Chapter 57 On Opposing Japanese Imperialism

(July 16) Snow asks: If Japan is defeated and driven out of China, do you think that the main problem of foreign imperialism is largely solved in China? Mao Zedong replied: Yes.If other imperialist countries do not act like Japan, if China defeats Japan, it will mean that the masses of the Chinese people have awakened, have mobilized, and have achieved independence.Thus, the main problem of imperialism is solved. Question: The Chinese Soviet government has issued many appeals and declarations, advocating the establishment of a united front composed of all parties, factions and armies, etc., to wage a life-and-death struggle against Japanese imperialism and drive the Japanese army out of China.Does it believe China can currently defeat Japan alone—that is, without any foreign support?

A: Let me first remind you that neither China nor Japan is an isolated country, and the issue of peace and war in the East is a worldwide issue.Japan has its potential allies - such as Germany and Italy.If China wants to successfully oppose Japan, it must also enlist the support of other countries.However, this does not mean that China cannot wage war with Japan without foreign aid.Nor does it mean that we must wait until we have an alliance with a foreign country before we can start resisting Japan. China has enormous potential, and these forces can be organized and cast on the powerful anti-Japanese front in a period of great struggle.During the long civil war waged by counter-revolutionaries since 1927, the Chinese people have already learned a lot about this force and found a good way to rely on the Communist Party to lead its struggle.Through their long political experience, the masses of the Chinese people have mastered very effective weapons against their enemies.

Today, especially since September 18, 1931, the deceitful propaganda of the traitors has been bankrupted, and few people will fall for their tricks.The masses of the people became more and more aware of who represented their real interests, and even some members of the Kuomintang had participated or planned to participate in the anti-Japanese movement. We firmly believe that the Chinese people will not submit to Japanese imperialism.We firmly believe that they will mobilize their great potential and put them on the battlefield of resistance against Japan, and they will go all out to meet the challenge of the invaders.In this struggle, final victory must belong to the Chinese people.If China fought alone, relatively speaking, the sacrifice would be greater and the war would be prolonged, because Japan is a well-armed power and will have its allies.In order to win victory over Japanese imperialism in the shortest possible period of time and at the lowest cost, China must first realize a domestic united front, and secondly must strive to extend this united front to include all parties that have an interest in peace in the Pacific region. nation.

Question: Under what conditions can China defeat and eliminate the power of Japanese imperialism? Answer: There must be three conditions: first, the completion of the Chinese anti-Japanese united front; second, the completion of the international anti-Japanese united front; and third, the rise of the revolutionary movement of the people in Japan and the people in the Japanese colonies.From the standpoint of the Chinese people, among the three conditions, the great unity of the Chinese people is the main one. Question: How long do you think this war will last? Answer: It depends on the strength of China's anti-Japanese united front and many other factors that determine China and Japan.That is to say, in addition to mainly looking at China's own strength, international aid to China is also closely related to Japan's domestic revolution aid.If China's anti-Japanese united front is vigorously developed and effectively organized horizontally and vertically, if the governments and peoples of all countries who recognize that Japanese imperialism threatens their own interests can give China the necessary assistance, if Japan's If the revolution starts quickly, the war will end quickly and China will win quickly.If these conditions are not met soon, the war will be prolonged.But the result is still the same, Japan must lose and China must win.It's just that the sacrifice will be great, and it will take a very painful period.

