Jinan Incident
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The Jinan Incident (Japanese:済南事件) or May 3rd Incident (Traditional Chinese: 五三慘案 , Simplified Chinese: 五三惨案), or Tsinan Incident, was an armed conflict between the Japanese Army allied with Northern Chinese warlords against the Kuomintang's southern army in Jinan, the capital of Shandong in 1928 during the Kuomintang's Northern Expedition. The KMT's emissary to the Japanese, Cai Gongshi (蔡公時) and 17 others in his team were captured, and the emissary eventually was killed. Many thousands of Chinese civilians later lost their lives, suspected of being KMT sympathisers.
Mindful of the damage done to his foreign relations by the outrages committed by his troops in the course of the Nanjing Incident of March 1927, Chiang Kai-shek sought to avoid any repetition. In November 1927 he met with Tanaka Giichi, who had become Japan's premier on the fall of Wakatsuki Reijiro's Government in April of that year. (Tanaka acted as his own Foreign Minister.)
Tanaka had won election, in part, on the strength of promises to take more active and aggressive measures than his predecessor toward protection of Japanese lives, property, and economic interests in China. Chiang had only a tenuous hold on power in China and relied in large measure on revolutionary anti-foreign fervor to buttress his legitimacy.
Tanaka and Chiang were both anxious to keep their troops away from Jinan, where the risks of a clash were high, but were unable to. With no guarantee that Chinese forces would bypass Jinan, a combination of prior political commitments and Army insistence forced Tanaka to reinforce Japanese forces in the Shandong leased territory. Both the northern warlord coalition government in Beijing (Peking) and the Kuomintang government in Nanjing (Nanking) protested vigorously that this was a violation of China's sovereignty.
Contrary to his orders, the commander of the Japanese division sent to reinforce the territory, General Fukuda Hikosuke, moved his troops from Qingdao (Tsingtao) to Jinan. Northern Chinese troops withdrew from the city on April 30, 1928 and Kuomintang troops, contrary to orders, moved in. Matters remained tense but reasonably quiet and amicable until a minor clash occurred near the home of a Japanese family on May 3. (There is no clear evidence as to how it started.) With both sides lacking good communications and control systems, fighting quickly spread among elements in contact throughout the city. Sporadic fighting persisted until Chiang and Fukuda arranged a truce on May 5, and some shooting continued as Chiang's forces withdrew over the following two days, leaving a small force to maintain order in the city. Chiang wanted to continuing moving against the northern resistance and Japan desired a resolution.
Having received reinforcements and supplies, the Japanese commanders presented a series of demands and deadline on May 7, and on May 11 they pushed the Chinese troops from the area.
Japanese troops stayed in Jinan for more than six months. Many were executed as suspected Kuomintang sympathizers.
Reference
- Akira Iriye, After Imperialism: The Search for a New Order in the Far East, 1921-1931 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1965): 193-205
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