Across China: Preserving memories of WWII slave laborers

Wang Liuzhu, 77, hopes he will live long enough to finish his second book on Chinese prisoners of war working as slave laborers in Japan during World War II.

The retired local history editor from Xiangcheng County, central China's Henan Province, plans to tell the stories of 100 POWs who were slave laborers in Japan.

"History should not forget them, whether they were Communist or Kuomingtang (KMT)," Wang told Xinhua on Thursday, the 79th anniversary of the July 7 Incident when Japanese troops attacked the Marco Polo Bridge on the outskirts of Beijing, marking the beginning of full-scale war.

Wang has finished the stories of 80 of them by interviewing themselves or their descendants and hopes to publish the book soon.

"The work is not to extend hatred but to educate people both in China and Japan," said Wang.

"One can only cherish peace if one truly knows the suffering of war," he said.

Around 40,000 Chinese were forced to work in Japan during the war, including prisoners of war. Of these slaves, nearly 7,000 died. Only nine still survive.

Wang began to dig up the stories in 1988 when he met Geng Zhun, a KMT army officer who was captured in 1944 and transported to work at a copper mine in Hanaoka, Japan.

Geng told Wang about the work they were forced to endure and the torture and humiliation they suffered. Geng led about 800 Chinese laborers in an uprising and was sentenced to death in 1945. Before he could be executed, Japan was defeated. He was freed and sent back to China.

They worked up to 15 hours a day in the freezing winter of northern Japan, with straw sandals on their feet and little more than buns and soup in their stomachs. Some dug trenches in freezing water to divert a river. Others struggled up steep slopes with 50-kg bags of cement on their backs. They had no days off, according to Geng.

Geng died in Xiangcheng County in August 2012.

Wang happened to obtain a Japanese army archive that contained the names and addresses of 40,000 forced laborers. He sorted out 4,193 from Henan and set about tracking them down. He interviewed 119 of the and published his first book in 2012.

"This is far from enough, we have 40,000 forced laborers," he said. "I am getting old and there will be a day I cannot walk." he said.

Wang is relieved now as three students from Henan Normal University and Xuchang University have joined him, helping him to find contacts and doing interviews.

"I hope they can continue my mission," said Wang. Endi