In June, a movie related to the defense of Hengyang was banned and there were discussions about removing the monument of the “Anti-Japanese War Memorial City” built during the Republic of China period. Experts believe that the Chinese Communist Party, for the sake of united front needs, previously acknowledged the Kuomintang’s resistance against Japan, but now with the rise of extreme leftist forces, history is continuously being erased.
The historical truth regarding the defense of Hengyang is still under ongoing debate. The movie “Tomorrow the Reinforcements Will Arrive,” scheduled to be released on June 28th, with a budget of 600 million RMB, led and promoted by the Hengyang local government, passed the film censorship, but faced objections from extreme leftist forces in China during the preview period, claiming that it was promoting the “surrender enlightenment theory.”
Some have even proposed removing the monument of the “Anti-Japanese War Memorial City” with an inscription by Chiang Kai-shek! Film blogger Guo Songmin responded saying that Mao declared the “abolition of pseudo-law” in 1949, all of Chiang Kai-shek’s orders were naturally abolished.
Regarding this, netizens expressed, “The propaganda system has long been controlled by traitors.” “Capital controls, government directs!” “For the Battle of Hengyang, there is no objective view of the Japanese devils.” “For some time, there has been the relocation of Li Zicheng’s bronze statue, the demolition of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom sculpture, and now the crackdown on the Boxers…” “Relocating statues should be carefully considered, why disturb the tranquility of time?”
Voice of America reported that the only “memorial city” in the history of the Sino-Japanese War built under the official name of the Republic of China is mentioned by Chinese commentators for removal, sparking a joint statement by transnational military historians denouncing the extreme leftist forces in China for trampling on history, undoubtedly a revival of the Cultural Revolution. Analysts say that if the trend of extreme leftist ideology continues to spread in China, the first hit will be scaring off foreign investment, which is not only detrimental to China’s own development but will also bring disaster.
The statement said, “We urge all those concerned about the glorious history of the national army at home and abroad to no longer remain silent in the face of such evil forces, but to firmly warn them that history cannot be covered up, the truth cannot be distorted, the people’s hearts cannot be trampled on, and honor cannot be tarnished.”
Public records show that from June 21 to August 8, 1944, under-equipped, with no reinforcements and scarce supplies, Chinese defending soldiers of Hengyang relied solely on rudimentary field fortifications, fought hard, defended Hengyang for 47 days, deterring enemy attacks with their flesh and blood, earning the title of the “Eastern Moscow Defense.”
According to statistics, during this battle, one Chinese soldier fought against ten enemies, with an average of 150 soldiers sacrificing their lives for the country each day, with an average age of 22. The Japanese forces suffered 700-1,000 casualties daily.
On December 18, 1946, President Chiang Kai-shek of the National Government officially named Hengyang, which sacrificed the most and made the greatest contributions in the resistance against Japan, as the “Hengyang Anti-Japanese War Memorial City,” making Hengyang the only officially named anti-Japanese war memorial city in China.
On May 28th, the post “Please Do Not Forget Why We Are the Only ‘Anti-Japanese War Memorial City’ in China!” from “Today in Hengyang” stated that this war consumed the last hundred thousand elite Japanese troops in China, which became a classic case study in military science titled “stabilization and defense operations.”
At that time, the Tenth Army cleverly designed the southern defensive positions into three layers, centered around Yueping Mountain, forming a fan-shaped comprehensive deep defense layout, this massive fortification group once annihilated nearly 20,000 Japanese troops.
The Japanese forces grimly entered Hengyang city. After the Meiji Restoration in Japan, there were two places that remained ominous in the hearts of Japanese soldiers: One was the “203 Heights” in Port Arthur occupied by Russian forces during the Russo-Japanese War; the other was Hengyang, where the Japanese soldiers called it a “scorching hell” and a “slaughterhouse.”
Sun Chunlong, the initiator of the “Veterans Return Home” campaign, wrote on July 3rd that for many years, there have been many voices questioning the direct combat on the Sino-Japanese front. Responding to such doubts is meaningless because you are speaking the truth, while the other side is speaking from their standpoint. But these doubts have led to a multimillion-dollar film being shelved, showing that the public and those in power do not yet fully understand the truth behind this history.
Summing up the defense of Hengyang, he wrote: 1. Initially planned to hold out for 10 days, the Tenth Army held out for 47 days, which was a significant strategic victory. 2. Our troops fought outnumbered and allowed enemy casualties to far exceed ours, which was nearly unheard of in the anti-Japanese war. 3. The support from the local civilian-backed aid group was critical and the unity of military and civilians was key to the victory, making the title of the Anti-Japanese War Memorial City well-deserved. 4. General Fang Xianjue laying down arms was a forced act. At that time, there were only about 1,200 people able to fight in the city, with a large number of wounded soldiers. After the city fell, the enemy, by massacring the wounded, forced the defending troops to surrender, and where the wounded were slain was only a few hundred meters from Fang Xianjue’s command post. He laid down arms for the sake of more than ten thousand wounded and civilians, and if it had just been for his life, he had a chance to escape from Hengyang early and would not have become a prisoner.
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Sun Chunlong believes that under the current circumstances across the strait, using the history of the anti-Japanese war to unite the people on both sides, especially the younger generation, towards a consensus on one China, is extremely urgent and important. “An old soldier from Taiwan once told me, you don’t acknowledge the battles we fought, so what’s the point of talking about reunification?”
