Today is the 84th anniversary of the July 7 Incident, there is no special article, with an old article to warm up the past.
Turning over the modern historical data, we will find that among the great powers that invaded China, the neighboring japan was the most cruel and greedy, and they were not only full of ambitions for China's territory, but also vainly tried to disintegrate the sense of resistance of the Chinese through opium, heroin, morphine and other drugs, so as to achieve the goal of subjugating the country and exterminating the species.
Japan's opium invasion policy is also reflected in Jiang Wen's Republic of China film "Evil Does Not Pressure Justice", Li Tiantian's master was brutally killed because he did not agree to transfer land to the Japanese to grow opium.
During the invasion of China, wherever Japan occupied China, the drug trafficking in opium, morphine, and heroin was bound to follow, and the number of drug users was also increasing. In this way, Japan could not only earn military expenses for aggression and expansion through drug trafficking, but also better enslave the Chinese in colonial rule through drugs.
Although Japan sold opium in the colonies and encouraged local people to smoke opium, it strictly prohibited the Japanese from importing and smoking opium in the country, because the Meiji government at that time had witnessed the deep disaster brought by opium to the Qing Dynasty and knew that opium would have a huge impact on the country.
< h1 toutiao-origin="h2" > the origin of Japan's opium aggression against China</h1>
After the Sino-Japanese War, the Manchu Qing government was forced to cede Taiwan to Japan, and more than 3 million Taiwan compatriots became foreign slaves. After the Japanese colonized Taiwan, it was found that the local people had a bad habit of smoking opium. According to historical records, in the 10 years from 1865 to 1874, the average annual amount of opium imported from Taiwan reached 200,000 catties, up to 600,000 catties in 1881, and 500,000 catties in 1894.
There has been a great deal of strife in Japan over how to deal with Taiwan's bad habit of smoking opium. The strict prohibition faction believes that opium consumption is an important reason for cultivating inert people, so we must learn from the strict prohibition of imported and smoked opium in Japan. The non-forbidden faction believes that if they come to power, they will forcibly stop the Taiwan people from smoking opium, which will make the people indignant and cause more fierce resistance, although they can send troops to suppress it, but they will still kill and injure countless people, causing greater social unrest.
The first governor of Taiwan at the time, Huashan Ziji, was inclined to strictly prohibit the faction, so after taking office, he issued a clear directive to strictly prohibit the Taiwan people from smoking opium. However, Goto Shinpei, then director of the Health Bureau of the Japanese Ministry of the Interior, criticized this, saying that Taiwan imports so much opium every year shows how big the market demand is, and the government can collect taxes by monopolizing opium.
In order to make the strict prohibition faction support, although Goto Shinpei could not forcibly ban it, he absolutely could not let it go, and could gradually reduce it, so those who agreed with this theory were also called the gradual ban faction, and they were supported by the japanese high-level government. In fact, this theory is very sinister, because once the Japanese colonial government tried to get the sweetness of the opium tax, it would not ban the sale of opium at all.
Subsequently, the "Taiwan Opium Decree" promulgated by the Japanese government in Taiwan included stipulating that only the government monopoly bureau was allowed to import and manufacture opium, that it was strictly forbidden for those without a license to sell or possess opium, and that special permits (ineffectual) were required to consume opium. However, japanese people in Taiwan were strictly forbidden to smoke opium, and Taiwanese who sold opium to Japanese were sentenced to death.
It can be seen from this decree that the Japanese authorities have adopted a double standard in the treatment of opium, that is, the sale and consumption of opium is completely prohibited for the mainland and the Japanese, while the sale and consumption of opium is encouraged for the colonial population. With the connivance of the Japanese colonial government, opium smoking among the Taiwanese population became more and more widespread, and by 1901, the opium-smoking community in Taiwan accounted for 6.3% of the total population.
