The Japanese army carried out a "mopping up" operation in the areas controlled by the Chinese military and the anti-Japanese base areas in North China, that is, burning up all houses, killing all people, and robbing all property, completely destroying the living conditions of the

"Three Lights" policy also known as "Three Lights" combat , which the Japanese army called " Jhin Fight ". Japanese army carried out a "mopping up" operation in North China on the areas controlled by the Chinese army and the anti-Japanese base areas, that is, burning up all houses, killing all people, and robbing all property, completely destroying the living conditions of the anti-Japanese military and civilians. This strategy was first proposed by the Japanese army commander of the North China Front Army , and was pushed to the top by his successor Okamura Yasuji .

Japanese North China Front Commander Jun Tada

key areas through

" Sanguang Operation " are in northeastern Shanxi, Hebei , southeastern Shanxi , Shandong western Shandong Yimeng Mountain Area , and Hebei dong. In "Testimation Recording of the Three Lights Operation", Yasuhei Moriyama believed that the "Three Lights Operation" began with the battle in Jinzhong in the fall of 1940. The military and civilians in the anti-Japanese base areas implemented a solid wall and cleared the fields, carried out guerrilla wars, and crushed the " Three Light Policy " of the Japanese invaders.

After the outbreak of the war between China and Japan in July 1937, the Chinese army relied on civilians in the Japanese occupied areas and developed guerrilla warfare, causing serious harassment and losses to the Japanese army. In April 1940, the Japanese North China Front Army proposed a combat plan that "completely swept and eliminated its guerrilla bases" when attacking the Eighth Route Army (see "Application for Ideological Warfare Guidance in North China"). Since August 1940, the Eighth Route Army launched a traffic raid battle on Zhengtai Road, Pinghan Road, Tongpu Road, Baijin Road, Beining Road, Cangshi Road, Jinpu Road and Jiaoji Road, causing great losses to the Japanese army. In order to retaliate, the Japanese army increased its efforts to "sweep the way". Using tactics such as "capturing and raiding", "turning and turning", "iron wall encirclement", and "combing the cast-in tactics", we carried out an organized and systematic and thorough destructive attack on the villages in the Eighth Route Army base areas. According to existing historical materials, from October 2 to November 30, 1940, when the Japanese army swept the Eighth Route Army Taihang District and Taiyue District of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Border Region , the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Border Region , the Taiyue District, ordered:

implementation status

This combat strategy is actually reflected in the principle of "killing all", "burning all" and "robbing all" against civilians and non-armed personnel. For example, Yoshiro Kikuchi, a soldier of the 59th Division of the Japanese Army, recalling the scene at that time, said:

The former Japanese 12th Army independent mixed 10th Brigade Toyoo described in his memoir that at that time they often said that the requirement of "sweeping" was "burn, kill, and rob". The command of Kentaro Kawada, the brigade commander of the 10th Brigade, was issued by:

Under this idea, many Japanese troops carried out the "Earth Battle".

Japanese commander-in-chief Okamura Yasuji

1941

After entering 1941, the Japanese army continued to carry out the "Three Light Battle".From January 12 to 13, the Japanese North China Front Army passed the "Reform and Construction Plan" when convening a meeting of the commanders of the corps, which stipulated that the base areas where the Eighth Route Army should be "completely implemented" and "destroyed war". Under this guidance, the Japanese army in North China launched the first " Public Security Strengthening Movement " from March to April 1941 and launched the "annihilation war". For example, in Shanxi, the Japanese army's operations included:

• On March 12, the Japanese army killed more than 500 villagers in Liceyu, Jiang County, and more than 40 households were killed.
• On April 3, the Japanese army killed more than 100 military and political staff, students, and villagers of the Eighth Route Army in Yangtiwa Village, Heshun County.
• April 4, the Japanese army killed dozens of villagers in Shiyao Village, Du Liping and Liujiashan, Qingxu County, and burned down 100 or dozens of houses.
• On April 29, the Japanese army killed 32 villagers in Nanshe Village and plundered all the food and property.
• In May, the Japanese army carried out the "Three Lights Battle" in Hunyuan County, Lingqiu County, Fanzhi County, and other Yanbei District, killing more than 5,300 people, burning up more than 160 villages, and looting a large number of grain, livestock and other materials. "

1942

Japan attacked the US military base in Pearl Harbor. The US and Japan then started war, and Pacific War broke out. The Japanese-occupied area in China, especially North China, became a military base for Japan to support the Pacific War Zone. In order to strengthen the control of the region, the Japanese army in North China stepped up the "sweeping" and the military operations of the Eighth Route Army. The Japanese army's "Three Lights Operation" gradually came to a climax. The Japanese army's combat operations included:

