Research On Henan Famine In 1942-1943

The Henan famine in 1942-1943 was unprecedengted in both the faminehistory of Henan and the entire modern famine history of China.This famine is primarily composed of drought and locust,with flood,windstorm, hail earthquake ,epidemic disease and so on attached. It hasthe time and region imbalance. Looking from the time, drought is mostserious in 1942 while locust is heavist in 1943. Look form the region,drought and locust are most serious in the west and norst of Henan whileflood is heavist in the east and south of Henan. View as a whole , it hasfour features: the width-ranging in scope, the concurrence,the connectionand the accumulation. The reason of this famine has two aspects. Thenatural reason includes precipitation, terrain, climate, crops and so on.The social reason is the basicist and mainist reason including the corruptof Kuomintang government and the invasion of Japanese. The loss of thisfamine is extremely serious, there were 3 millions of people starving todeath, 3 millions of people fleeing, and nearly the entire population ofHenan, 30 millions, all became the famine victims.After the occurrence of the famine, the three kinds of political powerwithin Henan all took measures to relieve, but received entirelydistinctive effects. In the area ruled by Kuomintang, the governmentadopted the"government-depended"relief pattern, in which the localauthorities relied on the central government and the refugees relied onthe local anthorities. This kind of relief mechanism not only could notarrange the social resources effectively, but also could not overcome thedisaster thoroughly. In the Base, the Border Region Government conquerthe crisis by the relief pattern of "product to relieve oneself", underwhich the refugees were majorly self-responsible, the government playeda role of prop,help and guidance, and the social strenth were all movedto participate in relief activities. In the area occuppied by Japanese,the Puppet Government also took certain relief measures, but the effectwas miniscule because of lacking long term plan and basic savingsolutions.In this famine, the folk strenth also took part in the relief and haddifferent performance in the three areas. The relief by folk strenthreceived better effect in the area ruled by the Communist Party and thearea controlled by Kuomintang than that in the area occupied by Japanese.The relief by folk strenth was the important supplement to the relief bygovernment. However, the mutual-supplement mechanism of folk strenth andthe government was far from perfection.This famine has greatly impacted on the rulal society of Henan, mainlydisplayed in population, economy and social order.In the population, ithas caused sharp decline in the quantity and quality of population, hightide of refugees fleeing and vicissitude in structure. In the economy,it has brought"thing-cheap and grain-expensive",commonization of landbusiness,increasing of tenant farmer and land rent. In the social order,it has initiated petition, robbery, revolt and rebellion by the refugees.From my article, we can obtain following enlightenments: First, thegovernment should play the leading role in the famine relief, meanwhile,itis necessary to bring the folk strenth, especially the self-relief of therefugees into play, and which must be made to the essential supplementto the relief by government. Second, in order to achieve successful relief,it is significant to have a clear and bright political situation, apeaceful environment and sufficient financial and material resources.Third, during the famine, social turmoil is apt to happen, so thegovernment must practice relief effectively to eliminate all unstablefactors in the embryonic stage.