The Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression was the first completely successful national independence war of the Chinese people against foreign aggression, a battle between human rights and anti-human rights, a wrestle between civilization and brutality, and a decisive engagement between justice and evil. 

 

 

The Japanese War of Aggression against China brought the Chinese people gigantic casualties and property losses -- more than 35 million Chinese soldiers and civilians died or were wounded, accounting for one third of the total casualties in the world; calculating at constant price in 1937, China’s property losses and war consumption amounted to more than 100 billion U.S. dollars, and the indirect economic losses reached more than 500 billion U.S. dollars.¹ During the war, the Japanese invaders committed grievous atrocities on the Chinese people, completely trampled on human rights of the Chinese people and brought about an unprecedented havoc of human rights. 

 

i. Japanese massacres of the Chinese people trampled on the right to life of the Chinese people. The Japanese invaders ignored the basic norms of international laws and committed tens of thousands of murders and massacres of innocent people, including more than 200 killings in each of which more than 1,000 people were killed.² In Nanjing more than 300,000 civilians and prisoners of war were slaughtered,³ which became one appalling atrocity in history of human civilization. They launched large-scale “mop-up operations,” implemented the strategy of “burning all, killing all and looting all” in an attempt to destroy the basic survival conditions of anti-Japanese soldiers and civilians, and produced a series of shocking massacres in many places. In accordance with incomplete statistics of the seven liberated areas, namely, Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei, Shandong, Hebei-Rehe-Liaoning, Shanxi-Suiyuan, Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan, Jiangsu-Anhui and the Central Plains, 3.18 million people were killed or abused to death, 2.76 million were captured, 19.52 million houses were burnt down; 57.45 billion kg of grains, 6.31 million farm animals, 48 million pigs and sheep, 222.7 million pieces of farm tools and furniture, and 229 million pieces of bedding and clothing were lost.⁴ On August 19, 1945, after Japan declared surrender, the Japanese invaders still slaughtered civilians of Sanjiatun Village, Touzhan Town, Longjiang County, Heilongjiang Province. All the 83 civilians, old and young, were killed.⁵

 

ii. Indiscriminate bombing infringed on rights of civilians in wartime. Unscrupulous Japanese bombings on towns resulted in huge casualties and property losses. In line with incomplete statistics, from July 1937 to July 1943, Japanese air raids caused a total casualty of 762,183, including 335,934 deaths and 426,249 injuries.⁶ Since early 1939, the Japanese army launched long-term bombing on Chongqing, China’s wartime capital.⁷ In air raids of May 3 and 4, 1939, roughly one third of the city’s buildings were destroyed, about 2,000 residents died, more than 3,300 were wound, and even British, French and German emissaries stationed in their embassies in Chongqing could not escape and suffered from the bombing. The bombing on May 25, 1939 killed or wounded more than 20,000 civilians. 

 

iii. The application of chemical and biological weapons committed brutal crimes against humanity. In June 1925, the League of Nations passed the Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous, or Other Gasses, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare (also called the Geneva Protocol). Nonetheless, Japan, one of the 37 signatories, became the only country applying large-scale use of chemical and biological weapons in World War II. During the Japanese aggression against China, Unit 731 of the Japanese Army slaughtered innumerable patriots against Japanese aggression and innocent civilians through the “in vivo experiment.” Kiyoshi Kawashima, former director of the Bacteria Production Division of Unit 731 confessed at Khabarovsk Military Court, “During 1940 through 1945, more than 3,000 people were killed in the slaughter house. But I don’t know how many people were massacred before 1940.”⁸ According to incomplete statistics, the Japanese army applied chemical weapons for more than 2,000 times in 18 Chinese provinces, which caused direct casualties of more than 100,000 of Chinese soldiers and civilians. More than 2 million chemical shells of all types weighing about 13,000 tons were found discarded in China, causing accidental deaths or injuries of more than 2,000 people and still posing severe threat to safety of Chinese people.⁹

 

iv. The Japanese invaders in China captured Chinese labors by force, abused them and enslaved them. In order to “fuel the war with war,” the Japanese invaders not merely plundered the occupied areas but also implemented the policy of forced labor and captured Chinese labors by force. Between 1937 and 1942, more than 5.69 million men in North China were captured and sent to Northeast China.¹⁰ In the 14-year aggression against China, the Japanese army totally captured more than 10 million Chinese labors including up to 2 million labors who were abused to death in Northeast China. In line with after war statistics from Japan, nearly 40,000 Chinese labors were transported to Japan as coolies, about 7,000 of whom died and 6,778 were injured or disabled, which accounted for one third of all Chinese labors in Japan.¹¹

