 The National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated stations present the Pacific story. In the mounting fury of world conflict, events in the Pacific are taking on ever greater importance. Here is the story of the Pacific and the millions of people who live around this greatest sea. The drama of the people's whose destiny is at stake in the Pacific war. Here, as another public service, is the tale of the war in the Pacific and its meaning to us and to the generations to come. Yan An, Citadel of Chinese Communism. In miles, we have fought every mile of the way. 90,000 of us started, only 20,000 of us are left. Here we will live as we have chosen to live. Smotsy Dum, speaking to the Chinese Communists below the Great Wall in Shemsi Province. Here in the northwest, at last, we are no longer scattered. We are to get here, we have fought our way over 18 mountain ranges. Some of them capped with snow and ice. Our blood has mixed with the waters of 24 rivers, but we cross them, all of them. Our people fell on the plains and in the mountain passes and on the deserts and in the swamps. We who have come through must live for the things for which they died. Smotsy Dum's tattered thousands thronged in the Shemsi. It was October, 1935. They'd been on the march to the northwest for a year. On foot and on ponies and in carts they came, and the Communists of Shemsi came out to greet them. Welcome. Welcome. At last you are here. How good it is. Here you will be safe. How different this is from my native Guangzi. Yes, Yang. So rugged. The Mongols swept down through this valley when they conquered the northwest. Every hilltop seems a fortress. Yunnan is a mountain citadel. Here we will be strong. That wall around the city looks a thousand years old. It is 3,000 years old. 3,000. One of China's oldest civilizations was born here. The city looks almost nohamedan. A century ago the Mohabitans came and slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Chinese. They made Yunnan a Moorish city. See the Moorish arches over the windows? Yes. Peoples have come and gone like the tides of the sea. The Mongols, the Mohabitans, and many others. And each has left its imprint. So here we will work and live. Yes. Here in these mountains, 700 miles from the sea. And together here we will build. Pregnant and bleeding and foot sore, but glowing with hope for their future, the communists streamed at Shansi for more than a year. In November 1936, Chu Te, the commander-in-chief of the Chinese Red Armies, arrived with the last contingent. And Mao Zedong proclaimed the purposes of the movement. We, the peasants, constitute 85% of the population of China. Yet we have had no voice in the politics and the policies of China. Our purpose must be to set up a government of the peasants. Mao Zedong talked in the terms of the peasants. We stand first for land reform. Land for those who till it. Down with the land agent. Down with the absentee owner. Yes. Land for those who till it. We stand for the abolition of usury. Too long have we been burdened with debt. Down with the money, land... Down with the corrupt officials. We stand for the ending of extortionate taxes. And we stand for the ending of special privilege. With this program as a basic objective, the Chinese communists set up a peasants' government fitted to their needs. They proclaimed themselves the Soviet Republic of China. It was 1936 now. At Christmas time, Zhong Kai-shek was detained at Xi'an. The communists, as well as the other Chinese of North China, knew the imminent danger of Japanese attack. In the interest of unity among the Chinese, the communists used their influence to persuade the captives of the Generalissimo to release him. The communists were left in control of the northern part of Shenzhi and part of Kansu province. Here the communists developed the nucleus of their stronghold in the northwest. On July 7, 1937, dynamic news spread through Yanan. The Japanese have attacked the Chinese garrison at the Marco Polo Bridge. Fighting and spreading into Beijing. The Japanese are driving westward towards... The Japanese are coming. The Japanese are coming. China's life is at stake. We must stand together with the armies of Zhong Kai-shek. The communists and the nationalists drew together. On September 22, 1937, they signed an agreement. We have historically regarded the Japanese as enemies. Now the enemy has struck. All China is in danger. We will join forces with Zhong Kai-shek against the Japanese. The Soviet Republic was dissolved. A democracy was proclaimed. We will start preparations for a general election at once. Henceforth, we ought to be known as the Shenzhi Kansu Ningsha border government. Yanan will continue to be our political center. Yanan will also be the base for our army. Henceforth, our army will be called the National Revolutionary Army instead of the Red Army. The Japanese had overrun most of the territory north of the Yellow River. The Eighth Route Army of the newly named National Revolutionary Army began to filter through the Japanese lines. Are you getting anything from the advance post, Yang? I think there's something coming in now, General Wang. Calling the command post, calling the command post. There it is, yes. Command post speaking. Command post speaking. Come in. Advance post one to command post. Japanese patrols are entering the valley. Japanese patrols entering the valley. Tell them to hold their fire. Yes, sir. Hold your fire. Wait for command. In the Wu Tai mountains behind the lines, the guerrillas look down from their hideouts as the Japanese advanced up the valley. The main Japanese force is now coming up. They are leading mules loaded with supplies. They're planning to stay. The Japanese force is stretched out for more than half