On August 15, 1945, Japan announced its unconditional surrender. On August 18, Chiang Kai-shek appointed He Yingqin, the number two man in the Huangpu Department, in charge of accepting the surrender of the Japanese army in the Chinese theater.
In his later years, He Yingqin recalled to his daughter He Lizhu: "In the era of the first president, the greatest honor given to me by Jiang Gong was to preside over the ceremony of surrender in Nanjing after the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression."
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, it was indeed a great honor to accept the surrender of the Japanese army, so why did Chiang Kai-shek want to "betray" him twice to preside over the surrender ceremony on his behalf of He Yingqin in Nanjing, why did he not personally go forward, or give this extremely honorable beauty to more obedient people, and what kind of mentality did He Yingqin bend down and bow his head in the process of receiving the surrender letter, and whether it was intentional or unintentional, today Song Anzhi said.
I. The reason why Chiang Kai-shek let He Yingqin preside over the surrender ceremony can actually be regarded as compensation for He Yingqin's previous black cauldron.
In 1935, He Yingqin signed the infamous "He Mei Agreement", which was scolded by the people of the world, in fact, it was entrusted by Chiang Kai-shek, Chiang Kai-shek did not mean that, He Yingqin did not dare to sign, it can be said that he carried the black cauldron for Chiang Kai-shek, it was Chiang Kai-shek who carried the insult, and now that he has the opportunity to raise his eyebrows, Chiang Kai-shek let He Yingqin go, presumably with the intention of compensation.
Or in terms of Japan, Chiang Kai-shek mainly came forward with He Yingqin, and it is only natural that he would preside over the surrender ceremony this time. It is always impossible to let He Yingqin come forward to insult his name, and when it is a good thing, he will not let him go, and it is indeed impossible to say.
Second, the main reason why Chiang Kai-shek did not go on his own was that his identity was not equal.
At that time, it was Okamura Ninji who surrendered on behalf of Japan in China, who was the commander-in-chief of the Japanese Chinese Dispatch Army, and his rank was only a general, not the supreme commander of the Japanese army. Just as the so-called soldiers are against the generals, if Chiang Kai-shek personally goes to support the surrender ceremony, he will be demoting his identity, but it will have a bad impact.
He Yingqin, on the other hand, is the commander-in-chief of the Chinese Theater Army and holds the rank of general at the first level of the army, which is similar to Okamura Ningji in terms of position and rank, and his status is equal.
He Yingqin studied in Japan, belonged to the "pro-Japanese faction," and even more had a friendship with Okamura Ningji, which suited Chiang Kai-shek's policy of "repaying grievances with virtue" against the Japanese army.
Of course, Chiang Kai-shek was not so generous, and the reason why he did this was to make good friends with Japanese political circles, facilitate future cooperation, and prepare for the subsequent launch of an unjust civil war. For example, in order to facilitate the surrender of the Japanese army at that time, it was convenient and faster to accept the surrender of the Japanese army, and during the Liberation War, Okamura Ninji was used as a secret military adviser.
Later, because of Chiang Kai-shek's policy of "repaying grievances with virtue", He Yingqin was deeply aware of his intentions, and among the Japanese troops invading China, only 145 war criminals were sentenced to death. Like Yuan Xiangxin, a general of the Japanese army who invaded China with many crimes, after the victory of the War of Resistance, he did not receive any punishment, and he defected to Yan Xishan, changed his name to Yuan Quanfu, and served as the deputy commander of the lieutenant general. In July 1948, during the Battle of Jinzhong, after being seriously wounded by the heroic Platon artillery fire, he saw that there was no hope of escape, so he let his men kill himself, which ended his life of evil.
During the ceremony of presiding over the surrender, when He Yingqin accepted the surrender letter, the surrender letter was not handed over to He Yingqin by Okamura Ningji, but the chief of the general staff, Asaburo Kobayashi, handed over the surrender letter to He Yingqin, and when He Yingqin accepted the surrender, he bent down even lower than the Japanese representative, which can be said to have caused a lot of controversy, and to this day, it is also a topic of controversy.
