In Shenyang, the largest city in Northeast China, stands a strangely shaped building called the Remnant Calendar Stele.The huge stele body is like an open desk calendar, and the granite stele body is carved into a shape full of bullet holes.The above time, always stopped at September 18, 1931.Next to this date, there is a short text that is enough to touch the nerves of the Chinese people: "At about ten o'clock in the night, the Japanese army blew up the Liutiaohu section of the South Manchuria Railway, accused the Chinese army of what they did, and then captured the Beidaying. The soldiers of our Northeast Army did not resist. The order is to retreat with pain. The national disaster is coming, and the people are fighting." For more than ten years, every night on September 18, the sky above Shenyang will sound a continuous and sharp whistle siren for 3 minutes.

Undoubtedly, people hope to remember the September 18th Incident forever in this way.But have we forgotten something, especially some important details about the background of that history and the events themselves? Are the details that important?Yes, a history without details is like a specimen without a heartbeat, and any grand historical narrative exists in the details.History is not freehand brushwork with splashed ink, but fine brushwork. Only vivid details can form an interesting whole. We may not be able to avoid this question: Can people living in peaceful times still engrave that day deeply in their hearts like the residual calendar tablet?Can we really find the flesh-and-blood connection between that period of history and today?

Let us pull our thoughts back to the Northeast in the 1920s and 1930s. The so-called Manchurians...are 74,000 square miles in size and have a population of 28 million people.It is more than three times larger than the territory of the Japanese Empire (excluding Korea and Taiwan). ... Not only is the vastness of land and the sparseness of people enviable, but the abundance of agriculture, mines and forests is unparalleled in the world. ... Therefore, all the cabinets of the past dynasties who governed Manchuria and Mongolia followed the instructions of the Meiji Emperor, expanded their scale, and completed the New World Policy...but if you want to conquer China, you must first conquer Manchuria and Mongolia; if you want to conquer the world, you must first conquer China.

This passage comes from the famous "Tanaka Memorial", which reflects the core of Japan's mainland policy.We don’t need to be entangled in the authenticity of this mysterious document. Japan’s deliberate invasion and plunder of Northeast China at that time and after that can fully prove that the September 18th Incident was a product of Japan’s established national policy.However, when it comes to the specific background of the outbreak of the September 18th Incident, the situation is much more complicated.To put it simply, it is the result of the three political forces in Japan who agree with their mainland policy and wrestle for different political considerations and interests.

It was the young officers of the Japanese Kwantung Army who actively planned and promoted the outbreak of the incident. They regarded Japan's top political and military officials as old and corrupt bureaucrats. Only in this way can Japan occupy a favorable position in the international pattern of great power competition.The Kwantung Army was Japan's occupying force in China. It "naturally" served their interests to win the empire's greater interests in China through force. Therefore, from the commander to the grassroots regiment leader, they were all active supporters of the incident.

It was mainly the Japanese cabinet that restricted or even opposed the "radical" posture of the Kwantung Army.Unlike the "regardless" military, they have more far-reaching, more toned policy plans and action roadmaps, and pay more attention to the reactions of other powers.Its strategy is to make a political show of "goodwill" to China, so that when it "has to" use force against China, it can get the understanding of the big powers.The outbreak of the incident disrupted their plans, but the Japanese government had neither the strength nor the determination to control the "disobedient" army, so it could only reluctantly follow behind the imperial soldiers.The third force is the Army Central Department with Lu Xiang and the Army Chief of Staff as the core, and its attitude is the most ambiguous.As the backbone of the army, they must not only maintain policy stability, but also take into account the requirements and interests of troops stationed overseas. The instinct of soldiers also tells them that only in war can the army become the pillar of the country.Therefore, before the incident broke out, they optimized the military equipment of the Kwantung Army; after the incident broke out, they gave the green light for the escalation of Japanese military operations in a clear and practical way.

Looking at the situation in China before and after the outbreak of the September 18th Incident, the situation seems to be much simpler—the National Government adopted a policy of non-resistance, and the main culprits were Chiang Kai-shek and Zhang Xueliang, who strictly implemented the policy.This is actually an oversimplified answer.Avoiding war with Japan was not only the proposition of Chiang and Zhang, but also the mainstream opinion of the Nationalist government. Even intellectuals and scholars like Hu Shi, Ding Wenjiang, Fu Sinian, and Chen Yinke also held this view.After carefully discussing the weapons, equipment and personnel quality of the Chinese and Japanese armies at that time, an expert concluded that if the two countries officially went to war, China would have to use a ratio of one to six to one to eight troops to be able to resist the Japanese army.At that time, Chiang Kai-shek had just completed the formal unification of China, but the actual situation was that the Kuomintang and the Communist Party were in full swing; Still strong, they took every opportunity to challenge the central government; weak China was hit by floods that had not happened in a century... In short, China did not seem to have the power to compete with Japan on the battlefield at that time.

