Journal of Japanese Invasion ofChina and Nanjing MassacreNo.4, 2022

1.XuChuanyin’sMultipleIdentitiesandRolesduringtheNanjingMassacre

SunZhaiwei(4)

As an official of the National Government’s Ministry of Railways, Xu Chuanyin became a prominent figure for his multiple identities in the historical studies on the Nanjing Massacre. As Vice-President of the Nanjing branch of the World Red Swastika Society, he was in charge of rescuing refugees and burying the bodies of more than 43,000 victims. As Director of the Housing Committee of the International Committee for Nanjing Safety Zone, he was responsible for the housing allocation in the Safety Zone and actively collected evidence to expose the Japanese armies’ atrocities. He also attended the Military Tribunal both in Tokyo and Nanjing, and provided testimonies for the trial of Japanese atrocities during the Nanjing Massacre.

2.InfectiousDiseases’PreventionandControlinRefugeeSheltersintheEarlyDaysoftheFallofNanjing

YaoKexinGuoZhaozhao(15)

In the early days of the fall of Nanjing, there were cases of infectious disease in the refugee camps due to the harsh living conditions. The shelters were confronted with problems such as insufficient awareness of the risks of infectious diseases, shortage of health and epidemic prevention resources as well as insufficient capacity to respond. Under the leadership of the International Committee for Nanjing Safety Zone and with the cooperation of the management staff in the shelters, health and epidemic prevention materials were collected in many ways, the health inspection and management within the shelter were strengthened, and the refugees were vaccinated.

Fortunately, there was no “epidemic” in the shelter, which mainly benefited from the fact that Europeans and Americans who stayed in Nanjing had a clear understanding of the harm of infectious diseases and their relevant response, as well as the orderly organization and management in the shelters.

3.Individualsv.s.Nation:AProbeintoRefugees’NationalSentimentaroundtheNanjingMassacre

YangYali(25)

On the eve of the fall of Nanjing, the refugees left behind generally feel anxious and panic towards the invasion of the Japanese army, but most of them did not realize the relevance of war with themselves, many even had a fluke mind. After the fall of Nanjing, the atrocities by the Japanese army brought profound fear and pain to the refugees, and made them angry and humiliated. The refugees initiated a shared community of sentiment and helped one another to survive and fight against the Japanese army. They realized the importance of the nation with their national sentiment further catalyzed. However, this national sentiment varies with the different educational background and living environment of refugee individuals.

4.WarTracesandSpiritualMobilization:GuanghuaGateofNanjingastheCollectiveMemoryofWartimeJapan

XieRen(39)

Since modern times, war relics have become an important domain for Japan to carry out spiritual mobilization, construct and strengthen its collective memory. As the very first gate for the Japanese army to enter Nanjing, the war relics of Guanghua Gate were soon made a famous battle site by the occupiers. With the creation and spread of the battle myth, the traces of the battle in the Guanghua Gate came into the vision of the Japanese people. However, even before Japan's defeat, the connotation and representation of the memory of the battle traces of the Guanghua Gate were not unchanged with a complicated mode. Through the historical investigation of the battle traces and its memory practices, the correlation and interaction between the battle traces and the construction of the wartime Japanese collective memory can be more carefully understood.

5.Grass-rootsOfficialsImplementingtheModernMarriagePolicyintheNorth-ChinaResistanceBase

ZhangWeiCuiShanshan(48)

Trade marriage, early marriage and child brides were the basic forms of traditional marriage in North-China rural society. During the total war of resistance against Japanese aggression, the Communist Party of China promulgated a series of policies, laws and regulations about modern marriage in all the resistance bases of North-China to reform the old marriage customs, and achieved some positive results. However, as the main body to implement those polices or regulations, many of the grass-roots officials misplaced their roles which greatly affected the actual results and even people’s daily production and life. Governments at all levels in the resistance bases of North China regulated the officials’ behavior to a certain extent by setting up rules and regulations, severely punishing illegal acts and guiding them with positive examples. With the intervention of the political power, the illegal behaviors among grassroots officials have been effectively constrained. But, it still needs long-term system reform to fundamentally solve this problem.

6.The“loafer”TransformationMovementintheShanxi-SuiyuanBorderAreaduringtheWarofResistanceagainstJapan

CuiLixia(59)

During the total war of resistance against Japan, the Communist Party of China carried out the “loafer” transformation movement in the Shanxi-Suiyuan Border Area, which was not only a great measure to strengthen the primary-level social governance in the base area of the resistance against Japan, and to increase the agricultural production, but also an attempt to change the bad habits and eliminate the influence of feudalism under the background of revolution. The transformation movement to some extent reduced the intrusion from “loafers” to the rural society, increased the rural labor force, and lessened the burden on the masses. However, there were some problems in this movement, i.e. broadening the definition of “loafers” and excessive leniency in some cases. It’s shown that the transformation of loafers was a long-term and arduous project, which changed not only the fate of the social group of loafers, but also the management mode of traditional rural society. The powerful intervention of the modern political party made the governance mode of the traditional rural society rapidly transit to the direction of modernization.

