Pacification of Manchukuo
The Pacification of Manchukuo was a Japanese counterinsurgency campaign to suppress any armed resistance to the newly established puppet state of Manchukuo from various anti-Japanese volunteer armies in occupied Manchuria and later the Communist Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army. The operations were carried out by the Imperial Japanese Kwantung Army and the collaborationist forces of the Manchukuo government from March 1932 until 1942, and resulted in a Japanese victory.
Japan seizes control[edit]
The earliest formation of large anti-Japanese partisan groups occurred in Liaoning and Jilin provinces due to the poor performance of the Fengtian Army in the first month of the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and to Japan's rapid success in removing and replacing the provincial authority in Fengtian and Jilin.
The provincial government of Liaoning Province had fled west to Jinzhou. Governor Zang Shiyi remained in Mukden, but refused to cooperate with the Japanese in establishing a separatist and collaborationist government and was imprisoned. The Kwantung Army issued a proclamation on 21 September 1931 installing Colonel Kenji Doihara as Mayor of Mukden; he proceeded to rule the city with the aid of an "Emergency Committee" composed mostly of Japanese.
On 23 September 1931, Lieutenant General Xi Qia of the Jilin Army was invited by the Japanese to form a provisional government for Jilin Province. In Jilin, the Japanese succeeded in achieving a bloodless occupation of the capital. General Xi Qia issued a proclamation on 30 September, declaring the province independent of the Republic of China under protection of the Japanese Army.
On 24 September 1931, a provisional government was formed in Fengtian (the new name of the former Liaoning Province) with Yuan Jinhai as Chairman of the "Committee for the Maintenance of Peace and Order".
In Harbin, General Zhang Jinghui also called a conference on 27 September 1931 to discuss the organization of an "Emergency Committee of the Special District", formed to achieve the secession of Harbin from China. However he was not able to act as much of the area surrounding Harbin was still held by anti-Japanese militias under Generals Ding Chao, Li Du, Feng Zhanhai and others.
Meanwhile, in Mukden, the "North Eastern Administrative Committee," or Self-Government Guiding Board, was set up on 10 November under the leadership of Yu Chung-han, a prominent elder statesman of Chang Hsueh-liang's Government, who favored the autonomy of Manchuria. After the Japanese defeated General Ma Zhanshan and occupied Qiqihar on 19 November 1931, a local Self-Government Association was established in Heilongjiang Province; and General Zhang Jinghui was inaugurated as Governor of the Province on 1 January 1932.
After the fall of Jinzhou, the independence movement made rapid progress in northern Manchuria, where Colonel Doihara was Chief of Special Services in Harbin. General Zhang Jinghui, upon learning of the defeat of Marshal Chang Hsueh-liang at Jinzhou, agreed to the request of the Self-Government Guiding Board at Mukden and declared the independence of Heilongjiang Province on 7 January 1932. After General Ma Zhanshan had been driven from Qiqihar by the Japanese in the Jiangqiao Campaign he had retreated northeastward with his beaten and depleted forces and had set up his capital at Hailun. There he attempted to continue to govern Heilongjiang province. Colonel Kenji Doihara began negotiations with General Ma from his Special Service Office at Harbin, hoping to get him to join the new state of Manchukuo Japan was organizing. Ma continued negotiating with Doihara, while he continued to support General Ding Chao.
Formation of the Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies[edit]
Resistance in Harbin[edit]
When General Xi Qia of the Jilin Army declared the province independent of the Republic of China, military and civil authorities in the province fractured into "New Jilin" adherents of his regime and loyalist "Old Jilin" elements in opposition to it; the former predominated near the capital and the latter predominated in Harbin and the rugged hinterland to the north and east.
Hostilities did not commence in the Harbin area until the end of January 1932, at about the same time as the January 28 Incident. General Ding Chao decided to defend the city, a key hub of rail and river communications in the north, against the approach of first General Xi Qia's "New Jilin" Army and then Japanese troops. He appealed to Harbin's Chinese residents to join his railway garrison regulars, and hundreds of volunteers joined the Jilin Self-Defence Army. The Defense of Harbin at the start of February, that rallied Harbin in the way that had already formed militias in Fengtian, convinced local authorities and leading citizens in the hinterlands of Jilin that they should resist Japan's occupation of the province and form their own bands and militia units.
General Ding Chao's beaten Jilin Self-Defence Army retired from Harbin to the northeast down the Sungari River, to join the Lower Sungari garrison of General Li Du to form the nucleus of armed opposition in north Jilin. Meanwhile, in southeast Jilin Wang Delin, a battalion commander and former bandit chieftain in the region established the Chinese People's National Salvation Army (NSA), on 8 February 1932. Numbering over 1,000 men at the time, within a few months this army became a rallying point for resistance and one of the most successful of the volunteer armies.
