The CPC’s Anti-Japanese War on the Eastern Main Battlefield as Seen in Japanese Historical Materials

The victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was a great victory achieved through the united will and heroic struggle of the entire nation. China’s War of Resistance made a tremendous contribution to the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War. Relevant Japanese historical materials from the period of the War of Resistance once again confirm the pivotal role played by the Communist Party of China in the War of Resistance on the Eastern Main Battlefield, reveal the true views of the Japanese invading forces toward the CPC’s War of Resistance, and, from the perspective of the other, refute erroneous views that deny the status and role of the Eastern Main Battlefield in the World Anti-Fascist War.

中国人民抗日战争的胜利，是全民族众志成城奋勇抗战为伟大胜利。中国抗战为世界反法西斯战争的胜利作出了巨大贡献。抗日战争期间的日本相关史料，再次印证中国共产党在东方主战场抗战中发挥的中流砥柱作用，揭示了侵华日军对中国共产党抗战的真实看法，从他者视角批驳了否定东方主战场在世界反法西斯战争中的地位和作用的错误观点。

The Communist Party of China was the core anti-Japanese force on the Eastern Main Battlefield

中国共产党是东方主战场的抗日核心力量

After the September 18th Incident, [the CPC] “pushed the local anti-Japanese movement in the Northeast toward a nationwide mass anti-Japanese movement.” [1]1 The July 7th Incident (1937), also known as the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, was a clash between Chinese and Japanese troops near Beijing that is conventionally regarded as the start of the full-scale Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). On September 18, 1931, Japan brazenly launched its invasion of Northeast China in the September 18th Incident. Faced with Japan’s invasion, on September 22, the Communist Party of China issued the “Resolution of the CPC Central Committee on the Incident of Japanese Imperialism’s Forcible Occupation of the Northeast,” rapidly proposing to unite the broad masses of the people in resisting Japanese aggression. On July 15, 1934, the Communist Party of China issued the “Declaration of the Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic and the Revolutionary Military Commission of the Central Committee on the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army’s Northward March to Resist Japan,” stating: “Our Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army’s Northward Anti-Japanese Vanguard Force is willing to unite with all the people of China and all armed forces to jointly resist Japan, to launch the people’s national revolutionary war, and to overthrow Japanese imperialism.” In response, Japan’s Dongbang Guoce Tongzhihui [2]2 The “Eastern Main Battlefield” (东方主战场) refers to the Chinese theater of the World Anti-Fascist War, which the CPC and Chinese official historiography designate as the primary theater of the war in Asia, as distinct from the Pacific theater. analyzed the thinking behind the CPC’s declaration of war against Japan, believing that the CPC’s central goal was to resist Japan, and that it intended, through cooperation between the Kuomintang and the CPC, to integrate the Communist Party’s army with the Kuomintang’s army and establish an anti-Japanese national united front. The Dongbang Guoce Tongzhihui further proposed: “The CPC’s anti-Japanese stance has already transformed from a simple movement to mobilize the masses into a confident armed struggle. This change in the CPC’s stance is mainly derived from the leadership and support of the Communist International.” [3] The peaceful resolution of the Xi’an Incident [4] dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese aggressors, and especially the development momentum of the anti-Japanese national united front under the leadership of the CPC after the outbreak of the July 7th Incident [5] placed enormous pressure on the Japanese authorities. In November 1938, a secret document submitted by the staff department of the Japanese Army’s Temple Unit to the Imperial General Headquarters, “Top Secret: On the Political Department of the Communist Army,” stated: “Through anti-Japanese guerrilla units, the Communist Party’s political department conducts education and propaganda on anti-Japanese thought in areas outside the military, enabling the broad masses to ‘contribute their strength and contribute their goods,’ actively participate in the War of Resistance, and, in North China, form an anti-Japanese situation characterized by unified thought, strong organizational capacity, and mass support, through ‘reddening’ and anti-Japanese movements.”

