The Historical Contributions of the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University in the Anti-Japanese National United Front

After the Mukden Incident [1]1 The Mukden Incident (September 18, 1931): a staged event used by Japan as a pretext to invade and occupy Northeast China, marking the beginning of the full-scale Japanese invasion of China., the Sino-Japanese national contradiction became the principal contradiction facing Chinese society. Against the historical background of the crisis of national subjugation and genocide facing the Chinese nation, the Communist Party of China took the lead in proposing the establishment of an anti-Japanese national united front, then pressed for the second KMT-CPC cooperation, promoted the formal formation of the anti-Japanese national united front, and played the role of a mainstay [2]2 "Mainstay" (zhongliu dizhu): a Chinese idiom referring to a person or force that plays a key supporting role in a critical situation, literally meaning "the pillar supporting a midstream current". in the War of Resistance. In October 1935, the Red Army arrived in northern Shaanxi after the Long March [3]3 The Long March (1934-1936): the strategic retreat of the Chinese Red Army to escape the KMT encirclement, a foundational event in CPC history.. To train cadres to adapt to the new domestic and international situation, the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army University was established and began enrollment in June of the following year. At the opening ceremony, Mao Zedong emphasized that the CPC founded the Red Army University to prepare to welcome the coming national revolutionary war and to strive for the independence and liberation of the Chinese nation. As the situation of the War of Resistance developed, the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army University was renamed the Chinese People's Anti-Japanese Military and Political University (hereafter referred to as "Kangda"). As the highest military academy under Party leadership, Kangda trained more than 100,000 military and political cadres with both ability and integrity, making important contributions to the consolidation and development of the anti-Japanese national united front.

九一八事变后，中日民族矛盾成为中国社会面临的主要矛盾。在中华民族面临亡国灭种危机的历史背景下，中国共产党率先提出了建立抗日民族统一战线的主张，之后力促国共实现第二次合作，推动了抗日民族统一战线的正式形成，在抗战中发挥了中流砥柱作用。1935年10月，红军长征到达陕北，为培养干部适应新的国内外形势，中国抗日红军大学于次年6月宣告成立并开始招生，毛泽东在开学典礼上强调，中国共产党创办抗日红军大学，是为准备迎接民族革命战争的到来，是要争取中华民族的独立解放。随着抗战形势的发展，中国抗日红军大学更名为中国人民抗日军事政治大学（以下简称“抗大”）。抗大作为党领导下的最高军事学府，先后培养了10万多名德才兼备的军政干部，为抗日民族统一战线的巩固与发展作出了重要贡献。

Actively propagate the theory of national salvation through resistance against Japan. In the theoretical propaganda of the anti-Japanese national united front, Kangda promoted both the education and propaganda of relevant theories among the trainees and the propaganda work among the masses by the trainees, forming a favorable situation in which the school educated the trainees and the trainees led the masses.

积极宣传抗日救国理论。在抗日民族统一战线的理论宣传方面，抗大既推动了相关理论在学员中的教育和宣传，也促进了广大学员在群众中的宣传工作，形成了学校教育学员、学员带动群众的良好局面。

To enable trainees to master systematic anti-Japanese theory, Kangda actively taught knowledge of the anti-Japanese national united front. *The Party's Policy on the National United Front* and Mao Zedong's *On the Anti-Japanese National United Front* were compulsory courses for the trainees. Before class, study group leaders were called to hold preparatory educational meetings, and course representatives and general course representatives were appointed to exchange learning experiences. The school also launched many songs reflecting the anti-Japanese theme, such as *The Kangda School Song*, *Yellow River Cantata*, and *The Broadsword March*, which were often sung by the trainees. On the playground, in the classroom, on the march, and at the labor site, wherever there was a Kangda team, there were loud singing voices. By singing songs reflecting resistance against Japan and national salvation, the anti-Japanese confidence and fighting spirit of Kangda trainees were strengthened, and the surrounding masses were also encouraged. Under the school's cultivation, the trainees were deeply influenced. Kangda trainee Guo Qingshou recalled that Kangda's education on resisting Japan and saving the nation gave him direction and purpose in life, and was the first ideological liberation of his life.

