In August 2005, CCTV's "Focus Interview" program told the people of the whole country in the form of a public report that the head of the Banruo Temple in Changchun was the head of General Zhao Shangzhi, an anti-Japanese hero who died on the battlefield in northeast China 62 years ago!
At this special moment, the 60th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese War of Resistance Against Japan, the state paid tribute to General Zhao Shangzhi in this way, praising his heroic deeds and comforting his heroic spirit underground.
At that time, General Zhao Shangzhi sacrificed for the sake of the country and the nation, and the country and the nation could not let his head fall into the wilderness, and the common people could not forget the story of General Zhao Shangzhi, because this was Chinese respect for heroes since ancient times!
General Zhao Shangzhi restored the map
General Zhao Shangzhi, as the main founder and leader of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Alliance, was on a par with another martyr of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Alliance, General Yang Jingyu, who was in the northeast at that time and was said to be "Southern Yang and Northern Zhao". General Zhao Shangzhi served as the commander of the Third Army of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Coalition and the deputy commander-in-chief of the Second Route Army, and has been actively engaged in anti-Japanese activities in the northeast since the "918 Incident". Because General Zhao Shangzhi had a firm determination to resist Japan, and repeatedly led his troops to take the initiative to harass the Japanese Kwantung Army and inflicted great losses, the three words "Zhao Shangzhi" once made the invincible Japanese Kwantung Army feel frightened and had difficulty sleeping and eating.
At that time, the Japanese Kwantung Army described Zhao Shangzhi this way:
Small Manchukuo, big Zhao Shangzhi!
In order to be able to get rid of General Zhao Shangzhi, the Japanese Kwantung Army once did everything in its power, first of all, it failed to lure the surrender, and then it offered a heavy reward, claiming:
Whoever caught Zhao Shangzhi and argued with "one or two bones and one or two gold, one or two meats and one or two silver".
General Zhao Shangzhi was not impressed by the heavy rewards offered by the Japanese, who once said:
I was born to save the country, and I died to resist Japan, and even if I really sacrificed, I would have to sacrifice where I fought
”。
General Zhao Shangzhi had already been wrongly criticized when he said these words, but he still did not shake his patriotic determination to resist Japan!
At the end of 1941, after returning to the northeast from the Soviet Union, General Zhao Shangzhi once again threw himself into the cause of anti-Japanese resistance in the northeast, but at this time, under the repeated encirclement and suppression of the Japanese Kwantung Army, the anti-Japanese situation in the northeast was already very critical, the troops suffered heavy losses, and most of the troops lost contact.
The pistol used by General Zhao Shangzhi during his lifetime
After returning to the northeast, in order to save the anti-Japanese situation as much as possible, General Zhao Shangzhi dispersed the troops he could command to the vast forest sea snowfield to conduct guerrilla warfare to avoid the danger of total annihilation.
One day in February 1942, General Zhao Shangzhi led four soldiers to rest by the Wutong River, when a man named Liu Deshan came to his aid, Liu Deshan claimed that he had worked in the Bayan guerrilla group led by Zhang Jiazhou and Zhang Wenzao, and later Zhang Jiazhou and Zhang Wenzao were killed, and the Bayan guerrillas were also scattered under the encirclement and suppression of the Japanese Kwantung Army, so he lost contact with the organization.
General Zhao Shangzhi was very clear about what Liu Deshan said, because he had also served in Zhang Jiazhou's Bayan guerrillas in his early years, but General Zhao Shangzhi did not know Liu Deshan, and he questioned Liu Deshan about this.
At that time, because the conditions in the Northeast Anti-Japanese League were too harsh, coupled with the abduction of the Japanese army and the high-intensity encirclement and suppression, there were many traitors, and General Yang Jingyu, who died two years ago, was sacrificed because of the betrayal of the traitors, so General Zhao Shangzhi, who was very vigilant, would not recognize Liu Deshan's identity until it was finally confirmed.
However, Liu Deshan also seemed to know what General Zhao Shangzhi was worried about, so in the face of General Zhao Shangzhi's questioning, Liu Deshan was not only not angry, but also gave a reasonable explanation.
