In the past three hours alone, Rabe had smoked an entire pack of cigarettes, and the house was filled with a choking smell.
Rabe opened the window for some air and asked, "I still have more than 80 photos. Do you want to see them? If you can still persist."
"Look," Zhou Hexuan's eyes were filled with bloodshot eyes and his voice was hoarse. He didn't know whether he was choked or smoked by cigarettes.
Rabe took out many photos one after another from the mezzanine of his suitcase, and handed them to Zhou Hexuan with the back facing up. He didn't seem to want to look at the photos anymore.
Zhou Hexuan first saw the text on the back of the photo, which was written in German: "More than a thousand Chinese were rushed there, taken outside the city, and executed with machine guns. Rabe. February 8."
Zhou Hexuan endured the churning gastric juices and turned to the front of the photo to carefully examine every detail. Then he put it down gently, picked up the second photo and read the front and back, the third, fourth, fifth... more than 80 photos.
, Zhou Hexuan watched it for a full hour.
Rabe took out another stack of manuscript paper and said: "This is the original letter of protest I wrote to the Japanese military headquarters. There are sixteen letters in total. More than 500 atrocities were investigated and recorded, and each atrocity has a corresponding number."
Zhou Hexuan casually opened one of the letter manuscripts. The letter began with a condemnation of the Japanese troops in Nanjing and asked the Japanese military to stop this behavior immediately. It was followed by a series of cases, such as No. 3: The Japanese troops snatched pigs, one for each horse,
Several Japanese soldiers raped 17 women, two of whom were raped to death. Rapes and robberies occurred many times in Yin Yang Camp.
Zhou Hexuan put down the letter and said to Rabe: "Sir, I originally wanted to write a book to expose the Nanjing Massacre in the form of a first-person novel. But after reading the information you brought, I feel that any literary genre cannot
None of them can bear the weight of that sin. So, I want to put together all the information, including your diaries, photos and letters, as well as letters written by other missionaries to the church and family. No special literary form is required, just objective
The records and objective summary put the facts before the eyes of the world objectively. Some atrocities recorded by other missionaries may overlap with yours. We need to check and verify them one by one."
"I agree, and I will do my best to help you complete this work," Rabe nodded solemnly and added, "The most important physical evidence is Father Magee's video files. Although the copy in my hand fell to the Gestapo
in hand, but Mr. Magee said he wanted to send the master disk back to the United States."
Zhou Hexuan said: "I have contacted Father Magee's family, but they have not received it yet."
Rabe guessed: "Maybe it was still in the mail. When I left Nanjing, he had already shot three reels of film and entrusted a friend to secretly take them to Shanghai for safekeeping. By the way, Mr. Magee also wrote more than 400 to the Japanese military headquarters.
A protest letter and a report, which are also important written materials."
Zhou Hexuan thought for a while and asked: "Mr. Rabe, can you contact the friends who worked together to rescue the refugees? I need their help."
"Of course," Rabe nodded, "Zhou, you are an upright person. Thanks to your help, we will not be so embarrassed."
The so-called "Zhou Hexuan's help" refers to the 200,000 yuan he originally left to Xu Chuanyin.
Rabe and his friends formed an international safe zone and were elected chairman of the safe zone. Xu Chuanyin was also invited to join the safe zone and served as a member of the safe zone committee. The two had contact and cooperation with each other, which was reflected in "Rabe"
There are many records in the Diary.
The International Security Zone is responsible for arranging food and accommodation for more than 200,000 people, which consumes a lot of money and food every day. There are four main sources of funds: first, private provision by Rabe, Xu Chuanyin and others; second, donations from charity groups; third,
The National Government allocated funds; fourth, the Japanese army allocated food.
Appropriations from the National Government were sporadic, the food provided by the Japanese army was always delayed, and donations from charitable groups and individuals were of little help. Therefore, the 200,000 yuan left by Zhou Hexuan saved lives at the critical moment.
The 200,000 yuan was originally left to Xu Chuanyin to help the elderly, weak, sick and disabled evacuate from Nanjing. But at that time, carriages and horses were difficult to find in Nanjing, and tickets for trains and boats were difficult to obtain, so Xu Chuanyin had nothing to do about it.
When Xu Chuanyin felt that the situation was not good, the 200,000-yuan money order could no longer be cashed. Due to the impact of the war, all banks in Nanjing were closed.
Until March, the refugees in the international safe zone were starving, and many people froze to death. Rabe and his friends were almost driven crazy. Finally, a missionary ventured to Shanghai, took out the money from the money order, and
Shanghai transports food and medicine to the Nanjing safety zone.
Rabe asked curiously: "Zhou, did you know in advance that the Japanese army would carry out a massacre in Nanjing? Listening to Dr. Xu Chuanyin's account, it seems that you have been prepared for it."
