Tragedy for China

Tragedy for
China

Introduction

Nightmare began for Chinese in the 1930s since the Sino-Japanese War. China was exploited for resources, labour and even human bodies. The Chinese populace suffered adverse disillusion in the eight years fighting the Japanese as they witnessed the incapability of their government and the brutality of the Japanese militants. In fact, countless died in the clutches of the Japanese soldiers through massacres and tortures.

Political

Politically, China suffered humiliation as the small Japan had occupied the gigantic China not by peaceful means (treaties) but by military force. China’s physical area and population was significantly larger than Japan, which was but a country of islands constantly plagued natural disasters such as earthquakes and typhoons. Undeniably, China had been intruded by foreign nations when the West visited in the 1890s, but these intrusions were done via a facade of commercial treaties. China preserved a certain amount of pride. However, Japanese invasion was a harsh blow to the pride of modern China for Japan seized her land and penetrated into her mainland. Moreover, Japan was not a Western power, but a small Asian force. Hence, the huge Chinese sovereign was greatly embarrassed.

In the 1930s, Chiang Kai-shek was ruling China. He was obstinate and refused any co-operation to fight the Japanese. Firstly, Chiang refused to co-operate with the US (General Joseph Stilwell) to perform a counter-offensive to drive Japanese out of Burma. Secondly, as Chiang continually bombed the Communists, there was great deal of disunity and fragmentation in defending China. There was actually a potential turning point when Chiang was kidnapped and forced to united with the Communists to fight the Japanese in the Second United Front in 1937. However, the United Front disintegrated due to failure to establish understanding and co-operation between the Kuomintang (Chiang’s government) and the Communists. By mid-1938, the United Front degraded to a name, and in 1944, Chiang used a large part of China’s limited resources to blockade and bomb the communists in an attempt to weaken them. Unfortunately, it only crippled China’s effort to fight the Japanese and encouraged the Japanese to exploit the disunity between the Chinese, thus furthering their conquest. Thus, the Japanese invasion was a new gash to China’s wound.

The worst tragedy for China was, however, continued the civil strives following the Second World War. In other countries, the Japanese invasion had brought about unity of nationalists. It was thought that that the Japanese invasion could have stopped the two Chinese forces waging the civil wars but even that massive war not enough - more civil wars after the Sino-Japanese struggle. The Second World War had greatly discredited the Chiang Nationalists, resulting in the fall of the Kuomintang government which Dr. Sun Yat-sen had so painstakingly established. However, this was not the end. The Communists reigned with terror as they carried out a series of looting and purging. China herself plunged into a political dark age after World War II.

Economic

On the whole, Chinese economy deteriorated under the Japanese. When the Japanese intruded, they captured the heavily industrialized and commercialized areas (the richest part of China) – the maritime provinces and Lower Yangtze Valley area. China was left with the hinterland of Western China, untouched by political and economic modernisation. China itself was already very poor, loss of vital lands led to deteriorating poverty and helplessness of Chinese economy. Moreover, she was landlocked in Western China, thus could hardly get foreign aid from the shores. Furthermore, exploitation by the Japanese added to the Chinese burden, resulting in inflation, black markets and famine. The poor standard of living eventually robbed the lives of many Chinese.

Social

The Chinese suffered under the unreasonable Japanese rule. They murder, rape, loot, burn etc., their cruelty was impossible to list. Allow me to cite a few examples from accounts which survived through this ruthless regime.

Forms of tortures – Usually used for punishment of defiant POW

1)
The Japanese chop off the heads of the Prisoners of War primarily for entertainment and practice. Some prisoners were used as a test of strength of sword, some used to test the guts of freshly-recruited Japanese soldiers (superiors challenged them to behead the Chinese) and some used for competitions between the Japanese commanders. (Note the smile on the butcher's face in the picture.) Others were tied to sticks to pose as human targets for the soldiers’ bayonet and shooting practices.

2) The "water treatment"

The victim would be bound with barbed wire, mouth gagged with rags. Then, his body would be filled with water through a hose into his nose.

When his stomach was fully filled, the Japanese would start the beating. They started beating with square poles, then kicked the body, and then jumped onto the distended stomach until it ruptured.

