Journal of Japanese Invasion ofChina and Nanjing Massacre

No.4, 2020

1.TheNanjingIncident:JapaneseEyewitnessAccounts—Testimonyfrom48JapaneseWhoWereThereandItsTextAnalysis

YangXiamingWangXiaoyang(4)

In 2017, the English version of Ara Kenichi’s『「南京事件」日本人48人の証言』 went online on the official website of Society for “the dissemination of historical fact”, however it was from 1984 to 1986 that the author interviewed these witnesses. These testimonies have been published in different media in different forms and languages. By comparing different versions, one can see that interviewer aimed to try to deny Nanjing Massacre through the witnesses. Due to the interviewee’s request to review the manuscript and the restrictive fact that they were living, the testimonies of 35 witnesses collected in theDailyRecord：NanjingIncident—TheNanjingMassacreasSeenbytheJapanesepublished in 1987 is relatively unlikely to be tampered with and deleted, and the percentage of denial of the massacre was 25.7%. But the negative rate of 13 newly-added testimonies in the “Nanjing Incident: Japanese Eyewitnesses Accounts” revised and published in 2002 was 84.6%. Although there are problems such as the purposeful selection of witnesses, the deletion of testimonies that were not in his favor, and the deviation of witnesses’ understanding of the concept of the massacre, generally speaking, these testimonies cannot meet the author’s expected purpose of denying Nanjing Massacre. On the contrary, the initial 35 testimonies have certain reference value.

2.Individuals,Families,Communities:HistoricalMemoriesintheOralHistoryofNanjingMassacreSurvivors

MaXueping(19)

There are three types of memories in the oral account of Nanjing Massacre survivors, namely, individual memories, family memories and community memories. In individual memories, the survivors’ personal experience and the atrocities by the Japanese army they witnessed are the main content. Family memories are constructed through the communication between survivors and their family members, and shared by each member. The deaths and injuries of family members as well as the atrocities committed by the Japanese army witnessed by them constitute the main content of the described family memories of the survivors. Community memories are also formed in the interaction of members within the community. In the oral accounts of Nanjing Massacre survivors, the community memories narrated by urban survivors and rural survivors took on different aspects. Generally speaking, the survivors’ oral accounts are mixed with three memory elements: individual memories, family memories and community memories. These three types of memories jointly constitute the survivors’ cognition and recollection of Nanjing Massacre.

3.ShapingNewLegitimacy:TheWritingofthePuppetRegime’sHistoryTextbooksandItsInteractionwiththePoliticalSituationduringtheTotalWarofResistanceagainstJapan

FuYefei(32)

The Chinese territory was lost after the outbreak of the total war of resistance against Japan in 1937. In the occupied areas, Japan supported the puppet regimes to maintain its rule. As new-born regimes, it became a top challenge for the puppet regimes to consider how to explain the fact of the Japanese occupation and how to obtain the regime’s legitimacy from the history. To gain the legitimacy, almost all the puppet regimes compiled new history textbooks immediately. Pro-Japan is undoubtedly the common keynote of these history textbooks. However, due to the difference in the political tradition and resources, the textbooks were pluralistic and even antagonistic. The history textbooks of the puppet Peiping Provisional Government of Republic of China boasted tradition and democracy, denying the Kuomintang regime’s party-government. While the history textbooks of Wang Jingwei’s puppet National Government in Nanjing emphasized its legitimacy of inheriting the legally constituted authority since Sun Yat-sen, considering itself as the National Government. The differences behind these historical writings reflect not only the complex and multi-political forces within the puppet regime, but also the interaction between historical writing and the political situations.

