China's pivotal, bloody and beleaguered WW2 campaign is often forgotten in the west despite the "battle of China" being the longest and its battles among the bloodiest and brutalist of the global crucible. World War II: China's Forgotten War shed's new light on the conflict, presenting an epic, eight-year war against an invading Japan, 2 years before Germany invaded Poland, and cost 14 million Chinese lives.
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00:00The world is a battlefield.
00:04Germany has invaded Poland.
00:08Britain and France retaliate, declaring war against the Nazis.
00:12Halfway around the globe, another brutal
00:16conflict is also underway.
00:24China is under attack from Japan's Imperial Army, facing the onslaught
00:28alone since 1937.
00:32Making them the first country to have entered
00:36World War II.
00:40A war of resistance that spanned eight long years
00:44and cost more than 14 million lives.
00:48This was the longest theatre of the Second World War.
00:52My name is Rana Mitter, Oxford professor and a historian of modern China.
00:56I've spent years researching and writing
01:00about China's World War II.
01:02I'm travelling across the country to find the last remaining survivors.
01:12Gathering first-hand accounts.
01:16To reveal the true stories of China's struggle to survive.
01:22And how victory helped forge modern China.
01:34And how victory helped forge modern China.
01:38What other', every time it has to be found.
01:40The Germany's world will be found in a world one
01:41of a world ofオーブエン.
01:43To be your past, it's a completely obsolete of the world.
01:44The world has been announced to be enjoyed.
01:45The Almaty has been Tunis, the New York Times,
01:46looking to see a few more than 30 years.
01:47The Almaty has been continued to see a couple of people.
01:48The Almaty has been forgotten this as a while.
01:50The Almaty has been reconciled by the 15-year-old members,
01:51and the Almaty has been sacrificed.
01:52The Almaty has been assembled at the time.
01:53But this is a cure for the 20-year-old Corporate Jab exec.
01:54The sound of rebuilding here in the old square of Warsaw, and it might be hard to believe,
02:15but 90% of this picturesque scene has been painstakingly reconstructed since the end
02:22of the war that saw Germany invade Poland on the 1st of September 1939. Most of this capital
02:28city was reduced to rubble. And this, of course, was the place where World War II broke out
02:34in Europe. Between 1939 and 1945, some 5.5 million Poles would lose their lives.
02:51From 300 kilometres from Warsaw, on the outskirts of Ashwienzim, is a stark reminder of the Holocaust.
03:04Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp. Stretching over 174 hectares, this is
03:13the largest murder site in a single location in the history of humanity.
03:18There's something particularly poignant about seeing something as ordinary as a shoe in a
03:35place that's as out of the ordinary, as sinister as this. Belongings of the dead. These everyday
03:44objects bring to mind the scale of the killings that took place here in Auschwitz.
03:49In order to restore relations with countries that have been plundered by the Nazis, the West German
04:02government made a public mea culpa. Billions were paid to survivors and to the families of victims
04:07in an effort to try and create some sort of restitution.
04:19One of the worst incidents of Nazi barbarism took place here, in Warsaw's Wohler district.
04:24Known as the Wohler massacre, in August 1944, the occupiers committed mass murders, rape, robbery,
04:36destruction and arson, in order to crush the Poles' spirit to fight during the Warsaw Uprising.
04:42Wohler was burnt to the ground, with an estimated 40,000 residents murdered.
04:58Little known to the world at the time, a massacre similar to the one in Wohler had already occurred
05:05on the other side of the world, in Nanjing, China, on an even bigger scale.
05:11On December the 13th, 1937, the Japanese entered the city of Nanjing, the old nationalist capital.
05:27Capturing the city would be a form of symbolic victory over the Chinese.
05:34The Japanese overran the city within hours, and over the next six weeks committed some of
05:40the worst atrocities the world had ever seen.
05:50Mass executions, extreme cruelty, looting and rape.
05:55Nobody stood a chance.
05:57Although historians are still disputing the exact numbers, some 20,000 to 40,000 women were raped.
06:03Official Chinese statistics go as high as 300,000 killed, soldiers and civilians.
06:10And yet there are some who say that this massacre never took place.
06:16The testimonies of the survivors provide crucial information on what happened in those six long weeks.
06:28Seventy years on, I'm hoping to find one of the few remaining survivors who's able to shed light on what happened.