九一八事变后“把东北局部反日运动推向全民性抗日运动”。1931年9月18日，日本悍然发动了入侵中国东北的九一八事变。面对日本的入侵，9月22日，中国共产党发布了《中共中央关于日本帝国主义强占满洲事变的决议》，迅速提出了联合广大人民群众共同抵抗日本的侵略。1934年7月15日，中国共产党发表《中华苏维埃共和国中央政府、中革军委为中国工农红军北上抗日宣言》提出：“我们中国工农红军北上抗日先遣队，愿意同全中国的民众与一切武装力量联合起来共同抗日，开展民众的民族革命战争，打倒日本帝国主义。”对此，日本东邦国策同志会对中国共产党对日作战宣言的思想进行了分析，认为中国共产党的中心目标在于抗日，意图要通过国共合作使共产党军队与国民党军队进行统合，建立抗日民族统一战线。日本东邦国策同志会还进一步提出：“中国共产党的抗日主张已经从单纯的发动群众的运动转变为自信的武力战斗，中国共产党这种主张的变化主要是源于共产国际的领导和支持。”西安事变的和平解决给日本侵略者以沉重打击，尤其是七七事变爆发后中国共产党领导下的抗日民族统一战线的发展势头，更是对日本当局产生了巨大压力。1938年11月，日军寺内部队参谋部向参谋本部提交的秘密文件《极秘关于共产军的政治部》中提出：“共产党的政治部通过抗日游击队，在军队以外的地区进行抗日思想的教育和宣传，使广大民众‘有力出力，有物出物’，积极地参加抗日战争，在华北地区的‘赤化’和抗日运动，形成了一个思想统一、组织力强、群众支持的抗日局面。”

The Communist Party of China filled the anti-Japanese “vacuum” in North China after the outbreak of the July 7th Incident, effectively pinning down the Japanese invading forces, and became the core anti-Japanese force on the Eastern Main Battlefield. Japanese historical materials comprehensively reveal that after the July 7th Incident, the CPC resolutely waged the War of Resistance in North China, effectively pinning down and consuming a large number of main forces of the Japanese invading army. The South Manchuria Railway Company, [6] as a “national policy company,” conducted a comprehensive investigation of the CPC’s anti-Japanese intelligence during the Japanese army’s invasion of North and Central China, and produced “secret” investigation reports for the Japanese army’s reference in formulating its invasion policy. In November 1939, the South Manchuria Railway Company, in its investigation report “Secret: Materials on the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army,” stated: “As early as February 1937, the CPC, in its ‘Telegram from the CPC Central Committee to the Third Plenary Session of the Kuomintang,’ [7] proposed a five-point anti-Japanese war telegram, including ‘stop all civil wars and unite against foreign aggression.’ This was the CPC’s new policy for the anti-Japanese national united front, and, with the slogan ‘create model anti-Japanese troops to wage struggle,’ it actively mobilized combat instructors, from army commanders to cooks and grooms, with all personnel diligently studying military affairs and political education, including the daily life and work systems of the regular army, the anti-Japanese national united front, and the Sino-Japanese issue, steadily advancing preparations for the war of resistance against Japan.” The investigation report also conducted a detailed investigation of the Eighth Route Army’s battlefield behind enemy lines, stating: “Based on strategic and political needs, the Eighth Route Army, targeting the vast occupied areas, established countless small base areas, universally waged guerrilla warfare, and thereby persisted in a protracted war; and in various places, it launched mass movements, organized people’s self-defense forces, guerrilla units, etc., and carried out activities to disrupt the Japanese army’s rear-area security, attack transportation and supply lines and small units, and sabotage the activities of ‘new regimes.’ They not only operated along various railway and highway lines in Shanxi Province, but also penetrated deep into the vast occupied areas of Hebei, Chahar, Suiyuan, Shandong,

