The Japanese in My Hometown During World War Two

My hometown is in a county named Jingtan in Jiangsu Province located in eastern China,which is about 100 miles away from Nanjing. In the second world war, Nanjing was the capital of the puppet China ruled by Wang Jingwei, a former KMT member and assistant of Sun Yat-sen. During that time,almost all the eastern provinces had three different political power,the communists, the KMTs,and the Wang's nationalist China actually a puppet of Japan.

The population of Jingtan during that period was about 200,000. What was the amount of the Japanese? About 40 soldiers occupied the county town, and another platoon was stationed on the top of Maoshan mountain in Jingtan. How did the Japanese control the whole county? By the puppet army ,maybe as ten times as the number of Japanese soldiers. It was a real shame in China history.

The puppet soldiers didn't work hard for their master. So it was very difficult for the Japanese to control the whole county.In fact, the commnists was the real master of most places in Jingtan,and Maoshan Mountain was their main base, though the enemy was on the top. The Japanese army tried to clean the communists by the action called "Sao Dang" every year, but never achieved true success for they had to control so large an area by a few soldiers. However,we have to admit that the Japanese soldiers had a very good skill in using their weapons. Their hit rate almost reached 100% in 300 meters,much better than the communist army.

 

I can't speak for the forum, but as a member I think you would have a very valuable perspective of what happened in your hometown that would be of value and great interest on this forum. I thank you for your observations and comments. Anything else you could comment about would also be of interest to me.

 

Thanks for your encouragement.

The communist army belonged to N4A(New 4th Army). In 1937, CCP and KMT formed a united front to against the Japanese invaders though fought against each other before. The communist amry in several south provinces was named by the KMT government as N4A. In 1938, N4A had 10,000 soldiers and reached 310,000 in 1945 finally.They were not well equipped. Two or three persons had one rifle gun, generally 79 model (a Chinese version of KAR98) or ARISAKA 38 got from the Japanese. Some core unit could had a machine gun every platoon or company. The communist army usually took actions by different small units. They avoided any combat against large Japanese units. When they met small enemy units and had an overwhelming advantage, they tried to destroy the enemy and ofter achieved success.
Usually less than 100 Japanese soldiers were killed,sometimes less than 10.After most battles, the communists became a litter richer than before for their income from the enemy. They were very good merchants for they had to control their expense in every battle. If too much ammo were used, they regarded the battle as losing money in business.
Though the Japanese seemed richer than their Chinese enemies. They were also poor compared to their western fellows. There was a tall tower in a temple of Jingtan and a 2-tons bronze clock was on the top. When the pacific war broke out, a Japanese plane came here and sent the clock to Japan for the lack of copper.