Dong River Column
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The East River Column or Dongjiang Column ( zh, t=東江縱隊, s=东江纵队) was a unit of anti-Japanese
Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
guerrilla Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, Partisan (military), partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include Children in the military, recruite ...
s that operated in
Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...
and
Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
during the
Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War was fought between the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the Empire of Japan between 1937 and 1945, following a period of war localized to Manchuria that started in 1931. It is considered part ...
. They played a major role in Chinese resistance against Japanese occupation, and remain an important part of local historical traditions about the war and the subsequent
Communist Revolution A communist revolution is a proletarian revolution inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with communism. Depending on the type of government, the term socialism can be used to indicate an intermediate stage between ...
. They are also notable outside of
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
for being the only Chinese Communist unit transported on
US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...
vessels, done as part of the peace negotiations led by the Marshall Mission.


History

The East River Column had its origins in two separate units, the
Dongguan Dongguan,; pinyin: alternately romanized via Cantonese as Tungkun, is a prefecture-level city in central Guangdong Province, China. An important industrial city in the Pearl River Delta, Dongguan borders the provincial capital of Guangzhou t ...
Model Able-bodied Young Men Guerrilla Team and the Huiyang Bao’an People’s Anti-Japanese Guerrillas. The former was founded in October 1938 by around thirty men led by Wang Zuorao. Wang was a Communist and
National Revolutionary Army The National Revolutionary Army (NRA; zh, labels=no, t=國民革命軍) served as the military arm of the Kuomintang, Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang, or KMT) from 1924 until 1947. From 1928, it functioned as the regular army, de facto ...
defector who had been organizing in Dongguan since January. The latter was created in November when CCP Southern Bureau Chief Liao Chengzhi ordered 60 men under Commander Zeng Sheng (Secretary-General of the Hong Kong Seamen’s Union) and Political Commissar Zhou Boming (Hong Kong Propaganda Chief and former Northeastern Army officer) to begin guerrilla operations north of
Shenzhen Shenzhen is a prefecture-level city in the province of Guangdong, China. A Special economic zones of China, special economic zone, it is located on the east bank of the Pearl River (China), Pearl River estuary on the central coast of Guangdong ...
. The People's Guerrillas included the future war hero Yuan Geng. Both groups started with a core of educated radicals and militant members of the Seaman's Union but successfully focused their recruitment efforts on the peasantry. The two forces were merged in 1939. As part of the
Second United Front The Second United Front ( zh, t=第二次國共合作 , s=第二次国共合作 , first=t , l=Second Nationalist-Communist Cooperation, p=dì èr cì guógòng hézuò ) was the alliance between the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Co ...
policy, the guerrillas nominally served under the KMT's 4th War Area until March 1940, when local KMT General Xiang Hanping launched an attack on them for refusing to disband. The 108 survivors fled to Shishan. The decision to flee eastward and away from the front lines against Japan was strongly criticized by CCP party leadership in
Yan'an Yan'an; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternatively spelled as Yenan is a prefecture-level city in the Shaanbei region of Shaanxi Province of China, province, China, bordering Shanxi to the east and Gansu to the west. It administers several c ...
. In a message sent on May 8 but not received until June,
Zhou Enlai Zhou Enlai ( zh, s=周恩来, p=Zhōu Ēnlái, w=Chou1 Ên1-lai2; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman, diplomat, and revolutionary who served as the first Premier of the People's Republic of China from September 1954 unti ...
ordered Zeng and Wang to return to the
Pearl River Delta The Pearl River Delta Metropolitan Region is the low-lying area surrounding the Pearl River estuary, where the Pearl River flows into the South China Sea. Referred to as the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area in official documents, ...
and resume operations against the Japanese. He also formally designated the unit as “the Guangdong People’s Anti-Japanese Guerrillas East River Column". The guerrillas followed orders and returned westwards. When the war reached Hong Kong in 1941, the East River Column grew from a few hundred to more than 6,000 soldiers. New recruits were motivated by anger at KMT desertions in the lead-up to the battle, and often armed themselves with abandoned KMT weapons. For the next four years the East River Column mounted the only fortified resistance against the
Japanese Occupation of Hong Kong The Japanese occupation of Hong Kong began when the governor of Hong Kong, Mark Aitchison Young, surrendered the British Crown colony of British Hong Kong, Hong Kong to the Empire of Japan on 25 December 1941. His surrender occurred after Batt ...
. They killed Chinese collaborators, protected traders in Kowloon and
Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...
, attacked the police station at Tai Po, and bombed Kai Tak Airport. The Hong Kong and
Kowloon Kowloon () is one of the areas of Hong Kong, three areas of Hong Kong, along with Hong Kong Island and the New Territories. It is an urban area comprising the Kowloon Peninsula and New Kowloon. It has a population of 2,019,533 and a populat ...
Independent Brigade of the East River Column was established on February 3, 1942, at the Rosary Mission Centre, a chapel in Sai Kung, Hong Kong.
Antiquities Advisory Board The Antiquities Advisory Board (AAB) is a statutory body of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region with the responsibility of advising the Secretary for Development, Antiquities Authority on any matters relating to antiquities and monum ...
. Historic Building Appraisal
Rosary Mission Centre, No. 1 Wong Mo Ying
Commander Choi Kwok-Leung and Political Commissar Chan Tat-Ming led a force of about 400 men armed with 30 machine guns and several hundred rifles left by defeated British forces. The guerrillas rescued around twenty to twenty-five Allied pilots who parachuted into Kowloon when their planes were shot down by the Japanese, including Sir Lindsay Ride and Sir Douglas Clague. In December 1943 the East River guerillas absorbed the HK-Kowloon Brigade into the larger unit. In 1943 the East River Column was engaged in a multi-sided war against the Japanese, the KMT's 187th Division, KMT-aligned bandits, and units of
Wang Jingwei Wang Zhaoming (4 May 188310 November 1944), widely known by his pen name Wang Jingwei, was a Chinese politician who was president of the Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China, a puppet state of the Empire of Japan. He was in ...
's collaborationist regime. Despite this strong opposition, by 1944 they controlled a significant amount of territory known as the Guangdong Base Area, from Huiyang in the east to Sanshui and
Xinhui Xinhui, alternately romanized as Sunwui and also known as Kuixiang, is an urban district of Jiangmen in Guangdong, China. It grew from a separate city founded at the confluence of the Tan and West Rivers. It has a population of about 735,50 ...
in the west. When Japan surrendered on 15 August 1945,
Zhu De Zhu De; (1 December 1886 – 6 July 1976) was a Chinese general, military strategist, politician and revolutionary in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Zhu was born into poverty in 1886 in Sichuan. He was adopted by a wealthy uncle at ...
ordered Commander-in-Chief
Yasuji Okamura was a general of the Imperial Japanese Army, commander-in-chief of the China Expeditionary Army from November 1944 to the end of World War II, and appointed to surrender all Japanese forces involved in the China Burma India theater. He was trie ...
of the
China Expeditionary Army The was a general army of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1939 to 1945. The China Expeditionary Army was established in September 1939 from the merger of the Central China Expeditionary Army and Japanese Northern China Area Army, and was ...
to surrender to Zeng and the East River Column. This was ignored at the behest of the United States and Chiang Kai-shek, and Japanese troops remained in position until relieved by non-Communist forces. The Nationalists failed to dislodge the 3,000 guerrillas of the East River Column with an encirclement campaign, which included the New 1st Army, New Sixth Army, Forty-fifth, Sixty-third, Sixty-fourth, and Sixty-fifth Armies. The Communists continued to successfully harass Nationalist units moving along the Kowloon-Canton and Chaochow-Swatow Railways. The resulting stalemate was resolved when the Americans, who was at the time were hoping to broker a peace in China via the Marshall Mission, offered to transport the East River Column to Communist-held
Yantai Yantai, formerly known as Chefoo, is a coastal prefecture-level city on the Shandong Peninsula in northeastern Shandong province of the People's Republic of China. Lying on the southern coast of the Bohai Strait, Yantai borders Qingdao ...
in
Shandong Shandong is a coastal Provinces of China, province in East China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River. It has served as a pivotal cultural ...
. After lengthy negotiations, both sides agreed, and the Column was loaded onto US Navy vessels and escorted by the USS George to Shandong. This was the only time when the US Navy transported Chinese Communist soldiers. On 1 August 1947 the East River Column was reorganized and designated as the Guangdong-Guangxi Column of Chen Yi's East China Field Army.