4.JapaneseDiplomaticActivitiesduringtheBattleofShanghai:CenteringontheBrusselsConference

LuKun(44)

After the August 13thIncident in 1937, the League of Nations condemned Japan and proposed to convene a conference of nine-power treaty to solve the Sino-Japan issue. During this period, marked by Roosevelt’s speech at Chicago, the attitude of the United States towards the Far East issue tended to be positive. With the increased pressure from the international community, Japan adopted a two-handed strategy with regard to the Brussels Conference. On one hand, Japan refused resolutely to participate in the conference, on the other hand, it avoided to deny directly the nine-power treaty and attempted to induce the third country to persuade China to negotiate directly with Japan. Japan carried out a series of diplomatic activities within and outside the conference. First, it weakened the conference from the inside through its ally Italy. Second, it focused on the diplomatic offensives against the United States outside the conference to prevent it from taking a hard line towards Japan. Meanwhile, it also made use of the deadlock of the Brussels Conference to get the countries to mediate between China and Japan for direct-negotiations according to the Japanese requirements. The Brussels Conference ended indecisively, and Japan also seized the opportunity to further expand its war of aggression against China. After the refusal of Britain and the United States to mediate between China and Japan, Japan turned to Germany and made China accept the mediation of Trautmann, German Ambassador to China. However, China further won the sympathy and moral support from the international community through the conference. Although Japan momentarily benefited from the Conference, yet it fell into a further isolation.

5.ResearchonthePuppetQingdaoPublicSecurityMaintenanceCommitteeintheEarlyPeriodofOccupation

ZhaoXiuning(56)

In early 1938, Japan supported and set up the traitor organization of Qingdao Public Security Maintenance Committee soon after its occupation of Qingdao. Based on the pro-Japanese former soldiers of Beiyang Army, the security maintenance committee had a relatively simple organizational setting, but it was the early form of the puppet regime in Qingdao. The Puppet Qingdao Public Security Maintenance Committee engaged in administrative activities focusing on police, finance, epidemic prevention and education, restored and established a puppet police system as well as a taxation system. It also carried out epidemic prevention activities and established an pro-Japan education system. All the measures have laid a foundation for the Japanese puppet regime to rule Qingdao. Some people and groups were in deep trouble due to the war had to seek help from the Committee, hoping to find solutions to their problems, but most of the problems actually resulted from the Japanese invasion. The Committee’s response further confirmed its inherent deficiencies and the puppet nature.

6.ThePoliticalGamebetweenJapanandManchuria：CenteringontheResignationofZhengXiaoxuCabinet

GaoCong(68)

With the focus of Japan’s China policy shifting from Manchuria and Mongolia to North China and to strengthen its control over the puppet Manchukuo, the Kwantung Army decided to force the Zheng Xiaoxu’s Cabinet to resign by reason of cabinet reform. Zheng Xiaoxu, the puppet prime minister of the cabinet, attempted to make a final struggle to secure his personal political influence by drafting a cabinet list. Pu Yi as the emperor of the Puppet Manchukuo hoped to take this opportunity to replace Zheng with a more desirable prime minister, free himself from being a puppet, expand his own real power and satisfy his political ambition. During the bilateral talks before the resignation of the Zheng Xiaoxu Cabinet, there was a game played among the three parties and finally, due to the insufficient political leverage, the efforts of Zheng Xiaoxu and Pu Yi ended in failure under the deterrence of the Kwantung Army. By controlling the means of personnel appointment and removal of the cabinet prime minister and cabinet members, supporting the pro-Japanese forces and repelling the forces of restoring the old order, the Kwantung Army tried to achieve the absolute control over the puppet Manchukuo and had it further puppetized.

7.PredicamentandTransformation:TheEstablishmentofLocalArmedForcesinCPC’sResistanceBasesagainstJapaninCentralChina(1941—1942)

ZhangSheng(82)

In the early stage of the total war of resistance against Japan, the New Fourth Army led by the CPC grew rapidly in Central China, but the independent development of local armed forces was in great difficulty. After the Southern Anhui Incident, the resistance bases in Central China was in a more difficult situation. As an important force to defend the bases, the local armed forces had an increasingly great strategic significance. Under the CPC’s leadership, the democratic governments had been established in most of the resistance bases against Japan in Central China, and with gradually ensured guarantee in politics and supplies, the local armed forces also expanded rapidly. By the autumn of 1942, through the further campaign of better troops and streamlined administration in the resistance bases in Central China, local armed forces had its overall quality further improved and had become an important CPC-led force to resist Japanese invasion.

