Chapter 54, Use of Special Food Reserves
Little Japan on Kuah Island is indeed hungry and wants to eat people. With the strengthening of the Cactus Air Force, the Japanese soldiers on the island were able to get fewer and fewer supplies, and with the increase in night torpedo aircraft, it was quite dangerous to use destroyers to transport supplies even at night. Since the beginning of November, several destroyers have been damaged or even sunk.
The navy is no longer interested in fighting on Kuah Island, and it is too uneconomical to lose valuable warships for it. In order to reduce the loss of warships, in late November, the Japanese 8th Fleet invented and experimented with a so-called "iron barrel transportation", that is, food, medicine and other materials were loaded into iron drums, but only half of them, so that the iron drums could float in the water, and then sealed, connected with ropes, fixed on the deck of the ships, thrown into the water in the designated sea area, and drifted to Kuah Island by the tide, and then recovered by the troops on the island in small boats. In this way, the warship does not need to stop to unload, and the safety is naturally greatly improved. In order to further ensure safety, the navy has changed the warships that transport goods from destroyers to submarines. In this way, there is basically no longer a danger of losing warships. Of course, the volume of transportation has also dropped quite a bit. However, can't the army take matters into their own hands on tropical islands rich in natural resources and have enough food and clothing? There are so many coconut trees on Kuah Island, won't you climb the trees to pick coconuts to eat?
If Staff Officer Masanobu Tsuji, who is now starving on Kuah Island, hears this remark from the navy, it is estimated that he will be directly fainted. Are we so stupid in the Army? %1%Ben%Read-Novel xstxt If there were coconuts to eat, would so many people starve to death? Don't you look at what time it is, and there are coconuts on the trees? Even if there is, where is there enough for more than 30,000 people to eat every day?
Do it yourself, have enough food and clothing? The Imperial Army has proven again and again that human beings are definitely the most extensive, highest-level, and predatory animals at the top of the food chain, and all kinds of animals on the island first crawl on the ground, swim in the water, and then fly in the sky, all of which are eaten by the Imperial Army, and later, even all kinds of insects, and even flying mosquitoes and flies, are about to be eaten extinct by the Army. Even, the fish in the offshore sea are almost exhausted by the imperial army. Later, the Japanese soldiers who survived on Kuah Island basically became masters of night fishing. What is used for bait? Earthworm or sand silkworm? How can you who have never been hungry be willing to use such a good thing, and don't eat it quickly! Our Imperial Army borrowed something from a starving teammate.
Although the methods were exhausted, 30,000 mouths were not so easy to deal with, and the Great Japanese Imperial Army was dying of starvation more and more day by day, and now it was time to use the special food reserves brought to them by Masanobu Tsuji.
These days, Kim Sook-hee always feels a little unsettled, as if something terrible is about to happen. Recently, those who were soldiers looked at them strangely, obviously with a greedy desire. Similar eyes Kim Shu-hee has actually seen a lot, in the past, every soldier who came to the comfort station had similar eyes. But this time it was different, this time their eyes were colder, as cold as a knife. This look also reminded Kim Shuji of when she was only thirteen or fourteen years old when she met a hungry wolf at the foot of the mountain. The wolf will never come after her, and will eat her flesh. She was so frightened that she almost died, but fortunately she had a woodcutter in her hand, and she had to take advantage of this courage to support the village; But she always remembered the wolf's eyes, fierce and cowardly, shining like two ghostly fires, which seemed to penetrate her flesh from afar. Now, the soldiers' eyes were exactly the same as those of the hungry wolf.
The Kuah Island Comfort Station received a special order: in order to boost morale, all the comfort women went to various units to provide services to the soldiers. Ms. Kim was sent to a unit along with another North Korean comfort woman who was two years younger than her.
Early in the morning, the men sent by the army to pick them up arrived. There were four people who came to pick them up, and the leader was a lieutenant—all of them skinny. Of course, Kim Shu-hee and the others are also skinny. Could it be that such a person still needs "comfort".