However, Taiwan's opium policy measures extracted huge revenues for the Japanese colonial authorities, and in 1901 the opium tax reached 4.25 million yen, accounting for 42% of the annual income of the Taiwan Colonial Governor's Office, and by 1918 it had grown to more than 8 million yen. The Japanese government, which tasted the sweetness from this, subsequently copied Taiwan's "opium experience" in the occupied areas of northeast China, north China, Mongolia, central China, and south China.
Therefore, Japan's opium policy in Taiwan can be said to be the first step in carrying out opium aggression against the whole of China.
<h1 toutiao-origin="h2" > Japan's opium invasion of Chinese mainland</h1>
During the two Opium Wars, the Manchu Qing were forced to recognize the legality of opium imports, which led to the wanton trafficking of opium to China by the British, American, French, German, and Japanese powers, making the Manchu Qing the world's largest opium importer and consumer. This situation began to change with the opium epidemic in the great powers, and when the great powers discovered that opium had caused great harm to their own countries, the great powers led by the United States began to advocate the prohibition of smoking (opium), which quickly received a response from other powers.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, the Qing government signed the Sino-British Anti-Smoking Treaty with Britain in 1907, began to reduce the amount of opium entering China year by year, and decided to cut off opium imports into China in 1917. In 1909, 13 countries, including the Qing Dynasty, held the Anti-Smoking Convention in Shanghai, and passed a resolution to strictly ban and ban the production and sale of morphine and opium drugs from now on, and exported them to other non-smoking countries.
At this point, China's opium flood could have been curbed, but at this time, although Japan ostensibly agreed to formulate a drug-control policy at the International Anti-Smoking Convention and signed a contract, behind it, it supported and connived at the Japanese overseas Chinese and ronin in the Chinese concession to smuggle opium into China, resulting in an increase in the number of imported Chinese opium.
The reason why Japan did this was because of its colonial rule in Taiwan, its taste of the "huge taxes" brought about by opium, and its ambition to occupy China's territory, hoping to use opium to wear down the spirit of resistance of the Chinese, so it disregarded international treaties and specially targeted opium aggression against China.
While Britain was gradually reducing its opium imports to China, Japan took advantage of this "business opportunity" to increase the amount of opium smuggling in China year by year in a planned and organized manner, quickly filling the gap in the opium market for the British, and becoming the country that exported the most drugs to China after Britain.
During this period, Japan bought opium from the international market at low prices, and then smuggled it to China and dumped it at a high price. According to relevant statistics, after the First World War, Japan imported about 18 tons of opium from Britain every year, half of which was directly smuggled to China, and the other half was processed and refined before being smuggled to China. Between 1916 and 1920, Japan bought 64,040 kilograms of opium and 13,300 kilograms of heroin and cocaine, most of which were shipped to China.
In 1916, Kalai Sagataro, director of the Monopoly Bureau of the Governor-General's Office of Taiwan, submitted the "Opinions on the Opium System in China" to the Japanese government, proposing that Taiwan's opium policy be promoted to all of China. In Saga's view, if China had 20 million opium addicts, Japan would have made a huge profit of 554 million yen a year.
Saga Taro is not a theoretic, but an activist, and he has painstakingly planned the number of opium users in 11 major cities such as Beijing and Hankou, the total demand for tobacco paste, the specific size of the factory that processes tobacco paste, and the route of drug transportation.
Before the 918 Incident, Japan did not occupy much territory in Chinese mainland, so it could only instigate ronin and Japanese overseas Chinese in the Japanese concessions in Shanghai, Xiamen, Tianjin and other Japanese concessions to establish a huge opium drug trafficking network, and use open imports and secret trafficking to import opium and morphine and other drugs into China in large quantities.
At that time, some people described: "From Yunnan in the southwest frontier to Inner Mongolia on the saiwai plateau, there are Japanese drug sales stations all over Manchuria and Shandong, and Japanese drug sellers in Manchuria and Shandong sell morphine and other prohibited drugs in various forms." According to the "Opium System Investigation Report" by Tetsutaro Tengyuan of the Kanto Department, 70% of the 5,000 Japanese overseas Chinese in Tianjin were engaged in the wholesale of morphine and other contraband, and Tianjin had become one of the world's largest drug producers at that time.