8.TheMobilization,LocalOrderandtheUnitedFrontoftheCountySocietyattheEarlyStageoftheTotalWarofResistanceagainstJapan——TakingFengxianasanExample

XiangHaonan(94)

With the outbreak of total war of resistance, Xuzhou’s strategic position became more and more important. To complete the recruitment assignment from the military and political authority and strengthen its self-defense capability, the Fengxian in Jiangsu under the leadership of the county government carried out various mobilization work for resistance and support the frontline such as transferring able-bodied man, organizing the militia, soliciting supplies and raising the national salvation bonds, etc.

In its mobilization process, the Mass Mobilization Committee formed jointly by the KMT and the CPC marked the establishment of the national united front of resistance against Japan at Fengxian. The constructive interactions between the KMT and the CPC at the early stage of the war of resistance not only promoted the war of resistance, but also contributed to the development of the CPC at the grassroots. The administrative system of District-Township (Town)-Bao-Jia established by the KMT failed to connect completely the regime with the people. The lack of belief and the structural rift that could not be closed due to the emptiness of the KMT power provided an opportunity for the CPC to adopt flexible policies and measures to mobilize and accumulate its strength. The case of Fengxian presented a vivid example of the actual mobilization at the grassroots society at the early stage of the war of resistance.

9.PropagandaImageShapingandMemoryProductionintheBattleofHengyang(1944—1949)

GuoHuiFuWeinan(108)

During the War of Resistance against Japan, the KMT regime attached great importance to the public opinion and propaganda. After the Battle of Hengyang broke out, the KMT regime tried its best to mobilize for the war of resistance by means of propaganda in order to alleviate the political and military crisis caused by the Central Henan Campaign and to consolidate its rule. During the Battle of Hengyang, the KMT made use of the official media to give publicity to the brutality of the war and the bravery of the soldiers to shape the image of the Chinese army, and led the National Consolation Association to mobilize the people to donate money and materials and sign their names to express their consolation to the soldiers so as to construct the image of army-people unity. After the Battle of Hengyang, compliments from all walks of life flooded in while the surrender of Fang Xianjue and other defenders was obscured. Hengyang was turned into a memorial city for the War of Resistance against Japan.

10.Globalization,theMemorialMuseumoftheWarofResistanceagainstJapanandNationalState—TheMemorySpaceConstructionfortheWarofResistanceagainstJapanwithintheContextof“aCommunitywithaSharedFutureforMankind”

MaPing(119)

Facing the call of the new era, how can we transform the Memorial Museum of the War of Resistance against Japan as one of the important carriers for China to construct new global perspective? By analyzing the connotation of this memory space for the resistance against Japan and its possibility in expressing cross-cultural identity, one can find that the timely construction of ethical discourse in this once-typical national-state memory space and balancing the relationship between the discourses of national-state and ethics is the key to guide it from the state to the world stage. Within the context of building a community with a shared future for mankind, in terms of how to deepen the education in patriotism while establishing a global consciousness based on a community with a shared future for mankind, it is the key to emphasize the peaceful discourse with local characteristics and focus on individual moral responsibility. To construct historical memories, it is crucial for the future Chinese memorial museum of the War of Resistance against Japan to enhance the micro perspective of symbiosis memory of humanity, provide trauma narratives containing multiple perspectives, and construct a memory prospect of inter-subjectivity.

11.LatestResearchProgressontheWarofResistanceAgainstJapanandWorldWarII:BookReportofResearchonJapan’sAlliancePolicytowardsGermanyfrom1936to1941

ZhuLuningZhangSheng(127)

12.OverviewoftheWar·Writing·Memory:YoungScholars’SeminarontheStudiesoftheWarofResistanceagainstJapan

ZhangGuosongYaoXinzi(130)

【English abstracts translated by Cai Dandan】