# East River Column > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/East_River_Column > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/East_River_Column.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_River_Column > Source revision: 1355466542 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Infobox military unit | unit_name = East River Column | image = Communist troops in US ship02.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Soldiers of the East River Column disembark from [United States Navy](/source/United_States_Navy) vessels in [Shandong](/source/Shandong), 1945. | start_date = May 8th, 1940 | end_date = | disbanded = | country = {{flagcountry|Republic of China (1912–1949)}} | allegiance = {{flagicon image|Flag of the Chinese Communist Party (Pre-1996).svg}} [Chinese Communist Party](/source/Chinese_Communist_Party) | branch = | type = Army Light Infantry | role = Guerilla warfare | size = 600 (1939){{sfn|Chan|2009|p=24}} 6,000 (1941){{sfn|Courtauld|Holdsworth|Vickers|1997}} 3,000 (1945){{sfn|Houchins|1971|p=197}} | command_structure = | garrison = | garrison_label = | nickname = | colors = | colors_label = | march = | equipment = | equipment_label = | battles = | battles_label = | decorations = | battle_honours = | battle_honours_label = | flying_hours = | commander1 = [Zeng Sheng](/source/Zeng_Sheng) | commander1_label = Commander | commander2 = [Wang Zuorao](/source/Wang_Zuorao) | commander2_label = Chief of Staff | notable_commanders = [Liu Tianfu](/source/Liu_Tianfu){{sfn|Chan|2009|pp=157-158}} | identification_symbol = | identification_symbol_label = }} {{Anti-fascism sidebar}} The '''East River Column''' or '''Dongjiang Column''' ({{lang-zh|t=東江縱隊|s=东江纵队}}) was a unit of anti-Japanese [Communist](/source/Chinese_Communist_Party) guerrillas that operated in [Guangdong](/source/Guangdong) and [Hong Kong](/source/British_Hong_Kong) during the [Second Sino-Japanese War](/source/Second_Sino-Japanese_War). They played a major role in Chinese resistance against Japanese occupation, and remain an important part of local historical traditions about the war and the subsequent [Communist Revolution](/source/Chinese_Communist_Revolution). They are also notable outside of [China](/source/China) for being the only Chinese Communist unit transported on [US Navy](/source/US_Navy) vessels, done as part of the peace negotiations led by the [Marshall Mission](/source/Marshall_Mission). ==History== The East River Column had its origins in two separate units, the [Dongguan](/source/Dongguan) Model Able-bodied Young Men Guerrilla Team and the [Huiyang](/source/Huiyang_District) [Bao’an](/source/Bao'an_District) People’s Anti-Japanese Guerrillas. The former was founded in October 1938 by around thirty men led by [Wang Zuorao](/source/Wang_Zuorao). Wang was a Communist and [National Revolutionary Army](/source/National_Revolutionary_Army) defector who had been organizing in Dongguan since January.{{sfn|Chan|2009|p=23}} The latter was created in November when CCP Southern Bureau Chief [Liao Chengzhi](/source/Liao_Chengzhi) ordered 60 men under Commander [Zeng Sheng](/source/Zeng_Sheng) (Secretary-General of the [Hong Kong Seamen’s Union](/source/Hong_Kong_Seamen%E2%80%99s_Union)) and Political Commissar [Zhou Boming](/source/Zhou_Boming) (Hong Kong Propaganda Chief and former [Northeastern Army](/source/Northeastern_Army) officer) to begin guerrilla operations north of [Shenzhen](/source/Shenzhen).{{sfn|Chan|2009|p=20-22}} The People's Guerrillas included the future war hero [Yuan Geng](/source/Yuan_Geng).{{sfn|Courtauld|Holdsworth|Vickers|1997|pp=54-58}} Both groups started with a core of educated radicals and militant members of the Seaman's Union but successfully focused their recruitment efforts on the peasantry.{{sfn|Chan|2009|p=23}} The two forces were merged in 1939.{{sfn|Houchins|1971|p=194}}{{sfn|Chan|2009|p=23-24}} As part of the [Second United Front](/source/Second_United_Front) policy, the guerrillas nominally served under the KMT's 4th War Area until March 1940, when local KMT General Xiang Hanping launched an attack on them for refusing to disband.{{sfn|Houchins|1971|p=195}} The 108 survivors fled to [Shishan](/source/Shishan%2C_Foshan).{{sfn|Chan|2009|p=25}} The decision to flee eastward and away from the front lines against Japan was strongly criticized by CCP party leadership in [Yan'an](/source/Yan'an). In a message sent on May 8 but not received until June, [Zhou Enlai](/source/Zhou_Enlai) ordered Zeng and Wang to return to the [Pearl River Delta](/source/Pearl_River_Delta) and resume operations against the Japanese. He also formally designated the unit as “the Guangdong People’s Anti-Japanese Guerrillas East River Column". The guerrillas followed orders and returned westwards.