DURING THE LONG SINO-Japanese WAR (1937-45), CHINA WAS A blood bath. Fr. Cesare Mencattini; the group of Bishop Antonio Barosi, Frs. Mario Zanardi, Bruno Zanella and Gerolamo Lazzaroni; and finally Fr. Carlo Osnaghi, were all killed in the province of Henan during that time.

Japan began promoting Manchurian-Mongolian movements for independence as part of its plan of aggression against China the day after having annexed Korea in 1910. This was in keeping with the logic of the militarists of the Japanese empire, that "to conquer the world, we must first conquer China; and to conquer China, we must first conquer Manchuria and Mongolia." The events of 1941 were the culmination of plans which had been brewing for a long time.

The site of the killings was Henan province, strategically located in the middle of the most important provinces of the time: Hebei to the north, Shaanxi to the west, Hubei to the south, and Anhui and Jiangsu to the east. Poor and lacking in industry (agriculture had always been its only resource), the immense plain of Henan was fertile, but often covered by the flood waters of the mighty Yellow River. It had been the battle ground for many armies attempting to gain control of the surrounding provinces. . . .

The Sino-Japanese war was followed by four more years of civil war (I945-49) between the nationalists and the communists. The well known result was the victory of the latter, and the installation of a new, revolutionary government in Peking, which was immediately proclaimed the capital. Yet, not even the preceding decades had been peaceful, since the country had become nothing more than a war theater among the many groups who wanted to obtain political dominance. The long period of hostilities and the absence of any effective central authority permitted the rise of many armies and armed bands, each one dedicated to asserting its own authority by force and violence. Besides the nationalist and the red armies, several armed bands were relatively well organized and controlled slices of territory, even whole provinces.

Similar conditions and motivations moved the soldiers of these armies: if they were paid at all, it was only occasionally and inadequately; so one of their first concerns was food and maybe something more (gold, money, and valuables for example). They also shared a hatred for foreigners, fueled by the ever growing xenophobic campaign. Indeed, most of the factions in China were able to benefit by attributing all of the country's ills to foreigners.

The soldiers of the red army also took part in actions of reprisals, thefts, and lootings. It has only been the propaganda of the victorious military regime which has sought to make them appear to have been altruistic and absolutely respectful of persons and property. The reality was quite different. The red bands were guilty of innumerable atrocities against humanity. Unlike other armed groups, they had a specific anti-religious objective which they carried out to infamous extremes. Just among the Catholics, one can count many, many priests, religious, and faithful who were killed, often in the most barbarous way, in the areas under communist control before the proclamation of the People's Republic.

During the years of the Sino-Japanese war, robberies and killings continued among Chinese belonging to different factions and political leanings; and now a new player entered the fray: the occupying Japanese army. Who committed the most crimes and massacres is anybody's guess. These political convulsions brought an endless series of killings, suffering, and brutality to the Chinese people. Christians and missionaries, that is, both Chinese and foreigners, shared the same fate: Christians at the hands of their own and the missionaries at the hands of those they had come to serve. They both were victims of a world view dominated by the party interests and ideologies of a particular time and place.