According to the military order, Kim Sook-hee and they hit the road. Along the way, all but the other three of the four people led the way fell behind them, as if to prevent them from escaping. And the eyes of these Japanese soldiers looking at them are also very special, they seem to be greedy and happy.
The road was not very far, but because everyone had little strength, it took about an hour and a half to get there. The four men led them through the camp to a corner. Along the way, all the Japanese soldiers: those who could walk, those who could not walk, those who still stood up, those who could no longer stand up and those who could still sit, and those who could only open their eyes were staring at them with those wolf-like eyes, which made Jin Shuji's hairs stand on end.
In the northeast corner of the camp is the kitchen, where iron pots and other things are piled up, but they haven't been useful for a long time. But now, the big iron pot was set up again, and everyone in the pot was boiling and steaming.
"Sister, did they bring us here to help us cook?"
Kim Sook-hee didn't answer, but the sense of uneasiness became stronger and stronger. Her body began to tremble, and her heart seemed to jump out of her chest.
The officer, who had been showing them the way, turned, first bowed ninety degrees to each of them, and then, in a somewhat flustered tone, said, "I'm sorry, I'm really sorry...... We don't want to ...... either. But...... Everyone is so hungry...... So...... Only please...... Thank you...... Thank you so much."
"But what exactly do you want us to do?" The smaller one still didn't get it. She turned to look at Kim Sook-hee, only to find her standing there with no face, trembling like a leaf in a storm.
Now Kim Sook-hee understands that those Japanese people want to eat her like that wolf. She wanted to run, but fear kept her legs open, she wanted to shout loudly, but her mouth couldn't open. With all her strength, she finally shouted out to the half-grown child who called her sister:
"Run! and they're going to eat you! ”
Shouting out this sentence almost exhausted all her strength, Kim Shuji felt her legs go limp, her eyes went black, and she fainted.
I don't know how long it took, but Kim Shu-hee slowly woke up. It was so dark that I couldn't see anything, maybe I had already reached the underworld. But she immediately felt as if she was tied to a big tree, her mouth was gagged, and she couldn't move her whole body except for her head. Will you go to hell and suffer some terrible things?
At this moment the moon emerged from the clouds, and her cold light penetrated the woods, illuminating the little glade in the woods. It also lets Kim Sook-hee know that she is not dead yet.
The first thing that caught Kim Sook-hee's eye was the cauldron, the lid open, but there was no heat coming up. The black cauldron looked like a bottomless abyss, as if it was about to swallow her in one gulp.
"Why am I not dead yet?" Finding out that she wasn't dead didn't bring Kim any comfort, and it even made her even more frightened. She struggled desperately, but they were tied so tightly that she couldn't break it at all.
As she struggled to writhe her body, she saw the reason why she wasn't dead yet:
A pair of pale arms hung not far from her, swaying in the stinking evening breeze of the jungle. She recognized the arms. Just this morning, those arms helped her on the way back here, and the owner of those arms sweetly called her sister......
There are many other things besides the arms: thighs, ribs...... They were all salted by the Japanese and hung up. It seems that maybe it can't eat so much at once, or maybe the imperial army has learned how to save food.
The next day, Kim Shu-hee was still tied here, and she saw with her own eyes how those soldiers chopped those hanging arms into small pieces and put them into the cauldron. She tried to shout at the men, but her mouth was gagged, and none of them turned their faces to look at her. Sometimes someone would come and take off the rags that gagged her mouth and pour some water on her. But as soon as the water was done, they would immediately gag her and turn away. Never talk to her, never even look into her eyes.
Day 3...... Day 4...... As the half-grown girl had fewer and fewer parts left, Kim Sook-hee understood that death was getting closer and closer to her. And Kim Shu-hee herself is constantly looking forward to and even longing for that day to come.
