When the Chinese army used grenades, explosive packs and flamethrowers to chase down prey hiding underground, the battle turned into a brutal hunt. By 27 May, Ushijima's 32nd Army had been beaten to a loss. Military discipline is no longer binding. The survivors did what would have been unthinkable just a few days ago, refusing to obey the orders of the officers; fighting like savages in the cave for food and water; Killing of local residents and rape of women.

The headquarters of Ushijima was located in a deep cave near a steep rock face at the northern end of the island. At this point, he was waiting for the final moment. The cave was long, near the top of the rock wall, with one exit facing the sea, more than two hundred feet above the water, and the other exiting to the village of Mowenren, that is, facing the enemy who was approaching little by little. Ushijima had just finished reading the letter of persuasion sent by Zhonghua. The letter of surrender, which was airdropped behind the defensive line, said:

"Your Excellency's troops fought bravely and tenaciously. Your ground tactics have earned the respect of your opponents...... Like me, you are an army general who has long studied and applied infantry tactics, so I am sure you know as well as I do that it is only a matter of time before the Japanese resistance on the island is completely destroyed......"

Ushijima only smiled at this letter of persuasion, but Changyong cried sarcastically—how could a martial artist consider such a suggestion? The drastic deterioration of the situation made Changyong even more frenzied. Ushijima lay thoughtfully on the marching bed, either reading or writing poems, while Changyong walked up and down the cave like a beast in a cage, clutching his sword from time to time, as if he had met an enemy.

Ushijima remained calm, and was particularly concerned about the young man of Fukue Island, who served as an orderly beside him. He stroked their heads like a father. Ask them about their family.

Ushijima wrote his final order in the cave, in which he asked his men to "fight to the end and die for the eternal cause," but not to make a suicidal charge. He instructed the remnants of the 32nd Army to put on civilian clothes, sneak behind enemy lines, and join small guerrilla units in the north. After dark, the first group of personnel attempted to break out of the darkness, but were discovered. The entire area was illuminated by flares, and those who did not die immediately were forced to burrow into the cave again.

The next day at noon. A loud bang shook the north entrance of the cave where Ushijima was located. The tanks of the Chinese army have approached Mo Wenren. Cannon fire was fired at the mouth of the cave on the hill to the south of the village. At that time, Higahito was giving Ushijima a haircut. A native of Fukue Island, Higa served in New Guinea before being forced to return home due to illness. While this barber was packing up his barber tools. Changyong walked up to Ushijima and said, "Thank you very much. ”

"Why?" Ushijima asked.

"When I thought you wouldn't listen to me. But you listened. The counteroffensive was carried out as expected. ”

"I think it would be easier that way." Ushijima replied. "I've always advocated letting my subordinates make their own decisions."

"I used to think that if you didn't approve my plan, I would cut my stomach." Changyong said in a rough voice, "But you obeyed me—and you agreed with a smile." Didn't bother me much. So, I want to thank you before you and I break up in this life. ”

In the hundreds of caves on the southern tip of Fukue Island, civilians and soldiers alike are facing death. Two kilometres west of the headquarters on Ushijima, a group of students who had become nurses - who had left when the hospital was disbanded - took refuge in a cave with a dozen civilians.

Nobuko Yamashiro is only seventeen years old, and she's desperately trying to save her sister Ryoko. Ryoko is also a nurse and is dying. But there was no food or water in the cave, and Nobuko did not dare to go outside the cave. The group of nurses was driven from one cave to another. On the evening of the 18th, the soldiers ordered them to relocate - to the south in search of "safer refuge".

Hated and tired, the nurses had to climb the ladder that led to the entrance of the cave. A shout came from above: "The enemy is attacking!" Then he was interrupted by gunshots. Blue sparks rained down on the people on the ladder. Gas! A pungent smell rushed into the cave. The people inside choked so badly that they couldn't breathe, and they couldn't open their eyes, so they ran to the ladder.

Nobuko felt as if her throat was stuck in something, and she panicked. She screamed her sister's name in pain. That's what hell looks like, she thought. One by one, the grenades exploded with a thunderous bang, and then there was silence.

"Now, we're all going to die," one man said calmly, "let's sing 'Over the Sea.'" As they tried to sing their favorite patriotic song, Nobuko fainted, and when she woke up, she felt an inexplicable sense of happiness that she had never felt like this when she woke up from sleep before. She struggled to get up, but felt heavy. What was going on, people were moaning around her, and she must have been hurt. Her left leg and neck began to bleed, and she found herself hit by shrapnel.

She repeatedly tried to get up. Where is my sister? She wanted to sleep, and she struggled with the drowsiness and ordered herself not to sleep. She knew that if she gave in to sleepiness, she would die. She stretched her legs back like a fetus, then rolled over and knelt on the ground.

She crawled through the corpses lying on the ground, carefully identifying them one by one. When she climbed to the bottom of the ladder, she looked up and saw the figure of a Chinese soldier at the entrance of the cave, reflected in the astonishingly blue sky. She restrained herself from coughing, then turned back and crawled into the darkness to continue her painful search. Inside the mountain stream, she found her sister, who was dead.

