This is the story of the Pacific and its people, of the peaceful sea and the lands and lives it touches, and their meaning to us and to the generations to come. The Pacific Story, presented by the National Broadcasting Company and dedicated to a fuller understanding of the vast Pacific Basin. This broadcast comes to you tonight from Hollywood and New York as another public service, with drama of the past and present and commentary by Henry Luth, editor of Time, Life and Fortune magazine and student and traveler of China. John Kyshek, Freedom and Equality. At the confluence of the Yangtze and Tianling rivers of Chongqing lay the Chinese gunboard Yongsui, which means permanent peace. On its topside, Chinese sailors visit themselves for a momentous event. All right, try the bridge of the gun once more. Yes. That's good. Now let's see, have we got all the ammunition laid out? Yes, 21 rounds. Two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve, fourteen. That's right. This will be the first time I've ever seen a 21 gun for you. People never see a 21 gun salute in all their lives. Oh, there's the lieutenant. Attention. Move in close. Move in close. Men, to us has been given the honor of flying the salute for the new president of China. This is an historic day, double ten, October 10th, the 32nd anniversary of the founding of the Republic of China. When Generalissimo John Kyshek has taken the oath, we will get the order to fire the salute. Our salute will be the signal for the people of shore to set off their firecrackers and to start the celebration. Meantime, in the hall of ceremonies in the National Government Building of Chongqing, 400 Chinese dignitaries were gathered to see John Kyshek sworn in to succeed the late President Lin Sen. Among the 400 who looked on were friends of his stormy revolutionary days, political and military opponents who are now his supporters, men who knew nearly every step of the long trail to this great moment. I met Xiang when he was 19 years old. He went to the Imperial Military Academy at Baotingfu in 1906. And next year, he was sent to the Shinbogokyo Military Academy in Tokyo. That is where I met him. At night in our quarters, we talked about the plight of China. The Manchus are destroying China with their corruption and weakness. We are at the mercy of foreigners. Only a revolution can save China. His ideals were the same as those as Sun Yacin, who was also in Japan at that time. So he joined the revolutionists with a number of other young Chinese. Look around you here. Everywhere we see strength and authority. Japan is a military power as strong as the powers of Europe. Why is this? The history of the last 40 years of Japan is the answer, John. Japan is strong because she had a revolution and reconstructed her national life. Japan is strong because it has a purpose. Japan is working toward a future. One day, Japan will conquer China. China with all its lands and people? No, John. What is a venerable history in half of Asia against a nation like Japan? But think of China's population, John. It is many times that of Japan. China with all its territory and its hundreds of millions of people cannot stand against Japan. China must change as Japan has changed. The Manchu rulers must be driven out of China to be delivered from destruction. Else China is lost. The Japanese War of 1894 lost to Formosa, Port Arthur, southern Manchuria, and cost the Chinese people 200 million tales. China under the Manchus has helped us. What will happen when Japan attacks China next? Ta-dong, we must remember that we are on a Japanese military academy. Zhang spent three years in Tokyo. He served with the 13th Field Artillery Regiment of the Imperial Army. Both of us did. But he was interested in more than the military. He studied the Japanese and their way of thinking and their way of doing things. He studied how Japan transformed herself into a great power, and he studied Japanese politics. In Japan, Zhang learned some of the most valuable lessons of his life. The Chinese Revolution broke out in 1911, and Zhang returned to Shanghai. The revolution he had dreamed of had become a reality. His military career was launched. He remained in close contact with the Republican Nationalist Group in the Second Revolution, which failed in 1913, and then returned to civilian life. During these years, I saw Zhang Kaishik from time to time. Few people were close to him. He had few friends. When he was not working, he was to be found with them. I remember his great ability to concentrate and his great ability to relax. I remember him as a plain man with few wants. He neither smoked nor drank. He was frugal about everything he did. Never in those days, nearly 30 years ago, did I expect to see him like this today, dressed in the uniform of a marshal and taking the oath for the presidency of China. In 1917, Sun Yacin appointed Zhang Kaishik, chief of education