After Shooting Down the Japanese Aircraft

Story told by Lu Yingde

Transcribed by Zhu Liyang

After Shooting Down the Japanese Aircraft

Story told by Lu Yingde

Transcribed by Zhu Liyang

I n September1937,I shot down a Mitsubishi G3M.

When I turned to the full speed and tried to get further close,I found there was a wisp of white smoke on the plane which indicated that I shot its oil tank.

I could not catch up with it though I tried my best.When we just passed Wuxi and near Kunshan,the smoke just disappeared.The pilot emergently landed on a farmland in east of Jiading.I watched his plane flapped over. And I circled low for 25 minutes until a group of nearby Chinese soldiers came,lifted the tail of the plane,and put the Japanese pilot on the stretcher. After seeing all these,I flew back to Nanjing.

Capture

At 17:01 September 28,just after I flew alone and spied back from the frontier,The Chief of the station--Shi Bangfan greeted me:"The Japanese pilot who was captured on 26th was brought back".

AftertheJapanesesoldier--Ya mashita Nanaro woke up,Shi asked the interpreter to tell him:"This is Luo Yingde,who shot you down."The Japanese gave me the whites of eyes and said with a very weak voice:"I landed because of my tube leaking, which made the oil totally leaked out. You could never shot me down."He turned his back and closed his eyes again.I asked the interpreter to inform him that we could talk about the realreason later and right then what he needed was eating and recovering.

From then on,almost every time I passed by,I would stop to visit those JapaneseP.O.W.s,Iwasworried about that the Chinese soldiers would mistreat them and I always asked guards to pay more attention on their changing of medicine.One day,I asked Yamashita whether he would like to write a letter to his families and informed them he was still alive.I could help them to send the letter from Hong Kong.They considered a whole night and refused my offer next day, since they did not want to disturb the quiet life of their families then.

In September1937,I shot down a Mitsubishi G3M.

On the afternoon of October 17,I heard those P.O.W.s would be transferred to Hankou,and waiting for the ship to Sichuan there.I hurried to catch their departure.When I arrived there,the trucks were about to drive away.I asked the trucks to wait for 15 minutes,and rushed to the pilot lounge to fetch 15 pieces of winter pilot uniforms which used to belong to those who had died in the battle,together with 4 boxes of milk powder,4 boxes of cigarettes and 4 boxes of biscuits, all of which were the left consolations. I handed them over to the lieutenantwho was the team captain,and told him that since they had to experience the winter in the trip to Sichuan,each of them could have one uniform and they should share these food fairly,especially those two Japanese.Meanwhile,I asked the interpreter to translate the following words to Yamashita and his fellow:"This is war.We are all soldiers and have to follow the orders.It is much better to live than to die.In addition,you two both have families who are waiting for you to be back.Therefore please try your best to live in order to have the chance of reunionwiththem.Thejourneyto Sichuan covers thousands miles and is full of risks.You two should struggle to survive and obey the captain's orders."At last,I warned Yamashita to behave himself and told him if I were not careful enough I could have been shot down by him.Their destination of this trip was Chongqing where we could meet again if we two were lucky enough."If we could not meet,it would mean that I have been dead in the battle.C'est la vie.Maybe in this sense,you are much fortunate than me.In one words,hope you can cooperate with Chinese people and to survive is priority."

After hearing the translation,he held my hands tightly and was reluctant to let me go.He cried,as well as his Japanese fellow pilot.I said to him:"Please go,your trip ahead is long and hard,and please take care of yourselves.Hope we can meet again in Chongqing."With a feeling of melancholy,I watched the truck leaving and drove far away from my sights.

Assistance

On Dec.11th,I arrived at Hankou.In the P.O.W Shelter,I met Yamashita.I asked the guard to free his fetters,Yamashita replied me"Aligatou!"