 

v. The Japanese invaders in China abused Chinese women, implemented the policy of “military comfort women,” and treaded on women’s personality, dignity and personal rights. Wherever the Japanese invaders came, countless Chinese women were raped or slaughtered. The Japanese invaders also forced hundreds of thousands of women of China, Korea, Southeast Asian countries and some Western countries to be sex slaves as planed in an organized way. As a Japanese assisting the United States in classifying concerned intelligence information after the war witnessed, the Chinese women taken as the forced “military comfort women” accounted for 67.8% of total sex slaves taken by the Japanese army on the battlefields in Asia. Therefore, Chinese victims were estimated at 240,000–280,000.¹² The Japanese army’s enforcement of women to be sex slaves was “the unprecedented collective enslavement of men over women in the history of human civilization,” “the systemized government crimes committed by Japanese militarism against humanism, gender ethics, and conventions of war,” “one of the most miserable records in the history of world women,” and “the humiliation of the civilized world.”¹³

 

vi. The Japanese invaders in China deliberately destroyed the Chinese culture and infringed on China’s cultural rights. The Japanese invaders wantonly plundered historical relics, ancient books and records, destroyed cultural and educational institutions, and brought havoc to the Chinese civilization of five thousand years. According to incomplete statistics of the War-time Historical Relics Loss Clarification Committee of the Ministry of Education of the nationalist government, the looted and destroyed public and private historical relics of China during the wartime numbered 3,607,074 pieces in 1,870 cases and 741 scenic spots or historic sites were destroyed throughout China (excluding Northeast China, Taiwan, and the liberated areas under the leadership of the Communist Party of China).¹⁴ On July 29, 1937, the Japanese army brazenly declared to bomb Nankai University, a famous institution of higher learning, at a press conference for Chinese and foreign journalists. Afterwards, it carried off everything and bombed Nankai University to ruins in two days. Between July 1937 and August 1938, among 108 Chinese institutions of higher learning, 91 were destroyed by the Japanese army, accounting for 85% of the national total. A total of 25 were closed down due to severe destruction and 10 were completely destroyed.¹⁵ The losses of valuable books and data of the Chinese institutions of higher learning, such as the archives on the modern history of China collected by Tsinghua University, the research data on geology of China collected by Peking University, and the research data on economy of North China collected by Nankai University. 

 

vii. The Japanese invaders in China compulsorily implemented enslaving education and infringed on the liberty of thought and the right to education. In order to safeguard the colonial rule and obliterate the national awareness or the rebellious spirit of Chinese people, the Japanese invaders adopted the guideline of “war of ideas” and the policy of assimilation and conducted compulsory enslaving education of the people in occupied areas. The Japanese puppet regime and traitor’s organization, namely, the New People Association was “in charge of enslaving the Chinese people mentally in incredibly mean methods under the guidance of the Japanese advisers. The most widespread obscene behaviors under the sun, such as slandering, cheating, blackmailing, extorting, corruption, fighting, excruciation, horror making, poisoning, prostitution, and evil deeds were propagated in such mechanisms dedicated to destroying the Chinese people’s morality and shaking their faith.”¹⁶

 

viii. The Japanese invaders in China forced the indigenous people to migrate and deprived them of the right to choose their residence places. With the aim to cut off the contact of the armed forces in Northeast China against Japan with local people, the Japanese invaders not merely burnt all indigenous residence and made large quantities of “depopulated zones,” but also forced farmers, who were living in the areas of anti-Japanese armed forces, to leave their indigenous residence and move to the so-called “group inhabited areas,” popularly called “human sty” rigidly controlled by the Japanese military police and secret agents. Between 1937 and February 1938, the Japanese puppet authorities established 170 “group inhabited areas” in Huanan County. In implementing the policy of “incorporative households,” the Japanese army burnt more than 120 villages, burnt or pulled down more than 24,000 houses, killed, froze and starved more than 13,000 people to death, desolated land of more than 1,400 hectares, and slaughtered more than 4,800 domestic animals.¹⁷ Hezhen people originally had a small population, only about 2,500 to 3,000 in early time of the Republic of China, which rapidly dropped during the implementation of the policy of “incorporative households.” By the liberation of Northeast China, only more than 300 people of Hezhen were left.¹⁸

 

ix. The Japanese invaders in China exported armed migrants and infringed on the national collective rights. To permanently occupy the Chinese territory, the Japanese government formulated the “One million Households’ Migration Plan in 20 Years” in an attempt to change the nationality structure of population and land-ownership and turn Northeast China into the extension of the Japanese territory through large-scale immigration and colonization. By the time when Japan surrendered, about 318,000 people of 106,000 households had immigrated to Northeast China and 1,131 immigration villages had been established.¹⁹ The Japanese immigration destroyed the former village organizational structure of the rural areas in Northeast China and brought direct impact upon the production and life of local farmers. 