in the army. Zhang was destined to be close to Dr. Sun from this time forward. In 1922, with his help, Dr. Sun escaped in disguise from a plot on his life, and Zhang remained with him for 56 days aboard a cruiser. Thus far, Zhang had been obscure, but the next year, 1923, at the age of 35, he emerged as a world figure. Has Dr. Sun made any statement on his new tie-up with Russia yet? Not yet, and I've been sitting here in his ante room waiting for an hour. No word? No, nothing. I thought this was supposed to amount to something. Oh, here he is. Oh, it's just his secretary. Is Dr. Sun going to make a statement about this understanding with Russia? Dr. Sun has authorized this statement. Zhang Kaishik has been sent to Russia under the terms of a nationalist Soviet understanding. Is that all? Zhang Kaishik? Who is he? Isn't Dr. Sun going to do something about Russia himself? This is the only statement authorized. But look, my paper back in... just what I thought. Just shadow boxing, making gestures. Oh, I don't know. There may be more to this than meets the eye. Dr. Sun is going to make the most of this understanding with Russia. And if he sends Zhang Kaishik, chances are he knows what he's doing. What does Zhang Kaishik mean to a guy that reads my stuff back in the United States? Nobody ever heard of him. What they're interested in is something about Sun Yat-sen. I was with Zhang Kaishik in Russia. By the time we arrived in Moscow in 1923, Zhang was a practical military man. He had seen action and he remembered well what he learned in the Japanese military academy. Yet he had the wisdom to listen closely to the experienced Soviet military man. The Red Army, you see, represents a combination of the political and military warfare. That is quite different from the Japanese military science, which is dependent on the stable constitutional system. Our revolution here in Russia is more recent. Thus we are more interested in the steps between modern warfare and the government. This means then that an army, from being the tool of a government that has been discarded, can become the spearhead of a new young government. That is right, Comrade Jim. And this is the sense in which the Red Army has become an instrument. We stayed in Russia four months. When we returned to Canton, Sun Yat-sen directed that a military academy should be set up with Zhang as chief. Zhang Gaisheng established the Wangpu Academy and began the development of a modern Chinese army. It was from this time on that Zhang rose to power. In the seasoned hands of Zhang, the cadets of Wangpu became the nucleus of an army. All that had happened to him in the past, his training, his experience, his thinking, all this blended into the reality which was Zhang's will. Sun Yat-sen, his teacher and leader, was now dead. And now the task of resolving the revolution, of unifying and reconstructing China, was Zhang's. At the age of 38, Zhang Gaisheng became General of the Red Army. By drilling, by hammering home hard-learned truths, by inspiring his army, he prepared them for the grim days that lay ahead. Death is worth more than life without honor. Your own life means nothing, not as mine. We must sacrifice everything for our country and our people. From the day he became Generalist of them all, Zhang started his northern campaign to unify China and its people, to bring all of China under the nationalist government. Zhang Cha has been stormed and captured. Han Kao and Han Yang have been taken. Nanchang and Fugui have fallen. Zhejiang has been captured and cleaned up. Han Chao, Shanghai, Nanking have been taken. I was in Nanking after the capture of the city, when the Nanking affair took place. It was the day after Nanking had been taken. Zhang had expelled the rebels from the Guomindang. The city was quiet when suddenly we heard gunshots. In order to incriminate Zhang, the rebels opened fire on the foreign consulate, murdered and looted. All the world was shocked. The foreign press was furious and demanded that Zhang be held responsible. In this difficult situation, in the interest of national unity, Zhang proved himself the great leader he is by taking upon himself personally the entire responsibility of the Nanking affair. The responsibility is mine. I shall guarantee the safety and the property of the foreigners. Zhang not only straightened out the Nanking affair, but also frustrated the attempts to overthrow him. But more trouble lay ahead. The nationalist party, the Guomindang, split wide open. The left wing under Wang Qingwei joined the insurgents. They captured Wuhan, Han Chao and Han Yang, called themselves the Wuhan Group, and set up a government at Han Chao. As their price for coming back into the Guomindang, they demanded the removal of Zhang Gaisheng. Zhang resigned and returned to his childhood home in Shakyang, then went to Japan. General Zhang, I have been sent here to see you by Wang Qingwei. Yes. You