However, the policy of non-resistance is still a bad decision based on bad judgment.The national government overestimated the weight of the Japanese government in Japan's China policy, and always overestimated the information that Japan revealed through its diplomatic channels, and did not understand that the Japanese government actually meant nothing to the Japanese military. .When the incident broke out, the national government believed that as long as they did not resist and did not give the Japanese army an excuse to expand the war, the Japanese army would eventually be restrained by the government and withdraw to the Manchurian Railway subsidiary.What was never expected was that the September 18th Incident, which determined the fate of China, and to a certain extent, also determined the fate of Japan, happened in a strange way in the way that the "lower levels" of the Japanese side promoted the "higher levels".It is one thing not to declare war on Japan, another thing not to resist.Blindly submitting to others, not only will not increase your own weight on the negotiating table, but will encourage the opponent's greed to make progress.Moreover, the worship of the strong is deeply rooted in the character of the Japanese. In front of such an opponent, submitting to such an opponent may face the most tragic consequences.

The international background cannot be ignored when examining the September 18th Incident.At that time, the old powers such as Britain and France were still deeply involved in the strategic thinking formed after World War I. Not only did they not see the threat posed by the rise of Japan to them, they even condoned and supported them, especially the United Kingdom, which always regarded Japan as a Allies in the Far East, although some British politicians do not like Japan; although the United States is already the number one power in the world, the tone of its foreign policy is the so-called isolationism, which not only lacks vision in its international strategy, but also often hesitates in action Undecided; as for the League of Nations, it is essentially controlled by Britain and France, and the "bosses" do not want to make a difference, so it is difficult to expect the League of Nations to provide substantial help to China.

It is worth pointing out that the "international factor" that had the greatest impact on the direction and outcome of the September 18th Incident was the Soviet Union, which was adjacent to both China and Japan.In terms of strategy, Japan's occupation of Manchuria was mainly aimed at the Soviet Union. It wanted to gain a solid rear and strategic depth for itself in a foreseeable war with the Soviet Union.After the incident broke out, the Japanese government was most worried about the intervention of the Soviet Union. Therefore, when the extremely arrogant Kwantung Army advanced towards Heilongjiang Province, it actually hesitated, because the North Manchuria Railway was the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union.Stalin saw through the hearts and minds of the Japanese. He was not willing to challenge Japan, which was in the limelight, but preferred to see Japan sink deep in the weak but vast China. In this way, the east of the Soviet Union was safe.Therefore, the Soviet Union not only endured Japan’s offense to its forces in Northeast China, but even the puppet Manchukuo recognized it in the future, and sold the North Manchuria Railway to the puppet Manchuria in 1935 for 140 million yen. country.Stalin set up a big picture, and Japan got into it until it was about to be defeated, and failed to launch the imaginary decisive battle with the Soviet Union; while China had to endure more war and suffering.

Of course, September 18th still has many topics that cannot be discussed. It was definitely not just a "tragic time", nor was it a war that happened overnight as described by some Western historians.Therefore, there are good reasons to say that carefully appreciating the political wrestling behind the September 18th Incident is not only meaningful, but also not boring. As long as we recall those important details, we can read the close connection between that period of history and reality. . For this reason, we have made some new attempts in the writing of this book, which may not be successful, but seek new ideas. We selected the history of the 21 days before and after the outbreak of the September 18th Incident, and through 38 specific events or topics, we tried to show the causes, consequences and rich connotations of the incident from multiple perspectives and dimensions.Of course, the specific historical narratives are not limited to these 21 days. Some even go back to the Meiji Restoration in Japan. In order to take care of the integrity of the event, some topics involve the entire Anti-Japanese War.In writing, the author strives to see the big from the small, scattered but not chaotic.Among the selected events and topics, most are closely related to the September 18th Incident, and some topics are more distant. For example, they wrote about the flood in 1931, wrote about the confrontation between local power factions and the central government, and wrote about the Kuomintang The army's "encirclement and suppression" of the Soviet area, and so on.All of these, at first glance, are not directly related to the September 18th Incident, but they can inspire people to examine this period of history from a richer perspective, allowing readers to see Japan, which is gradually reaching its peak national power and eyeing the outside world. On the other side is China with its weak national strength, weak government and constant internal strife.Only by understanding the strengths and weaknesses can we understand the opportunities for victory and defeat. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War and the Chinese Anti-Japanese War.After the baptism of Jiazi, the world and China have undergone tremendous changes.If the retrospective of history is not about thinking about the past, nor is it the words in the study for the sake of learning, but for getting closer to the depths of history, using a journey of exploration and discovery to observe reality and look forward to the future , then let us commemorate this special year in this way, and dedicate this thought to the rising motherland.