In 1926, morphine and other narcotic poisons smuggled into China totaled about 40 tons and were worth 35 million, most of which were handled by the Japanese. If drug smuggling is only Chinese mainland the first step in Japan's opium aggressive policy, then turning the Chinese occupation area into a source of opium cultivation and production is the core of the opium invasion policy.
<h1 toutiao-origin="h2" > after the "918 Incident", Japan lured and forced northeastern farmers to plant poppies</h1>
In 1931, the Japanese Kwantung Army launched the "918" Incident, comprehensively occupied the three northeastern provinces of China, and quickly established a puppet regime in Manchuria. How to plunder the resources of the northeast, increase fiscal revenues, and maintain and develop the colonial rule of the occupied areas in the northeast has become the most important issue for Japan, so they have learned from the experience of colonizing Taiwan, including the opium policy.
At that time, the puppet Manchurian government declared in its report that opium was a hobby of the Manchurian people, and in response to the needs of the people, the government allowed the people to obtain a license to cultivate poppies, and allowed addicts to obtain opium licenses and smoke openly, but opium had to be monopolized by the government.
In addition to the blatant sale of opium in the occupied territories, the Japanese colonial authorities aggressively lured local farmers into planting poppies. The cultivation of opium poppy in the colonies has long been a tradition in Japan, and after the formal annexation of Korea in 1910, it began to cultivate the poppy. Between 1933 and 1944, 6,000-5,000 hectares were planted each year, producing 26,000-39,000 kilograms of opium per year, almost all of which were shipped to China.
Japan's replication of Korea's opium poppy cultivation policy led to a sharp increase in the area under opium poppy cultivation in the occupied areas of the Northeast, with poppy cultivation throughout the entire Northeast region, and large quantities of opium poppies were planted in the provinces of Rehe, Xing'an, Mudanjiang, Binjiang, Sanjiang, Mado, Andong, and Jinzhou. Among them, Rehe is the most important opium poppy cultivation area in the northeast region.
The Letter to the Peasants issued by Japan in Rehe Province reads: "First, those who plant opium poppies in accordance with the designated area shall be exempted from land tax; second, those who plant opium poppy with an area of more than 5 mu shall be exempted from military service in addition to the land tax; third, those who plant opium poppy with an area of more than 20 mu may receive awards from the county government and enjoy the privileges provided for in the first and second paragraphs; fourth, those who plant opium poppy with an area of more than 50 mu may become the leading figures in the village or county and become candidates for social posts, and at the same time will receive the rewards provided for in the first, second and third paragraphs." ”
Beginning in the 1930s, large-scale opium production began in the three eastern provinces, with opium poppy cultivation reaching 350,000 mu in 1935, and in 1943, at the request of the East Asian Opium Conference, centralized planting areas were also set up near Changchun and Kaiyuan. From 1933 to 1945, the region produced 300 million taels of opium (about 15 million kilograms), with an average annual 115384 kilograms (another said a total of 3.46 million kilograms).
From 1932 to 1936, the designated area, the actual planting area and the amount of purchase were designated for the cultivation of the Rehe poppy
At that time, an American reporter traveled to various parts of the northeast to observe, found poppies blooming everywhere in the territory, and went back to publish a report: "Thousands of farmers have stopped growing soybeans and have changed to poppies, because of the encouragement and advice of the Japanese." When traveling by train in Manchuria, there are many crops in the fields, and the poppy fields that are often seen are thousands of hectares wide. "It is enough to see how successful Japan's opium policy in the northeast was at that time.
Thanks to the large-scale cultivation of the opium poppy, Japan's opium invasion policy against China was successfully implemented, and opium smoke houses bloomed everywhere in the northeast at that time. According to the report of the Puppet Manchurian General Affairs Department, in 1936 there were 3,840 licensed opium smoke houses and 8,400 drug shops in 181 cities. The two are added together, and at this time, there are 12,240 public smoke houses in the northeast.
