Operation Beleaguer was the codename for the United States Marine Corps' occupation of northeastern China's Hebei and Shandong provinces from 1945 until 1949. The Marines were tasked with overseeing the repatriation of more than 600,000 Japanese and Koreans who remained in China at the end of World War II. During the four-year occupation, American forces engaged in several skirmishes with the People's Liberation Army, while successfully evacuating thousands of foreign nationals. The United States government attempted to mediate a peace treaty between the opposing Nationalist and Communist factions, but was unsuccessful. The Marines departed northern China in June 1949, a few months before the communists won the Chinese Civil War and took control of mainland China.
Background
During World War II, China was a battlefield with three opposing states: the Nationalist government's National Revolutionary Army (NRA), the Communist People's Liberation Army (PLA), and the China Expeditionary Army of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA), which occupied northeast China south of the Great Wall and the Kwantung Army of the IJA in Manchukuo which occupied northeast China north of the Great Wall. China already destroyed the Japanese Burma Area Army on its southwest border in 1944-1945. When Japan surrendered in 1945, over 630,000 Japanese and Koreans (Korean comfort women) of the China Expeditionary Army were still in the occupied cities in the northeast like Hebei and needed to be disarmed and repatriated. The Soviet army dealt with the other million strong Japanese army, the 665,500 Japanese troops of the Kwantung Army in Manchukuo and 335,900 Japanese troops in North Korea during the Soviet invasion of Manchuria and Soviet invasion of North Korea, which was a separate entity from the Japanese China Expedtitionary Army which only operated in Mengjiang and south of the Great Wall. The Soviets committed massacre and rapes in their occupation zone against Japanese and Koreans. The Nationalist government based in Chongqing, though, lacked the time and means of transport to disarm the entire China Expeditionary Army of the IJA in the timespan of a few weeks. They feared that PLA soldiers and guerrillas, who often operated behind Japanese lines, would be able to reach and disarm large numbers of IJA units before the NRA arrived. Chiang Kai-shek and the Western Allies ordered that IJA units remain at their posts and not surrender their arms to the Communists. The Chinese Nationalists disarmed the other Japanese soldiers of the China Expeditionary Army in provinces outside of Hebei and Shandong like Hubei, Jiangsu while the US disarmed Japanese specifically only in Hebei and Shandong. The Nationalist Chinese also disarmed Japanese soldiers of the Southern Expeditionary Army Group in North Vietnam during the Chinese occupation of northern Vietnam, 1945–1946. President Harry Truman sent over 50,000 United States Marines of the III Amphibious Corps (IIIAC) and the 7th Fleet to northern China with orders to accept the surrender of the Japanese and their Korean former subjects, repatriate them, and help the Nationalists reassert their control over areas previously held by the Japanese. The Marines were not to take sides in the fighting and were only allowed to engage in combat if fired upon first. Major General Keller E. Rockey, IIIAC, was placed in command of the operation, and Lieutenant General Albert C. Wedemeyer was in command of the China Theater.
IIIAC was preparing for the invasion of Japan when the war ended on September 2, 1945. Within the next 48 hours, IIIAC received new orders to ship out to China.
Operations
Hebei Province
The Hebei Province occupation force was the first to get underway. Loading of the troopships began on September 11 and was completed on September 19. Sailing from their base on Guam, the Americans anchored off the bay of China's Hai River on September 30. Disembarkation began soon after, and the Americans were greeted by swarms of sampans, whose crews were eager for trade, and crowds of jubilant Chinese on the shore. Brigadier General Louis R. Jones, assistant division commander of the 1st Division, landed at the Tanggu docks to meet with local Chinese port officials, make arrangements for the surrender of the Japanese garrison, and prepare for the dispersal of the Marines across the province. Everything went according to plan; Jones later said that the "Chinese military and civilian authorities were cooperative in the extreme," and that his men and he had no trouble whatsoever in dealing with the Japanese garrison.
The Americans who went to occupy Tianjin were also greeted by crowds of Chinese who were anxious to be liberated from the Japanese. According to author Henry I. Shaw, Jr., the "streets were packed with Chinese of all classes and European expatriates. Trucks and marching troops literally had to force their way through the happy, flag-waving throngs to reach their assigned billets in the former International Concessions. To many of the men, it seemed that their welcome must have outshone and outshouted 'any welcome given to troops any time, any place, and anywhere during World War II.'"
The first element of IIIAC to see action in China was the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, although it did not actually participate in the fighting. On October 1, 1st Battalion, under Lieutenant Colonel John J. Gormley, sailed from Taku to the port of Qinhuangdao. Since "all factions, civilian and military, were anxious to cooperate with [American] troops," Colonel Gormley was able to stop the fighting by ordering the "puppet troops" to remove themselves from the town's perimeter defenses, and by placing his own men along the frontline. Cooperation between the Americans and the Communists did not last long, however. According to Shaw, the Communists were sabotaging railroads leading into Qinhuangdao and ambushing American-held trains by the end of the month. Before long, Qinhuangdao would prove to be one of the centers for Communist resistance to the American occupation.
