Interview by Samuel Hui and Pan I-jung, February 2013

Where is him from?

I was born in Wuchang of Hubei province in 1922. My father was originally owner of a shoe shop in Wuhan. Because his factory was destroyed by his workers under the influence of the Communist Party, he returned to Wuchan in 1925. He died a year later, so my mom raised me up alone. This is very difficult for a woman at that period of time in China.

How did he end up in the tank regiment? What was his rank/job?

Because the Macro Polo Bridge incident, I wanted to save my country like everybody else at that time as a high school student. We all felt that our nation will be terminated if we don’t resist against the Japanese aggression. In the beginning, I passed an exam to join the 5^th Regiment of the military police. Since I was the only boy in my family, my mom refused to let me go. After that, I went to take another exam secretly to join the Chinese armored division. I passed the exam and was assigned to the 200^th Division of the 5^th Army commanded by General Du Yuming (Tu Yu-ming).

Where did he receive his training? Were his instructors Chinese or foreigners?

I was trained at Xiangtan of Hunan Province. After my basic training with the 200^th Division, I was reassigned to the Armored Regiment under the 5^th Army. While there, we were trained by both Chinese and Russian instructors to operate tanks. Before driving a tank, we were trained how to drive regular cars first. Since we did not have enough gas for training, 11 trainees from our 12-men squad would have to push the car while the one of them drove the car with the instructor sat next to him. We were paid 10.8 dollars in Chinese currency each month. Since there was no inflation in the early stage of the Second Sino-Japanese War, we are able to eat pretty good foods with 3.5 dollars monthly. 

What was his experience with the Fiat? Was it reliable? Well armed? What were its strengths and weaknesses?

I completed my training by April of 1938 and assigned to the 1^st Platoon, 3^rd Company of the 1^st Battalion. At that time, I was the driver for our platoon commander in his Fiat tank with the rank of technical sergeant. The Russian-built T-26 Was our main battle tank in the early stage of the war. Compared to T-26, the Fiat was not very suitable for the battlefield. First, it does not have a radio. For this reason, we must communicate with other tanks with flags. Second, Fiat has only machine guns as weapons. Meanwhile, the T-26 has a 45mm cannon and three machine guns. However, the armored of Fiat is more reliable than that of T-26. While a machine gun bullet was able to penetrate T-26, it was unable to penetrate a Fiat. It was a very old tank, and I still remember that we have to start the engine of Fiat with our hands. We also operated French-built Reno tanks at that period of times. What I know about it most is that the officer and crews of Reno tank could escape from it from the door in the bottom. This does not apply to the T-26 and Fiat.

When did he go to Burma? How far did his unit make it? What battles was he involved in?

I participated in the Battle of Shanggao and the Battle of Kulun Pass before we were deployed to Burma in 1942. By that time, I was already promoted to a Second lieutenant. We began our march to Lashio from Kunming through the Burma Road. What I saw at that time was the British soldiers retreating from the frontline. They were going to the opposite way where we came. Our tanks were transported to Pyinmana by a British train. We were ordered to fight a battle against the Imperial Japanese Army there. Eventually, we were ordered to retreat even before the battle began. This is the reason why we were able to return to China without any loss. Compared to General Du Yuming’s terrible experience over Kachin Hill or Savage Mountain, we were very lucky (The 6^th and 10^th Companies of the Tank Regiment were deployed to support the 200^th Division over Toungoo).

Where did he end up? China? India?

We returned to China through Lashio. I remembered that the Burmese monks in the city were actually working for the Japanese as agents. They treated the Chinese soldiers very bad. Before the Japanese troops entered the city, the entire Lashio was burned by those monks themselves. Even though my tank was broken down for a while, I was still able to restart it and went through the Huitong Bridge on April 28^th. There were a lot of people and vehicles jammed on the Burma Road. If a vehicle turns off its engine, the Chinese soldiers would push it out of the road. Some time, the driver might be considered traitors for blocking our way. The situation of Burma Road at that time was chaos. The Japanese fired at us from the hills around the bridge, and that eventually forced the Chinese Army to destroy the bridge.

Was he involved in any action later in the war?

After the First Burma Campaign, I returned to Kunming with my unit for reorganization. Later on, I was assigned to 207^th Division of the Chinese Youth Army, than the Chinese Commando. We were trained by American advisors from the Office of Strategic Service to retake cities from the Japanese in East China. However, World War II ended before my unit was deployed to the frontline. As a young Chinese officer, I always had faith that we would eventually defeat the Japanese because the mass of lands and people we had.