06:3585-year-old Nanjing resident Xia Shukin is a mother of two, but she prefers to live alone.
06:44She's agreed to share her story of the massacre with me.
06:48Could you tell us what happened to you on the 13th of December of 1937?
06:53What was this?
06:54Let me tell you I was 37 sort of?
06:55Let me tell you, when I was 1937.
06:56First, I was only 8 years old.
06:57When I was 1937 I was only 8 years old.
06:59I was a family story of nine people.
07:02A man named I was the 住口人.
07:0320 years after the massacre of Cammadi Workers
07:05But I was 18 years after the massacre of Cammadi to Overran the massacre.
07:09The massacre of the massacre when the massacre comes into the massacre.
07:12And even if it's 17 years after the massacre of Cammadi,
07:13there are only 8 people.
07:14In the massacre of the massacre to go as the massacre.
07:18The massacre of the massacre of the massacre of the massacre
07:20I was still there.
07:22But my mother and my mother were still in the house.
07:36In this situation,
07:38I was still in the house.
07:40I was in the house.
07:42But the one was in the house.
07:44They fell within their arms, with their feet.
07:50And when they fell in their knees, were they fell.
07:55When I fell in my head, I fell of them in my head.
08:02They fell in my head and fell in my head.
08:05But I became very painful.
08:10But then I met my wife and my wife in the middle of the house.
08:23I don't want to go out, I don't want to go out, I don't want to go out, I don't want to go out, I don't want to go out.
08:40There was a safety zone set up by Americans and Germans living in Nanjing at that time. Did that safety zone help you?
09:10I don't want to go out, but I don't want to go out.
09:17The safety zone was Key Txia and her sister's survival as the slaughter in Nanjing continued.
09:30Approximately the size of New York's Central Park, it consisted of more than 20 refugee camps.
09:37Formed by an international committee in the heart of Nanjing,
09:42it was headed by German businessman John Rabe to protect the Chinese from the invading Japanese army.
09:49And although the house we have here is now a museum,
09:53you still have this feel of a luxurious but rather intimate place,
09:58imagining some 500 or 600 people jammed into this space as they were during the first days of the Japanese invasion.
10:05Those who managed to find salvation or escape from the city in time were considered the lucky ones.
10:14But for those left behind in Nanjing, the horrors of war were about to reach new heights.
10:20Nanjing, one of the four great ancient capitals of China.
10:30With an urban population of over 7 million, the city is the second largest commercial centre in the East China region after Shanghai.
10:38And today, there's renewed interest in Nanjing's history.
10:46Occupying around 28,000 square metres, the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall was constructed in 1985 to commemorate the fallen.
10:55The site itself is built on a mass grave of some 10,000 corpses.
11:00Three different groups of Japanese soldiers led the assault on Nanjing.
11:06Once the onslaught had begun, the Japanese conquered quickly and the Chinese defence was crushed.
11:12But affected by battle weariness and enraged by Chinese resistance,
11:16the occupiers made Nanjing pay the price in blood.
11:20The city offered nowhere to run or hide.
11:24Even the remote Zujin hills at the edge of the city were not safe.
11:29It's said that a notorious killing competition was held there by the Imperial Army.
11:34Supposedly to help desensitise the troops.
11:38Reports stated that second lieutenants Toshiyaki Mukai and Takeshi Noda were competing to see who would be the first to kill 100 Chinese.
11:49Mokai scored 106, Noda 105.
11:58But unable to determine who passed the 100 mark first, they extended the goal by 50.
12:08This was one of many brutal acts unleashed on Nanjing.
12:14And this violent history became part of the city's identity.
12:18But what was it that made Japan go on this rampage to control China?
12:28In Europe, before World War II, Hitler and the Nazi regime claimed the need for expansion.
12:34At the same time, the Japanese increased their presence on the Chinese mainland, demanding new markets and new resources to cope with the pressures of a growing population and a burgeoning economy.
12:46Manchuria.
12:50And with these new designs for expansion, Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931.
12:55But it wasn't enough.
12:57And Japan's growing imperial ambitions led to a full-scale invasion.
13:07I'm en route to Beijing, where it all began.
13:10To that one single incident that neither the Japanese nor the Chinese were truly prepared for.