Some people think that He Yingqin's move was not intentional, it should be that there is a problem with the details of the surrender ceremony, and the Chinese representative table is too wide, so when accepting the surrender letter, it is inevitable to bend down to accept it.
Some people think that the other party's surrender represents a height higher than He Yingqin's, so the other party bends down to submit the surrender letter, and He Yingqin is too low to reach, so he can only bend down too low to receive it.
Some people think that this is the upper line, this is just an ordinary move, but it has been captured by the media and deliberately magnified, but there is nothing.
Of course, there are many more people who are critical and think that this move is inappropriate, and some even think that this is a slave face, which is naked flattery.
In fact, starting from the details and psychology, He Yingqin's move is definitely not right. Because he presided over the surrender ceremony, he did not only represent him personally, let alone represent Chiang Kai-shek, but represented China to accept the surrender of the Japanese army, in fact, He Yingqin also understood this, so for this surrender ceremony, the details are still in place.
According to the regulations, the Japanese surrender representatives were required to salute He Yingqin three times: once when they arrived at the venue, once when they submitted their surrender documents, and once when they left the venue.
There was also the matter of handing over the saber, and beforehand, He Yingqin also specially sent someone to communicate with Okamura Ningji, which meant that when participating in the surrender ceremony, you could bring a saber, or you could not bring it, but if you brought it, you would definitely have to present it to He Yingqin in public. After hearing this, Okamura Ninji was so grateful that he almost wept bitterly, after all, in the eyes of many Japanese soldiers, the saber was more important than life, so Okamura Ninji naturally did not bring a saber to participate.
Even if such details are taken into account, how can we not consider the details of the time when the Japanese side submitted the instrument of surrender?
Moreover, according to the regulations, when the Japanese side submitted the surrender letter, it had to salute once first, and He Yingqin did not need to stand up. And this is the guilty party, he just bends his waist to the table, and it has nothing to do with you, as long as he can hand it over. Even if you take a step back and say that you stand up to receive the surrender letter, there is no need for the other party to just bend down slightly to submit it, but you have to bend down more sharply to accept it, right?
Think about it from another position, if you are a flesh-and-blood soldier, the enemy invaded your country for more than ten years, committed a heinous crime, and now they are going to surrender, you accept the surrender as a representative, the other party only slightly bends down to submit the surrender, even if you stand up to accept, there is no need to think for the other party, immediately bend down to accept it with a larger margin, after all, you represent the country, not you personally.
Change to a normal person, should not see you submit the surrender letter is a look of disbelief, obviously you can bend down deeply to hand the surrender book over, but do not do, then I must scold you loudly, or at least stand still, you either do not move, see who consumes whom, or honestly bend down deeper to submit the surrender.
Therefore, from the details, He Yingqin should not have made such a mistake, it should be that He Yingqin himself is a "pro-Japanese faction", and even some flattery, just in front of Chiang Kai-shek's instruction to "repay grievances with virtue", coupled with the friendship with Okamura Ningji, so when he saw that the representative of Okamura Ningji's side only bent slightly, when he could not reach himself, he simply threw aside the hatred of the country and the family, and even forgot that he was the country he represented, but devoted himself to the role of "repaying grievances with virtue", which was to be indignant to others and to forgive the tolerance of others. It is ironic that the timely and intimate and flattering bending down to accept the book is simply ironic.
In response to this behavior, Okamura Ningji said with great emotion in his memoirs: "When the third chief of general staff of Kobayashi submitted a letter of surrender to salute, Commander-in-Chief He Yingqin could not help but stand up and give a salute. Seeing the gentle character of my old friend, I can't help but think that after all, it is Oriental morality."
To be honest, this oriental moral evaluation still feels quite ironic, which oriental morality is this? This is clearly a "morality" that is both flattering and despicable.
It is precisely because He Yingqin behaved in this way, so later in order to make up for this regret, the famous painter Chen Jian, when creating the oil painting "Nanjing on September 9, 1945 AD", although some of them did not match the historical facts, the whole painting was magnificent, and it was even more "helped" He Yingqin stand up straight.
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