"It's a guess," Zhou Hexuan said with a bitter smile, "So what if you can predict it? It's not useless."
"No, it's very useful," Rabe said, shaking his head. "The money you left behind helped the refugees get through the most difficult period. Without the 200,000 yuan to buy food and medicine, many people would have died, not by the Japanese army."
Instead of killing, they froze to death, starved to death and died of illness. Because of your help, at least tens of thousands of refugees were saved."
Zhou Hexuan gave a rare smile: "If I had known earlier, I should have left more money."
Rabe regretted: "It is a pity that the safety zone was forced to close in February. At that time, the Japanese army promised not to massacre civilians, but I know that they will not be able to fulfill their promise, and the atrocities in Nanjing will continue. Although the safety zone
has been closed, but many friends are still maintaining various refugee camps, but I can’t wait to leave Nanjing. I am not escaping, I want to rush back to Germany as soon as possible and ask the Führer, Mr. Hitler, to intervene. Who knows, I failed to wait for the Führer to come
He was summoned, but only the Gestapo were waiting for him."
"Don't blame yourself," Zhou Hexuan consoled him, "Mr. Rabe, you have done a great job. You and your friends have saved the lives of 250,000 Chinese people. You are all living bodhisattvas in the hearts of the Chinese people."
In the next two months, Chen Guangfu and others finally persuaded Roosevelt to start commercial loan negotiations with the Morgan consortium. Stimson, the Pulitzer brothers, Hu Shih and Chang Pengchun also successfully established the "Committee for Non-participation in Japanese Aggression", which was organized throughout the United States.
Under this situation, although several major American financial groups are still friendly with Japan, public opinion is rapidly turning towards China.
Just after the Battle of Songhu last year, 82% of Americans opposed the mediation of the Sino-Japanese War, and 70% of Americans demanded the withdrawal of American personnel and troops in China. This shows that American isolationism is extremely popular among the people.
In just the past year, due to the continuous propaganda of Hu Shi, Zhang Pengchun and other Chinese people in the United States, as well as the efforts of American academic circles and churches, and the fueling of certain capitalists whose interests have been harmed, the situation has finally changed.
The just-conducted public opinion poll shows that although most Americans do not want to be involved in the war, they agree to use diplomatic and economic means to sanction Japan and provide material support to the Chinese people in the war. At this time, more than 30% of Americans said
Support the abolition of the U.S.-Japan trade agreement, and in another year, this figure will reach 8%.
The thinking of ordinary Americans is very simple, that is, the United States cannot participate in the war. War is too terrible. But the Japanese are beasts, and they also bombed our warships, so they should provide material support to China.
What Zhou Hexuan wanted to do was to speed up the progress and expose the Nanjing Massacre in exchange for further support from the American people.
With Rabe's help, Zhou Hexuan collected first-hand information much faster. After all, Rabe used to be the chairman of the International Security Zone and had contacts with most refugee camps and charity groups in Nanjing. Rabe sent him a telegram
, Ms. Vautrin sent all her diaries directly, and four of Father Magee’s video materials also arrived in the United States.
At this moment, Zhou Hexuan had 8 diaries, 4 reels of film, 8 photos, 328 letters of various types, letters of protest and investigation reports.
The information is very complete, more than the records of the Tokyo Trial and subsequent investigations, and it only lacks the narrative testimonies of Holocaust survivors.
Zhou Hexuan, Yu Peichen and Rabe jointly compared and compiled a total of 829 cases of robbery, rape and massacre. The number of victims in these cases alone was as high as more than 50,000.
Yu Peichen couldn't hold on at first. She only lasted for half a month before she kept having nightmares and woke up screaming in her dreams several times.
In fact, Zhou Hexuan is not much better. The text description is a little tolerable, but the video and photo data are too shocking. No wonder Ms. Vautrin committed suicide, no wonder Ms. Zhang Chunru committed suicide. These extreme evils of human nature can drive normal people crazy.
.
After sorting out all the information, Zhou Hexuan did not start writing a book immediately. Instead, he went to movie theaters and Broadway theaters for several days in a row, specializing in comedy genres to relieve his mental pressure.
Although it is very inappropriate, I still have to say that Zhou Hexuan went to bed with Yu Peichen.
One night, Yu Peichen woke up from a nightmare, ran into Zhou Hexuan's room in the dark, frantically took off his clothes and said: "I want to vent, I want to vent, hurry up!"
The two of them had sex for half a night, completely transforming into beasts. They were so tired that they could think of nothing or do nothing, and they slept until the afternoon of the next day when they woke up.
From then on, they worked during the day and at night. In October, someone finally died and Yu Peichen became pregnant...