Wu Xiangping and Song Yi: The CPC’s Resistance in the Eastern Theater [1] of the War as Seen in Japanese Historical Materials
Wu Xiangping and Song Yi
The victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was a great triumph achieved through the unity and courageous struggle of the entire nation. China’s resistance made a monumental contribution to the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War. Historical materials from Japan during the period of the war once again corroborate the role of the Communist Party of China (CPC) as the "mainstay" [1] in the resistance within the Primary Eastern Theater. These records reveal the actual views held by the invading Japanese army toward the CPC’s resistance and, from an "otherized" perspective, refute erroneous views that deny the status and role of the Primary Eastern Theater in the World Anti-Fascist War.
The CPC was the core force of resistance in the Primary Eastern Theater
After the September 18th Incident, the CPC "pushed the local anti-Japanese movement in the Northeast toward a nationwide movement of resistance." On September 18, 1931, Japan brazenly launched the September 18th Incident to invade Northeast China. Facing the invasion, on September 22, the CPC issued the Resolution of the CPC Central Committee on the Incident of Japanese Imperialism's Forcible Occupation of Manchuria, swiftly proposing to unite the broad masses to jointly resist Japanese aggression. On July 15, 1934, the CPC published the Proclamation of the Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic and the Central Revolutionary Military Commission on the Northern Expedition of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army to Resist Japan, stating: "We, the Vanguard of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army heading north to resist Japan, are willing to unite with the people of all China and all armed forces to jointly resist Japan, develop a national revolutionary war of the masses, and overthrow Japanese imperialism."
Regarding this, the Japanese Toho Kokusaku Doshikai (East Asia National Policy Association) [2] analyzed the ideology of the CPC’s declaration of war against Japan. It concluded that the CPC’s central goal was resistance against Japan, and that it intended to integrate the Communist and Kuomintang (KMT) [3] armies through KMT-CPC cooperation to establish an Anti-Japanese National United Front. The association further suggested: "The CPC’s anti-Japanese advocacy has transformed from a simple movement to mobilize the masses into a confident armed combat; this change in the CPC’s position primarily stems from the leadership and support of the Comintern."
The peaceful resolution of the Xi'an Incident [4] dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese invaders. In particular, the growth of the Anti-Japanese National United Front under the leadership of the CPC after the Lugou Bridge Incident [5] exerted immense pressure on the Japanese authorities. In November 1938, a secret document titled Top Secret: Regarding the Political Department of the Communist Army, submitted by the staff of the Japanese Terauchi Division to the Imperial General Staff, stated: "Through anti-Japanese guerrilla units, the CPC Political Department conducts education and propaganda of anti-Japanese ideology in areas outside the military's reach, causing the broad masses to 'give strength where there is strength, and goods where there are goods,' actively participating in the War of Resistance. The 'Bolshevization' [6] and anti-Japanese movement in North China have formed an anti-Japanese situation characterized by unified thinking, strong organizational power, and mass support."
The CPC filled the anti-Japanese "vacuum" in North China after the Lugou Bridge Incident, effectively pinning down the invading Japanese army and becoming the core force of resistance in the Primary Eastern Theater. Japanese historical materials fully reveal that after the Lugou Bridge Incident, the CPC resolutely conducted resistance in North China, effectively constraining and exhausting a large portion of the main forces of the invading Japanese army. As a "national policy company," the South Manchuria Railway ("Mantetsu") [7] conducted comprehensive intelligence investigations into the CPC’s resistance during the Japanese invasion of North and Central China, forming "secret" investigative reports provided to the Japanese military as references for invasion policy.
In November 1939, "Mantetsu" stated in its investigative report Secret: Materials Regarding the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army: "As early as February 1937, the CPC proposed five items in its 'Telegram to the Third Plenary Session of the KMT'—including 'stopping all civil wars and uniting against external aggression'—which constituted a new policy for the CPC’s Anti-Japanese National United Front. Under the slogan of 'creating a model anti-Japanese army for struggle,' they actively mobilized combat instructors. From army commanders to cooks and grooms, the entire personnel worked hard to learn military affairs and political education, including the daily life and work systems of regular armies, the Anti-Japanese National United Front, and Sino-Japanese issues, steadily advancing preparations for the War of Resistance."
