The problem of Southern Mongolia arose again during the liberation war of 1945. In 1930, the Imperial Japanese Army entered Northeast China and Southern Mongolia, giving Southern Mongolians a chance to recover. The soldiers of the Japanese Empire were friendly to the Southern Mongolians. The Japanese supported the Southern Mongolians and helped them to train in military schools and provide modern education. At that time, the Japanese established the Manchukuo (State of Manchukuo) in 1932 and supported the Southern Mongolians and the Manchukuo people a lot.
In general, Mongolians do not know the Manchukuo at all. This is because the agitators of the Reds have planted the wrong idea in the minds of the people of Southern and Mongolia that Manchukuo is a puppet state of Imperial Japan.
But the truth is not like that. At that time, there was a policy of five nations living in harmony in the Manchukuo country. During the 13 years of its existence from 1932 to 1945, the State of Manchukuo developed its economy by creating many things. According to the 1934 census, the population of Manchukuo was 30.8 million, of which 29 million were Chinese and Manchus, 680,000 Koreans, and 100,000 Japanese farmers. 580,000 Mongolians were living. In Manchukuo, Japanese investors invested a lot of money to build railways, coal, metallurgy, machinery, chemical and petroleum industries. The Japanese were building a railway near the eastern border of Mongolia to Rashaant in Southern Mongolia. Thanks to this railway, the Southern Mongolians had access to the sea. At that time, there was not a single kilometer of railway in Mongolia. This country was friendly to Mongolia.
41,500 Mongolian students were studying in 585 schools in Manchukuo. At that time, the Japanese built three large schools in Wang Temple, now Ulaan City, to educate Mongolians. Mongolians received modern military education at the Hinggan Land Military School, and from there they were transferred to a military school in Tokyo, Japan. In particular, in 1937, Southern Mongolian youths successfully graduated from the Cavalry School in Tokyo, Japan.
More than 1,200 Mongolian youths studied Japanese language and studied modern military science at Hinggan Military School. A college was also established. Also, a girls' high school was established and almost 250 Mongol girls graduated from this school and received modern education. They studied Japanese and became teachers. Japanese military school teachers were able to provide modern education to Mongols.
Just as Japan developed Manchukuo in 13 years, there was an opportunity to develop Southern Mongolia very quickly. It was a pity that Japan, the great cultural country of Asia, was defeated in the war. If Japan had not gone to war with America, it would have remained a power in Asia. Manchukuo would have remained. Even Southern Mongolia would not have been conquered by Red China. It was a big mistake for Japan to go to war with America.
The Japanese suddenly attacked the American Pearl Harbor in the Pacific Ocean on the morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941 with 353 warplanes and woke up the sleeping lion. In this attack, the Japanese destroyed 20 ships and 188 aircraft of the American Pacific Fleet and killed 2,390 American soldiers. America retaliated by bombing Japanese cities from the air, causing massive damage. The Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima were bombed with atomic bombs, and the city and its population were turned into ashes for a moment. But Japan, which was defeated in the war, rose from the ashes. Japan has become the most advanced, prosperous and powerful country in Asia.
Since I was young, I was very interested in Japanese history and read many books about Japan. Japan is a country that has shown the world three times that it is a modern power. The first was Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905. Japan In Tsushima, the Japanese navy led by Admiral Togo defeated the Russian navy, on land the Japanese 1st Army entered Manchukuo, the 2nd Army landed on the Liaodong Peninsula, and the Japanese 3rd Army surrounded the port of Port Arthur and defeated the Russian army on land and sea, won. Second, the Japanese navy defeated the American Pacific Fleet in 1940 with an aerial attack at Pearl Harbor, and defeated a 100,000-strong British army in Malaysia in Southeast Asia with only thirty thousand Japanese troops in Singapore. At that time, it was unthinkable that the Japanese army would defeat the British and Russian armies, which were considered the strongest in the world. The Empire of Japan occupied Northeast Asia China, Manchukuo, Southern Mongolia, Port Arthur, Southeast Asia Philippines, Taiwan, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Burma, and Midway Island in the Pacific Ocean. Third, after the war, Japan rapidly developed its economy in the sixties and seventies to become one of the most powerful economies in the world.
