During the War of Resistance Against Japan, in order to shake the determination of the Nationalist government to resist the war and force it to surrender, from 1938 to 1943, the Japanese army dispatched a large number of aircraft to carry out a tragic strategic bombing of Chongqing for several years, and the Japanese army dispatched 24 aircraft to bomb Chongqing in three batches, the air raid lasted for 5 hours, because the citizens were not evacuated in time at that time, so a large number of people flocked to the public air defense tunnel (eighteen ladders of the great tunnel) causing the number of people in the cave to be close to saturation, because the gendarmes and protective personnel who managed the tunnel mouth locked the gate In the case of up to 10 hours of high temperature and severe lack of oxygen, tens of thousands of (there are different official and non-governmental accounts) about the evacuated people due to poor ventilation caused by suffocation, and at the same time, pushing and trampling, resulting in a horrific air defense tunnel tragedy, known as the "Big Tunnel Massacre". The Great Tunnel Massacre, which occurred on June 5, 1941, was the most tragic event that occurred in the rear area during the Chinese War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and it was related to the breach of the Yellow River Garden Mouth embankment on June 9, 1938, and the Changsha Fire on November 13, 1938, and was known as the three major tragedies in China during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
Historical background
Chongqing Great Tunnel Massacre
After the July 7 Incident in July 1937, the Japanese army began to invade China in an all-round way. In November 1937, the Kuomintang was defeated in the Songhu War of Resistance, and Nanjing began to fall into crisis, and the Nationalist government moved to Chongqing as the wartime capital on November 20, 1937.
In November 1937, shortly after the Japanese Army launched an all-out war, indiscriminate attacks were included in the military code. The indiscriminate japanese bombardment of chongqing in China from 1939 to 1941 was carried out under this "political attack". From February 18, 1938 to August 23, 1943, the Japanese army and naval aviation units, in accordance with the instructions of the Japanese Emperor and the Supreme Headquarters, jointly launched an aviation offensive operation against Chongqing for a period of 5 and a half years, known as the Chongqing Bombing.
During the large-scale bombing of Chongqing, Japanese aircraft attacked Chongqing a total of 218 times, dispatched 9,513 sorties of aircraft, dropped 21,593 bombs, killed 11,889 citizens, injured 14,100 people, destroyed 17,608 houses, and bombed 30 schools.
From the beginning of 1938 to the end of 1938, the Japanese bombed Chongqing mainly tentatively, with fewer sorties, mostly army air forces. After the Japanese army captured Wuhan in October 1938, the Japanese army began to carry out strategic bombing of Chongqing under the orders of the Japanese emperor. At the end of December 1938, the Army began to carry out strategic bombing of Chongqing. In May 1939, the Navy was converted to bombing. On May 3 and 4, Japanese aircraft took off from Wuhan to carry out continuous bombing of the central area of Chongqing, and used a large number of incendiary bombs, which was called the May 3rd and 54th bombs.
In May 1940, the Japanese base camp launched "Operation 101", which was bombed by the army and navy at the same time against the Chinese rear, bombing more than 2,000 Japanese aircraft in Chongqing.
The tragedy went through
At about 6 p.m. on June 5, 1941,[1] the first sunny day after the rain, when the citizens of Chongqing were preparing to eat and cool off, the sudden air raid siren sounded. Knowing that Japanese planes were about to strike, people carried bags and rushed to the entrance of the anti-aircraft tunnel. Due to the suddenness of the attack and the lack of evacuation, the anti-aircraft tunnel was particularly crowded with people. In addition to the benches on both sides full of people, even the aisles were full of people. The air inside the cave was unusually muggy. At about 9 o'clock in the evening, the Japanese planes entered the sky over the city and began to bombard indiscriminately, and the explosions of time rose and fell, and the bustling downtown area was suddenly in ruins. Due to the small space of many people, coupled with the tight closure of the cave entrance and the lack of oxygen in the cave, people began to feel that they could not breathe well and were weak. The bombardment of Japanese planes on the ground continued, and the oxygen in the cave was getting less and less, and even the oil lamps on the walls of the tunnel were gradually weakening, when the babies and children finally couldn't stand it, they cried loudly, the atmosphere was suddenly tense, and some people began to be restless and behave abnormally. Zhu Gengtao, a survivor, recalled the scene at that time: "In the cave, at first I only felt that my mind was stuffy, sweating, and gradually my body was weak, it was difficult to breathe, it seemed to be drowned in hot water, and the temperature under my feet was unusually high. People on the left and right involuntarily tore their clothes and pants as if they were insane. He Shunzheng, the survivor, also remembered the feeling at that time, saying: "I began to feel hot and panicked, my heart seemed to want to fall, like an emergency, I wanted to drink cold water." When I went outside, someone pulled me and couldn't move, and in the darkness someone pulled my hand and bit it, and my hands and back were injured everywhere, and my clothes were torn. What's more, some people have completely lost their minds, such as an old woman, who has her head and face broken, and her head is spread, and she cries and screams, which is very frightening. [2]