13:16Inside the old Wanping fortress is Marco Polo Bridge.
13:26Built in 1189, it was the only gateway into Beijing at the time.
13:30Revered as a work of art by the great traveller Marco Polo, the bridge represents something different for the Chinese.
13:38Misery.
13:41This was the place where the war first broke out in July 1937.
13:45And there's someone who knows the real story.
13:52Hello.
13:54You are Guo老師?
13:55Welcome.
13:56Welcome.
13:57Guo Jinxing, former curator of the Marco Polo Bridge Museum, recorded many testimonies from battle veterans and their surviving relatives.
14:08Including Ji Xingwen, who was on site that fateful night.
14:12Around 2200 hours, Japanese troops begin an unannounced training exercise.
14:20When the exercise is over, they perform a roll call.
14:24One soldier, Private Shimura Kikujiro, is missing.
14:27The Japanese demand entry into Wanping to search for their missing soldier.
14:43Regiment chief Ji Xingwen of the 29th Army declines the request.
14:48He wants his own troops to perform the search.
14:50The Japanese issue an ultimatum with artillery already pointed at the Chinese, ready for bloodshed.
15:02This story remains forever in Guo's memory.
15:06Nowadays, he pays homage to China's World War II by making the official anniversary seals.
15:13He too was a survivor.
15:15What do you remember about the month of July 1937, the month that the Marco Polo Bridge incident broke out?
15:40When I was 9 years old, I was 9 years old.
15:46I was 28 years old.
15:51One day, in the morning,
15:55suddenly, from the sky,
15:59I flew over a large plane.
16:02We never saw a plane.
16:05It was the first time I saw a plane.
16:06It was so cool that all that went to the sea.
16:09The plane was flying on a plane and it was a bit strange than since the sea.
16:12The plane was flying on a plane.
16:14The plane was flying on the plane.
16:17It went out of the plane.
16:19Now there was a plane.
16:20It was about 2 o'clock in the morning,
16:26and we saw that there were 10 or 20 miles of Japanese soldiers.
16:35It was about 5 o'clock in the morning.
16:39It was about 5 o'clock in the morning.
16:45After the 4th of the night,
16:48the soldiers came from the river.
16:51It was about 7 or 8 of them.
16:55One of them was about 1 of them.
16:58One of them was about 7 or 8 of them.
17:01It was about 4 or 5 of them.
17:05It was about 1 month.
17:09The endless bodies floating down the river
17:14were like a foreboding of the full-scale war that would begin here.
17:24What was the motivation for this attack?
17:27Japan's imperial ambitions were growing,
17:30and China was the natural place for it to expand on the mainland.
17:33After all, they had occupied Manchuria in the north-east since 1931.
17:38Now, Japan planned to conquer the entire country within just 3 months.
17:43Their strategy was to cut off China from Beijing in the north through to the south,
17:50in order to gain control over the more fertile and prosperous eastern parts of China.
17:55Challenging Japan would be a highly risky venture.
18:02But it was inevitable.
18:04This is the time for the determination to fight.
18:08This is the turning point for existence or obliteration.
18:13Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek would make a fateful decision,
18:19even if it meant putting the lives of his countrymen at risk for the sake of China's survival.
18:25But China's political scene at that time was largely divided.
18:39According to documents, in July of 1937, Chiang Kai-shek saw unification of the regional leaders across China,
18:47together with the communist leader Mao Zedong.
18:51Both agreed that China had come to a crisis point,
18:54and that war was the only chance of coming through it.
18:59Putting aside their revolutionary dreams for now,
19:01the Chinese Communist Party pledged to make their own forces, the Red Army,
19:06part of the Nationalist Military, known as the Eighth Route Army.
19:12The communists, or CCP's guerrilla forces south of the Yangtze River,
19:16would also be recruited and renamed the New Fourth Army.
19:21From their resistance base areas, including Jincha-ji,
19:24the communists mobilised a critical mass of locals
19:27to fight guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines.
19:30The Japanese invasion forced the government to centralise authority,
19:36addressing one of the major problems of the era, warlordism.
19:40The fact that different military leaders controlled different parts of China.
19:44The two major parties came together in an uneasy alliance.
19:49There were real differences between the communists and the nationalists,
19:52but they were united in the belief that China was locked into a struggle for its very existence.
