one. When I recall
them now, I want to cry for them.
Under such circumstance, we all wanted to flee.
But nobody succeed. My room mate Zhang Mingyuan wanted to flee
with me. On night, we pretend to go to the toilet, then we came
near the little nettings. Zhang Mingyuan had prepared a timber. I
hold the wire with the timber. When Zhang Mingyuan dig a chimb in
the ground and scrambled under the wire. Then
he touched the wire and he died at once. I rushed to the
house to pretend to be sleepy. I did not dare to flee any more. A
miner called Zhu had run out of the nettings. Then he was grasped
and beat to be dying. We were forced to see the scene. Then he was
thrown into the demi-wolves pen to feed the demi-wolves. Till
1945, we were liberated.
back>>
Tao Shoutao
Noted
:Tao Shoutao, worked for the petroleum chemical industry office of
Guangdong province. The data were formulated on the July 23 th
1984.
I was born in the Taojiazai of Pingdu of Shandong province.
I joined the communist party in 1939. In 1942, when I worked for
the county committee, I was ill. When I was resting at home, I was
captured by the Japanese army as they carried out the big
clean-out. They wanted to grasp some laborers in the country. We
were shipped to Qingdao. In 1943, we were shipped to some coal
mines in the northeast China. We 20 men were allocated to Cigou in
Benxi, as the special workers in the portage sector.
The special workers
were divided into two parts. One was tutor sector, there
were lochuses and maniples, Fu shun was the governo , Dengjie was
the vice governor, Hejiemin was the employee. There were 14
maniples, 600 or 700 men.
The other part was the sector directly under the governor.
The workers were called the men directly under the govenor, which
were controlled by the Japanese. Most of them were youth. There
were five maniples, 300 men. Two parts added up to 1000 men or so.
The special workers were composed of the employees of our party,
army and government, the citizen of liberated district, the
employees of Kuomintang, and some men from the assisting army for
the Japanese. I was ordered to be porter, then I was ordered to be
amanuensis in the tutor sector.
The Japanese were strict with the special
workers. In May 1943, the scattered special workers were collected
together. A small nettings was added to the original big nettings.
The guards were assigned at the gate of the two nettings. A police
office was at the gate of the big nettings. Each maniple was
guarded by a man ordered by the gangmaster. We had to queue to go
to work. We were supervised even when we relieved ourselves at
night. The lives of the miners were miserable. We were always
hungry. The second gangmaster always cursed “if
your head is hard, you must work.”
If someone`s got critical, he would be carried to the hospital,
then he was doomed to be dead. Under such circumstance, we
struggled though, for instance, organizing to flee. When we knew
the Japanese surrender on the August 15th 1945, we organized
the protecting the mine team. In the same year, our team
was recomposed to be the 62nd corps of 21st
force of 16th subarea of JiReLiao of our army
back>>
Lei ming
Noted : The data was formulated in 1965, the original was kept in
Benxi archives hall.
I am Lei ming. In the April 1942, I worked in
the rest house of south Hebei. I was captured in the so-called
iron enclosure project carried out by the Japanese. We
were detained in Qinghe county several days. Then we were
sent to the prison in Dezhou for several days. Then we were
detained in the labor tutor house
in Shijiazuang for two months. We two hundred men were
selected from the 1000 prisoners, and were sent to Benxi in
northeast of China. That was October 1942. The enemy was
cruel to us. On the second day when we arrived Benxi, we were
taken half body photo, and listed as the special workers. No.50
was the number of my cloth. We lived in a house whose gangmaster
called Peifuchen. We 200 men were divided into three maniples,
living in three different places. Our team was divided into three
classes, each having about 20 men, added up to 70 men in a team.
The team captain called Guoyongshi. Dongzhiwu and I were the
headman of the class. When Guoyongshi fled , Dongzhiwu was the
team captain.
At the gate of the house where we lived there
were stick team guarding. In the day, we were not
allowed to wear upper cloth even in the winter when we
relieved ourselves. If in the night, even the pants were not
allowed to wear lest we flee. If we persisted on the cloth, we
would be beat. When we were off the work, we were supervised.