As carbon dioxide increased, some of the oil lamps in the cave had been extinguished due to lack of oxygen, and the crowd was even more agitated. Faced with death, the silent people could no longer hold back their temperament and began to crowd desperately into the cave entrance. Since the cave door is closed outwards, the more the crowd squeezes into the cave entrance, the more the door cannot be opened. The members of the protective regiment guarding the outside of the cave only knew that when the Japanese aircraft attacked, the citizens were forbidden to walk out of the air defense tunnel, and they were ignorant of the dangerous situation that occurred inside the cave. The people inside the cave crowded out like crazy, and people shouted and cried and rushed out, but the door was still closed and could not be opened. The oxygen in the cave is decreasing, the mood of the people in the cave is more impatient, they are crowded together, trampling on each other, the people in front of them have fallen, some suffocated to death, and the people behind them are unaware, continue to step on the corpse pile and squeeze out, and the tragedy happened. Later, the cave door was opened, and in a flash, the crowd inside the cave rushed out of the cave like a river that broke the embankment, and a person survived. The elderly Guo Weibo, one of the few people who rushed out of the cave, recalled the scene and feelings at that time, he said: "Later, the wooden fence did not know how to open, and the protective regiment guarding the ladder outside also ran away. The flow of people through the gate is like a river breaking its embankment, desperately rushing to the mouth of the tunnel. Because of our youngness and strength, my two classmates and I squeezed out of the wooden grate with all our strength, and we went up the stairs in a daze and finally came to the ground. What the hell was I doing at the time? Is it rolling? Or is it pushed out by the crowd? It's really unclear. I only felt that I could breathe fresh air at the mouth of the cave, and I felt cool and comfortable all over my body, and I was momentarily confused and trance-like, as if I was asleep, as if I was awake and not awake. I didn't have a watch, and after about half an hour of sleep, I woke up and heard only deafening shouts and screams from the tunnel. I got up from the ground and saw that I was lying about 30 meters from the mouth of the tunnel, and there were about 100 people around me, some of them were waking up, some were standing stupidly, but no one came out of the tunnel mouth again. I looked down and saw that my blouse had been torn, most of the buttons were missing, my hat was lost, and the letters, photographs, and diaries contained in the satchel on my shoulder were all gone. Things were damaged and lost, but I finally broke free of death and returned to the human world. ”
The Japanese air raids continued, and the planes roared through the air, dropping countless bombs and incendiary bombs, and the ground was suddenly in a sea of fire. At this moment, the crowd inside the cave could not take care of so much, and was still struggling to squeeze out. Their faces were swollen, their hands were waving, and they were screaming desperately, but to no avail, their bodies remained still, and their lives were exhausted. After more than four hours of torture and struggle, near midnight, the terrible screams in the cave gradually weakened, "many people were lying on the ground, their breath was dying, their faces changed from red to purple blue, the spit at the corners of their mouths changed from white to red and oozed with blood, and many people had silently pounced on others." The air raid lasted for nearly 5 hours, and when the Japanese planes left Chongqing, the air defense tunnel was dead silent, and the voices of the living could not be heard. There were bodies of the victims everywhere. The tragic situation was as Wu Guozhen, the mayor of Chongqing at the time, said: "The (refugees) in the cave were holding foot pressure, and the regiment was crowded in a pile." Most of the people at the foot of the front row are dead, and those who stand firmly cannot be solved, and they are dragged on, and the back layers are pressed, there are those who have fainted, there are those who have died, there are those who groan and cry and cannot move, and they are sad and miserable, and they are unbearable to see. "Many of the dead struggle until the last moment of their lives before they die with hatred. Some of them have twisted faces, their fingers are gripping the ground, some are facing the sky, their hands are hanging on the ground, and some of them have scratched skin and are scaly and bruised, which is very tragic.
In the early morning of the 6th, after the air defense alarm was lifted, the national government authorities began to organize people to deal with the aftermath. The bodies of the victims dragged out of the tunnel were stacked and stacked at the entrance of the cave.
