On the night of July 7, 1937, Japan brazenly launched the Lugou Bridge Incident (77 Incident), and the full-scale war of aggression against China began. On September 2, 1945, on board the USS Missouri, Japan declared a complete defeat in the war of aggression against China and signed a surrender document, which brought the curtain down on the eight-year War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression between the Chinese military and the people. September 3 of each year after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War is designated as the anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
There are too many heroes to sing and cry about, too many earth-moving feats! The long War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, about 15 million to 20 million Chinese died, the scale of the war and the number of casualties, are the largest in history, the most tragic scene in Chinese history!
Moreover, after the end of this war, the Kuomintang government and army were mentally exhausted and their morals were corrupted. This also led directly to the great transformation of post-war China, some of which exceeded everyone's expectations-
In addition to the outbreak of the civil war, the first thing that bore the brunt was that the Americans finally ushered in a ridiculous end in China: historical friendship developed to a climax and turned into mutual hostility; A foreign policy with good intentions and noble ideals has come to a tragic end.
Fourteen years of history of the Anti-Japanese War, the mountains and rivers are turbulent, and the blood is thousands of years. Today, it is far from enough to say "do not forget the national shame", and we urgently need to reflect on this period of history from a broader time and space background.
The Lugou Bridge Incident
(July 7, 1937)
Lugou Bridge! Lugou Bridge! The boy's grave is on this bridge!
On the night of July 7, 1937, when the Japanese army was exercising near the Lugou Bridge in the southwest of Beiping, they bombarded Wanping City under the pretext that a soldier was "missing". The 29th Army rose up to resist. The 77 Incident was the beginning of Japan's full-scale war of aggression against China, and it was also the starting point of the Chinese nation's all-out war of resistance.
Shi Hai Hook Shen:
Japan's military presence around Beijing was based on the 1901 Treaty of Xincho, which was originally intended to prevent the resurgence of the Boxer Rebellion and protect expatriates and diplomats. On the evening of July 7, 1937, a small group of Japanese officers and soldiers were exercising beside the Lugou Bridge, during which they encountered cold guns, and after assembling, they found that a soldier was missing, so they knocked on the city gate and demanded to enter the city to search for the "missing" soldiers, and asked for an explanation for the cold gun.
The national army refused to open the door after consulting their superiors. The Japanese army also consulted their superiors. In the early hours of the morning, the Japanese claimed to have been shot again, and the Japanese decided to go to war. On 11 July, the Japanese prime minister made a decision to increase the number of troops in North China.
Japanese historical sources believe that the Gengzi Fist Rebellion was a lesson from the past, and the Japanese army in North China was in a weak position at this time, and it was necessary to increase troops just in case, otherwise the Japanese overseas Chinese could be slaughtered at any time. A considerable number of Japanese scholars in later generations believed that the cabinet's decision to increase troops was reckless, stupid, and disastrous.
Battle of Songhu
(August 13, 1937)
Verdun is a meat grinder, but Luodian is a flesh mill
▲ The defeat of Songhu, followed by the fall of Nanjing, the majority of the Kuomintang high-level peacemakers, Chiang Kai-shek tried his best to "never surrender"
The first large-scale battle of the Anti-Japanese War, the largest and most tragic battle in the Sino-Japanese War, known as the Battle of Stalingrad in the East.
The Chinese government mobilized more than 700,000 National Revolutionary Army, and Chiang Kai-shek personally commanded it, fought a bloody battle with the Japanese army for three months, and finally formed a rout due to the strength of the enemy and the weakness of the enemy, with more than 40,000 Japanese casualties and 300,000 Chinese casualties.
The Battle of Songhu marked the real beginning of an undeclared war and an all-out war between China and Japan, and at the same time smashed Japan's plan of "quick death to China".
Shi Hai Hook Shen:
The initiative in the Battle of Songhu was not the Japanese army, but the Kuomintang troops. After the Lugou Bridge Incident, Chiang Kai-shek made a decision at the Supreme National Defense Conference: to draw on the experience of 1932 and take the initiative to attack the Japanese marines in the Shanghai Concession, hoping to attract the attention of Britain and the United States and other countries, and to mediate to end the Sino-Japanese war.
