Commemoration of 918

Before the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, a Kwantung Army (KA, spear head of the Imperial Japanese Army) agent in Beijing reported that if China united, its potent Northeastern Army (NA) in Manchuria could have withstood the KA of only 11,000 men, and jeopardized the Japanese aggressive intentions farther south from Manchuria.  The NA of nearly a quarter million was the best-trained and equipped troop of China, including 25 infantry brigades, 6 cavalry brigades and 10 artillery regiments.  Being exposed to accumulated Japanese havoc with their homeland, NA’s fur-hatted soldiers demanded putting up a fight with their modern arsenal of 200 warplanes, 20 tanks and 4,000 machine guns.

But the Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek showed no intention of resisting invasions; he manipulated it.  Under his “nonresistance policy” to the Japanese, Chiang turned on his political rivals and blocked the NA from gaining any opposition or voice within Manchuria.  To remain in line with Chiang’s controversial stance, the NA commander Zhang Xue-Liang (張學良, son of NA’s founder) urged his men not to defy and to store away any weapons for self-defense.  On September 18, 1931, 600 KA men proceeded to crush 8,000 disarmed garrisons in the North Barrack near Mukden, with minimal difficulty.  In five months the KA had overrun all major northeastern Chinese cities.

To all Chinese 918 (09/18/1931) became the final goad to their wounded pride.  Expanding from Manchuria, the Japanese easily captured extensive Chinese resources to obliterate China; the NA's 42 grand prize aircraft re-painted with Hinomaru was the lead.  Chinese public opinion was highly critical of Zhang for his cowardice in his handling of the Japanese assault, while Chiang still focused his effort on eradicating the Chinese Communist guerrilla.  Though China became a shameful mess, there had been no shortage of ruler's VIP transports, which used the line of the Ford Tri-motor, Boeing Model-247, Sikorsky S-43, Douglas BT-32 Condor, C-54 Skymaster, and C-118 Liftmaster.  Amid the civil war, the Commies forced Chiang fled Mainland in a C-54 (BuNo 42-72424) to Taiwan, December 10, 1949, where he reinstated and reformed an autocratic rule.