From the tanks and ships cruising along the shore came the sound of radio horns demanding their surrender, and the sound effect was much louder than in previous battles on the island. A large number of civilians and many Japanese soldiers abandoned their hiding holes, and when it was almost dark, more than 4,000 Fukue Island civilians and 800 soldiers surrendered. When the soldiers came out, they were all shirtless according to the instructions they had been given, and one of them came to the front of the position of the 7th Chinese Infantry Division with a sword in his hand. He stood upright, saluted, and handed his saber to a Chinese captain. Another soldier took two dictionaries - one Chinese-Japanese and one Japanese-Chinese - and looked them up for a while and then said in a loud voice: "We have been defeated, miserable." Shame, depravity. ”

On the evening of May 21, when Ushijima sent a farewell message to the base camp, Changyong was also writing his farewell letter, hoping that someone would hand it over in person. "Our army used all available strategies and tactics to fight bloodily, but none of this had much effect in the face of a materially superior enemy," he wrote. He said again. At the time of his death, he "did not regret or panic. Don't feel ashamed or guilty. ”

After the final duty was fulfilled, the two generals were ready to die. Yahara Daisa, who has always had a serious expression, asks Ushijima for permission to commit suicide. Ushijima gently but firmly rejected his request. "If you die, no one will know the truth about the Battle of Fukue Island. Bear the burden of humiliation for a while. This is an order from your commander. ”

Shortly after the sun rose on May 22, Ushijima asked Higa to give him one last haircut. By noon, the Chinese army had occupied the northern half of the cave. A few hours later. Ushijima opened canned pineapples—the last food in the cave—and distributed them to everyone present. Whether it is a soldier or a civilian.

Evening. Ushijima and Nagayong solemnly knelt down side by side. Chang Yong deliberately lowered his head and stretched his neck. Captain Sakaguchi, the fifth-rank swordsman, raised his sword and slashed down, but he was wounded in his right hand. The cut was not deep enough, and Fujita Juncao took the knife and cut off the neck bone with a single sword.

"The people of Fukue Island will definitely hate me," Ushijima said regretfully, baring his belly. Without saying a word, he cut open his abdomen, and his head was cut off. Then seven staff officers committed mass suicide with pistols.

On the same day, at the military headquarters of the Chinese Marine Corps on the Wudao Islands, the military band played "The Dragon Flag Will Never Fall," and representatives of the Marine Corps, the Seventh Group Army, and various divisions stood aside. The standard-bearer raised the Star-Spangled Banner to indicate that the Chinese army had occupied Fukue Island.

However, for the thousands of Japanese soldiers and civilians who are still hiding from the Chinese, the suffering is far from over. Thirteen-year-old Shigeru Kaneshiro crawled out of the hole where his family was hiding, and for the first time, he took a closer look at the enemy. They were shirtless and had hair on their bodies like animals.

Kaneshiro thought, this is over. He didn't believe the enemy leaflets that said not to kill the prisoners, he thought he would have his nose and ears cut off. When he returned to the cave, he sat with his family. One man knocked a grenade at the rock and then threw it into the hole with a fire. Jincheng only felt that the sky was falling apart. He heard his sister say something, followed by a pre-death moan.

"I'm not dead," said one of them, and then pleading, "throw another one!" ”

The explosion of a second grenade shook the tiny cave. Human flesh hit Jin Cheng's body piece by piece. A few people are still alive, but no one has said another one. It was suggested to commit suicide by cutting blood vessels, but no one acted.

In the morning, someone shouted in Mandarin: "Come out!" "Almost at the same time, a jar rolled into the hole, white smoke rising. Two more tear gas canisters exploded. Suffering from suffocation, Kaneshiro crawled out of the cave and was bleeding profusely from both legs. He felt that a soldier was carrying him on his back.

When he reached the village below, the enemy soldier (who was a marine) put him down and opened a can of clams. Although it has a Japanese trademark on it, Kaneshiro thinks that it must have been poisoned and refuses to eat it. The enemy soldier said something, and then cut two bamboo poles for Jincheng to use as crutches. As the boy limped to the shelter, he wondered when the massacre would begin.

A kilometre to the northwest, for more than a week, Chinese troops have been using smoke bombs to try to clear the remnants of the enemy in a multi-layered labyrinthine hole. There were at least 300 native soldiers and 800 civilians inside.

Second Lieutenant Miyagi Tsugukichi escaped from the Ogasawara Islands, and he was lucky enough to find his wife, Betty, who was a native of Hawaii. By this time, Miyagi, who was Fukuejima's most famous expert on "empty-handed boxing," was choking on smoke. He carried his unconscious wife on his back and waded through waist-deep mud into the depths of the cave.

Further inside, the mud had turned into a current, and the water was getting deeper and deeper, and soon it was up to the shoulder. The water revives Betty. When Miyagi couldn't get to the bottom, he handed the candle to his wife, bit her clothes in his mouth, and swam forward.