为推动广大学员掌握系统的抗日理论，抗大积极传授抗日民族统一战线知识，《党的民族统一战线政策》以及毛泽东《论抗日民族统一战线》是学员的必修课程，上课前召集学习小组长召开准备教育会，设立课代表和总课代表，以相互交流学习经验。学校还推出了许多反映抗日主题的歌曲，《抗日军政大学校歌》《黄河大合唱》《大刀进行曲》等是广大学员经常传唱的歌曲，操场上、课堂里、行军途中、劳动工地，哪里有抗大的队伍，哪里就有嘹亮的歌声。通过传唱反映抗日救亡的歌曲，抗大学员的抗战信心和斗志得到了增强，周围群众也受到了鼓舞。在学校的培养下，学员们受到了深刻影响。抗大学员郭庆寿回忆，抗大的抗日救亡教育使得他做人有了方向、有了奔头，是他人生中的第一次思想解放。

While completing education and training tasks, the school also required trainees to take on the tasks of propaganda teams and work teams and actively mobilize the masses to resist Japan. Kangda's Party branch and National Salvation Room had a civil affairs committee, mainly responsible for mass work around the school. The school organized teachers and students to help the masses with labor on holidays. During breaks, they would actively explain changes in the war situation to the masses, expose the crimes of the Japanese invaders, and emphasize the importance of popular unity for achieving victory in the War of Resistance. To further strengthen the propaganda of anti-Japanese theory among the masses, the school specially established an art work troupe, organizing trainees to perform artistic shows among the masses. In the arduous wartime environment, the trainees piled up dirt platforms and pulled up curtains to perform on the spot, actively propagating the Party's anti-Japanese national salvation theory. After watching the shows, many people voluntarily expressed their willingness to go to the front. The First Branch School also received reports about the crimes of Japanese puppets and traitors, providing clues and evidence for punishing traitors. Some Kangda art troupe trainees even ran to the vicinity of the puppet army pillboxes, first playing the erhu and singing anti-Japanese songs, then explaining the latest domestic and international situation and the Party's anti-Japanese policies, eventually causing the entire puppet army in the pillbox to abandon darkness for light [4]4 "Abandon darkness for light" (qi'an touming): a Chinese idiom meaning to leave a wrong path and join the right one, often used to describe defectors from the enemy side..

在完成教育训练任务的同时，学校还要求广大学员担负起宣传队、工作队的任务，积极带动群众抗日。抗大的党支部、救亡室设有民运委员会，主要负责学校周围的群众工作，学校会组织师生利用节假日帮助群众劳动，在休息时，会主动向群众讲述抗战形势的变化，揭露日寇的侵略罪行，强调民众联合对取得抗战胜利的重要性。为了进一步加强在群众中的抗日理论宣传，学校专门成立了文艺工作团，组织学员到群众中开展文艺演出。在战时艰苦环境中，学员们就地堆土台、拉幕布演出，积极宣传党的抗日救国理论。许多人看完节目后，主动表示愿意奔赴前线，一分校还接到了关于日伪汉奸罪行的举报，为惩处汉奸提供了线索和依据。一些抗大文工队学员甚至跑到伪军炮楼附近，先是拉二胡唱抗日歌，接着讲国际国内最新形势及党的抗日政策，最终让整个炮楼的伪军弃暗投明。

Strive to maintain the united resistance of the whole nation against Japan. In upholding the anti-Japanese national united front, Kangda recruited trainees with obvious breadth and inclusiveness, promoting the integration and unity of different student groups, and waging a resolute struggle against actions that undermined the unity of the War of Resistance, actively promoting the united resistance of the whole nation.

努力维护全民族团结抗战。在维护抗日民族统一战线方面，抗大招收的学员具有明显的广泛性和包容性，促进了不同学生群体的融合与团结，而且与破坏抗战团结的行为进行坚决斗争，积极推动实现全民族团结抗战。

Patriotism is the largest common ground [5]5 "Largest common ground" (zuida de tongxinyuan): a metaphor meaning the broadest basis for unity, derived from the geometric concept of concentric circles.. In the real predicament of Japanese imperialist aggression, achieving broad national unity was an inevitable choice to save the national crisis. Kangda actively maintained the united resistance of the whole nation. Among the recruited trainees, there were students from different provinces in China, as well as returned overseas Chinese from abroad; there were Han students and students from ethnic minorities; there were CPC members and KMT members. Kangda fully guaranteed the rights of all trainees and did not force all trainees to believe in communism. As long as one was willing to resist Japan, Kangda actively trained them. The school's enrollment was to unite all anti-Japanese forces that could be united. To promote good exchange and cooperation between different groups, Kangda made unity a major theme of school spirit building, emphasizing mutual help and harmonious coexistence between trainees, between teachers and students, creating a good campus atmosphere and injecting spiritual motivation into the united resistance against Japan.