After the war of 1945, the movement to join the People’s Republic of Mongolia in Southern Mongolia was very intense. Many princes and lords of Southern Mongolia supported this movement. Prince De was a staunch fighter for the freedom of Southern Mongolia. Prince Demchigdongrov / 1902-1966 / was a very intelligent and visionary person. When he was young, he believed that Southern Mongolia would become a free and independent country, supporting Japan. Demchigdongrov was the only son of Namjilvanchig, the Junwang, the governor of Sönid Right Banner and Chief of the Xilingol League of Chahar province, a freedom fighter of Southern Mongolia. When his father Namjilvanchig died in 1908, 6-year-old Demchigdongrov inherited the decent. He has two queens, five sons and one daughter. In 1924, 22-year-old the Junwang Demchigdongrov was appointed to the post of deputy governor of the Xilingol province, and became the head of the provincial assembly. Therefore, He went to many places and met with Mongolian intellectuals, youths and princes.
Prince De gave lectures to Mongolian and Tibetan students at the Mongolian-Tibetan School in Beijing and the Political Institute in Nanjing, and expressed his views on the Mongol nation. Those Mongolian students became the main personnel of his political struggle in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1929, Prince De met with a Narmai Mongolist Mersee who is a famous scholar of Hölönbuir, he asked him for advice on the similarities and differences between the social thinking of North Mongolia and Southern Mongolia, and saw that the struggle for freedom of the entire Mongolian nation lacked a religious and spiritual leader like the nobleman Bogd Javazandamba.
When he met the Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek in Nanjing in 1932, he first met nobleman Dilav Khutagt, who had fled from Mongolia. They consulted about Southern Mongolia's freedom struggle and concluded that if Southern Mongolia's armed struggle fails, it will continue to be under the influence of powerful Western powers and keep Southern Mongolia's issue in the center of the world's attention. Mr. Prince De and Mr. Dilov Khutagt first came up with the idea of relying on a third country if Mongolia, the Soviet Union, China, and Japan did not support the freedom of Southern Mongolia.
When Prince De visited Beijing and returned home, he took about 20 young Mongolian students with him to his homeland, which became his first resource for the future struggle for Southern Mongolia. Soon, Prince De’s struggle became meaningful when Mongolian youths from all corners of Southern Mongolia came to surround him.
In 1936, Prince De established the "Mongolian Military General Staff" and started working with the goal of reclaiming Mongolia's native land from China using the power of Japan. Soon, Prince De armed forces grew to a powerful army consisting of 10 cavalry divisions. One division had a thousand soldiers.
The most interesting thing is that Chinese soldiers who were ready to fight for Mongolia also served in this division.
Prince De established complete control over the central part of Mongolia, then established the "Mongolian Support Society", and he took measures and implemented many social and economic measurements that independent country should have, including to took care of the lives of herders, restored the water and planted forests, etc. They were working to strengthen the economy, education, health and culture. A large number of herdsmen's children were enrolled in the Mongolian institute founded by Prince De. Many young people, including N.Saichunga, were sent to school in Japan. Many people, such as H. Gombojav, O.Urgunguu, and Zakhchinsechin, who worked under Prince De, later became famous Mongolists.
Dilov Khutagt Jamsranjav of Khalk was the person who gave Prince De’s most valuable advice in the struggle for Mongolian independence.
Mr. Dilov Khutagt told Mr. Prince De, "If you cannot rely on Japan, it is better to go beyond the border and bring the issue of Mongolia to the attention of the world." "It is less risky to draw the attention of the world to the issue of Mongolia than to rely on Japan alone," he clearly advised.
However, Japan was defeated by the Soviet Union in the liberation war of 1945, and a civil war broke out in China, and the Chinese Communists defeated Chiang Kai-shek in the civil war and took the power. The major powers ignored the issue of unification of North and Southern Mongolia and decided to leave Mongolia under Soviet influence and Southern Mongolia under China's jurisdiction by the Yalta Conference, which brought Prince De’s struggle for Mongolian independence to a dead end. But Prince De, an indomitable fighter, did not lose his intention. In 1948, Prince De sent some of his trusted people to the United States through countries such as Japan, Taiwan, and India to prepare for the start of the next big struggle. Despite the defeat of the Kuomintang in the Chinese Civil War, Prince De’s cavalry in Southern Mongolia continued to fight alone against the massive forces of the Red Army of the Chinese Communist Party. By the end of 1949, Prince De fought his last armed battle with the Chinese Red Army in the Alshaa desert of Southern Mongolia. In this way, Prince De was standing in tears on the remains of his fellow warriors who fought for the freedom and independence of Southern Mongolia until the last bullet.