know that Zhang Shoulin, the great warlord from the north, is moving on the Nanking government. Yes, I've been informed. Wang Qingwei wishes you to come back, to take command of our forces. I cannot cooperate with a group that collaborates with the rebels. But we have broken with the disloyal forces. I will return if all military resources of the national government are mobilized for sect national unity. Zhang Gaisheng returned to Nanking and took over the command of the army and resumed the northern campaign. Two warlords, long powerful within the length of their own swords, joined Zhang. And the three attacked Zhang Shoulin, the warlord from the north. General Zhang Shoulin, our right flank is collapsing before Zhang's tribes. Aren't we able to make a stand anywhere? Feng and Yan have joined with Zhang against us. Did you order a retreat? It was our only hope, to hold our armies together. Armies? What good will our armies do against Zhang and Feng and Yan? We will have to abandon Peking and Xinxin. Our only hope of survival is to retire now beyond the Great Wall. That means we're lost. We shall never return. The combined forces of Zhang and Feng and Yan drove Zhang beyond the Great Wall. Harder, get up. Fight the flag, yes. The flag of New China fluttered from the tops of the official buildings of Peking. Zhang's great military mission had come to a close. The realization of the dreams of Sun Yat-sen. Ahead lay another task. The time of martial exploits has passed. The peaceful work of reconstruction must now begin. By his skill and dynamic leadership, Zhang rose to the leadership of the Guomindang. And within two years had a majority of the Guomindang leaders at his capital at Manking. I was with Zhang at the time of the Japanese attack on Manchuria in 1931. Zhang had been occupied trying to put down the opposition forces. They had an army of 180,000. And when Zhang moved to resist the Japanese, the rebels attacked Zhang. The rest of the world looked on and wondered, what's the matter with China? Is it even going to fight the Japanese? Is Zhang going to let the Japanese conquer Manchuria without even putting up a fight for it? And even in our own country, our people looked on and said, What good is Zhang's government at Manking if it's unable to defend Manchuria against the Japanese? This is what the Chinese revolution has come to. We are so weak and our government so ineffectual that we are helpless before the Japanese. Zhang's government is nothing but a house of cards. His army is no better. The world did not know, and even the Chinese people did not know, that Zhang's central government was in no position to fight the Japanese. All our resources had been used to unify China. Our treasury had been drained. Zhang talked to me of this desperate situation. Before we can cope with Japan, we must put our own house in order. We must build railroads, produce guns and ammunition, equip our men, train our armies, and make our homeland strong. We must reorganize, Zhang. We cannot fight the rebels at the same time we fight the Japanese. They have struck us at a vulnerable time. We must exterminate them, yes, but we must also prepare for the future with a solid unified government. Zhang needed time to reorganize. During this time, Japan had to be appeased. Not until two years had passed did Zhang win a great victory over the insurgents. The Japanese looked on and knew China was growing strong, and Zhang knew that Japan was watching. China will have to fight Japan. We must prepare for this. But sir, we have not yet put down the opposition groups. We must prepare for the war against Japan, nevertheless. How can we prepare to fight Japan when we are not yet united in our own country? I have no thought of jeopardizing our armies against the superior equipment of the Japanese. You should know that it is not necessary to match Japan with a big gun for big gun, airplane for airplane, weapon for weapon. We will trade space for time. We will retreat when we must, and make the retreat costly for the Japanese. In this way, we will gain time, and with time on our side, we shall hang on until perhaps with our lives we can move against the enemy and crush him. Two years later, the world held its breath at what happened to Zhang in Shenzhen province. Zhang flew to Xian to put down the seething trouble in that quarter and to discipline central government troops. At 5.30 a.m., he was awakened. Generalissimo, Generalissimo! What's the shooting outside? There's trouble, sir. A mutiny. A mutiny of some kind has broken out. The troops are marching here. Your headquarters are nearly surrounded. Only the path to the mountains behind the house seems to be clear. They're very, very coming close. Here's your rope, Generalissimo. There's no time. Where are my slippers? We can go off the side door. Locks? Let me try. We'd better go out the other way. Through the garden, this