1934. To the officers, non-commissioned officers, and soldiers: Japanese troops have surged northward like wolves and tigers, their aircraft and artillery raining down on your homes. They slaughter your parents, violate your sisters, burn your villages, and desecrate your ancestral graves—reducing your families to ruin. And what of the Nationalist government? It has once again signed a treasonous treaty, selling off the North to Japan. That region is no longer your homeland. Your parents and wives daily long for you to march north to save them, to rescue your native land, to protect your own kin. To go north and fight the Japanese—that is the true calling of a Chinese man: to defend the country and its people, to earn glory in the service of the nation! Yet at precisely the moment when civil war should cease and all forces unite against Japan, Chiang Kai-shek refuses to send you to resist the invaders; instead, he compels you to come to Jiangxi to turn Chinese arms against Chinese flesh! What sense does this make? This is Chiang Kai-shek’s treachery: he has betrayed your homeland. He is an accomplice to the Japanese who murder and pillage your families. By his policy of non-resistance, he has handed your lands over to the enemy. Consider the facts of the past three years: Who was it that surrendered Manchuria? Who ordered the 19th Route Army, which had bravely resisted the Japanese in Shanghai, to withdraw to Fujian? Who caused the withdrawal of the troops defending the Great Wall? And now, who is driving the northern armies southward? All these actions were orchestrated by Chiang Kai-shek and his fellow traitorous warlords, such as Zhang Xueliang. For three years already, the Red Army has openly declared war on Japan, proclaiming on February 21 that it stands ready to join forces with any unit genuinely committed to resisting Japan. You are well aware of this. Precisely because the Red Army seeks to fight the Japanese, Chiang Kai-shek has aided Japan in launching a massive “encirclement and suppression” campaign against it, deploying seven or eight hundred thousand troops to hem the Red Army in and prevent its advance northward to take up the struggle. Chiang insists that “pacification of the Communists must precede resistance to Japan,” but in reality he is helping Japan both to annihilate the Red Army and to keep Chinese soldiers engaged in fratricidal conflict rather than confronting the enemy, thereby systematically dismantling China’s capacity to resist and paving the way for our nation’s swift destruction. Unless we overthrow this traitor Chiang Kai-shek, our forty million compatriots will be reduced to the status of slaves under foreign rule. Chiang deceives you by claiming that “China lacks the strength to resist Japan”—a monstrous falsehood. China boasts a regular army of three million men and a population of four hundred million. If the entire nation, across its land, sea, and air forces, were mobilized, could such a vast country really be defeated by tiny Japan? As for the alleged shortage of guns and ammunition: there are dozens of large and small military factories throughout the country. The warlords themselves hold vast stocks of weaponry. And what of the supposed lack of funds? Were hostilities to break out, the immediate confiscation of Japanese banks, factories, and shops would yield no fewer than forty billion yuan. As for fears of international isolation: surely the workers and peasants of Korea, Taiwan, and even Japan itself would rise up in revolt, enabling us to launch a pincer attack from both front and rear. There is every reason to believe that China can and will prevail over Japan. When Chiang claims that “China is powerless to resist,” he is in fact deceiving you, seeking to dissuade you from fighting so that Japan may more easily subjugate our country.

Brothers! What benefit do you derive from being here in Jiangxi? Meanwhile, your homeland lies in flames, consumed by Japanese savagery. Your mothers and sisters are being raped and brutalized. And where are you yourselves? Trudging over mountains and through ravines, constructing fortifications and building roads, you are worn to exhaustion. Day after day, your loved ones yearn for your return to the North to save them—but you remain trapped here, unable to reach home or to aid your parents and wives. Such suffering is like a thousand arrows piercing your heart.

Brothers! Chiang forbids you from saving your homeland and forces you to battle the Red Army. What possible gain could there be in this? Some may speak of promotion and wealth, but those are the rewards reaped by Chiang himself—the one who rides in automobiles and keeps concubines. As for you, your bellies remain empty, and your hands are still bare. If you hesitate to engage in combat and seek to retreat, Chiang deploys machine-gun squads and armed detachments. Do not allow your homes to be burned and your families slaughtered while you serve only his personal interests. Rise up to defend your country and your people! Act swiftly: resolve to end the slaughter of Chinese by Chinese and join forces with the Red Army to vanquish the Japanese invaders! The Red Army has long been prepared to ally with you. It is willing to conclude anti-Japanese, anti-Chiang military agreements with any force meeting the following three conditions: (1) an immediate cessation of attacks against the Soviet areas; (2) the prompt guarantee of democratic rights for the populace—freedom of assembly, association, speech, publication, and strike; and (3) the urgent arming of the people and the formation of volunteer militias. Have no fear! Do not waver. The weapons are already in your hands. Should you collectively refuse to fire upon your fellow countrymen and instead turn your guns toward the Japanese, Chiang will be powerless. The entire nation will rally behind you. We urge you to: (1) refrain from engaging the Red Army, or point your rifles skyward; thus affirming the principle that Chinese shall not kill Chinese, while the Red Army, for its part, will make no preemptive move against you. (2) promptly arrange talks with the Red Army, exchanging representatives on both sides to establish a ceasefire and an anti-Japanese alliance. Regardless of rank—officers or privates—regardless of political affiliation, so long as a unit is truly dedicated to resisting Japan, the Red Army stands ready to fight alongside it.

Brothers! Japan is our enemy. We must not permit it to divide us and thwart our united resistance. Down with Japanese imperialism! Down with the traitor Chiang Kai-shek! June 1967 Mao Zedong Thought Forever [mimeographed] Nanjing University, Firestorm Combat Division, Issue No. 1, 1967. A Letter from Mao Zedong and Zhu De to Kuomintang Officers and Soldiers. Military Museum of the Chinese Revolution, Section No. …