The heavens start from Changjin Lake

Chapter 761 Living Bodhisattva John

Everyone nearby has been killed by the Japanese. This is a fact.

It is estimated that only safe zones have refugees.

In every war in history, there will always be some respectable figures who are like beacons of light to those who have been brutally persecuted.

In America, the Quakers unleashed their efforts and helped found the 'Underground Railroad'.

In Europe during World War II, the Nazi Schindler spent all his wealth to rescue 1200 Jews from the gas chambers of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenbeli rescued at least 10 Jews by issuing false passports.

And no one will forget the Austrian couple Mius Gipp who, with others, hid little Anne Frank and her family in the attic of a house in Amsterdam to help them escape the Germans.

Even if someone dies, it is not a pity.

In the dark ages, most people became indifferent and drifted with the crowd, but there were always a handful of people who stepped forward, ignored all warnings, and performed feats that they themselves could not have imagined in normal times.

During the Jinling Massacre, some European and American people were willing to risk their lives to resist Japan's aggression against China, establish safe zones, and save hundreds of thousands of Chinese refugees from being massacred by Japan.

In the weeks after the fall of Shanghai, that is, in November 1937, the French priest Jao Jiaju established a neutral zone in Shanghai to protect 11 Chinese refugees whose homes were destroyed and displaced during the Japanese invasion.

Almost at the same time, a group of European and American people in Jinling decided to establish a safety zone in Jinling.

After Presbyterian missionary W. Plummer Mills learned about Rao Jiaju's feats, he suggested to his friends that a similar safety zone should be established in Jinling.

Mills and 20 others, mostly British but also Germans, Danes, Soviets and Chinese, established a safe zone in an area west of downtown Jinling.

Jinling University, Jinling Women's College of Arts and Sciences, the U.S. Embassy and many Chinese government agencies are gathered here.

At the beginning, their belief in establishing the safe zone was just to provide a place of refuge for Chinese civilians trapped in the war between China and Japan.

The plan of these people was to close the safety zone in a few days or weeks after Jinling was safely transferred to the Japanese hands.

This idea did not initially gain support, and the Japanese categorically rejected the so-called safe zone.

As the Japanese army approached Jinling, not only relatives and friends tried their best to persuade them, but many Chinese, Japanese and Western officials also urgently called on the members of the International Committee of the Safety Zone to abandon the plan and escape for their lives.

In early December, officials from the U.S. Embassy insisted that the person in charge of the safe zone board the gunboat Panay with them. The gunboat was already crowded with diplomats, journalists, Westerners and refugees, who were preparing to go up the river. Escape from Jinling.

But the organizers of the safe zone declined the invitation.

On the 9th, diplomats warned them for the last time that the Panay left Jinling, and the foreigners who stayed could only resign themselves to their fate.

Unexpectedly, on the afternoon of the 12th, Japanese pilots attacked the Panay traveling up the river without prior warning, killing two people and injuring many others. Afterwards, Japanese aircraft continued to attack the wreckage of the gunboat repeatedly. It hovers, seemingly intending to eliminate the survivors in the reeds by the river.

There is no explanation yet as to why they suddenly attacked the American USS Panay. However, the Japanese argued that the pilots lost their calmness and judgment during the fierce battle. In addition, the river was filled with fog and the pilots did not see the American flag clearly on the USS Panay.

But this statement was proved to be completely Japanese sophistry.

Because when the Panay was bombed by Japanese aircraft, not only was the weather clear, but the Japanese pilots also received clear instructions to bomb the Panay. Even this order was met with strong protests and arguments before they reluctantly carried out the order.

The exact reason was later inferred by some to be an internal political struggle in Japan. The Jinling Massacre was also the result of a political struggle. The forged secret telegram order to kill all prisoners and then destroyed was the best proof.

Some people also say that this move is to test the United States' reaction.

In short, Jinling City is much safer than staying on the Panay.

The first batch of refugees to enter the Jinling Safety Zone were those who had lost their homes in Japanese air raids, or who lived in the suburbs of Jinling and had their homes caught in the war and had to abandon their homes and flee in the face of the Japanese army's increasing pressure.

