Yin Rukeng; (;
Hepburn
Hepburn may refer to:
Surname
People with the surname Hepburn (the most famous in recent times being actresses Katharine Hepburn and Audrey Hepburn):
* Hepburn (surname)
Linguistics
* Hepburn romanization, a system for the romanization of Japa ...
: ''In Jyokou''; 1885 - December 1, 1947) was a politician in the early
Republic of China
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...
, later noted for his role as chairman in the
Japanese-controlled
East Hebei Autonomous Government and subsequent
puppet regimes, such as the
Wang Jingwei regime
The Wang Jingwei regime or the Wang Ching-wei regime is the common name of the Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China ( zh , t = 中華民國國民政府 , p = Zhōnghuá Mínguó Guómín Zhèngfǔ ), the government of the pup ...
, during 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 ...
.
Biography
Yin was a native of
Pingyang County in
Zhejiang
Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiang ...
province. In 1902, he was dispatched by his wealthy father to
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
, where he studied
Japanese language
is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been ma ...
and enrolled at the First Higher School (later absorbed by
University of Tokyo), a preparatory school for
Imperial Universities
The were founded by the Empire of Japan between 1886 and 1939, seven in Mainland Japan (now Japan), one in Korea under Japanese rule (now the Republic of Korea) and one in Taiwan under Japanese rule (now Taiwan). They were run by the imperial gove ...
, in Tokyo in 1905. The following year, he enrolled in the Seventh Higher School Zoshikan (now
Kagoshima University
, abbreviated to , is a Japanese national university located in Kagoshima, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan.
History
The university was established in 1949 consolidating the following schools because of educational reform in occupied Japan.
* - e ...
) in
Kagoshima
, abbreviated to , is the capital city of Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. Located at the southwestern tip of the island of Kyushu, Kagoshima is the largest city in the prefecture by some margin. It has been nicknamed the "Naples of the Eastern wor ...
City. During his stay in Japan, he became an active member of the
Tongmenghui movement to overthrown the
Qing Dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...
, and also married a Japanese woman. Per the orders of Tongmenghui leader
Huang Xing
Huang Xing or Huang Hsing (; 25 October 1874 – 31 October 1916) was a Chinese revolutionary leader and politician, and the first commander-in-chief of the Republic of China. As one of the founders of the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Republic of ...
, he returned to China to oversee
revolutionary activities in
Hubei
Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The prov ...
province. After the
Republic of China
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...
had been established, he joined the
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...
. After participating in the 2nd Kuomintang party conference in 1913, he decided to return to Japan to complete his studies at
Waseda University, where he majored in law. He returned to China in 1916, entering into service with the
Beiyang Government
The Beiyang government (), officially the Republic of China (), sometimes spelled Peiyang Government, refers to the government of the Republic of China which sat in its capital Peking (Beijing) between 1912 and 1928. It was internationally r ...
, helping establish the
Bank of China
The Bank of China (BOC; ) is a Chinese majority state-owned commercial bank headquartered in Beijing and the fourth largest bank in the world.
The Bank of China was founded in 1912 by the Republican government as China's central bank, repl ...
and playing an active role in opposing the
Constitutional Protection Movement
The Constitutional Protection Movement () was a series of movements led by Sun Yat-sen to resist the Beiyang government between 1917 and 1922, in which Sun established another government in Guangzhou as a result. It was known as the Third Revolut ...
. After the
Zhili–Anhui War
The Zhili–Anhui War was a 1920 conflict in the Republic of China between the Zhili and Anhui cliques for control of the Beiyang government.
Prelude
Tensions between the two factions developed during the Constitutional Protection War of 1917. ...
, he fled briefly back to Japan. On his return to China, he found the country rapidly dissolving into
warlord
A warlord is a person who exercises military, economic, and political control over a region in a country without a strong national government; largely because of coercive control over the armed forces. Warlords have existed throughout much of h ...
ism. Yin went into the service of
Fengtian clique General
Guo Songling
Guo Songling () (1883 – 24 December 1925) was an important general of the Manchurian Fengtian clique warlord army led by Zhang Zuolin during the Chinese Warlord Era. A republican sympathiser who briefly served under Sun Yat-Sen, he was a ...
, and was assigned charge of foreign affairs. However, Guo was killed months later in a revolt against Manchurian warlord
Zhang Zuolin, and Yin again sought refuge on Japanese territory.
In 1926, Yin joined
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
Northern Expedition
The Northern Expedition was a military campaign launched by the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Kuomintang (KMT), also known as the "Chinese Nationalist Party", against the Beiyang government and other regional warlords in 1926. The ...
, participating in the capture of
Nanchang. He was appointed to the post of Communications Director for the
National Revolutionary Army
The National Revolutionary Army (NRA; ), sometimes shortened to Revolutionary Army () before 1928, and as National Army () after 1928, was the military arm of the Kuomintang (KMT, or the Chinese Nationalist Party) from 1925 until 1947 in China ...
