Tianxiang Tang was born in a wealthy family and he was well educated. He has studied in Japan for 3 years, after that he came back to Shanghai. He was caught after Shanghai was fallen and survived just because he could speak Japanese. Thus, he has to become a translator to help Japanese communicate with the local; otherwise he and his family would be killed.
Here is what he said when I talked to him in an embassy on January 1938.
Here is what he said when I talked to him in an embassy on January 1938.
“I felt sinful when I saw them [Japanese soldiers] kill the babies who just had been to the world. They were innocent! So were those poor residents[1]. “ The odor of blood and undressed wound, pain and hideous faces always make me wake up from a nightmare, I know how incompetent and coward I am as a Chinese. Every time when I was spitted by other residents, when they pointed at me and shouted ”black sheep or even wanted to kill me with a knife…I feel guilty! I feel angry about those Japanese devils!
…
Yesterday, I heard a Japanese Army Officer said they would go to Ginling College which has already become a prostitute recruitment for soldiers to rape those girls. I felt a qualm of disgust when they lasciviously laughed but the only thing I could do was to keep silence. I have no idea what they have done to those pretty girls who should have been educated in that college. They [the Japanese] had guards at the gate and they also dressed up as Chinese[2]. Afterwards, I coincidentally heard that the reason why they dressed themselves up is that they don’t want the whole world to know their horrendous acts. What a mean strategy! Based on this, they don’t allow foreigners to build safety zone, and then they block the newspaper telegram and forbade anyone to leave the city so that what happened in Nanking would be a secret[3]. I think the only thing I can do is to record the brutality of the Japanese heinous crimes. And that’s why I would like to tell you what had happened.
…
They not only satisfy with simply massacred people, but also seek for more excitement. MUKAI and NODA had a competition about which team could kill more people in a certain time[4]. Those Japanese military officers are talking about how many people they killed excitedly every day, it seems that they have a competitive game rather than committed the cruelest massacre. When they asked me whether I had better ideas to help them win the game, I really wanted to ripped him apart, but I can’t as I have the responsibility to take care of my wife and my little daughter, I was painful about that.”
[1] James Yin and Shi Young,The Rape of Nanking: An Undeniable History in Photograph(Chicago: Innovative Publishing Group, 1997) 4-6
[2] Tadao, Takemoto, and Ohara Yasuo. The Alleged 'Nanking Massacre': Japan's rebuttal to China's forged claims. (Tokyo: Meisei-sha, Inc., 2000), 89-90
[3] Tadao, Takemoto, and Ohara Yasuo. The Alleged 'Nanking Massacre': Japan's rebuttal to China's forged claims.(Tokyo: Meisei-sha, Inc., 2000),46-49
[4] James Yin and Shi Young, The Rape of Nanking: An Undeniable History in Photograph (Chicago: Innovative Publishing Group, 1997), 91-93
I think the translator is also very helpless and it shows his resignation about the situation at that time. He saw the whole progress of slaughter and his compatriot was murdered cruelly, but he could do nothing to change it and because he had responsibility of protecting his family, the only thing he could do to survive was working for Japanese. Furthermore, I can see it was not the will of his own, and he also work under high pressure as he was regarded as traitor. Based on this, although I can understand his helpless and his worries, his cowardice is sad. On the other side, I think he was proud as he had been gone abroad and well educated, he could live a happy and cheerful life originally, but he was in a chaotic years, and I am really sorry about his great strength became his biggest weakness.
ReplyDelete