The only surviving photograph of General Zhao Shangzhi (the person holding the horse whip in the front row of the photo is the general himself)
He told General Zhao Shangzhi that before General Zhao Shangzhi came to the Bayan guerrillas, he had been transferred to the Fujin area to conduct guerrilla warfare, and in addition to that, he accurately stated the pseudonym that General Zhao Shangzhi had used, Li Yucai, and took out a map of Bayan County that Zhang Jiazhou had used in the past, and the map had the words left by Zhang Jiazhou.
General Zhao Shangzhi is very familiar with that map, after the Bayan guerrillas were reorganized into the Jiangbei Independent Division of the 36th Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, he served as the political commissar and Zhang Jiazhou served as the division commander, and the map was shared by the two of them in the past, and the back of the map still has a draft of the "Guerrilla Song of the Four Seasons" that he wrote in pencil.
Everything was right, so General Zhao Shangzhi recognized Liu Deshan and asked him to join his squad and carry out tasks at any time.
After joining General Zhao Shangzhi's detachment, Liu Deshan provided General Zhao Shangzhi with very important information, claiming that he had discovered a police substation in puppet Manchukuo nearby, and the police force was not much, and the squad could rob the substation to supplement the team.
In view of the increasing shortage of materials and equipment for the troops, General Zhao Shangzhi decided to agree to Liu Deshan's plan, so he led the squad to the police station.
However, just as Zhao Shangzhi and the others crossed the banks of the Wutong River and were about to reach the garrison, Liu Deshan fired a black gun at General Zhao Shangzhi from behind.
Japanese Kwantung Army
Everything happened so suddenly, Zhao Shangzhi and others were knocked down by Liu Deshan and another named Zhang Qingli in the squad without any defense, and although General Zhao Shangzhi was suddenly attacked by Liu Deshan, Liu Deshan wanted to capture General Zhao Shangzhi alive, so General Zhao Shangzhi was only injured at that time, so he took the opportunity to take out a pistol and shot to solve the traitor Liu Deshan, but the sound of gunfire attracted the pseudo-Manchukuo police stationed in the police station, and General Zhao Shangzhi was finally unfortunately arrested.
It turned out that General Zhao Shangzhi's arrest was premeditated, and Liu Deshan and Zhang Qingli were not deliberately disguised by the Japanese or puppet soldiers, but real Northeast Anti-Japanese Resistance Fighters, of course, they were also traitors!
As mentioned earlier, the anti-Japanese situation in the northeast at that time was very grim, so there were many traitors, and Liu Deshan and Zhang Qingli were two of them, and Zhang Qingli and Liu Deshan had planned in advance to lead General Zhao Shangzhi to the puppet Manchukuo police station on the banks of the Wutong River to trap him, but unfortunately, there were thousands of precautions, and General Zhao Shangzhi still did not prevent the traitors from plotting and persecuting him, which shows how dangerous the situation of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Alliance was at that time, and there were traitors who could not be defended against and unexpected everywhere!
After General Zhao Shangzhi was arrested, the enemy interrogated him for the first time on February 12, 1942.
Responsible for the interrogation were Hisajiro Tai, then chief of the police department of Kozan (present-day Tsuruga), and Masao Higashijo, deputy director
Liu Deshan and Zhang Qingli were bribed by Hisauro Takai to become traitors, and the old map approved by General Zhao Shangzhi was also captured by Hisajiro Takai when he rounded up Zhang Jiazhou.
All in all, in order to capture General Zhao Shangzhi, Tatsui Hisajiro tried everything he could, and he put all his energy into this matter at that time, so when the news of "catching Zhao Shangzhi" came, he couldn't wait to meet this legend of the Northeast Anti-Japanese League.
One of the culprits who killed General Zhao Shangzhi was Masao Higashijo
In fact, after so many years of fighting, Tatsui Hisajiro and Dongcheng Masao also had a deep understanding of General Zhao Shangzhi.
In later recollections, Dongcheng Masao once confessed:
As my understanding of Zhao Shangzhi gradually deepened, I admired him more and more, and he did not waver in the face of our severe crackdown, and it was really rare to have such a backbone.