The time was near, and the last bit of meat left by the half-grown girl was eaten. That evening, several men came to her side, carrying knives and a wooden basin for her blood, which was also precious food, and must not be wasted. Because there is life in blood, life is in blood, blood symbolizes life, and blood is life! (Refer to "400 Years of Shock")
The men took turns bowing to her, and then they didn't know what they were saying, but she didn't have the strength to listen. She was untied from the tree, one took off her blouse, pulled her hair, stretched her neck as far as she could, and pulled her to the top of the tub, the other holding a sharp knife in one hand and groping for the position of the carotid artery in her neck with the other, while the others held her firmly.
Kim Sook-hee felt the man's hand linger somewhere on her neck for a moment, and then, a sharp knife with a chill was pressed against it, and Kim Sook-hee silently closed her eyes.
However, the expected severe pain did not come as expected, on the contrary, with the sound of a gunshot, a lot of hot things splashed on her body......
Since the end of November, Vandergrivet's 1st Marine Division has been fully engaged in a counteroffensive, and they have not only continuously compressed the Japanese positions, but also sent many elite detachments to continuously attack the Japanese. Sometimes, under the leadership of the daring captain, they would even cross the battle line and attack the Japanese troops behind the line.
Tom and Jerry are in such a squad, and Sergeant Tom is the leader of the squad. His team consisted of 8 fighters: a machine gunner armed with a Browning automatic rifle, a secondary shooter armed with an M1 carbine, 5 infantry armed with Springfield rifles (Jerry was a sniper among them), plus himself with a Chicago typewriter.
It had been four days since they had penetrated deep into the enemy lines, and this was the second Japanese camp they had attacked. During the reconnaissance, they found that the Japanese troops in this camp seemed to be in much better condition than the camp they had attacked earlier, as if they still had something to eat. The closer observation led to a shocking discovery: the Japanese were eating people! They had already eaten a woman, and another woman tied to the side, maybe the next meal should be eaten.
Tom had always felt that he was not a good person, he had gangsters, bought marijuana, had done things like forced prostitution, and had used a Chicago typewriter to fight Italians in New York. But this is also the first time he has seen such a terrible thing. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, and someone was going to tell him such a story, he would definitely kick that guy to Hollywood and become a bad third-rate screenwriter.
Time was of the essence, and Sergeant Tom and his subordinates hurriedly deliberated and launched an attack, just in time to save Kim Sook-hee. Then Heavy Stam carried her, and Tom and the others broke off the cover. A large number of well-fed Japanese were in hot pursuit, and the sound of gunfire, grenade explosions rang out. In the fierce firefight, one after another malnourished, slow-moving Japanese soldiers (drinking broth for a few days was not enough for them to recover immediately) were knocked to the ground, but the detachment was also in danger of being surrounded by deep into the enemy line. At the critical moment, Tom ordered Jerry to take the team back, and he grabbed Stam's Browning automatic rifle and opened fire, attracting the attention of the Japanese and directing them in the opposite direction.
Led by Jerry, they took the woman they rescued and rushed in the direction of the American army. The gunfire is getting farther and farther away from them, and it seems that Tom has succeeded in luring them away. The team returned to the U.S. camp a day later, but Tom did not return. Everyone was worried about him. The next day, he still didn't come back. By the time four days later, everyone thought he had died, and General Vandergraft was even ready to write to his parents. That same evening, Tom, who had been injured in many places and was dying, returned to the camp.
Because of Tom's bravery, self-sacrifice, and fearlessness in this battle, he became the first soldier of the 1st Marine Division to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest honor in the United States. It is also one of the few soldiers in the Marine Corps who received this kind of medal alive in the entire war. The rescued Kim Sook-hee became living evidence of the Japanese army's atrocities, and her interview caused a sensation in the United States, and she later participated as a witness in the trial of Japanese war criminals at the Tokyo Military Tribunal, and watched the criminals who started the war being hanged one by one.