Chapter 80 Trial of war criminals, repatriation of Japanese prisoners and overseas Chinese, and war compensation

On August 15, 1945, when Japan announced its unconditional surrender, Chiang Kai-shek made a radio speech to the military, civilians and allies across the country. He said: "... this war has carried forward the spirit of mutual understanding and mutual respect among human beings, and established our The relationship of mutual trust, and it proves that world war and world peace are inseparable, which is enough to make the occurrence of future wars impossible. When I said this, I thought of the saying "treat others as yourself" in the sermon of Christ The two words "love your enemy" really make me feel infinitely. My Chinese compatriots should know that "don't forget the old evil" and "be kind to others" are the most noble and noble virtues of our national tradition; we always say that we only recognize Japan. The militaristic warlords are the enemy, not the Japanese people. Today the enemy army has been defeated by our allies. We do not want to retaliate, let alone insult the people of the enemy country. We only treat them as fooled and driven by their warlords. And show mercy, so that they can extricate themselves from mistakes and crimes. We must know that if we answer the enemy's previous atrocities with violence, and answer their previous wrong sense of superiority with slavery, then grievances will be reciprocated without end, and it is by no means our benevolence and righteousness. The purpose of being a teacher." The spirit of this speech can be summed up in four words, which is "repaying grievances with virtue".

When the Japanese regained their sense, they showed respect for the strong and strong obedience. They completely obeyed the victors and maintained discipline.Historian Huang Renyu participated in and witnessed the surrender activities. He reviewed the atmosphere at that time in his later memoirs: "I myself arrived in Shanghai with the advance troops of the Third Front Army in early September 1945, and went to Nanjing with the deputy commander, General Zheng Dongguo. At this time, the Beijing-Shanghai Railway was relying on the Japanese guards who had not yet surrendered, and the road was in order. The former site of the Central Military Academy on Huangpu Road was the place where Okamura signed the letter of surrender on September 9. All the layout work for the venue was undertaken by Japanese soldiers. They bowed their heads There is no irregularity in obeying orders. According to colleagues who can speak Japanese, their junior officers still maintain full authority over the soldiers' instructions, and there is no fear of losing control. Everything I have witnessed, from the generals to the soldiers in the Japanese army, is all obedient and polite. I and They have been together for several months and have not heard a word of disrespect, nor have they seen a single expression of regret. Not long ago, a friend wrote in the New York "World Journal" that he had met a lieutenant officer of the Japanese Gendarmerie on that day .Because the Japanese gendarmes were doing evil on a daily basis, after the end of the war, these officers were beaten by residents all day long, but they were ordered by Okamura not to fight back, so that their faces were swollen every day, and they still obeyed the order." The Japanese army surrendered during the process. They show their astonishing obedience, and political conflicts within China often make them in a dilemma.

From August 1945 to May 1947, a total of 2,357 Japanese war criminals were arrested in various parts of China, and military courts were successively set up in Beiping, Nanjing, Shanghai, Hankou, Guangzhou, Taiyuan, Xuzhou, Jinan, Taipei, Shenyang and other places to try war criminals .After intensive trials in various places, 35 war criminals were executed, 933 were repatriated to Japan, 27 were extradited abroad, 1,137 war criminals were still in custody, and hundreds of them were transferred to judicial organs.In order to unify the trial of Japanese war criminals in China, China formally established the military tribunal of the Ministry of National Defense on February 15, 1946. Shi Meiyu was appointed as the head of the court, and Wang Jiamei was the chief prosecutor. Japanese war criminals handed over by various courts.Hisao Tani, one of the first criminals in the Nanjing Massacre by the Chinese military court, Gunkichi Tanaka, the second-class war criminal, Toshiaki Mukai and Iwa Noda who participated in the "killing contest" under the Zijin Mountain in Nanjing, and Takashi Sakai, commander of the 23rd Army of the Japanese Invasion Army , Tanaka Hisaichi, the commander of the South China Dispatched Army of the Japanese Invasion Army, and others were tried and sentenced to death.

The Tokyo trial of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East began in May 1946. It finally ruled that Hideki Tojo, Iwane Matsui, Kenji Doihara, Seishiro Sakagaki, and Koki Hirota were Class A war criminals and sentenced to death by hanging.The responsibility for the war has long been determined by the international community. According to the policy of German complaints, from November 1945 when the first batch of repatriation ships departed from Tanggu Port to the last batch of Japanese prisoners and overseas Chinese landed in Japan on August 21 of the following year, there were a total of more than 1.255 million Japanese prisoners, 784,974 Japanese nationals returned to China by boat from Tanggu, Qingdao, Lianyungang, Shanghai, Keelung and other ports.Afterwards, Japanese prisoners and overseas Chinese returned to China one after another, with a total of 3.1 million people.The repatriation took 10 months, while some foreigners estimated that China's repatriation work would take about four and a half years.At that time, the interior of China was not peaceful, but the Chinese government still mobilized a large number of vehicles and ships to allow the Japanese who had committed atrocities in China to return to their homes in time.Considering that Japan is in ruins, in order to reduce their living difficulties after returning home, the Chinese side also allows them to carry 30 kilograms of luggage each.

The losses caused by the Japanese invasion to China cannot be accurately counted until now. The official statistics at the end of the war were recorded in the Nationalist Government’s “Report on China’s Demand for Compensation from Japan”, and the property losses alone amounted to 35 billion US dollars. 3.4 million Chinese soldiers died on the battlefield, and more than 7 million civilians died directly in the war.In a later statistics by the Executive Yuan, China's wartime losses reached 62 billion US dollars.However, according to comprehensive survey statistics after the Communist Party came to power, the losses caused by the Japanese aggression were even greater. From 1931 to 1945, China suffered 35 million military and civilian casualties, direct economic losses of 100 billion U.S. dollars, indirect economic losses of 500 billion U.S. dollars, and millions of dollars. Women are raped.

But how much compensation did China get, a mere 25 million US dollars!From January 11, 1948, the China Compensation Commission sent the ship "Haikang" to Yokosuka, Japan to receive compensation materials from Japan. By September 1949, it dispatched ships 22 times and brought back 15,404 boxes of compensation materials.The total value is $22.5 million.The $62 billion loss proposed to the national government only accounts for 3/10000. The Nationalist government did not give up its demand for compensation from Japan, but after the defeat in the mainland, the Kuomintang retreated to Taiwan. Although it was still conducting diplomatic activities in the name of China in the international arena, its position was self-evident.And Japan is reaping the benefits. Just by not recognizing the new China, the Kuomintang people in Taiwan can make concessions on the issue of compensation. The United States also needs to support Japan in fighting communism. , Taiwan's Kuomintang government dropped its claim to Japan for compensation.As a result, Taiwan scholar Yu Heqing commented: "Our country, which has fought bloody battles for 8 years, under the insistence of the Japanese side, what we are fighting for is nothing more than the extreme 'spirit of generosity' of 'voluntarily giving up'." , It seems that there is no sense of gratitude, but it is taken for granted, which is really heartbreaking."

Diplomacy requires strength, and the formation of strength requires harmony and clarity in internal affairs. National division is a taboo to disperse national power.China suffered from it in its diplomacy with Japan in the early 20th century, it suffered from it in the war against Japan, and it still suffers from it in its claims against Japan after the war.It is a pity that this situation is still continuing, and it is getting worse due to the expansion of Taiwan independence forces.If the fallen soldiers of the Anti-Japanese War have spirits underground, they will also sigh deeply for the troubled Chinese nation.