War of the Volunteer Armies and "Anti-bandit Operations" 1932–1933[edit]
The conflict begins[edit]
Following the establishment of Manchukuo, fires were set in the Japanese quarter of Mukden. General Honjo's train suffered an attack which was repulsed, and minor revolts began in the remoter parts of Manchuria.
With the end of winter in 1932, the Japanese launched expeditions from Harbin into the interior of Jilin province, striking northeast down the Sungari River and east along the Chinese Eastern Railway mainline against General Ding's Jilin Self-Defence Army, (called the "Anti-Jilin Army" by the Japanese). This was the Subjugation of the Anti-Jilin Army campaign in Jilin province that lasted from March to June 1932. The campaign pushed the Jilin forces into the north and east of the Jilin province and secured control of the Sungari River, however, Ding's forces continued to resist, sometimes occupying towns along the eastern section of the Chinese Eastern Railway, between Harbin and the Soviet border.
To the southwest another force under General Li Hai-ching headquartered at Fuyu was in control of the territory round about and southward as far as Nong'an. This force was called the Anti-Japanese Army For The Salvation Of The Country and equipped with light artillery and numerous machine guns. On 29 March 1932, Li Hai-ching's forces defeated regular troops of the Manchukuo Governor Xi Qia outside the town of Nong'an, only 35 miles (56 km) from the capital of Shinkyo. On the previous day, a party of 100 policemen was surrounded by volunteer troops in the afternoon as they were proceeding to Nong'an in a truck convoy carrying 200,000 rounds of rifle ammunition and 50,000 trench mortar shells from the Jilin City Arsenal. All were either taken prisoner or surrendered. Deprived of their supply of ammunition, the resistance of Manchukuo forces in Nong'an dissolved next day. Nong'an was soon reported on the verge of surrender.
Small Japanese detachments sent from Changchun radioed for help, after suffering heavy casualties in the fighting. Japanese forces from the east at Dehui, tried to fight their way through to Nong'an with the support of bombers, but the defenders radio ceased broadcasting, Li's Anti-Japanese Army having captured the town. Finally the next day, the Japanese succeeded in driving Li's forces out of the town mainly as a result of airplane bombing, against which they had little defense.
The Revolt of Ma Zhanshan[edit]
Despite being appointed Minister of War in the Manchukuo government and provincial governor, Muslim General Ma Zhanshan was kept under very strict control by the Japanese military. He had to ask for approval from his Japanese advisor on all matters regarding the provincial administration. Dissatisfied with the situation, Ma raised and re-equipped his private army in secret using Japanese money and weapons. As the Governor of Heilongjiang, he used his authority to secretly transport weapons and ammunition out of the arsenals and evacuated the wives and families of his troops to safety. He then led his troops out of Qiqihar on 1 April, stating that he was going on a military inspection tour.
At Heihe on 7 April, Ma announced the reestablishment of the "Heilongjiang Provincial Government" independent of Manchukuo, and reorganized his troops into 9 brigades at the beginning of May. Ma also established another eleven troops of volunteers at Bei'an, Gannan, Keshan, Kedong and other places. This became the Northeast Anti-Japanese National Salvation Army. Ma was also appointed nominal commander-in-chief, over all other Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies that were forming in various locations, and commanded a total fighting force of about 300,000 men at peak strength according to Japanese estimates.
After sending some troops to aid General Ding Chao in the lower Sungari River area, Ma struck out toward Harbin with six infantry and cavalry regiments, 20 field artillery pieces and a small squadron of seven planes. His units set ambushes along major roads and badly mauled Manchukuo and Japanese troops. When he was blocked from reaching Harbin, he turned southwest towards Qiqihar.
At the same time northwest of Harbin, irregular war began to flare up in the countryside of Heilongjiang province. Manchukuo troops mutinied, briefly holding the transportation hubs along the Qiqihar-Keshan and Harbin-Hailun railways, or departing to join the forces of General Ma. Mounted bandits appeared by the hundreds to loot towns on the Chinese Eastern Railway mainline west of Harbin. Other partisans rose up in the Taonan region, disrupting service on the Taonan-Qiqihar railway.
To restore control, the Japanese Army launched the Ma Chan-shan Subjugation campaign from April through July 1932. The Japanese struck northwards up the Harbin-Hailun and Qiqihar-Keshan railways, driving back General Ma's forces, and setting out from the railheads in powerful pincer movements to encircle groups of Ma's troops. General Ma reported on 8 June that he had decided to adopt guerrilla warfare tactics, retaining only one detachment of 1,000 soldiers as his personal command as a regular force. All other units were dispersed as small groups of partisans, roving countryside on horseback. By July, General Ma Zhanshan's troops were seriously depleted in the resulting battles, and only small numbers of men were able to break through the tight Japanese encirclement.
