Pictured here is correspondence written by Zhu De, commander-in-chief of the Eighth Route Army, on Aug. 10, 1945, ordering Chinese forces to issue a surrender ultimatum to the Japanese and Japanese puppet armies.

 

A few days ago, the Second Historical Archives of China made public files about the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army, led by the Communist Party of China, to highlight the CPC’s crucial role in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression.

These archives mainly include photographs of the armies, correspondence notifying the Kuomintang government, the Military Commission and the General Staff of the wartime situation as well as messages of commendation and encouragement.

The collection is the first of its kind and has 30 volumes arranged according to the timeline of events.
Guo Biqiang, director of research at the archives bureau, said these valuable archives bring to light the heroism of the Eighth Route and the New Fourth armies in the fight against Japan and offer an insight into the historical facts of the war.
 

In addition, the archives bureau released 30 volumes about the surrender of Japanese forces in the China theater, including bilateral telegrams discussing terms of surrender as well as national and local reports on the acceptance of surrender in different locations. There are also lists documenting the transfer of organizations, industries and supplies belonging to the Japanese puppet regime, an accounting of surrendered Japanese troops and weapons, diagrams on the distribution of surrendered Japanese forces, and photographs of surrendering forces.

 

Wang Guanglu is a reporter at the Chinese Social Sciences Today.