Going through the gate or entering the shaft should be checked the
number, so did the going out of the shaft and coming back. The
Japanese were standing at the cavity. Then we were leaded to the
workplace where someone would be in charge. The big electrical
nettings encircled the mine. In the night, it would be switched
on. We had organized five men to flee. When it was switch off, we
lopped two wires. Suddenly, we saw the wandering guards. We run
away, and were not captured. A man had fled. But he was grasped by
the stick team hundred miles away from the mine. He was detained
in the demi-wolves pen and was starved to die. Afterward the
Japanese collected the special workers and detained them in the 20
houses. A small netting was added up to the big nettings. For the
range was small, there was no guard to supervise us. But the guard
was in the gate. We were checked number when we were on the work
and off the work.
Excepted for the team captain who did not often
go to the shaft, all the miners should enter the shaft, at least
12 hours a day, sometimes 16 hours a day. The special workers that
were from the eighth route army and the ones from Kuomintang
received different treatment. The lochus captains were from
Kunmintang. They always
ordered the maniple captains to report the feeling among us. The
Japanese thus controlled us. If someone were divulged , he would
be beat, be detained, and be prisoned in a small cave and be
forced to do the hard work, to be paraded. Thus the Japanese could
threaten the other workers. Wherever you are, the big gangmaster,
the second gangmaster could find your fault and beat you. They did
not considered your sickness and ordered you to work. If you
refused, you would be beat to say that you would work. If you were
so sick that you could not move, perhaps you may rest. If you were
reported to the Japanese , you would be thrown into the
demi-wolves pen where you would be torn to die
One man ordered by
the Japanese made cooking for us special workers. Two meals a day.
The food was acorn flour, the steamed corn bread, no vegetable and
meat. They set up a small shop where we could buy something. We
should not pay with the currency for they could deduct from our
wages. But every month we received few money.
We
special workers could not rest when we got small sickness. If we
were in critical, they would carry us out in the name of
isolation. But nobody had come back. We heard that the sick was
dragged to die, there being no treatment. If we were wounded from
the work, we could rest for several days. If the wound was
critical, the miner would be dragged out to be treated. So, three
years later, the whole team members left seven men only. Except
Guo yongshi and one miner called Pei, the others were excruciated
to death.
back>>
Wang qingzhen
Noted: Wang qingzhen joined the revolution in 1938. 1941, he
became the special worker in the Benxi cial mine. The data were
formulated on the July 17 th 1984.
In
the autumn of 1941, I joined the guerilla warfare against the
Japanese, then I was captured. I was detained in the labor tutor
house of Shijiazuang for two months. Then I was carried to the
Benxi lake coal iron company to be the laborer in the winter of
1941. We 200 men were
divided into the Cigou and Liutang to be the special workers. I
was in the Cigou. At first, I was in the gangmaster
Zhangshouzhong`s house
, becauseOf the flee and death, the first team was merged into the
fourth team. The
Japanese were strict with us special workers. On the shaft or
under the shaft, we all were supervised by the mine police. We
party members educated by the party would not be the slave of a
conquered nation, so we organized the party team consciously to
struggle with the Japanese. I was the secretary of the branch
which was composed of Xing fangyin, He jianguo and I. Our task was
to enlarge ourselves, to communicate with the organization
outside, to try to flee, to go slow, to make some small incident
to prevent the production to reduce the output.
The
gas explosion in 1942 killed many miners. I knew this when I went
to carry on the work. Several days before the explosion, the power
supply was unusual. The Japanese let the maintainer work
continuously several days. The maintain work was not finished, the
Japanese could not wait to supply the power to produce the coal,
thus causing the gas explosion. Afterward, the miners were not as
many as before. It was not easy to organized to flee. In the
spring of 1943, the Japanese set up a small electrical nettings
outside the iron nettings. We struggled more secretly. Because of
the strict control, we did not connect with the party organization
outside until the liberation. When the Japanese surrendered, we
organized the protecting the mine team of Benxi, which help our
army liberate Benxi.
