The ponds full of blood, the mountains filled with corpses.

In July 1937, Japan launched an all-out war of aggression against China to make China a colony of Japan. On December 13, 1927, the devil fell upon Nanjing, the capital of the Chinese Republic at the time. The army killed Chinese people, raped Chinese women, set fire to buildings, and pillaged all they could. Through these inhumane activities, Japan hoped to make China lose their will and surrender. In their eyes, if Nanjing, the capital, was destroyed, the fall of China would follow immediately. Japan was facing many difficult problems and in dire need of Chinese resources. So they continued their crimes against humanity for six weeks until February of 1938. According the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and Nanjing military court, more than 200,000, close to 300,000 Chinese civilians and prisoners were killed by the Japanese army, and approximately 20,000 Chinese women were raped. One third of Nanjing was ruined.
Can you image the stacks of dead bodies lining all the streets and avenues? It’s been said that human beings are the most intelligent creatures in the world, so how many precious lives left the world in just that one day?

We know that the gunshots didn’t end that day, and continued in the following days. Those innocent people shouldn’t have lost their lives that way; they deserved to enjoy their life on earth. The earth is their mother. But no one was able to stop the frenzied Japanese army. More people fell and the blood continued to flow. It was a dark day.

On that day, Japanese Embassy Representative Ancun Sanlang was welcomed by the International Committee in Nanjing. The United States, Germany, and England had to respect and abide by Japan’s requests because Japan was the victor of the war. Although Ancun Sanlang spoke English, he chose to speak in Japanese as a display of his pride. He approached the International Committee with the request to immediately clear the roads of the dead bodies in order to make room for Captain Matsui’s entrance ceremony on December 17th.

All the roads were a chaotic mess, full of cars and debris. There were too many bodies to remove in a short time, so some Chinese people began to work as porters of the dead as their only means of survival in the dark era.

The living Chinese people stacked the bodies in high piles along the walls. Wild cats, stray dogs and rats lived between the corpses ate the bodies for food.

The Big North Mountain near No.2 Alley is called “the mountains filled with dead bodies” and the ponds in the Dazhong Pavilion, Dafang Valley and Jiangsu Roads are called “the ponds full of blood”. All of the places were overflowing with corpses and blood. The Japanese army poured gasoline on the piles of corpses, sending bursts of bright flame skyward. Bloody bodies were thrown in creek and left to scream.  Hundreds of thousands innocent Chinese civilians turned into dust immediately.

Even after civilians were killed, soldiers did not allow them to have their peace. Corpses were looted for anything of value. The silver dollar turned black and the color of paper money turned pale. People called this kind of money “dirty money”, and the money from the dead flowed back into the market again by hands of the pillagers. It is said that a Japanese soldier even hacked off the legs of a corpse just to get the money in his trouser pocket.
On the night of April 18, 1987, on the 36th floor of Yuansheng Alley, Nanjing, a retired couple watched television as they did on every other day. Suddenly, the old man shouted out: How could that Japanese monk return to Nanjing!

The broadcaster in the TV explained that 69 people of a delegation to China, attended the memorial activities held in the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall Plaza, and expressed deep sympathies for the Chinese victims. This was the second time Japanese displayed the desire to mourn the victims in the Nanjing Massacre.

The old man’s thought reflected back to 1937. He was working as the chauffeur of the monk, a member of the Nakajima forces. After he dropped off the Japanese officials at their office, the chauffeur was forced use the car to move the dead bodies. He often cried when he saw how many young people lost their lives. When the weather became warmer, the dead bodies began to reek. The chauffeur had to wear a mask and wash his car twice a day. Every time he returned home, he had to shake off the maggots off his body before he entered the room. How could the Japanese have forced them to work these types of jobs?
Although 1937 may seem like a time long ago, but the sorrow and sadness does not belong only to the old man and his generation.

We still not know all the exact burial sites of these innocent bodies. In the showroom of the Bones of Jiangdong District, the soul of tens of thousands deceased persons are crying. The bones tell the true history! As new generation, we promise we will never forget our history! We are still fighting for the truth!