19:59Japs have been accomplished. This too, they got away with China,
20:03with the combination of the river.
20:05As the Japanese moved south, Shanghai, the financial capital of China, was next.
20:11But this time, the Chinese were convinced they could fight for the city until the bitter end.
20:221937. Japan is on a rampage through China, and Shanghai is next.
20:28Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek and the Communist Red Army have joined forces
20:33as a last attempt to save China from total annihilation.
20:37The plan was to prevent Japan from moving south,
20:42and to bring the war into the international spotlight.
20:45China desperately needed allies,
20:47and Chiang hoped this might encourage the British and the Americans to take part.
20:51Like the troops at the time, I'm off to Shanghai.
20:54I'm hoping to meet the last remaining survivors,
20:57and learn from them the importance of the battle,
21:00and why it was so very crucial.
21:03July 1937. Japan had managed to secure Manchuria, the north-east of China,
21:10along with Beijing and Tianjin.
21:12The Japanese Imperial Army began marching along the major railways,
21:17cutting through central China via Shanghai.
21:20Today, the city of Shanghai serves as one of the most important commercial,
21:30financial and industrial centres of China,
21:33not to mention a hub for strong relations with the international community.
21:37This was already clear in 1937,
21:47two years before the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939,
21:51which for the wider world is the beginning of the Second World War.
21:55Shanghai, China's most modern city, came under attack.
22:02Along Shanghai's iconic Bund stands the Peace Hotel.
22:06which is made up of the former Cathay Hotel and the adjacent Palace Hotel.
22:13These two buildings are divided by Nanjing Road,
22:16one of the busiest shopping streets in Shanghai.
22:19This spot right here was the scene of one of the first events
22:23of the battle for Shanghai, and one of the most tragic.
22:26Some 1,000 people who were present here that day perished.
22:31But I was lucky enough to locate one of the few survivors.
22:46At 94 years old, Wang Zhong's memory is crystal clear.
22:52Then, just a teenager, he volunteered as a soldier in 1937.
22:57After three months of training, Wang was sent straight to the front lines
23:01as Shanghai prepared for battle.
23:03When I was at war, I was 17 years old.
23:06I was a driver.
23:09When I was at war, I was in the front lines
23:12I invited people to participate in the military military military.
23:17August the 14th, 1937, was a day that a terrible, terrible incident happened.
23:26Do you remember anything about that day?
23:47My faith was born on the other side by the shuttle.
23:50Did you ever see that?
23:54As for the shuttle to the shuttle, the shuttle was a very good one.
24:01The shuttle was닿ons to the shuttle.
24:09The planes were to take a shot at the shuttle Students.
24:17So there are 2,000 years in the air.
24:20The air was hit by the air,
24:23the air was big, and very high.
24:26The air was hit by the air,
24:30and the air was hit by the air.
24:32When they hit the air,
24:34it was just out of 300 acres.
24:38It was just in the area of the NMG region.
24:42The NMG region was attacked by the NMG region.
24:46This is a tragedy that drove home the point that amidst the chaos of war, a single misstep
24:59can lead to a deadly outcome.
25:03China simply wasn't equipped to fight to the same degree as the Japanese.
25:08So how did the Chinese army manage to hold out for a three months period?
25:15Wang lives in Shanghai to this day.
25:31He's still trying to find his peace with the past.
25:38In Shanghai, one final battle would be fought in full view of the Western community.
25:44And it was to take place at a strategic location across from the international settlement,
25:51home to the British and the Americans whom the Japanese wanted to keep out of the war.
25:57A group of 800 men were tasked with defending Sihang warehouse on the front lines from thousands
26:03of Japanese to allow the withdrawal of the remaining Chinese troops from Shanghai from behind the
26:09line of defense.
26:15Xie Jimin is the son of Xie Jinyuan, the commander of the 800-strong regiment.
26:23With renewed interest in China's history, the warehouse is being restored and under renovation.
26:29Xie Jimin is the son of Xie Jinyuan, the commander of the U.Sie Jinyuan, the commander of the U.Sie Jinyuan, the commander of the U.Sie Jinyuan.
26:36Xie Jinyuan, the national critic on the 400- acquainted logo in Lehman route.
26:45If you look at the front and the front, you can attack the enemy.
26:51The enemy can't attack the enemy.