At the same time, due to the ubiquity of tobacco houses and the fact that ordinary people have very easy access to opium, this has led to a sharp increase in the number of opium smokers in the northeast (pictured below).
In the northeast, the Japanese colonial government not only openly planted, produced, and sold opium, but even the Kwantung Army, which launched the "918" incident, also personally participated in opium smuggling.
The large-scale cultivation of opium poppy in the northeast provided an important basic condition for Japan to smuggle opium to North China, South China, Hong Kong and other places, and in the later period, it even smuggled self-grown and homemade opium drugs to the international community, obtaining huge sums of money and a large amount of military supplies. For Japan, opium was undoubtedly their best "weapon" in the invading regions.
<h1 toutiao-origin="h2" > Japan's opium cultivation and trafficking in other occupied areas of China</h1>
Opium invasion of China was a policy of Japan, so cultivation and trafficking were often intensified with the expansion of its occupation. After the fall of Northeast China, Japan began to invade North China, which also caused opium flooding in Jin, Hebei, Lu, Henan, Inner Mongolia, Beijing, Tianjin and other regions.
By 1939, the Mongolian Xinjiang region including Cha Nan, Jinbei and Suiyuan had become another important area for Japanese opium production in China, with an annual poppy area of about 100,000 mu and opium exports accounting for 28% to 52% of all goods exported in the region.
According to relevant statistics, in 1939, Japan only collected 562,000 taels in North China, 2719,600 in Shandong, 1411,200 in Shanxi, and 474602 100,000 in Henan.
In addition, there are also large-scale cultivation in east, central and southern China occupied by Japan. Since the second half of 1939, opium poppies in the Conghua and Panyu areas of Guangdong have been planted on more than 10,000 mu; in the same year, kinmen planted area accounted for 20% of the farmland, and in 1944, each peasant household in the coastal areas of Guangdong and Fujian was forced to plant at least one mu of tobacco, resulting in at least 6,000 mu of tobacco per county in Fujian's Kinmen, Jinjiang, and Guangdong's Nan'ao counties.
Japan not only grows and manufactures opium drugs in large quantities in China, but also distributes more potent drugs such as morphine and heroin to countries around the world through purification. In 1937, the league of nations (similar to the United Nations today) stated that "ninety percent of the world's illegal 'white noodles' (heroin) and 'narcotics' (morphine) were made by the Japanese, often by the Japanese or under the supervision of the Japanese, in the Japanese Concession of Tianjin, Dalian and other Manchurian, Rehe or Chinese cities." ”
<h1 toutiao-origin="h2" > the harm of Japan's opium aggression against China</h1>
A British journalist who had gone to North China and Dongping to investigate described: "In Changli, Tangshan, and Northeast China, in the areas under the control of the Japanese, some deserted suburbs have become places where opium smokers are exposed, some dead bodies are thrown naked in the deserted suburbs, some corpses are wrapped in reed mats, some corpses have been fed and pierced by wild dogs, some corpses are dead, and some are not broken." ”
From smuggling to the cultivation and production of opium in occupied areas, during the decades of aggression, Japan used the opium policy to gradually build China into the world's largest drug kingdom, and even more wanted to use opium to erode the will of the Chinese people to resist, achieving the purpose of strengthening its colonial rule.
During the entire period of aggression against China, Japan's opium invasion was unique in world history in terms of the scope of the poison, its length of time, the fierceness of its harm, and its far-reaching impact. Compared with the massacres on the battlefield, opium poisoning is more lethal, and he makes many Chinese people unconsciously go to the end of the road, lose the heart of resistance, and let others slaughter.
"It is satisfying to see the Chinese of Manchuria descend into depravity. Because drug addicts don't overthrow colonial rule. A Japanese person's testimonial after seeing the Chinese in the northeast region smoking opium actually represents the voice of the Japanese government.
The wear and tear of the national spirit is tantamount to disaster for a nation and a country, but this is what the aggressors are happy to see. Letting all the Chinese indulge in opium, have no national consciousness, and go to the road of national subjugation and extinction is probably the ultimate goal of the Japanese invaders at that time.
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