{{sfn|Chan|2009|pp=27-28}} When [the war reached Hong Kong](/source/Battle_of_Hong_Kong) in 1941, the East River Column grew from a few hundred to more than 6,000 soldiers.{{efn|Sources disagree on the exact size of the unit before the battle of Hong Kong. Chan places it at 500,{{sfn|Chan|2009|p=28}} while Courtauld, et al. cite a figure of 200.{{sfn|Courtauld|Holdsworth|Vickers|1997}}}} New recruits were motivated by anger at KMT desertions in the lead-up to the battle, and often armed themselves with abandoned KMT weapons.{{sfn|Chan|2009|p=24}}{{sfn|Courtauld|Holdsworth|Vickers|1997}} For the next four years the East River Column mounted the only fortified resistance against the [Japanese Occupation of Hong Kong](/source/Japanese_Occupation_of_Hong_Kong).{{sfn|Courtauld|Holdsworth|Vickers|1997}} They killed Chinese collaborators, protected traders in Kowloon and [Guangzhou](/source/Guangzhou), attacked the [police station at Tai Po](/source/Old_Tai_Po_Police_Station), and bombed [Kai Tak Airport](/source/Kai_Tak_Airport).{{sfn|Courtauld|Holdsworth|Vickers|1997}} [[File:Dongjianghkteam.jpg|thumb|left|The East River Column on the march near [Hong Kong](/source/Hong_Kong), 1945.]] The Hong Kong and [Kowloon](/source/Kowloon) Independent Brigade of the East River Column was established on February 3, 1942, at the [Rosary Mission Centre](/source/Historic_churches_of_Sai_Kung_Peninsula), a chapel in [Sai Kung](/source/Sai_Kung_District), Hong Kong.[Antiquities Advisory Board](/source/Antiquities_Advisory_Board). Historic Building Appraisal. [https://www.aab.gov.hk/historicbuilding/en/655_Appraisal_En.pdf Rosary Mission Centre, No. 1 Wong Mo Ying] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201012081707/https://www.aab.gov.hk/historicbuilding/en/655_Appraisal_En.pdf |date=2020-10-12 }}{{sfn|Chan|2009|p=85}} Commander Choi Kwok-Leung and Political Commissar Chan Tat-Ming led a force of about 400 men armed with 30 [machine guns](/source/machine_guns) and several hundred rifles left by defeated British forces.{{sfn|Tsang|2007|pp=122, 129}} The guerrillas rescued around twenty to twenty-five [Allied](/source/Allies_of_World_War_II) pilots who parachuted into Kowloon when their planes were shot down by the Japanese, including [Sir Lindsay Ride](/source/Lindsay_Tasman_Ride) and [Sir Douglas Clague](/source/Sir_Douglas_Clague).{{sfn|Houchins|1971|p=195}}{{sfn|Courtauld|Holdsworth|Vickers|1997}} In December 1943 the East River guerillas absorbed the HK-Kowloon Brigade into the larger unit.{{cite book |title= The great difference: Hong Kong's New Territories and its people, 1898–2004|last= Hayes|first= James|author-link=James W. Hayes|year= 2006|publisher= [Hong Kong University Press](/source/Hong_Kong_University_Press)|isbn= 9789622097940}} In 1943 the East River Column was engaged in a multi-sided war against the Japanese, the KMT's 187th Division, KMT-aligned bandits, and units of [Wang Jingwei](/source/Wang_Jingwei)'s collaborationist regime.{{sfn|Houchins|1971|p=196}}{{sfn|Chan|2009|p=25}} Despite this strong opposition, by 1944 they controlled a significant amount of territory known as the Guangdong Base Area, from [Huiyang](/source/Huiyang_District) in the east to [Sanshui](/source/Sanshui_District) and [Xinhui](/source/Xinhui_District) in the west.{{sfn|Ho|1977|p=207}} When [Japan surrendered](/source/Surrender_of_Japan) on 15 August 1945, [Zhu De](/source/Zhu_De) ordered Commander-in-Chief [Yasuji Okamura](/source/Yasuji_Okamura) of the [China Expeditionary Army](/source/China_Expeditionary_Army) to surrender to Zeng and the East River Column.{{sfn|Houchins|1971|p=196}} This was ignored at the behest of the United States and Chiang Kai-shek, and Japanese troops remained in position until relieved by non-Communist forces.{{sfn|Ho|1977|p=219}} The Nationalists failed to dislodge the 3,000 guerrillas of the East River Column with an encirclement campaign, which included the [New 1st Army](/source/New_1st_Army), New Sixth Army, Forty-fifth, Sixty-third, Sixty-fourth, and Sixty-fifth Armies.{{sfn|Courtauld|Holdsworth|Vickers|1997}}{{sfn|Houchins|1971|p=196-197}} The Communists continued to successfully harass Nationalist units moving along the [Kowloon-Canton](/source/Kowloon%E2%80%93Canton_Railway) and [Chaochow-Swatow Railway](/source/Chao_Chow_and_Swatow_Railway)s.{{sfn|Ho|1977|p=219}} The resulting stalemate was resolved when the Americans, who was at the time were hoping to broker a peace in China via the [Marshall Mission](/source/Marshall_Mission), offered to transport the East River Column to Communist-held [Yantai](/source/Yantai) in [Shandong](/source/Shandong). After lengthy negotiations, both sides agreed, and the Column was loaded onto US Navy vessels and escorted by the [USS George](/source/USS_George_(DE-697)) to Shandong. This was the only time when the US Navy transported Chinese Communist soldiers. On 1 August 1947 the East River Column was reorganized and designated as the Guangdong-Guangxi Column of [Chen Yi](/source/Chen_Yi_(marshal))'s [East China Field Army](/source/Third_Field_Army).