26:54This car is very difficult.
26:57The front door is two big doors.
27:02The front door is four big doors.
27:06The four big doors are closed.
27:09After the door is closed, the door is closed.
27:19If the enemy has broken the door, we can still use the door.
27:27The door is closed.
27:30Every door is closed.
27:36The door is closed and closed.
27:40The door is closed and closed.
27:42The door is closed.
27:44Every door is closed.
27:46In any situation, the door is closed.
27:52The enemy is closed.
27:54I have a message to the enemy.
27:56Then, the enemy is with the enemy.
27:59The enemy is closed.
28:02The enemy is closed.
28:07Known as the 800-strong regiment, it was later revealed that there were actually only around
28:12400 men.
28:14Commander Xie had lied in order to throw off the enemy.
28:18Number seven.
28:23The enemy is closed, the enemy is closed.
28:25The enemy was closed.
28:27The enemy is closed.
28:29The enemy is closed.
28:31It's closed.
28:33The enemy is closed.
28:33There is no one point.
28:38I wanted to run and run.
28:39I want to relationship with the enemy.
28:43in the end of the world,
28:46we will keep up here,
28:47and we will keep up here.
28:57Xie's legacy lives on,
28:58as his son continues with efforts to honour his memory.
29:05But at that time, after three months of war,
29:08the Chinese had lost,
29:09and were forced to retreat inland.
29:13However, they succeeded in cutting off Japan from advancing south.
29:18But there would be another surprise.
29:24The Soviet Union offered military assistance,
29:27including pilots, for China.
29:29If Japan had occupied China,
29:31it would have been a natural launch pad for the invasion of the Soviet Union,
29:34so it was natural for Joseph Stalin to offer assistance.
29:38But it wasn't enough.
29:41The international assistance that Chiang craved never arrived,
29:44and China would fight, essentially, alone.
29:54Neither the Japanese nor the international community expected China to take such a determined stand.
29:59The Battle of Shanghai represented a moment where China would no longer take things lying down,
30:06and allow Japan to swallow its territories, piece by piece, without a fight.
30:11The Battle of Shanghai had been killed.
30:191937.
30:20World War II begins unexpectedly for China.
30:23A skirmish at Marco Polo Bridge quickly escalates into a full-scale war against the Japanese
30:32Imperial Army.
30:35The country's leaders vow to resist, no matter how great the sacrifice.
30:42By the end of 1937, the capital Nanjing had fallen and forced the Chinese central government
30:49to move westward to Chongqing.
30:52The Japanese Imperial Army were also on the move.
30:55They wanted to take over Xuzhou and continue their plans to occupy China.
31:00To achieve this, they first had to get through Taihezhuang.
31:13Li Jingshan volunteers his time as a tour guide in Taihezhuang's ancient town, sharing the
31:19history of his town and his people.
31:29The town suffered unimaginable destruction, and this 82-year-old witnessed most of it.
31:37I can see that Taihezhuang still bears the wounds of its war-torn past.
31:44Even Li's house wasn't spared.
31:47What was the atmosphere like in the days leading up to the Battle of Taihezhuang?
31:50Were people panicked?
31:51Were they prepared?
31:52Did they know what was going to come?
31:55Taihezhuang is a war-torn past.
31:58They didn't know what was going to come.
32:01They didn't know the word for the war-torn past.
32:05They were just a war-torn past.
32:07It was a war-torn past.
32:12They were also a war-torn past.
32:42What happened to your family when they left Taihezhuang and had to flee?
32:52Taihezhuang is a war-torn past.
32:57They didn't know what was going to happen.
33:04They were waiting for themselves to leave.
33:08I went home in my home.
33:10It was a war-torn past.
33:11They were on the streets and built the streets.
33:14I left the streets during the Chris Hill and went home.
33:17They felt that they could fire.
33:20After that, they came by at the house and flew away to the house.
33:27A building that was a huge change.
33:30I don't want to leave this house.
33:33And when you and your family did finally come back to Tai Chiang,
33:37what did it look like?
33:38What do you remember seeing?
33:39When you look at this place,
33:46the sky is dark.
33:48The sun is dark now.
33:54When the sun is falling,
33:56it's dark now.
33:58The sun is dark now.
34:03After the war, we won't go back.
34:06After the war, we won't go back.
