SDHF Newsletter No.419 The Road to the Greater East Asian War No. 33 Ch.9-5

THE ROAD TO THE GREATER EAST ASIAN WAR
Nakamura Akira, Dokkyo University Professor Emeritus
(English Translation: Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact)
Part 33, Chapter 9: Contending with Attempts to Communize China-V

December 20, 2024

Chiang Kai-shek resigned his position of NRA commander in chief August 1027. In late September, he traveled to Japan, accompanied by his friend and adviser Zhang Qun, and visited Prime Minister Tanaka at his residence in Aoyama.

Tanaka urged Chiang to consolidate the region south of Yangzi: “As long as that area remains ununified, the CCP will continue to grow. I would suggest consolidating the area of the Yangzi, and waiting to set off on the Northern Expedition until you have established a stable base. This is a task you and only you can accomplish.” He then told Chiang, “Japan must not interfere in Chinese domestic strife. But if you succeed in consolidating South China, you will be fulfilling Japan’s most fervent hope. To that end, we shall do everything possible to assist you in this grand endeavor, to the extent permitted by international relations.”

Chiang even went so far as to reveal China’s true intentions: “We have dealings with many powers, but the only nations genuinely interested in China are Japan and Russia. Russia interferes in Chinese affairs for that reason. Why is it that Japan neither intervenes nor provides assistance?”

Soon after his meeting with Prime Minister Tanaka, Chiang Kai-shek returned to China. In April 1928 he once again took up the reins of the NRA and began the second phase of the Northern Expedition.
Chiang’s forces comprised a million men, as did the northern warlords’ armies commanded by Zhang Zuolin. Southern Army forces were poised to surround Jinan as early as mid-April.

Jinan was a commercial port and also a transportation hub in Shandong Province with a population of 380,000. Of its 2,160 foreign residents, 1,810 were Japanese. The mood in Jinan shifted abruptly to one of alarm with the northern advance of the NRA, as there was no guarantee there would not be a recurrence of the Nanjing Incident. Prime Minister Tanaka agonized after receiving a request for Japanese troops, but eventually decided that he had no choice but to send an army to protect the Japanese residents. Toward the end of April 1928, he dispatched solders to Shandong in what later became known as the 2nd Shandong Expedition.

Once the Japanese soldiers arrived in Jinan, they established two defensive sectors, one each in the eastern and western sectors of the commercial port, where most Japanese lived. On May 1, after the northern forces had withdrawn, the Southern Army entered the city, and as feared, began mutilating Japanese flags and posting anti-Japanese signs. Consequently, many disputes arose, and the atmosphere in the city suddenly became tense. On May 2 a message arrived from Commander Chiang Kai-shek requesting that the Japanese military dismantle their defensive barriers. Chiang guaranteed that order would be maintained. Believing that Chiang’s word was good, Japanese soldiers spent an entire night removing all the barricades and barbed wire they had put up.

The incident arose on the morning of May 3, soon after the Japanese had dismantled their defenses. It was precipitated by violent Southern Army soldiers who launched an assault on an agency for a Japanese-language newspaper, also the home of its operator. Japanese police officers who rushed to the scene were attacked by NRA troops. When a rescue unit arrived, the Chinese troops fled to their barracks, where they hid but continued to fire.

Disorderly combat ensued, spreading through the entire city, with the Chinese troops plundering and shooting wherever they went. Soon an agreement was reached between both sides to stop the violence, but the NRA troops ignored it, even shooting and killing a Japanese emissary bearing a white flag. The brutal Chinese troops soon transformed the city into a scene of carnage. Twenty-six Japanese residents were killed, and 30 injured. Two women were raped, and 136 houses were invaded and looted. The 6th Division proceeded to issue demands to the Chinese, who were to respond within 12 hours on May 7. They included the following:

(1) High ranking officers involved in the atrocities are to be executed.
(2) Chinese troops who clashed with Japanese soldiers are to be disarmed in the presence of Japanese military.
(3) All forms of anti-Japanese propaganda are to be prohibited.

When the Chinese refused to satisfy those conditions, Japanese military personnel decided to attack Jinan proper, which Chinese troops had taken over. The NRA soldiers fled the city under cover of darkness, and resumed their Northen Expedition.

Foreign media too condemned the Southern Army’s brutal deeds. The Chinese Peking & Tientsin Times, a foreign-language newspaper in North China, was even more enthusiastic in its defense of the Japanese: “If not for the Japanese military, every foreigner in Jinan would have been slaughtered. We owe a great deal to the Japanese. The Japanese military should secure and occupy Shandong province to prevent a recurrence of this tragedy.”

URL: 　 https://www.sdh-fact.com/book-article/2266/
PDF: 　 https://www.sdh-fact.com/CL/Road33E.pdf

MOTEKI Hiromichi, Chairman
Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact