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BEIJING, Aug. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- From February 1938 to August 1943, the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service and Navy Air Service conducted non-stop strikes on Chongqing and its adjacent areas, dropping over 11,500 bombs, mainly incendiary ones.
Historians say 40,000 civilians were brutally killed or wounded. The bombings were a grave war crime committed by Japan during its invasion of China during WWII. Our Reporter Liu Yang tracked down some survivors in Chongqing, now all nearly 90-years-old. They remember the chaos and devastation as if it was yesterday.
"A bomb fragment struck my sister's head, she was bleeding and her brain was exposed. I dared not look. Only a glance for a second or two. I dared not look," said Gao Yuan, the survivor.
"In the bomb shelter, people grasped at and stepped on one another. A number of people were pushed to the ground and then people trod on them. My brother and his wife were possibly suffocated or tramped, the mud were all over their bodies. My brother's hair was trampled off, and my sister-in-law's body was swollen," survivor Jiang Wanxi said.
These two men had stood among the 188 survivors and relatives who sued the Japanese government last year over the inhumane bombings in Chongqing.
88-year-old Gao Yuan remembers clearly that day, the whole family was resting in their newly built compound in the suburbs of Chongqing around two o'clock in the afternoon.
They were suddenly woken from their nap by earth-shattering explosions. All the people fled to the underground air-raid shelter. Seven bombs were dropped, his sister was killed, along with 5 family servants. 10 others in his family were badly wounded.
In the five and half years of bombings, May 3rd and 4th, of 1939 were the most intense. In 48 hours, 98 explosives and 68 fire-bombs were dropped in Chongqing's densely-populated downtown area. The fires lasted for two days, and over 6,000 people were killed and wounded. Today's May 4th Road or "Wu-Si Lu" as it is called in Chinese, remembers the date of that massacre.
For four hours, 24 jets in three batches bombed continuously the main streets and residential areas of the city, chasing thousands of people into the crammed Jiaochangkou Tunnel. People died of suffocation, if not the stampede, as they waited for the end of the assault.
This is the site of the Great Tunnel Tragedy of 1941. Witnesses recalled after the bombing, seeing thousands of dead bodies were being carried out from the shelter one by one.
The dead bodies were scattered right around where I am standing. now. Jiang Wanxi's brother and sister-in-law never made it out, both suffocating to death inside. The other family members were lost. Now the site is being re-built right beside one of Chongqing's main roads as a reminder of that dark time in history.
The Japanese had thought out their "strategic bombing" back in November 1937: use the air force to support the ground operation, and spread terror through the air raids on civilians all to frustrate the Chinese will to fight.
"The sound of siren stroke fear into people. Each time the alarm rang, no one knew whether the man in his presence today would survive tomorrow. Parents shouted to their children hurry up and walk faster. People were eaten up with anxiety," Jiang Wanxi said.
Historians say from 1931 to 1945, Japanese air forces carried out indiscriminate bombings in Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan, Changsha, and Chongqing in particular.
Tens of thousands of innocent people were killed. From north to south, across China's soil, only the two plateaus of Xinjiang and Tibet eluded the Japanese bombings. Even Qinghai was struck. This expert says it was against Military and International Law.
"Compared with the Nanjing Massacre, the Chongqing Bombings were a high-tech one. What the Japanese pilots above Chongqing needed to do was no more than a throw of the switch and then torrents of firebombs poured down. The pilots did not see with their own eyes the sufferings of the innocent Chinese people caused by the bombs, which was a callous brutality that deserves our condemnation," said professor Pan Xun from Southwest University.
Contrary to the Japanese military's hopes, the bombings never shook the strong fighting will of the Chinese. In recent years, nearly 3,000 victims of the Chongqing bombings have been identified, and experts are still working on uncovering more names.
As for the survivors, they will never stop pursuing the Japanese government for an apology and compensation. They are waiting for the day they win the trial, just as they waited for the victory that finally came in 1945.
(Source: CNTV.cn)