 

Innumerable irrefutable facts proved that the Japanese invaders hurled the basic human rights of Chinese people’s life, health, properties, freedom from slavery, free migration, education, culture, and freedom of thought and speech. Even the injured, the diseased, the weak, the pregnant and children could not escape from the enforcement. The merciless means to infringe on human rights broke through the base line of mankind, challenged human conscience and generated humanity disasters and human rights catastrophes rarely seen in human history. 

 

It should be pointed out that it was the Japanese government and a handful of militarists rather than the Japanese people who planned and produced the aggressive war. “We should not look upon a nation with hatred because of only a handful of militarists of it launching war of aggression.”²⁰ In a sense, the Japanese people were also the victims of war, whose human rights were also severely trampled. To launch the Fascist rule of the Mikado and the policy of aggression and expansion, the Japanese Army Headquarters implemented the comprehensive Fascist rule domestically, deprived the Japanese people of their freedom of thought and speech, brutally suppressed all anti-war forces, and persecuted political activists and organizations against the policy of aggression. Whoever refusing to cooperate with the military headquarters, whatever their positions were, would be suppressed. Between 1931 and 1933, a total of 38,982 Japanese were arrested and 2,238 were prosecuted. In the two Popular Front Incidents respectively in December 1937 and February 1938, more than 400 left-wing Japanese socialists were persecuted.²¹ Through the Fascist obscurantist education, the military headquarters tied up a large number of Japanese youth to the chariots of militarism and forced them to fight ignorantly as battle gears. In the last phase of the war, a huge group of young people were bewitched to join so-called “Kamikaze” suicide attacks and sacrificed as cannon fodders. It was the tragedy of human rights caused by the Japanese militarists.

 

 

The Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression was a national liberation war of the Chinese people to safeguard their existence and other human rights, delivering gigantic contributions to the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War and the reconstruction of an international order. 

 

The unyielding resistance of the Chinese people against Japanese aggression in Northeast China raised the curtain of the World Anti-Fascist War. The September 18 Incident in 1931 was not merely the beginning of Japanese aggression against China but also a new stage of Japan to expand its sphere of influence in the world. “The Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression boasted the vital significance of salvaging human civilization and safeguarding the world peace form the beginning. It was a pivotal part of the World Anti-Fascist War.”²²

 

During the four and a half years from the July 7 Incident in 1937 to the outbreak of the Pacific War, China was the only oriental battlefield of the Anti-Fascist War. The protracted Anti-Japanese War of the whole Chinese nation tremendously consumed the strength of the Japanese army, forced Japan to give up the plan of northward expansion, contained the Japanese army from its plan of southward expansion, won the valuable time for strategic preparation of other anti-Fascist countries such as the Soviet Union, the United States and Britain, and indirectly saved the people of other countries from the human rights holocaust. 

 

After the Pacific War broke out, the Chinese battlefield became the main oriental battlefield of the World Anti-Fascist War and always contained the main force of the Japanese army so that the Japanese army could not transfer more military forces to the Pacific battleground and hence vigorously supported the fight of the allies on the Pacific battleground. Considering the overall situation of the World Anti-Fascist War, China also dispatched its elite squads to fight overseas as expeditionary forces. The counterattack in northern Burma, especially, became the first successful counterattack of China’s allies in the mainland region. 

 

In a bid to maintain postwar peace in the world, China enthusiastically participated in designing the postwar international order and establishing international organizations. China and its allies discussed and signed the Declaration by United Nations to officially found the World Anti-Fascist Alliance and decided to quickly make the Moscow Declaration to set up an international organization of universality and the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation to arrange for the issues during the wartime and the postwar order. Based on these international documents, China, the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union initiated the San Francisco Conference to jointly discuss the establishment of the United Nations. China not simply participated in designing the mechanism of the United Nations and formulating the Charter of the United Nations, but also became a founder of the United Nations and the first signatory of the Charter of the United Nations. China also participated in the design and operation of the postwar punishment measures, such as tribunals of war criminals and the occupation and transformation of the vanquished countries. 