7.SmugglinginSoutheastCoastalAreasduringtheTotalWarofResistanceagainstJapan

QiChunfeng(70)

During the total war of resistance against Japan, smuggling activities in the southeast coastal areas were rampant. With long coastline and a lot of ports, this area is geographically convenient for people to be engaged in smuggling with overseas. Coastal fishermen, bankrupted by war, had no choice but to engage in smuggling; The wartime price gap between the rear and the occupied areas was huge, and smuggling was profitable; and more importantly, smuggling was used by Japan as a means of economic warfare, which always served as the instigator of the smuggling. The political governance in the rear failed to get on track, which couldn’t keep the smuggling within limits. People involved in smuggling varied, but the main forces were big private smugglers who often set up joint-stock companies for smuggling. Most goods to be smuggled in were industrial and agricultural products, especially tungsten ore and tung oil. Goods smuggling out were daily necessities, luxury goods and even drugs. When it came to the later period of the war, Japan’s control over imported materials beneficial for the livelihood and military purposes became more strict. There were roughly two methods of smuggling, the public and secret smuggling with the latter being more complicated. Smuggling routes were extremely complex with most of the bases in the coastal areas, and some small bases vanishing soon after appearance due to the changes of the war situations. The scale of smuggling out were larger than that of smuggling in with higher profits. Wartime smuggling brought complicated effects on the rear area, but did more harm than good.

8.JapaneseInfringementofAmericanMissionaryHospitalsintheLowerReachesoftheYangtzeRiverandNegotiationsbetweentheUnitedStatesandJapan(1937—1939)

ZhangHuiqing(87)

In the early stage of the War of Aggression against China，the Japanese army seriously infringed the rights and interests of the American missionary hospitals in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and triggered diplomatic negotiation between the two countries. In negotiating the relevant incidents, both sides preferred the solution on the spot, showing restraint, “rationality” in an effort to avoid the deadlock in terms of the relationship between the two countries. This reflected the common interests of the two countries. However, with the increasing pace of aggression, the arrogant ambition of the Japanese military and political authorities to dominate China and the short-sighted behavior in diplomacy led to the accumulation of unsolved cases of infringement of the rights and interests of U.S. missionary hospitals, and the escalating conflict of interests between the United States and Japan in China. Overseas missionaries and church groups expressed strong dissatisfaction and revealed the Japanese atrocities to the American public through various channels, which further affected the public opinion and made the American government to start to adjust its strategy in the Far East. The relations between the United States and Japan came to a fork in the changing world situations.

9.AnanalysisontheWholeStoryofthe“YouthVolunteerTeam”TrainingCenterbytheSouthManchurianRailwayCompany

LiuYuliangLiShujuan(106)

As a key part of Japanese immigration to Northeast China, “Youth Volunteer Team” played an important role throughout Japanese invasion of northeast China.

“Youth Volunteer Team” training center was a crucial place to carry out immigration skills training. South Manchurian Railway Company, as a “state society to perform national policy” with the mission of Japanese colonial efforts, was one of the main operators of the training centers. The dozens of training centers operated by “South Manchurian Railway Company” not only had commonalities with the“Youth Volunteers Team” training centers operated by other institutions, but also had special features in deployment zone, medical affiliations and so on, showing special influences based on the functions and advantages of “South Manchurian Railway Company” monopolizing the railway operation in Northeast China. Besides the business operation, “South Manchurian Railway Company” also guided some trainees of “Manchurian Railway Training Center” who were transferred to the “Pioneer Group of Youth Volunteers Team”, which played an important role in promoting the implementation of immigration training activities of “Youth Volunteer Team”.

10.ReceptionandDisposalof“Tip-offmaterials”inHubeiProvinceaftertheVictoryoftheWarofResistanceagainstJapan

FangWei(116)

After the victory of the War of Resistance against Japan, the national government immediately began to receive the assets in the former areas under the control of Japanese and the puppet regimes. In addition to the materials in the handover list, the “tip-off materials” mainly included “various materials assigned, transferred and hidden by the Japanese and the puppet personnel” could not be ignored. The Take-over Committee of the Sixth Theater Command and the Hubei provincial government were in charge of the reception and disposal of “tip-off materials” in Hubei Province successively, which included the work of the reception, storage, investigation, evaluation and auction, as well as the payment of tip-off bonuses. Hubei Province intended to use the proceeds from “tip-off materials” to fund education and promote post-war reconstruction. However, during the implementation process, the actual income from t the “tip-off materials” was not only lower than the budget, but also partially lost due to government borrowing, staff corruption, inflation and other factors, which had a very limited role in reviving the postwar educational cause of Hubei Province.

11.TheMilitary“Taiwanese”TextbooksintheEarlyDaysoftheJapaneseOccupationofTaiwan—Centeringon“TheTaiwanesefortheMilitaryPolice”and“TheTaiwanese”

CuiMeng(131)

After the Sino-Japanese War of 1994—1895, Japan occupied Taiwan and implemented the Japanese education to assimilate the people of Taiwan. In the early days of the Japanese occupation, due to the language barrier of Hokkien dialect, Japanese colonists had to learn “Taiwanese”, the widely used Hokkien dialect in Taiwan, and compiled several textbooks. “TheTaiwanesefortheMilitaryPolice” and “TheTaiwanese” are two military Taiwanese textbooks used by the Japanese Army at that time, with the contents characterized by the distinctive characteristics of the spoken Hokkien dialect, many military terms and strong sense of colonialism. These two textbooks are fairly rough with the lack of tone marking and the casual use of Chinese characters. It can be seen that Japanese “Taiwanese” textbooks mainly aims to eliminate the language barrier and serve Japan’s colonial rule. Japan’s “Taiwanese” learning and “Taiwanese” textbooks in the early period of the Japanese occupation of Taiwan basically was an important part of Japan’s colonial rule over Taiwan.

【English abstracts translated by Cai Dandan】