{{sfn|Houchins|1971|p=198-202}} ==Legacy== [[File:Memorial Hall of DongZong,Guangdong.JPG|thumb|Part of the East River Column Memorial Hall in [Dongguan](/source/Dongguan), [Guangdong](/source/Guangdong).]] After the war and the [Chinese Communist Revolution](/source/Chinese_Communist_Revolution), the East River Column became part of the revolutionary legend in Hong Kong and Guangdong.{{cite journal |last1=Ho |first1=Denise Y. |editor1-last=O'Donnell |editor1-first=Mary Ann |editor2-last=Bach |editor2-first=Jonathan |title=The Border as Palimpsest |journal=Made in China |date=2020 |page=96 |url=https://ceas.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/ShenKong%20Borderlands_Bib.pdf |access-date=9 November 2022}} It was featured in the 1997 adventure novel ''[Music on the Bamboo Radio](/source/Music_on_the_Bamboo_Radio)'' by [Martin Booth](/source/Martin_Booth), and the award-winning [New Wave](/source/Hong_Kong_New_Wave) film ''[Our Time Will Come](/source/Our_Time_Will_Come_(film))'' directed by [Ann Hui](/source/Ann_Hui). The Guangdong Memorial Hall of the East River Column was built to preserve the history of the unit, and exhibits of related artefacts feature prominently in other local museums.{{cite web |title=LCQ7: Preserving the historical information and memorial facilities of the War of Resistance |url=https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202211/02/P2022110200276.htm |website=The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region: Press Releases |access-date=9 November 2022}} In 1998, [Chief Executive](/source/Chief_Executive_of_Hong_Kong) [Tung Chee-hwa](/source/Tung_Chee-hwa) added the names of the members of the HK-Kowloon Brigade to the memorial shrine at [Hong Kong City Hall](/source/Hong_Kong_City_Hall).{{cite web |title=Anti-Japanese War Heroes : An Exhibition on the Hong Kong Independent Battalion of the Dongjiang Column |url=https://hk.coastaldefence.museum/en_US/web/mcd/exhibition/pastexhibitions/pastexhibitions23.html |website=Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defense |publisher=Leisure and Cultural Services Department |access-date=9 November 2022}} ==See also== * [New Fourth Army](/source/New_Fourth_Army) * [Eighth Route Army](/source/Eighth_Route_Army) ==Notes== {{Notelist}} ==References== {{reflist}} ==Bibliography== *{{cite book |last=Tsang |first=Steve |date=2007|title=A Modern History of Hong Kong|publisher=I.B.Tauris Publishing|location=Hong Kong|isbn=1-84511-419-1}} *{{cite book |last=Chen |first=Daming |date=2000|title=Hong Kong's Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Force|publisher=Universal Press|location=Hong Kong}} *{{cite book |last1=Ho |first1=Kan-chih |title=A History of the Modern Chinese Revolution (1919-1956) |date=1977 |publisher=Manika Barua Books and Periodicals |location=Calcutta |url=https://www.bannedthought.net/China/Pre1949/General/AHistoryOfTheModernChineseRevolution-1919-1956-HoKan-chih-1977-OCR.pdf |access-date=8 November 2022}} *{{cite book |last1=Courtauld |first1=Caroline |last2=Holdsworth |first2=May |last3=Vickers |first3=Simon |title=The Hong Kong Story |date=1997 |publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0-19-590353-6}} *{{cite thesis |last=Houchins |first=Lee Stretton |date=1971 |title=American Naval Involvement in the Chinese Civil War, 1945-149 |publisher= American University |url=https://dra.american.edu/islandora/object/thesesdissertations%3A4003/datastream/PDF/view |access-date=8 November 2022}} *{{cite book |last=Chan |first=Sui-jeung |author-link= |date=2009 |title=East River Column: Hong Kong Guerrillas in the Second World War and After |url= |location= |publisher=[Hong Kong University Press](/source/Hong_Kong_University_Press) |page= |isbn=9789622098503}} {{commons category|East River Column}} Category:Groups of World War II Category:Guerrilla organizations Category:Second Sino-Japanese War Category:Hong Kong in World War II Category:Anti-fascism in China Category:China in World War II Category:History of the Chinese Communist Party Category:Anti-fascist organizations in China Category:Military organizations associated with the Chinese Communist Party Category:Chinese resistance against Imperial Japan --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [East River Column](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_River_Column) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_River_Column?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.