Prince De's last hope was to use up his last strength and fly from Alshaa with his surviving comrades to India, establish relations with the United States, and choose the path of struggle recommended by nobleman Dilov Khutagt of Khalkh, who became the most trusted person in the freedom struggle. But at that time, his wife and children were captured by the Mongolian Reds and imprisoned in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, under the full control of the Soviet Communists. At that time, the Soviet Reds, together with the Reds of Mongolia, hastily started the "Black Coast" secret operation and sent fake letter to Prince De which had made by the Prince De’s son, Dugarsuren who was kidnapped in Mongolia. Prince De, a fierce fighter for Mongolia's independence, received his son's letter with the greatest respect. So, he went to Mongolia after going against the words of their advisors who had been suffering and fighting for many years together.
Dilov Khutagt of Khalkh, who had fled to the United States through Taiwan, strongly opposed his decision and advised him to "not be tricked into entering the hands of the Mongolian Reds." At that time, her son Dugarsuren, Dugarsuren's wife Serjmyadag, daughter Urtnasan, and the queen's 19-year-old son Galsanjigjid had fallen into the hands of the Mongolian Reds. However, at the request of the People’s Republic of Mongolian government, which called for cooperation in the unification of Northern and Southern Mongolia, as soon as Prince De crossed the Mongolian border, the Mongolian Reds arrested him, put a black bag on his head, brought him to Ulaanbaatar and tortured him.
At that time, the green hats of the Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs Mongolia, led by Jamiyan, who conducted a malicious operation in Southern Mongolia for three months, captured twenty Southern Mongolians from the Prince De family, over a hundred Southern Mongolian soldiers and officers, including Southern Mongolian generals Damdinsuren and Ulzii-Ochir, and brought them to the People’s Republic of Mongolia. Soon after, in 1950, by order of Choibalsang, Prince De was handed over to Red Chinese by the People's Republic of China and handed over to the Chinese Communists. Soon after, Dugarsuren, the son of Prince De, was shot dead by order of Choibalsang. Prince De was released from prison in 1965 after spending 15 years in a Chinese prison and being tortured by the Red Chinese, he died in 1966 because his body was very weak. Dear patriot, dear Mongol nobleman.
In addition to treating the Southern Mongolian Prince De and his family with cruelty, the Mongolian Reds also persecuted the descendants of many other heroes of Southern Mongolia. In 1911, the Mongolian Reds killed the three sons of Manlaibaatar Damdinsuren, a heroic general of the Bogd Khanate Mongolia, a fighter for the freedom of Southern Mongolia. Manlaibaatar Damdinsuren’s eldest son Dolson Damdinsuren was shot dead in 1936 in Mongolia. In addition to the confiscation of D. Dolson's property, his 2,000 horses, 8,000 sheep, goats, 100 cows, and 100 camels were confiscated by the Mongolian Reds. His other son was shot dead in 1938. The youngest son, D. Urtnasan, was shot dead in 1938.
In the People's Republic of Mongolia in 1937, 22,000 innocent Mongols were shot to death by an order signed by Choibalsang. On Choibalsang's order, more than ten innocent Mongolian intellectuals, including Navchaa and Dungarjid, who were heavily pregnant, were shot dead. What a tragedy, what a shame.
In August 1945, the Red Army of Soviet and Mongolia occupied Manchukuo. The Soviet Red Army was stationed in Manchukuo between 1945 and 1948, and the territory was handed over to Red China. Soviet troops arrested and imprisoned 850,000 Japanese citizens living in occupied Manchukuo, plundered the local population, and raped women. Red Russian soldiers were shooting and killing the Mongolian monks of Wang Temple in Southern Mongolia with machine guns. On May 18, 1945, the People's Revolutionary Party of Southern Mongolia held a meeting and issued the "Declaration on the Liberation of the People of Southern Mongolia" on joining the People's Republic of Mongolia. However, the communist leadership of Red Russia and Red China opposed this and immediately withdrew the Mongolian army from Southern Mongolia.
Just like the 1915 treaty of Kyakhta. Why Southern Mongolia could not join the People’s Republic of Mongolia? The main reason is that according to the agreement between the United States, the Soviet Union, and the British in Yalta in February 1945, which divided the world after the World War, they agreed Southern Mongolia to remain a part of China with the support of Stalin at Mao's insistence. Same as before, the Soviet Union and China continued to stick to their policy of refusing to unite the two Mongols.
