Hell on Earth "No Man's Land"

Author: Chen Jianhui, Editor-in-Chief
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-06-01
Features: Revisiting the unbearable past is because someone wants to "forget" it. From 1939 to 1945, the Japanese army created a "no-man's land" stretching about 1,000 kilometers and covering an area of 10,000 square kilometers along the Great Wall in Hebei. Here, the Japanese implemented a brutal "kill all, burn all, loot all" policy, resulting in 300,000 Chinese citizens dying under the knife, 17,000 villages, and 3.8 million houses being reduced to rubble. The lush and fragrant land within and outside the Great Wall turned into a wasteland. "In the south, there is the Nanjing Massacre; in the north, there are a thousand miles of 'no-man's land.'" The "no-man's land" along the Great Wall was established during the Anti-Japanese War by the Japanese invaders to consolidate their occupation of Chinese territory, severing the connection between the armed forces led by the Communist Party of China and the people. Through the means of "collecting families and merging villages," the Japanese forced the population into so-called "group settlements" (referred to by the people as "human circles"), creating "no-residence and no-work zones." This was another major act of brutal aggression and occupation committed by the Japanese in China.
The Japanese began creating the "no-man's land" along the Great Wall in 1939, initially implementing "collecting families and merging villages" in areas. As the anti-Japanese guerrilla warfare along the Great Wall intensified, the Japanese elevated the creation of the "no-man's land" to a strategic level and formulated a comprehensive plan. By 1944, the Japanese had largely completed their "no-man's land" project. Its eastern boundary started at Jiukou Pass west of Shanhaiguan, and its western boundary extended to Laozhangba in Chifeng County. The northern boundary ran from Ningcheng and Weichang, and the southern boundary stretched to Qian'an and Zunhua. The total area covered was 50,000 square kilometers, involving 25 counties (districts) in five provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions: Hebei, Liaoning, Inner Mongolia, Beijing, and Tianjin. Among them, the "no-residence and no-work zones" covered about 8,500 square kilometers. Over 17,000 villages were collected, and 2,506 "human circles" were built, with about 1.4 million people forced into these settlements. The "no-man's land" mainly consisted of three levels:
1. The "no-residence and no-work" zone, where residence and cultivation were prohibited, and the "kill all, burn all, loot all" policy was implemented.
2. The "group settlements," fortified enclosures with armed guards in flat and riverine areas, where people lived but had no freedom of movement.
3. The "no-residence and no-work" zone and the "group settlements" were separated by a "no-residence but no-work" zone.
During the creation of the "no-man's land," the Japanese designated guerrilla bases as "no-residence and no-work zones," implementing a "root-and-branch destruction" to extinguish all vitality and taking the "kill all, burn all, loot all" policy to its extreme. While brutally destroying the guerrilla bases, the Japanese also subjected the people living in the "human circles" to ruthless fascist rule, leading to thousands of deaths from hunger, disease, and torture. Each "human circle" became a living hell. Statistics show that during the Anti-Japanese War, most of the 350,000 Chinese citizens killed and brutalized by the Japanese invaders in the Jirin, Liaodong, and Hebei regions died in the "no-man's land." The brutality of the Japanese in slaughtering and torturing the people of the "no-man's land" was no less than that of the Nanjing Massacre.
Facing the frenzied attacks of the Japanese, the Communist Party of China led the anti-Japanese armed forces in an arduous and indomitable struggle. The Party's mass line and people's war ideology demonstrated immense power, and the united front strategy was fully practiced. For over five years, under extremely harsh conditions, the Communist Party of China and the Eighth Route Army not only survived but also fought fiercely against the Japanese, holding onto this strategic territory. In the struggle for the "no-man's land," countless heroic deeds that moved heaven and earth and shocked the spirits emerged, fully embodying the spirit of patriotism and revolutionary heroism. Many cadres and soldiers, like the Five Heroes of Mount Langya, became heroes. The people along the Great Wall also made great sacrifices, and countless heroes emerged. The history of the "no-man's land" along the Great Wall fully exposed the ferocity of the Japanese invaders and also demonstrated the unyielding struggle spirit of the Chinese nation. Comrade Hu Sheng once pointed out that the "no-man's land" was a tragic and magnificent snapshot of the Anti-Japanese War. Progressive Japanese scholars have also proposed that the "no-man's land" is a special phenomenon in the history of human warfare. Compared to the Nanjing Massacre, fewer people are aware of the history of the Japanese creating a thousand miles of "no-man's land" along the Great Wall. We especially present the relevant materials about the "no-man's land" along the Great Wall to the readers.