La Segunda Guerra Sino Japonesa desde la perpectiva de un soldado(en inglés)

Sino-Japanese War from a soldier's perspective

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Yao Yun-long stands next to a young man dressed in the uniform worn by Kuomintang military officers in World War II. (Photo/Samuel Hui)

To commemorate the 76th anniversary of the Second Sino-Japanese War between 1937 and 1945, Yao Yun-long, a veteran of the Republic of China Army was invited by Taiwan's opposition New Party to speak about his experiences during the war.

"When people talk about the war of resistance against Japan, they mostly talk about the great leaders and generals who commanded the Chinese military to victory, and not those nameless soldiers who were mosly poor peasants conscripted into the army," Yao said. But from his point of view, those conscripted soldiers are the true unsung heroes of wartime China.

Before the Japanese invasion of China, Yao said that many from poor backgrounds volunteered to join the army as a way to earn money before the war of resistance began in 1937. However, the situation changed entirely when the ill-equipped Chinese army began to suffer heavy casualties from the well-trained Imperial Japanese Army and the Nationalist Government began to force local peasants to join the military. In 1939, the 15-year-old Yao worked for Shou county government in central China's Anhui province. As he has graduated from elementary school, Yao was one of the few people in the town able to read and write.

Yao was later conscripted into the 38th Division of the 59th Army, a miscellaneous unit led by former local warlords from northwestern China. Yao said that the 38th Division fought bravely and won its first major victory against the Japanese army during the Battle of Tai'erzhuang that took place in March 1938.

He said that conscript troops were treated terribly, fed only small meals twice a day. When soldiers fell ill, they would usually be abandoned because the military could not provide proper treatment for them. Yao said that he was almost left by his own unit after coming down with stomach pains. Fortunately, one of his comrades convinced the battalion commander that Yao was still useful based on his ability to read and write as more than 90% of the soldiers were illiterate.

Yao said that he counted himself as lucky for not being abandoned by the unit, which would have certainly led to his death. As his battalion was charged with recruiting new soldiers, Yao said that he only participated in one of 22 major campaigns between the Kuomintang and Imperial Japanese Army. "If I was in any of those major battles like the ones taken place in Changde and Hengyang in 1943 or 1944, I wouln't be able to sit here and speak with you today," he said.

To support the regular Chinese army during the Battle of Suixian-Zaoyang in May 1939, 80 soldiers including Yao from the recruit battalion of the 38th Division were called to form a suicide squad against a Japanese convoy. 20 of his comrades were killed by the Japanese machine guns and Yao along with the other surviving soldiers were ordered to retreat.

Yao said he was successfully able to escape from the 38th Division but sold himself to the 11th Reserve Division of the 85th Army stationed at Wuyang in central China's Henan province after running out of money. Yao became a soldier of the Central Army under the command of General Tang En-po, one of Chiang Kai-shek's favorite military commanders. However, the treatment of common soldiers turned out to be worse, he said.

"Commander Chou was very cruel to deserters," said Yao, "If he did not execute them, then he enjoyed cutting off their ears." At that time, Yao served at the canteen of the battalion as a clerk. He was almost killed by Chou because he had turned down the offer of his battalion commander to be his personal guard. Although Yao was lucky enough to be saved by his company commander, he had made up his mind to desert again. The province was hit by a famine in 1942 and Yao Yun-long was unable to find a job to feed himself and found himself back within the 11th Reserve Division again, but not to the battalion commanded by Chou.

With the help of his old company commander at the Division Area Command located at Zhenxin county, Yao began to serve as the secretary for the 11th Reserve Division thanks to his writing skills. At Zhenxin, Yao was promoted to master sergeant and then later to second lieutenant. "After becoming a 19-year-old military officer, my life improved gradually," he said.

Although Yao was lucky enough to avoid the major battles against the Japanese, he still believes that it is the common foot soldiers rather than the great leaders and generals who should be remembered by people on both sides of the strait.

"I think there should be a tablet in the Martyrs' Shrine dedicated to all those unsong heroes," said Yao, "None of those soldiers had any idea about politics at that time but they still fought hard for their beloved motherland." In her book entitled Chinese People at War: Human Suffering and Social Transformation between 1937-1945, Diana Lary, a professor at the University of British Columbia in Canada, said that around 14 million Chinese nationals like Yao Yun-long were conscripted into the army and were from a variety of social and economic backgrounds.

References:

Yao Yun-long　　姚雲龍

Tang En-po　　湯恩伯