Second Sino-Japanese War (Eastern Part of China)

Interview 2

Basic Information
Subjects:​ Qingzhong Zhang and Yazhen Zhang (grandparents)
Interviewer:​ Catherine Zhang
Translator:​ Catherine Zhang
Date/Time:​ 12/09/18
Type: ​Video Chat on Skype
Location: ​Subjects were in Beijing, China, Interviewer was in West Haven, CT
Topic: ​Second Sino-Japanese War (eastern part of China)
File: ​https://soundcloud.com/chenxi-cathy-zhang/sino-japanese-war-interview-2/s-ZqAmE
Additional notes: ​Initial in Mandarin, translated in English for transcript. The transcript lacks
the greeting part and the ending part, which does not contain any helpful information.

Table of Contents
00:00-00:07 Greetings
00:08-00:53 Background information
00:54-02:54 The wars Yazhen Zhang experienced, and life changes at the beginning of the
Second Sino-Japanese War
02:55-05:05 The condition in Shenyang got worse and Yazhen Zhang’s family escaped to Juliu
River
05:06-05:40 Summary of the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War
05:41-07:08 Yazhen Zhang talks about the difference between the city and the countryside,
and the changes during the wars
07:09-08:06 Summary of the end of the war
08:07-09:37 Yazhen Zhang’s point of view on the Kuo Min Tang army
09:38-11:46 Yazhen Zhang talking about the wars between Kuo Min Tang and the Communist
Party focusing on the train station
11:48-12:31 Yazhen Zhang’s point of view on the wars between Kuo Min Tang and the
Communist Party
12:32-12:53 Summary of what Yazhen Zhang said on Kuo Min Tang and the Communist
Party
12:54-16:32 Qingzhong Zhang’s point of view on the Communist Party that lived in their
house
16:33-17:17 Summary of what Qingzhong Zhang said and background information on the
Civil War of China
17:17-17:28 Ending

Transcript
[​00:08-00:53]
Catherine Zhang​: Alright, let’s start from the last conversation. Em… as what we've known so
far, during the time when Japan was invading the eastern part of China, which was from 1931 to
1945, due to the weakness of Kuo Min Tang, Chiang Kai-shek passed the non-resistance policy
so that the army of Kuo Min Tang retreated from the front line to the Mountain customs.
However, different than Kuo Min Tang, the Communist Party resisted with its extremely weak
power during this period until the Soviet aid arrived. So grandma, have you experienced any of
the wars during this time of period?

[00:54-02:54]
Yazhen Zhang​: Yep. Since I was born in Shenyang in 1940, I actually do not know a lot about
the outside world. For my family, I have my parents and my brother, which life was peaceful and
pleasant. My mom could also buy some satisfying daily necessities that made our life great.
However, not long after, the continuous war started in Shenyang. The plane was hovering in the
sky, along with the sound of the bomb explosion, which the destructive attacks created a very
unsettled environment for Shenyang. Also, markets and stores around us never opened again
after the attacks, and my mom could not buy anything anymore. No one had the courage to run a
store or a market since no one knew when the plane is coming and where it will throw a decent
amount of bombs. Due to all of these, life was not guaranteed, and also influenced such so many
families including my neighbors and relatives.

[02:55-05:05]
CZ​: Yep. Then, did Kuo Min Tang or the Communist Party ever came and helped you guys?

YZ​: No, not at all. At that time, no one was in charge of China. If you can survive then you will
survive; if you can’t survive then you can’t survive. No one was in charge of anyone, but the fact
was that neighbors would help each other. Life gets more and more severe, which caused a lot of
problems to survive. Yet for me and my family, the biggest influence was my father, who caught
a serious illness during the war. No one knows whether it was caused by the contagion or the
virus1, maybe it was just a high fever that made my dad got pustules all over his body and was
fainted all the time, with balderdash like, “water, water.”. After my dad passed away, we were
even more helpless that we couldn’t live in Shenyang anymore. So my mom brought my brother
and I on to the way escaping from Shenyang to my grandma’s house, where was located at Juliu

1
Caused by the germ army of Japan
River, a place that is 20 miles away...a rural area, a place near the railway station, where the life
there was relatively more stable than before.

[05:06-05:40]
CZ​: Em… true. The train station is always a military fortress, which there will always be some
wars happening, but it is still relatively more stable than it is in the city. So for the location of the
wars, are there any differences between your grandma’s house and Shenyang?

[05:41-07:08]
YZ​: Em...at that time, we escaped from Shenyang, a place full of wars, to a rural area. Wars
using guns were everywhere, but the differences were that there’s no planes, tanks or cannons.
Just gun battles all over the places. Although it was unpeaceful, at least the life was guaranteed.
The countryside has food and wild vegetables, and families would also grow some crops. You
gotta grow some crops even though there are wars everywhere. In that situation, the life was
guaranteed and we never feel hungriness any more. Then the situation of wars changed: the Big
Nose came, who was the Soviet army. And right after a few days of furious fighting, the Japs
were gone and Big Nose was gone too, and the war ended.