Most of the Japanese military personnel in Hebei Province surrendered to Allied forces within days of the Americans' arrival in country. On October 6, General Rockey accepted the surrender of 50,000 Japanese at Tianjin. Four days later, an additional 50,000 Japanese surrendered to General Lien Ching-sun, Chiang Kai-shek's personal representative in northern China. Most of the Japanese were concentrated in bivouacs and barracks near the coast; however, due to a shortage of manpower, the Japanese in many of their outlying positions were ordered to remain on guard duty until they could be relieved by Chinese Nationalists or by the Marines.
The first skirmish between American and Communist forces occurred on October 6, 1945, along the Tianjin–Beijing road, barely a week after the Marines arrived in China. On the day before, a reconnaissance patrol traveling down the road found thirty-six unguarded roadblocks, which made the road impassable to anything larger than a Jeep. Accordingly, a detail of engineers and a platoon of riflemen was sent to clear the road. At a point about 22 miles (35 km) miles northwest of Tianjin, the engineers were attacked by an estimated forty to fifty Communist soldiers. After a brief firefight, the Americans were forced to retreat with three wounded. On the following day, another detail of engineers was sent out with the same objective as before, but this time they were protected by a company of riflemen, a company of tanks, and carrier-borne aircraft. However, the Communists did not attack, and the Americans were successful in reopening the road to Beijing. A large convoy of ninety-five vehicles and several hundred Americans traversed the road without incident shortly thereafter and met up with the American forces who had reached Peking via railroad. A patrol was also established in order to keep the Tianjin-Beijing road open.
By October 30, all major 1st Marine Division units were ashore. The Peking Group, under the command of General Louis R. Jones, and built around the 5th Marine Regiment, set up base in the old Legation Quarter, and placed a rifle company at both of the city's airfields.
Flight echelons were sent to their assigned airfields at Qingdao, Beijing, and Tianjin, as facilities were readied for them, but American air cover was severely limited during the first few months of the occupation. This was mainly due to Typhoon Louise that ravaged Okinawa between October 9 and October 11, 1945. A large portion of the wing's equipment was stopped in Okinawa while en route to China, and it was damaged by the strong winds. The 50,000 men of the 92nd and 94th Chinese Nationalist Armies (CNA) were airlifted to Beijing from central and southern China by the 14th Air Force between October 6 and October 29. The 92nd CNA remained in the Beijing area while the 94th CNA moved to Tianjin, Tanggu, Tangshan and Qinhuangdao.
According to Shaw, the arrival of the CNA in Hebei may have made the Communists' 8th Route Army wary, although it did not stop it from raiding and ambushing the Americans, or from sabotaging railroads and bridges. Shaw says that "[t]he III [Amphibious] Corps' first month in China revealed the pattern of future months which stretched into years. Set down in the midst of a fratricidal war with ambiguous instructions to abstain from active participation while 'cooperating' with [Nationalist] forces, the Marines walked a tightrope to maintain the illusion of friendly neutrality."
In late 1945, Chiang Kai-shek was preparing for a campaign to take control of Manchuria. In November, General Wedemeyer, the commander of the China Theater, who also served as a military advisor to Chiang Kai-shek, warned the Nationalist leader to secure his hold on the vital provinces of northeastern China, before entering Manchuria. However, in order to do this, the Nationalists required an "overwhelmingly superior" force. As result, Nationalist troops who had been stationed in Hebei and Shandong Provinces were sent into battle, leaving large areas of the said provinces unprotected from Communist guerrillas. Shortly after, the Communists had taken control of the areas previously held by the Nationalists. Shaw says that the "Nationalist's premature Manchuria operation contained within it the seeds of Nationalist destruction, and they ripened in a few short and bloody years into total defeat."
Shandong Province
The situation in Shandong Province was different from that of Hebei. In Shandong, the Communists controlled most of the countryside and the coast, and they were also stronger in numbers than in Hebei, where there was a growing Nationalist presence. According to Shaw, "Qingdao remained a Nationalist island in a Communist sea." The Japanese held the railroad leading from Qingdao into the interior.
Immediately after General Rockey accepted the surrender of Japanese forces in the Tianjin area, he left for Yantai with the 29th Marine Regiment, 6th Division, to investigate conditions at that port. However, when he arrived, Rockey found that Communist troops had already taken control of the city from the Japanese and installed a new mayor. Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, commander of the United States Navy's 7th Fleet, sent a message to the Chinese commander requesting that he withdraw his men from Yantai before the Marines land. Following a conference on October 7, 1945, with the Communist mayor of Yantai, who asked for withdrawal terms that were unacceptable to the Americans, Vice Admiral Daniel E. Barbey, commander of VII Amphibious Force (VIIAF), recommended that the landing be postponed. Rockey agreed, so the 29th Marines were ordered to land with the rest of the 6th Division at Qingdao on October 11, instead of going in ahead.
According to Shaw, on the day of the landing, "the 6th Reconnaissance Company [landed first and] moved through the crowded streets, lined with a cheering, flag-waving throng, to secure [Cangkou] airfield," which was located about 10 miles (16 km) from the city. On the following day, observation planes from the escort carrier USS Bougainville landed safely at the field, and by October 16 all of the Marines had been put ashore and assigned to billets.