| 英文摘要 |
This article examines the wartime system established by the Japanese army to consolidate control of the Japanese-occupied zone in northern Jiangsu Province, and explores the policy framework, institutional arrangement, and implementation of the system. Utilizing secret documents of the Xuzhou Army Special Service Agency, this article describes the blueprint and specific methods the occupiers used to establish control over the area and manage the administration of the occupied zone. The top priority of this imposed wartime was to maintain security. The key political units, the administration and the police, focused on and encouraged the civilian armed forces to assist the Japanese army in preventing and combating bandits through the framework of the Baojia Self-Defense Corps, the Railway Village, and the County Police Forces, etc. These coordinated units both reduced the operational cost of military occupation and facilitated the expansion of the Japanese army’s control from the point line to the rural areas. However, the low-cost indirect rule and the high-pressure rule exercised in the occupied areas presented a complex challenge to the actual implementation. The wartime regime in the Japanese-occupied areas operated on the premise of“direction and supervision by the occupiers, and implementation and assistance by the collaborators.”This study reveals that the Japanese army, while able to set up the institutional framework, faced challenges due to insufficient knowledge and manpower to effectively supervise the local collaborators. Many“two-faced factions”filled the grassroots administrative organs, further complicating the situation. The difference in the“quality”of administrators between the occupying authority and the anti-Japanese camp resulted in the expansion of the network of political control in occupied northern Jiangsu—without an equal increase in its resources and capacity. |