Eighth Route Army

During World War II, the Eighth Route Army operated mostly in North China, infiltrating behind Japanese lines, to establish guerrilla bases in rural and remote areas.

After its fall 1938 victory in the Battle of Wuhan, Japan advanced deep into Communist territory and redeployed 50,000 troops to the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region.

In November 1940, the General Political Department of the Eighth Route Army established the Yan'an Japanese Worker and Peasant School.

Including Hideo Miyagawa, [4] Kobayashi Kancho,[5] and Maeda Mitsushige, the first Japanese to join the Eighth Route Army during the war.

[6] In October 1941, 35 Japanese in Yenan, including Oyama Mitsuyoshi, took an oath to officially join the Eighth Route Army.

In July 1937, the Presidium of the Central Military Commission of the Chinese Communist Party issued an order for the Chinese Red Army to reorganize into the National Revolutionary Army and stand by for the anti-Japanese front line.
Former site of the Eighth Route Army Office in Guilin .
Chinese propaganda poster depicting the Eighth Route Army in Shanxi .