Humans of China: "They Often Spoke About My Older Brother to Keep His Memory Alive"

This article comes from Humans of China (WeChat ID: humans-of-china), which aims to document and tell the stories of the many varied people of this vast country, one individual at a time. The following is an account from a survivor of the Panjiayu Massacre, perpetrated by the Japanese on Jan 25, 1941 in Hebei during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

My mother was holding me in her left arm and my older brother in her right arm, and that's where he was killed, by a bullet in the center of the chest, fired from a Japanese gun.

My mother dropped him and ran away with me to find somewhere safe to hide, I was just four years old at the time. My brother was only around six years old and I don’t really remember him very well but I recall him being a little fatter than me. My brother's body was burned alongside many other adults and children so we were unable to find him afterward.

My mother found a pile of dead bodies and that's where she laid down with me, in her arms. We were pretending to be dead and she told me not to cry, not to talk and not to move so we wouldn't be detected by the young soldiers.

After the Japanese had finished killing, I saw them walking around looking at what they had done. They kicked the dead bodies, sometimes stabbed them and they looked happy and pleased with what they had done.

Our village is surrounded by mountains and they suddenly came over the top. I was standing in the doorway of our house and that's when I first saw them. Our village has a stage and they told everyone to come down to the stage to watch a performance and that's when the killing started. They had piled wood under the stage and set it alight, burning people to death, and if anyone tried to run away they were caught and killed on the spot.

They killed more than 1,200 people in one day. My mother, father, and I survived. My dad was shot though in his left shoulder frighteningly close to his heart and was left just inches from death as a result. I still think about the terrible things I saw. I’ll never forget.

Afterward, my mother gave birth again and they often spoke about my older brother to keep his memory alive.

I married at around 20. This year I am 82. My wife died six years ago after falling ill. I miss her. We had happy times together along with our four girls. We were both farmers. I like to smoke, I still like to work outside, and in the summer we grow lots of grapes.

READ: "I Still Have Nightmares About These Things"

Photos courtesy of Cameron Hack