The secret battle on the isolated island under the storm of war - why did the Japanese dare not capture Macau
▓ Zhang Changning
From the "Qiqi Lugou Bridge Incident" in 1937, when Japan launched a full-scale war of aggression against China, to the outbreak of "World War II" on September 1, 1939, when Germany blitzed Poland, the Japanese army had captured most of China at this time. By December 7, 1941, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor triggered the Pacific War, the Japanese army took advantage of the situation in Southeast Asia to move south, causing most countries and regions such as Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and a large number of archipelagos to fall one after another. However, the island city of Macau, which is close to Guangzhou and Hong Kong, has a "trump card" in its hands, so that the Japanese Tiger and Wolf Division stopped in front of the island and did not dare to cross the thunder pool for half a step...
The fate of the projectile is hanging by a thread
On December 8, 1941, under the heavy attack of the Japanese army of 50,000 troops, and on the 25th of the same month, "Black Christmas", the British governor in Hong Kong personally surrendered to the Japanese army headquarters.
Macau Scenery IC photo
In contrast, Macau, which is only 62 kilometers away from Hong Kong in a straight line, not only opens casinos and races, but also sets off anti-Japanese waves everywhere. Although the city defense of Macau is only a castle left over from the last century, the guns can be fired by some Portuguese honor guards and a small number of policemen who maintain law and order, which basically belongs to the undefended city. The Japanese army under the soldiers approaching the city only continued to demonstrate "encircling the sea and creating momentum", but they did not dare to rush to send troops to occupy it. It turns out that the factor that can make Japan feel jealous is far away from Brazil.
Brazil, as an independent country in South America at that time, had a land area almost as large as that of the United States, and once resembled Macau in that it was also ruled by the Dutch and Portuguese colonial empires for a long time.
As the largest Portuguese colony in South America, Brazil is sparsely populated, and how much can a population of 300,000 do on more than 8 million square kilometers of land?
Portugal touched a nose of ash
As early as the end of the 19th century, the Portuguese "trust" colony of Brazil was full of mountains and redwood forests, and sugar cane could not be harvested everywhere. What is missing is labor, and hard-working Chinese become their preferred target for immigration. To this end, the Brazilian elite also sent envoys to China to express sincerity with the Qing government, hoping to allow large population countries to allow immigration to Brazil.
Immigrate overseas? The First Reaction of the Qing Government was that this was detrimental to the prestige of the Qing Dynasty and categorically refused.
LISBON, Portugal IC photo
The King of Portugal touched a nose of ash and turned to extend an olive branch to Japan. Japan is an island country with fewer people and more people, and it is eager to spread out the swelling population in the country, so it immediately signed a treaty with it, agreeing to relocate a certain number of Japanese immigrants to Brazil every year. In just a few decades, Japan's population export has been carried out very smoothly, and by the time of World War II, more than 3 million Japanese expatriates were registered in Brazil. During World War II, Japan, which launched the war, actually had such a large number of overseas Chinese making a fortune overseas, and every day they also remitted a large amount of real money and silver to Japan and used it in the war machine, which became an important blood transfusion channel for Japan's wartime economy.
Although Portugal was the earliest and longest-lasting colonial empire in Europe, the huge wealth accumulated by crazy plunder and trade fraud brought about a luxurious social atmosphere, and finally brought this mythical rising empire back to its original form, becoming a "Adou" that Europe could not support. Portugal had little say in international affairs during World War II, and could only maintain its so-called neutrality, not only daring to offend allies such as Britain and the United States, but also fearing that the German-Italian-Japanese Axis powers would take the opportunity to eat up their overseas colonies. The colonies are the core interests of Portugal, seeing that their "cheese" Macao is about to be occupied by the Japanese, only to lower their posture and ask brazil for help, hoping that Brazil can come forward to "curve" to block the Japanese army's action to occupy Macao. Brazil immediately sent a diplomatic note to the Japanese government: If the Japanese invade Macao by force, Brazil will bring back to its home country all The Japanese expatriates who have moved to Brazil.
The Japanese government understands that this will have disastrous consequences for Japan's economy and society. After weighing the pros and cons, the Japanese Government felt that Macao was a land of bullets, had neither strategic materials nor a strategic position, and whether it was prudent not to engage in military strikes and armed occupation.
Isolated islands fight in a unique way
Since the "July 7 Incident," several influential local newspapers in Macao, "Luoyang Paper Gui," have disclosed the Japanese army's acts of aggression every day in a timely manner, tracked and reported on the war situation of the anti-Japanese armed struggle between the military and the people of Chinese mainland and Southeast Asia, and openly called on the masses from all walks of life in Macao to plunge themselves into the movement of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and Salvation. Under the influence of strong public opinion, Macao people donated money and materials, and many medical personnel and taxi drivers turned to the mainland of the motherland to participate in the Anti-Japanese War rescue, such as the "Macao China Ambulance Group", which recruited two groups of 100 trainees in the early stage of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, who threw themselves into the Anti-Japanese Salvation Movement in the form of medical rescue on the front line of the anti-Japanese war in China.
The famous "Hump Angel" Wong Hsiao Huan, a beautiful heroine that Macau people are still proud of. In 1942, she entered Guangxi from Macao, mixed in the refugee pile and finally arrived in Chongqing, where she was assigned to the US Flying Tigers Hospital in Kunming and the Yunnan Field Hospital of the US 14th Air Force in China, and insisted on participating in the medical work of US pilots wounded in battle on the Hump route until the end of World War II.
