Tang Juwu, Tang Chu-wu, 唐聚五,(20 April 1898 – 18 May 1939), Chinese officer, general of one of the Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies resisting the

pacification of Manchukuo The Pacification of Manchukuo was a Japanese counterinsurgency campaign to suppress any armed resistance to the newly established puppet state of Manchukuo from various anti-Japanese volunteer armies in occupied Manchuria and later the Communis ...

. Tang Chu-wu joined the 27th Guard Brigade at the age of seventeen. While serving with the Northeastern Army Sixth Infantry Division he was sent to officer training in May 1926, graduating the following year. Tang Ju-wu had been the commander of the 1st Regiment of the eastern frontier defence force., that was disbanded and interned by the Japanese during the early days of the invasion of Manchuria. He grieved over the loss of his homeland and the humiliation of his countrymen, after his regiment was disarmed and interned without struggle by the Japanese. Tang Juwu escaped and then cut one of his fingers and wrote eight Chinese characters meaning "Kill the enemy, punish the traitors, save our country and love our people." After escaping internment, the Northeast National Salvation Society appointed Tang as commander and helped him get in touch with smaller forces which others were organising in eastern

Liaoning Liaoning () is a coastal province in Northeast China that is the smallest, southernmost, and most populous province in the region. With its capital at Shenyang, it is located on the northern shore of the Yellow Sea, and is the northernmost ...

province. Tang also made use of his extensive personal contacts with police chiefs, officials, local gentry militias and the leaders of the semi-clandestine

Big Swords Society The Big Swords Society () or Great Knife Society was a traditional peasant group most noted for the killing of two German Catholic missionaries at the Juye Incident in 1897 at Zhang Jia Village where the missionaries were ambushed in their sleep ...

. Tang Juwu accepted any recruits who were willing to fight against the invaders including bandits. He was able to develop the Northeast People's Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army with some 10,000 troops under his command. In May 1932, Tang Juwu judged that the time was ripe for his army to go on the offensive. Tang's army, now 20,000 men surrounded the Japanese Tunghua garrison. In reaction the Japanese police and detachments of the Manchukuoan Army attempted to relieve the siege in the First Tungpientao Clearance. The Japanese were unable to defeat Tang and his force threatened the region to the east of the important city of

Mukden Shenyang (, ; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly known as Fengtian () or by its Manchu name Mukden, is a major Chinese sub-provincial city and the provincial capital of Liaoning province. Located in central-north Liaoning, it is the provi ...

and communications with

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

. Based in the

Tonghua Tonghua () is a prefecture-level city in the south of Jilin province, People's Republic of China. It borders North Korea's Chagang Province to the south and southeast, Baishan to the east, Jilin City to the north, Liaoyuan to the northwest, an ...

area, his army fought, with the Japanese Kwantung Army stationed in Shenyang and the Manchukuon army of South Liaoning province. Although all major cities had been lost, the volunteer armies gained a new lease of life during the summer of 1932 and reached their greatest strength. On Oct 11th 1932, in the Second Tungpientao Subjugation Operation, two Japanese cavalry brigades, one mixed brigade, and 7 Manchukuo puppet brigades attacked Tang Juwu's forces in Tonghua & Hengren area. The threat of Japanese aerial bombardment of Tonghua forced Tang to withdraw from it in order to save the civilian population. After the defection of the Manchukuoan 37th Route commander Wang Yongcheng, Tang Juwu was able to break through the Japanese encirclement to the west and escape. On October 16, the Japanese took over Tonghua, and on the 17th, Hengren, with a casualties of 500 men. Tang and the remainder of his force eventually were forced to flee into

Rehe Rehe (), also romanized as Jehol, was a former Chinese special administrative region and province. Administration Rehe was north of the Great Wall, west of Manchuria, and east of Mongolia. Its capital and largest city was Chengde. The second ...

. When the

battle of Rehe The Battle of Rehe (, sometimes called the Battle of Jehol) was the second part of Operation Nekka, a campaign by which the Empire of Japan successfully captured the Inner Mongolian province of Rehe from the Chinese warlord Zhang Xueliang and an ...

broke out early in 1933, he was made head of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Volunteer 3rd Corps. Unable to stand idle against the Japanese following the

Tanggu Truce The Tanggu Truce, sometimes called the , was a ceasefire that was signed between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan in Tanggu District, Tianjin, on May 31, 1933. It formally ended the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, which had begun in ...

Tang joined the

Chahar People's Anti-Japanese Army The Chahar People's Anti-Japanese Army (察哈尔民众抗日同盟军) consisted mostly of former Northwestern Army units under Feng Yuxiang, troops from Fang Zhenwu's Resisting Japan and Saving China Army, remnants of the provincial forces from ...

in May 1933. He was later taken back by the Nationalist army and given command of a Regiment as part of

Chiang Kai-shek Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...

's efforts to disperse the Anti Japanese Army and avoid war with the Japanese. After the outbreak of the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...

he was assigned to operate behind the Japanese lines as a guerilla commander. He was killed in action in

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, an ...

on May 18, 1939.

Sources

* accessed May 24, 2013
Coogan, Anthony, The volunteer armies of Northeast China, History Today; July 1993, Vol. 43 Issue 7, pp.36-41
* Jowett, Phillip S., Rays of The Rising Sun, Armed Forces of Japan's Asian Allies 1931-45, Volume I: China & Manchuria, 2004. Helion & Co. Ltd., 26 Willow Rd., Solihull, West Midlands, England.
唐聚五纪念馆 from cn.netor.com accessed May 24, 2013
Biography and photo of Tang Juwu]
Biography and photo of Tang Juwu(唐聚五), from http://www.generals.dk accessed May 24, 2013
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tang, Juwu 1898 births 1939 deaths National Revolutionary Army generals from Heilongjiang Chinese people of World War II People from Harbin