With the first influx of refugees, the safe zone was quickly overcrowded.

When the person in charge of the safety zone first established the safety zone, he estimated that the number of refugees would be around 10,000, and the current area was sufficient. However, he did not expect that there would be too many people flooding into the safety zone, and the number would be immeasurable.

Many refugees could only stand on their feet for days, without access to water, until new camps were opened.

After the fall of Jinling, the number of people accommodated in the refugee camp far exceeded the estimated thousands, reaching hundreds of thousands.

In the next six weeks, the International Committee of the Safe Zone had to find ways to provide these refugees with the most basic living security.

Food, shelter and medical care.

The committees were also required to protect them from physical harm, which often required their in-person intervention to prevent Japanese soldiers from carrying out various threatening activities. Additionally, they recorded the entire incident, despite no one asking for it.

There were only about 20 foreigners, facing the ravages of 5 Japanese troops, and trying their best to protect more than 10 refugees in the safe zone. This was almost a miracle.

Before the Japanese occupation of Jinling, these foreigners were missionaries, doctors, professors, and business executives, rather than experienced military officers.

They once had no worries about food and clothing, and lived a peaceful and comfortable life. They were not even rich, but they made great efforts for the Chinese people who had nothing to do with them.

Before that, many foreigners were not interested in Chinese soldiers. They believed that the Chinese were taller and more difficult to deal with than the Japanese. Foreigners who lived in Jinling in 1927 still remember clearly. After the National Revolutionary Army invaded Jinling, they massacred foreigners and surrounded a group of foreigners in a house near the Mobil Company residence and the British Consulate, including the American consul and his wife. A woman recorded that A terrifying period:

"Will they kill us? Will they torture us like the Boxers did? Will they be more cruel? Will they torture our children under our noses? I can't imagine what the fuck would do to us women What's going on?"

It was not until 1937, after the Japanese army invaded Jinling, that foreigners confessed: "Before the Japanese invaded, we were worried about what atrocities the retreating Chinese soldiers would do. But we never dreamed that the Japanese army would be so brutal. On the contrary, we originally expected to follow them. With the arrival of the Japanese, peace, tranquility and prosperity will be restored."

The truth is quite the opposite.

During the Jinling Massacre, the most attractive figure belonged to the German businessman John Rabe. To most Chinese who stayed in Jinling, he was a hero and the Hope of Jinling, as an international safe zone. The legendary leader who saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of Chinese refugees.

For the Japanese, Rabe is unlikely to be the savior of the Jinling people. He is not only a German businessman, a citizen of Japan's allies, but also the leader of the Nazi Party in Jinling.

It is precisely for this reason that the Japanese did not believe that he would become the savior of the Jinling people, but it was he who saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of Chinese refugees.

John Rabe was born in Hamburg, Germany on November 1882, 11. He was the son of a captain. After finishing his apprenticeship in Hamburg, he worked in Africa for several years and came to China in 23 to become Siemens China's representative in Beijing. As a clerk in the office, in 1908, he was transferred to the Siemens Jinling office to sell telephones and electrical equipment to the Chinese government.

Rabe, who is over fifty years old, is bald, wearing glasses, a conservative suit, and a bow tie. He looks like a typical middle-aged Western businessman. During his years in Jinling, he quickly became a member of the German community in Jinling. The core figure manages the primary and secondary students in the German school he founded.

A few years later, Rabe became a loyal supporter of Nazism and served as the Nazi's person in charge of the Jinling area.

After the fall of Jinling, the Japanese soldier Shao Sagan, who was ordered by his superiors to come to protect Rabe, once asked him: "Why on earth do you want to stay? Why do you want to get involved in our military affairs? These things have nothing to do with you as a post-war official, 豼There’s nothing to lose by leaving here.”

Rabe paused for a moment and said to him: "I have lived in China for more than thirty years. My children and grandchildren were all born here. I live happily and have a successful career here. The Chinese people have been very good to me, even during the war. The same is true. If I have lived in Japan for thirty years and the Japanese people are also very good to me, I guarantee you that in times of crisis, just like the situation China is currently facing, I will not leave the Japanese people."

