Chapter 854 853 [Rabe’s Diary]

The day after Zhou Hexuan arrived in New York, Hu Shi and Zhang Pengchun also came. They were very familiar with the Pulitzer brothers, and Hu Shi even had a relationship with Henry Pulitzer for nearly fifteen years.

Hu Shi and Zhang Pengchun also made great efforts to launch the "Committee on Non-Participation of the United States in Japanese Aggression". Regarding the propaganda work of Japan's invasion of China, Hu Shi gave lectures in the United States, while Zhang Pengchun wrote plays and performed them in the United States, cooperating with the propaganda activities of the American church.

Zhou Hexuan vaguely felt that the United States had a pair of invisible hands that connected Hu Shi, Chang Pengchun, the American church, and American academia.

But it is definitely not Skull and Bones, because Skull and Bones is not a monolithic society. Some families hope that the United States will not join the war, some hope that the United States will join the war as soon as possible, and some families hope that the United States will join the war at the right time.

Although Stimson had great influence in Skull and Bones, he was still unable to reconcile this contradiction. He preferred that the United States join the war as soon as possible. The problem was that others were unwilling, so he could only achieve his goal by supporting the civil movement to resist Japan and aid China.

Zhou Hexuan wants to build momentum in the United States, and the Stimson and Whitney families also want to build momentum. Their current goals are the same.

At the same time, the forces opposing sanctions against Japan were even more terrifying. Those interest groups joined forces to suppress Roosevelt and Stimson from taking any rash action.

In mid-June, John Rabe finally came to the United States.

He is tall, slightly chubby, with round eyes. The top of his head is completely bald, leaving only some hair around him.

John Rabe's first words after meeting Zhou Hexuan were: "Sorry, Mr. Zhou. I was not able to bring the films about the Holocaust. They were confiscated by the Gestapo."

"You also made a video?" Zhou Hexuan asked in surprise.

Rabe explained: "It was filmed by Mr. Magee in the United States. I got a copy and planned to take it back to Germany to expose Japan's war crimes. But..."

After Mr. Rabe’s careful explanation, Zhou Hexuan finally understood what happened.

When Rabe first returned to Germany, he received a warm welcome and was awarded a Red Cross Medal by the German State Secretary.

Immediately afterwards, Rabe sent his report to Hitler. A few days later, the Gestapo arrested him, took away his diaries and copies of his films, and interrogated him for several hours before releasing him. At the same time, the Gestapo warned Rabe that he was not allowed to give lectures, publish books, or show Magee's Holocaust films in the future.

Historically, it was not until October 1938 that Rabe got his diary back. It's a little different now, because Zhou Hexuan agreed to help Rabe publish a book in the United States, and Rabe asked the police to get the diary back in advance from the police headquarters.

Rabe's experience of leaving Germany was also thrilling. He hid his diary in the middle of his suitcase and was almost found by surveillance agents. He took his family to Sweden under the pretext of traveling. Because Sweden had good relations with Germany, he was not troubled by the Gestapo. After arriving in Sweden, he took a boat to England, and then took a boat overnight to the United States.

Rabe said thankfully: "Mr. Zhou, fortunately, the telegram you sent me was delivered through the Chinese Embassy in Germany. If it had been sent to me directly, it would have been discovered by the Gestapo. They have been secretly monitoring my external communications. .”

"What are your plans for the future?" Zhou Hexuan asked.

Rabe said: "I won't know in the future, but now I just want to make the diary public so that more Westerners know about the atrocities of the Japanese army. Although there is no clear data, the Japanese army massacred at least 100,000 people in Nanjing!"

Zhou Hexuan quickly asked: "How did you calculate it?"

Rabe said: "The Red Swastika Society buries at least 200 corpses every day, and there are still 30,000 corpses that have not yet been buried. This is only the data in mid-February. Therefore, just from the corpse burial report of the Red Swastika Society, we can It is estimated that the Japanese army massacred more than 42,000 people. In Nanjing, in addition to the Red Swastika Society, those responsible for collecting corpses were also the Red Cross Society, the Hui Burial Team, the Tongshan Tang Burial Team, and the Chongshan Tang Burial Team. , the Nanjing Provisional Government burial team, and sporadic private burial teams. Even if these burial teams buried half as many bodies as the Red Swastika Society, the total would exceed 100,000 victims. As for more numbers, I dare not think about them. .”

Zhou Hexuan was silent for a moment and said, "Can I read your diary first?"

"Of course." Rabe quickly opened the suitcase and saw three medals and a piece of red silk.

One of the three medals is the Jade Medal issued by the National Government. The piece of red silk cloth was a gift from the refugees he rescued when Rabe left Nanjing. On the red cloth was written: "You are a living Bodhisattva for hundreds of thousands of people."

Rabe untied the red silk cloth, turned out the diary and handed it to Zhou Hexuan, while he stood aside and kept smoking.

To be honest, although Zhou Hexuan likes to read various historical books and historical materials, he had not read anything about the Nanjing Massacre before traveling through time. When he was in high school, the school organized a patriotic education exhibition. The photos of the Nanjing Massacre made him sick to his stomach, and he refused to touch them again.

At this moment, Zhou Hexuan opened the manuscript of Rabe's diary and read it carefully with an unusually heavy heart.

The first part was normal, about preparing for the establishment of an international safe zone, but the next part became shocking. In fact, Rabe's terminology is very common. When the Japanese soldiers broke into the safe zone, he used "patronize", and when the Japanese soldiers took away the women, he used "pull away."

But behind these ordinary words, there is infinite blood, brutality and ugliness hidden.

Sometimes, on the same day, there are dense records of who was taken away at what time, and who was taken away at what time.

In Rabe's account, there were also a few good people in the Japanese army, such as the Japanese military police who stopped soldiers from raping and robbing, and a Japanese soldier who treated an injured nun. However, there are only a few records of such "good Japanese soldiers", and the rest are just a bunch of beasts.

At the same time, it can be seen from the diary that the Japanese are deliberately concealing the truth. At larger massacre sites, Westerners would be driven away in advance, but Rabe was still allowed to witness the massacre of hundreds of people at a time. Moreover, the Japanese army will provide food to the international safe zone and try to pretend to be hypocritical, making Westerners think that not many civilians were massacred.

In his diary for December, Rabe mentioned a rumor that 60,000 Chinese had been killed. But Rabe had doubts about this because he had not witnessed it with his own eyes and could not believe that it was a fact.

Zhou Hexuan flipped through page after page, and Yu Peichen followed beside him.

After watching for a long time, Yu Peichen couldn't bear to read anymore and ran out of the room to calm down.

There was dead silence in the room, except for the sound of Zhou Hexuan turning the pages of the manuscript.