1938: Han Fuqu, Koumintang general
2 comments January 24th, 2010 Headsman
On this date in 1938, Chinese warlord Han Fuqu (or Fuju, or Fu-chu) was executed by the Koumintang for cravenly surrendering Shandong Province to the Japanese without a fight.
Han cut his teeth during China’s Warlord Era, and though he made a timely adherence to Chiang Kai-shek‘s central government that gave him rule over Shandong, he was never exactly in love with the KMT. He ran his fief like a dictator and got rich.
When Japan and China went to war in 1937, it wasn’t a gung-ho nationalist heart throbbing beneath his decorated breast.
Commanded by this still-alien central government to defend Shandong and its capital Jinan at all costs, the former warlord instead bargained secretly with the Japanese for a way to keep his prerogatives.
Why, after all, should he throw away his own position against an overwhelming foe merely for the better advantage of the distant Chiang Kai-shek?
When Han couldn’t pull off a deal and the Japanese set about simply taking his province by force, Han withdrew without firing a shot — forcing other KMT units in Shandong to likewise fall back. To top it off, Han himself then ditched the army he’d taken a-retreatin’.
Chiang, no dummy, could see an example waiting to be made. A couple weeks after arresting Han, Chiang’s trusted aide Hu Zongnan shot him in the back of the head in what is now Wuhan for flouting superior orders.
On this day..
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- 1887: Georgette and Sylvain Thomas, guillotine couples act - 2019
- 1981: Not Kim Dae-jung, South Korean president and Nobel laureate - 2018
- 1641: Not Manuel de Gerrit de Reus, chosen by lot, saved by hemp - 2017
- 1970: Three in Baghdad - 2016
- 1538: Anna Jansz, Anabaptist - 2015
- 1963: Lazhar Chraiti and nine other Tunisian conspirators - 2014
- 1846: Elizabeth Van Valkenburgh, in her rocking chair - 2013
- 1936: Allen Foster, who fought Joe Louis - 2012
- 1911: Shusui Kotoku and ten other anarchists - 2011
- Daily Double: The High Treason Incident - 2011
- 1989: Ted Bundy, psycho killer - 2009
- 1992: Ricky Ray Rector, "a date which ought to live in infamy for the Democratic Party" - 2008
Entry Filed under: 20th Century,Capital Punishment,China,Death Penalty,Execution,History,Military Crimes,Notable Participants,Occupation and Colonialism,Power,Shot,Soldiers,Wartime Executions
Tags: 1930s, 1938, chiang kai-shek, han fu-chu, han fuju, han fuqu, january 24, jinan, sino-japanese war, wuhan
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