nycdaug Chapter 290 Valley Tragedy
Chapter 290 Valley Tragedy
At this time, the armies of various countries did not forget their hatred for the Japanese just because of Japan's unconditional surrender. This was especially true for the British and American armies. The Japanese abuse of prisoners of war and civilians in the Philippines and Southeast Asian battlefields had instilled deep resentment in the military, especially among the lower-ranking NCOs and soldiers. Coupled with Western nature, although the four countries agreed on strict military discipline, some of the lower-level military ranks in various countries turned a blind eye to some borderline practices. For example, they would use the excuse of encountering resistance during searches, patrols, and arrests of war criminals to shoot people to vent their anger, and they would even insult women in the process. As long as it was not a mass incident or was not caught on camera by journalists, they would generally try their best to cover it up. At most, the so-called violators would be put in solitary confinement and sent to the European battlefield.
The Flower Planting Army had a deeper grudge against Japan. Seeing the actions of other nations, and with the tacit approval of some lower-ranking officers, the troops were inevitably tempted to do the same. This was especially true in remote rural and mountainous areas. Search teams repeatedly searched several local households but found no weapons or other contraband. It was common for some soldiers to resort to extreme behavior under any pretext.
Just recently, a sergeant from a search team, accompanied by two soldiers, encountered a family of four, consisting of only a woman and a child, in a shabby house. Intimidated by the attractive woman and her 15- or 6-year-old daughter, they gang-raped them. A 7- or 8-year-old boy in the household, witnessing his mother and sister being insulted, grabbed a kitchen knife and charged at the sergeant who was insulting his sister. The boy, weak as he was, only managed to injure the sergeant's arm. The sergeant then grabbed the boy, lifted him high into the air, and slammed him to the ground. The boy landed headfirst and died instantly.
The woman's cries alerted the regimental commander, who rushed to investigate. Instead of reprimanding the sergeant and the others, he reprimanded them for their lack of attention and for not avoiding the children. The sergeant, who had apparently been doing this sort of thing quite a bit recently, took advantage of his friendship with the regimental commander and nonchalantly replied, "I'll take care of things here."
The regimental commander didn't care. In wartime, the death of a child wasn't a big deal. He simply walked away. Unexpectedly, the sergeant's method of handling the matter was extremely cruel. He gathered all the soldiers in his squad and forced them to join in the humiliation of the mother and daughter. Then, to cover up his crime, he brutally murdered the entire family of four, including the baby, who was not even a year old.
After the sergeant and his men finished their work, they set fire to the house and its inhabitants. By the time the regimental commander learned of this, it was too late. The matter didn't end there. He was about to punish the sergeant and the soldiers, but was stopped by the search team's leader, a lieutenant. The lieutenant said to the regimental commander, "Boss, this has already happened. If we punish the sergeant and his men, wouldn't that expose the problem? You and I will inevitably be punished by our superiors. Besides, the Japanese have done this kind of thing many times in China, and we're just taking revenge!" The regimental commander thought about it and agreed. They had recently received a lot of rumors that the armies of various countries had done the same thing. The regimental commander thought for a moment and let it go, but ordered that it must not happen again.
The regimental commander's actions clearly opened the door to the evil that followed. Soon, his search team did a lot of similar things during their operations over the next few days, and even the lieutenant and company commander secretly participated. It can be said that their subsequent search operations were a bloody mess.
That day, they arrived at a valley and discovered a natural village with about seven or eight households, which looked like they had been a large family in the past. The search team was eager to rush into the village, but unexpectedly, several crisp gunshots disrupted the tranquility of the valley.
The team quickly sought cover, taking up advantageous terrain and preparing to launch a counterattack. The regimental commander grabbed a telescope and was about to survey the village when, "Bang!" another bullet whizzed past, knocking his helmet off!
The regimental commander was furious and ordered the accompanying artillery group to deploy immediately and launch an indiscriminate bombardment on the village!
"Boom-boom-boom--", several mortar shells landed accurately in the village, and a huge mushroom cloud immediately rose from the village. Suddenly, flames shot up into the sky in the village, and the Japanese wooden houses were instantly set on fire.
Several middle-aged and elderly Japanese rushed out, armed with samurai swords, bamboo spears, and a few old-fashioned rifles. Of course, they were no match for modern weaponry and were quickly killed. The search party's squads and platoons seized the opportunity, charging into the village and driving out over thirty men, women, and children. By then, there were no young and able-bodied men left in rural Japan; most had been conscripted into the battlefields, either dying in battle or captured, now serving as cheap labor for various nations.
The regimental commander emerged from his ambush and inquired about the casualties of the lieutenant's troops. The lieutenant replied with some sadness, "Boss, three of our men were killed in action, and two were seriously injured. This was mainly due to the sudden attack by these men. They were all killed or injured in the first round of the surprise attack."
The regimental commander flew into a rage. This was the worst resistance they had encountered since the Japanese surrender troops entered the occupied territories. Unwisely, he issued an order that he would regret most in his life. "Shoot everyone! For those who resist, spare not a single one!"
The lieutenant who received the order immediately drove these thirty or so women, children and youngsters into and out of the compound, where some evil acts were carried out in broad daylight...
Just as the regimental commander and his guards were resting on a rocky slope outside the valley, a group of people came rushing in. The regimental commander saw that it was Brigadier General Gao, the deputy chief of staff of the division headquarters, and he hurried to greet them. Brigadier General Gao saw that it was the regimental commander and asked anxiously, "What happened? I heard artillery fire not far away!"
It turned out that the deputy chief of staff was bringing a domestic inspection team to this area for inspection. After all, this was the area occupied by the flower-growing families. In addition to inspecting the officials of the provisional government, the inspection team also had to investigate the local people's conditions.
The regimental commander quickly reported to the deputy chief of staff the resistance they had encountered and the losses their troops had suffered. The deputy chief of staff asked with concern, "Have you resolved everything? How many resistance fighters are there?"
The regiment commander pointed to several middle-aged and elderly people who had been killed on the ground and said softly, "Just these few. There are a few old-fashioned rifles, a few samurai swords, some bamboo spears and so on. These people should be the remnants of old Japanese samurai. They are all diehard militarists."
The deputy chief of staff didn't care about it, but he was clearly upset when something like this happened while he was on a tour with the domestic inspection team. He was about to instruct the regiment commander to pay attention to public security when a naked woman suddenly rushed out of the village, followed by two topless soldiers...