The report also provided a detailed investigation of the Eighth Route Army’s battlefield behind enemy lines, stating: "Based on strategic and political needs, and targeting the vast occupied areas, the Eighth Route Army has established countless small base areas and conducted widespread guerrilla warfare to persist in long-term resistance. They have launched mass movements in various places, organized people's self-defense forces and guerrilla units to sabotage the security of the Japanese rear, attack transportation and supply lines and small units, and destroy the organizations of the 'New Government' [8]. They are not only active along various railways and highways in Shanxi Province, but have also penetrated deep into the vast occupied areas of Hebei, Chahar, Suiyuan, Shandong, and Henan to launch guerrilla wars. They have even crossed the borders of 'Manchukuo' [9] into the Jehol region to create disturbances. The intensity of their actions has reached an extreme point and continues to this day."
Persisting in resistance behind enemy lines to pin down large numbers of invading Japanese troops
The CPC’s anti-Japanese base areas in North China "formed a 'Red Corridor,' which the invading Japanese army regarded as a major 'cancer' in the pacification of North China." In July 1943, the North China General Bureau of the Japanese Domei Tsushinsha (Associated Press) [10] submitted an investigative document titled The Current Stage of North China Construction to the Japanese Embassy in Beijing. It stated: "The most urgent task for North China as a logistics base for the Greater East Asia War is to mobilize the entire force of its 100 million people, develop inexhaustible underground resources, and supply them to Japan as vital wartime national defense resources. However, the obstruction from the two major forces of Chongqing (Nationalist Government) and Yan'an (CPC) makes it difficult to complete this 'great mission' entrusted to North China in a short time."
The document further stated: "Six years after the incident [the full-scale outbreak of the war], the forces of the Chiang [Kai-shek] clique in North China have been almost leveled and annihilated by the iron hooves of our elite troops. However, the CPC army has skillfully avoided the brunt of our military during this period, continuing to instigate the Bolshevization of North China. It is this CPC army that has become the tumor of North China's construction; annihilating this Communist Eighth Route Army is the 'great mission' of the Japanese army in North China."
The material further analyzed that even though the Japanese army repeatedly implemented "mopping-up operations" [11] against the anti-Japanese base areas, the "North China Red Corridor" connected the Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Region (Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia), the Northwest Shanxi Border Region, the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region, and the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Border Region. This formed an anti-Japanese Red power characterized by the "four-in-one" integration of the military, government, Party, and people, whose political offensive grew increasingly strong. It was a "tumor" that the Japanese army in North China needed to completely eradicate.
Japanese historical materials fully prove that after the Lugou Bridge Incident, the Japanese authorities realized that the anti-Japanese armed forces led by the CPC, by fighting in the theater behind enemy lines for a long time and establishing extensive base areas, posed a serious threat to the Japanese rear and became a major potential threat to their war in China. In particular, the Hundred Regiments Offensive [12] in 1940, as the largest frontal campaign launched by the CPC, not only effectively pinned down a large number of Japanese troops but also caused serious damage to their transportation lines and strongpoints. Consequently, the Japanese side increasingly and clearly regarded the CPC as its true adversary.
In summary, the CPC played the role of the "mainstay" in the Primary Eastern Theater and was an indispensable and important component of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. From strategic, military, political, and international influence perspectives, the CPC’s resistance not only greatly weakened the aggressive power of Japanese fascism but also strengthened China's strategic status as the Primary Eastern Theater. The struggle in North China led by the CPC effectively pinned down and exhausted a large portion of the Japanese main forces. The CPC actively opened and maintained the theater behind enemy lines, establishing 19 anti-Japanese base areas through the strategy of "encircling the cities from the countryside" and extensively mobilizing the masses. These base areas preserved the sparks of resistance when the frontal battlefield suffered setbacks. Throughout the war, the CPC accumulated valuable military strength, political experience, and a mass base, which played a decisive role in the changes of China's political situation after the war. The CPC’s resistance was a vital pillar of the Primary Eastern Theater.
(The authors are respectively a professor and a doctoral student at the School of Sociology, Soochow University.) Source: Chinese Social Sciences Today, July 7, 2025. Online Editor: Tongxin