Bloody dusk: the inevitability behind the accident

Sixty-eight years ago, on an unforgettable day for the people of China-1July 7, 937, the sound of gunfire shook the Lugou Bridge. On the pretext of missing soldiers, the Japanese army tried to forcibly enter the ancient city of Wanping for a search. After being rejected, they added guns and launched a full-scale war of aggression against China. The unyielding Chinese nation also began an eight-year national war of resistance.

The "July 7th Incident" was only the general outbreak of Japanese aggression against China in modern times. Before that, the Japanese had long coveted this fertile land of China. As early as the Meiji Restoration, while establishing the modern Mikado system, Japan formulated the so-called "mainland policy" centered on the annexation of China. In the following 70 years, the Japanese launched 14 wars of aggression, many of which were aimed at China. 1894 deliberately provoked the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War of 1894, forcing the defeated Qing government to sign the treaty of shimonoseki and cede Liaodong Peninsula, Taiwan Province Province and Penghu Islands; 10 years later, the Russo-Japanese War started on the land in the northeast of China, forcing the Manchu government to recognize Japan's sphere of influence in the northeast of China. The dream of "entering the mainland" and its inflated ambition have made this country, which has benefited the most from China's traditional culture, become the country that has done the most harm to China in modern times.

1927 From June 27th to July 7th, then Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiichi Tanaka held the "Oriental Conference" in Tokyo, throwing out the grand strategy of invading China: If you want to conquer China, you must first conquer Manchuria; If you want to conquer the world, you must conquer China first. The arrogant Japanese have been unable to conceal their ambition to completely enslave China.

In the early 1930s, the severe economic crisis accelerated the pace of Japanese aggression: 193 1 year, which created the "September 18th Incident", occupied the northeast of China, provoked the prelude to the invasion of China, and then aimed the guns at Inner Mongolia and North China, advancing step by step; 1932, provoking the "1.28 incident" in Shanghai; 1933, occupied Jehol province.

Looking back on the history of Sino-Japanese relations in modern times, Yan Xu, a professor at National Defense University, thinks that China's resistance to Japanese aggression in a certain place may be accidental, but it is inevitable to wage a life-and-death war with Japan to determine the fate of the nation!

Why did China and Japan go to war? Where is the root behind this? Why can an island country gradually devour a big country with a land area dozens of times its size? Historians' comments hit the nail on the head: Japan's war of aggression against China was the result of the expansion of its militaristic ambitions.

War is a confrontation between the strength of the two countries.

War is a spiritual contest as well as a material confrontation. After the July 7th Incident, the Chinese nation rose up against Japan. However, the weak national strength, the fact that the country was unprepared and the morale of the people who were not prepared for the war surprised western observers with the tenacious fighting will of the people of China, but it also indicated that the prospects of the people of China in this battle with great disparity in strength were bleak.

Let's take a look at the comparison of national strength and military strength between China and Japan during the war.

1937 Before the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the Japanese industrial output value was 6 billion US dollars, and China1600 million US dollars. The annual output of steel in Japan is 5.8 million tons, and the annual output of ammunition can reach 500,000 tons. In old China, there was no heavy industry foundation, but the annual output of steel was only 40,000 tons and the annual output of ammunition was several thousand tons. These weapons are mainly imported.

As far as military equipment is concerned, the tonnage of Japanese navy is 6.5438+0.9 million tons, which is 0-30 times that of China. There are 2,700 Japanese combat aircraft, while China has only 305. China's army, with a population of nearly one million, is only a numerical advantage. At the beginning of the war, the military equipment of 1 Japanese divisions was three times that of 1 Japanese divisions. In the middle and late period of the war, it was already 8-9 times that of China.

The Japanese army, armed to the teeth, made the European and American powers dare not despise it, while China only had a weak central government and dozens of fragmented local governments, and its economic structure, organizational form and technical level were still in a "pre-modernization" state. Everyone knows what it means for a weak country to go to war with a modern army like a wolf.

During the three-month battle in the battlefields of Songhu and Shanghai, China invested more than 700,000 troops and suffered more than 200,000 casualties. According to historical records, it was not uncommon for the whole battalion company in the frontal battlefield to be killed at that time. The number of wounded people sent to the rear through the military station was often more than 10,000 every day. The officers and men of the Sichuan Army who marched from the western mainland to the front line of southeast and north China have never seen tanks, and some soldiers have weapons such as broadswords and spears. They went to the battlefield like sheep in the jaws of death, and even saw the enemy die before winning. According to statistics, among the 25,000 young officers who graduated from the Central Military Academy 1.929 to 1.933, 1.000 died in the first four months of the total war, accounting for 40% of the deaths.

Looking back at the history of manpower and firepower, we are not only moved by the bloody battle, but also helpless for the poor strength. In the face of powerful material strength, spiritual strength is valuable, but it always presents a pallor and tragic. Premier Zhou once said with emotion in that war: We are opposed to the imperialist policy of strength, but we should stress strength when dealing with imperialism. Only when the overall strength of the country, including military strength, catches up with the world level can the Chinese nation truly stand on its own feet among the nations of the world.

Japanese aggression has done great harm to the Chinese nation. The war of aggression delayed the modernization of China for at least 50 years. Over the past century, the modernization and the wealth of modernization accumulated by the people of China have been completely lost.

An incomplete statistic shows that from the September 18th Incident to August 1945, according to the ratio of 1937, the direct economic loss caused by Japanese aggression against China reached more than 1000 billion US dollars, the indirect economic loss reached more than 500 billion US dollars, and 33.5 million tons of steel, 586 million tons of coal and 5.5 billion tons of grain were plundered. We should know that $654.38+000 billion is equivalent to the fiscal revenue of the Kuomintang government in 277 years and the total industrial output value in 26 years, which is dozens of times the total amount of compensation demanded by the imperialist war of aggression against China since the Opium War.

If you fall behind, you will be beaten, your self-esteem will be enhanced first, and development needs stability. This is the most profound revelation left by humiliating history and tragic colleagues.