Three pieces of shrapnel
2022-06-24
On February 15, 1984, Su Yu’s body was cremated at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery and three pieces of shrapnel were found in his skull. Su Rongsheng, the oldest son of the general, was shocked by the shrapnel and told his mother about it immediately. Holding the shrapnel in hands, his mother seemed to know the real reason for her husband’s headaches.
Su Yu spent his whole life on the war and got seriously injured many times. The old wounds coupled with years of fighting on the battles had made him sick early on. He used to suffer from headaches when he got tired or the war was tense. He went to the doctor after the national liberation and found a piece of shrapnel left in his head, which reminded him that it was left in Tangyunshan Campaign.
He could only remember that he got a sharp blow to the head and passed out. He lay on the ground for a while and struggled to stand up but failed. Then he was sent to the base hospital and came back to the troop after three months of treatment. He had never thought the shrapnel was left in his head after the bomb explosion.
He suffered from headaches caused by the shrapnel for decades. Sometimes he was too painful to touch his head or look around from side to side, let alone cling to his work. He even had to have the meals set in a straight line in the front when having meals. When it was too much to bear, he would rinse his head with cold water or wear a machine on his head to alleviate the pain. His family worried about him but they had no idea what to do.
These three pieces of shrapnel had stayed in Su Yu’s head for a total of 54 years since he got injured on the battlefields. His wife and other family members all regarded the shrapnel as the family heirloom. In March 2003, after learning that the Academy of Military Sciences was preparing for its history gallery, his wife sent one piece of the shrapnel to the academy for display and gave the other two to her oldest son for safekeeping.