a mile. The mules are carrying machine guns and mortars. Many of them seem to be carrying ammunition. Tell them to hold their fire. Yes, sir. Hold your fire. Yes, sir. Alert all points on both sides of the valley for action. Yes, sir. All advance points. Stand by. Up and down the narrow corridor, General Wang's guerrilla troops waited. The Japanese moved up the valley. The last units of the Japanese have now entered the valley. General Wang, yes. The Japanese advanced patrols are directly below us. Very well. Report to your post and wait for the command. Yes, sir. With field glasses, General Wang watched the advancing force below. Behind rocks in caves, hidden in the brush, the guerrillas' fingers-on triggers waited. Yang, give the command. Yes, sir. All points, fire. The valley rang with the furious crossfire of the guerrillas. We've taken them completely by surprise, sir. We're moaning them down. Attack at once. Yes, sir. We caught them before they could unload the ammunition from the mules. Attack at once. When the first assault ended, the Japanese dug in. Their casualties were heavy. Most of their officers were killed. The guerrillas closed in on them. General Wang, the Japanese are radioing for help. I've just picked up their signal. The guerrillas redeployed and waited for the arrival of the Japanese reinforcements. Japanese planes approaching. Japanese planes approaching. They're the Art General Wang. Those are not bombers. Look, something's dropping out of them. Parachutes. Those are men. Probably Japanese officers. Yang. Yes, sir. Alert all points. Yes, sir. All points. Japanese parachutists coming down. Japanese parachutists coming down. Before most of them landed, they were casualties. And again, the besieged Japanese radioed for help. In the night, the guerrillas closed in and killed all but six of the Japanese who were taken prisoner. The guerrillas picked up all the Japanese arms and ammunition on the battlefield. By tomorrow night, the Japanese relief battalion should be here. We will wait until their number and their disposition are clear. Throughout the next day, Chinese guerrilla scouts watched the advancing Japanese relief battalion. They are skirting the two ends of the valley, but they are not entering the corridor. We will infiltrate their lines and reform according to plan B at point X. Any questions? No, sir. Throughout the night, the overwhelming Japanese force closed in on the Chinese positions. But as they closed in, the Chinese filtered through their lines to the rear. We have cut the enemy's line of communication with his base. Very well. You've taken any supplies? Every round of ammunition and all the food and small arms that came this way. The Japanese cannot operate without supplies. We will wait here. Far to the rear, the guerrillas waited. The Japanese are Bivouac where we trapped the first battalion. They are searching the mountains for it. We will wait here. Days later, another radio message came. They are breaking camp and heading down the valley. We've choked them off. They're coming back. By the time the Japanese arrived, the guerrillas had vanished. And with them, the supplies, the arms, the ammunition and the food intended for the Japanese. Behind the Japanese lines, the guerrillas recaptured towns and villages and liberated whole countryside. The influence of the communists spread from Yunnan eastward to the Yellow Sea, northward to Manchuria and Mongolia and where the old Chinese officials fled, leaving no government whatever in many places, the guerrillas introduced democratic principles. But we know nothing of government. We will help you. All we can do is work in the fields. You can learn to govern. No, no. Let us show you. It will only mean more suffering and confusion. No, we are farmers. You can help yourselves more than anyone can help you. My people? Yes. First, we will teach you how to govern yourselves. And then you will hold an election and you will choose those that you wish to lead your government. Election? Yes. You will vote. All of you over 18. Women too? Yes, men and women. We will start with an educational program. In a hundred places, the liberated people learned to govern themselves. They went to the polls for their first election in 1938. Not only the communists, but the people of all political parties in the border region. Not only the Chinese, but people of all nationalities and all religions. You had better do this for me. No. No, this is a secret and direct ballot, like they have in America. Now you must vote yourself. For all these? For the ones you wish. You see, you are electing not only the ones who will run your government here in your village, but also those who will hold the higher officers here in the border region. Yes. To think... I can vote. I can vote. I can vote. Yanan buzzed with talk of the new laws that were passed. Now it is the law that we shall have free speech and a free press and the rights of assembly and religion. Yes. And it is the law that we can own property and engage in private trade and industry. And it is the law that the interest on money is lower. Now I can borrow money for my father. Air raid! Air raid! The story of the Japanese air power visited Yanan. The Japanese returned again and again until the ancient city of Yanan was no more. But the people were still there. The people, still indomitable. Their determination, still undone. We will dig these caves so deep and make them so strong that we will be safe from any bomber. Into the sides of the cliffs outside the city they dug their caves, tier upon tier. The cliffs tower a thousand feet above Yanan Valley. You see here, next to our cave, I'm digging a place for a chicken coop and a pig pen. The entrance to the cave was a hundred feet up, the precipitous