The Jilin Provincial Archives released the first letter archives of Yang Jingyu, commander-in-chief of the First Route Army of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Allied Forces. This precious archive, formed after the July 7 Incident in 1937, provides new evidence for studying the strategic decision-making of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Nations in cooperation with the national war of resistance.
The archives released this time were a letter from Yang Jingyu, who was then commander-in-chief of the First Route Army of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Allied Forces, to the Third Division of the First Route Army of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Allied Forces after the July 7 Incident. The letter was looted by the Japanese and puppets during a battle in October 1937 and translated into Japanese for archives. It is now in the Jilin Provincial Archives Quanzong of the Japanese Kanto Gendarmerie Command.
Yang Jingyu's letter Japanese file. (Photo provided by Jilin Provincial Archives)
Experts from Jilin Provincial Archives introduced that although the letter did not indicate the specific date, the contents of "response to the Sino-Japanese War" are highly consistent with the historical nodes of Yang Jingyu leading his troops to implement the "expeditionary war" in July 1937. Archives show that Yang Jingyu quickly adjusted his strategy after the July 7 Incident, clearly put forward mobilization orders such as "quickly assembly of troops" and "joint anti-Japanese armed forces", and deployed the combat policy of "squeezing the Kwantung Army and echoing the civil battlefield of Guanyin".
Although this Japanese version of the letter archive has experienced war, the content is complete and continuous, clearly recording the combat plan of Yang Jingyu's command of the troops to advance from Huanren, Liaoning to Qingyuan, and confirming his strategic intention of "expanding the prestige of the Anti-Japanese United Alliance and realizing coordination within and outside the pass."
Yang Jingyu's letter Japanese file. (Photo provided by Jilin Provincial Archives)
Liu Xinjun, director of the Institute of Party History and Party Building, Jilin University, said that 2025 is the 120th anniversary of General Yang Jingyu's birth and the 85th anniversary of his death. The archives released this time have important historical value for the study of Yang Jingyu's deeds and even the study of the history of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Nations.
Yang Jingyu (1905-1940) was one of the main founders and leaders of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Allied Forces. He died heroically in Bengjiang, Jilin (now Jingyu County) in February 1940. (Reporters Zhang Boyu and Tang Chengzhuo)
