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 Refugees created by the flood The 1938 Yellow River flood () was a flood created by the Nationalist Government in central China during the early stage of the Second Sino-Japanese War in an attempt to halt the rapid advance of the Japanese forces. It has been called the "largest act of environmental warfare in history."[1]
The strategic decision and the flood Following the onset of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, the Imperial Japanese Army marched rapidly into the heart of Chinese territory. By June 1938, the Japanese had control of all of North China. On June 6, they captured Kaifeng, the capital of Henan, and threatened to take over Zhengzhou, the junction of the arterial Pinghan and Longhai Railways, and Japanese success would have directly endangered the major cities of Wuhan and Xi'an. To stop further Japanese advances into the western and southern part China, Chiang Kai-shek, at the suggestion of Chen Guofu, determined to open up the dikes on the Yellow River near Zhengzhou. The original plan was to destroy the dike at Zhaokou, but due to difficulties at that location the dike was destroyed on June 5 and June 7 at Huayuankou, on the south bank. Waters flooded into Henan, Anhui, and Jiangsu. The floods covered and destroyed thousands of square kilometers of farmland and shifted the mouth of the Yellow River hundreds of miles to the south. Thousands of villages were inundated or destroyed and several million villagers driven from their homes and made refugees. An official Nationalist post-war commission estimated that 800,000 were drowned, which may be an underestimate.[2] Controversy The strategic value of the flood has been questioned. Japanese troops were out of its range, either to the north and east or to the south. Their advance on Zhengzhou was halted, but they took Wuhan in October by attacking from a different direction. The Japanese did not occupy much of Henan until late in the war and their hold on Anhui and Jiangsu remained tenuous. Most of the towns and transport lines in the areas which were flooded had already been captured by the Japanese; after the flood they could not consolidate their control over the area, and large parts of it became guerrilla areas. The number of casualties in the flood remains disputed and estimates have been revised by the Chinese government and other researchers in the decades after the event.[3] Aftermath The dikes were rebuilt in 1946 and 1947 and Yellow River returned to its pre-1938 course. See also Notes ca:Inundaci del riu Groc de 1938 es:Inundaci n del r o Amarillo de 1938 eo:Inundo de la Flava Rivero (1938) he: -1938 lt:1938 m. Chvangch s potvynis hu:A S rga-foly 1938-as rad sa ja: no:Oversv mmelsen av Guleelven i 1938 fi:Keltaisenjoen tulva 1938 sv:Huanghes versv mning 1938 th: . . 2481 zh:
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