Thousands of Chinese Coolies Pressed Into Service in Army
The Bend Bulletin, December 8, 1937
or
Healdsburg Tribune, December 8, 1937
[ note ]
I have no information to support this article.
So I have not waived the possibility that this article contains numerical exaggeration, or misunderstanding.
If this article is fact, I do not know fate of coolies.
But I pay attention to the description by (Wikipedia) Lewis S.C. Smythe.
"Evidences from burials indicate that close to forty thousand unarmed persons were killed within and near the walls of Nanking, of whom some 30 per cent had never been soldiers."
Or "30 per cent" may mean "new recruits".
[ THE GOOD MAN OF NANKING : November 17, page 22 ]
"Several columns of new recruits were a pathetic sight: all in more less ragged civvies, each with a bundle on his back and a rusty rifle in hand."
[ THE GOOD MAN OF NANKING : November 18, page 22-23 ]
"At the same time many regiments of new soldiers are arriving in the city from the north. It would appear, then, that the plan is stubbornly to defend the city. Many of the soldiers look awful wretched. Entire columns arrive without any footwear."
However, we can find some information about coolies were handled by Chinese (or Chiang's) army.
Ways That Are Dark: The Truth About China, by Ralph Townsend, page 53
Shark's Fins and Millet, page 125
Thunder Out of China, by Theodore H. White, page 255-256
