Letters

Painful memories of Nanjing

I would like people who survived the rape and torture of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese troops in 1937 to know that many of my compatriots in Australia, both men and women, had a similar experience while trying to halt the Japanese conquest of Southeast Asia, especially after the fall of Singapore when the Japanese executed most of the prisoners.

The first thing I remember as a child are the explosions triggered by an American supply ship that had been torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in Sydney Harbor. Almost every night people in Sydney heard sirens, signaling them to turn off their lights. As a little boy, I would look out of the window and see the searchlights focus on Japanese planes and minutes later hear the anti-aircraft battery fire.