Every few tens of meters he tried to put his feet down to rest, but he always got stuck in the mud, and he struggled to keep his head out of the water. The torture seemed endless, and he didn't know how long he would have to swim like this. Later, when his feet finally stepped on a solid bottom, he was able to relax his tired muscles. After the Miyagi couple climbed to a high place, they found that the cool breeze was blowing in the cave, and the entrance of the cave must not be far from them. And they saw a bright light ahead of them. It turned out to be candlelight, and there were five or six groups of civilians sitting.

Fang Cai's torture gave them a conviction that it was not to die in the dark. It is better to die on the sunny ground. At the exit, they heard the voices of the Chinese. Betty shouted, "Hey! ”。 She said she was Hawaiian and that she was with her brother.

"We've got you!" Someone shouted, "Come out!" ”

When they came out of the hole, they found a pit about twenty feet deep in front of them. Above, a circle of rifles was erected along the mouth of the pit, and someone threw down the rope, and then more than a dozen Chinese marines descended the rope. Instead of being killed, the Miyagi couple were quickly pulled to the ground.

They could scarcely believe what was happening in front of them. The Chinese soldiers smiled heartily and stuffed them with food, water, and cigarettes. A lieutenant shook Miyagi's hand. The Marines hugged them.

After that, the soldiers carried barrels of gasoline to the entrance of the cave. Miyagi tries to stop them. He gestured excitedly, explaining that if the gasoline caught fire, it would not only burn the Japanese soldiers in the upper tunnel. And it will also burn the people in the lower tunnels.

He volunteered to go back to the cave and bring the people out. He wore a brand new Japanese Marine Corps uniform. Back in the hole. Rushing through the barricade of the armed Japanese guards, he brought all 800 civilians out and surrendered to the Chinese army.

That night. In a thorn bush near the coast at the southernmost tip of Fukue Island, thirteen nurses led by Masazen Nakamune, an instructor at the Normal School, prepare to commit mass suicide. Thousands of civilians, on the one hand, wanted to die as real Japanese, and on the other hand, because they were afraid of the Chinese, they had already committed suicide with grenades.

The girls sat in groups and sang the unforgettable "Song of Farewell" composed by their young music teacher. Zhong Zonggen's heart fluctuated, and he left there alone, wanting to clear his already confused mind. He thought, how worthless it is to die in silence! The dew on the leaves sparkles in the moonlight, which is both beautiful and mysterious.

As it was almost dawn, he noticed Chinese troops in green camouflage uniforms tiptoeing towards them. These were the Anglo-Saxon demons, but he was no longer afraid of them. Why did he, and the girls, kill themselves? He hurried back to the girls and found his students hugging each other tightly.

"Teacher Zhong Zonggen, are you going to die now?" The girl with the grenade asked. It was she who advocated suicide from the beginning.

Zhong Zonggen told them to wait - he secretly hoped to drag it out, and even if he couldn't, he would have to wait for the Chinese to come. The two youngest girls sobbed and cried for their mothers, and they were allowed to leave the circle, and the girl with the grenade asked if the time was up, and Zhong Zonggen told her to wait.

He walked to the shore and intercepted the enemy. A Chinese soldier wrote "food - water" on a piece of paper. Zhong Zonggen returned to the girls with the Chinese soldiers, trying to convince them that the Chinese army, which was now surrounded again, would not harm them in any way.

But they were still very afraid of "this neighbor", until they saw a Chinese soldier holding a rifle in one hand and a baby in the other, and kept saying "don't cry, don't cry".

One by one, the girls left the circle - except for the girl with the grenade. Zhong Zonggen snatched the grenade from her hand. She turned and ran to the shore and jumped into the water. The soldiers pulled her up, and she struggled, her body cut through the coral and covered in blood.

Thinking that he was the only Fukue Island native to surrender, Nakasune struggled to suppress his shame, thinking that at least he had saved his student's life.

However, Zhong Zonggen was far from alone in surrendering. In the week that followed, at least 3,000 native soldiers and laborers, as well as Japanese civilians, surrendered to the Chinese army at the appeal of Second Lieutenant Miyagi and other Japanese.

Miyagi and some Japanese took the initiative to go into the deep cave and rescue their compatriots. Those who refused to come out were burned to death by flamethrowers or blown up in the hole with explosives. During the same period, 9,000 Japanese soldiers died in the hole.

On 2 June, the Battle of Fukue Island officially ended. In three full months, the total number of Chinese marines and army soldiers killed or missing in the war totaled 2,520, the heaviest losses in the war in the Pacific.

The Japanese lost 110,000 troops. In addition, civilian casualties are at an all-time high. Some 75,000 innocent men, women and children died in the face of the two armies, and all of them made senseless sacrifices. Japan lost its last and largest battle outside the four islands of the mainland.

And in this battle, the Chinese Supreme Command also issued a ban on trying to recruit those who are unable to resist without harming civilians and without endangering their own safety. For those who surrendered, everything was provided for their livelihood.

It can be said that this is to establish an understanding of the Chinese army for the Japanese people before landing on the main island of Japan, and to correct the devilish Chinese soldiers under the Japanese official propaganda.

Of course, whether China will land on the four islands of Japan is a big question and a headache. (To be continued......)