cliff. The place for the chicken coop and the pig pen were hewn out of the wall. Digging a cave along with the others was a Japanese. I was an officer in the Imperial Army. He was dressed in the blue cotton uniform of a communist soldier. I was captured with five others when my battalion was ambushed by the guerrillas in the wartime mountains. It is the policy of the communists here not to kill prisoners. They told me what their objectives were and gave me my liberty. I could stay or I could go back to the Japanese side. There are nearly 200 of us here now. I have become one of these people. Here I will stay. I shall return to Japan when I can help destroy Japanese militarism and help establish a Japanese democracy. By the end of 1939, relations between the Guomindong and the communists had worsened. The Guomindong established a blockade against the border region. Thousands of blockhouses and hundreds of thousands of well-trained and well-equipped troops. The border region must be made self-sufficient. Every man and every woman and every child must do his part. It is a matter of life and death. Mao Zedong set the policy and the people of the border region knuckled down to their task. You, my soldiers, must raise your own food and furnish your own clothing. This was General Wang. From these hills and valleys, we must make our living. They stood in a barren wasteland. We must reclaim this land where we must grow our vegetables and our meat and our cereals. Here we will raise woolen cotton for our clothes. Thousands of Wang's men went up into the woods in the mountains. Axes thudded against tall trees. Exchange the timber for pigs and chickens and cattle. And meantime, others set up blacksmiths' houses. This is a plowshare I am making. We are making all these farming tools out of the metal of the temple bells and the railings and the idols we found in the wrecked temples in the hills. We break them up. We melt them down over there and then we pound them into tools here. When the tools were made, the soldiers stacked their guns at the edge of their fields and broke the ancient soil. With their oxen, they worked the land from dawn until dark, alert at every moment for the attack. At the season's end, what they had accomplished. We have had little to eat, but we have had enough. Our clothes are more ragged, but we have made a start with our cotton and wool. We have suffered, but we have made progress. As the soldiers worked to provide and clothe themselves, so the students, the officials, even the very highest officials, worked to make the border region self-sufficient, even Chu Te and Mao Zedong. This must be our goal. Mao Zedong set up the objectives. Every family should have one year's supply of food ahead. Every village should have a spinning machine and a weaving machine. Everyone should learn 1,000 Chinese characters. Every county should have a doctor and every village a midwife. Every family should own an ox and at least one pig. The hills and valleys outside the city were transformed. From wastelands, they became rich productive fields. Oxen, pigs, sheep, goats, chickens became commonplace. And the people for the first time, being able to prosper by their own efforts, died with each other. Those who set the pace were honored with the title, Labour Hero. I came here hungry and with nothing. This is Wu Chi Wei, a Labour Hero. You gave me my land. The communists gave him a piece of land on a hillside. Today I have 53 acres of land and I have more livestock than I ever saw at one time. It is the workers like Wu Chi Wei here that all of us must strive to be. Ma Zedong honored the Labour Heroes. You can be a Labour Hero in whatever you do. On the farm, in the industry, in education, in the army, in every field. Learn from the one who excels and as each of us progresses, all of us will progress. Hemmed in by the blockade, the workers of the border region drew closer together. Their morale was high, their determination strong, and their willingness to work boundless. At the close of the next season, Wang could report to his soldiers, this year we have had all the food we needed and now we are building up reserves. We have raised enough wool and cotton so that most of us have new clothing. And you have done this. While your weapons were stacked in the fields beside you. Now the season has ended. From now until planting time next spring, we must prepare for the battles that lie ahead. Chu Teh, the commander-in-chief and his generals, supervised the conditioning of the troops. The volunteer army doubled and traveled in size. And these were trained in all the arts of war. Their rifles of every kind, Japanese, French, American, Chinese, British, they learned to use in every way. They mastered the art of using mines and grenades. They mastered the skillful and deadly use of bayonets. And when they were ready, marched away to fight behind the Japanese lines. As the guerrillas penetrated deeper into enemy territory, more and more liberated people joined the movement. And back of the lines, sometimes still within earshot of the firing, the guerrillas helped them build their society. If you are to have a part in your government, you must know what is going on around you. You must learn to read and write. Us? We will help you. My people have never known anything about that. It will make your life richer and better. We will start schools for you. For you and your family. For us? Yes. It is our goal to have one day school and one night school in every county. When you can read and write, then you can help yourself. And together we can all help each other. Yes. But you do not have to go to school now. We will hold classes right out here for you in groups. We will study Chinese characters and we will learn to use the blackboard. And