On Ordering the Reactionary Nationalist Government to Rearrest Okamura Yasuji, Former Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Forces of Aggression in China, and to Arrest the Nationalist Civil War Criminals

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of On Ordering the Reactionary Nationalist Government to Rearrest Okamura Yasuji, Former Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Forces of Aggression in China, and to Arrest the Nationalist Civil War Criminals has been prepared and revised for digital publication by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism under the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Switzerland on the basis of the following edition: On Ordering the Reactionary Kuomintang Government to Re-arrest Yasuji Okamura, Former Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Forces of Aggression in China, and to Arrest the Kuomintang Civil War Criminals, in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, First English Edition, Vol. 4, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1965.

#INTRODUCTION NOTE

This is a statement drafted by Comrade Mao Zedong for the spokesperson for the Communist Party of China in Xibaipo, Pingshan, Hebei, China on the 28th of January, 1949. It was first published by the New China News Agency on that day.

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#ON ORDERING THE REACTIONARY NATIONALIST GOVERNMENT TO REARREST OKAMURA YASUJI, FORMER COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE JAPANESE FORCES OF AGGRESSION IN CHINA, AND TO ARREST THE NATIONALIST CIVIL WAR CRIMINALS

#STATEMENT BY THE SPOKESPERSON FOR THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA

#Mao Zedong

#28th of January, 1949

#★

The Central News Agency of the reactionary Nanjing Nationalist government reported in a dispatch dated the 26th of January:

In the past month, the Government has taken various measures and steps for an early conclusion of the war in order to alleviate the sufferings of the people. Furthermore, on the 22nd of this month, the Government formally appointed a delegation¹ to the peace negotiations. During the last few days, the Government has only been waiting for the Communist Party of China to appoint its delegation and agree on a meeting place, so that the negotiations may proceed. But in the statement broadcast from northern Shaanxi by the New China News Agency on the 25th,² a spokesperson for the Communist Party of China, while indicating willingness to negotiate a peaceful settlement with the Government, resorted to unbridled insults and vilification and used absurd and offensive language. He also said that the place for the negotiations could not be fixed until Beijing was completely liberated. We should like to ask, if the Communist Party of China, on the pretext of awaiting the so-called complete liberation of Beijing, does not immediately appoint its delegation and agree on a meeting place and furthermore does not stop military operations, is it not stalling for time and prolonging the disaster of war? One should know that the hope of the people of the whole country to put an end to the disaster of war brooks no delay. To demonstrate its profound sincerity, the Government once again expresses the wish that the Communist Party of China will clearly realize that the salvation of the people should be the primary consideration today and that it will therefore appoint a delegation to the negotiations as soon as possible, so that peace can be realized at an early date.

In another dispatch dated the 26th of January, Nanjing's Central News Agency reported from Shanghai:

Following a review of his case on the 26th by the National Defence Ministry's Military Court for the Trial of War Criminals, the Japanese war criminal General Okamura Yasuji, former Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Expeditionary Forces in China, was declared not guilty at 16:00 today by Shi Meiyu, the president of the court. The atmosphere in the court room was tense. Okamura, standing at attention, smiled a little on hearing the verdict.

#1

The Communist Party of China and the General Headquarters of the Chinese People's Liberation Army declare that it is impermissible for the Military Court for the Trial of War Criminals set up by the reactionary Nanjing Nationalist government to return a verdict of «not guilty» on the Japanese war criminal General Okamura Yasuji, former Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Expeditionary Forces in China and the arch-criminal among all war criminals in the Japanese Expeditionary Forces of aggression against China.³ The Chinese people, after untold human and material sacrifices during the eight years of the War of Resistance Against Japan, finally won victory and captured this war criminal, and they will never allow the reactionary Nanjing Nationalist government arbitrarily to declare him not guilty. The people of the whole country, all the democratic political parties and people's organizations and also the patriots in the reactionary Nanjing Nationalist governmental system must rise at once to oppose the criminal act of that government in betraying the national interests and collaborating with the Japanese Fascist militarists. We hereby give a serious warning to the «excellencies» of the reactionary Nanjing government. You must re-arrest Okamura Yasuji immediately and return him to prison without fail. This matter is closely related to your request for negotiations with us. We hold that all your present actions are an attempt to use fake peace negotiations to cover up your new preparations for war, which include your conspiracy to induce Japanese reactionaries to come to China and join you in massacring the Chinese people; it is exactly for this purpose that you have set Okamura Yasuji free. Therefore, we absolutely will not permit you to do it. We have the right to order you to rearrest Okamura Yasuji and be responsible for turning him over to the People's Liberation Army at a time and place to be specified by us. As to the other Japanese war criminals, they are to be in your temporary custody, pending further instructions, and you must not take it upon yourselves to release any of them or let any escape; those of you who disobey will be severely punished.