爱国主义是最大的同心圆，在日本帝国主义侵略的现实困境中，实现全民族广泛团结是挽救民族危机的必然选择。抗大积极维护全民族团结抗战，在招收的学员中，既有来自国内不同省份的学生，也有来自海外的归国华侨，既有汉族学生，也有少数民族学生，有共产党党员，也有国民党党员。抗大充分保障广大学员的权利，不强迫所有学员都信仰共产主义，只要愿意抗日者，抗大就积极培养，学校的招生是为了团结一切可以团结的抗日力量。为了推动不同群体间实现良好的交流协作，抗大把团结作为校风建设的一大主题，强调学员之间、师生之间互帮互助、融洽相处，营造了良好的校园氛围，也为团结抗战注入了精神动力。

After the Wannan Incident [6]6 The Wannan Incident (January 1941): a clash between the CPC's New Fourth Army and KMT forces during the War of Resistance, in which the KMT attacked the New Fourth Army headquarters, severely damaging CPC-KMT cooperation. in 1941, Kangda teachers and students created the play *Bright Sunny Skies* [7]7 *Bright Sunny Skies* (qingtian bairi): the title of the play refers to the KMT flag (a white sun on a blue sky), used here to mock the KMT's hypocrisy., exposing the criminal acts of the KMT reactionaries in undermining the anti-Japanese national united front. Kangda's school headquarters and political department urgently mobilized student cadres to various regiments and areas to conduct anti-civil war propaganda, while establishing denunciation meetings and support meetings to expose and criticize the evils of the KMT reactionaries. In June 1943, Chiang Kai-shek secretly ordered Hu Zongnan [8]8 Hu Zongnan (1896-1962): a senior KMT general who blockaded the CPC's Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region. and others to concentrate troops toward the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region [9]9 The Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region: the main CPC base area and the location of Yan'an, the CPC wartime capital., and soon after ordered artillery shelling of the Guanzhong Subregion. Yan'an issued an emergency telegram to the whole country calling for "unity to resist Japan, oppose civil war." In accordance with the relevant orders of the Party Central Committee, Kangda trainees actively implemented combat plans, took up weapons, and conducted defense in Mizhi, Suide, and other places, strengthening self-defense and war preparations. Soon after, Hu Zongnan's troops withdrew, and the plot of the diehards to undermine the unity of the War of Resistance was smashed. The First Branch School of Kangda also organized small detachments and armed work teams to go deep into enemy-occupied areas and border areas to carry out anti-Japanese work. In newly opened-up areas, they mobilized the masses to join the army and support the front, organized people from all walks of life to join anti-Japanese national salvation groups, strove to unite progressive forces, win over the middle forces, and waged struggles against the diehards that were "justifiable, advantageous, and restrained" [10]10 "Justifiable, advantageous, and restrained" (youli, youli, youjie): a principle formulated by Mao Zedong for dealing with diehard anti-communist forces during the War of Resistance, meaning to struggle on grounds of justice, with advantage, and within limits., thoroughly implementing the Party's anti-Japanese national united front policy.

1941年皖南事变发生后，抗大师生创作了话剧《青天白日》，揭露了国民党反动派破坏抗日民族统一战线的罪恶行径。抗大校部、政治部紧急动员学生干部到各团及地区进行反对内战宣传，同时成立声讨会和支援会，对国民党反动派的恶行进行揭露和批判。1943年6月，蒋介石密令胡宗南等部向陕甘宁边区集中，不久后下令炮击关中分区，延安向全国发出了“团结抗日、反对内战”的紧急通电。抗大学员按照党中央的有关命令，积极执行作战方案，拿起武器在米脂、绥德等地进行防御，加强自卫备战。不久后，胡宗南等部撤回，顽固派破坏抗战团结的阴谋被粉碎。抗大一分校还曾组织小分队、武工队深入敌占区、边沿区开展抗日工作，在新开辟的地区，发动群众参军、支前，组织各界人士加入抗日救亡团体，努力团结进步力量，争取中间势力，对顽固派进行有理、有利、有节的斗争，深入贯彻党的抗日民族统一战线方针。

Extensively organize trainees to participate in actual combat against Japan. In achieving the goal of the anti-Japanese national united front, Kangda repeatedly organized trainees to participate in actual combat. After graduation, trainees rushed to multiple regions across the country, using the knowledge they learned to educate and influence the local masses, playing a good radiating and driving role and promoting the victory of the War of Resistance.