3)
The victim would be forced to kneel on sharp sticks for up to 3 hours, exposed to the blazing sun, dehydrating without water and carrying a heavy stone. Should the victim collapse or fail to keep the stone raised, he would be beaten as a punishment. After which, he would be remounted onto the sticks if he was still conscious.

4)
The victim’s hands would be tied to a trees, and left alone for days. Sometimes (like in the picture) the toes would touch the ground.

5)
The victim would be tied to a tree with barbed wire for days without food and water. A bucket of water was then thoughtfully placed in front of him to remind him of what he most needed. This is a vicious way of physical and psychological torture.

6)
Prisoners were confined to cramped cells, devoided of sunlight. This was how they looked like after years ofimprisonment.

Vivisections and Biological Warfare

The Chinese were left in lurch as the United States US supported vivisections and biological warfare. The Chinese fell prey into the Japanese inhumanity, leaving a irremovable imprint on the Chinese with their gory acts.

Vivisection

Vivisection involved Unit 731 and Japanese Red Cross (!) and was supported and covered up by US. The subjects provided by Kempeitai.

The Chinese were tied to a bed, and dissected alive without anesthetic as it was said that anesthetic might affect the normal workings of the organs and blood vessels. These vivisection were mostly for practices of appendectomy, amputation, tracheotomy to be used on battlefields.

Accounts revealed that females delibrately made pregnant and then operated on, and operation was conducted on even a three-day old baby. Also, the human experiments dumped away into holes after use. Besides, the Japanese sacrificed the thousands of victims for human parts, tissues or even cells.

Biological Warfare

The Japanese deduced that if biological warfare was so harmful that it had to be banned under international laws (Geneva Protocol of 1925) it must be a great weapon. The warfare was a tragedy for it was a violation of international laws and detrimental to human morality. China was an ideal target for the land vast enough for testing and the people were physically weak due to lack of food. The inhumane warfare was, again, covered up by US. It was even rumoured that US bought the biological research from the Japanese.

Before the release biological weapons, tests were conducted on the Chinese. The Japanese placed the infected prisoners with healthy ones to gauge how fast the virus spread. Another testing method was done on proving grounds called Anda where people were tied to stakes in a pattern, virus was dropped from plane to see how far the virus spread. Prisoners were also locked in pressure chambers where the Japanese would gauge the limit of body endurance before the eyeballs pop out from their sockets. The victims were also deliberately infected with plague, then cut opened to see the effects of the diseases on the man’s inside. Such were cruelty and inhumanity of the Japanese had executed on the Chinese.

Chinese cities disfigured by the biological warfare included Ningbo in eastern China, Changde in Hunan, and Zhejiang Province. The Japanese also took more than 20000 lives when thousands of plague-infected rats were released in 22 counties of Heilungchiang and Kirin provinces. Wells and ponds were cautiously infected with diseases like plague, anthrax, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, and other pathogens. The Japanese was ruthless in that even when war ended, they released plague-infected animals and killed at least 30000 in Harbin area from 1946to 1948. Kamikazi suicide planes with plague bombs were used to attack the Chinese. Gas bombs were also used since the Japanese invasion of Wusung and Shanghai in August 1937. From then on, 1131 times of posion gas were used within 8 years. Conclusively, the Japanese not only destroyed China’s land physically using bombs, they also infected the Chinese with epidemic diseases and polluted their environment with toxic gases.

However...

China did benefit from World War II to some extent for she achieved elevation of status in the international eyes. In January 1943, the USA and England gave up extraterritorial rights, and other Western countries soon followed suite. In October 1943, China attained the status of a Big Power in the Moscow Declaration. In November 1943, Chiang Kai-shek met US President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill in Cairo where they assured Chiang of support against the Japanese and to restore all territories lost to Japan. In December 1943, the United State Congress repealed the laws which impeded the Chinese from her shores. Due to Western efforts to alienate the Japanese, they advocated self-determination by giving up extraterritorial rights. China benefited from it as it was now recognized as a friend and ally of the West, a full sovereign and independent country. It was a great achievement since the ceding of the 1st concession in the Opium War.

Conclusion

Ultimately, no one can deny that the Second World War was a traumatizing experience for the Chinese. Hatred for the Japanese remained till today. However, in the midst of all the calamities and suffering, China was considered fortunate to earn the Western protection after decades of exploitation by them.

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