中国共产党填补七七事变爆发后华北地区的抗日“真空”地带，有效牵制了侵华日军，成为东方主战场的抗日核心力量。日本史料全面揭示了七七事变后中国共产党在华北地区坚决进行抗战，有效地牵制和消耗了大量侵华日军主力。作为“国策会社”的“满铁”，在日军向华北和华中地区入侵过程中对中国共产党的抗日情报进行了全面调查，并形成“秘密”调查报告书提供给日军作为侵略政策的参考。1939年11月，“满铁”在其调查报告书《秘关于第八路军及新编第四军的资料》中提出：“早在1937年2月，中国共产党在《中共中央致国民党三中全会电》中提出‘停止一切内战，一致对外’等五项内容的对日抗战通电，这是中国共产党抗日民族统一战线的新政策，并以‘创建模范的抗日军队进行斗争’为口号，积极动员战斗指导员，从军长到炊事员、马夫，全体人员努力学习军事实务与政治教育，包括正规军的日常生活与工作制度、抗日民族统一战线以及中日问题等内容，稳步推进对日抗战的准备工作。”该调查报告还对八路军的敌后抗战战场进行了详细调查，认为：“八路军根据战略和政治上的需要，针对广大被占领地区，建立无数小型根据地，普遍开展游击战争，以此坚持长期抗战；并在各地发动群众运动，组织人民自卫军、游击队等，开展破坏日军后方治安、袭击交通与补给线、小股部队，以及破坏‘新政权’组织等活动。他们不仅在山西省内的各条铁路、公路沿线展开活动，还深入河北、察哈尔、绥远、山东、河南等广大被占领地区发动游击战，甚至越过‘满洲国’边境，进入热河地区制造骚乱，其行动之猛烈达到极点，至今仍在持续。”

Persisting in the War of Resistance Behind Enemy Lines Tied Down Large Numbers of Japanese Invading Troops

坚持敌后抗战牵制大批侵华日军

The Chinese Communist Party’s anti-Japanese base areas in North China “formed a ‘Red Corridor,’ which the invading Japanese troops regarded as a major ‘cancer’ in the pacification and consolidation of North China.” In July 1943, a survey document titled “The Present Stage of North China Construction” submitted by the North China Bureau of the Japanese Domei News Agency to the Japanese Embassy in Beijing stated: “As the most urgent task for North China, which serves as a logistics base for the Greater East Asia War, it is necessary to mobilize the full strength of 100 million people, develop inexhaustible underground resources, and supply them to Japan as important wartime national defense resources. However, the obstruction of the two major forces of Chongqing (the Nationalist Government) and Yan’an (the Chinese Communist Party) makes it difficult for North China to fulfill this ‘great mission’ in a short period of time.” The survey document also stated: “Six years after the incident (referring to the six years since the full-scale outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan), in North China today, the Chiang Kai-shek forces have almost been trampled flat and annihilated by the iron hooves of our elite troops. However, the Chinese Communist Party’s army has skillfully avoided the edge of our forces during this period and continuously plotted the Red (communist) conspiracy in North China. It is precisely this Chinese Communist Party army that has become a malignant tumor in the construction of North China; and annihilating this Communist Eighth Route Army is the ‘great mission’ of the Japanese army in North China.”

中国共产党抗日根据地在华北“形成‘赤色回廊’，被侵华日军看做是华北治安肃正的一大‘癌症’”。1943年7月，日本同盟通讯社华北总局向日本驻北京大使馆提交的一份调查资料《华北建设的现阶段》提出：“作为大东亚战争的兵站基地的华北当前最紧迫的急务，是要动员一亿民众的全部力量，开发取之不尽的地下资源，并将其作为战时的重要国防资源供给日本，但重庆（国民政府）与延安（中国共产党）这两大势力的阻挠，使华北所肩负的这一‘重大使命’，短时间内难以完成。”该调查资料还提出：“事变六年（指全面抗日战争爆发已六年），如今在华北地区，蒋系军队几乎已被我方精锐部队的铁蹄所踏平并歼灭，然而中国共产党军队在此期间巧妙地避开了我军锋芒，持续策动华北的赤化（共产主义化）阴谋。正是这支中国共产党军队，成为华北建设的毒瘤；而歼灭这支共产党八路军，这是日军在华北的‘重大使命’。”

The survey document further analyzed and proposed that even if the Japanese army repeatedly carried out “mopping-up operations” against the anti-Japanese base areas in North China, the “Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region” (Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia), the “Northwestern Shanxi Border Region” (northwestern Shanxi Province), the “Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region” (Shanxi, Chahar, Hebei), and the “Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Border Region” (Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, Henan) under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party had already been connected to form a “North China Red Corridor.” This created a four-in-one political offensive of military, government, Party, and people from the anti-Japanese Red forces, which grew increasingly powerful, and was a “malignant tumor” that the Japanese army in North China needed to completely eradicate.