It is precisely because of the admiration for General Zhao Shangzhi that remains in his heart that he was able to repent and actively cooperate later when looking for the head of General Zhao Shangzhi, and it is precisely because of the active cooperation of Dongcheng Zhengxiong that Zhao Shangzhi's head can be recovered, of course, Dongcheng Zhengxiong, as one of the main culprits who killed General Zhao Shangzhi, his sin can never be forgotten and forgiven!
After being arrested, General Zhao Shangzhi regarded death as if he were returning home, and in the face of the enemy's severe torture to extract a confession, he resolutely did not say a word, but instead said to the Chinese pseudo-police standing next to him:
You are also Chinese, and now you are still playing for the tiger, aiding and abetting abuse, don't you feel faceless, faceless to see your parents at home?
After saying this, he turned his face to the other side and continued to be silent, until eight hours later, when the blood ran out and he died, at the age of 34, that day was the twenty-seventh day of the lunar month, only three days left from the traditional Chinese festival, the Spring Festival.
General Zhao Shangzhi was killed
After the death of General Zhao Shangzhi, the Japanese called on Li Huatang, who had worked with General Zhao Shangzhi and served as the commander of the Ninth Army of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Coalition Army, to identify him.
Li Huatang had long followed General Zhao Shangzhi to resist japan, and was also an early admirer and follower of General Zhao Shangzhi, and later surrendered to the Japanese under the encirclement and suppression of the Japanese Kwantung Army, so Li Huatang was very familiar with General Zhao Shangzhi.
When Li Huatang determined that the body in front of him was General Zhao Shangzhi, the Japanese cheered as if they had won a great victory, and then began to take pictures of General Zhao Shangzhi's body, and then planned to transport the body to Changchun.
However, the goal of transporting the entire body to Changchun was too great, and just in case, the Japanese cruelly cut off General Zhao Shangzhi's head, carefully packed his head to Changchun, and threw his body into the cold Songhua River, and the person responsible for escorting General Zhao Shangzhi's head at that time was Dongcheng Masao!
Dongcheng Masao was involved in the mutilation of General Zhao Shangzhi, the cutting off of His head, and the entire process of transportation, and he committed an unforgivable crime, which became factual evidence of his later accusations.
Dongcheng Zhengxiong safely sent the head of General Zhao Shangzhi to Changchun, but for us, the whereabouts of General Zhao Shangzhi's head are unknown, but the desire of the Chinese Communist Party and the people of the whole country to find the hero's head to comfort his spirit in heaven has never disappeared.
At that time, Dongcheng Masao took a group photo with a wooden box containing the head of General Zhao Shangzhi
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 1945, Zhou Baozhong, then secretary of the Military Commission of the Manchurian Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China and deputy commander of the Soviet Garrison in Changchun and also a comrade-in-arms of General Zhao Shangzhi, immediately submitted a request to the Soviet Headquarters in Northeast China to find the head of General Zhao Shangzhi in the whole city of Changchun, requesting the consent of the Soviet side.
At that time, General Andreyev, chief of staff of the Soviet army in Changchun, sent 5 Soviet detachments to search for the Locations of the Japanese and Puppet Occupations such as the Changchun Puppet Imperial Palace and the "Eight Great Places", but unfortunately, the Soviet army could not find the head of General Zhao Shangzhi, and soon after the Kuomintang took over Changchun, and the contradictions between the Kuomintang and the Communists gradually intensified, and civil war could break out at any time, so the search for the head of General Zhao Shangzhi had to be temporarily suspended.
In April 1946, when the Northeast Democratic Coalition Army liberated Changchun, Comrade Chen Yun, then deputy secretary of the Northeast Bureau of the Central Committee and deputy political commissar of the Northeast Democratic United Army, explained to Chen Zhengren, then director of the Political Department of the Northeast Democratic United Army, at the station before entering Changchun:
The remains of Comrades Yang Jingyu and Zhao Shangzhi were not found in the previous Zhou Baozhong, and now that our army has liberated Changchun, we must continue to try to find them. As long as there is a glimmer of hope, it must be found. Because the people of the northeast all miss them, they will be able to be admired by future generations after the founding of the country in the future.
After receiving the task, Chen Zhengren immediately led the Political Department personnel to conduct a second search in Changchun, but soon the northeast war resumed, and the troops had to withdraw from Changchun, so the search was once again interrupted.