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Zhang fengxiang
Noted: Zhang fengxiang worked
for the forestry management of Wangou of Hunchun of Jilin province. The data
was formulated on the November 16 th 196
I joined the
Eighth Route Army in the March 1938. I was in the second corps of
first subarea of Jinchaji. I was captured in the big clean-up by
the Japanese army in July 1941. I was detained in the labor tutor
house in Baoding. In October, we 300 men were sent to the Benxi
coal iron company. I was allocated to the Liutang . I lived in the
gangmaster Guo
dixian`s house. We were called special workers. On the third day
after we arrived Benxi , the police team lead us to the finger
mark department to mark the finger mark and receive
the list number. Then we started the work. The senior
workers lead us. Leading one miner, they would receive two jiao or
three jiao money. Afterward, because of the riot of the special
workers, the labor department reinforced the electrical nettings
and the supervisal. The senior workers could not lead the miners
any longer. The special
workers could
be free in the nettings. So we could know something about the
police, the guard team and the outside circumstance. There
were 2500 special workers. They were composed of communist
party members and the prisoners from Kuomintang in the
Zhongtiaoshan war. We tried to flee, to go slow, to make incident.
The labor department used special workers to control the special
workers. In the April
1942, the special workers lochus was set up, which governed the
special workers maniples. The
captains were Cao kanzhi, Hu dengshan, who were officers of
Kuomintang captured in the Zhongtiaoshan war. The Japanese
transferred the 100 special workers to the janissary or the
technique person. They tried to seduce other special workers to be
good workers to release the strain.
But the problem was still there. The gas
explosion in the Daxie shaft in Liutang and Sixie shaft in the
Cigou killed lots of miners. The workers were scared. They
pretended to be sick to escape entering the shaft. Some workers
tried to destroy the nettings to flee. Most of them were
electrified and died. The fortune ones who escaped the nettings
were grasped by the enemy. Then they were tortured to death. A few
of them went back to work. Then we heard the conjuncture in the
pacific ocean war, so we enhanced the struggle.
We special workers had three thoughts then: to run out of the mine
and joined the revolution, to stay in the mine to wait for the
liberation, to be good workers in the mine. Most workers were in
the third thought. In
the June and August 1943, the Benxi lake gendamerie and the coal
mine secret agent took the new action. They collected all the
special workers in the Liutang and renamed them tutor workers. The
tutor office was set up also, which was composed of Japanese and
the puppet person. The second electrical nettings which was
solider was set up in the residence of the tutor workers. The
tutor guard was organized also. The gate of the nettings was
guarded. They supervised the workers whether they were on the job
or off the job. The special workers lochus was changed to the
tutor workers lochus, which governed 18 tutor workers maniples.
They were: 2, 5, 6,
7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23. added up
to about 1700. To enhance
the management, Shunshaoyong (the fifth maniple), Yangxiyue(the
fifteenth maniple),I (the thirteenth maniple) were chosen to the
lochus. Our task was to manage the attendance of the workers, to
allocate the material, to censor the wages that the gangmasters
calculated. We three amanuensis had the meals in the maniple in
the initial. For the convenience, the lochus captain Cao kanzhi
set up the mess in the lochus. We were told to live in the lochus.
Then we three became familiar with each other. The party team was
set up consciously. For there was no guide line and the policy
from the party. We decided to strive after the credit of the
workers. We beat some Japanese and the henchman. We influenced the
puppet person. We succeed. Some workers trusted us. Two Japanese
changed their attitudes toward the workers and confessed to the
workers on some question.
Since the lochus was in charge of the tutor
workers, the lochus controlled the exploitation. Thus the wage
increased little by little. The Japanese were afraid of the
workers fleeing with the money. They set up the store and the whore house,
which not only cost the money of the workers, but also lulled the
workers in the life style. It
also could be the beachhead to collect the information of
our underground party. We were not conquered by the measures of
the Japanese. We formulated organizations, some wanted to flee. We
continuously made the incidents. The organizations persuaded some
Japanese and puppet person. For the conjuncture in the Pacific
Ocean war, some Japanese were disgusted with the war. They said:”
we do not do, you do it. ”
The conscious organizations were set up in the most tutor
classes.