The outcome of the massacre
After the Massacre of the Great Tunnel, Liu Zhi, commander-in-chief of the Chongqing Garrison and commander of the Chongqing Air Defense, at the suggestion of his staff, hurriedly dispatched the trucks of the Garrison Headquarters to transport all those who had suffocated to the Chaotianmen River Dam, with the intention that these people would die of lack of oxygen and be transported to the fresh air by the river, or could be resurrected. However, the soldiers, secret agents, members of the protection regiment, and service members who participated in the rescue regarded the lives of the people as a child's play, and they dragged the corpses out of the cave doors, and some of them were dragged to death by them; some were dragged to death; some of them were dragged off their hands and feet; some still had a trace of breath, but because there were corpses piled up, they were crushed alive. What is more, instead of going all out to save people, some of the personnel who participated in the rescue took advantage of the fire and robbery, searched for jewelry, money, and goods from the corpses, and stripped off their clothes and pants, causing great indignation among the masses. Among the dead bodies transported to the Chaotianmen River Dam, there are indeed a few people who have been resurrected by inhaling fresh air. But after they wake up. When he found that the belongings he had carried with him had been looted, he felt that he could not survive in the future, so he cried out in despair. In the area of the river dam, there are dead bodies, crying and thundering, and its condition is very tragic.
The occurrence of the Great Tunnel Massacre shocked public opinion in Chongqing, and the citizens strongly demanded that those responsible be punished. Soon after, Chiang Kai-shek ordered that Liu Zhi be relieved of his post as commander of Chongqing's air defense, which should be concurrently held by He Guoguang, commander of the Chongqing Military Police; Hu Bohan, deputy commander of Chongqing's air defense, was removed from his post; Wu Guoshan, director of the Tunnel Engineering Department, was dismissed from his post; Xie Yuanmo, deputy director of the department, was dismissed twice; and Wu Guojiao, the mayor of Chongqing, was dismissed from his post and retained. The suffocation tragedy that shocked China and foreign countries was hastily concluded.
death toll
On June 7, the day after the massacre, the Chongqing Air Defense Command issued an announcement declaring "461 deaths," which people could not believe. The Chongqing Municipal Government again announced in its June 12 work report that the death toll was "644 people with household registrations." Public opinion agrees that this figure is too low. On July 3, the Special Review Committee for the Great Tunnel Massacre issued a "Review Report", declaring 992 deaths and 151 serious injuries. But these reports are also unconvincing to the public.
According to other data, the tragic case caused 9992 deaths, 1151 children, 1510 serious injuries, and countless minor injuries.
The cause of the tragedy
fold
Alert error
The site of the Chongqing Great Tunnel Massacre
On June 5, 1941, the archives of the Ministry of Air Defense recorded: "Twenty-four Japanese enemy planes attacked Chongqing in three batches (eight in each batch), and since 17:33, they have been found in Songzi, Yidu, Hubei Province, to fly west." The first batch of air-dropped bombs invaded Chongqing at 19:28 and began to pass through Fengdu Dongyi by 19:54. The second batch of bombs was dropped on the outskirts of Chongqing at 20:47 and by 21:20 via Fengdu Dongyi. The "third batch" 22:17 after invading the outskirts of Chongqing and dropping bombs until 23:13 via Fengdu Dongyi. The alert situation is: "Headquarters at 18:08 hanging red ball one, 18:18 issued an air raid alert, 18:57 issued an emergency alert; 21:18 Two hanging red balls, 21:40 Remove two red balls; Two more red balls hung at 23:01 and a lifting alert was issued at 23:27. The significance of the alarm signal is: hanging 1 red ball, warning air raid, hanging two red balls, is an air raid alarm, unloading two red balls is an emergency alarm, hanging two red balls is to inform the public to go out of the cave to rest, and unloading two red balls is another emergency alarm, and hanging two red balls is a notice to go out of the hole to rest. The release alert is to hang a green long lantern. The types of alarms are: air raid alarm: enemy aircraft distance 200-300 km, emergency alarm: enemy aircraft distance 50 kilometers, lift alarm: enemy aircraft away 200-300 kilometers.
It can be seen from the above situation that during the 5 and a half hours of siren evacuation, the people who hid from the air raid in the air raid shelter did not get a break in time for the air raid. This is an important reason for the suffocation of the Great Tunnel.
Overdose
The large tunnel at the site of the accident is divided into 18 ladders, the Yanwu Hall, and the Lime City 3 exits, with a length of 438. 4 meters, multiplied by width 2. 5 metres, area is 1096 sq.m. Multiply by 2 meters in height, equal to 2392 cubic meters. According to the interpretation of the adjudication committee, the capacity of the cave is 4 persons and ö square meters, and according to the interpretation of the review committee, "The evacuated person who is calm shall stay in the air raid shelter of the ventilation equipment for 1 hour, and the air required by each person shall be 1 cubic meter, usually 2 hours shall prevail, and each person shall have 3 cubic meters of air." According to this calculation, the regular capacity of the cave is 4384 people. In the 1980s, the Chongqing Municipal People's Air Defense Office surveyed and calculated, there were 958 wooden stools, each sitting 3 people, a total of 2874 people, calculated by 4 people per square meter, covering an area of 575 square meters, the remaining area of 521 square meters, the civil air defense office calculated according to the standing people 6 people ö square meters, this is just a random estimate, 3126 people, plus the corridor area of 134. 75 square meters, according to the seat of 5 people ö square meters, standing 6 people ö square meters, this is not much basis, a total of 555 people. The equation is 2874 people + 3126 people + 555 people = 6555 people. Calculated in this way, the maximum extraordinary capacity of the whole cave is 6555 people. Regarding the number of people who entered the cave on the day of the massacre, no historical data has been found to confirm it. However, from the existing archives, it can be seen that more than 10,000 people entered the cave, which is another important reason for the tragedy.
