Study On The Refugee Reclamation In Jiangxi Province During The Comprehensive Anti-Japanese War

After the outbreak of the comprehensive Anti-Japanese war,the Japanese army quickly occupied a large part of China’s territory,and a large number of refugees fled to major cities and transportation lines in the rear.This not only caused tremendous pressure on the fragile economy,but also brought a shock to the chaotic social order.In the process of fleeing,there are countless casualties caused by war,hunger,disease and so on.At the same time,the war has led to a decline in China’s industrial and agricultural production,and serious difficulties have arisen in the military and civilian food.Relief for refugees and development of production were necessary for gathering people,inspiring morale and fighting the enemy.The National Government took measures to relieve the refugees immediately,assisted them to withdraw to the rear area,gradually established the policy of "relief by production",and arranged the refugees to engage in various production undertakings,so as to help the refugees to live on themselves as soon as possible and reduce consumption.Among the measures to relieve refugees,reclamation is a very important system.During the wartime,China’s industry was underdeveloped and had plenty of uncultivated land.Comparatively speaking,reclamation does not require special skills,can accommodate a large number of refugees,and farming life is more stable and lasting.In order to completely solve the problem of refugee life,reclamation is taken by the National Government as main measure to settle refugees down.On October 15,1938,the Rules for the Refugees Reclamation in Wartime was promulgated by the National Government,which officially launched the cause of refugee reclamation in wartime.Designated by the Executive Yuan,the National Relief Committee,the Ministry of Economy,the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Finance established "the National Reclamation Authority"to be responsible for the refugee reclamation.On the one hand,it formulated policies and regulations,directly set up State-owned reclamation farms and transferred refugees to reclaim uncultivated land;on the other hand,it urged the local governments and social organizations to take part in.State-owned reclamation farm is a new type of reclamation mode established irn light of Chinese traditional reclamation system and the Group farms system of the Soviet Union.In order to help the refugees develop production,the National Government has given many special preferential policies to the refugees,such as providing a large amount of capitals,among which,living expenses are interest-free loans,production funds are long-term&low-interest loans.Refugees are exempted from military service for three years,and given permanent farming rights,exempt from land tax for 5-8 years,and so on.With the encouragement and urge of the National Government,the refugee reclamation cause had developed rapidly,forming three modes of operation:State-owned farms,provincial-owned farms and private farms.The State-owned farms were hold by the National Government,the provincial-owned farms were hold by the provincial governments,and the private farms were hold by some NGOs,such as refugees groups,charities and agricultural corporations.Refugee reclamation in Jiangxi started earlier,organized well and achieved remarkable results.In July 1938,the Jiangxi Provincial Government set up the Reclamation Bureau,which was responsible for the refugee reclamation.The Jiangxi Provincial Reclamation Bureau mainly established reclamation farms(provincial-owned farms)in large areas of uncultivated land in order to resettle more refugees and implement large-scale production.Refugee farms were operated on Group Farming System,which was characterized by public ownership of land,collective production,cooperative operation and joint distribution.Group Farming System was a new mode,combining collective production with cooperative operation to give full play to the advantages of large-scale production and improve the efficiency of agricultural production.Group farming system had two modes of co-cultivation and sub-cultivation.At the beginning,the Provincial Reclamation Bureau adopted the co-cultivation mode,and then changed to sub-cultivation mode because of many disadvantages of the former.While supervising the production of the farms,the Provincial Reclamation Bureau also set up clinics,schools and militia in many farms to serve the refugees.It stimulated the refugee’s national feeling and anti-Japanese sentiment by education,improved their production enthusiasm and their living environment.There were a large number of scattered uncultivated lands in Jiangxi which were not suitable for collective reclamation,and the Provincial Reclamation Bureau was unable to organize all eligible refugees to reclaim them.Thus,the Jiangxi Provincial Relief Committee selected some eligible refugees and transferred them to reclaim scattered uncultivated land.Without special administrative organs,refugees were integrated into the local Baojia(neighborhood administrative system).The refugee scattered reclamation was mainly carried out by the Jiangxi Provincial Relief Committee,and the Provincial Reclamation Bureau is responsible for technical guidance,and the county governments responsible for land allocation,reclamation management and provisions.At the same time,private organizations and charities had also sent refugees to reclaim lands successively,which should be registered with the Provincial Reclamation Bureau and receive its management and guidance.Since 1942,reclamation had been defined as a major job of self-governance of local government.Merging with the local administrative system,reclamation had been generally promoted by the government power.The provincial reclamation farms,evolving from the stage of rapid expansion to the stage of consolidation,stop recruiting refugees on a large scale,while the Provincial Reclamation Bureau mainly encouraged the private capital to invest in reclamation,in which way the private reclamation developed rapidly.Among them,the Refugee Migration Association initiated by the International Relief Committee of the Red Cross Society of China,as the largest private reclamation group in Jiangxi during the war,transferred thousands of refugees to Jiangxi to reclaim land,and achieved good results.Although there were many private reclamation groups,most