 

To engrave in mind the infringement of war upon human rights, China positively advocated and participated in the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations. Zhang Pengchun, professor of Nankai University and then vice president of the Commission on Human Rights of the United Nations, acted as vice president of the drafting committee and made vital contributions to the construction of the international human rights protection mechanism with his broad and profound knowledge and traditional Chinese wisdom.²³

 

 

The trauma left by war aroused an in-depth reflection of the people of all nations — Why have such atrocities severely trampling on human rights happened in the history of human civilization? How to prevent such calamities from happening again?

 

The battle between human rights and anti-human rights in World War II told us: War is the gravest trample on human rights and we must safeguard the world peoples’ right to peace. Human rights should be realized on the basis of the peaceful international and domestic environment and war is the severest trample on human rights. Only do we bear in mind the hazards of war and safeguard world peace, we can achieve the practical conditions to realize human rights. It needs joint efforts of world people to safeguard world peace and ensure the right to peace. The Chinese nation always cherishes peace and has advocated the peaceful idea that “harmony is precious” and “do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you” since ancient times. President Xi Jinping has repeatedly advocated establishing the awareness of a common destiny of mankind on many important international occasions, promoting the construction of a new pattern of relationship between great powers, and upholding the idea of moral and profit and the new sustainable security outlook of shared comprehensive cooperation. He stressed that China would firmly take the road of peaceful development and the Chinese people sincerely hoped to join hands with the world people to build a harmonious world featuring lasting peace and shared prosperity.

 

The battle between human rights and anti-human rights in World War II told us: To prevent war from trampling on human rights, we must safeguard the postwar international order and guard Fascism from resurgence. It is the common mission of the people of all countries. In 1945, Dr. Eccher, member of the United Nations Commission for the Investigation of War Crimes pointed out: “This time, the war crime is not an isolated action of individuals due to mental or moral imbalance because of war. This time, the war crime was, is, and will be an action of the people infected with a contagion which is called Nazism or Fascism.” The General Political Department of the Eighth Route Army quoted the above paragraph in a data accusing the atrocities of the Japanese army and continued to write: “For those innocent and kind people, for those orphans losing their loving mothers, for those who are homeless, and for the whole civilized world, we must extinguish the contagion, namely Fascism, as soon as possible.”²⁴ The great victory of the World Anti-Fascist War ushered in a new era of human peace and development. Under the occupation of the United States, Japan followed the Potsdam Proclamation and related international agreements and implemented democratized and non-militarized reform to prevent Fascism from resurgence. The development of the postwar international order concerns the realization of the human rights of all nations and the fundamental welfare of human peace. Nevertheless, what can not be ignored is that a small handful of people still repeatedly negate and even beautify the history of Japanese aggression, attempting to dilute or negate the disasters of war bringing to human rights and challenging and breaking the postwar international order, which should arouse high alert and firm opposition of all governments. We must always keep alert to the potential rise of Fascism and other various extremist forces. 

 

The battle between human rights and anti-human rights in World War II told us: The Fascism is in essence the defiance of and infringement on human rights. Therefore, in order to perish Fascism from resurgence, we must respect and protect human rights and safeguard the collective and individual human rights of people of all nations. The Charter of the United Nations clearly points out in the Preface: “To save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small…”²⁵ The Universal Declaration of Human Rights passed at the United Nations General Assembly in 1948 also makes it clear: “In view that the defiance and contempt of human rights has developed to be brutal atrocities tarnishing human conscience, a world of free speech and free belief without fear or shortage has been declared to be the highest aspiration of the ordinary people…”²⁶ The Constitution of the People’s Republic of China explicitly stipulates the constitutional principle of “respecting and protecting human rights,” takes it as an important principle in ruling the country and dealing with politics, and comprehensively promotes the legalized protection of human rights so that everyone can live a more dignified and happier life.

 

To safeguard the right to existence and other human rights of the people and advance the just cause of world peace, the Chinese people have made considerable sacrifice. To prevent the resurgence of militarism and the repetition of such historic tragedies, the Chinese people will join hands with other nations to safeguard the victory of World War II, maintain the postwar international order, accelerate human rights development, console the deceased in the war, and propel the human society for a more brilliant future.

 

* XUE Jinwen(薛进文), director of Center for Human Rights Studies at Nankai University.

