Asian Holocaust WWII (1931-1945)
It was just a momentary response in reflection of the opium brought to China by the British empire that was grown in India under the British rule. The attack of a nation using opium was "bloodless" killing of millions while reaping profit for a temporary and present gain. This practice wasactually copied by the Japanese government as it occupied Northeast China(Manchuria) in 1931 and proceeded to occupy Inner Mongolia and territories North and Northwest of Beijing along the Great Wall. Chinese slave laborers were forced to plant opium in Inner Mongolian territories starting in the early 30's andextended all the way until 1945. The crops thus harvested were sold to the Chinese throughout the "8 years defensivewar" from 1937 to 1945 in all the rest of the provinces of China. My father-in-law told me that in his
city of Wei-Xian in Eastern ShanDong province, which was about one mile long (E-W) and 2/3 mile wide (N-S) with no more than 10,000 population in total, hadfour (4) opium stores in the city that freely sold opium to Chinese people during Japanese occupation years from 1937 to 1945. It was strictly blackmarket and was illegal during the times of Chiang KaiShek's rule of the Republic of China with very small
supplies and a trickle of opium traffic up to 1937. But the "free" market of opium was the kind of freedom the Chinese truly did not need. If one multiplies these four opium stores as per 10,000 population to the 360 million population under Japanese rule during all that time, one would get approximately 36,000 opium stores in all ofthe Japanese occupied territories or provinces. Such a systematic marketing only underscores the genius and the ability of the Japanese in business sense. But what a devastating effect it must have had onthe general population in China while Japan reaped all the gold ! Well, what about my own family ? As I have told you before, my parents escaped from Nanjing in late November, 1937. My grandmother joined my parents in 1939 in LeShan SiChuan where I was born a year later (my grandpa died in 1938 in Hong Kong).My parents would have been ashamed to tell anyone that my grandmother was addicted to opium until she died in 1941. While my parents did not have much money to begin with, I have heard about my Dadselling the last gold bracelet to get his mother a final "fix" of the opium just before her death. So it wasfinancially draining to many of my fellow countrymen including my own family ! This was a diabolical plot thatwas executed to its finest detail with no apparent blood shed ! OK, the number of 4 opium stores per10,000 population is data from one small city. But my grandmother probablypicked up the bad habit while in Nanjing or later in Hong Kong because it was "so free" and easy to be purchased at "low" cost at first. Moreresearch will be needed from older folks in other cities before they all die. So a sizable portion of themilitary expenses of Japan during the long war with China and the United States later in support of their morethan one million troops in China must have come from those opium stores all overChina. I would not be surprised if later someone finds out that many of those pawn shops all over China were also owned by the Japanese businessmen. It was a sure way of extracting gold from the Chinese without the gas chambers and the messy extraction of gold teeth from the dead as was done by the Nazi Germans.
Until next time, my friend.
Eugene