of them were very small.Besides the poor management,they can’t get financial and technical support from the government as well,most of the private farms are facing difficulties.The National Reclamation Authority,as a coordinating and deliberative institution of joint departments,because of decentralized power,it had only established two State-owned reclamation zones in Shaanxi in more than two years since its establishment and resettled about 20,000 refugees.As the agriculture is critical for the Anti-Japanese War,the National Government set up the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in 1940 to develop agricultural production.At the beginning of 1941,the General Administration of Reclamation,responsible for the national reclamation in wartime,was founded under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.Since then,the national refugee reclamation has switched to be governed by the General Administration of Reclamation,and the State-owned reclamation had witnessed a rapid expansion.The first State-owned reclamation zone was set up in Anfu County,Jiangxi Province by the General Administration of Reclamation to recruit refugees to reclaim,after which State-owned reclamation zones was set up in Sichuan,Gansu,Xikang,Henan and Fujian provinces in a row.With fixed budgets,better talent and technical supports,most of State.-owned reclamation farms developed rapidly.After one or two years of cultivation,most of the refugees became self-sufficient,realizing the goal of relief.As the war situation became stable,the refugee tide began to fall,and the refugee reclamation was no longer the focus of the national reclamation policy.At the beginning of 1945,in order to save money to support the War,the National Government revoked the General Administration of Reclamation,after which the State-owned reclamation areas were handed over to the local governments.After the war ended,special preferential measures given to the refugees ceased,refugee farms becoming undistinguished from ordinary farms.With most of the refugees abandoned their farms and returned their hometown,the Jiangxi Provincial Reclamation Bureau had to merge and adjust all the refugee farms in order to maintain,and the refugee reclamation cause end its course in an invisible way.In total,during the Anti-Japanese War,the Jiangxi Provincial Reclamation Bureau set up 61 farms,recruited more than 16,000 refugees,reclaimed more than 70,000 mu of uncultivated land and produced more than 800,000 dans of rice(about 47,360,000kg).Under the supervision and assistance of the Jiangxi Provincial Reclamation Bureau,125 private reclamation farms were set up,more than 19,000 refugees were relocated,and more than 110,000 mu of land was reclaimed.The General Administration of Reclamation set up 9 farms in the Jiangxi,recruiting more than 4,400 refugees and reclaiming more than 18,000 mu of land.As a very active and effective policy,refugee reclamation bore dual purpose of relieving refugees and developing production.However,in the process of implementing the policy,the National Government failed to divide the power and interests of the relevant parties clearly.Therefore,the policy had been resisted with varying degrees by the grass-roots society,which impaired the development of the reclamation.The local government forced the refugees to be merged into the local Baojia,which was unanimously opposed by the refugees and the reclamation authorities.The long-standing debate between local governments and reclamation authorities was essentially a contest for the jurisdiction of reclamation areas.After the refugees were merged into the local Baojia,preferential policies could not be implemented,and their interests were damaged,which hindered the development of reclamation.The contradiction between the refugees and the indigenous people caused by the advocating of land,water and forest had deepened the suspicion and confrontation between them,so that the local forces had constantly blocked the reclamation and excluded the refugees.In the reclamation farm,the managers have absolute power on the whole farm,by which some of the managers often sought private interests and infringed the interests of the refugees illegally,resulting in tension between the managers and the refugees.Without effective supervision and measures from the Provincial Reclamation Bureau,laws and disciplines were violated,which altogether worsened the social ecology of the reclamation farms.Because it was difficult for the refugees to make a living,some of the refugees gradually quit or fled from the farms.Despite the grand goal of relieving refugees,developing production and Anti-Japanese,the differences in the interests of all parties involved in the reclamation led to contradictions and conflicts,and the poor position of the reclamation authorities and the refugees determined the bad results of the game.The policy of refugee reclamation has been repeatedly resisted and misinterpreted by the local powers,which showed the political and social chaos in the grass-roots society.In order to implement refugee reclamation,the National Government established a hierarchical management system,initiated the public reclamation system(State-owned and Provincial-owned areas),and implemented the Group Farming System and loan policy in the reclamation area.It carried out many important reforms in land policy,military service policy,tax policy and agricultural operation system.The public reclamation system was an important institutional innovation of the National Government in agricultural production and operation,which promoted the transformation of agricultural modernization of the Republic of China.Even in the wartime,the National Government still abided by the laws and regulations in the management of refugee reclamation,followed the basic principles of economy,which is worth affirming.Of course,limited by talent,material and financial resources,the governments failed send more refugees to reclamation area.Restricted by the old political system and economic and social environment,the process of the transformation from refugee to resident encountered many obstacles.The purpose of adjusting the population distribution through refugee reclamation had not been fully achieved.In short,the policy of refugee reclamation in wartime had relieved some refugees,promoted the development of reclamation,exploring a positive and feasible way for social relief,and contributing a lot to the War.