Zhao Yiman

Zhao Yiman 1905 – 2 August 1936) was a Chinese fighter in the resistance against Japanese forces in the Second Sino-Japanese War, which later became a part of World War II. She fought in China's northeast where she was captured and executed by Japanese forces in 1936.^[1] A 2005 film called My Mother Zhao Yiman was created by her son detailing her life.^[2]

Brief biography

Zhao was born as Li Kuntai (李坤泰) in a rich family of Sichuan Province in October 1905. She joined the Communist Party of China in 1926 in a middle school. In September 1927, she went to the Soviet Union to study in the Sun Yat-sen University. She married her comrade Chen Dabang (陈达邦) She returned to China in the winter of 1928, and engaged in the underground Communist revolutionary work in Shanghai, and then in Jiangxi Province. After the Mukden Incident, she was sent to northeast China to start up struggles against the Japanese occupation. She changed her name as Zhao Yiman to avoid her family persecution due to her activities.

She was captured and executed by Japanese in 1936.

In the prison

In November 1935, the Japanese army and its surrogated Manchukuo troops encircled the 2nd Regiment of the 3rd Army of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army. Zhao Yiman, Political Commissar of the regiment was seriously wounded. Several days later, the Japanese found Zhao in a farmhouse where she stayed to heal her wound. In the fighting, she was wounded again and captured. Zhao was cruelly tortured after an argument with the questioners. In view of her political value, the Japanese sent her to a hospital to receive treatment. In the hospital, Zhao brainwashed Han Yongyi, a female nurse, and Dong Xianxun, a guard. Han and Dong helped her to escape. Zhao was recaptured not far from the guerrilla base and suffered further torture due to her escape.^[3]

On 2 August 1936, she wrote down the last words, asking her children to continue the struggle. On her way to the execution ground, Zhao sang loudly the Ode of the Red Flag, and shouted anti-Japanese slogans.

The guard, Dong, who helped Zhao to escape, soon died in the prison after torture.

Memorial

Zhao Yiman is featured as one of the revolutionary heroes in the Northeast China Revolutionary Martyrs Memorial Hall located at 241 Yiman Street in the Nangang district of Harbin.

References