The Problem Of Refugee Relief In Hubei During The Anti-Japanese War

The refugee problem during the anti-Japanese war is an important topic in the research of China’s modern social history. Recently, a lot of treatises and books on this topic were published and a lot of positive results were got in the academic circle. However, there is a lack of special research on the refugee relief effort in Hubei.This thesis will research the general situation of the refugees in Hubei, the relief strategies and their implementation through the collection and selection of the relevant materials on newspapers and magazines and conclude the historical lesson from them in order to provide reference for the social relief effort in today’s Hubei.This thesis consists of three parts with more than50,000words in total. The first part mainly discusses the general situation of the refugees in Hubei during the anti-Japanese war and explicitly researched the reasons of the refugees’ appearance, the refugees’flowing direction and their general characteristics. Due to the massive destruction by the war and natural disasters, a great number of refugees appeared in China. Their flowing followed some patternsThe second part introduces the relief and settlement effort of refugees in Hubei and researched the effort on the basis of the division of two different relief objects:war refugees and disaster refugees which include refugees from Hubei and Henan. The KMT government and the government of Hubei province made special strategies and decrees and established special funds to solve the refugee problem. The social forces also joint in the effort and made contribution to the refugee relief effort. In addition, the government of Hubei province also relieved and settled some refugees from other provinces, mostly from Henan during the anti-Japanese war.The third part systemically evaluates the relief effort’s characteristics and results. The relief effort in Hubei had its own characteristics, got some results and played a positive role in keeping the social stability, improving the economic development and supporting the anti-Japanese war. However due to the lack of funds, there were serious problems of corruption and bureaucratism which weaken the final effect of the relief effort to some degree.