Legacy

After the war and the
Chinese Communist Revolution The Chinese Communist Revolution was a social revolution, social and political revolution in China that began in 1927 and culminated with the proclamation of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. The revolution was led by the Chinese C ...
, the East River Column became part of the revolutionary legend in Hong Kong and Guangdong. It was featured in the 1997 adventure novel '' Music on the Bamboo Radio'' by Martin Booth, and the award-winning New Wave film '' Our Time Will Come'' directed by
Ann Hui Ann Hui On-wah, (; born 23 May 1947) is a film director, producer, screenwriter and actress from Hong Kong who is one of the most critically acclaimed filmmakers of the Hong Kong New Wave. She is known for her films about social issues in ...
. The Guangdong Memorial Hall of the East River Column was built to preserve the history of the unit, and exhibits of related artefacts feature prominently in other local museums. In 1998,
Chief Executive A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...
Tung Chee-hwa Tung Chee-hwa (; born May 29, 1937) is a Hong Kong businessman and retired politician who served as the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong between 1997 and 2005, upon the transfer of sovereignty on 1 July. He served as a vice chairman of th ...
added the names of the members of the HK-Kowloon Brigade to the memorial shrine at Hong Kong City Hall.


See also

*
New Fourth Army The New Fourth Army (N4A) () was a military unit nominally under the banner of the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Republic of China, established in 1937 as part of the Second United Front against Japan. However, in practice, the New ...
*
Eighth Route Army The Eighth Route Army (), officially titled as the List of Army Groups of the National Revolutionary Army, 18th Group Army, was a Field army, group army nominally under the banner of the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Republic of Ch ...


Notes


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * {{commons category, East River Column Groups of World War II Guerrilla organizations Second Sino-Japanese War Hong Kong in World War II Anti-fascism in China China in World War II History of the Chinese Communist Party Anti-fascist organizations in China Military organizations associated with the Chinese Communist Party Chinese resistance against Imperial Japan