广泛组织学员参与抗日实战。在实现抗日民族统一战线的目标方面，抗大多次组织学员参与实战。学员在毕业后奔赴全国多个地区，用所学知识教育和影响当地群众，起到了良好的辐射和带动作用，推动了抗日战争的胜利。

Kangda always regarded the cultivation of military capability as an important content, listing *Problems of Strategy in China's Revolutionary War*, *Problems of Strategy in Guerrilla War Against Japan*, and *On Protracted War* as compulsory military theory courses, while organizing trainees to learn shooting, grenade throwing, demolition, and other operations, sending a large number of military personnel to the anti-Japanese front line to support frontline struggles against Japan. During the May Counter-Campaign Against "Mop-up" [11]11 The May Counter-Campaign Against "Mop-up" (wuyue fan saodang): a CPC military operation in May 1942 to counter Japanese "mop-up" campaigns in the base areas., Kangda trainees participating in the battle decisively adopted the "enemy advances, we advance" shoulder-grazing tactic [12]12 "Enemy advances, we advance" (dijin woin): a tactical principle of the CPC's guerrilla warfare, meaning to move into areas left behind by the advancing enemy., repelling the enemy's attack with mountain guerrilla warfare, creating favorable conditions for the transfer of the masses in the base area. During the Hundred Regiments Offensive [13]13 The Hundred Regiments Offensive (August-December 1940): a large-scale CPC military campaign against Japanese forces in North China, involving about 400,000 troops from over 100 regiments., Kangda formed a blocking force of more than 500 people, repelling three attacks by Japanese puppet troops at Hongling, killing nearly 60 enemies, and then killing or wounding nearly 70 Japanese puppet troops in the "Thirty Mu" area, effectively cooperating with the operations of the main forces. Under the school's organization, Kangda trainees also participated in actual combat such as attacking the puppet army strongholds of Tongjing and Mazhuang, the diehard fortress of Shilangzhai, as well as the Heyang Battle, Duozhuang Battle, and Jiazi Mountain Battle. In 1945, under the instructions of the CPC Central Committee, Kangda trainees eagerly rushed to the anti-Japanese front line and participated in the last battle against Japanese imperialism. In the military struggle against the enemy, Kangda trainees displayed an indomitable spirit. Some, after running out of ammunition, jumped off cliffs to sacrifice; some wrestled with the enemy and bit off their ears; they shouldered the historical task of saving the nation from crisis with a spirit of fearing no sacrifice.

抗大始终把军事能力培养作为重要内容，将《中国革命战争的战略问题》《抗日游击战争的战略问题》以及《论持久战》等列为必修的军事理论课程，同时组织学员学习射击、投弹、爆破等作业，为抗日前线输送了一大批军事人才，支援了前线对日斗争。在五月反“扫荡”中，抗大参战学员果断采取“敌进我进”的擦肩而过式战术，以山地游击战的方法打退了敌人的进攻，为根据地人民群众的转移创造了有利条件。百团大战时，抗大共有500多人组成了一支阻击部队，在洪岭击退了日伪军3次进攻，歼敌近60人，之后又在“三十亩”一带毙伤日伪军近70人，有效配合了主力部队的作战。在学校的组织下，抗大学员还参加了攻打伪军据点铜井、马庄，顽固堡垒侍郎宅，以及河阳战斗、垛庄战斗、甲子山战斗等实战。1945年，在中共中央的指示下，抗大学员踊跃奔赴抗日前线，参加了反对日本帝国主义的最后一战。在对敌军事斗争中，抗大学员表现出不屈不挠的精神，有的子弹打光了就跳崖捐躯，有的抱着敌人搏斗，咬掉敌人耳朵，以不怕牺牲的精神承担着挽救民族危亡的历史重任。

Mao Zedong clearly pointed out, "The reason why Kangda is famous throughout the country and the world is precisely because it is the most revolutionary, the most progressive, and the most capable of fighting for national liberation and social liberation among all military schools." Generally speaking, Kangda actively practiced the Party's anti-Japanese national united front propositions, promoted the anti-Japanese national united front to penetrate deeply among the masses, played an important role in achieving national independence and people's liberation, and was a "revolutionary crucible" [14]14 "Revolutionary crucible" (geming ronglu): a metaphor meaning a place that forges revolutionaries through harsh training and struggle. in the history of modern Chinese education.

毛泽东曾明确指出，“抗大为什么全国闻名、全世界闻名，就是因为它比较其他的军事学校最革命最进步，最能为民族解放与社会解放而斗争”。总的说来，抗大积极践行党的抗日民族统一战线主张，推动抗日民族统一战线广泛深入人民群众，为实现民族独立和人民解放发挥了重要作用，是中国近代教育史上的“革命熔炉”。

(The author is an associate professor at the School of Marxism, Changchun University of Science and Technology)

（作者系长春理工大学马克思主义学院副教授）

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