Site of the Aviation School of the Northeast Democratic United Army

Site of the Aviation School of the Northeast Democratic United Army

The Site of the Aviation School of the Northeast Democratic United Army is a classic red tourism attraction.

The Site of the Aviation School of the Northeast Democratic United Army is located at No. 1065 Yanhe North Road, Tonghua City, and now houses the Second Middle School of Tonghua.

On March 1, 1946, the Aviation School of the Northeast Democratic United Army was officially established and merged with the Aviation Corps. The former Tonghua Airport, located in Jiangnan Village, Dongchang District, Tonghua, became the flight training site for the aviation school.

After the victory in the War of Resistance, Tonghua became the first base area and the first major military rear established by the Chinese Communist Party in the northeast. Many government and military institutions of the Party and the army were successively stationed in Tonghua. Based on favorable conditions such as the still operational Tonghua Jiangnan Airport and civil aviation support facilities, the Central Committee of the Party decided to establish the aviation school in Tonghua.

Personnel for the establishment of the Tonghua aviation school came from all over. The core group mainly consisted of early aviation cadres trained by the Party, along with cadres dispatched by the Eighth Route Army, New Fourth Army, and the Northeast Democratic United Army; newly recruited young intellectuals; defectors from the Wang puppet Nationalist air force; and Japanese aviation technicians who were incorporated. They gathered from across the country to the northeast and began the arduous journey of establishing the aviation school under the leadership of the Party. To strengthen the leadership of the aviation school's establishment, on September 18, 1945, the Central Committee appointed Wu Xiuquan, Chief of Staff of the Northeast Democratic United Army, to oversee the preparatory work. In November, the Northeast Bureau established an Aviation Commission with Wu Xiuquan as director and Huang Naiyi as secretary-general.

On January 1, 1946, the Aviation Team of the Northeast Democratic United Army was expanded into the Aviation Corps, and an inaugural meeting was held in Tonghua. Zhu Rui served as commander, Wu Gai as political commissar, and Chang Qiankun, Bai Qi, and Lin Mitsuichiro as deputy commanders. The corps had over 500 members and included subordinate units such as the instructional team, civil aviation team, maintenance team, and repair factory. The establishment of the Aviation Corps laid the foundation for the aviation school.

On March 1, 1946, the Aviation School of the Northeast Democratic United Army was officially established in Tonghua, merging with the Aviation Corps under the joint designation “Unit 31.” Chang Qiankun was appointed school principal, Wang Bi as political commissar, Bai Qi as vice-principal, and Gu Lei and Huang Naiyi as vice-political commissars. In May 1946, when the Nationalist Army launched a large-scale offensive against the southern Manchuria base area, the aviation school was forced to relocate to Mudanjiang City, Heilongjiang Province.

The Aviation School of the Northeast Democratic United Army was the first aviation school established under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and played an important role in the history of the Party and the army. It not only trained a large number of air force technical personnel for New China but also accumulated extensive educational experience, laying a solid foundation for the development of the air force and aviation industry after the founding of the People’s Republic.

The original flight training field of the aviation school was Tonghua Airport, a strategic military airport built by the Japanese Kwantung Army between 1932 and 1936. Covering an area of about 1.5 million square meters with approximately 1,500 square meters of building area, the airport featured a runway over 2,000 meters long running east-west along the southern bank of the Hun River.

After Japan’s surrender in August 1945, the airport was taken over by the Communists. Following the establishment of the Aviation School of the Northeast Democratic United Army in 1946, the former Tonghua Airport became the school’s training site. After the founding of the People’s Republic, the airport was handed over to the logistics department of the Shenyang Military Region. Due to its mountainous location, proximity to water, limited space, and unsuitability for large military aircraft, its military value diminished, and it was then transferred to the Tonghua municipal government. It was later repurposed as a farm for Tonghua County, then changed into a nursery for Tonghua City, and has now been developed into the Jiangnan Economic Development Zone.

Source: Party School of Dongchang District Committee, Tonghua City