Ethnic minorities in China under Japanese occupation: the Muslim campaign and education during the Second Sino-Japanese War

ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is twofold. First, I explain the nature of the education and engagement of young Chinese minorities in north China under Japanese occupation during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Second, I examine what influence the occupation policy of Japanese puppet government had on forming Hui identity. During the Republic of China, the minority Hui were facing social inequality. Japan focused on the affairs of the Hui people and implemented a policy that gave them preferential treatment to advance the division and control of China. In 1938 the General Federation of Islam in China was founded under the Provincial Government of the Republic of China to advance the “Muslim campaign” of the Japanese Army. Its objectives were to support the regime, oppose communism, and the Young Muslim Association of China was established, training of young Muslims for military service. But young Hui trained in such association often rebelled against the Japanese occupation, and the Hui people who received modern education used education as a tool to fulfill their own goals instead. Therefore, the Hui established a dual identity of being Muslim and Chinese, and they chose to side with China rather than Japan. This study explores the complex process by which the minority Hui formed their double identity. This study is based primarily on literature review.