Hanaoka Monogatari (花岡ものがたり)

Hanaoka Monogatari（花岡ものがたり），一部由新居広治、牧大介、滝平二郎，以及诗人原太郎共同著作的57篇「木雕连作版画」，於1951年5月首次出版。这部木刻连环画集，被一小撮有良知和厌恶战争的日本人，视为人类の遗产。作者们用樱花木板，通过木刻和叙事诗，来记载并揭露，日寇在二战时，掳迫虐杀残害中国劳工的另一宗惨案。

1945年8月15日，日本战败投降；初秋时分，一群美军来到日本秋田县（Akita）北部的花冈，在鹿岛建设株式会社的中山寮( ちゅうざんりょうーChusan Dormitory)附近，发现了许多乱葬岗、一大堆被乱弃而没有掩埋的尸体、在环境异常恶劣的集中营里，囚禁着一群瘦弱奄奄待毙的中国人。由是揭发了一段惨绝人寰的「花冈事件」。

鹿岛-龟尾（Kajima-gumi)，是当时日本最大的建筑和公共工程公司之一，表面上说是为了要强化日本战争经济，因为劳工的短缺不足，从1944年8月至1945年6月之间，日寇从中国北部的五个省，抓捕近千名中国平民和战俘，分成3批海运到花冈的鹿岛建设公司做苦劳。三井（Mitsui ）、三菱（Mitsubishi）和大多数其他工业，也加入强迫劳动和奴役俘虏的罪行。

当时在鹿岛工作的，还有其他韩国义务兵、盟军战俘以及日本劳工。但是，中国劳工就特别受到最严峻的残酷折磨，他们被鹿岛组的监工当着畜牲来对待。每天，中国劳工被迫做超过16小时的苦劳；在铜矿井里劳作、修整道路、挖掘河床修改河道，却仅以橡子面、苹果渣和米糠充饥。严冬下也是身着单衣，足穿草鞋，在冰冷刺骨的泥水中劳动。严重的饥饿、劳累，加上每天被凶残的日本监工殴打虐杀，半年不到，就死了130多人。

1945年6月30日，中国工人在中山寮发起了暴动反抗，杀了4个日本监工然后逃走。2万个日本军警把逃往神山（かみやま）、旧松峰（まつみね）和狮子ヶ森（ししがもり）的中国劳工围捕枪杀，被抓回的，遭受更严厉的酷刑。酷暑的7月，中国劳工被捆绑着跪在铺着石子的共楽館前广场上，白天在烈日下暴晒，夜里被雨淋；3天后，广场上尸横遍地。
据统计，二战时期，日寇曾经强掳4万多中国人到日本充当劳工，其中被掳去花冈为鹿岛组做苦工的986人，饿死病死被虐死杀死的共有418人。




[The Ballad of Hanaoka]

 I single-cropped summers, lumbered winters;

 sold my daughter but was robbed of my land.

 Now that I'm homeless, where else can I go?

Hanaoka in the north; to Hanaoka, ho!

 Azaleas smile so sweet each spring,

but for the last hundred years miners stagger and drop.

In the bowels of the earth, where treasure's to find,

the bones cry out; the copper mine.

Every time there's war, the miners' ranks grow,

and so does the mine-owner's purse.

The Hanaoka copper mine; Hell's very worst. '




[Kajima Construction ]

 " Chuzan Dorm" may not sound bad,

but it was the Main Street of Hell.

There began the treatment, painful to watch,

 of the nine hundred Chinese.

Day after day we averted our eyes.

If their ranks were a bit sloppy

on the road to the work site, they'd be abused,

knocked down with cudgels yea thick,

half - murdered.

They were led by veterans of the anti-Japan war,

men of the Eighth Route Army, cream of the cream,

so Japanese militarists and the Wang regime agreed

 to bring them here

to kill their morale.




[Poison weed ]

 Ground-up acorns,apple peels, rice bran, water:

even horses wouldn't eat the stuff

they gave these men to eat.

What on earth did the bosses do with the rations?

Seems the Kajima Construction bigwigs sold them on the black market.

So the men ate trampled apple peels,

 ate up all  the roadside weeds;

some ate poison weed and died.

 Those still, amazingly, on their feet,

utterly malnourished,

clenched their teeth

held on, survived.

To what end?

Ah, to what end?




[Setting Out]

The Chinese tore down phone lines,

seized weapons,

and set off.

Scattering for now

 to bide their time:

Head for the woods!

For the shelter of the woods!

In the pitch black, feet feeling their way,

 voices raised in liberation songs like a far-off ocean's roar,

they dispersed.





[The Leader and His Men]

Ah, that leader——

even reduced to skin and bones,

that steely leader knew no fear.

Still——he couldn't win.

On that pathetic battlefield,

the men dropped, were captured one by one.

 He fought , fell back, finally disappeared from sight.




[ Dog meat Stew]

 We saw it all ——

the young Chinese brought in

like game on a pole,

bones broken, arms wrenched off:

not a single one groaned.

The   men who brought them to the police station in Odate

boasted, " You're dog meat stew."

The landlords' fear, their hateful looks,

 the derision of the "kempei ".

Tied up, unable to resist, again and again

they were stabbed with bamboo spears, struck with cudgels.

The gleam in their eyes then,

 their defiance,

their contempt, as if for dogs,

 their silent, shining eyes.




[ Pools of Blood ]

Were they rotten fish?

Dead horses? Still bound in twos,

they were kicked off the trucks in a heep.

Hanaoka Community Hall square

 is stained even now with their blood.

Their blood will never be wiped away.

So long as two-legged beasts still exist in this world,

even now, in that square the stains remain.




 [ Bleached Bones]

In the fields of Ubasawa, even now,

 bones surface all the time.

 As rain erodes the dirt,

 bones surface , flesh rotted off.

The bones of those who died

 at the hands of TOJO, HIROHITO, their underlings

are exposed to rain, to wind——

as if to say, " This country never lacks

for those who torment and exploit the people."

 We're still finding

evidence of the cruelty

of capitalists, landlords, police.





 [ Those Who Plan War]

White with fear, the dogs- capitalists, landlords——

went crying to Mr. America.

KAJIMA bosses, chief of the " Kempeitai",

governor, police chief, chief of the thought police,

leaders of the reservists' association and the yokusan youth group——

all alike bloody murderers:

 they did it, but what happened to them?

Underlings were punished only for minor war crimes;

big- shot war criminals made big bucks once again.

 Hanaoka today is the military base of a foreign country.

Those guys are already preparing

for the next war,

 planning to turn us laborers and farm people

into slaves, human bullets.

( Translations done by Richard Minear, a retired Professor of History at the University of  Massachusetts Amherst)