On
night, some secret agent person came to the tutor office suddenly.
They arrested the class monitor Zhangshun and tutor guard member
Tianxiwen. Zhangyong disappeared. Yang xiyue and doctor Zhang
fled. The labor department ordered the guard to enhance the
supervision on the gate and the nettings. The guard on the workers
was more rigorous than ever. So did the Qixie shaft in the
Liutang. The Benxi lake secret agent arrested Yandong, Deng botu
ten days later. Seven days later, the secret agent called the
Japanese Meiye that Yang xiyue and doctor Zhang were grasped. Shun
shaoyong, Pei yuguo(the fifth maniple captain) , Tanqinggao(the
sixteenth maniple captain) were all arrested. Under such
circumstance, the party acted secretly.
In
the summer of 1945, the Japanese lose the war in the Pacific Ocean
war. The America airplanes were often seen in the Benxi lake. It
was said that Anshan, Shenyang, Fushu etc. were all strain in the
aerial defence. The work in the mine was not busy as ever. The
Japanese did not care the tutor workers. On the August 18th
1946, in the morning, the senior miner heard the Japanese
surrendered from outside the nettings. The mines were in
jubilation. The laborers threw the pick and shovel and destroyed
the nettings. Zhang zhang presided the exigency meeting in the
tutor office puppet clerk Liuqiwei`s house. We decided to protect
the estate of the mines, especially the storage and the grain
depot, and sent representative to connect with the party
organization in Cigou. According to the advice of Tao shouchong,
we decided to do such job: to propagandize the gloominess of the
Japanese control in the 14 years, to organize the workers to
protect the estate of the mine, to set up the peace team before
our army came here.
So
we did the job. I went to Cigou and connected with Xing fangyin.
They sent a worker maniple captain to seize the arms of the enemy
with me. It was raining. The
workers from Cigou and Liutang gathered
at Cigou at eleven, then we paraded to the city. I
organized some people to get more arms. The team arrived train
station. I lead the Liutang workers rip into the storeroom of
handguns and ammo, others went to seize the big gun. We won the
war. When the Gongyuan Japanese army knew the news, they sent
soldiers with two trucks. They were besieged by our person. We
told the translator to negotiate with us. To escape the conflict,
we forced the two trucks withdraw back Gongyuan. Then we ripped on
the guard of white building of Cigou and won the war. We got some
guns in the underground storeroom of the big white building. Then
we set up three lochuses in Cigou and Liutang, according to the
advice of Taoshouchong and Xingfangyin. To avoid the swoop,
Kuomintang officer Gao defa was elected the lochus captain, I was
the political instructor. There were three companies in a lochus.
The company commanders were all the officers from the Eighth Route
Army. To enhance the unification and avoid the swoop, the
autocephaly brigade was set up in Cigou, which governed the six
lochuses. Kuomintang office was the captain. Xing gangyin was vice
captain. Tao zhongchong was the politics deputation. The arms were
almost in the charge of our party members. We seized all the
mines, enterprises and military warehouses, protected the estate
and waited for our army.
When
the sixteenth army corps subarea came to Shenyang, the peace team
sent Tao shouchong and Shi ziliang to connect with them. According
to their order, the Benxi lake peace team was transferred to the
sixty second corps of the sixteenth army corps subarea. He Juemin
was the captain. Xingfangyin was the vice captain. Tao Shouchong
was the director of the politics agent. Zhang Ruilin, from the
subarea, was the commissary of the politics. The six lochuses were
transferred to three battalions. I was the instructor of the third
battalion and Gao
qingfa was the captain.
Some underground party members arrested by the
enemy were liberated after the “August -fifteenth”.
Shun Shaoyong died in the prison in the Benxi lake secret agent.
Yang xiyue, Pei Zhengguo, Tan qinggao, Deng Botu, Zhang shun, Tian
Xiwen were carried to the Caitun and were executed by shooting.
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