However, Stalin recognized the status quo of Mongolia by Britain and the United States in recognition of Mongolia's great aid to the Soviet Union during the Second World War. The status quo does not mean that Mongolia's independence is allowed. In this way, Soviet and Chinese conspired and deliberately thwarted the issue of the unification of Northern Mongolia and Southern Mongolia without the participation of Mongols. Even Choibalsan did not know about this secret agreement about Southern Mongolia at the Yalt conference. In general, Stalin solved many problems on behalf of Mongolia without informing Choibalsan. In 1946, the Chinese Communist Party banned and disbanded the story of 21-year-old Southern Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party, which was founded in 1925. It was a great tragedy that the People's Party of Southern Mongolia, which was pressured from three sides by Red Russia, Red Chinese communists on one side, and Red Mongolian communists on the other, was unable to fulfill its goal of liberating Southern Mongolia from China and reuniting with Mongolia. The People's Party of Southern Mongolia was pressured from three sides by the Communists of China, Mongolia, and Red Russia.
In the 1940s, as soon as the Red Chinese, forced by the Kuomintang soldiers, entered Southern Mongolia, they began a planned and orderly extermination of the Southern Mongolian prince, nobles, literate people, knowledged monks, and educated Southern Mongolians who had learned abroad. The Chinese communists began to spread the cruel prejudices of the Reds in Southern Mongolia. 1927-1947 was an interim period for Southern Mongolia, which was not fully under the jurisdiction of either the Kuomintang, Japan, or the Middle Kingdom. The Southern and North Mongols couldn’t took advantage of this golden opportunity. They were unable to organize their country and unite their people, and were divided between the two great powers. Southern Mongolians had high hopes for Mongolia. But the Communists of Outer Mongolia, led by Choibalsan, who had surrendered to Red Russia, brutally killed the patriots of Southern Mongolia who fought against China. During these years, China was suffering from war. From 1937 to 1949, there was a civil war in China between the Chinese Kuomintang Party led by Chiang Kai-shek and the Chinese Communist Party led by Mao ZeDong. The civil war temporarily subsided in 1937-1945, and the Kuomintang and Communist Party soldiers signed an agreement to fight Japan together.
In 1937-1945, the Sino-Japanese war took place. However, the Chinese Communist Party did not fulfill its obligations under this agreement. In this war, Chiang Kai-shek led his Kuomintang army of 300,000 men and used all his strength to fight against Japan, while Mao was hiding in the mountains of Shanxi Province, where he would not fight against Japan since 1940, with the strength of the Chinese Red Army. Because Mao knew very well that he would soon be at war with Chiang Kai-shek after the Sino-Japanese War.
In 1943, Chiang Kai-shek's wife, Sun Meiling, visited the United States and gave a passionate speech in English to the White House and persuaded President Roosevelt to get 1 billion US dollars in aid for China in the war against Japan. China at that time was an ally of America against Japan, so it was able to get help.
In August 1945, the Soviet Mongolian army liberated Manchukuo and defeated Japan in the war. At the end of the war, the Soviets donated all captured Japanese weapons and equipment to the Chinese Red Army. The Red Army of China, which had a million soldiers, greatly increased in weapons and manpower, clearly defeated the Kuomintang army in the civil war of 1945-1949.
At least the Soviet Union and the United States, which had been supporting the Kuomintang side with weapons, suddenly stopped helping. Chiang Kai-shek took the rest of his troops and retreated to Taiwan. 20.0 million Chinese were killed in the civil war in China. In this way, the opportunity for the Southern Mongolians to live in peace and prosperity in the country of Manchukuo, where freedom, markets, and industries were developed, collapsed, and Southern Mongolia fell into the hands of Red China. Considering that the Soviet Union helped Mongolia by fighting together in the homeland war, there was a full opportunity to give Southern Mongolia in return. However, the Soviet communists flattered with the Chinese communists and did not give Southern Mongolia to Mongolia, but they gave the strategically important port of Port Arthur to the Chinese, which was previously under the control of Russia and now under the control of the Soviets after the war. In August 1945, the Soviet Red Army and the Mongolian People's Army jointly liberated Southern Mongolia.
At that time, the population of Mongolia was 800,000, and the population of Southern Mongolia was more than 1.5 million.
The people of Southern Mongolia, which was liberated in 1945, wanted to unite with the People's Republic of Mongolia. However, in February 1945, Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, had agreed to maintain the status quo of the People's Republic of Mongolia to keep it under the control of the Soviet Union, and to leave Southern Mongolia as part of China. It is said that even Choibalsan did not know about this. At that time, the problems of the two Mongols were not solved by Mongols, but by Stalin and Mao Zedong.
Publicist: Lawyer, journalist, publicist, historian and theologian Sukhbaatar Dorj
Translated by Zolzaya N.