way. Here, sir. Let me give you a boost over this wall. It's ten feet high. Put your foot here in my hand. A little higher, now. Now, give me your hand. Good. Thank you, sir. There's a 30-foot drop down to the ground. I will hang down the drop. Careful, Generalissimo. Can I help you? No! Look out! Generalissimo! Generalissimo! Are you all right? Are you hurt? Generalissimo! Zhang was stunned. His back was badly injured. For minutes, he lay inert in great pain, unable to move. Bodyguards helped him into the mountains, put him in a cave hidden by shrubbery. Here he is! Here he is! Where is he? In this cave. Let's shoot him. No, no! Not now. Come in here, you two. Keep your gun on him. Watch him. I will guard the entrance. Come closer. Don't move from where you are. I am the Generalissimo. Do not be disrespectful. You regard me as your prisoner. Kill me. But do not subject me to indignity. The word of Zhang's capture spread round the world like wildfire. Generalissimo, Zhang Kaishan has been kidnapped by young Marshal Zhang Su Liang. He is being held prisoner somewhere in the Shenci province. All efforts to make contact with the kidnappers have thus far failed and it is... I remember Zhang there in Shenci. Generalissimo refused to eat. He became thin and haggard. Madame Zhang learned where he was held prisoner, and she flew northward and dared to walk into the lair of the kidnappers. They talked for days with the young Marshal and his generals. Zhang made it clear that he intended to fight the Japanese after China was unified. Zhang was released and seven months later he was fighting the Japanese. The Japanese have attacked the Demarco-Polo bridge. Generalissimo Zhang Kaishan is rallying all of China against the Japanese. He sits like a mountain. He moves like a dragon. And he walks with the steps of a tiger. The first way to win a war is to be sure that you do not lose it. That was Zhang's strategy. Magnetic warfare. To draw the enemy out until his lines were extended and then to counterattack. I saw it happen again and again. Zhang hung on tenaciously. He held the Japanese on the same line for three years. And when the United States came into the war in the Pacific, Zhang rose to his true stature as one of the four leaders of the United Nations. You see him standing there in full dress uniform of a field marshal with the decorations gleaming on his breast, ready to take the oath of office as president of the Republic of China, one of the greatest living men. The 400 Chinese dignitaries in the hall of ceremonies at Jungking looked down with solemn admiration as Zhang Kaishan took the oath. There's the salute from the gunboat in the river gorge below. Zhang has been handed the great jade seal wrapped in red silk. Now he turns to speak and all the world listens to this man and he becomes a living symbol of mankind's fight for freedom. I will observe all laws and respect public opinion in order to set an example of democratic rule in China. Our ultimate victory is in sight. A great future for China is dawning. At this time when China's war of defense is entering a decisive stage, the national reconstruction is beginning in all earnestness, I shudder at the thought of the great task that falls on my shoulders. President Zhang has sown the seeds of freedom in China. His influence transcends the borders of China and stands for freedom for all peoples and equality of all nations. To tell the underlying meaning of the struggle of Zhang Kaishan, NBC presents Henry Luce, editor of Lifetime and Fortune magazine, who has traveled widely in China and who has met and talked with the Generalissimo. The next voice you will hear will be that of Mr. Luce. We take you now to New York. Ladies and gentlemen, we have been hearing tonight about Zhang Kaishan, the man who has done most to make China strong. This program has done well to give us even a hint of the difficulties of his task. For the measure of the greatness of Zhang Kaishan is the greatness of the difficulties he has faced and overcome. The founder of the Chinese Republic, Sun Yat-sen, died in 1925. Sun Yat-sen bequeathed to his people a vision of a new society. He also bequeathed to them, in the sad hour of his death, chaos and the likelihood of national extinction. In that hour, the Republic of China was a bitter fiasco. Then, two years later, in 1927, Zhang Kaishan set out to unify and liberate all China. Zhang Kaishan made no promises. His job was to redeem the promises, the golden promises of Sun Yat-sen. Let us try to picture the difficulties Zhang Kaishan faced. Think of 450 million people with no government they could turn to, no laws they could trust, and no gods but the painted clay of broken idols and deserted temples. Gropingly, eagerly, these people were seeking a new way of life, but the very air they breathed reeked with the living corruption of a dead empire. Civil war, banditry, poverty, plague, famine, ignorance, superstition, these