Politics Or People’s Livelihood?—a Study Of The Puppet Regimes’ Yellow River Closure(1938-1945)

The Yellow River burst event of1938is a great event during the period of the Anti-Japanese War. This event not only formed the long-term confrontation between the Chinese army and the Japanese invasion army which were separated by the river, but also made44counties of the Yu-Wan-Su provinces suffered the Yellow River flood for nine years. After the incident, not only the national government decided to construct the new Yellow River defense, but also the Japan and the Puppet Governments discussed on this matter for a long time. During the Anti-Japanese War, because of the competing interests in the internal Japanese invasion army, the puppet regimes were unable to complete the integration process. The north puppet regime with Beijing as the center and the south puppet regime with Nanjing as the center contradicted with each other on the river training issue and both showed extreme inefficiency.At the beginning of the Yellow River burst, although the puppet regimes had been established, the local puppet regime of Yu-Wan-Su provinces was still in the creation phase. At this point, the puppet regimes issued declarations, submited proposals and carried out the investigation into breaches as the response measures. After1939, the north and south puppet regimes conducted lengthy negotiations on the river training issue. During this period, the different strategies to the crevasse between the Japanese army in Northern China and Central China made the negotiation even more difficult. In the early1940, the puppet interim government and the puppet reforming government held the River Control talks in Beijing, and they reached an agreement that was to establish the river controlling organization and to carry out the dyke enclosure. But the movement which was carried out by Wang’s government made the two puppet regimes lost interest to the agreement which had been reached after many setbacks.After Wang’s puppet government being set, the two puppet regimes’ status were reversed radically. On the river training talks held in Nanjing in October1940, the two puppet regimes came to an agreement on the river controlling authority’s organization and funds. But before the establishment of river authority, the Henan local puppet government had started to build the new Yellow River dike in large-scale. In that case, the puppet regimes had to accelerate the speed to set up the river controlling authority. But the establishment of Yellow River Zhongmou blocking Committee in April1941did not break the deadlock. Not only the Henan local puppet government still built the new dike, but also the Wang’s puppet government began to patch the damaged dike in Su-Wan provinces which was destroyed by the flood. At the same time, the puppet North China Political Affairs Committee also began to measure the land which had been a river before. The committee was unworthy of its name.The found of the committee couldn’t eliminate the two puppet regimes’different opinions neither. The dispute between the two puppet regimes broke out again in1942. The water conservancy departments of the two puppet regimes clashed frequently over the matter. The Henan local puppet government also organized effective embanking committee and built the new dike extensively. In contrast, the work carried out by the blocking committee from the end of1941, such as sending the survey team to measure the downstream levee of the Yellow River, investigating various materials which were needed in the enclosure project, was eclipsed. In May1945, the blocking committee was revoked. With the end of the Anti-Japanese War, the river control attempt by puppet regimes became the history too.The disposal of the Yellow River crevasse matter, is just in the intersection where the Japanese military attack, puppet regimes’political needs, and the victims’livelihood combined together. Therefore, on the problems of blocking crevasse, from reachig the closure agreement, setting up the joint closure authority’, constructing the new Yellow River dike, to revocating the blocking committee, the disputes were never disappeared. On the surface, whether to meet the needs of the Japanese military, to fit the publicity of preaching the puppet regimes’kindness, or to relief victims who suffered the flood damage, the north and south puppet regimes were required to carry out the closure work unquestionably. But in reality, the military, the politics and the people’s livelihood did not form the balanced situation, because the disputes between the two puppet regimes were mainly for political purposes, the blocking plans and practices were based on military considerations, and the victims’s livelihood could only became an ornament. The study on the puppet regimes’river training is useful to the further analysis of the relations between the Japan and puppet regimes, and it also has an important value on exposing the ruler’s characteristics and the nature of the puppet regimes.