In June, a movie about the defense of Hengyang was banned, and there were calls to remove the monument of the “Anti-Japanese War Memorial City” built during the Republic of China period. Experts analyze that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), for the sake of united front needs, previously acknowledged the Kuomintang’s contribution to the war against Japan, but with the rise of extreme leftist forces, history is being continually erased and distorted.
The debate over the historical truth of the defense of Hengyang continues. The film “Tomorrow the Reinforcements Will Arrive,” scheduled to be released on June 28, with a production cost of 600 million RMB, was led and promoted by the Hengyang local government. It passed the film censorship; however, objections arose from extreme leftist forces in China during the preview period, claiming it promotes a “theory of surrendering to brightness.”
Some even suggested removing the “Anti-Japanese War Memorial City” with an inscription by Chiang Kai-shek! In response, film blogger Guo Songmin pointed out that in 1949, Chairman Mao declared the “Elimination of Feudal Law,” hence all orders by Chiang Kai-shek were naturally abolished.
Netizens expressed their views, saying, “The propaganda system has long been controlled by traitors,” “Capital controls, government leads!”,”Regarding the Battle of Hengyang, there is no objective view of the Japanese invaders,” and “Recently, there has been relocating of Li Zicheng’s statue, destruction of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom sculptures, and now the suppression of the Boxers…”
Radio Free Asia reported that the only “Memorial City” built under the official name of the Republic of China in the history of the War of Resistance against Japan is being mentioned for demolition by Chinese commentators. This sparked a joint statement from international military historians called the “Four Not-Allowances,” condemning the CCP’s extreme leftist forces for trampling upon history, likening it to the resurgence of the Cultural Revolution. Analysts believe that if the trend of extreme leftist ideology continues in China, it will first drive away foreign investment, which not only harms China’s own development but also brings disasters.
The statement states, “We urge all people at home and abroad who care about and are devoted to the glorious history of the national army to no longer remain silent towards this evil force and instead firmly warn them: history cannot be covered up, truth cannot be distorted, people’s hearts cannot be trampled, and honor cannot be tarnished.”
Public records show that from June 21 to August 8, 1944, in a situation where the equipment was insufficient, reinforcements were lacking, and supplies were running out, Chinese defending soldiers in Hengyang, with only crude field fortifications, fought alone, holding Hengyang City for 47 days, using their flesh and blood to halt the enemy’s advances, earning the moniker of the “Eastern Moscow Defense.”
During this battle, the Chinese soldiers fought with tenacity, with an average of 150 casualties daily, at the age of 22 on average. The Japanese forces suffered 700-1,000 casualties per day.
On December 18, 1946, President Chiang Kai-shek officially named the city of Hengyang, which had the greatest sacrifices and contributions during the war, as the “Hengyang Anti-Japanese War Memorial City,” thus becoming the only officially named Anti-Japanese War Memorial City in China.
On May 28, “Today’s Hengyang” published an article titled “Please Do Not Forget Why We Are the Only ‘Anti-Japanese War Memorial City’ in China!” stating that this war depleted the last elite troops of the Japanese forces in China, marked as a classic example of “consolidated defensive operations.”
At that time, the Tenth Army ingeniously set up a three-tier defense line south of the city, centered around Mount Yueping, forming a fan-shaped integrated deep defense line. This enormous fortification system had choked nearly 20,000 Japanese troops.
The dejected Japanese forces entered Hengyang. After the Meiji Restoration in Japan, there were two places that became shadows in the hearts of Japanese soldiers: one was “203 Highland” occupied by the Russian army during the Russo-Japanese War, and the other was Hengyang, referred to by the Japanese as a “scorching hell” and a “battlefield of asura.”
Sun Chunlong, the initiator of the “Veterans Return Home” event, wrote on July 3 that over many years, there have been many doubts about the frontal battles in the anti-Japanese war. Responding to such doubts is meaningless because one is speaking the truth, while the other is speaking from a position. However, these doubts actually caused a multi-million-dollar movie to be shelved, indicating that the public and those in power still do not fully understand the truth about this history.
Summing up the defense of Hengyang, he wrote: 1. The original plan was to defend for 10 days, but the Tenth Army defended for 47 days, a significant strategic victory; 2. Our army fought more with less, causing far more enemy casualties compared to our army, which was rare during the anti-Japanese war; 3. The support organization formed by local residents made significant sacrifices, and the unity of the military and civilians was the key to victory, making the name of the Anti-Japanese War Memorial City truly deserving; 4. General Fang Xianjue laid down his weapons as a forced move. At that time, there were only about 1,200 people in the city who could fight, with a large number of wounded soldiers. After the city fell, the enemy used a tactic of slaughtering wounded soldiers to force the defenders to surrender, and the place where the wounded were killed was only a few hundred meters from Fang Xianjue’s command post. His decision to surrender was for the sake of the more than 10,000 wounded soldiers and civilians. If it was only for his own life, he had a chance to escape Hengyang city early and avoid becoming a prisoner.
Sun Chunlong believes that the current situation across the Taiwan Strait, using the history of the war of resistance to unite the people on both sides, especially the younger generation, is extremely urgent and critical for reaching a consensus on a unified China. “A veteran from Taiwan once told me, if you don’t acknowledge the battles we fought, how can you talk about reunification?”