• From April 16 to May 1, 1942, the Japanese army killed more than 350 people in Lujiayu, Zunhua County, and in Kuanchengyu Muling, Cheziquan and other 24 villages killed 342 people.
• April 20, the Japanese army killed more than 1,700 people in Niujiazhuang, Shanzhuang and other villages in Wenxian County, Henan Province, and burned more than 1,700 houses. The Japanese army killed more than 1,300 civilians in Zaolin Village, Neihuang County, and basically the whole village was completely wiped out, and the bodies were filled into wells.
• April, the Japanese army killed more than 200 villagers in Bukou Village, Pingdu County, Shandong Province. On the 15th, the Japanese army killed more than 10 villagers while "sweeping" in Xiaowang Village, Laoshan, and burned more than 820 houses in the village, and the whole village was razed to the ground.
• May 1, Okamura Nichi personally led three divisions and two mixed brigades A total of more than 50,000 Japanese troops carried out large-scale sweeping in central Hebei. "The wide range of sweeping areas, the long duration, and the cruelty are unprecedented." The Japanese army established 1,733 strongholds and bunkers in the sweeping area, and dug more than 4,100 kilometers of blockade ditches. At the same time, railways and highways were built to enhance the speed and mobility of troops. In May, the Japanese army killed more than 30,000 people in Raoyang County, and more than 300 people were killed in Wuqiang County, and more than 400 people were arrested for working as slave workers in the northeast. More than 1,000 houses were burned. In May, a brigade of the 110th Division of the Japanese North China Front Army suddenly attacked Beitong Village, 50 miles southeast of Jizhongding County; the village was located on a plain, with 220 households and 1,227 people ;In order to avoid the Japanese army, villagers dug tunnels that penetrated the entire village. On May 27, the Japanese army attacked Beitong Village, Ding County, Jizhong, and forced out more than 800 people with tear gas, poison gas, and firewood smoke. All the women were raped. The number of other people who died in the tunnel and were caught unknown. During the "sweeping", the Japanese army sent poison gas to the tunnel, and more than 1,100 people in the village were poisoned or shot. Except for the poisoned death, the rest were raped by the Japanese army. 36 houses were burned, and all the food and property were looted. Lianggou Village, Wu'an County was occupied by the Japanese army and all the livestock, sheep and crops were killed, and 15 people in the village were killed.
• June 14, the Japanese army killed 167 people in Yebei Village, Quyang County, Hebei Province, 9 infants and young children were killed, and 8 households were killed.
• In June, the Japanese army killed two villagers in Wangshi Village, Guan County, Shandong Province, injured more than 30 people, snatched more than 70 plowing oxen, and burned more than 360 houses. Three villagers were killed in Dayangzhuang, Shen County, more than 60 people were captured, six houses were burned, more than 50 plowing oxen and more than 6,000 kilograms of grain were robbed. In July, after "sweeping" in Tianjiazhuang and other places in Zhangqiu, the Japanese army drew 120 men and women aged 20 to 50 to kill them. From July 12 to early August, the Japanese army killed more than 70 villagers in Dongjie Village, Shen County and burned more than 300 houses.
• 7 In July, the Japanese army used explosives to blow up 128 embankments during heavy rains in central Hebei and the water levels of major lakes rose, resulting in floods in 35 counties in central Hebei, with 6,752 affected villages, accounting for 96% of the total. More than 1.53 million mu of crops and fertile land were affected, nearly 170,000 houses were destroyed, and more than 2 million people were affected. The Japanese army took the opportunity to dispatch civilians and loot supplies.

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Eighth Route Army was not prepared for the large-scale mobilization operations of the Japanese army in Hebei. The main force was not transferred in time, and the intelligence department was disrupted and the losses were serious. The main force has been reduced from 14,852 to 10,980, and the local team has been reduced from 158,802 to 8,747, and local cadres have lost two-thirds. More than 20,000 civilians were killed, and more than 50,000 were arrested by the Japanese army and taken to the Northeast or Japan to work as laborers. The area in central Hebei Province, controlled by the Eighth Route Army, decreased by two-thirds. The main force of the Eighth Route Army moved to southern Hebei and western Hebei.

Unmanned Zone

In order to separate the connection between the Eighth Route Army, block the space for the Eighth Route Army to wander, and narrow the scope of the Eighth Route Army guerrilla warfare , Okamura Yasuji began to create "No Manned Zone" in North China. After demarcating a certain area as an unmanned area, civilians in the area will be expelled or killed, all buildings, facilities, houses, etc. in the area will be burned, and all food, livestock and materials will be looted or burned. Taking the "unmanned zone" forced by the Japanese army at the junction of Shanxi and Hebei provinces as an example, the establishment began in early September 1941, with the purpose of breaking the connection between the plain area of ​​Yuji in western Hebei and the mountainous area of ​​northeastern Shanxi.

Its range includes areas ranging from Niangziguan, Pingding District 2 to Fanzhi and Lingqiu Nanshan, with a total length of more than 250 kilometers and a width of 15-20 kilometers. During this process, the Japanese army burned down 13 villages, killed more than 170 people in the village, burned more than 4,400 houses, and plundered more than 1.9 million kilograms of food. In addition, the Japanese army also manufactured a wider range of unmanned areas in Fengning, Luanping, Miyun areas in Pingbei and the inner and outer areas of the Great Wall in the Rehe . For example, the "unmanned area" in Wutai County is located in the south to Niudaoling, the north to Great Wall Ridge, the east from the junction of Shanxi and Hebei, and the west to Qingshui River. It is more than 50 kilometers long and 15 to 20 kilometers wide. Among the more than 18,000 villagers in the 148 villages in the territory, more than 9,200 were killed, more than 280 were arrested, 30,000 acres of arable land were destroyed, more than 9,800 houses were burned, and more than 9,600 stones of food were plundered. Among them, Guyugou is 15 kilometers long and has five administrative villages with a population of tens of thousands. It was basically killed by the Japanese army.

During the Chinese War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, due to the fact that some of the Japanese-occupied areas, anti-Japanese base areas used guerrilla warfare , which led to the continuous death of Japanese soldiers and the inability to effectively occupy them. They did not obtain war resources from the local area, but consumed resources and suffered continuous casualties. Therefore, the Japanese military organs ordered their troops to destroy all resources, including population, in which they could not occupy, and to destroy all resources in these areas, including population. When conducting a "mopping up" of China's anti-Japanese base areas, "whether men, women, old and young, they should be killed; all houses should be burned; all food should be burned if they cannot be transported."

Japanese invaders , especially North China Front Army (Japanese: North China Front Army), began to carry out military operations against Chinese military and civilians with the goal of killing local residents and thoroughly robbing, burning and sabotaging materials such as food and fodder, and gradually systematically, scaled and long-term.