, and tasked with negotiations between Kuomintang forces and the
Imperial Japanese Army
The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...
. The following year, after the
Shanghai massacre of 1927
The Shanghai massacre of 12 April 1927, the April 12 Purge or the April 12 Incident as it is commonly known in China, was the violent suppression of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) organizations and leftist elements in Shanghai by forces supportin ...
, he entered into the service of Shanghai mayor
Huang Fu
Huang Fu () (8 March 1883 – 6 December 1936) was a general and politician in early Republic of China.
Biography
Huang studied at Zhejiang Military College and Qiushi Academy (current Zhejiang University), later was sent to Japan in 1904.< ...
as chief secretary, and was again tasked with maintaining communications and relations with the Japanese. He was the chief negotiator on the Chinese side after the
Jinan Incident in 1928. Later that year, he was recalled into service with the National Revolutionary Army. After the
Shanghai Incident of 1932, he helped negotiate the Shanghai Ceasefire Agreement.
Yin became commissioner of the Luantung Area of the demilitarized zone created by this Agreement 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 ...
Province in 1933. With the encouragement of
Kwantung Army General
Kenji Doihara, on November 15, 1935 Yin proclaimed the area under his administration as the
East Hebei Autonomous Government, and independent of the Kuomintang government. However, in July 1937, a detachment of approximately 800 soldiers of the Chinese 29th Army under command of General
Song Zheyuan
Sòng Zhéyuán (宋哲元) (October 30, 1885 – April 5, 1940) was a Chinese general during the Chinese Civil War and Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945).
Biography Early life and education
Born in the village of Zhaohong, northwest of the ...
and loyal to the Kuomintang (KMT) government, camped outside the walls of Yin’s capital of
Tongzhou, and refused to leave despite protests from its Japanese garrison commander.
[Jowett, Rays of the Rising Sun, Volume 1: Japan's Asian Allies 1931-45, China and Manchukuo, page 48] Unknown to the Japanese, General Song had reached an agreement with Yin, in hope of using the Kuomintang troops to rid himself of Japanese presence in his government. The end result was a battle between the Japanese and KMT troops, mutiny of East Hopei troops against their Japanese overlords, and a subsequent massacre of the town's ethnic Japanese and ethnic Korean population (see
Tungchow Mutiny).
Yin was captured by the Japanese Army after the mutiny's failure, but spared from execution by the Japanese through the personal intervention of
Toyama Mitsuru
Toyama may refer to:
Places and organizations
* Toyama Prefecture, a prefecture of Japan located in the Hokuriku region on the main Honshu island
* Toyama, Toyama, the capital city of Toyama Prefecture
* Toyama Station, the main station of Toyama, ...
. Allowed back to Beijing after a five-year exile in Japan, he returned to public life after the establishment of the
Wang Jingwei Government, but was appointed to only a relatively minor position in
Shanxi
Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-lev ...
province in 1942. Appointed to the Legal Affairs Department of the Nanjing National Government from the January 1944, he remained dissatisfied with the positions he was assigned, and resigned from government. He returned to Beijing in June.
Yin was arrested by the
Republic of China
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...
after the
surrender of Japan
The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, bringing the war's hostilities to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy ...
and tried for
treason against the Chinese people. At his trial in Nanjing he protested his arrest vehemently, stating that everything he had done had been out of patriotism for China. His case was decided by the Supreme Court, which
sentenced him to death on November 8, 1947. Still protesting his innocence, Yin was executed by
firing squad
Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading (from the French ''fusil'', rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are us ...
on December 1, 1947 at Nanjing.
References
* David P. Barrett and Larry N. Shyu, eds.; ''Chinese Collaboration with Japan, 1932-1945: The Limits of Accommodation'' Stanford University Press 2001
* John H. Boyle, ''China and Japan at War, 1937–1945: The Politics of Collaboration'' (Harvard University Press, 1972).
* James C. Hsiung and Steven I. Levine, eds., ''China's Bitter Victory: The War with Japan, 1937–1945'' (Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1992)
* Ch'i Hsi-sheng, ''Nationalist China at War: Military Defeats and Political Collapse, 1937–1945'' (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1982).
* Frederick W. Mote, ''Japanese-Sponsored Governments in China, 1937–1945'' (Stanford University Press, 1954).
* Howard L Boorman and Richard C. Howard, eds.; ''Biographical Dictionary of Republican China, Volume I: AI - CH'U'', Columbia University Press, 1967.
* 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
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yi, Ju-Keng
People of the Second Sino-Japanese War
1885 births
1947 deaths
Waseda University alumni
Kagoshima University alumni
Politicians from Wenzhou
Chinese people executed for collaboration with Japan
Kuomintang collaborators with Imperial Japan
Chinese collaborators with Imperial Japan
Executed Republic of China people
Republic of China politicians from Zhejiang
People executed by the Republic of China by firing squad
20th-century executions by China
Executed people from Zhejiang