One of the most successful volunteer armies was the Chinese People's National Salvation Army or NSA (no connection to the church known as
The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestantism, Protestant Christian church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London, England. It is aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. The organisation reports a worldwide m ...
), led by a former bandit turned soldier,
Wang Delin. At the time of the
invasion
An invasion is a Offensive (military), military offensive of combatants of one geopolitics, geopolitical Legal entity, entity, usually in large numbers, entering territory (country subdivision), territory controlled by another similar entity, ...
, Wang Delin's 200 man battalion was stationed near
Yanji
Yanji (; Korean: ; alternately romanized as Yenki or Yenji) is a county-level city in the east of China's Jilin Province, and is the seat of the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture. Yanji City is located in the eastern part of Jilin Province. ...
, a small town in the east of
Jilin
)
, image_skyline = Changbaishan Tianchi from western rim.jpg
, image_alt =
, image_caption = View of Heaven Lake
, image_map = Jilin in China (+all claims hatched).svg
, mapsize = 275px
, map_al ...
province. After Wang's troops fired on a party of Japanese surveyors, and Wang refused to submit to the
Manchukuo
Manchukuo, officially known as the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of Great Manchuria thereafter, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China that existed from 1932 until its dissolution in 1945. It was ostens ...
regime, his defiance attracted other resisters to his side. Wang established the NSA on February 8, 1932, numbering over 1,000 men. Within a few months this army became one of the most successful of the volunteer armies. Following news of his victories over Japanese and Manchukuoan forces between February and April, troops who had been reluctant members of the new puppet state's forces deserted and joined the NSA boosting its strength from 4,600 on March 1, to above 10,000 men, possibly as many as 15,000 men, organised in five brigades in April. It is estimated that the NSA had 30,000 volunteers by July 1932.
See also
*
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 Co ...
*
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War was fought between the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the Empire of Japan between 1937 and 1945, following a period of war localized to Manchuria that started in 1931. It is considered part ...
Sources
*Coogan, Anthony
"The volunteer armies of Northeast China"{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140129231740/http://www.questia.com/library/1G1-13974610/the-volunteer-armies-of-northeast-china , date=January 29, 2014 , ''History Today''; July 1993, Vol. 43 Issue 7, pp. 36–41
Notes On A Guerrilla Campaign from Democratic Underground, accessed November 4, 2006
*
a more readable version here and some photos from Axis History Forum, accessed November 4, 2006
Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies
Military units and formations established in 1932
Disbanded armies