#2

We have learned from the 26th of January statement of the spokesperson for the reactionary Nanjing Nationalist government that you «excellencies» of Nanjing are all so very tense, eager, solicitous, and anxious about peace negotiations, all, it is said, for the sake of «shortening the duration of the war», «alleviating the sufferings of the people», and «treating the salvation of the people as the primary consideration»; we have also learned that you feel that the Communist Party of China is so very untense, uneager, unsolicitous, and unanxious in its response to your wish and «furthermore does not stop military operations» and is in reality «stalling for time and prolonging the disaster of war». We tell you «excellencies» of Nanjing frankly: you are war criminals, you will be brought to trial. We have no faith in your mouthings about «peace» or «the will of the people». You relied on the power of the United States, violated the will of the people, tore up the truce agreement and the resolutions of the Political Consultative Conference, and launched this most ruthless, anti-popular, anti-democratic, counter-revolutionary civil war. You were then so tense, eager, solicitous, and anxious that you would not listen to advice from anybody. And when you convened a bogus «National Assembly», drew up a bogus «Constitution», elected a bogus «President», and promulgated a bogus decree of «mobilization for putting down the rebellion», you were again so tense, eager, solicitous, and anxious about it all that again you would not listen to advice from anybody. At that time in Shanghai, Nanjing, and other major cities, the so-called consultative councils, chambers of commerce, trade unions, peasant associations, women's organizations, and cultural organizations, all of which are either run by your government or serve as your tools, kicked up such a fuss about «supporting the mobilization for putting down the rebellion» and «annihilating the Communist bandits» and once again were so tense, eager, solicitous, and anxious about it all that they would not listen to advice from anybody. Two and a half years have now passed, and during this period, the number of people slaughtered by you has run into many millions, and the villages burned down, the people raped, and the wealth plundered by you, as well as the lives and property destroyed by your air force, are beyond count; you have committed heinous crimes, and we must settle accounts with you. We hear that you are quite opposed to the struggle for settling accounts. But this time, there is good cause for the struggle to settle accounts, there must be an accounting, there must be a settlement, there must be a fight, there must be a struggle. You are defeated. You have enraged the people. And the people have all risen up against you in a life-and-death struggle. The people do not like you, the people condemn you, the people have risen up, and you are isolated; that is why you have been defeated. You proposed five terms⁴ for peace negotiations and we proposed eight;⁵ the people at once gave their support to our eight terms, not to your five. You don't dare to rebut our eight terms or insist upon your five. You declare that you are willing to take our eight terms as the basis for the negotiations. Isn't that fine? Then why not hurry up and negotiate? So it seems that you are very tense, eager, solicitous, and anxious and that you are very much for «unconditional cessation of hostilities», for «shortening the duration of the war», for «alleviating the sufferings of the people», and for «treating the salvation of the people as the primary consideration». And we? We, obviously, are not tense, not eager, not solicitous, nor anxious and we are «stalling for time and prolonging the disaster of war». But wait a moment, «excellencies» of Nanjing. We are going to be tense, eager, solicitous, and anxious; the duration of the war will surely be shortened; and the sufferings of the people will surely be alleviated. Since you have already agreed to our eight terms as the basis for the negotiations, you and we are both going to be busy. The carrying out of these eight terms will keep you, us, all the democratic political parties, people's organizations, and people in all walks of life throughout the country busy for several months, half a year, a whole year, or several years — perhaps even then, we shall not have finished the job! Listen, «excellencies» of Nanjing! The eight terms are not abstract items, they must have concrete content; during the present short period, it is important for everybody to do some thinking, and the people will forgive us a little delay. To speak frankly, the opinion of the people is that we should prepare well for these negotiations. There will certainly be negotiations, and it absolutely will not be permitted that anyone break them off in the middle and refuse to negotiate. Therefore, your delegates must get ready to come. But we still need some time to complete our preparations and we will not allow war criminals to set the date of the negotiations for us. We and the people of Beijing are now doing an important job; we are working out a peaceful settlement of the Beijing question on the basis of the eight terms. Your people in Beijing, such as General Fu Zuoyi, are also participating in this work, which you admitted to be proper in the communique of your news agency.⁶ This will not only provide a place for the peace negotiations, but will set an example of peaceful settlement for Nanjing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Xi'an, Taiyuan, Guisui, Lanzhou, Dihua, Chengdu, Kunming, Changsha, Nanchang, Hangzhou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Taiwan, Hainan, and so on. This work is therefore praiseworthy, and you «excellencies» of Nanjing should not adopt a casual attitude toward it. We are now discussing with the democratic political parties, people's organizations, and the democrats without party affiliation in both our areas and yours the problem of drawing up a list of war criminals and working out the concrete details of the first of our eight terms. It will probably not be long before this list is officially issued. «Excellencies» of Nanjing, as you know, we have not yet had time to discuss such a list with the democratic political parties and people's organizations and officially publish it. For this we beg your pardon. The reason for the delay is that your request for peace negotiations came a little late. Had it come earlier, our preparations might have been completed by now. But this does not mean you have nothing to do. Besides arresting the Japanese war criminal Okamura Yasuji, you must at once set about arresting a batch of civil war criminals and, first of all, those in Nanjing, Shanghai, Fenghua, and Taiwan who were among the 43 war criminals listed in the statement by an authoritative person in the Communist Party of China on the 25th of December, 1948. The most important among them are Jiang Jieshi, Song Ziwen, Chen Cheng, He Yingqin, Gu Zhutong, Chen Lifu, Chen Guofu, Zhu Jiahua, Wang Shijie, Wu Guozhen, Dai Chuanxian, Tang Enbo, Zhou Zhirou, Wan Shuming, and Gui Yongqing.⁷ Of particular importance is Jiang Jieshi, who has now fled to Fenghua⁸ and will very likely flee abroad and seek the protection of US or British imperialism; therefore, you must quickly arrest this criminal and not let him escape. You shall assume full responsibility for this matter. Should there be any escapes, you shall be punished for the crime of setting bandits free, and no leniency whatsoever shall be shown. Let no one say they have not been warned. We hold that only by arresting these war criminals will one do a serious job in shortening the duration of the war and alleviating the people's sufferings. As long as the war criminals are at large, the duration of the war will be lengthened and the sufferings of the people will be aggravated.

#3

We demand that the reactionary Nanjing government reply to the above two points.

#4

Nanjing will be notified at another time concerning the preparations both sides should make in connection with the remainder of the eight terms.