TO FIGHT JAPAN

July, 15 1934

[Extracted from a proclamation published in 1934. (Min-tsu chan-hsien
hsun-pao, no. 2, 10 August, 1935 ).]


The hateful Japanese imperialism... intends to transform China into its colony
and turn the people of all China into slaves without a country doomed to
suffer eternally the massacre, rape, exploitation, and trampling of the Japanese
bandits.

If their reaction toward the invasion of Japanese imperialism the Kuomintang
militarists—Chiang Kai-shek, Chang Hsueh-liang, and all the
others—have all capitulated and sold out. . . Under the slogan 'No strength
to fight Japan' they have instituted ceaseless 'campaigns of encirclement'
of the Soviet Government, which is the only anti-Japanese and anti-imperialist
government in all China, and the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. All this
proves that the Kuomintang is the most faithful running dog of Japanese
imperialism and that the Kuomintang militarists are the greatest traitors
in all Chinese history. In the face of the ceaseless aggressions of Japanese
imperialism, the Chinese Soviet Government has repeatedly called upon the
Chinese masses to arm themselves for a national revolutionary war... and
it is preparing for a direct combat with Japanese imperialism. Under. . .
three conditions, the Soviet Government is willing to conclude an agreement
regarding military operations with any armed force anywhere in China... The
Kuomintang attacks make it impossible for our Soviet Government to unite
directly with the masses of all China and to wage a revolutionary war against
Japanese imperialism together with the anti-Japanese volunteers in the
North-east, in order to drive the Japanese imperialist bandits out of China...

Therefore, if the Soviet Government and the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army
is to mobilize all its forces to fight Japanese imperialism, it can do nothing
else but fight a bloody war with the millions of Kuomintang bandit troops
that are attacking us. Only thus can it protect and maintain the free Soviet
area that has already been saved from imperialist bondage, so that it will
not again be trodden underfoot and sold out by the imperialist running dogs,
the Kuomintang bandits. We will definitely not abandon the revolutionary
anti-imperialist bases that have been created as a result of countless bloody
fights with Kuomintang bandit troops. But the Soviet Government definitely
cannot sit by and watch the ruin of the Chinese people at the hand of the
Japanese imperialism. The Soviet Government and the Workers' and Peasants'
Red Army, fearing no difficulties and with the greatest resolution, are sending
an advance guard detachment northward to fight the Japanese. If this detachment
should encounter any armed force that will accept the three conditions we
have put forth, the main units of our Workers' and Peasants' Red Army will
follow the advance guard to unite with all armed forces in China for a common
struggle against Japan... More concretely, the Soviet Government proposes:

1. To oppose resolutely the selling out. . . of the whole of China by the
Kuomintang Government...

2. To proclaim the immediate breaking off of diplomatic relations with Japan....

3. To call upon the masses of all China to arm themselves with the weapons
that can be found in the Kuomintang arsenals and factories as well as with
all the imported weapons and to organize popular anti-Japanese volunteer
units and guerrillas...

4. To confiscate all the enterprises and property of the Japanese imperialists
and the Chinese traitors…

5. To organize everywhere anti-Japanese groups of the masses. Let the running
dogs of imperialism, the Kuomintang, let the Kuomintang traitors who are
selling out their country, shout 'no strength to fight Japan'. By mobilizing
the masses of all China against Japan, by arming the masses of all China
against Japan, we shall gain the strength to overthrow Japanese imperialism
and the band of traitors of Kuomintang.

Chairman of the Provisional Central Government of
the Chinese Soviets:

MAO TSE-TUNG

Chairman of the military committee of the Chinese Workers'
and Peasants' Red Army:


Transcription by the Maoist Documentation Project.