From August 1937 to August 1 1, China's army fought a bitter and stalemate battle with the Japanese army in Shanghai for nearly three months. After the Japanese 10 troops landed in Hangzhou Bay, the situation took a turn for the worse, and the China defenders who attacked from the rear retreated across the board. Under the rapid pursuit of the Japanese army, the retreat of the national army turned into an extremely chaotic escape.
165438+1On October 20th, the government of the Republic of China issued the Declaration on the National Government's Relocation to Chongqing, and government agencies and schools moved to the mainland one after another, and many citizens also fled Nanjing. In June, the number of urban and rural residents in Nanjing was 1.0 1.5 million. At the beginning of June, the resident population was estimated to be only 468,000 to 568,000, but this did not include soldiers and refugees who fled to Nanjing from the front.
On the 22nd, more than 20 western expatriates who stayed in Nanjing in the spirit of humanitarianism set up the International Committee of Nanjing Safe Zone, and they proposed to set up a safe zone for civilians to avoid gunfire in the northwest of Nanjing.
On the 29th, the mayor of Nanjing announced that he recognized the International Safe Zone Committee and provided food, funds and police for the safe zone. Tang Shengzhi also promised to withdraw its troops from the security zone. On February 5, 65438, the International Committee received an ambiguous reply from the Japanese government, and immediately started the work of the safe area.
On February 8, 65438, the Japanese army fully occupied the frontline defensive positions outside Nanjing and began to attack the peripheral positions. 1 1 In the evening, Chiang Kai-shek telegraphed Tang Shengzhi that "if the situation can't last, the camera can retreat". On June 5438+02, a division of the 6 th Division of the Japanese Army broke into the Zhonghua Gate but failed to go deep. The rest of the wall positions are still in the hands of the China army.
Sun, the commander of the 88th Division, who was in charge of defending Zhonghua Gate, led some troops to flee to Guanxia without authorization. Although Song Xilian, the commander of the 36th division, dissuaded him from returning, it caused chaos in the city. In the afternoon, Tang Shengzhi hurriedly called the generals above the division to arrange the evacuation. According to the evacuation plan, except for the 36th Division covering the headquarters and its directly affiliated troops crossing the river from Shimonoseki, all other troops must break through from the front.
However, Tang Shengzhi was worried that the clique belonging to the Central Army would lose too much in the breakout, and verbally ordered the 87th Division, 88th Division, 74th Division and the teaching corps to "cross the river with a ferry", which made the retreat of China's army even more chaotic.
After the meeting, only the 66th Army and the 83rd Army, which belonged to the Guangdong Army, were led by commanders Ye Zhao and Deng Longguang. After paying a huge price, they successfully broke through the encirclement of the Japanese army, and 159 division commander Luo Cequn died. Most officers of other units did not completely convey the evacuation plan downward, so they left the unit and took a pre-controlled ship to the river to escape.
These troops heard that the chief retired to Shimonoseki, thinking that the riverside was ready to retreat, so they gave up their positions and flocked to Shimonoseki. The 36th Division, which was in charge of blocking the Yimeng Gate, did not receive an order to allow troops to retreat, and clashed with troops retreating from the urban area to Shimonoseki. Many people were killed or trampled to death.
/kloc-on the night of 0/2, Tang Shengzhi and members of the headquarters fled from Shimonoseki coal port to Jiangbei on a small steamboat booked in advance. After that, about 5,000 people from the 74th Army and the 36th Division also crossed the river by boat from the coal port, and the 88th Division and156th Division crossed the river in Xiaguan in wooden boats controlled by themselves.
China defenders who fled to Shimonoseki have lost their organizational system and become chaotic skirmishers. Some of them crossed the river alone, and many of them drowned or were shot dead in the river by the Japanese troops who arrived. Most of the China soldiers who failed to cross the river or break through were scattered on the streets of Nanking. Many people gave up their weapons and put on casual clothes to hide in Nanjing safety zone. 13 in the morning, the Japanese invaded Nanjing.
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During the war, the Japanese authorities imposed strict news censorship on Japanese domestic media, and Japanese officers and men who returned home were also ordered to ban the crimes committed during the war, making it difficult for a considerable number of Japanese people to know the details of the Nanjing Massacre in time. However, as more war veterans returned to China, the information of the Holocaust was spread outside the mainstream media in Japan.
After Japan launched a full-scale war of aggression against China, the manuscripts and photos sent by media reporters in Japan have to be closely examined by the Japanese military and authorities, and all those that are unfavorable to the military will be confiscated, and journalists who violate the rules will be severely punished.
Xiao Qixing, a reporter from Yomiuri Shimbun, said: "What I heard on the battlefield were unspeakable atrocities, but these things should never be written. Just write the friendship we met on the battlefield and the story before and after. This so-called military talk. "
Baidu Encyclopedia-Nanjing Massacre