A Story about My Nightmares

When I was a little girl, my grandmother always told me stories. Some were fairy tales, some were legends, but also some were her real experiences. The one that left the deepest impression on me was a true story about her uncle.

It happened during the Sino-Japanese War, around 1940. My grandmother was only ten years old. At that time, the Japanese aggressors had been staying in China for a long time, and they did whatever they liked--burning and looting. They completely disrupted the normal life of the local people. The Chinese people’s life was terrible. In villages, people ran away from the Japanese soldiers. Because when they saw Japanese soldiers they were afraid they would die within a few minutes.

The Japanese soldiers collected food every day in these villages. As long as they could not pay for the food, the family would die by the bayonets and guns of the soldiers. One day, this bad fate landed on the family of my grandmother. That afternoon they saw the Japanese soldiers coming towards the yard of their house, so they hid in the secret places in the yard. When the soldiers arrived at the house, they couldn’t find anyone inside. So they started to search carefully. My grandmother's uncle hid in the haystacks in the yard. The Japanese soldiers searched anywhere, especially in places like haystacks. Their bayonets pierced the haystacks. In this way, they soon found my grandmother's uncle in the haystacks. When they pulled him out, one of his arms was hurt by the bayonets. Japanese soldiers forced him to hand over food. But he had handed over all their food two days ago. Her uncle said they had no food anymore. But they did not believe him. They pointed a gun at her uncle, and searched every possible place in the house and the yard. However they did not find any food. They thought that he had hidden it, so they forced him to find food. Nevertheless they still could not find any. Eventually, they angrily put the bayonet into her uncle’s heart. Then they used their guns to shoot around the whole house and yard. After making sure there was nobody, they left. My grandmother's uncle died. At that time my grandma was crouching collapsed in a corner, and heard these things happen. She was very afraid and sad. But she could not do anything, and did not even make a sound.

After I heard the story, I often had nightmares at night. I dreamed that a group of Japanese soldiers was running to catch up with me, and they seemed to kill me. Although I know the relationship between China and Japan has become very friendly, and these kind of things in the story would not happen to me, I still have such nightmares sometimes. It’s strange.

-Selina