Liu Yinquan, a former history professor at Weifang College in Shandong, stated in an interview with Epoch Times that the Communist Party has always claimed to have led the resistance against Japan, labeling the Kuomintang as “actively anti-Communist, passively anti-Japanese,” which is a complete distortion of the facts. Historically, the main force in resisting Japan was the National Revolutionary Army, the regular army of the Republic of China during the Sino-Japanese War, playing a very crucial role. The Communist Party took advantage to seize territory and expand its influence.
He said, “Mao Zedong set a strategic plan, telling those generals not to fight the Japanese, dispersing the army, turning them into labor forces, engaging in guerrilla warfare in various places. The National Revolutionary Army and the Japanese army battled head-on, the rear was left empty, and the Communist Party seized these rear areas, even eliminating the regular forces of the Nationalist Army. Xu Shiyu in Shandong established himself in Jiaodong in this manner.”
Liu Yinquan believes that after the movie of the defense of Hengyang is made public, everyone will see the Chinese army fighting with blood and sweat on the front lines, destroying many Japanese troops, which slaps the Communist Party in the face, a reason for them not daring to screen it. Another reason is that the urgent need for the Communist Party’s united front has diminished, and the position of the Kuomintang in the Communist Party’s united front chessboard has declined.
The largest recognition of the Chinese Nationalist Party in the role and status of the war against Japan appeared in 2005. On September 3, 2005, former General Secretary of the Communist Party, Hu Jintao, in a speech commemorating the sixtieth anniversary of the victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan, said, “The Chinese Nationalist Party and the Communist Party of China-led anti-Japanese military forces respectively undertook the tasks of the front-line and enemy-rear battlefields… The Nationalist Party forces took the lead in the front-line battlefields, organizing a series of major battles, especially the battles of Songhu, Xinkou, Xuzhou, and Wuhan in the early stages of the national resistance, dealing heavy blows to the Japanese army.”
However, such limited acknowledgment has also been changing in recent years. In 2020, the film “The Eight Hundred,” which reflects the front-line battle, also faced doubts and had its originally scheduled release date canceled, ultimately being postponed.
In his speech on the 75th anniversary of the war against Japan, Communist Party leader Xi Jinping no longer mentioned the contributions of the Nationalist Party in the war. The term “Nationalist Party” appeared only once, in the term “Nationalist Army ‘Eight Hundred Heroes'”. In the new edition of “A Brief History of the Communist Party of China,” published in 2021, the Nationalist Party was only said to have shown “some positive actions.”
Liu Yinquan said, “Why did the Communist Party still allow some films and articles that promote the Kuomintang’s anti-Japanese war to be published in China in the past? At that time, they were trying to win over the Kuomintang for united front work, allowing the Kuomintang to feel that the mainland also affirmed their resistance to Japan, giving them a sense of belonging. Now, the Communist Party may feel that the Kuomintang’s influence in Taiwan has greatly weakened, and Taiwanese voters no longer buy this narrative. There is no longer a need to concede, show goodwill towards the Kuomintang, and satisfy their sense of pride and dignity.”
“They will continue to propagate that only the Communist Party is great, honorable, and correct, the Nationalist Party is not, and the Republic of China is not, much less the Democratic Progressive Party, in general, only the Communist Party can save China, that is the tune. From this perspective, it is indeed the rise of extreme leftist forces, a powerful force.”
In May of this year, the thirty-year-old statue of Li Zicheng in Xiguan Huan Island in Changping District of Beijing was removed and relocated to the “Chuangwangzhai” scenic spot in Shannan County, Shangluo City, Shaanxi Province. In Changsha, the hometown of the Xiang Army in Hunan, the most famous large-scale Taiping Heavenly Kingdom statue, “Spirit of the Taiping Army,” was demolished.
Regarding this, Liu Yinquan believes that at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the peasant uprising leader Li Zicheng attacked Beijing, leading to Emperor Chongzhen hanging himself, marking the downfall of the Ming Dynasty. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom peasant uprising dealt a heavy blow to the corrupt rule of the Qing Dynasty, and the collapse of the Qing Dynasty should have started with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Presently, Chinese society is boiling with grievances, all of which are causing great concern for the Communist Party.
“China is also facing an important moment of changing dynasties because the Communist Party’s rule has exhausted the people’s hearts, and various contradictions are prominent throughout China, similar to the complex status of the late Qing Dynasty. At such a time, if another Hong Xiuquan emerges, I believe they will overturn the existing regime even faster than the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom did.” He said, “The Communist Party’s practices may benefit them for a while, but once people wake up, everyone will be even more angry.”
Jiang Pinchao, editor of the “June Fourth Poetry Collection” and a writer in the Library of Congress, USA, said in an interview with Epoch Times that the Communist Party has always been covering up its history of evil, always proclaiming itself as the greatest and most correct, taking credit for others’ achievements. It allows others to learn from history, while itself erases history; they are hypocrites.
“Mao Zedong wrote an article titled ‘Who Should Pick the Peaches?’ after the victory in the war against Japan. According to history, only the victor should pick that peach. Who won this war? It was the second World War won by the Kuomintang, with the union of global forces, not by your Communist Party, why does the Communist Party pick that peach? So today, these actions are still following Mao Zedong’s thinking back then, that is, seizing other people’s victories.” He said.