According to a report by Xu Yuanxin, the survivor of the Eighteen ladder caves, he entered the cave after the air raid siren, was pushed and crowded by the crowd, and a fight occurred in the cave. Soon signs of asphyxia appear, and severe asphyxia begins. According to Guo Weibo, a survivor of the Martial Arts Hall, the capacity is abnormal, resulting in lack of oxygen suffocation, riots, crowds, and inability to advance and retreat.
Management confusion
The chaos of air defense management is also a cause of the tragedy. The organs that manage the air raid rescue and protection in Chongqing mainly include the Escort Capital Air Raid Rescue Committee, the Air Defense Command, and the Protection Regiment, but the former two are not subordinate to each other, and the protection regiment is a voluntary organization, and the members lack training and are of poor quality. All this led to confusion in the management of air defenses. If a break is announced during the air defense period, according to the warning regulations, two red balls are removed to indicate an emergency alarm, and two red balls are hung to announce a break out of the hole. However, the alarm light ball on the table that day was broken, and it was replaced by a red cloth with a horse lamp. However, in March of that year, the Aviation Commission promulgated article 11 of the "Air Defense Warning Signal Outline", which stipulates: "The poisoned areas are marked with red flags and red lights at night during the day." Thus, this signal has two meanings, which makes people confused. In the 67 volumes of the case file of the Air Defense Department of the Chongqing Municipal Archives, there is such a record, "Afterwards, it was reported that more than 100 members of the Eighteen Ladders Guard Regiment crowded the opening of the cave and rescue was ineffective, and some people threatened the people with guns to go out" illustrating the confusion of the evacuation and command work.
Corruption
Regarding the ventilation equipment, the electric fan was installed in the large tunnel of the field mouth in mid-April, and the test started on June 3, 1941, and it was agreed that the acceptance would be from 14:00 to 17:00 on June 5, but the factory waited until half an hour before the alarm was issued, and Xie Yuanmo of the Ministry of Air Defense did not appear. Xie Yuanmo explained: "Because I am not an electrical expert, the original agreement was that the engineers of the electric lamp factory would go to the same acceptance, because the person did not arrive, so the acceptance was not carried out. ”
Ding Rongcan and Pan Lian, directors and deputy directors of the Third Department of the Ministry of Air Defense, said that the real reason was that the Ministry of Air Defense did not bribe the Ministry of Military Affairs, the Ministry of Military Affairs refused to accept it, and the machine did not dare to use it and let it idle. Another reason for the defect in the quality of the bomb shelters was insufficient funding and misappropriation. According to Xie Yuanmo's report, ventilation and lighting equipment projects, from July to November 1940, were the first phase, and the Ministry of Military Affairs allocated 120,000 yuan per month, which should total 700,000 yuan. From February to May 1941, the second phase of the project was approved by the Executive Yuan until May 26, 1941, that the Engineering Department of the Ministry of Air Defense approved a total of 1.4 million yuan for air defense facilities in 1941, of which the large tunnel project accounted for 400,000 yuan. Most of these funds were diverted for other purposes. In December 1940, the Ministry of Air Defense applied for 390,000 yuan to install 30 ventilators in the large tunnel, because it could not afford to pay, only 20 were bought, and the rest was returned to the factory.
Design flaws
Defects in the design and quality of the bomb shelters are also a cause of the tragedy. For example, since Japan's "101 Battle Plan" in 1940, the use of long-term bombing tactics has become the norm. In 1941, there were 32 bombings over 3 hours, accounting for 44% of the bombing rate of the whole year. Our calculation of the amount of breathing air in the bomb shelter is only limited to 2 hours, which obviously cannot meet the actual needs.
The designers Xie Yuanmo and Chen Gongji are not specialized in underground space engineering, so the engineering design has congenital technical defects. For example, it is stipulated that the outlets at both ends of each section of the tunnel must be high and low, and the air must be convected according to the formation principle of thermal expansion and contraction to achieve the effect of natural ventilation, but the tunnels are very long, and there is no ventilation shaft project designed in the middle, so that the principle of facilities is invalid. In addition, there is no drainage ditch facility, the water in the cave cannot be solved, the weather is hot, the population is large, the humidity evaporates, and the air is difficult to be stuffy. The height of the cave is insufficient, the roof is weathered, and there are too few entrances and exits, which also causes inconvenience in and out.