Efforts made by the CPC members in the conflagration in Changsha
2022-06-24
Now, in Tianxin Park stand an old city wall with a length of over 200 meters and a copper-made tocsin to remind people of the conflagration in 1938.
Tu Yong’an, a senior citizen who was born in the year of conflagration, stood in silent tribute before the tocsin. “It’s a miserable tragedy,” he said in sorrow.
He has heard the story of the conflagration since he was a child and even his name is related to it. His family escaped to Chunhua Town in Changsha County when the conflagration broke out and that was why his parents called him Chunhua after he was born.
Before the conflagration, Zhou Enlai (vice minister of the Political Department of Military Council of National Government and vice chairman of the Revolutionary Military Committee of the Central Committee of the CPC) and Ye Jianying (minister of the Military Ministry of the Yangtze River Bureau of the Central Committee of the CPC and chief of staff of the Eighth Route Army) organized the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression when the Japanese Army attacked Hunan Province and captured Yueyang City. The residents in Changsha all lived in fears. At that time, Hunan Provincial Authorities of the Kuomintang received a secret order from Chiang Kai-shek to set the fire and destroy the city.
The fire broke out in Changsha at around 2: 00 a.m. on November 13, 1938 and quickly spread throughout the city. But it happened at midnight and out of sudden, causing an enormous number of people to be buried in the fire. Almost all of the houses were burned to the ground.
At that time, Zhou Enlai just returned to the Eighth Route Army’s communication office in Hunan, which was located in Xuci Lane, Cai E Road, Changsha. He had just laid down when he found a fire raging in the sky. Zhou and Ye led other officers out of the fired alley and retreated to Xiangtan City.
On the afternoon of November 13, they arrived in Xiangtan and immediately held an emergency meeting to discuss about emergency countermeasures. Zhou and Ye rushed to Nanyue the next day and confronted Chiang Kai-shek about the responsibility of the fire and the aftermath. Zhou asked the Kuomintang Administration to allocate money for the victims, mobilize workers to clean up the streets, bury the bodies, build shelters to house the victims and punish those responsible for setting the fire.
Chiang Kai-shek was forced to accept these requirements, executing the officers accountable for the conflagration and dismissing Zhang Zhizhong, chairman of the Hunan Provincial Government, from his post but retaining him in office. What he did was to assuage the public anger and exonerate himself.
On November 16, Zhou and Ye also traveled day and night to get back to Changsha and coordinated the relief efforts. Zhou divided over 200 relief workers into three groups for publicity, disaster relief and investigation. They all worn the badge of “the Eighth Route Army Communication Office” and immediately went to the relief work.
The work was complicated and challenging, which included rescuing the sick and wounded, burying the bodies of the dead, rescuing and providing food supplies, putting out remaining fires, cleaning up the streets, mobilizing the victims to return to the city and distributing relief money. The relief work was well carried out under the organization of Zhou Enlai.
On November 19, Zhou announced the truth about the conflagration in Changsha to the public through newspapers. He drafted the “Letter to Compatriots in Changsha”, which severely accused the unforgivable criminals who had set the fire and clarified the need to stabilize the rear, support the front, continue cooperation and fight in the war.
Due to the pressure from different parties, it was on November 22 that the Hunan Provincial Government of the Kuomintang formed the Changsha Temporary Relief Committee to carry out relief work and decided to grant 500,000 yuan for disaster relief.
To ensure the relief money could be distributed to each and every victim, Zhou insisted that the emergency work team should be in charge of the work. The money was distributed in two places under the regulation and control of Zhou and Ye.
After receiving the money, the victims each put a fingerprint on it. Each person could get 5 yuan, regardless of gender, and even a newborn baby could also get a share. Thanks to thorough arrangements, the relief money was accurately distributed to nearly 100,000 victims in less than a week.