 

1. Remarks of Wang Jianlang, director of the Institute of Modern History, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, at the briefing of the State Council Information Office, July 14, 2015, in Experts’ Specifications on China’s Contribution to Anti-Fascism, People’s Daily, July 15, 2015, at 4.

 

2. A Concise History of Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, People’s Publishing House, 2015, at 215.
 

3. The Central Archives, the Second Historical Archives of China and the Jilin Academy of Social Sciences, Selected Record of Japanese Aggression Against China?Nanking Massacre, Zhonghua Book Company, 1995, at 745.

 

4. The Foreign Military Research Department of the Academy of Military Sciences, The Atrocities of the Japanese Invaders in China, Chinese People’s Liberation Army Publishing House, 1986, at 95.

 

5. Liu Jingshan. The Atrocities Committed by Japanese Invaders of China, People’s Daily Press, 2005, at 591.

 

6. The Foreign Military Research Department of the Academy of Military Sciences, The Atrocities of the Japanese Invaders in China, Chinese People’s Liberation Army Publishing House, 1986, at 115.

 

7. Bu Ping and Rong Weimu, History of Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, China Youth Publishing House, 2010, at 240.

 

8. Materials for Judgment of Former Japanese Army for Preparation and Application of Bacteria Weapons (Chinese version), Soviet Union Foreign Books Publication Bureau, Moscow, 1950, at 121.

 

9. A Concise History of Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggresion, People’s Publishing House, 2015, at 225, 218.

 

10. A report of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Daily on January 27, 1943. Quoted from Memoir of the Atrocities of Japanese Aggression Against China (Volume I), the editorial department of Data of Modern History and the Museum of the War of Chinese People’s Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Beijing Publishing House, 1995, at 107.

 

11. Postwar confession of Tadayuki Furuumi, vice-minister of the Manchukuo General Affairs Board and general director of the Labor Service Committee. A Concise History of Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. People’s Publishing House, 2011, at 522.

 

12. A Concise History of Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. People’s Publishing House, 2015, at 233.

 

13. Su Zhiliang, Research on the Military Comfort Women, Shanghai Bookstore Publishing house, 1999, at 13.

 

14. Yan Changhong and Li Xia, Review on Cultural Aggression of Japan against China during the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression; Tu Wenxue and Deng Zhengbing, Chinese Culture during the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, People’s Publishing House, 2006, at 362–363.

 

15. Yang Hongyu, A Glance of China’s Higher Education during the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, Tu Wenxue and Deng Zhengbing, Chinese Culture during the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, People’s Publishing House, 2006, at 180.

 

16. William Band and Claire Band, New Red Star over China, Fei Ran trans., Xinhua Publishing House, 1988, at 7-8.

 

17. The Office of Literature and History of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference of Huanan County, Heilongjiang Province, The Criminal Activities in Implementing the Policy of “Incorporative households,” the Literature and Historical Data Research Committee of the CPPCC Heilongjiang Provincial Committee, Historical Accounts of Past Events in Heilongjiang, vol. 19, Heilongjiang People’s Publishing House, 1985, at 198.

 

18. You Zhixian. Persecution of Japanese Invaders upon the Hezhen People, the Editorial Department of the Literature and Historical Data Research Committee of the CPPCC Heilongjiang Provincial Committee, Historical Accounts of Past Events in Heilongjiang, vol. 22,  Heilongjiang People’s Publishing House, 1986, at 207.

 

19. Li Shujuan, The Form of Organization of the Japanese Migrants and Its Destruction of the Organizational Structure of the Villages in Northeast China. Republican Archives, 2010, at 3.

 

20. Xi Jinping, speech marking China’s first national ceremony commemorating victims of the Nanking Massacre, People’s Daily, December 14, 2014, at 2.

 

22. Xi Jinping, “An Important Speech at the Conference In Celebration of the 69th Anniversary of the Victory of China’s War of Resistance Against Japan and the Word Anti-Fascist War,” People’s Daily, September 4, 2014, at 2.

 

23. Sun Pinghua, “Contributions of Chinese Representative Zhang Pengchun in the Drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” research on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Peking University Press, 2012, at 93–112.

 

24. Data Accusing the Atrocities of the Japanese Army by the General Political Department of the Eighth Route Army, 1945, the First Research Division of the Party History Research Center of CPC Central Committee and Chinese People’s Liberation Army Archives, Selected Archives of Casualties and Property Losses of the Eighth Route Army in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, vol. v, CPC History Publishing House, 2014, at 2301.

 

25. The Preface of The Charter of the United Nations, 1945.

 

26. The Preface of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations, 1948.