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— CH. 1 · ORIGINS AND RETALIATION —

Three Alls policy

~5 min read · Ch. 1 of 6
6 sections

  • In December 1940, the Communist-led Hundred Regiments Offensive struck Japanese supply lines across northern China. Bridges burned and railroads collapsed under the weight of guerrilla attacks. General Ryūkichi Tanaka commanded the North China Area Army when he received news of the assault. He viewed the offensive as a direct threat to his occupation zones. Tanaka decided that existing pacification measures were insufficient to stop the Communist Eighth Route Army. He formalized a new strategy in early 1941 known as the Three Alls Policy. This plan targeted suspected guerrilla base areas with extreme force. The goal was to transform these regions into unpopulated zones where no resistance could survive. Earlier campaigns had begun in 1938 within Hebei province but lacked this level of coordination. Emperor Hirohito approved initial annihilation campaigns on the 2nd of December 1938. Tanaka's orders demanded total destruction of any area harboring enemy forces. His command sought to deny the Communists their rural support networks forever.

  • Japanese troops deployed poison gas against rural villages during the spring of 1941. They filled underground tunnels with tear gas and smoke before gunning down survivors who tried to escape. In May 1942, the 110th Division killed over 1,000 civilians in Beitong Village using chemical weapons. Soldiers burned houses and looted food stores to create artificial starvation. They demolished river dikes to flood entire counties. In July 1942, Japanese forces destroyed 128 dikes across Hebei Province. The flooding impacted 6,752 villages and displaced 2 million civilians. Young men between fifteen and sixty faced immediate execution or forced labor conscription. Those not killed were sent to Manchuria as slaves. General Yasuji Okamura issued new orders on the 9th of July 1941 titled the Three Alls Operation. His strategy involved burning villages and constructing containment walls along railways. These measures aimed to isolate guerrilla fighters from civilian populations completely.

  • Historian Mitsuyoshi Himeta estimated that more than 2.47 million Chinese civilians died due to this policy. Communist records showed base area populations dropping from 44 million to 25 million people. Max Hastings wrote that several million civilians perished under these campaigns. Herbert P. Bix noted the scale of death exceeded even the Rape of Nanking. Chinese sources claimed most of the missing 19 million people had been killed by Japanese forces. Other scholars argued many simply fled to safer ground. The destruction included massacres in Qinyuan County where 5,000 villagers died in late October 1940. In Panjiayu village, 1,300 residents were burned alive or shot dead. One incident saw 167 civilians slaughtered in Yebei Village on the 14th of June 1942. Children faced particular brutality with some thrown from heights to their deaths. The sheer number of victims made this one of the deadliest operations of World War II.

  • Fourteen-year-old Deng Yumin from Baoding was chosen for special work by a forty-year-old officer who raped her daily. Young women faced systematic sexual violence during pacification campaigns across southern Shanxi and northwest Hubei. On the 14th of December 1943, ten young women were gang-raped at the edge of a village on Hainan Island. A fourteen-year-old girl suffered genital stabbing until she died while another fifteen-year-old had her breasts cut off. Pregnant women had their stomachs opened to rip out fetuses. Corpses were left unburied and used as examples of terror. Soldiers sent photographs of beheadings back to families in Japan. Letters recorded atrocities committed against local farmers and villagers. These acts targeted women specifically to break community resistance. The policy included forced conscription into comfort woman stations where Vietnamese and Burmese women also suffered similar fates.

  • Japan replaced French colonial rule on the 9th of March 1945 and began looting Vietnamese property openly. They stole watches, pencils, bicycles, money, and clothing in Bac Giang and Bac Can provinces. The Viet Minh rejected Japanese demands to cease fighting so they implemented the Three Alls Policy there too. Atrocities occurred in Thai Nguyen province at Dinh Hoa, Vo Nhai, and Hung Son. Vietnamese called the invaders dwarfed monsters and reported widespread rape and slaughter. Truong Chinh wrote an article titled Policy of the Japanese Pirates Towards Our People in August 1945. He described how Japanese forces looted shrines, temples, eggs, vegetables, straw, rice, chickens, hogs, cattle, vehicles, homes, and land. They destroyed cotton fields and vegetable fields for peanut and jute cultivation in Annam and Tonkin. One boat builder was thrown into a river with his stomach stabbed by suspicion of helping guerrillas. A mayor had his abdomen slit and hung upside down from a tree. Two million Vietnamese died during the famine caused by these actions according to some studies.

  • The Chinese expression Three Alls first appeared in Liberation Daily newspaper published in July 1941. Former Japanese soldiers released from Fushun War Criminals Management Centre later confessed to war crimes in books written after 1957. Publishers stopped printing these works after receiving death threats from ultranationalists. Officers claimed the actual name was Three Prohibitions Campaign instead. They alleged efforts were meant to prevent civilians from burning or killing people. Journalist Iris Chang described measures as a massive terrorist campaign against rural populations. Sarah Paine characterized the policy as a war of annihilation in scope and devastation. Rummel stated it was the worst of all Japanese atrocities on the mainland. Modern historians continue debating whether the scale constituted genocide. Some scholars argue the death toll surpassed even the Rape of Nanking in brutality. The controversy remains active within academic circles regarding how these events should be remembered today.

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Common questions

What is the Three Alls policy and when was it formalized?

The Three Alls Policy was a Japanese scorched earth strategy formalized in early 1941 by General Ryūkichi Tanaka. This plan targeted suspected guerrilla base areas with extreme force to transform regions into unpopulated zones where no resistance could survive.

How many civilians died during the Three Alls policy according to historian Mitsuyoshi Himeta?

Historian Mitsuyoshi Himeta estimated that more than 2.47 million Chinese civilians died due to this policy. Communist records showed base area populations dropping from 44 million to 25 million people while Max Hastings wrote that several million civilians perished under these campaigns.

When did Japanese forces destroy river dikes across Hebei Province during the Three Alls policy?

In July 1942, Japanese forces destroyed 128 dikes across Hebei Province. The flooding impacted 6,752 villages and displaced 2 million civilians who faced immediate execution or forced labor conscription.

Who issued orders for the Three Alls Operation on the 9th of July 1941?

General Yasuji Okamura issued new orders on the 9th of July 1941 titled the Three Alls Operation. His strategy involved burning villages and constructing containment walls along railways to isolate guerrilla fighters from civilian populations completely.

What specific atrocities occurred against women during the Three Alls policy in southern Shanxi and northwest Hubei?

Young women faced systematic sexual violence including gang rape at the edge of a village on Hainan Island on the 14th of December 1943. Pregnant women had their stomachs opened to rip out fetuses and children were thrown from heights to their deaths.

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All sources

36 references cited across the entry

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