Question: From the perspective of politics and military, how do you think the future of this war will develop? Answer: Japan's mainland policy has been determined. Those who think that they can stop Japan's aggression by compromising with Japan and sacrificing some of China's territorial sovereignty are just delusional.We know with certainty that the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the southern ports have been included in the mainland policy of Japanese imperialism.Moreover, Japan also wants to occupy the Philippines, Siam, Vietnam, the Malay Peninsula and the Dutch East Indies, cut off foreign countries from China, and monopolize the Southwest Pacific.This is Japan's maritime policy again.In such a period, China will undoubtedly be in an extremely difficult position.But the majority of the Chinese believe that this difficulty can be overcome; only the rich in the major commercial ports are defeatists, because they are afraid of losing their property.Many people thought that once China's coast was blocked by Japan, China could not continue to fight.This is nonsense.To refute them, we may cite the war history of the Red Army.In the Anti-Japanese War, China's advantage was much stronger than that of the Red Army during the Civil War.China is a huge country, and even if Japan can occupy an area of ​​China with a population of 100 to 200 million, we are still far from being defeated.We still have a great deal of strength to fight against Japan, who will have to fight defensively in her rear throughout the war.The disunity and imbalance of China's economy were beneficial to the War of Resistance Against Japan.Cutting off Shanghai from the rest of China, for example, is by no means as damaging to China as cutting off New York from the rest of the United States is to the United States.Even if Japan blocks China's coast, it cannot block China's northwest, southwest and west.Therefore, the central point of the problem is to unite all the Chinese people and build a nationwide anti-Japanese front.This is what we have proposed long ago.

Q: If there is a Sino-Japanese war, do you think there will be a revolution in Japan? Answer: A revolution of the Japanese people is not only possible but certain.It is unavoidable. Q: Do you think Soviet Russia and Outer Mongolia will get involved in this war and support China? Under what circumstances? Answer: Of course, the Soviet Union was not an isolated country.It cannot be indifferent to events in the Far East and adopt a passive attitude.Will it sit back and watch Japan conquer all of China and turn China into a strategic base for attacking the Soviet Union, or will it help the Chinese people fight against the Japanese invaders, win independence, and establish friendly relations with the Soviet people? We think the Soviet Union will choose the latter path of.

Once the Chinese people have their own government, start the war of resistance, and are willing to form friendly alliances with the Soviet Union and other friendly countries, we believe that the Soviet Union will stand at the forefront of countries with which we shake hands.The struggle against Japanese imperialism is a worldwide task, and the Soviet Union as a part of the world, like Britain and the United States, cannot continue to remain neutral. Question: Is China's urgent task to recover all the lost land from Japan, or just to drive Japan out of Chinese territory within North China and the Great Wall?

A: China's urgent task is to regain all lost ground, not just defend our sovereignty within the Great Wall.That is to say, the Northeast must be recovered.This also applies to Taiwan.As for Inner Mongolia, it is an area where Han and Mongolian people live together. We must work hard to drive Japan out of Inner Mongolia and help Inner Mongolia to establish self-government.After we recover the lost lands of China, if the Korean people wish to throw off the yoke of Japanese imperialism, we will render enthusiastic assistance to their struggle for independence. Question: If the war drags on for a long time and Japan is not completely defeated, can the Communist Party agree to make peace and admit that Japan ruled the Northeast?

Answer: No.The Communist Party of China, like the people of the whole country, does not allow Japan to retain an inch of China. Question: In actual operations, how could the Communist government and the Red Army cooperate with the Kuomintang army to fight against Japan? That is to say, in a foreign war, all Chinese troops must be placed under a unified command.If the Red Army enjoys representation in the Supreme Military Council, does the Red Army agree to submit to the military and political decisions of the Supreme Military Council? Answer: Yes.As long as such a committee is truly anti-Japanese, our government will wholeheartedly obey its decisions.

Question: Does the Red Army agree not to move its troops into areas occupied by the Kuomintang troops, or to direct its troops towards these areas, unless it has the consent or order of the Supreme Military Council? Answer: Yes.We certainly would not send our troops into any area occupied by the anti-Japanese troops - and we have not done so for some time.The Red Army will not exploit any war situation opportunistically. Q: What will the Communist Party demand in return for this cooperation? Answer: The Communist Party will insist on a decisive and final war of resistance against Japanese aggression.In addition, it will call for the implementation of what we propose in our call for a democratic republic and a government of defense.

