After the end of the Sino-Japanese War, how many Japanese surrendered and were captured in China?
According to the data of "The Eight-Year War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression" compiled by He Yingqin, a total of 1.28 million Japanese soldiers and 1.25 million overseas Japanese were captured in the Chinese theater.
In film and television dramas, the situation of prisoners of war that we often see is incomparably miserable, but these film and television dramas rarely reflect the clips of Japanese prisoners of war in China, this group of scourge on the mainland for more than ten years, the crime is heinous, and the demons stained with the blood of the Chinese become prisoners of war, how are they living?
In 1945, Chiang Kai-shek made two clear demands on how to treat such a large number of Japanese prisoners of war:
1. Okamura Ninji and the Japanese army who surrendered must be courteous.
2. Overseas Chinese must be lenient and thoughtful.
According to this instruction, He Yingqin, who was in charge of the prisoners, actually asked Okamura Ninji to organize and manage the Japanese prisoners on his own (that is, he did not disrupt the Japanese command system according to the usual practice). What is even more exaggerated is that for fear of hurting the self-esteem of the Japanese army, they were not allowed to call them prisoners of war, but invented a new word: unarmed officers and soldiers.
At that time, the Nationalist Government adopted a policy of repatriating all Japanese prisoners regardless of their crimes. But with a huge population of more than 2 million people taking a long time, how will they be treated during their stay in China?
Let's first look at the prisoner of war camp set up by the Nationalist government in Chongqing in 1939 to hold Japanese soldiers during the Anti-Japanese War. There were more than 1,000 Japanese prisoners of war inside, and they were generally not of high rank.
When they first entered this prisoner of war camp, every Japanese soldier was so frightened that they turned pale and thought: This is the end.
But as soon as I entered the door, I was stupid, because everyone actually received a big gift package: a box of pastries from Daoxiang Village, a box of Double Happiness brand cigarettes, and a pair of plastic sneakers. In that era of scarcity of materials, ordinary people may have never seen this thing in their lives!
The Japanese army was taken aback: Nani?
Looking at this place again, it doesn't look like a prisoner of war camp at all, there are canteens, sports fields, small rows, and a few big words hanging at the door: Renai Village!
The Japanese army was terrified again: Nani?
After being nervous for a period of time in this privileged environment, the Japanese prisoners of war found that this is a real paradise, except for a few necessary anti-war education classes, they can basically move freely at other times, exercise, chat, play, and even read books and newspapers, go up and down the mountains and rivers, and the key is to eat really well!
Japanese prisoners of war playing sumo wrestling
Japanese prisoners of war playing the game
The purpose of preferential treatment of prisoners in wartime, as everyone knows, was to get more enemy troops to surrender. But what about after the war?
Treatment: One point is indifferent!
After the war, there were four large Japanese prisoner of war concentration camps in Nanjing, named "Japanese unarmed officers and soldiers resettlement center", among which the Tangshui Japanese unarmed officers and soldiers settlement center is more than 70 miles away from Nanjing City, surrounded by mountains and forests, beautiful scenery, clear and warm spring water gushing all year round. More than 6,400 Japanese prisoners of war were housed here, while the Nationalist army sent only one company of infantry to garrison it. The food supply for Japanese prisoners of war was provided by the Nationalist Government, which stipulated: "The daily ration of each Japanese prisoner of war is 17 taels of white rice (16 taels of the old scale is 1 catty), 8 taels of white flour, 2 taels of pork, and 16 taels of vegetables." ”
In addition, there are a variety of canned food, chicken, duck, nuts and other foods, as well as alcohol. In order to make it comfortable for every Japanese prisoner of war, "sake" was specially made, and fresh fish was regularly delivered so that the Japanese prisoners of war could make their own sashimi. You can also soak in the hot springs every day.
Although nominally a prisoner of war camp, these prisoners of war could come and go at will, and the prisoners of war often went out together to visit Nanjing, buy groceries, and even do some small business!
At that time, there was a Japanese prisoner of war named Ono Buntaro, who was doing business in Nanjing, and bought a horse for transportation. From the prisoner of war camp to the city, he often wore military uniforms and ran wildly all the way, without the slightest awareness of prisoners of war. Some policemen were not used to seeing him, and once stopped him with the intention of confiscating his horse, but Ono Buntaro was arrogant and made a lot of noise, and the onlookers were so angry that they wanted to beat him.
Japanese prisoners of war who set up stalls on the street to do business
On the evening of September 17, 1945, four prisoners of war wearing Japanese uniforms went to Nanjing to have fun, and the patrol soldiers of the Nationalist Army came forward to interrogate after encountering them.
Seeing this, everyone may be surprised, it is basic common sense that prisoners of war should disarm, why do Japanese prisoners still have guns?
According to the "Request for Instructions on the Armistice Agreement" submitted by Gangcun Ningji to He Yingqin and other materials, the Nationalist Government at that time allowed the Japanese prisoners to retain some of their arms, so the guns of these prisoners were completely "legal......
Many Japanese prisoners even did not want to be repatriated to Japan at all.
More than 2 million Japanese prisoners and overseas Chinese were repatriated from November 1945 and were not completely repatriated until October 1946.
It is difficult to estimate how much money was spent during this period, but there was a record in the "Northeast Herald" at that time that the food and fuel costs of Japanese prisoners of Japanese in the three eastern provinces alone were staggering:
"After the end of the Anti-Japanese War, more than 100,000 refugees from all over the Northeast came to Shenyang for refuge, and 70,000 refugees went to Dalian to take a boat through Shenyang, and this number is still growing, and it is expected that it may reach 200,000 at the most, and the cost of these people has become a huge number, and the cost of food and fuel alone is as high as 160 million yuan. ”
The following is another set of photographs showing the daily life of Japanese prisoners before they were repatriated and boarded.
In November 1945, in Shanghai, Japanese prisoners and Japanese expatriates smoked cigarettes and ate at the dock waiting to board the repatriation ship.
Japanese nationals who have been temporarily placed in school classrooms awaiting repatriation.
These overseas Chinese to be repatriated have calm expressions, very neat clothes, and straw mats on the ground.
Seize the gap before being repatriated and start a small business quickly.
Baggage is weighed at the time of repatriation.
Although the Japanese expatriate was captured and repatriated, he was dressed very stylishly.
Embarkation ......