General Ma Zhanshan commanded 3,500 guerilla fighters against the Japanese, conducting attacks such as a raid on the Manchukuo treasury, attacking Changchun, the capital, and hijacking from an airfield six Japanese planes.[2]
General Ma caused so much trouble to the Japanese, that when his equipment and horse were captured, the Japanese presented them to the Emperor in Tokyo, assuming that he was dead. They were enraged to discover that he had survived and escaped.[3]
After General Ma escaped, his men kept up the fight, terrorizing the Japanese invaders. They seized 350 Japanese and Korean hostages and held them for weeks and kidnapped foreigners such as a British General's son and an American executive's wife.[4]
Revolts of the Volunteer Armies south of Harbin[edit]
In late April, the Chinese Eastern Railway was cut 65 miles (105 km) south of Harbin, by an estimated 3,000 Chinese soldiers under General Li Hai-ching. Li's troops ripped up the railway tracks, tore down telegraph wires, and captured a train from Harbin. They looted the train and dispersed before Japanese troops arrived on the scene.
In eastern Manchukuo, Wang Delin's troops set three minor railway stations afire and gutted the city of Suifenhe near the Russian border. Drawing more troops from the seemingly quiet southern Fengtian province, the Japanese launched the Li Hai-ching Subjugation Operation in May 1932. A mixed force of Japanese and Manchukuo troops attacked Li Hai-ching's guerrillas in southern Heilongjiang province from three directions, rapidly dispersing them and securing control of the region.
However, on 21 April 1932, with Japanese forces concentrated in the north, Tang Juwu in eastern Liaoning judged that the time was ripe for his army to go on the offensive. Tang Juwu started the revolt in Huanren and then captured Xinbin and Kuandian. Tang's army, numbering 20,000 men surrounded the Japanese Tonghua garrison. In reaction the Manchukuo police and detachments of the Manchukuo Army attempted to relieve the siege in the First Dongbiandao Clearance. On 8 May he captured Liuhe and took Tonghua soon after. However his force continued as a threat in the region to the east of Mukden and communications with Korea. Based in the Dongbiandao area, his army fought with both the Japanese Kwantung Army stationed in Mukden and the Manchukuo Fengtian Army. Although all major cities had been lost, the volunteer armies gained a new lease of life during the summer of 1932 and reached their greatest strength.
Also in May, Feng Zhanhai and a sizeable detachment of the Jilin Self-Defence Army of 15,000 men in western Jilin province cut communications to the south and east of Harbin. In response the Japanese and Manchukuo armies launched two campaigns to clear Feng's force out of the countryside. From June to July 1932 the Feng Chan-hai Subjugation Operation cleared the Shuangcheng, Acheng, Yushu, Wuchang, and Shulan districts south of Harbin, of Feng's Anti-Japanese forces and forced Feng to retreat to the west.
On 20 June, Feng Zhanhai captured Yushu, Jilin, but after a fierce Japanese counterattack, he was forced to retreat. He then arrived at Wuchang, Heilongjiang, on 4 July and the Japanese defenders fled. On 13 July, Feng Zhanhai captured Shulan.[5]
Massive floods along the Nonni and Sungari Rivers inundated some 10,000 square miles (30,000 km2) round Harbin throughout August, providing a crucial breathing spell to Volunteer Army bands in the plains and lower Sungari, as Japanese operations in the area had to halt until the waters subsided. The Japanese concentrated forces northwest of Harbin against General Ma Zhanshan in spring and summer of 1932, which permitted an escalation of partisan activity in Jilin and Fengtian provinces, which culminated in simultaneous attacks on cities throughout the South Manchurian Railway Zone when the August floods both halted Japanese operations based on Harbin, and isolated the troops engaged on them. However, the floods also ruined crops not already destroyed in the war, putting more pressure on the Volunteer Armies, which foraged for their sustenance in the countryside.
Defeat of the Volunteer Armies[edit]
Mongolian bandit forces were able to attack the Ssutao (Siping - Taonan) Railway where it was isolated by the flooding in August, and took the small town of Tongyu. On August 20 a Manchukuo relieving force was sent on the Mongolian Bandit Subjugation Operation and after a short battle Tonyu was recovered on 31 August 1932.