Salvation comic strip IC photo
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, many young compatriots in Macao chose to return directly to China to participate in the war and serve the motherland, and bravely galloped on the front line of the war-filled anti-Japanese war. Many of them have sacrificed their young lives on the battlefield, and the names and deeds of each of them are engraved in the history of the heroic martyrs of Macau.
In early October 1938, the Japanese landed in Daya Bay, Shenzhen, and within a month they had taken control of Guangzhou and nearby strongholds. During that period, Macao people could hear the rumbling of cannons day and night in the direction of Shenzhen, Humen, Foshan and later Guangzhou... The flames of war burned at the gates, and the invaders ran rampant around. The first to tremble were the Portuguese and Macao authorities, in the face of political and military pressure from the Japanese army, began to impose strict controls on all books, periodicals, and other materials in Macao, when the newspaper "opened the skylight" became a "guessing news" related to the anti-Japanese resistance, and readers would seek information through the eternal foreign telegraph reports.
At the end of 1941, although Japan conquered Hong Kong in one fell swoop as the world's shipping center, so that a large number of anti-war materials that used to be transported to Chinese mainland every day were strictly blocked, because Macao was located in the seaward area of the Xijiang River Basin, not only the rivers were longitudinal, but also the sea mouth was numerous, the outer sea islands were dotted with islands, the inland mulberry ponds and orchards were dense, and the most suitable for logistics was the small-batch smuggling type of hidden diversion. The war supplies secretly transferred to Chinese mainland here are mainly funded by patriotic expatriates in Southeast Asia. Chen Jiageng, an overseas patriotic overseas Chinese leader, raised 1.8 billion yuan in 1939 for the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, accounting for about 1/10 of the donations sent by overseas Chinese to the motherland for the War of Resistance. Many of the large quantities of military equipment and sought-after medicines he procured overseas were secretly transported to the mainland through The Macau Underground Transport Line, including a shipment of radio communications equipment sent to Yan'an. In this regard, the Japanese army was unable to defend itself and could not effectively block it.
Some anti-Japanese soldiers, scientists, and cultural elites who returned from Europe and the United States also entered the interior of China's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression one after another, such as General Ye Ting, commander of the New Fourth Army. After the "918" incident, General Ye heard in Germany that the Japanese invaders had occupied the three eastern provinces, so he rushed to Hong Kong by clipper with full of righteous indignation, and during the period of settling in Macao, he tried to find a party organization and rushed to Wuhan at the right time to participate in the formation of the New Fourth Army, after which this contingent became one of the two most powerful forces in the anti-Japanese battlefield of the Chinese Communists.
At the time of the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, it was planned to retake Macao
In August 1945, when Japan surrendered unconditionally, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China sent a telegram to The Portuguese Ambassador, Zhang Qian, ordering his representative to make representations to the Portuguese government in order to negotiate a settlement of the issue of Macao's return to the motherland. Two months later, the Nationalist Government drew up two plans for the reconquest of Macao, A and B.
Plan A, unconditionally recover it. Reason: Originally administered by the Qing government to Portugal, Macao should now be returned to China; in Plan B, if the Portuguese government refuses to return Macao to China, the Chinese side will resort to international peace agencies and advocate a referendum to determine the ownership of Macao's sovereignty.
At the same time, General Zhang Fakui, the commander-in-chief of the Kuomintang Second Front, had led his troops into Guangzhou, ready to make all kinds of preparations for the reconquest of Macao at any time. In terms of public opinion, Zhang Fakui accused the Portuguese and Macao authorities of being hostile to China through the media and of hiding and sheltering Japanese war criminals and traitors, saying that the Chinese army has the right and responsibility to enter Macao and arrest them. His 159th Division, under the leadership of division commander Liu Shaowu, entered the Qianshan border near Macau, implemented a border blockade, and aimed its guns at the Portuguese army's key areas. And let it go: only one battalion is needed to settle the battle in a short time.
Macao's return to IC photo
The three-dimensional offensive to recover Macao also included instigating the Macau branch of the Kuomintang to organize rallies and marches, creating a huge momentum for its return to the motherland. After that, the camera cooperated with the action: Liu Shaowu, commander of the 159th Division, personally led a group of people and horses to enter Macao without notification in the name of comforting compatriots, only to wait for a telegram from Shangfeng to be officially issued...
The problem is that the Americans at this time are like seeing nothing and hearing nothing. At this time, the British government, as the giant of the victorious power, did not intend to return Hong Kong to China at all, so the Portuguese government did not relax on the issue of the return of Macao, but only expressed to the Chinese side: it was willing to extradite all Japanese war criminals and Chinese traitors and obey them; expelled the Japanese in Macao, and Chinese could freely enter and leave; and allowed chinese groups in Macao to openly carry out activities and enjoy freedom of speech, assembly, and procession.
At this time, the civil war had been in full swing for the second year, and the mind and strength of the Kuomintang Nanjing government had been spent on the battlefield of the civil war to eliminate the Chinese communist army, and later it had completely stopped caring about the issue of Macao's sovereignty. Therefore, Macao's return to the motherland has been delayed for more than half a century!
Zhang Changning, born in Nanjing in 1954, has a bachelor's degree in Chinese from Nanjing University, and has been engaged in news gathering and editing business in Nanjing Daily and Xinhua Media Group for 30 years. The articles included in this series are all articles that the author has published in many newspapers and periodicals in recent years.