Chen Yun, then deputy secretary of the Northeast Bureau
In March 1948, underground workers of our party found Yang Jingyu's head at Changchun Medical College, but there was still no news of General Zhao Shangzhi's head. After the liberation of the whole country, the relevant units of the Northeast Bureau never gave up the work of searching for the head of General Zhao Shangzhi, but due to various factors, the search work was delayed until the beginning of 1987, when the visit of a Japanese female scholar engaged in the study of war history brought a glimmer of hope to the search.
The Japanese scholar, named Noriko Yamazaki, was a friendly anti-war activist who came to wutong River, where he had sacrificed, with great reverence for General Zhao Shangzhi, and then visited Li Min, a veteran of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Coalition Army and former vice chairman of the Heilongjiang Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
From Li Min's mouth, Yamazaki Learned about the whole process before and after the sacrifice of General Zhao Shangzhi, and later Li Min said to her:
Can you please help find the head of General Zhao Shangzhi? We know that the head was sent to Changchun, and it is said that the medical officer of the Kwantung Army soaked it in formalin potion and transferred it to Japan.
At the same time, Yamazaki also learned that masao Tojo, the main culprit involved in the killing and transport of the body of General Zhao Shangzhi, was later pardoned by the Chinese government and returned to Japan.
Li Min hoped that Yamazaki Would return to Japan to find Masao Higashijo and learn as much as possible from his mouth the whereabouts of General Zhao Shangzhi's head.
Yamazaki assures Lee Min that she will find Masao Higashijo when she returns to Japan.
Li Min, a veteran soldier of the Northeast Anti-Japanese League
After returning to Japan, Yamazaki visited everywhere and finally found out the whereabouts of Masao Higashijo, who was fortunately still alive at this time.
He met Masao Higashijo on February 8 of that year, when Masao Higashijo was 75 years old, and when Edoko Yamazaki informed him of the purpose of his visit, Masao Higashijo bowed his head in remorse, although it was a rare year, he still remembered the crimes he had committed that year, and he repented and recounted to Yamazaki Edoko the whole story of what had happened that year.
It turned out that after the head of General Zhao Shangzhi was sent to Changchun, due to poor preservation, the head had begun to decay, originally the Japanese originally planned to keep general Zhao Shangzhi's head for a long time, and later used it to show and publicize the japanese army's armed forces, but the Japanese army did not take measures in advance to cause decay, which they did not expect, so the Japanese decided to burn the head of General Zhao Shangzhi.
Just as the Japanese were preparing to burn it, a monk arrived in time to stop the Japanese from acting, and this monk, who was the abbot of Changchun Banruo Temple and a famous monk.
Although the Japanese are cruel and tyrannical, but there are many loyal followers of Buddhism, many high-level officials in the Kwantung Army at that time were devout believers in the Kwantung Army, although the Japanese were very popular with the Japanese, but he himself was a Chinese with a great sense of justice, and although he was powerless to prevent the atrocities committed by the Japanese in China and Northeast China, he always tried to warn the Japanese soldiers to avoid killing.
Sculpture of General Zhao Shangzhi
Later, when he learned that the head of the anti-Japanese hero General Zhao Shangzhi had been sent to Changchun and most likely burned, he rushed to the local puppet Manchu military government office to try to stop the Japanese army.
When Master Kuo-woo asked to bring General Zhao Shangzhi's head back to Ban ruo temple for burial, the japanese Kwantung Army high command made an exception and allowed it!
As a result, the head of General Zhao Shangzhi was brought back to The Ban Ruo Temple by Master Shu Xu, and although Dongcheng Masao was sure that Master Zhao Shangzhi had taken away the head of General Zhao Shangzhi, it is unknown whether the head was buried in the Pan Ruo Temple by Master Huan on the spot or taken elsewhere by him.
This was a very important clue, and when Yamazaki learned of it, she immediately wrote a letter to Li Min and Kim Woo-jong, who was also a well-known party history expert who was present at the time.
After Li Min and Jin Yuzhong got the news, they also went to The Ban ruo Temple several times to find the whereabouts of General Zhao Shangzhi's head, but master Qi Xuan had long been dead for many years, and now the monks in the temple were not witnesses of that year, and they did not know the specific situation of that year, so the search for work was temporarily shelved.