34:08We won't go back.
34:11We won't go back.
34:20Listening to Li Jing Shan's stories reminded me that
34:23if you're a general, if you're a politician,
34:25war may seem very planned, very strategic.
34:28But for ordinary people, it's chaos, it's violence, it's instability.
34:34And the ripples from that can last for decades.
34:37We won't go back.
34:38We won't go back.
34:39We won't go back.
34:44Haya Zhuang was a strategic location.
34:48Not only was it along the Grand Canal,
34:50China's major north-south waterway,
34:52but it also had a railway line that bypassed Xizhou.
34:56It became Japan's next target.
35:00If the Japanese wanted to maintain their hold on Beijing and Nanjing and go on to Wuhan,
35:06then they had to control the vital railway junction of Xuzhou, starting with the nearby town of Taiazhuang.
35:14The city structure gave the Chinese an unusual advantage.
35:18Instead of a sophisticated battle, they turned to hand-to-hand combat in the narrow lanes.
35:23But the Imperial Army underestimated the force of the Chinese and weren't able to sustain the fight.
35:31When I was researching this battle, I read reports of a crack military squadron that ran night raids against the Japanese.
35:38They used really primitive weapons, even tying bombs to their own bodies.
35:43But what sort of men would put themselves forward for such a dangerous task?
35:47A group of men known as the Expendables infiltrated various parts of China.
35:53Shufengcheng was the commander of the 57-man suicide squad in Taiazhuang.
36:02But their efforts seem to have faded from the pages of history.
36:05Ren Shufengcheng, a retired teacher, has been studying battle archives and interviewing veterans to map the course of the battle that took place here.
36:26What was the significance of the Expendables during the Battle of Taiazhuang?
36:32What was their role?
36:33In orderly, the
36:51The Expendables used Guan Di Temple as their command headquarters.
36:59For the Chinese, Guan Di is a symbol of loyalty.
37:06The Expendables used Guan Di Temple as their command headquarters.
37:12For the Chinese, Guan Di is a symbol of loyalty.
37:17The Expendables used Guan Di Temple as a symbol of loyalty.
37:24The Expendables used to be a symbol of loyalty.
37:29The Expendables used to be a symbol of the Expendables.
37:34The Expendables used to be a symbol of the Expendables.
37:3913 men did survive from the Expendables.
37:44Are any of them still alive with us today?
37:46The Expendables used to be a symbol of the Expendables.
37:49I think the Expendables used to be a symbol of the Expendables used to be a symbol of the Expendables.
37:56The sacrifice made by the Expendables is regarded with great respect by those who know what happened.
38:03This battle was a rare victory for China.
38:08But why was it so rare?
38:10Well, at Taiizhuang, the tactics were better.
38:15And the troops were successfully resupplied from behind the lines.
38:18Something that happened all too seldom in other campaigns.
38:21But with a bit of help from the Expendables, Taiizhuang was a real morale booster.
38:26And it signaled that even if the war was lengthy, China would fight back.
38:34By the end of the battle, the town of Taiizhuang was nothing but ruins.
38:39However, the victory has been commemorated by the efforts made to restore the town to its former glory.
38:48The defeat at Taiizhuang wasn't enough to stop the Japanese from moving towards China's interior.
38:54Japan had already invested too much to turn back now.
39:02But the Chinese would be ready with a defence strategy that would blindside the aggressors
39:07and trigger one of the greatest tragedies of World War II.
39:12Today, China as a country is a force to reckon with.
39:17It's transformed itself and its role in world politics at an unprecedented rate.
39:23But 70 years ago, the Japanese army was threatening to end its freedom and murder anyone in their way.
39:42China had been fighting a losing battle with Japan for years before war broke out in Europe.
39:48In 1938, China enjoyed its first victory at Taiizhuang.
39:52But it would be a short-lived triumph.
39:55Shizhou fell soon after.
39:57Wuhan was next.
39:59How could the Japanese be stopped?
40:01Stretching across 5,464 kilometres, the Yellow River is known as China's Mother River.
40:08They say that this basin was the cradle of the northern Chinese civilisation.
40:13And during this country's early history, it was the most prosperous region of China.
40:14But the people have a different name for this river.
40:18China's sorrow.
40:19China's sorrow.
40:20China's sorrow.