Liu Yinquan, a former history professor at the Weifang Institute in Shandong, said in an interview with The Epoch Times that the Communist Party has always claimed to have led the war against Japan, stating that the Kuomintang was “actively anti-communist and passively anti-Japanese,” which is a complete distortion of the facts. Historically, the main force in the war against Japan was the National Revolutionary Army, the regular army of the Republic of China during the war against Japan, playing a crucial role. However, the CCP took advantage of the situation to seize territory and expand its influence.
He said, “Mao Zedong set a strategic direction where generals were instructed not to engage the Japanese directly but rather disperse the troops and engage in guerrilla warfare. While the National Revolutionary Army and the Japanese Army fought head-on, the rear was left vulnerable, and the CCP took the opportunity to occupy these areas, and even eliminated the regular forces of the National Army. Xusiyou in Shandong developed in this manner in Jiaodong.”
Liu Yinquan believes that after the release of the film about the Hengyang defense, in which the Chinese soldiers were seen bravely fighting on the front lines, inflicting heavy casualties on the Japanese forces, it embarrassed the CCP. This is one reason why they dare not show the film. The second reason is that the CCP’s need for united front efforts is no longer as urgent, and the position of the Kuomintang has declined on the CCP’s chessboard.
The CCP’s maximum acknowledgment of the role and status of the Chinese Kuomintang in the war was in 2005. On September 3, 2005, former CCP General Secretary Hu Jintao said in a speech commemorating the 60th anniversary of the victory in the war against Japan, “The Chinese Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party-led anti-Japanese forces were responsible for operations on the front lines and in the rear areas… The Kuomintang forces, as the main force on the front lines, organized a series of major battles, especially battles in Shanghai, Xinkou, Xuzhou, Wuhan, and others during the early stage of the war, delivering heavy blows to the Japanese forces.”
However, such limited acknowledgment has been changing in recent years. In 2020, the movie “The Eight Hundred,” reflecting the battle on the front lines, faced questions and had its initial release date canceled, eventually delayed.
CCP leader Xi Jinping no longer mentioned the contribution of the Kuomintang during his speech on the 75th anniversary of the war. The words “Nationalist Party” appeared once in the entire speech, only in the term “Nationalist Party Army ‘800 Heroes’.” In the revised 2021 edition of the “Brief History of the Chinese Communist Party,” it stated that the Kuomintang only showed “certain enthusiasm for the war against Japan.”
Liu Yinquan said, “Why did the CCP allow some films that promote the Kuomintang’s participation in the war against Japan and some articles to be published in China in the past? It was to attract the Kuomintang for united front efforts, to make the Kuomintang feel recognized for their contribution to the war, to create a sense of affiliation. It seems that the CCP now believes that the Kuomintang’s influence in Taiwan has greatly weakened, and Taiwanese voters no longer buy into it, so there is no need to compromise or show goodwill towards the Kuomintang in this regard, to satisfy the Kuomintang’s sense of pride and self-esteem.”
He added, “They will continue to propagate that only the CCP is great, glorious, and correct, the Kuomintang is not, the Republic of China is not, and the Democratic Progressive Party is even worse. Overall, only the CCP can save China, and that is the tone. From this perspective, indeed, extreme leftist forces are rising, and their power is growing.”
In May of this year, a statue of Li Zicheng, which had stood for 30 years in Changping District, Beijing, was removed and relocated to the “Rebel King Village” scenic spot in Shannan County, Shaanxi Province. In Hunan Province, the famous large-scale Taiping Tianguo statue, “The Soul of the Taiping Army,” was demolished at the Tianxin Pavilion, the ancestral home of the Xiang Army.
Regarding this, Liu Yinquan believes that in the late Ming Dynasty, the peasant uprising leader Li Zicheng attacked Beijing, leading to the suicide of the Chongzhen Emperor, marking the end of the Ming Dynasty. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the peasant uprising of the Taiping Tianguo also heavily struck the rotten rule of the Qing Dynasty, and the collapse of the Qing Dynasty started from the Taiping Tianguo. Today, Chinese society is boiling with discontent, all of which alarms the CCP.
“China is also facing an important moment of change of dynasty because the CCP’s rule has lost the support of the people, with various contradictions in China becoming prominent, reaching a complex state of contradictions similar to the late Qing Dynasty. At this point, if another Hong Xiuquan emerges, I believe that they will overthrow the existing rule faster than the Taiping Tianguo did,” he said. “The CCP’s actions may benefit them for a while, but once people awaken, they will become even more furious.”
Chinese poet Jiang Pinchao also expressed in an interview with The Epoch Times that the Communist Party has always been covering up its history of evil and has always touted itself as the greatest and most correct, claiming the merits of others as its own. The Communist Party lets others learn from history while erase history themselves, they are double-faced.
“Mao Zedong wrote an article ‘Who Should Pick the Peach’ after the victory in the war against Japan. According to history, only the victorious should reap the rewards. Who won this war? It was a victory secured by the Kuomintang, in partnership with world forces, in the second World War, not your Communist Party. So why is the Communist Party taking the credit? Therefore, the actions they take today continue the thinking of Mao Zedong at that time, trying to steal the victory from others,” he concluded.