Question: In order to carry out the War of Resistance Against Japan, how large a base does the Red Army need, and how much support does it need from the outside world? Answer: The Red Army can wage war regardless of the size of the base.However, the larger the base, the stronger the anti-Japanese forces it can mobilize.If we have three or four provinces, we can throw into the war an anti-Japanese contingent larger and more efficient than the entire force in Nanking.As for foreign aid, we need it badly, and the more the better, but even without any foreign aid, we can cope well.We have been waging a revolutionary struggle for ten years without any assistance. Questioner: How best to arm, organize, and train the people to fight in such a war? Answer: The people must have the right to organize and arm themselves.In Peiping, Shanghai, and elsewhere, despite severe repression, students had begun to organize and prepare themselves politically.But the students and the revolutionary anti-Japanese masses still had no freedom, could not be mobilized, trained and armed.If, on the contrary, the masses of the people enjoy economic, social and political freedom, then their strength will be multiplied a hundredfold and the true strength of the state will be revealed. Through its own struggle, the Red Army won freedom from the warlords and became an invincible force.The Anti-Japanese Volunteers won their freedom from their Japanese oppressors and armed themselves in the same way.If the Chinese people are trained, armed and organized, they too can be an invincible force. Question: According to your opinion, what is the main strategic policy of this war of liberation? Answer: Our strategic policy should be to use our main force to fight on a long and fluctuating front.To be victorious, the Chinese army must engage in highly mobile warfare on a vast battlefield, rapidly advance and retreat, and must concentrate and disperse rapidly.This is large-scale mobile warfare, not positional warfare with deep trenches and high fortifications, layers of fortifications, and fortifications.This is not to say that all important military locations should be abandoned. For these locations, as long as it is beneficial, positional warfare should be deployed.But the strategic policy to change the overall situation must be mobile warfare.Although positional warfare is also necessary, it belongs to the second policy of an auxiliary nature.Geographically, with such a vast battlefield, it is possible for us to conduct the most effective mobile warfare.The Japanese army must be cautious when encountering the violent activities of our army.Their war machinery is cumbersome, slow and of limited effectiveness.If we concentrate our forces on a narrow position for a war of attrition resistance, we will lose our geographical and economic advantages and make the mistake of Abyssinia.In the early stage of the war, we must avoid all major decisive battles and first use mobile warfare to gradually destroy the spirit and combat effectiveness of the enemy army. In addition to mobilizing trained troops for mobile warfare, it is also necessary to organize many guerrilla units among the peasants.It should be noted that the Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army in the three northeastern provinces only represents a small part of the latent strength that the peasants of the whole country can mobilize for the War of Resistance.The Chinese peasants have great potential. As long as they are properly organized and directed, they can keep the Japanese army busy twenty-four hours a day and exhaust them.It must be remembered that this war was fought in China, that is to say, the Japanese army would be completely surrounded by hostile Chinese; Beware of attacks on the lines of communication at all times; in addition, a large force must be stationed in Manchuria and the interior of Japan. During the course of the war, China was able to capture many Japanese soldiers and seize many weapons and ammunition to arm itself; at the same time, it enlisted foreign aid to gradually strengthen the equipment of the Chinese army.Therefore, China was able to engage in positional warfare in the later stages of the war and conduct positional attacks on Japanese-occupied areas.In this way, under the long-term consumption of China's war of resistance, Japan's economy is about to collapse; under the consumption of countless wars, its morale is about to decline.On the Chinese side, the potential for the war of resistance is surging day by day, and a large number of revolutionary people continue to pour into the front line to fight for freedom.The combination of all these factors and other factors will enable us to make the final and fatal attack on the fortresses and bases in the Japanese-occupied territories and drive the Japanese invaders out of China. Japanese officers and soldiers captured and disarmed by us will be given preferential treatment.We will not kill them, but treat them like brothers.We will take all measures to make Japanese soldiers of proletarian origin who have no conflict with us stand up against their own fascist oppressors.Our slogan will be: "Unite against our common oppressor, the Fascist chieftain".The anti-fascist Japanese army is our friend, and our mutual goals are the same.