Japanese Army Major Saoka was very satisfied with Rabe's answer. He admired Rabe's philosophy of loyalty and sincerity.

Rabe once recorded in his diary that Gon took a step back, murmured some words about warrior duty, and bowed deeply to me.

Rabe did not leave Jinling to protect himself, but more for his own reasons. He felt that he had a responsibility to protect the safety of his employees in China. They are Siemens mechanics who are responsible for maintaining the turbines of Jinling's main power plant. Telephones and clocks in government departments, alarms in police stations and banks, and large X-ray machines in the General Hospital.

Rabe had a premonition that if he left Jinling, all the employees of his company would die at the gunpoint of the Japanese. ,

He chose not to leave.

Before the Jinling Massacre, Rabe experienced countless air raids in Jinling. Each time, he could only hide in an air raid shelter similar to a foxhole, with a few wooden boards covering the hole as cover.

Rabe also did not have enough clothes, especially in September. He kept all his clothes on the Kutwo ship that was transporting German citizens out of Jinling. As a result, after arriving in Hankou, his luggage was lost because no one claimed it. , As a result, Rabe only had two sets of clothes left in Jinling, and he gave one of the clothes to a ragged refugee. He felt that this refugee needed this set of clothes more than he did.

In the following days, Rabe refused to change his clothes. His most important concern at the moment was not his personal safety, but the establishment of a safe zone.

Members of the International Committee of the Safety Zone hoped that there would be no military activities in the entire area, but the Japanese army refused to recognize the area as a neutral zone, and the Safety Zone Committee also found that the villa of Commander Jinling Guards was in the safety zone, and there were a large number of stolen cars. The Chinese troops who left were in the safe zone.

Not only did they refuse to evacuate the safe zone, they also erected turrets on the area.

This made Rabe intolerable. All military activities were prohibited in the safety zone. The Japanese army itself did not recognize this safety zone. These people added fuel to the fire and set up turrets in the safety zone. This did not tell the Japanese that this area was not a safety zone. .

At this time, a large number of Chinese refugees had entered the safe zone. Once the Japanese troops entered, the consequences would be disastrous.

Rabe couldn't bear it and went to the leader of the remaining troops: "If you don't evacuate the safe zone, then I will resign as chairman of the International Committee of the safe zone and make it known to the public that you have set up forts in the safe zone!"

The original intention of establishing the safety zone was to provide safe assistance to ordinary people. Once military activities occurred in the safety zone, the Japanese army could find an excuse to eliminate the safety zone.

Therefore, these people cannot stay in the safe zone.

Rabe was also helpless about this. More often than not, he was not the one who had the final say in such matters.

There were too many refugees in the safe zone, and he needed to consider more people.

During this period, another incident occurred.

After the establishment of the safe zone, Japanese aircraft continued to bomb Jinling indiscriminately. This resulted in the safe zone being bombed by Japanese aircraft at any time. To this end, Rabe used all his connections to write letters to his friends in his country more than once. Ask for their help.

These letters were ultimately lost without any reply.

In the next few days, Rabe suddenly discovered that the Japanese army no longer bombed the buildings in Jinling City indiscriminately and indiscriminately as before. However, within a few days, the Japanese aircraft only attacked military targets, such as Military schools, airstrips, arsenals, etc.

But the difficulties will never disappear. The scope of the safe zone is not wide and can even be described as narrow. As the Japanese army entered Jinling, more and more refugees poured into the safe zone.

The area of ​​the safe zone is only 2.5 square miles, but the number of people needed to evacuate is 5 more than originally estimated in the worst-case scenario.

Not only were all the buildings in the safety zone overcrowded, but even the lawns, trenches and dugouts were packed.

Families sleeping on the streets are commonplace, and hundreds of reed mat shacks have sprung up near the U.S. Embassy.

At this time, the safe zone already accommodated more than 25 refugees.

The borders of the safety zone are marked with white flags and red crosses surrounded by red circles, making the safety zone look like a huge 'human honeycomb'.

(End of this chapter)