History of Chinese People's Anti-Japanese War Paintings

Author: National Museum of China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-05-01
Features: The people, regardless of any era or society, are the main force of history. A heroic history of the Anti-Japanese War is primarily the history of the broad masses of the Chinese people resisting the war. However, in previous histories of the Anti-Japanese War, the focus was mainly on the history of parties, governments, and high-ranking figures, describing how they led the resistance, while the heroic struggles of the broad masses in the war were rarely written about. To this day, there is no dedicated history of the people's resistance, as if the broad masses were merely accessories to the parties, governments, and high-ranking figures—a situation that is far from normal. Of course, the various parties, governments, and high-ranking figures played an extremely important role in the war and made significant contributions to mobilizing and organizing the broad masses to resist. However, the main force of the resistance remained the broad masses, and they also bore the greatest sacrifices. Without the broad masses, the roles of the parties, governments, and high-ranking figures would have no foundation, and the Anti-Japanese War could not have been fought. Therefore, the glorious history of the broad masses in the war should be recorded in full.
In the tumultuous Anti-Japanese War, the scope of the broad masses' participation in the resistance was extremely wide. It included not only the Han people but also the people of all ethnic minorities who actively participated in the war. It included not only the vast workers, peasants, petty bourgeoisie, middle bourgeoisie, national bourgeoisie, and landlord class but also many patriotic individuals from the large landlord and large bourgeoisie classes, who actively joined the resistance at the critical moment of national peril. It included not only the broad masses on the mainland of the motherland but also compatriots in Taiwan and the vast overseas Chinese and ethnic Chinese who actively threw themselves into the ranks of the resistance. Due to their different social statuses and personal conditions, their forms of resistance were diverse. In the article "A Patriotism Eternal in History" co-authored by me, Yan Jingtang, and Suo Shihui to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the victory in the Anti-Japanese War, we pointed out that at the time, the moving scenes of "wives sending their husbands to the battlefield" and "parents sending their sons to fight in the East" were everywhere. How many (hot-blooded sons) abandoned comfortable lives and bravely rushed to the front lines; how many families willingly gave up all their property to resist Japan, sacrificing their homes to ease the nation's difficulties; how many people suffered oppression, humiliation, devastation, and plunder by the Japanese invaders but never bowed their heads, instead fighting stubbornly against the enemy in various forms; and how many others worked silently and steadfastly in various positions across the country, engaging in arduous tasks such as production, supply, transportation, reconnaissance, guiding, first aid, liaison, and propaganda. They did not distinguish between the front and rear, liberated areas, areas under the rule of the KMT government, or occupied areas; they did not distinguish by age, gender, or occupation; nor by political faction or ideological belief. They did everything they could to resist Japan. It was precisely because of their determined struggles that the Anti-Japanese War in China ultimately won the victory.
To reflect the glorious history of the broad masses in the war, we have specially compiled this "Illustrated History of the Chinese People's Anti-Japanese Resistance."