M’land Textbook Moves Beginning of War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression to 1931

  M’land Textbook Moves Beginning of War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression to 1931

Source: United Daily News

September 17, 2017

September 18 marks the 86^th anniversary of the Mukden (Shenyang) Incident on September 18, 1931. In the new edition of history textbooks compiled by the Mainland’s Education Ministry, the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was moved to the Mukden Incident from the Marco Polo Bridge Incident on July 7, 1937. The new history textbooks are being used starting this month.

In addition, the newly-compiled history textbooks now contain five chapters on the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, expanded from three in the previous edition. The textbooks include additional content, such as “Five Heroes of Mount Langya,” a Red classic of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the eastward march of the Red Eighth Route Army, a statement titled “the Manifesto of Last Battle with the Japanese Invaders” by former CCP Chairman Mao Zedong, etc., in a bid to highlight the CCP’s role as the mainstay in the War of Resistance.

It is worth mentioning that the new history textbooks also include the epic that the Chinese Expeditionary Force, led by the KMT’s National Revolutionary Army, fought against Japan in Burma and referred to the Battle of Yenangyaung [See Editor’s Note:], the heroic fall in action of Gen. Dai An-lan (戴安瀾) for the Republic of China, and counterattack to retake the Burma Road, stressing China’s huge contributions to the victory in the anti-fascist war.

On September 18, 1931, the Japanese army dynamited a section of railroad owned by Japan's South Manchuria Railway in Manchuria, China. By accusing the Chinese army of causing the explosion, the Japanese army began their attacks on the Chinese garrison at Beidaying in Shenyang (Mukden), northeast China, subsequently occupying all of northeast China, and created a puppet state “Manchukuo” in 1931, which marked the beginning of Japan’s invasion of China. This has been referred to as the Mukden (Shenyang) Incident in history.

[Editor’s Note: During the war in Burma, around 7,000 British and Burmese troops were encircled by Japanese forces. At the request of the British, a regiment of the Chinese Expeditionary Force in Burma under the command of Gen. Sun Li-Jen, division commander, liberated and rescued the British and Burmese troops from an encirclement, decisively defeating a massively superior Japanese force. Gen. Sun was later decorated by the British Government in recognition of his brilliant victory and personal valor.]

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