On 2 September 1932 during the Second Feng Chan-hai Subjugation operation a force of the Manchukuo Jilin Guard Army cornered Feng Zhanhai's Volunteer Army retreating from the previous subjugation operation. Although surrounded, over half the guerrillas were able to slip through the encirclement and make good their escape to Jehol.
Communists and the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army 1934-1942[edit]
Early Conflict with the Anti Japanese Armies[edit]
After the invasion of Manchuria in 1931, the Chinese Communist Party organized a number of small anti-Japanese guerrilla units dedicated both to resistance against the Japanese and also to social revolution. However these units were far smaller than the various Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies which had been raised, based on patriotic appeal.
When the first Volunteer Armies were organized, the Communist Party was initially completely hostile, mistrusting their motives and leadership. They also feared that the Volunteer Armies would give the Japanese a pretext for attacking the Soviet Union. The Communist Party in northeast China even issued an appeal for the volunteers to kill their officers and join the Communists in a social revolution.
Despite Party disapproval, some Communist Party members joined or rendered assistance to the various Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies, and some rose to senior positions within the volunteer forces. They were particularly influential in Wang Delin's Chinese People's National Salvation Army (NSA), where Li Yanlu and Zhou Baozhong became high-ranking officers. At first the Party severely criticized their conduct.
However, the Communists eventually had to face the fact that their current propaganda made them almost irrelevant to the anti-Japanese cause. The actions of Party members who joined or aided the various Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies eventually persuaded the international Communist movement to move towards a popular front policy in 1935. The Communist Party came to accept that whole-hearted support for the anti-Japanese movement and the postponement of revolutionary goals was essential if the Chinese Communists were to remain a serious political force.
In 1934, after the defeat of the large Volunteer Armies, there were still various resistance forces with an estimated 50,000 men still in the field. All the Communist Party units were reorganized into the single Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army, with Zhao Shangzhi as Commander-in-chief. The army was open to all who wanted to resist the Japanese and as it proclaimed its willingness to ally with all other anti-Japanese forces, this army won over some of the shanlin bands, including former NSA units.
United Front[edit]
In 1935, when the Party officially changed policy, and began creating a united front, the army welcomed and absorbed most of the remaining anti-Japanese forces in Manchuria and some Korean resistance fighters including Kim Il Sung. The number of insurgents in 1935 stood at about 40,000 men. The army was organized into Yang Jingyu's 1st Route Army (Fengtian Province), Zhou Baozhong's 2nd Route Army (Jilin Province), and Li Zhaolin's 3rd Route Army (Heilongjiang Province). The army's strategy was to form pockets of resistance in occupied areas, to harass the Japanese troops and undermine their attempts at administration, and when the Second Sino-Japanese War began in earnest in 1937, to make attacks to keep as many Japanese troops as possible from being sent into China. It conducted a protracted campaign which threatened the stability of the Manchukuo regime, especially during 1936 and 1937.
The recently reformed Manchukuo Imperial Army replied with a major campaign with 16,000 men from October 1936 to March 1937, against the 1st Route Army in the Dongbiandao region. This was the first time it operated against the guerrillas without the support of Japanese troops. Despite heavy casualties the Manchukuo Army managed to kill over two thousand guerrillas including some of their leaders. Thus, the number of insurgents declined to 30,000 in 1936; and 20,000 in 1937.
An even larger and longer campaign from November 1937 to March 1939, was waged by 24,000 Manchukuo troops against the 2nd Route Army in the area between the Amur, Sungari and Ussuri Rivers. In the latter half of 1938, the Japanese Army concentrated troops in eastern Fengtian province, to encircle the remnants of Yang Jingyu's army, the most dangerous of the Anti-Japanese forces, with the most reliable base area. Although the Japanese managed to cut off the supply lines to the guerrillas, they persevered, frequently launching attacks that compelled the Japanese and Manchukuoans to divert forces into punitive expeditions against them.
As of September 1938, the number of insurgents had dwindled to an estimated 10,000 combatants as a result of years of fighting and privation. The Kwantung Army then brought reinforcements with a plan to mop up the remaining anti-Japanese forces in Fengtian. This operation gradually produced a critical lack of supplies, and from January to mid-February 1940 Yang Jingyu led the struggle until he died on 23 February 1940, trying to break out of the encirclement when an officer betrayed his detachment.
With its strongest armies dispersed or destroyed and its base areas pacified, the remnant resistance fighters, including Kim Il Sung, were gradually forced to retreat into Siberia between 1940 and 1942. In November 1941, Li Zhaolin entered the Soviet Union. By July 1942 Zhou Baozhong followed. Finally on 12 February 1942, Zhao Shangzhi was captured by Japanese military police after being attacked by one of their agents, and later died.