I explained to him that he had no choice but endure those difficulties since in the war nothing can be expected as normal.He lowered his head with reddish eyes and said:"In these 40 days of withdrawing,I witnessed the Japanese aircrafts cruelly attacking those innocent Chinese civilians and refugees.Ifeltsoshamefuland painful.The soldier should only attack militants,but the Japanese bombed those unarmed civilians.Where is our samurai spirit?"these words indicated he still had the humanity.

In the afternoon,I treat Yamashita and his Japanese pilot fellow to bath and dinner.In the evening,I promised them:"If I come to Hankou again,def-initely will I come to visit you."Yamashita looked at me and replied:"I hope I could drive the wing plane and try my best to protect you."

On January 11,1938,the leader from Aviation Committee confirmed that the air force had got some intelligence most of which were gotten from the spy planes and bombers that were shot down.Communication Department established a special unit to studytheinformation.Sincethey knew Yamashita and his fellow had been trained with relevant skills,they asked them to join the decoding.But Yamashita refused.And due to the guard's words,Yamashita had a great impression on me.Therefore I might be able to convince them to accept the job.Thus,I made an appointment to meet them in Hankou on January14.

Yamashita seemed that he had already known my intentions.I told him the following:First,the war could be lasted more than 10 years.Second,according to the status quo,it was impossible for him to go back to Japan. Even he could go back,he would not be welcomed.I suggested that he should cooperate with us to decode the information.

Yamashita asked whether I had the powertomeettheirrequirements, since they two had agreed that I was the only one here they would trust.I replied:“Great!Just tell me your requirements!"

They prompted three requirements: First,their captivities should not be recorded in any form of any documents of Chinese aircraft.Instead,they should be recorded as:they were badly injured when were captured and later died.Second,give them total freedom. Third,all of these should not be known publicly before their death.I agreed:"Deal!No problem!"

First of all,I removed the part of September 26,1937 in my war blog, which recorded Yamashita being shot down,meanwhile removed the part concerned about them in my August 15th's blog about Cao’eJiang River Battle.Furthermore,they began to enjoy total freedom.Last but not least, we promised that nothing about these would be opened to public in 40 years as long as all of us still alive then.

Farewell

In autumn 1939,I was injured and was send to Chengdu for treatment.One day,Yamashitaandhissupervisor Zhang Chaoxi came to visit me together.

Zhang told me that the two haddone a great job.Any new codes of the Japanese army could we decoded in three days then.Yamashita credited a lot on this.

In 1942,I injured again and had an operation in Chengdu.After a couple of days'recovery,I was appointed as Staff in Aviation Committee.There,I met the Chief of Communication Department Xia Cangyi.On seeing me, he held my hands and said:"Those two Japanese have made great contributions.Now,the code of Japanese Army could not hinder us anymore," Xia hoped that next time I went to Chengdu,I could encourage and compliment them,of course I would love to do so.

Before long,I met Yamshita again, and I knew they had a great and happy life there.

In the late April 1948,I was in Xi'an ready to be transferred to Britain as military officer of Chinese embassy. Yamashita came to visit me.It had been six years for us to have reunion. He told me that he was keeping on finding me since the war was over.

I asked him why he had not went back to Japan,He answered me that there was no possibility for him to be back.If he did so,his families in Japan would have no pension to sustain their lives.In addition,he had already had a wife and three kids in China.Therefore,there was no other choice but to stay.

I asked about his recent situation. He told me that he became jobless after the war since there were no code anymore.Tough the Aviation Committee still send salaries to them,he felt so embarrassed that he offered to teach in a rural school where children could get free education.He came to Xi'an to transferto Lanzhou,wherehis friend introduced him to teach and meanwhile Xia invited him to work in a"codeinstitution"hefounded. Hence,he requested to leave the air force.And he decided to stop by Xi'an just to greet me,right upon hearing that I was there.

We two drank a lot and talked for two hours.

After half a century,when I recall,I still could remember his facial expression of being reluctant to say goodbye to me.

(FromMemories of the Chinese Air Force in the Second Sino-Japanese War,Zhejiang University Press.Translation:Zhao Yan.Illustration:Huang Yubo)