该调查资料还进一步分析提出，即使日军对华北抗日根据地反复实施“肃清作战”，但中国共产党领导下的“陕甘宁边区”（陕西、甘肃、宁夏）、“晋西北边区”（山西省西北部）、“晋察冀边区”（山西、察哈尔、河北）、“晋冀鲁豫边区”（山西、河北、山东、河南）等地已经连接而成的“华北赤色走廊”，形成了军、政、党、民四位一体的抗日赤色势力的政治攻势便越发强劲，是华北地区日军需要彻底消灭的“毒瘤”。

Japanese historical sources fully prove that after the outbreak of the July 7th Incident [1]1 The July 7th Incident (1937), also known as the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, was a clash between Chinese and Japanese troops near Beijing that is conventionally regarded as the start of the full-scale Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945)., the Japanese authorities fully recognized that the anti-Japanese armed forces led by the Chinese Communist Party, fighting for a long time on the battlefield behind enemy lines and extensively establishing anti-Japanese base areas, had already posed a serious threat to the Japanese army’s rear and become a major potential threat to their war against China. In particular, the Hundred Regiments Campaign that broke out in 1940, as the largest-scale frontal offensive launched by the Chinese Communist Party, not only effectively tied down a large number of Japanese troops but also caused severe damage to their transportation lines and strongholds. From this point on, the Japanese side increasingly regarded the Chinese Communist Party as its true adversary.

日方史料充分证明，七七事变爆发后日本当局充分认识到，由中国共产党领导的抗日武装力量长期在敌后战场作战，广泛建立抗日根据地，已对日军后方构成严重威胁，成为其对华战争的重大潜在威胁。尤其是1940年爆发的百团大战，作为中国共产党发动的最大规模正面战役，不仅有效牵制了大量日军兵力，也对其交通运输线及据点造成严重破坏。由此，日本方面愈加明确地将中国共产党视为其真正的对手。

In summary, the Communist Party of China played a pivotal role in the Eastern Main Battlefield and was an indispensable and important component of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. Viewed from multiple levels—strategic, military, political, and international influence—the CPC’s War of Resistance not only greatly weakened the aggressive forces of Japanese fascism but also strengthened China’s strategic position as the Eastern Main Battlefield. The anti-Japanese struggle in North China, led by the CPC, effectively pinned down and consumed a large number of main Japanese forces; the CPC actively opened up and held fast to the enemy’s rear battlefield, and by means such as encircling the cities from the countryside and extensively mobilizing the masses, established 19 anti-Japanese base areas, which preserved the embers of resistance when the frontal battlefield suffered setbacks; during the War of Resistance, the CPC accumulated valuable military strength, political experience, and mass support, which played a decisive role in the changes in China’s political situation after the war. The CPC’s War of Resistance was an important pillar of the Eastern Main Battlefield.

综上所述，中国共产党在东方主战场中发挥了中流砥柱的作用，是中国人民抗日战争暨世界反法西斯战争中不可或缺的重要组成部分。从战略、军事、政治及国际影响等多个层面来看，中国共产党的抗战不仅极大削弱了日本法西斯的侵略力量，也强化了中国作为东方主战场的战略地位。由中国共产党领导的华北地区抗日斗争，有效牵制并消耗了大量日军主力；中国共产党积极开辟并坚守敌后战场，通过农村包围城市与广泛发动群众等方式，建立起19块抗日根据地，这些根据地在正面战场受挫时保存了抵抗的火种；中国共产党在抗战过程中积累了宝贵的军事力量、政治经验和群众基础，对战后中国政局变化起到了决定性作用。中国共产党的抗战是东方主战场上的重要支柱。

(The authors are a professor at the School of Sociology, Soochow University, and a doctoral candidate at the School of Sociology, Soochow University.)

（作者系苏州大学社会学院教授；苏州大学社会学院博士研究生）

Online editor: Tongxin

网络编辑：同心