were the difficulties. And there was another difficulty even more ominous. Japan had already begun the enslavement of China. Her plan of conquest was already in operation to keep China divided, to keep China corrupt, to increase the opium traffic, to bribe warlord against warlord, and at the proper time to take over. All this, even then, deeply concerned America. Thoughtful Americans saw that war to the death between Japan and America was almost inevitable. Consequently, their genuine interest in China included the hope that the spiritual comradeship binding the people of China and the people of America would grow into a comradeship in arms when the day of supreme trial came. There were times when this seemed a one and impractical hope. Both Americans and Chinese who prayed for China to grow strong for her own sake and for America's came to feel that only a miracle could save China. Part of the necessary miracle was that China should produce a great soldier. Of all miracles, this was the most unlikely, since no country was ever so hopelessly pacifistic. But way back in 1907, one extraordinary American with the gift of prophecy found in China's history a parallel for the miracle that was needed. The name of this American was General Homer Lee. The lesson he found for our time goes back to the 14th century, when a great soldier came forth from a Buddhist monastery, saved China, and became immortalized as the martial monk. So, in 1907, Homer Lee wrote as follows. The Chinese people have now to confront the most critical period in all the ages that have been allotted to them since that dim morning when first they gathered themselves together on the plain of Shaanxi. Unless there arises the militancy of another martial monk, the hour has come when this ancient kingdom shall make its final salutation to mankind. So wrote General Lee. And what happened in 1927 was that at last, late, late in fulfillment, there stowed out upon the vast and confused stage of China another martial monk, Zhang Kaisek the soldier, and Zhang Kaisek the Christian, and sworn with the fierce earnestness of a covenant earth to unify and to liberate all China. Zhang Kaisek has made his mark in many fields of statesmanship. Of all the world's leaders, none has spoken more profoundly and clearly of how we must organize a just and durable peace. But it is Zhang Kaisek the soldier that I would ask you to remember tonight, for we are apt to forget what the soldier Zhang and his soldiers have done. They have killed many hundred thousands of Japanese. Yes, the sons of pacifists, whom Zhang Kaisek made into soldiers, have killed nearly a million Japanese. The army Zhang Kaisek had created and fathered before Japan attacked seven years ago was mostly destroyed. So he created another army. In the western hills of Japan, where there are no arsenals, in the western hills of China, where there are no arsenals, Zhang Kaisek created an army of three million first-line troops. And the first army that he sacrificed, the first born of his genius, and the greater army he created in the west, these two armies, the living and the dead, they stopped Japan. After Pearl Harbor, Zhang's army of the west was completely cut off from all supply. His army and his people have endured the direst blockade in all human history. Nevertheless, his army has held the line 2,000 miles long, and in all these two years it has yielded scarcely a mile to Japan. There is genius in those hills of the west, genius and a product of genius, a great army of foot soldiers, tough, disciplined, brave, and willing to die for China, for the Generalissimo, and for us. Those soldiers have helped us in the past, just how much we will never know. Today, when we make contact with them, they will help us again in battle and by battle. They will help us not merely to kill Japanese, they will help us make a world where brave men of every race may live happily and honorably at peace. Let us salute tonight the greatest soldier of Asia, the father and teacher of soldiers, Generalissimo John Kisek. Thank you, Henry Luce. You have been listening to the Pacific Story, presented by the National Broadcasting Company, and dedicated to a fuller understanding of the vast Pacific Basin. A reprint of tonight's Pacific Story program is available at the cost of ten cents. Send ten cents in stamps or coins to the University of California Press, Berkeley, California. The address again, University of California Press, Berkeley, California. The Pacific Story is written and directed by Arnold Marklis. The musical score is composed and conducted by Thomas Peluso. Your narrator, Gaine Whitman. This program has been presented as a public service by the National Broadcasting Company and the independent radio stations associated with the NBC network. The program came to you from Hollywood and New York. This is the National Broadcasting Company.