Another theory is that after the Lugou Bridge Incident, Chiang Kai-shek took the initiative to counterattack in Shanghai in order to guide the Japanese invasion from north to south from east to west, so as to facilitate long-term combat.
Battle of Nanjing/Nanjing Massacre
(December 1 - December 13, 1937)
It's a bloody rain!
On December 1, 1937, the Japanese army headquarters issued the mainland order No. 8, ordering the capture of Nanjing. Two days later, the capital city of Nanjing fell, a rare and tragic event in Chinese history. The Japanese army carried out atrocities that lasted for six weeks, killing a large number of civilians and prisoners of war, and killing more than 300,000 people.
The Nanjing Massacre was a flagrant violation of international treaties and basic human morality by the Japanese army, and was the most prominent and representative example of the countless atrocities committed by the Japanese army.
Shi Hai Hook Shen:
The Straw Shoes Gorge massacre on December 18 was typical of the Nanjing Massacre:
First, the number of massacres was horrific (57,418); Second, it was not a simple massacre, but a persecution of the slaughtered targets before the massacre, and the unconscionable order to let these Chinese who were waiting to die freeze and starve for several days and nights (no food for three days and three nights, no water to drink, the elderly and children died of hunger and thirst one after another, and all women were gang-raped); Finally, kerosene was poured on the corpse and the body was cremated.
The Japanese forced nearby civilians to deal with the scene, threw the bodies into the river, and then killed the Chinese.
Battle of Wuhan
(June 11, 1938)
Millions of elite soldiers, bloody battle in Jiangcheng
The Battle of Wuhan lasted four and a half months and ended with the withdrawal of the Nationalist army from Wuhan. As far as the campaign is concerned, the Japanese army captured Wuhan and took control of the heart of China, winning the victory.
Strategically, however, Japan has failed to realize its strategic intentions. The Japanese base camp believed that "as long as Hankou and Guangzhou are captured, they can dominate China." However, the Chinese government did not succumb to the loss of Wuhan and Guangzhou, and Japan's war of aggression against China did not end with the occupation of Wuhan and Guangzhou.
After the fall of Wuhan, the Chinese government declared that "the temporary changes in advance and retreat must not shake the mainland's determination to resist the war" and that "the gains and losses of any city must not affect the overall situation of the war of resistance", and said that it would "be more mournful, more persevering, more down-to-earth, more hard, and more courageous" and strive for a comprehensive and protracted war of resistance.
Shi Hai Hook Shen:
In the later stages of the Battle of Wuhan, it was confirmed that it could not be held, and the government decided to urgently evacuate 90,000 tons of supplies and more than 30,000 people. At that time, it was only 40 days before the dry season of the Yangtze River, and everyone up and down panicked. At this time, a person stood up - Lu Zuofu, general manager of Minsheng Steamship Company.
But the problem is that Minsheng doesn't have many ships either. Lu Zuofu requisitioned a large number of civilian ships out of his own pocket, hired more than 3,000 people, mobilized all the means that could be mobilized, and actually transported all the stranded personnel and most of the military supplies.
When the Japanese hit Wuhan, an empty city, this great retreat was called the Chinese Dunkirk. Lu Zuofu paid 4 million silver dollars for this retreat.
Akira Matsuyama
(June 4, 1944)
The scorched earth resisted the war, and the corpses piled up like a mountain
The key in the Battle of Yunnan-Burma. The Battle of Yunnan-Burma was the first time that the allies of China, the United States and Britain fought together in the same area in the World Anti-Fascist War. Joseph Stilwell, General Director of U.S. Forces in the China-Burma-India Theater: "[The Battle of Yunnan-Burma was] the first protracted war in Chinese history against a first-rate enemy. ”
On June 4, 1944, the Chinese Expeditionary Force attacked Songshan in Lameng Township, Longling County, and ended on September 7, a total of 95 days. The ratio of casualties to friend and foe was 1:6.2, and the number of killed in battle exceeded the number of wounded. The youngest of the national soldiers who died was only 9 years old, and there were many teenage children.