we will learn to read the blackboard newspaper. And we will have drama, like the dramas of the news that we acted out for you last night. We can be in the dramas? Yes, all of you. We will act out the news. Can we do that? Yes. In this way we can learn to work together so that we can all live a better life. Now look at the blackboard. See what I am going to write. Yes. Now this character means to work. It means to work. It's made like this. With one line this way and one this way. Education was spread far and wide from Yunnan, the center, throughout the thousands of square miles of the surrounding country. That is the women's university, where my daughter goes. This was the peasant who had become a labor hero. You see, it is built right into the side of the mountain. The university was made up of hundreds of caves. Oh, there. Some of the young women are coming down now. They walk down the winding stairway to the valley below. My daughter is studying housekeeping and how to take care of babies and biology and economics. Everything from English grammar to anthropology and hygiene is taught in this women's university. My daughter may be one of those coming down now. See how they are dressed in cotton dresses and straw shoes. That's one of the teachers right there. The teachers who dress the same as the students. I am only a peasant and yet my daughter can go to a university like this. Admission to the university requires only that the girl be willing to work in the interest of the community and for the emancipation of women. There she is. There she is. Oh, how proud I am of her. Kang, my daughter. Kang! Kang! While the people worked behind the lines, reports came back from the fighting against the Japanese. Our casualties are high, but we have cleared the enemy from another sector. Today we blew up another Japanese strong point. We captured all the enemy guns and ammunition and supplies. We are now equipped to advance. We are training the liberated people to work with us as we advance. In and around Yunnan, the situation was changing from a communist order to a democratic order. In this election, we communists will accept one-third of the elective offices. The other two-thirds will go to those who are not communists, but who are democratic and anti-Japanese. This was Matsudon. Seven of the eighteen elected members of the border region government are communists. That is one too many. Only six or one-third of the members can be communists. Therefore, one of the seven will relinquish his post and a non-communist will be elected. With this procedure, the communists have submitted to the democratic rule of the majority, and the border region has become a thriving center of enterprise. Those trucks are carrying private property to the market. The heavy trucks carried cotton, wool and grain. There is now a surplus of many commodities. Just a few years ago, there was not enough to fill our needs. You see, there is no longer collectivism here. We work in cooperatives as people do elsewhere, even in the United States. We exchange our efforts, many of us, and we cooperate in farming and production and many other things. But we own our own property, and we enjoy the benefits of our own progress. Private business flourishes. To encourage still more, taxes against merchants have been reduced. With private enterprise, we are developing new industries and new mines. And surveys are being made for oil. Far from the rumble of machinery and far from the ceaseless fighting on the battle fronts, the people of Yunnan are carrying on an equally ceaseless fight for the preservation of life. We have not received one ounce of medical supplies from the outside world since the blockade was set up against us in 1939. This is a doctor in the International Peace Hospital outside Yunnan. Soon we are to get some medical supplies and equipment by air from the American Red Cross. So now we go on using whatever we can improvise in the way of medicine and medical equipment. But we know things will get better. We are planning accordingly. Across the valley over there, more than 200 young Chinese are being trained to be doctors. As the Chinese doctors distill herbs for medicine and use broken pieces of glass for microscope slides and makeshift instruments for surgery and as the distant wheels of industry hum in the Yunnan Valley and the peasants for the first time in their lives work on their own land for their own profit and as the presses turn out thousands of printed pages to spread education and learning and the soldiers of the border region fight and bleed and die in the war against the Japanese. A caravan of mules, heavily laden, moves slowly down the valley, headed for the blockade. This is salt we are carrying. The mules plod on single file. The gromentang needs our salt. 600,000 animal loads a year. The gromentang lets us go through the blockade with salt. And in exchange, we will bring some other things back. Get up there. Hey, up. Get up there. You have been listening to the Pacific Story, presented by the National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated independent stations as a public service to clarify events in the Pacific and to make understandable the cross currents of life in the Pacific Basin. For a reprint of this Pacific Story program send 10 cents in stamps or coin to University of California Press, Berkeley, California. To repeat, for a reprint of this Pacific Story program send 10 cents in stamps or coin to University of California Press, Berkeley, California. The Pacific Story is written and directed by Arnold Marquess. The original musical score was composed and conducted by Thomas Paluso. Your narrator, Gain Whitman. This program came to you from Hollywood. This is the National Broadcasting Company.