Guide:
As the heroes of new China, after the death of every founding general, the party and the state held a solemn memorial service for them, which was not only a remembrance of the old revolutionary predecessors, but also an affirmation of their life's achievements. In general, those who attend the memorial service will, in addition to their relatives, there will be leaders of the party and the state, as well as democrats. But in 1982, after the death of a founding lieutenant general, a group of Japanese people suddenly appeared at the memorial service.
The founding lieutenant general named Yang Guofu, born in 1905 in Huoqiu County, Anhui Province, because of his poor family, he went out as an apprentice to work as a laborer at a very young age, in the winter of 1927, when the 22-year-old Yang Guofu was working as a long-term worker in an oil mill, a large-scale peasant movement broke out in the local area, and the oppressed Yang Guofu gave up his work, joined the peasant team, and embarked on the revolutionary road.
In 1929, Yang Guofu officially joined the Red Army, and soon after joined the Communist Party, because of his bravery in battle, Yang Guofu soon became a guerrilla leader. After that, he successively served as a battalion commander and regimental commander, and participated in the Long March with the large troops of the Red Army. After arriving in northern Shaanxi in 1937, Yang Guofu was selected by the organization to study at the "Anti-Japanese Military and Political University" in Yan'an, and after more than a year of study, in 1938, the organization decided to send him to Shandong to form and develop the anti-Japanese base area behind enemy lines.
After Arriving in Shandong, Yang Guofu was appointed as the leader of the third detachment of the Shandong Column of the Eighth Route Army, and in the face of the cruel encirclement and suppression of the Japanese army at that time, Yang Guofu gave full play to the flexible and mobile advantages of the Eighth Route Army and led the troops to carry out guerrilla warfare with the Japanese army. Yang Guofu was also promoted from deputy brigade commander of the Third Brigade of the Shandong Column to commander of the Qinghe Military Region and the Bohai Naval Region.
After the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression entered the stage of stalemate, the Japanese army adopted a strategic policy of pressing forward step by step, hiding in the artillery tower and not coming out of the county seat, and the Eighth Route Army in the Shandong region paid huge casualties in the process of attacking the fortifications. As a commander and fighter, Yang Guofu has always been thinking about how to reduce the casualties of the soldiers of the Eighth Route Army and deal a blow to the Japanese army.
Just when Yang Guofu was at a loss, the superior leadership issued an "Order on the Policy toward Japanese Prisoners", which demanded that the commanders and fighters of the Eighth Route Army at all levels should give preferential treatment to Japanese prisoners and were not allowed to execute themselves. Seeing this, Yang Guofu thought of a way, his idea of being a prisoner of the Japanese army, making them realize that the Japanese army's invasion of China was wrong, in order to achieve the purpose of disintegrating the Japanese army.
However, everyone knows that the Japanese army was deeply brainwashed by militaristic ideas and would rather die than be captured, so throughout the period of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the number of captured Japanese troops was very small. Less does not mean that there are none, since then, as long as the troops have captured Japanese soldiers, Yang Guofu has treated them with good courtesy. At that time, the conditions of the Eighth Route Army were very difficult, and the soldiers may not be able to eat a meal of meat for several months, but Yang Guofu did everything possible to open a small stove for the captured soldiers of the Japanese army. In the end, Yang Guofu's sincerity impressed most of the Japanese soldiers, who realized the mistake of invading China and established the "Shandong Branch of the Japanese Anti-War Alliance in China", which made positive contributions to the future War of Resistance Against Japan.
In 1945, after the surrender of the Japanese army, most of the Japanese prisoners in Shandong were sent back to China, and before they returned, they expressed their gratitude to Commander Yang Guofu. After the founding of New China, Yang Guofu successively served as deputy commander of the Jinan Military Region and senior adviser of the Jinan Military Region, and in 1955, he was awarded the rank of lieutenant general.
In 1982, General Yang Guofu died of illness in Beijing, and the party and the state held a solemn memorial service for him. At the memorial service, a group of Japanese elderly people suddenly appeared, and when they saw the portrait of General Yang Guofu, they wept bitterly and refused to leave for a long time. It turned out that these old people were all prisoners of the Japanese army, as war criminals, they were grateful for the grace of General Yang Guofu's reconstruction, and after hearing that the old general died, they spared no effort to cross the ocean, just to send the benefactor on the last journey.
These former prisoners of war still can't forget General Yang Guofu, so when they learned of General Yang Guofu, they crossed the ocean and came to the memorial service to cry bitterly, to thank the hero for his grace of reconstruction.
References: List of Founding Generals, Order on Policy Toward Japanese Prisoners