"In order to save the country, the Chinese mother sent the last child of the family to the battlefield" (writer Sassou). This victory pushed the battle line outward, broke the deadlock in the battle of western Yunnan, and opened the prelude to China's major counteroffensive.
Shi Hai Hook Shen:
The officers and soldiers of the 3rd Battalion of the 2nd Rong Regiment were more than 600 when they went, and only 18 were left at the time of the victory: a platoon commander, a squad leader, and 16 soldiers. The rest of the people, including the battalion commander and the company commander, all died. The staff officer told the deputy commander Li Mi that we had won, and Li Mi was like a wooden man, sitting motionless on a rock, and tears were falling one by one.
The Rong 3rd Regiment organized a death squad, each of whom was given 5,000 yuan in legal currency, and another 5,000 if the main peak was won. The daredevils all carried the money on their backs and shed tears, and the scene was extremely tragic.
When the death squad rushed to the sub-heights, the heavy machine-gun covering team of the American soldiers led by Major Wenshak, the US liaison officer, and Cui Jisheng, the deputy commander of the regiment, also rushed to the sub-heights, and they were stunned:
The corpses of officers and soldiers on both sides were densely piled up all around, some of them scuffled with each other, you held my head, I stuck your neck, some were still squirming and moaning, and the soil soaked in dirt emitted a fishy stench and the smell of gunsmoke.
Cairo Declaration
(December 1, 1943)
The point of victory, the cornerstone of justice
In 1943, at the dawn of victory in the World Anti-Fascist War, the heads of state, the United States, and the United Kingdom, US President Roosevelt Jr., British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Chiang Kai-shek, chairman of the National Government of the Republic of China, held a meeting in Cairo.
On 1 December, the White House issued a declaration declaring the purpose of coordinating the war against Japan and promising arrangements for dealing with the Japanese aggressors.
Shi Hai Hook Shen:
On the evening of November 23, Chiang Kai-shek and Roosevelt held a private meeting. Roosevelt said: "The Ryukyus were seized by Japan by improper means, and they can be handed over to your country for management." Chiang Kai-shek did not know how to answer, and only after a long time did he say: "This archipelago should be occupied by China and the United States, and then the international trusteeship should be jointly managed by China and the United States." ”
At their meeting again on November 25, Roosevelt said: "The strategic position of the Ryukyu Islands is extremely important. If you don't get the Ryukyus, Taiwan won't be safe. More importantly, the island cannot be occupied by aggressive Japan for a long time. Will they all be handed over to you? ”
Chiang Kai-shek was very hesitant, and finally replied: "The Ryukyu issue is more complicated, and I still have that opinion, and it is better for China and the United States to jointly manage it." ”
Due to Chiang Kai-shek's insistence, the Cairo Declaration did not mention the Ryukyu Islands when it was written that Japan should return the territory to China.
Japan Emperor 颁诏书日
(August 15, 1945)
Japan surrendered, and the War of Resistance ended
On August 15, 1945, Japanese Emperor Hirohito officially announced Japan's unconditional surrender in the form of a broadcast of the "Armistice Edict".
On the same day, Chiang Kai-shek made a radio speech to the military and civilians of the whole country and to people from all over the world. He said excitedly: "The truth that our justice will inevitably triumph over power has finally been proved by its final ......" In order to celebrate the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the whole country will have a three-day holiday from now on. The crowd is reveling, the nightmare is over!
Shi Hai Hook Shen:
The Japanese government rejected the "Potsdam Proclamation" and mobilized its troops three times in preparation for a decisive battle on its own soil. On 6 and 9 August, the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Japan. On 14 August, the Japanese Government sent a note to the governments of the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, and China, announcing its acceptance of the "Potsdam Proclamation."
Anti-Japanese Victory Day
(September 3, 1945)
I recommend Regulus with my blood
On February 27, 2014, the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress voted to designate September 3 as the anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
Shi Hai Hook Shen:
On September 2, 1945, Japan's surrender ceremony was held aboard the American battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Japan officially surrendered.
At the end of 1949, the Government Council of the People's Republic of China designated August 15 as the anniversary of the victory of the Anti-Japanese War. On August 13, 1951, the Government Council issued a regulation that September 3 was the anniversary of the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan.