Diary+Entry+1+-+December+13,+1937

December 13, 1937

This is terrible. It is simply horrifying to observe the dead bodies of my friends and neighbors lying on the streets of North Chungshan. The streets and market places of my home town are no longer as peaceful and cheerful as they used to be. After the Japanese soldiers with the disastrous weapons (the things made out of steel that killed the innocent civilians of my town so quickly and painfully) unexpectedly attacked our village, nothing in the town is the same as before the disaster happened.

I only got primary education because my family was too poor to afford the materials required for education when I was about to transfer to middle school, but I still had been hearing about the things going on in China and even in other regions through my friends who attended high school. A few weeks ago, they had told me about the Japanese intentions to conquer the entire nation of China after getting their wanted part of Manchuria, which turned into Manchukio after its surrender to Japan. Also, recently, I got a letter from a friend of mine in Korea, Jong Kyu Jung; he told me that he was joining the Korea army to fight against the Japanese who were invading the territories of Korea. I don't understand why Japan has to be so self-centered to try to conquer every part of East Asia: from China to Korea... Now, because of those selfish decisions, my own friend has to leave his family, and risk his life to fight for his country. Still, although I had heard about the uncountable deaths and injuries in the regions invaded by that selfish, ruthless Japan, I never expected the same misfortune to happen to my own home town.

This morning, I woke up by the sudden, alarmed call of my mother, Yang Mei. When I opened my eyes, still muddled by the situation, I noticed the horrifying sounds of continued firing and the cries of people for survival out on the streets. Greatly terrified, yet hoping that the sounds of deaths and despair are coming from houses far away from our own, my mother and I hurried to the back yard of our house. We swiftly climbed up the mountain near our house, and hid ourselves behind the tall trees. I shivered and silently cried in fright, and my mother softly held me in her arms, as if to calm both her daughter and herself.

After about eight hours, North Chungshan was in silence. My mother and I carefully came down from the mountain to see what was happening, and noticed the awful consequences of the Japanese attacks of Chinese civilians by the disgusting smell of rotting corpses that we could smell instantly. The streets were covered with blood and dead bodies of the townspeople were piled on the roads. People, varying from female and male adult civilians to even children were killed in the bloody massacre by the Japanese soldiers. Afraid that we will be shot by the soldiers too, Mother and I went back to the mountains after getting some rice from our house. We don’t know when we will be captured by the Japanese; my mother and I just hope that my brother and father in Hong Kong and Shanghai for work are safe and unaffected by the disastrous incidents happening in Nanking right now...