40:21China's sorrow.
40:22China's sorrow.
40:23China's sorrow.
40:24China's sorrow.
40:25China's sorrow.
40:26China's sorrow.
40:27China's sorrow.
40:28China's sorrow.
40:29China's sorrow.
40:30China's sorrow.
40:31China's sorrow.
40:32China's sorrow.
40:33China's sorrow.
40:34China's sorrow.
40:35China's sorrow.
40:36China's sorrow.
40:37China's sorrow.
40:41China's sorrow.
40:42China's sorrow.
40:43China's sorrow.
40:48Liou Haiyong has been studying the course of the Yellow River throughout the history of China's
40:58war.
40:59''
41:00''
41:01黃河是向東流的。
41:04就是這個曲線,可以看到黃河的走向。
41:08這一個藍色的區域就是黃河向東南造成的這種新河道。
41:14當時日軍沿著這個龍海鐵路一直就是往西要去攻打郑州。
41:21part of the
41:24quit,我們e вижу了一個向浪州去戰領武漢的長島。
41:28Japan hoped to end the war once and for all in Wuhan,
41:32where the Nationalist military headquarters was based,
41:35in a desperate attempt to store any further advance by the Japanese.
41:40On June 9, 1938, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the dikes along the Yellow River
41:46to be breached at Huayuan-Kou, near Zhengzhou.
41:58At the same time, it wasn't a few weeks ago.
42:01At the same time, the Japanese military officer told him
42:06that he had to be able to go through the water,
42:09and through the water,
42:11to create a natural strategy隐障,
42:14and to cut the Japanese military plan and the road.
42:19At the same time,
42:21the Prime Minister of the Prime Minister of the Prime Minister
42:23also announced this.
42:25The tactics succeeded in stalling the Japanese by strategically breaking the dikes of the Yellow River wide open, a massive flood of water hurtled towards the areas threatened by Japanese troops.
42:52In Japan, there was a military, a military, a tank, a tank, a tank, a tank, a tank, and a tank.
43:00There were hundreds of people in the air. There were hundreds of people in the air.
43:08Although turning the river into a weapon took out the Japanese army, it proved catastrophic for millions of innocent Chinese civilians.
43:18The rivers.
43:22One of the officers in charge of the breaking of those Yellow River dikes recorded in his diary that the flow of the water looked like 10,000 galloping horses.
43:32He also wrote that the site made his heart ache. This was the last line of defence for China's survival, but it demanded the ultimate sacrifice.
43:42China will never give up any part of its territories. In the face of aggression, self defence is the only way.
43:49It wasn't an action that was taken lightly, but it led to one of the deadliest acts of environmental warfare in history.
44:00Figures issued by the nationalist government in 1948 suggested huge casualties.
44:05For the three affected provinces of Henan, Anhui, and Jiangsu, at least 800,000 Chinese died from drowning, starvation, or ensuing diseases, with some 4.8 million becoming refugees.
44:20オイルの戴治的地は死と、逃亡死亡游答を còn結ído死を受けたくさんの中で降臨。
44:35In 1937, after the Battle of Shanghai, vast numbers of Chinese families made the trek
44:46westward as part of the mass refugee flight.
44:49And this had a tremendous impact on the traditional Chinese family system.
44:54Dwarfing even the huge numbers of people displaced in Europe at the end of World War II, some
44:59100 million Chinese became refugees in their own country during those wartime years.
45:05And this forced the government into creating a system of relief and rehabilitation to cope
45:10with that increasing influx.
45:12For despite the cost, China was determined to survive.
45:15China managed to survive this war of resistance alone for four years, a far cry from the three
45:32months the Japanese had expected.
45:36After the Japanese invasion, many fled west to the temporary wartime capital at Chongqing.
45:42These internal displacements helped forge a new sense of national consciousness that
45:47would shape China for many decades to come.
45:50But Chongqing itself was ill-suited to mass refugee flight.
45:55Resources were scarce, and the Japanese stepped up the scale and the intensity of their terror
46:00tactics, hoping to bring China to its knees.
46:12But then, in 1941, the attack on Pearl Harbor opened a new chapter for China.
46:22The West finally realized the significance of that country's efforts during the emerging
46:26global war.
46:28Help was on the way.
46:42...
46:43...
46:44...