However, Li Min and Jin Yuzhong did not give up, a year later, a Japanese female writer Lin Yu came to Harbin to meet with Jin Yuzhong, Lin Yu was very interested in the story of General Zhao Shangzhi, so Jin Yuzhong talked with her for a long time, and when they were parting, the two talked about General Zhao Shangzhi's head again, and Jin Yuzhong told her about Dongcheng Masao.
After returning to Japan, Lin Yu also went to find Masao Higashijo, and this time, Masao Higashijo talked about many things about General Zhao Shangzhi, including some of his physical appearance.
According to Dongcheng Zhengxiong, Zhao Shangzhi is a little more than one meter and six meters tall, and there is a crescent scar under his left eye socket, in fact, it is not a crescent scar, but three crescent scars. Just three crescent scars, those two are smaller. The two smaller crescent scars grew in front of the bigger crescent scars. So, Makoto looks like a crescent scar. This crescent scar is the scar left by his facial wounds when he led his troops to attack Dongxing County during the Bayan guerrillas in November 1932.
The facial features of Zhao Shangzhi described by Dongcheng Masao later became one of the important evidences for identifying Zhao Shangzhi's head.
General Zhao Shangzhi's skull had obvious scars under his left eye socket
In 1990, Dongcheng Zhengxiong was overwhelmed by his inner torment and sent a letter to Changchun under the signature of "Guangtian Qiyi", in which he solemnly provided the Changchun government with the news that the head of General Zhao Shangzhi was buried in Banruo Temple.
However, after the relevant personnel of the Changchun government conducted another on-site inspection of the Temple, they believed that there was no suitable place in the temple where the head of General Zhao Shangzhi could be buried, and that the letter was an anonymous letter, and whether the contents of the letter were true or not remained debatable, so the search work was once again suspended.
It wasn't until 2004, when The Temple was being repaired, that several migrant workers dug up an unnamed head under the roots of the north wall of the backyard and attracted the attention of a choreographer named Jiang Baocai of the Shenyang Military Region.
At that time, Jiang Baocai was participating in the large-scale documentary film organized by Changchun Film Studio to reflect the theme of the Northeast Anti-League, and Jiang Baocai was more familiar with the history of the Northeast Anti-League, especially in the past few years, he had visited many veteran soldiers of the Northeast Anti-League, including Li Min, so he was also very clear about the search for the head of General Zhao Shangzhi.
The monks of Ban Ruo Monastery are introducing the location where the head of General Zhao Shangzhi was excavated
When Jiang Baocai learned that Anonakaji had excavated an unnamed head, his intuition told him that it was the head of General Zhao Shangzhi! So he immediately reported to the relevant departments, and Li Min was also excited when he learned of this, and on the morning of June 2, he went to The Panruo Temple with Jiang Baocai and two nephews of General Zhao Shangzhi to meet the old commander. Although the nameless head needs to undergo a rigorous appraisal to determine its ownership, due to the clues provided by Dongcheng Masao, Li Min believes that it is the head of General Zhao Shangzhi.
When Li Min saw the box containing the head, she could not hold back any longer, tears came out of her eyes, the old man shouted "commander" to the box, and then slowly recited the lyrics written by General Zhao Shangzhi before his death, everyone present was moved, and everyone stood quietly next to it, quietly witnessing the historic moment.
Jiang Baocai was holding a wooden box containing general Zhao Shangzhi's head
Whether it was Jiang Baocai or Li Min, their intuition was finally determined to be right, and after the professional appraisal of many authoritative institutions and experts, the nameless head found in The Banruo Temple was the head of General Zhao Shangzhi, the former commander of the Third Army of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Alliance!
In 2005, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the state officially announced that the head of General Zhao Shangzhi had been found, and in 2008, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of General Zhao Shangzhi, the Zhao Shangzhi Martyrs Cemetery in Shangzhi Village, Shangzhi Township, Chaoyang County, Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province, was officially completed, and a solemn burial ceremony was held on the day of completion.
After 62 years, the anti-Japanese martyrs can finally see...