[07:09-08:06]
CZ​: Yep, the time period you said must be the time when the Second Sino-Japanese War ended.
At that time, the Soviet Union sent troops to Northeast China right after resolving the
contradiction with Germany, and supported the Northeast Anti-Japanese Coalition that was
formed by the Communist Party of China and the scattered soldiers around in 1931, and helped
them to resist the Japanese after ten years of loses, which forced the Japanese army to surrender.
At the same time, the Kuo Min Tang army, which was supported by the United States, began to
send troops to the northeastern region that was lost and recovered. It also accepted Japan’s
surrender and attempted to manage major cities and traffic trunks in the northeast of China. So
grandma, who lived next to one of the important train stations, what opinions do you have on
Kuo Min Tang and the Communist Party?

[08:07-09:37]
YZ​: Well there are some opinions. The Kuo Min Tang army was the first one we interacted with,
who had more advanced types of equipment including the relatively new guns. They are also
very close to people, paying attention to their appearances and more humane. One time, I caught
a high fever, and they gave me some medicine to eat; even though I wasn’t quite recovered at the
end due to their fast speed transferring. Their troop transferred really fast: sometimes they left
their camp immediately without finishing their meal. So I was given the impression that a unit
came and a unit left; another unit came and another unit left. Then, the wars increased a lot
between the troops at the train station and the troops in our village. No one knew which one is
the Kuo Min Tang army. We could only hide behind the corns and crops to protect ourselves.
[09:38-11:46]
CZ​: ...Then at that time, it must be the Communist Party who fought against the Kuo Min Tang
army. They came all the way from Yan’an to the Juliu River, that is, the railway station; and
along the way, they received many armaments from the Japanese Kwantung Army, which they
got well armed and arrived at the train station.

YZ​: Yep, they conquered the train station soon. The roads in our village were narrow in the
middle and formed with trenches on both sides. So even though we were looking for food such
as wild vegetables, we had to look for dangers and get ready to run into the trenches to protect
ourselves too. However, no matter which side you are on, Kuo Min Tang or the Communist
Party, when the war starts, both sides’ soldier will press you down to protect you since the war
was serious at that time. The war between both sides lasted for about one year.

CZ​: Okay. after all, when the war is fierce, no one wants to go out; everyone is thinking about
the ways to survive. Well, um. . . so after the starting of the war between two sides, that is, when
the Kuomintang and the Communist Party officially opened, do you have any new views on the
two sides?

[11:48-12:31]
YZ​: Nothing special. However, to the situation at that time, everyone helped to drive the
Japanese out, and the Big Nose was gone too. But now is Chinese to Chinese, which we really
couldn’t understand why they have to fight. Can we stop all of these? That’s all that we wished,
was to stop the war and have a peaceful life back again.

[12:32-12:53]
CZ​: It seems that the important traffic trunk is always a very important battleground for all the
wars, which caused indelible harm to the local residents and their lives got influenced too. Ok…
So for my grandpa, who lived in rural areas, what do you think about the Kuo Min Tang and the
Communists?

[12:54-16:32]
Qingzhong Zhang​: Well I did not have that much impression on the Kuo Min Tang because
they never appeared in our village. At the time when I was about 5 years old, a team of the
Eighth Route Army2 came to our village and lived here for a very long time. And the battalion
was located in our home at the time when I was five or six years old. I was very envious of this
army because they were wearing khaki clothes and carrying guns. We lent out our 2 main rooms
to them, where the camp instructors worked there and commanded operations. My family lived
in the east side rooms, and the rest of the rooms including the cowsheds were for the resources
like carriage and bullets they needed. The team was consist of the hygienist, the warehouse

2
The army of the Communist Party
manager, the cook and so on. The food the cook cooked was better, and the supplies were better
too. That’s why my friends and I always hang out with them so that we could also eat some rice3
or braised pork. The hygienist would lead us to clean the street and houses while the sergeant
took us to play around and fish around, which our relationship was great and we all like them a
lot. Nevertheless, they always brought some winter cloth, bullets, and guns back from the front
line. Although we do not have that much available rooms, we were still willing to provide some
supplies including rooms for them. One of the most important moments was my elder brother,
who had a great relationship with the camp instructor. Due to the same age, they always
exchange thoughts on different things, which my brother got influenced by him a lot. Soon, my
brother started to go to school and became the first college student in my family, as well as the
village that we lived in. This village has never had a college student. He is the first college
student. So after he went to college, he had a great influence on the family, which 5 of us in my
family all went to school later to be educated. That’s really a great impact.

[16:33-17:17]
CZ​: Yes, it seems that the Communist Party is indeed very close to the people. Both the Kuo
Min Tang and the Communist Party, no matter during the war or after, the impact they gave to
the citizens all influenced the citizen’s view on them, and thus determine the outcome of the civil
war in the future. Like the Communist Party, who treats all people equally and protects the poor
so that they gained a lot of followers, and finally wins the civil war.

3
Only the army and people who were rich would eat rice instead of brown rice.